TurboGrafx-16

Lore & Background

The PC Engine was created through a collaboration between Hudson Soft and NEC. Hudson Soft had previously attempted to sell advanced graphics chip designs to Nintendo for a Famicom add-on using Bee Cards, but Nintendo declined due to cost and royalty concerns. This led Hudson Soft to partner with NEC, which lacked video game experience but dominated the Japanese personal computer market. The system debuted in Japan on October 30, 1987, selling 500,000 units in its first week. Its small, eye-catching design contrasted sharply with rivals.

For the North American release, NEC redesigned the hardware into a larger black casing and rebranded it as the TurboGrafx-16, a name intended to convey graphical speed and its 16-bit GPU. The lengthy redesign process delayed its U.S. debut to late August 1989, two weeks after Sega released the Genesis. The TurboGrafx-16 launched in New York City and Los Angeles test markets, but the Genesis quickly eclipsed it. NEC's decision to pack in Keith Courage in Alpha Zones, an unknown game to Western audiences, proved costly against Sega's pack-in of the arcade hit Altered Beast. NEC's American operations overproduced 750,000 units, far exceeding demand, which proved profitable for Hudson Soft as NEC paid royalties on every unit produced regardless of sales.

In Europe, the console was known as the PC Engine. Japanese models were imported and modified for local sale, with unauthorized imports and NTSC-to-PAL adapters available in the United Kingdom. A British company called Mention produced an adapted PAL version called the PC Engine Plus in 1989, though it was not officially supported. From November 1989 to 1993, French importer Sodipeng imported PC Engine consoles and add-ons, making the system widely available in France and Benelux with French instructions and SECAM compatibility. After the TurboGrafx-16 faltered in America, NEC canceled official European releases, selling existing PAL-modified stock to distributors; in the UK, Telegames released the console in extremely limited quantities in 1990.

Reader's Guide

The TurboGrafx-16/PC Engine holds a complex legacy as both a Japanese success and a North American struggle. In Japan, it was a commercial success, serving as the Super Famicom's main competitor with strong third-party support. The CD-ROM² add-on, released in Japan in December 1988, made the PC Engine the first console to use CD-ROM as a storage medium and sold 60,000 units in its first five months. By 1989, NEC had sold over 80,000 CD-ROM units in Japan. However, the platform suffered from hardware fragmentation: games were released on HuCard cartridges, CD-ROM (via the TurboGrafx-CD add-on), SuperGrafx (requiring a new console variant), and LD-ROM² (via the LaserActive, a TurboGrafx-compatible system by Pioneer). No configuration supported all formats, and while the CD-ROM add-on was moderately successful, the other two formats failed to gain traction, creating consumer confusion.

In North America, the TurboGrafx-16 struggled due to limited marketing, a smaller game library, and its late release against the more advanced Sega Genesis and later the Super NES. By March 1991, NEC reported 750,000 TurboGrafx-16 consoles sold in the United States and 500,000 CD-ROM units worldwide. In mid-1992, NEC and Hudson Soft formed Turbo Technologies, Inc. to relaunch the system, releasing the TurboDuo with a built-in CD-ROM drive, but the market remained dominated by the Genesis and Super NES. Turbo Technologies dropped support in May 1994, though repairs and software releases continued through independent companies. Over 17 hardware variants were produced, including portable models and integrated CD-ROM versions. Production ended in 1994, and the system was succeeded by the PC-FX, released exclusively in Japan, which was a commercial failure. The final licensed release was Dead of the Brain Part 1 & 2 on June 3, 1999, on the Super CD-ROM² format.

Did You Know?

• The PC Engine remains the smallest major home console ever released, measuring 14x14x3.5 cm.
• The '16' in the North American TurboGrafx-16 branding was criticized as misleading because the console used an 8-bit CPU.
• Over 17 hardware variants were produced, including portable models and versions integrating the CD-ROM add-on.