TurboForce Magazine #03 (January 1993)   DOWNLOAD ENTIRE ISSUE (.pdf) ▼ 

Only recently did I discover that Masamune Shirow was responsible for the gorgeous character designs and artwork featured in Winds of Thunder (known in North America by the more fearsome title, Lords of Thunder). Masamune is a renowned manga artist who has authored many well-known series (i.e. Appleseed, Dominion: Tank Police, Ghost in the Shell) that have since been made into films and television serials. Naturally, I asked myself, "Has Masamune been involved with any other PC-Engine projects?"

The answer is "Yes!", but you may be somewhat surprised by the details. It turns out that Masamune did the cover art and mecha designs for Naxat's Eternal City Toshi Tenso Keikaku (1991, HuCARD), a very nice action-platformer for the PC-Engine that is not as widely appreciated as perhaps it should be. Despite the popularity of Appleseed (and to a lesser extent, Dominion: Tank Police) in North America at the time, TTi chose not to promote Masamune's involvement with Lords of Thunder, a game that they were heavily promoting as a "must-have, killer title" for the TurboDuo. Admittedly, TTi's decision is hardly surprising, considering that Shirow was hardly a household name, but it wouln't have hurt TTi to mention it.

Continued below…

PUSH IT…▲

Lords of Thunder was probably the most heavily promoted game in TTi's entire library (refer to the next issue of TurboForce for info on the free promotional videos and t-shirts TTi was giving away). Speaking of promotions, TTi was pushing hard to sell their new console and used a variety of tactics in hopes of achieving this:

Example 1: Trade-in your old system (see page 2).

"It's like getting 50 bucks to have fun. See, it goes like this…you trade in your old 16-bit unit and get the brand new TurboDuo for only $249.99. That's a $50 savings!"

"Trade in your 8-bit system for a $30 discount and pay only $269.99 for a TurboDuo."

"Send this order coupon and game unit to TurboZone…Securely wrap game unit along with power supply and controller. Include instruction manual if available."  VIEW SOURCE

Man! TTi was serious was serious about this trade-in—they even went so far as to request your old instruction manual! At least they didn't ask for more than one controller—or your RF adapter! Seriously though, this trade-in offer was not advertised in any other issue of any other magazine (correct me if I'm mistaken!) and thus stands out as one of the more unique, if short-lived, promotions TTi held for the TurboDuo.

I wonder how many folks took advantage of this offer and traded in their old Sega Master System, NES, TG-16 or Genesis consoles? And even more curiously, what did TTi do with all of these older consoles (sell them, I suppose)?

TTi marketed the TurboDuo in direct competition with the Sega CD, which, at the time, was the only other home console to offer a CD-ROM peripheral. TTi's emphasis on price-point and value was pretty straightforward:

Example 2: TurboDuo offers more for less money than Sega CD (see page 31).

"What's even more cool than what the new TurboDuo can do is what you get with it. Each system comes with two free CD's loaded with awesome games. You get Gate of Thunder, Y's I & II, Bonk's Adventure and Bonk's Revenge. Plus, a great TurboChip game. And we'll give you everything for almost $100 less than what the other  CD game system will charge you."

"TurboDuo: $299.99  VS.  Sega CD ($299.99) + Sega Genesis ($99.99) = $399.99"

"…All together, one look at the new TurboDuo and you'll want to give your old system to your little sister."  VIEW SOURCE

Naturally, Sega was offering various pack-in game packages for the Sega CD as well, but I think you'd be hard-pressed to find a console / peripheral that offered as many top-notch pack-in games as TTi included with the TurboDuo. That's a pretty bold claim, for sure, but after reviewing the history of pack-in games (a topic for another article), I have to say that the quantity and quality of TurboDuo's pack-in software really stands out…

HELP US: Stay tuned for the follow-up article (a cross-platform retrospective on pack-in software)…we're still researching the matter (including handhelds), so feel free to contact us with any relevant info. Basically, we're curious about everything, so even the games bundled with computer platforms will be included (Commodore bundled games with the Amiga in the U.K., for example). Thanks. ▲

THE ENIGMATIC "INTELLIGENT LINK"…▲

Nice photos of a prototype for the Intelligent Link are featured in this issue. This is certainly one of the most interesting oddities in the North American Turbo universe, so it will be the topic of a future article. Till then, though, be sure to check out the article. COMDEX, until recently, was a huge international computer / technology show held annually for 20-25 years. In 2004, however, the show was cancelled and things have been in limbo since then. Since the Intelligent Link effectively turned a TurboDuo into an external CD-ROM drive (able to read High Sierra and ISO 9660 formatted CD-ROM discs) for PC, Mac and Amiga computers, it fell under COMDEX's purview, but it certainly was an odd-ball that stood out from the typical computer hardware. In fact, I think the TurboDuo was the only North American console that had the ability to perform double-duty like this. ▲

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