this brings me back memories.
I vividly recall when the Turbo and the Genesis first came. the Turbo was everywhere, Sears had it, and a bunch of electronics stores (which are all gone now) had it.
I had the NES for about 2 years around then. It was fun, but I was always left longing for more arcade level graphics. That was the thing.. how can we get arcade quality at home?
The Turbo's case, I thought, looked cool and my friends and I really liked the hu-card design. it looked so simple and less cumbersome than the NES cartridge which was always flaky.
However the game on display was always Keith Courage. The game itself wasn't bad, but being kids who were influenced by the arcades.. the first thing we wanted to see were graphics. Keith Courage, while being better than the NES, didnt seem so much better. It didn't wow us. It definitely should've been either Bonk which was funner, or a game that showed off its graphics, like Legendary Axe. and also a 2nd controller port.
The Genesis at that time, had a Altered beast and some other arcade games and those really looked impressive and next gen. So some of my friends started buying them. For me and many others.. Altered beast is ok, but it didn't feel really re-playable or offered the same level of freedom of movement like a good platformer provides, like Mario. So it was still a little meh. It wasn't until Sonic game out that people around us felt that the Genesis was a must have.
But by that time the SNES came out and it as the obvious choice for everyone. It was now a battle for those who had the luxury of buying a 2nd console. Sonic really turned heads because no one experienced a game that had such speeds.
I didn't look back to the Turbo until the CD came out. By that time, maybe only half of the stores carrying the Turbo had the CD. The two games I saw were gates of thunder and dragon slayer. By this time, I had the SNES for a year or two. GoT was nice, but I was an RPG nut, so I was more impressed by Dragon Slayer. It was the first time I realized a video game could have CD quality music. That left a really big impression on me. I had really wanted the turbo cd at this time.
Unfortunately by the time my parents had saved enough money, all the places that sold the turbo either stopped selling it, or went out of business. so I went Sega.
