How did you find out about the Turbo Grafx 16 PC Engine.

[vexcollects]

I saw a display at Radio Shack for the TG16 I think. I loved everything about it. Even the box with the plastic handle (TG16). The first thing that grabbed me about it, was the colors and level of detail in the images being displayed, and that was just Keith Courage!

I remember when the system ultimatly died in Canada, and the Radio Shack had bins of unopened sale TG16 games and CD games. I kept right on walking, being a stupid teenager and having moved on to the SNES or Sega CD (can't remember).

[Radtastic89]

The first time I heard about the TG16 was in a Fanboysonline comic years ago. I didn't think anything of it till a few years later when PatTheNESPunk did a Christmas special on it. He did an overview of the system & about the games. Since then I have been really wanting to get one.

[Dyna138]

The TG16 commercials that aired around that time put me on to the console. I vividly remember the clips of Legendary Axe's final boss (what a spoiler) and thinking it looked so much better than my current system (NES). They were also running the 2 free games mail in promotion so that pretty much sealed the deal. I still remember going to the the toy/electronics shop, which has long since closed, with my mother to buy it. It was surprisingly easy to convince my mother to buy me one I guess she was feeling generous at the time.

I picked Bonk's Adventure and Vigilante as my free games. Man those were good times and good memories. I was the only one I knew who seemed to know about this wonderful system and couldn't understand why. It's a shame NEC couldn't compete with the Nintendo/Genesis hype train every kid was on back then.

[NintendoTwizer]

My parents owned a video store in the 80s/90s and rented out Turbografx.  It was one of the first "Next Generation" systems I saw.  I was blown away at the graphics and speed of the games.  Splatterhouse was a favorite.  Eventually SNES and Genesis replaced it on the store shelves.  I still remember about 60+ Turbografx games sitting in the back room, no longer being rented.  I'm pretty sure my dad sold all the games for next to nothing sometime in the mid-90's.  Wish I had enough forsight to keep them all.

[johnnykonami]

I saw the commercial on TV when it came out.  I remember being impressed with Keith Courage mostly.  I got it that Christmas (1990 in the US?) along with with Alien Crush.  I didn't even have a NES or anything at the time, just the OG Gameboy and before that my Commodore 64.  So it was essentially my first console.  Couple months later I got Bonk's Adventure, then R-Type, and then I believe Dragon's Curse and lost count after that.   

Sadly, A few years later, my TG-16 stopped working on me.  Back then, I was also subscribed to Turbo Force magazine - and they had just sent a promotion for the Turbo Duo. I poured over the pages for weeks.  In particular, I remember being amazed with the size of the character cinematics from Ys (Huge!) like when you talk to Feena underneath of Solomon Shrine.

So I saved up all that summer mowing lawns with my brother in law, and he and my sister went to buy it for me at Electronics Boutique while I was at school one day, which had started back.  They had mistakenly bought me a FEKA CD (a system I would later learn to appreciate for a few great titles - Snatcher, Lunar 2, etc.) but they took me back later that night to return it and get the Duo.  It's been my favorite console since.

[yoyo]

Boink is real great.           

I was amused at all of the games you spelled wrong, which is fine as I'm no English teacher but the fact you kept calling Bonk (Boink) had me ROFLing.

Haha, I couldn't contain myself either.

Got some really great stories here though, I like hearing about how people were exposed to consoles/games, always interesting tales.

[Xak]

i have a mint Ghost Rider #5? i think this is in

[Dicer]

Child world, old toy store that is long gone...they had a kiosk with Blazing Lazers playing, I instantly fell in love

[monads]

For me it had to be one of those video game magazines from that era.  My friend was lucky his parents picked one up for him at release, needless to say I was over his house whenever time permitted.

[LS650]

As Vexcollects mentions above, Radio Shack used to carry them in Canada.  When they came out originally, I was a broke college student.  Although I admired the machine's advanced graphics for the time, I couldn't afford one.

I was messing around with the Mednafen emulator a few months ago and decided to check out the PCEngine emulation.  I was impressed, and recently I bought a TG-16 in very nice shape from an Amazon seller.  I only have a half-dozen games so far but I am happy with my purchase.

[td741]

I was first aware of the TG16 in video game magazines, catalogues and store demos. I wasn't a fan of the system at first. Mostly due to the soundtrack to many of the early titles. (Okay. Blazing Lazers did have an awesome soundtrack.)

The first Turbo system I bought was purchased using an employee discount at the store I worked at the time. I purchased it to trade for an Amiga 1000.

Eventually, what got me to look at the system again was the release of the TurboDuo. I got a demo at a nearby store and used my tax refund to buy it. I initially stuck to only CD games until I warmed up to system's sound chip. ;)

My first import title was Salamander found in a local store. I think my first mail order import title was... Flash Hiders or Martial Champions. I think it was to tide me over for DraculaX? I also remember preordering Street Fighter 2, an Arcade Card with Fatal Fury 2 and Art of Fighting.

I burned through 3 duos and now I'm using a SuperGrafx with a SuperCD drive.

I think my Turbo/PCEngine gaming collection is the largest of my various systems. I would guess that my Dreamcast would fall in second place.

[imparanoic]

uk, where pc engine (turbo grafx is very rare here) is import only

I recall a shop in Birmingham old bull ring shopping centre (in uk) called microbytes during 1990, the game which dazzled me was super star soldier, I have never seen such decent fast paced visuals on a home console ( not even an imported megadrive impressed me a year before), it was arcade quality

in fact, I read about the pc engine was the console which first started the import scene for the hardcore gamer here.

