Wow! Thank you for that amazing backstory I love reading them. What an incredible bit of luck to end up with that system and games as a kid in Brazil. Even in the US most didn’t have access to all those games you had! I love that you still have your original system and games. Did you have a favorite game you played the most out of them all?

Better yet, we were lucky to have chosen the Turbo as nobody else around usually had one. We got to play Genesis and Snes games plenty with our friends as everybody had one or the other. Once I found local import shops to rent all the great games that weren’t seeing US release it was like a floodgate of great games to play. Would do it all again given the choice. I try to share what made them so good in these videos. These two histories were still my favorite to make and I’ve even researched them myself haha.

Thank you man. I won't lie all that editing was a ton of work, I can't plan that for every vide. But for historical and exposition heavy stuff like this it made sense.

Yes it really didn't disappoint as well too and I can say business is rough especially in this day and age.

Well, let's hope when someone types junkie I'm not the first too hahahaha. I'll take shmup any time though, I never really imagined when I decided to make some PCE mini reviews I would be able to do a small part in bringing some popularity back to the genre.

Thanks! A lot of people I’ve met recently have felt the same way, and loved discovering many of these games they never knew at the time. It makes total sense you had the other systems. You really couldn’t compare the turbografx to them in terms of support and library in the US. Unless you were lucky enough to live in a launch city like I did and also have access to great import shops, it was slim pickings. I’m just thankful Konami released the mini as it renewed interest for many that hadn’t played it before or known many of the good games. I got to play all the great genesis and snes games through friends anyway so I was glad to have something different and share those games with them too.

Passion projects for sure, I put a ton of time into them. Not to cover every little detail of what happened but more for the fans and to get new players interested.

It truly sure is and you can only wonder about what was going on in these peoples minds of the higher ups or any business that seems too good to be true or launching a product. As you can see in other videos about things that failed or places from long ago that are now gone.

Those little skits were a ton of work too, just putting the 20-25min together was a task. But it was worth it and made the exposition more entertaining. I always wanted to do an episode of robot chicken so this is about as close as I'll get haha.

I've just kept trying to keep learning new things with editing and tricks as I make more videos over time. I can't do this with every vid, it's just too time consuming, but it fit perfectly for the exposition here and was the perfect chance to use it. I'm stoked you started messing with Nexzr and look forward to hearing your thoughts on it once you clear it, which shouldn't be too bad on normal. You'll dig it for the music alone, it has this electonic 80s vibe I dig. Like I'm watching an old 80s flick.

Your situation was duplicated across most of the US, with most not knowing it, or not getting proper access to it. NEC didn't commit and they paid for it. It wasn't your fault you couldn't even find the games at local stores. So as much as marketing and such was a part, they didn't even get enough distribution of games out to smaller towns and cities across the country. Only so many people are going to go through that trouble so it's expected. At least now hopefully lots more people are trying out the games they never did before.

@@ShmupJunkie I am glad you had a chance to play these games on the original hardware, you do a great job of letting everyone know just how great these games were and still are.

It's come full circle. I started the channel to do those mini reviews, and even if they are old school and my basic editing was crap, I had fun with them and people enjoyed watching. And now at one year I wanted to do the system proud given the new techniques I learned. I'm also still stoked a Compile history video for such a niche name/dev did so well. I was glad to get the name out there more too.

7:07 YEEEEEAAAAH!!!!!That music is still sounds gorgeous!^^

Would you be so kind and post the list of every game footage you used in this video with time codes? Pretty please!!^^

@@oldfan4049 Dude how much free time you think I have? Hahaha jk. I actually tried to post which games everything is in a lot of the video, it just doesn’t work in some of the sections. If there are 4-5 games you really want to know most just post the time here and I’ll reply what they are for sure 👍🏻

@@ShmupJunkie It's MORE than 4-5 games I think.... 0:12 0:19 0:21 2:11 (lower right) 3:38 (upper right) 3:45 (that beach girl) 3:49/15:40/15:50/16:17/19:38 5:21 5:24 5:56/20:44 9:38 16:04 18:10 18:30 19:52 19:55 19:58 20:01 20:04 20:07 20:47 20:50 20:53 21:55 22:46 22:52

Wow I didn’t realize that. I knew it had a big grey market and always knew it was very expensive to import for those that wanted it. Why even go through the trouble I wonder. You figure if they are selling units even through importers they are still selling hardware. Will never completely understand many of the bad or silly decisions, but at least in the US it was mostly poor choices and not malicious until the end where they just wanted out. It always fascinates me to hear perspectives from others on the ground where I didn’t hear the back story and this kind of info isn’t really out there. If I could ever compile enough info on the European side it would make for an interesting segment one day too.

They must be jealous that Japan can make better games than them XD

A video on what went wrong in Europe for the PC Engine would be interesting. In Spain it was distributed by just one man. One man in charge of distribution doing everything by himself. In France it had a bigger following, even the Japanese games were reviewed in big gaming magazines such as Consoles +. And I mean not just in the import section, but as if they were European published, along with Nintendo and Sega games.

That's what I like to hear man. I get tired of all the one upsmanship. It was fun talking smack as kids at the time, but we still all played each others systems and enjoyed all the games. We got to enjoy all of them. It's hard to imagine missing out on any one of them, even if we have our own favorites.

I agree, my favorite system was my turbo duo.

Thanks. It's something that came up as I was researching overall sales globally. I was surprised to see neither sold more than the PC Engine overall, which is impressive considering the PCE really only sold in Japan and poorly in the US. It's all about the games, and in the end that's what we remember.

