First time the Turbo / PCE made your jaw drop?

BEERS AND VIDEOS · 03/27/2011, 03:20 PM

I'd have to say it was a demo of the Turbo CD on some public broadcasting channel. They had reps from Sega and NEC there to show off their respective systems. The fact that there was real voice and music was incredible in game. That, along with the Ys review in EGM made me have to get a Turbo CD.

Just curious, when did the Turbo or PC Engine stun you with it's brilliance?

esteban · 03/27/2011, 03:57 PM

First time, ever: commercial on television in autumn, 1989, with footage from Blazing Lazers (bubble stage?) and Legendary Axe (Jagu!).

My brothers played the commercial in slow motion, and all the games looked great, but the two aforementioned ones were the ones the piqued my interest the most.

SignOfZeta · 03/27/2011, 04:07 PM

I had seen a few HuCards in action and wasn't all that impressed. It was nice, but of course it was nice, it was new.

The CD games looked awesome in magazines and stuff so I bought a Duo, which at the time came free with Gate of Thunder and Ys 1&2. Then I was damned well impressed.

Sometimes I almost wish they had packed in shittier games. GoT is still tied with Dracula X for best game on the system, IMO.

VestCunt · 03/27/2011, 06:25 PM

Impressed: Dec. '91 seeing pictures of Parasol Stars, Valis2, Sherlock Holmes, etc. in the EGM 1992 Buyers Guide.
Unimpressed: Sept. '92 - actually bought TG16 system.
Really Impressed: '92-93 - played Air Zonk in Toys R Us.
Blown Away: '97 - bought used Duo with LoT and Ys 1-2. I already had a N64 but my jaw dropped when I played these, my first CD games.

ccovell · 03/27/2011, 06:25 PM

Yeah, basically Jagu. Chinawarrior's size, too, but the game felt far too stiff.

turbogrfxfan · 03/27/2011, 06:33 PM

Yeah, jagu from legendary
Axe, from the tv add back in 1989. Also seeing ys on a vhs promo. I was sold

Dusk85Z28 · 03/27/2011, 06:39 PM

Today: When i was told my turbo duo is way more broken than i thought, that made my jaw drop

nat · 03/27/2011, 07:09 PM

For me it was 1989 or 1990-- I saw the promo video playing at a Software Etc store with the Jagu, like so many other folks here. I asked for one for Christmas... and got one.

Tatsujin · 03/27/2011, 08:16 PM

First time seen in a German game mag (Power Play) back in 1988. R-Type, Galaga '88, Kato-chan & Ken-chan etc. I couldn't believe my own two eyes, what I have seen on the papers.

R-Type in pure arcade quality was just too much to imagine in my gamer mind at that time. It blew me out of the socks.

Arkhan Asylum · 03/27/2011, 08:34 PM

Neutopia's title screen.

DesmondThe3rd · 03/27/2011, 09:34 PM

Like Esteban it was seeing Blazing Lazers in action for the first time ever in 1989. I nearly threw out my NES after that.

lord_cack · 03/27/2011, 09:40 PM

I was impressed by the Legendary Axe ad as most seem to have been but, first WOW, Blown away moment....

"Ys the ideal utopia...."

I was hooked from those words on

ddd1234 · 03/27/2011, 10:04 PM

When i saw Sapphire......Polygon midboss boss in stage 2! That was...damn!

Jesse813 · 03/27/2011, 10:09 PM

I was blown away by Gate of Thunder & Air Zonk. damn awesome games

Tatsujin · 03/27/2011, 11:33 PM

yeah, GoT also quite freaked me out the first time. LOL, it still does!!

spenoza · 03/28/2011, 12:46 AM

When playing Aeroblasters and the background behind the level 2 boss started doing a dizzying figure 8.

Arkhan Asylum · 03/28/2011, 12:50 AM

I dunno, seeing Jazeta on a cliff, yanking his sword out in sync with the music, on top of the music being fuckin awesome, made me go OMG.

I was like 3, so I probably also peed myself.

DragonmasterDan · 03/28/2011, 12:54 AM

I was actually impressed by "Keith Courage in Alpha Zones" when I first saw the Rainbow grab Keith and then the mech intro, then the fast paced Mech fighting scenes I was amazed this was coming from a home console.

Arkhan Asylum · 03/28/2011, 01:40 AM

the first time I played Keith Courage, that title music already made me go oh shit, this is going to rule.

Then I plopped in and was like UH oh

then I was like hey, this musics kind of neat.

then I was like oh man this is funny, and then I went into the underworld and went OMFG and the rest is HISTORY.

