The Top Ten TurboCD TurboDuo CD Games

Of all the video game consoles I’ve played, the one that holds a special place in my retrogaming heart continues to be that poor doomed also-ran in the Sega Genesis/Super Nintendo Wars: the NEC TurboGrafx-16.

This is the TurboGrafx-16 with the TurboCD attachment.

What makes the TurboGrafx so special to me? Perhaps it is because of my love for a good underdog against the favorite of the great unwashed, perhaps it was the console’s design, or perhaps it was the because of the amazing peripherals NEC offered for their system.  Regardless, it will always be my first choice when heading back to the 90s for retrogaming (yes, I realize it was released in North America in 1989…most of the games came later!) Picking up a TurboCD and a Super System Card was one of my best gaming investments back in the day.  There were some fabulous CD games that I played over the years, some of which I was not able to pick up until a decade later!  Here’s a small list of my favorite TurboCD games, some requiring the Super System Card, some not, but all worth playing!

Loom for the TurboGrafx-16 TurboCD

I’ve written about the wonders of Loomelsewhere, so I’ll be brief: this game is well worth playing. This is a beautiful game on the TurboCD, with enhanced music and gameplay based upon the original IBM-PC diskette version, but with the better graphic capabilities of the TurboCD.  It does not feature any voice acting, but the story and gameplay is wonderful, regardless. After all, this is a LucasArts adventure game; how can you go wrong?

Prince of Persia for the TurboCD

One of the finest platformers ever to grace any gaming system, Prince of Persia for the TurboCD has the same flair as the original, with the added feature of animated cutscenes with voice acting to help propel the storyline.  A little note for those who think Prince of Persia is based on Disney’s Aladdin movie: the original Prince of Persia was released in 1989, and Aladdin hit the movie theatre circuit in 1992.  Hmm…tell me again who influenced whom?

Ys I & II for the TurboDuo

Way back in 1987, a game called Ys I: Ancient Ys Vanished was released, and the game was successful enough to not only be ported over to several game systems (including an excellent Sega Master System version), but to also spawn a sequel one year later: Ys II: Ancient Ys Vanished – The Final Chapter. The TurboDuo game Ys Book I & II is a remake of these two games, with better graphics, animated cutscenes, better sound, and, of course, voice acting. Ultimately, the game was considered one of the best games of its genre, with contemporary game reviewers giving it perfect or near-perfect scores. This is another Turbo CD must-have!

Bonk 3 for the TurboDuo

Back in 1993, the TurboGrafx CD system was nearing the end of its product life, and one of the last games released in North America for NEC’s gaming system was Bonk 3: Bonk’s Big Adventure. The game was released in both SuperCD and HuCard format, and the game was identical on both, except the CD version had much better audio. Bonk 3 was much like the previous two games in the series, with the added element of being able to play cooperatively with another player – two Bonks for the price of one!

Gate of Thunder for the TurboDuo

In 1992, NEC was selling the TurboDuo system in North America, and to help show off just what it could do, Gate of Thunderwas added as one of four games on a “pack-in” game CD.  This was a kind of shooter that gamers dreamed about, with incredible action, switchable and power-up weaponry, the ability to tackle enemies from both the front and the rear, interesting level design and compelling gameplay. If all TurboCD games were like this one, NEC would have won the Console Wars!

Lords of Thunder for TurboDuo

Billed as a sequel to the impressive shooter Gate of Thunder (albeit in a fantasy setting, not sci-fi), Lords of Thunderis a bold testament to the what a gifted programming team could do with the TurboGrafx CD technology.  Seven levels that you can select from at will (with one more final level available when you complete the others!), awesome power-ups, colorful and imaginative backgrounds and unique enemies…plus killer heavy metal guitar licks on the soundtrack all add up to making this an incredible game!

Might and Magic III for the TurboDuo

Once upon a time RPGs were designed so that the player could move throughout the game world at will, either following the overarching storyline or not, and generally staying off the linear express that modern RPGs have become. One such game was Might & Magic III: Isle of Terra, which was ported to the TurboCD, losing none of its charms on the way. The game was extremely challenging, requiring time spent on outfitting your party, mapping corridors, tracking inventory, and overcoming obstacles, whether those obstacles were monster encounters or difficult riddles to solve, all of which put off the casual gamer. However, those with the gaming fortitude love of RPGs found Might & Magic III: Isle of Terra a game that they couldn’t say “NO” to. And neither should you!  Some of the marketing decisions that NEC and TurboCD game developers made were considerably suspect.

