TurboGrafx-16 CD Games Added to Wii Virtual Console

When I was a kid, TurboGrafx-16 was one of those consoles that I wanted solely because of the name. I mean, come on. ‘TurboGrafx-16′. It didn’t just have Grafx, it had turbo Grafx, and that ‘16′ suffix made it all the better because it was a number higher than ‘8′. Incidentally, that’s the same reason I wanted an Atari Jaguar (RARRRW!) for about a day and a half.

Alas, I never claimed a TurboGrafx-16 as my own, mostly because I never saw one. The game section (more specifically, ‘corner’) at our local ghetto Wal-Mart was dominated by Sega and Nintendo products, and absolutely nothing else. I grew up assuming that the TG-16 was a fantasy some kids at school had collaborated on for a creative writing assignment.

Evidently it wasn’t though, as the Nintendo Wii Virtual Console has effectively demonstrated. Since the debut of the system and its emulation service nearly a year ago, over a dozen TG-16 titles have been added to the North American menu, allowing me to play the games that didn’t exist in my little closed off Seahaven.

Like a lot of the big ‘we’re totally amazing and awesome’ consoles of the early-to-mid 90s, the TG-16 was given a CD add-on. Although it was the first system to do such a thing, it didn’t have the impact that Nippon Electric Company (NEC) hoped it would.

Two of the TurboCD’s offerings (‘Gate of Thunder’ and (‘Super Air Zonk’) will be added to the Virtual Console, according to Gamespot, although they won’t be on discs and hey, waitaminute- the Wii only has 512 MB of internal memory. How is downloading a 700 MB CD supposed to work out? Obviously a lot of compression has been involved with these downloads.

From what I’m seen of the discussion after the GameSpot story, there’s a lot more history about NEC and their ill-fated CD add-on, so be sure to check it out.

Captain N: The Game Master Hits DVD

Oh, to be a guy who was around in the early 90s! How would we live without DVD, the blessed format that has forever preserved our memories of crap TV shows that would have never make it past the pilot in this day and age!? Shout Factory, the same company that put The Legend of Zelda and The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! in handy disc format, has now bestowed upon us Captain N: The Game Master. Now those of us in our early 20s can pretend we’re all six year olds again.

It’s an invaluable piece of game history, and with a retail price around $ 20 (at least on Amazon) it’s a steal. The only thing that would make me happier is if they released a ‘deluxe’ edition that came with a control pad belt and a talking Gameboy keychain.

Classic Moments in Advertising- “Don’t be a Weenie”

The news of Sony’s somewhat arrogant response to the PS3’s $600 price tag is now staler than three-year-old bread, but it’s not the first time such bold statements have been made. Take a look at this classic advertisement. In 1990, SNK attempted to push its nearly $ 700 Neo-Geo console by essentially telling kids they would be laughable without one. Marketing and inferiority complexes— they go hand in hand!

“Does NEO-GEO cost more than other video game systems? You bet. Does a Ferrari cost more than a Yugo? Does Prime Rib cost more than squirrel burgers? With NEO-GEO you get more than you paid for. It’s simple. Would you rather be a cold weenie? Or a real hot dog!”

 

So the next time you want to sell a game console that costs more than a decent PC, just tell your potential buyers that they’ll be losers without one.  And be sure to put down your competition by including a phallic reference.