RR1980 · 03/28/2011, 03:00 AM

for me it was Jackie Chan because I had the Famicom version first and when I saw the PCE version it was clear to me that the PCE version was heads and shoulders above the famicom one!

Gogan · 03/28/2011, 08:58 AM

Yea, Ark, I had a similar experience with KC. Thought title screen ruled, then... The game started. I seriously thought I made a mistake getting TG over snes. But then the rainbow came and pure awesomeness ensued. After that I played blazing lazers which I had also purchased. Yea, that was it for me.

I also distinctly remember looking at the back of the super star soldier box at babbage's thinking omg. The colors were SO saturated, it looked so great to me, and still does.

Mishran · 03/28/2011, 10:59 AM

When I saw and played Keith Courage at a Silo electronics store when the Turbo first came out. The second time was Legendary Axe 2. I thought the character graphics and background looked amazing back when I first got it.

Arkhan Asylum · 03/28/2011, 07:17 PM

I remember the first time I played blazing lazers i had to stop and pinch myself to make sure I wasnt dreaming.

spenoza · 03/28/2011, 07:28 PM

What? No corroboration on the Aeroblasters thing? Geez, you guys are either easily impressed or I am.

majors · 03/28/2011, 07:41 PM

Quote from: lord_cack on 03/27/2011, 09:40 PMfirst WOW, Blown away moment....

"Ys the ideal utopia...."

Ditto...$300 for the CD, I felt I cheated NEC!

CrackTiger · 03/28/2011, 07:55 PM

I'm not sure about the first time, but some memorable moments include:

First time playing in the Alpha Zones in Keith Courage. Even as a Genesis player, the sights and sounds were so impressive.

Neutopia title screen.

First major boss of Kabukiden. The graphics, sound, animation and size of the bastard. I felt the need to show what I was experiencing to someone, even if they didn't appreciate games. But no one else was home at the time.

First major boss of Neo Metal Fantasy. All the major bosses are just like Dark Falz in the original Phantasy Star. Same crazy design, killer art, screen filling size and black background.

Opening of Ys II, with To Make the End of Battle. Ys for SMS was a huge deal to me. To see part of the ending text transformed to being literal and actually carrying Adol up to the still existing land of Ys was very emotional for me.

As much as I loved Ys SMS, Ys I & II became my favorite game until I would one day beat Kabukiden. The opening to Ys IV is the single greatest piece of fan service I have ever experienced.

Golden Axe. Pretty much everything leading into the game and then the music. It was what convinced me to do what ever it took to get a Turbo-CD asap.

Although I'd studied pictures of the bosses of Super Darius in the manual for some time while waiting for my Turbo-CD to arrive, actually witnessing them in real-time was still jaw dropping.

Everything about Super Darius II stunned me when I finally got the full game in recent years. It feels more like a 32-bit game to me and blows away other (still great) versions, including the arcade.

There were some indications on the case and in the manual of Neo Nectaris that there would be a different climate or possibly different planet, as well as some more organic looking enemies. But I was still pleasantly shocked when the action moved to Mars as well as the first time I fought one of the Godzilla-style alien beasts.

The first time I saw Gate of Thunder on display as a demo next to Genesis and SNES demos at a store, I ignored it thinking that it was just a Neo Geo game that I'd never get to play. I was stunned to discover that it was actually Gate of Thunder when I finally got a Duo. The opening cinema alone was jaw dropping, even as a long-time Turbo-CD owner and PCE importer.

I saved up for weeks to get SFII' with a kisado and waited a long time for it to arrive. I studied EGM's spread on it every day until it finally arrived during the height of the SFII craze. I was still not prepared for how amazing it was and at the time, the only other home port was WW for SNES.

The boss of Dezant in Lords of Thunder. Even with all the spamming TTi did, it was still jaw dropping.

Same deal as above with the first stage boss of Ninja Spirit. The third stage boss was also very special to me.

Quote from: guest on 03/28/2011, 07:28 PMWhat? No corroboration on the Aeroblasters thing? Geez, you guys are either easily impressed or I am.

Everything in Aeroblasters was impressive. The first time I rented it I knew I had to own it.

Tatsujin · 03/28/2011, 08:56 PM

Irem had a big flair for very special 1st level bosses

henrycsc · 03/28/2011, 10:09 PM

No doubt was seeing the first commercial in 89 featuring Bonk chewing his way up the side of a cliff. I had to have a TG16. After that season I don't remember any advertisements, but it was too late - I had the system and was hooked.

ddd1234 · 03/28/2011, 10:32 PM

AIR ZONK's 2nd level (city) below me away. The parallax and the colors were so nice....