@@ShmupJunkie Accurate sales data is SO hard to get at. On the one hand we have reports that NEC never sold through the original 750k units they manufactured for the US, and yet in other sources we see as many as 1.7 million TG-16 units sold in the US. Then we see some folks adding CD-ROM system unit sales to total unit sales as a separate line item from Duo sales even though their footnote references a source that seems to include those numbers in with the Duo sales numbers already (though those numbers are for Japan only). Historical unit sales is just a hot mess and best guess is the best we can do.

@@brandonwalker9066 I hear you on that. In interviews with actual TTi members I read they had to sell off remaining tg16 units to South America so likely how they finally “sold through” the rest. 1.7mil seems far fetched for US numbers. And we have sega and Nintendo both claiming they sold the most in NA each with their own statistics haha. Hot mess indeed but not much relevant now aside from bragging rights.

I love my saturn and the imports

And it was all over from there right haha. Blazing Lazers along with that RType port made me an instant fan. What an amazing set of early shooter releases to have.

@@ShmupJunkie I never really played any shooters on my NES but my uncle was into them. He got R-Type a few weeks later and my love affair with shooters took off.

I know right? I don’t think anything could’ve brought them back from the brink at that point and NEC just didn’t care any longer. But it certainly would’ve sold systems and brought it attention. The Duo could’ve done it well and it would’ve kept all the gore unlike the censored Nintendo release. I actually owned a PCFX what a disappointment that was. I could do a video on it one day but I fear it’d bomb as badly as that console did 🤣

I just wish I never sold any of them! At least back then. Now getting them back is a small fortune. The NES and PCE/Turbo were my two all time favorite nostalgic system to play and the two I will be playing most when I'm too old to still be any good at them.

@@ShmupJunkie Well, I still have a few NES goodies left like Guardian Legend but I also sold them to pay off my house and save on space. Another great thing about collecting for the Turbografx-16 is how compact everything is.

I’ve seen so many of the Champ’s KZfaq videos that when I read his KZfaq comments I can hear his voice

Hey man! Yeah the old days, with my OG PC Engine mini reviews and headbanging to LoT haha. It was literally just a year ago but feels like forever. Don't know if that's good or bad, but I'm still having fun. Really glad you liked it man. I wanted to do something special for the one year of my channel and couldn't think of a better way than honoring the system that made me start it in the first place.

Sounds like you got hooked up, their loss was your gain. That's really rare to know that many with one. I lived in a big city and of all my friends I was the only one.

I had a script three times longer haha. There is so much you want to say and do, but ultimately I chose to cut a lot and keep it short and fun. Cover the overall big stuff and not sweat every detail. You and I were the lucky ones that did have it in our lives, see all the ads, and know the good games that existed. For many others it was non existent and they didn’t even get the chance.

@@ShmupJunkie That's pretty sad, if you ask me. I will say, as far as that impact on my life, that was the console that introduced me to Splatterhouse. You know what happened after that.

I was the only kid I knew that bought one in high school. A few years ago, I found out one of my coworkers got one back then too. It was cool to talk about the system and games with someone who actually had it. I sold my original TG-16 to get a SNES because of the lack of games and I didn't want to buy the expensive CD add on. A few years later, I got into import gaming and got a used TurboDuo at a gaming store and started getting a lot of the Japan exclusive games that were so cool.

At least they gave us the mini recently, so we will always have that. But it's true I don't expect too much from Konami these days. They were a different company when they combined with Hudson and intended to use them (and did for a while). But things change, as is often the case.

They literally produced and shipped the Turbografx, Coregrafx, and PC Engine mini’s not that long ago. Something I thought would never happen.

Hopefully Konami going "Fuck it, we'll let other studios use our IPs" will lead to something good, but seeing as the latest result of that is Contra: Rogue Corps I'm not getting my hopes up too high.

@@darkridearts yeah... I picked up a tg mini from japan amazon early after release. Then rumors it was hacked.... Here it is almost a year later and not a peep. A hacked mini would of been all i needed but it didnt happen so ended up buying a supergrafx, a core grafx and a supersdsystem3 😣😜

I don't know how expensive it must have been trying to buy one or the games in the UK, but I imagine quite a bit. Not for the average joe on the import market. It was even a little pricier than usual here in normal stores. I'm just glad you have one now and can enjoy more games down the road once you nab a good everdrive for it. If you ever streamed splatterhouse one day I would try to be ready to watch in advance and maybe provide some tips. I just hope you're feeling alright these days buddy.

@@ShmupJunkie Cheer dude. I grabbed an Everdrive from our mutual friend :0), last year and do enjoy playing on it from time-to-time. I need to reorganise the gaming setup again (a major ordeal for me LOL, it takes about 8hrs to strip and recable, too tired for that kind of effort right now) so I can enjoy it more often and when ever I want. I think the controller might be the issue as I recently saw a video and it doesn't seem to jump as high for me. I have a reliable local source who I've brought a few Hue Card games from, who reckons he can get me a new unused original controller so working on that and Ill let you know how it goes.

