Why didn't Rare get into Turbob?

[Arkhan]

Could you imagine if Rare had developed TurboGrafx-16 games?

They were already fist-f*cking the NES with their talents.   Seeing Wizards and Warriors or something like Captain Skyhawk for Turbo would have been kind of awesome.

It might have also made the thing do better here.

Battletoads for Turbo?  Snake Rattle n Roll?   

I wonder if they've ever said why they didn't bother.  It seems like something the would've been really good at taking advantage of, and putting out good shit for.

 

[spenoza]

Nintendo had their back. You don't screw Nintendo. Nintendo screws you. Only the really big guys with other revenue streams, like Hudson and Namco, could afford to either "cheat on" or leave Nintendo.

[Arkhan]

But, Rare did development on Amiga, and MegaDrive, too.

and some other shit too, I thought?

[SignOfZeta]

Stick to the established narrative, Nintendo is bad.

[Necromancer]

I'd blame Nintendo and trying to keep 'em happy, which ultimately got Nintendo to buy half the company.  They did games on other systems, sure, but that was almost entirely Battletoads and wasn't until '93-ish, when the PCE was losing market share and the Turbob even more so (and had so little to begin with).

[nopepper]

How many western developers worked on the Turbo, besides ICOM? I thought that this was part of the Turbo's lack of appeal in the west; that it was too Japanese centric, and NEC didn't seem to go after western developers to work on their console. Or am I wrong in this and they did go after the Rare's and Bitmap brothers of the world, but they were just not interested?

[GohanX]

While they weren't totally exclusive, Nintendo and Rare were pretty much in bed with each other since Battletoads. They ported Battletoads to pretty much everything, and the only major release on other systems was the Genesis Battletoads/Double Dragon, which was probably because of the partnership with Tradewest.

I'd say the Nintendo partnership was as good for Rare as it was for Nintendo. Rare's games were mostly very good under Nintendo's watchful eye, and they've been mostly awful since they shacked up with Microsoft.

[Arkhan]

I'm just curious if they ever even considered it.

[spenoza]

I doubt it. I mean, I'm sure they were aware of the Turbo, but I would be surprised if they really gave it even a second look.

I'm still trying to figure out why Icom Simulations did so many games on the Turbo.

[DragonmasterDan]

Rare was doing contract work for Western publishers, companies like Tradewest and LJN along with Nintendo had them making games for them. With the Turbo having so few Western developed games in general it's not surprising.

[SignOfZeta]

I see what he’s getting at, if they had made Turbob it would have blended in well with (probably exceeded) the better western stuff. I’d imagine it didn’t happen for a combination of all the reasons mentioned. A company can only do so many things and if they are booked with profitable work they aren’t interested in new paths.

The place I work at, a test lab, is currently booked solid. There are lots of jobs we would love to take but can’t because we are totally maxed out on space and manpower.

[Arkhan]

Also, I would like to point out I am not encouraging someone to announce that they're porting a f*ckin Rare NES game to the Turbo. 


I just think Rare would've probably killed it with the PCE if the way they did NES stuff was an indication.

[nopepper]

Also, I would like to point out I am not encouraging someone to announce that they're porting a f*ckin Rare NES game to the Turbo. 


I just think Rare would've probably killed it with the PCE if the way they did NES stuff was an indication.

Are you porting Battletoads to a green AbCard?

[SignOfZeta]

Would a Battletoads that doesn’t slow down or flicker even be playable?

[ccovell]

While they weren't totally exclusive, Nintendo and Rare were pretty much in bed with each other since Battletoads SLALOM.

fixed it for ya.

Rare did go where the money was, which is why they abandoned the UK home computer scene and went NES/Famicom full on, very early on.  I guess the Sega systems also promised financial rewards, and the PCE/Turbo, not so much.

DMA and Gremlin Graphics did jump into PCE/Turbo dev, though.