Turbografx 16 Newspaper Giveaway Contest

[Necromancer]

no way, I'm here in the NE as well!
whereabouts you at? I'm right on the border between NE and IA.

I'm a dozen or so miles to the west of you, just north of Wehrspann lake.

[NightWolve]

Necro bump!

It was early fall of 1990, I believe. The syndicated NJ newspaper, The Star Ledger, had a contest I believe being held by NEC themselves. They took out an ad in the comics section (I believe it was the bottom of the 3rd page), where they asked gamers several questions related to both NES and Turbografx games. Children/adults were asked to fill in answers to the multiple-choice questions, clip out the ad, and then mail it in to potentially win a prize... the biggest prize being a Turbografx 16 system and a copy of Bloody Wolf.

Some of the questions included:

1) What is Bonk?
2) At the end of Double Dragon, where is the plant located in the room?
3) A random Super Mario question
4) There were a few others (trying to remember)

I filled out the questionnaire, filled in my contact information, and had my parents mail it out. Unbeknown to me, a couple of months later, it turns out that whomever was holding the contest mailed them back a notice indicating that I had won something, and was asking for a notarized response. My parents sent it back. A couple of weeks before Christmas: BAM, in the mail arrived the boxed system and Bloody Wolf game. My parents debated whether or not to give it to me before Christmas, but finally decided that it would be better as an early Christmas present. I was happy, to say the least upon seeing it in its beat up box.

So that's my strange story of how I acquired the Turbografx 16 as a kid. Does anyone else remember this specific contest or something similar in their own area? It would be nice to track down information or even somehow get an image of the original ad for the contest.

Yep, I sure remember it, that's also how I won a TurboGrafx-16 as a kid and became a lifelong fan, else otherwise I never would've had anything to do with the system!

I wrote about it here, and my mom actually did the same thing, got the UPS box first, wrapped and hid it till Christmas to present as a gift by her... Strangest of things... :/

http://www.pcenginefx.com/forums/index.php?topic=4625.msg218974#msg218974


http://www.ysutopia.net/special/BloodyWolf.jpg

In Chicago, the contest's theme was around finding "750 Turbo Titans." I can recall at least one of the questions was about "Castlevania II: Simon's Quest," how you had to crouch down at that dead end to cause a tornado to appear that takes you away to progress in the game... For one of the NES games though, I had to beat it again to answer the question as I didn't quite remember, but I answered all the others correctly from memory. Only NES questions from what I remember, as asking a TG-16 one would be unfair as that's what you're trying to win!

Really cool story. I don't recall anyone running an ad like that growing up, but then again there was not a lot of TG penetration in rural areas.

Turbo Penetration. 

Sounds intense.

Hahaha, classic Arkhan!

[esteban]

I know the Star Ledger, but my family never subscribed to it.

THUS, I missed yet another opportunity for FREE TURBOB.




BUT... we should be able (hopefully) to find this contest in the archives! I hope...

[NightWolve]

Yeah, that's partly why I cared to necro-bumb this, I've hoped someone will eventually dig up the whole contest page from newspaper archives with all questions included. I only have the top half as shown in the past.

[esteban]

Yeah, that's partly why I cared to necro-bumb this, I've hoped someone will eventually dig up the whole contest page from newspaper archives with all questions included. I only have the top half as shown in the past.

I am looking... I am finding lots of wacky stuff... I had compiled a lot of things years ago... but lost it all when harddrive was in a flood....

FOR EXAMPLE... WTF is this about...

...

From the Haunted Houses and/ or Nightclubs file, the best bet is always the Hades Haunted House, the Midwest's largest haunted abode, which has set up shop and chop in the Odeum Sport and Expo Center, 1033 Villa Ave. in Villa Park (854-5900). Featuring 25 rooms, 50 actors and a 5,000-square-foot black maze, the Haunted House will be open from 6 to 11 tonight. Besides a "Halloween Headquarters," where you can purchase last-minute masks, makeup and pumpkins, the house also includes TurboGrafx video games, which cover an extra 20,000 square feet. Admission is $6. Promoters warn that the house may be too intense for younger or more sensitive viewers.

...

SOURCE: Adults scare up Halloween haunts
Chicago Sun-Times (IL) (Published as Chicago Sun-Times) - October 31, 1989
Author/Byline: Dave Hoekstra
Edition: FIVE STAR SPORTS FINAL
Section: SECTION 2 FEATURES
Page: 27

Is that a typo? 20,000 square feet of *only* TG-16? I'm sure it was TG-16 + arcade + consoles + _______.

Regardless, I would have loved to go there for HALLOWEEN. $6 = awesome, even in 1989.

