This was a hard game for me to have to part with.
Loved it in the arcades, when I was just barely big enough to see over the wheel.
Many a year later... and Me and a friend drove to Canada, where I bought a fairly cheap Turbo. Think I paid $300 for it.
My memory is a bit fuzzy now... but I think that might have been my first Cab.
Amazingly, the game was pretty much flawless.. for many years of play. One Opto failed on the gas pedal, and was replaced easily.
I think I once got 5 extended plays. The road gets insanely narrow at that point!
I always loved reaching the night scene level when I was a kid... where the city is all lit up.
The Woofer in the cab is cool. It makes the engine rumble sounds... and some other mid to low end sounds...
while the speakers up top, present the other game sounds.
You likely will have to recone + (clean the magnet and coils) or replace the rotted speaker.
Be careful to do so, (or unhook the speaker temporarily, else you may burn out the amp.
Tips on Gameplay + Mechanics:
Tip1: Learn the layout of the track arrangement, and the basic timeframe of the scene switching. When the scene is about to
switch... get the car quickly to the middle of the screen... else the game can unfairly cause your car to appear in the middle of
a curve section... and thus crash.
Tip2: Spin the wheel with a chosen single hand. Spin it full speed, like its a bank-vault-wheel that unlocks 10 billion
dollars... and you have like 2 seconds on the clock, to get the needed 10 full rotations, to claim the prize, without
setting off an alarm.
Spin Hard and fast, then instantly let it go... as it whips around on its own freely. Keeping both hands close to the wheel... ready to
quickly grasp the wheel to an Instant stop at the needed moment. Immediately be ready to lightly dodge or hard spin again.
When playing this properly... it will be a sheer exercise in insane and violent reactions, at ridiculous speeds.
You will get a good workout from moving the wheel so often, and so intensely.
Its not a casual driver, like OutRun, or any other typical driver. IMO its closest in nature to Spy Hunter.
I have the belief that Spyhunter's designers drew inspiration from Turbos gameplay.
Thinking a bit more about it... Turbo is actually more intense overall, than SH. SH has many moments were
everything is fairly calm / "Happy Sailing"... but then suddenly becomes an extreme reaction fest, in the blink of
an eye!
Where as in Turbo.. its pretty much Nonstop hyper-reactions... especially when you realize how valuable
"distance traveled without crashes" becomes, in bonus cars, and extended play starting positions)
If you do not play at this frantic / spastic level... you will likely never get a more than a single extended play session.
Tip3: Make sure to take note of the Passed Cars bar. When the timer runs out... you get extra cars, depending on how
full that bar is. You also get an extended play... so long as its within the top range shown on the bezel.
- If you do ok... you may just get the "extended play" ... and no extra cars.
- If you do well, you can get the Extended play AND an Extra Car.
- If you get a Perfect full bar, AND, have had excellent time per distance (have not crashed much if at all, during the full timer),
you can actually earn two extra cars per Timer session / Extended play.
Tip4: You can crash as much as you want... and it wont matter, until the end of the first timer being up. If you do earn the extended
play... Any crash from that point on... results in a permanent loss of your car.
Tip5: In Turbo... Shifting and good Gas control is just as critical as good steering. Listen to the sound of the engine, and get used to
the timing on your shift from low to hi. In Turbo, the timing is actually a lot faster than games like Pole Position. Maybe like 2 sec. max,
then shift to High.
Tip6: Its been a while... but I believe its similar to Spyhunter... in that as you are about to shift into High gear... it may be best to
ease off the pedal a bit... so that high boost of speed will not cause you to ram into another car / curb..etc.
Tip7: From memory, I believe the Gas Pedal has two optos... which I believe equated to 4 total speed states:
1 - Off Off = Full Stop
2 - On Off = Speed 1
3 - On On = Speed 2
4 - Off On = Speed 3
Its actually quite smooth, considering its not full analog. You would really never know it was digital based analog, until you
looked at the controller.
I believe you tend to try never to jam the game into low gear, to reduce speed... unless its a real emergency. Instead, let
off the pedal gradually, or swiftly.. to slow down at the needed rate.
Because Turbos simulated speed is so much faster than most other games... its almost as if letting off the pedal, is similar
to slamming on the brakes. (There is no brake pedal on the standup cab. Not sure about the SD... though, its probably not
ever going to get used anyway)
Tip8: As far as I recall... almost all situations, you slow down a hair, and let the Ambulance pass to the left side of you.
