Poll- Are you a new or old PC Engine/TurboGrafx gamer?

[Gentlegamer]

When I was deep into Super Nintendo, a friend of mine from school invited me over to his house.  He was playing Exile on a TurboGrafx CD.  It was the first time I had ever heard actual voices being spoken in a video game. 

There were voice samples all over SNES games. I guess you mean longer recorded narration and dialog.

[Ozzy_98]

When I was deep into Super Nintendo, a friend of mine from school invited me over to his house.  He was playing Exile on a TurboGrafx CD.  It was the first time I had ever heard actual voices being spoken in a video game. 

There were voice samples all over SNES games. I guess you mean longer recorded narration and dialog.

Or better quotes than Jago's "endokuken" that comes out as "Hey you puken?" or "electrocution!"

[elderbroom]

I was eager to get my TG16 at launch. Picked it up from Radio Shack (in Canada) with two additional launch titles.  Loved that system, talked two other buddies into getting one .. and my local video rental store into carrying games for rental (not sure that worked out well for them).  But then like most other consoles it eventually got sold at a yard sale. Assuming I was raising funds to build a gaming PC.  Anyway reacquired a TG16 just after graduating college (so 16 years ago).  It was only in the last 3 years that I started collecting heavily and grabbed a SuperGrafx, PC Engine Duo-R, PCE GT, and Turbo Express. So my jump into PC Engine games is fairly recent.

[retro junkie]

Got mine at a local Toys-R-Us back then. Had the Keith Courage pack-in and I purchased Bonk Adventures. Can't remember, not sure what shooters I grabbed, I just know I fell in love. Raiden, Deadmoon, Galaga 90, Aero Blasters, I think those were my first. And when the time came that I desired the CD add on, I ordered it out of the back of a video game magazine, no internet back then. The store was sold out of the CD add on, so they sent me the Turbo Duo as a replacement, $150. Going price was $299 back then. 

First of this year I finally picked up a PC Engine. Fell in love again.

[shawnji]

I didn't get a PC Engine until 2009 after I discovered Ys I&II.  I later sold it before I left Japan in December of 2013, and didn't get a new Duo-R until mid-2014.  Now I'm steadily building my collection back up and repurchasing some of the games I had before I left.  Most frustrating is that I found the Cosmic Fantasy and Valis Visual Collections at a local shop in Tochigi for what amounted to about $3, but I had to sell them off because of my sudden return to the US, along with several other things I regret parting with.

That wasn't the first time I'd encountered the technology, though.  When I was around nine or ten years old there was a demo unit at a Radio Shack or some other place in a local mall.  It was running Sherlock Holmes, which I messed with for a minute before my small, child-sized brain determined that it sucked.  I wish they had actually put something decent in it, as I might have actually started looking into it more.  I did briefly try to get a rip of Dracula X I found online to work after I learned about it, but I couldn't get it to work for whatever reason and gave up without knowing anything about the other titles on the system.  Of course, it didn't help that the only gaming mags I ever read were Nintendo Power and PSM (Anyone remember Howard & NESter and Banzai Chibi-chan?).

I saw the PC Engine at retro stores the first time when I was in Japan as an exchange student back in 2003.  It was at a retro store around Akihabara and I remember playing Youkai Dochuuki and being disinterested yet again.  I was more interested in anime on laserdisc and the Sega Saturn / Dreamcast libraries at the time.

My first system was an Atari 2600, and then I got an NES not too much later.  I've held onto my original NES all these years, actually. I even kept the old box and all the packaging materials, so you can tell it was definitely my first love when it came to gaming.  That said, I still remember my first reaction to playing Ys I&II when I finally got the chance.  It was something like, "Why the hell was I playing NES when I could have been playing THIS!" XD

[waynedoodle]

My brother and I got a TG16 in 91 from money we made putting on a haunted house with expectations to get Splatterhouse (we loved Halloween).  That Christmas we got the CD with fighting street and sherlockholmes.  We only got 2 other cd's after that.  We wound up using the cd player as a standalone through college.  Senior year our roomate from Oregon also had a Turbo and we played alot.  CD gear eventually gave out in 98 until this forum helped me fix it last year!  I've picked up a few more titles and recently Blazing Lazers.  The TG16 is a great console.

WD

[wilykat]

Got TG-16 as Christmas gift when I saw the demo and wanted it.  Got the CD system a few years later when Toys R Us was blowing them out on sale.  Still have the original CD system BTW.

[Gentlegamer]

It was running Sherlock Holmes, which I messed with for a minute before my small, child-sized brain determined that it sucked.

[8bitAl]

I'm very new to the system, only got one in the last six months, tho it's been on my radar for a while as I'm a bit of a shoot 'em up fan.

Overall I think it's a cracking system, my only real criticism of it is the music on some games can be a bit lacking in bass.

 I just need to invest in either a CD attachment or a Duo so I can play some of the other awesome looking shooters and that Dracula game everyone bangs on about.

Alex.

