# Generated by filter_history.pl on 2023-10-18
# From history.xml version 2.58a, generated on 2023-09-02.

$info=1941,1941u,1941r1
Arcade Video game published 33 years ago:

1941 - Counter Attack (c) 1990 Capcom Company, Limited.

Export release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese release entry; "1941 - Counter Attack [B-Board 89625B-1]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System" hardware.
B-Board ID: 89624B-3

- TRIVIA -

1941 - Counter Attack was released in February 1990 in arcades outside of Japan.

In the Export releases, at the 5th position on the high score table, it says 'a02' instead of 'j01' in the original Japanese release.

- UPDATES -

Two version are known to exists:
- USA 900227
- ETC 900227

- PORTS -

Here is a list of ports released outside Japan. For a list of Japanese ports, please see the original Japanese version entry, "1941 - Counter Attack [B-Board 89625B-1]". 

* CONSOLES: 
[US] Microsoft XBOX (nov.24, 2006) "Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 2" 
[US] Sony PS2 (nov.24, 2006) "Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 2 [Model SLUS-21473]" 
Sony PlayStation 2 [AU] (apr.11, 2007) "Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 2 [Model SLES-54561]" 
[EU] Sony PS2 (apr.13, 2007) "Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 2 [Model SLES-54561]" 

* HANDHELDS: 
[US] Sony PSP (mar.22, 2006) "Capcom Classics Collection Remixed [Model ULUS-10097]" 
[EU] Sony PSP (jul.21, 2006) "Capcom Classics Collection Remixed [Model ULES-00347]" 

* OTHERS: 
Apple iPhone/iPod [US] (nov.4, 2010) "Capcom Arcade [Model 397347348]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=1941j
Arcade Video game published 33 years ago:

1941 - Counter Attack (c) 1990 Capcom. 

A vertically scrolling shoot'em up.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the Capcom "CP System" hardware.
B-Board ID: 89625B-1

Players: 2
Control: 8-way joystick
Buttons: 2

- TRIVIA -

1941 was released in February 1990 in the Japanese arcades as the 7th CP-S release. It is the first Shoot'em Up to add +1 to the score when a continue is used.

Player 1 uses a P-38 Lightning and Player 2 uses a Mosquito B Mk.IV.

Known Export release: "1941 - Counter Attack [B-Board 89624B-3]".

Here is all the official bosses names : 
* Stage 1 - Leviathan 
* Stage 2 - Bismarck 
* Stage 3 - V3Rocket 
* Stage 4 - Krote 
* Stage 5 - Leviathan 
* Stage 6 - Gotha 

Historical inaccuracies - V3Rocket : The real V3 was a Super Gun, not a rocket. Furthermore, 'V-weapons' would not appear until "1944 - The Loop Master". 

Default high-score table : 
1ST 30000 CAP 
2ND 29000 COM 
3RD 28000 CAP 
4TH 27000 COM 
5TH 26000 j01 

Soundtrack album releases:
Final Fight : G.S.M. Capcom 3 (PCCB-00030) (May 21, 1990) [Pony Canyon / Scitron]

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* How to Play:
Control airplane with 8-way joystick.
Attack with button A.
Somersault & Mega-Crash with Button B.
Power Blast: If the A button is held down, energy will be stored up, so that a power blast is fired when the button is released.

* Hint: Your airplane doesn't lose energy when it collides with cliff-walls, buildings etc. Instead it will rotate a bit after such collisions. That means you can tumble up and down these obstacles (keep on colliding), and if you keep shooting, your shots will go in all directions. This way you can clear up a lot of enemies when you are under pressure (while rolling you are invincible).

- SERIES -

1. 1942 (1984) 
2. 1943 - Midway Kaisen (1987) 
3. 1943 Kai - Midway Kaisen (1988) 
4. 1941 - Counter Attack [B-Board 89625B-1] (1990) 
5. 19XX - The War Against Destiny [Green Board] (1995) 
6. 1944 - The Loop Master [Green Board] (2000)
7. 1942 - Joint Strike (2008, PSN/XBLA)

- STAFF -

Planners : Noritaka Funamizu (Poo), Rekite
Object designers : Shinji Sakashita (Sakashita Thing), Yokota Yokozo, Terukun, Kuribow
Scroll designers : Sadakichi, Marilyn Higuchi, Yuki, Kintarou, Harusan
Character support : Akira Yasuda (Akiman)
Character coordinator : Rekite
Character effects : Yokota Yokozo
Sound composer : Hifumi
Programmers : Makkow, Babel-2, Dome
Game analysers : Akira Nishitani (Nin), Doda Nda Uda
Director : Yoshiki Okamoto (Kihaji Okamoto)

- PORTS -

Here is a list of Japanese ports. For a list of ports released outside Japan, please see the export version entry, "1941 - Counter Attack [B-Board 89624B-3]". 

* CONSOLES: 
NEC SuperGrafx [JP] (aug.22, 1991) "1941 - Counter Attack [Model HC91048]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=5&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=1944,1944u,1944d
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 23 years ago:

1944 - The Loop Master (c) 2000 Capcom Ent., Inc.

North American release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese release entry; "1944 - The Loop Master [Green Board]" (Japan 000620).

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Blue Board [USA]

- TRIVIA -

1944 - The Loop Master was released on June 20, 2000 in the USA.

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=19xx,19xxd,19xxu
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 27 years ago:

19XX - The War Against Destiny (c) 1996 Capcom USA, Incorporated.

North American & European release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese release entry; "19XX - The War Against Destiny [Green Board]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware. 
Blue Board [USA & Europe]

- UPDATES -

Blue Board releases: 

NOTE: US releases also cover Canada.

Revision 1: 
* Build Date: 951207 
* US release.

Revision 2: 
* Build Date: 951218 
* EUROPE release.

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=19xxj,19xxjr1,19xxjr2
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 27 years ago:

19XX - The War Against Destiny (c) 1996 Capcom.

A vertical shoot'em up game.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Green Board [Japan]

Players: 2
Control: 8-way joystick
Buttons: 2
=> [A] Fire, [B] Bomb

- TRIVIA -

19XX The War Against Destiny was released on December 7, 1995 in Japan. It was known as the 13th CPS-II game. 

The game forbids the initials 'SEX' on the high score table. If you try, it gets changed to 'SYS'. 

Known export releases: 
"19XX - The War Against Destiny [Blue Board]" 
"19XX - The War Against Destiny [Grey Board]" 
"19XX - The War Against Destiny [Orange Board]" 
"19XX - The War Against Destiny [Pink Board]" 

Soundtrack album releases: 
Capcom Game Sound Track -19XX The War Against Destiny- (VICL-2168) [Victor Entertainment] 

Victor Entertainment released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Capcom Game Soundtrack : 19XX The War Against Destiny - VICL-2168) on April 3, 1996. Here is the official name of the songs : 
Mission 1 - A Bit of Blue Sky Between the Clouds 
Mission 2 - The Red Naval Port 
Mission 3 - Dance of the Green Gnome 
Mission 4 - Silver Ice Sheet 
Mission 5 - City Lights in the Black Strait 
Final Mission P1 - Grayish Tornado 
Final Mission P2 - The Last-Ditch Fight

- UPDATES -

Green Board releases : 

Revision 1: 
* Build Date: 951207 

Revision 2: 
* Build Date: 951225

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Change First Stage Music To "1942" BGM : at the title screen after the coin is inserted move Up, Right(x9), Down(x4), left(x2). A sound will be heard once the code is entered.

* Change First Stage Music To An Arranged Version of "1942" BGM : at the title screen after the coin is inserted move Up, Down(x9), Upleft, Downright, Upright, Downleft, Upleft, Downright, Upright, Downleft. A voice will be heard once the code is entered.

* Stronger Bombs : holding the BOMB button will charge your bomb to a stronger level.

- SERIES -

1. 1942 (1984) 
2. 1943 - Midway Kaisen (1987) 
3. 1943 Kai - Midway Kaisen (1988) 
4. 1941 - Counter Attack [B-Board 89625B-1] (1990) 
5. 19XX - The War Against Destiny [Green Board] (1995) 
6. 1944 - The Loop Master [Green Board] (2000)
7. 1942 - Joint Strike (2008, PSN/XBLA)

- STAFF -

Game designers : I. Satsuma, Tomonori Nonaka, S. Obata (Manhattan)
Program designers : T. Ueno, Batayoni, Hdo, Dress, Ittetsu, You!, Hits
Scroll designers : Taka, Fukumoyan, Ziggy, Imahori, Hiroshi Sugiyama, Kazu, Goro Suzuki, Sawatch
Object designers : Y. Maruno, Misupo Rumu, Yoshino Hiroaki, Mimura Kenji 8, Naoki Fukuda, Yuki, Henoheno, Bow, T. Osumi, GZ, K. Tokunaga, You-Ten Nakano, Takep, Eizi Murabayashi, Kogaman
Music composers : Syun Nishigaki (Kobekko), Tatsuro Zuzuki
Sound designers : Hiroaki Kondo (Mach-2)
All sound produce by Arcade Sound Team.

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=19xxh
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 27 years ago:

19XX - The War Against Destiny (c) 1996 Capcom Company, Limited. 

South American release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese release entry; "19XX - The War Against Destiny [Green Board]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Orange Board [South America]

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=69623&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=19xxb
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 27 years ago:

19XX - The War Against Destiny (c) 1996 Capcom Company, Limited.

Brazilian release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese release entry; "19XX - The War Against Destiny [Green Board]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Pink Board (Brazil)

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=71511&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=2020bb,2020bba

2020 Super Baseball (c) 1991 SNK Corporation.

There is no longer conventional baseball in 2020. The Super Baseball designed by the SUPER BASEBALL ASSOCIATION has been very popular and is the best sport. However, the truth is that the association has used a colossal sum of money to promote Super Baseball as show business. They have manipulated each player's ability using the control computer to secretly decide victory or defeat in every game. The players who knew this removed the connecting parts of the computer to play their own game of baseball.

Finally, a fair game in going to be played at "CYBER EGG"!

FUTURISTIC SUPER BASEBALL, NOW PLAY BALL!

2020 Super Baseball:
1. Futuristic Graphics
2. Select 1 of 12 individual teams of men, women & robot players.
3. Fast paced game with new rules!
4. You can make your team stronger with prizes earned from amazing catches.
5. 2 players simultaneous competition with CONTINUE mode.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID: NGM-030

[SNK MVS Neo-Geo Controls]
2 players - 4 buttons per player.

- TRIVIA -

2020 Super Baseball was released on September 20, 1991 in Japan.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* How to Play:
Hitting : 
[A] Swing/Return to base
[B] Stolen Base/Lead off
[C] Bunt
[D] Time Out

Fielding : 
[A] Pitch/Throw ball/Jump
[B] Base touch/Feint ball
[C] x
[D] Time out

* There is no infield fly rule in this game, which can be used to the advantage of a defender if there are base runners. Double plays and even triple plays are common because of this.

* A base runner cannot begin to steal bases until the pitcher has released the ball. In most baseball video games and in real life, a runner can begin to steal the next base at any time. However, stealing a base beforehand can only be done if you continuously press the steal button right after the screen cuts-back after the batter hit a foul ball, and the pitcher will not even notice you running.

* The 3rd baseman, 2nd baseman, and 1st baseman will not leave the base to retrieve a ball. They will instead stand on the base and wait for another fielder to get the ball, which can sometimes mean they will stand there while the ball rolls inches away from them. The only exception would be if the shortstop covers third or second base for the fielder; then they remain in the stationary position.

* Since the game has semi-automatic fielding, you cannot change which defensive player you want to run after the ball, which means sometimes the pitcher will end up chasing a ball well into the outfield.

* If a ball is hit far enough into the stands, it can sometimes become stuck, allowing the batter to garnish an in the park home run. Because of the reduced home run zone, faster players can often round the bases by hitting the ball up into the fair-zone stands.

* The computer players will always attempt to hit the ball straight, as if trying to hit a home run, no matter what the strength of the batter. This can sometimes give an unfair advantage to you, since they do not try to pull the ball just barely fair in order to get a hit. This has its downfall, in that some powerful players will hit home runs easily.

* You cannot play against a team from the other league.

* If you manage to score more than 100 runs, your score will turn back to zero, as there are only two spaces for your runs. Consequently, if you score 101 runs, and your opponent scores two runs, you will lose the game 01-02.

* You cannot change players positions in the field or line up without replacing them.

* If another player is in your line of path to throw the ball, they will catch the ball after you throw it. This means that if the shortstop retrieves a ground ball just behind 3rd base, then the throw will get cut-off by the 3rd baseman and then the pitcher before the ball gets to 1st base. The pitcher will almost always get in the way, and this can present a problem when trying to pull a double play between third and first or second and home.

- STAFF -

Developed by Pallas.

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo (1991) "2020 Super Baseball [Model NGH-030]"
[JP] Nintendo Super Famicom (1993) "2020 Toshi no Super Baseball [Model SHVC-SA]"
[JP] Sega Mega Drive (1994) "2020 Toshi Super Baseball [Model EM20027]"
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo CD (1995) "2020 Super Baseball [Model NGCD-030]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=3in1semi,3in1semia
Arcade Video game published 26 years ago:

3-in-1: New HyperMan + HyperMan + Cookie & Bibi (c) 1997 SemiCom.

Three games including "New Hyperman", "Hyperman" and "Cookie & Bibis".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on Toaplan/Semicom "Snow Bros" Hardware.

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 16 Mhz)
Sound CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 4 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Yamaha YM2151 (@ 4 Mhz), OKI6295 (@ 7.575 Khz)

Screen orientation : Horizontal
Video resolution : 256 x 224 pixels
Screen refresh : 57.50 Hz
Palette colors : 256

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 3

- STAFF -

Cookie & Bibis
Executive Producer : Jeon Jae Yeon
Game Designer : Han Seung Hoon
Programmer : Kim Hyun Ho
Graphic Designer : Kim Sung Hawan, Kim Kyung Hee, Hong Young Joo
Music/Sound : Jeon Seok Gee

New Hyper Man
Executive Producer : Jeon Jae Yeon
Programmer : Kim Hyun Ho
Graphic Designer : Kim Sung Whan, Kim Kyung Hee, Lee Won Young, Lee Suk Nam
Music / Sound : Jeon Seok Gee
Hardware : Jee Deok Kyoo, Park Hoon Yong, Kim In Seok

Hyper Man
Executive Producer : Jeon Jae Yeon
Game Designer : Han Seung Hoon
Programmer : Kim Hyun Ho
Graphic Designer : Hong Young Joo
Music/Sound : Jeon Seok Gee

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=64street,64streetj,64streetja
Arcade Video game published 32 years ago:

64th. Street - A Detective Story (c) 1991 Jaleco Company, Limited.

Rick. PRIVATE DETECTIVE
3. OCT. 1939 file no. 238
The kidnapping of a rich man's daughter.

Beat the bad guys and throw them into the wall!

Rick and Allen's Detective Agency is on 64th st. They have specialized maneuvres to beat the enemy. When you are in trouble... call on a partner to join the game and assist you. A great new action game from Jaleco.

- TECHNICAL -

Jaleco Mega System 1-C Hardware

Main CPU: Motorola 68000 (@ 12 Mhz)
Sound CPU: Motorola 68000 (@ 7 Mhz)
Sound Chips: Yamaha YM2151 (@ 3.5 Mhz), (2x) OKI6295 (@ 30.303 Khz)

Screen Orientation: Horizontal
Video Resolution: 256 x 224 Pixels
Screen Refresh: 60.00 Hz
Palette Colors: 1024

Players: 2
Control: 8-Way Joystick
Buttons: 2
=> [A] Punch, [B] Jump

- TRIVIA -

64th. Street was released in March 1991. It is a precursor to Jaleco's "Rushing Beat" series on the Nintendo Super Famicom. The series' main character (Rick Norton) shares both the name of the main character (Rick) with the appearance of the supporting character (Allen).

The game's two protagonists make a cameo appearance in another Jaleco game, "Chimera Beast".

This game is probably the earliest (and sadly, one of very, very few) beat 'em up that allows the player to throw the enemy into the background, providing both an increased damage output and a somewhat nice looking dose of scenario destruction. Another game that allowed for this particular move to be performed was the Super Nintendo adaptation of Batman Returns, by Konami.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

Lots of special items can be found by throwing enemies into the background and breaking things.

Massive throw damage: When you grab an enemy, pressing Up on the joystick followed by the Attack button will make you throw the enemy onto the background, dealing quite a bigger amount of damage than the regular side throw; and in some cases (like in levels 2 and 3), it'll allow you to kill an enemy with a single move.

- STAFF -

Developed by C.P. Brain.

Executive Producer: Tokuhiro Takemori
Director: Shigeru Hashimoto
Planner: Y. Hiroyama
Programmers: Manbou, Sin Fuzihiro
BG Designers: Helluder, Reiko Takano, Yamagata Tsubasa, Garadou
Character Designers: Mamoru Horikoshi, Shigeru Hashimoto
Hyper Advisor: Myaa
Sound Effects: Kiyoshi Yokoyama, Studio O.K.

Special Thanks: Studio Sanbo, Miyuki Chan, Select, Abemasa, Aniki, Chin

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=acrobatm,acrobatmbl
Arcade Video game published 32 years ago:

Acrobat Mission (c) 1991 Taito Corp.

A great vertical scrolling shoot'em up game.

At the year 2100 A.D. Humans were exterminated by their own self-destructive nature leaving behind the consequences of environmental degradation on earth and were forced to escape to Mars leaving a bio-computer for environmental recuperation of earth to preparing the blue planet for future recolonization. But one day a half a century after humans arrived, mars was attacked by strange flying objects. To fight these enemies, the director general of the Defence Agency organized the task force army and started quickly the dogfight with invaders to neutralize the invasion. 

The operation was called 'Acrobat Mission' as it exceeded the technical limits of the pilots.

The players takes controls on one of two surviving fighters pilots, 'Jet' a male pilot and 'Nova' a female pilot and both flying the Icarus, a fast and powerful space-fighter, which comes equipped with a Standard laser. Two more weapons are available throughout the game - the wide shot (W) which spreads out in front of the ship and the Hurricane shot (H) which fires clusters of rotating balls of energy. Holding the fire button charges up a special attack and each weapon features a different energy blast and damage factor. The ships can also hold a maximum of two smart-bombs, one under each wing - although they can be activated by the players, they also do fall off easily and can be detonated by enemy shots. Interestingly, the Icarus can't collide with other ships or any part of the scenery - instead, it bounces off and only suffers damage from enemy shots. However, once the shield is depleted, the ship will fly out of control for a few seconds and grant the players a last chance to inflict damage to any remaining enemies before it explodes.

- TECHNICAL -

Game ID : AM91073

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 10 Mhz)
Sound Chips : YM2203 (@ 1.5 Mhz), (2x) OKI6295 (@ 4.0 Mhz)

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 3

- TRIVIA -

Acrobat Mission was released in July 1991.

Produced by Taito under license from UPL.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Secret Code for seeing the ending : In demonstration play, input the following code quickly : Up, Down, Left, Right, Shot, Bomb, Shot, Bomb, Button3(x3).

- STAFF -

Developed by UPL.

GAME DESIGN : Mutsuo Kaneko
PROGRAM : Toshio Arai
GRAPHIC DESIGN : Kaoru Kamigiku, Kinya Aoyama, Mutsuo Kaneko, Minoru Tomizawa
SOUND : Yoshio Nagashima, Hiroshi Nishikawa

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
Nintendo Super Famicom (1992) "Acrobat Mission [Model SHVC-2T]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=31&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=koshien
Arcade Video game published 32 years ago:

嗚呼栄光の甲子園  (c) 1991 Taito Corp.
(Ah Eikou no Koushien)

A hilarious Japanese baseball game that follows the normal rules of baseball. However, a player may 'charge' up to try to hit (or pitch) better.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "Taito F2 System" hardware.

Game ID: F2-System No. 14
Prom Stickers: C81

Players: 2
Control: 8-way joystick
Buttons: 3

- TRIVIA -

Ah Eikou no Koshien was released in April 1991 in Japan.

The title of this game translates from Japanese as 'Oh Glorious Koshien'. 'Koshien' is a famous Japanese high school baseball tournament.

The games' billboards advertises various Taito games.

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] Sony PS2 (jul.28, 2005) "Taito Memories Joukan [Model SLPM-66057]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=42&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=ainferno,ainfernoj,ainfernou
Arcade Video game published 33 years ago:

Air Inferno (c) 1990 Taito.

A helicopter rescue simulation game with quite good polygon-based graphics for its time.

- TECHNICAL -

Cockpit cabinet dimension : 68'' (171cm) Wide x 38'' (95cm) Deep x 56'' (140cm) High. Weight : 130 kg
Simulator cabinet dimension : 84'' (211cm) Wide x 54'' (135,5cm) Deep x 71'' (178,5cm) High. Weight : 330 kg

Taito Air System hardware
Board Number : M4300186A
Prom Stickers : C45

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 12 Mhz), Zilog Z80 (@ 4 Mhz), TMS32025 (@ 24 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Yamaha YM2610 (@ 8 Mhz)

Screen orientation : Horizontal
Video resolution : 512 x 400 pixels
Screen refresh : 60.00 Hz
Palette Colors : 8192

Players : 2
Control : stick
Buttons : 7

- TRIVIA -

Air Inferno was released in June 1990.

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Taito DJ Station : G.S.M. Taito 5 - PCCB-00037) on 21/08/1990.

- UPDATES -

The US version is slightly different :
* 'Winners Don't Use Drugs' screen added.
* New Color GFX.
* New weapons and missiles.

- STAFF -

Chief : Toshiaki Tsukano
Game design : Tsukasa Fujita

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
Turbo Grafx 16 (1991)

* COMPUTERS:
PC

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=agallet,agalleta,agalleth,agalletah,agalletj,agalletaj,agalletk,agalletak,agallett,agalletat,agalletu,agalletau
Arcade Video game published 27 years ago:

Airgallet (c) 1996 Banpresto.

The player controls a fighter jet and shoot enemies in the air and on the ground, collects power-ups, and defeat bosses to advance levels. The player must collect four power ups to upgrade their weapon. There are four weapon types: L, a laser weapon, S, a support drone, M, a tracing missile, and F, gatling Fire, a spread-out vulcan bullet shot.

Four levels of power-ups are available for each weapon, however each level requires four power up tokens be collected. There are also two special "bomb" weapons available for collection - green Energy Spark for a screen-covering swarm of lower-power bombs and blue Thunder Drive for a narrower and more focused attack. The Energy Spark clears all bullets from the screen, while the Thunder Drive only clears bullets that actually touch the blast. This blast starts momentarily atop the player, but quickly moves forward a short distance and stays stationary for a few seconds before dissipating.

- TECHNICAL -

Cave 1st Generation Hardware
Game ID: BP962A

Main CPU: MC68000 (@ 16 Mhz)
Sound CPU: Zilog Z80 [Optional]
Sound Chips: OKIM6295 + Yamaha YM2151
Other: 93C46 EEPROM
RAM: 62256 (x8), NEC 424260 (x2), 6264 (x5)

Players: 2
Control: 8-way joystick
Buttons: 3

- TRIVIA -

Released in February 1996, Air Gallet features the voices of Lenne Hardt and Jeff Manning.

This game was developed by Gazelle Co, Ltd., one of the offshoots of shooter greats Toaplan (along with Cave and Eighting/Raizing).

- STAFF -

Executive producer : Johan Satoh
Total coordinator : Toshifumi Kawashima
Producer : Hiroyuki Fujimoto
Director : Tatsuya Uemura
Programmer : Mizuiro Honey
Graphic designers : Mikio Yamaguchi, Junya Inoue, Kaneyo Oohira
Music composer : Yoshitatsu Sakai (Yoshitaz)

Special thanks : S. Yoshida, D. Watanabe, L. Hardt, J. Manning

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=50&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=akkanvdr
Taito F3 cart. published 28 years ago:

Akkanvader (c) 1995 Taito Corp.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "Taito F3 System" Hardware.

Prom Stickers : E06

Players : 4
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 1 (FIRE)

- TRIVIA -

Akkanvader was released in June 1995 in Japan. It is known outside Japan as "Space Invaders '95 - The Attack of Lunar Loonies". 

The title of this game translates from Japanese as 'Rogue-vader'. 

For more information on the game itself, please see the non-Japanese version entry.

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Welcome to the Karu Land - PCCB-00196) on November 17, 1997.

- SERIES -

1. Space Invaders (1978)
2. Space Invaders Part II (1979)
3. Return of the Invaders (1985)
4. Majestic Twelve - The Space Invaders Part IV (1990)
5. Minivaders (1990)
6. Space Invaders DX (1994)
7. Akkanvader (1995)
8. Space Invaders Virtual Collection (1995, Nintendo Virtual Boy)
9. Space Invaders Anniversary (2003)
10. Space Invaders DS (2005, Nintendo DS)
11. Space Invaders: Galaxy Beat (2005, Sony PSP)
12. Space Invaders Extreme (2008, Nintendo DS, Sony PSP)
13. Space Invaders Extreme 2 (2009, Nintendo DS)

- STAFF -

* Consoles : 
Sony PlayStation 2 [JP] (aug.25, 2005) "Taito Memories Gekan [Model SLPM-66092]" 

* Handhelds : 
Sony PSP [JP] (may.12, 2005) "Space Invaders Pocket [Model ULJM-05015]"

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES: 
[JP] Sony PS2 (aug.25, 2005) "Taito Memories Gekan [Model SLPM-66092]" 

* HANDHELDS: 
[JP] Sony PSP (may.12, 2005) "Space Invaders Pocket [Model ULJM-05015]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=avsp,avspu,avspd
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 29 years ago:

Alien vs. Predator (c) 1994 Capcom USA, Incorporated.

North American & European release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese release entry; "Alien vs. Predator [Green Board]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Blue Board [USA & Europe]

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=avspj
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 29 years ago:

Alien vs. Predator (c) 1994 Capcom Company, Limited. 

Two Space Marines and two Predators go after hordes of H.R. Giger's most fearsome creations! Each character has special projectile weapons in addition to the standard super moves.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Green Board [Japan]

Players: Up to 3.
Control: 8-Way Joystick per player.
Buttons: 3 per player.
=> [1] Attack, [2] Jump, [3] Weapon Attack

- TRIVIA -

Alien vs. Predator was released on May 20, 1994 in Japan. It was known as the 4th CPS-II game.

Known export releases:
"Alien vs. Predator [Blue Board]"
"Alien vs. Predator [Grey Board]"
"Alien vs. Predator [Orange Board]"

This game is based on the Dark Horse comics: Aliens vs. Predator (1989-1990) (5 comics). Also, it combines enemies from the two Twentieth Century Fox films entitled Alien and Predator. This is the first title to ever combine elements from two separate, non-related films into a single game.

Lieutenant Linn Kurosawa made a cameo appearance in the background of Ken's stage in "Street Fighter Alpha 2".

Chad Johnson holds the record for this game with 3074408 points.

Comics published after the release of the game :
Aliens vs. Predator - Booty (1996) (1 comic)
Aliens vs. Predator - Eternal (1999) (4 comics)
Aliens vs. Predator - Xenogenesis (1999) (4 comics)
Aliens vs. Predator - Thrill of the Hunt (2004) (1 comic)

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Here are the 4 available characters and their statistics...
Predator Warrior : Speed 6 - Power 4 - Skill 5
Major D. Schaefer : Speed 2 - Power 8 - Skill 4
Lieutenant Linn Kurosawa : Speed 5 - Power 1 - Skill 8
Predator Hunter : Speed 6 - Power 5 - Skill 4

- STAFF -

Planners : Kame, Garuda Tetsu, Uda. T
Programmers : Cham Cho Choy, Arikichi Kiyoko, Pon, Hard. Yas, Shinchan
Character Designers : Hayashi, Yus, Shisui, Vlad T, Ban, Kawatori, Shige, Jun 26
Artist : Iwai, Hiroki Ohnishi, Konishi. H, Norisaki Chie, Fukunoyan, Kisa, Angus
Music Composer : Hideki Okugawa (Hideki Ok)
Sound Designer : Toshio Kajino
Capcom USA Supporters : David Winstead, Alex Jimenez (Alex Jimerez)
Special Thanks : Noritaka Funamizu (Poo), Akira Yasuda (Akiman), Tom

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=avspa
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 29 years ago:

Alien vs. Predator (c) 1994 Capcom Company, Limited.

Asian release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese release entry; "Alien vs. Predator [Green Board]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Grey Board [Asia]

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=avsph
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 29 years ago:

Alien vs. Predator (c) 1994 Capcom Company, Limited..

South American release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese release entry; "Alien vs. Predator [Green Board]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Orange Board [South America]

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=horshoes
Arcade Video game published 33 years ago:

American Horseshoes (c) 1990 Taito America Corp.

A 1- to 4-players horseshoe game. Each players can choose from one of four characters. There are 2 pitches in each inning. Players may select grip and throwing angle prior to each pitch. The rolling of the trackball determines the distance of each pitch. After each inning the scoring with shown with an overhead shot of the stake area. Each player's score is shown throughout the game at the top of the screen. At the end of each 3 innings the players may continue by inserting additional credits. Up to 9 innings can be played per game.

- TECHNICAL -

Taito L System hardware
Prom Stickers : C47

Main CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 6 Mhz)
Sound Chips : YM2203 (@ 3 Mhz)

Screen orientation : Vertical
Video resolution : 224 x 320 pixels
Screen refresh : 60.00 Hz
Palette colors : 256

Players : 1
Control : Trackball
Buttons : 2

- TRIVIA -

Released in July 1990.

- SCORING -

Ringer (A horseshoe which wraps around the stake) : 3 points.
Leaner (A horseshoe which rests against the stake) : 2 points.
Landing within the stake area : 1 points.

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=androdun

Andro Dunos (c) 1992 Visco Corp.

A horizontally scrolling shoot'em up with different weapon settings that you can switch between.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID: NGM-049

[SNK MVS Neo-Geo Control Picture]
2 players - 4 buttons per player (2 usables)
= > [A] Shot/Bomb/Charge switch, [B] Change type

- TRIVIA -

Released in June 1992, Andro Dunos is Visco's first game developed and released for the SNK Neo-Geo MVS hardware.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Hold FIRE to charge primary (blue) weapon. When it is fully charged and FIRE is released the plane makes a powerful attack and decreases the blue weapon level by 1. You must have at least level 2 blue weapon to make a charged attack.

- STAFF -

Producer : Tetsuo Akiyama
Director : Don Gabacho
Assistant Director : Keisuke Usami
Programmers : R. Mutoh, Danna, City
Character Designers : Yuji Masuda, Tel. Y, Yasushi
Special Thanks : Itoi, Hos Kubo, Ideb, Isao Teramachi, New Katana Kouji, Nobe, Esab Nopaew, Takasuke Koizumi, Katsumi Kikumasa, Toshiyuki Takaha, Takumi Matsuura, Yasuhiro Sawamura

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo AES (jul.17, 1992) "Andro Dunos [Model NGH-049]"
[US] SNK Neo-Geo AES (jul.17, 1992) [Model NGH-049]

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=aquajack,aquajackj
Arcade Video game published 33 years ago:

Aqua Jack (c) 1990 Taito.

A chase-view shoot'em up were you pilot a hovercraft over water and land while dodging bullets and avoiding objects by either going around them or jumping over them.

- TECHNICAL -

Taito Z System hardware
Prom Sticker : B77

Main CPU : (2x) Motorola 68000 (@ 12 Mhz)
Sound CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 4 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Yamaha YM2610 (@ 8 Mhz)

Players : 1
Control : dial
Buttons : 4

- TRIVIA -

Aqua Jack was released in August 1990.

Banglar, the Yoda lookalike villain from "The Ninja Warriors" makes an appearance in this game.

- SERIES -

1. Seafly (1984)
2. Aqua Jack (1990)

- STAFF -

Directer : Yoshinori Kobayasi
Orginal planner : Toshio Kohno
Game designers : Toshio Kohno, Masami Kikuchi
Game programmers : Yoshinori Kobayasi, Youichi Oki, Yasutaka Minami, Horihan Tak Bar
Character designers : Masami Kikuchi, Taira Sanuki, Yukiwo Ishikawa, Kohzoh Igarashi, Seiji Kawakami, Hisakazu Katou, Santa Claus Co., Visual Arts Production
Mechanical engineers : Tomio Suzuki, Hisayuki Yamaguchi, Masaharu Hori, Takaaki Deguchi
Hardware designers : Masahiro Yaaguchi, Tsukasa Nakamura, Satoru Shimomura, Yuuichi Yamato, Kauaki Sasaki
Cabinet and art designer : Atsushi Iwaoka
Sound composer : Shizuo Aizawa (Splatter A)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=arabianm,arabianmu,arabianmj
Taito F3 cart. published 31 years ago:

Arabian Magic (c) 1992 Taito Corporation.

Arabian Magic is a scrolling beat-em-up for one to four players, set in the mythical world of The Arabian Nights. A long time ago, an evil wizard has taken over the peaceful kingdom of Shahariyard and used sorcery to transform its king into a Monkey. The player must defeat each of the game's seven Guardians to reclaim the 'Jewel of Seven Colours' and release the king from the evil hex. 

Each player can select from four distinctive characters: Prince Lassid, Princess Lisa, Sinbad or Afshael. Each character carries a primary weapon - Prince Lassid and Sinbad carry swords, Princess Lisa a magical veil and Afshael a mace. In addition to the weapons, players can also summon a magical attack in the form of a huge genie. The genie will only appear for a few seconds but during that time, players have control over the genie and can steer him towards enemies. 

Arabian Magic has seven different stages with one of the powerful guardians awaiting the player at the end of each level. Each guardian, once defeated, will drop a jewel which forms a part of the Jewel of Seven Colours. Guardians, once defeated, will join the player and become a Genie. Each level is littered with vases and wooden chests which, when broken, reveal treasure items and power-ups. 

The game ends when the player has recovered the Jewel of Seven Colours, saved the King (making him human in the process) and restored peace to Shahariyard.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "Taito F3 System" Hardware.

Prom Stickers : D29

Players: Up to 4.
Control: 8-way joystick (per player)
Buttons: 3 (per player)
=> Attack, Jump, Magic

- TRIVIA -

Arabian Magic was released in July 1992.

The game forbids the initials 'SEX' on the high score table. If you try, it gets changed to Japanese characters.

Zuntata Records released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Zuntata Rare Selection Vol.4 - Arabian Magic - ZTTL-0030) on September 21, 1998.

- UPDATES -

The US version has the "Winners Don't Use Drugs" screen.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Characters list
Princess Lisa can defeat enemies at a distance. She has only a small amount of health, but has powerful attacks. Her spinning attack is lethal. 
Sinbad possesses the greatest of all swords and his attacks are skilful. By saving energy and emitting it from his sword, Sinbad can perform a charged attack. 
Afshaal's body strength and attack power are the strongest of the four, but he is slow. His rolling tackle is particularly effective.
Prince Rassid has the fastest movement and attack speed of the four. He also has the most health. 

* Items list
Water jug: Temporary invincibility
Hourglass: Freezes all enemies on-screen
Book: Destroys all enemies on-screen
Red crystal: Flame magic
Blue crystal: Power up
Gold crystal: Thunder magic
Red jar: Recover 25% health
Blue jar: Recover 50% health
Gold jar: Recover 100% health

* Round Select Mode :
1) Hold Service Switch and reset the game.
2) Press the buttons in the following sequence 'Start(x3), Service, Start' on the 'Service Switch Error' message screen.
3) If it's done successfully, you will be able to enter the Round Select Mode.

- STAFF -

Producers : Yukiwo Ishikawa (Yukio Abe), Kazutomo Ishida
Director : Yukiwo Ishikawa (Yukio Abe)
Software : Kazutomo Ishida, Kusago Nagahara, K. Usahi, Zippy Aoki, Masashi Tsuzura
Music & Sound (Zuntata): Norihiro Furukawa, Naoto Yagishita
Hardware : Katsumi Kaneoka, Syuji Kubota
Art director : Nobuhiro Hiramatsu
Character designers : Nobuhiro Hiramatsu, Hiroyo Kujirai, Sakabon, Yukio Abe, Marutake, M. Maekawa, Waka, Peacock, V.A.P

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES: 
[JP] Sony PS2 (aug.25, 2005) "Taito Memories Gekan [Model SLPM-66092]" 
Sony PlayStation 2 [AU] (mar.30, 2006) "Taito Legends 2 [Model SLES-53852]" 
[EU] Microsoft XBOX (mar.31, 2006) "Taito Legends 2" 
[EU] Sony PS2 (mar.31, 2006) "Taito Legends 2 [Model SLES-53852]" 
[US] Sony PS2 (may.16, 2007) "Taito Legends 2 [Model SLUS-21349]" 

* COMPUTERS: 
[EU] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (mar.31, 2006) "Taito Legends 2" 
[US] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (jul.10, 2007) "Taito Legends 2"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=arbalest
Arcade Video game published 34 years ago:

Arbalester (c) 1989 Seta Company, Limited.

A vertically scrolling shoot'em up game.

- TECHNICAL -

Board Number : M6100439A
Prom Stickers : UK

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 8 Mhz), M65C02 (@ 1 Mhz)
Sound Chips : X1-010 (@ 16 Mhz)

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2

- TRIVIA -

Arbalester was released in May 1989.

Licensed to Romstar and Taito for US distribution.

- STAFF -

Producer : Jun Fujimoto
Maneger : T. Sato, M. Honda
Freeman : M. Asakawa
Chief programmer : K. Watanabe
Programmer : Y. Yamaguchi
Graphic designers : K. Nakabayashi, K. Yamada
Sound designer : A. Sato

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=area88
Arcade Video game published 34 years ago:

Area 88 (c) 1989 Capcom.

Area 88 is a horizontally-scrolling shoot-em-up and is based on the Manga series of the same name. The game features characters from the original Manga and their mission is to battle their way through enemy-packed levels to stop a terrorist group known as 'Project 4'.

Players chose to fly one of three jet fighters: an A-10 Thunderbolt, a F-14 tomcat and an F-20 tiger Shark. The player's jet fighter has an energy bar that decreases every time it takes damage. The fighter is destroyed once the energy bar is depleted.

Before entering a stage, players enter a shop and are given the opportunity to purchase special weapons or improved defences. Money for use in the shop is earned by destroying enemy planes and vehicles during play and when the stage is completed, any unused weapons are converted back into money.

The game consists of ten stages plus a bonus stage.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System" hardware.
B-Board ID: 88622B-3

Players: 2
Control: 8-Way Joystick
Buttons: 2
=> [1] Fire, [2] Special

- TRIVIA -

Area 88 was originally released in August 1989 in Japan. It was known there as the 6th video game made for the CP System.

Area 88 is based on a Japanese Manga series published from 1979 to 1986. It was created by Kaoru Shintani and tells the story of Shin Kazawa, a mercenary fighter pilot training for the Area 88 air force base. The manga was very popular in Japan and was even adapted into at least three OVAs in 1985 and a twelve episode animation series in 2005.

Known Export releases:
"U.N. Squadron [B-Board 89624B-2]"
It was re-released in 1991 as "Area 88 [B-Board 91634B-2]".

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Area 88 - PCCB-00018) on January 21, 1989.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* More Money:
If you start a 2-player game at the same time, each one will be credited 3000 dollars. On the other hand, if the second player arrives afterwards, he will have 12000 dollars (you have just gained 9000 dollars).

* Hidden Mission:
There are several methods to play this mission, here is one : Beat the Mission 3 (The Forest Fortress) by destroying the heart of the fortress on the first blow (1st passage).

* Various Little Ending Animations:
At the ending screen (presented by Capcom), various little animations are shown dependent on how much Mechs were recovered, or if the Unicorn was recovered...

Mission 3, Forest Fortress:
Unicorn (+ a shield) - Destroy all trees without forgetting from the very start of the level to destroy the 1st tree on the left. The unicorn will appear spontaneously in front of the fortress.
Yashichi - Destroy the latest turret of the fortress, Yashichi is just on the right in bottom of the fire turret. 

Mission 4, The Carrier:
Mech (1000 pts) - Just behind the 5th rock, on the ground level, a Mech which agitates a flag will appear.

Mission 5, Bomber called Bayson:
Mech (+ a T.Laser) - You must destroy the 39 rocks to see a Mech appear with a knife.

Mission 6, Missile Launcher:
Mech (10000 pts) - When the way separates in 2 ways, take the top while shooting at the base from the 1st pillar made of rock, a Mech will appear.

Mission 8, Battleship called Minks:
Mech (1000 pts) - After the 2 boats come from the left, place yourself at the top of the screen and shoot until a Mech with a rifle falls into water.
Yashichi - At the middle of the Battleship, we have a red turret, destroy it to release Yashichi. 

Mission 9, The Arsenal:
Mech (1000 pts) - Behind the second building, a Mech with an umbrella hides.

Special Mission:
Mech (10000 pts) - An airliner will go down in the middle from the screen, then go up. Go to the left of the screen. When the plane starts to go down again, shoot until you see appearing the Mech overlapping a rocket at the bottom right of the screen.

- SERIES -

1. Area 88 [CP-S No. 06] (1989)
2. U.S. Navy [CP-S No. 12] (1990)

- STAFF -

Planners: Mako P, Parazoll Shono, Noritaka Funamizu (Poo)
Direction: Yoshiki Okamoto (Kihaji Okamoto)
Character designers: Manbou Shintan, Gokkun Kuratani, Rekite, Unicorn Mayumi, Traveller Kuramoyan, Holiday Kakkun, Haru San, Konomi (Powerful Konomi), Fukumoyan, Femme Hana
Music composer: Chan Chakorin
Hard design: Kucchan
Programmers: Blbon, Takako

- PORTS -

Only Japanese releases are listed here. For ports released outside Japan, refer to the Export version entry; "U.N. Squadron [B-Board 89624B-2]".

* CONSOLES: 
[JP] Nintendo Super Famicom (jul.26, 1991) "Area 88 [Model SHVC-E8]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=area88r
Arcade Video game published 32 years ago:

Area 88 (c) 1991 Capcom Company, Limited.

Re-release of "Area 88 [B-Board 88622B-3]". See this entry for more information about the game itself.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System" hardware.
B-Board ID: 91634B-2

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=arkarea
Arcade Video game published 36 years ago:

Ark Area (c) 1987 UPL.

An overhead shoot'em up where you fight through 23 stages, battling 1 or 2 bosses at the end of each level

- TECHNICAL -

Game ID : UPL-87007

Main CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 6 Mhz)
Sound CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 5 Mhz)
Sound Chips : (2x) Yamaha YM2203 (@ 1.5 Mhz)

Screen orientation : Horizontal
Video resolution : 256 x 192 pixels
Screen refresh : 60.00 Hz
Palette colors : 768

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2

- TRIVIA -

Ark Area was released in December 1987. It was a Japan-only release.

- SERIES -

1. Nova 2001 (1983)
2. Ark Area (1987)

- STAFF -

Staff : Tsutomu Fuzisawa, Hiropi, Mingma, Nihei, Nozawa

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES: 
[JP] Sony PS4 [PSN] (jan.19, 2017) "Arcade Archives - Arc Area [Model CUSA-05978]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=arkanoid,arkanoidj,arkgcbl,arkgcbla,arkanoidja
Arcade Video game published 37 years ago:

Arkanoid (c) 1986 Taito Corp.

After a sudden alien assault, the Arkanoid spaceship has been destroyed and the only survivor, the small 'Vaus' space vessel, has been mysteriously trapped in another dimension by an unknown enemy. The player is charged with helping the 'Vaus' overcome the security systems, as well as the many enemies that guard them, before finally finding and destroying 'DOH', the alien responsible for the attack.

Arkanoid is an update of the early ball and paddle video games - and specifically of Atari's 1978 classic, "Super Breakout" - in which the player takes control of a paddle at the bottom of the screen and must use it to deflect a ball into rows of bricks at the top of the screen, thus destroying them and, eventually, clearing the screen to progress to the next level. 

As well as impressive and colourful graphics, Arkanoid introduced a number of new elements to the classic bat 'n' ball gameplay. Certain bricks, when destroyed, would release a power-up - in the form of a falling capsule. the player had to catch the capsule to retrieve the power-up. Among the many enhancements the power-ups provided were an increased 'bat' size, multiple balls, 'sticky' ball (which would stick to the bat and could be released when the player chose) and even a laser, which allowed the player to shoot the bricks.

- TECHNICAL -

Prom Stickers : A75

Main CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 6 Mhz), Motorola M68705 (@ 500 Khz)
Sound Chips : General Instrument AY8910 (@ 1.5 Mhz)

Players: 2 (alternative)
Control: Spinner
Buttons: 1
=> Fire - Used to launch the energy ball at the start of each new round and each new life, to relaunch the energy ball after it is caught by the vaus when the C (Catch) pill is in effect, and to fire lasers when the L (Laser) pill is in effect.

- TRIVIA -

Arkanoid was released in July 1986 in Japan.

Arkanoid has remained a popular game and is commonly cloned by aspiring game developers in freeware and shareware titles. Many companies have also regularly cloned the game in arcades.

Arkanoid's popularity led to it being featured in "Rainbow Islands - The Story of Bubble Bobble 2", which has a whole level (four stages in all) dedicated to the game, including DOH as the level boss.

Nick Mollison holds the official record for this game on extremely hard settings with 1,156,930 points on September 7, 2008. 
Zack Hample holds the official record for this game on normal settings with 1,658,110 points on March 13, 2000.

An Arkanoid unit appears on the sitcom 'Married... With Children'; Season 6, Episode 4 (Cheese, Cues and Blood).

Official releases:
Taito's Arkanoid
Taito America's Arkanoid
Taito's Tournament Arkanoid

Bootleg/Hack releases:
Tayto's Arkanoid
Game Corporation's Arkanoid
Game Corporation's Block
Beta's Arkanoid
Two-Bits Score's Arkanoid Plus
SPA Co.'s Block II
Paddle 2

- UPDATES -

The Japanese version supports cocktail mode whereas the others don't.

- SCORING -

Points are scored for destroying bricks and killings aliens.

Bricks:
White brick: 50 points.
Orange brick: 60 points.
Cyan brick: 70 points.
Green brick: 90 points.
Red brick: 100 points.
Blue brick: 110 points.
Violet brick: 120 points.
Yellow brick: 50 points.
Silver brick: Worth 50X the stage number you are on.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Pill descriptions:
S - Slow: slows down the energy ball.
L - Laser: enables the Vaus to fire laser beams.
C - Catch: catches the energy ball and shoots it when you want it.
B - Break: allow player to move to next playfield.
E - Expand: expands the Vaus.
P - Player: gains an additional Vaus.
D - Disrupt: splits the energy ball into three particles.

