Many moons ago, the best way to stay in the Turbo loop was to be a member of the Turbo List mail group. Founding members BT Garner complete with conversations that carried on for many years with various members of the Turbo community. Even before PCEngineFX or Magic Engine forums, the Turbo List was the perfect way to trade games, talk secrets and share tips.
--- Turbo List Information ---------------------------------------------
The File Server has thousands of bytes of information to help you get the
most out of you system. Send a message to the turbo-list-request address
with the command DIR for all the names file. Use GET to access the file.
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For a trip back down memory lane, you can check out the digest archive at this link here!
I was such a Turbo nerd back in the day (and still am, proudly!) that I contributed a few times giving comments here and there, offering trades, and even attempted to write reviews for a couple games. Oh my... I dug a bit, and found my very own review series... haha
I give you, the 1st of I believe 3 editions of "The Turbo Sage Speaks!"
-Welcome to the Turbo Sage Speaks. #1 March 26, 2003
In todays column I would like to review a game. Have you ever been interested in a good racing game for the Turbo Duo? Racing games are one of the few dark spots for Turbo owners. For how powerful this system was for its time, there should have been sweet racers for us to enjoy. But alas we were treated to..... Victory Run.
Key- ***********************
1.0 Stay far away from this pile!
2.0 Wow! nothing special here.
3.0 May appeal to some.
4.0 For collectors
5.0 Average
6.0 Got some bright spots, but just not the best
7.0 This is worth playing, possibly owning
8.0 Very Special game indeed
9.0 Not just a game, an experience.
10 Perfection
The Game- Victory Run was a very difficult game. Were you had to make it to checkpoints within the given time limits. Sounds like just about every other racer made in the late 80's early 90's. The further you went in the game the more money you got to spend on certain parts of your car. Sort of like Gran Turismo.... Don't get excited yet.
The Sound- Ok, Well The game sounds pretty much like older sounding Turbo games like JJ and Jeff or Keith Courage. I found my self humming the tunes a bit so I can't say its all that bad.
The Grafx- This is were the game goes down hill. Ok, The Turbo was advertised as the first ever 16-bit monster. But these grafx were not any better, if not worse than the NES's Rad Racer. Matter of fact someone not in the know could think I was paying the Nintendo classic!
The Control- Not to say that it was great, but I really had no problem with the control. Maybe if it were tweaked a bit the game could be more playable. I have to say its a little irritating when the cars come flying across the screen at you when you can't even get out of the way.
Over all- After playing and failing at the game several times, I decided to hang up my driving boots. I give this game a 4.0 out of 10 for a decent at best racer for the Turbo Duo. Like the key says, if your looking for every single game, Victory Run ain't to bad. You could find this slightly below average racer for less than $10 on ebay for sure.
Do you agree with my grades? Let me know!
Turbo Sage Speaks out!
I am a Turbo Collector and major fan for over 8 years now. I have just hit the 100 game mark recently and am very proud of it. But aside from all of that I would like to talk today about Turbo ISO's. Are they BAD or are they OK?
My theory is this. I consider ISO's a good way for people to keep their collectable and extremely expensive games in there protective cases. I guess thats the rule right? Everyone that buys an ISO has to be buying them for back ups. I have back ups for games like Dracula X and Y's I-IV. And I think that its a good idea for the most part.
I also understand that some people just buy ISO's and have hundreds of them, and call themselfs Collectors. To me I think this is LAME. I think Collecting for Video game systems is the thrill of the hunt and finding the HUGE deals on Ebay or Message boards.
I feel that ISO's have another use though. Some games are extremely rare and cost an arm and a leg. On top of that I'd be willing to bet that there aren't any places to rent Turbo Duo games. To me renting is always a great way to see if you like a game enough to buy it. So some could consider Buying an ISO for $2 a pop to be a good way to try out a game. to see if its really worth spending $80 or more on. I still will play it safe er Un-Safe and collect the old fashioned way. Its a tuff hobby, but in the end it will be all worth it. Sometimes you get burned- $75 for Sailor Moon Collection (YIKES) and sometimes you win big time- Dracula X, Snatcher, Shubibinman 3 bundle $97 ( A steal!!) I know for me it probably evens out.
So long story short- ISO's good for Backups. ISO's bad for just buying and stocking up on them. ISO's possibly good for trying out games you intend on buying.
That's the opinion of the Turbo Sage.
Check out these sites, I check them Daily- www.darkcityproductions.com www.pcenginefx.com
Thanks for reading, Next time I will Review The Turbo Classic Shock Man (Shubibinman 2 for PC Engine) and speak out about where I think the Torch was TRULY passed when the Duo Died in America.
TS (Joshua)