Dude that sucks. You just gave him all that and he left it to rot. Who knows what happened to them. He can kick himself now for what they may have been worth, but sucks either way. I honestly am not great at working on these systems and don't trust my soldering skills to do recaps and such, though I wish I did. I actually need to send in my Express for some maintenance as it's having minor issues. I don't risk messing with it myself. It's very cool to have enough practice to do it on your own. By the time MK would have been a thing, it could have been a Duo game, so the port could've been pretty bad ass if it happened. There's lots of stuff I cut and couldn't even mention either. Other SNK ports like King of Monsters series could've been a thing too and was shot down. The good relationship Victor Ireland and working designs had with them was one of the bright spots, and the RPGs they ported to the system in english was much appreciated. Most of the good RPGs were on CD and not hucard, but if you ever get an SSDS3 or similar you can play them. I had clips from Cosmic Fantasy 2 (which was translated by working designs) and Legend of Xanadu 2 in some of these clips. There are definitely some beginner friendly shooters on the system. I mentioned one, Star Parodier in my Shmups for Beginners video just recently. But some other easy ones would be Coryoon which is also a really cool and cute game. Cybercore isn't too bad either. Both of those are hucard so you can play them on the everdive. Spriggan is really cool and not very hard, as well as Sylphia, both by Compile. But those are both CD games.

@@ShmupJunkie I recently told my buddy what some of them old games are worth now and hes kicking himself in the ass. He had a rough homelife back then so I understand him just needing to get out of his parents house. Anyway... I do have a ssds3 and a supercdrom2 so will check out some of those shooters,rpg's, and some of your other videos. I just recently found out about cheats that can be patched into the rom files from the everdrive forum and going to be checking that out soon. I wish I had a turboexpress or gt, i remember drooling over them years before the game gear came out. Sadly even the non working ones on japan auctions go for high dollar

@@LameGaming Yeah at this point the express is for nostalgia. It’s really nice with the lcd upgrade. But they are just too pricey unless you collect or have nostalgia for it. I was excited for the analogue pocket as a great portable alternative for classics but it quickly became impossible to get.

Thanks man, super time consuming of course. Only gonna do that for special historical stuff like this. No way can I do that on every video haha

You're likely very right about the Tom Kalinske thing and his influence, I have been hearing a lot including today from others too his complete influence may be exaggerated. But that is what great marketers also do, so no surprise there haha. In the end, whether it was him, a great staff he put together or that was there, or maybe unsung heroes, I very vividly recall how insanely popular and effective those ad campaigns were after the first year. So many people were jumping on the sega bandwagon because it was cool in my age group and many of my friends. Not just the genesis does ads, but the scream ads, the really funny sports ads they kept making with the big name stars, it was very prevalent. NEC had nearly nothing going on by comparison. And they pushed and supported the right games for the time that got people excited, with the right cover art... theirs was the best overall. They made the right connections, went after the right age groups and the older crowd instead of going for younger kids and nintendo. They could have made any system succeed and sell well despite any hardware failings it may have had. That's why I said in the video, despite all of NEC's screw ups, it was really about how well Sega killed it. Maybe not right out of the gate, but by the second and third year they were rolling, especially with the price drop and Sonic etc. I was honestly glad to have the turbo since I enjoyed the games so much, and I got to play all the great sega games with friends. And eventually SNES. If I hadn't had one, I would have missed out on the games as well.

Hey man, I'm glad you enjoyed the video. And honestly, all I did and showed wasn't directed at your video at all. It wasn't until you pointed it out in my first video and I went back to watch yours, that I saw many of the references. A lot of those points in terms of confusing marketing and NEC's mistakes have been written about over the years so many times, that I was honestly referencing the overall accepted opinion in general and definitely not targeting your video. In fact I really enjoyed yours and they were all good and valid points (which I did say in the video btw). While not being a Sega expert myself, my take is mainly that being there and growing up around it and with it, it was pretty clear how well marketed Sega was, and how the majority of all my friends simply flocked to them and their system. Heck their marketing and games got me hyped too and I was always excited to play over at their place too. I don't think had anything NEC done differently aside from having an equally amazing campaign and going all out would have changed it. It simply would have made them moderately more successful versus just a commercial flop by never committing to any particular strategy. A much better NEC staff could have at least insured some third party support, but I give Sega all the credit in the world. NEC was tentative and Sega went all out. I totally respect your and other's take on it btw, and I'm sure I'll enjoy anything you put together in the future too, as I enjoyed your first one. However! I am always about hooking up fellow tubers, and while I don't know if it was appropriate to directly mention your video, as I honestly wasn't making a counterpoint to it directly, I like your idea of referencing your video as a counterpoint or alternate perspective. So I am going to edit my top comment now and put in a link to your video there as I am glad to. I don't know how many people actually look at and click on those things, but I can at least include it. In the end my main goal is getting new people excited about the system and games while also making a fun nostalgia video for fans. These videos are certainly not thorough historically, I had to cut out tons of content from my script just to keep it entertaining and watchable. Please do hit me up if/when you do make something as I will surely enjoy watching it. And it won't bother me in the slightest if you tear my perspective apart haha. This is all from my anecdotal lens of growing up during that time for me personally.

@@ShmupJunkie I’ll definitely hit you up, but I’m not going to tear anything apart haha To me this is all just really fun to talk about, because like you, I really love this time period in videogame history. For me, it was the best, and I still sort of think the seeds of the best possible future are contained within this same past. I also think there are important lessons to be learned here for all would be marketers for videogames, chiefly, as you say....its about the games stupid. You give people the best product, at the best price, without subterfuge or chicanery.....a real service....then people will keep coming back. Nintendo wasn’t as flashy or aggressive as either TTI or Sega in North America but theyve always delivered the highest possible quality games and consoles at a highly competitive price. They’ve survived everything because of that, I think. Anyway, we’ll definitely talk about this video down the road!

