When it comes to the Commercial Break we generally like to mix it up, give you four different commercial reviews from a bunch of different eras. In our 35th episode we have decided to do something very special, and that's to take a look at one four-page ad and see what we can do with it. Back in the early 1990s we were introduced to a comic book character known as Johnny Turbo, he was TTI's superhero that helped thwart the evils of their competitors. This character wound up in several different magazines around the time TTI was unveiling their TurboDuo, the redesigned (and slightly upgraded) TurboGrafx-16. We felt that this character was too interesting/stupid to write off, so we are going to go through all four pages of the 44th installment of Johnny Turbo, entitled: Let 'Em Dangle!!

As you can tell from this first page we are looking at what would be the cover. This was generally placed towards the back of the magazine, usually in the section where the one or two TurboDuo previews would show up. In the case of this advert it was located on page 195 of 220, right next to EGM's preview of Riot Zone and Bomberman '93. Perhaps if it was closer to the front (and not in no man's land) more people would have paid attention, but that's not where Electronic Gaming Monthly decided to insert it. Judging by the quality of the ad it deserved to be located way in the back.

This first page goes a long way to explain all we need to know. As you can tell it's about a dude named Johnny Turbo (played by Kevin Smith) who is kicking the ass of The Matrix's own Agent Smith. In the background you can see Johnny's right hand man (played by Bill Nye the Science Guy), who is looking on as Johnny needlessly beats people up for selling the wrong system. How dare there be any competition, life would be so much better if the TurboDuo was alone and there was no Sega or Nintendo. Because as we all know, all of the innovation came from NEC and their third parties. Okay, enough sarcasm, let's move to page two ...

FROM: Bad Advertising With Johnny Turbo