How did you join the Turbo family?

[nat]

I look at it this way.....

When all is said and done, who's gonna be there for you through thick and thin, through the ups and downs, and who's not gonna judge you?

Wife or Duo?

That's what I thought.

That said, I'm in a happy relationship of 5 years and the woman and the Turbo are able to peacefully co-exist.

[handygrafx]

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[handygrafx]

Interest piqued: In the late summer of '89 commercials aired on WPIX 11 NYC for a new video game system. The commercials were very short, and the gameplay footage even shorter, so we (my brothers and I) videotaped the after-school cartoons in hopes of investigating things further.

Backstory: I had not paid much, if any, attention to the magazine coverage devoted to TG-16 / Genesis since I was thoroughly entrenched in NES / SMS. Honestly, when I opened a magazine, I went straight for the NES reviews. We couldn't afford NES games, so buying expensive new hardware was not an option for us. I'd even look at computer software reviews, since my friends had computers, but that was it.

THEN WE SAW FOOTAGE OF BLAZING LAZERS & LEGENDARY AXE.

We re-watched the taped commercials in slow-motion, savoring every moment.

As luck would have it, Toys R Us had a nice TG-16 display and Blazing Lazers was the game that I tested!

It was fun as hell, and suddenly we wanted TG-16 for BL alone. We figured that we could sell our NES stuff, plus save our Xmas money, and buy TG-16 and a few games.

We did so, selling off NES games to our friends. And so, the day after Xmas '89, we brought a huge wad of cash (mostly small bills) to Toys R Us and bought TG-16, tap, extra pad and a game or two. Good times...

Later: A local mom-n-pop had the TG-CD on display. For some reason, they ran Final Zone II as the demo whenever I was in the store, although I saw an opened Ys I & II next to the unit as well. I saw screenshots of Valis II and wanted to play it.

Eventually, this store (it was called "Video Dynasty" in Belleville, NJ) sold their TG-CD display to us for $300, which was awesome since it went for $400. The TG-CD display simply didn't generate sales for them, so they put a TG-16 in its place. They were happy to get rid of TG-CD; we were delighted to get it "cheaper".

Eventually my brothers and I acquired other consoles and handhelds, but we always had a soft spot for TG-16, probably because it was an underdog and we had worked so hard to buy games for it. NES/SMS/Genny/SegaCD/SNES games could be rented, borrowed from friends, traded, etc. TG-16 stuff had to be purchased new (high cost of entry) and not every store had a great selection of titles...

great post Steve!

[handygrafx]

My story:

In fall of 1990 (don't remember what month) I got a new TurboGrafx-16 with Keith Courage packed in, of course, and  Legendary Axe, from Babbage's.  maybe I also got another game, maybe not
(if yes, it might've been Blazing Lazers, don't remember).   

There was an offer going to get a free game, via mail-in. I selected R-Type. perfect choice too, because IIRC, R-Type was one of the most expensive HuCards. In the Chicago area it was $69.99 at Toys 'R US.   

on Christmas Eve, 1990, the UPS truck arrived in the afternoon with my free R-Type!
What a glorious day that was!

[offsidewing]

From what I've seen, it's not uncommon for some males to junk certain past enjoyments when they're, "owned".

Sometimes the excuse is some dumb shit as simple as, "Well, she said....".    hahha, I often wonder why some don't say, "Is this yours? Is it in your way? no? Leave it be then".

If you can't afford the hobby, have moved on (by yourself) to something else, etc  that's one thing. Though getting rid of stuff because someone else says so is possibly going to lead to you regretting your decision later.

Marriage and family is leaps and bounds beyond being pussy wipped by some tight stomached 19 year old chick that doesn't know the first thing about giving a decent blow job or taking it in the can.

It's checks and balances.  It makes sense and it's fair.  She has every right to put the literal foot down if I don't do stuff around the house because I spent 7 hours playing Cosmic Fantasy yesterday.  Not to be snobby, but the Mrs and I do well financially, so the cost is irrelevant, but you do have to keep discretional spending fair too. 

What we do with our time or money is arbitrary.  Guys on the 'transistor radio' or 'harley' forums bitch about the same things.

My blissful hours of Turbo-ing are done for a while July 1st when she rotates back to mornings.  However, playing chess or PS2 Wheel of Fortune on a Thursday night with her to decide who gets to pick the 'position' is WAY more fun than playing the turbo.

[jimid2]

Welcome aboard jimid2 - Opus for President!  Sucks about the ex-wifey and selling the collection, but at least she's gone now and you can enjoy some Turbo action sans nagging.  My standard response whenever somebody tells me to get rid of my Duo is "Go f*ck yourself".  It might eventually end a relationship, but better now than after I'm married.

But if Opus is President, who'll pick up the tuba duties in DeathTöngue?!? I dunno that Portney's up to it...

The current mrs. jimid2 is much more amenable to my material idiosyncracies (I tend to collect guitars, too) - she plays a lot of video games and is a musician herself, and as money's no longer the issue, things are much better all around... Today the issue is time; with a house full of teenagers, it can be a challenge to find a few minutes to play anything, not to mention finding a free TV on which to play it, which is why I've drifted away from consoles to handhelds over the past five years or so - almost all my gaming is done on portable systems now.

