Super Secret Hidden Trick/FEKA's master plan

CrackTiger · 05/22/2006, 01:03 AM

I was wondering if this happened to anyone else, because I'm only 90% sure that this recently uncovered repressed Turbo memory is 100% accurate.

After getting a Turbo Duo when they were brand spanking new, I first bought a TG to Duo convertor cable(official of course) before any Duo Taps or Pads. Because, of course, I already had at least one Turbo Tap and 5+ Turbo Pads with my Turbo CD combo.

However, after buying up every Turbo game I could get ahold of, I started to spend my cash on actual Duo products, the first of course being a Duo Tap to plug my Duo Pad into...

Anyways, I'm positive that the way I first learned of the hidden Bomberman 4-in-1 trick is that inside my Duo Tap box there was a small piece of paper with plain photocopied text briefly instructing me to perform said trick.

I had this flashback tonight while scanning in Turbo media from an old issue of EGM from a recently resurfaced (foot high)stack of gaming mags from back in the day that were supposed to have been thrown out(along with a few dozen Hucard cases and manuals, Turbo boxes including the Turbo CD, etc...) by my father the day after I moved to the big city.

And as disgusted as I am by the travesty that is Johnny Turbo, I couldn't help but glimpse the unveiling of the Bomberman trick in the JT comic that I was scanning in.

Which means that it really was a super secret trick, if the only way to find it other than noticing the small piece of paper inside your Duo Tap box before it gets tossed in the trash as you run with your new Duo Tap straight to your Turbo Duo to fire up Dungeon Explorer, -is for someone to actual make it through 3 pages of that garbage "comic" before vommiting and throwing your Turbo Duo in the trash instead.

I mean, seriously now, if their really was an evil FEKA, then the Johnny Turbo campaign would have had to be their master plan to get Turbo fans to switch to Sega CD because it did more damage than good.

In this particular issue of EGM, there are 3 or 4 pages of Johnny Turbo and no other Turbo ads whatsoever. This at a point when there were like 2 Turbo games a month actually covered by the magazine and real advertising was more important than ever.

And I know Keranu's going to come in praising JT for all it's cheeseball glory. If the Turbo hadn't been dying at the time it would've been funnier. I even sent in a Letter Art to EGM of Johnny Turbo frying Sonic and Mario with his lightning powers.

I wonder why they never published it?

Keranu · 05/22/2006, 01:17 AM

Oh ye who believe, priase Johnny Turbo for his miraculous cheesy glory!

CrackTiger · 05/22/2006, 02:12 AM

Here's episode #45 of Johnny Turbo-

https://www.superpcenginegrafx.net/jta1.jpg

https://www.superpcenginegrafx.net/jta2.jpg

https://www.superpcenginegrafx.net/jta3.jpg

https://www.superpcenginegrafx.net/jta4.jpg

Enjoy.

And here's something extra for Keranu-

https://www.superpcenginegrafx.net/10weirdest.jpg

Ninja Spirit · 05/22/2006, 02:46 AM

Perhaps I can vouch. Episode 43

Ahhh nothing like the early 90's when the console wars were more cutthroat than today's.

Keranu · 05/22/2006, 04:22 AM

Quote from: "CrackTiger"And here's something extra for Keranu-

https://www.superpcenginegrafx.net/10weirdest.jpg

Hehe, thanks

! That was a pretty cool little article. Is that Robocod fish the same fish in the James Pond games? I love that James Pond.

Bt Garner · 05/22/2006, 07:58 AM

Johnny Turbo was actually based on a TTi coder (who is still
around, and in the video game industry). The bitter irony
is that after TTi folded, Johnny Turbo went to go and work for...
Sega. I am not kidding.

I do have to wonder how much he hid his "Johnny Turbo" alter
ego when he was interviewing...or after he was hired.

Johnny Turbo is still around.. somewhere. But I would not hold
my breath waiting for his return. And considering his attitude
toward most in the gaming industry, I doubt that most of us would
want to actually meet him. Too bad.

-bt

CrackTiger · 05/22/2006, 12:50 PM

Quote from: "bt"Johnny Turbo was actually based on a TTi coder (who is still
around, and in the video game industry). The bitter irony
is that after TTi folded, Johnny Turbo went to go and work for...
Sega. I am not kidding.