* Bricks:
White brick: One shot to destroy.
Orange brick: One shot to destroy.
Cyan brick: One shot to destroy.
Green brick: One shot to destroy.
Red brick: One shot to destroy.
Blue brick: One shot to destroy.
Violet brick: One shot to destroy.
Yellow brick: One shot to destroy.
Silver brick: The number of hits it takes to destroy them increases by one every eight stages.
Gold brick: Cannot be destroyed.

* Power-up Rarity:
The power pills are completely random except that the extra life and warp pills are twice as unlikely to occur. Only one extra life pill is possible per Vaus. If the pill randomizer selects a duplicate pill based on the last pill dropped, a multi-ball pill is substituted. Thus, the multi-ball pill is the only one you can get twice in a row. The randomizer uses player score as the seed, so it is possible to control which pill is dispensed by purposely breaking pill dispensing blocks with specific scores displayed.

* Ball Speed:
On each level, the ball will not speed up completely until it hits the back wall, so:
1) Try to remove bricks from the bottom up, or punch a hole through thicker areas of bricks rather than go straight through (e.g. take out the left side of level 2 rather than the single block at the right as you will catch far more pills).
2) If you have collected a lot of S pills and the ball has been in play for a bit of time, be prepared for a sudden speedup.
3) Also, the D token speeds up the balls and is pretty useless on most levels (the one with the enclosed diamond is the only good example).

* Multiple Balls:
As only one pill can fall at a time, multiple balls can reduce your potential score quite drastically. Every pill is worth 1,000 points. For the first few levels, get every pill you can, but do not use the special powers. You will get a lot of extra ships and should get a gray P or two - thereby starting early with six or seven ships.

* DOH:
In the final level, where you face DOH himself, you should get 15 hits (1,000 points per hit) on DOH/per man until you defeat DOH with the 16th hit on your last man to end the game.

- SERIES -

1. Arkanoid (1986, Arcade) 
2. Arkanoid - Revenge of DOH (1987, Arcade) 
3. Arkanoid - Doh It Again [Model SHVC-A6] (1997, Super Famicom) 
4. Arkanoid Returns (1997, Arcade) 
5. Arkanoid DS (2007, Nintendo DS)

- STAFF -

Game designed by: Akira Fujita (AKR)
Programmed by: Yasumasa Sasabe (SSB)
Director of hardware & co-programme : Toshiyuki Sanada (SND)
Assistant programmer: Toru T. (TOR)
Graphic designer: Onijust H. (ONJ)
Sound composer: Hisayoshi Ogura
Sound effects: Tadashi Kimijima
Pattern designer: Akira Iwai (A. Iwai)
Software analyzer: Hidegons
Mechanical Engineer: H. Yamaguchi
Publicity Supervisor: Varis. I

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES: 
Nintendo BS [JP] "BS Arkanoid" [might be a prototype]
[JP] Nintendo Famicom (dec.26, 1986) "Arkanoid [Model TFC-AN-5400]" 

* COMPUTERS:
NEC PC-8801 [JP] by Cary Lab 
[JP] NEC PC-9801 (1986) "Arkanoid"
[EU] Atari ST (1986)
PC [MS-DOS] [EU] (1986) 
[JP] MSX (1987) 
MSX [EU] (1988) by Hit Squad) 
BBC B [EU] (1987) by Imagine 
Thomson TO7 [EU] (1987) 
[EU] Commodore C64 (1987) 
[EU] Sinclair ZX Spectrum (1987) 
Atari 800 [EU] (1987) 
[EU] Amstrad CPC (1987) by Imagine 
[EU] Amstrad CPC (1988) by Ocean 
[EU] Amstrad CPC (1988) "Les Défis de Taito" 
[EU] Amstrad CPC (1988) "Taito Coin-Op Hits" 
Thomson M05 [EU] 
Thomson TO8 [EU]
BK11M [EU]
[EU] Acorn Archimedes

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=arkatayt,arktayt2
Arcade Video game published 37 years ago:

Arkanoid (c) 1986 Tayto.

Tayto's pirate version of Taito's original.

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=arkangc,arkangc2
Arcade Video game published 37 years ago:

Arkanoid (c) 1986 Game Corporation.

Game Corporation's unlicensed version of Taito's original.

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$info=arknoid2,arknoid2j,arknoid2b
Arcade Video game published 36 years ago:

Arkanoid - Revenge of DOH (c) 1987 Taito Corp.

The mysterious enemy known as 'DOH' has returned to seek vengeance on the 'Vaus' space vessel. The player must once again take control of the Vaus and overcome many challenges in order to destroy DOH once and for all. 

An update of the popular 1986 original, Revenge of DOH sees the player battle through 34 rounds, taken from a grand total of 64. Revenge of DOH differs from its predecessor with the introduction of "Warp Gates". Upon completion of a round or when the Break ('B') pill is caught, two gates appear at the bottom left and bottom right of the play area respectively, the Vaus is then taken through one of the gates - the choice will affect which version of the next round is provided.

The game also features two new features for bricks. Notched silver bricks, like normal silver bricks, take several hits to destroy. However, after a short period of time after destruction, they regenerate at full strength. Fortunately, clearing a level does not require that any notched bricks to be destroyed. Also, some bricks move from side to side as long as their left and/or right sides are not obstructed by other bricks.

The game features a mini-boss in the form of a giant brain, which will help you practice for DOH. You must aim for the brain's mouth to defeat it.

- TECHNICAL -

Board Number : K1100250A
Prom Stickers : B08

Main CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 8 Mhz), Zilog Z80 (@ 6 Mhz)
Sound Chips : YM2203 (@ 3 Mhz)

Players : 2
Control : spinner
Buttons : 1
=> FIRE - Used to launch the energy ball at the start of each new round and each new life, to relaunch the energy ball after it is caught by the Vaus when the Catch ('C') pill is in effect, and to fire laser beams when the Laser ('L') pill is in effect.

- TRIVIA -

Arkanoid - Revenge of DOH was released in June 1987.

Depending on the path, you will see a different name for the round.
Rounds 1 and 18 are always 'Iomanoid', and always provide the same level set.
Rounds 2-16 can either be 'Baltnoid' (left) or 'Saterranoid' (right).
Rounds 19-33 can either be 'Xeufnoid' (left) or 'Gakanoid' (right).
Rounds 17 and 34 are the boss battles, and are called 'Vetranoid'.

Zachary Hample holds the official record for this game with 3,120,570 points on December 31, 2002.

- SCORING -

Points are scored for destroying bricks and killings aliens.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Pill descriptions :
S - Slow : Temporarily slows down the speed of the energy ball. The energy ball will speed up upon hitting the ceiling of the chamber, making this pill unhelpful in some levels. On the other hand, the energy ball speeds up much more quickly and rapidly in this game, making it helpful to extend a normal playing speed. 
L - Laser : Enables the Vaus to fire laser beams that destroy most bricks. 
C - Catch : Enables the Vaus to catch the energy ball, move to another position, and relaunch it by pressing the fire button. If you hesitate too long, the Vaus will release the ball on its own. 
B - Break : Opens the Warp Gates, allowing you to bypass the level even when it is unfinished.
E - Expansion : Expands the Vaus to double its size.
P - Player : Gives you an additional Vaus.
D - Disruption : Splits the energy ball into eight particles (unlike in the original game, where this pill split the energy ball into three particles). 

* Revenge of DOH also features these additional pills : 
M - Mega : Turns a normal energy ball into a red "mega energy ball", which can destroy even indestructible bricks and will only bounce back after hitting the sides or ceiling of the chamber.
R - Reduce : Shrinks the Vaus to half its width, but every block you destroy doubles in point value. Unless you're really a good player, this makes it very difficult to play.
T - Twin : Gives you two Vauses instead of one. Not a particularly helpful one, as it limits your maneuverability and the energy ball tends to fall between the Vauses.
I - Illusion : Creates a transparent grey shadow at the bottom of the screen that follows the Vaus around. It will deflect energy balls (though with no control of the rebound direction), greatly expanding the functional area of the Vaus.
N - New : Continually splits the energy ball into three particles until the Vaus catches another pill. This is very helpful on some levels.
Flashing pill : This special pill will reward you randomly with one of the following four powers : 1. 40 energy balls; 2. 25 mega energy balls; 3. 8 regenerating energy balls; 4. Continuous laser fire. On most levels, the first three powers are enough to clear the entire board. The fourth, however, can make it extremely difficult to see what's going on and won't help on levels with lots of indestructible blocks. Finally, instead of yielding one of the aforementioned powers, a flashing capsule will occasionally result in a regenerating swarm of 15 floating enemies passing through the portals in the ceiling and flooding the screen. While these enemies are worth 100 points apiece if destroyed by the energy ball, having to battle so many at once is usually more of survival challenge than a scoring opportunity.

- SERIES -

1. Arkanoid (1986, Arcade) 
2. Arkanoid - Revenge of DOH (1987, Arcade) 
3. Arkanoid - Doh It Again [Model SHVC-A6] (1997, Super Famicom) 
4. Arkanoid Returns (1997, Arcade) 
5. Arkanoid DS (2007, Nintendo DS)

- STAFF -

Directed & Programmed by : Yasumasa Sasabe
Assistant programmers : Toshiaki Tsukano, Hideki Hashimoto
Graphic designers : Tetsuro Kitagawa, Kohzoh Igarashi, Genya Kuriki
Sound designer : Hisayoshi Ogura
Publicity supervisor : Hisayasu Nakane
Mechanical engineer : Yasunori Hatsuda
Game designed by : Kei. S

- PORTS -

NOTE: Home versions of Revenge of DOH also featured a level editor, where players could create their own levels or edit and replace existing levels, with the exception of two levels: the mini-boss and DOH. 

* CONSOLES: 
[JP] Nintendo Famicom (mar.8, 1988) "Arkanoid II [Model TFC-ANII-5900]"

* COMPUTERS: 
[JP] Sharp X68000 (feb.1988) 
[EU] Commodore C64 (1988) 
[EU] Atari ST (1988) 
[EU] Amstrad CPC (1987) by Imagine 
[EU] Amstrad CPC (1988) by Hit Squad 
[EU] Amstrad CPC (1988) "Les Défis de Taito" 
[EU] Amstrad CPC (1988) "Taito Coin-Op Hits" 
[EU] Commodore Amiga (1988) 
[JP] MSX (1988) 
[EU] Sinclair ZX Spectrum (1988) by Imagine 
[EU] Sinclair ZX Spectrum (1989) by Hit Squad : Budget Edition 
[EU] Sinclair ZX Spectrum (1989) by Erbe Software : Budget Edition 
[EU] Sinclair ZX Spectrum (1988) 
MSX2 (1987)
[EU] Acorn Archimedes

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=arknoid2u
Arcade Video game published 36 years ago:

Arkanoid - Revenge of DOH (c) 1987 Romstar.

North American version. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Taito Japan entry.

- TRIVIA -

Licensed to Romstar for US distribution, Arkanoid - Revenge of DOH was released in June 1987.

This US version is different : 
* Round 1 (the first 'Iomanoid') features a completely different layout of blocks not included in the World or Japanese versions that features an entire line of notched bricks, with all colored bricks above it moving from side to side.
* If you use the continue feature after Game Over, your score is not reset to zero, and you don't have to start the current level over on a continue.
* The boss battles ('Vetranoid') are played in the attract mode.
* The layouts of Rounds 3-L and 20-R have both switched places with that of Round 17 (the first 'Vetranoid' - the mini-boss), making it possible to battle the mini-boss twice or not at all. Round 17-L is the same as non-US Round 3-L and is identified ingame as 'Xeufnoid' while Round 17-R is the same as non-US Round 20-R and is identified as 'Gakanoid'.

- STAFF -

Directed & Programmed by : Yasumasa Sasabe
Assistant programmers : Toshiaki Tsukano, Hideki Hashimoto
Graphic designers : Tetsuro Kitagawa, Kohzoh Igarashi, Genya Kuriki
Sound designer : Hisayoshi Ogura
Publicity supervisor : Hisayasu Nakane
Mechanical engineer : Yasunori Hatsuda
Game designed by : Kei. S

- PORTS -

* COMPUTERS: 
[US] Commodore C64 (1988) 
Commodore Amiga [US] (1988) 
Atari ST [US] (1989)
Apple II GS [US]
PC [MS-DOS] [US] (1989) [Model 25-1324] : The mega energy ball produced when the Mega ('M') pill is caught is black in this port instead of red.

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=arkretrn,arkretrnj,arkretrnu
Taito F3 cart. published 26 years ago:

Arkanoid Returns (c) 1997 Taito Corp.

The 3rd chapter in Taito's legendary 1 or 2-player bat and ball game, in which players once again control a paddle and must try to rebound a ball into patterns of bricks to remove them from the play area.

Each level is patrolled by enemies and certain bricks, when hit, release power-ups which then roll down the screen and can be collected by the player.

While the 3rd chapter contains 50 brand new levels for players to fight through, the actual gameplay itself remains unaltered from the first 2 games. The only real differences are a revamp of both the graphics and sound, as well as a number of minor enhancements to the in-game power-ups.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "Taito F3 System" Hardware.

Prom Stickers : E36

Players : up to 2
Control : 8-way joystick (or unlimited-range dial)
Buttons : 2
=>[A] and [B]: Shoot the ball

- TRIVIA -

Arkanoid Returns was released in March 1997.

Completion of the game on regular set of levels (#1~#50) will show only a staff roll with no flying parts. But completion of more difficult levels (#51~#100) will show a bit different ending - Vaus flying around the space ship scrambled into parts. The parts themselves will fly on the staff roll occurring after the CGI sequence.
Level #100 is a confrontation with DOH.
All the powerups are in fixed places, unlike in the previous games, where the random powerups were flying out of bricks. This makes the game slightly easier to memorize.

Zachary Hample holds the official record for this game with 1589770 points on June 5, 2000.

- UPDATES -

The J release (probably for Japan) has a territorial notice not allowing to play outside Japan.
The A rom (probably for America) has a territorial notice not allowing to play outside South and North America.
The O rom (probably export rom for the rest of the world) has a copyright notice showing the rights to this game are owned by Taito corporation around the world.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

The only way to get an extra life is to pick a silver "P" capsule. There is no point threshold which awards an extra life.

Players can join the game at any time.

OTHER SET OF LEVELS: to start the game on a different (way more difficult) set of levels, press (after you inserted a coin) button #1 3 times, then button #2 once and finally Start. The game will begin on stage #51.

- SERIES -

1. Arkanoid (1986, Arcade) 
2. Arkanoid - Revenge of DOH (1987, Arcade) 
3. Arkanoid - Doh It Again [Model SHVC-A6] (1997, Super Famicom) 
4. Arkanoid Returns (1997, Arcade) 
5. Arkanoid DS (2007, Nintendo DS)

- STAFF -

Planners: Atsushi Taniguchi, Yuji Koga
Programmed by: I.T.L.
Program support: Shunsuke Ono
Character designers: Chiho Maeda, Mari Fukusaki, Tomohiro Kagawa
Sound: Yasuhisa Watanabe (YACK), Ishikawa Babio (BABI)
Designer: Kumi Mizobe

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES: 
[JP] Sony PlayStation (1997) [Model SLPS-00948] 
[JP] Sony PlayStation (1999) "Arkanoid R 2000 [Model SLPM-86262]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=armedf,armedff
Arcade Video game published 35 years ago:

Armed Formation (c) 1988 Nichibutsu.

A vertically scrolling shoot'em up.

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU: Motorola 68000 (@ 8 Mhz)
Sound CPU: Zilog Z80 (@ 3.072 Mhz)
Sound Chips: YM3812 (@ 4 Mhz), (2x) DAC (@ 4 Mhz)

Screen Orientation: Vertical
Video Resolution: 256 x 224 Pixels
Screen Refresh: 57.00 Hz
Palette Colors: 2048

Players: 2
Control: 8-Way Joystick
Buttons: 2
=> Shoot, Formation

- TRIVIA -

Armed Formation was released in August 1988.

Also licensed to Fillmore.

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Armed F, Crazy Climber 2 - PCCB-00020) on February 21, 1990.

- STAFF -

Director: Takanori Tanaka
Planner: Tomoaki Kabayashi
Main Programmer: Shinya Okuda
Programmers: Osamu Tomiyama, Satoshi Fujiwara
Main Designers: Hisaya Tsutsui, Shinji Kubota
Designer: Takanori Tanaka
Musician: Takeshi Yoshida
Hard Enginner: Isao Shiki
Special Thanks: Hiroshi Kitabata

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] NEC PC-Engine (mar.23, 1990) "Armed Formation F [Model PV2004]" 
[JP] Sony PS4 [PSN] (may.27, 2016) "Arcade Archives - Armed F [Model CUSA-04469]" 
Sony PlayStation 4 [PSN] [US] (may.26, 2016) "Arcade Archives - Formation Armed F [Model CUSA-05184]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=batrider,batriderja,batridert,batriderhk
Arcade Video game published 26 years ago:

Armed Police Batrider (c) 1997 Eighting / Raizing.

An excellent vertically scrolling shoot'em up.

- TECHNICAL -

Game ID : RA9704

Main CPU : Motorola 68000, Zilog Z80
Sound Chips : Yamaha YM2151, (2x) OKI6295

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 3
=> [A] Fire, [B] Bomb, [C] Option

- TRIVIA -

Released in December 1997.

The game forbids the initials 'SEX' on the high score table. If you try, it gets changed to 'H!?'.

If you beat the game in Single Character mode with Car-Pet, she says she's off to work on a great RPG and it shows a parody of the original Nintendo Famicom Dragon Quest boxart called 'Car-Pet Storys'.

In the Secret Stage, you fight the first and last boss of Razing/8ing's game "Sokyugrentai".

- UPDATES -

Revision 1 :
* Software version : A.
* Japan release only.

Revision 2 :
* Software version : B.
* Japan release only.

Revision 2 (Alternate) :
* Software version : B.
* Korean release only.
* Enabled 'Special Course', 'Guest Players' and 'Player Select' codes by default.

- SCORING -

Medals score : As long as you catch all medals of a wave, the increasing continues up to 10,000 points per medal. If you miss one, the next wave restarts at 100 point...
1 : 100 points.
2 : 200 points.
3 : 300 points.
4 : 400 points.
5 : 500 points.
6 : 600 points.
7 : 700 points.
8 : 800 points.
9 : 900 points.
10 : 1000 points.
11 : 2000 points.
12 : 3000 points.
13 : 4000 points.
14 : 5000 points.
15 : 6000 points.
16 : 7000 points.
17 : 8000 points.
18 : 9000 points.
19 : 10,000 points.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Ship Selection : at the player select screen, your fighter's capability is determined by which button(s) you press to pick your craft...
1) To select a 'Normal power type' fighter, select your ship with A button (Strong shot, weak option).
2) To select a 'Bomber power type', select your ship with B button (Strong option, weak shot).
3) To select a 'Option power type', select your ship with C button (Strong option & shot, slower speed).
4) To select a 'Speed up type', select your ship with Start button (Weak option & shot, faster speed).

* Stage Edit : start from the game mode selection screen, highlight the game mode of your choice and press A+B simultaneously. This can also be enabled by setting a DIP switch.

* Guest Players : insert a coin and press Up(x2), Down(x2), Left, Right, Left, Right, FIRE, BOMB, START. Nine additional fighters from "Battle Garegga" and "Mahou Daisakusen" will be unlocked. This can also be enabled by setting a DIP switch.

* Player Select : with this mode enabled you can select one ship instead of a team. Insert a coin and press Up(x2), Down(x2), Left, Right, Left, Right, BOMB, FIRE, START. This can also be enabled with a DIP switch.

* Score Mode : to show up score calculations, start from anywhere in the game, hold the START button and press BOMB (To leave the score mode, re-enter the code).

* Special Course : at the title screen, press Up, Down, Up, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, A, B, START. This will enable a fourth 'Boss Attack' game mode. This can also be enabled with a DIP switch.

* Garegga Option Formation Codes : the Garegga ships are unique in that their options can be set to a variety of different formations. Typically, this is done by pushing button C, just as in "Battle Garegga". However, since Batrider is 'officially' a 2-button PCB, some cabinets may not have a third button. If you're stuck playing on one of these cabs, use these "Street Fighter" moves instead :
Front : up, down, A
Back : down, up, down, A
Wide : right, down, down-right, A
Control : left, down, down-left, A
Rolling : left, down-left, down, down-right, right, A

* Garegga Option Special Formations : just like in "Battle Garegga", you can get unique (and in most cases powerful) option formation upgrades by collecting items in special sequence :
Wide : miss 5 small shot items, then pick up an option item. Options shoot out to the sides in a very wide pattern.
Search : miss 5 option items, pick up an option item. Options automatically aim themselves at enemies.
Homing : miss 5 bomb icons, pick up an option item. Options fly right up to enemies and shoot them.
Shadow : miss 5 bonus medals, pick up an option item. Options follow your ship a la Gradius.
Rolling : miss 5 large shot items, pick up an option item. Options roll around your ship while still shooting forwards.

* Ingame Commands : press these button combinations during play to customize the game's bullet patterns. Note that the START+A and START+C combinations affect only your ship, and not the enemies :
Increase your ship's firing rate : START+A
Decrease your firing rate : START+C, or Start+Up (B ver. only)
Score Display : START+B (displays points given for destroying enemies)
Change color of round bullets : START+Left
Change color of straight bullet : START+Down
Change color of destructible bullets : START+Right

* Secret Extend Items : an extend item will drop after each 1.5 million points. In addition, there are two secret methods for triggering extends :
1) Kill the Highway Stage's blue hovercraft only after it's stopped.
2) Miss 3 max bomb items.
Missing three extend items and collecting the fourth will yield a 'special extend', refilling all your empty life slots.

* Galaxy Valhallyzer : this is Gain's 'dream machine' from the "Mahou Daisakusen" games. In Batrider, you can actually play as this ship for the first time, although it's not particularly useful. To get it, you must be playing as Gain. Miss an extend item with no options on your ship, and collect the next option you see. Your ship will now transform into the the 'Galaxy Valhallyzer'. It can be difficult to reach 1.5 million points without using options, so it's easiest to just suicide to drop your options right before you hit the extend.

- STAFF -

Program 68000 side : Shinobu Yagawa
Program Z80 side : Yuichi Ochiai
Character designer : Kazuyuki Nakashima
Graphic designers : Kazuyuki Nakashima, H. Yokoyama, M. Taguchi, Masaharu Tokutake, Yuki Yonei
Music composers : Manabu Namiki (Santaruru), Ken-ichi Koyano, Hitoshi Sakimoto
Sound effects : Mato

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=armwar,armwaru,armwarr1,armwaru1,armwar1d
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 29 years ago:

Armored Warriors (c) 1994 Capcom Company, Limited.

North American & European release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese release entry; "Powered Gear - Strategic Variant Armor Equipment [Green Board]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Blue Board [USA & Europe]

- UPDATES -

Blue Board releases : 

NOTE: US releases also cover Canada.

REVISION 1 : 
* Build date: 940920
* US release

REVISION 2 : 
* Build date: 941011
* EUROPE release

REVISION 3 : 
* Build date: 941024
* US and EUROPE release

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=armwara,armwarar1
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 29 years ago:

Armored Warriors (c) 1994 Capcom Company, Limited.

Asian release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese release entry; "Powered Gear - Strategic Variant Armor Equipment [Green Board]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Grey Board [Asia]

- TRIVIA -

Grey Board releases : 

Revision 1: 
* Build Date: 940920

Revision 2: 
* Build Date: 941024

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=aof3

Art of Fighting 龍虎の拳 外伝 (c) 1996 SNK Corp.
(Art of Fighting - Ryuuko no Ken Gaiden)

10 selectable characters battle each other in various locations in Mexico. Extremely beautiful and fluid animation courtesy of motion capture technology brings a whole new style of game-play to this popular fighting game.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID: NGM-096

[SNK MVS Neo-Geo Controls]
2 players - 4 buttons per player
=> [A] Punch [B] Kick [C] Hard brow [D] Raz

- TRIVIA -

Ryuuko no Ken Gaiden was released in March 1996 in Japan.

The subtitle of this game translates from Japanese as 'Dragon and Tiger Fist Side Story'.

This game is known outside Japan as 'Art of Fighting 3'.

In each character endings, you receive a nice hand-draw of the character on the 'Thank you for Playing' screen.

The drawing Hoeh-Hoeh selects for Wang Koh San in the ending is random, there are 7 different ones.

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Ryuuko no Ken Gaiden - PCCB-00212) on 03/04/1996.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* All characters have 2 colors, one is selected with the A button an the other one is chosen with the D button.

* Play as Sinclair : Highlight Robert and press Left (or highlight Jin and press Right(x2)).

* Play as Wyler : Highlight Robert and press Left(x2) (or highlight Jin and press Right).

* Special Day (Birthday Gift) : Definitely one of the strangest tricks in fighting games, each character will be powered up on his birthday (able to perform Super Desperation Moves at any moment during the fight!).
Kasumi Todo - March, 29
Wang Koh-San - April, 17
Lenny Criston - May, 20
Karman Cole - June, 13
Rody Births - July, 24
Ryo Sakazaki - August, 2
Jin-Fuha - September, 4
Wyler - October, 22
Sinclair - November, 14
Robert Garcia - December, 25

* Ultimate K.O. : Defeat an opponent in the first round by using your character's Super Desperation Move when the enemy's lifebar is 5% of less. If done correctly, you'll win the whole match in just a single round!

* Finish the game without losing a round to get a comical hand drawn picture of the character after the credits.

- SERIES -

1. Ryuuko no Ken [Model NGM-044] (1992)
2. Ryuuko no Ken 2 [Model NGM-056] (1994)
3. Art of Fighting - Ryuuko no Ken Gaiden [Model NGM-096] (1996)

- STAFF -

Object Designers : Heitarou, Black Tree, Futatsu (Futatsu!!), Higetoboin, UG, Ponda, Tohru, Pinkey-EX, Horipu (Hori-pu~?), Terarin, Kattsun, Sumiccho, Nana, Ashizawan, Satopyon, Tani Tani, Koara, Rave Man, Sasa, K. Miya, Rolly(R), Tony Oki, ??....!
Back Designers : Muramama Eiko, Daisuke, Wa-Da-Mo, J K, Shochan, Take-Pyon
Programmers : MA2++, Yuritaro, Hiropon
CG Creators : K-Asa, Aki. Yama, Demao. Sat, Seri
Music Composers : Yamapy-1, Masahiko Hataya (Papaya), Shibakichi
Capture Assisted by : Masa, Shin. T, Jeffrey Zoern, Raymond Ho.
Producers : Takashi Nishiyama, Hiroshi Matsumoto (Finish Hiroshi)
Directors : Go, Shigeri #3, Kim-Ken, Moai-Nao

* Voice Actors :
Ryo : Masaki Usui
Robert : Mantaro Koichi
Rody : Eiji Yano
Lenny : Kumi Ishida
Wang : Monster Maetsuka
Karman : Mantaro Koichi
Jin : Jai
Sinclair : Harumi Ikoma
Wyler : Monster Maetsuka

Special Thanks : Kaori Kasai, Osamu Sato

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo (Apr. 26, 1996) "Ryuuko no Ken Gaiden [Model NGH-096]"
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo CD (june.14, 1996) "Ryuuko no Ken Gaiden [Model NGCD-096]"
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo CD (june.14, 1996) "Ryuuko no Ken Gaiden [Limited Edition] [Model NGCD-0960]"
[JP] Sony PS2 (may.11, 2006) "Ryuuko no Ken - Ten Chi Jin [NeoGeo Online Collection Vol.4] [Model SLPS-25610]"
[JP] Sony PS2 (june.21, 2007) "Ryuuko no Ken - Ten Chi Jin [NeoGeo Online Collection The Best] [Model SLPS-25790]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=legendos

あしたのジョー伝説 (c) 1991 SNK.
(Ashita no Joe Densetsu)

Beat-'em-up/boxing game with a Rocky-like storyline.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID : 0029

[SNK MVS Neo-Geo Controls]
2 players - 4 buttons per player (2 usables).
[JOYSTICK] 8-way, [A] Jab/Straight/Hook/Uppercut/Body, [B] Sway/Low guard/Block

- TRIVIA -

Ashita no Joe Densetsu was released in July 1991 in Japan.

The title of this game translates from Japanese as 'Legend of Tomorrow's Joe'.

This game is known outside Japan as 'Legend of Success Joe'.

This game is based on the classic manga/anime series Ashita no Joe (Tomorrow's Joe). The manga ran from 1968 to 1973 in Shonen Magazine.

- SERIES -

1. Ashita no Joe (1990)
2. Ashita no Joe Densetsu (1991)

- STAFF -

Developed by Wave Corp.

Original author: Asao Takamori
Original picture: Tetsuya Chiba
Chief programmer: Hirofumi Sakaue
Assistance programmer: Takashi Iehara
Chief character designer: Koji Tomoto
Assistance designer: Kenichiro Matsumoto
Total producer: Teruo Ohira

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] Nintendo Super Famicom (1992) "Ashita no Joe [Model SHVC-AJ]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=ashura,ashurau,ashuraj
Arcade Video game published 33 years ago:

Ashura Blaster (c) 1990 Taito Corp.

A vertically scrolling shoot'em up game, an enhanced knock-off of Toaplan's "Twin Cobra".

- TECHNICAL -

Taito B System Hardware
Prom Stickers: C43

Main CPU: Motorola 68000 (@ 12 Mhz), Zilog Z80 (@ 4 Mhz)
Sound Chips: Yamaha YM2610 (@ 8 Mhz)

Screen orientation: vertical
Screen resolution in pixels: 224 x 320
Screen refresh rate: 60 hz

Players: up to 2 (simultaneous)
Control: 8-Way Joystick
Buttons: 2
=> [1] Fire, [2] Bomb

- TRIVIA -

Ashura Blaster was released in March 1990.

Developed by Visco (on the 2nd stage you can see tiny 'Visco' on a large battleship).

The kanji characters on the titlescreen read 'Ashura'. Ashura is a demon related to fighting.

The game forbids the initials 'SEX' on the high score table. If you try, it gets changed to 'REX'. 'GKS' initials are also broken and are changed into 'GKR'.

- UPDATES -

The US version has the "Winners Don't Use Drugs" screen and has a warning telling the game can be played only in Canada, Mexico and USA.

The Japanese ROM can be operated only in Japan (as territorial notice suggests). The intermission screens feature non-English instructions there.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* In this game there is no backfire from enemies, unlike in other similar shoot'em ups. So you do not have to worry to be hit after you pass certain enemies.

* Steal a continue: even if dip switch 'Allow continue' is set to off, you can still continue when you have spare credits: simply press start after you lose the last life before you encounter 'Game over' - you have roughly 3 seconds to do so.

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=alpham2,alpham2p

ASO II - Last Guardian (c) 1991 SNK.

A full-screen vertically scrolling shoot'em up game.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID: NGM-007

[SNK MVS Neo-Geo Controls]
2 players - 4 buttons per player (3 usables)
=> Type A : [A] Missile/Laser/Attach armor, [B] Armor attack, [C] Open menu
=> Type B : [A] Laser/Attach armor, [B] Missile, [C] Open menu

- TRIVIA -

ASO II was released in March 1991 in Japan.

This game is known outside Japan as Alpha Mission II.

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (ASO II - PCCB-00062) on May 21, 1991.

- UPDATES -

The prototype version has different gameplay trailer in the attract mode.

- SERIES -

1. ASO - Armored Scrum Object (1985)
2. ASO II - Last Guardian [Model NGM-007] (1991)

- STAFF -

Producer : Eikichi Kawasaki
Planner : Kohyan
Sub planner : Shiba
Programmers : Data-Tada, Muge-San, Magi2, Shochan, Nishidon (as Nishido~N)
Designers : Toyochan, Maeda, Miki, Y. Kawase, Higa, Keisen. Y, Masami Tanaka, Mano
Sound : Jojoha Kitapi, Konny, Tarkun

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo AES (jul.1, 1991) "ASO II - Last Guardian [Model NGH-007]"
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo CD (Sep. 9, 1994) "ASO II - Last Guardian [Model NGCD-007]"
Sony PlayStation Store (2010)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=asuka,asukaj,asukaja
Arcade Video game published 34 years ago:

Asuka & Asuka (c) 1989 Taito.

A vertically scrolling shoot'em up.

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 8 Mhz), Zilog Z80 (@ 4 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Yamaha YM2151 (@ 4 Mhz), OKI MSM5205 (@ 384 Khz)

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2

- TRIVIA -

Even if the title screen says 1988, Asuka & Asuka was released in January 1989.

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES: 
[JP] Sony PS2 (jan.25, 2007) "Taito Memories II Joukan [Model SLPM-66649]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=robokid,robokidj,robokidj2,robokidj3
Arcade Video game published 35 years ago:

Atomic Robo-Kid (c) 1988 UPL.

In the 21st century, a blast of cosmic radiation bombarded Terra-12, a deep-space outpost of Earth, hideously mutating all transplanted life. A fleet of savage beings followed the radiation wave and invaded the planet, and began the systematic destruction of all remaining sentient life. Years of battling the alien 'governors' have gone by, and now only one hope survives to avenge the desperate Terran colonists.

The player controls the Atomic Robo-Kid through six stages of increasing difficulty, facing an alien "governor" boss, which are so large as to be considered levels themselves, followed by a "duel" level against other Robo-Kid sized robots. Many levels branch into others, giving the player the choice over which zone to enter next, increasing replayability.

Robo-Kid can collect four different weapons. Whichever weapon is selected is lost when Robo-kid loses a life. In addition to his default gun, Robo-Kid is able collect powerups for a shield that activates on enemy contact, rapid fire, and speed powerups. The player can also encounter a friendly dinosaur-looking robot that sells weapons and shields to Robo-kid using extra lives as currency.

- TECHNICAL -

Game ID : UPL-88013

Main CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 6 Mhz)
Sound CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 5 Mhz)
Sound Chips : (2x) Yamaha YM2203 (@ 1.5 Mhz)

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2

- TRIVIA -

Atomic Robo-Kid was released in November 1988.

Act-3 main melody was taken from Gary Moore's Thunder Rising.

Omega Fighter, Atomic Robo-Kid / UPL [Pony Canyon / Scitron - PCCB-00038 - Aug 21, 1990]

Reviews:
[FR] November 1992 - Consoles+ No. 14: 91/100

- UPDATES -

In the export (non-Japanese) versions, the highscore table contains only 3 letters. The original Japanese version can contains an entire name.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Choose Start Level :
1) After inserting a coin, press p1 attack button while pressing 1p start. 
2) Enter the code (codes appear after Act5 at the beginning of the level).

- STAFF -

Game designer : Tsutomu Fuzisawa
Chief programmer : Toshio Arai
Character designers : Tsutomu Fuzisawa, Tokuhisa Tazima
Background designers : Noriko Nihei, Akemi Tsunoda
Effects : Kohji Abe
Compose & Music : Mecano Associates

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] NEC PC-Engine (1989) "Atomic Robo-Kid Special [Model UP01001]"
[JP] Sega Mega Drive (dec.1990) "Atomic Robo-Kid [Model T-24013]"
[US] Sega Genesis (dec.1990) "Atomic Robo-Kid [Model T-24016]"
[JP] Sony PlayStation 4 [PSN] (sept.29, 2016) "Arcade Archives - Atomic Robo-Kid [Model CUSA-05977]" 

* COMPUTERS:
[US] Commodore C64 (1989) Atomic Robo-Kid
Atari ST (1990)
Commodore Amiga (1990)
[JP] Sharp X68000 (dec.20, 1990) Atomic Robo-Kid

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=avspirit
Arcade Video game published 32 years ago:

Avenging Spirit (c) 1991 Jaleco.

Export release. Game developed in Japan. See the original for more information; "Phantasm".

- TECHNICAL -

Jaleco Mega System 1-B hardware (the original Japanese version ran on 1-A hardware)

- TRIVIA -

Released in May 1991.

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=lastbladh

幕末浪漫 月華の剣士 (c) 1997 SNK [Shin Nihon Kikaku].
(Bakumatsu Rouman - Gekka no Kenshi)

- TECHNICAL -

[Model NGH-234]
474 Mega

- TRIVIA -

Released one month after the MVS release, on January 29, 1998 in Japan (even if the titlescreen shows 1997).

Original MVS info: "The Last Blade [Model NGM-234]".

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=lastblad

幕末浪漫 月華の剣士 (c) 1997 SNK Corporation.
(Bakumatsu Rouman - Gekka no Kenshi)

Japanese weapons-based fighter featuring beautiful artwork and sound. Twelve selectable characters and two end bosses.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID: NGM-234

[SNK MVS Neo-Geo Controls]
2 Players - 4 buttons per player.
=> [Joystick] 8-way, [A] Weak Slash, [B] Strong Slash, [C] Kick, [D] Repel

- TRIVIA -

Bakumatsu Rouman - Gekka no Kenshi (translates from Japanese as 'Bakumatsu Romance - Swordsman In The Moonlight') was released on December 5th, 1997.

This game is known outside Japan as 'The Last Blade' and in Korea as 'The Last Soldier'.

Parts of Gekka no Kenshi was based off of the manga 'Rurouni Kenshin'.

The Bakumatsu period of Japan (1860-1899) represents the opening of Japanese ports to foreigners. The Last Blade is set during this time period and you can see Europeans in some backgrounds, as well as some European dress influences on some characters.

This game has a lot to do with Japanese religion. In what little understanding of Japanese culture, there are four gods in Japanese mythology : Seiryuu (blue dragon), Suzaku (red phoenix), Byakko (white tiger) and Genbu. Each god is associated with a direction : Byakko with west, Seiryuu with east, Genbu with north and Suzaku in the south. The four gods also seem to be portrayed in an identical manner : Suzaku is often seen as a renegade of sorts, Genbu is often wise, Byakko seems to be strong and Seiryuu seems to be the role of the protagonist. To this end, the four characters that are avatars to these gods in Gekka no Kenshi (Kaede, Okina, Shigen and Kagami) seem to fit the gods themselves to a tee (Kaede to Seiryuu, Okina to Genbu, Shigen to Byakko and Kagami to Suzaku). However, there may be one (unintentional) reference to the entire fighting game itself. These four characters may very well represent the four popular styles of characters found in nearly fighting game :
Kaede is a Shotokan-style character. This type of character, of course, is the earliest type of fighting game character (as early fighting games always had the protagonist be proficient in some form of karate). However, ever since the release of "Street Fighter II - The World Warrior", a Shoto-character refers to a character with similar moves to that of Ryu and Ken from that game, or more specifically, a character with a projectile and a built upper. Kaede fits this property well : his Ittou Hayate is a projectile (much like Ryu's Hadou Ken) and his Ittou Kuuga is a built upper (like Ken's Shoryuu Ken). Of course, Kaede may also be a nod to that of SNK's first fighting game protagonist (Terry Bogard) as well : his Kasshin Fukuryuu super is in the style of Terry's Power Geyser. To this day, many fighting game characters are known as Shoto characters - their simplicity can't be beat.
Shigen is a large character. Large characters come generally in two flavors : the power character and the grappler (Shigen himself is a mix of both). Power characters generally don't move much but deal lots of damage per hit. Grapplers are those whose special moves are mainly throws. These characters tend to last longer because of their size, but have a weakness that they have either short range or are slow (or, in the case of some characters, overly complicated moves).
Okina may be described as a turtler. This may seem like an inside joke (Okina, in his profile, refers to his family as a bunch of turtles), but it sometimes make sense. Jokes aside, turtlers are not exactly a type of character, but a type of player. That is, a turtler is a player who tend to block attacks a lot.
Charge characters (i.e. those whose repertoire of moves are mainly charge moves) generally fall into this category, as it is often that they need to remain in a blocking position in order to get their charges and counterattack.
Over the years, there have been many incentives to stray away from this style (as well as derivatives thereof, such as ticking), such as guard breaks, overheads, low attacks, shorter charges and unblockable moves.
Granted, the turtler is not as big as a factor as it used to be (the most popular character in "Street Fighter II - The World Warrior" was Guile because of his turtling and ticking abilities), but Okina's reference to turtles remains.
Kagami, of course, continues SNK's tradition of making cheap-ass characters for final bosses.

Akari and Juzoh are the comedic relief characters in the Gekka series : Juzoh is seen in Akari's stage if Akari is fighting (and obviously, if Akari is not fighting Juzoh). Likewise, Akari can be seen in Juzoh's stage if Juzoh is fighting (and if Juzoh isn't fighting against Akari).

Soundtrack releases :
Bakumatsu Roman - Gekka no Kenshi / SNK Shinsekai Gakkyoku Zatsugidan - Pony Canyon / Scitron - PCCB-00287 - December 17, 1997
Bakumatsu Roman - Gekka no Kenshi Arrange Sound Trax / SNK Shinsekai Gakkyoku Zatsugidan - Pony Canyon / Scitron - PCCB-00301 - January 21, 1998
Bakumatsu Roman - Gekka no Kenshi Drama CD -Pony Canyon / Scitron - PCCB-00302 - February 04, 1998

- UPDATES -

On the AES version, Musashi and Kagami are playable characters by imputing a code. On the MVS version only Musashi can be unlocked (see Tips & tricks section for more information).

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Play As Musashi : at the character selection screen, press C(x6), B(x3) and C(x4). You must input the correct button sequence in LESS THAN FOUR SECONDS!

* Time Attack Mode : insert a coin, hold A+B+C+D and press Start.

* Alternate Costume Colors : press Start when selecting a fighter at the character selection screen.

- SERIES -

1. Bakumatsu Rouman - Gekka no Kenshi [Model NGM-234] (1997)
2. Bakumatsu Rouman Dai-ni Maku - Gekka no Kenshi: Tsuki ni Saku Hana, Chiriyuku Hana [Model NGM-243] (1998)

- STAFF -

Executive Producer: Hiroshi Matsumoto (H. Matsumoto)
Producer: Akira Goto (Akira. G)
Director: Kimura Ken (Kim-Ken), Wakama2 (Wakama2), Hidetaka Suehiro (Swery 65%)
Voice Cast: Kouji Suizu (Kaede), Jun Hashimoto (Lee Rekka/Moriya Minakata), Hazuki Nishikawa (Yuki), Shigefumi Nakai (Genbu no Okina), Mayuko Omimura (Akari Ichijou), (Juzoh Kanzaki) Tyson Oya, Akio Otsuka (Hyo Amano), Atsushi Maezuka (Shikyoh), Enma Ito (Shigen Naoe), Franky Nakamura (Musashi Akatsuki), Makoto Awane (Shinnosuke Kagami), Katsuyuki Konishi (Keiichiro Washizuka), Ryuzaburo Otomo (Zantetsu)
Sound: Yasuhiro Naka (Yassun), Yasuo Yamate (Tate_Norio), Brother-Hige, Zoe, Okan
Tool Staff: K. Miyazaki, Masatoshi Hashimoto (M. Hashimoto), O. Daimon, T. Kanehiro, K. Hamamoto
Adjuster: Kengo Asai (K. Asai), Game King, M-Panic!
Programmer: YuritaRo (Yuritaro), Hiropon (Hiropon-MK2), Naoyan Apchiba (Naoyan)
Demo Section - Direction: Hidetaka Suehiro (Swery 100%)
Demo Section - Graphics: Wadamo
Demo Section - Programming: Naoyan Apchiba (Naoyan)
Special Thanks: 56, Sho Chan, Asami Don, Oh!Butch, Anne, Haruo K., Sanpo A., H. Shinmei, M Marohie (Marhie), Sike-Tune

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo AES (jan.29, 1998) "Bakumatsu Rouman - Gekka no Kenshi [Model NGH-234]"
[US] SNK Neo-Geo AES (jan.29, 1998) "The Last Blade [Model NGH-234]"
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo CD (mar.26, 1998) "Bakumatsu Rouman - Gekka no Kenshi [Model NGCD-234]"
[US] SNK Neo-Geo CD (mar.26, 1998) "The Last Blade [Model NGCD-2341]"
[JP] Sony PlayStation (feb.25, 1999) "Bakumatsu Rouman - Gekka no Kenshi [Model SLPM-86118]"
[JP] Sony PS2 (jan.12, 2006) "Gekka no Kenshi 1-2 [NeoGeo Online Collection Vol.2] [Model SLPS-25503]"
[JP] Sony PS2 (june.21, 2007) "Gekka no Kenshi 1-2 [NeoGeo Online Collection The Best] [Model SLPS-25792]"
[JP] Nintendo Wii [Virtual Console]  (mar.13, 2012)

* COMPUTERS:
PC (2000)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=lastbld2

幕末浪漫第二幕 月華の剣士 ～月に咲く華、散りゆく花～ (c) 1998 SNK Corporation.
(Bakumatsu Rouman Dai-ni Maku - Gekka no Kenshi: Tsuki ni Saku Hana, Chiriyuku Hana)

Much-acclaimed swordplay fighter with sixteen selectable characters and one end boss. Another SNK triumph!

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID: NGM-243

[SNK MVS Neo-Geo Controls]
2 Players - 4 buttons Per Player.
=> [Joystick] 8-Way, [A] Weak Slash, [B] Strong Slash, [C] Kick, [D] Repel

- TRIVIA -

Released on November 25, 1998 in Japan.

The title translates from Japanese as 'Bakumatsu Romance Episode II - Swordsman of the Moonlight: On the Moon a Flower Blooming, a Petal Falling'.

This game is known outside Japan as The Last Blade 2. 

Kojiroh Sanada is a homage to an ancient Chinese legend about a girl disguising herself as her father (the same story was also used in the Disney movie Mulan).

Lee Rekka is a homage to the Cantonese hero, Wong Fei Hung.

Akari and Juzoh are the comedic relief characters in the Gekka series : If Akari is fighting someone other than Juzoh, Juzoh can be seen next to the elephant. If Akari is fighting Juzoh, Akari's three friends (Hijiri Nanase, Aoi Yahata and Shizuka Kujou) can be seen next to the elephant. If Juzoh is fighting someone other than Akari, Akari can be seen with her friends.

