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The TurboGrafx 16 was a video game console released by NEC in 1989, for the North American market.
The TurboGrafx 16 was an 8 bit system with a 16 bit graphics chip, capable of displaying 482 colors at once. The TurboGrafx 16, unusually, used a thin memory card storage medium called a HuCard, instead of the then-standard cartridge (they were named after Hudson Soft, who co-developed the system with NEC). The cards were similar to the card format used by the Sega Master System for budget games. Unlike the Sega Master System, however, the TurboGrafx used the cards exclusively. The TurboGrafx was also the first console to have a CD-ROM peripheral (the FM Towns Marty, however, was the first to have a CD-ROM built in).
The TurboGrafx was marketed as a direct competitor with the Sega Genesis, which launched in North America 6 months after the Turbo. The launch was accompanied by an ad campaign mocking NEC's claim that the Turbo was the first 16-bit console. The Genesis' Japanese counterpart, the Sega Mega Drive, was less popular than the NEC console, the PC Engine. In North America, however, the situation was reversed, and the Genesis is mainly remembered there for its rivalry with the Super Nintendo, not with the TurboGrafx 16.
Both Sega and NEC released CD peripherals ( Sega CD versus Turbo CD), color handhelds (Sega Game Gear versus TurboExpress), and even "TV Tuners" for their respective systems. While Sega outperformed NEC in North America, both companies' peripherals and handhelds were not terribly popular overall.
In 1994, comic book-like ads featuring Johnny Turbo were published by TTI (a company jointly owned by NEC and Hudson). The ads mocked Sega, in particular the Sega CD.
Several variations on the TurboGrafx were released throughout the 1990s.
In 1992 TTI released the TurboDuo, the North American version of the Japanese Duo. The system combined the TurboGrafx 16 and an enhanced version of the CD-ROM drive (the "Super CD-ROMē") into a single unit. The system could play audio CDs, CD+Gs, CD-ROM2 and Super CD games as well as standard Hucards. The Super System Card required for some games was built in.
The TurboExpress was a portable version of the TurboGrafx, released in 1990Events January January 3 Former leader of Panama Manuel Noriega surrenders to American forces. January 7 The Leaning Tower of Pisa is closed to the public due to safety concerns. January 9 Lt Gen Bazilio Olara Okello The man who led the coup aginst Dr Apo. It was the most advanced handheld of its time and could play all the TG-16's games. Its Japanese equivalent was the PC Engine GT. It had a 2.6 inch screen, the same as the original Game BoyThe Game Boy ( Japanese: ) is a series of battery powered handheld game consoles sold by Nintendo. It is the best selling game system to date. The Game Boy was the second portable system created by Nintendo (the first being the Game & Watch series startin, and could display 64 sprites at once, 16 per scanline, in 482 colors. It had 8 kilobytes of RAM. The Turbo ran its two 6502 CPUs at 7.2 megahertzA megahertz (MHz is one million (106) hertz, a measure of frequency. Megahertz in radio When used in the context of radio, MHz refers to the number of oscillations of electromagnetic radiation. Severel parts of the radio spectrum fall into the MHz range:.