I do have to wonder how much he hid his "Johnny Turbo" alter
ego when he was interviewing...or after he was hired.

Johnny Turbo is still around.. somewhere. But I would not hold
my breath waiting for his return. And considering his attitude
toward most in the gaming industry, I doubt that most of us would
want to actually meet him. Too bad.

-bt

I was actually going to make a comment on how I figured that was the case, because why else would they model a super hero so unattractive.

I don't think that there would've ever been a Blunt Man if Kevin Smith hadn't happened to cast himself in a bit part in his first film.

The cool thing is that a few pages after that Johnny Turbo spread, Sega managed to come up with an ad possibly lamer, although not as tacky(how could it be?).

https://www.superpcenginegrafx.net/segalamead.jpg

I remember how even as a teen, in an era before the internet when people were more easily fooled by techno-jargen, this ad seemed almost as lame back then as it does today.

I like how this is what the suits at Sega thought hipster cool was. Although the Johnny Turbo ads don't do much to combat the "nerds work for our competition" remark.

CrackTiger · 05/22/2006, 01:02 PM

Quote from: "Keranu"
Quote from: CrackTigerAnd here's something extra for Keranu-

https://www.superpcenginegrafx.net/10weirdest.jpg
Hehe, thanks ! That was a pretty cool little article. Is that Robocod fish the same fish in the James Pond games? I love that James Pond.

Yeah, they thought that if one parody based on a play on words had worked, why not try another parody of a film title that they could barely tie in to the original character.

So, I guess at this point they established that he's a Cod wholive in a pond?

But what if Robocop had never been made. Would they have designed an entire game around another film's title? Like Ramboat, Spermwhaleinator, Cod Gun or Die Carp?

QuotePerhaps I can vouch. Episode 43
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v125/Youkai525/JOHNNYTURBO1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v125/Youkai525/JOHNNYTURBO2.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v125/Youkai525/JOHNNYTURBO3.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v125/Youkai525/JOHNNYTURBO4.jpg

Ahhh nothing like the early 90's when the console wars were more cutthroat than today's.

"Oh my god! They're not even human!"

I always liked how they tried to make the fact that the Turbo CD was almost as old as the Sega Master System a selling point.

Or the evil guy's desperate attempt to trick kids into buying their system by giving them some free games(they'd have to pack-in like 5 to compensate for such a lame system).

Of course Johnny Turbo never tried to point out any of the Turbo's true strengths, nor trash fmv games(or the the Genesis' color display bottleneck). Instead he simply continued to chant, "our games are more intense!".

It reminds me of the Hasbro/Mars Super Hour on the Simpsons.

motdelbuort · 05/22/2006, 06:02 PM

Quote from: "CrackTiger"It reminds me of the Hasbro/Mars Super Hour on the Simpsons.

Keranu · 05/22/2006, 07:38 PM

Quote from: "bt"Johnny Turbo was actually based on a TTi coder (who is still
around, and in the video game industry). The bitter irony
is that after TTi folded, Johnny Turbo went to go and work for...
Sega. I am not kidding.

I do have to wonder how much he hid his "Johnny Turbo" alter
ego when he was interviewing...or after he was hired.

Johnny Turbo is still around.. somewhere. But I would not hold
my breath waiting for his return. And considering his attitude
toward most in the gaming industry, I doubt that most of us would
want to actually meet him. Too bad.

-bt

You've probably been to Sardius' Johnny Turbo Story website, but anyways it has a lot of neat personal info on John Brandstetter. Back when he was actually updating the site, it was exciting to see the new information that was uncovered, especially when they have a episode of Computer Chronicles up which featured John Brandstetter! There has been some other neat info out there too that wasn't featured on Sardius' site, including a person on a message board who was able to email John himself and actually got a couple of responses. I did a lot of research myself at one point and manage to find some other info out there, though small stuff.

esteban · 05/22/2006, 08:40 PM

hmmm, I remember reading about the hidden Bomberman game... in a few places. Granted, I was a TurboNerd, but I thought it was "relatively well-known" knowledge, even back then. However, I don't know if the average person would have known about Bomberman if they hadn't read something in a magazine...