[wolfman]

I´ve been collecting and playing Handhelds and Tabletops for years, and a few years back I acquired a long sought Lynx I/II combo for me and my girlfriend, and we kept playing Xenophobe until our fingers hurt 

I came across the PCE quite some time ago, but since I thought it is a console system for TV only, I never touched until recently. Digging deeper into GT/TE I found out that games were interchangeable between console and Handheld - something quite unique that is shared in a similar fashion with the Nomad. And that made me get more interested in the whole thing, especially when I heard about the LT, its interchangeability with IFU PLUS Cdrom games - that sounded really awesome, as I always had been fond of multimedia games (BARIS one of my all-time-favourites, that I STILL play on the original PC_DOS_CD!)- which started in the early 90ies.

Last year I was lucky to came across a cheap almost-dead LT fully boxed (screen dead, needed to be removed) and now I have a working setup incl. an IFU and two working CDROM2 drives. What really amazes me is the quality of the CDrom discs - they have been well taken care of over more than 20 years now, almost every one I own has a pristine surface!

What can I say...I got infected 

[Tatsujin]

Digging deeper into GT/TE I found out that games were interchangeable between console and Handheld - something quite unique that is shared in a similar fashion with the Nomad.

only that the GT was already released years before the nomad and provided a much higher quailty!

[wolfman]

Digging deeper into GT/TE I found out that games were interchangeable between console and Handheld - something quite unique that is shared in a similar fashion with the Nomad.

only that the GT was already released years before the nomad and provided a much higher quailty!

Yep!

[InfraMan]

I first saw the TG-16 on display in a Babbage's or EB, running Splatterhouse of all things... I was still rocking the NES at the time, so I was completely blown away by the graphics and the subject matter. It would be a couple of years before I ever got to play one, though.

One of our local video shops eventually started renting out the TG-16, so I took it home with a handful of games several times. One day the owner of the shop told me they were going to stop carrying the TG-16, because it wasn't performing well and he wanted to reclaim the shelf space. Since I seemed to show more interest in it than anyone else, he offered me first dibs on whatever he had.

For $70, I picked up the system with a TurboBooster Plus, TurboTap, and three controllers along with: Air Zonk, Alien Crush, Blazing Lazers, Bloody Wolf, Bomberman, Bonk's Adventure, Bonk's Revenge, Bravoman, Dead Moon, Dungeon Explorer, Jackie Chan's Action Kung Fu, Keith Courage (lol), Legendary Axe, Military Madness, Neutopia, Neutopia II, New Adventure Island, Ninja Spirit, Order of the Griffon, R-Type, Shockman, Somer Assault, Splatterhouse, and Tiger Road.

The system itself was loose, but nearly all of the games were complete in the cardboard box, since he just put them up on the shelf for display. There was a little clear plastic pocket on the bottom right corner of the boxes for the rental card thing that you had to take up to the front of the store, but other than that they were in excellent condition.

Looking back, I realize he had a bunch of other games that I wish I'd picked up as well, but I'm not about to complain about that haul. I would probably pass out and die if I came across a deal like that today. 

I still have that same system and all those games, btw... now that I've finally moved up to a PCE Duo-R, it's not really getting much use, but I just can't bring myself to part with it after all these years.

[jtucci31]

I'm pretty new to the whole PCE stuff as well and found out about them around a year ago or so. I had been collecting and playing Nintendo games at the time and when i started researching the NEC stuff i thought it looked awesome. I'm currently searching for my first PCE or T16 system. This is the sort of thing i wish i knew about way earlier, even though prices for this stuff doesn't look too bad. Not as crazy as the AES that's for sure.

[munchiaz]

I'm pretty new to the whole PCE stuff as well and found out about them around a year ago or so. I had been collecting and playing Nintendo games at the time and when i started researching the NEC stuff i thought it looked awesome. I'm currently searching for my first PCE or T16 system. This is the sort of thing i wish i knew about way earlier, even though prices for this stuff doesn't look too bad. Not as crazy as the AES that's for sure.

I got into it around 2011. You shouldn't have to hard of a time finding a pc duo or duo-r thats modded to play US hucards, once you have that console, you are basically all set, and all you need to do is get games

[wildfruit]

Sad story id never heard of it until a couple of years ago my first try was neutopia on wii virtual console. I was impressed then my wife bought me one last year and am slowly acquiring games i like the look of. Next on the agenda is a cd rom setiup

[jtucci31]

I'm pretty new to the whole PCE stuff as well and found out about them around a year ago or so. I had been collecting and playing Nintendo games at the time and when i started researching the NEC stuff i thought it looked awesome. I'm currently searching for my first PCE or T16 system. This is the sort of thing i wish i knew about way earlier, even though prices for this stuff doesn't look too bad. Not as crazy as the AES that's for sure.

I got into it around 2011. You shouldn't have to hard of a time finding a pc duo or duo-r thats modded to play US hucards, once you have that console, you are basically all set, and all you need to do is get games

Yeah that is my exact logic with it. I've been tempted to buy a PCE coregrafx just to play some HU Card games to tide me over, but i know i should just be patient. If i get a Duo R that isn't modded, is it expensive to have it modded to play TG16 games?

[mrhaboobi]

I was a late starter to TG16.. back in australia there was no such thing as a TG16, nor what there a PC Engine, hell even NES was limited .. but i was lucky in that i had a japanese friend at school who was addicted to PCE and Famicom, he'd go back to japan every year and come home with a stack of new stuff, i remember one year he went back and came home with a core grafx ( grey unit ) and about 30 games.  plus the latest Dragon Quest on SFami/Fami.  i remember first playing r-type 1 and 2 and legendary Axe.  So very cool.  It wasnt until many many years later as i grew up and had some cash that i thought it would be awesome to try and find the PC Engine stuff, it was then i learned about TG16 and Dragon Warrior ( for NES the english version of dragon quest ).    My hunger for tg16 started then, about 15 - 20 years ago now.  Im also a huge Dragon Quest/Dragon Warrior fan.    So a late introduction for me.. but im glad i stumbled across the US version of the Japanese games i loved so much.,  i played through dragon warrior with my friend who translated.   We also did huge marathon sessions on Super Mario 3 on famicom, and i remember going to watch "the Wizard" with fred savage and thinking how cool is that, i know all though secrets as we had played the famicom version to death ;)

[Miracle_Warrior]

My uncle worked for Radio Shack back in the late 80s/early 90s.  He was pretty passionate about electronics in general, so he would always talk about the TG-16 and even tried convincing our parents to buy us one as an upgrade to our Sega Master System.  The Sega Master System was our baby, so we were insistent that if we COULD get a new console, it would most definitely be the Sega Genesis.  In reality though, we really couldn't imagine jumping in to the 16-bit era so soon anyway, since the prices were so high and our parents didn't have the means to buy us all the latest tech. 

