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The sad truth is that TG-16 didn't catch on in the major markets. THAT IS THE PROBLEM! It should have gotten more traction in the major markets.
As for distribution, well, TG-16 was in ToysRUs, but I don't know when it was available nationally, in every store. But focusing on major markets is not wrong-headed.
A successful console requires several elements LINING UP SIMULTANEOUSLY....hopefully without too much competition, I'm not convinced that TG-16 would have been successful if we went back on time and changed superficial things:
(1) TG-16 did not fail because of its aesthetics. That's silly. Genesis/MD is an ugly wart, but it sold well.
(2) Mortal Kombat would have helped, but I'm not sure if an ISOLATED hit game would have convinced enough folks to buy the console. Management should have put every effort into promoting TG-16's too tier games, because SOFTWARE SELLS HARDWARE. I don't know if TG-16 could have assembled the killer (short) list of MUST-HAVE GAMES to compete with the giants Sega and Nintendo...Genesis and Nintendo had a wealth of must-have games that appealed to North American market.
(3) BOX ART DID NOT MATTER. TG-16 did not fail because of box art. THE PROBLEM IS THAT TOO FEW PEOPLE GOT A CHANCE TO SEE THIS BOX ART. I'm serious. Very few people were even aware of the TG-16, which is a much, much, much bigger problem than box art. When shopping, THE FIRST THING EVERYONE DID WAS IMMEDIATELY FLIP OVER THE BOX AND LOOK AT SCREENSHOTS. That's real life. Whether I was in a store or READING A MAGAZINE, my eyes rarely lingered on box art BECAUSE I ONLY CARED ABOUT THE GAME ITSELF. Kids aren't completely stupid, we knew that the screenshots were the only useful piece of information.
(4) I'll stop, for now.
I knew of some people who wanted a TG-16, but when all the other kids already had an NES, later a Genesis, SNES around the corner, I can see why people passed on it. I wanted a TG-16 when it was somewhat fresh, but when it came time for a 16-bit system, my parents let me make the decision. Genesis had been out a while, good library, Turbo Grafx 16, also out for a little while.. Oh, there is the SNES, let me get the newest system.
If a parent was buying their kid a system, if ti were the parents, they seemed to stay with what was safe, familiar popular. Kids, I noticed did the same. It was Genesis or NES. Later, SNES. If someone already had an SNES, they went for a Genesis, and vice-versa.
I was familiar with Nintendo stuff. I was also already familiar with Sega stuff, due to their arcade games. TG-16, I didn't take too much notice of until Splatterhouse and such.
I knew of very few people who had the system, and once I had an SNES, Genesis, NES, even buying Atari 2600 games at yard sales. I just had enough to keep me busy. I got my own TG-16 system when they were being cleared out and I could buy a system and a bunch of games, cheap.
Had Turbo Grafx had an earlier release, it may have hung around longer. More people I knew back then may have had a system, and I would have been more eager to get one over a Genesis, more NES games, later and SNES, etc.
I don't mind the system's redesign. I prefer the black and orange look, to the PC Engine, but I think it would have made more sense to just keep the same design, and change the color to black and orange. The system didn't need a redesign.
Toys R Us was not the only one to have it. I do recall playing the TG-16 on one of those demo machines, there, though.
Children's Palace also had TG-16. I recall they had a display, with the Demo LD playing on a TV.
Some department stores, at least in the DC/MD/VA area also carried the system. Evans I know 100% had it (Out of business now). I think BEST (Not Best Buy) also carried it. Both were catalog stores. They had most of the stuff in a back room/warehouse. Or, you ordered from their catalog, then went there later to pick it up.
Sears, I don't recall seeing it in their stores, but I didn't go in there much for video game stuff, I know it was in their catalogs.
Also, I know Babbages and Software etc had TG-16 stuff.
Radio shack, they had it also!
TG-16 was in many places, in big markets. Not as dense as Nintendo or Sega, but it was not hard to find.
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Mortal Combat as an exclusive, and some other stuff, could have kept the system going for a bit longer. I in the mid 90s, even after TG-16 was, "Dead", I knew of other people who knew of the system, and looked at it as a, "boutique" system. TTI tried to keep it going as that type of, "boutique" system, but, didn't quite last.
Besides just having an exclusive game, just having more CD games would have been great.
That's how I saw the system, by the mid 90s, a boutique system. Some oddball games, some stuff I wondered why got released, but never too many harsh feelings towards it, except when certain games would slow down (Bullet time!), etc.
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The art, to me, helped it a bit. Dungeon Explorer, for example, that art is not great, but it's also so vague. it just made me want to read the back of the box, I remember that much about that game.
Esteban nails it though, back then, if you wanted to know more about a game, and had not heard anyone talk about it, or read about it, or seen a commercial, played it someplace else, etc. No internet, so, you would flip over the plastic laminated thing, and read the back of the box, where the description, number of players, and screenshots were. The front of the box was there to pull you in, to read more.
The thing that gets me about TG-16, is a lot of stuff wasn't broke, and I was unsure why they tried to fix it. Color the PC Engine black/orange, call it Turbo Grafx 16, no redesign needed. use some of the art from Japan. Pack in a game people are FAMILIAR with. NES had that awesome action pack with 2 games I played in arcade machines, Super Mario and Duck Hunt (I wished at the time Hogan's Alley was on there, also). Sega, Altered Beast, and later Sonic, which had a reputation for being good. Keith Courage... WTF is that?
To be fair, I did play Keith through when I got the system, but it never did feel like a proper pack-in title, especially at the launch of a console.
I'm done for now, also.
