Who says it wasn't available in the US? I'm almost positive it was available in limited quantities in the US. I don't think they got any major chains to carry it, but I'd be shocked if it wasn't available. I remember when I was working for Electronics Boutique at the time of the Jaguar/CD32/etc. and there was a survey about what to carry. I think only the Canadian stores had any enthusiasm for the CD32. Again, though, I'd need to see some hard evidence that indicates for 100% certainty that the CD32 wasn't available in the US, as I find that hard to believe based on both my memory and some of the products available for it that I've seen.

Yes, that much is true, save for NEC being a dominant force in Japan for a number of years and only a minor factor in the US and elsewhere. Post crash there were minimal differences between worldwide territories, though of course the "crash" was mostly a US thing, though it did have worldwide ramifications.

I actually owned (and still own) a TurboGrafx-16 before I owned a Genesis because it was a bit cheaper at the time (in fact, it was my first post-crash console since I stuck with computers during the whole NES era!). Great little system, and even better in its Japanese form, since it was a dominant system over there and had a long, long life with many updates and upgrades that made the 8-bit system shine well beyond what the base system was capable of (it had an average processor, sound and controls, but it could push lots of colors). I have a very, very extensive NEC collection, owning all of their systems (TG-16, TurboDuo, SuperGrafx, TurboExpress, PC/FX, etc.).

What's sad is that NEC decided to go the business-as-usual route and castrate a lot of Japanese games when they were released over here and not release the best-of-the-best titles in the US. It was poor strategy. Of course I don't think it would have made much of a difference against the Genesis with its stellar EA-backed sports titles (the TurboDuo received a single late release Madden game as shown in our Vintage Games book, but by then it was already too late), which were all the rage in the US (the TG-16 had Cinemaware's excellent, but little known outside the Amiga TV Sports line of games).

Of course the TG-16 also contributed its own popular mascot to the mascot wars of that era, Bonk, who, like Sonic, would later appear on other systems. Ah, I can go on and on about the thing. In short, it's well worth checking out (emulation is great for it, by the way) and the whole NEC videogame history is fascinating in general, particularly on the Japanese side.

Books!
Bill Loguidice, Managing Director | Armchair Arcade, Inc.