Gaming History 101

Long lost to the annuls of history, the spiritual successor to the Turrican series, Targa, has had its North American unreleased prototype dug up and released for all to enjoy.

I’m not sure how many of you are familiar with Turrican if you live in the United States because, well, it’s more of a microcomputer and Mega Drive title.  Still, run-and-gun shooter with great graphics from 1990 found many homes in America with a Commodore 64 (C64) release, a Turbografx-16 release, a Genesis release, and of course the SNES (and oddly enough it had a Europe only release on the NES as well).  Developed by Manfred Trenz, who’s games are of cult legend and include The Great Giana Sisters and the stellar C64 port of R-Type, Turrican led a double life on both the Genesis/Mega Drive and SNES with a series of titles that play to each system’s strengths.  While 3 titles released on the Genesis/Mega Drive (Turrican, Turrican II: The Final Fight, and Mega Turrican), only two of the planned 3 titles released on SNES (Super Turrican and Super Turrican II, both of which are on the US Virtual Console as well)  and the third being a Japan-only game known as Rendering Ranger R².  Released in holiday 1995 in Japan, this spiritual successor programmed by Trenz himself featured many of the tricks the SNES had mastered in its time including, much to Trenz’s dismay, pre-rendered graphics like those seen in Donkey Kong Country.  It didn’t sell well, had a super limited release (approx. 5,000 copies), and fetches about a couple thousand dollars anytime it appears online.  With the late release, low sales, and cost of localization, this almost completely in English release never graced the light of day until now, and thanks to a tip from Retro Collect, notable NintendoAge member MrMark0673 has found and released the North American prototype for all to enjoy.  It even works on a flash cart in a real SNES.