How did you join the Turbo family?

[kid_rondeau]

Let's take this time to share how we got into the TurboGrafx 16, Turbo Duo, or PC Engine.

Me, well I was your average video-game-obsessed youth in the early nineties. I had NES, and SNES. I even had an Atari 7800 that I played when I was feeling retro.

But something was lacking...I read EGM religiously every month, and I always spent the most time reading TurboGrafx reviews ("Wow...Ys Book I & II looks AWESOME!") and I wanted to be a part of the action.

I was able to piece together how the hardware worked and I thought I'd have the best luck getting my dad to buy me just the TG16, and ask for the CD add-on next Christmas.

The next time we went to Toys R Us, I saw they had a few Turbos left on clearance for $50 each. I asked for one as a birthday present, but my dad didn't want to buy it so he made me pay for half of it.

That night I spent about 8 hours playing Keith Courage!

I missed my chance to buy a TG-CD from Toys R Us, but I was able to get the LAST ONE IN STOCK from some company called "SmartWorks Corp." The price? $50! I got it on Christmas Day, 1994.

Finally, after getting my first real part-time job in July 1995, I called Game Dude to see if they had any Super System Cards in stock. As my luck would have it, they had just gotten one in that same day, and it wasn’t even put on the sales floor yet. I told them I wanted it, and it cost me $47.

Since then, my library has grown significantly. Sometimes slowly, sometimes rapidly. But my love of all things Turbo remains constant, and I’ve always felt there was something very unique and special about it...as though people of a certain personality tend to gravitate towards the Turbo.

What about you?

[runinruder]

Got my TG-16 in '89 after reading some articles in VG&CE and EGM.  The mags were raving over it, and the games looked amazing in screenshots--especially Legendary Axe, but also Keith Courage, Victory Run, Deep Blue, Fantasy Zone, R-Type, and even Vigilante. 

[guyjin]

Well, way back in the day, I had a SNES. Christmas after it came out, even. However, I had come to belive (rightly) that Nintendo Power was biased and otherwise full of it. So I started reading other gaming mags.

That's when I discovered the turbo. Everything about it impressed me. of course, I had an allowance, but rather than save for a new system, It made more sense to buy games for the one I had. Also, The only place around that carried Turbo stuff was TRU. Nowhere that I knew of rented the stuff.

And then there was the express incident; I've said this before, but my parents accidentally got the wrong AC adapter (they bought an Express AC adapter, but a Game Gear system) and I opened the AC adapter first.

Years passed, and the end of the 16 bit generation loomed. The Jaguar was out and being hyped to death, but the Recently released Duo was what I was interested in. I actually put in applications at a few places, to get a job for which to pay for the lovely duo, but never got a response.

Years passed, and FF7 was the latest thing; my brother got a playstation. I was so disillusioned with it, I basically stopped being a console gamer for that gen. (yay internet.) The duo drifted off into the back of my mind.

At some point, i started surfing 'classic' gaming sites, and remembered the turbo. then I discovered ebay (actually, Yahoo! auctions, but I digress) and got a tg16 base unit for cheap. Squee!

I've been obsessed with it ever since. I belive it is my 'best' console collection, as far as ebay value, so far; I have more NES games, but unlike the turbo, most of those are loose carts.

[termis]

As for me, I think I plunked down for a Turbo+CD when it went on clearance, when TCD was reduced to $99 or something like that.  And I got the Turbo second hand somewhere.

Then after some time, I sold those off, and got me a used Duo -- from Gamedude, coincidentally.  I don't remember what I paid, but it couldn't haven been much, considering I'm a cheap ass.

Ah... Game dude.  I'd take a drive there once in awhile back early to mid 90's just to check stuff out.  That place is HUGE.  Though when I first went there in 92 or so, it was a small shop next to their current location, but they took over that whole side of that building a few years later.  I haven't been in So Cal for years, so I don't know what it's like anymore, but I bought whole bunch of "x" condition games from that place for around $3 each when they used to sell those.  In fact, I still have a "x condition sticker" on back of my Gate of Thunder 4-1 CD with a price tag of $2.50.  Pretty good deal if you ask me.  Of the dozens of those I bought, I think only a single one had music that skipped - I think it was a Saturn game.  Don't remember which one...

[Necromancer]

I sold my trusty ol' Gameboy and library of games to pick up a Duo shortly after its release and have never looked back.  I can still be found on weekends out stabbing hobos for their aluminum cans to help pay for my Turbo addiction. 

[grahf]

I had a tg16 in the early 90s. I had keith courage, dragon spirit. I received a CD game as a present (which I dont remember), but couldnt play it since I had no cd addon I used to always trade in my games in those days, mostly due to lack of cash to buy new ones. I never really got into the Turbografx, and ended up trading everything in. 

About 2 years ago or so, I discovered the PC Engine, and picked up a Duo-R. Ive been buying games since. Its really a nice system. But I guess we all know that

[gundarN]

I only actually bought a PC Engine last year; but it had been on my mind since about '93, it appeared in a few UK games magazines, particularly Edge. I knew if I bought one it would start to cost me as there were so many good games so I held off for as long as I could.