I agree on the SEGA thing. As someone who lives outside of America yet has friends all over the world, it is rare to see SEGA mentioned to the height of their supposed popularity. I'd be looking forward to a collaboration between both your channels by the way. Bringing attention to an era now lost and left in the magazines we used to read as kids, you bring up excellent stuff.

@@dr_ubo it really was an amazing time for videogames

It created quite a following in France, as I still have some friends I chat with there that are big fans of the console. It seems many Japanese companies aside from Nintendo were good at getting in the way of their own success, at least NEC and Sega. Nintendo really had the monopoly on properly running their international business despite being conservative themselves. It really took Sony coming along and smacking everyone down including Nintendo to force them into the next century in terms of running a competitive global operation. The 90s was still the Wild West of gaming.

​@@ShmupJunkie France was quite the exception back then, because while the NES somewhat struggling, Sega had their own nice little succes with the Master system that was quite popular here. The NES was pretty hard to find because of distribution problems, and it was the same for the games (it took months just to get Zelda or Zelda 2 widely available in stores). It wasn't until Bandai took over distribution here in 1989 or 1990 that the system could properly settle. This left a wide open space for other systems to fill, and Sega happily took the job. This is also probably why when the first PC Engines were unofficially imported in 1987, it made such a strong impression. This is a fascinating time period to study, as you mentionned. Everything was still to be made and the competition was fierce, which means more great games for us !

I'm really glad you found me and this channel. This was part two of the series, in case you missed the first one, which focused on the PC Engine and was also really cool. It's good to meet and find new Turbo enthusiasts that had one growing up. We definitely knew things weren't going well as less and less games started releasing. Once the Duo came out I didn't think too much of it, as I was playing everything from the import stores and renting them too. But right in between I was starting to wonder how much longer I can go without any new games releasing. Blazing is what got me fully into wanting to play many more shooters, so I owe it and Compile.

Thank you. I think once they gave american kids a chance, they saw we jumped all over it just like other countries. They didn't know better at the time.

I follow him from my IG account, he doesn't post much, but I did read some articles with his interviews, so I got the gist of it. It reminds me of that song, they tried so hard and got so far, but to Japan, it didn't even matter haha. I could've used that if it wouldn't hit me with a copyright claim.

@@ShmupJunkie LOL! I did enjoy some of the artwork and animations in this episode, pretty funny stuff! Yeah it was neat to get some insight from the man himself about trying to get some of those Japanese-only titles over here... maybe if they'd at least tried with more of them the Duo would've taken off, or at least been able to keep up with SEGA and NIntendo?!

I can only imagine what would have happened if it DID happen; just imagine the original dub of C:SotN but somehow a hundred fifty times worse, given the quality of overdubs in the early 90s. Game itself would still be baller... what sort of YT Poops could netizens have squeezed from that potential?

@@NotABot55 oh that's a great point! imagine what the US dub of rondo would've sounded like (when there have been other PCE games with terrible dubs like I think bloody wolf was one? there was some run and gun that had some bad voice work but I forget which)

When I needed a beautiful melancholy song I knew exactly what to use!

That's interesting, I had a ton of Radio Shack around me too but don't remember a ton of Turbo there. I never bought it from them at least. They sold mostly cheap Tandy computers and some other stuff. At least NEC had a presence in Canada through someone, more than can be said for parts of the US.

@@ShmupJunkie Radio Shack in Canada was completely independent of Radio Shack US (I remember the manager of a Radio Shack telling me that once). They had a completely different ownership history. But yes, in Canada, Radio Shack was the big dealer for TurboGrafx gear and they didn't deal with any of the other consoles at all. They always had big displays setup at the front of the store to demo TG16s games and so forth. I remember always walking through the Radio Shack location in Portage Place (a mall in downtown Winnipeg) and they were always heavily promoting it between 1989-1994. Everywhere else mainly dealt SNES/Genesis but Radio Shack Canada was the one weird exception that placed all their bets on the TG16.

You're welcome man, that's why I'm mainly doing this. To spread the love for the system and games, and for shooters in general, and get more people excited for them. So it's always good to hear that my hype is working!

You're welcome and I hope you enjoyed both of these. I really wanted to make something for the fans. NES was my first too and still a nostalgic fav, it really had more classics than any other system I can think of. That and the turbo were always my go to systems. It's cool you got that system back then, as had you not, who knows if you ever would have known or thought to ask for one down the road.

I think they never felt the need to add more ports. Even the late Duo units had one. It was their way and they stuck to it apparently. I do think they missed a grand opportunity to market it as a portable system and keep it small. Had it been like the pc engine I wouldn’t stuck it in my cargo shorts pocket with hucards and taken it with me to nearly every friends house. It’s all hindsight but they underestimated the draw of having a compact system like that and tried to turn it into something bigger and badder it didn’t need to be. We still loved it for the games. But I’ll admit if it was the original design I would’ve loved it even more as something to easily take with you anywhere. Really glad you enjoyed the video though and it brought some good memories. I really like how part 1 came out too. It may be my favorite video I’ve done yet. It’s kind of like Kill Bill vol1 and this is vol2 haha

Thank you! Sounds like your experience was very similar to mine. I really hit the import stores hard starting with CD games, after the first couple years once the Turbo games started to trickle in too slowly and there wasn't enough new content. We were lucky to live in a city that had that available as not everyone was so lucky. I do remember some jealous friends with DracX after seeing how awesome it was. That game, Lords and Ys are the three originals I kept and never sold. Even once my Duo was no longer working or being used, I was playing them in my CD just for the music.

