Uploaded June 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
This TurboGrafx 16 commercial leaned hard into the slogan The Higher Energy Video Game System, and there is genuinely a lot of interesting history packed behind that one console. Developed by Hudson Soft and sold by NEC, it first released in Japan back in 1987 under the name PC Engine, two full years before it ever reached North America in August 1989. One of its most unique features was that games shipped on thin plastic TurboChips instead of bulky cartridges, something almost no other system of that era did.
NEC tried some genuinely creative ways to sell it here too. The American ad campaign leaned on an original comic book superhero called Johnny Turbo, created specifically to promote the console and its games in print ads, separate from Bonk, the actual in game mascot. There was also an accessory called the TurboTap that let up to five controllers plug in at once on a system that normally only had one controller port, but since hardly any games actually supported more than two players, that accessory ended up being a pretty well known flop.
The bigger problem, and something longtime fans bring up constantly, is that NEC and Hudson never brought over most of the games that had made the PC Engine such a massive success in Japan, especially once the CD add on arrived and expanded the library even further there. Only a small slice of that huge Japanese catalog ever got localized and exported, which left American buyers with a noticeably thinner lineup than what fueled the system's popularity overseas, and that gap is a big part of why it struggled so badly against Nintendo and Sega here despite genuinely solid hardware.
Let me know in the comments if you ever actually tracked down a TurboTap for multiplayer. Subscribe to Game Forest GF for retro gaming content every single day.
#turbografx16 #pcengine #hudsonsoft #nec #retrogaming #classicgaming #80scommercial #retrocommercials #90sgaming #oldschoolgaming #vintagegaming #gaminghistory #80snostalgia #johnnyturbo #retroconsole #youtubeshorts #gaming
This TurboGrafx 16 commercial leaned hard into the slogan The Higher Energy Video Game System, and there is genuinely a lot of interesting history packed behind that one console. Developed by Hudson Soft and sold by NEC, it first released in Japan back in 1987 under the name PC Engine, two full years before it ever reached North America in August 1989. One of its most unique features was that games shipped on thin plastic TurboChips instead of bulky cartridges, something almost no other system of that era did.
NEC tried some genuinely creative ways to sell it here too. The American ad campaign leaned on an original comic book superhero called Johnny Turbo, created specifically to promote the console and its games in print ads, separate from Bonk, the actual in game mascot. There was also an accessory called the TurboTap that let up to five controllers plug in at once on a system that normally only had one controller port, but since hardly any games actually supported more than two players, that accessory ended up being a pretty well known flop.
The bigger problem, and something longtime fans bring up constantly, is that NEC and Hudson never brought over most of the games that had made the PC Engine such a massive success in Japan, especially once the CD add on arrived and expanded the library even further there. Only a small slice of that huge Japanese catalog ever got localized and exported, which left American buyers with a noticeably thinner lineup than what fueled the system's popularity overseas, and that gap is a big part of why it struggled so badly against Nintendo and Sega here despite genuinely solid hardware.
Let me know in the comments if you ever actually tracked down a TurboTap for multiplayer. Subscribe to Game Forest GF for retro gaming content every single day.
#turbografx16 #pcengine #hudsonsoft #nec #retrogaming #classicgaming #80scommercial #retrocommercials #90sgaming #oldschoolgaming #vintagegaming #gaminghistory #80snostalgia #johnnyturbo #retroconsole #youtubeshorts #gaming