Tip9: Right after you crash, I believe there is a grace-period... where you can be on the scenery, without getting wrecked.
Its only for a few seconds... but it can help avoid any cars from crashing into you... just as you arrive back on the road.
Tip10: Learn the car patterns. Depending on the position, and type of scene... certain cars always drift a certain direction..
so if you pass on the wrong side... you are going to end up wrecking. They did a nice illusion effect (progressively curved diagonal),
to throw your expectations off on many of these.
Some of the cars will be in the center of the road... and are not safe to be passed... especially if the scene is about to change.
Better to reduce speed, and let him stay a bit in front of you... while you try to stay in the center of the road... waiting for the
scene change. Then quickly dart to the side and smoke him.
Tip11: Be wary of the Red Extension Bridge. It can get quite narrow suddenly... seemingly out of nowhere.
Tip12: Try not to go too slow, for too long... else cars will ram you from behind, and ruin your day.
Tip13: The game has various pots to fine adjust the sound channels, and even the picture scaling.
Tip14: Note the Difficulty Dipswitches. I recall that if you select the harder settings... the enemy cars swerve from left
to right several times on the way down the road... making it a bit too much of a nightmare to deal with, for my tastes.
If they had reduced the number of bounces, it might have been a bit more balanced.
Tip15: When you reach a Hill... learn the rough number of seconds before the hill flattens out... else you are likely to
wait too long, and end up crashing into a car that was under than hill (temporary invisible). Keep visible track of
the cars that entire the Hill fold... and try to adjust to dodge.. BUT... also note the scene change timing... as if you
are at the edge waiting to dodge... and the curve pops up... you are toast. Let off the gas a hair, to give you
more of a fighting change to dodge anything that pops up from a hill quicker than you may have expected.
Tip16: When in the Tunnel, let off a hair in speed, to aid in more time to avoid what may not be easily seen in your
headlight field. (Cant recall if that was just in Monaco GP, or both that and Turbo at the moment)
Tip17: Go into the games test mode, and make sure both pedal optos are working. Try cleaning dust off any opto,
before trashing it.
Tip18: Make sure the spring is on the Shifter, and installed properly. It should really SNAP into place, once pushed
past a certain degree. Using a shifter knob that is too heavy, could severely reduce the springs kick force.
Tip19: Make sure to be instantly ready to shift back into low gear, once you have crashed. You do not want to waste
any time in high gear when starting to roll out. You will likely get rear ended in many such cases... in addition to losing
precious seconds... and thus, potential bonus cars and playtime.
Tip20: Make sure you realize... that with Turbo... the games road keeps shifting horizontally... and that if you just try
to steer like any normal racing game, (not letting go of the wheel at all)... you will not be able to turn far and fast
enough to keep up with even the mild road shifts... let alone, dodge the cars and other stuff, in the needed timeframes.
Also, the car is intentionally designed to take several rotations of the wheel, to move only a minimal amount of travel.
That gives the game a lot more challenge, as you must spin much faster, and farther... to be able to keep up with the
intense obstacle dodging.
You also NEVER want your wrists to turn be more than 9 or 3 oclock. Better to be more like 10 and 2, for faster
reaction in directional changes. If your wrist ends up too far down and inverted... you are going to be crushed.
(and potentially injure your wrist on accident)
Finally...
Tip21: Get a bunch of friends to complete, one after the other. Especially when nobody has any practiced edge yet.
Just review the basic gameplay tips here, to help anyone understand the basics of how it functions and plays + the Quirks.
Its a real blast of a game, once you know its little "Quirk".
I believe Turbo gets a little bit of a bad rap... because of that cheapness of the scene changes. But once you realize
where they are, and roughly how long they last... it becomes easy to avoid this games only real flaw. It then just
adds to the challenge and Adrenalin charged excitement of it all.
*** Ohh.. and make sure before you fire it all up... that ALL connectors and rom chips, are seated properly and fully.
Ive had connectors get loose, and chips start to work their way out of sockets... from the vibrations during a long haul.
(and potentially partially due to the previous owner(s) as well)
Home
Help
Search
Login
Register
Send this topic
Print
Topic: Sega Turbo (Read 2414 times)
