TurboGraphx-16 Retrospective

[A Black Falcon]

Well, I mainly looking for an excuse so I don't have to download and then attempt to play another few hundred games.

Hah... :)

Start with the HuCards anyway, there are a bunch of them and some are good. But it is true that most of the better technical achievements are on CD, as are a lot of the games overall; the Turbo CD is a much more important addon to have than the Sega CD. It's one of the most successful addons ever.. well, in Japan at least. In the US the CD drive, and Duo, bombed even harder than the base system did... sales of Turbo CDs and Duos were likely only in the tens of thousands.

Oh, and comparisons to the NES really are just as far as the Genesis and SNES, particularly technologically. Small sprites, etc... Turbografx games just don't have the visual flash of SNES games, even if they are colorful. As I said the games also often feel NESlike, except faster and more colorful (it does have a 7Mhz CPU, twice that of the SNES). The NES-style controller also helps create that feeling. I, II, Run, Select, and turbo switches for I and II... that's all you've got on the pad. Later CD titles can stand up pretty well (stuff like the Arcade Card exclusives mostly look pretty impressive... too bad there are so few of them), though, so as I said there definitely is a significant change over time.

Whatever the case with that though, it's certainly a very under-rated console here. Sure, I probably do like the SNES and Genesis more, but the TG16 is great too, and more people should play it.