In the last couple of years my interest in order systems and games really has taken over from things like the 360 etc. Once I had my Jap Saturn, Asian Mega Drive, arcade cabinets, Jaguar, Nuon, SNES etc. I ran out of excuses not to own one.

Best (and expensive) decision I ever made.

[Joe Redifer]

I received the TurboGrafx-16 as well as the CD-ROM system as a high school graduation present in 1991.  It came with Bonk and Keith.

[nat]

In 1989 I was in grade school. Up until that point I was an NES fanboy, if there was such a thing in 1986-1989.

When the 16-bit generation hit around that time, all I could do was read gaming magazines and dream. Of course, at that age, all I really wanted was killer graphics. Screenshots of the Genesis didn't get me going, so I asked for a TG for Christmas. Best Christmas ever! To this day, no joke.

I got a basic TG system with Keith Courage and my parents also bought me Space Harrier so I'd have something else to play. (Best game ever made, BTW.) I was literally floored by the graphics in Space Harrier. I'd never seen such graphics outside the arcade.

The rest is history. My interest in the console has ebbed and flowed since then. I was a little late on the CD scene-- I got my first CD-ROM attachment in 1997 while working in a job I got just for that specific purpose. I also bought a TurboExpress. Then I quit. Up until that point I had been collecting "chip" games.

In 1996/1997 I joined the Turbo List and wasted a lot of time on that. Met some cool friends there, some I still correspond with to this day.

I skipped the "generation" of consoles that followed the 16-bit era, the 32/64/whatever-bit generation. I thought (and still do, even more so) the PlayStation's jagged, jerky polygons were a step backwards in game aesthetics and I never got into the Saturn or PC-FX (until more recently) since I didn't know anyone that had either and I wasn't willing to risk the money.

Around 2000 Eagan Rackley (another Turbo List member) and I started working on a Keith Courage port for the PC. It was abandoned before completion.

Around 2001/2002 I had no job and no money. I sold a good portion of my collection including the CD-ROM addon and the TurboExpress (still regret that). I kept a few things, including the original TG deck I got as a Christmas gift so many years before.

In 2003 things were looking up for me personally-- new job, new girlfriend (still happily together today) and I suddenly had extra cash around a lot. I got into this generation of consoles a little bit- PS2, GameCube, etc since the horrible polygons of the 90's had been cleaned up and smoothed out quite a bit since I had last checked in 1996. I also bought another CD-ROM attachment for my TG and started collecting TG games again.

Since '03 I've picked up a PCE GT to replace the TurboExpress I stupidly sold, a PC-FX, SuperGrafx, etc and I'm still into these consoles full-swing. I'm still collecting, though lately I've been a PC-FX glutton.

I have a few titles left to complete my US collection, including (unfortunately) the holy grails.

[Ninja Spirit]

Throughout the 90's I never owned a Grafx/Duo personally but had access to it at a friend's house...until 2000, when I got my own TG16 for 5 games as a trade for Dragon Ball Z Ultimate battle 22.

I 2004 I got a black PC Engine Duo, but it crapped out on me in a matter of months (in fact it died a day before my Dracula X copy arrived in the mail)

I was on Turbo hiatus for 5 or 6 months until I got a modded XBox and sold it 3 months later. Put the money along with my old TG16 deck which led me to where I'm at now, a region modded Duo-R from D-Lite.

Then after the first play session on my Duo-R, I found you guys

[Necromancer]

Holy shit, Batman!  GundarN is the only person that I've heard of that not only owns a Nuon but will actually admit to it (not that there's anything wrong with that).  Is there much of anything for Nuon to get excited about - other than the novelty?

[torgo]

I bought one on clearance at a JC Penney outlet store with about 6 games (dirt cheap.) Instantly fell in love. Kept that until TTi sent me a Duo for Christmas. The rest is history.

[offsidewing]

I tell everyone my first crush was Sarah Jessica Parker in LA Story, but it's all LIES.  It was Laura from Cosmic Fantasy 2.  

It was 1990.  Van Halen was still cool, there was only one version of the original Star Wars trilogy, and baseball card trading was in it's zenith.  I opened up a pack of Upper Deck baseball cards like any cool 13 year old does and pulled out an autographed Harmon Killebrew heros of baseball card.  The neighbor kid (whom nobody liked) tells me that card will fetch about 2 bills at the local card store.  So I convinced my skeptical father to drive me to the card store (can't remember the name) and he ranted that the guys in that "jip joint" would only give me 5 bucks for the card.

Three firsts happened that day.  The first first:  my dad was wrong.  The incarnate of the comic book guy gave me exactly $200 without batting an eye.  The second first:  I met my first 40 year old man who had no idea what it was like to (legally) touch a woman in a romantic way.  The third first:  I bought a Turbo Grafx-16 at Toys R Us.  This third first would be my placebo to a cocaine addiction.  