As far as we knew, the debate between the TG-16 and Sega Genesis was more of a fantasy for us than anything.  The commercials for the TG-16 were cool at the time and the graphics looked really impressive, but we didn't know a single person who had it. 

To our surprise, our mom came home one day shortly afterwards with a brand new Sega Genesis that was bundled with Altered Beast.  We were so pumped and never gave the TG-16 a second thought, we were just happy to have something new after many years with the Sega Master System and exactly 5 games (Black Belt, Rastan, Shinobi and Hang-On and Safari hunt which were built in).  That was it.  If we wanted to play anything else, we would borrow from our cousins or limited number of friends who actually owned a Sega Master System.  During this time, arcades were still insanely popular, and we would often play games like Golden Axe, Street Fighter, Galaga, etc.  Street Fighter was by far our favorite Arcade game at the time, even though in hindsight it was terrible due to the unresponsive controls. 

Anyway, I'll get back to that later, as it will become very relevant soon.  For now, enter the Sega Genesis.  We had it for a grand total of 3 days before my dad found out how much my mom spent on this thing and immediately packed it up and took it back to Radio Shack.  Think about that for a second.  3 young boys who just graduated to a Sega Genesis had it ripped out of their hands and were demoted once again before they could even break the controller in.  We were shattered....in a first world problems sort of way.  My mom was always a softie though and wound up buying us an NES the week after, thinking that would appease us.  What she didn't realize was that the NES was already a dying console.  We accepted the consolation prize nonetheless, but were still bummed about losing the Genesis.   

Eventually, our uncle, who as I write this is a lot cooler than I ever gave him credit for, somehow convinced my dad to reconsider the Sega Genesis (He had given up on the TG-16) and we were once again the proud owners of Sega Genesis, this time with Mercs and Quackshot.  Those wound up being the only 2 games our parents ever bought us, but that was pretty standard back in those days.  Nobody had massive libraries of games.  You rented and traded with friends. 

I began working my first part time job at the age of 14, and started to become a bit more financially independent.  I was making very little money, but I could at least begin purchasing things for myself.  Games for the Genesis, SNES, Master System and NES could be found very very cheap now in almost any used electronics store, pawn shop, video store, etc.  I started to take an interest in collecting video games that I never had growing up; games that I had always heard of, but could never afford. 

This was a very fun period of time for me.  The hunt was on.  Oh man, did I ever love the hunt.  Finding those gems like Ys, or Phantasy Star for the Sega Master System.  I was hooked.  At the same time, I had become quite the Street Fighter player.  I started to become very nostalgic about the original Street Fighter that we had played at the old Wizard arcade many years prior.  When reminiscing with my brother about it, he told me that one of his friends used to have a home version of the original street fighter.  Thinking I knew everything there was to know about home consoles, I told him he was mistaken.  It was never released on a home console, I was sure of it.  My brother was adamant that he had played it at his friends house on a Turbo Grafx 16.  Not just that, but it was on a CD.  At this point I basically told him he was dreaming, end of discussion. 

The seed had been planted though.  I had to find out if what my brother had said was true, because if it was, the hunt was about to get more interesting.  I had contacted this friend my brother mentioned and he confirmed that he did in fact have this set-up.  A turbo grafx 16 that had a CD player attached to it with a game called Fighting Street that was actually the original Street Fighter.  I wanted this thing, but he didn't have it anymore.

A couple of years later, I was picking through an electronics store that I had frequented for old video games, and I stumbled across this console I had never seen before.  It was a Turbo Grafx 16.  FINALLY.  I hadn't seen one in person.  It didn't have any hookups, or controller or anything, but did have a card inside the card slot that said (CD) on it.  My heart skipped a beat and I thought there might be hope that the rest of this thing is laying around somewhere, but this place was a DISASTER.  Anyone in the London, Ontario area will know the place.  I asked the guy working there if had any idea where the rest of this console was and he was as useless as he ever was.  I paid $18 for the loose console with the card in it and left.  This was a bit of a milestone for me, because up until this point, the TG-16 was so nebulous. 

I get to work that evening (this was a Saturday), and I was mentioning what had happened that day to one of my co-workers.  I was working in a restaurant kitchen, and closed every Saturday with this guy.  My co-worker was in his early 30s, and was a gamer too, so when I mentioned that I had bought a TG-16 he just casually says "Oh yeah, I still have mine.  Actually, I have a Turbo Grafx 16 with CD Add-On and carrying case.  I also have this really cool system called a Turbo Duo that is basically the Turbo Grafx 16 and CD player all in one".  I didn't believe what I was hearing.  I tried concealing the fact that I had pretty much just crapped my pants.  I asked him as calmly as I could, "would you mind selling it to me?  I really want one, and the one I purchased is basically useless to me without the connections".  He said "Sure, I never play it.  I've got a bunch of games too, come take a look after work".  That must have been the longest shift EVER.  We finished up at around 1 am, and head over to his parents' place to check out his stuff.  He pulls out all of this Turbografx hardware and it was all I could do to keep my jaw from slamming against the floor.  He shows me the turbografx 16 with CD add on in the hard carrying case.  He starts pulling out games.  Legendary Axe 1 and 2, Valis II and III, and Galaga.  Everything was in pristine condition, all of the games still had their boxes.  Then, the grand finale, he shows me the Turbo Duo.  The box alone was impressive, it just looked so...advanced.  He opens it up and shows me the duo along with the games that were packed in with it.  I just could believe my eyes.  When I asked him how much, he said "I don't know, how about $200 for everything?".  I'll be honest with you guys, I didn't even know what this stuff was worth, but I didn't care.  I didn't know the going rate of a Turbo Duo.  Heck, before that night I didn't even know what the Turbo Duo was.  I agreed.  I didn't have the money on me, so he let me take the stuff home with me and pay him the next day.  I was ecstatic. 

