The people here who mentioned Nintendo one of the nails on the head. Nintendo had garnered infamy for their strict contractual obligations to third-party developers. The deal with Nintendo was: if you make games for Nintendo, you make games ONLY for Nintendo. Make games for anyone else and the big N will come after your ass.
Lord knows how many more games could've come out for the NEC Turbografx 16 and Turbo CD had developers not been bound by Nintendo's chains. 
While this was true, I think Black_Tiger was making a different point: Back in the day, NEC/TTi could have been successful in the same manner that Nintendo is successful with the Gamecube today: Nintendo doesn't have tons of third-party support, but the first-party games they realease (and the licensed games they distribute) are solid enough to make the system viable and desirable (for folks who love games). In fact, I'd go further and suggest that NEC/TTi were actually in a
better position, since they had a vast library of Japanese games to tap into.
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Back on topic, I think ICOM Simulations might be added to the list? Although someone told me once they simply developed for NEC (who published), as far as the TG-16 was concerned.
Also, here's something that was sitting on my harddrive for at least 6-8 months, so I thought I'd share it:
WINTER CES '91: PECULIARITIES
Coverage of Winter CES '91 is the only thing to get really excited about in this issue, unfortunately. In fact, several titles are discussed that, ultimately, were never released for TG-16, such as: Discis Book (a port of a PC / Mac CD-ROM educational title), Super Big Strategy (an installment of Daisenryaku, a popular war strategy series), Astralius (an RPG from IGS), and ... are ready for it?
No, seriously, are you ready for it? Can you guess the fourth game that was announced but never released? Did I hear somebody scream Pit Fighter?
"Atari Games' super arcade hit will come to the TurboGrafx-16 courtesy of Tengen. Following the crowd, Tengen intends to pack all the digitized graphics of the arcade version on CD for release in the fall of 1991."
Yes! Pit Fighter is listed as one of the upcoming games for autumn of 1991. Now, before you start giggling, let us recall that this fad (digitized graphics in fighting games) was still all the rage at this time. Yes, it was a gimmick. And yes, Pit Fighter was a mediocre arcade game, at best. But let's forget these minor details and allow ourselves to imagine just how great the TG-16 port could have been ...
TENGEN, THE THIRD PARTY THAT NEVER WAS
Tengen had already released a great port of KLAX (HuCard) for TG-16. And we now know that Tengen had been working on another puzzle-action game -- Off the Wall (HuCard) -- which was never released in 1992 as intended (but the prototype exists). Given this information, it seems plausible that Tengen was considering to port Pit Fighter (and possibly other titles) to the TG-16... so what happened? Was Tengen worried about disappointing TG-16 software sales (how well had the KLAX HuCard sold for them)? Perhaps Tengen's resources were tied-up in extraneous legal troubles (the ongoing Tengen vs. Nintendo turmoil)? Or, did TurboGrafx-CD simply lack a user base large enough for Tengen realize their desired profit margin?
Whatever the reason was, I still mourn the loss of Pit Fighter for TG-CD. Actually, I'm not entirely joking. Tengen could have been a phenomenal third-party publisher for the TG-16. And, considering how popular the beat-em-up genre was at the time, Pit Fighter might have sold pretty well for Tengen (especially since TG-16 was starved for beat-em-ups). Also, I might as well be honest with you: I remember when my brother Mike and I first saw Pit Fighter in the arcade: we thought it was the koolest thing around. Oy! Those were the days...
Ultimately, KLAX would be the sole title Tengen brought to the TG-16. As such, Tengen joined the ranks of Accolade (Turrican, HuCard) and Radiance Software (Sidearms, HuCard) as the least prolific third parties for TG-16. They published only one game apiece.
IGS, THE THIRD PARTY THAT WAS
Since we're on the subject of games that were announced but never released, let's discuss Astralius (Mateki Densetsu Astralius, 1991, CD). Supposedly, IGS had actually started the localization of this RPG before pulling the plug on the project altogether. Now this was truly a shame, since it looked like a promising title (i.e. the storyline and puzzles had musical motifs, somewhat similar to Loom from Lucas Arts).
IGS was one of first third-party publishers for TG-16, and with four TG-16 titles already under their belt (Sonic Spike, Tricky Kick, Sinistron and CyberCore), it seemed as if Astralius actually had a chance of making it over here. Of course, unlike the HuCard games IGS released for TG-16, localizing a CD-ROM RPG like Astralius would have been significantly more expensive and labor-intensive (i.e. translating all the in-game text, recording new voice-acting for the cinemas, etc.). I wouldn't be surprised if IGS was worried about their ability to realize a return on their investment with a project like Astralius.
NOTE: I have yet to play Astralius (I own it, but I can't get passed the main menu for some reason... perhaps my RAM is full?) and I have since learned from good authorities (Kaminari! for one) that Astralius was a pretty stinky game (or at least the game mechanics were really frustrating). The processes weren't streamlined, it seems, and doing stuff seemed to take longer than it could have. That was my understanding, anyway.
So, the point is that when I update this article, I might not be mourning the loss of Astralius
. Although, I still wish it came out. So maybe my feeling s are not going to change drastically.
Topic: Turbografx third parties (Read 611 times)
