The TurboGrafx-16, known as PC Engine in Japan, is a video game console developed by the Nippon Electric Company (NEC) and released in Japan on October 30, 1987, and in North America on August 29, 1989. There was no official PAL version of the system, but a grey importer (Telegames), provided a very limited release in the United Kingdom and continental Europe in 1990 as the Turbografx.[2]The TurboGrafx-16 had an 8-bit CPU and a 16-bit graphics chip capable of displaying 512 colors at once.
REVIEW
Bonk's Adventure.. NEC's TurboGrafx 16 originally came out in 1989 and was marketed as a "16-Bit" system to compete with the 16-Bit Sega Genesis. The system actually contained an 8-Bit CPU but it had a 16-Bit graphics chip. So pixel quality was on-par with the Genesis.
Of course, during the famous 16-Bit wars between Sega and Nintendo, the TurboGrafx was no competition and the system quickly slid into oblivion. I picked up a brand new Turbo in 1993 at my local Toys R Us in 1993 for only $50.
Although the Turbo never could compete with the Genesis or the Super Nintendo, there were still a small handful of fun games released for the system. The Japanese counterpart, PC-Engine, had a very large library of quality games since the system did pretty well in Japan.
Graphics-wise, Turbo games were very colorful as the system could display up to 512 colors. The games also tended to have less slowdown than both the Genesis and SNES.
The one major drawback is that you could only plug one controller into the system. Also, there is no audio-video output. You had to buy special adapters such as the Turbo-tap in order to plug in more controllers for multi-player games.
All the Bonk games, Y's Book, the only home version of Splatterhouse, and a decent amount of fast-paced shoot-em-ups make this a fun choice for enthusiast of the 16-Bit era.