It started quickly.  I heard they had better coke on CD's.  So after a summer of mowing lawns and a year baby sitting for two raging alcoholics,  I saved up the $300 to buy a Turbo Grafx-CD.  Picking up used Chip games as I went to quell the thirst.  Much to my surprise, the CD player was $150 so I had some surplus cash to feed my habit.  Now it was 1992.  I heard they had better coke in Japan.  So I saved money mowing lawns to buy a converter and started paying $69.99 a pop for imports games.  Then I heard they had better coke on the Super Systems Card.  So I saved up the $79.99 and had my dad order the SSC3.0 and the 3-n-1 on his mighty Visa (TTI didn't take Amex).  I waited all summer for that card so show up.  I wanted that Super System Card so bad that I cut out the life-sized photo of the SSC3.0 and taped it over my existing system card.  I'd insert it into my TG-16, open up the Turbo Force Magazine, and pretend I was playing Dragon Slayer.  I was 15 when I did this (oh the shame).  The the super system card showed up in late August.  I don't remember the next 6 months of my life that followed, but I remember having to get a job sometime in early 1993 to pay for the habit or my folks were going to kick me out.  I bought a Turbo Express so I could play Street Fighter II with a diving board converter on the bus to hockey tournaments.  I started playing between games.  I started playing at school.  Everyone laughed, but they all wanted to watch TV on my Turbo Tuner...

The job plan hugely back-fired on my well intended parents.  I got a job that was right next door to my coke dealer, the Video Game exchange.  I traded used golf discs to the stoners that worked the counter at VGE for Turbo games.  Soon everyone was talking about the Ultra 64 and Super Duper Lucidris Street Fighter MCMXI Champion Turbo Cubed Edition and the bottom fell out of the Turbo Market in 94.  My coke became cheap and easily available.  The 3DO became the new drug, but I was so dependant on the Turbo, I never switched over.  

1995 came along and it was off to start developing one of two career paths.  The turbo stayed home while I traveled the globe.  I 'found' girls soon there after, and I was able to ween myself off the Turbo.  Somewhere around 1998 I heard the market fell out on Japanese coke and I dropped two grand on PCE hardware out of nowhere.  BINGE CITY.  You name it, I had it (except the Power Console for the Super Grafx, I would have OD'ed and died).  I had a power base unit/Core II/PCE CD/Arcade Card here and a Super Grafx, Tennokoe Bank, Super CD Unit there, PCE Duo w/ Monitor over over that way, and the PCE LT w/dock/Super CD unit and Arcade Card Duo as the crown jewel.  Luckily, my girlfriend at the time straight-jacked me back to the life of a horny 21 year-old and I recovered from my Turbo lapse.  The turbo addiction became a closet thing.  Only rearing it's ugly head when friends of my youth visited, or the drinking binge called for Bomberman '94.  My world was abruptly shattered in July of 2000 when all my turbo hardware and half my game library was stolen from my campus apartment my senior year.  The rest of my collection has languished in one closet or another, until late last week...

You could say the stress of planning a marriage and building a house pulled me back to the habit.  But I am currently trying to re-acquire some modest hardware and fire up the old games, and maybe pick up some new ones.  If all goes well, I'll be able to post some blogs while I play my games casually and relive a video gamed youth.  If things go badly, I'll need a roommate and a good divorce lawyer in the southeast michigan area....

[td741]

When I first saw the TG-16 and some of the early HuCard games, I was less then impressed.  I had an Amiga and Master System at the time and was happy. (I went from Radio Shack's TV Scoreboard [Pong], to Atari 2600, to Vic-20, to CoCo3, to C=64 to the Amiga and Master System.).

Some years later, If I remember correctly, I already had an SNES and the SegaCD hype machine was blaring...  My friend had bought the SegaCD on release a few months prior and I was itching for a new system (especially since I was going to get a nice tax refund...)  I was going to possibly make a jump to the SegaCD, but then I saw an interesting site at CompuCenter...  It was a TurboDuo.  I asked the salesclerk if I could try it out and he hooked everything up and put in the 4 in 1 disk.  I looked at the intro, and picked Gates of Thunder from the menu (sorry, at the time I wasn't a big Bonk fan)...

My jaw hit the floor...

I wasn't expecting to be impressed but here is this game with good graphics, (pseudo) scaling, parallax scrolling...  I bought the system when my tax refund came in... 

My jaw hit the floor once I was actually able to play Gates with the volume ON... 

From that day on I would hound the different stores to buy all of the CD games I could find (on release).

I made a few exceptions but I was a little bit of a snob and avoided most HuCard games... Eventually I saw the light and allowed HuCard games into my library.

[gundarN]

Is there much of anything for Nuon to get excited about - other than the novelty?

It's all about Tempest 3000. I bought the system a couple of years ago to play that one game alone.

http://www.cyberlead.co.uk/old_school/tk3.htm