A Pat the NES Punk Christmas - Pat Examines the Turbografx 16

[Pat the NES Punk]

In this holiday special, Pat examines his second favorite game console: the Turbografx 16!

http://thepunkeffect.com/?p=936

[chany60126]

Excellent video, Pat! You did an wonderful job on giving an overview of the system and explaining why the system failed. I think NEC dug themselves a hole by pricing their systems significantly higher than Nintendo and the rest of the companies, especially since they were newcomers in the video game industry. This was especially true for the Turbo Express and Turbo CD attachment which were about $300 and $350 respectively when they initially launched even though they were very techically advanced at the time. Most companies sold their systems at a loss in order to entice consumers to buy the system and other games.

Congrats on your MC purchase!

Great job on your review once again. I'd love to see you review some turbob games in the future as well. 

[Pat the NES Punk]

Good point on the prices. The system itself was competitively priced, but when you had to spend $50 more just to get two players, it then wasn't. I don't know what NEC was thinking. They should have taken some initial loss, as you said, just to get the system into kids' houses. I'm sure oversizing the system compared to the PCE didn't help their production costs either. :p

[Joe Redifer]

I see you did the right thing and put Magical Chase in a proper case instead of the plastic tray + cardboard box.

[DesmondThe3rd]

Alright Pat! I always enjoyed your NES work as Starsoldier1 on Youtube but it's so cool to see your a Turbografx-16 fan too.

[Pat the NES Punk]

Alright Pat! I always enjoyed your NES work as Starsoldier1 on Youtube but it's so cool to see your a Turbografx-16 fan too.

Starsoldier1! Nice to see you on here, bud.

[nodtveidt]

What up with the f*cking advertisement?? 

[DesmondThe3rd]

What up with the f*cking advertisement?? 

Bliptv always does that though. There's no ads on the YT vid he did as well.

[DragonmasterDan]

Excellent video, Pat! You did an wonderful job on giving an overview of the system and explaining why the system failed. I think NEC dug themselves a hole by pricing their systems significantly higher than Nintendo and the rest of the companies, especially since they were newcomers in the video game industry. This was especially true for the Turbo Express and Turbo CD attachment which were about $300 and $350 respectively when they initially launched even though they were very techically advanced at the time. Most companies sold their systems at a loss in order to entice consumers to buy the system and other games.

Congrats on your MC purchase!

Great job on your review once again. I'd love to see you review some turbob games in the future as well. 

I think one other key element of the TurboGrafx's failure left out of the conversation was the fact that the best games released in Japan were mostly on CD-ROM. CD-ROM technology was still VERY expensive in the early 1990s and this lead to the CD-ROM not being as widely supported in North America as it could have been, and ultimately the platforms fate was tied to the cost of investing in the CD hardware. Considering at that time most video game systems were thought in the US to be "For Kids" the number of adopters were limited for the time period as parents didn't want to spend 2-3X the cost of a competing system for the CD-ROM add on or Duo.

[chop5]

that was funny when you lowered your head and said you'll never get it. excellent video

[_joshuaTurbo]

two thumbs way up!!  great job!!

[MottZilla]

I think one other key element of the TurboGrafx's failure left out of the conversation was the fact that the best games released in Japan were mostly on CD-ROM. CD-ROM technology was still VERY expensive in the early 1990s and this lead to the CD-ROM not being as widely supported in North America as it could have been, and ultimately the platforms fate was tied to the cost of investing in the CD hardware. Considering at that time most video game systems were thought in the US to be "For Kids" the number of adopters were limited for the time period as parents didn't want to spend 2-3X the cost of a competing system for the CD-ROM add on or Duo.

There were a ton of HuCard games that would have helped the TG16 had they come over from Japan too. Like Gradius, Afterburner II, Salamander, Ninja Gaiden, Street Fighter II', Shinobi, and surely others.

[Necromancer]

Heh.  Nice video.

"Don't touch me." 

[DragonmasterDan]

I think one other key element of the TurboGrafx's failure left out of the conversation was the fact that the best games released in Japan were mostly on CD-ROM. CD-ROM technology was still VERY expensive in the early 1990s and this lead to the CD-ROM not being as widely supported in North America as it could have been, and ultimately the platforms fate was tied to the cost of investing in the CD hardware. Considering at that time most video game systems were thought in the US to be "For Kids" the number of adopters were limited for the time period as parents didn't want to spend 2-3X the cost of a competing system for the CD-ROM add on or Duo.

There were a ton of HuCard games that would have helped the TG16 had they come over from Japan too. Like Gradius, Afterburner II, Salamander, Ninja Gaiden, Street Fighter II', Shinobi, and surely others.

That falls into the third party support problem already touched on. Gradius, Salamander were Konami games, and Konami was under Nintendo's publishing monopoly in the early part of the Turbo's lifespan. Afterburner 2 and Shinobi were games that would have had to be licensed from Sega which would have been a challenge (yes, I know Fantasy Zone got released for the US TG16 but I'm sure there were hoops to jump through with that as well). Ninja Gaiden would have had a similar problem as it would need to be licensed from not just Hudson who ported it but Tecmo. Nintendo's licensing practices had a big effect on the TG16.

[Pat the NES Punk]

That falls into the third party support problem already touched on. Gradius, Salamander were Konami games, and Konami was under Nintendo's publishing monopoly in the early part of the Turbo's lifespan. Afterburner 2 and Shinobi were games that would have had to be licensed from Sega which would have been a challenge (yes, I know Fantasy Zone got released for the US TG16 but I'm sure there were hoops to jump through with that as well). Ninja Gaiden would have had a similar problem as it would need to be licensed from not just Hudson who ported it but Tecmo. Nintendo's licensing practices had a big effect on the TG16.

By 1992 or so, Nintendo's strong-arming of 3rd party publishers was just about at an end, and that's when NEC really should have went back and tried to give the US market surge one more try. Not releasing SF2 just to try and stay on the same level as the SNES and Genesis in the US is just about inexcusable. Or what about something like Ninja Gaiden Trilogy on the Turbografx? Why didn't they release Castlevania here? Doing things like this wouldn't have pushed the system to the moon, but it would have least kept the system in the conversation with the other two, you know?