[NightWolve]

Ah, my dad lived a few blocks from the Odeum convention center actually, I had been to one of the Halloween events there as a kid. It has 2 halls, north/south, both of which are about 20,000 square feet, so 40k in total. Yeah, they probably just mean one of the halls was solely dedicated to selling TG-16 products/material at the time, etc.

[wolfpackmars2]

I know this thread is old but... I have some updates that are relevant and missing from the thread up to this point. If for no other reason than to document this obscure contest from the 90's.

I definitely remember this contest and to this day it is one of my better experiences as a kid. To this day I'm honestly impressed that I received a free game console and games just for playing. I honestly never thought I would find information about it online, and somehow through some mystical Google-Fu I found this thread.

After reading through the thread and getting some tips, I finally found a copy of the contest. Having grown up in the Pasadena area in California, I presumed that the contest was seen in the Los Angeles Times newspaper. Then it was a matter of narrowing down the time frame then researching the LA Times archives. I signed up for a free trial just to find this.

I found it in the Sunday comics section of the Los Angeles Times from Sunday, August 19, 1990. You can view the entry form I found via this link: https://latimes.newspapers.com/article/the-los-angeles-times-tg16-contest-1990/163151719/


Here were the questions from the contest:

1) In "Super Mario Bros. 2", what is the name of the fifth character that scrolls by in the ending credits? [Tweeter, Beazo, Ninji, None of the above]
2) During the ending screen in "Double Dragon", what side of the screen is the plant on? [Left, Right, Middle, Left and Right]
3) In "Mike Tyson's Punch-Out", what is the name of the secret playing circuit? [Another Professional Circuit, Another World Circuit, Another Galaxy Circuit, None of the above]
4) In "Legend of Zelda", what is the weapon you must use to defeat the evil Gannon? [Silver Arrow, Magic Wand, Silver Ring, None of the above]
5) In "Castlevania 2: Simon's Quest", during one of the color endings, identify the last word in the ending message: [Thunder, Force, Three, Curse]
6) The Hit Game "Bonk's Adventure" is only available on TurboGrafx-16. [True, False]

The TG-16 was and is my favorite game console of my childhood, other than PC. It was much more reliable than the Nintendo, where I remember slamming, kicking, hitting, licking the contacts of the game cartridges to get them to read correctly. The credit card sized game "cartridges" were ahead of their time.

Thanks to the previous posters who provided key details. Also impressive that someone still had ANY portion of the original advertisement (NightWolve).

[Mathius]

Bumping a nearly two decade old thread with a post such as the one above is never in error. Thank you for sharing!

[_joshuaTurbo]

I know this thread is old but... I have some updates that are relevant and missing from the thread up to this point. If for no other reason than to document this obscure contest from the 90's.

I definitely remember this contest and to this day it is one of my better experiences as a kid. To this day I'm honestly impressed that I received a free game console and games just for playing. I honestly never thought I would find information about it online, and somehow through some mystical Google-Fu I found this thread.

After reading through the thread and getting some tips, I finally found a copy of the contest. Having grown up in the Pasadena area in California, I presumed that the contest was seen in the Los Angeles Times newspaper. Then it was a matter of narrowing down the time frame then researching the LA Times archives. I signed up for a free trial just to find this.

I found it in the Sunday comics section of the Los Angeles Times from Sunday, August 19, 1990. You can view the entry form I found via this link: https://latimes.newspapers.com/article/the-los-angeles-times-tg16-contest-1990/163151719/


Here were the questions from the contest:

1) In "Super Mario Bros. 2", what is the name of the fifth character that scrolls by in the ending credits? [Tweeter, Beazo, Ninji, None of the above]
2) During the ending screen in "Double Dragon", what side of the screen is the plant on? [Left, Right, Middle, Left and Right]
3) In "Mike Tyson's Punch-Out", what is the name of the secret playing circuit? [Another Professional Circuit, Another World Circuit, Another Galaxy Circuit, None of the above]
4) In "Legend of Zelda", what is the weapon you must use to defeat the evil Gannon? [Silver Arrow, Magic Wand, Silver Ring, None of the above]
5) In "Castlevania 2: Simon's Quest", during one of the color endings, identify the last word in the ending message: [Thunder, Force, Three, Curse]
6) The Hit Game "Bonk's Adventure" is only available on TurboGrafx-16. [True, False]

The TG-16 was and is my favorite game console of my childhood, other than PC. It was much more reliable than the Nintendo, where I remember slamming, kicking, hitting, licking the contacts of the game cartridges to get them to read correctly. The credit card sized game "cartridges" were ahead of their time.

Thanks to the previous posters who provided key details. Also impressive that someone still had ANY portion of the original advertisement (NightWolve).

This is an incredible find!  Thank you for sharing!!  Ah, now I get the "Turbo Titan of Legend" monicker!  *sigh* makes me miss these simpler times!