Bonk (series)
Bald caveman mascot of the PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16.
Last updated
NEC's PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16 console had a mascot named Bonk, a video game character.[1] Because "bonk" carries a sexual meaning in British English, the American name was not used in European releases.[1] Super Bonk, the fourth installment in the series, was the first not to appear on the TurboGrafx-16; it launched on the Super NES in 1994.[2]
Life and work
Many readers mistook him for an upcoming game character before any game was in development.[3] A magazine for the PC Engine first featured Bonk as a comic character called PC Caveman.[3] Keisuke Abe is the creator of the character.[3] The initial game, Bonk's Adventure, debuted on the TurboGrafx-16 in 1989.[4]
A downgraded version of that game came out on the NES, and a different variant, BC Kid, was issued for the Amiga.[4] When Konami absorbed Hudson Soft in 2012, it obtained the rights to the Bonk series.[5]
What the cited sources add
A 2024 article notes that Bonk was a very popular Hudson Soft character who appeared in many platforming titles on the PC Engine.[6] The same source states that when Nintendo announced the Virtual Boy, Bonk was considered for an appearance on that platform.[6] Development documents for the cancelled VB Genjin show it was a new design with around six stages and a hidden stage, planned for a year-long development from August 1995 to August 1996.[6]
References
- Wikipedia, "Bonk (series)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Anglin, "4 Page Review: BC Kid (Amiga)", 15 August 1992, p. 22–5 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Bonk (series)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Welcome to Nintendo of America's Media Site" (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Bonk (series)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "The Definitive Bonk", Hudson Entertainment; https://www.ign.com/articles/2008/11/18/tempo-review (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Bonk (series)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Bonk's Adventure by Kaneko", EGM Media, LLC, December 1993, p. 80 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Bonk (series)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "5 Hudson Soft Games Nintendo Should Buy from Konami", 28 April 2015 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- "Genjin Show – Tobidase! VB Genjin", 15 March 2024. facts only, no text reused. gamesthatwerent.com
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Bonk (series) (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
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Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Bonk (series) (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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