I immediately hooked up the Duo when I got home and started playing Ys Book 1 and 2.  I couldn't put it down.  I wound up finishing that game first before moving on to anything else.  The next weekend I am walking through that same Electronics Store from a week earlier, and in my search, what do I find?  2 Turbo Grafx CD games.  Prince of Persia and.....FIGHTING STREET!  I couldn't believe it.  Oddly enough, that same day, I had also picked up Dracula X for the SNES for 7 bucks, which is hilarious since that set me down a trail to acquire the infamous Dracula X for the Duo. 

Anyway, it's getting late, and most people won't actually read this wall of text.  Not even sure if this will be coherent, but it's been fun just writing all of this down. 

The days where stuff like this happen are long gone.  Ebay has pretty much destroyed this past-time for me and most of you as well.  I have countless stories like this one.  Stories where putting in the effort to hit the pavement and hunt locally turned up some serious gaming treasures. 

[mrhaboobi]

Cool read .  It's a pitty the days of finding child hood treasures for cheap are all but gone...

[roflmao]

Yeah, great read, Miracle_Warrior! Sometimes once you get on that good-times roll, it just keeps rolling!

[HailingTheThings]

Played this:

Was looking up this:

Which lead me to this:
(Isn't he darling?)

Thanks to Turbo Views I found out where the eff Bonk came from and I was hooked.

[pceslayer]

One of my best friends growing up had a TurboGrafx-16 and I would spend most of my weekends at his place playing Bomberman and Battle Royale. His dad purchased a TurboDuo Xmas of 93 with like 10 games (one of which was Magical Chase). I have very fond memories playing Exile, YS and Godzilla in his basement over the next few months.

I bought the entire collection from his dad two years ago. Well almost the entire collection, my friend had sold Magical Chase on Ebay a year earlier to pay rent... 

[esteban]

My uncle worked for Radio Shack back in the late 80s/early 90s.  He was pretty passionate about electronics in general, so he would always talk about the TG-16 and even tried convincing our parents to buy us one as an upgrade to our Sega Master System.  The Sega Master System was our baby, so we were insistent that if we COULD get a new console, it would most definitely be the Sega Genesis.  In reality though, we really couldn't imagine jumping in to the 16-bit era so soon anyway, since the prices were so high and our parents didn't have the means to buy us all the latest tech. 

As far as we knew, the debate between the TG-16 and Sega Genesis was more of a fantasy for us than anything.  The commercials for the TG-16 were cool at the time and the graphics looked really impressive, but we didn't know a single person who had it. 

To our surprise, our mom came home one day shortly afterwards with a brand new Sega Genesis that was bundled with Altered Beast.  We were so pumped and never gave the TG-16 a second thought, we were just happy to have something new after many years with the Sega Master System and exactly 5 games (Black Belt, Rastan, Shinobi and Hang-On and Safari hunt which were built in).  That was it.  If we wanted to play anything else, we would borrow from our cousins or limited number of friends who actually owned a Sega Master System.  During this time, arcades were still insanely popular, and we would often play games like Golden Axe, Street Fighter, Galaga, etc.  Street Fighter was by far our favorite Arcade game at the time, even though in hindsight it was terrible due to the unresponsive controls. 

Anyway, I'll get back to that later, as it will become very relevant soon.  For now, enter the Sega Genesis.  We had it for a grand total of 3 days before my dad found out how much my mom spent on this thing and immediately packed it up and took it back to Radio Shack.  Think about that for a second.  3 young boys who just graduated to a Sega Genesis had it ripped out of their hands and were demoted once again before they could even break the controller in.  We were shattered....in a first world problems sort of way.  My mom was always a softie though and wound up buying us an NES the week after, thinking that would appease us.  What she didn't realize was that the NES was already a dying console.  We accepted the consolation prize nonetheless, but were still bummed about losing the Genesis.   

Eventually, our uncle, who as I write this is a lot cooler than I ever gave him credit for, somehow convinced my dad to reconsider the Sega Genesis (He had given up on the TG-16) and we were once again the proud owners of Sega Genesis, this time with Mercs and Quackshot.  Those wound up being the only 2 games our parents ever bought us, but that was pretty standard back in those days.  Nobody had massive libraries of games.  You rented and traded with friends. 

I began working my first part time job at the age of 14, and started to become a bit more financially independent.  I was making very little money, but I could at least begin purchasing things for myself.  Games for the Genesis, SNES, Master System and NES could be found very very cheap now in almost any used electronics store, pawn shop, video store, etc.  I started to take an interest in collecting video games that I never had growing up; games that I had always heard of, but could never afford. 

This was a very fun period of time for me.  The hunt was on.  Oh man, did I ever love the hunt.  Finding those gems like Ys, or Phantasy Star for the Sega Master System.  I was hooked.  At the same time, I had become quite the Street Fighter player.  I started to become very nostalgic about the original Street Fighter that we had played at the old Wizard arcade many years prior.  When reminiscing with my brother about it, he told me that one of his friends used to have a home version of the original street fighter.  Thinking I knew everything there was to know about home consoles, I told him he was mistaken.  It was never released on a home console, I was sure of it.  My brother was adamant that he had played it at his friends house on a Turbo Grafx 16.  Not just that, but it was on a CD.  At this point I basically told him he was dreaming, end of discussion. 