Soundtrack releases:
[JP] December 18, 1998; Bakumatsu Roman Dai Ni Maku - Gekka no Kenshi: Tsuki ni Saku Hana, Chiri Yuku Hana [PCCB-00350] - Pony Canyon
[JP] January 07, 2000; Bakumatsu Roman Dai Ni Maku - Gekka no Kenshi: Tsuki ni Saku Hana, Chiri Yuku Hana [Arrange Sound Trax] [PCCB-00353] - Pony Canyon

- UPDATES -

In the original (Japanese) version of Last Blade 2, each of the 3 modes is described by one kanji : Chikara (red), Waza (blue) and Kiwame (green). Chikara means 'strength', Waza 'skill' and Kiwame 'extreme'.
These 3 modes were made into 'Power', 'Speed' and 'EX', respectively, for their English release.
However, one case where the modes were literally translated remain.
If you look at the English 'How To Play' intro in Last Blade 2, you will see 'Strength and Skill' where they should have said 'Power and Speed'.
A slight mistake in the English renaming, or a tribute to the Japanese and therefore correct, names.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Play As Kaede From Last Blade:
Highlight Kaede at the character selection screen, then press C(x9), B, C(x4). You must input the correct button sequence in LESS THAN FOUR SECONDS! - A sound will confirm correct code entry.

* Play As Kouryu:
Highlight Kaede and press C(x10), B(x5) and C(x5). You must input the correct button sequence in LESS THAN FOUR SECONDS!

* Hagure Hitogata Appearance:
Highlight Akari at the character selection screen, then press C(x8), B(x9), C(x4). You must input the correct button sequence in LESS THAN FOUR SECONDS! - A sound will confirm correct code entry.

* Naoe Kotetsu Appearance:
Highlight Shigen at the character selection screen, then press C(x5), B(x10), C(x2). You must input the correct button sequence in LESS THAN FOUR SECONDS! - A sound will confirm correct code entry.

* Time Attack Mode:
Insert a coin, hold A+B+C+D and press Start.

* Unlock EX Mode:
At the mode selection screen, highlight Speed and press C(x6), highlight Power and press B(x3), highlight Speed and press C(x4). You must input the correct button sequence in LESS THAN FOUR SECONDS!

* Ending variations: 
-Hibiki: If you get 6 fatalities/decapitation kills before the last boss, you'll unlock an alternative ending. 
-Setsuna: Get the same decapitation kills with Setsuna and his ending will be in full color instead of the usual brown tinted color.
-Lee: Finish the game without using a continue to see an alternative ending.

* Alternative Credits:
Finish the game without using a continue and you'll see artworks of every character during the credits.

* Contest?:
If you finish the game in one credit, a password is given to you (The Password is ELEPHANT). This password can be entered in the official LB2 Internet page. This contest was available between November 1998 and April 1999.

- SERIES -

1. Bakumatsu Rouman - Gekka no Kenshi [Model NGM-234] (1997)
2. Bakumatsu Rouman Dai-ni Maku - Gekka no Kenshi: Tsuki ni Saku Hana, Chiriyuku Hana [Model NGM-243] (1998)

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo AES (jan.28, 1999), "Bakumatsu Rouman Dai-ni Maku - Gekka no Kenshi: Tsuki ni Saku Hana, Chiriyuku Hana [Model NGH-243]"
[US] SNK Neo-Geo AES (jan.28, 1999), "The Last Blade 2 [Model NGH-243]"
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo CD (feb.27, 1999), "Bakumatsu Rouman Dai-ni Maku - Gekka no Kenshi: Tsuki ni Saku Hana, Chiriyuku Hana [Model NGCD-243]"
[JP] Sega Dreamcast (dec.21, 2000), "Bakumatsu Rouman Dai-ni Maku - Gekka no Kenshi [Final Edition] [Model T-3107M]"
[US] Sega Dreamcast (aug.6, 2001), "The Last Blade 2: Heart of the Samurai [Model T-44305M]"
[JP] Sega Dreamcast (may.23, 2002), "Bakumatsu Rouman Dai-ni Maku - Gekka no Kenshi [Final Edition] [Model T-47301M]"
[JP] Sony PS2 (jan.12, 2006), "Gekka no Kenshi 1-2 [NeoGeo Online Collection Vol.2] [Model SLPS-25503]"
[JP] Sony PS2 (june.21, 2007), "Gekka no Kenshi 1-2 [NeoGeo Online Collection The Best] [Model SLPS-25792]"

Notes: Home versions (except AES version) features Musashi Akatsuki as a hidden character.

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=ballbros
Arcade Video game published 31 years ago:

Balloon Brothers (c) 1992 East Technology.

A puzzle game similar to "Tetris" but with different colored balloons in different shapes. Instead of falling blocks, the balloons float to the top. Completing a full row across will make that row disappear.

- TECHNICAL -

Taito X System hardware

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 8 Mhz), Zilog Z80 (@ 4 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Yamaha YM2610 (@ 8 Mhz)

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 3

- TRIVIA -

Released in September 1992.

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=bangbead

Bang Bead (c) 2001 Visco Corp.

A modern "pong"-like game with selectable characters.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID: 0259

[SNK MVS Neo-Geo Control Picture]
2 players - 4 buttons per player (3 usables)
=> [A] Return ball [B] Threat/Sliding occur [C] Miracle Swing (when maximum power)

- TRIVIA -

Bang Bead was released in May 2001.

This game runs on the Neo-Geo MVS (only in Europe) and was never released on the Neo-Geo AES home console.

- SERIES -

1. Battle Flip Shot (1998)
2. Bang Bead (2001)

- STAFF -

Director : Tenzi
Programmers : Bilgo Baggins (Code), Ana (Minarai)
Graphic designers : Naka, Ber, Kan, Oka, Stickman (Swordman)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=b2b

Bang² Busters (c) 1994 Visco Games

It is an action-platform type game with play mechanics similar to Mario Brothers where you can 'blow up' enemies by puffing them as is done in "Dig Dug". It also contains special bonus stages and bosses.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID: NGM-071

- TRIVIA -

The game's title is pronounced Bang Bang Busters.

The Model NGM-071 is a very rare prototype and was never released until its re-edition as an AES cart by NCI as "Bang² Busters [Model NGH-071]".

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
SNK Neo-Geo (Dec.2010) "Bang² Busters [Model NGH-071]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=3846&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=bstars2

Baseball Stars 2 (c) 1992 SNK.

The sequel to SNK's popular baseball arcade game. Players can create leagues of up to 125 games (6 teams playing each other 25 times) and view statistics such as League Standings, Average, Home Runs, Runs Batted In, Earned Run Average, Wins and Saves. Players can fire players and upgrade them using the same 15-point system introduced in the original Baseball Stars.

Players can select from one of 18 teams across 2 leagues - Exciting League (beginner) & Fighting League (expert) :

Exciting League :
* New York Monsters
* Tokyo Ninjas
* Napoli Angels
* Taipei Hawks
* Seoul Ivories
* Sydney Griffons
* Oaxaca Rockets
* Barcelona Flames
* London Lifeguards

Fighting League :
* USA Bisons
* Japanese Samurais
* Korean Dragoon
* Italian Waves
* Taiwan Dragons
* Aussie Thunders
* Mexican Typhoons
* Spanish Galleons
* British Knights

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID: NGM-041

[SNK MVS Neo-Geo Controls]
2 players - 4 buttons per player.
[JOYSTICK] 8-way
Hitting: [A] Swing bat/Return to base, [B] Stolen base/Lead off, [C] Bunt, [D] Time out 
Fielding: [A] Pitch/Jump, [B] Base touch/Feint ball, [C] X, [D] Time out

- TRIVIA -

Released in April 1992.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Weaken Enemy Pitcher : To perform this trick, you need to get as close to the plate as you can. If the pitcher then hits you, tap Up twice on your joystick. Your hitter will then throw his bat to the floor, walk up to the mound and punch the pitcher, thus lowering his abilities. Using this tip will help mess up the pitching schedule for your opponent, and can lead to easy scoring opportunities off the tired pitchers.

- SERIES -

1. Baseball Star - Mezase Sankanou [Model SFX-B9] (1989)
2. Baseball Stars Professional [Model NGM-002] (1990)
3. Baseball Stars 2 [Model NGM-041] (1992)
4. Baseball Stars (1998, Neo Geo Pocket Color)

- STAFF -

Producer : Eikichi Kawasaki
Planner : Pu-Ken 2020
Programmers : To-Chan, Nakamura-Q
Design chief : Miki, Y. Kawase
Designers : Masami Tanaka, Kiku-Bee, Riding Monkey Gogo, Kazunori, G.O.N., Great King Yasu
Sounds : Masahiko Hataya (Papaya), Konny

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
SNK Neo-Geo (1992; "Baseball Stars 2 [Model NGH-041]")
[JP] Nintendo Famicom (1992)
SNK Neo-Geo CD (1994; "Baseball Stars 2 [Model NGCD-041]")
Nintendo Wii [Virtual Console] (Dec.2007)
[US] Sony PS2 may.05, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model SLUS-21724]"
[US] Sony PSP may.05, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model ULUS-10338]"
[KO] Sony PS2 may.29, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model SLKA-25424]"
[US] Nintendo Wii jul.29, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model RVL-P-RNCE]"
[EU] Sony PSP Oct. 17, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model ULES-01105]"
[EU] Nintendo Wii Oct. 31, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model RVL-P-RJZP]"
[EU] Sony PS2 Nov. 21, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model SLES-55232]"
[JP] Sony PSP May. 21, 2009 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model ULJS-193]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=186&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=bstarsh

Baseball Stars Professional (c) 1991 SNK [Shin Nihon Kikaku].

AES release. For more information about the game itself, please see the original MVS entry: "Baseball Stars Professional [Model NGM-002]".

- TECHNICAL -

Cartridge ID: NGH-002
Cartridge size: 50 MEGA

- TRIVIA -

Released on July 1, 1991.

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=47516&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=bstars

Baseball Stars Professional (c) 1990 SNK.

A comical baseball game.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
GAME ID: NGM-002

[SNK MVS Neo-Geo Controls]
2 players - 4 buttons per player.
[JOYSTICK] 8-way
[A] Batting/Return runner to the base/Pitching/Throwing ball, [B] Advance the runner, [C] Bunting, [D] Time out

- TRIVIA -

Baseball Stars Professional was released in April 1990 in the Arcades.

Baseball Stars Professional was the first baseball game to be released for the SNK Neo-Geo MVS hardware.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Extra Players And Teams : If you beat all of the other teams, a pennant extra players or an extra team will be unlocked.

- SERIES -

1. Baseball Star - Mezase Sankanou [Model SFX-B9] (1989)
2. Baseball Stars Professional [Model NGM-002] (1990)
3. Baseball Stars 2 [Model NGM-041] (1992)
4. Baseball Stars (1998, Neo Geo Pocket Color)

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo AES (Jan.1991) "Baseball Stars Professional [Model NGH-002]"
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo CD (Apr.1995) "Baseball Stars Professional [Model NGCD-002]"
Sony PlayStation Store (Dec.2010)

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=187&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=batsugunsp
Arcade Video game published 30 years ago:

Batsugun Special Ver. (c) 1993 Toaplan Company, Limited.

In this special version:
* Different colours for all stages.
* Some sprites have different colors.
* The title screen/demo & the ship selection screen have different colors.
* The 4-lap end is different.
* The power-ups are different.
* The collision detection area is tighter than the original.
* The smart-bombs are bigger and nicer looking. They also do more damage.
* You get 8 credits instead of 4 to complete the game.

So basically the Special version is an Easier version.

- TRIVIA -

The special version of Batsugun was originally shown at the AOU show (an arcade game show held in Japan every year) and was not for sale. After the Toaplan bunkruptcy, the board started to appear on the second hand market.

- STAFF -

* Consoles :
Sega Saturn (1996)

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=44339&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=batsugun,batsuguna,batsugunb,batsugunc,batsugunbl
Arcade Video game published 30 years ago:

Batsugun (c) 1993 Toaplan.

A vertically scrolling shoot'em up game. As is the standard with most arcade shooters, the player controls their ship with a joystick and two buttons. One button (Fire) shoots the main guns, and the other button (Bomb) releases a smart bomb that spreads huge energy balls all around the player's ship.

As enemies are destroyed, the player gains experience points that are separate from the score. For every 288 experience points gained, the main gun will 'level up', becoming much stronger. This is analogous to experience points and leveling up in role playing games. The weapon can only level up twice, so after it has achieved its maximum level, 288 experience points will grant the player an extra bomb.

The player can also grab P icons to increase the power of the current level gun. A maximum of five "P"s can be collected per experience level; getting more after this gives extra points instead.

Collecting B icons increases the number of bombs, to a maximum of 7.

Apart from destroying enemies, points can be gained from collecting golden V-shaped medals. After the level is finished, 3000 points are awarded for every small one, and 5000 points for every large one. If the player's ship is destroyed during a level, all medals collected are lost.

- TECHNICAL -

Game ID : TP-030

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 16 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Yamaha YM2151 (@ 3.375 Mhz), OKI6295 (@ 24.242 Khz)

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2
=> [A] Shot, [B] Bomb

- TRIVIA -

Batsugun was released in February 1993.

BATSUGUN means 'Preeminence', 'Predominace' or 'By far the best'.
BATSU means 'Dominant', 'Outstanding' or 'Excel'.
GUN is originally 'Group' or 'Brigade', but also means 'Common Level'.
BATSU also means a cross (X) mark, so there's an X under the logo of Batsugun.

Licensed to Taito for world distribution and to Unite Trading for Korea.

This is the last shoot'em up and the first 'non-endless' game by Toaplan. A special version of Batsugun existed, originally it was only for the AOU show (Arcade Operators Union, an arcade game show held in Japan every year) and not for sale. After the Toaplan bankruptcy, the board started to appear on the second hand market.

Heralded by some as the first 'maniac shooter', Batsugun involved employees who would go on to form and work at Cave and continue to work in this subgenre. Batsugun saw an evolution in the use of complex bullet and enemy patterns and player fire power and hit-box.

The scoring trick on the fourth boss (destroy the two giant laser cannons, let the tanks appearing from the hangars fill the ramps and become red, bomb for 59,630 points a tank) was one source of inspiration for "Battle Garegga"'s gameplay.

Pony Canyon released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Batsugun - PCCB-00151) on 18/03/1994.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Hidden Functions : If the 'Invulnerability dip switch' is enabled, you are invulnerable but you may also 'Pause' the game with P2 Start and restart with P1 Start.

- STAFF -

Excecutive producer : Yuko Tataka
Programmers : Suki! Suki! Kohchan No-Make, Sigue Hayasato, Tsuneki Ikeda (Ikeda In Naeba), Yoshitatsu Sakai (the 3rd)
Graphic design : Yuko Tataka, Takeshi Kamamoto, Junya Inoue (Joker Jun)
Characters designed by : Junya Inoue (Joker Jun)
Musics composed by : Yoshitatsu Sakai (the 3rd)

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
Sega Saturn (1996) "Batsugun [Model T-20605G]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=193&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=bbakraid,bbakraidja,bbakraidj,bbakraidc
Arcade Video game published 24 years ago:

Battle Bakraid (c) 1999 Eighting.

The sequel to "Battle Garegga", an equally excellent vertically scrolling shoot 'em up game.

- TECHNICAL -

Game ID : ET68-V99

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 16 Mhz), Zilog Z80 (@ 8 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Yamaha YMZ280B (@ 16.9344 Mhz)

Screen orientation : Vertical
Video resolution : 240 x 320 pixels
Screen refresh : 60.00 Hz
Palette colors : 2048

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 3

- TRIVIA -

Released in April 1999.

The game forbids the initials 'SEX' on the high score table. If you try, it gets changed to 'H!?'.

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Battle Bakraid Original Soundtrack - SGCD-0008) on 19/06/1999.

- UPDATES -

The 'Unlimited Version' (06/1999) has unlocking codes to gain access to five secret fighters and the special course.

- SCORING -

Medals System : As long as you catch all medals of a wave, the increasing continues up to 10,000 points per medal. If you miss one, the next wave restarts at 100 point...
1 : 100 points.
2 : 200 points.
3 : 300 points.
4 : 400 points.
5 : 500 points.
6 : 600 points.
7 : 700 points.
8 : 800 points.
9 : 900 points.
10 : 1000 points.
11 : 2000 points.
12 : 3000 points.
13 : 4000 points.
14 : 5000 points.
15 : 6000 points.
16 : 7000 points.
17 : 8000 points.
18 : 9000 points.
19 : 10,000 points.
20 : 100,000 points - You can only trigger the 100k points medals when you have a multiplier active, and you can only continue to release 100k points medals if you continue to keep a multiplier going. Once you lose a multiplier, your medals revert back to 10k points medals.

* Multiplier System : Bakraid features another scoring system that alters the amount of points gained from enemy destruction by modifying the base point gain from enemy destruction with a specially acquired incremental multiplier. The multiplier system is the more important of the two scoring systems as it is the system that can contribute to almost 80% of your total score, and is centric to the release of the special 100,000 points medals. However, the multiplier system is also the most difficult to get to grips with and exploit, as it requires a lot of pre-planning on the player's part with regards to stage and boss strategies in order to maximize potential point gains. The multiplier system in essence features an incremental multiplier that is gained by destroying LARGE enemies. You can continue to increment the multiplier up to a max of 64x, via this simple table (the number in brackets refers to the amount of large enemies destroyed to reach that multiplier stage) :
2x (destroy 2)
4x (3)
8x (4)
16x (5)
32x (6)
64x (7 and more)

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Ship Selection : at the ship select screen...
1) To select a 'main shot power type' fighter, select your ship with A button.
2) To select a 'Bomber power type', select your ship with B button.
3) To select a 'Side shot power type', select your ship with C button.
4) To select a 'Speed up type', select your ship with Start button.

* Phase 2 : to unlock 3 more fighter planes, insert a coin and press Up(x2), Down(x2), Left, Right, Left, Right, A, B, Start.

* Phase 3 : to unlock 2 more fighter planes, insert a coin and press Up(x2), Down(x2), Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Start (the entering of this code has to be finished before the counter passes 10).

* Special Course : hold C button, insert a coin and press Up, Down, Up, Down Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Start and release C button.

* Team Edit : insert a coin and press Up, Down, Up, Down Left, Right, Left, Right, A, B, Start (the entering of this code has to be started after the counter passes 10).

* Stage Edit : start from the game mode selection screen, highlight the game mode of your choice and press A+B simultaneously.

* Score Mode : to show up score calculations, start from anywhere in the game, hold C button and tap Joystick Up (to leave the score mode, re-enter the code).

- SERIES -

1. Battle Garegga (1996)
2. Battle Bakraid (1999)

- STAFF -

Program 68000 Side : Shinobu Yagawa
Program Z80 Side : Tatsuya Uemura
Music composed by : Atsuhiro Motoyama
Graphics: H. Tamai, N. Kaneko, F. Namie

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=196&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=batcir,batcird
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 26 years ago:

Battle Circuit (c) 1997 Capcom Company, Limited.

European release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese release entry; "Battle Circuit [Green Board]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Blue Board [Europe]

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=69628&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=batcirj
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 26 years ago:

Battle Circuit (c) 1997 Capcom.

In this side-scrolling beat'em up, 5 wacky colour-coded characters fight to arrest 'Dr. Saturn' and stop the 'Shiva System' from taking over the world! Earn money to buy special moves and power-ups. This game has 7 stages...
* Stage 1: Inside enemy ship.
* Stage 2: Fever in disco, den of evil.
* Stage 3: Dead heat in desert.
* Stage 4: Sneak in and foil Dr. Saturn's plans.
* Stage 5: Jungle Battle, escape from death line.
* Stage 6: Chase Zipang as you go down river.
* Final Stage : Showdown, desperate battle with Shiva system.
* Secret : Last battle, stop Master Program.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Green Board [Japan]

Players: Up to 4.
Control: 8-way joystick per player.
Buttons: 2 per player.
=> [1] Attack, [2] Jump

- TRIVIA -

Battle Circuit was released in March 1997. It was known as the 21th CPS-II game.

Known export releases:
"Battle Circuit [Blue Board]"
"Battle Circuit [Grey Board]"

Some of the game's characters seem to borrow moves & stuff from other Capcom games :
* Cyber Blue : His battle armor seems VERY inspired by the one used by "Captain Commando", also his Cyber Cannon is reminiscent of Iron Man's Proton Cannon in "Marvel Super Heroes".
* Captain Silver : One of his special attacks is clearly based on Iceman's Artic Attack in "X-Men - Children of the Atom".
* Yellow Iris : Her Speed Up power attack is based on Psylocke's Gem Ability in "Marvel Super Heroes" in which she summons copies of herself that attack enemies.
* Pink Ostrich : She borrows LOTS of moves from Zelkin Fiskerkogen, the bird alien from "Star Gladiator - Episode : I Final Crusade". Also her anklet is quite reminiscent of the spiky bracelets that Chun-li wears in the Street Fighter games.
* Alien Green : His jump & slam throw is clearly based on Haggar's Pile Driver in "Final Fight".

Johnny (the second boss) is based on Elvis Presley. When you defeat him, he becomes fat.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

Pink Ostrich and Alien Green are very hard to clear stage 2 & 3. So if you can put only one credit in the machine, play with another character.

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=batcira
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 26 years ago:

Battle Circuit (c) 1997 Capcom Company, Limited.

Asian release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese release entry; "Battle Circuit [Green Board]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Grey Board [Asia]

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=69629&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=flipshot

Battle Flip Shot (c) 1998 Visco Corp.

A modern "Pong"-like game with selectable characters.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID : 0247

[SNK MVS Neo-Geo Controls]
2 players - 4 buttons per player.
[JOYSTICK] 8-way [A] Special attack [B] Slide [C] Provoke

- TRIVIA -

Battle Flip Shot was released in December 1998.

This game runs on the Neo-Geo MVS and was not released on the Neo-Geo AES home console.

The game was in location test two months (10/1998) before its release.

- SERIES -

1. Battle Flip Shot (1998)
2. Bang Bead (2001)

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=202&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=bgaregga,bgareggacn,bgareggat,bgareggak,bgareggablj,battleg,
Arcade Video game published 27 years ago:

Battle Garegga (c) 1996 Eighting / Raizing.

An excellent vertically shoot'em up.

- TECHNICAL -

Game ID : RA9503

Main CPU : Motorola 68000, Zilog Z80
Sound Chips : Yamaha YM2151, (2x) OKI6295

Screen orientation : Vertical
Video resolution : 240 x 320 pixels
Screen refresh : 60.00 Hz
Palette colors : 2048

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 3
=> [A] Shot, [B] Special weapon, [C] Change formation

- TRIVIA -

Battle Garegga was released in February 1996. It was considered as the first 'Danmaku' shooting game. Danmaku is a Japanese term for 'barrage', as in a barrage of bullets.

The main source of inspiration for this game has been the game "Gun Frontier" (1990 ,Taito). The main gun and bomb power-up systems are almost identical in mechanics, many vehicles have the same attacking patterns, you can destroy scenery and there are flamingos flying away at stage 2 of both games :). Another interesting thing : "Batsugun" also was a source of inspiration for this game, as the last Toaplan game was one of the first SHMUPS in which bombing in key spots (4th boss) could grant a lot of points.

The game forbids the initials 'SEX' on the high score table. If you try, it gets changed to 'H!?'.

Shinseisha released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Battle Garegga - GV-027(4-88199-284-8)) on 30/09/1996.

- UPDATES -

* VER. Feb 1 1996 :
First official version.

* VER. Sat Feb 3 1996 :
Distributed in Japan, USA, Europe and Asia.

* VER. Sat Mar 2 1996 :
The titlescreen says 'Battle Garegga - New version'.
Distributed in Austria and Hong Kong.
Most of the bullets are changed to yellow spheres.
'Stage select' and the 3 additional game-mode select secrets removed.

* VER. Tue Apr 2 1996 :
The titlescreen says 'Battle Garegga - Type 2'.
Distributed in Denmark and China.
Most of the bullets are changed to yellow spheres.
'Stage select' and the 3 additional game-mode select secrets removed.

- SCORING -

Medals score : as long as you catch all medals of a wave, the increasing continues up to 10,000 points per medal. If you miss one, the next wave restarts at 100 points...
1 : 100 points.
2 : 200 points.
3 : 300 points.
4 : 400 points.
5 : 500 points.
6 : 600 points.
7 : 700 points.
8 : 800 points.
9 : 900 points.
10 : 1000 points.
11 : 2000 points.
12 : 3000 points.
13 : 4000 points.
14 : 5000 points.
15 : 6000 points.
16 : 7000 points.
17 : 8000 points.
18 : 9000 points.
19 : 10000 points.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Battle Garegga weapons :
1) Shot : to powerup your Shot, pick up small or big Shot powerups. The small powerups need to be collected in quantities : (1st) default > (2nd) 1 item > (3rd) 2 items > (4th) 4 items > (5th) 8 items

2) Special weapon : to get one full Weapon in stock, you must collect 40 SMALL Weapon bullets (or one BIG bullet), and you can hold a maximum of four full Weapons and 40 SMALL Weapon bullets. Whenever you die, you get a bonus of 20 SMALL Weapon bullets added to your current stock.

3) Options : there are five basic formations available which are controlled by pressing the "Change Formation" button. They are :
- Spread : two on each side of your ship, one fixed by your side firing at a wideish angle, and one fixed near your ship's nose, firing at a tighter angle. Overall firepower style similar to a fiveway spread.
- Tail : 4 pointing backwards in a wide fan shape, similar to a Silvergun's fully powered Tail shot.
- Front : 4 pointing straight forwards, fixed in front of your ship's nose. Good for concentrated attacks.
- Rotate : 4 Options spaced equally in a ring around your ship, spinning and firing when you do. Pretty useless.
- Trace : similar formation to Front, except they follow your ship around the screen, firing in the opposite direction to your movements. More useful than Rotate Wink
The order in which the Option formations are cycled are as follows. It is important to learn this order, as quick switching of formations is important to survival in many stages :
Spread > Tail > Front > Rotate > Trace > (back to Spread)
There are also secret formations, that are activated when you fulfill certain requirements. These requirements are based on missing a certain number and type of item BEFORE you pick up the next available Option icon, and also remember that it is a lot easier to set up for certain special formations than others:
- Search : these are fixed in a similar formation to Spread, but they track and fire at nearby enemies. It is quite hard to destroy faster moving drones with this formation, so if possible, avoid this and go for Homing instead. To get Search, miss 5 Option items, then pick up the next one that appears.
- Shadow : the Option items trail your ship much like the Gradius Options do. Useful if you like that sort of thing Wink. To get Shadow, miss 5 Medals, then pick up an Option item.
- Homing : the Options have full range of the screen, and will fly right up to the nearest enemy and attack. Very useful Very Happy. To get Homing, miss 5 SMALL Weapon bullets, then pick up an Option item.
- Wide : they are fixed in the same manner as the Spread formation, but have a much wider firing angle. To get Wide, miss 5 SMALL Shot power ups, then pick up an Option item.
- Chain : only available in two-player mode, the Options will create a chain between both ships. More Options beans a bigger chain Very Happy. To get Shadow, one player must satisfy a special formation condition, and the chances of Chain activating is 50%..
There is also a activation order for the special formations which takes effect if you satisfy two or more activation conditions. The order is:
Search > Shadow > Homing > Wide
You can also cancel a special formation by a press of the Option button. Canceling a special form puts you straight back into Spread options.

* Self Destruction : one other unlisted weapon you can use is the explosion and resulting scattered shrapnel released from your ship when it is destroyed. The power of the explosion itself isn't very powerful, but the shrapnel can cause moderate damage to larger enemies. For example, the four large tanks before the Stage 4 boss can have their turrets and tracks destroyed with a well placed suicide, which can set up for easier collection of the LARGE Weapon bullets they hold. The shrapnel released from your ship's explosion also nullifies bullets, so if you find yourself in a tricky situation with a few extra lives in stock, suicide one of them.

* Ship Selection : at the ship select screen...
1) To select a 'Normal power type' fighter, select your ship with A button,
2) To select a 'Speed Up power type', select your ship with B button,
3) To select a 'Shot power type', select your ship with C button,
4) To select a 'Speed up & Shot power type', select your ship with A+B+C button.

* "Mahou Daisakusen" Character : insert a credit, at the title screen press Up(x2), Down(x2), Left, Right, Left, Right, A, B, C, Start.

* Extended Mode : insert a credit, press and hold A and press Start (This code does not work with the type-2 version).

* Harder Mode : insert a credit, press and hold B and press Start (This code does not work with the type-2 version).

* Stage Edit : insert a credit, press and hold C and press Start (This code does not work with the type-2 version).

* Unlock Special mode (combines extended, stage edit and harder modes) : insert a credit, press and hold A+B+C and press Start (this code does not work with the type-2 version).

* Hint : destroy bridges and buildings!! Use your smartbombs to destroy bridges and buildings. They often contain large numbers of score medals.

- SERIES -

1. Battle Garegga (1996)
2. Battle Bakraid (1999)

- STAFF -

Director : Kazuyuki Nakashima
Programming 68000 Side : Shinobu Yagawa, Yasunari Watanabe
Programming Z80 Side : Yuichi Ochiai
Graphics : Shinsuke Yamakawa, Mitsuakira Tatsuta
Sound effects : Manabu Namiki (Santaruru)
Test players : Mr. Daigoro, Marika F.

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
Sega Saturn (1998)

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=203&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=bgareggahk
Arcade Video game published 27 years ago:

Battle Garegga (c) 1996 Metrotainment.

Hong Kong release.

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=bgaregganv
Arcade Video game published 27 years ago:

Battle Garegga (c) 1996 Metrotainment.

Honk Kong new version.

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=122218&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=bgareggat2
Arcade Video game published 27 years ago:

Battle Garegga (c) 1996 Eighting / Raizing.

New release [Type 2]. See the original for more information about the game itself.

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=122217&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=btlkroad,btlkroadk
Arcade Video game published 29 years ago:

Battle K-Road - Multi Style Fighting Tournament (c) 1994 Psikyo.

A fighting game.

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU: Motorola 68EC020 (@ 16 Mhz)
Sound CPU: Zilog Z80 (@ 4 Mhz)
Sound Chips: Yamaha YM2610 (@ 8 Mhz)

Screen orientation: Horizontal
Video resolution: 320 x 224 pixels
Screen refresh: 59.30 Hz
Palette colors: 4096

Players: 2
Control: 8-way joystick
Buttons: 6

- TRIVIA -

Released in January 1994.

Licensed to Jaleco for US manufacture and distribution.

This game is based on the real K-Road Tournament. The K-Road Tournament was banned in every country because of its no-rules, survival of the fittest attitude, which attracts ruthless international fighters.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Extra features : If you hold Test Button + PL1 Button 1 during boot, you get extra options in the test menu. A level skip, BG test usually etc...

- STAFF -

Staff : Rick Johnson, Ogawa Hyoue, Knuckle Wataru, Hideyuki Oda, Shin Nakamura, Jun-1 Tanba, Shiori Saito, Toshinori Sugita, Minsk, N. Shigemura, A. Tsujimoto, Atsushi Sakurai, Hiromin, Masaki Izutani, Iron Champ, Yusa-Taro

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=204&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=bshark
Arcade Video game published 33 years ago:

Battle Shark (c) 1990 Taito Corp.

Europe model. For more information about the game, please see the Japan model entry.

- TECHNICAL -

European model dimensions :
73inch (185,4cm) high
43inch (109,2cm) deep
27,5inch (69,8cm) wide.

Taito Z System hardware

- TRIVIA -

Even if the title screen says 1989, Battle Shark was released in April 1990 in Europe.

Also released as :
"Battle Shark [Japan model]".
"Battle Shark [USA model]".

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES: 
[EU] Microsoft XBOX (oct.14, 2005) "Taito Legends" 
[EU] Sony PS2 (oct.14, 2005) "Taito Legends [Model SLES-53438]" 
[KO] Sony PS2 (jul.18, 2006) "Taito Legends [Model SLKA-15056]" 

* COMPUTERS:
[EU] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (oct.14, 2005) "Taito Legends"

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=21209&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=punisherbz
Arcade Video game published 21 years ago:

Biaofeng Zhanjing (c) 2002 All-In Company, Limited.

An unofficial Chinese version of "The Punisher".

- TRIVIA -

This hack uses the sound from "Final Fight"!

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=33666&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=turfmast

Big Tournament Golf (c) 1996 Nazca Corporation.

Big Tournament Golf is an arcade golf game in which one or two players choose from a selection of six different golfers, each of which has different strengths and weaknesses to their game. This allows players to select a golfer that suits their preferred style of gameplay. 

The six golfers and their attributes are:
* Young Hero (USA) Driving 3 - Accuracy 3 - Skill 3 - Recovery 3 - Putting 3
* Technician (United Kingdom) Driving 2 - Accuracy 4 - Skill 5 - Recovery 4 - Putting 3
* Veteran (Australia) Driving 1 - Accuracy 2 - Skill 4 - Recovery 5 - Putting 2
* Shot Maker (Germany) Driving 4 - Accuracy 5 - Skill 2 - Recovery 2 - Putting 4
* Power Golfer (Brazil) Driving 5 - Accuracy 1 - Skill 1 - Recovery 1 - Putting 1
* Putt Master (Japan) Driving 3 - Accuracy 2 - Skill 4 - Recovery 2 - Putting 5

Players can choose to play on one of four eighteen-hole courses: Germany, Japan, Australia and U.S.A. Two game modes are available: one-player stroke play against the CPU, or stroke or match-play against a second player.

Unlike many golf games of the era that used a two-click swing system to determine the hook or slice of the ball, "Neo Turf Masters" uses a single click for the power of the shot and a second for the height of the shot. Hook and slice are determined before making the shot. 

Big Tournament Golf follows the standard golf scoring system. The order from the best to the worst performance is:
Albatros (3 hits under Par)
Eagle (2 hits under Par)
Birdie (1 hit under Par)
Par (reach the par for the hole)
Bogey (1 hit over Par)
Double Bogey (2 hits over Par)
Triple Bogey (3 hits over Par)

If players miss the attempt to make a Triple Bogey, they will have to give up the hole and will suffer an additional penalty. If the ball lands out of bounds or in the water, the player will be penalized one stroke.

* Contests are sometimes announced at the start of a hole:

1) The closest to the pin contest: players must hit the ball as close as possible to the pin when driving off. If their ball gets closer to the pin than the previous record, they will earn a bonus hole.

2) The longest driving contest: players must drive the ball as far as possible. If they exceed the previous record, they will earn a bonus hole.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID : NGM-200

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 3
=> [A] Power then Height and shot, [B] Hook, [C] Slice

- TRIVIA -

Big Tournament Golf was released in January 1996 in Japan.

This game is known outside Japan as Neo Turf Masters.

This is the first Nazca game written for the Neo-Geo MVS. Nazca was formed over Irem's death by Irem ex-members with the financal help of SNK. Nasca was originally financed by SNK to adapt their arcade games for home consoles like Playstation and Saturn.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Random Selection: Press A+B+C+D at the player selection and/or the course selection screen.

* Sometimes contests appear during a hole:

1) The closest to the pin contest: you have to hit the ball as close as possible to the hole in one hit. If the ball gets closer to the pin than the previous record, you will earn a bonus hole.

2) The longest driving contest: you have to drive the ball as far as possible. If you exceed the previous record, you will earn a bonus hole.

- SERIES -

1. Neo Turf Masters (1996)
2. Neo Turf Masters (1999, SNK Neo-Geo Pocket Color)

- STAFF -

Big boss : Y. Kohdoh
Boss : Takashi Nishiyama
System engineer : Middle
Chief designer : Kinte
Designer : Kon. Kitakichine, Kozo, Ken Kui, Jyun Y., Ozi
Music director : Hiya
S.E. coordinator : Jin jin
Voice : Yoshimi & Steve
Chief programmer : Mr N.
Programmer : H. Yamada, Zen, Hirokun, Kohkishi

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
SNK Neo-Geo CD (1996)
[US] Sony PS2 may.05, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model SLUS-21724]"
[US] Sony PSP may.05, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model ULUS-10338]"
[KO] Sony PS2 may.29, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model SLKA-25424]"
[US] Nintendo Wii jul.29, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model RVL-P-RNCE]"
[EU] Sony PSP Oct. 17, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model ULES-01105]"
[EU] Nintendo Wii Oct. 31, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model RVL-P-RJZP]"
[EU] Sony PS2 Nov. 21, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model SLES-55232]"
[JP] Sony PSP May. 21, 2009 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model ULJS-193]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=1748&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=bioship
Arcade Video game published 33 years ago:

Bio-Ship Paladin (c) 1990 American Sammy Corp.

North American release. Licensed from UPL. Game developed in Japan. See the original for more information; "Uchuu Senkan Gomora [Model UPL-90062]".

- TECHNICAL -

Game ID : UPL-90062

- TRIVIA -

Released in November 1990.

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=251&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=biomtoy,biomtoya,biomtoyb,biomtoyc
Arcade Video game published 28 years ago:

Biomechanical Toy (c) 1995 Zeus.

Biomechanical Toy is an eightway-scrolling platform shoot-em-up set in a world of magically-animated toys, in which the magical pendulum that animates the toys has been stolen by the evil 'Scrubby', a criminal once imprisoned for trying to steal the pendulum who has managed to escape and take his revenge. The player takes on the role of Inguz and is tasked with freeing the few remaining good toys that are trapped throughout the stages, while destroying or avoiding the many evil toys that now patrol the kingdom. 

Inguz carries a basic, single-firing pistol, although additional ammo clips can be found throughout the game that upgrade the gun with either extra shot power, automatic firing or exploding bullets. When the gun's current ammo clip is empty, Inguz will take a moment to reload, leaving him vulnerable to attack. Freed toys will give help to Inguz by providing additional firepower for a short time.

Inguz begins each stage and each new life with a full health meter of eighty units, but food can be found that will replenish the meter. The player can lose a life either by running out of health, falling off the bottom of the screen (or into a hazard, such as a lava pit), or by running out of time. Clearing each stage awards bonus points based on both remaining time and health units.

Checkpoints - indicated by red flags - are located at certain points throughout the stages. In the event of losing a life, play restarts from the last checkpoint reached. Objects with Inguz's face on them (such as wooden chests and balloons) release bonus items when shot. 

An abstract, oriental-looking face occasionally forms part of a level's platform which, when shot, releases balloons which can in turn be shot for bonus items. A giant flying hat also occasionally appears and will drop bonus items when shot. Smart Bombs can also be found at certain points that, when run into by Inguz, will damage or destroy all enemy toys on screen.

- TECHNICAL -

Game ID : 922804/2

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 12 Mhz)
Sound Chips : OKI6295 (@ 8 Khz)

Control per player: 8-way joystick
Buttons per player: 2

- TRIVIA -

This is the first and only Coin Op produced by Zeus. In 1992 Zeus Software developed the Amiga game 'Risky Woods' (published by Dinamic, a spanish software house, very famous in the eighties on the computer market). Ricardo Puerto and Raul Lopez (see Staff section for more info) made some games (not always together) on the Amstrad CPC for Dinamic software in the eighties.

Some of the game's music is sampled from various films such as 1985's Subway starring Christopher Lambert, 1992's Passenger 57 starring Wesley Snipes, and 1985's To Live and Die in LA starring Willem Dafoe and William Petersen.

- STAFF -

Main design : Raul Lopez, Ricardo Puerto
Program : Ricardo Puerto
Computer Graphics : Raul Lopez
Art & Animation : Raul Lopez, Maite R. Otxotorena, Juanma Ripalda, Andreito Lobero
Development system : Ricardo Puerto, Juan Mari Gorrotxategi, Asier Zubillaga

Thanks to : Rafael Arroyo

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=253&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=blkheart,blkhearj
Arcade Video game published 32 years ago:

Black Heart (c) 1991 UPL.

A horizontally scrolling shoot'em up.

- TECHNICAL -

Game ID : UPL-91069

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 10 Mhz)
Sound Chips : YM2203 (@ 1.5 Mhz), (2x) OKI6295 (@ 4 mhz)

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2

- TRIVIA -

Black Heart was released in May 1991.

'Black Heart' is not only the title of this game, but also boses' names in Razing's Famous shooter "Battle Garega" and "Armed Police Batrider.". Many staff from UPL joined Raizing later and apparently, they like this name.

Gamest (Japanese game magazine) April 2011, a gamer called 'KDK-takeyuki' recorded a high score of 3,713,700 points on this game.

- STAFF -

Developed by NMK (Nihon Maicom Kaihatsu).

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=263&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=blandia,blandiap
Arcade Video game published 31 years ago:

ブランディア (c) 1992 Allumer, Limited.
(Blandia)

Weapon-based fighting game featuring visible damage to each of the 10 fighter's armor.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the Seta 1st Generation System Hardware.

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 16 Mhz)
Sound Chips : X1-010 (@ 16 Mhz)

Screen Orientation : Horizontal
Video Resolution : 384 x 240 Pixels
Screen Refresh : 60.00 Hz
Palette Colors : 17408

Players : 2
Control : 8-Way Joystick
Buttons : 3
=> High Attack, Medium Attack, Low Attack

- TRIVIA -

Blandia was released in October 1992 in Japan.

Gurianos and Irriana appear in Taito's "Gladiator" / "Ougon no Shiro" / "Great Gurianos" as Guaranos and Irene.

- UPDATES -

A prototype board is know to exists, there is no armor bonus in this prototype version.

- STAFF -

Planning : Ken Kaneda
Graphic Chief : Tadahiro Negome
Graphic Designers : Makoto Kobayashi, Kenji Inoue
Character Designers : Ken Kaneda, Tadahiro Negome
Main Programmer : Kazuyoshi Ishihara
Sub Programmers : Sou Kajiwara, Masafumi Kaneko, Makoto Hijiya
System Designers : Kazuyoshi Ishihara, Sou Kajiwara
Sound & Music : Hisao Shiomi
Music : Akira Inoue, Manabu Namiki (as Manabu 'Gon' Namiki)
Hard : Noboru Kohno
Voices : Noriaki Yamaguchi, Mariko Suzuki, Katsuko, Reiko Nagashima, Yohko Ogawa
Special Thanks : SF Amuseument, Mr. Ichikawa, Mr. Shikano

- PORTS -

* COMPUTERS:
NEC PC-9801 (june.22, 1995) "Blandia 98"

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=271&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=blazstar

Blazing Star (c) 1998 Yumekobo.

Blazing Star is a horizontally-scrolling shoot-em-up in which the planets of Remuria and Mutras are engaged in endless interplanetary war. This fuels the development of ever-more dangerous weapons, eventually leading to the production of fully organic weapons that combine both human and alien technology. Soon, a fully sentient weapon called 'Brawshella' is born. Brawshella gathers all animal life on Remuria and Mutras and bends them to its will, forcing them to attack and assimilate the human race. 

Within days of Brawshella's appearance all humans are assimilated and now have no other purpose than to continue fighting each other. Over time, six of the assimilated fighter pilots regain their consciousness and remember their pasts. Upon rediscovering their humanity, they turn against the machines, in a battle to save humanity.

Blazing Star is controlled via joystick and two buttons. Button 'A' fires the normal shot, if this is tapped rapidly, however, a variation on the normal shot is used. If the A button is held down, the ship stores energy for a charged shot, which is fired when the button is released. The charged-shot attacks have a duration based on how long the button is held for. Pressing the B button during the attack will split the projectile, greatly increasing its range.

Players can choose to pilot one of six different ships, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. The 'Hellhound' is the perfect ship for performing high-scoring combos, for example. The 'Windina' has a wide and powerful shot; both 'Dinos' - the Pulstar hunters - are excellent in defense and pack efficient weapons. Finally, Aryutalism and Peplos require a little more skill and are best suited to experienced players. 

Power-ups can increase the strength of the player's guns, while also increasing the maximum power of the charged shot. The types of shots, charge-up attacks, and split shots used are dependent on which ship the player selects.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID: NGM-239

Players: 2
Control: 8-way joystick
Buttons: 2
=> Ship name (pilot) > [A] Normal/Rapid/Charge attack, [B] Break attack
=> Hell Hound (Caster) > [A] 4 way shot/6 way shot/Deathflame, [B] Hell burst
=> Windina (Leefa) > [A] Wave/Tidal wave/3 way spread, [B] Homing
=> Aryustailm (JB) > [A] Laser/Lightning bolt/Sword, [B] Sword field
=> Peplos (Asayuki) > [A] 3 way shot/3 way fire/Holy flare, [B] Devil breath
=> Dino 135 (Naomi Y.) > [A] Shot/Rapidshot/Spreadshot, [B] Special scatter
=> Dino 246 (Kaoru Y.) > [A] Shot/Rapidshot/Chargeshot, [B] Bomber

- TRIVIA -

Blazing Star was released in January 1998. It is Yumekobo's first game developed and released for the Neo-Geo MVS.

KAORU.Y (The last ship at the character selection screen) is the lead character from "Pulstar".

Part of the "Pulstar" / "R*Type" team also worked on Blazing Star (see Staff section for more information).

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Blazing Star - PCCB-00306) on March 18, 1998.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Stage Select : At the ship select screen, hold RIGHT and D on both 1 and 2-player sides, then select your ship. The next screen will be a stage select menu.

* While choosing a ship in the select screen, press C+D for an extra color ship.

* Asayuki and its Peplos ship can't power-up with any items.

- STAFF -

Executive producers : Akio Inove, Nobuyuki Okude
Producer : Takaya ida
Sub. producer : Isamu yutani
Director : Michio Sato
Main programmer : Minoru Yoshida
Sub. programmer : Taka / M. Sakae
Chief designer : Tomonori Nagakubo
Designers : Kyou Yamanaka, Izumi Senou, Saki, Shotabira, Yumetard, Tatsuo Shioda
Character designer : Daikichi
Design helpers : Mayumi Takeuchi, Itsuo Iton, Mitsuo Takano, Masakazu Ishizaki
Sound designer : Yasuaki Fujita
Music composer : Harumi Fujita

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo AES (1998) "Blazing Star [Model NGH-239]"

* OTHERS:
Google Play (jul.2012) Blazing Star
Apple App Store (jul.2012) Blazing Star (Published by SNK Playmore)

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=279&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=block,blockbl,blockj,blockr1,blockr2
Arcade Video game published 32 years ago:

Block Block (c) 1991 Capcom.

A blue paddle rebounds a ball into the colorful bricks.

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 8 Mhz)
Sound Chips : OKI6295 (@ 7.5 Khz), YM2413 (@ 4 Mhz)

Screen orientation : Vertical
Video resolution : 240 x 384 pixels
Screen refresh : 60.00 Hz
Palette colors : 2048

Players : 2
Control : Paddle
Buttons : 1

- TRIVIA -

Block Block was released in September 1991 in Japan.

