Overview
- Known As
- TurboGrafx-16 • TG-16 • TurboGrafx-16 / PC Engine
- Company
- NEC
- Launched
- 1st Aug 1989
- Type
- Console
- Wikipedia
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TurboGrafx-16
Latest Reviews of TurboGrafx-16 Games
Review Turbo EverDrive Core And Pro - An Excellent PC Engine Flash Cart With Some Caveats
CD or CD? That is the question
Review Analogue Duo - The Best Way To Enjoy The Entire PC Engine / TG16 Library
FPGA-powered Emotion Engine
Review PC Engine / TurboGrafx-16 Mini - Still An Acquired Taste, Even After 30 Years
And we wouldn't have it any other way
Review Terraonion Super SD System 3 Unlocks The Entire PC Engine Library
The ultimate engine upgrade?
Popular TurboGrafx-16 Games
Latest TurboGrafx-16 News
News The PC Engine Version Of Popful Mail Is Now (Partly) Playable In English
Update: Patch is now available, but only for the English Dub
Review Turbo EverDrive Core And Pro - An Excellent PC Engine Flash Cart With Some Caveats
CD or CD? That is the question
News 1994 PC Engine RPG 'Emerald Dragon' Has Been Translated Into English
A great way to start the year for JRPG fans
"Beautiful parallax effects, detailed scenarios and huge sprites"
Thanks to Japanese company Edia
News Three Years Later, And Hyperkin's PC Engine / TurboGrafx-16 Clone Is Finally Coming Out
Update: The console will release later this month
News A Rare Manga Spin-Off To One Of Hideo Kojima's Greatest Games Is Being Preserved Online By Fans
Act 1 of Osamu Kobayashi's 'Snatcher' is now online
News The New PC Engine-Themed Radio Station Is The Perfect Soundtrack For Import-Loving Gamers
Radio NECstalgia is now available online
News Here's Why The TurboGrafx-16 Is So Much Bigger Than The PC Engine
"They believed that if it’s small it should cost less, not more"
News The English Version Of 'Cho Aniki COLLECTION' Has Landed On The Nintendo Switch eShop
The "muscular shooter" is back, but its high price may put some people off
News Castlevania: Nocturne's Creators Explain How Rondo Of Blood Grounds Netflix's Second Season
"That’s a great framework to begin with"
News Linda Cube Rights Transfer Reignites Hopes That The Cult Classic RPG Could Get A Remaster
Alfa System's Linda Cube was initially released for the PC Engine CD in 1995
News The Bonk Designer Who Helped Shape Croc "Never Received The Credit He Deserves"
Kobuta Aoki flew to London to brainstorm with the Croc team
News Unofficial Sega Genesis R-Type Port Is Getting Closer To Release
Update: "All remaining stages have been added since the demo"
News Red Company Character Designer Takafumi "Panyome" Ieiri Has Passed Away
The news was shared online by his former coworker Yoshiteru Tsujino
News This PC Engine Mod Is The Most Relaxing Thing We've Watched In Ages
NEC's Shuttle takes off again, 34 years later
Related Hardware
List of hardware items (add-ons?)
Where To Buy
List of places to buy this system
About
The PC Engine was a joint venture between Japanese software house Hudson and electronics giant NEC. The machine was released at the height of Nintendo's dominance and surprised many by outselling the Famicom in Japan a short time after it hit the shelves. With a successful Japanese launch out of the way, the two companies decided to bring the machine to the US as the Turbografx-16, but poor marketing and a terrible choice of software resulted in the console losing out to Sega's freshly released Genesis (AKA Mega Drive) and Nintendo's aging NES.
The story was much different in Japan where the PC Engine (aided by a revolutionary CD-ROM add-on) beat Sega into third place, with Nintendo remaining dominant thanks to the Super Famicom.
Amazingly, the console was never launched officially in Europe, although many keen gamers imported systems and the console was a firm favourite with 'hardcore' elements of the European gaming community. The Virtual Console therefore represents the first chance many gamers will have to experience this underrated machine.
Read our TurboGrafx-16 hardware focus