When the launch of the Duo was being promoted, a few magazines mentioned that there was a bonus game on the pack-in CD -- it was probably mentioned in the TTi press release / promotional material (which magazines simply regurgitate, even today

).

-----------------
... Remember we had a thread here (a year or more ago?) and I said that "Welcome to the Next Level" was not one of Sega's memorable marketing campaigns? Well, actually, it was memorable because I thought "Welcome to the next level" was catchy, kool, and the proper image for Sega to promote. Concept = A. Unfortuantely, the execution of many of these ads was pretty lame and boring (especially compared to their prior marketing successes). Execution = C. I linked to some of my favorite Turbo ads in that old thread... I think they still hold up surprisingly well today.

-------------------
... Johnny Turbo rules! Seriously, it was goofy as hell when it was released (definitely not kool), but it really is something to treasure now. I'm not kidding, it really has a LOT OF PERSONALITY and a surprising amount of DEPTH for being 3 mini-comics! Most ads / promotions can't compare to the JT campaign. There are so many wonderful things packed into the JT comics... I find the whole JT universe pretty neat.

That said, JT certainly didn't help the image of TurboDuo... (TTi would have been better off creating a "kool" mini-comic for Dungeon Explorer, or Lords of Thunder... even if said comic was generic, average Joe Gamer would have thought that it was "pretty cool").

At the end of the day, I'm happier that TTi went with JT -- becuase it really is a wonderful, unique moment in marketing / gaming history.

Oh yeah, CrackTiger -- Great scans !!!!

CrackTiger · 05/23/2006, 10:32 PM

Quote from: "stevek666"That said, JT certainly didn't help the image of TurboDuo... (TTi would have been better off creating a "kool" mini-comic for Dungeon Explorer, or Lords of Thunder... even if said comic was generic, average Joe Gamer would have thought that it was "pretty cool").

At the end of the day, I'm happier that TTi went with JT -- becuase it really is a wonderful, unique moment in marketing / gaming history.

Oh yeah, Black_Tiger -- Great scans !!!!

Thanks, I'm scanning like crazy and hope to have the hundreds of Turbo articles/ads/etc I've got online soon.

QuoteYou've probably been to Sardius' Johnny Turbo Story website, but anyways it has a lot of neat personal info on John Brandstetter. Back when he was actually updating the site, it was exciting to see the new information that was uncovered, especially when they have a episode of Computer Chronicles up which featured John Brandstetter! There has been some other neat info out there too that wasn't featured on Sardius' site, including a person on a message board who was able to email John himself and actually got a couple of responses. I did a lot of research myself at one point and manage to find some other info out there, though small stuff.

Here he is, the real Johnny Turbo in all his glory!

https://www.superpcenginegrafx.net/johnny.avi

...along with video of the Turbo Duo - Mac adapter and unreleased edutainment software.

Keranu · 05/24/2006, 12:01 AM

Yep, that's the video! It's great stuff, I must've seen it at least 200 times.

CrackTiger · 05/24/2006, 01:55 AM

Quote from: "Keranu"Yep, that's the video! It's great stuff, I must've seen it at least 200 times.

He really stands out compared to the other guests and not in a good way.

Even the geekiest of the other interviewees had some semblance of confidence and charisma. This chump just looks down into his chest and mumbles half incoherent nonsense in a nerdy 6 year-old boy's voice and has zero comebacks as the host cuts down each of the products he's supposed to be promoting.

Its awesome.

TR0N · 05/24/2006, 04:25 AM

That johnny sure has a low voice mumbles to much

Hmm that's probably one of the.. reason why he's made into a joke on the comic strip

Or TTI was realy just desperte for ideas and how to market the, Duo.

Bt Garner · 05/24/2006, 10:15 AM

Quote from: "CrackTiger"...along with video of the Turbo Duo - Mac adapter and unreleased edutainment software.

The edutainment software he talks about in the that video was
called DISCUS (I think). At one point I had soem info about
who NEC (TTi) was in collaboration with for those titles, and called
them to find out what the status was. I forget the actual wording,
but it was along the lines of:

"If we ever did have an agreement with them, it is certainly no
longer valid now."

