CORBIE'S GAME BLOG

I was one of those people that actually bought a Turbo Duo back when it was first released here in the US. Once I saw the Lords of Thunder promotional video, I knew right then and there that I had to have one. I still had quite a few of the Hucard games that I had owned for my TurboGrafx-16 system before it had broken, so I had a good headstart of games, not to mention the games that came bundled with the Turbo Duo. Packaged with the Turbo Duo system were several games. You got the 4-in-1 disc which contained Gate of Thunder, Bonk's Adventure, Bonk's Revenge, and Bomberman, then you also got the outstanding rpg Ys Book I & II on CD. NEC kept changing the last pack-in game, but the system I bought had Ninja Spirit with it, which actually became one of my favorite hucard games. Although the system was considered too expensive for the casual gamer, you got a lot of bang for your buck when all was said and done. It's just a shame that more US gamers didn't get the chance to experience the Turbo lineup of systems and games.

The Turbo Duo would not only play the CD and Super CD games, it also played all of the TG-16 hucard games as well, giving it a fairly large library of game titles. If you were a shooter fan, you had to love the Turbo Duo. You had the pack-in game Gate of Thunder, Lords of Thunder, Parodius, Space Parodier, Blazing Lazers, and the Spriggan series, all of which were top shelf shooters. The Turbo Duo also had the ability to play what has become one of the most imported video games in history in Konami's PC Engine Castlevania game, Dracula-X. I can't wrap this up without mentioning the outstanding pinball games Alien Crush and Devil's Crush. They may have been simple in design, but they were a lot of fun to play. Most people immediately think of Bonk's Adventure when you mention the TG-16, but the truth is, there were a lot of tremendously fun games available for a system that still has a big cult following even all these years later. Here's hoping Nintendo's upcoming Wii system will bring back some of the fun of the classic Turbo Duo system with their Virtual Console function and introduce many of these amazing games to a whole new generation of gamers.