40 Fun Facts About TurboGrafx-16

Which rapper announced in 2016 that his next album would be called Turbo Grafx 16, then scrapped it?

Kanye West revealed the title for what would have been his eighth solo album, naming it after the console. The project was eventually shelved.

Which fictional detective starred in a TurboGrafx-CD mystery game that used live actors in full-motion video?

Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective was based on a 1981 tabletop game, and players cracked its three cases with help from mock London newspapers.

Under what name did the TurboGrafx-16 first launch in Japan, two years before it reached North America?

PC Engine was the original name, and at just 14 centimetres square the Japanese model remains the smallest major home console ever released.

Neutopia, a TurboGrafx-16 quest for eight medallions, is widely called a clone of which Nintendo classic?

The Legend of Zelda was the clear template, and reviewers even credited Neutopia with improving on it before faulting its long passwords and repetitive play.

Which rival console reached American test markets two weeks before the TurboGrafx-16 and quickly eclipsed it?

Sega Genesis came with a port of the arcade hit Altered Beast in the box, a far stronger draw than the little-known game packed in with the TurboGrafx-16.

Compile's TurboGrafx-16 hits Alien Crush and Devil's Crush are video game versions of which arcade pastime?

Pinball with a monstrous twist: Devil's Crush was censored in North America, where the pentagrams on its occult table were redrawn as plain stars.

Which bald caveboy, who flattens dinosaurs with his oversized forehead, served as the TurboGrafx-16's mascot?

Bonk headbutts his way through a prehistoric world to rescue Princess Za, a small pink reptile kidnapped by the villainous King Drool.

Which Capcom arcade game was ported to the TurboGrafx-CD as a launch title under a reshuffled name?

Street Fighter appeared on the add-on as Fighting Street, a port of the 1987 original that introduced six-button controls and command-based special moves.

Snatcher, a Super CD-ROM² adventure about hunting disguised humanoid robots, drew heavily on which film?

Blade Runner shaped its look and story: writer Hideo Kojima wanted a cinematic feel, and the game laid a foundation for themes he explored later in Metal Gear.

Which feature did the two extra switches on the TurboGrafx-16's bundled TurboPad controller give players?

Rapid fire at three speed settings turned one button press into a stream of shots, handy on a console whose library was packed with scrolling shooters.

Which Namco horror brawler about the Terror Mask carried a mock parental warning on its TurboGrafx-16 box?

Splatterhouse leaned on its gore in marketing, yet the North American version was toned down, even recolouring the hero's white mask red.

Which Japan-only 1993 Castlevania starring Richter Belmont led directly into Symphony of the Night?

Rondo of Blood later became the basis for Netflix's animated series Castlevania: Nocturne, and lets players unlock Richter's young relative Maria as a second hero.

Which company, dominant in Japan's computer market with its PC-98 line, manufactured the TurboGrafx-16?

NEC knew computers but lacked experience in games, so it partnered with a software house whose advanced graphics chips Nintendo had turned down.

Which game company, named after its founders' favourite locomotives, co-developed the TurboGrafx-16?

Hudson Soft was founded in Sapporo by two train-loving brothers, and its bee mascot Hachisuke nods to the company's origins in amateur radio.

What name was given to the thin, credit card-sized game cards that slot into the front of a TurboGrafx-16?

HuCard games were sold in North America as TurboChips, with eight connector pins reversed so that Japanese cards would not run on American consoles.

Which hero in a mechanical Nova Suit gave his name to the TurboGrafx-16's North American pack-in game?

Keith Courage in Alpha Zones was a reworked Japanese game based on the anime Mashin Hero Wataru, and its unfamiliar hero proved a weak draw beside a rival's arcade hit.

Which handheld, codenamed Game Tank, could play full TurboGrafx-16 game cards on a backlit colour screen?

TurboExpress was technically advanced for its time, but it launched at $249.99 and drained six AA batteries in about three hours.

Which company, owner of the original designer's game catalogue, released the TurboGrafx-16 Mini in 2020?

Konami sold the Mini exclusively through Amazon, and pandemic supply problems pushed its launch outside Japan back by about two months.

Which 32-bit successor to the TurboGrafx-16 line, launched in 1994, was sold only in Japan?

PC-FX lacked a 3D polygon graphics chip just as rivals went three-dimensional, and its failure led its maker to leave the console business altogether.

Which enhanced sibling of the Japanese TurboGrafx-16 was rushed to market in 1989 and sold only 75,000 units?

SuperGrafx added a second graphics chip and four times the memory, but so few games used the extra power that none of its upgrades carried over to later models.