The seed had been planted though.  I had to find out if what my brother had said was true, because if it was, the hunt was about to get more interesting.  I had contacted this friend my brother mentioned and he confirmed that he did in fact have this set-up.  A turbo grafx 16 that had a CD player attached to it with a game called Fighting Street that was actually the original Street Fighter.  I wanted this thing, but he didn't have it anymore.

A couple of years later, I was picking through an electronics store that I had frequented for old video games, and I stumbled across this console I had never seen before.  It was a Turbo Grafx 16.  FINALLY.  I hadn't seen one in person.  It didn't have any hookups, or controller or anything, but did have a card inside the card slot that said (CD) on it.  My heart skipped a beat and I thought there might be hope that the rest of this thing is laying around somewhere, but this place was a DISASTER.  Anyone in the London, Ontario area will know the place.  I asked the guy working there if had any idea where the rest of this console was and he was as useless as he ever was.  I paid $18 for the loose console with the card in it and left.  This was a bit of a milestone for me, because up until this point, the TG-16 was so nebulous. 

I get to work that evening (this was a Saturday), and I was mentioning what had happened that day to one of my co-workers.  I was working in a restaurant kitchen, and closed every Saturday with this guy.  My co-worker was in his early 30s, and was a gamer too, so when I mentioned that I had bought a TG-16 he just casually says "Oh yeah, I still have mine.  Actually, I have a Turbo Grafx 16 with CD Add-On and carrying case.  I also have this really cool system called a Turbo Duo that is basically the Turbo Grafx 16 and CD player all in one".  I didn't believe what I was hearing.  I tried concealing the fact that I had pretty much just crapped my pants.  I asked him as calmly as I could, "would you mind selling it to me?  I really want one, and the one I purchased is basically useless to me without the connections".  He said "Sure, I never play it.  I've got a bunch of games too, come take a look after work".  That must have been the longest shift EVER.  We finished up at around 1 am, and head over to his parents' place to check out his stuff.  He pulls out all of this Turbografx hardware and it was all I could do to keep my jaw from slamming against the floor.  He shows me the turbografx 16 with CD add on in the hard carrying case.  He starts pulling out games.  Legendary Axe 1 and 2, Valis II and III, and Galaga.  Everything was in pristine condition, all of the games still had their boxes.  Then, the grand finale, he shows me the Turbo Duo.  The box alone was impressive, it just looked so...advanced.  He opens it up and shows me the duo along with the games that were packed in with it.  I just could believe my eyes.  When I asked him how much, he said "I don't know, how about $200 for everything?".  I'll be honest with you guys, I didn't even know what this stuff was worth, but I didn't care.  I didn't know the going rate of a Turbo Duo.  Heck, before that night I didn't even know what the Turbo Duo was.  I agreed.  I didn't have the money on me, so he let me take the stuff home with me and pay him the next day.  I was ecstatic. 

I immediately hooked up the Duo when I got home and started playing Ys Book 1 and 2.  I couldn't put it down.  I wound up finishing that game first before moving on to anything else.  The next weekend I am walking through that same Electronics Store from a week earlier, and in my search, what do I find?  2 Turbo Grafx CD games.  Prince of Persia and.....FIGHTING STREET!  I couldn't believe it.  Oddly enough, that same day, I had also picked up Dracula X for the SNES for 7 bucks, which is hilarious since that set me down a trail to acquire the infamous Dracula X for the Duo. 

Anyway, it's getting late, and most people won't actually read this wall of text.  Not even sure if this will be coherent, but it's been fun just writing all of this down. 

The days where stuff like this happen are long gone.  Ebay has pretty much destroyed this past-time for me and most of you as well.  I have countless stories like this one.  Stories where putting in the effort to hit the pavement and hunt locally turned up some serious gaming treasures. 

I read this. 

[Tatsujin]

me too. book worthy

[Miracle_Warrior]

me too. book worthy

Nice   Glad you guys enjoyed it.

[munchiaz]

My uncle worked for Radio Shack back in the late 80s/early 90s.  He was pretty passionate about electronics in general, so he would always talk about the TG-16 and even tried convincing our parents to buy us one as an upgrade to our Sega Master System.  The Sega Master System was our baby, so we were insistent that if we COULD get a new console, it would most definitely be the Sega Genesis.  In reality though, we really couldn't imagine jumping in to the 16-bit era so soon anyway, since the prices were so high and our parents didn't have the means to buy us all the latest tech. 

As far as we knew, the debate between the TG-16 and Sega Genesis was more of a fantasy for us than anything.  The commercials for the TG-16 were cool at the time and the graphics looked really impressive, but we didn't know a single person who had it. 

To our surprise, our mom came home one day shortly afterwards with a brand new Sega Genesis that was bundled with Altered Beast.  We were so pumped and never gave the TG-16 a second thought, we were just happy to have something new after many years with the Sega Master System and exactly 5 games (Black Belt, Rastan, Shinobi and Hang-On and Safari hunt which were built in).  That was it.  If we wanted to play anything else, we would borrow from our cousins or limited number of friends who actually owned a Sega Master System.  During this time, arcades were still insanely popular, and we would often play games like Golden Axe, Street Fighter, Galaga, etc.  Street Fighter was by far our favorite Arcade game at the time, even though in hindsight it was terrible due to the unresponsive controls. 

Anyway, I'll get back to that later, as it will become very relevant soon.  For now, enter the Sega Genesis.  We had it for a grand total of 3 days before my dad found out how much my mom spent on this thing and immediately packed it up and took it back to Radio Shack.  Think about that for a second.  3 young boys who just graduated to a Sega Genesis had it ripped out of their hands and were demoted once again before they could even break the controller in.  We were shattered....in a first world problems sort of way.  My mom was always a softie though and wound up buying us an NES the week after, thinking that would appease us.  What she didn't realize was that the NES was already a dying console.  We accepted the consolation prize nonetheless, but were still bummed about losing the Genesis.   