Rayxanber III's 2nd level, with the transparent "wavy" water and high level of detail!

First time playing Fatal Fury Via Arcade card. Man...that was truly a near arcade exprience!

The flicker in R-type.

Star Parodia's bubble level blew me away. All those sprites on screen, yet there very little lag. Snes would have crashed!

Gogan · 03/29/2011, 08:02 AM

The 2nd stage in Aeroblasters, especially when it picks up speed through the tunnels, was something I'd never experienced before. It was so fast! That's my favorite part in the game to this day!

Gogan · 03/29/2011, 08:07 AM

Oh yea, blazing lazers, i was WTF Is this? You just move around and shoot things?! Awesome!!

Obviously, it was my introduction to vertical shmups. Very good stuff right there.

Tatsujin · 03/29/2011, 08:43 AM

Quote from: ddd1234 on 03/28/2011, 10:32 PMSnes would have crashed!

And never ever recovered

termis · 03/29/2011, 09:05 AM

My experience isn't too unique either, but two titles clearly stand out in my mind as not just a "that's pretty cool" moment, but a genuine, jawdropping moment.

* Ys I & II - opening, then the rockin tunes of the overworld. And like BT's, the end of Ys I/beginning of Ys II is also one of my favorite video gaming moments. I must've watched that scene dozens of times back in the days.
* Sapphire - I can't believe someone hasn't mentioned this title yet, but it's hard to believe that this little machine from the mid 80s can crank out something that wouldn't look too far out of place as Playstation or a Saturn title.

Honorable mentions: Dracula X, Lords of Thunder, Fighting Street (no, really... To have a title this arcade-like with redbook audio bgm back in the 80s was pretty impressive), Gulliver Boy (with HuVideo).

ccovell · 03/29/2011, 08:41 PM

Quote from: termis on 03/29/2011, 09:05 AM* Sapphire - I can't believe someone hasn't mentioned this title yet

Yeah, but this topic is about the first time the system made our jaws drop. It's hard to believe someone was never impressed by the PCE/TG until 1995.

Tatsujin · 03/29/2011, 09:09 PM

lol, you would wonder how many have discovered the great awesomeness of pce/tg not until quite some time after its glory days. but I do agree, I don't think that sapphire would have been their first jaw dropper as well.

henrycsc · 03/29/2011, 09:35 PM

I'd add that the Turbo Express would always cause jaws to drop back in the day. It wasn't my first jaw drop for the system, but every place I took it, jaws would drop. I bought it when Toys-R-Us cleared them out, about 1991. But even then it was so far ahead of it's time people just couldn't believe it.
The other thing that caused jaws to drop was 5 player Bomberman. I had an office when I was in grad school, and we would have afternoon bomberman tournaments. It created a revolving door.

thrush · 03/30/2011, 11:21 PM

Well, I was late to the party, but for me it was the second level of Valis 3. I had played games that allowed switching between characters before, but never one that handled it so smoothly or that used characters varying abilities to such good effect. There was a lot of impressive graphics and sound on the Turbo but gameplay was always king for me at that age. I was hooked.

Zaki · 04/01/2011, 07:31 PM

playing Gate of Thunder.

esteban · 04/01/2011, 09:44 PM

Quote from: thrush on 03/30/2011, 11:21 PMWell, I was late to the party, but for me it was the second level of Valis 3. I had played games that allowed switching between characters before, but never one that handled it so smoothly or that used characters varying abilities to such good effect. There was a lot of impressive graphics and sound on the Turbo but gameplay was always king for me at that age. I was hooked.

I liked Valis III, too. Not a jaw-dropper, but certain levels were particulary fun to explore and solve.

On the topic of Valis, and to continue the spirit of this thread, the first jaw-dropping moment when I got the TG-CD would be some of the cinemas in Valis II: I particularly love the extra large static images (Emperor Megas portrait, various battle scenes) that scrolled on the screen whilst the sparse, otherworldly soundscape filled my ears. Ys I & II was purchased later, otherwise it would have been my first jaw-dropping CD-ROM.

Liquid Snake · 04/02/2011, 01:12 AM

When I bought my US Duo at launch and played both Gate of Thunder & Y's I & II.....................I was like..........DAMN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dalder · 04/07/2011, 07:14 PM

My first experience with Turbo Grafx 16 was at my friend's house he bought it when it was first released September 1989. I bought my Sega Genesis in August 1989.