No idea as to whatever became of the prototypes for that system.

The thing I love in that video is how all the stuff shown is being
promoted as "available now." Oh, Johnny Turbo -- you are the
master of the bitter irony!

-bt

torgo · 05/25/2006, 04:12 PM

John and I were pretty good friends back then. I used to give him a TON of crap for the Johnny Turbo stuff.

He and I pulled a pretty good one on the kids that were working the booth at the Chicago CES one year. They were all playing Gates of Thunder and trying to outdo each other's score, and they were betting on who could get the highest score. John told them that they should get me in on the bet, knowing that I'd been playing the game for a while, and could finish the entire game without dying if I was "in the zone."

I crushed everyone and made like $30 in the process.

You could use an extension cable made for Mac keyboards as an extension cable for your Controller, since PS2 adaptors weren't very prevalent on PC's yet.

Yeah, he did go to work for Sega after he left TTI. He worked on Star Wars Arcade for the 32X, and he always seemed really "pleased to be there." Tony worked with him on that project also. Wow, memoriiiiiiessssss......

Keranu · 05/25/2006, 05:25 PM

Wow... just wow! Another one of the few people that has met John and you two were even friends! That's great, is there any other info you can tell us about him? Like what his video game interests were, his Turbo collection, his fun days at the University of Nebraska??

torgo · 05/31/2006, 01:50 PM

I really only dealt with John via telephone, but it was often. The only time that I hung out with him in person was at CES every 6 months. It's been so long that I'm sure that I've forgotten most of the stories that I used to know. The trip to the Battletech center in Chicago will always be a great memory. We had a guy fom either Hudson or NEC of Japan with us, and spoke NO English. When we asked him about the Sega hybrid PC/Genesis that was released in Japan, his only response was "Pretty Sh!tty!"

The last time that I saw John was at a CES after he had moved to Sega (it was my last CES.) He got my buddy and I in to see the 32X games in progress, which wasn't being shown to the public. He and Tony didn't seem very enthused, but they were also quite busy. I still have video diary's of a bunch of those shows, but I don't have an 8mm VCR, as my camera broke down a couple of years ago.

Keranu · 05/31/2006, 05:06 PM

Awesome, that's still great info to hear!

esteban · 06/02/2006, 05:43 PM

Quote from: "torgo"I really only dealt with John via telephone, but it was often. The only time that I hung out with him in person was at CES every 6 months. It's been so long that I'm sure that I've forgotten most of the stories that I used to know. The trip to the Battletech center in Chicago will always be a great memory. We had a guy fom either Hudson or NEC of Japan with us, and spoke NO English. When we asked him about the Sega hybrid PC/Genesis that was released in Japan, his only response was "Pretty Sh!tty!"

The last time that I saw John was at a CES after he had moved to Sega (it was my last CES.) He got my buddy and I in to see the 32X games in progress, which wasn't being shown to the public. He and Tony didn't seem very enthused, but they were also quite busy. I still have video diary's of a bunch of those shows, but I don't have an 8mm VCR, as my camera broke down a couple of years ago.

Ahhh, I remember you shared these stories with us... possilby on the magicengine forums. Unfortuantely, the ME forums lost year's worth of posts, so it's nice to read them here.

Keranu · 06/02/2006, 08:38 PM

Yes I remember the Magic Engine thread as well. Unfortunately I think the thread might be deleted by now since that problem happened on the ME boards.

TurboXray · 11/11/2006, 01:13 AM

Old thread, but...

Was Johnny Turbo part of the translation team at TTI? I seen him at a translation site/forum recently. I'll not release his name here (PM me if you really need to know).

Joe Redifer · 11/11/2006, 01:32 AM

I work for FEKA and it is always our master plan to take down that wretched Johnny Turbo. His real name is Jonathan Brandstetter. And he looks like this:

Now his life is ruined and FEKA can finally proceed with selling its CD system to hapless kids!
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

Seriously, we can't be stopped!

TurboXray · 11/11/2006, 09:41 AM

Yeah? From what I heard, after you shamelessly beat him down with copies of Night Trap, you tortured him into agreeing to work for FEKA! How DARE....you!

