NEC TurboExpress

Release: 1991
aka: PC Engine GT (Japan)

In 1990, the Japanese PC Engine GT was released. This colour portable could play PC Engine HuCard Games. In Japan it did well.

But NEC never had the same sucess in North America. The TurboExpress was released overseas to compete with the Atari Lynx, Nintendo Game Boy, and Sega Game Gear. Technically, the TurboExpress was the superior system. The sales told a different story. The TurboExpress was insanely expensive. Many people couldn't buy it if they wanted to.

…And they didn't want to. The TurboExpress didn't have a great selection of games... while the Game Boy came with Tetris (and everyone loves Tetris), and the Game Gear came with Sonic the Hedgehog. What did the TurboExpress come with? Nothing.

Third parties didn't want to sign on for TurboExpress games. Sega and Nintendo were too huge to beat... and nobody was buying the TurboExpress. And few stores would even invest in putting TurboExpress systems on their shelves.

The TurboExpress price was lowered, but it was too late. The GameBoy was the big thing in portable, even the GameGear was falling behind. The TurboExpress was gone.