He had these games

Keith Courage In Alpha Zones
Legendary Axe

We played these 2 games mostly Legendary Axe and I was very impressed with the system was in AWE! Then few months later on bought my own Turbo Grafx 16!

roflmao · 04/10/2011, 11:40 PM

Quote from: lord_cack on 03/27/2011, 09:40 PMI was impressed by the Legendary Axe ad as most seem to have been but, first WOW, Blown away moment....

"Ys the ideal utopia...."

I was hooked from those words on

This.

And Fighting Street - for about 5 minutes until I realized how frustrating the controls were!

But a lot of the Shoot-em ups were just plain awesome for the TG16 - Blazing Lazers, Super Star Soldier, Final Soldier, Aero Blasters, Air Zonk, Raiden, the list could go on... A shmups dream console, even not considering the CD-ROM games (Lords/Gates of Thunder, R-Type Complete, Cotton, Hellfire S (Not as awesome but one hell of an intro and still pretty fun!), and who could forget the Spirrigan games!

_Paul · 04/11/2011, 02:51 PM

YS I&II opening. Watched it in a local game store and was just amazed.

Obfuscate · 04/11/2011, 05:02 PM

The first time I played it. My buddy had a turbo and had Legendary Axe and Bloody Wolf and I was like whoa......this is way better than my SMS or NES.

grahf · 04/11/2011, 10:46 PM

OK. I'm a little late to chime in, but anyways.
The first game to make my jaw drop was The Legend of Xanadu II, on the first island. At that time I was just sampling the PCE CD library via emulation, before getting my own machine. I had already seem Dracula X and was blown away by it, but it didn't do anything that I thought was impossible on the machine. Don't get me wrong, it's a masterpiece and it raised my level of expectation through the roof. Xanadu II on the other hand, did things I didn't expect to see on the PCE.

I remember being fairly impressed by the boat scene in the beginning. It was the first PCE RPG I tried that seemed to match the graphical quality of the SNES RPGs. Still, since I was coming from the SNES world, I was expecting inferior graphical quality overall due to the lack of transparencies and other hardware effects on the PCE. Upon seeing the first area outside the village, I was shocked. I didn't expect to see things like the waterfall, and the seeming transparency of the slimes. I was again shocked once I got to the forest. The way the artists designed the trees is just amazing, and really captures the effect of walking under the leaves. Not to mention the flower petals blowing through the air... simply beautiful. I think this game is a good example of when good art design completely trumps technology.

SaturdayMorningRobots · 04/12/2011, 12:05 AM

First time I put in Ys 1-2 disc and heard that music play.

Interesting side note I decided to buy my Duo after playing my friends Sega CD (version 1) which impressed the hell out of me. I had been aware of the CD add on and lusted after screenshots of Ys, but it was cost prohibitive. I got a Duo because it was less money than a Genesis, and Sega CD, and I was somewhat invested in TG-16 already, Plus that sexy all in one machine looked a million times cooler than the Voltronesque Sega CD

SamIAm · 04/12/2011, 01:39 PM

Quote from: grahf on 04/11/2011, 10:46 PMI think [Xanadu II] is a good example of when good art design completely trumps technology.

That's one of the main reasons why I'm translating it.

Having said that, I'll join in on the Ys I+II front. I only watched the intro for the first time this year, but even if I loaded up the movie for the billionth time on youtube right now, I'd get the elusive chill through my whole body. I actually feel sorry for people who don't get the same thing from it. I'm also going to say that IMO the English narration was better than the Japanese. More wonder.

Senshi · 04/13/2011, 04:13 PM

First time I saw Babette in the Shower

Ash · 05/08/2011, 09:56 PM

The First Time i was introduce Turbografx-16. Mathius show me it....my jaw dropped. I was shocked how it looked!!!!!!!!!!!!

OldRover · 05/09/2011, 12:32 AM

I'm quite tardy to the party too but oh well...

It takes a lot to make my jaw drop, so even though I had played a great number of games before the moment happened, it didn't mean I didn't enjoy the hell out of every one of them. What did it for me was playing through Vasteel, and getting to that final battle. I was playing as Stefan, and lost in that battle... the ending that ensued left me shocked and scarred for life... of course, it was also 3 in the morning and I was on an insomnia trip... but that is the first time it ever happened. The second (and last) time was playing Sapphire, but that's another story.

12/23/2024: Localization News - Team Innocent

First time the Turbo / PCE made your jaw drop?