It was Kalinske and his clout and experience that got Japan to let him do what he wants in the US, even though they didn't agree with him at all and didn't want him to. They really had no idea. Lucky for them he knew what he was doing while they didn't. And it showed once he and other key parts of the team were gone. There are some great interviews on youtube with Tom and his marketing staff and how they went about getting the older crowd onto their system. NEC was the opposite, they never completely invested in the US launch and paid for it. But my take was always the same, despite all their screw ups which made the games so hard to get outside of big cities like you just said, there was no way they were taking down that incredible marketing campaign that Sega unleashed, even if they didn't make most of their mistakes.

These two videos were special for me and I had been wanting to make them for some time. I do think I may remaster them someday, improve things I've wanted to, and make a single longer video from them someday. Really glad it gave you and others a different perspective on the system from someone who grew up loving and understanding it. Despite it not doing well in the US at the time, it's at a place now where anyone can find ways to explore the entire library. So the goal was to show anyone not too familiar how large and rich the library of games was. Really appreciate the comment, thank you.

I knew you’d really enjoy this one too and glad you did. It was a real shame TTi ended up in a too little too late scenario with the passionate staff they finally had to try and make something of the system. Of all the types of videos I make, some basic like reviews etc, others silly or fun, my favorite are absolutely the historical ones on devs and consoles I love. It feels like they’ll be important and relevant for a long time. So if you really like these I did a few more. The history of technosoft and thunder force being the most recent and one that came out as good as I’d hoped. But in the meantime, if you hadn’t already caught it, I have a massive 3+ hr video premiering today soon reviewing and ranking every single mega drive shooter ever released. I’ll be chatting live with everyone. I already did one for PC Engine reviewing the over 100 games, and one for Toaplan, so today is the mega drive’s turn in the spotlight. Given how popular that console is its looking to be a big turnout! The trailer and premiere page is already up for it. Anyway just throwing out some recs. Take your time and enjoy what you come across in any order you like. I’m glad you found my channel and are enjoying it. It’s always great getting genuine feedback from others who are effected by the hard work I’ve put into them.

@@ShmupJunkie I think TTi did amazing with the hand they were dealt and basically zero support from Corp like you went over in the video. Such a shame as it was such a great system and would've been great if more people could've experienced it. Oh well. Oh and I just watched the technosoft one a little bit ago and absolutely loved it! And of course had to comment on that one as well. Lol. You're great at the documentary style videos! I also really appreciate your thoughtful replies. You're a rare breed on KZfaq nowadays and it's so nice to see creators like you are still around. Hopefully I'll be able to catch the video today too! Thanks again for everything!

Wow, that's quite a compliment. And I hope you really enjoy it. Definitely find a way to play the CD games too, as it's such an incredibly important part of the library and the majority of it. But there are still plenty of cool hucard games to enjoy too. An SSDS3 is a great route to go and you've got a perfect little console to connect to it. Barunba is ok, it's a very basic and early shooter. Nothing to write home about but not a stinker or anything. And it's cheap! PC Engine games can become really pricey to collect so an everdrive helps a lot. Not many gonna go pay 4-500 bucks for some of those games. Some must plays like Soldier Blade are even really pricey. If you do get a flash cart just spring for the SSDS3, that way you get the CD games too. You gotta play some Lords of Thunder and Sapphire sooner or later. 🤘

Congrats on the coregrafx! I too just recently got one and did full recap/jailbar fix on it. Definately get a superSDsystem3.... There is a huge japanese cd library!

@@ShmupJunkie I will probably go for a SSDS3 at some point down the road, I figured i'd stick to Hu Cards to begin with and go from there. Besides Barunba i've also scored Bonk's Revenge, Darius Plus, and Dragon Spirit. I definitely want to get Solider Blade when funds allow! I have Lords of Thunder on my Wii, i've never played Sapphire though. What would you say are the best Hu Card games to look out for?

I'm really glad you enjoyed the two videos as they were so great to make. It's not the most popular subject, but I wanted to do it best I could and hope they survive historically for future viewers. It's also cool to still see the mini occasionally available on amazon japan, as I thought it was pretty much sold out everywhere by now. They keep getting small runs back in stock. Whenever people are looking for them I point them to amazon jp first. And it's a great gateway into the games that could eventually lead to exploring the library even farther via emulation or some other ways.

It's worth my time just seeing all the people who enjoy it and are glad something like this is being made for them. And it's something I'll likely enjoy myself as well in the future to watch sometimes for nostalgia. There was a lot of editing put into this one.

Sometimes I wonder if they were bitter in some way from the losses they took in the NA market and wanted to get back at them somehow. Either that or they just didn't want to deal with the NA market at all anymore. From a business stand point sure doesn't make sense.

When I needed to do a quick woop woop, instead of some generic police clipart I knew where to look. I used to think that game kicked so much ass in arcades back then.

I think if it was early days and NEC was trying to succeed in the market they wouldn't have denied such obvious winners. But by that point they were done and not interested in the US market period. There was nothing that could be done. It was always a tough situation for NEC because they only made money on hardware sales while Hudson got the majority of the software. It wasn't one company like Sega or Nintendo. So from their perspective, they may not have cared so much about the games selling well. Unless they could sell enough hardware from it they weren't going to invest any more. Or that's what it seems like.

