Johnny Turbo and poor marketing's role in the failure of the Turbografx-16.

[treismac]

First off, there are usually multiple reasons for most outcomes. I do not think that marketing alone killed the Turbografx-16: there was Nintendo's monopolistic tactics that were later ruled illegal, the resulting lack of 3rd party support, the idiotic one controller only port on the system necessitating a multitap to play 2 players, and many good Japanese games never made their way across the ocean. However, I do think that a strong case can be made that the image projected by the marketing of the Turbografx-16 was severely uncool enough to dissuade prospective buyers.

Exhibit A:



Why? Who ever thought kids would find this "hero" appealing, much less move units? A sideways hat and sunglasses can only do so much... I cringed when I first saw this. I knew Sega and Nintendo had the TG16 on the ropes, but I hoped it would put up a fight until the end. Johnny Turbo was the white towel.

Exhibit B:



Perhaps if the entire video game playing demographic of the '90s were 2nd to 3rd graders, this would have been a slam dunk. The image by itself is fine. Better than fine, actually. Zonk is cool. The text is a disaster, however. Sticking the tongue out while performing surfing moves out of context is never cool, regardless of how many inches someone happens to be. This, sir, is reverse lemonade making.

Exhibit C:

Uhhh... I guess there was... a... hmm... Just look at it!



What the hell, man!! Seriously! Only Johnny Turbo could make a Star Wars allusion lame. Perhaps 95% of the TG-16's lameness in the advertising is Johnny Turbos fault, and maybe Johnny T came along so late on in the 16-bit war that he was merely the wedgie-ready final nail in the already rotting corpse's coffin, but gadzooks! Any cache of cool the Turbografx might have been holding onto withered and/or died once it caught wind of Johnny boy.

End rant.

[Baloo]

IMO the Turbografx-16 just wasn't marketed enough here in the sates. And most of the games that were the best for the system stayed in Japan, and we got crud like Darkwing Duck and Talespin and TV Sports Basketball.

The biggest reason the system flopped? The library just wasn't there IMO. Even the pack-in game, Keith Courage in Alpha Zones, is junk.

[Aussie2B]

Blasphemy, Johnny Turbo is 100 times cooler than all of us combined, haha. I love Johnny sooooo freakin' much. My Gate of Thunder review in Video Game Collector exists for practically no other purpose than to be an ode to our dear Johnny.

As for his appearance, it was basically just an elaborate example of trolling, back before people even knew the term "troll" in that sense. Check out this link, which should be required by law to be in any topic that mentions Johnny Turbo:

http://sardoose.rustedlogic.net/reviews/jturbo/

[treismac]

Blasphemy, Johnny Turbo is 100 times cooler than all of us combined, haha. I love Johnny sooooo freakin' much. My Gate of Thunder review in Video Game Collector exists for practically no other purpose than to be an ode to our dear Johnny.

As for his appearance, it was basically just an elaborate example of trolling, back before people even knew the term "troll" in that sense. Check out this link, which should be required by law to be in any topic that mentions Johnny Turbo:

http://sardoose.rustedlogic.net/reviews/jturbo/

I was unaware that Johnny Turbo had any fans. I don't like to crap on anyone's sacred cows if it can be avoided, so accept my apologies. Now that I think of it, if there had to be any fans of JT, they probably would find their way to Digital Press.

So, just what is the appeal of Johnny Turbo to you, anyway? Is it a transference of your love of the underdog system unto a person who also was the very essence of underdog? I think that besides the aesthetic reasons I gave, his rhetoric always seemed desperate to me which compounded my dislike for his as a mascot for a sinking ship. Who knows? Perhaps I was transferring my anger over the demise of the Turbografx onto Johnny like he was an Old Testament sacrificial goat. As an act of contrition, I shall read the article you posed a link to.

[Aussie2B]

Heh, I'm just being facetious. It was an absolutely awful marketing campaign, but that's what make it so hilariously great. Even putting the absurd imagery aside, practically every line is so brilliantly quotable.

If you haven't already seen it, check out the link with the write-ups on each page (and the history behind the comic), and I think you'll start to understand the Johnny Turbo love.

[nebrazca78]

...combine the attitude of Sonic with the fatness of Mario...

Classic.

.

[RCM]

The public wasn't ready for anything not Nintendo when Turbo was released, and it took a little blue hedgehog stirring things up two years later to turn the tides.

I always wanted a Turbo back in the day, but it was too expensive and my mom didn't want another game console in the house. She felt the NES and the Gameboy (also released in '89, of course), was enough.

[Icarus Moonsight]

I don't like to crap on anyone's sacred cows if it can be avoided, so accept my apologies.

I don't either. Kill 'em and grill 'em, I say!

Johnny Turbo is a proto-Kevin Butler with Asperger's and down syndrome.

[retroman]

I still have my Turbo from back in the day, and ever the TurboDuo i got in High School..Both still in great shape and work great..I love the Turbo and wished it did better...For the time, it shit on Nintendo in graphics and game play for a lot of titles..

[YoshiM]

EDIT: I take that back. In the TG-16's last days I do remember seeing it at TRU. They had a tiny little TG-16 (might have been CD and Duo stuff too, I can't remember) section because they had a little kiosk there with Air Zonk in it and I loved playing it. The section was super tiny and no one was ever there. It disappeared shortly after.

That's the only place I saw a TG-16:at a Toys R Us and on clearance. The city I lived by wasn't small-47,000 I think at that point perhaps which was on par with Green Bay, but no Turbo.

It was about as bad as the SMS. Only place in town that had the stuff was Kohls department store.

[Tempest]

It was about as bad as the SMS. Only place in town that had the stuff was Kohls department store.

I do remember seeing SMS stuff at TRU in the early days because the games looked so odd and I wondered what system they were for (like Alex Kidd and the Lost Stars). As Nintendo's dominance started to assert itself the SMS section pretty much disappeared and it was NES and some C-64 stuff (well into the 90's which I thought was odd).

Tempest

[Edmond Dantes]

I read an article just recently (actually, I think it was the Trivia section at the Mortal Kombat wiki) which said that a Turbo version of MK1 was planned, but TTI dropped the project because "Americans are sick of fighting games."

That, to me, explains it all about why the TG16 failed.

Sad, but sometimes great projects are in the hands of complete doo-doo heads.

[Tempest]

I read an article just recently (actually, I think it was the Trivia section at the Mortal Kombat wiki) which said that a Turbo version of MK1 was planned, but TTI dropped the project because "Americans are sick of fighting games."

That, to me, explains it all about why the TG16 failed.

Sad, but sometimes great projects are in the hands of complete doo-doo heads.

Yeah I don't think that's a great loss. MK on the TG-16 would have sucked pretty hard.

Tempest

[j_factor]

Yeah I don't think that's a great loss. MK on the TG-16 would have sucked pretty hard.

Tempest

What makes you say that? The PC Engine version of Street Fighter II' was quite good.

[Edmond Dantes]

Yeah I don't think that's a great loss. MK on the TG-16 would have sucked pretty hard.

Tempest

No worse than the Game Boy version.

The point is though that passing on MK showed they were completely out of touch, which surely couldn't have helped.

[Peonpiate]

Yeah I don't think that's a great loss. MK on the TG-16 would have sucked pretty hard.

Tempest

Im pretty sure it would have handed the Sega version its ass if MK1 made it to the TG, the color limit for one is a huge advantage over Sega as far as fighters went. And couple that with TTi's lax censorship standards, it probably would have been the best overall port. Good graphics + No censorship ? Considering the Genesis port was ugly and the SNES version was neutered by request of Nintendo, it would be no contest.