While the PC Engine did quite well for itself in Japan, it's North American version didn't fair so well.

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TurboGrafx 16: What the Bonk happened to it?

By Lee Cieniawa

If you were a video gamer in 1988, you probably were slowly weaning off of your 8-bit Nintendo Entertainment or Sega Master systems in anticipation for the upcoming wave of 16-bit machines, the Super Nintendo and the Genesis.

But some of you might remember a little system called the TurboGrafx 16, NEC’s ultimately failed attempt to break into the video game console market. While it had a successful run in Japan, the TG16 never found a place in the hearts of the U.S. gaming population.

Although it tried to pass itself off as one, the TG16 wasn’t really a true 16-bit system as the SNES or Genesis. Rather, it had an 8-bit CPU processing graphics and sounds on 16-bit chips. But that extra colors kick in the graphics gave the TG16 a much more colorful, crisper look than both the completely 8-bit NES and Sega Master System.

Coincidentally, this is the same marketing ploy Atari used in 1993 for their supposedly 64-bit Jaguar system, which had five processors within three chips. But only two of its five processors were truly capable of 64-bit performance.

While it certainly wasn’t my favorite system I have ever had, the TG16 certainly had its charms.

Using the credit card-shaped HuCards instead of traditional cartridges, the TG16 gave the late 80s-early 90s gamer a good selection of role playing games for the time, available slightly ahead of the slew of top quality role-playing games that would become available on the SNES, the ultimate RPG machine.

Neutopia I and II and Dungeon Explorer were similar in style to the game that started the home console RPG craze, The Legend of Zelda for the NES, although with better graphics.

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2D side-scrollers, one of the hot genres of the day, played nicely on the TG16 too. Legendary Axe I and II, Keith Courage in Alpha Zones, Pac Land, and of course, Bonk’s Adventure, were enjoyable titles.

They weren’t the same quality, however, as our favorite scrollers of the era, the massively popular Mario series and the up-and-coming Sonic, Nintendo and Sega’s leading characters, respectively.

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Bonk was the unofficial TG16 mascot. But he was competing against Mario and Sonic. Be honest, if you were to list your top three favorite system mascots, how many of you would actually pick Bonk as one of them, let alone name him as your No. 1 favorite?

Make no mistake the little hardheaded caveman had his own brand of charisma, from his voracious, Fred Flintstone-like appetite for big slabs of meat to his bone-crunching head attack, Bonk was one tough Stone Age dude.

Because of the TG16’s comparatively low market penetration, however, Bonk found himself largely unrecognized and unappreciated for his efforts.

To paraphrase Lloyd Bentsen (during 1988’s vice-presidential debates): When it comes to recognition, Bonk, I know Mario and Sonic. Mario and Sonic are friends of mine. And you Bonk, are no Mario or Sonic.

Not being able to develop an easily identifiable flagship character, the TG16 was left without a console personality for the gamers to relate to.

The demise of the TG16 was due to a variety of elements. Some of its failure in the U.S. market especially could be attributed directly to NEC and the poor marketing of the system to the gaming public.

It was also expensive, especially if you were looking to pop on the compact disc unit, the Turbo Duo, to your total system cost. The TG16 was the first home console to play CD games. But CD games were in their infancy, and NEC was unable to take advantage of the CD’s storage capacity to produce games that were significantly better than their HuCard counterparts.

There was also the Turbo Express, which was the NEC version of Nintendo’s Gameboy. The big difference between the Gameboy and the Turbo Express was the Turbo Express’ ability to directly play the TG16’s HuCards instead of buying separate software, as with the Gameboy.

That was part of the problem for NEC though. It suffered from what can be now termed as Sega-itis, the release of expensive add-ons and enhancements in an attempt to keep in the gamers’ wallet. Not many gamers wanted to invest in buying a TG16, let alone the add-on accessories.

This was mostly a direct result of competitors Nintendo and Sega, each of which introduced their newest systems (while still selling games for their old ones) while NEC was struggling to capture its own piece of market share.

And each, especially Nintendo and its NES, had successful systems already on the market. In its heyday, the NES made up an unbelievable 90% of the console market. It was the Age of Nintendo, and Mario was king.

It is remarkable Sega was even able to survive against the Nintendo empire and become the leading console seller by the time the 16-bit console era ended. NEC, obviously, didn’t have the same success.

Sports games suffered in their realism with no players’ association or league licenses. Both EA and Sega early on had licenses with the various players’ associations or leagues in their sports titles.

U.S. sports gamers like to have their favorite stars available in a sports title, not an assortment of made-up athletes. We wanted to control Joe Montana, Magic Johnson, Wayne Gretzky or Mike Schmidt, not the made-up stars and teams like NEC’s sports games offered. When it comes to sports console games, realism and detail to the individual sport’s nuances has always been important to the U.S. gamer. I don’t know, maybe NEC couldn’t afford to buy any league or players’ association licenses. Whatever the reason, TG16’s sports titles suffered because of it.

Tecmo Super Bowl for the NES was an example of the type of title that easily outdistanced anything sports-related on the TG16. And competing against Electronic Arts and its classic hockey and Madden football titles would have been mission impossible for NEC and its sports line if the TG16 had stayed on the U.S. market longer.

Even Sega produced decent football and baseball titles during the lifetime of the Genesis. NEC was left with nothing but arcade-type sports titles, such as Takin’ It To The Hoop and World Class Baseball, which were fun to play but gave the gamer nothing when it came to being realistic as a true simulation.

But even arcade-type action didn’t overcome one of the most dreadful football games ever, TG16’s TV Sports Football. The game was slow, passing was impossible, and lack of a NFL license made playing this title about as enjoyable as watching San Diego Chargers games last season (they finished 1-15).

With too few hit games, a bad U.S. marketing strategy and the SNES and Genesis the systems of choice, the TG16 was all but gone from the U.S. market without much notice by 1991.

While certainly not a classic system in the same sense as the SNES or Genesis, the TG16 deserves a small place in video game history for its fun RPGs, decent 2D side-scrollers, and its attempt to advance the technological aspects of console gaming with its CD unit, which has since become an integral part of the game scene of today.