TurboPlay

TurboPlay Magazine was a bi-monthly, U.S.-based video game magazine published by L.F.P. from June/July 1990 through August/September 1992. It was available via subscription only ($9.95 USD per year). A total of 14 issues were released, on schedule. TurboPlay exclusively covered NEC's line of video game consoles, especially the North American models: TurboGrafx-16 (PC Engine), TurboGrafx-CD (TG-CD), Turbo Duo (DUO) and the handheld TurboExpress (PC Engine GT). NEC's SuperGrafx (which was never released outside Japan) also received some minor coverage.

Each 32-page issue featured software/hardware reviews and previews, strategy guides and cheats, letters to the editor, one or two feature articles and contest announcements. These bi-monthly contests often required folks to be creative (as writers or artists) and winning entries were awarded one (1) Grand Prize (typically five TG-16 software titles) and five (5) Runners Up (typically one TG-16 software title).

Feature articles ranged from coverage of trade shows (CES, Tokyo Toy Fair) to behind-the-scenes peeks at game development (i.e. interviews with actors during the filming of FMV (full motion video) sequences for the TG-CD It Came From the Desert; interviews with the ICOM development team that created the TG-CD Addams Family).

Both HuCard (TurboChip) and CD-ROM (TG-CD) games were reviewed. Since the TG-CD library was relatively small, the bulk of reviews cover the HuCard format games. The format of the game reviews changed over the course of the first few issues: initially games were not given a quantitative score (issues #1 & #2), then games were graded on a scale of one to five stars (five being the best, issues #3 & #4), finally, with issue #5, TurboPlay adopted VG & CE's standard format for reviews (i.e. games were given individual scores -- on a ten-point scale -- for Sound/Music, Graphics, Playability and "Overall").

NEC did not produce TurboPlay, and thus did not have editorial control over its content, but NEC was the primary source of advertising revenue (NEC agreed to purchase at least four full-page ads in each issue, "indefinitely"). As a result, NEC's ads dominated the pages of TurboPlay, although one could also find ads for mail-order companies and a small roster of third-party publishers: Tengen (KLAX), Radiance Software (Sidearms), IGS (Sonic Spike, CyberCore, Sinistron, Tricky Kick), and Working Designs (Cadash, Parasol Stars, Cosmic Fantasy 2, Exile, Exile 2, Vasteel).

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