[esteban]

As many folks have already said, time is the most limited resource. The only reason I started playing cellular games is because it is the only way I can squeeze a few minutes of games into my daily schedule.

Cellular gaming is lame, but when it's your only option, well, it doesn't seem like the lamest thing in the world anymore.

----------------

Last weekend, when I told my wife and daughter that my dream was to find some TG-16 or Vic-20 stuff at the thrift store we were going to... well, my wife said, "I wish you had grown out of that by now, but I guess it is too late for that."

I laughed and responded, "I suppose so...".

I had been on a rather strict video game diet for the last year, you see: nearly all $$$ went towards fixing-up our home.

Of course, I have never been lucky enough to find a *single* TG-16 item in southern californian or northern new jerseyian thrift stores. NOT A SINGLE GODDAMMED THING.

Even my wife will be happy if I should be so lucky.

OK, now I'm off to mow the lawn....

[Necromancer]

But if Opus is President, who'll pick up the tuba duties in DeathTöngue?!? I dunno that Portney's up to it...

The country needs penguin leadership now more than ever.  It's no big loss anyway, as they weren't the same after their conversion to Billy and the Boingers.  Just imagine - spandex, eye shadow, and fishnet stockings in the Whitehouse.  Kinda like if J. Edger became president. 

[SNKNostalgia]

My story is a little different actually. I remember seeing ads in magazines and commercials of kids playing Legendary Axe 1 back in 89-90 kind of wanting one. Well, I was always a hardcore Nintendo guy and also played my friend's Genesis which at the time it was pretty bad ass actually. At his house I played Altered Beast, Herzog Zwei and Revenge of Shinobi. Then I the SNES came out and it was all that I wanted for christmas of that year after playing all the great games at another friends house. My dad was a cheap-ass for a Lieutenant Commander in the NAVY. So instead my parents buy me a TG16 that costed $99 with 2 free games being Keiths Courage and Final Lap Twin. I was pissed actually. Then I learned to really like Final Lap Twin and realized I was just stuck with this. Later on I got Cadash which rocked ass in 1992.

After that I havn't jumped back into NEC systems until 2000-01 when I got my a brand new US Turbo Duo from TZD and some Super/Reg CD titles. I felt like I had to get it after finding a copy of the 4 in 1 Super Cd for like $3 at a thrift store in 1998. Now, I am growing my collection somewhat.

I will be honest though, I played the hell out of my Sega CD since 1994 with games such as Snatcher, Lords of Thunder (I actually like this version, the music has a more bad ass band sound even though less colors), Rise of the Dragon, Final Fight CD, Lunar 1 + 2, Cobra Space Adventure, Silpheed and Robo Aleste. As for the CD-Rom2/Super CD games, there are equal amounts of good games on it as well. I just never got a taste of TGCD until after 6 years of playing Sega CD. Hell, I have only played like 5 Turbochip games other than everything on the emulators. I need some Turbochips and Hucards bad though. I have around 10 CD titles now.

[Golgo13]

I myself, bought my American Turbo Grafx in something like '95 when they were being sold off at toys r us for 50 bucks.  I wanted to get one earlier, but at the time I was busy with SNES, it wasnt until later that I had the money and power to aquire more systems of the 16 bit era, now I have just about everything with the exception of Neo Geo AES, Im not enough of a high roller to build a decent enough collection with that though.

As for the Turbo, I only had about 4 games for it, and spent time collecting for other systems, until recently I bought myself a japanese duo and a region free PC engine GT.  Its probably my favorite system of my collection, has the perfect balance between graphics, gameplay and old school appeal.

[GUTS]

My parents bought me and my brother a Turbo Grafx for christmas when I was a kid because they were only $50 while SNES and Genesis were still $100+, plus some Toys R Us $10 clearance games like Parasol Stars and Ordyne.  Man that was a good christmas.

[Golgo13]

I got that same deal, parasol stars 10 bucks, I still have the original cardboard box and the jewel case with the instructions, that was one of the best purchases I think ive made when it comes to video games, because the value of it now is over 100 I think.

[GUTS]

Awesome, yeah we went back and bought all the $10 games they had over the next few months, but it was only a handful more and they weren't very good- just stuff like Tricky Kick.

[SNKNostalgia]

Well I be damned!!! I just ask my parents just for the hell of it and they got my system at Toys R Us and apparently the system probably was the same deal at $50 or so. My grandmother bought Final Lap Twin for like $10-$15 or so as well. I am suprised they remembered that. Was this the Christmas right after the SNES came out in August with you guys?

You know what is gay though is that my grandmother bought me a $200 Atari Lynx first model when it came out the Christmas before that. But no, no SNES next year??? Man whatever. I was very deprived of new console happiness untill 1994. Finally in 1996 I got my first job and bought SNES, Neo Geo CD and PSX stuff like mad.

[cho_aniki]

Awesome, yeah we went back and bought all the $10 games they had over the next few months, but it was only a handful more and they weren't very good- just stuff like Tricky Kick.



           I reckon Tricky Kick is great fun, albeit very tricky indeed.