Eventually, our uncle, who as I write this is a lot cooler than I ever gave him credit for, somehow convinced my dad to reconsider the Sega Genesis (He had given up on the TG-16) and we were once again the proud owners of Sega Genesis, this time with Mercs and Quackshot.  Those wound up being the only 2 games our parents ever bought us, but that was pretty standard back in those days.  Nobody had massive libraries of games.  You rented and traded with friends. 

I began working my first part time job at the age of 14, and started to become a bit more financially independent.  I was making very little money, but I could at least begin purchasing things for myself.  Games for the Genesis, SNES, Master System and NES could be found very very cheap now in almost any used electronics store, pawn shop, video store, etc.  I started to take an interest in collecting video games that I never had growing up; games that I had always heard of, but could never afford. 

This was a very fun period of time for me.  The hunt was on.  Oh man, did I ever love the hunt.  Finding those gems like Ys, or Phantasy Star for the Sega Master System.  I was hooked.  At the same time, I had become quite the Street Fighter player.  I started to become very nostalgic about the original Street Fighter that we had played at the old Wizard arcade many years prior.  When reminiscing with my brother about it, he told me that one of his friends used to have a home version of the original street fighter.  Thinking I knew everything there was to know about home consoles, I told him he was mistaken.  It was never released on a home console, I was sure of it.  My brother was adamant that he had played it at his friends house on a Turbo Grafx 16.  Not just that, but it was on a CD.  At this point I basically told him he was dreaming, end of discussion. 

The seed had been planted though.  I had to find out if what my brother had said was true, because if it was, the hunt was about to get more interesting.  I had contacted this friend my brother mentioned and he confirmed that he did in fact have this set-up.  A turbo grafx 16 that had a CD player attached to it with a game called Fighting Street that was actually the original Street Fighter.  I wanted this thing, but he didn't have it anymore.

A couple of years later, I was picking through an electronics store that I had frequented for old video games, and I stumbled across this console I had never seen before.  It was a Turbo Grafx 16.  FINALLY.  I hadn't seen one in person.  It didn't have any hookups, or controller or anything, but did have a card inside the card slot that said (CD) on it.  My heart skipped a beat and I thought there might be hope that the rest of this thing is laying around somewhere, but this place was a DISASTER.  Anyone in the London, Ontario area will know the place.  I asked the guy working there if had any idea where the rest of this console was and he was as useless as he ever was.  I paid $18 for the loose console with the card in it and left.  This was a bit of a milestone for me, because up until this point, the TG-16 was so nebulous. 

I get to work that evening (this was a Saturday), and I was mentioning what had happened that day to one of my co-workers.  I was working in a restaurant kitchen, and closed every Saturday with this guy.  My co-worker was in his early 30s, and was a gamer too, so when I mentioned that I had bought a TG-16 he just casually says "Oh yeah, I still have mine.  Actually, I have a Turbo Grafx 16 with CD Add-On and carrying case.  I also have this really cool system called a Turbo Duo that is basically the Turbo Grafx 16 and CD player all in one".  I didn't believe what I was hearing.  I tried concealing the fact that I had pretty much just crapped my pants.  I asked him as calmly as I could, "would you mind selling it to me?  I really want one, and the one I purchased is basically useless to me without the connections".  He said "Sure, I never play it.  I've got a bunch of games too, come take a look after work".  That must have been the longest shift EVER.  We finished up at around 1 am, and head over to his parents' place to check out his stuff.  He pulls out all of this Turbografx hardware and it was all I could do to keep my jaw from slamming against the floor.  He shows me the turbografx 16 with CD add on in the hard carrying case.  He starts pulling out games.  Legendary Axe 1 and 2, Valis II and III, and Galaga.  Everything was in pristine condition, all of the games still had their boxes.  Then, the grand finale, he shows me the Turbo Duo.  The box alone was impressive, it just looked so...advanced.  He opens it up and shows me the duo along with the games that were packed in with it.  I just could believe my eyes.  When I asked him how much, he said "I don't know, how about $200 for everything?".  I'll be honest with you guys, I didn't even know what this stuff was worth, but I didn't care.  I didn't know the going rate of a Turbo Duo.  Heck, before that night I didn't even know what the Turbo Duo was.  I agreed.  I didn't have the money on me, so he let me take the stuff home with me and pay him the next day.  I was ecstatic. 

I immediately hooked up the Duo when I got home and started playing Ys Book 1 and 2.  I couldn't put it down.  I wound up finishing that game first before moving on to anything else.  The next weekend I am walking through that same Electronics Store from a week earlier, and in my search, what do I find?  2 Turbo Grafx CD games.  Prince of Persia and.....FIGHTING STREET!  I couldn't believe it.  Oddly enough, that same day, I had also picked up Dracula X for the SNES for 7 bucks, which is hilarious since that set me down a trail to acquire the infamous Dracula X for the Duo. 

Anyway, it's getting late, and most people won't actually read this wall of text.  Not even sure if this will be coherent, but it's been fun just writing all of this down. 

The days where stuff like this happen are long gone.  Ebay has pretty much destroyed this past-time for me and most of you as well.  I have countless stories like this one.  Stories where putting in the effort to hit the pavement and hunt locally turned up some serious gaming treasures.   

Amazing story man.

[ToyMachine78]

Bonk is my great great great great great great ...... great grandfather. So it was a legacy in my family. No joke.  Tru story.

[HailingTheThings]

Bonk is my great great great great great great ...... great grandfather. So it was a legacy in my family. No joke.  Tru story.

I believe it.

[SNKNostalgia]

This commercial first back 1990 watching cartoons on TV.

Later on by reading Gamepro magazines and I was on some mailing list with brochures, posters, etc...

