TurboTime

"Turbo-tastic!"

―Turbo's catchphrase after winning a race in Turbo Time.

Turbo Time online game

Turbo Time is the game where Wreck-It Ralph's main antagonist, Turbo, starred before invading Sugar Rush. A classic 8-bit arcade racing game released in 1982, Turbo Time was a hit at Litwak's Arcade following its release. The game featured several look-alike characters dressed in dark blue and white, with Turbo being set apart from the rest by his red and white outfit. He eventually became obsessed with attention, pushing other racers away from him in the podium to emphasize his trophy and eventually considering his own self as the "the greatest racer ever". However, in 1987 RoadBlasters was released, immediately gathering the attention of Litwak's customers due to its superior graphics and game design. Turbo despised being thrown out of the spotlight, choosing to abandon his own game in order to reclaim his glory. He initially interrupted a RoadBlasters race by driving through the background while chanting his catchphrase, but later ran directly into the player's car glitching the game and forcing it to crash. Both machines were considered to be out of order, being permanently unplugged by Mr. Litwak, in the process stranding their characters and giving birth to the phrase "going Turbo" in reference to game-jumping recklessly. The only character known to have escaped the disconnection was Turbo himself, who secretly reprogrammed another racing game, Sugar Rush, overtaking its original ruler and adopting a different persona known as King Candy.

Turbo's original 8-bit appearance in Turbo Time.

In December 2012, Disney released a 16-bit version of Turbo Time, which varies greatly from the one featured in the film in both graphics and gameplay, as part of the Wreck-It Ralph iOS package. The player controls Turbo and the game mechanics are defined by driving at "turbo speed" from a bird's eye view and collecting coins to gather points in three-lap races, while other racers wearing different colors serve as opposition.

Trivia

• Turbo Time appears to be inspired by Sega's 1981 arcade racing game Turbo.
• Turbo's character design appears to be inspired by Speed Racer.
• RoadBlasters was an arcade racing game released by Atari in 1987.
• Turbo Time's arcade cabinet seems to be the same design of Rally-X.
• The rivalry of Turbo Time, RoadBlasters, is in fact a real game, as mentioned above.