A bootleg of this game was released by Koa the same year.

- UPDATES -

The Japanese version has a little storyline before the titlescreen.

- STAFF -

Planner: Futoshi Kuwahara, Udatoshi
Designers : Shinji Sakashita, H.K, M. Miyao
Programmers : T. Ohta, Kohei Akiyama, N. Sakoda
Sound designers : P-Chan, T. Yomage

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES: 
[US] Microsoft XBOX (nov.24, 2006) "Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 2" 
[US] Sony PS2 (nov.24, 2006) "Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 2 [Model SLUS-21473]" 
Sony PlayStation 2 [AU] (apr.11, 2007) "Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 2 [Model SLES-54561]" 
[EU] Sony PS2 (apr.13, 2007) "Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 2 [Model SLES-54561]" 

* HANDHELDS: 
[US] Sony PSP (mar.22, 2006) "Capcom Classics Collection Remixed [Model ULUS-10097]" 
[EU] Sony PSP (jul.21, 2006) "Capcom Classics Collection Remixed [Model ULES-00347]" 
[US] Sony PSP (feb.6, 2007) "Capcom Puzzle World [Model ULUS-10217]" 
[AU] Sony PSP (jul.11, 2007) "Capcom Puzzle World" 
[EU] Sony PSP (jul.13, 2007) "Capcom Puzzle World [Model ULES-00647]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=282&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=bloodbro,bloodbroj,bloodbroja,bloodbrok
Arcade Video game published 33 years ago:

Blood Bros. (c) 1990 TAD.

Blood Bros is an into-the-screen shooter with the action viewed from an over-the-shoulder perspective. The brothers can move left and right to avoid incoming fire while the enemies themselves are targeted by moving an on-screen cross-hair over them and pressing fire. If the fire button is held down, the player-character remains static, allowing for more accurate targeting of the cross-hair. While static, the brothers are more vulnerable to incoming enemy fire.

Players have limitless ammunition for their primary gun, and carry a limited number of sticks of dynamite. Dynamite is used in a similar fashion to grenades; it can be thrown at enemies and inflicts greater damage than guns. An enemy gauge at the bottom of the screen depletes as foes are destroyed. Each of the game's stages is littered with structures that can also be destroyed. This removes enemy cover as well as earning players bonus points. 

Power-ups appear from time to time, being released from objects destroyed on-screen or dropped by shooting the special characters that occasionally appear, such as the small Indian Chief or warthogs. Points and weaponry can also be dispensed from the tin can, if you shoot it into the air and juggle it with subsequent shots. Some power-ups give special weapons with increased firepower, others grant extra dynamite or points.

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 10 Mhz)
Sound CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 3.579545 Mhz)
Sound Chips : YM3812 (@ 3.579545 Mhz), OKI6295 (@ 8 Khz)

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 3

- TRIVIA -

Even if titlescreen says 1990, Blood Bros. was released in January 1991 in Japan.

According to dead code buried in Sky Smasher, it appears that the working title for Blood Bros. was 'Cabal II In West'.

A pirate version of the game is known as "West Story".

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Here's A Way To Play Blood Bros. For As Long As You Want :
1) Get to the second screen (preferably without dying on the first screen).
2) Shoot the building on the right side of the screen and start shooting the trees in the background on the right. 20,000 points fly out from each bunch of trees. Continue.
3) That is basically it. A few problems occur and here is how to counter them :
3a) 5 men run across the back from the left and throw grenades : Just shoot the grenades before they get to you. Eventually they come out less often, and will stop altogether.
3b) The men on the right come out from the edge to shoot you : Same as above. They stop eventually.
3c) A plane flies over and drops bombs : Same as above. It stops after some time.
3d) After a certain amount of time a bird comes out to kill you : Let it. Only 2 birds ever come out (sometimes only 1) and then they also stop coming. This is why it pays not to die on the first screen.
4) Hold your finger on the button to keep shooting the trees (sticky-tape works well here) and prepare to get 'really' bored. Play the neighboring game so that you can keep an eye on it.

* Extra Live : On the 1-1 and 4-1 stages, the tin can be shot eight times to give you a free man. If you miss it, don't bother trying again - you only get one chance.

- SERIES -

1. Cabal (1988)
2. Blood Bros. (1990)

- STAFF -

Program : Dai. Kohama
Direction : Hiro. Kakiuchi
Graphic : Jun. Matsubara, Tetsu. Shiraishi, Jun. Fujisaku, Nao. Shishino
Sound : Yus. Aoki, Yuj. Tezuka

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=291&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=boblbobl
Arcade Video game published 37 years ago:

Bobble Bobble (c) 1986.

This game is a pirate version of "Bubble bobble". Unlike the original game: 
* The left player ('Bub') can have only a total of two extends. 
* This bootleg has a new feature in Dip switch where you may control the speed of monsters. 
* The monsters 'Mighta', 'Hidegonsu', and 'Drunk' do not throw their projectile weapons (i.e. 'Mighta' does not throw his slow-moving stone balls, 'Hidegonsu' does not throw his fast-moving fireballs, and 'Drunk' does not throw his boomerang bottles). However, the 'Invader' monster, who appears in 'Normal' mode only, does throw his laser projectile.

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU : (2x) Zilog Z80 (@ 6 Mhz)
Sound CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 3 Mhz)
Sound Chips : YM2203 (@ 3 Mhz), YM3526 (@ 3 Mhz)

Players : 2
Control : 2-way joystick
Buttons : 2
= > [1] Bubble, [2] Jump

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=301&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=bjtwin,bjtwina,bjtwinp,bjtwinpa
Arcade Video game published 30 years ago:

Bomb Jack Twin (c) 1993 NMK.

Bomb Jack Twin is a direct sequel to the 1984 original and retains the same platform-based collect-the-bombs gameplay of its predecessor.

Changes over the original game include a slightly faster playing tempo and the option for simultaneous two-player action. As with the prequel, extra points and bonuses can be earned by collecting bonus coins and bombs with their fuses still lit. Bomb Jack Twin also retains the 'Powerball' feature of its predecessor which, when collected, freezes the level's enemies for several seconds, allowing them to be destroyed.

The way the sequel's levels are structured differs significantly from the original game. In "Bomb Jack", each screen was simply numbered sequentially and the background picture changed on every screen, but the stages in "Bomb Jack Twin" are grouped into 'rounds', each consisting of three screen layouts but retaining a single background picture for the duration of that round.

Another new addition is the bonus screen. This appears every couple of rounds and players must try to collect all bombs on the screen within a tight time limit to earn extra bonus points. There are no enemies on the bonus screens and the background is plain black.

As with the first game, "Bomb Jack Twin" takes place in different locations throughout the world. A map screen is displayed before the start of each new round showing the next location. The available locations are: Germany, Thailand, Nevada, Japan, England, Hong Kong and China.

- TECHNICAL -

Game ID : UPL-93087

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 10 Mhz)
Sound Chips : (2x) OKI6295 (@ 4 Mhz)

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2

- TRIVIA -

Bomb Jack Twin was released in December 1993 in Japan.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Secret Message : Reset Game and hold down Player 2 buttons 1 and 2. If you did it fast enough, you will see the message 'Ready?'. If not try again. Press the following Player 1 buttons : 2(x3) 1(x3) 2(x3), 1(x3). If you did this correctly, you should see another message '9th Mar. 1992'. And you are in the test mode.

- SERIES -

1. Bomb Jack (1984, Arcade)
2. Bomb Jack II (1986, C64)
3. Mighty Bomb Jack [Model TCF-MB] (1986, Famicom)
4. Bomb Jack Twin (1993, Arcade)

- STAFF -

Sound : Manabu Namiki

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
Nintendo Game Boy Advance (2002) included in "Bomb Jack World" [Prototype]

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=307&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=bonzeadv,bonzeadvu,bonzeadvo,bonzeadvp,bonzeadvp2
Arcade Video game published 35 years ago:

Bonze Adventure (c) 1988 Taito.

Export version. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese version entry; "Jigoku Meguri".

- TRIVIA -

Bonze Adventure was released in June 1988.

- PORTS -

These are ports released outside Japan. For Japanese ports, please see the original Japanese version entry; "Jigoku Meguri".

* CONSOLES: 
Sony PlayStation 2 [AU] (mar.30, 2006) "Taito Legends 2 [Model SLES-53852]" 
[EU] Microsoft XBOX (mar.31, 2006) "Taito Legends 2" 
[EU] Sony PS2 (mar.31, 2006) "Taito Legends 2 [Model SLES-53852]" 
[US] Sony PS2 (may.16, 2007) "Taito Legends 2 [Model SLUS-21349]" 

* COMPUTERS: 
[EU] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (mar.31, 2006) "Taito Legends 2" 
[US] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (jul.10, 2007) "Taito Legends 2"

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=314&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=breakrev

Breaker's Revenge (c) 1998 Visco Corp.

A small update to "Breaker's" containing one of new selectable character, Saizo and different colored backgrounds.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID : 0245

[SNK MVS Neo-Geo Control Picture]
2 players - 4 buttons per player.
=>[JOYSTICK] 8-way, [A] Punch [B] Kick [C] Hard punch [D] Hard kick

- TRIVIA -

Breaker's Revenge was released on July 03, 1998. It runs on the Neo-Geo MVS and was never released on the Neo-Geo AES home console.

A serious bug: Using a USA bios rom if you insert a coin on the 'winners don't use drugs' screen on a single slot the games will use the neogeo bios s1 tileset rather than the game tiles, this causes most of the graphics to be hidden and the games to be unplayable, it will also end up using the mainboard z80 bios so sound will be broken, the games should fix themselves if you let them run another attract loop after gameover, on a multi-slot the games will reset. This is one of the first 4 'gigapower' games, the bug was fixed after that.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Unlock Bai-Hu : At the character selection screen, press Up at the same time on both 1P&2P joystick.

- SERIES -

1. Breaker's (1996)
2. Breaker's Revenge (1998)

- STAFF -

Executive producer : Tetsuo Akiyama
Producer : Don Gabacho
Programmers : T. Miyazawa, Hagi. Saito, Sin Suzuki
'Revenge' Program staffs : Katsunari Ishida, Satoshi Shiina, Kenichi Tanuma, Katsuya Ikuta (Digital Ware)
Character designers : Yasuhiro Sawamura, J. Nakazawa, S. Soeda, H.M, A, Miyazaki, E. Tamura, A. Shibata, Yumi Togo
Object designer : Tomohiro Ohno
Art designers : Water Valley, E-Ayasu (E-Ayasu Beam!!)
'Revenge' Design staffs : Hiroshi Mizuno, Masaaki Ichikawa, Takaaki Kato, Tomohiro Saito, Tatsuya Miyawaki (Digital Ware)
Music composers : Kenichi Kamio
Sound effecters : Yoshikazu Egawa, Hiroshi Nishikawa (Light Link Music)
Voice actors : GUY YOUKI, Kimito Daimon, Naoki Kurihara, Yoshikazu Hirota, Yasuhiro Sawamura, Minako Arakawa (Office Ohsawa)

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=336&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=breakers

Breaker's (c) 1996 Visco Corp.

Fast-paced and combo-friendly fighting game with 8 selectable characters and 1 end boss.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID : 0230

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 12 Mhz)
Sound CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 4 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Yamaha YM2610 (@ 8 Mhz)

[SNK MVS Neo-Geo Control Picture]
2 players - 4 buttons per player.
=> [A] Punch [B] Kick [C] Hard punch [D] Hard kick

- TRIVIA -

Breaker's was released in March 1996 in Japan.

In 1994, a prototype of this game was presented at an AM Show under the name of "Tenrin no Syo Chicago".

- SERIES -

1. Breaker's (1996)
2. Breaker's Revenge (1998)

- STAFF -

Executive producer : Tetsuo Akiyama
Producer : Don Gabacho
Programmers : T. Miyazawa, Hagi. Saito, Sin Suzuki
'Revenge' Program staffs : Katsunari Ishida, Satoshi Shiina, Kenichi Tanuma, Katsuya Ikuta (Digital Ware)
Character designers : Yasuhiro Sawamura, J. Nakazawa, S. Soeda, H.M, A, Miyazaki, E. Tamura, A. Shibata, Yumi Togo
Object designer : Tomohiro Ohno
Art designers : Water Valley, E-Ayasu (E-Ayasu Beam!!)
'Revenge' Design staffs : Hiroshi Mizuno, Masaaki Ichikawa, Takaaki Kato, Tomohiro Saito, Tatsuya Miyawaki (Digital Ware)
Music composer : Kenichi Kamio
Sound effecters : Yoshikazu Egawa, Hiroshi Nishikawa (Light Link Music)
Voice actors : GUY YOUKI, Kimito Daimon, Naoki Kurihara, Yoshikazu Hirota, Yasuhiro Sawamura, Minako Arakawa (Office Ohsawa)

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
SNK Neo-Geo (mar.21, 1996)
SNK Neo-Geo CD

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=335&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=bublbobl,bublbobl1,bub68705,bublboblp,bub8749
Arcade Video game published 37 years ago:

Bubble Bobble (c) 1986 Taito Corp.

One or two players take on the role of Bub and Bob, two cute dinosaurs who must battle through 100 platform-packed single screen levels to rescue their girlfriends. Bub and Bob are armed only with the ability to blow bubbles, in which the game's many enemies can be trapped and killed. The bubbles can also be used as temporary platforms, to help the dinosaurs reach previously inaccessible areas of a level. 

Any trapped enemies who are not killed quickly enough will turn red and escape their bubble prison. These angry enemies are much faster than before, making them harder to kill. Enemies also become angry if players are taking too long to complete a level. Defeated enemies are turned into bonus fruit items that can be collected for points. 

On many levels, bubbles containing fire, water or a lightning bolt appear. These can be burst by players to release their contents and destroy enemies. The fire bubble drops flames down onto the nearest platform, killing any enemies it hits. The lightning bubble sends a lightning bolt horizontally across the screen, its direction dictated by whichever side of the bubble the player hits to burst it. The water bubble releases a torrent of water that will quickly flow down the platforms to the bottom of the screen. Any enemies caught in the flow are killed. 

Bubbles containing letters also appear. The aim is to collect the letters needed to spell the word E.X.T.E.N.D. which earns players an extra life. 

The game's simple-yet-involving game-play saw Bubble Bobble become an instant classic. Its two-player co-operative mode, coupled with the incredible amount of hidden secrets and potential for strategic play - unheard of in the platform genre - would set the standard by which all other platform games were judged.

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU : (2x) Zilog Z80 (@ 6 Mhz), Zilog Z80 (@ 3 Mhz), M6801 (@ 1 Mhz)
Sound Chips : YM2203 (@ 3 Mhz), YM3526 (@ 3 Mhz)

Players : 2
Control : 2-Way Joystick
Buttons : 2
=> [1] Bubble, [2] Jump

- TRIVIA -

Bubble Bobble was released in August 1986. 

This was one of the first games to feature multiple endings. 

The title of this game, Bubble Bobble, is a cross between the words 'bubble' and the name of the heroes : Bub and Bob. 

The enemies are named (Round number of initial appearance applies to 'Normal' mode. For information on 'Super' mode, please see the Romstar (US version) entry, Updates section : 
'Zen-Chan' [aka 'Bubble Buster', 'Benzo'] - First appears in Round 1 
'Mighta' [aka 'Stoner', 'Boris'] - First appears in Round 6 
'Monsta' [aka 'Beluga', 'Blubba'] - First appears in Round 10 
'PulPul' [aka 'Hullaballoon', 'Boaboa'] - First appears in Round 20 
'Banebou' [aka 'Coiley', 'Bonnie-bo'] - First appears in Round 30 
'Hidegonsu' [aka 'Incendo'] - First appears in round 40 
'Drunk' [aka 'Willy Whistle', 'Bonner'] - First appears in Round 50 
'Invader' [aka 'Super Socket'] - First appears in Round 60 
'Super Drunk' [aka 'Grumple Gromit'] - the boss character whom Bub and Bob fight in the final round 
'Skel-Monsta' [aka 'Baron Von Blubba'] - Appears when you take too much time in a round 
'Rascal' [aka 'Rubblen'] - Appears when you linger too long in a secret room 

The data code contains unused graphics of a full set of slot machine icons. These aren't used anywhere, there's no palette that fits them, and they wouldn't really fit anywhere either. 

In 1996, Taito announced that they lost the original source code program to Bubble Bobble following a reorganization - when it came to the recent ports and sequels, they had to work from program disassembly, playing the game and (mainly) the various home computer ports. 

The game forbids the initials 'SEX' on the high score table. If you try, it gets changed to 'H.!', but go to the Tips and Tricks section for more information about 'SEX' :-) 

Olly Cotton holds the official record for this game with 6,060,730 points on February 23, 2011. 

Some bootlegs of this game are known as "Bobble Bobble" and "Super Bobble Bobble". 

Alfa Records released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Taito Game Music - 28XA-110) on January 25, 1987. 

NES cover band The Advantage cover two songs from Bubble Bobble on their self-titled debut album released on April 6, 2004.

- SCORING -

Bursting a bubble : 10 points. 
Killing one monster : 1,000 points. 
Killing two monsters at once : 2,000 points. 
Killing three monsters at once : 4,000 points. 
Points double for each extra monster killed at any one time. 
Normal Fruit : 700 points. 
Bonus Score Items (popcorn, burger etc) : 500 - 4,000 points.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Bubble Bobble is a game heavily relying on game-play and precise technique rather than graphics, and it features a series of special techniques and tricks a player can perform to maximize his or her score, make some rounds of the game easier or faster to finish or just to be able to survive or even finish a round. Some of these techniques have special nicknames, which may differ from player to player and from country to country. 

'Kissing monsters' or just kissing means killing a monster by blowing a bubble at almost contact distance : the monster will be instantly bubbled and the bubble will be instantly popped, giving the visual effect of the player killing a monster with a 'kiss'. Some players flip their joysticks in the opposite direction after pressing the bubble buttons, giving more chances of an 'instant pop' and changing flight direction for the dead monster. This technique is useful in stages where monsters move too fast, bubbles last for too short of a time or it's otherwise hard to bubble them normally. Of course good timing is required for this technique to work. 

'Riding bubbles' means keeping the jump button pressed when dropping on a bubble: if done correctly, instead of popping the bubble, your dragon will instead jump on it, possibly continuously, enabling him to 'ride' bubbles in order to reach otherwise unreachable areas. Some stages can't be finished without this technique. 

'Climbing' is a step up from riding bubbles. It means standing at half a bubble distance from a wall, jumping and blowing a bubble almost simultaneously, jumping up from that bubble and blowing another bubble and so on. This is necessary if the air current pushes down bubbles but you need to climb up. Having the rapid-bubbling power-up (the yellow candy) makes climbing a lot easier, especially if you got the running shoes already. 

'Bubbling oneself through' means 'riding a bubble' through the opening at the top of a stage or even just through the ceiling of a stage in order to appear at the lower part, like some flying monsters can do. This technique is required to finish some stages or to get unstuck from some places, or just to save time. 

'Blowing against the wall' means blowing bubbles against wall at contact distance : the bubbles will pop immediately thus giving the player 10 points per bubble pop. This can be used to either increase a player's score, or to set a player's score to a specific amount, in order to do other tricks. 

'Two equal digits' means using the 'blowing against the wall' technique or other score-adjusting techniques in order to make the two penultimate (100s and 10s places) digits of at least one player equal, e.g., 456770, before the last enemy bubble is burst. If done correctly and the score is not modified when this occurs, then all remaining non-special bubbles on screen will be turned to 700-point bonuses, whose appearance depends on the digit picked. E.g., 7 gives Chocolate Ice Creams, 3 gives Hamburgers, and so on. 
Note : This trick is easier to do with two players (one player adjusts his score and the other bursts the bubbles), but it can also be done with only one player, although calculating exactly how much (and if) one's score will be modified when bursting the last enemy bubbles can be extremely complex, if not unpredictable, especially if there are very large and clustered bubble bunches. 
Note : Rounds with numbers ending with 5 and 0 up to and including level 50 generate bonuses from bubbles automatically, though, and some rounds (including round 1) do it by default. 

Internal Counters : An interesting (and exploitable) part of bubble bobble is that powerups are not entirely random. As with the two-digit trick, many internal counters in this game decide which special powers are available for collection. For example, rapid bubble shooting (a sweet in yellow wrapping), fast moving bubbles (a blue sweet), or fast moving bubbles (a blue sweet) appear shortly after either Bub or Bob jumps 51 times, pops 51 bubbles, or blows 51 bubbles. Also, running around a lot causes the speed powerup (red shoe) to appear. Keeping this is mind, it is possible to gain all power-ups with relative ease. Although there are many more counters that control various aspects of the game, one of particular interest is the letters forming the word EXTEND. Getting all 7 letters will end the current level and award the player with an extra life 'NICE 1P!' - these letters have a greater chance of appearing when more enemies are defeated simultaneously. Also, gathering three of the same letter causes candy canes to appear which in turn lead to a special big item at the end of the level! 

* Unlimited Run And Rapid Fire : At the main title screen, press Left, Jump, Left, 1P, Left, Fire, Left, 1P. If this is done correctly there will be a message in the bottom left corner of the title screen a red POWER UP!. 

* Original Bubble Bobble : At the title screen, press Shoot, Jump, Shoot, Jump, Shoot, Jump, Right, 1P. It will say at the bottom of screen ORIGINAL GAME. The game will give the PORTALS in some screens, if you can get in them you will get LOADS of diamonds. 

* The 'Super Bubble Bobble' Code : this will change the Bubble Bobble logo in 'Super Bubble Bobble' and the game will change under several points of view : different platform colors, different order for monster appearances... The code that must be entered at the title screen to access Super Bubble Bobble is displayed at the end of the credits after you beat the game in 2 players, normal mode. The message is coded, but it hints you to enter the secret room in level 20 to get the key for decoding. If you do so, you enter the secret room, on the base of which there is an inscription. The first line is the coding of the alphabet, the other lines are coded advices to beat the final boss. The decoded 'secret message' is : SJBLRJSR (Start - Jump - Bubble - Left - Right - Jump - Start - Right) 

The decoded advices in the secret rooms are : 
Room in level 20 : IF YOU WANT TO BECOME THE OLD FIGURE, USE THE POWER OF YOUR FRIENDSHIP, AND FIGHT WITH ME! (hint to play in two player mode to defeat the final boss and see the real ending) 
Room in level 30 : I ENCLOSE THESE MAGICAL MEDICINE HERE, BECAUSE THOSE ARE MY WORST FEARS... (hint to use the lighting bubble to beat the boss) 
Room in level 40 : IF YOU WANT TO GET BACK YOUR LOVE OF TRUTH, YOU MUST HELP EACH OTHER UNTIL THE LAST... (hint to end the game in two player mode to see the real endings) 

A little more trivia on Super Bubble Bobble : If you beat the game in Super mode, two players, you will discover that the final boss is your mother and father that were controlled by some unknown evil. By defeating the boss you free them and your girlfriends, and are reverted back to your original human form (the one you play "Rainbow Island" with). 

* Secret Tombs : Make it to level 20 without dying and a door appears -- it leads to a 'secret tomb', a level full of diamonds. There are secret tombs at levels 20 and 30, also. Make it to level 50 without dying and a strange, bee-hive-shaped door appears; enter it and you warp to level 70. DON'T kill the Drunks on level 50, or the door disappears; bubble them and wait! Btw, with two players, only one of the players must survive unharmed to get the secret door. 

* Paffing A Skel : Skel, also known as 'Baron Von Blubba', is that nasty white monster that comes after you when you've taken too long; with two players, two Skels will appear. If one player is killed by HIS Skel, then he can collide with his partner's Skel 'WHILE HE IS STILL FLICKERING'. If the player's icon is still flickering, the other player's Skel will disappear (poof!), with no harm to the once-slain character. 

* Full Ending Sequence : Beat the game with two players in Super mode and you'll get the full end sequence. 

* High Score Codes : after getting a high score, enter your initials as : 
'SEX' - Pitch fork-flying cakes/vegetables/etc across the screen, turn enemies into 6k diamonds. 
'TAK' - Octopus-turns bubbles into X's at end of level. 
'STR' - Flamingo-turns bubbles into smiling turds at end of level. 
'KTT' - Beer-turns bubbles into pizzas at end of level, what a perfect match !!! 
'...' - Knife-flying cakes/vegetables/etc across the screen, turn enemies into 6k diamonds. 
'I.F', 'MTJ', 'NSO', 'KIM', 'YSH' - Coke can-flying sunflowers across the screen, turn enemies into 6k diamonds. 

* A full map is viewable here: www.arcade-history.com/index.php?page=articles&num=14

- SERIES -

1. Bubble Bobble (1986, Arcade) 
2. Rainbow Islands - The Story of Bubble Bobble 2 (1987, Arcade) 
3. Parasol Stars - The Story of Bubble Bobble III [Model TP03017] (1991, PC-Engine) 
4. Bubble Bobble Part 2 (1993, Famicom) 
5. Bubble Bobble II (1994, Arcade) 
6. Bubble Memories - The Story of Bubble Bobble III (1996, Arcade) 
7. Rainbow Islands - Putty's Party (2000, Wonderswan) 
8. Bubble Bobble Revolution (2005, DS) 
9. New Rainbow Islands (2005, DS) 
10. Bubble Bobble Evolution (2006, PSP) 
11. Bubble Bobble Double Shot (2007, DS) 
12. Rainbow Islands Towering Adventure! (2009, WiiWare) 
13. Bubble Bobble Plus! (2009, WiiWare) 
14. Bubble Bobble Neo! (2009, XBLA)

- STAFF -

Game design & Character : Fukio Mitsuji (MTJ)
Software programmers : Ichiro Fujisue (ICH), Nishiyori (NSO)
Sound creator : Tadashi Kimijima (KIM)
Instruction : Yoshida (YSH)
Hardware : Fujimoto (KTU), Seigo Sakamoto (SAK)

- PORTS -

NOTE: These are only non-US ports. For a list ports released in the US, please see the Romstar (US version) entry. 

* CONSOLES: 
Nintendo Famicom Disk System [JP] (oct.30, 1987) "Bubble Bobble [Model TFD-BUB]" 
Sega Mark III/Master System [JP] (jul.2, 1988) "Final Bubble Bobble [Model G-1362]" 
[EU] Nintendo NES [AU] (1990) "Bubble Bobble [Model NES-B2]" 
[EU] Sega Master System (1992) "Bubble Bobble [Model 7077]" 
Sega Master System [BR] (1994) "Dragon Maze" 
[EU] Sega Saturn (1996) "Bubble Bobble also featuring Rainbow Islands [Model T-8131H-50]" 
[EU] Sony PlayStation (1996) "Bubble Bobble also featuring Rainbow Islands [Model SLES-00448]" 
[JP] Sony PS2 (jul.28, 2005) "Taito Memories Joukan [Model SLPM-66057]" 
[EU] Microsoft XBOX (oct.14, 2005) "Taito Legends" 
[EU] Sony PS2 (oct.14, 2005) "Taito Legends [Model SLES-53438]" 
[KO] Sony PS2 (jul.18, 2006) "Taito Legends [Model SLKA-15056]" 
[JP] Sony PS4 [PSN] (jan.29, 2016) "Arcade Archives - Bubble Bobble [Model CUSA-03711]" 
Sony PlayStation 4 [PSN] [EU] [AU] (apr.1, 2016) "Arcade Archives - Bubble Bobble [Model CUSA-03943]" 

* HANDHELDS: 
[EU] Nintendo Game Boy (1991) "Bubble Bobble [Model DMG-B2-NOE]" 
[JP] Nintendo Game Boy (dec.7, 1990) "Bubble Bobble [Model DMG-B2A]" 
[JP] Nintendo GBA (jul.25, 2002) "Bubble Bobble - Old & New [Model AGB-A2BJ-JPN]" 
[EU] Nintendo GBA (mar.14, 2003) "Bubble Bobble - Old & New [Model AGB-AONP-EUR]" 

* COMPUTERS: 
[EU] Commodore C64 (1987) 
[EU] Sinclair ZX Spectrum (1987) 
[EU] Atari ST (1987) 
[EU] Commodore Amiga (1987) 
[EU] Amstrad CPC (1987) : released by Firebird; re-released by Ocean in 1988. 
[EU] Amstrad CPC (1988) "Les DÃƒÂ©fis de Taito" 
Anstrad CPC [EU] (1988) "Taito Coin-Op Hits" 
MSX [Tape] [JP] (1988) 
MSX2 [Disk] [JP]
[JP] Sharp X68000 (1989) 
[EU] Amstrad CPC (199?) "Les Monuments D'Arcade" 
[EU] Amstrad CPC (1990) "Le Monde des Merveilles" 
Amstrad CPC [JP] (1991) "Addicted To Fun - Rainbow Collection" 
FM Towns PC [JP] (1993) 
PC [MS-DOS, CD-ROM] [EU] (sept.30, 1996) "Bubble Bobble featuring Rainbow Islands" 
[EU] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (oct.14, 2005) "Taito Legends"

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=343&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=bublboblr,bublboblr1
Arcade Video game published 37 years ago:

Bubble Bobble (c) 1986 Romstar, Incorporated.

For more information about the game itself, please see the original Taito Corp. entry.

- TRIVIA -

Bubble Bobble was released in October 1986 in North America by Romstar, Inc. under license by Taito America Corp.

- UPDATES -

Revision 2 (October 1986 in USA):
* Software version : 1.0

Revision 3 (November 1986 in USA): 
* Software version 5.1
* Added mode selection at the beginning of the game (Normal or Super mode).

In Super mode : 
The rooms are all in different colors.
All 'Zen-Chan' are replaced by 'Hidegonsu' and vice-versa.
All 'Mighta' are replaced by 'Drunk' and vice-versa.
All 'Monsta' are replaced by 'PulPul' and vice-versa.
The only monster that remains unchanged is 'Banebou'.
'Invader' does not appear at all in Super mode ('Hidegonsu' takes its place).

- PORTS -

NOTE: Only home versions released in North America are listed here. For non-US ports, please see the original Taito Corp. entry. 

* CONSOLES: 
[US] Nintendo NES (1988) "Bubble Bobble [Model NES-B2]" 
[US] Sega Saturn (1996) "Bubble Bobble also featuring Rainbow Islands [Model T-8131H]" 
[US] Sony PlayStation (1996) "Bubble Bobble also featuring Rainbow Islands [Model SLUS-00370]" 
[US] Sony PS2 (oct.25, 2005) "Taito Legends [Model SLUS-21122]" 
[US] Microsoft XBOX (oct.25, 2005) "Taito Legends" 
Sony PlayStation 4 [PSN] [US] (mar.15, 2016) "Arcade Archives - Bubble Bobble [Model CUSA-03722]" 

* HANDHELDS: 
[US] Nintendo Game Boy (mar.1991) "Bubble Bobble [Model DMG-B2-USA]" 
Sega Game Gear [US] (1994) 
[US] Nintendo GBA (2003) "Bubble Bobble - Old & New [Model AGB-AONE-USA]" 

* COMPUTERS: 
[US] Commodore C64 (1987) 
[US] Apple II (1987) 
PC [MS-DOS, 5.25"] [US] (1989) 
PC [MS-DOS, CD-ROM] [US] (sept.30, 1996) "Bubble Bobble featuring Rainbow Islands" 
[US] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (nov.10, 2005) "Taito Legends" 

* OTHERS: 
[US] Nokia N-Gage "Taito Memories" : Release cancelled

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=44157&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=boblcave,bublcave,bublcave10,bublcave11,bublboblb
Arcade Video game kit published 11 years ago:

Bubble Bobble - Lost Cave (c) 2012 Bisboch and Aladar.

Recent pirate version.

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=98310&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=bublbob2,bublbob2p,bublbob2o
Taito F3 cart. published 29 years ago:

Bubble Bobble II (c) 1994 Taito.

European release. Game developed in Japan. See the original for more information; "Bubble Symphony".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "Taito F3 System" Hardware.

- TRIVIA -

Released in October 1994 in Europe, Southeast Asia, Hong Kong, Mainland China, Taiwan and Korea. 

A prototype version is known to exist - it have many differences from the final version; it’s almost an entirely different game, lacking even a title screen at the point in development it comes from. Levels, graphics, enemies, sound and music are different, gameplay is different, stage names are different, stage selection is different, no story sequence, no high score sequence, and no game logo during the attract mode. It is really more of a proof of concept sequel than anything close to a finished game at this point, and that's what makes it fascinating. The build date is close to a year before the final game, a lot changes in one year of development.

- SERIES -

1. Bubble Bobble (1986, Arcade) 
2. Rainbow Islands - The Story of Bubble Bobble 2 (1987, Arcade) 
3. Parasol Stars - The Story of Bubble Bobble III [Model TP03017] (1991, PC-Engine) 
4. Bubble Bobble Part 2 (1993, Famicom) 
5. Bubble Bobble II (1994, Arcade) 
6. Bubble Memories - The Story of Bubble Bobble III (1996, Arcade) 
7. Rainbow Islands - Putty's Party (2000, Wonderswan) 
8. Bubble Bobble Revolution (2005, DS) 
9. New Rainbow Islands (2005, DS) 
10. Bubble Bobble Evolution (2006, PSP) 
11. Bubble Bobble Double Shot (2007, DS) 
12. Rainbow Islands Towering Adventure! (2009, WiiWare) 
13. Bubble Bobble Plus! (2009, WiiWare) 
14. Bubble Bobble Neo! (2009, XBLA)

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=344&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=bubblem,bubblemj,bubblemu
Arcade Video game published 27 years ago:

Bubble Memories - The Story of Bubble Bobble III (c) 1996 Taito.

One day in the land of the Rainbow Island, twin brothers Bubby and Bobby are playing together in the shadow of the tower that watches over and protects their homeland when suddenly, they are transformed into bubble-blowing dragons by the evil Super Dark Great Dragon. The Great Dragon then takes possession of the tower and destroys the 'Magical Rainbow Potion' from which the tower draws its strength, causing it to separate into seven differently-coloured potions. 

The twins must climb the 80 floors of the tower to free it from his clutches and regain their human forms. The final ten levels of the tower can only be accessed by collecting 7 differently-coloured potions to reform the Magical Rainbow Potion. 

The fourth and final arcade outing for Bub and Bob (not counting the "Puzzle Bobble/Bust-a-Move" series), "Bubble Memories" returns once more to the classic, single-screen gameplay of the series' legendary first outing. Graphically, the game is very similar to "Bubble Symphony", released two years earlier, with the only real visual difference being the latter game's use of digitized animal and plant photographs to form the game's backdrops.

One major new gameplay addition is the introduction of 'Super Bubbles'. There are now two sizes of bubbles - standard and large; players can now hold down the bubble button until their characters glow, then release it to produce a giant bubble. This bubble can trap either a single large enemy (another new addition to the game), or several standard enemies. This replaces the 'Multiple Bubble' ability of the previous game in the series.

Bubby and Bobby are young boys in the intro, indicating that this is a prequel to the series.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "Taito F3 System" Hardware.

Prom Stickers : E21

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2
= > [1] Bubble, [2] Jump

- TRIVIA -

Even if the title screen says 1995, Bubble Memories was released in February 1996.

In the Taito logo sequence, a 'Zen-Chan' monster chases Bub from the right side of the screen to the left. When Bub reaches the left of the screen, he stops, turns around and traps Zen-Chan in a bubble. The bubble then pops, Zen-Chan is killed, and the Taito logo appears on screen.

The entire cast of basic enemies from the original "Bubble Bobble" (including 'Skel', aka "Baron Von Blubba", so continue to watch out for him if you take too much time in a room; 'Rascal' also returns if you take too much time in a secret room) returns once again (however, the original game's end boss, 'Super Drunk' does not appear in this game), along with many of the characters first introduced in "Bubble Symphony". There is also a new version of 'Monsta' with a teal body and yellow eyes, who moves horizontally and vertically, as opposed to the regular 'Monsta' who moves diagonally.

Chack'n from "Chack'n Pop" joins Zen-Chan and company in the pursuit of Bub and Bob. In this game, he dons a blue helmet. There is also a large version of him requiring a giant bubble to trap and kill. There are also giant versions of Zen-Chan, PulPul, and Puka Puka.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Power Up Mode : Press Up, Right, Down, Left, Up, Right, Down, Left at the title screen. Rotate the Joystick clockwise in two circles to give Bub and Bob permanent shoes, blue gum and yellow gum.

* Super Mode : Press Left, Start, Fire, Jump, Up, Down, Start, Right at the title screen to unlock another set of levels.

* Original Mode : Press Start, Left, Fire, Jump, Fire, Jump, Fire, Jump. Secret rooms will always appear in levels 7 and 37.

- SERIES -

1. Bubble Bobble (1986, Arcade) 
2. Rainbow Islands - The Story of Bubble Bobble 2 (1987, Arcade) 
3. Parasol Stars - The Story of Bubble Bobble III [Model TP03017] (1991, PC-Engine) 
4. Bubble Bobble Part 2 (1993, Famicom) 
5. Bubble Bobble II (1994, Arcade) 
6. Bubble Memories - The Story of Bubble Bobble III (1996, Arcade) 
7. Rainbow Islands - Putty's Party (2000, Wonderswan) 
8. Bubble Bobble Revolution (2005, DS) 
9. New Rainbow Islands (2005, DS) 
10. Bubble Bobble Evolution (2006, PSP) 
11. Bubble Bobble Double Shot (2007, DS) 
12. Rainbow Islands Towering Adventure! (2009, WiiWare) 
13. Bubble Bobble Plus! (2009, WiiWare) 
14. Bubble Bobble Neo! (2009, XBLA)

- STAFF -

Software design : Harumi. K, Meltycat!
Character design : Voosy Marler, Aki, Mari Chan, Miwa Kamiya
Map design : Taka. Furukawa, FJT
Music by : Yasuko Yamada (Zuntata)
Sound Effects by : Ishikawa Babio (BABI) (Zuntata)
Design works : Kumi Mizore, Jun Iwata
Hardware design : Takeshi Kinugasa, Katsumi Kaneoka, Tomio Takeda, Kazuhiko Bando

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES: 
[JP] Sony PS2 (jan.25, 2007) "Taito Memories II Joukan [Model SLPM-66649]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=345&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=burningfh

Burning Fight (c) 1991 SNK [Shin Nihon Kikaku].

- TECHNICAL -

[Model NGH-018]
54 Mega

- TRIVIA -

This AES version was released 4 months after the MVS release, on August 9, 1991 in Japan and in the United States of America.

For more information about this game, please refer to the original MVS entry : "Burning Fight [Model NGM-018]".

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=47627&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=burningf,burningfpa,burningfpb,burningfp

Burning Fight (c) 1991 SNK.

New York detectives battle organized crime in this fighter. Duke and Billy, 2 popular and renowned New York City Police detectives, are hot on the trail of a dangerous Japanese crime syndicate. Their investigation has led them to the mean streets of Japan where they meet a police officer and martial arts expert named Ryu. Ryu agrees to join the NYPD detectives as they track down the crime syndicate bosses and end their reign of terror once and for all.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID: NGM-018

[SNK MVS Neo-Geo Controls]
2 players - 4 buttons per player.
[JOYSTICK] 8-way [A] Attack [B] Jump attack [C] Middle attack [D] Hard kick

- TRIVIA -

Released in April 1991.

Duke, one of the player characters, appears as a striker in "The King of Fighters 2000".

- UPDATES -

The prototype version doens't have any character presentation during the attract mode. Billy is called Bully and has different graphics. On the characters selection screen, they doesn't have their portrait.

- STAFF -

Front character designers : Franky Sezabon, Abepapa, Gagamaru, Dom, Yamapee
Back character designers : Manoru, Masabon, Meguchirin
Music composer & Sound effect : Yamapy-1
Programmers : ....& Eye Love, MA2
Planning : Woo Woo, Moo
Producer : Eikichi Kawasaki
Special thanks : Futatsu!!, Y-Tick

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo AES (Aug. 9, 1991; "Burning Fight [Model NGH-018]")
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo CD (Sep. 9, 1994; "Burning Fight [Model NGCD-018]")
[US] Sony PS2 may.05, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model SLUS-21724]"
[US] Sony PSP may.05, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model ULUS-10338]"
[KO] Sony PS2 may.29, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model SLKA-25424]"
[US] Nintendo Wii jul.29, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model RVL-P-RNCE]"
[EU] Sony PSP Oct. 17, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model ULES-01105]"
[EU] Nintendo Wii Oct. 31, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model RVL-P-RJZP]"
[EU] Sony PS2 Nov. 21, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model SLES-55232]"
[JP] Sony PSP May. 21, 2009 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model ULJS-193]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=359&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=cabalbl
Arcade Video game published 35 years ago:

Cabal (c) 1988 Red Corp.

The RED Corp. pirate version.

- TRIVIA -

Released in September 1988.

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=34392&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=cachat
Arcade Video game published 30 years ago:

Cachat (c) 1993 Taito Corp.

Cachat is a very challenging puzzle game where you must complete a line from one electrode along the sides to another, same side or other side. Blocks fall from the top of the screen, but if they reach the top of the playing area, the game is over. This mind-blowing fast game is very highly addictive. The gameplay is quite easy but requires a lot of attention.

- TECHNICAL -

Taito L System hardware

Main CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 6 Mhz)
Sound Chips : YM2203 (@ 3 Mhz)

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2 (ROTATE LEFT, ROTATE RIGHT)

- TRIVIA -

This game is known outside Japan as "Tube-It".

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

If you want the blocks at the same slow speed make sure to create a few larger chains, instead of making smaller chains which increases the the speed of boxes falling down.

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=367&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=cadash,cadashj,cadashi,cadashf,cadashg,cadashgo,cadashp,cadashj1,cadashjo,cadashs
Arcade Video game published 33 years ago:

Cadash (c) 1990 Taito Corp.

Four great heroes: a fighter, a wizard, a cleric and a ninja go on a quest to rescue the captured princess. This Taito adventure game feature all the ingredients of a traditional role-playing game (stats, exp, buy upgrade in store...).

- TECHNICAL -

Prom Stickers : C21

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 12 Mhz), Zilog Z80 (@ 4 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Yamaha YM2151 (@ 4 Mhz)

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2

- TRIVIA -

Even if the title screen says 1989, Cadash was released in March 1990.

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Cameltry, Cadash - PCCB-00043) on October 21, 1990.

- UPDATES -

The Japanese and US versions are harder. Here are the main differences from the other revisions:
* Medical herbs cost 200 gold each instead of 20.
* Each character can carry only 4 herbs instead of 8. This also applies to antidotes.
* Some of the priestess' magic are toned down. The shield spell can take less hits before disappearing, and the time spell gives 30 seconds instead of 60.
* Inns get more expensive after a few uses. Their progressive price is 50, 200, 1,000, 6,000, 30,000 and 60,000 instead of 50, 200, 1,000, 2,000 and 5,000.
* The Amulet of Dragon gives 10,000 gold instead of 60,000.

There are many spelling and syntax errors in the French version texts.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Characters list:
- Fighter: Best offensive and defensive power. Cannot use magic. 
- Mage: Weak physical strength but strong attack magic. 
- Priest: Uses defensive magic and has great endurance, but has weak offensive powers. 
- Ninja: Uses thrown weapons and has excellent agility. Cannot use magic. 

* Debug Mode (in Debug Mode, you will be able to select starting scene, gold, EXP and several items) :
1) Hold Service Switch and reset the game.
2) Wait until 'Service Switch Error Message' is displayed, then push 'Start(x3), Service, Start'.
3) The game boots up then insert a credit and select a character.
4) Enter Debug Mode instead of starting the game.

* Your character jumps backwards when hit by an enemy. When you're trying to quickly cross some areas where you're likely to take damage, this can be a bad thing; it can cause you to stay in the dangerous area much longer. So, to reduce the damage, turn back just before you get hit. This will cause the impact to push you -forward-, getting you out of danger more quickly.

* The maximum amount of money you can have is 60,000 Golds.

- STAFF -

Produced by : Keisuke Hasegawa
Directed by : Onijust
Director of Software : Toru Sugawara (SGW)
Main Programmer : Tarabar Hori (TAK)
Monster Programmer: Yuichi Kohyama
Trap Programer : Masaki Yagi (YMOT) (MYG)
Scenario Programmer : Seiichi Taikoishi
Production Designer : Onijust (ONJ)
Graphic Designers : Onijust (ONJ), Takatsuna Senba, Hisakazu Katoh, Kozo Igarashi, Yoshihiro Iwata, Tetsuya Shinoda, Takayuki Ogawa, Kenichi Imaeda
Assistant Graphic Design : Visual Arts Production
Supervising Editor : Masaki Yagi (YMOT)
Map Editor : Onijust
Hardware Engineer : Tadashi Kushiro
Electrician : Tomio Takeda
Sound Producer : Pochi (Zuntata)
Music Composer : Pinch Punch
Sound Effects : Pinch Punch
Mechanician : Yasunori Hatsuta
Publicity Supervisor : Kazuo Nakagawa
Software Analyzers : Hidehiro Fujiwara, Yuji Hiroshige
Data Entry : Mari Iwano
Game Designer : Onijust

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] NEC PC-Engine (jan.18, 1991) "Cadash [Model TP02015]"
NES TurboGrafx-16 [US] (1991) "Cadash [Model WTG040501]" 
[US] Sega Genesis (1992) "Cadash [Model T-11086]" 
Sega Mega Drive [KO] (1992) "Cadash" by Samsung 
[JP] Sony PS2 (aug.25, 2005) "Taito Memories Gekan [Model SLPM-66092]" 
[EU] Microsoft XBOX (mar.31, 2006) "Taito Legends 2" 

* COMPUTERS: 
[EU] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (mar.31, 2006) "Taito Legends 2" 
[US] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (jul.10, 2007) "Taito Legends 2" 

* OTHERS:
[US] Nokia N-Gage "Taito Memories" : release cancelled

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=368&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=dino,dinou,dinopic,dinopic2,dinoa,dinopic3
Arcade Video game published 30 years ago:

Cadillacs and Dinosaurs (c) 1993 Capcom.

Export release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese release entry; "Cadillacs Kyouryuu Shin Seiki [B-Board 91634B]".

- TECHNICAL -

Capcom Play System hardware (CP-S)
B-Board #: 91635B-2

- TRIVIA -

Cadillacs and Dinosaurs was released in February 1993 outside Japan. It is known in Japan as "Cadillacs Kyouryuu Shin Seiki" (translated from Japanese as 'Cadillacs New Dinosaur Century').

