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For information on the Japanese version of this console, see: PC Engine
The TurboGrafx 16 was a video game console released by NEC in 1989, for the North American market.
The TurboGrafx 16 was an 8 bit system with a 16 bit graphics chip, capable of displaying 482 colors at once. The TurboGrafx 16, unusually, used a thin memory card storage medium called a HuCard, instead of the then-standard cartridge (they were named after Hudson Soft, who co-developed the system with NEC). The cards were similar to the card format used by the Sega Master System for budget games. Unlike the Sega Master System, however, the TurboGrafx used the cards exclusively. The TurboGrafx was also the first console to have a CD-ROM peripheral (the FM Towns Marty, however, was the first to have a CD-ROM built in).
Rivalry with Sega
The TurboGrafx was marketed as a direct competitor with the Sega Genesis, which launched in North America 6 months after the Turbo. The launch was accompanied by an ad campaign mocking NEC's claim that the Turbo was the first 16-bit console. The Genesis' Japanese counterpart, the Sega Mega Drive, was less popular than the NEC console, the PC Engine. In North America, however, the situation was reversed, and the Genesis is mainly remembered there for its rivalry with the Super Nintendo, not with the TurboGrafx 16.
Both Sega and NEC released CD peripherals (Sega CD versus Turbo CD), color handhelds (Sega Game Gear versus TurboExpress), and even "TV Tuners" for their respective systems. While Sega outperformed NEC in North America, both companies' peripherals and handhelds were not terribly popular overall.
In 1994, comic book-like ads featuring Johnny Turbo were published by TTI (a company jointly owned by NEC and Hudson). The ads mocked Sega, in particular the Sega CD.
Variations
Several variations on the TurboGrafx were released throughout the 1990s.
TurboDuo
In 1992 TTI released the TurboDuo, the North American version of the Japanese Duo. The system combined the TurboGrafx 16 and an enhanced version of the CD-ROM drive (the "Super CD-ROMē") into a single unit. The system could play audio CDs, CD+Gs, CD-ROM2 and Super CD games as well as standard Hucards. The Super System Card required for some games was built in.
TurboExpress
TurboExpress handheld, TV tuner, and games
The TurboExpress was a portable version of the TurboGrafx, released in 1990. It was the most advanced handheld of its time and could play all the TG-16's games. Its Japanese equivalent was the PC Engine GT. It had a 2.6 inch screen, the same as the original Game Boy, and could display 64 sprites at once, 16 per scanline, in 482 colors. It had 8 kilobytes of RAM. The Turbo ran its two 6502 CPUs at 7.2 megahertz.
Struggles in North America
Initially, the TurboGrafx 16 sold well. However, almost all of the games released in North America were of poor quality, in contrast to the PC Engine's highly praised library of games. The console also suffered from a lack of third party support from software developers. Nintendo made contracts with developers stipulating that if a game was released on the NES, it couldn't appear on any other console. This practice was later judged illegal, but while it was in effect, it caused many developers to pick the popular NES over the upstart NEC console.
In addition, Sega and Nintendo dominated the market at the time, and it was difficult for the relatively untested NEC to convince consumers who already owned a Sega or Nintendo system to give the Turbo a chance, too. Finally, the CD ROM peripheral was widely considered overpriced, and was hard to find outside of large cities. As a result, the TurboGrafx and its CD add-on sold poorly overall.
Many of the CD games for the Turbo Duo were decent but the cost of the system was a deterrent to buyers. Much like the original Turbo console, Japanese games which were highly praised, such as Dracula X and Snatcher, never made it to North American shelves.
Meanwhile, the TurboExpress suffered from short battery life and a hefty price tag. Furthermore, it was fairly common for TurboExpress systems to have missing pixels in their displays, due to the fact that TFT LCD manufacturing technology was still in its infancy.
Legacy
Today, the system is mainly known for its much-vaunted shooting games, its competition with the Sega Genesis, and advertising flop Johnny Turbo. After the TurboGrafx died, NEC decided to concentrate on the Japanese market, where it had had much more success. In 1994, the 32-bit PC-FX was released, exclusively for Japan.
There is a niche collector's market for TurboGrafx games and Japanese imports, mainly centered around the system's many arcade ports of shooters. Spurring this interest is the fact that Turbo ports from the arcade tended to be closer to the original than Sega Genesis\Sega Mega Drive or NES versions, in terms of graphics and sound. Hudson Soft also released some shooters which were exclusive to the Turbo, such as Air Zonk, Aero Blaster, and Gate of Thunder.
Specifications
- CPU: 8-bit HuC6280 @ 3.58 or 7.16MHz (switchable by software) - Hudson Soft's improved clone of the 65C02. Features integrated bankswitching hardware (driving a 21-bit external address bus from a 6502-compatible 16-bit address bus), an integrated general-purpose I/O port, a timer, block transfer instructions, and dedicated move instructions for communicating with the HuC6260 VDC.
- Work RAM: 8KB
- VDC: 16-bit (source of their misleading "16 bit graphics" slogan, comparing to 16 bit CPU systems) HuC6260. Port-based I/O similar to the TMS99xx VDP family
VRAM: 64KB
- Resolution: Programmable, 8x1 to 512x242. Most games used 256x224 and 320x240 sized displays.
- Sprites: 64 entries in sprite table; maximum 16 sprites per scanline.
- Background planes: 1
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