[MattJ]

I am a newer gamer. I didn't even know that the TurboGrafx existed back when it was first released. I guess word of it never trickled down to my little corner of South Carolina. (same goes for the Master System). It wasn't until college in the early 2000s I spoke to someone about import games and they mentioned the PC Engine. That peaked my curiosity and read it to it and discovered the TurboGrafx. I looked for one for quite a while, and it wasn't until a few years ago that I managed to pick up a console. I had a NES, SNES, and played some Genesis stuff but after learning about the TG16, I knew I had to try one out one day.
For a long time I had built up a large collection of NES games but I got burnt out on the system and the way prices have shot up. I know that TurboGrafx stuff is far from cheap these days, but the console's game library interests me way more than say the SNES or Genesis. Besides, if I'm going to have to pay a lot for a game, I'd rather it be something enjoyable like Jackie Chan, New Adventure Island, and Neutopia II instead of Color a Dinosaur, TMNT: Tournament Fighters, or Waynes World.
After a while, I did manage to pick up a console about four years ago and fell in love with it. I dreamed over a CD system but never managed to pick one up. Foolishly, I sold my collection off last year. A decision I have SEVERELY regretted ever since. Since then, I have picked up a Doujindance modded PC Engine Duo-R and have enjoyed rediscovering games I had previously owned, but experiencing for the first time some of the CD and import games.

[Conzilla]

I got my turbo grafx 16 in 1991. I asked for a Super Nintendo for Christmas. Well they were sold out everywhere so my father bought me a Turbo. I loved it. It came with 6 free games at the time. I sold it to a friend in 1995 biggest mistake i have made involving video games. My pc engine duo should be here friday. Cant wait.

[WoodyXP]

I discovered the PCE/TG16 in the late 90's via emulator.  SFII and Afterburner got me hooked.  Didn't get my first system(CGII) until 2005.

[HuMan]

I first discovered the Turbo Grafx-16 back around 2010 / 2011. That was before the Turbo Everdrive so the high prices turned me away. I just recently decided to take the plunge on a Turbo Everdrive V2.4, hopefully all the bugs have been worked out. I also got a white PCE console and a Duo-R.

[Digi.k]

I am pretty sure I imported one from a london computer store called Shekana back in 1988 a few months after a UK  mag called CVG made an article about this games machine that was taking japan by storm. I was amazed at this little white square machine the size of a crisp packet that was producing these arcade like graphics especially the R-Type which was doing the business back then.  Prior to this I was very disappointed with the Amiga 500 version and was shocked that a little machine that could do R-Type better than a home computer.

Shekana were one of the first london retailers to stock them in store and the early models came modded in either RGB scart or PAL RF.  I had no idea about these things back then but since I was so used to playing games with RF PAL well that's the version I went with. 

At that time one of the main HMV stores in London were also stocking and selling modified imported pc engines and I remember telling my mates at that time about how amazing this console was and that it could do arcade graphics so I asked the store clerk to put on a game that I never had heard of.  It was Deep Blue I think everyone laughed at it when it booted up including the store clerk especially at my comment on the "arcade graphics" and then seeing Deep Blue's.  Ah well.

So I stuck with PAL RF for a while and then soon after I saved up for the Interface unit and CD-rom attachment after falling in love with seeing and HEARING Wonderboy III monster lair.  It wasn't till around the time Ys book I & II was imported that I got it modified into RGB Scart by a small shop called Advance Console Entertainment run by 2 middle eastern guys.  they renting out a small room in one of those swanky Edwardian houses near Regents Park before setting shop in trendy Carnaby Street when I think at that time the Super Famicom was making an appearance.

During that time a shop called Japan Centre which I think first opened up a store near St Paul's Cathederal Area were importing pc engine magazines.  One which I think was pc engine gekkan. I gave the megadrive a miss at that time and instead traded all my pc engine stuff when the SNES appeared.  Months later I traded the SNES in for the Duo R and that kept me busy till when the Sega Saturn appeared with Virtual Fighter 2, Sega Rally and Virtua Cop.


Got back into the pc engine again around 2003.

[Vimtoman]

Shekana rings a few bells as I had bought a white PC Engine around that time too. I bought the CVG mag too.
Ended up buying a secondhand one from a chap and had 20 loose cards. Most were pretty pants but Rtype was in there and has been stuck in the grey mass since. Iv'e floated back a few times had big collections twice.

[Corredor X]

New gamer here. I first read about the console in '92, when it was mentioned in some magazines. Most of these mentions, since it was not released here at the time, were just little notes telling about "a japanese console that had little cards as cartridges but also uses CD-ROMs to play games". I vividly remember three articles that were more than that, though. One was a Bonk's Adventure review with pictures, in the lines of "watch out, Sonic and Mario, there's a new mascot in the town for this new console", another was a five or six-page long article about the TG-16 with a couple pictures and two dozen little and rough reviews of some games. The third one was a big note about Snatcher, with a picture and descriptions of how japanese gamers would wait for hours in its launch day, that the story was very complex and the "cd-romantic" joke, with a nice picture of the scene of Mika showing JUNKER around to Gillian.

I only read about the console in those times, however. First time I ever saw one of the consoles was a TurboExpress a guy I met at military service had, around year 2000. Some years latter, when I first heard that the original version of Dracula X that I played on SNES was way better than the port, I played it on an emulator and was hooked. Around four years ago, discovered this forum and sometime later bought a modded PCE and IFU-30 on eBay, a CD-ROM² here and in no time I had a new plataform among my all-time favorites 

[esteban]

1989.