johnny turbo

Johnny Turbo is a fictional character created to advertise the Turbo Duo, a hybrid Turbografx 16 and Turbografx CD system, in North America. NEC utilized Bonk (i.e. Bonk's Adventure, Bonk's Revenge) as TG-16's original mascot. Later, continuing this theme, TTi would adopt Air Zonk (a cyborg-Bonk who starred in a horizontal shooter of the same name) as the mascot for TurboDuo. While the Johnny Turbo ads have been seen by some as quite amusing, their significance has been overstated and is now the stuff of urban legend. Air Zonk, not Johnny Turbo, was featured on the TurboDuo console packaging, appeared in countless advertisements, all brochures and catalogs, trade show appearances (i.e. CES, E3), etc. Unlike Bonk or Zonk, Johnny Turbo never starred in any games. Instead, his only appearances were in three comic book-like advertisements published in gaming magazines of the day (i.e. Video Games and Computer Entertainment). Johnny Turbo and his partner Tony were pitted against androids from a company called "FEKA" (a parody of Sega), which, in the comics, mislead children into wasting their money by claiming that their CD system could work by itself. SEGA never made such a claim with their real-life console, which was always marketed as an add-on to the Sega Genesis. The advertising campaign made by Turbo Technologies Incorporated, a venture of NEC and Hudson Soft, failed, as in 1992 when the comics appeared, the underpowered 8-bit TurboDuo system was in the process anyway of being buried by the 16-bit Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Some people have come to the conclusion that Johnny Turbo and Tony are homosexual, especially after looking at the third comic. Today, the ads are a minor web phenomena among older video gamers. They are considered badly drawn, badly written, campy, and ridiculous. Quotes from the comic, such as the hyperbolic "They're not even human!" (in reference to Feka) are met with recognition and ridicule, much like All your base (though much less popular). Johnny Turbo is the alter-ego of Jonathan Brandstetter, who is based on a real life game developer, John C. Brandstetter. After the advertising campaign, John had a son named Jonathan Brandstetter. Tony, the sidekick of Johnny Turbo, is based off of Tony Ancona.

Johnny Turbo

See also