Released in the United States on August 29th, 1989, the TurboGrafx-16 launched to join the race in gathering the attention of game fans hungry for better graphics and bigger games. Developed by Hudson Soft (yes, that Hudson) and sold by NEC Home Electonics, the PC Engine was met with great success in Japan, even taking the lead ahead of Nintendo, and becoming the main competitor for the Super Famicom. Once again, though, delays in such a speed-intensive industry can prove harmful, if not deadly, and the delay in converting the PC Engine for release in the United States only served to put the system in competition with the Sega Genesis.

As expected, the delayed launch of the TurboGrafx-16 hurt NEC's chances of making large waves in the growing US video game market. By 1989, many of the Nintendo Entertainment System's best games had been released, and ignoring the presence of the Sega Master System in the market (as many potential consumers had), the Genesis had launched two weeks prior to the release of the TurboGrafx-16. NEC was going to be roller-skating uphill.

Magazine editors criticized NEC for the lack of 3rd party support for the TurboGrafx-16, and for the apparent lack of experience of the programming staff, who were said to be technically competent, but had not demonstrated great understanding of the hardware to push it to its limits. Another stumbling block for the system was the lack of a second controller port, requiring owners to purchase the TurboTap, a multi-player adapter permitting up to five simultaneous players in games programmed to support them.

To prevent TurboGrafx-16 owners from importing PC Engine games to increase their libraries, NEC set up hardware region locking in the form of inverting pins on the game cards and card slots in the game systems. Players would have to import a PC Engine, or purchase a 3rd party adapter to play Japanese games in the United States. While this affected a small number of TG16 owners, it remained a point of contention with players due to so few games being translated and produced for US release.

The release of the Turbo CD helped breathe much-needed life into the TurboGrafx-16, much to the aggravation of those who couldn't afford the add-on, and many of the top-rated games were Turbo CD games. NEC continued the PC Engine line in Japan, but basically cut its losses in the US. I guess Johnny Turbo should have put the fork down and picked up some barbells. The SuperGrafx and later PC-FX continued the line until NEC had begun to dedicate itself to producing processors for its competitors.