The Turbografx 16 vs. The Arcade
March 15, 2022What was it like to be an arcade fan and own a Turbografx 16? Pretty damn good, actually…
Even though the PC Engine was launched in Japan in 1987, it took NEC 2 years to bring it west. Had they launched it in 1988, that generation could have gone very differently.
Sega’s heavy investment in sports titles really paid off. By the time NEC recognized the need for them, it was far too late.
NEC really made some dumb decisions with the Turbo. They kept the one controller port, tried to sell adapters to use composite cables and extra controllers, and charged an absolute fortune for the Turbo CD.
Many of the better arcade ports for this platform were never released in the US. There are literally dozens of shooters most people don’t even know exist.
In 1994, NEC released the Arcade Card for the PC Engine CD. It increased the RAM of the unit to a whopping 16 megabits. This was a massive upgrade and allowed some pretty nifty ports of a few Neo Geo titles. To compare, the Sega CD only had 6 megs.