SUFAMI TURBO by BANDAI.
Released in 1996 as an external
add-on for the Super Famicom, It was yet another attempt by Bandai
to break it's way into the game market as a hardware developer.
Unable to afford the luxury of their very own console, (after huge
losses on previous attempts) Bandai struck a deal (VERY
unusual for the big N to let someone officially produce an add on,
although they did insist that Bandai was responsible for ALL
development and production costs) to release a special cart based
add-on, using the MEGA successful SFC as it's base.
The Sufami Turbo is a lot like an
aladdin for NES. Low cost ROM carts can be plugged into a base unit,
and cheaper cart production and ease of programming (games could be
programmed in Japanese) was supposed to mean LOTS of new software,
keeping the SFC alive in the wake of the next generation consoles.
The Sufami Turbo was even slated for a US and Europe release, but a
lack of sales and game development meant this never seen the light
of day outside of Japan.
In the end only 13 games were made for it (each compatible with the other when both inserted in to slots A and B, opening up new features NOT available for the single cart on it's own.
If you put different carts in Slots A and B, the characters in the two games can MEET and BATTLE.
LOTS more was planned for the
Sufami Turbo, but we will never know it's true capabilities, as
Bandai soon gave up on the machine and concentrated on Sega Saturn
and Pladia development!
By early 1997, Bandai lost so much
money on Pladia and the Sufami Turbo, that it cancelled production,
with only 10,000 Sufami Turbos made and less than half of that
actually being sold! (around 20-25000 games were also sold)
Around 5,000 units were returned to Bandai from Japanese stores and
are thought to have been given away free to employees of Bandai and
an unknown number of units were eventually destroyed!
This is an amazing piece of kit for any collector to get hold of, and due to it's small production numbers, a complete Sufami Turbo in it's box with instructions can be worth over $100 and the games also reflect in rarity at around $50-70 each.
Below is a list of the 13 games officially released for the Sufami Turbo
| Car
Ranger 1996 |
| Crayon
Shin-chan Nagagutsu Dobon!"1996 |
| Gegege
no Kitarou 1996 |
| Poi
Poi Ninja World 1996 |
| SD
Gundam Generations A 1996 |
| SD
Gundam Generations B 1996 |
| SD
Gundam Generations C 1996 |
| SD
Gundam Generations D 1996 |
| SD
Gundam Generations E 1996 |
| SD
Gundam Generations F 1996 |
| SD
Ultra Battle: Seven Densetsu 1996 |
| SD Ultra Battle: Ultraman Densetsu 1996 |