RE: Y's book 1 and 2: I don't expect you to relate
Awesome memories of Y's. Well, of wanting it but not being able to afford it due to this version only hitting the Turbo Grafx-16 CD-ROM.
That certainly did not help the adoption rate of this fantastic franchise. I have played later entries and loved them for the most part.
The Turbo Grafx-16 actually lasted a lot longer than a year or two. It came out in, what, 1988/1989? In 1992 NEC USA merged with Hudson Soft to form Turbo Technologies Incorporated.
The first product from TTI was the Turbo Duo console which was supported in the United States till around 1994 or so (could have been 1995 even).
The problem TTI had, and NEC before them, was penetrating the market with games that fans wanted to play. They simply could not secure the big name titles like Street Fighter II, Gradius, Salamander, Castlevania, etc.
Strangley, all of those franchises/titles saw a release in Japan on the PC Engine.
We have to remember though, NEC USA, and even TTI later, did not have 100% choice on what they released here. The Japanese headquarters kept a tight grip on the USA and Europe branches. Though with TTI that grip was loosened a bit, still not enough though.
Such a great console and so many great games.
Thanks for sharing my noggin loose with your article. I love the TG-16 and love discussing it whenever possible.
Thanks for elaborating on what i wrote. I just have fond memories of Y's and especially the music. Yes it was only on the TGx16 cd which one day me and my pal accidentally disconnected the CD drive from the unit while a game was going on only to discover that it was only playing the music, no data was being transferred from the CD unit as far as gameplay was concerned at all (what a sham!)... but it remains a great game from my childhood and I have fond memories of it. I am happy that you remembered it as well. :)
OMG. I would have flipped if I had dropped $400+ in late 80's money on a CD attachment only to find out that it was only used to really play music, even if only for that portion of the game. I am sure it loaded other areas as you progressed but who among us knew then that CD games "streamed" the data to the internal RAM?
I would have completely felt gypped had that been me.
I remember wanting a CD-ROM attachment bad but I held off because I did not have the TG-16 yet. I got one around 1993 or so - after the Duo was released. By then the CD attachment was long gone from store shelves.
Have you tried Neutopia I and II yet? They are very, very, reminiscent of The Legend of Zelda I on NES.
Shockman is very much a Mega Man clone as well if you are in the mood for something like that.
There are a ton of exclusives on the TG-16 that make the console more than worth collecting for. Too bad Konami, holder of those titles today, is not doing anything with them.