Re: reading material
> now a question the book broght up an intresting point did Nintendo > strangehold on the market keep the TG-16 from getting better games? remeber > saying yes to this means you think the TG-16 DID NOT have good games (hmmm > let the flames begin!! hahahahaahahaha ahem.) The TurboGrafx-16's problems were a bit more complex than that. Nintendo's hold on the market may have kept some developers firmly entrenched in their pants; however, that had nothing to do with the quality of games released on the Turbo. That's a silly assertion. Honestly, bringing the PC Engine over to the states was an insane notion that was doomed to fail from day one. The library of games out for the system at the time (1989) were generally not what the doctor ordered over on this side of the pond, and the system had no third party publishers who were original Japanese developers of said software. This left NEC at the helm, and they seemed to have left some insane lunatic in charge of choosing the products which they licensed and brought over. Compounded with the prohibitive price of the CD drive (and lack of titles for it), they certainly weren't faring well at all. You could generally look at the Turbo library around 1990 here in the states and definitely say that overall it sucked. There was little there to spark any interest from the U.S. consumer. Of course, it didn't fare any better with time, despite some intelligent releases downstream. Now, as far as the "better games" comment goes, that's absurd. No developer sat down and figured..."Gee, Nintendo has a greater market share, so I must make a crappy game since I'm developing it for the number two console (in Japan, that is)." Hold on...maybe NEC Avenue thought that. The PC Engine was home to many, many, many quality, well programmed titles, and some of these were also released for the Famicom (a side-by-side comparison of them on both systems will surely dispell this nonsense). Therefore, my short take on the situation: - NEC, not Nintendo, kept the system from getting better games which were available in Japan. You cannot do it alone. Further proof that you cannot succeed without established third party support...a fact which some companies have failed to learn since (TTi, Atari, and 3D0 come to mind). I suspect that Microsoft will come to realize this also. Also, NEC's idea of great exclusives were poor titles like Darkwing Duck, Camp California, and Yo Bro. And...no...Icom Simulations would not be anyone's "Dream Team" member. And buffering your lacking sports lineup (important in the U.S.) with Cinemaware titles isn't a wise thing. Geez...I could go on and on. - It is questionable whether the "better games" from Japan would have made a difference anyhow, as many were in areas uncomfortable (at the time...times have changed) to the U.S. consumer. However, it surely wouldn't have hurt. Yeah, I would have passed on Darius Plus and brought out Deep Blue if I was in charge. Geez. - The apathy of the U.S. consumer toward this "quality" library pretty much sunk it. When you have one company at the helm, it takes money to secure licenses and it takes money to translate games. If you don't have that positive cashflow, the best you can hope for are quick, cheap ports of games which can be done so quickly. Often times, that cuts out some of the better games which would take a bit more effort and time. When TTi finally got it right and released the Duo over here, they even did worse, promising game after game from Japan and hardly following through. Therefore, you had many good titles left in Japan, and still nobody cared. It's a shame that a system known in Japan for it's RPGs and strategy titles (aside from shooters) would have very few released over here. That's the true pity in all of this. I could really go on and on, but anyone who ever says that the system had no game worth playing needs to sample the Japanese wares. I was one of those people until 1991 when I turned to the dark side. Ten years later, I'm still enjoying my PC Engine experiences, and I'm still buying software for the system. As an aside, one time it was mentioned in GameFan that NEC would have fared better if they had released the SuperGrafx with CD in the states. That's great logic. Although you could play the regular Turbo titles, you are now talking about a more expensive system with no Japanese support other than the system's developer, Hudson Soft, and it's producer, NEC. That would have gone over well. Thud. I challenge anybody to figure out a way the TurboGrafx-16 line could have succeeded in the U.S. Despite popular opinion, releasing Akumajo Dracula X in 1993 surely wouldn't have done it, as the system was pretty much entering its final two years as a viable platform in Japan, and that is just one title, although good. It was the wrong system in the wrong place at all of the wrong times. Given that the system has achieved a large cult following in the U.S. in recent years, it's a shame that these people were MIA when the system needed them the most. I did my best to support my system with U.S. games, cleverly dodging the crap games and centering on the few good releases. Unfortunately, all of the time I was doing this, I was sinking a lot of money into imports. I did the same with the Saturn. While in the back of my mind I didn't want to admit it, I knew what was coming and I knew that importing was the only way to secure important releases. I just didn't want to be there when it was over whining and crying like so many people do about why a certain game didn't make it over. You certainly cannot resurrect a dead system, no matter how many new games you bring out. We're seeing this now with the Dreamcast. Yet some people think that if people start buying games that Sega will start magically producing the system again. That is as likely as Sega producing a "Super 256X" hardware upgrade to be jammed into the PS2 just so you can play a finished copy of Virtua Hamster.