celebrity turbo fan

[guyjin]

http://kotaku.com/337444/battlestar-galacticas-helo-tests-out-the-xbox-360-game

It would seem Tahmoh Penikett (OK, minor celebrity) is a turbo fan.
from the article:

"I'm an old school gamer," said Penikett. "I was born and raised in Connecticutt. I remember getting the Atari Lynx back in the day. That was way ahead of its time. You could switch screens, depending on if you were a left-handed or right-handed player. It was 16-Bit, which was way ahead of its time. I remember ordering that system and being so excited about that. I had California Games. My favorite game was APB, which was this Dirty Harry-style cop game. That was so many years ago. I was 15 when I got that system. I was always reading up on games and I always wanted to get the most powerful system, so when TurboGrafx 16 came out I wanted that instead of Genesis. And Genesis ended up being the more popular system. I had a lot of the systems when I was in high school."

One can't mention the TurboGrafx 16 without asking about its mascot.

"Bonk was the shit," said Penikett. "I spent way too many hours playing that game. There was also that pack-in shooter, Keith Courage in Alpha Zones, which I played a lot when I got it."

When looking at the systems Penkikett bought as a kid, he seemed to always pick the one that died an early death.

"I think that was a mistake I made," said Penikett. "I read up on these systems and everyone said TurboGrafx 16 was going to be more powerful than Genesis so I got that one. The same thing happened with the Lynx, which was twice the power of the Game Boy. And both of them really fizzled. I remember loving that Lynx, but we just didn't have the games."

edit: waitasec. did he just describe keith courage as a shmup? perhaps his memories are fuzzy, or maybe he's fibbing...

[Keranu]

I have no idea who that is, but that's pretty kewl. The next most famous Turbo fans, if you can call them that, was some English (?) metal band that was mentioned in TurboPlay. Check out Steve's site for whatever issue it was in, I just remember them playing Bonk on a Turbo Express. Oh and there was also some hockey team that played Turbo Grafx 16 games in that magazine as well I think.

[SignOfZeta]

Herman Li from Dragonforce is a huge PCE fan.

[GUTS]

Is that true?  Dragonforce is one of my favorite bands, that's awesome.  I just saw them play here in portland earlier this year, it was amazing.

[Tatsujin]

i'm a huge PCE fan as well

[Turbo D]

I think you're the real celebrity! Especially after that stunt you pulled on pc engine's b-day 

[Kitsunexus]

If my parents named me Tahmoh Penikett I wouldn't be starring in Battlestar Galactica, I'd be starring in Texas State Federal Penitentiary as an icepick murderer.

[guyjin]

Celebrities are Famous. Tatsujin is Infamous. 

[Tatsujin]

 

[WoodyXP]

David Spade has expressed the desire to get one. 


"It's David Spade. Whatever. The 3rd season of the ShowBiz Show airs March 15th so I thought it's about time I get with 1994 technology and get a website and a TurboGrafx 16"

Link

[Joe Redifer]

He spelled it correctly!  I'm amazed how few people on this plant can manage to type "TurboGrafx-16" without severely mangling it.  He forgot the hyphen, but I'll let it slide... this time.

[SignOfZeta]

Is that true?  Dragonforce is one of my favorite bands, that's awesome.  I just saw them play here in portland earlier this year, it was amazing.

Have you not seen the video for Operation Ground and Pound?

[GUTS]

No, I usually don't watch music videos, I didn't even know they made one for Ground & Pound.  I'll go hunt it down now, awesome.

[_joshuaTurbo]

[esteban]

I have no idea who that is, but that's pretty kewl. The next most famous Turbo fans, if you can call them that, was some English (?) metal band that was mentioned in TurboPlay. Check out Steve's site for whatever issue it was in, I just remember them playing Bonk on a Turbo Express. Oh and there was also some hockey team that played Turbo Grafx 16 games in that magazine as well I think.

Hahhahahahahahhaa. I wrote something about this. Mathew Sweet and Green Jelly were two bands that mentioned something about TurboGrafx-16...

Now, don't get me wrong: learning that recording artist Matthew Sweet was a fellow TG-16 / PCE fan was mildly amusing, but no substitution for actual coverage of PC-Engine imports. I must admit, though, that Matthew Sweet was pretty hardcore: he played North American HuCards on his TurboExpress whilst touring, but he also bought a bunch of Japanese HuCards when he was in Japan (most notably Street Fighter II') to play on his PC-Engine console. Knowing this, we can forgive him for titling his then-current album Altered Beast instead of Shape Shifter (or Night Creatures)! Sweet clearly enjoyed video games and anime, as this excerpt from a 1992 newspaper article reveals:

   

"At the time of this interview, Sweet was taking a few weeks off from his touring schedule. The break wasn't planned, however. He was originally scheduled to produce a record in Chicago, but that was postponed. "This is the first time I've been home this long year, so it's kinda crazy," he said. "I just hang out and be lazy. This used to be my normal mode of life, but I've just been touring and touring and touring." During the year that he believed the album was not going to be released, Sweet sat around and played video games at home. It was with the help of friends like Quine that he was able to get through the period. "He was really one of the most supportive people I knew and was really there for me," Sweet said. "When I had no money, he would buy video games for me and stuff. He was really great. He's a really cool person."

    Now that he's on the road, Sweet doesn't have the chance to play with his TurboGrafx or Genesis systems. "I have a handheld TurboExpress, that's really cool, so I can play that on the road. That's just another thing I can credit Japan for in my life." He also credits the country with japanimation, a form he used in his music videos and which he collects. He has a tattoo of a Japanese animation character on his arm. In the fall of 1993, Sweet and his band toured Japan. He had known his album was available in Japan and he was getting good offers for dates, but he was surprised to find out the amount of fan support in the country. "I did an interview when I was over in London last week (July 19, 1993) for a Japanese magazine and the woman said, ‘You are very famous among young people in Japan for your videos and tattoos.’ She was asking, ‘Which animations would you like your fans to bring you’," Sweet laughed. "I was like, ‘They can bring me anything’."  VIEW SOURCE

Sweet seems genuinely delighted by the fact that he could play TG-16 games on his TurboExpress whilst touring. If only Sega had released the Nomad a few years earlier! Sweet would have been doubly pleased! More importantly, I would love to find out if Robert Quine (yes, the former guitarist for the Voidoids!) purchased any TG-16 games for Sweet during his "slump". And wouldn't it be neat to find out what Sweet's TG-16 library consisted of in the early 90's?