The Turbo Button: A Blast from the Past of Personal Computing

For PC gamers of a certain age or experience level, hearing the term "turbo button" brings to mind a very specific era in personal computing. This button was commonplace on computer cases from around 1986 to 1995, and even expected by many users. But what did this button do? And where did they go, anyway?

To get to the bottom of this, we have to take a look at the dawn of the modern PC, with the IBM Personal Computer, Model 5150. Introduced in 1981, this computer featured a 4.77 MHz Intel 8088 CPU, which is the most pertinent component when it comes to understanding turbo buttons. The IBM PC proved wildly successful, and when people wrote programs and games for it, they assumed that the same 4.77 MHz CPU would be there. This resulted in programming routines being tied to this exact CPU clock speed, resulting in them playing the same on any IBM PC.

However, progress doesn't just wait around, especially in technology. Before long, that 4.77 MHz CPU was replaced by an 8 MHz CPU, then 12 MHz, then 16, then 25, 33, 66... and so on. Hardware was moving faster than the software could keep up, but PC users still wanted to use their existing games and applications when they upgraded. Yet, there was a big problem: anytime you ran something on a faster machine that relied on a slower CPU speed to run correctly, you ended up with something that looked like this. Uhh, I don't care how fast your reflexes are, that's unusable.

To solve this issue, hardware manufacturers implemented a hardware solution - the turbo button! The name took inspiration from the turbo charger, a device seen in certain automobile engines that increases power and efficiency. Although, personally, I think it was just chosen because it looks cool to have a button that says "Turbo" on your computer case. Especially because the turbo button doesn't speed things up, like a turbo charger; it slows things down.

Pressing the turbo button would allow you to run these older games and applications that relied on older CPUs in the 4.77 MHz to 8 MHz range simply by limiting the faster processor temporarily. Different manufacturers achieved this in differing ways, from slowing down the clock speed, to disabling the cache and introducing wait states. As a result, calling it a "turbo" button is a bit counterintuitive.

I remember a friend of mine always turning his turbo button on when playing the latest games, then blaming Compaq when it ran so badly. 'Nah, man,' I kept telling him, 'it's because of the turbo button!' But he said it made no sense, because "turbo" meant "fast," and swore that Presarios were just slow and crappy computers. Yeah, whatever, he was like eight.

The point remains - the misnomer was confusing, which led some to reconfigure their machine to have it make more sense. For instance, this Bond '386 computer came preconfigured to make the turbo button actually speed things up. When it boots up, it's running at the slower speed, until you press the button and see that awesome light turn on. Then, it's full steam ahead.

Really, that's a lot of what the turbo buttons represent in my mind - a psychological thing, a comfort of sorts that says "Hey, I've got this under control." And for PC enthusiasts, tinkering with clock speeds and toggle switches, and just making things cool, is at the very core of what it means to be a PC enthusiast.

The Desire for Awesome Extra Stuff

So... let's remember the turbo button. Both for what it did practically, and for the ideas it inspired imaginatively. And if you enjoyed this video, then perhaps you would like my ode to the floppy disk, as well as some of my others that are on LGR here.

New videos every Monday and Friday, so you can subscribe if you'd like to be notified of those. Ah, yeah! I also wanted to mention turbo buttons on controllers. Those are totally different, y'know. It just makes buttons press down really fast and stuff. That's... maybe another subject for another video, 'cause those are fascinating, too.

