Uploaded July 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
This commercial spends thirty seconds teaching kids a lesson about 8 bit versus 16 bit, and the punchline is that the console selling the lesson was hiding an 8 bit chip the whole time.
Here is the truth. The TurboGrafx-16 runs on an 8 bit processor, the Hudson HuC6280. The 16 in the name only ever referred to its two graphics chips, which were genuinely 16 bit. So this ad, which shows off Bonk's Adventure on the TurboGrafx next to a worse looking 8 bit caveman game, is technically an 8 bit console dunking on 8 bit consoles. And it gets better. That 8 bit game is Hudson's Adventure Island, and Bonk was Hudson's mascot too, so this is really Hudson putting two of its own games head to head. Adventure Island was itself a reskin of Sega's Wonder Boy, with the hero swapped out because Sega owned the original character. Sega, naturally, noticed that 16 bit claim and used it as free ammunition for years.
The machine itself has a wild story. It was the PC Engine in Japan, built by Hudson Soft and sold by NEC, and it launched there in 1987 as the very first console of the 16 bit generation. Hudson had actually designed those graphics chips hoping to sell them to Nintendo, got turned down, and teamed up with NEC instead. In Japan it was a genuine hit that went toe to toe with the Super Famicom. The Japanese version is also the smallest major home console ever made, a little five and a half inch square, which NEC thought was too small for Americans, so they blew it up into that big black wedge you see in the ad.
America is where it fell apart. It launched the same month as the Sega Genesis, in the same test market cities, and Sega got wind of it and ran attack ads in exactly those areas to poison the well. Add in a single controller port, a thirty dollar add on just to get proper video and sound, and a forgettable pack in game, and the sixty nine dollar TurboGrafx never stood a chance against Sega and Nintendo. NEC still cranked out 750,000 units, way past demand.
It found its legends though. Bonk became its Mario, its shoot em up library is still worshipped, and it was the first console ever to put games on CD. Did you know anyone who actually owned a TurboGrafx? They were rare. Subscribe to Game Forest GF for retro gaming content every single day.
#turbografx16 #turbografx #pcengine #nec #hudsonsoft #bonksadventure #16bit #consolewars #retroconsole #retrocommercial #vintagead #90sgaming #gaminghistory #retrogaming #gameforestgf #youtubeshorts #gaming
This commercial spends thirty seconds teaching kids a lesson about 8 bit versus 16 bit, and the punchline is that the console selling the lesson was hiding an 8 bit chip the whole time.
Here is the truth. The TurboGrafx-16 runs on an 8 bit processor, the Hudson HuC6280. The 16 in the name only ever referred to its two graphics chips, which were genuinely 16 bit. So this ad, which shows off Bonk's Adventure on the TurboGrafx next to a worse looking 8 bit caveman game, is technically an 8 bit console dunking on 8 bit consoles. And it gets better. That 8 bit game is Hudson's Adventure Island, and Bonk was Hudson's mascot too, so this is really Hudson putting two of its own games head to head. Adventure Island was itself a reskin of Sega's Wonder Boy, with the hero swapped out because Sega owned the original character. Sega, naturally, noticed that 16 bit claim and used it as free ammunition for years.
The machine itself has a wild story. It was the PC Engine in Japan, built by Hudson Soft and sold by NEC, and it launched there in 1987 as the very first console of the 16 bit generation. Hudson had actually designed those graphics chips hoping to sell them to Nintendo, got turned down, and teamed up with NEC instead. In Japan it was a genuine hit that went toe to toe with the Super Famicom. The Japanese version is also the smallest major home console ever made, a little five and a half inch square, which NEC thought was too small for Americans, so they blew it up into that big black wedge you see in the ad.
America is where it fell apart. It launched the same month as the Sega Genesis, in the same test market cities, and Sega got wind of it and ran attack ads in exactly those areas to poison the well. Add in a single controller port, a thirty dollar add on just to get proper video and sound, and a forgettable pack in game, and the sixty nine dollar TurboGrafx never stood a chance against Sega and Nintendo. NEC still cranked out 750,000 units, way past demand.
It found its legends though. Bonk became its Mario, its shoot em up library is still worshipped, and it was the first console ever to put games on CD. Did you know anyone who actually owned a TurboGrafx? They were rare. Subscribe to Game Forest GF for retro gaming content every single day.
#turbografx16 #turbografx #pcengine #nec #hudsonsoft #bonksadventure #16bit #consolewars #retroconsole #retrocommercial #vintagead #90sgaming #gaminghistory #retrogaming #gameforestgf #youtubeshorts #gaming