@@ShmupJunkie I see. Then it was a shame NEC was calling the shots. My brother had the Arcade card (and an import card converter for his Turbo Duo). I would have loved to see an Arcade Card/CD ROM port of Samurai Shodown, I played way too much of it on my original Game Boy. Keep up for great content! Thanks for the heart and the reply!

You already picked up the SSDS3 so you've got everything you need to play every single game. Pretty much the way to go if you want to use the real hardware but not a collector to buy individual games at some crazy prices. Makes total sense and the way I'd recommend it for almost anyone. I'm still discovering games myself.

Thank you. I really enjoyed making this series and I hope people keep finding them. I didn’t know there was a mod for the pc engine snatcher. I don’t think it was ever translated. I know the Sega cd has an English version only some parts are censored or removed. But it’s still a great way to play it too. Ys IV does have an English patch and is a great game.

Thanks! Yes this video history was special to me and one day I’d like to combine and remaster them with improved voice and editing. I had a blast making them. It was the pc engine mini and putting out some reviews for it that made me start this channel in the first place.

Thanks man, I'm glad you did enjoy it. I'm definitely happy with how it came out. Timmy will never admit it, but he secretly watches them too in between his Fortnite videos.

You know I'd love to see it too. At least we got the mini which I never expected in a million years. The english versions of the Cotton stuff just takes a while, strictly limited is slow. But worst case it's always there digital too, not like it's physical only. So if they ever sell out that's always an option. I had a bunch of fun with that one and glad I got it.

What are you going to use to check them out? I’ve been using the MiSTer a lot lately and it’s pc engine core is fantastic to play every game in the library. And on a CRT! 👌

Thanks dude! Glad you finally got a chance to watch them. Knew you would enjoy once you had some time. I've got your Final 2 all ready to go out btw for when I am out next and can drop by UPS.

Shmup Junkie Sounds great, my friend! BTW I've watched both episodes twice, just now getting around to the comments section! Lovely stuff!

@@ezeepeezy I’m glad you enjoyed it enough to watch it twice. I also have to apologize for the second round of ads it likely made you skip through 🤦‍♂️ 🤣. This’ll need to go on a Blu-ray as a two part series commercial free haha.

Thanks a lot man. You've been with me since near the beginning, so it's cool to see you keep coming back and enjoying these. I am just having too much stupid fun making some of these though hahaha.

I'm just definitely 💯 Nothing this amazing channel grow!! I will always be here☝💪

Too bad in VR you can't kick them to the curb with majority consensus haha. I should try that one day I only messed with VR rooms and watching stuff briefly years ago when it was new. Sure it's come a long way. I remember you could watch youtube that way. What's the app you used for it? I've got just a Vive at this point the older one.

@@ShmupJunkie It's an app I found on the Oculus Rift store called VR Chat. It's where all the debauched VR losers go, so I fit right in. I'm also pretty sure it's where the infamous "Do You No De Wae" meme found it's legs. It was one of the rooms in there. It's a real riot, honestly. But VR for me is mainly about Space Engine, and Microsoft Flight Sim 2020.

Man Konami is only giving us a Pachinko Bonk at this point haha, don't expect it. I am happy they released the Mini for us and it was made as well as it was. So they get bonus points from me for it.

Konami desperately needs to give us any new good game (Contra, Gradius, Castlevania, Silent Hill, etc.), not only the Bonk's one!! They were one of the greatest at the market, but now...they're only a hollow shadow of their past selves(((

Yea I'll say the channels overthrown bithead for sure.that channels just something else now it's not gaming at all. It used to be.used to be about pc engine n such.but now it's just about his wife n complaining about 'being old'

I'm also OK with being the second best program in the history of civilization, and you don't need to see my mug in 4K. Bithead is very different and I respect his comedy chops a lot. I can't get on camera like that and be funny or entertaining off the top of my head for an entire hour. It takes talent. I love some of the jackets and his handiwork too, a man of many trades. His show is not for everyone, and I often don't have the time myself to watch entire hour long programs, but when he is talking Turbo or PC Engine, the passion is there and you can see it. Some of his old episodes are classic and still make me laugh. FYI if you never saw his old PC Engine Mini/Konami rants, it's how I initially found him. Those episodes were short and comedy gold, only about the games.

@@NintenDub Bithead is more of a comedian now, the game angle was how he started but he's evolved because he's good at it and I think he enjoys it more than the gaming now, and if you don't do what you enjoy then you really are finished. He was doing the gaming for 10 years and during that time there was plenty of stories and comedy even in the early days. I'm glad that Bithead and Shmup Junkie exist and they are different. You don't have to compare them

I think he is getting up there with strafefox in terms of presentation and info.

There is a decent booster for the turbo called the db grafxbooster that will give you component, scart, stereo and other options and it's around 70 bucks. But it doesn't help you with CD games since you end up using the CD output instead. If you're set on real hardware vs using something like an SSDS3 which gets you high quality out and SD card use, I end up using my Duo that's RGB modded. They are just expensive to do or get unfortunately. So most people end up going the flash cart route. So there's good cheap solutions for base consoles only, but not for CD you end up paying for it. Nexzr is freaking great and I hope you enjoy it when you play. I did a really great special episode for that game not too long ago, you can look it up. If it doesn't get you hyped to play it nothing will. It's much more thought out and paced than Recca, very different games. But it's design is pretty top notch.

@@ShmupJunkie Holy crap he DB booster may be the lifesaver I need. Don't mind not being able to use CD stuff, as the CD add on is hyper rare and fragile to begin with. I'll just get a DUO-R if I wanna go that route or just get the discs to dump myself. I'm all about the hucards and I think with that booster I'll be able to enjoy a lot of PCE stuff, especially if I get an everdrive too. I'll definitely try to hunt down Nexzr too!