During the storyline on the original Japanese release, there is a scrolling effect on the text. All the Export versions have no such effect.

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=369&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=dinoj
Arcade Video game published 30 years ago:

Cadillacs Kyouryuu Shin Seiki (c) 1993 Capcom.

In this 2-D side-scrolling beat'em up, four earth-minded heroes attempt to stop poachers from harming the dinosaur population. Each character has his or her special strengths and abilities.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System" hardware.
B-Board #: 91634B

# of Players: Up to 3 simultaneous.
Type of controls (per player): 8-way joystick
# of Buttons (per player): 2
=> [1] Attack, [2] Jump

- TRIVIA -

Cadillacs Kyouryuu Shin Seiki was released in February 1993 in the Japanese arcades. It was known there as the 25th video game made for the CP-S system.

The title of this game translates from Japanese as 'Cadillacs New Dinosaur Century'.

This game is very famous by the name "Mustapha's game" (the main character of the game) in Asia.

Characters based upon the comic 'Xenozoic Tales' created in the late eighties by Mark Schultz.

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Tenchi Wo Kurau II : G.S.M. Capcom 7 - PCCB-00133) on August 20, 1993.

Exported as "Cadillacs and Dinosaurs [B-Board 91635B-2]".

There is also an unofficial Chinese version known as "Dinosaur Hunter".
There is a modified version of this game (hack?), in which certain gun(s) have unlimited ammo.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

On the 2nd and 5th stages, there appears a large dinosaur called a Shivat that's sleeping when first encountered. Try to keep the human enemies from whacking them to wake them up. While the Shivats do attack the enemies, they can also cause trouble (and injuries) for the players.

There are also some pterodactyl-like flying creatures that need to be struck by jumping to reach them. Whenever you drain the energy from any menacing dinosaurs, they slightly change color, then become harmless.

On the 3rd stage, where you're driving Jack's Cadillac, try to dodge the grenades thrown by the stage's motorcycle-riding boss, Hogg, while crashing into him with the car. If you're good at this, you should be able to at least reduce his energy to the yellow level, the lowest for the enemies.

On the 6th stage, there's 2 points at where you need to be careful not to be stomped on by the legs of a brontosaurus. But, try to lure some of the other enemies underneath them instead!

- STAFF -

Planning : DA., Hattari, JRA
Object GFX : Kurisan, Jun Matsumura (Jun), Matano, Ss, Shisui, Kinmon, The Who
Scroll GFX : Nissui, Konomi, Ohnicchan, Bentobucho
Programmers : Yuki Saiko, Cky Gi-u, T. Uragoro, Some-P
Music : Isao Abe (Piro2 Oyaji), Syun Nishigaki (Syun), Kiyo
Sound : Toshio Kajino (Toshi Bull), Nobuhiro Oouchi (Nobu. Oouchi)
Assists : Kitasan, Yokozo, Daniel, Inukichi, Ban, Jirou, Kurata-N, Hanisawa
AD-Design : Sho, Tom, Sensei
USA Support : James Goddard (DJames.)
Many Thanks : Noritaka Funamizu (Poo), Akira Nishitani (Nin), Hore Hore, Alex Jimenez, Super Joe

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=calibr50
Arcade Video game kit published 34 years ago:

Cal.50 - Caliber Fifty (c) 1989 Romstar.

Caliber Fifty is a multi-directional scrolling shoot-em-up for one or two players taking on the roles of captured US pilots who have been taken prisoner during the Vietnam war in 1972. The pilots must escape the prison compound by battling enemy soldiers and vehicles, including tanks planes and helicopters.

The game is very similar in play to SNK's Ikari and Heavy Barrel games, with players able to fully rotate their on-screen characters to fire and move in all directions. Players are initially armed with a machine gun and limited number of grenades but power-ups - including a rocket launcher, a flamethrower and grenades - can be found in the destructible wooden crates that litter the stages. 

Enemy vehicles such as a plane can also be commandeered and the stages take place both above ground in the Vietnamese jungles and below ground in hidden tunnels. Caliber Fifty is a quite short but very challenging game, with constantly spawning enemies attacking from all sides.

- TECHNICAL -

Game ID : UH

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 8 Mhz), M65C02 (@ 2 Mhz)
Sound Chips : X1-010 (@ 16 Mhz)

Screen orientation : Vertical
Video resolution : 240 x 384 pixels
Screen refresh : 60.00 Hz
Palette colors : 512

Players : 2
Control : dial
Buttons : 2

- TRIVIA -

Released in September 1989 in the USA.

All the speech in the game are the voice of Jun Aida.

- STAFF -

Produced by : Jun Fujimoto
Directed by : Noboru Miyamari
Screen play by : Noboru Miyamari
Based on the Novels by Viet Nam 1972.
Art direction : Mitsuhiro Takeda
Music direction : Tak Suzuki (Goblin Sound)
Original music composers (Goblin Sound) : Hiroshi Taguchi, Tak Suzuki, Zero Yotsumoto
Sound effects editor : Noboru Miyanari
Sound mixer / editor : Tak Suzuki (Goblin Sound)
Sound programmer : Noboru Miyanari
Titles : Mitsuhiro Takeda
Hardware designer : Nobuyuki Nonaka
Custom chip designed by Digital Magic Lab.
Programmer : Noboru Miyanari
Character designers : Mitsuhiro Takeda, Asako Kumura, Miyuki Kasajima
Background designer : Tomokazu Sunaga
Special effects : KII System
Controller designers : Yoshikazu Ikegai
Assemblers : Akihiro Aranaga, Toshio Sasho and many others
Marketing : Tohru Ishikawa, Yasuhiro Ota
Parts department : Mikio Harada, Masayuki Iwata
Graphic tools designed by : Hiroyuki Watanabe
Development system designed by : Keiji Ishikawa

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
Sega Mega Drive

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=371&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=cameltry,cameltryj
Arcade Video game published 33 years ago:

Cameltry (c) 1990 Taito Corp.

The player must guide a ball through a number of mazes, rotating the maze through 180 degrees to get the ball to move in the desired direction - much like the special stages in the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive title, "Sonic the Hedgehog". Each maze must be completed within a tight time limit, and a number of traps and obstacles litter the mazes to slow players down.

There are, however, a number of positive targets to be hit, and bonuses - such as additional time - can be found hidden away within the mazes. When the ball is stuck or the player would like to speed up, the JUMP button can be used. If the player runs out of time before reaching the goal, a random matching game is run to allow the player more time to complete the maze. This challenge, however, is very difficult to win.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "Taito F2 System" hardware. It used a graphics extension on the board, the so called Taito F2 Expanded System.

Prom Stickers : C38

Players : 2
Control : Spinner
Buttons : 1

- TRIVIA -

Even if the title screen says 1989, Cameltry was released in April 1990.

This game uses inertia and gravity to simulate how an actual ball in a maze would roll, under real-life conditions. This is what makes this game fun to play.

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Cameltry, Cadash - PCCB-00043) on October 21, 1990.

Zuntata Records released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Zuntata History L'ab-normal 1st - ZTTL-0038) on April 1, 1999.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Obtain a very high time and you can gain 1000 points, featuring Tiki (the Kiwi Bird of "The New Zealand Story" game) or another character of Taito.

* If you complete a stage with less than 10 seconds remaining, a slot machine appears. The numbers on all 3 reels will be added as a bonus time. This does not happen on the special courses. 

* Round Select : Hold Service Switch at boot.
Input : Start(x3), Service Switch, Start on Service Switch Error message screen. This code (Taito Command) is used in many Taito games, G-Darius, Rastan Saga II, Gunlock/Ray Force etc.

* Ball Selection : If you hold down the START button while selecting a course (except the training course) you can change the appearance of the ball.

* Secret Bonus : If the 3 digits on the timer is the same at goal (eg 11.1, 22.2, 33.3, etc), secret bonus is added.

* Staff Credits : When seeing the ending, hold the JUMP button. NOTE : It's disabled when you select Training course.

- SERIES -

1) Cameltry (1990)
2) Mawashite Koron (2006, Nintendo DS JAP) / Labyrinth (2007, Nintendo DS EUR/USA)

- STAFF -

Produce & Game Designer: PPR Kaito
Software Programming: Magician Kaz, Teddy Koike, Tack Karube
Bit Graphics: Zak Munn, Zenzy Miya, PPR Kaito
Hardware: K. Fujimoto, M. Yamaguchi
Sound (Zuntata): Hisayoshi Ogura, Yasuhisa Watanabe
Cabinet Decoration: Hiroyasu Nagai (Super Star Nagai)

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] Nintendo Super Famicom (1992) "Cameltry [Model SHVC-CT]" 
[US] Nintendo SNES (nov.1992) "On the Ball [Model SNS-CT-USA]" 
[EU] Nintendo SNES (1993) "On the Ball [Model SNSP-CT-EUR]" 
[JP] Sony PS2 (jul.28, 2005) "Taito Memories Joukan [Model SLPM-66057]" 
Sony PlayStation 2 [AU] (mar.30, 2006) "Taito Legends 2 [Model SLES-53852]" 
[EU] Microsoft XBOX (mar.31, 2006) "Taito Legends 2"
[EU] Sony PS2 (mar.31, 2006) "Taito Legends 2 [Model SLES-53852]"
[US] Sony PS2 (may.16, 2007) "Taito Legends 2 [Model SLUS-21349]"

* HANDHELDS: 
Sony PSP [AS] (jan.3, 2006) "Taito Memories Pocket [Model UCAS-40040]" 
[JP] Sony PSP (jan.5, 2006) "Taito Memories Pocket [Model ULJM-50706]" 
Sony PSP [KO] (feb.10, 2006) "Taito Memories Pocket" 
[EU] Sony PSP (oct.6, 2006) "Taito Legends Power-Up [Model ULES-00473]" 
[AU] Sony PSP (nov.9, 2006) "Taito Legends Power-Up [Model ULES-00473]" 
[US] Sony PSP (may.17, 2007) "Taito Legends Power-Up [Model ULUS-10208]"

* COMPUTERS:
[JP] Sharp X68000 (sept.25, 1991)
FM Towns PC [JP] (1993) 
[EU] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (mar.31, 2006) "Taito Legends 2"
[US] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (jul.10, 2007) "Taito Legends 2"

* OTHERS: 
[US] Nokia N-Gage "Taito Memories" : Release cancelled 
Apple iPhone/iPod [US] (june.8, 2009) [Model 306654093]

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=374&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=csclub,csclub1,csclub1d
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 26 years ago:

Capcom Sports Club (c) 1997 Capcom Company, Limited.

European release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese release entry; "Capcom Sports Club [Green Board]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Blue Board [Europe]

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=69630&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=csclubj,csclubjy
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 26 years ago:

Capcom Sports Club (c) 1997 Capcom Company, Limited.

Capcom Sports Club is a multi-event sports game for one or two players who can choose to play any one of three different sports games: Tennis (Smash Stars), Football (Kick Stars) and Basketball (Dunk Stars).

The game's look and feel is typical of Capcom's output of the time and is skewed heavily towards fast, cartoon-like arcade action.

Of the three games on offer, "Smash Stars" Tennis is by far the most accomplished and would easily stand up as an arcade machine in its own right.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Green Board [Japan]

Players: Up to 2.
Control: 8-way joystick per player.
Buttons: 3 per player.

- TRIVIA -

Capcom Sports Club was released in July 1997 in Japan. It was known as the 24th CPS-II game.

Known export release:
"Capcom Sports Club [Blue Board]"
"Capcom Sports Club [Grey Board]"
"Capcom Sports Club [Orange Board]"

In the Smash Stars tennis game, the Chinese tennis player bares more than a passing resemblance to one of Capcom's most famous characters, 'Street Fighter's Chun Li, here known as 'Li-li'.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Select New Teams/Player : After 1997 credits have been entered into the machine, the title page changes by adding a girl with a dog on the left side of the screen. This also unlocks 3 new teams (one for each game) as follows...
Dunk Stars - Golden USA
Smash Stars - Melody Love
Kick Stars - All Stars

* Play against secret teams : To play against the secret teams (Smash Stars - Melody, Kick Stars - Star Team and Dunk Stars - Golden USA) you must reach 200.000 points before winning the finals.

- STAFF -

Planner : Yoshifumi Fukuda
Programmers : Yoshinobu Inada, Masahito Oh!Ya! (as 'Masahito Ohya'), Kazuhiko Komori
CG-Works : Eiji Kuratani, Naoki Fujisawa, Naoki Fukushima, Shinya Kitamura
Object Designers : Shinji Sakashita, Kazuo Yorikane, Koichi Kikutani, Masao Ueda, Motohiro Shigeyama, Tsunenori Shirahama, Tomohiko Ohsumi, Tadashi Noyama
Scroll designers : Kazumi Teramoto, Maeno Megumi, Hirokazu Yoneduka, Chie Nakayama, Yoichi Tanoue, Atsushi Kanno
Sound : Hideki Okugawa, Ryoji Yamamoto
Designers : Daigo Ikeno, Masae Okano, Satoshi Ukai, Shinchiro Komizu
Voice Actors : Tomoyuki Morikawa, Jin Yamanoi, Miyuki Yamamoto (Arts Vision)
Producer : Yoshimi Ohnishi
General Producer : Noritaka Funamizu
Supervisor : Yoshiki Okamoto

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=cscluba
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 26 years ago:

Capcom Sports Club (c) 1997 Capcom Company, Limited.

Asian release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese release entry; "Capcom Sports Club [Green Board]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Grey Board [Asia]

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=csclubh
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 26 years ago:

Capcom Sports Club (c) 1997 Capcom Company, Limited..

South American release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese release entry; "Capcom Sports Club [Green Board]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Orange Board [South America]

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=cworld2j
Arcade Video game published 31 years ago:

Capcom World 2 - Adventure Quiz (c) 1992 Capcom.

A Japanese quiz game.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System" hardware.
B-Board # 89625B-1

# of Players: Up to 2
# of Buttons (per player): 4

- TRIVIA -

Capcom World 2 was released in June 1992 in the Japanese arcades. It was known there as the 20th video game made for the CP-S system. The game was never exported outside Japan.

This game features a multitude of characters from several Capcom games! Here they are listed by source game title :
* Captain Commando: Captain Commando, Baby Head (Baby Commando), Mack the Knife (Mummy Commando), Ginzu the Ninja (Ninja Commando), Carol, Doppel, Dr.T.W. (with the Monster), Marbin, Scumocide and Wooky (with a Robot).
* Final Fight: Cody, Guy, Haggar, Abigail, Edi E., Poison, Rolento and Sodom.
* Forgotten Worlds: Unknown Soldier, Dust Dragon and the girl from the shop.
* The King of Dragons: Cleric, Dwarf, Elf, Fighter, Wizard and Gildiss (the final boss).
* Knights of the Round: Arthur, Lancelot, Perceval, Garibaldi (or Arlon?) and Scorn.
* Magic Sword: Lizardman, Theif, Drokmar, Quimyra and several unnamed characters (player one, the cloak and dagger baddie, the skull wizard baddie and the dragon).
* Mega Man III: Megaman, Dr. Light, Dr. Wily, Protoman, Geminiman, Hardman, Shadowman, Snakeman, Hammer Joe and Mon King.
* Street Fighter II: Blanka, Chun Li, Dhalsim, E. Honda, Guile, Ken, Ryu and Zangief.
* Strider Hiryu: Itself
* Three Wonders: Gaia, Laru (the one with the sword) and an unnamed rabbit (player one from the 'Don't Pull' segment).

Two of the game's characters (Pure & Fur) appear as assist characters in "Marvel vs. Capcom - Clash of Super Heroes".

- SERIES -

1. Capcom World - Adventure Quiz (1989)
2. Capcom World 2 - Adventure Quiz [B-Board 89625B-1] (1992)

- STAFF -

Character designers : Yamachan, Okame, Kitasan, M. Okazaki, Nakatsuka, Ban, Hkn, E. Shida
Programmers : M. Kobayashi, Pon, Hero Hero, H.M.D.
Music & sound : Syun Nishigaki (SYUN)
Planners : C. Kanemitsu, Hiratou K-Suke, K. Nishikawa, E. Shida

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=captcommj,captcommjr1
Arcade Video game published 32 years ago:

Captain Commando (c) 1991 Capcom Company, Limited. 

Captain Commando is a horizontally-scrolling beat-em-up for up to four players, set in the crime-ridden Metro City in the year 2026. Captain Commando, assisted by his three faithful Commando Companions, must rise up to protect the Earth and all the Galaxy from a gang of super-powered criminals. 

Players can select between any of the four commandos (Captain Commando, Ginzu the Ninja, Baby Head and Mack the Knife) with each able to perform numerous combinations of attacks while standing or jumping. These include grabbing the enemy, as well as a special attack activated by pressing attack and jump simultaneously that will drain a portion of the player's vitality. An addition to the controls is the ability to dash by pushing the joystick left or right twice. 

Players can pick up health-restoring food items hidden inside barrels and other destructible objects to restore their vitality, as well as other bonus items to increase their score. Weapons also can be picked up, such as three different types of firearms, as well as Shuriken that can only be used by Ginzu. 

Players also can ride certain robots by dismounting their riders and jumping over the robot. The robots each have their own vitality gauge and if they sustain enough damage, they will be destroyed. There are three types of robots in the game: a punching robot, a flame-throwing robot, and a freezing robot. Weapons can be carried when the player makes the transition to a new area until the stage is completed.

The game consists of nine stages in total.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System" hardware.
B-Board #: 91634B-2

Players: Up to 4 simultaneously
Control per player: 8-way joystick
Buttons per player: 2
=> [1] Attack, [2] Jump

- TRIVIA -

Captain Commando was released in November 1991 in the Japanese arcades. It was known there as the 17th video game made for the CP-S system.

CAPtain COMmando = CAPCOM 

The stages of the game takes place in "Final Fight"'s Metro City, but in the year 2026. 

Captain Commando is Capcom's own homage to classic American sci-fi shows and magazines and the work of artists like Frank R. Paul. It was not the only game, though; "Battle Circuit" is even a better example of Capcom's enthusiasm for this stuff. 

Each of the player's button on the dedicated 4-player cabinet uses a unique two-in-one play action button design : two large half circle buttons (red & blue) placed straight side by straight side to form one big circle, thus making two buttons look like one big button cut in half vertically. 

Mack the Knife's name is based on a song made popular in the mid 1950's by Louis Armstrong, and later by Bobby Darin. 

Ginzu the ninja's name comes from the ginzu kitchen knives which were introduced in the 1970's which were made famous by its TV advertising campaign. 

Sho (Ginzu the ninja's Japanese name) is probably based on Sho Kosugi who is a Japanese actor who is known for his portrayals of ninjas in various movies in the 1980's. 

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Captain Commando : G.S.M. Capcom 5 - PCCB-00083) on March 21, 1992.

- STAFF -

Planners : Akira Yasuda (Akiman), Junichi Ohno (Ohno)
Character Designers : Kurisan, Ouji, Eripyon. N, Mattian, Q, Mayo, Ykaru M.
Scroll Designers : Koi, Konomi (Powerful Konomi), Sui, Buppo, Go
Programmers : Y. Egawa, Yokoyama, T. Ueno, Yoshizumi
Sound : Masaki Izutani (T. Yomage)
Sound-Sub : Syun Nishigaki (Syun)
Special Thanks : James Goddard (DJames), Scott, Tetsu, Akira Nishitani (Nin)

- PORTS -

Here is a list of ports released in Japan only. To see non-Japanese ports, please see the Export version entry; "Captain Commando [B-Board 91635B-2]".

* CONSOLES: 
[JP] Nintendo Super Famicom (mar.17, 1995) "Captain Commando [Model SHVC-QM]"
[JP] Sony PlayStation (sept.17, 1998) "Captain Commando [Model SLPS-01567]" by New, Inc.

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=captcomm,captcommu,captcommb,captcommb2,captcommr1
Arcade Video game published 32 years ago:

Captain Commando (c) 1991 Capcom Company, Limited.

Export release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese release entry; "Captain Commando [B-Board 91634B-2]".

- TECHNICAL -

B-Board #: 91635B-2

- TRIVIA -

In this Export release : 
* Sho is called 'Ginzu'.
* Jennety is called 'Mack the Knife'.
* Hoover is called 'Baby Head'.

- PORTS -

Here is a list of non-Japanese ports. To see Japanese ports, please see the original Japanese version entry; "Captain Commando [B-Board 91634B-2]".

* CONSOLES: 
[EU] Nintendo SNES (1995) "Captain Commando [Model SNSP-QM-EUR]" 
[US] Nintendo SNES (aug.1, 1995) "Captain Commando [Model SNS-QM-USA]" 
[US] Microsoft XBOX (nov.24, 2006) "Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 2" 
[US] Sony PS2 (nov.24, 2006) "Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 2 [Model SLUS-21473]" 
Sony PlayStation 2 [AU] (apr.11, 2007) "Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 2 [Model SLES-54561]" 
[EU] Sony PS2 (apr.13, 2007) "Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 2 [Model SLES-54561]" 

* HANDHELDS: 
[US] Sony PSP (mar.22, 2006) "Capcom Classics Collection Remixed [Model ULUS-10097]" 
[EU] Sony PSP (jul.21, 2006) "Capcom Classics Collection Remixed [Model ULES-00347]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=ctomaday

Captain Tomaday (c) 1999 Visco Corp.

A comical vertically scrolling shoot'em up starring a mutated tomato who punches the enemy and can transform to other weird characters.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID : 0249

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 3
=> [A] Left punch/Super blow attack [B] Right punch/Super blow attack [C] Formation change

- TRIVIA -

Captain Tomaday was released in May 1999.

It was not released on the Neo-Geo AES home console.

- STAFF -

Producer : Don Gabacho (Don Gabacyo)
Director : Ume. W
Graphic designers : Max Noda, Mi, Mo, Mocchi, Nike. Pu!, Sadaijin, Shimarisu, Takano
Programmers : Bilbo, Chi-chan, Marin, Momonga, Alice You

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=cawing,cawingu,cawingur1,cawingr1,cawingbl,cawingb2
Arcade Video game published 33 years ago:

Carrier Airwing (c) 1990 Capcom.

Export release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese release entry; "U.S. Navy [B-Board 89625B-1]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System" hardware.
B-Board ID: 89624B-3

- TRIVIA -

The guy who looks like Sean Connery looks even more like Sean Connery in the Japanese release of the game than in the Export versions (graphic changed). Maybe in the hope to avoid license problems in the U.S. ?

- SERIES -

1. U.N. Squadron [CP-S No. 06] (1989) 
2. Carrier Airwing [CP-S No. 12] (1990)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=chaknpop
Arcade Video game published 39 years ago:

Chack'n Pop (c) 1984 Taito.

Chack'n Pop is considered by many to be the precursor to the venerable game Bubble Bobble. The cast consists of two enemies that would later be seen in Bubble Bobble. Many fans of the Bubble Bobble series may find Chack'n Pop less fun to play due to its high degree of difficulty.

The game puts the player in the role of Mr. Chack'n, who must rescue all of the hearts that were stolen during a romantic interlude between him and Miss Chack'n. Chack'n is an interesting character with equally interesting abilities. He can toss two bombs, only one in each direction at a time. He can also effortlessly go from walking on the floor to walking on the ceiling. If the ceiling is low enough, Chack'n can extend his legs until his head touches the ceiling to immediately begin walking on it.

Chack'n must use his bombs to release the captured hearts from their cages. Once all of the hearts are freed, he can escape through the top right corner of the maze. Along the way, purple Monstas will be trying to stop Chack'n simply by colliding with him. Chack'n can use his bombs to defeat the Monstas, but the limited use he has over them makes the bombs an unreliable attack method. Once Chack'n spends enough time in a maze, it is not uncommon for him to become completely overwhelmed by the presence of the Monstas.

- TECHNICAL -

Prom Stickers : A04

Main CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 2.35 Mhz)
Sound Chips : (2x) General Instrument AY8910 (@ 1.536 Mhz)

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2

- TRIVIA -

Even if titlescreen says MCMLXXXIII (1983), Chack'n Pop was released in April 1984 in Japan.

The graphics roms contain unused sprites for a character that looks identical to the mechanical wind-up 'Zen-Chan' that later appeared in "Bubble Bobble".

Even though Chack'n battles Monstas and Mightas in this game, he would fight on their side 13 years later in "Bubble Memories - The Story of Bubble Bobble III".

A copyright string is hidden in the ROM a04-05 at 0x1EC6:
83 TAITO CORPORATION
PROGRAMMED BY JUN.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

Maze 1
The first maze is a purely introductory maze. It teaches you the basics of the game. If you're new to the game, get to know the way that Chack can move through the maze. The first two Monstas make and easy multiple kill target, as do the two Monstas on the bottom if you're will to wait for both of them to hatch. If you happen to die on this level, you will not lose a life, but you will automatically be sent to Maze 2.

Maze 2
This is the first real stage. There are multiple paths that you can take to reach the single heart in the lower right corner. If you are concerned with the number of Monstas that may appear, be preemptive and bomb some of the eggs. Once you free the heart, you must come back to the center of the lowest level in order to progress to the top of the stage where the exit is.

Maze 3
There are two hearts in this stage. It makes the most sense to free the heart on the left first, and the heart on the second last. Eliminate as many eggs as you can unless you want to earn a completion bonus. Since you have many choices as to how you can get from the left heart to the first heart, proceed cautiously, and take the paths that are least occupied. Send bombs ahead of you in case any Monstas decide to hunt you down.

Maze 4

This maze contains easily identifiable walls that can be broken by your bombs. Use your bombs to open up pathways that give Chack access to the hearts. Free the higher heart first, then drop down to free the lower left heart. Try to clear out Monstas and their eggs in advance of your arrival. Once you free the left heart, you can take the lower path that crosses the boundaries of the screen, allowing you to move from the left side of the screen to the right side. Traveling back up the right side can be risky since you can't bomb up, only down. Travel back to the opposite side of the screen if you need to return to safety, but remember, the Monstas can follow you.

Maze 5
Maze 5 is the first maze that features water vials. They are essential to your escape from this maze. Free the heart closest to your starting point. In the process, you should break the water vial nearby, and water will begin to fill the bottom of the screen. Free the vial below it, and cross the screen boundary at the bottom of the screen. Carefully climb back up the right side, and free the right heart as well as one more water vial by throwing a bomb as last as possible while you are hanging from the ceiling to the left of the heart. By the time you do this, there should be enough water in the maze to allow you to swim to the L shaped platform in the center of the lower level. From here, you can climb up through the middle of the screen and reach the exit. Breaking more vials doesn't help you, but it won't really hurt you either. Just remember that bombs don't work underwater.

Maze 6
This maze introduces a moving platform that can (infrequently) kill Monstas for you. The platform in this stage isn't vital to your escape, but it can come in handy. Work your way towards the bottom of the maze. Free the right heart as soon as you like, but approach the left heart carefully, as you're an easy target in the narrow tunnel. Once you reach the gap beneath the left heart, push up so that Chack extends his legs into the gap. He will never be able to rise above it, but when he is at his highest, drop a bomb on both sides so that the bomb comes to rest above the gap. When they explode, they will each break a corner of the cage, freeing the heart and opening the way out.

Maze 7
This maze looks deceptively simple, but the position of the hearts puts Chack in danger of getting attacked by Monstas, as a lot of backtracking is necessary. Either proceed cautiously by bombing as many eggs as possible, or move quickly through the maze before the eggs have a chance to hatch and overwhelm you. This maze can be particularly tricky to escape from once you're on the bottom.

Maze 8
Just after you start this maze, some of the decision making is taken off your hands as you are forced down the left alley. Move quickly to reach the lower heart and use the same technique that you used in Maze 6 to free the hearts by rising up and throwing bombs just as Chack's head clears the gap. Make your way back up to the top and free the higher heart. Once you do that, you are forced to fall to the bottom of the right side of the screen where you must cautiously advance to the exit at the top.

Maze 9
Maze 9 features another moving platform. Unlike the one before, this one is vital to your escape from the maze. In order to free the left heart, you must toss a bomb to the left as late as possible as you hang from the ceiling to the right of the cage and move to the left. If you release the bomb too early, it will fall to the floor below. The lower heart is easier, but you must travel towards the center of the lower level to begin your escape. Once you reach the moving platform, let it drop you off on the ledge to the left. Get back on top of it, hop over the obstacle along the platform's path, and ride the platform to the right side of the maze.

Maze 10
This is the last water vial maze and it can be particularly challenging. Start by dropping to the bottom and crossing the screen boundary to reach the right side. Climb up to the top and break the three water vials. Return to the middle of the screen and cross to the left. Free the right heart and break the vial in the center. There should now be enough water for you to swim to the gap on the left side of the screen that would allow you to climb up to the heart on the left. Once the heart is freed, the exit is clear, but the path to it can be quite deadly, especially if the water is full of Monstas. Only careful removal of the Monstas can ensure you with a safe path to the exit.

Maze 11
Maze 11 features a moving platformt that is both a friend and a foe. It moves slightly more erratically (although predictably) and is necessary to go from the left heart to the right heart. Both hearts must be freed by tossing a bomb from far away while hanging upside down. Once the left heart is freed, hang from the moving platform and exit to the left. Climb up over the to the first block above the platform. Cross over to the second block when the platform passes beneath both blocks. Then ride the platform over to the right where you can free the second heart and make your escape.

Maze 12
This maze features breakable blocks that must be destroyed to create the path to each heart and the exit. From the start, you will be forced to break blocks that cross the screen boundary not once, but twice. Once you're back on the left side, you can free the lower heart, and work your way to the higher heart. As a general rule, try not to destroy more walls than you need to, as they provide Chack with a defense against too many Monstas, as well as making it easier for him to navigate the maze.

Maze 13
The platform that moves back and forth in this maze blocks one pathway to one heart or the other. It doesn't matter which one you go after first, although it's a little faster to take the right path first. To get the right heart, you must pass above the heart first and fall down to the right of it in order to pitch a bomb over by the cage. Once you collect it, you must climb up the alley to the right of the platform. The left heart is a little more straightforward. Once you free both hearts, you must cross the screen boundary to reach the small tunnel that leads to the exit. Beware of any Monstas that might be remaining on that side.

Maze 14
As the last level, this maze can be particularly challenging to navigate. Certain regions of the maze can only be reach by cross the screen boundary. There are a lot of breakable walls in this stage, but the color difference is slight enough to be deceptive. Keep an eye out of all of them, and pay attention the avenues that are made available by destroying them. The exit can only be reached by crossing the screen boundary at the highest point on the left, and that can only be reached by falling through the breakable wall to the right of the higher heart. Finish this maze to view an ending before you start back over on maze 2.

- STAFF -

Programmed by: JUN.
Music by: Yoshino Imamura

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES: 
[JP] Sega SG-1000 (1985) "Chack'n Pop [Model C-52]"
[JP] Nintendo Famicom (may.24, 1985) "Chack'n Pop [Model 02 TF-4500]" 
[TW] Sega SG-1000 (198?) "Da Yu"
[JP] Sony PS2 (aug.25, 2005) "Taito Memories Gekan [Model SLPM-66092]" 
[AU] Sony PlayStation 2 (mar.30, 2006) "Taito Legends 2 [Model SLES-53852]" 
[EU] Microsoft XBOX (mar.31, 2006) "Taito Legends 2" 
[EU] Sony PS2 (mar.31, 2006) "Taito Legends 2 [Model SLES-53852]" 
[US] Sony PS2 (may.16, 2007) "Taito Legends 2 [Model SLUS-21349]" 

* HANDHELDS: 
[AS] Sony PSP (jan.3, 2006) "Taito Memories Pocket [Model UCAS-40040]" 
[JP] Sony PSP (jan.5, 2006) "Taito Memories Pocket [Model ULJM-05076]" 
[KO] Sony PSP (feb.10, 2006) "Taito Memories Pocket" 
[EU] Sony PSP (oct.6, 2006) "Taito Legends Power-Up [Model ULES-00473]" 
[AU] Sony PSP (nov.9, 2006) "Taito Legends Power-Up [Model ULES-00473]" 
[US] Sony PSP (may.17, 2007) "Taito Legends Power-Up [Model ULUS-10208]" 

* COMPUTERS: 
[JP] Sharp X1 (1984) 
[JP] MSX (1985) 
[JP] NEC PC-6001 Mk2(1984) 
[JP] NEC PC-88 (1985) 
[EU] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (mar.31, 2006) "Taito Legends 2" 
[US] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (jul.10, 2007) "Taito Legends 2"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=champwr,champwrj
Arcade Video game published 34 years ago:

Champion Wrestler (c) 1989 Taito Corporation.

Eight original wrestlers fight for glory and money. Win the title belt of the TWF circuit in a single or tag-team match.

- TECHNICAL -

Taito L System Hardware
Prom Stickers: C01

Main CPU: (2x) Zilog Z80 (@ 6 Mhz)
Sound CPU: Zilog Z80 (@ 4 Mhz)
Sound Chips: YM2203 (@ 3 Mhz), OKI MSM5205

Screen Orientation: Horizontal
Video Resolution: 320 x 224 Pixels.
Screen Refresh: 60.00 Hz
Palette Colors: 256

Players: 2
Control: 8-Way Joystick
Buttons: 2
=> Punch, Kick

- TRIVIA -

Champion Wrestler was released in August 1989 in Japan and in December 1989 internationally.

Rastan, the "Rastan Saga" hero appears in this game as Miracle Rastan.

Don't miss the funny pictures in win/lose screen :).

- SERIES -

1. Champion Wrestler (1989, Arcade)
2. Champion Wrestler - Jikkyou Raibu [Model SLPS-00237] (1996, PlayStation)

- STAFF -

Director: Takeshi Murata
Progammers: Takeshi Murata, Tsui Kato, Creamy Tetsu, Takahisa Horimoto
Game Designers: Kenji Kaito, Hiroyuki Maekawa
Character Designers: Kenji Kaito, Minori Ishino, Makoto Fujita, Oolong Yamada, Noritaka Kawamoto, Kenji Hazama, Seiji Kawagishi, Kazumasa Fuseya, Minako Morimoto
Sound (Zuntata): Pochi, Hidehito Kitamura
Hardware Designer: Katsumi Kaneoka
Designer: Atsushi Iwaoka
Thanks: Junji Yarita, Toshio Kono, Tadashi Kushiro, Shinya Okuda

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES: 
[JP] NEC PC-Engine (dec.14, 1990) "Champion Wrestler [Model TP02014]" 
[JP] Sony PS2 (jan.25, 2007) "Taito Memories II Joukan [Model SLPM-66649]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=champwru
Arcade Video game published 34 years ago:

Champion Wrestler (c) 1989 Taito America Corp.

North American release. Game developed in Japan. See the original for more information; "Champion Wrestler".

- TRIVIA -

Released in December 1989 in the USA.

This US version has the "Winners Don't Use Drugs" screen.

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=chasehq,chasehqj,chasehqju
Arcade Video game published 35 years ago:

Chase H.Q. (c) 1988 Taito Corporation.

Chase H.Q. is a checkpoint-based racing game in which the player takes on the role on an undercover cop called Tony Gibson in this 'Miami Vice' inspired game from Taito corporation. Gibson drives a powerful unmarked police car (resembling an anthracite Porsche 928) along with his partner, Raymond Broady, and must chase down and apprehend various criminals.

The player has between fifty-five and seventy seconds (depending on the game's Dip switch; factory setting = 60 seconds) to catch up with the fleeing criminal(s), then the same time period again to repeatedly ram into the criminal's car until it is too damaged to drive. The criminal's car is constantly moving away, so if the player repeatedly crashes or drives too slowly, the criminal will escape and the game ends.

As with Sega's seminal "Out Run", "Chase H.Q." features forked junctions offering players a choice of routes. In this game, however, the route selected is only a temporary diversion and dictates how quickly the criminal is caught up with. The player's Porsche is equipped with a limited number of turbo boosts (3 by factory), when used a turbo boost pushes the car to incredible speeds, at the expense of control. The turbos must be used wisely if the player is to have a chance of capturing the criminal before the time limit expires.

The game consists of five levels, each with its own villain to capture.

The game's villains and the cars they drive are:
1. Ralph, the Idaho slasher (white Lotus Esprit type 82)
2. Carlos, the New York armed robber (yellow Lamborghini Countach)
3. Chicago pushers (silver Porsche 911 [930])
4. L.A. kidnapper (blue Ferrari 288 GTO)
5. Eastern Bloc spy (red Porsche 928, initially unknown)

- TECHNICAL -

Taito Z System hardware
Prom Stickers: B52

Main CPU: (2x) Motorola 68000
Sound CPU: Zilog Z80
Sound Chips: Yamaha YM2610

Players: 1
Control: Steering wheel + 2 pedals (gas and brake)
Buttons: 2

- TRIVIA -

Chase H.Q. was released in October 1988 in Japan. It was arguably the first sprite-scaled racer since Sega's legendary "Out Run" - released 2 years' earlier - to truly capture the gaming public's imagination.

The names main characters of chase H.Q. are as follows: 
The Caucasian cop : Tony Gibson 
The African-American cop (A.K.A. Mr. Driver) : Raymond Broady 
Chase H.Q.'s Dispatcher : Nancy (she doesn't have a last name).

The 1st stage always shows right arrow. The arrow on the 3rd stage, on the other hand, directs left. The 2nd, 4th and 5th stages feature a helicopter and the arrow direction is always random.

Full Throttle or Top Speed can be converted into Chase H.Q. When converted, the pedals will be analog (instead of digital in dedicated machines). The machines were produced with both types of steering wheel: with blockade (and centering after release) and without lock.

The main player's car (the black Porsche) makes an appearance in the spin-off to the Chase H.Q. series : "Crime City". 

Brian Kuh holds the official record for this game with 3,596,680 points on June 1, 2006. 

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Syvalion : G.S.M. Taito 3 - D28B0014) on March 21, 1989.

- UPDATES -

The Japanese version has different voices and a territorial notice not allowing to play outside Japan.

The US release shows speed in a mile per hour.

- SCORING -

1 yard driven = 10 pts.
Every car overtaken = 200 pts, then 400 pts up to 8000 pts (when not crashed); overtake bonus resets to 200 when crashed into any car.
Bump into criminal's car = stage number × 10000 pts. You may even randomly score (stage number × 10000) + 40000 after a more powerful bump. Note this is a score when you don't continue.
BONUS SCORE:
Stage completion = stage number × 100000 pts (when playing on 1 coin).
Time bonus = remaining seconds left × 5000 pts.
Entire game complete = 5000000 pts (1 coin only).

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Maximum overtake bonus: overtake 40 cars without crashing to get 8000 points per overtake (starting with 200 and raising by 200). Crash into any traffic car and you'll have to start racking points up from 200 per overtake.

* Always take a turn indicated by an arrow: taking a wrong turn will cause the distance meter to grow significantly, eventually resulting in a game over.

* You may shift the gear from high to low very often to take sharp or long turns, given the brake (if available) isn't very strong.

- SERIES -

1. Chase H.Q. (1988)
2. S.C.I. - Special Criminal Investigation (1989)
3. Super Chase - Criminal Termination (1993)
4. Ray Tracers (1997, Sony PlayStation)
5. Chase H.Q. 2 (2007)

- STAFF -

Game Design: Hiroyuki Sakou
Game Programmers: Takeshi Ishizashi, Takeshi Murata, Kyouji Shimamoto
P.C.B Designer: Masahiro Yamaguchi
Character Design: Yoshihiko Wakita, Sachiko Yamana, Izumi Ishikawa, Takeshi Ishizashi
Sound Designers: Yoshio Imamura, Naoto Yagishita, Eikichi Takahashi, Fumiaki Imaoka
Music Composer: Takami Asano
Cabinet Designer: Nobuyuki Iwasaki
Proposer: Yoshiharu Suzuki

Special Thanks: Junji Yarita, Kazuya Mikata, A. Iwata

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES: 
[JP] Nintendo FamiCom (Dec.8, 1989) "Taito Chase H.Q. [Model DTF-H9]" 
[JP] NEC PC-Engine (Jan.26, 1990) "Taito Chase H.Q. [Model TP02006]" 
[EU] Sega Master System (1990) "Chase H.Q. [Model 7038]" 
[JP] Sega Saturn (Aug.9, 1996) "Chase H.Q. + S.C.I. [Model T-1105G]" 
[JP] Sony PS2 (Mar.29, 2007) "Taito Memories II Gekan [Model SLPM-66713]" 

* HANDHELDS: 
[EU] Nintendo Game Boy (1991) "Chase H.Q. [Model DMG-HQ-NOE]" 
[JP] Nintendo Game Boy (Jan.11, 1991) "Taito Chase H.Q. [Model DMG-HQJ]" 
[JP] Sega Game Gear (Mar.8, 1991) "Taito Chase H.Q. [Model T-11017]" 
[EU] Nintendo Game Boy Color (Aug.1999) "Chase H.Q. - Secret Police [Model DMG-AH9P-EUR]" 
[JP] Nintendo Game Boy Color (May.26, 2000) "Taito Memorial - Chase HQ - Secret Police [Model DMG-AH9J-JPN]" 

* COMPUTERS: 
[EU] Sinclair ZX Spectrum (1988) 
[EU] Amstrad CPC (1989) 
[EU] Commodore Amiga (1989) 
[EU] Atari ST (1989) 
[EU] Commodore C64 (1990) 
[JP] Sharp X68000 (oct.1992) 
[JP] FM Towns PC (1993)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=chikij
Arcade Video game published 33 years ago:

Chiki Chiki Boys (c) 1990 Capcom Company, Limited.

A cute platform game.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System" hardware.
B-Board ID: 89625B-1

Players: Up to 2 simultaneously.
Control per player: 8-Way Joystick
Buttons per player: 3
=> [1] Attack, [2] Jump, [3] Bomb

- TRIVIA -

Chiki Chiki Boys was released on June 19, 1990 in Japanese arcades. It was known there as the 10th video game made for the CP System.

The game was known outside Japan as "Mega Twins [B-Board 89624B-3]".

- STAFF -

Game Designer : Bully Duck
Directors : Noritaka Funamizu (Poo), Yoshiki Okamoto (Kihaji Okamoto)
Object Designers : Manbou, Ikusan Z, Unicorn Mayumi
Scroll Designers : Zummy, Ziggy (Zummy & Ziggy)
Hard Designer : Kuccan
Programmers : Blbon, Meijin, Yuki Saiko
Spacial Thanks : Ozzy, Kame, Satochin, Genie

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES: 
[JP] Sega Mega Drive (1993) "Chiki Chiki Boys [Model G-4083]" 
PC-Engine CD-ROM² [JP] (jul.15, 1994) "Chiki Chiki Boys [Model NAPR-1033]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=chimerab
Arcade Video game published 30 years ago:

Chimera Beast (c) 1993 Jaleco.

A horizontally scrolling shoot'em up where 1 or 2 players control creatures known as 'eaters' which are capable of eating other creatures and taking their DNA, thus acquiring their abilities or characteristics.

Chimera Beast takes place on a planet which is described as distant and Earth-like. The planet is overrun by animals known as eaters, capable of eating other creatures and acquiring their abilities or characteristics. The player controls one of these eaters and progresses through the game by means of evolution, consuming microscopic organisms in the first stage, fish in the second, and so on. When the player's creature gets big enough to take on humanity, the goal of the game is revealed. The planet's humans have developed space travel, which the player must thwart, so as not to give the eaters a means of escaping the planet. There are two possible endings: one in which the player is able to stop the eaters from escaping the planet, and one in which the eaters do escape and, we are told, will eventually make their way to Earth.

The chief innovation of Chimera Beast is its power-up system. Instead of collecting gun upgrades as in most games of this genre, the player's eater enhances itself by eating other creatures and assuming their abilities and defenses. Instead of simply having various types of projectile weaponry, the game attempts to make these new abilities as varied as possible. Consuming a crustacean might give the player's eater a hard protective shell, for example, while an insectoid creature might offer a poisonous tail instead. The game even includes the ability to use cancer as a weapon.

Another difference from typical shooter mechanics is that the player's eater does not die after being hit. It has a life bar, which can be charged by consuming enemies. It is even possible to eat enough charge the life bar past its starting position, creating a larger eater which is not only more powerful but can take more damage as well.

- TECHNICAL -

Jaleco Mega System 1-C hardware

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 12 Mhz)
Sound CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 7 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Yamaha YM2151 (@ 3.5 Mhz), (2x) OKI6295 (@ 30.303 Khz)

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2

- TRIVIA -

Jaleco never officially released this game to the market. A rare advanced prototype version (fully complete) was available in March 1993.

The enemies in Chimera Beast are mostly animals, some with equivalent Earth versions and some without. Some of the enemy creatures include jellyfish, an eel-like agnathan, clown fish, clams, flying squirrels, and moles. Once the player reaches the human stage, they will face war vehicles such as tanks and jets.

In Stage 6, destroying the jeeps that are on the ground makes a pair of humans appear. They are Allen and Rick, from Jaleco's 1991 release, "64th Street - A Detective Story".

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

Chimera Beast features both a Good and Bad endings.

- STAFF -

Developed by C.P. Brain. 

Executive produced by : Tokuhiro Takemori
Directed by : Shigeru Hashimoto
Game designed by : Y. Hiroyama
Programmed by : Manbow
Bg designers : Helluder, Toukaidou Nozomi, Reiko Takano, Tutomu Rukada
Obj. designers : Sigeru, Toukaidou Nozomi, Nanae
Creatures designed by : Y. Hiroyama
Sounds & Music composed by : Kiyoshi Yokoyama

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=chokchok
Arcade Video game published 28 years ago:

Choky! Choky! (c) 1995 SemiCom.

Yet another clone of Buster Brothers / Pang! / Pomping World - this one featuring low-budget music and sound effects, and split-screen competitive two-player action, somewhat reminiscent of Twinkle Star Sprites.

