A friend and I both saved money and each bought a TurboGrafx-16 at Toys R Us in the Summer of '92. Unfortunately, I was never able to buy many games. My parents didn't have any money to throw around, my allowance came to $15/month, and my paper route was $30/mo. So I only bought discount, $10-20 games. I got Deep Blue, Legendary Axe II, and Parasol Stars new and ordered Victory Run and Pac-land from BRE Software. I never managed the $20 for a TurboTap + $20 for a second controller. While I drooled over the CD-Rom, the idea of ever being able to save $200+ was unthinkable. So I sold it all in '95.
I got a job painting houses in '97 and happened to see a neon, TG-16 sign while driving through Richfield, MN. I couldn't believe it! It was Games to Go (the owner Paul had some notoriety in the NEC scene at one time). At that time there was very little organized interest in the system, as an online collector community had yet to form. Games to Go was one of the relatively few shops in the country that actively bought and sold the stuff and it was filled with rare titles in '97, including a couple copies of Dynastic Hero I passed over. From Games to Go I bought a used Duo for $150, a Tap, a couple Avenue Pad 6's, CF2, DE2, Exile 2, Vasteel, LoT, New Adventure Island, Y's 1-2, Vigilante, the Arcade Card, a Barney converter, World Heroes 2, Fatal Fury 2, SF2. From my local Radio Shack I ordered Soldier Blade, Smackdown Adventure, Bomberman '93, Shockman, Y's 3, and Dragon Slayer. TG games were dirt cheap at GAME DUDE, so I put in an order and got Valis 2, GoT 3-in-1, Riot Zone, Exile, Fighting Street, Prince of Persia, Shadow of the Beast, Super Air Zonk, a Reverse Duo Tap, and another controller, all used for about $70! Super Air Zonk I think was $15 and is the one really sweet deal I got before I started playing games again in 2004 and realized everything was outrageously expensive.
I like the Mario man and Pacman. Also the Donkey is fun.