Here's my odd experience with the TG-16 and other things I mention:

I ended up getting my TG-16 on X-mas 1991 without asking for it. I really wanted a SNES mostly or even a Genesis that year. The main reason it being a problem for me at the time was due to that I lived on a Navy base in Puerto Rico and my mom got it at Toys R Us in California while visiting my grandmother. Nobody sold TG-16 games anywhere near my location, nor did anyone that I knew owned it on or off the base. I was stuck with Keith's Courage and Final Lap Twin. I also felt robbed X-mas 1989 for getting a Lynx instead of the Genesis, lol. My parents and grandmother could never get it right. I had the same problem, two games and could not buy more games for it. I guess we could have ordered games, but I was a kid and didn't know much about doing that. My parents and I would just keep going to the Navy Exchange and KB Toys off the base to buy regular NES games till '93  .

Back to the TG-16. I enjoyed it at first, but then it got old with just two games for a year. Finally an EB games opened in a town summer of '92 just outside the base and I got Cadash. That game almost saved my deprived 16-bit ownership experience. It wasn't until 2000 and then 2006 when I actually started to get back into really enjoy the system. Well, I got a Duo US new from TZD in 2000 with Ys 1+2, Final Zone 2 and a 3-in-1 disc I picked up a few years before in a CD bin at a bargain store. That really helped. Then in 2006 I finally bought a few CD games and 30 HuCards US and JP. Ever since, I would buy a few games here and there that I really want, and I still do.

I really didn't experience the 16-bit age properly till I got a SNES in Spring '94... yeah f$%# 1994. I didn't get a Genesis and Sega CD until 1996 on the cheap, which was a year after I got my PS1 lol. Then a Neo Geo CD Toploader in '97. I went in hard when I got my first job in '97.

[420GOAT]

game pro and commercials. i remember the sweet graphics on tv, and knew i had to have one, it counted as my Christmas and Birthday gift, my parents would always do some deals like that if i wanted something pricey.

[HailingTheThings]

This commercial first back 1990 watching cartoons on TV.

Later on by reading Gamepro magazines and I was on some mailing list with brochures, posters, etc...

Here's my odd experience with the TG-16 and other things I mention:

I ended up getting my TG-16 on X-mas 1991 without asking for it. I really wanted a SNES mostly or even a Genesis that year. The main reason it being a problem for me at the time was due to that I lived on a Navy base in Puerto Rico and my mom got it at Toys R Us in California while visiting my grandmother. Nobody sold TG-16 games anywhere near my location, nor did anyone that I knew owned it on or off the base. I was stuck with Keith's Courage and Final Lap Twin. I also felt robbed X-mas 1989 for getting a Lynx instead of the Genesis, lol. My parents and grandmother could never get it right. I had the same problem, two games and could not buy more games for it. I guess we could have ordered games, but I was a kid and didn't know much about doing that. My parents and I would just keep going to the Navy Exchange and KB Toys off the base to buy regular NES games till '93  .

Back to the TG-16. I enjoyed it at first, but then it got old with just two games for a year. Finally an EB games opened in a town summer of '92 just outside the base and I got Cadash. That game almost saved my deprived 16-bit ownership experience. It wasn't until 2000 and then 2006 when I actually started to get back into really enjoy the system. Well, I got a Duo US new from TZD in 2000 with Ys 1+2, Final Zone 2 and a 3-in-1 disc I picked up a few years before in a CD bin at a bargain store. That really helped. Then in 2006 I finally bought a few CD games and 30 HuCards US and JP. Ever since, I would buy a few games here and there that I really want, and I still do.

I really didn't experience the 16-bit age properly till I got a SNES in Spring '94... yeah f$%# 1994. I didn't get a Genesis and Sega CD until 1996 on the cheap, which was a year after I got my PS1 lol. Then a Neo Geo CD Toploader in '97. I went in hard when I got my first job in '97.

Nice story, Mr. Nostalgia. Also, I like Moriya too, he's cute. There's a character in the newest BlazBlue that reminds me of him, he also has a Moriya palette. lol

[PukeSter]

Bomberman Collection disc on my PC when I was younger. Later got a Wii and found out about the Virtual Console.

[InfraMan]

I lived in Durham NC during the 16bit era

So Mark at Buy-rite was your dealer? So much wrong there, but so many good stories too!

Holy crap, I just saw this...

I used to buy stuff from Mark at Buy-Rite all the time back in the 90s! He had a place at that weird flea-mall on Capital Blvd, and then later moved into his own brick & mortar shop about a mile down the road. I used to go there about twice a month to check out all the new Saturn & PS imports... those were great times! I remember buying the last copy of the US version of Panzer Dragoon Saga there like it was yesterday... I paid $39.99 for it, and I still have that same copy today.

Mark always gave me a weird creepy molester vibe, but I have to admit I did get some great deals from the guy. If you weren't savvy, though, he'd stiff you in a heartbeat.

Didn't they eventually get shut down by the BBB or something? 

[HailingTheThings]

I lived in Durham NC during the 16bit era

So Mark at Buy-rite was your dealer? So much wrong there, but so many good stories too!

Holy crap, I just saw this...

I used to buy stuff from Mark at Buy-Rite all the time back in the 90s! He had a place at that weird flea-mall on Capital Blvd, and then later moved into his own brick & mortar shop about a mile down the road. I used to go there about twice a month to check out all the new Saturn & PS imports... those were great times! I remember buying the last copy of the US version of Panzer Dragoon Saga there like it was yesterday... I paid $39.99 for it, and I still have that same copy today.

Mark always gave me a weird creepy molester vibe, but I have to admit I did get some great deals from the guy. If you weren't savvy, though, he'd stiff you in a heartbeat.

Didn't they eventually get shut down by the BBB or something? 

This reminded me of a guy who had a shop out of his house that I used to buy Sega games from when I was younger. Tall blonde fellow with a curious smile, always wearing a Detroit Red Wings hat. Just got this icky vibe from him, like maybe he locked people up in his basement err something.

