Super Secret Hidden Trick/FEKA's master plan

[bt]

...along with video of the Turbo Duo - Mac adapter and unreleased edutainment software.

The edutainment software he talks about in the that video was
called DISCUS (I think).  At one point I had soem info about
who NEC (TTi) was in collaboration with for those titles, and called
them to find out what the status was.  I forget the actual wording,
but it was along the lines of:

"If we ever did have an agreement with them, it is certainly no
longer valid now."

No idea as to whatever became of the prototypes for that system.

The thing I love in that video is how all the stuff shown is being
promoted as "available now."  Oh, Johnny Turbo -- you are the
master of the bitter irony!

-bt

[torgo]

John and I were pretty good friends back then. I used to give him a TON of crap for the Johnny Turbo stuff.

He and I pulled a pretty good one on the kids that were working the booth at the Chicago CES one year. They were all playing Gates of Thunder and trying to outdo each other's score, and they were betting on who could get the highest score. John told them that they should get me in on the bet, knowing that I'd been playing the game for a while, and could finish the entire game without dying if I was "in the zone."

I crushed everyone and made like $30 in the process.

You could use an extension cable made for Mac keyboards as an extension cable for your Controller, since PS2 adaptors weren't very prevalent on PC's yet.

Yeah, he did go to work for Sega after he left TTI. He worked on Star Wars Arcade for the 32X, and he always seemed really "pleased to be there." Tony worked with him on that project also. Wow, memoriiiiiiessssss......

[Keranu]

Wow... just wow! Another one of the few people that has met John and you two were even friends! That's great, is there any other info you can tell us about him? Like what his video game interests were, his Turbo collection, his fun days at the University of Nebraska??

[torgo]

I really only dealt with John via telephone, but it was often. The only time that I hung out with him in person was at CES every 6 months. It's been so long that I'm sure that I've forgotten most of the stories that I used to know. The trip to the Battletech center in Chicago will always be a great memory. We had a guy fom either Hudson or NEC of Japan with us, and spoke NO English. When we asked him about the Sega hybrid PC/Genesis that was released in Japan, his only response was "Pretty Sh!tty!"

The last time that I saw John was at a CES after he had moved to Sega (it was my last CES.) He got my buddy and I in to see the 32X games in progress, which wasn't being shown to the public. He and Tony didn't seem very enthused, but they were also quite busy. I still have video diary's of a bunch of those shows, but I don't have an 8mm VCR, as my camera broke down a couple of years ago.

[Keranu]

Awesome, that's still great info to hear!

[esteban]

I really only dealt with John via telephone, but it was often. The only time that I hung out with him in person was at CES every 6 months. It's been so long that I'm sure that I've forgotten most of the stories that I used to know. The trip to the Battletech center in Chicago will always be a great memory. We had a guy fom either Hudson or NEC of Japan with us, and spoke NO English. When we asked him about the Sega hybrid PC/Genesis that was released in Japan, his only response was "Pretty Sh!tty!"

The last time that I saw John was at a CES after he had moved to Sega (it was my last CES.) He got my buddy and I in to see the 32X games in progress, which wasn't being shown to the public. He and Tony didn't seem very enthused, but they were also quite busy. I still have video diary's of a bunch of those shows, but I don't have an 8mm VCR, as my camera broke down a couple of years ago.

Ahhh, I remember you shared these stories with us... possilby on the magicengine forums. Unfortuantely, the ME forums lost  year's worth of posts, so it's nice to read them here.

[Keranu]

Yes I remember the Magic Engine thread as well. Unfortunately I think the thread might be deleted by now since that problem happened on the ME boards.

[malducci]

Old thread, but...

 Was Johnny Turbo part of the translation team at TTI? I seen him at a translation site/forum recently. I'll not release his name here (PM me if you really need to know).

[Joe Redifer]

I work for FEKA and it is always our master plan to take down that wretched Johnny Turbo.  His real name is Jonathan Brandstetter.  And he looks like this:



Now his life is ruined and FEKA can finally proceed with selling its CD system to hapless kids!
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

Seriously, we can't be stopped!

[malducci]

Yeah? From what I heard, after you shamelessly beat him down with copies of Night Trap, you tortured him into agreeing to work for FEKA! How DARE....you!

[ParanoiaDragon]

I work for FEKA and it is always our master plan to take down that wretched Johnny Turbo.  His real name is Jonathan Brandstetter.  And he looks like this:



Now his life is ruined and FEKA can finally proceed with selling its CD system to hapless kids!
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

Seriously, we can't be stopped!

Is that seriously him?  I remember that picture, & always wondered who that was.  I think there's an Asian chick in the picture, but, I'm pretty sure it wasn't my old friend Eun. 

BTW, John's not the only one that went to Sega.  IIRC, Justin.......uh, can't remember his last name, but, he's the guy that started Hook Ups skateboards, & was one of those hot line guys, or a tester, or something, I can't remember, but, I have a friend who skates that's met him on several occasions.  I wonder who else went to Sega?

[Joe Redifer]

We forced Johnny Turbo to join FEKA as part of our master plan as we needed all of his knowledge and experience to help us defeat the NEC Turbo Duo which was interfering with the sales of the FEKA CD system.  In order to do this we had to brainwash him with huge FEKA paychecks!  We had him put all of his Turbo experience into a new space game based on a blockbuster movie made in 1977 for the new FEKA 32 bit attachment that hooked onto FEKAs regular 16-bit system (and made poor kids pay even more money HAHAHAHAHA!!!).  That's why this game has the arcade feel.

[torgo]

John went to Sega along with Tony, and they worked initially on the port of Star Wars Arcade for the 32x. I didn't get to talk to him much at the CES that they showed it behind closed-doors, but he didn't seem too enthused with the 32x or where he was. I have the demo that their sales guy gave me on Videotape (John had to run off at the time), and I just recently transferred it to my PC.

[Keranu]

torgo please upload! 

[Joe Redifer]

Yeah!