Thanks man. To be fair, they were all great systems in their own way. I would've missed any of them. But no doubt most of us as kids drank the cool aid and good marketing did a number on us. Some old folks are still parroting marketing terms as if they were gospel... our impressionable young minds. But I wanted to make sure I did Sega justice here, as they came in as the unknown and killed it in the US. They deserved all the success that came to them.

Well to be fair my bit on Kalinski is mainly my take and how I see it, but it’s still speculation. The rest though… facts! 🤣

That would be an amazingly long video, I wouldn't even know where to start haha. Well, starting is easy because it's always space invaders and really Xevious, but after that it's too much content. I'd need a damn good script to pull that one off, but I will say it's tempting to do someday.

Lol, well to be fair some of it was for thematic effect. Hudson and NEC remained on good terms for a long time, but to the folks in the US and TTi and how frustrating it was trying to get anything from them in Japan, I am sure they felt like the villains to them toward the end. They were left with some painful memories and some of the interviews bear it out.

I feel mega drive did poorly for the same reasons in Japan. Their library did not match the target audience, not nearly enough RPGs and otaku type games, too much sports and action games. Good for NA bad for Japan. It had a good STG selection and great platformers, a big plus. They also didn't push it as much there or invest in it. Part of it is Nintendo ruling with an iron fist and locking Sega out in many ways. Sega knew they can't compete with Nintendo there, but they were able to in NA. They put the money where success was most likely, there and European countries, and other Sega popular locations. The Dreamcast was awesome I loved it too. I'm not as seasoned as I am with the PCE and Hudson, so it would take a lot of research and input from others. But I would certainly be open to it. The Turbo didn't have a good history or doc on youtube so it was needed. Are there any good Dreamcast history videos out there already?

Haha well the Genesis was nothing to scoff at. It had way more games and variety in the US so unless you lived in a big market like I did, it was really hard to get all the good turbo games or imports. NEC definitely screwed the pooch there. I’m just glad you are digging it now and enjoying the ride!

@Deevon Dee I played a lot of PC games back then including those games like LSL and Space Quest. They’d make great mobile games using the touchpad these days and wonder why that genre didn’t see a second coming with mobile. Fun and casual games to chill and enjoy that literally anyone can play don’t have to be a gamer. My man you gotta play Rondo somehow. The mini was the ticket but it’s long sold out now. Didn’t it just get a PS4 collection release not long ago?

It was all the things you mentioned of course, but arrogance is the top of the list. Not knowing the market. Not hiring the right people. Thinking they could just go in and dominate. And at the same time being tentative and not committing. They very much did themselves in. Despite all that, winning against sega that gen would have been no easy task. They could’ve at least made a fight of it though. NEC made it out fine too of course they are a pretty massive company with so many arms. But they learned their lesson on staying out of the gaming business mainly after the pc-fx flop.

The SuperGrafx was the epitome of their arrogance and poor planning: extremely expensive, yet not really enough of an upgrade to be worth investment by either developers or consumers; then shoved onto the market with only a single launch title that was itself barely in a finished state, which didn't really exploit the new hardware capabilities, and no actual schedule for any subsequent titles. I don't know how much cocaine was getting smuggled into Japan back in the late 80's, but NEC execs must have been consuming the lion's share of it.

@@ostiariusalpha And it cost them. I don’t know how much of it was monetarily motivated versus Hudson being experimental with new stuff. They liked to release lots of products and see what sticks. Something creative people do but not good business people. For every good piece like the Duo you had stuff like the shuttle which wasn’t all that necessary. I don’t know who bought all this hardware.

The big reason I was excited for the mini is exactly what you mentioned. There are a lot of people who knew nothing about it if they didn't grow up around that time. It was a gateway for a lot of new people to learn about the games. It's actually how I started my channel. My very first few videos was reviewing the mini!

Thanks! This two part pc engine series was one of my all time favorite videos to make and kind of my one year magnum opus since starting the channel. I tried to up the editing quality and production from this point going forward. Luckily for this video I was already a big pc engine buff so a lot of the information was already in my head, along with a couple good articles I was able to pull from. It was a pleasure making it and I’m glad you found and enjoyed it.

@@ShmupJunkie Good stuff, I was also wondering if any emulators offer the sidebars you've produced in the video. It would really help when playing games in 4:3 without causing burn in on modern TVs!

@@whoisthis01 Not the kind I produced I did that in editing. Mostly just varying backgrounds you can change. If you are using an LED/LCD burn shouldn’t be a problem. That’s mainly for an OLED or older plasma displays and similar.

Thanks man! I knew I couldn't outdo the kinetic energy of the first, so I just went a different way as I had more exposition and tried to make it funny and entertaining while giving my own take on how things went down.

At least Hudson had a long life and still produced lots of games for a good while. They were such a unique company. You probably already caught it, but if you didn't, this was part 2 of the pc engine history. The first one was all about the Japan side and the system there. You'd dig that one too if you missed it. I pretty much had a similar experience here, with a couple friends from Japan and another Korean that would always show me exclusive stuff from there. PC Engine and all the anime we weren't getting here. I'd watch their stuff with them even if I couldn't understand the dialogue, they'd give me the gist of some things. Was the first time I got into dragon ball before you could even watch it in the US, through bootleg vhs tapes they had haha. I'm just glad the import shops caught on later to finally play all the imports we initially couldn't.