*gets chills*

Still remember to this day the last time I went there. I, very stupidly jumped in the pool connected to the office of the town house community I lived in while wearing my clothes. Forgot about my wallet. lol Anyway, later on that day I went to that shop and bought Star Wars 32x. When I handed that guy the money he just looks at me and says "Hey, this money's kinda soggy, hope you weren't doing anything you're not supposed to do!" He gave me creeper eyes and chuckled.

*stares blankly at the wall*

Moving on... How's everyone?

[MrWunderful]

Turbo Zone (Retail Island Mall Store) at Serramonte Shopping Center, Daly City, CA.

Circa 1990-1991.

Thats funny. I grew up in san bruno.

I always wanted a tg16, but just never had enough money. Fast forward a lot of years, I got really into NES collecting, then retro in general. That brought me here.

[gamerslife]

easy KBtoys in the early 90's then when i was older happened along a system with a few games and it exploded

[synbiosfan]

When the system was released I was in arcade mode and didn't play home systems much. It wasn't until the arcades started closing and I needed my fix that I discovered the TG-16 mainly for Splatterhouse.

[warpig227]

i always knew about the tg16 growing up, but never seen one or the games for it, it just wasn't readily available in my area. i saw a review on splatter house 2-3 years ago and thought i gotta have that system. i finally have one now and i wish i had it growing up

[Damon Plus]

I first heard, or for a better word, read in a magazine in the 90's. I've always tought the system had a full-scale release and not a "ghost" one like it had. Wasn't really interested in it back then (shame on me) but after purchasing one pretty cheap 4 years ago it is now one of my favorite retro systems.

[cr8zykuban0]

I found out a few years back when my friend told me stories about him owning the console. I've been wanting one since. I've been able to pick one up from syphic and been loving it since. Only been collecting for a year but loving it and got some good games in the collection

[Ssturtle]

I found out about it because Toysrus had it on display behind the row of glass display cases that housed all the consoles and expensive items.  I remember always wanting one but as a kid it took me a few years to even get a SNES.  I always anted one, even as they kept lowering the price I never was able to get one.  I also remember seeing game previews from time to time in the various video game magazines.  Just remembered that back when you wanted a game at TRU or a certain item you had to grab a ticket and take it up to the counter then pick it up at another counter / conveyor.  Wow that was a long time ago........

[Prosolis]

The TV commercials showing off Bonk's Adventure absolutely drove me nuts as a child. It wasn't until much later when I imported a Duo-R and played it and Gates of Thunder from a 4-in-1 CD. Wonderful games by any standard.

[retroguy]

I was aware it existed since I was a kid (I have vague memories of seeing Keith Courage on a tv at walmart and my best friend's older brother had one), but what got me interested in actually owning one was Turbo Views. I haven't been able to collect as much as I'd like due to not being able to spare the cash, but I hope to be able to get back into it sometime soon.

[NightWolve]

My uncle worked for Radio Shack back in the late 80s/early 90s.  He was pretty passionate about electronics in general, so he would always talk about the TG-16 and even tried convincing our parents to buy us one as an upgrade to our Sega Master System.  The Sega Master System was our baby, so we were insistent that if we COULD get a new console, it would most definitely be the Sega Genesis.  In reality though, we really couldn't imagine jumping in to the 16-bit era so soon anyway, since the prices were so high and our parents didn't have the means to buy us all the latest tech. 

...
...
...

Anyway, it's getting late, and most people won't actually read this wall of text.  Not even sure if this will be coherent, but it's been fun just writing all of this down. 

I read this. 

I read it cause you read it. ;) Heck of a story. SNK's too.

[tknjin]

I am kind late on the PC engine/TurboGrafx bus.  I discovered the system sometime around early 2000s from some gaming websites that would talk about some of the arcade ports(such as splatterhouse).  I was really doing more research during 2006 by a fellow youtuber who goes by the name of DigiHatesMakingNames.  Fell in love with some of the tunes that came from his video of Youkai Douchuuki/Shadow Land.  Finally, bought the system in like 2009, and has become one of my favorite systems to collect for =)

[Ninja16608]

Mine is a tale of treachery and deceit. I had a friend back in the late 80's who I used to trade games back and forth with, Nes, SMS, etc... he got a TG16 and lived next door to me and invited me over to play some games one day. Like normal I would go and play and he would come to my house to play as well. There was a store called video wave that opened up in my town and he told me I could get a TG16 with the CD, I was blown away, "a CD game" I said, I have never heard of such a thing. So I went to video wave that day and talked to the owner, he told me they take trades, I was like that's great. I went home and gathered all that I could think of that would make a good trade, Nes deck and games, SMS deck with games. The scumbag store owner and I came to an agreement and I gave nearly 90% of my stock for this one system. I got it home only to find that I couldn't play the cd based games because there was no system card, at this time the system was brand new so the cd system card was a costly piece. I went back to the store and confronted the owner telling him he made a bogus deal and the system was not complete (the power brick was broken with a corner of the plastic hacked out too) but the system worked. He said he would get the card for me and finish the deal. A few weeks went by and he kept telling me it's coming, it's coming. Two months go by and still no system card, now mind you there was no syscard 2 or 3 yet this is just the base syscard 1. I got tired of waiting and went to his store asking where my card was. Now I knew he kept his stock in the bathroom of the place and after telling me no system card yet, so I tell him I need to use his bathroom, and start to scope out the room to see if he has a system card. No system card but I see Andre Panza kick boxing (ehhhh) so I stick it in my pocket :-) and head home. A few days later the cops are at my door asking me if I knew anything about it, I said yup I took it and until this douche keg gets me my system card he is not getting it back, the cop asks him if its true that he owes me a system card, he says yes, the cop looks at him and tells him I was not returning the game until he gave me my system card. All in all I know what I did was wrong but I was a kid at the time but the cop seemed to side with me so to hell with it. After about 3 more weeks I finally get my system card and return his shitty game and my cd revolution begins.