And for the most part, you don't see them anymore, but then again, I remember seeing some for the Xbox 360. Maybe I'm wrong... I'll have to look into that. But anyway, that's just me rambling, and thank you very much for watching.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enThe turbo button.To PC gamers of a certain age or experience level,hearing that term brings to mind a very specific era in personal computing.From around 1986 to 1995,seeing this button on your computer case was commonplace,and even expected.But, why?What did the turbo button even do?And where did they go, anyway?To get to the bottom of this,we've gotta take a look at the dawn of the modern PC,with the IBM Personal Computer, Model 5150.It was introduced in 1981, and featured a 4.77 MHz Intel 8088 CPU,which is the most pertinent component when it comes to understanding turbo buttons.The IBM PC proved wildly successful,and when people wrote programs and games for it,they assumed that the same 4.77 MHz CPU would be there.The timing of programming routines in software was often tied to this *exact* CPU clock speed,resulting in it playing the same on any IBM PC.Made sense, seeing as the PC only ever came with one CPU up to that point,and when other companies started cloning it,they used a CPU of the same speed, or close to it.But progress doesn't just wait around,especially in technology,and before long, that 4.77 MHz CPU was replaced by an 8 MHz CPU,then 12 MHz, then 16, then 25, 33, 66... eh, you get the idea.Hardware was moving faster than the software could keep up,but PC users still wanted to use their existing games and applications when they upgraded.Yet... there was a *big* problem.Anytime you ran something on a faster machine that relied on a slower CPU speed to run correctly,you ended up with something that looked like this.Uhh, I don't care how fast your reflexes are, that's unusable.So, hardware manufacturers implemented a hardware solution-the turbo button!The name took inspiration from the turbo charger,a device seen in certain automobile engines that increases power and efficiency.Although, personally, I think it was just chosenbecause it looks cool to have a button that says 'Turbo' on your computer case.Especially because the turbo button doesn't speed things *up*, like a turbo charger,it slows things *down*.Pressing the turbo button would allow you to run these older games and applicationsthat relied on older CPUs in the 4.77 MHz to 8 MHz rangesimply by limiting the faster processor temporarily.Different manufacturers achieved this in differing ways,from slowing down the clock speed, to disabling the cache and introducing wait states.As a result, calling it a 'turbo' button is a bit counterintuitive.I remember a friend of mine always turning his turbo button on when playing the latest games,then blaming Compaq when it ran so badly.'Nah, man,' I kept telling him,'it's because of the turbo button!'Eh, but he said it made no sense, because 'turbo' meant 'fast',and swore that Presarios were just slow and crappy computers.Yeah, whatever, he was like eight.But the point remains- the misnomer was confusing,which led some to reconfigure their machine to have it make more sense.For instance, this Bond '386 computer came preconfiguredto make the turbo button actually speed things up.So when it boots up, it's running at the slower speed,until you press the button and see that awesome light turn on.Then, it's full steam ahead.And, really, that's a lot of what the turbo buttons represent in my mind.It's a psychological thing,a comfort of sorts that says, 'Computers are *awesome!*'Even when I'm completely aware of the practical usage of the things,there's some abstract notion that draws me towards anything with a turbo button to this day.Whether they're round,square,oblong,or whatever other shape,a PC with a turbo switch is downright satisfying to look at.There was quite a variety,with some even appearing on the keyboard itself,or using a key combination like Ctrl-Alt-Plus or Minus instead.And I especially love those that go all out with some kind of display next to it,geekily showing off your current CPU clock speed in a fantastic shade of glowing red or green.It's not necessary at all, but since when do computer folks only care about the necessary?We're the kind of people who happily lace our motherboards in cold-cathode lights,buy graphics cards with fancy PCB colors we'll never see,laser-etch our favorite designs into the case,and then start all over again, six months later,because enough is *never* enough.Specialized gadgets and extraneous features are awesome to us.Having an extra button,or an additional display on your case is just *fun*,and turbo buttons are a prime example of that.Case manufacturers stopped making them because we stopped needing them.But that desire to have awesome extra stuff on our PC has never left.Tinkering with clock speeds and toggle switches,and just making things *cool* is at the very core of what it means to be a PC enthusiast, after all.So... let's remember the turbo button.Both for what it did practically, and for the ideas it inspired imaginatively.And if you enjoyed this video, then perhaps you would like my ode to the floppy disk,as well as some of my others that are on LGR here.New videos every Monday and Friday, so you can subscribe if you'd like to be notified of those.And, ah, yeah.I also wanted to mention turbo buttons on controllers.Those are totally different, y'know.Ah, it just makes buttons press down really fast and stuff.That's... maybe another subject for another video, 'cause those are fascinating, too,and for the most part, you don't see 'em anymore,but then again, I remember seeing some for the Xbox 360.Maybe I'm wrong... I'll have to look into that.But anyway, that's just me rambling,and thank you very much for watching.\n"