You’re welcome and glad you enjoyed it. I do wish NEC was smarter in their global marketing at the time so other countries didn’t miss out, but they were too reserved and apprehensive going into new markets. At least now you have many ways to enjoy some of these cool games.

That’s awesome man. You won’t be disappointed it’s a treasure trove if you know what to look for. Play em any way you can. 🤘

You're welcome and glad you enjoyed the final version. I did really want to make a point of showing that side of TTi as they don't get any cred. There were lots of other great deals I didn't even get to mention, like for other SNK ports like King of Monsters. They kept finding ways to make things happen and getting shot down. Too bad they weren't calling the shots from day one, maybe things would have gone better for them.

@@ShmupJunkie Agreed sir! The emphasis on TTI was great and much needed to give better understanding of some of the "Why's?". I did not have much interest in the PC Engine which was a miss in my youth since I did like the TG16 (in which I did not have for long). Anyway keep up the content and very cool engagements in the Discord channels.

I was lucky they even rented CD games from an import store near me, so I used to play them all that way over the weekends. Definitely had some jealous friends when it came to having Rondo to play, that one I had to buy. It was so insanely impressive at the time with the incredible soundtrack. Even to this day it hasn't aged much, it can be enjoyed as one of the very best of the series. I only wish I didn't sell any of my old stuff and kept it. As the few games I still have from my time then, the originals, always mean the most. I never could sell my Lords of Thunder, Ys or DraculaX and used to just play the music from the CDs even after my system was gone. I'm glad you finally got to enjoy them too 20yrs later. Some only did for the first time on the mini.

That much more reason to own a great flash cart to go back and enjoy some since they’re hard and sometimes expensive to buy now. Or emulation of course. One of my life goals is learning to not only speak but read Japanese well enough to play and enjoy many of those games that will never get a translation. It’s a goldmine of some cool RPGs and visual novel type games that I can’t fully enjoy without a proper grasp of the language.

@@ShmupJunkie Yeah. A few games got translated though.

I didn't even know what a PC Engine was at the time, only Turbografx really when it came out. RType was definitely what enticed me initially and how killer it looked, but Blazing Lazers finished the job. I was glad to learn the Japanese side of things down the road and enjoy the imports. It was a better design, but that nostalgia for the turbo is still there too.

I remember when someone turned me onto that show, it was so sweet to see it represented in a modern anime that way. I started watching it for that reason.

Thank you. I went with a different vibe for this one but still liked how it came out. Glad you enjoyed it.

Well I can't say my Neo stories would be nearly as interesting as yours. I never could own one as most didn't, and all my experience was in the arcades on occasion and at the blockbuster kiosk I mentioned. I didn't know anyone that owned the system either. We ended up playing more Neo Geo on the pc engine arcade card than on anything else haha. It was one of those golden consoles on a pedestal that you drooled over but couldn't afford. It was tempting enough to ride a bike an hour each way on some weekends just to play it for a while though.

Thanks man, I especially liked the latter half of this episode and how it all went down. I had silly fun making it and glad it turned out entertaining. I'm still experimenting with a lot of the editing.

Thanks. And I can't help it. If I'm talking about pc engine stuff it's my natural state lol

I'm doing my best with these videos to help make sure that happens.

Full circle, starts with Ys and ends with Ys. There was no other way. I'm glad you enjoyed it thank you.

I think they knew it was an amazing game, they just didn't have enough systems out there and didn't want to spend the money to localize it in English and bring it over. Just shows how little they cared about the NA market by that point and just wanted out of it. What a shame.

What's funny is most of the worst games are the ones they specially developed later for the US only thinking it's the kind of games we wanted to play. Not really haha.

Sweet! You’re almost through the game already. That shrine can be quite the maze and easy to get lost at times but it’s the last hump. Then you can say you played and finished this original series. Pretty awesome music isn’t it.

@@ShmupJunkie One of the best musical scores for a game IMO. Especially the score on the 24th floor at Darm tower before fighting Dark Fact. My favorite. Lords of Thunder is another favorite and saw your awesome video on the turbo and segacd versions. Got close to beating it once.

Thanks. If you never played many of those games yet, and have no other way to do it, the Mini is the gateway drug. I hope you find them useful. They are of course sold out by now and going for higher prices online.

Thanks buddy, I'm glad you got to enjoy this and not forsake your mothers day in the process haha. Videos like these are mainly to spread awareness to many who mostly didn't realize it was a much cooler system than it gets credit for here in the US.

@@ShmupJunkie hahaha, that was close but everybody (me) is fine… great video!! And what a console!

To be fair, when they merged with Konami it was still a legit, popular game company trying to make new games and IPs. They had every intention of using Hudson and still did to publish the games. But things change as always and Konami isn't the same. At least they got us a well done mini so I give them points for it. A history of Hudson soft could definitely be on the table, though at least these videos cover a portion of it during these days. But yeah they did a whole lot of good both before for Nintendo and Konami, and afterward. It would be quite an undertaking they made and published a ton of games. I was surprised to learn they did the Bloody Roar series with Eighting.

I wouldn't argue that you could be right. It was their baby and they wanted control, even if their pride hurt them and their product. I'm glad Sega was able to thrive despite that or we may never have gotten the Saturn or Dreamcast in their forms. It's just too bad Hudson's product wasn't so lucky and could never wrangle free from the parent. They had a lot more handcuffs with NEC and them making the hardware for them, so it was a tough situation.