Has anyone Broke out their Turbo Grafx lately?

[BLUEVOODU]

IT's been a long time since I've broke out my Turbo Grafx / Turbo Duo. It had to have been before Covid.  It's been a long time since I played Bloody Wolf, Raiden, Alien Crush or many other titles.  However, have you broke yours out recently?  If so, what did you play?

Here's another great Turbo Grafx / PC-Engine topic:
https://www.chickendinnergaming.com/forum/retro-gaming-and-hardware/turbo-grafx-16-pc-engine-my-number-one-console!!/

Thoughts, comments... post it up!

[retro junkie]

@BLUEVOODU this past week I was playing Air Zonk, Blazing Lazers, and Coryoon: Child of Dragon. All Shmups.

[BLUEVOODU]

@BLUEVOODU this past week I was playing Air Zonk, Blazing Lazers, and Coryoon: Child of Dragon. All Shmups.

NICE!   Air Zonk and Blazing Lazers.... GREAT games!  It's been a long time since I have played those.  How far did you make it on Blazing Lazers?  I am not aware of Coryoon: Child of Dragon.  It looks like a cute em up like @targetrasp mentioned LOL.  How is the game?

[Grindspine]

...How many units of Turbo Graphx actually exist in the U.S?

[BLUEVOODU]

...How many units of Turbo Graphx actually exist in the U.S?

That is a great question.  Upon googling... there seems to be a lot of conflicting information.   One source says 2.6 million units between the Express, Turbo Grafx 16, Turbo CD and Turbo Duo -  basically all variants.  Others state 300k Turbo Grafx 16's sold in the US but 750k were produced... if I read that right.

@retro junkie -- do you have more accurate numbers and history on this?

[retro junkie]

@BLUEVOODU
 Hudson soft and NEC did not understand the US gaming market at all, which resulted in its demise. This is why they approached the market like they did, with pride, arrogance, and boldness. (Japanese-ish style games just did not appeal to the US gamer. They refused to port over Street Fighter 2. They would not listen to the US team that was handling the TG16 marketing.) I know that they over produced the original TG16 and were only able to move about half. The figure you quoted 750k is what I remember from that time period. And the 350k sounds right. Due to pricing,I would think an even smaller amount of Turbo express and Duo were sold. The availability of the consoles were very limited to certain locations around the US which would affect sales. Advertisement was almost next to none and mostly limited to video game magazines. I actually drove to another state in order to purchase my Turbo Grafx 16 and games in those days. No one in my area had one or had a clue what one was. And the unit I got was marked down at a Toys-R-Us, pack in was Keith Courage and Bonk was added to quicken the sales. The console was on its way out very quickly. 

[retro junkie]

Really, the way that they introduced the Turbo Grafx 16 into the US market was a dumpster fire. When it came out in Japan as the PC Engine it was up against the NES and the Sega Master system. It was a great success and thrived in that market. A couple of years later, after the Sega Genesis hit the shelves in the US, and the SNES was close behind, the TG16 was pushed into the US gaming culture. Up against, what were giants in the US gaming world, something like the Turbo didn't have a chance. Timing was off, the next generation was here. The TG16 was like someone standing outside with their nose pressed against the glass looking at Sega and Nintendo battle it out for first place.