As an example, let me present the North American game Monster Lair, which would have been much better known (and received) had they used its real name, Wonder Boy III. The Wonder Boy series had its own following, so what possessed NEC to drop the “Wonder Boy” part of the title is a mystery.  Regardless, this game is an excellent platformer, colorful, fast-paced, and imaginative. Another must-have for anyone’s TurboCD collection!

DragonSlayer for the TurboDuo

Falcom, the developers who designed the Ys series, returned to the TurboCD console to create another RPG that has made my Top Ten List: Dragonslayer: The Legend of Heroes. This is a good “pick-up” RPG, in that you can get into the game quickly, but it is also highly addictive – very much in the Final Fantasy realm of console gaming. The game plays quickly and smoothly, and has an interesting option of switching between PSG (Programmable Sound Generator) or CD music files, which can affect the game speed. The only complaint I might have with this game is the voice acting quality, but considering the general state of voice acting in games during the early 90s, it’s well within industry standards of the time!

Dungeon Explorer II for the TurboDuo

The first Dungeon Explorer game was an action-RPG hybrid HuCard, good enough to make the Top Ten TurboGrafx-16 HuCard Games list. Its sequel, Dungeon Explorer II, was even better, with all the gameplay of the original – a simplified combat and magic using system, outstanding inventory acquisition and deployment, as well as the ever-present theme of dungeon delving – but with the added benefit of CD quality sound.  This game was a showcase on how to use music to enhance the mood by altering to fit the location, sometimes airy and light, and sometimes dark and forbidding. The trouble with finding this game today is its rarity; the PAL version is readily available, but the NTSC version fetches hundred of dollars online.

I can hear the outcry from TurboDuo gamers: “You forgot the best game of all, Dracula X!”  Well, not really. Dracula X: Rondo of Blood was only an import in North America, and not readily available on the shelves of any retail store.  It is true that it was an amazing game – perhaps the best game of the entire TurboDuo lineup – but as an import, it’s disqualified from the list of best TurboCD games available in North America. Remember, at the time there wasn’t an eBay or Amazon (or even magisterrex.com) to turn to for your games; you either went to the video game store to buy what you wanted or you mailed away for them. My, how times have changed!

Ultimately, any of the games presented on this list are worth buying and playing, and each well-represents the long-past, but never-forgot, NEC TurboGrafx-16 CD video game system!

Book Review – Before The Crash: Early Video Game History

There has always been a profound differences between academic and non-academic writers, from simple execution of grammar and punctuation to assuming a more nuanced approach.  Often the analysis and research are more in-depth, and quotations or declarations of knowledge are cited, permitting the reader to pursue the issue further to either support or repudiate the writer’s claims. In short, these works tend to engage the mind to develop a deeper understanding of the subject, and Before The Crash: Early Video Game History is such a book.

Before The Crash: Early Video Game History (2012)

Before The Crash: Early Video Game History is composed of a series of essays, each with a very specific focus on some aspect of gaming prior to the Great Video Game Crash of 1983-1985. There are a variety of fascinating subjects here, ranging from a compelling argument for the recognition of Stereoscopes as the earliest precursors of the video game system, to a clarification of the Magnavox patent and how it was applied by the courts, to a description of the first historic video game crash of 1977, to a discussion on the historical cultural lessons gleaned from a perusal of an Atari product catalog, to a study on ASCi-II based BBS (Bulletin Board Systems) and Multi-User Dungeons (MUD) and how they influenced the development of online gaming. There are many more – TWELVE in all – each bringing forth some tidbit of knowledge, meticulously argued or outlined for the eager reader to absorb and ponder.

The book’s editor, Mark J.P. Wolf, is a Professor in the Communication Department at Concordia University Wisconsin, with a Ph.D. from the School of Cinema/Television at the University of Southern California. He is an accomplished author with many previous works in the video game culture field, including The Medium of the Video Game (2001), Virtual Morality: Morals, Ethics, and New Media (2003), The Video Game Theory Reader (2003), and The World of the D’ni: Myst and Riven (2006).  As a leader in the field, he has compiled work from a variety of experts ranging from fellow academics including Erkki Huhtamo, professor of media history and theory at the University of California; Sheila C. Murphy, associate professor in the Department of Screen Arts & Cultures at the University of Michigan; and Zach Whalen, an assistant professor in the Department of English, Linguistics and Communication at the University of Mary Washington, and related industry experts, including intellectual property attorney Ross A. Dannenberg, engineer and accomplished inventor Ralph H. Baer, and “ground floor” game creator and designer Tim Skelly.  There is a tremendous level of knowledge that is represented by individuals of this caliber, and it shows in this book.