Military Madness, a TurboGrafx-16 strategy game cited as a key influence on Dune II, is set on which world?

The Moon is the battlefield in 2089, where players capture lunar factories to stop an empire launching a doomsday missile at Earth.

Which American publisher, later famed for the Lunar series, localized Cosmic Fantasy 2 for the TurboGrafx-CD?

Working Designs was an early champion of CD-ROM for full spoken English dialogue, and its Cosmic Fantasy 2 was named the best RPG of 1992 by Electronic Gaming Monthly.

Which maze series let up to five players duel at once in its '93 edition on the TurboGrafx-16?

Bomberman '93 offered a timed five-player deathmatch, which needed a multitap accessory because the console had only a single controller port.

It Came from the Desert, remade for TurboGrafx-CD with live actors, pits players against which menace?

Giant ants, enlarged by radiation from a meteor, threaten a small California town in a story inspired by Them!, the 1954 mutant-insect film.

Which TurboGrafx-CD role-playing game starring Adol Christin was later bundled with the TurboDuo?

Ys Book I & II used the disc for recorded music, voiced dialogue and animated cutscenes, an early showcase for what CD-ROM could do on a home console.

Which TurboDuo shooter sends the knight Landis into combat in elemental armor to a hard rock soundtrack?

Lords of Thunder came from former Thunder Force staff, and players pick one of four armors based on the classical elements before each stage.

Which $970 Pioneer LaserDisc player could run TurboGrafx-16 games through an add-on module?

LaserActive took plug-in modules for a rival game system too, and each module cost about $600 on top of the player itself.

Which TurboGrafx-16 shooter began in Japan as a tie-in to the film Gunhed before losing its movie references?

Blazing Lazers was co-directed by the president of Compile, creator of Puyo Puyo, and won praise for its intense action and lack of slowdown.

Which Irem arcade shooter was split across two game cards in Japan but fit on one for the TurboGrafx-16?

R-Type on the TurboGrafx-16 has been called the most accurate home conversion of the arcade hit, and it even adds a boss to the end of Stage 6.

Which TurboGrafx-16 shooter reimagined the console's caveman mascot as a punkish hero of the future?

Air Zonk is a so-called cute 'em up, letting players team up with oddball companions such as a walking gumball machine or a mummy with a drill on its head.

TurboGrafx-16 games returned from 2006 on the Virtual Console service of which Nintendo system?

Wii owners could download the classics from 2006, including several titles that had originally never been released outside Japan.

The TurboGrafx-16's name was criticised as misleading because its central processor was actually of which type?

8-bit at its core, the machine took its name from a pair of 16-bit graphics processors that let it show hundreds of colours on screen at once.

Which European country got Japanese-model TurboGrafx-16 consoles in major shops through the importer Sodipeng?

France took to the imported console after enthusiastic press coverage, and units came with local-language instructions and a cable for SECAM televisions.

TurboGrafx's Japan-only Arcade Card upgrade launched with fighting-game ports from which rival system?

Neo Geo hits Fatal Fury 2 and Art of Fighting led the way, but the card never left Japan because support for the console was fading in North America.

Which TurboGrafx-16 launch platformer about the barbarian Gogan won game-of-the-year awards from two magazines for 1989?

The Legendary Axe built its combat around a rechargeable strength meter that sets how much damage each swing of the weapon deals.

Dragon's Curse and The Dynastic Hero are renamed TurboGrafx entries in which platform series?

Wonder Boy titles took new names on the console: Dragon's Curse is a port of The Dragon's Trap, first published for the Master System in 1989.

Parasol Stars, a Taito platformer made for the TurboGrafx-16, is the third game in which series?

Bubble Bobble heroes Bubby and Bobby return in the human forms they took in Rainbow Islands, the second game in the series.

Order of the Griffon, a TurboGrafx-16 tactical role-playing game by Westwood, is based on which tabletop game?

Dungeons & Dragons supplies the Mystara setting, and the game's turn-based combat resembles the Gold Box computer titles such as Pool of Radiance.

Which film designer, who worked on Aliens and Tron, lent his name to the TurboGrafx-CD shooter Terraforming?

Syd Mead designed the game's distinctive graphics, though Japanese reviewers who admired the look of the shooter found its gameplay subpar.

Which Lucasfilm Games adventure, played by casting four-note tunes on a distaff, reached the TurboGrafx-CD?

Loom casts players as Bobbin Threadbare, whose magical four-note drafts must be played entirely by ear on the game's expert setting.