The first time I saw a TurboGrafx was in McDuff's, probably in 1990. The store display had R-Type and I loved it. I actually used to beg my parents to take me to McDuff's just so I could play it. About a year later I got one for Christmas. Lots of cool games and way better graphics than NES. Man I loved that thing.
A few years later I managed to get a TurboDuo and I was once again blown away. Y's I & II? Amazing. I still think that's one of the best games I've ever played. I loved the Exiles and Cosmic Fantasy 2, although I don't think they've aged as well. It Came From the Desert has always sucked. I picked up a SNES somewhere around this time, and it was definitely cool, but I ended up trading it for a TurboExpress.
Over the next several years I made some of the worst gaming decisions I can imagine. I honestly don't remember what happened to my TurboExpress, but at some point I apparently gave it away or traded it for something else. My Duo suffered a far worse fate: I sold it to a buddy along with maybe 15 games so I could buy a 3DO. No, I don't know what I was thinking. I paid nearly $700 for the 3DO and some games. Does anyone remember how expensive this thing was?! Anyway, with the exception of Gex (awesome game), and possibly Total Eclipse and Shockwave, I really didn't enjoy any of the games on the 3DO.
This wasn't the end of my retardation. I still had a number of very good games for the Duo. Exile 1 and 2, Dungeon Explorer II and Vasteel were in that group. I traded these to a roomate during college
. Fortunately, my roomate and I learned that TZD was selling brand new Duo's in this time frame, sometime in the early 2000's. I convinced him to buy one and we purchased several games, including many I never had the chance to play when I was younger. Games like Ys III (still an amazing game, shut up about the scrolling
) and Shape Shifter (didn't think it was very cool).
After graduating college, I didn't play and TurboGrafx/Duo for a while. Sometime around 2008 I discovered MagicEngine. In 2009 I went to Japan and discovered Akihabara (and actually Fukuoka). They had PC Engine games! Games that I had read about as a teen, but never got to play! Games like Dracula X! Right there, you could just buy it! Oh man, I was blown away. I bought maybe 10 CD/SuperCD/Arcade titles and couldn't wait to play them.
As soon as I got back I bought a DuoRX off of ebay. Since then I've been gradually collecting titles. I know it's kind of lame, but owning the original copies of these games has meaning to me. I grew up with these games and I always wanted to play as many of them as possible. Sure there are some clunkers, but there are some fantastic games as well. I just wish some of the games I never played didn't cost so much. Seriously, Beyond Shadowgate is over $300? Super Air Zonk costs how much? I've got the Japanese version, it isn't that cool. I haven't even seen Cotton for sale for a while and don't get me started on Magical Chase. So, uh, yeah, I guess that's my story.