This is not to say that every essay contains the most riveting material, nor are all essays written in a compelling manner. The world of academia contains a broad range of writing styles and abilities; some writers are capable of capturing the interest of readers with the right mixture of brevity and verbosity, while others appear unable to form a sentence without the aid of obscure, multisyllable words that do nothing to drive their argument forward, but everything to cement their place as an academic through the liberal use of shibboleths. I am not a fan of such writing, as it is designed to exclude readers from the very start, making it an odd choice for an educator to employ. But I digress…

A more exciting and subtle aspect of the contributor list is the significant portion of graduate students and recent doctoral candidates (at the time of publication) writing on the subject of video game culture and history, including individuals like Jessica Aldred, a doctoral candidate and researcher with the Hypertext and Hypermedia Lab at Carleton University; Carly A. Kocurek, a doctoral candidate in American Studies at the University of Texas; and Staci Tucker, a PhD student and teaching fellow of Communication and Society in the School of Journalism and Communication at the University of Oregon.  On first blush, it would appear that video game culture is becoming more and more recognized as a worthy area of research and study, and is clearly a growing field.  Perhaps it is a case of those original arcade gamers growing up, or perhaps it is the sheer size of the industry ($16.9 billion in 2010 and $16.6 billion in 2011) that is attracting more study. Whatever the reason, there is joy to be found in the realization that the academic sector that embraces video game study is growing!

Sample graphic used within Before The Crash: Early Video Game History

As for the general layout, again, it must be remembered that this book is not a coffee table edition filled with glossy photographs and pithy writing, but presented in a more austere fashion.  The type-font is small, as each essay is robust and does not require the padding of increased font sizes to improve the page count (which still manages to achieve 272 pages in length).  There are a few illustrations and photographs scattered throughout (40 in all), used as exhibits for the purpose of clarification or identification, none of which are in color, but none needing to be in color. The austere vibe the book projects serves as a reminder that it is not a book to be speed-read while stretching out at the beach; this book requires attention and reflection, reading one essay at a time and giving each its just due.

Before the Crash: Early Video Game History is not a book for everyone, but for those with an appetite for the cultural significance of video games and a desire to learn more on their impact and context within North American history, this book should be considered a “Must Read” volume.  Anyone purchasing it should prepare to be challenged, entertained, but above all, educated. I certainly enjoyed reading it, some essays more than others, but finding something of worth to be ruminated upon within each and every one.  Highly recommended!

Before The Crash: Early Video Game History is published by Wayne State University Press, a non-profit mid-sized publisher of several series, including the Painted Turtle Books series, Made in Michigan Writers series, and the Great Lakes Books series. Before The Crash can be purchased from their website, located HERE, or by phoning direct at (800) WSU-READ.

Advertising From Yesteryear…Star Wars: Jedi Arena

Comic books in the 1980s and 1990s provided game publishers to market their wares to a  receptive audience, using the power of crisp comic book art to sell games, distracting potential buyers from the small windows of real screens. Sometimes the realms of comic books, video games, and Hollywood intertwined, such as in 1983, when Parker Brothers advertised their Atari 2600 game, Star Wars: Jedi Arena on the back page of Marvel Comics’ The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones. What a combination: the movie magic of Steven Spielberg’s & George Lucas’ Indiana Jones brought to a comic book format, the Star Wars universe, and the Atari 2600 gaming system, all intertwined simultaneously! How could the game be anything less than awesome?!?

Well, it turned out that Star Wars: Jedi Arena was a dog of a game, and proof that just because Parker Brothers had a movie license and made great board games, didn’t mean that they could make great video games.

As always, click on the image below to see an enlarged version, and enjoy the trip into yesteryear!

Ad for Star Wars: Jedi Arena

My Obligatory E3 Post

It seems that everyone and their dog (and cat) are writing about the 2012 Electronics Entertainment Expo, better known as E3 to all those “in the know.” Rather than missing out on all the thrilling news about the latest sequel to multiple long-running franchises from the Big Three game systems, I’d thought I’d put up this obligatory post.

The E3 Post, complete with awe inspiring photoshop skills.