Though ultimately only a few ever stood out, the late 1980s featured a number of different home video game console debuts. One of these was known in the U.S. as the TurboGrafx-16 (and in Japan as the PC Engine), a little system that boasted advanced graphics for the time but never quite took hold for American audiences.
The system was the result of a collaboration between Hudson Soft, a software developer, and NEC, a hardware company that had already enjoyed some success in the Japanese computer market with their PC-88 and PC-98 systems. Hudson Soft had tried and failed to sell their line of graphics chips to Nintendo, and NEC had hoped to break into the gaming console market; the two companied joined forces to create the PC Engine. In Japan, the system debuted in 1987 to instant success, out-selling the Famicom by 1988 and earning the attention of major third-party developers such as Namco and Konami.
After their hot start in Japan, NEC turned its attention to the U.S. market – and soon learned that the name “PC Engine” wasn’t going to garner enough attention. Thus, the name TurboGrafx-16 was born, meant to emphasize the graphical capabilities compared to its competitors and its 16-bit GPU. The hardware casing itself was also completely redesigned, going from a compact case to a bulkier black plastic.
These marketing decisions delayed the TurboGrafx’s release until August 1989, meaning it came out just two weeks after Sega’s Genesis. The TurboGrafx ad campaign intended to pose the system as superior to the Nintendo Entertainment System, but Sega wasted no time touting their own superiority over NEC. The Genesis quickly overtook the TurboGrafx in terms of sales – combined with NEC’s decision to overproduce their console, this led to a glut of leftover stock.
Though the system had a handful of well-received games, the TurboGrafx proved to be a disaster in the American market, and NEC abandoned the gaming industry in 1998. However, Konami announced in 2019 that they’ll be debuting a throwback console, the TurboGrafx-16 Mini, in early 2020. International versions of this new release will contain 57 games, giving gamers that may have missed out on the original release 30 years ago a new chance to try some unique titles.