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 15 Mhz), Zilog Z80 (@ 3.42719 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Yamaha YM2151 (@ 3.42719 Mhz), OKI6295 (@ 7.757 Khz)

Screen orientation : Horizontal
Video resolution : 320 x 240 pixels
Screen refresh : 60.00 Hz
Palette colors : 1024

Players : 2
Control : 8-way Joystick
Buttons : 3

- STAFF -

Producer : Jeon Jae Yun
Game Design : Han Seung Hun 
Program : Kim Jin Woo
Music/Sound : Jeon Seok Gee
Graphic : Kim Eun Ae, Hong Young Joo, Whang O-Sik, Hong Dae Hyun

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=gowcaizr

超人学園ゴウカイザー (c) 1995 Technos.
(Choujin Gakuen Gowcaizer)

An anime style fighting game that takes place in the Year 2010 in Tron City. In this city, there is a school for special students called the Belnar Institute. Isato Kaiza, the hero of the story, is a student at this school. He also possesses a stone called a Caizer stone which transforms him into a super human fighter named Gowcaizer. The story begins as a new student named Kyosuke Shigure arrives at the school seeking revenge against its principal, a mysterious man named Ohga, who seems to be bent on destroying the world. So it's up to Gowcaizer, Kyosuke, and their allies to stop him.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID : NGM-094

[SNK MVS Neo-Geo Controls]
2 players - 4 buttons per player.
=> [Joystick] 8-way, [A] Quick punch, [B] Quick kick, [C] Strong punch, [D] Strong kick

- TRIVIA -

Literally : Superman School Gowcaizer.

Choujin Gakuen Gowcaizer was released in September 1995 in Japan. It was known outside Japan as Voltage Fighter Gowcaizer.

A sequel called "High Voltage 12+1" was planned. An alpha version was produced but Technos closed their doors soon after.

A two part OAV anime based on the game was released in 1996. It was released on DVD in 1999 as a movie.

- STAFF -

Starring The Voice Talents Of : Hikaru Midorikawa, Nobuyuki Hiyama, Hiderou Isikawa, Tomo Sakurai, Ryoutarou Okiayu, Yara Yuusaku, Yuuko Nagasima, Masami Oobari, Yumi Touma, Yoshiyuki Kouno, Syou Hayami
Project Leader : Teruo Ichimura
Director And Writer : Kengo Asai
Character Designer : Masami Oobari (Studio G-1)
Character Art Director : Hideki Nakazawa
Title Designer : Seiji Tanda
Assistant Director : Junichi Arai, Norihiro Sawada
Character Action Designers and Arranges : Hiroyuki Katou, Masanori Mori, Sadayoshi Kurokawa, Syuji Wada
Enemy Algorithm Staff : Hiroyuki Katou, Masanori Mori, Nobuyuki Nakane, Tatumi Saitou, Hiroshi Satou, Sadayoshi Kurokawa
Programming Director : Nobuyuki Nakane
Programming Crew : Toshiaki Tugane, Hiroshi Satou, Masahiro Izumi, Masanori Mori
Music Composers : Chiaki Iizuka, Reiko Uehara, Kiyomi Kataoka, Kennosuke Suemura
Music Data Entry And Sound Effects : Kennosuke Suemura
Graphic Artwork Crew : Koji Ogata, Masamichi Katagiri, Tutomu Nakazawa, Hiroyuki Katou, Kunihiro Hirabayashi, Takuto Mori, Syouji Miyagi, Miyuki Yakushiji, Eiitirou Nakatu, Tuyoshi Namiki, Yaki Imagawa, Kensuke Nishi, Hideki Hoshiya, Koji Yamada, Satoshi Kazato, Kazumi Minagawa, Fujimi Oonishi, Karaage Kenzen, Chihiro Kushibe, Akiko Maruyama, Seiichirou Ishiguro, Big Bridge, Katuhiro Nakamura, Takahide Koizumi, Atushi Ikeda, JC Staff, Winz, Y.Y,B
Special Thanks To : Studio G-1, Kengo Asai, Yukinori Umetu, Tukasa Kotobuki, Ikegami Tatuya, Kazuyuki Kurata

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo AES (oct.20, 1995) [Model NGH-094]
[US] SNK Neo-Geo AES (oct.20, 1995) [Model NGH-094]
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo CD (nov.24, 1995) [Model NGCD-094]
[JP] Sony PlayStation (jul.17, 1997) [Model SLPS-00527]
[JP] Sony PlayStation (sept.14, 2011, "PSOne Classics")

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=chukatai,chukataij,chukataiu,chukataija
Arcade Video game published 35 years ago:

Chuka Taisen (c) 1988 Taito Corp.

A horizontally scrolling shoot'em up.

- TECHNICAL -

Board Number : K1100332A
Prom Stickers : B44

Main CPU : (2x) Zilog Z80, I8X41
Sound Chips : YM2203

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2

- TRIVIA -

Chuka Taisen was released in July 1988 only in Japan by Taito.

The title of this game translates from Japanese as 'Great Chinese Wizard'.

- STAFF -

Developed by Hot-B.

From the High Score Table: Yukio Abe, Hidehiro Fujiwara

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES: 
[JP] Nintendo Famicom (sept.22, 1989) "Chuka Taisen [Model DTF-CW]"
[US] [EU] Sega Master System (1989) "Cloud Master [Model 7027]" 
[JP] NEC PC-Engine (mar.13, 1992) "Gokuraku! Chuuka Taisen [Model TP03021]" 
[JP] Sony PS2 (jan.25, 2007) "Taito Memories II Joukan [Model SLPM-66649]" 

* COMPUTERS: 
[JP] MSX2 (1988) by Hot-B
[JP] Sharp X68000 (jan.25, 1991)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=cleopatr,cleopatro
Taito F3 cart. published 27 years ago:

Cleopatra Fortune (c) 1996 Taito.

A falling bricks puzzle game with an ancient Egyptian atmosphere. Features great music!

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "Taito F3 System" Hardware.

Prom Stickers : E28

Players : 4
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 4

- TRIVIA -

Cleopatra Fortune was released in September 1996.

The game forbids the initials 'SEX' on the high score table. If you try, it gets changed to 'AAA'.

Zuntata Records released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Zuntata Rare Collection Vol.3 - ZTTL-0022) on May 21, 1998.

- SERIES -

1. Cleopatra Fortune (1996)
2. Cleopatra Fortune Plus (2002)

- STAFF -

Game Design: FJT, S.N, Takaoka (Natsume)
Software Design: Moriyuki Kanaya (Natsume)
Character Design: Y. Kousokabe, I. Inoue (Natsume), Kana Hirano (Natsume), Kazuhiko Kawai (Natsume)
Sound: Shuichiro Nakazawa (Zuntata), C. Haggy (Zuntata)
Voice: Rimmy (Zuntata), AMI
Narration: Mika Twining
Design: Mihoko Sudoh
Producer: Masaki Ogata, Yoshihisa Nagata, Yoshio Imamura

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] Sega Saturn (feb.14, 1997) "Cleopatra Fortune [Model T-1108G]" 
[JP] Sony PlayStation (may.17, 2001) "Cleopatra Fortune [Model SLPS-03187]" 
Sega Dreamcast [JP] (june.21, 2001) "Cleopatra Fortune [Model T-16603M]" 
[US] Sony PlayStation (2003) "Cleopatra's Fortune [Model SLUS-01491]" 
[EU] Sony PlayStation (feb.7, 2003) "Cleopatra Fortune [Model SLES-03935]" 
[JP] Sony PS2 (jul.28, 2005) "Taito Memories Joukan [Model SLPM-66057]" 
Sony PlayStation 2 [AU] (mar.30, 2006) "Taito Legends 2 [Model SLES-53852]" 
[EU] Microsoft XBOX (mar.31, 2006) "Taito Legends 2" 
[EU] Sony PS2 (mar.31, 2006) "Taito Legends 2 [Model SLES-53852]" 
[US] Sony PS2 (may.16, 2007) "Taito Legends 2 [Model SLUS-21349]" 

* COMPUTERS: 
[EU] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (mar.31, 2006) "Taito Legends 2" 
[US] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (jul.10, 2007) "Taito Legends 2" 

* OTHERS:
Mobile Phone [US] (sept.5, 2003)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=contcirc,contcircu,contcircua,contcircj
Arcade Video game published 35 years ago:

Continental Circus (c) 1988 Taito corporation.

Continental Circus is a Formula One-styled racing game in which the player races over 8 Grand Prix circuits (loosely based on real-life circuits from back then), trying to complete one full lap before the time limit expires. The game features pit-stops and dynamic weather; the latter in the form of rain and storm.

If the player's car is hit by either a rival car, hits into a trackside barrier, checkpoint pillars, pit road barrels or billboards, the car will be damaged and begin smoking. The player must pit in at the earliest opportunity to get the car repaired, otherwise the fire will spread and the car will eventually explode.

Should the player's car have a second collision before the Pit-stop is reached, the car will explode, wasting precious time before a replacement car appears.

Continental Circus' Grand Prix tracks are as follows:
BRAZIL / Brazil GP - Qualified Rank 80
AMERICA / U.S.A GP - Qualified Rank 60
FRANCE / French GP - Qualified Rank 50
MONACO / Monaco GP - Qualified Rank 40
GERMANY / Germany GP - Qualified Rank 30
SPAIN / Spain GP - Qualified Rank 20
MEXICO / Mexico GP - Qualified Rank 10
JAPAN / Japan GP - Qualified Rank 03

- TECHNICAL -

Taito Z System hardware
Board Number : K1100351A
Prom Stickers : B33

Main CPU : (2x) Motorola 68000 (@ 12 MHz)
Sound CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 4 MHz)
Sound Chips : Yamaha YM2610 (@ 8 MHz)
Screen resolution: 320x224

Players : 1
Control : Steering wheel (either locked or free, depending on dip switch) + 2 analog pedals (gas and brake; only cockpit version features both), high-low gear shift
Buttons : 1 => start (only in Japanese version)

- TRIVIA -

Even if the title screen says 1987, Continental Circus was released in March 1988 in Japan.

Like Nintendo's 1981 classic, "Donkey Kong", Continental Circus was the victim of a mistake during the translation from Japanese to English. The game was originally to be called 'Continental Circuits'. All the artwork on the US games was later corrected to say 'Continental Circuit' but the original Taito PCBs are clearly labeled with the epithet 'Circus'. 

F1 is often called the 'F1 circus' because it is like a big circus that travels to different cities across different continents.

Continental Circus was unique at the time in that certain cabinets came supplied with a '3D visor', through which the player viewed the action. The visor, similar in outward appearance to the one used in Atari's "Battlezone", produced a simple but effective 3D effect. This effect could be disabled by the arcade operator via the dip switch settings.

This game was released in the US and rest of the world a year later (in 1989).

The race car driven by the player is the 1987 Camel-sponsored Honda/Lotus 99T Formula 1 car as driven by Ayrton Senna (1960-1994) and Satoru Nakajima. Sponsor names such as 'Camel' and 'DeLonghi' are misspelled deliberately to prevent copyright infringement under Japanese (and every other national) law.

Special thanks are written in staff roll as "Spacial thanks".

Briefing before round 5 displays wrong country - Germany. This country exists from October 1990. But the cabinets have round 5 written correctly as W. Germany.

Mexico GP is actually former US GP west, raced on the streets of Long Beach, California.

All versions measure the speed in a kilometer per hour. 

4 staff members are marked out in staff roll using pink color (see the staff section and "P" letter put into brackets).

Even when you complete the entire game, you get a game over after you enter initials.

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Kyukyoku Tiger : G.S.M. Taito 2 - D28B0008) on November 21, 1988.

- UPDATES -

Japanese rom has copyright notice not allowing to play this game outside Japan. This version is also started differently - using start button instead of pressing accelerator pedal. Additionally, it's not licensed from US navy.

World and US ROMs are licensed from US Navy under US patent no. 4021846.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Fast Start: Hold gas to the full during countdown; tires will smoke. Release gas quickly and hold it back to gain speed.
* Remember to drive to the pit road when the bolide is smoking. When you fail to do so, engine will fire and the screen will show "impending explosion" warning. You may not complete the stage when the bolide explodes.
* Don't forget to change tires when the rain emerges - the bolide handles worse at turns and this may also prevent you from completing the stage.
* You have no option to continue on Japan GP when the time runs out or your position is lower than #03.
* Use brakes only in emergency situations - when overtaking is difficult or before sharp turns on stages 4; 7 and 8.
* Don't turn too lightly when not required - you'll cause the bolide to spin (when you don't center the steering wheel), which will eventually make you accelerate from 0 km/h, more or less like after explosion, but without the time necessary to place the replacement bolide (approximately 5 seconds). Try to keep the steering wheel centered on the straights when you don't need to overtake.

- STAFF -

CREATE STAFFS
Produce: Junji Yarita, Yoshimitsu Kasahra
Software: Tohru Sugawara, Hidenori Sasatani, Kenzo Nomura, Eiichi Sato
Character: Junji Yarita, Yoshimitsu Kasahara, Seiji Kawakami, Shinobu Iwabuchi (P), Toshiyuki Nishimura
Hardware: Seigo Sakamoto, Masahiro Yamaguchi, Takashi Ohhara
Mechanic: Akira Takahashi, Itsuji Yamada, Tohru Hirata, Yukihiro Akiyama, Masaharu Hori
Design: Naoko Yoshida (P), Shinobu Sekiguchi, Kazuo Nakagawa, Takeo Shiraishi, Atsushi Iwaoka
Sound - All Direction & Music Arranged: Mar. (Ztt)
Sound - Sub Direction: Yack (Ztt)
Sound - Software : Naoto Yagishita, Hisayoshi Ogura, Shiro Imaoka, Kazuyuki Ohnui
Sound - Hardware: Eikichi Takahashi, Tsukasa Nakamura
Electric: Fumio Takeda, Satoru Shimomura, Masatoki Sasaki

Special thanks: Akira Iwai, Genya Kuriki, Hidehoro Fujiwara, Harutoki Kume, Hiroyasu Nagai, Ichiro Fujisue, Mari Iwano (P), Mikio Hatano, Natsuki Hirosawa, Takaaki Deguchi, Takeshi Ishii, Tetsushi Abe, Tetsuro Kitagawa, Toshiko Shimoda (P), Toshiyuki Sanada, Tsutomu Yoshikawa, Yasuhiko Tanaka, Yasuo Tsumori, Yoshinori Aiura, Yoshio Imamura

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[EU] Microsoft XBOX (oct.14, 2005) "Taito Legends" 
[EU] Sony PS2 (Oct.14, 2005) "Taito Legends [Model SLES-53438]" 
[US] Microsoft XBOX (oct.25, 2005) "Taito Legends" 
[US] Sony PS2 (Oct.25, 2005) "Taito Legends [Model SLUS-21122]" 
[KO] Sony PS2 (Jul.18, 2006) "Taito Legends [Model SLKA-15056]" 
[JP] Sony PS2 (Jan.25, 2007) "Taito Memories II Joukan [Model SLPM-66649]" 

* COMPUTERS:
[EU] Sinclair ZX Spectrum (1989)
[EU] Amstrad CPC (1989)
[EU] Atari ST (1989)
[US] Commodore C64 [EU] (1989)
[EU] Commodore Amiga (1989)
[EU] MSX (1989)
[EU] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (oct.14, 2005) "Taito Legends" 
[US] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (nov.10, 2005) "Taito Legends"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=cookbib,cookbiba
Arcade Video game published 28 years ago:

Cookie & Bibi (c) 1995 SemiCom.

A "Puzzle Bobble" ripoff.

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 15 Mhz)
Sound CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 3.42719 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Yamaha YM2151 (@ 3.42719 Mhz), OKI6295 (@ 7.757 Khz)

Screen orientation : Horizontal
Video resolution : 320 x 240 pixels
Screen refresh : 60.00 Hz
Palette colors : 1024

Players : 2
Control : 8-way Joystick
Buttons : 2

- SERIES -

1. Cookie & Bibi (1995)
2. Cookie & Bibi 2 (1996)
3. Cookie & Bibi 3 (1997)

- STAFF -

Executive Producer : Jeon Jae Yeon
Programmer : Baek Seung Ki 
Graphic : Kim Eu Nae
Sound : Jeong Seok Gee

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=cookbib2,cookbib2a,cookbib2b,cookbib2c
Arcade Video game published 27 years ago:

Cookie & Bibi 2 (c) 1996 SemiCom.

A "Puzzle Bobble" rip-off.

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 16 Mhz)
Sound CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 4 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Yamaha YM2151 (@ 4 Mhz), OKI6295 (@ 7.575 Khz)

Screen orientation : Horizontal
Video resolution : 256 x 224 pixels
Screen refresh : 57.50 Hz
Palette colors : 256

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 3

- TRIVIA -

The game was released in December 1995.

- SERIES -

1. Cookie & Bibi (1995)
2. Cookie & Bibi 2 (1996)
3. Cookie & Bibi 3 (1997)

- STAFF -

Executive producer : Jeon Jae Yeon
Game designer : Han Seung Hoon
Game programmer : Mm Hyun Ho
System programmer : Kim Jin Woo
Graphic designers : Kim Sung Hawan, Kim Kyung Hee, Hong Young Joo
Sound composer / S.E : Jeon Seok Gee

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=cookbib3
Arcade Video game published 26 years ago:

Cookie & Bibi 3 (c) 1997 SemiCom.

A "Puzzle Bobble" Ripoff.

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 16 Mhz), Zilog Z80 (@ 4 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Yamaha YM2151 (@ 4 Mhz), OKI6295 (@ 7.575 Khz)

Screen orientation : Horizontal
Video resolution : 256 x 224 pixels
Screen refresh : 57.50 Hz
Palette colors : 256

Players : 2
Control : 8-way Joystick
Buttons : 3

- SERIES -

1. Cookie & Bibi (1995)
2. Cookie & Bibi 2 (1996)
3. Cookie & Bibi 3 (1997)

- STAFF -

Executive Producer : Jeon Jae Yeon
Programmed by : Kim Hyun Ho
Reprogrammed by : Strider X
Graphic Designer : Kim Sung Hawan
Graphic Assist : Cho Young Kook, Kim Kyung Hee, Cho Oh Hyun, Kim Seung Hwan, Lee Shea Ho
Music and Sound : Jeon Seok Gee
Poster Artist : Sim Seng Bo

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=qcrayon2
Arcade Video game published 30 years ago:

クレヨンしんちゃん オラと遊ぼ (c) 1993 Taito.
(Crayon Shin-chan - Ora To Asobo)

A fun collection of mini-games including Quiz, Tug of War and many more.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "Taito F2 System" hardware.

Prom Stickers : D63

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 4

- TRIVIA -

Released in December 1993.

The title of this game translates from Japanese as 'I Want To Play Crayon Shin-chan'.

- SERIES -

1. Quiz Crayon Shin-chan (1993)
2. Crayon Shin-chan - Ora To Asobo (1993)

- STAFF -

All sound produced by : Yasuko Yamada (Zuntata)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=cclimbr2,cclimbr2a
Arcade Video game published 35 years ago:

Crazy Climber 2 (c) 1988 Nichibutsu.

Using 2 joysticks, the player climbs up the face of high-rise buildings, avoiding closing windows, falling objects, cranes, birds, laundry, gorillas, etc. Reach the top of the building and catch a ride on a helicopter over to next building.

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 8 Mhz)
Sound CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 3.072 Mhz)
Sound Chips : YM3812 (@ 4 Mhz), (2x) DAC

Screen orientation : Horizontal
Video resolution : 288 x 224 pixels
Screen refresh : 60.00 Hz
Palette colors : 2048

Players : 2
Control : Double 8-way joysticks

- TRIVIA -

Crazy Climber 2 was released in December 1988. It was released in arcades in Japan only. Its only appearance outside of Japan was as part of the Arcade Archives series for the Sony PlayStation 4.

This game wasn't as good as the first Crazy Climber and Nihon Bussan didn't got the success they expected.

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Armed F, Crazy Climber 2 - PCCB-00020) on February 21, 1990.

- SERIES -

1. Crazy Climber (1980)
2. Crazy Climber 2 (1988)
3. Hyper Crazy Climber (1996, Sony PlayStation)
4. Crazy Climber 2000 (2000, Sony PlayStation)

- STAFF -

Sound composer : Takeshi Yoshida

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES: 
[JP] Sony PS4 [PSN] (feb.26, 2015) "Arcade Archives - Crazy Climber 2 [Model CUSA-01822]" 
Sony PlayStation 4 [PSN] [AS] (jul.30, 2015) "Arcade Archives - Crazy Climber 2" 
Sony PlayStation 4 [PSN] [US] (oct.15, 2015) "Arcade Archives - Crazy Climber 2 [Model CUSA-00989]" 
Sony PlayStation 4 [PSN] [EU] [AU] (jan.19, 2016) "Arcade Archives - Crazy Climber 2 [Model CUSA-02971]" 

* COMPUTERS:
[JP] Sharp X68000 (aug.27, 1993) "Crazy Climber I & II"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=crimec,crimecu,crimecj
Arcade Video game published 34 years ago:

Crime City (c) 1989 Taito Corporation.

Crime City is a side-scrolling platform shoot-em-up for one or two players in which two cops by the names of Tony Gibson and Raymond Brody are tasked with taking down the gangs of criminals that have overrun their city. 

Each of the game's six stages focuses on a specific criminal activity, such as bank robbery or smuggling. The goal of each stage is to reach the powerful 'boss' character then defeat and arrest them.

The game's heroes start each stage armed only with a pistol, but extra weapons become available as players progress through the stage. Both the pistol and additional weapons - which include a machine-gun, an armour-piercing gun and a threeway gun - have only a limited amount of ammunition and if players run out of ammo, they will only be able to punch or 'somersault attack' the attacking enemies. 

Each stage features background objects that can be used against the enemies, such as wooden barrels, boxes and hanging lights. When shot, some criminals drop packets of illegal drugs, which can be picked up for bonus points.

The game's lead characters of Tony Gibson and Raymond Brody were also the lead characters in Taito's 1988 crime-themed racing game, Chase HQ. Crime City's gameplay takes its inspiration from Namco's Rolling Thunder.

The game's final three stages focus on the kidnapping of the city's mayor, ending with a final confrontation with the city's kingpin of crime himself. The six stages are:
* Prison Break
* Bank Robbery
* Smuggling
* Kidnapping (Round 1)
* Kidnapping (Round 2)
* Kidnapping (Round 3)

- TECHNICAL -

Taito B System Hardware
Board Number: K1100470A
Prom Stickers: B99

Main CPU: Motorola 68000 (@ 12 Mhz), Zilog Z80 (@ 4 Mhz)
Sound Chips: Yamaha YM2610 (@ 8 Mhz)

Players: 2
Control: 8-Way Joystick
Buttons: 2
=> Shoot/Punch, Jump

- TRIVIA -

Crime City was released in September 1989.

The two heroes of Crime City are inspired from Mel Gibson and Danny Glover of 'Lethal Weapon' series.

Crime City is an official Spin-off of the Chase H.Q series (you can see the black Porsche from "Chase H.Q.").

- UPDATES -

The US version has the "Winners Don't Use Drugs" screen.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Level Select: Boot machine with service switch pressed.
Message appears: Service Switch Error, press 1p Start(x3), service switch, 1p Start.
Message appears: Select by down SW, select level with joystick Down/Up and push Start button.

* Different Level: The level 2 design depends of your stock and health.

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=533&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=crospang
Arcade Video game published 25 years ago:

Cross Pang (c) 1998 F2 System.

A puzzle game.

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 7.15909 Mhz)
Sound CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 3.579545 Mhz)
Sound Chips : YM3812 (@ 3.579545 Mhz), OKI6295 (@ 8 Khz)

Players : 2
Control : 4-way joystick
Buttons : 2

- TRIVIA -

Released in April 1998.

- SERIES -

1. Cross Pang (1998)
2. New Cross Pang (1999)

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=537&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=crsword

Crossed Swords (c) 1991 Alpha Denshi.

A rather unique 3rd-person fantasy action game, as a traveling knight you must help those in need of a hero by slashing the evil monsters & demons that disrupt peace. It will be a tough battle but your skill with your sword, some spells and some special weapons that you can purchase along the way will see you through this nightmare. Godspeed brave knight!

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID: NGM-037

[SNK MVS Neo-Geo Control Picture]
2 players - 4 buttons per player (2 usables)
[JOYSTICK] 8-way, [A] Slash enemy, [B] Thrust enemy/Use sword magical power

- TRIVIA -

Released in July 1991.

Crossed Swords was the Neo-Geo's second attempt at the action-RPG ("Riding Hero" was the first).

- SERIES -

1. Crossed Swords (1991)
2. Crossed Swords 2 (1995 - SNK Neo-Geo CD)

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo AES (Oct. 01, 1991) "Crossed Swords [Model NGH-037]"
SNK Neo-Geo CD (JP] (Oct. 31, 1994) "Crossed Swords [Model ADCD-002]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=crush,crush2,crush3,crush4,crushbl,crushbl2,crushbl3,crushrlf,crush5
Arcade Video game published 42 years ago:

Crush Roller (c) 1981 Kural Electric, Limited.

Crush Roller is a maze game in which the player controls a paintbrush and must paint the entire layout in order to advance to the next stage. Two fish — one yellow, the other light blue — emerge from separate aquariums to pursue the paintbrush around the board, and if either of the fish succeeds in making contact with the paintbrush, the player loses a life.

The player may use two "rollers" to attack the fish. The rollers are located on two overpasses, one vertical in its orientation, the other horizontal. To use a roller, the player positions the paintbrush on the forward end of the roller, waits for either or both of the fish to approach, then pushes the paintbrush along the roller, attacking the fish. The fish is removed from the maze for a few seconds, then returns to one of the aquariums and resumes its pursuit of the paintbrush. Killing fish in this manner scores bonus points.

A third character, appearing to be an animal or human figure depending on the level, may enter the maze and leave tracks that must be painted over in order for the board to be completed. The player can limit the damage by running over the figure, which not only stops further tracks from being left but also awards the player a score, which progressively increases as more boards are cleared.

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 3.072 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Namco (@ 96 Khz)

Players : 2
Control : 4-way joystick

- TRIVIA -

Released in October 1981 in Japan. 

This game is known in the U.S. as "Make Trax".

Another version of this game is known as "Korosuke Roller". 

2 bootlegs are known as "Paint Roller" and "Magic Brush". Another bootleg was made by Sidam as "Crush Roller (Sidam [Torino, Italy, EUR])". 

Giuseppe Fiorido of Italy holds the official record for this game with 2514100 points on June 27, 1984.

- UPDATES -

Make Trax has a protection chip, Crush Roller doesn't. The code between the two is nearly identical, except that everywhere the protection code is located, code has been replaced with a couple of bytes to return the correct value and several NOP instructions (which do absolutely nothing).

- SCORING -

Painting floor : 10 points per unpainted or footprint/tiretrack/dropping messed segment. 
Killing Fish : 50, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200, 6400 and the maximum 9000. 
Each level starts with the lowest point scoring fish being increased by one. E.g. Level one starts at 50 points, level two with 100 points, and so on up to 9000 
Capturing the creature/object messing up your paintwork : 1000 points.

- SERIES -

1. Crush Roller (1981)
2. Crush Roller [Model NEOP00380] (1999, Neo Geo Pocket Color)

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES: 
[AS] Nintendo Famicon (1990) "Brush Roller"

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=547&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=cubybop
Arcade Video game published 33 years ago:

Cuby Bop (c) 1990 Hot-B.

A ball and paddle game.

- TECHNICAL -

Taito L System hardware

Main CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 6 Mhz)
Sound Chips : YM2203 (@ 3 Mhz)

Screen orientation : Horizontal
Video resolution : 320 x 224 pixels
Screen refresh : 60.00 Hz
Palette Colors : 256

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2

- TRIVIA -

This game is a prototype, was in Location Test, and was never released.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Skip Stages : Press Start (1 player side) while in the game to skip stages.

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=552&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=cybattlr
Arcade Video game published 30 years ago:

Cybattler (c) 1993 Jaleco Company, Limited.

Aliens are invading and the only hope is a robot warrior fitted with laser cannons and an ultra cool laser sword. So get ready to blast & slash lots of enemies in this exciting action game! Features excellent graphics & sound and fast gameplay that will put blisters on those trigger fingers!

- TECHNICAL -

Jaleco Mega System 1-C Hardware

Main CPU: Motorola 68000 (@ 12 Mhz)
Sound CPU: Motorola 68000 (@ 7 Mhz)
Sound Chips: Yamaha YM2151 (@ 3.5 Mhz), (2x) OKI6295 (@ 30.303 Khz)

Screen Orientation: Vertical
Video Resolution: 256 x 224 Pixels
Screen Refresh: 60.00 Hz
Palette Colors: 1024

Players: 2
Control: 8-Way Joystick
Buttons: 2
=> Laser Cannon, Laser Sword

- TRIVIA -

Cybattler was released in April 1993.

- SCORING -

Special Bonus: 50,000 points (99,990 if life bar is full)

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

To get the Special Bonus in Mission 1, destroy the seven green mechs after defeating the boss.

To get the Special Bonus in Mission 3, you must defeat the boss without losing the cannon.

- STAFF -

Director: Team M. Word, Jaleco
Character Designers: Nao, Takasan, Jun Matsumura (Jun)
Programmers: Kuma, Kikki, King
Composers: Pro, Masaaki U., Tsugumi Y.
Sound Effects: Pao
Sound Programmer: Kikki
Special Thanks: Kimiaki Kurashima, Kiyoshi Matunaga, A-1, Kenichirou Takashi, Kouichi Kinjyou, Tugumasa, Hideki

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=cyberlip

Cyber-Lip (c) 1990 SNK [Shin Nihon Kikaku].

Cyber-Lip is a platform shoot-em-up for one or two players that borrows heavily from Konami's "Contra" series. Players must battle through sideways-scrolling levels, to defeat armies of cyborgs and androids and restore order and peace to the world.

Cyber-Lip has two shooting modes, one for standard weapon use and one for rocket launchers and grenade throwing. Players can switch between the two modes at any time, but only carry a limited amount of grenades or rockets. Weapon power-ups and additional grenades and rockets can be picked up throughout the levels.

At the end of certain levels, the game's heroes will enter an elevator and players can then choose whether to go 'up' or 'down', depending on which route through the game they wish to take. Each level has a large end-of-level boss that must be defeated.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID: Model NGM-010

[SNK MVS Neo-Geo Control Picture]
2 players - 4 buttons per player (3 usables)
=> [Joystick] 8-way, [A] Shoot, [B] Jump, [C] Arms select

- TRIVIA -

Cyber-Lip was released in November 1990.

- STAFF -

Producer : Eikichi Kawasaki
Directors : Deru-Deru, Ousama
Programmer : Shochan
Sound : Tate Norio
Front Designers : Higashi Pon, Miss.Jra
Back Designers : Ok Goo!, Crazy Love
Specail Thanks : Hi-Side, Yao- Yao, Oirabero, Poppyusan, Moriyan, Shibayan, Kaneshiro!, Kumasan, Nishidon, Dimajin, John Guso

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo AES (jul.1, 1991; "Cyber-Lip [Model NGH-010]")
[US] SNK Neo-Geo AES (jul.1, 1991; "Cyber-Lip [Model NGH-010]")
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo CD (apr.21, 1995; "Cyber-Lip [Model NGCD-010]")
[US] SNK Neo-Geo CD (apr.21, 1995; "Cyber-Lip [Model NGCD-010E]")

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=cybots,cybotsu,cybotsud
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 28 years ago:

Cyberbots - Fullmetal Madness (c) 1995 Capcom Company, Limited.

North American & European release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese release entry; "Cyberbots - Fullmetal Madness [Green Board]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Blue Board [USA & Europe]

- TRIVIA -

In the original Japanese version's Vs. screen, a chapter title is displayed as well as the model number of each players' VA. The titles and model numbers are missing from these Export versions.

After a 1P vs 2P match in the original Japanese version, the winning character speaks his (or her) victory quote and it is written on screen as well. In the export versions, the victory quote is just written on screen (without the voice sample).

There is a POWEREDGEAR HIGHSCORE CAMPAIGN sequence after the staff credits missing on the export versions.

Devilotte's servants, Dr. Shutain and Jigoku Daishi, are renamed Xavier and Gary.

Gawaine's sword is called 'Magnablade' in the Japanese version. It is not referred to by name in the Export versions.

- UPDATES -

The USA version has the Winners Don't Use Drugs screen.

- PORTS -

(Non-Japanese ports only)

* CONSOLES:
[US] Sony PlayStation (sept.13, 2011, "PSOne Classics")

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=69632&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=cybotsj,cybotsjd
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 28 years ago:

Cyberbots - Fullmetal Madness (c) 1995 Capcom.

A mecha-based fighting game featuring six selectable pilots and twelve selectable mechs with intertwining storylines.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Green Board [Japan]

Players: Up to 2.
Control: 8-way joystick per player.
Buttons: 4 per player.
=> [1] Attack 1, [2] Attack 2, [3] Weapon, [4] Boost

- TRIVIA -

Cyberbots was released in April 1995 in Japan. It was known as the 10th CPS-II game.

All of the mechs in this game appeared originally in "Armored Warriors".

Devilot (on the S-008 Super-8) appear as a secret character in "Super Puzzle Fighter 2 Turbo" and as a striker character in "Marvel vs. Capcom - Clash of Super Heroes".

Jin also appears as a selectable fighter in "Marvel vs. Capcom - Clash of Super Heroes", accompanied by the Blodia mech.

Sony Music Entertainment released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Cyberbots Arcade Game Track - SRCL-3274, 3275) on August 2, 1995.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Play As S-008 Super-8 : After you choose your V.A. before the Vs screen do the following quickly Up, Right, Down, Left, Up, Right, Attack 1, Up, Left, Down, Right, Attack 2.

* Play As P-10033 gaits : After you choose your V.A. before the Vs screen do the following quickly Attack 1, Attack 2, Boost, Weapon, Attack 1, Boost.

* Play As UVA-02 Helion : After you choose your V.A. before the Vs screen do the following quickly Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Boost, Weapon.

* Play As X-0 Warlock : After you choose your V.A. before the Vs screen do the following quickly Left, Attack 1, Up, Attack 2, Right, Boost, Down, Weapon.

- SERIES -

1. Armored Warriors [CP-S II No. 07] (1994)
2. Cyberbots - Fullmetal Madness [CP-S II No. 10] (1995)

- STAFF -

Game Designers : Shochan, Tobanjan, Tequila Saddy, Jun Keiba, Haruo Murata (Mucchi), Tatsuya Nakae (Daichan), 12BW1B
Programmers : Kid, Stefano Komorini with T, Shaver, Hiroshi Nakagawa, Dress, Garamon, Mr. Kato
Object Designers : Atta Kutta, Eiji, Naoki Fujisawa, Vanira, Yutaka Maruno, Yoshino, K. Tokunaga, You-Tenkozow, Urabe Yakkyoku 8, Naoki Fukuda, H. Shibaki, Hiroshi Shibata, Shisui, Yorio, Takep, Gappa, Eizi Murabayashi, Heno Heno, Yuki
Scroll Designers : Fukumoyan, Nissui, Kisabon, Iwai, Go, May, Hiroko N., Kichinosuke, Kazu, Akiko O., Saru, Kuwatch, Sm, Tabu, Mago, Mr. Holland
Sound Designers : Tomuyuki Kawakami (T.K NY), Takeshi Kitamura (Moe. T)
Sound Composers : Takayuki Iwai (Anarchy Takapon), Akari Kaida (Akari. K -Lemon-), Masato Koda (Kda Mto), Naoaki Iwami (Super 8 Iwami)
Producer : Iyono Pon

* CAST :
Jin Saotome : Furuya Tooru
Mary Miyabi : Takano Urara
Santana Laurence : Yanada Kiyoyuki
Gawaine Murdock : Genda Tesshou
Bao : Kappei Yamaguchi
Mao : Araki Kae
Arieta : Kanai Mika

Hagane Tessan : Ginga Banjou
Kagura Chiyomaru : Ryo Horikawa
Shade : Shozo Iizuka
Dr. Shutain (Gary in the US version) : Ginga Banjou
Jigoku Daishi (Xavier in the US version) : Yanami Jouji
Princess Devilotte Do Deathsatan IX : Kozakura Etsuko

Special Thanks : Noritaka Funamizu (Poo)

- PORTS -

(Japanese ports only)

* CONSOLES:
[JP] Sega Saturn (mar.28, 1997) "Cyberbots - Fullmetal Madness [Limited Edition] [Model T-1216G]"
[JP] Sega Saturn (mar.28, 1997) "Cyberbots - Fullmetal Madness [Model T-1217G]"
[JP] Sony PlayStation (dec.25, 1997) "Cyberbots - Fullmetal Madness  [Model SLPS-01011]"
[JP] Sony PlayStation (feb.9, 2011) "PSOne Classics"

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=563&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=daisenpu
Arcade Video game published 34 years ago:

大旋風 (c) 1989 Taito.
(Dai Senpuu)

A vertically scrolling shoot'em up.

- TECHNICAL -

Taito X System hardware
Game ID : B87

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 8 Mhz), Zilog Z80 (@ 4 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Yamaha YM2151 (@ 4 Mhz)

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 3

- TRIVIA -

Released in June 1989 in Japan.

Developed by Toaplan. Even if developed by this famous shoot'em up company, Twin Hawk was not a good game, and it was a flop. 

The title of this game translates from Japanese as 'Great Whirlwind'.

This game is known outside Japan as "Twin Hawk".

- UPDATES -

There are several differences between "Twin Hawk" and Dai Senpuu :
* Twin Hawk supports 2 simultaneous players.
* Dai Senpuu supports 2 players, but only one at a time. Because of this, it also supports Cocktail cabinets.
* In Twin Hawk, both planes are purple and pink for player 1 and 2 respectively.
* In Dai Senpuu, the planes are green for both players.
* In Twin Hawk, when you die, you continue the game at your current position.
* In Dai Senpuu, when you die, you continue the game at predefined positions. This makes the game much more difficult to complete.

- STAFF -

Developed by Toaplan.

Sound composer: Osamu Oota

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
Sega Mega Drive (1990) "Dai Senpuu [Model G-4034]"
NEC PC-Engine (1990) "Dai Senpuu [Model NAPH-1014]"
NEC PC-Engine CD-ROM² (1991) "Dai Senpuu Custom [Model NAPR-1019]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=570&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=daimakai
Arcade Video game published 35 years ago:

大魔界村 (c) 1988 Capcom.
(Daimakaimura)

Three years have passed since the events of Makaimura and Arthur the knight once again finds himself battling against the hideous creatures of Demon World. The demons have now seized the kingdom and Arthur returns home to witness the castle's lone survivor, his beloved Gunievere, murdered by the king of the demons, Lucifer. Arthur once again embarks on a one-man quest to destroy the demonic invaders and save Gunievere's mortal soul. 

Game-play is of a very similar vein to that of Makaimura - the classic run, jump and shoot action remains intact. Daimakaimura is, however, even more difficult than its already demanding predecessor. Arthur now has access to several new power-ups to aid him on his daunting quest, such as 'Golden Armour' which gives Arthur greater protection from the demons. Additionally, unlike "Makaimura", Arthur can now fire his weapons upwards instead of just left or right and, while jumping, can fire beneath him as well. 

The graphics in Daimakaimura are predictably far superior to those of its 1985 prequel, with highly imaginative level design and superbly-drawn, smoothly animated enemies all adding to the game's superb Gothic feel.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System" hardware
B-Board #: 88622B-2
B-Board PALs: DM22A | LWIO
C-Board #: 88622-C-1 (no PALs)
CPS-B #: CPS-B-01 DL-0411-10001

Players: 2 (Alternatively)
Control: 8-way joystick
Buttons: 2
=> [1] Fire, [2] Jump

- TRIVIA -

Daimakaimura was originally released in December 1988 in the Japanese arcades. The game was known as the second video game made for the CPS1 system. It was then released outside Japan as "Ghouls'n Ghosts [B-Board 88620B-2]".

The title of this game translates from Japanese as 'Great Demon World village'.

A re-edition was released as "Daimakaimura [B-Board 91634B-2]" in Japan only.

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Daimakaimura : G.S.M. Capcom 1 - D28B-0011) on January 11, 1989.
Suleputer released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Makaimura Music Collection - CPCA-10128~34) on December 28, 2005 containing music from the original arcade and Sega Mega Drive series.

- SCORING -

Skeleton Murderer : 100 points 
The Magician : 100 points 
Vulture : 200 points 
Skull Flower : 100 points 
Skull : 100 points 
Tornado Weasel : 200 points 
Giant Earthworm : 200 points 
Pig Ogre : 500 points 
Shielder (Level 1 boss) : 5,000 points 
Rock Turtle : 200 points 
Insect Goblin : 100 points 
Red Arremer King : 500 points 
Fire Bat : 100 points 
Eyeball Plant : 500 points 
Cerberus (Level 2 boss) : 5,000 points 
Flying Goblin : 100 points 
Mud Armor : 500 points 
Blowfish Ghoul : 100 points 
Gassuto (Level 3 boss) : 5,000 points 
Tree Golem : 500 points 
Armored Worm : 300 points 
Goblin Hand : 300 points 
Water Worm : 200 points 
Hurricane Eye (small) : 500 points 
Ghoul Snake : 500 points 
Ohme (Level 4 boss) : 5,000 points 
Heart of Ohme : 100 points 
Ohme Larva : 100 points 
Dragon Skeleton : 200 points 
Satan : 1,000 points 
Headless Golem : 1,000 points 
Beelzebub (Level 5 boss) : 5,000 points 
Lucifer (Final boss) : 10,000 points 

Citizen Doll : this item gives you 200 extra points. 
Knight Doll : this item gives you 500 extra points.

- SERIES -

1. Makaimura (1985, Arcade)
2. Daimakaimura [B-Board 88622B-2] (1988, Arcade)
3. Chou Makaimura [Model SHVC-CM] (1991, Super Famicom)
4. Arthur to Astaroth - Nazo-Makaimura - Incredible Toons (1996, PlayStation)
5. Maximo (2001, PS2)
6. Makai Eiyuuki Maximo - Machine Monster no Yabou (2003, PS2)
7. Goku Makaimura (2006, PSP)

- STAFF -

Game designers : Tokuro Fujiwara, S. Yoshimoto, H. Yamamoto
Programmers : Hiroshi Koike, Masatsugu Shinoara, Shinichi Ueyama
Music by : Tamayo Kawamoto

- PORTS -

Here is a list of ports release in Japan only. To see ports released in other regions, please see the export version entry; "Ghouls'n Ghosts [B-Board 88620B-2]"

* CONSOLES: 
[JP] Sega Mega Drive (aug.3, 1989) "Daimakaimura [Model G-4013]" 
NEC SuperGrafx [JP] (jul.27, 1990) "Daimakaimura [Model NAPH-1008]" 
[JP] Sega Saturn (sept.23, 1998) "Capcom Generation Dai 2 Shou Makai to Kishi [Model T-1233G]" 
[JP] Sony PlayStation (sept.23, 1998) "Capcom Generation Dai 2 Shou Makai to Kishi [Model SLPS-01585]" 
[JP] Sony PS2 (mar.2, 2006) "Capcom Classics Collection [Model SLPM-66317]" 
Sony PlayStation 3 [PSN] [JP] (feb.19, 2013) "Capcom Arcade Cabinet [Model NPJB-00210]"

* HANDHELDS: 
[JP] Sony PSP (sept.7, 2006) "Capcom Classics Collection [Model ULJM-05104]" 

* COMPUTERS: 
[JP] Sharp X68000 (1994)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$info=daimakair
Arcade Video game published 32 years ago:

Daimakaimura (c) 1991 Capcom Company, Limited.

Re-release of the original classic. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Release entry; "Daimakaimura [B-Board 88622B-2]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System" hardware.
B-Board #: 91634B-2
B-Board PALs: DAM63B | BPRG1 | IOB1
C-Board #: 92631C-6
C-Board PALs: C632 | IOC1
CPS-B #: CPS-B-21 DL-0921-10014

- TRIVIA -

This re-edition was released in 1991 in the Japanese arcades (even if the title screen still says 1988 as the original version).

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$info=daioh,daioha,daiohp,daiohp2,daiohc,daiohp3
Arcade Video game published 30 years ago:

Daioh (c) 1993 Sammy.

An excellent vertically scrolling space shoot'em up. Excellent graphics, multi-layer scrolling, big sprites (especially bosses), and an extreme difficulty that continued to increase from easy to insane the farther along you went without getting killed.

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 16 Mhz)
Sound Chips : X1-010 (@ 16 Mhz)

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 6
=> Ion Shot, Laser Shot, Missile Shot, Fire Bomb, Mega Beam, Atomic Bomb

- TRIVIA -

Developed by Athena, Daioh was released in July 1993.

The title of this game translates from Japanese as 'Great King'.

In 1997, Daioh's staff established a new company, called 'Warashi', their first game was "Shienryu". The game is remarkably similar, and feature an identical power-up system, and the first level is a remake of the first stage of Daioh.

A pseudo-sequel to the game entitled "Daioh Gale" appears as the sample level in Athena's 1994 title, Dezaemon - Kaite Tsukutte Asoberu.
A follow up to 'Daioh Gale', 'Daioh Gale ver.2' appears as the sample level in Athena's 1996 title, Dezaemon Plus.
A parody of the game entitled 'Daioh-P' appears as a sample level in Athena's 1997 Sega Saturn release, Dezaemon 2.

Mark Carmichael holds the official record for this game with 144,900 points on July 15, 2006.

- STAFF -

Programmer : Tsutomu Tabata
Graphic designers : Undead Tama, Kata Chumuri, Numa
Composer : Sho
Sound driver : K. Zikil-Hide Ishibashi
Producer : Noriyuki Takasaki
Exective producer : Sakae Nakamura

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=dankuga
Taito F3 cart. published 29 years ago:

Dan-Ku-Ga (c) 1994 Taito Corporation.

A one on one fighting game.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "Taito F3 System" Hardware.

Screen Orientation: Horizontal

Players: 2
Control: Dial
Buttons: 6 
=> Weak Punch, Medium Punch, Strong Punch, Weak Kick, Medium Kick, Strong Kick

- TRIVIA -

Made on December 13, 1994 but never released to the public. Dan-Ku-Ga is an updated prototype version of "Kaiser Knuckle".

Here are the known differences:
* Before your game, you choose the difficulty level Normal, Professional, or Training.
* At the character selection screen : Kazuya, Lihua and Liza have been redesigned, all others have different costume colors.
* Gonzales and Azteca are playable.
* The 5th opponent is Gonzales, the 9th opponent is Azteca and the 10th opponent is your Doppelganger.
* The CPU AI has been altered somewhat.
* You can backdash with all characters.
* You can't select the first opponent in 1P vs. CPU mode, except training.
* A medic comes out to check on the defeated opponent after the final round.