ParanoiaDragon · 11/13/2006, 12:25 AM

Quote from: Joe Redifer on 11/11/2006, 01:32 AMI work for FEKA and it is always our master plan to take down that wretched Johnny Turbo. His real name is Jonathan Brandstetter. And he looks like this:

Now his life is ruined and FEKA can finally proceed with selling its CD system to hapless kids!
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

Seriously, we can't be stopped!

Is that seriously him? I remember that picture, & always wondered who that was. I think there's an Asian chick in the picture, but, I'm pretty sure it wasn't my old friend Eun.

BTW, John's not the only one that went to Sega. IIRC, Justin.......uh, can't remember his last name, but, he's the guy that started Hook Ups skateboards, & was one of those hot line guys, or a tester, or something, I can't remember, but, I have a friend who skates that's met him on several occasions. I wonder who else went to Sega?

Joe Redifer · 11/13/2006, 12:57 AM

We forced Johnny Turbo to join FEKA as part of our master plan as we needed all of his knowledge and experience to help us defeat the NEC Turbo Duo which was interfering with the sales of the FEKA CD system. In order to do this we had to brainwash him with huge FEKA paychecks! We had him put all of his Turbo experience into a new space game based on a blockbuster movie made in 1977 for the new FEKA 32 bit attachment that hooked onto FEKAs regular 16-bit system (and made poor kids pay even more money HAHAHAHAHA!!!). That's why this game has the arcade feel.

torgo · 11/21/2006, 03:54 PM

John went to Sega along with Tony, and they worked initially on the port of Star Wars Arcade for the 32x. I didn't get to talk to him much at the CES that they showed it behind closed-doors, but he didn't seem too enthused with the 32x or where he was. I have the demo that their sales guy gave me on Videotape (John had to run off at the time), and I just recently transferred it to my PC.

Keranu · 11/21/2006, 07:42 PM

torgo please upload!

Joe Redifer · 11/21/2006, 07:51 PM

Yeah!

torgo · 11/21/2006, 11:41 PM

I just got some software to edit and compress things down. This week's a bit crazy with Thanksgiving and all, so I hope to get it done soon. The 32x games in the demo were all brutally early, and they were running off of a dev unit that was the size of a refrigerator.

The games that I got are Star Wars Arcade, Virtua Racing, and Metalhead.

To get a jump on an impending issue, anyone have any ideas on where I can put the files? Right now, they are uncompressed 2 hour .mpg files at around 6GB each

Joe Redifer · 11/22/2006, 01:42 AM

How can MPG be uncompressed?

Anyway, I don't know what software you are using to edit, but you could post them on YouTube. Problem with that is you are limited to 10 minute chunks, and each 10 minute file must be under 100 MB before uploading.

torgo · 11/22/2006, 10:04 AM

Right, I need to cut clips out, and I want to organize the footage a bit more. We got WAYYYY too much MKII footage at that show to post these days. Back then, having that much footage was awesome since the SNES version was so good, now it's just boring to watch.

I have Adobe's video tools, but I haven't installed it yet.

Joe Redifer · 11/22/2006, 09:34 PM

Perhaps CrackTiger could give us his tips for preparing things for YouTube. I do all of my work on a Mac and compress to Sorenson 3 Pro Quicktimes before uploading, and I size them down to 320x240 at 15fps because that's what I believe YouTube runs at.

TurboXray · 11/22/2006, 10:34 PM

Nah, youtube runs at 30fps is you submit a video at 30fps. All the videos I submitted were 30p and remained 30p after there encoding process. Note: I capture my PCE video at 30fps with frame blend so you don't miss out in the absent every other frame of it's 60p signal.

torgo · 11/23/2006, 08:03 PM

I know how to do everything, I just have to:

-Install the software
-Transfer the rest of my tapes
-Find time for all of this

CrackTiger · 11/24/2006, 07:09 PM

I'd been trying to figure out how the hell to get videos to look good on YouTube, because there are some that look great, but I gave up a while ago.

I leave mine at 720 x 480, because my capture card will only do mpeg2 at that or 352 x 480 and resizing never looks right.

What I do know is that a low bitrate will turn out the same as a high one once it's filtered through YouTube.