Turbo

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"It comes as a bit of a surprise that this game is so rare. Turbo on the Colecovision is as common as Donkey Kong; both common as dirt. On the Intellivision, Donkey Kong is common, but Turbo is ultra-rare. Another surprise is that only the right hand controller is used to play the game. Either hand controller can be used to enter the difficulty level (1 through 4 as usual. This time there is no 2-player option, which is also a bit of a curiosity. Maybe Coleco was starting to cut corners by then, like everybody else.) which led me to believe that the hand controller mappings were reversed in the .cfg file on the emulator. When I got ahold of the actual cartridge and read the manual, it turned out that only the right controller is used in the actual game. Yet another curiosity is that the manual has illustrations of both Intellivision I and Intellivision II controllers, and the stripe on the front of the box makes the claim that the game is for use with Intellivision I and Intellivision II units, but the box also has the familiar 'NOT for use with Intellivision II' sticker on it.
"This game reminds me of Activision's Enduro (Atari 2600); the game objective is pretty much the same: pass a certain number of cars within a certain amount of time. If this weren't an arcade port I would have thought it to be a poor imitation of that game. Of course the animation isn't nearly as fluid and the sound effects are much weaker (The engine sound isn't as weak on the actual cartridge as it is on the emulator.), but there is a little more variety in scenery. Whereas Enduro always features the player racing outdoors at different times of day and night and occasionally on ice; Turbo has scenery for city, country, inside tunnel, and waterfront (and of course ice). There is no transition between scenes though; the player will be driving past buildings and will suddenly see trees.
"Control is unique. Drive in high gear by using the top action buttons, drive in low gear by using the bottom action buttons, and maneuver by rotating the disc as if one were turning a steering wheel. How's that for realistic steering? Another version of Auto Racing with that kind of steering control would have been interesting indeed -- or better yet, a version of Auto Racing that gave the player(s) a choice between steering methods. Graphics are rather poor. The 3-D effect is rough at best: cars are displayed at high resolution when further away; at normal resolution as they approach; and at double width when nearby. The player's car switches from double width to normal resolution as it accelerates, which is a bit of a distraction. Also, two sprites are used for each car (one for body, another for tires) so no more than four cars appear at one time. The occasional ambulance is drawn using three sprites, leaving only three more sprites for additional oil slicks.
"Despite the weak sound effects and graphics, the game is still enjoyable, as it is simple yet challenging, as classic games go. I advise people to just stick to playing this game on the emulator and to only buy the actual cartridge if they can find it 'in the wild' at a cheap price however. Trying to steer using the keyboard mappings makes the game about as fun as piano lessons and fingering exercises, so I recommend using the Hand Controller Interface for this game. Of course playing the Colecovision port is probably the best way to go given its respective rarity on the two systems." Rating: 2/5 -- Mike Hayes