- STAFF -

Image Illustrator: Nobuteru Yuki
Project Leader: Takeshi Kobori
Planners: Takeshi Kobori, Hiromi Mikami, Yuji Sakamoto, Hiroshi Aoki
Main Character Designers: Yuji Sakamoto, Takeshi Kobori
Character Designers: Hiroto Nizato, Hiromi Mikami, Atsushi Iwata, Shinichi Arai, Makoto Fujita, Horitaka Kawamoto, Takayuki Isobe, Shin Tanaka, Shinjiro Sugitani, Seiji Kawakami, Kazuhiro Numata, Yukiwo Ishikawa (Yukio Abe), Nobuhiro Hiramatsu, Hiroyo Kujirai, Tomohisa Yamashita, Tsuyoshi Tanigawa, Hideyuki Kato, Keisuke Nishioka, Tatsuya Ushiroda, Hiroshi Nishida
Assistants: Peacock, Production IG, Vap
Main Programmer: Hiroshi Aoki
Programmers: Kosuke Usami, Kumi Tsuchiya, Tatsuo Nakamura, Isao Oyama
Music Composer: Yasuhisa Watanabe (Zuntata)
Sound Effect Designer: Katsuhisa Ishikawa (Zuntata)
Recording Engineer: Munehiro Nakanishi (Zuntata)
System Engineers: Katsumi Kaneoka, Hironobu Suzuki
Designers: Kumi Mizobe, Takeshi Kobori
Mechanic Engineer: Koichi Otsu

* CAST:
Kazuya: Kazuki Yao
Barts: Ryutaro Okiayu
Lihua: Saeko Shimazu
Liza: Aya Hisakawa
Gekkou: Hideo Ishikawa
J-McCoy: Kazunari Tanaka
Wulong: Yasushi Horibata
Marco: Ichiro Otowa
Boggy: Andrew Holms
Gonzales: Hisao Egawa
Azteca: Ryu Kuzu
General: Steve Yamashita
Narrator: Randy Sexton

Special Thanks: Yoshihisa Nagata, Yuji Iwasaki, Minoru Masuyama, Yasuo Tsumori, Tsukasa Oshima, Akira Kurayabashi, Tatsuhiko Abe, Kenji Nakatsuka, Makoto Tanaka, Takao Kawashima, Koichi Morita, S.Yamakata, VG Kumagaya R&D, VG Tokyo R&D, VG Osaka R&D, Taito America, Taito Europe, Ebina Factory

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$info=dangar,dangara,dangarb,dangarj,dangarbt
Arcade Video game published 37 years ago:

Dangar - UFO Robo (c) 1986 Nichibutsu.

You fly a spaceship in a vertically scrolling game while fighting off enemy ships and collecting ship parts that combine to form an enormous, fist-launching robot. If the player can keep the robot in one piece (a difficult task considering the number of enemies the game throws at you), they'll eventually be able to arm it with a gun and even transform it into one of several devastatingly powerful smaller ships.

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 6 MHz)
Sound CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 4MHz)
Soundchips : Yamaha YM3526 (@ 4MHz), 2x DAC

Screen orientation : Vertical
Video resolution : 256 x 224
Screen refresh : 60 Hz

Players : 1
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2
=> [A] Shoot, [B] Transform

- TRIVIA -

Released in September 1986.

Pronounced 'dang-gar'. The game is inspired by Japanese cartoons 'DANGARD' and 'UFO ROBO GRENDIZER' from which takes also the design of the main character.

UFO stands for 'Unidentified Flying Object'.

Dangar - Ufo Robo is a sequel to "Terra Cresta" and a prequel to "Terra Force". Notice the same bosses and mini-bosses returning from "Terra Cresta" with minor changes, the formation and ship parts system returns again, the same enemies from "Terra Cresta" return, but now in a more robotic form. Some elements that will dominate in "Terra Force" are also here. Notice the underground warp holes and the mounted lasers that extend their length in the underground area.

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (G.S.M. Nichibutsu 1 - D28B0004) on 21/09/1988.

- UPDATES -

REVISION 1 :
* Build date : SEP. 26 1986

REVISION 2 :
* Build date : DEC. 1 1986

- SERIES -

1. Moon Cresta (1980)
2. Terra Cresta (1985)
3. Dangar - Ufo Robo (1986)
4. Terra Force (1987)
5. Terra Cresta II - Mandoraa no Gyakushuu (1992, NEC PC Engine)

- STAFF -

Directed by : Shigeki Fujiwara
Software by : Vabi Vube
Hardware by : Isao Shiki
Designed by : K. Nakagawa
Music & Sound by : Kenji Yoshida

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$info=dfeveron
Arcade Video game published 25 years ago:

Dangun Feveron (c) 1998 Cave.

A vertically scrolling shoot-em-up from the undisputed masters of the genre, 'Cave', Dangun Feveron features the usual Cave trademarks of intuitive, power-up driven gameplay backed-up with superb graphics and sound.

Dangun Feveron features a very high level of player customisation. At the start of a new game, players are prompted to select 3 different ship attributes; the speed of ship they wish to pilot (from a choice of four), which of the 3 rapid-fire weapons they prefer, and their preferred choice of sustained-fire weapons (activated by holding down the FIRE button). This allows players to tailor the ship to suit their individual needs and gameplay styles, be it a fast-flying speeder with widespread shots to handle enemy squadrons, or a ship with a lower speed that makes it easier to negotiate the swathes of enemy bullets that often fill the screen.

Another of the game's selling points is the capture-and-score system. Initially, every enemy destroyed is worth only one point. However, whenever an enemy is destroyed, coloured spheres appear in its wake, each containing a trapped, human prisoner. The spheres can then be collected by the player to earn additional points. For each prisoner saved, the total points gained from each enemy killed increases by one. For example, saving 56 prisoners means every subsequent defeated enemy is worth fifty-seven points. When the spheres appear, they drift slowly towards the bottom of the screen, before moving back up towards the top where, if they are not collected in time, they drift out of the screen and beyond the player's reach. This resets enemy-destroyed score back to a single point per enemy. If the player loses all of their lives and chooses to 'Continue' the game, the rescue count is reset to zero.

Dangun Feveron's final distinction was in its use of music and sound effects, with the game's creators drawing heavily on the disco sound of the 1970s.

- TECHNICAL -

Game ID : CV01

Cave 1st Generation Hardware

Main CPU : MC68000 (@ 16 Mhz)
Sound CPU : Zilog Z80 [Optional]
Sound Chips : Yamaha YMZ280B (@ 16.9344 Mhz) or OKIM6295 x (1 or 2) + YM2203 / YM2151 [Optional]
Other : 93C46 EEPROM

Screen orientation : Vertical
Video resolution : 240 x 320 pixels
Screen refresh : 57.55 Hz
Palette colors : 2048

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 3

- TRIVIA -

Released in September 1998.

The title of this game translates from Japanese as 'Bullet Gun Feveron'.

Licensed to Nihon System for distribution.

This game is known outside Japan as "Fever SOS".

Dangun Feveron / Cave [Scitron / Gamest - SGCD-0004 - Dec 4, 1998]

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Secret Guest Character (from "Uo Poko") : insert a coin and press quickly Down, Up, Right, Left, Up, Down, Left, Right, Start. 1P cat's name is Uotaro and 2P cat's is Poko (81). Note : At the continue (when you loose), you need to enter this code a second time, just after inserting a new credit, to continue to play with this guest character.

* Time Attack Mode : insert a coin, hold A+B and press Start simultaneously.

* You can kill enemies offscreen to the left and right, but not the top and bottom. This can be very useful for getting to later patterns. DM will still appear.

* If you have your side-guns powered up, a quick change in direction can be used to 'whip' their spread to kill popcorn enemies. Useful for killing offscreen enemies as well.

* There are specific triggers, sometimes apart from killing things fast that cause new formations to appear. Many yet to be deciphered.

* At ~2200 DM a 1UP will appear at the center of the screen. Usually triggered late in stage 3 or early in stage 4.

* Seems it is best to use Ship B with bomb or roll. Bomb appears to be higher scoring (due to chaining explosions) and require more planning, while roll is more frantic but kills many large enemies quickly.

* There is a maximum saturation of DM that can be onscreen at one time ~80. After which no DM will spawn, this can be detrimental to score especially in Stage 3.

* If the sphere boss at the end of stage 5 is beaten having not died, you will get a level bonus, then face the true boss. You will be invincible unless you use bombs and will get another level bonus when you kill it.

* Bonus for clearing the game is 100,000 per bomb and 500,000 per life left. These are doubled if you finish by defeating the true last boss.

- STAFF -

Music composed by : Ryuichi Yabuki, Nanpei Misawa

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$info=darius,dariusj,dariuso,dariusu
Arcade Video game published 36 years ago:

Darius (c) 1987 Taito Corp.

A horizontally scrolling shoot-em-up that was unique at the time for featuring a game screen that was three times wider than the conventional size, with the arcade cabinet utilizing three CRT screens to accommodate it.

In the game, the player flies an ornate fighter craft called a Silver Hawk. The craft is equipped with two attack weapons : Missile (forward-firing standard gun) and Bomb (drops from the bottom of the ship). The Silver Hawk is also equipped with the 'Arm' (armor); a green energy shield that can absorb enemy attacks without harm to the ship.

During the course of the levels the player must navigate the terrain and battle a variety of fighter craft, ground vehicles, turrets, and other obstacles. At the end of every level, players are greeted with the obligatory end-of-level boss. The bosses in Darius are often in the form of mechanical aquatic animals, such as fish or squid. If the player defeats the boss, the tunnel splits into two and the player must decide whether to take the upper or lower tunnel, both of which lead to a different stage. This allows many different paths to be taken through the game.

Power-ups can be obtained by shooting enemies of a certain color, with the power-ups appearing in the form of colored bubbles. Each color corresponds to one of the ship's three weapons :
* Red - Missile
* Green - Bomb
* Blue - Arm

If the player powers up a weapon more than seven times, the weapon changes to a new, more powerful version. This then becomes the player's default weapon, and can be powered up further. There are also two other colors of power-up bubble, white and orange; which can be obtained by shooting at certain sections of the terrain; unfortunately, there are no visual clues as to where these may be on any given level. These hidden power-ups offer the following :
* White - Gives a score bonus.
* Orange - Smart bomb that kills all on-screen enemies.

- TECHNICAL -

Prom Stickers : A96

Main CPU : (2x) Motorola 68000 (@ 8 Mhz)
Sound CPU : (2x) Zilog Z80 (@ 4 Mhz)
Sound Chips : (2x) Yamaha YM2203 (@ 4 Mhz), OKI MSM5205 (@ 384 Khz), (18x) Volume (@ 384 Khz)

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2

- TRIVIA -

Even if the title screen says 1986 (it was announced in 1986 in Japan), Darius was released in February 1987 in Japan. It was then released in March 1987 in North America.

Darius was unique in the shoot 'em up genre for having a game screen three times longer than the usual size, and thus required a huge mirror to align the three screens in order to play.

The player flies a small spacecraft called a Silver Hawk, which is also distinctive in being highly detailed in design - indeed, Taito devised mock blueprints for it. The Silver Hawks are a trademark of the series.

Another trademark of the series is the unique branching level structure. The levels are arranged in a large binary tree, and at the end of each level, the player must choose one of two paths to follow. This means that there are many different paths that can be taken through the game.

The heroes' names in Darius series, 'PROCO' and 'TIAT', spell 'TAITO CORP' backwards.

The first stage music is a remix of the "Metal Soldier Isaac II" intro music (1985).

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Darius - PCCB-00093) on August 21, 1992.

Zuntata Records released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Zuntata History L'ab-normal 1st - ZTTL-0038) on April 1, 1999.

- UPDATES -

In the oldest version of the game, when Silver Hawk's missiles are upgraded to either the laser or wave weapons, each boos life increases. However, in the new version (Revision 1), the game has been rebalanced such that boss fights are easier even when the Silver Hawk has been powered up.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Progression of the bubbles:
Weapons (red) : Bullets --> Lasers --> Wave
Shields (blue) : Green --> Silver --> Gold
Bombs (green) : Single --> Dual --> Quad

* Miscellaneous bubbles:
Points (grey): Points
Extra-ship : Bomb certain key spots on the terrain.

* Power levels: There are eight power levels (0-7) within each armament category. Your weapons, shields, and bombs improve as you go from 0-7 :
Weapons : The shots move faster and therefore recharge more quickly.
Bullets increase in number and waves increase in height, thus destroying more enemies at once. Waves, once fired, will go through anything until leaving the screen to the right.
Shields : They just recharge, but the better classes of shields absorb more hits. Gold shields will also protect your ship from collisions with objects as well as shots, but on certain screens that have lots of little squeezeways, gold shields can actually kill you by ricocheting your ship back and forth until you die.
Bombs : They get 'smarter' in seeking out targets.

* How to complete the game : Completing the game is easiest with triple bullets.
Explore the different paths this way, and when you're ready for a challenge, try to get wave.
Lasers are not weapons so much as a handicap you have to endure while building to wave.

* Recommended version: the newest (revision 1).

* Recommended paths (easiest): A-C-E-H-M-R-X

- SERIES -

1. Darius (1987, Arcade)
2. Darius II (1989, Arcade)
3. Darius Twin [Model SHVC-DT] (1991, Super Famicom)
4. Darius Force [Model SHVC-DH] (1993, Super Famicom)
5. Darius Gaiden - Silver Hawk (1994, Arcade)
6. G-Darius (1997, Arcade)
7. G-Darius ver.2 (1997, Arcade)
8. Darius Burst (2009, Sony PSP)
9. Darius Burst - Another Chronicle (2010, Arcade)
10. Darius Burst - Another Chronicle EX (2011, Arcade)

- STAFF -

Directed and produced by : Toshio Kohno
Game designers : Toshio Konho, Akira Fujita, Kazuya Mikata
Programmers : Ken Hasegama, Takashi Kuriyama, Hideaki Tomioka, Tohru Sugawara, Hidenori Sasatani, Hideki Hashimoto
Art designers : Tetsuroh Kitagawa, Yoshihiro Wakita, Junji Yarita, Yukio Ishikawa, Kohzoh Igarashi, Genya Kuriki, Taira Sanuki, Masami Kikuchi, Mitsuru Ogama
Mechanical engineers : Takeki Nakamura, Eiji Kubota
Cabinet designers : Takeo Shiraishi, Hisayoshi Nakane, Natsuki Hirosawa
Hardware designers : Takashi Ohhada, Syuji Kubota, Seigo Sakamoto
Music composers : Yasuhiko Tanaka, Hisayoshi Ogura, Naoto Yagishita, Tsukasa Nakamura, Eikichi Takahashi, Masahiko Takaki

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] NEC PC-Engine (1990) "Darius Alpha" 
[JP] NEC PC-Engine (sept.21, 1990) "Darius Plus [Model NAPH-1009]" 
[JP] NEC PC-Engine CD (mar.16, 1990) "Super Darius [Model HACD 0003]" 
[JP] Sony PS4 [PSN] (aug.26, 2016) "Arcade Archives - Darius [Model CUSA-03707]" 

* HANDHELDS: 
Nintendo Game Boy [AS] (1991) "Sagaia [Model DMG-116 CHN]" 
[JP] Nintendo Game Boy (dec.13, 1991) "Sagaia [DMG-S8A]" 
[JP] Nintendo GBA (dec.13, 2002) "Darius R [Model AGB-A2DJ-JPN]" 

* COMPUTERS:
[EU] Atari ST (1989) "Darius Plus" 
[EU] Commodore Amiga (1989) "Darius Plus" 
[EU] Sinclair ZX Spectrum (1990) "Darius Plus"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=dariuse
Arcade Video game kit published 36 years ago:

Darius - Extra Version (c) 1987 Taito Corp.

A new version of Darius with greatly altered enemy health and enemy placement. Enhancements were added to make the game easier to play, including making the laser even more powerful.

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=dariusg,dariusgu,dariusgj
Taito F3 cart. published 29 years ago:

Darius Gaiden - Silver Hawk (c) 1994 Taito Corporation.

In this game, the third in the Darius series, the player flies an ornate fighter craft called the Silver Hawk. The craft is equipped with two weapons: Missile (forward-firing standard gun) and Bomb (drops from the bottom of the ship). The Silver Hawk is also equipped with the 'Arm' (armor), a green energy shield that can absorb enemy attacks without harm to the ship. Some enemies leave panels behind that can be collected to power-up your shots, missiles or shield.

The graphics and sound are superior to those of the previous Darius games, and the game employs a lot of impressive visual effects; for example, the Silver Hawk warps into a stage dramatically in the fourth-tier stages, and begins to burn on re-entry at the start of the sixth-tier stages.

The bosses are huge and far more complex than those of the previous games, each employing several attack patterns and explode with powerful warping and twisting effects upon their defeat.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "Taito F3 System" Hardware.

Prom Stickers: D87

Screen Orientation: Horizontal

Players: 2
Control: 8-Way Joystick
Buttons: 2
=> Missile, Bomb

- TRIVIA -

Darius Gaiden was released on September 19, 1994. 

The title of this game translates from Japanese as 'Darius Side Story - Silver Hawk'. 

The game forbids the initials 'SEX' on the high score table. If you try, it gets changed to 'AAA'. 

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Darius Gaiden - PCCB-00166) on November 18, 1994.

- UPDATES -

The US version has the "Recycle It, Don't Trash It!" screen.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Items list:
- Red Shield: Appears when a red enemy is destroyed. Your shots are powered up by one level. 
- Green Shield: Appears when a green enemy is destroyed. When three have been obtained, your surface bombs are powered up by one level. 
- Blue Shield: Appears when a blue enemy is destroyed. When five have been obtained, your barrier is upgraded by one level. 
- Violet Shield: This is hidden in the landscape and appears when it is hit by a bomb. Your Black Hole bomb supply is increased by one. 
- Silver Shield: This is hidden in the landscape and appears when it is hit by a bomb. Awards a bonus score. 
- Gold Shield: This is hidden in the landscape and appears when it is hit by a bomb. It will destroy all enemies on the screen. 
- Extend Medallion: This is hidden in the landscape and appears when it is hit by a bomb. It will award you one extra life.

* Shoot the control ball to detach it from the mid-level boss. Then collect the ball to use the mid-level boss as a weapon.

- SERIES -

1. Darius (1987, Arcade)
2. Darius II (1989, Arcade)
3. Darius Twin [Model SHVC-DT] (1991, Super Famicom)
4. Darius Force [Model SHVC-DH] (1993, Super Famicom)
5. Darius Gaiden - Silver Hawk (1994, Arcade)
6. G-Darius (1997, Arcade)
7. G-Darius ver.2 (1997, Arcade)
8. Darius Burst (2009, Sony PSP)
9. Darius Burst - Another Chronicle (2010, Arcade)
10. Darius Burst - Another Chronicle EX (2011, Arcade)

- STAFF -

Producer: Hidehiro Fujihara
Game Designers: Hisakazu Kato, Akira Kurabayashi, Masami Kikuchi, Yutaka Nagayama, Naoto Omura, Hidetaka Harada, Rintaro Doi, Katsumi Kaneoka, Hisayoshi Ogura, Katsuhisa Ishikawa
Thanks: Kentaro Matsumura
Art Directors: Kat, Masami Kikuchi, Baw-Baw
Programmers: Kurabar, Yutaka Nagayama, Naoto Dmura, Hidetaka Harada
Hardware Engineer: Katsumi Kaneoka
Decorator: Rintaro Doi
Sound (Zuntata): Hisayoshi Ogura (OGR.), Katsuhisa Ishikawa
Bit Pattern: Makoto Fujita, Ucky Maeda, Tohru Kawaishi, Yuko Kajihara, Miwa Kamiya, Vap, A-Wave

Special Thanks: Hisao Shimizu, Ichiro Fujisue, Rie Amino, Takako Akitsu, Masahiro Tashito, Nakayama Jotohei, Nobuyuki Hayashi, Ryota Komai, Yasunobu Kosokabe, Mitsuru Fukumoto, Saori Hiratsuka, Ryota Sasaki, Naoto Yagishita, Takao Yoshiba,  Nobuaki Kuroki, Yuichi Onogi, Makoto Osaka, Yoshihiro Mori, Naomitsu Abe, Masatoshi Tsuneoka, Yosuke Tsuda,  Papara Kaito, Yoshinari Mitani, I,G Tatsunoko

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES: 
[JP] Sega Saturn (dec.15, 1995) "Darius Gaiden [Model T-1102G]" 
[EU] Sega Saturn (1996) "Darius Gaiden [Model T-8123H-50]" 
[US] Sega Saturn (1996) "Darius Gaiden [Model T-8123H]" 
[JP] Sony PlayStation (dec.13, 1996) "Darius Gaiden [Model SLPS-00574]" 
[JP] Sony PS2 (jul.28, 2005) "Taito Memories Joukan [Model SLPM-66057]" 
Sony PlayStation 2 [AU] (mar.30, 2006) "Taito Legends 2 [Model SLES-53852]" 
[EU] Microsoft XBOX (mar.31, 2006) "Taito Legends 2" 
[EU] Sony PS2 (mar.31, 2006) "Taito Legends 2 [Model SLES-53852]" 
[US] Sony PS2 (may.16, 2007) "Taito Legends 2 [Model SLUS-21349]" 

* COMPUTERS: 
[US] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (1998) 
[EU] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (mar.31, 2006) "Taito Legends 2" 
[US] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (jul.10, 2007) "Taito Legends 2"

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=586&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=dariusgx
Arcade Video game kit published 28 years ago:

Darius Gaiden - Silver Hawk - Extra Version (c) 1995 Taito Corp.

An official hack with increased rapid fire and swapped bosses.

In a 1-player game, if you press 2P Start, you won't be able to select your path at the end of a level, and you'll have to complete the 28 levels to end the game. The same trick is available in a 2-player game if you press 2P Start first, then let Player 1 join in.

- TECHNICAL -

This kit consists of four new EPROM to replace in the original F3 cart.

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=285678&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=darius2
Arcade Video game kit published 34 years ago:

Darius II (c) 1989 Taito Corp.

3-Screen ver. made to allow cabinets containing Darius and The Ninja Warriors to be converted to Darius II. For more information about the game itself, please see the original 2-Screen version entry; "Darius II [2-Screen ver.]".

- TRIVIA -

This three screens version was the more common one in the arcades.

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=279262&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=dstlk,dstlku,dstlkur1,dstlku1d
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 29 years ago:

Darkstalkers - The Night Warriors (c) 1994 Capcom.

North American & European release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese release entry; "Vampire - The Night Warriors [Green Board]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Blue Board [USA & Europe]

- TRIVIA -

Darkstalkers - The Night Warriors was released in July 1994 outside Japan. It is known in Japan as "Vampire - The Night Warriors".

In these export versions:
- Gallon is named Jon Talbain.
- Zabel Zarock is named Lord Raptor.
- Aulbath is named Rikuo.
- Phobos is named Huitzil.

Huitzil is the diminutive of 'Huitzilopochtli' (which means 'Blue Hummingbird on the Left'). He was the chief god of the great Aztec city Tenochtitlan and after his death became the Aztec god of the Sun and War.

Justin Wong holds the official record for this game with 687800 points on May 30, 2008.

A Darkstalkers unit appears in the 1995 movie 'The Net'.

Michael Jackson used to own this game (Serial number: 305260). It was sold at the official Michael Jackson Auction on Apr. 24th, 2009.

- UPDATES -

Blue Board releases : 

REVISION 1
* Build date: 940705
* US and EUROPE releases.

REVISION 2
* Build date: 940818
* US release.

- SERIES -

1. Darkstalkers - The Night Warriors [Blue Board] (1994)
2. Night Warriors - Darkstalkers' Revenge [Blue Board] (1995)
3. Vampire Savior - The Lord of Vampire [CP-S II No. 22] (1997)
4. Vampire Savior 2 - The Lord of Vampire [CP-S II No. 26] (1997)
5. Vampire Hunter 2 - Darkstalkers' Revenge [CP-S II No. 27] (1997)
6. Darkstalkers 3 - Vampire Savior (1999, Sony PlayStation)
7. Darkstalkers Chronicles - The Chaos Tower (2005, Sony PSP)

- PORTS -

Here is a list of ports released in North America and Europe.

* CONSOLES: 
Sega 32X [Unreleased Prototype] 
[US] Sony PlayStation (mar.28, 1996) "Darkstalkers - The Night Warriors [Model SLUS-00036]" 
[EU] Sony PlayStation (nov.1996) "Darkstalkers - The Night Warriors [Model SLES-00251]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=595&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=dstlka
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 29 years ago:

Darkstalkers - The Night Warriors (c) 1994 Capcom Company, Limited.

Asian release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese release entry; "Vampire - The Night Warriors [Green Board]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Grey Board [Asia]

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=69633&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=dstlkh
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 29 years ago:

Darkstalkers - The Night Warriors (c) 1994 Capcom Company, Limited.

South American release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese release entry; "Vampire - The Night Warriors [Green Board]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Orange Board [South America]

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=71637&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=ghostlop

Dataeast's Ghostlop (c) 1996 Data East Corp.

Bruce and McCoy are 2 ghost hunters who have to eradicate all the Great King of Terror's minions to save the world from his threat.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID: 0228

[SNK MVS Neo-Geo Controls]
2 players - 4 buttons per player (2 usables).
[JOYSTICK] 8-way, [A] Release red ball/Change ball color to red, [B] Release blue ball/Change ball color to blue

- TRIVIA -

This game is known in Japan as "Ghostlop".

This is a very rare prototype, never officially released.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

Here are the list of all the enemies you will have to fight...
1 : Mc Coy, your associate
2 : Friday, a ghost dog
3A : Under the Bed, a monster. It unlocks the two following missions...
-4A : The Eater, a ferocious thrash
-4B : Roaming Horses, as the name says
3B : Poltergeist, a spirit. It unlocks the two following missions...
-4A : Tin Tank, a toy.
-4B : Dancing Doll, a possessed doll.
5 : Lulu, the Exorcist.
6A : Cursed Guitar, the rock'n roll demon.
6B : Depends on what you've done on the fourth level. If you haven't already fight nor the Tin Tank nor The Eater, you will encounter the Roaming Horses. Else, you will fight the one you haven't already fight between the Tin Tank and The Eater. 
7 : Pumpkin Head, a Jack'o Lantern.
8 : Great King of Terror, the final boss.

Sometimes, a secret level appears when reaching a certain score. In this secret level, you fight Gray, a Roswell's Alien!

- STAFF -

Producer : Koji Jinbo (Jinbo)
Planner : Yuzuru Tsukahara
Soft : Sho-chang, Osapan, Sandy Hirokun, K. Minegishi
Graphic : Ukkari Tony, Kazuto Lee, Endo Chang, Ryo Kimura, Kenichi Maruyama, Gomes?, Ryuji Ishizaki
Sound : Masaaki Iwasaki (Koremasa), Hiroaki Yoshida (Maro) (Gamadelic), Sin
Voice : Word E. Sexton, Lynn M. Harris
Special Thanks : Mistutoshi Sato, Hiroki Narisawa

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=598&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=deadconx,deadconxj
Arcade Video game published 31 years ago:

Dead Connection (c) 1992 Taito Corporation.

Mobsters & criminals own the streets. Law enforcement has taken a backseat against the criminal empire that overwhelms the city and innocent people turn up dead with each passing moment. Take control of 4 brave vigilantes and exterminate the criminals using their rules! Features excellent sound effects as well as fast & furious action with plenty of weapons & stuff to find!

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "Taito F2 System" Hardware. It used a graphics extension on the board, the so called Taito F2 Expanded System (also known as the Taito F1 System).

Board Number: K11E0714A
Prom Stickers: D28

Screen Orientation: Horizontal

Players: 2
Control: 8-Way Joystick
Buttons: 2
=> Fire Weapon, Dive Roll

- TRIVIA -

Dead Connection was released in July 1992.

This game was unpopular in Japan because the Mafia theme was not proper to Japanese gamers. A very few boards were released in Japan.

This game seems to take specific inspiration from the the 1987 mobster film 'The Untouchables'. Two of the main characters bear an uncanny resemblance to Kevin Costner and Andy Garcia who both starred in that film.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Bonus points: In Stage 1, 5000 points are hidden in the safe. Hit it to get the bonus points.

* Emeny's bullets can be stopped by the machine gun and the shotgun.

- STAFF -

Planners: Papara Kaito, Jiro Tonegawa
Programmers: Okazu Taiyaki, Yuichi Kohyama, Junichiro Noguchi
Character Designers: Zenchan Ishii, Ukkari Jiro, K A T, Masami Kikuchi, Masahiro Kato, Atsushi Ishikawa, Ryuichi Matsuse, Haruo Tomita, Yukio Ishikawa, A-Wave, V A P, Peacock
Project Manager: Masaki Yagi (Ymot)
Hardware Engineer: Jun Sawaki
Graphic Designers: Rintaro Doi, Kyoko Umezu
Sound Soft (Zuntata): Yagisita
Sound Composed (Zuntata): Sousukun

Special Thanks: Sigenobu Shimizu, Satoyuki Shintaku, Takatsuka Senba (Takatuka Senba), Masahiro Terakoshi, Yosuke Tsuda, Keijiro Tomokawa, Kazunori Takahashi, Naoto Omura, Hayashi Nobuyuki, Masatoshi Tsuneoka, Seiichi Nakakuki, Tatsuya Ushiroda, Naomitsu Abe, Akira Saito, Fumio Shogaki

Directors: Masaki Ogata, Ichiro Fujisue, Fujiwaran X

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=605&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=demonwld,demonwld1,demonwld2,demonwld3,demonwld4
Arcade Video game published 33 years ago:

Demon's World (c) 1990 Toaplan.

A side-scrolling shoot'em up / platform game.

- TECHNICAL -

Game ID : TP-016

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 10 Mhz), Zilog Z80 (@ 3.5 Mhz), TMS32010 (@ 3.5 Mhz)
Sound Chips : YM3812 (@ 3.5 Mhz)

Screen orientation : Horizontal
Video resolution : 320 x 240 pixels
Screen refresh : 55.16 Hz
Palette colors : 2048

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 3

- TRIVIA -

Released in January 1990.

Licensed to Taito for Japanese distribution.

Demon's World was originally known as "Hora Story" rather than horror story as listed. For US distribution, it was licensed to World Games who later became Catalina Games for the release of their only inhouse designed game "Cool Pool".

- UPDATES -

There are 2 versions of this game, which effect the order of the levels. One starts in the Far East and features Asian-style ghosts, while the other starts the game in the spooky Old West with Western-style ghosts.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Hidden Functions : If the 'Invulnerability dip switch' is enabled, you are invulnerable but you may also 'Pause' the game with P2 Start and restart with P1 Start.

- STAFF -

Sound composer : Toshiaki Tomizawa, Osamu Oota

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
NEC PC-Engine Super CD-ROM (1993, "Horror Story")

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=619&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=diggerma

Digger Man (c) 1999 The Game Room.

- TRIVIA -

This game steals many sprites & sounds from Face's "Gururin".

- STAFF -

Designed by: Kyle Hodgetts

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=6055&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=dimahoo,dimahoou,dimahoud
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 23 years ago:

Dimahoo (c) 2000 Capcom Company, Limited.

North American & European release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese release entry; "Great Mahou Daisakusen [Green Board]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Blue Board [USA & Europe]

- SERIES -

1. Sorcer Striker (1993)
2. Kingdom Grandprix (1994)
3. Dimahoo [Blue Board] (2000)

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=640&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=dinorex,dinorexu,dinorexj
Arcade Video game published 31 years ago:

Dino Rex (c) 1992 Taito.

In this one-on-one fighting game, six selectable dinosaurs do battle for their caveman masters!

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "Taito F2 System" hardware.

Prom Stickers: D39

Players: 2
Control: 8-way joystick
Buttons: 3

- TRIVIA -

Released in November 1992, Dino Rex was originally planned to be released exclusively to the western market, but in the end the game was released to the Japanese market, too. 

At the beginning of the game development, the original plan was to design a helicopter shoot'em up, but this changed because of the success of the famous "Street Fighter II: The World Warrior".

According to one of the director (Senba Takatsuna), he lacked of Taito's programmers so he recruited new programmers, not familiar with Taito, for this game.

- UPDATES -

The US version has the "Winners Don't Use Drugs" screen.

- STAFF -

Game designer : Project D-Rex
Planners & Directors : Senba Takatsuna, Kimura Chiho
Programmers : Nakamura Yasuhito, Iromust TMR, Tarabar, KZN, NOB, Okamoto Masahiro, Takayuki Shinma
Special programmer : Ichiro Fujisue
Hard Ware : Kawamoto Toshihiko
Decorator : Takenami Toshiyuki
Sound director : Yasuko Yamada (Zuntata)
Sound composers : Hiroshige Tonomura (TONO) (Zuntata), V. Ohashi (Pinch Panchi)
Sound effects : V. Ohashi (Pinch Panchi), Yasuko Yamada (Zuntata)
Planning support : Tomita Takaaki, Abe Naomitsu, Yusuke Tsuda
Software support : Kuroki Naoya, Masaya Kinoshita, Tany, Yagi Chan
Bit pattern (Character) : Senba Takatsuna, Kimura Chiho, Abe Naomitsu, Yusuke Tsuda
Bit pattern : Masami Kikuchi, Oh!No! Tomohiro, Takayuki Miyazawa, Joney Moriyama, Angel Ushiroda, Vinus Terakoshi
Rastan 3 design by : Makoto Fujita
Title present by : Ishii Hide
Cast : Ho Lee Chan, CP-Suger, Feti Oyabin, Angelliena, Papawa 30
Producers : Masaki Ogata, Ichiro Fujisue, Senba Takatsuna

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES: 
[JP] Sony PS2 (jan.25, 2007) "Taito Memories II Joukan [Model SLPM-66649]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=642&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=dinohunt
Arcade Video game published 30 years ago:

Dinosaur Hunter (c) 1993 Unknown.

Unofficial Chinese version of "Cadillacs and Dinosaurs".

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=33663&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=diverboy
Arcade Video game published 31 years ago:

Diverboy (c) 1992 Electronic Devices.

A reversed "Bomb Jack"-type game.

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 12 Mhz)
Sound CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 4 Mhz)
Sound Chips : OKI6295 (@ 10 Khz)

Screen orientation : Horizontal
Video resolution : 318 x 240 pixels
Screen refresh : 60.00 Hz
Palette Colors : 1024

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2

- TRIVIA -

All songs of this game are ripped from Data East's "Tumble Pop".

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=647&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=ddonpach,ddonpachj
Arcade Video game published 26 years ago:

DoDonPachi (c) 1997 Atlus.

An excellent vertically scrolling shoot'em up.

- TECHNICAL -

Game ID : ATC03D2

Cave 1st Generation Hardware

Main CPU : MC68000 (@ 16 Mhz)
Sound CPU : Zilog Z80 [Optional]
Sound Chips : Yamaha YMZ280B (@ 16.9344 Mhz) or OKIM6295 x (1 or 2) + YM2203 / YM2151 [Optional]
Other : 93C46 EEPROM

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2
=> [A] Shoot, [B] Bomb

- TRIVIA -

Developed by Cave.

Released in February 1997.

Angry Chief Hornet (literally), 'DonPachi' is also Japanese onomatopoeia for the firing of guns...

A 'Campaign Version' was released. Reportedly only 100 units ever made and given out as prizes to high score contest winners.

Scitron / Gamest released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (DoDonPachi, ESP Ra.de. Soundtrack - SGCD-00002) on 06/11/1998.
Scitron Digital Content released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Dodonpachi II / Dodonpachi Sound Trax - SCDC-00126) on 19/09/2001.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Bee Medals : There are bee medals hidden in the whole game. If you shoot where a bee medal is hidden, it starts to blink. Then you will need to use your laser to free it, before you can collect the medal.

* Hits : There is a combo score system for hits within a specific time range. If it takes too long for your next hit, the chain breaks and counting restarts.

* Hidden 1up player : In stage 3 is your one and only chance to pick up a 1up item. It is hidden in the giant red spaceship you will pass later in the stage. To get it, open all 6 side-boxes with your laser, before you destroy the main tower in the center of the ship. You are not allowed to use your smartbomb for these actions. Otherwise the 1up item would not appear in the ruins of the tower afterwards.

* Bomb Stock : If you don't use the smartbombs and keep the stock display at 'maximum' bonus multiplier will be 2x.

* Flower bloom : There are a few places in the game you will meet flowers growing in ruins. If you fly near them they will bloom. This is more than just a joke of the graphic artist. It can reward you with a nice bonus score :
(each) flower blooming : 10 points per 1/60 sec.
+ your shots hit it : 510 points per bullet
+ your laser crosses it : 1'100 points per 1/30 sec.

* Second loop : To access the second (harder) loop thus being able to fight against Hibachi, the 'true' final boss after level 6 boss, you have to complete the first 6 levels with only one credit and meet at least one of these conditions :
- Don't lose more than 2 fighters (lives). 
- Depending on the fighter, have a maximum hit count of at least : 
Type A : 270 hits 
Type B : 300 hits 
Type C : 330 hits 
- At least 50 million points by the end of level 6. 
- Collect all 13 bees in four of the 6 areas using the tactic explained above for 'bee medals'.

- SERIES -

1. DonPachi (1995)
2. DoDonPachi (1997)
3. Bee Storm - DoDonPachi II (2001)
4. DoDonPachi Dai-Ou-Jou (2002)
5. DoDonPachi Dai-Fukkatsu (2008)
6. DoDonPachi Saidaioujou (2012)
7. DoDonPachi Maximum (2012) [Apple App Store]

- STAFF -

Designers : Naoki Ogiwara, Akira Wakabayashi, Hiroyuki Tanaka, Junya Inoue, Riichirou Nitta
Programmers : Tsuneki Ikeda, Satoshi Kohyama, Makoto Watanabe, Takashi Ichimura
Special Thanks : Toshiaki Tomizawa, Atsunori Aburatani, Ryuichi Yabuki
Producer : Kenichi Takano

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] Sega Saturn (sept.18, 1997; "DoDonPachi [Model T-14419G]")
[JP] Sony PlayStation (sept.10, 1998; "DoDonPachi [Model SLPS-01364]")
[JP] Sega Saturn (sept.17, 1998; "DoDonPachi [Model T-14424G]")
[JP] Sony PlayStation (may.26, 2010, "PSOne Classics")

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=652&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=dogyuun,dogyuuna,dogyuunb,dogyuunt,dogyuunto
Arcade Video game published 31 years ago:

Dogyuun (c) 1992 Toaplan Company, Limited.

A vertically scrolling shoot'em up.

- TECHNICAL -

Game ID: TP-022

Main CPU: Motorola 68000 (@ 16 Mhz)
Sound Chips: Yamaha YM2151 (@ 3.375 Mhz), OKI6295 (@ 20.454 Khz)

Players: 2
Control: 8-way joystick
Buttons: 3

- TRIVIA -

Dogyuun was released in October 1992.

Licensed to Unite Trading for Korea, to Charterfield for Hong Kong and South East Asia, to Atari Games for USA and to Taito corp. for Japan.

The title of this game translates from Japanese as "Bang!" (an onomatopoeia for gunshot).

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Hidden Functions : If the 'Invulnerability dip switch' is enabled, you are invulnerable but you may also 'Pause' the game with P2 Start and restart with P1 Start.

- STAFF -

Producer : Toshiaki Oota
Programmers : Hiroaki Furukawa, Toshiaki Oota, Tatsuya Uemura, Washimoto
Music composer : Tatsuya Uemura
Sound effects : Washimoto
Designers : Takaestu Iwabuchi, Miho Hayashi, Yuuko Takada, Anpanmanda, Saori Hiratsuka, Junya Inoue, Ikuo Matsumura, Kaneyo Oohira

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=658&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=dondokod,dondokodu,dondokodj
Arcade Video game published 34 years ago:

Don Doko Don (c) 1989 Taito Corporation.

Don Doko Don is a platform game where you play a bearded dwarf with a mallet as your only weapon. Very abstract colors, talking trees, cute graphics and sounds. The object is to defeat all the enemies and advance to the next round, which reveals more and different enemies.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "Taito F2 System" hardware. It used a graphics extension on the board, the so called Taito F2 Expanded System (also known as the Taito F1 System).

Board Number: M4300131A
Prom Stickers: B95

Screen Orientation: Horizontal

Players: 2
Control: 8-Way Joystick
Buttons: 2
=> Attack with mallet, Jump

- TRIVIA -

Don Doko Don was released in July 1989. 

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Don Doko Don - PCCB-00008) on October 21, 1989.

- UPDATES -

The US version has the "Winners Don't Use Drugs" screen.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Items list:
Power Drink (red): Increase your level by 1 one
Maxim Drink: Increase your level to maximum
Medicine (blue): Increase speed when holding an enemy
Book of Death (black): Eliminate all on-screen enemies
Book of Smash (brown): Smash all on-screen enemies
Death Hammer (grey): Can defeat an enemy with a single strike
Flying Hammer (blue): This hammer can be thrown
Fruit: Bonus points
Poison Apple: Decrease your level by one
Key: Open the door to a bonus or hidden stage

* Teddy Bear cheat: in the demo mode during the attract mode (not the tutorial), press the attack button 3 times, and a cute picture of a bear will appear in the bottom left of the screen.

* Secret Room and Bonus Game:
If you hit the bottom of the first level, you will get the key to go to the Secret Room.
In Level 5, hit the bottom of the Right screen and you will get the key to go to the bonus game.

* Stage Select: like other Taito games, Don Doko Don has a stage select feature. 
1) During boot, push the 'service button.'
2) The 'Service switch error' screen should appear; push START three times and then push the service switch button.

* True Ending: If you get all the secret keys, you will be able to answer the secret code from the first secret stage. This means you will have to go through another 50 stages. Finally, you have to defeat the final boss (100th stage). Now you can see the true ending!

- SERIES -

1. Don Doko Don (1989)
2. Don Doko Don 2 (1992, Nintendo NES)

- STAFF -

Developed by the Taito team: Kumagaya Laboratory

Producers: Seiji Kawakami, T. Matumoto, Hiroyuki Sakou (Hiroyuki Sakoh)
Software: Kazutomo Ishida, Masaya Kinoshita
Characters: Seiji Kawakami, Yukiwo Ishikawa (Y. Abechan), Minori Ishino, Kazuhiro Numata, Kohzoh Igarashi, Tetsuya Shinoda, V.A.P.
Sound (Zuntata): Masahiko Takagi, Yasuko Yamada
Hardware: K. Fugimoto, Who Manchu
Designers: Hiroyasu Nagai, V.A.P

Special Thanks: Masaki Ogata, Kumagaya Project

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES: 
[JP] Nintendo Famicom (mar.9, 1990) "Don Doko Don [Model TFC-DD-5900]" 
[JP] NEC PC-Engine (may.31, 1990) "Don Doko Don [Model TP02010]" 
[JP] Sony PS2 (jul.28, 2005) "Taito Memories Joukan [Model SLPM-66057]" 
[AU] Sony PlayStation 2 (mar.30, 2006) "Taito Legends 2 [Model SLES-53852]"
[EU] Microsoft XBOX (mar.31, 2006) "Taito Legends 2" 
[EU] Sony PS2 (mar.31, 2006) "Taito Legends 2 [Model SLES-53852]"
[US] Sony PS2 (may.16, 2007) "Taito Legends 2 [Model SLUS-21349]" 

* COMPUTERS: 
[EU] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (mar.31, 2006) "Taito Legends 2" 
[US] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (jul.10, 2007) "Taito Legends 2"

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=665&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=dkong,dkongo,dkonghrd
Arcade Video game published 42 years ago:

Donkey Kong (c) 1981 Nintendo of America, Incorporated.

Export version for North America. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese upright version entry.

- TECHNICAL -

[Blue Upright model] 
The blue uprights (which are the most common), are a very rectangular affair, with quite a lot of artwork. They have orange-ish sticker style side-art (with Mario and Kong on them), with control panel, marquee, and monitor bezel graphics to match. This game does not use a standard arcade monitor. It requires a 'Nintendo Compatible' monitor (a normal monitor will display the picture like that of a photographic negative). This simple little monitor change basically launched the entire Nintendo Vs. Unisystem later on. Because only Donkey Kong series games and Vs. titles would work on these monitors (forcing operators to buy conversion kits for those games instead of a competitors game). 

[Red Upright model] 
The red upright versions are actually "Radar Scope" cabinets that have been factory-converted to Donkey Kong. These are fairly rare and feature slightly different gameplay.

- TRIVIA -

Donkey Kong was released on July 31, 1981 in the USA.

Donkey Kong was to be Nintendo's first big breakthrough into the western - and particularly American - arcade scene. Before Donkey Kong, Nintendo was having difficulty establishing itself in these markets. After the game's massive success Nintendo quickly established their headquarters of Nintendo of America to ensure that the game was being distributed properly. 

Mario was named after Mario Segale, the landlord of Nintendo of America's first warehouse location in Seattle (though it was debated whether this occurred before or well after the game was released). Mario was originally called 'Jumpman'; only the arcade version of Donkey Kong has ever called the hero Jumpman; most home coversions, particularly the NES version, game him the Mario name.

Accounts differ as to how Nintendo of America felt about the game before its release. Many sources claim that they all felt sure it would be an absolute disaster while others say they were more optimistic.

Although Mario is a plumber in later games, his career in Donkey Kong is that of a carpenter. Mario's appearance (and consequently his career) was dictated by the primitive graphics hardware of the time - the only way to have his arms appear 'separate' to his torso was to have them as a different color - hence he wears 'dungarees'. The mustache is present merely to indicate where Mario's mouth is, again due to the low graphics resolution imposed by hardware limitations. Mario wears a hat so his head is distinguishable from the game's black backgrounds. 

About 60,000 units were sold in the US. Oddly, despite it being one of the ten best selling games of the golden age of video games, it never reached #1 on Replay's popularity charts. Instead, it was stuck at #2 behind mega hits "Pac-Man" and "Ms. Pac-Man" - the two best selling games ever. 

Donkey Kong inspired a catchy hit song by Buckner and Garcia called 'Do The Donkey Kong' released on the 'Pac-Man Fever' album. 

A Donkey Kong unit appears in the 1983 movie 'WarGames', the 1984 movie 'Gremlins', the 1985 movie 'The Heavenly Kid', and the sitcom 'Two and a Half Men' (Season 5, Episode 2 - People Who Love Peepholes). 

MB (Milton Bradley) released a board game based on this video game (same name) in 1982. Save the girl and avoid the barrels and fireballs as in the video game. The gameboard is laid out like the video game's Ramp Stage. 'Can You Battle Donkey Kong and Save the Fair Maiden?'. 

