TurboGrafx-16

Among the casualties of the Console War of the 90’s was the Turbo Grafx-16, known as the “PC Engine” in Japan. This console was developed as a joint effort between video game giant HudsonSoft and electronics manufacturer NEC. Although it managed to outsell Sega Genesis consoles in Japan, it could not beat the market share held by Nintendo. The war between Sega and Nintendo overshadowed the console, eventually blotting it out completely.

While the Sega/NES war was being waged, TurboGrafx-16 struggled to find developers who would create games for the console but due to its limited market share, few developers would do so. To this end, TGx-16 suffered a double edged sword, it could not grow popular without enough titles to support it yet it could not garner enough titles to support it because it was not as popular as the its competitors. Despite this challenge, HudsonSoft and NEC created a series of titles for the console including ‘Adventure Island’ and ‘Fighting Streets’ (better known as Street Fighter).

The games for the system ran on a format virtually alien to the USA known as HudCards. These devices were about the size of a credit card although slightly thicker. During the advent of the Sega CD, the TGx-16 released a CD expansion that allowed for better audio quality of some games and the capability to play CD music as desired. But after struggling for years in the USA, Hudson kept all future releases after 1995, strictly in Japan.

TurboGrafx-16
US Release: Aug. 29,1989
Processor: HuC6280A 8-bit CPU, 7.16 MHz
Memory: 8KB of Work RAM, 64KB Video RAM
Video: HuC6260 16-bit GPU Video Color Enchancer and HuC6270A 16-bit Video Display Controller
Audio: 6 Channel Wavetable controlled by the Processor.

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