A few weeks ago, I marked the twentieth anniversary of the Sega Genesis. Much to my surprise, I’d nearly forgotten about another console that’s hit the twenty-year mark: the TurboGrafx-16.

Known as the PC Engine in Japan, the TG16 didn’t exactly take America by storm, but it had a niche following. I knew one, maybe two people who had one, but they loved the console to death. The TG16 may not have had the vast library of great games that the NES, Genesis, and Super NES had, but its selection of titles was still worthwhile. Bonk’s Adventure, Blazing Lazers, Splatterhouse, the Bomberman games, Ninja Spirit…all fantastic games that still hold up today.

While this nostalgia is all well and good, I’m having a hard time rekindling these memories the proper way: that is, actually breaking out a TG16 system and playing the damned games. Why? Because TG16 hardware isn’t cheap. This makes no sense to me, as the system wasn’t super-rare over here or anything. Japanese PC Engine systems are selling for even higher amounts, and that makes even less sense, as the system was extremely popular overseas! There were tons of PC Engine consoles produced, so what’s up with the high prices? The CD systems and add-ons I can understand, but regular PC Engine hardware selling for over $50 on average? Give me a break. I used to have a PC Engine Core Grafx system many years ago, but I sold it, as I upgraded to a DUO-R. Unfortunately, that system later broke, so I sold it to a friend of mine. He was able to fix it. Lucky him!

Sure, there’s emulators and such, but we all know that’s just not the same as playing original games on original hardware.