Donkey Kong also spawned a cartoon series of the same name : Ruby-Spears Productions. Produced by Joe Ruby and Ken Spears. Originally aired September 17, 1983 as part of 'Saturday Supercade' on CBS. Mario was voiced by veteran voice actor Peter Cullen, while Donkey Kong's voice was provided by the late actor/comedian Soupy Sales (1926-2009). 

Michael Jackson used to own this game (Blue Upright model). It was sold at the official Michael Jackson Auction on April 24, 2009.

- UPDATES -

The original Japanese version had all four stages displayed in their original, logical order 1-2-3-4.
For this US version, they changed it to match the 'How High Can You Try/Get?' theme, with the stage order as follows : 
L-01: 1-4 
L-02: 1-3-4 
L-03: 1-2-3-4 (as in all levels of the Japanese version) 
L-04: 1-2-1-3-4 
L-05: 1-2-1-3-1-4 
L-06 through L-21 all remain the same as L-05 
L-22: 1 (Kill screen).

- SERIES -

1. Donkey Kong (1981)
2. Donkey Kong Junior (1982)
3. Donkey Kong 3 (1983)

- PORTS -

NOTE: Only ports released in North America are listed here. For ports released in other regions, please see the original Japanese upright version entry.

* CONSOLES: 
[US] Atari 2600 (1982) "Donkey Kong [Model 2451]" 
[US] Colecovision (1982) "Donkey Kong [Model 2411]" 
[US] Mattel Intellivision (1982) "Donkey Kong [Model 2471]" 
[US] Nintendo NES (june.1986) "Donkey Kong [Model NES-DK-USA]" 
[US] Atari XEGS 
[US] Atari 2600 (1988) "Donkey Kong [Model CX26143]" 
[US] Atari 7800 (1988) "Donkey Kong [Model CX7848]" 

* HANDHELDS: 
[US] Nintendo Game Boy (june.1994) "Donkey Kong [Model DMG-QD-USA]" 

* COMPUTERS: 
[US]  Tandy Color Computer (1982) "Dunkey Munkey" 
[US]  Tandy Color Computer (1982) "Donkey King" 
[US]  Tandy Color Computer (1983) "The King" 
[US]  Tandy Color Computer (1983) "Monkey Kong" 
[US] PC [Booter] (1983) "Donkey Kong" 
[US] PC [Booter] (1983) "Gorilla Gorilla" : part of the "FriendlyWare P.C. Arcade" suite 
[US] Atari 800 (1983) "Donkey Kong [Model RX8031]" 
[US] TI99/4A (1983) "Donkey Kong [Model RX8512]"
[US] Commodore VIC-20 (1983) "Donkey Kong [Model RX8513]"
[US] Apple II (1983) 
[US] Commodore C64 (1983) "Donkey Kong [Model RX8514]"
[US] PC [MS-DOS] (1997) "Champ Kong" by CHAMProgramming 

* OTHERS: 
[US] VFD handheld game (1982) released by Coleco. 
[US] LCD handheld game (Game & Watch) released by Nintendo: double screen.

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$info=donpachi,donpachij,donpachikr,donpachihk
Arcade Video game published 28 years ago:

DonPachi (c) 1995 Atlus.

An excellent vertically scrolling shoot'em up. The player assumes the role of a pilot who is sent by their squadron to fight their former allies until one side destroys the other, all of which is a part of a mission to strengthen the military power that controls each side. The player flies their selected fighter over 5 areas of various terrain, encountering a number of land, sea and air enemies. The player's ship has two modes of fire : by tapping the fire button, shots are fired; holding it down produces a concentrated vertical beam, but also reduces the ship's speed.

The player can choose one of 3 aircraft at the start of the game, or upon continuing :
Type A : A red (or yellow/orange, for player two) fighter, which fires a narrow stream of shots
Type B : A green (or purple, for player two) helicopter, which fires its main guns forward, but has side guns that rotate in the direction of movement
Type C : A blue (or black, for player two) fighter, which fires a wide, three-way spread of shots

- TECHNICAL -

Game ID : ATC01DP

Cave 1st Generation Hardware

Main CPU : MC68000 (@ 16 Mhz)
Sound CPU : Zilog Z80 [Optional]
Sound Chips : Yamaha YMZ280B (@ 16.9344 Mhz) or OKIM6295 x (1 or 2) + YM2203 / YM2151 [Optional]
Other : 93C46 EEPROM

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 3
=> [A] Shoot, [B] Bomb, [C] Full-Auto

- TRIVIA -

Developed by Cave, this is their first game (released in May 1995).

DonPachi is one of only two Cave shooters to get released in the USA, the other being Progear no Arashi. Both US versions of these games are extremely rare and sought after since only a small handful were made for the American market.

The name of the game is a pun; the kanji for DonPachi literally means 'leader bee', but the word 'don' is also a Japanese onomatopoeia for the sound of a gun firing. There are a number of references to bees in the game : the most obvious is the bee icon that can be picked up for high scores. The transition effect between levels is tiled, made up of red hexagons, which resembles a bee hive.

The plot of this game is quite 'cheesy' : you fight your own comrades in order to become the ultimate fighter, the 'DonPachi elite team!'.

Kenichi Takano and Tsuneki Ikeda (see Staff section) were ex-Toaplan employers. It seems that Tsuneki Ikeda was one of the programmers behind "Truxton", hence the red/blue/green ships colour (for player1 of course). He should also be the 'Ikeda in Maeba' guy appearing in "Batsugun"'s credits.

The default high score table contains a hidden message : read vertically, the initials will read, TOAPLAN.FOREVER.

The 'English' text that appears against the 'WARNING' message upon approaching a boss reads : THIS IS NOT SIMILATION. GET READY TO DESTOROY THE ENEMY. TARGET FOR THE WEAK POINTS OF F**KIN' MACHINE. DO YOUR BEST YOU HAVE EVER DONE.

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Donpachi - G.S.M. 1500 / PCCB-00184) on 21/06/1995.

- UPDATES -

The US version is slightly different, it has the "Winners Don't Use Drugs" screen.

- SCORING -

DonPachi features a scoring system known as Get Point System (GPS). By destroying large groups or chains of enemies in a short period of time, you can build up a number called a combo, similar to the kind found in fighting games. You receive an increasing number of points with every enemy you shoot down; the more enemies you hit in one chain, the more points you receive. You can break the chain by waiting to shoot an enemy; the combo number will turn blue when your chain is broken. This system brings a new challenge after the player has cleared the game; plot out the stages to achieve a high score.

After completing an area, player gains following scores based on performance in the completed area :
Star : 10000 points per item collected in the area using current live.
Bombitem : Player gets additional points for having less than 7 maximum slots. Player initially gets 100,000, 60,000, 30,000, 10,000 points for 3, 4, 5, 6 bomb slots respectively. If player manages to complete successive areas with only current life, the bombitem bonus increases, up to 5,000,000 points.

If 2nd loop is completed with 1 credit, player gets 1 million points for each reserved fighter.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Bee Medals : there are 13 bee medals hidden in each stage. If you cross the location of a hidden bee medal with your bullets or your laser, it starts to blink. Only the head of the laser weapon frees it, so you can capture it after.
1st medal is worth 100 points, 2nd medal 200, 3rd 400, then 800, 1,000, 2,000...
If you miss a medal, the chain breaks and counting restarts. In case you manage to collect all bee medals of a stage, the 13th medal increases it's value stage by stage up to 1,000,000 points.

* Hits : if you destroy multiple targets within an very short time range (indicated by a green colored bar), a hit counter starts and after 10 hits it will be visible in large letters. Once your hits are too slow, the counter stops and disappears.

* At the 2nd loop, all targets destroyed releases bullets towards your ship.

- SERIES -

1. DonPachi (1995)
2. DoDonPachi (1997)
3. Bee Storm - DoDonPachi II (2001)
4. DoDonPachi Dai-Ou-Jou (2002)
5. DoDonPachi Dai-Fukkatsu (2008)
6. DoDonPachi Saidaioujou (2012)
7. DoDonPachi Maximum (2012) [Apple App Store]

- STAFF -

Producer : Kenichi Takano
Programmers : Tsuneki Ikeda, Toshiaki Tomizawa, H. Uchida, Ryuichi Yabuki
Graphic Designers : Atsunori Aburatani, K. Asaba, J. Fujisaku, Riichirou Nitta, Naoki Ogihara
Sound : Ryuichi Yabuki
Special Thanks: N. Kaneko, Satoshi Kohyama

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] Sega Saturn (apr.26, 1996; "DonPachi [Model T-14405G]")
[JP] Sony PlayStation (oct.18, 1996; "DonPachi [Model SLPS-00548]")
[JP] Sony PlayStation (aug.30, 2001; "DonPachi [Model SLPS-86855]")
[JP] Sony PlayStation (may.12, 2010, PSOne Classics)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$info=ddragon3,ddragon3b,ddragon3j,ddragon3p
Arcade Video game published 33 years ago:

Double Dragon 3 - The Rosetta Stone (c) 1990 Technos Japan Corp. 

A mysterious fortune teller warns Billy & Jimmy Lee about the rise of a powerful enemy in Egypt. Since the Lee brothers are looking for a true challenge to put their martial arts skills to the ultimate test, they agree to face this mysterious new enemy. They embark on a world quest - joining up with new allies in the process - and try to lay claim to the famous 'Rosetta Stone'.

The 3rd and final arcade entry of the Double Dragon series (not counting the later Neo-Geo fighting game based on the movie) features a completely gameplay system and graphics from the first two instalments. The game can played by up to 2 or 3 players, depending on the cabinet and settings. The 3rd player takes control of a yellow-clad Lee brother named Sonny, who is exclusive to this game. Techniques from the previous games such as the hair grab and the elbow punch are gone, but new ones are added such as the belly-to-back throw and the back-to-back hurricane kick, as well as the ability to dash by tapping the joystick left or right twice.

The game features weapon shops that allows the player to purchase power-ups by inserting additional tokens. The power-ups differ between stages differ between stages and are available as followed.
* Extra Guys - Allows the player to control a new character who replaces the current fighter when he dies. There are three character types in addition to the Lee brothers.
- The Urquidez Brothers (Roney, Sunny, Jonny) -  Tall European grapplers. They have the most energy of the four character types.  Up to three fighters can be have in reserve.
- The Chin Brothers (Seimei, Taimei, Sinmei) - Chubby Chinese men with powerful attacks.
- The Oyama Brothers (Masao, Kunio, Akira) - Japanese karate masters dressed in gis specializing in speedy attacks.
* Tricks - The hurricane kick and the one-armed stand head butt are added to the player's move set. If the player's current character dies, then the new techniques will be inherited by the next character in reserve, if there is one.
* Weapons - A nunchaku or sword are given player. Only the Lees can have purchase and wield weapons.
* Energy - Restores the current character's life to 150%.
* Power-Up - Increases the character's agility.

There are 5 stages in the game :

Mission 1 - America - The enemies in this stage are typical thugs and bikers. The first area takes place in a downtown area of city. After defeating the first wave of enemies, the player will enter a warehouse, where they encounter bikers that will try to run over them with their bike. The boss in this is Jim, a red-haired biker wearing a leather jacket.

Mission 2 - China - The enemies are martial artists that specialize in flying kicks. The stage takes place in a single level set in a countryside near the Great Wall of China. The boss at the end of level is Li Cheng-Long, a Shaolin Martial Arts expert who resembles Bruce Lee. When he's down in life, he will wield out his club.

Mission 3 - Japan - The enemies are samurai swordsmen. The first area takes place outside a castle, with bamboo traps and enemies coming out of walls. The second area takes place inside a castle, where the player will face a few more swordsmen before taking out on the boss, Ranzou, a ninja. He attacks with throwing stars and smoke bombs and splits into three forms when he's down on his life.

Mission 4 - Italy - Consists of a single level set in the ruins of a coliseum. The enemies are roman archers. After defeating most of the archers, the boss Giuliano, a man decked in gladiator armour, will attempt to run the player over with his horse. After defeating all the archers, Giuliano will dismount at the end of the level and fight the player. He wields a long hand spear and can block attacks with his shield.

Mission 5 - Egypt - The final stage is composed of seven levels, which includes a desert field, an underground forest, a trap room with stone pillars and giant hands emerging from the floor, a hall with a flying disc. Enemies include living tree men and rock creatures.

- TECHNICAL -

Game ID : TA-0030

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 12 Mhz)
Sound CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 3.579545 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Yamaha YM2151 (@ 3.579545 Mhz), OKI6295 (@ 8.5 Khz)

Players : 3
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 3

- TRIVIA -

Developed by East Technology. Double Dragon 3 was released in November 1990 by Technos.

The first two Double Dragon games were created by an internal team at Technos, but this game was written by an outside team called East Technology (see Staff section for more information). A graffiti in the first stage reads "Gigandes", which one of the team's previous games.

There are 4 character types, the Lee brothers and 3 new character types (who are available via the weapon shops in the American and World versions, and are selectable in the Japanese version). However the original idea for the game was for the player to select between Billy and Jimmy Lee, or one of the 3 new characters introduced in the game. The original characters which were Roney Urquidez (who originally wore orange), Chin Seimei (who originally wore red) and Masao Oyama (who was originally named Masahiko Oyama). Apparently the designers considered the possibility that 2 or 3 players playing the game at the same time might want to control the same character, so they revised this by creating Sonny (the 3rd Lee brother) and 2 siblings for each of the new characters. A separate character portrait was made for Jimmy, which is unused in the released Japanese version. The game's ending depicts the original 5 characters, as does the artwork on the Japanese sales flyer.

Soundtrack releases (for limited-editon) :
Double Dragon 3 / The Conbatribes - / Pony Canyon / Scitron - PCCB-00065 - June 21, 1991

- UPDATES -

The US version is slightly different, it has the 'Winners Don't Use Drugs' screen.

The Japanese version discards the weapon shops completely from the game. Instead, the game asks the player to select from the 4 character types available when they begin (Lee, Chin, Urquidez or Oyama). The one-armed stand head-butt and the hurricane kick are available as part of the default moveset, but the hurricane kick is made hard to execute. While controlling one of the Lee brothers, a nunchaku or a sword can be found on the floor in certain stages. The first stage is slightly re-arranged, with the starting point moved in front of the Power Records store and the conveyor belt inside the warehouse removed.

- SERIES -

1. Double Dragon [Model TA-0021] (1987)
2. Double Dragon II - The Revenge [Model TA-0026] (1988)
3. Double Dragon 3 - The Rosetta Stone [Model TA-0030] (1991)
4. Super Double Dragon (1992, Super Famicom )
5. Double Dragon V - The Shadow Falls (1994, Super NES / Jaguar )
6. Double Dragon (1995, AES / NEO GEO / NEO GEO CD, 1996, Playstation)
7. Double Dragon Advance (2004, GBA)
8. Double Dragon (2009, Zeebo)
9. Double Dragon (2011 iOS / Android)
10. Double Dragon Neon (2012, PS3 / Xbox 360)
11. Double Dragon II: Wander of the Dragons -  (2013, Xbox 360)
12. Double Dragon IV (2017, PS4 / Nintendo Switch / iOS / Android / Windows)

- STAFF -

Director: Yoshihisa Kishimoto
Programmers : N. Takioka, E. Ogura, Y. Katsumata
Designers : K. Ichikawa, T. Irisawa, T. Chida, J. Hasepin, H. Nagoshi, U. Hoshino
Audio : A. Inoue, T. Nozaki

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
Nintendo Famicom (1990, JP title : "Double Dragon III: The Rosetta Stone", NA/EU title : "Double Dragon III: The Sacred Stones")
Sega Mega Drive (1992)
Nintendo Game Boy (1992)

* COMPUTERS:
Commodore C64 (1991)
PC-Compatible [MS-DOS, 5.25" / 3.5"] (1991)
Atari ST (1991)
Commodore Amiga (1991)
Amstrad CPC (1991)
Sinclair ZX Spectrum (1992)

* OTHERS:
LCD handheld game (1991) released by Tiger Electronics.

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$info=doubledr

Double Dragon (c) 1995 Technos.

A head-to-head fighting game based on the 1994 Double Dragon movie, the game features a roster selectable which consists of "Double Dragon" alumni Billy, Jimmy, Marian, Abobo and Burnov, as well as 5 original characters as they enter a martial arts tournament to take out evil crime lord of Bloody Town, Koga Shuko. Unique features in the game includes destructible environments and a super move meter which fills out based on how much energy the player has left, giving weaker fighters a handicap. After defeating the default 10 fighters, the player faces Shuko's bodyguard, Duke, before fighting Shuko himself.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID : NGM-082

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 4
=> [A] Light Attack [B] Medium Attack [C] Hard Attack [D] Extra Attack

- TRIVIA -

Released in February 1995. Double Dragon was Technos' first game for the Neo-Geo hardware. This game was based on the movie 'Double Dragon', which was, in turn, based on the 'Double Dragon series' of games.

The game features a combo counter like many fighting games, however this one is not always very accurate since it registers Cheng Fu's Super Dragon Kick technique (Forward Dragon Punch motion + 2 buttons with the charge meter filled) as a single hit! The original Double Dragon logo can be seen in the large white boat on Cheng Fu's stage!

Billy, Jimmy, Marian and Abobo are the only characters from the original 1987 "Double Dragon" game who were featured in both : the movie and this game. Billy and Jimmy have the ability to transform into more powerful counterparts like they did in the end of the movie, while Abobo turns into his mutated form for a brief moment when he does his 'Grow 'n Throw' super move. Marian is depicted as a female gang leader, much like her movie counterpart. Burnov was the first stage boss in "Double Dragon II - The Revenge", while Duke was the final boss in the Super NES game "Super Double Dragon", although neither character were in the movie. Koga Shuko, the game's final boss, was an original character from the film.

April Simmonds holds the official record for this game with 96,700 points on April 21, 2007.

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Double Dragon - G.S.M 1500 - PCCB-00175) on March 17, 1995.

- UPDATES -

MVS (arcade) vs. Home (neo-geo) differences :
- Arcade : If you beat the game without losing a round you'll see a drawing of each character posing while the credits roll. If you beat using a continue you just see the credits rolling on the screen in one of the monitors that fell on the last boss.
- Home : Regardless if you use continues or not you will only get the credits that roll on the big monitor screen.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Play As Duke / As Koga Shuko : Go to the character selection screen and put the cursor on Billy, then Marian, then Chung Fu, then Jimmy for 3 seconds each. If done correctly you will hear the word 'Bingo!'.

* Alternate Costume Colors : Press B, C or D when selecting a fighter.

- STAFF -

Voice: Hikaru Midorikawa (as Billy), Kaneto Shiozawa (as Jimmy / Amon), Yuka Koyama (as Marian), Daisuke Gōri (as Abobo / Burnov), Yukimasa Kishino (as Eddie), Keiko Han (as Rebecca), Yusaku Yara (as Dulton), Hisao Egawa (as Cheng Fu / Duke), Osamu Saka (Shuko), Miyako Endo (Narration)
Aoni Production: Yasuaki Sumi
Program: Tadamichi Obinata, Naoki Kashiwabara, Shinji Hirao, Yasuhiro Matsumoto
Graphic: Takumi Ishikawa, Seiichiro Ishiguro, Fujimi Ōnishi, Kazutaka Ōhashi, Satoshi Kazato, Takahide Koizumi, Chihiro Kushibe, Takeyoshi Suzuki, Katsuhiro Nakamura, Akiko Maruyama, Kazumi Minagawa, Koji Ogata, Kōji Yamada, Hideki Hoshiya
Planner: Muneki Ebinuma, Minoru Yamaguchi
Sound Program & Tools: Robert C. Ashworth
Sound Effects: Taku Urabe (credited as Taku)
Composer: Kiyomi Kataoka, Chiaki Iizuka, Reiko Uehara, Fumio Suzuki
Guitar: Osamu Sakai
Special Thanks: Toshiaki Tsugane, Kensuke Nishi, S. Yasuraoka (credited as Yasuraoka Special), Makoto Shigenobu, Teruo Ichimura, Kouji Matsuyama, Yukiko Yamashita
Genic: Akira Kitsuno, Keinosuke Akichi, Norihiko Yonesaka
Espo Corp.: Seiji Kawakatsu, Daisuke Hatakeyama, Kei Tamura
Madhouse: Yuji Takae
J.C. Staff: Tomoko Kawasaki, Eiichi Endō, Nobuko Ogino
Illustration: Tsuguyuki Kubo
Leader: Kazuyuki Kurata
Boss: Kunio Taki

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo (mar.31, 1995, "Double Dragon [Model NGH-082]")
[US] SNK Neo-Geo (mar.31, 1995, "Double Dragon [Model NGH-082]")
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo CD (june.2, 1995, "Double Dragon [Model NGCD-082]")
[US] SNK Neo-Geo CD (??? ??, 1995, "Double Dragon [Model NGCD-082E]")
[JP] Sony PlayStation (apr.26, 1996, "Double Dragon [Model SLPS-00191]")
[JP] Sony PlayStation (aug.10, 2011, "Double Dragon [PS1 Classics]")

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$info=drtoppel,drtoppelu
Arcade Video game published 35 years ago:

Dr. Toppel's Adventure (c) 1988 Taito.

Export release. Game developed in Japan. See the original for more information; "Dr. Toppel's Tankentai".

- TRIVIA -

Even if titlescreen says 1987, Dr. Toppel's Adventure was released in March 1988 in US.

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=dragnblz
Arcade Video game published 23 years ago:

Dragon Blaze (c) 2000 Psikyo.

In a distant land, four brave dragonriders must make use of every trick in the book to survive wave after wave of powerful monsters and hulking bosses in this Psikyo shoot'em up masterpiece. Features some truly beautiful graphics & sound, excellent control that features some interesting gameplay mechanics and tons of challenge.

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU : SH-2 (@ 28.63635 Mhz)
Sound Chips : YMF278B (@ 28.63635 Mhz)

Players : 2
Control : 8-Way Joystick
Buttons : 3
=> Shoot, Bomb, Auto-Shot

- TRIVIA -

Dragon Blaze was released in May 2000.

The game forbids the initials : 'SEX', 'DIE', 'FUC', 'FUK', 'PLO', 'PIS', 'PEE', 'KKK', 'IRA', 'HIV', 'AUM', and 'ASS' on the high score table. If you try, it gets changed to three smileys.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Maintenance Code :
9-2-2-2-0 Maintenance Mode.
9-2-2-1-0 All Data Erased.
1-2-3-4-5 Reset Scores.

* Each stage 2nd boss has a weak point which is called 'the core' that is exposed for some few seconds. To get the 'Technical Bonus' when the core is revealed you must use the dragon shoot against it killing the boss in one hit. Try not to damage the 2nd boss for too much though, if it gets too damaged it won't reveal the core.

* Dragon Blaze characters:
1) Quaid:
- Speed: average.
- Shot Attack: average width and power, powerful aimed secondary lances with every button press. NOTE: Extra lances can be fired with faster button inputs.
- Shot Special - Button Held: aimed narrow stream of fire. Slow moving fireballs that stay on the screen for a few seconds. Good for deploying on one side of the screen to let them do their work while you take care of something else on screen.
- Dragon Attack: average width and call-back speed.
- Dragon Special: wide Dragon breath, very little range, must be positioned close for any real effect.
- Bomb: good, full screen protection for 2 seconds.
2) Sonia:
- Speed: slow.
- Shot Attack: wider shot than Quaid but about the same power, but she has a very strong secondary lazers that can take out multiple weaker enemies in one shot. Excellent.
- Shot Special - Button Held: very wide spead, powerful. Good.
- Dragon Attack: one of the best in the game, if you notice the main dragon has two extra dragons either side of it making it the widest of all the dragon strikes, only down side is the call-back speed is slow.
- Dragon Special: poor and pretty useless. Main Dragon fires a weak green spread while the two smaller dragons home onto the closest enemy with an even weaker attack. Pretty much useless.
- Bomb: poor, deploys a protective barrier slighly wider than Sonia vertical up the screen, can be hit if outside barrier, useful for sticky situations and not much else.
3) Rob:
- Speed: slowest.
- Shot Attack: one of the best in the game, Wide powerful spread covering a large span of the screen. His secondary weapon are very powerful slow moving metal balls tavelling at a slight angle to the sides but has limited range.
- Shot Special - Button Held: powerful spread of rocks, fast and covers a wide area.
- Dragon Attack: about the same range as Quaids but a little stronger, but again as with Sonia the recall speed is slow, not as slow but easily slower than Quaid and Ian.
- Dragon Special: powerful hori laser, decent. Very useful for level 6.
- Bomb: good, full screen protection for 2 seconds.
4) Ian:
- Speed: fastest.
- Shot Attack: straight fire, average. Secondary weapons are homing daggers that ermm, home in. Okay if you're going for survival but a pain in the arse if you're going for score because it kills everything before you get a chance to dragon shot them. Poor for Score, good for survival.
- Shot Special - Button Held: strong powerful laser, good but, Ian's powerbar takes about 10 years to charge so use it wisely
- Dragon Attack: pretty much the same power and width as Quaid, but with the fastest dragon recall in the entire game. Excellent.
- Dragon Special: green round circular area, shield? I dunno what it is but it spins around the spins the dragon Confused . Good for taking out stronger enemies in level stages.
- Bomb: worst in the game, pretty much useless, it does sod all damage. Poor for panic situation too, no invulnerability.

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] Sony PS2 (Mar. 31, 2005) "Sol Divide & Dragon Blaze [Psikyo Shooting Collection Vol.3] [Model SLPM-62593]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=692&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=drgnunit
Arcade Video game published 34 years ago:

Dragon Unit (c) 1989 Athena Company, Limited.

A beat'em up game.

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU: Motorola 68000 (@ 8 Mhz)
Sound Chips: X1-010 (@ 16 Mhz)

Screen Orientation: Horizontal
Video Resolution: 380 x 240 Pixels
Screen Refresh: 60.00 Hz
Palette Colors: 512

Players: 2
Control: 8-Way Joystick
Buttons: 3
= > Attack, Jump, Crouch

- TRIVIA -

Dragon Unit was released in June 1989. You can changes the title from Japanese (Dragon Unit) to English (Castle of Dragon) (selectable by a dipswitch).

The game was also licensed to Romstar for the manufacture and distribution of a Conversion Kit in the USA, as "Castle of Dragon".

- STAFF -

Producer: Sakae Nakamura
Game Director: Crazy Tom
Game Designer: Minoru Esaki
Composer: Shotaro Sasaki
Manupilater: Kouichi Ishibashi
Map Designer: Yoshie Ishiyama
Extra Debugers: Undead Tama (Undead Tamai), Zensack Yamamura
Programmer: Tom_boy
Animator: Super Esaki
Sound Mixer: Enjoy Sasaki
Hardware Service: Drunkard Nonaka
Special Thanks: Mr. Abe, Mr. Shinohara, Mr. Akiba, Mr. Suzuki, Mr. Fjimoto, Mr. Miyaboo, Stadio Irikaya, T. Yoshikawa, M. Esaki, S. Sasaki

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
Nintendo Famicom (1989)

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=700&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=dland
Arcade Video game published 36 years ago:

Dream Land / Super Dream Land (c) 1987 World Technos Co.

Bootleg of "Bubble Bobble".

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=32367&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=driftout,driftoutj
Arcade Video game published 32 years ago:

Drift Out (c) 1991 Visco Corp.

An overhead-view racing game.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "Taito F2 System" hardware. It used a graphics extension on the board, the so called Taito F2 Expanded System (also known as the Taito F1 System).

Players: 2
Control: dial
Buttons: 2

- TRIVIA -

Drift Out was released in October 1991.
 
A bootleg of this game is known as "Drive Out".

- SERIES -

1. Drift Out (1991)
2. Drift Out '94 - The Hard Order (1994)
3. Super Drift Out - World Rally Championships (1994, Nintendo Super Famicom)
3. Neo Drift Out - New Technology (1996)

- STAFF -

Producer : Tetsuo Akiyama
Director : Don Gabacho
Assistant Director : Keisuke Usami
Programmers : Nadu. S, Tera.Bat, Koizumi Pharmacy
Character Designers : Tel. Yamada, King Takahashi, Sawayaka Tamura, Yanitei Koneko, Banbara Hiroko, Domi Domi
Sound : Mr. Fukumori, Space Creative
Special Thanks : Ideb76kg, Hokke 450, Yakuruto Nakajima, Nakamura Lab, Philippines No3, Yuji Masuda, Rolling Kenmi, Ume W, Itoi Yasuhisa, Kin Chan

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=711&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=driveout
Arcade Video game published 32 years ago:

Drive Out (c) 1991.

This is a pirate version of the European release of "Drift Out" by Visco.

- TECHNICAL -

Players : 2
Control : dial
Buttons : 2

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=713&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=ddsom,ddsomu,ddsomr1,ddsomur1,ddsomr2,ddsomud,ddsomr3
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 27 years ago:

Dungeons & Dragons - Shadow Over Mystara (c) 1996 Capcom Company, Limited.

North American & European release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese release entry; "Dungeons & Dragons - Shadow Over Mystara [Green Board]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Blue Board [USA & Europe]

- UPDATES -

Blue Board revisions : 

REVISION 1 :
* Build date: 960208
* EUROPE release

REVISION 2 :
* Build date: 960209
* US and EUROPE releases

REVISION 3 :
* Build date: 960223
* EUROPE release

REVISION 4 : 
* Build date: 960619
* US and EUROPE releases

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=69634&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=ddsomj,ddsomjr1,ddsomjr2
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 27 years ago:

Dungeons & Dragons - Shadow Over Mystara (c) 1996 Capcom Company, Limited.

Based on the famous RPG system Dungeons & Dragons. Six characters straight out of the Dungeons and Dragons Player's Manual take up arms in order to rid the kingdom of the evil sorceress Synn and her droves of annoying little Kobolds.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Green Board [Japan]

Players: Up to 4.
Control: 8-way joystick per player.
Buttons: 4 per player.

- TRIVIA -

Dungeons & Dragons - Shadow Over Mystara was released in February 1996 in Japan. It was known as the 14th CPS-II game.

Known Export releases:
"Dungeons & Dragons - Shadow Over Mystara [Blue Board]"
"Dungeons & Dragons - Shadow Over Mystara [Grey Board]"
"Dungeons & Dragons - Shadow Over Mystara [Orange Board]"
"Dungeons & Dragons - Shadow Over Mystara [Pink Board]"

The game forbids the initials 'SEX' on the name selection screen. If you try, it gets changed to (depending of the character you choose) : 
Fighter: 'CRASSUS'
Cleric: 'GRELDON'
Elf: 'LUCIA'
Magic user: 'SYOUS'

Victor Entertainment released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Dungeons & Dragons - Shadow Over Mystara - VICL-2169) on May 22, 1996.

- UPDATES -

Green Board revisions: 

REVISION 1:
* Build date: 960206

REVISION 2:
* Build date: 960223

REVISION 3:
* Build date: 960619
* Name Bug corrected (see 'Tips And Tricks' section for more info).

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Bug : very beneficial trick in some cases but leads to lockups. Choose a character with a 6-character name (Blue Dwarf and possibly 2 others). Press the name button and then erase it and start pressing buttons to put your own letters in. The timer to enter your name will reset as long as you are pressing buttons to enter letters. What happens is that you can continue to enter more letters than the code expects and you begin to over-write the area of memory that contains character information and inventory. Depending on what letters you enter and how many you enter you can continue the game at the beginning of the next stage and already be hasted, invulnerable, invisible, possessing powerful weapons, etc... The character info on screen is all garbled. Once you make it to the first shop you can drag apparently empty inventory items into the trash for large sums of silver. The game will lock up quite frequently though - especially when you pick up items that hold specific places in memory. Try using about 110 ''M''s for a name. This glitch was removed with the later revision.

- SERIES -

1. Dungeons & Dragons - Tower of Doom [Green Board] (1994)
2. Dungeons & Dragons - Shadow Over Mystara [Green Board] (1996)

- STAFF -

Planners : Kenkun Kataoka, Malachie
Character Designer : Kinu Nishimura
Object Designers : "S" is a Criminal, Hiroaki Minobe, Shinya Miyamoto, Dway Nishimura, Kanako Takami, Miwa Shigenaga, Toshihiro Suzuki, Kako, Masayo Tsujimoto, Tsunenori Shirahama, Ino, R. Sato, Sagata, Masanori Kondo, Shinji Sakashita (Shinz. Sakashita), Satoru Yamashita, Yosinori Yamamoto, Dja, Jon, Iwasaki Inukichi, Jun Matsumura (28)
Scroll Designers : Nissui, Saru, Shake, Hisoya, S. Kuwatch, J. Son, Ojiji, Takky, Iwai, Meiko. K
Music Composer : Masato Koda
Sound Designer : Moe. T
Sound Effects : Moe. T, Hachi Bee, Satoshi Ise
Sound Producer by Arcade Sound Team.
Programmers : O.G.T, Kazuo Yamawaki, Motsu, Tora&Yume&Hide, Ryota Forever, K.A.T.S.U.O, Knishi-MadDogMc
Original Script : Alex Jimenez

Special Thanks : Lee, Mta (Groovy) Nshi, Shinichi Yasuki, Takuya Shiraiwa (Mr. Shiraiwa)

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] Sega Saturn (mar.4, 1999, "Dungeons & Dragons Collection") [Model T-1224G]
[JP] Sega Saturn (mar.4, 1999, "Dungeons & Dragons Collection [4MRAM Doukori Ban]") [Model T-1245G]

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=719&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=ddsoma,ddsomar1
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 27 years ago:

Dungeons & Dragons - Shadow Over Mystara (c) 1996 Capcom Company, Limited.

Asian release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese release entry; "Dungeons & Dragons - Shadow Over Mystara [Green Board]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Grey Board [Asia]

- PORTS -

* COMPUTERS:
PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] [KO] (2003 - MCB Interactive)

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=69635&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=ddsomh
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 27 years ago:

Dungeons & Dragons - Shadow Over Mystara (c) 1996 Capcom Company, Limited.

South American release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese release entry; "Dungeons & Dragons - Shadow Over Mystara [Green Board]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Orange Board [South America]

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=71516&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=ddsomb
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 27 years ago:

Dungeons & Dragons - Shadow Over Mystara (c) 1996 Capcom Company, Limited.

Brazilian release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese release entry; "Dungeons & Dragons - Shadow Over Mystara [Green Board]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Pink Board [Brazil]

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=71517&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=ddtod,ddtodur1,ddtodu,ddtodr1,ddtodd
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 29 years ago:

Dungeons & Dragons - Tower of Doom (c) 1994 Capcom Company, Limited.

North American & European release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese release entry; "Dungeons & Dragons - Tower of Doom [Green Board]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Blue Board [USA & Europe]

- UPDATES -

Blue Board revisions : 

REVISION 1 
* Build date: 940113
* US and EUROPE releases

REVISION 2
* Build date: 940125
* US release

REVISION 3
* Build date: 940412
* EUROPE release

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=69636&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=ddtodj,ddtodjr1,ddtodjr2
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 29 years ago:

Dungeons & Dragons - Tower of Doom (c) 1994 Capcom Company, Limited.

Based on the famous RPG system Dungeons & Dragons. Four warriors set a course for the evil Tower of Doom and battle lots of enemies straight out of the Monstrous Compendium!

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Green Board [Japan]

Players: Up to 4.
Control: 8-Way Joystick per player.
Buttons: 4 per player.
=> Attack, Jump, Use Item, Select Item

- TRIVIA -

Tower of Doom was released in January 1994 in Japan. It was known as the second game released on the CPS-II hardware.

Known export releases:
"Dungeons & Dragons - Tower of Doom [Blue Board]"
"Dungeons & Dragons - Tower of Doom [Grey Board]"
"Dungeons & Dragons - Tower of Doom [Orange Board]"

The little sword-swinging flourish the fighter does after defeating a major enemy is taken directly from Capcom's previous side-scrolling sword fighting game, "Knights Of The Round".

Jorel Chisolm holds the official record for this game with 238452 experience points on November 10, 2005.

- UPDATES -

Green Board revisions : 

REVISION 1 : 
* Build date: 940113

REVISION 2 : 
* Build date: 940125

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Extended Ending : During the last fight with Deimos activate all 4 players, than defeat the boss. If all 4 characters are alive then an extra scene will be played after the ending credits where the party sets off for their next adventure.

- SERIES -

1. Dungeons & Dragons - Tower of Doom [Green Board] (1994)
2. Dungeons & Dragons - Shadow Over Mystara [Green Board] (1996)

- STAFF -

Dungeon Masters : Tomoshi Sadamoto (11255), Magigi Fukunishi, George Kamitani, Alex Jimenez
Character Designers : Hitoshi Nishio (T), Shinji Sakashita (Sinz. Sakashita), Jun Matsumura (25), Youjiro, Yukari Ogawa, Minobeyan, Popozu. Boo, Seigo Kawakami, Masako Sato, Tiyuki Sawada, Takemoto
Artists : Fukumoyan, Ziggy, Miyao Masako, Hisashi Kisanuki, Junsuke, Angus, Hiropon
Programmers : Kazuo Yamawaki, Belphegor Ogachy, Tsutumu Uragou, Teruaki Hirokado, Toshiyuki Furuko
Music Composers : Isao Abe (Oyaji), Takayuki Iwai (Anarchy Takapon), Ok Production
Sound Designers : Toshio Kajino, Tomuyuki Kawakami (T.K NY)

Special Thanks : Kazumasa Yamanouchi, Ikusan Z, Yorio, Rikagon, Prof. Hayashi, Takuya Shiraiwa

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] Sega Saturn (mar.4, 1999, "Dungeons & Dragons Collection") [Model T-1224G]
[JP] Sega Saturn (mar.4, 1999, "Dungeons & Dragons Collection [4MRAM Doukori Ban]") [Model T-1245G]

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=720&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=ddtoda,ddtodar1
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 29 years ago:

Dungeons & Dragons - Tower of Doom (c) 1994 Capcom Company, Limited.

Asian release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese release entry; "Dungeons & Dragons - Tower of Doom [Green Board]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Grey Board [Asia]

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=69637&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=ddtodh,ddtodhr1,ddtodhr2
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 29 years ago:

Dungeons & Dragons - Tower of Doom (c) 1994 Capcom Company, Limited.

South American release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese release entry; "Dungeons & Dragons - Tower of Doom [Green Board]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Orange Board [South America]

- UPDATES -

Orange Board revisions : 

REVISION 1 
* Build date: 940113

REVISION 2
* Build date: 940125

REVISION 3
* Build date: 940412

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=71518&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=strhoop

Dunk Dream (c) 1994 Data East Corp.

A basketball game from the streets. Choose from one of ten countries and compete in three-on-three slamdunkin' action.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID: NGM-079

Players: 2
Control: 8-Way Joystick
Buttons: 2
=> Offense > [A] Shoot/Dunk, [B] Pass
=> Defense > [A] Block a shot, [B] Steal the ball

- TRIVIA -

Exact release date: December 8, 1994 

This game is known outside Japan as 'Street Hoop' and in the US as 'Street Slam'.

Soundtrack releases (for limited edition) : 
Dunk Dream / Gun Hard - PCCB-00173 - Pony Canyon / Scitron (January 20, 1995)

- SERIES -

1. Dunk Dream [Model NGM-079] (1994)
2. Dunk Dream '95 (1996)

- STAFF -

Producer : Iwao Horita
Game Designer : Atsushi Kaneko
Soft : Mitsutoshi Sato (Mitsutoshi Bono), K. Minegishi, Mya
Graphic Designers : Sinin, Yuzuru Tsukahara, Hiroki Narisawa, Sachiko Moizumi, Kaori, Kazurin Sugar, Endo Chang, Kim, Takayuki Tanaka
Music and Sound Effects : Tatsuya Kiuchi (Mr. K Dynamite), Masaaki Iwasaka (Koremasa)
Thanks : Tohru Kikuchi, NSX Kato, Osapan

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES: 
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo AES (dec.09, 1994) "Dunk Dream [Model NGH-079]" 
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo CD (jan.20, 1995) "Dunk Dream [Model DECD-004]" 
[US] SNK Neo-Geo CD (jan.20, 1995) "Dunk Dream [Model DECD-004E]" 
[US] Nintendo Wii (feb.19, 2010) "Data East Arcade Classics [Model RVL-P-R26E]" 
Nintendo Wii [Virtual Console] [JP] (jul.20, 2010) Neo-Geo version 
Nintendo Wii [Virtual Console] [EU] [AU] (oct.22, 2010) Neo-Geo version 
Nintendo Wii [Virtual Console] [US] (nov.1, 2010) Neo-Geo version 

* OTHERS: 
[MX] Zeebo (mar.30, 2010) 
[BR] Zeebo (apr.16, 2010)

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=2675&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=dleague,dleaguej
Arcade Video game published 33 years ago:

Dynamite League (c) 1990 Taito.

A baseball game.

- TECHNICAL -

Taito H System hardware
Prom Stickers : C02

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 12 Mhz), Zilog Z80 (@ 4 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Yamaha YM2610 (@ 8 Mhz)

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 3

- TRIVIA -

Released in June 1990 in Europe, North America, and Japan.

- STAFF -

Lead designer : Tsukasa Fujita
Programmers : Takashi Ishii, E. Satoh, M. Shimazaki, K. Nomura, T. Koike
Graphics designers : Hisaya Yabusaki, Kohzoh Igarashi, Hisakazu Katoh, Yukiwo Ishikawa (Yukio Abe), T. Matsumoto, Tetsuya Shinoda, Y. Iwata, Ken' Ichi Imaeda, T. Satoh, M. Fukui, H. Kumagai, Atsuchi Taniguchi, Taira Sanuki
Sound (Zuntata Team) : Naoto Yagishita, Shiro Imaoka, Norihiro Furukawa
Hardware : Toshiyuki Sanada
Additionial design : Hiroyasu Nagai
Mechanic : H. Arai

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=730&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=dynwar,dynwara
Arcade Video game published 34 years ago:

Dynasty Wars (c) 1989 Capcom USA, Incorporated.

Export version. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese version entry; "Tenchi wo Kurau [B-Board 88622B-3]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System" hardware.
B-Board ID: 88622B-3

- TRIVIA -

Dynasty Wars was released in July 1989 outside Japan. It is known in Japan as "Tenchi wo Kurau" (translated from Japanese as 'Heaven and Earth Receiving Blows').

- SERIES -

1. Dynasty Wars [B-Board 88622B-3] (1989)
2. Warriors of Fate [B-Board 91635B-2] (1992)

- PORTS -

Here is a list of ports released outside Japan. To see the Japanese ports please see the original Japanese entry; "Tenchi wo Kurau [CP-S No. 04]".

* COMPUTERS: 
Sinclair ZX-Spectrum [EU] (1990) 
[US] Commodore C64 [EU] (1990) 
[EU] Amstrad CPC (1990) 
[EU] Amstrad CPC (1990) "Coin-Op Hits II" 
Commodore Amiga [US] [EU] (1990) 
[EU] Atari ST (1990) 
[EU] Amstrad CPC (1991) "Capcom Collection" 
[EU] Atari ST (1991) "Capcom Collection"
[EU] Commodore C64 (1991) "Capcom Collection" 
[EU] Commodore Amiga (1991) "Capcom Collection" 
[EU] Sinclair ZX Spectrum (1991) "Capcom Collection"

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=731&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=edf,edfu,edfbl,edfa,edfp
Arcade Video game published 32 years ago:

E.D.F. - Earth Defence Force (c) 1991 Jaleco.

A horizontally scrolling shoot'em up.

- TECHNICAL -

Jaleco Mega System 1-B hardware

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 12 Mhz)
Sound CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 7 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Yamaha YM2151 (@ 3.5 Mhz), (2x) OKI6295 (@ 30.303 Khz)

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2

- TRIVIA -

Released in March 1991.

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (E.D.F. - PCCB-00058) on 21/03/1991.

- STAFF -

Programmers : S A S, Azvear-s
Main graphic : Wan Da You, Ca-Sai, Nekomasa
Sub-graphics : Crayon Gear, Shimizu
Music : Tsukasa Tawada
Produced by : Yuki.Arai

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
Nintendo Super Famicom (1991, "Super E.D.F. - Earth Defence Force") : It's a 1-player game only, unlike the arcade which was a 2-player game. Graphics are slightly downgraded (smaller sprites), but now it has added transparency effects. Also, one level is different from the arcade.

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=734&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=ecofghtr,ecofghtru,ecofghtru1,ecofghtrd
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 30 years ago:

Eco Fighters (c) 1993 Capcom Company, Limited.

North American & World release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese release entry; "Ultimate Ecology [Green Board]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Blue Board [USA & Etc.]

- UPDATES -

Blue Board revisions:

REVISION 1
* Build date: 931203
* WORLD and US releases.

REVISION 2
* Build date: 940215
* US release.

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES: 
[US] Microsoft XBOX (nov.24, 2006) "Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 2" 
[US] Sony PS2 (nov.24, 2006) "Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 2 [Model SLUS-21473]" 
Sony PlayStation 2 [AU] (apr.11, 2007) "Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 2 [Model SLES-54561]" 
[EU] Sony PS2 (apr.13, 2007) "Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 2 [Model SLES-54561]" 

* HANDHELDS: 
[US] Sony PSP (oct.24, 2006) "Capcom Classics Collection Reloaded [Model ULUS-10134]" 
[EU] Sony PSP (nov.10, 2006) "Capcom Classics Collection Reloaded [Model ULES-00377]" 
[AU] Sony PSP (nov.16, 2006) "Capcom Classics Collection Reloaded"

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=737&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=ecofghtra
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 29 years ago:

Eco Fighters (c) 1994 Capcom Company, Limited.

Asian release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese release entry; "Ultimate Ecology [Green Board]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Grey Board [Asia]

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=69638&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=ecofghtrh
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 30 years ago:

Eco Fighters (c) 1994 Capcom Company, Limited.

South American release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese release entry; "Ultimate Ecology [Green Board]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Orange Board [South America]

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=71512&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=eightfrc
Arcade Video game published 29 years ago:

Eight Forces (c) 1994 Tecmo, Limited.

A vertically scrolling shoot'em up.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the Seta 1st Generation System Hardware.

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 16 Mhz)
Sound Chips : X1-010 (@ 16 Mhz)

Screen Orientation : Vertical
Video Resolution : 384 x 224 Pxels.
Screen Refresh : 60.00 Hz
Palette Colors : 1536

Players : 2
Control : 8-Way Joystick
Buttons : 2
=> Shoot, Bomb

- TRIVIA -

Eight Forces was released in August 1994.

- STAFF -

Producer: Mitsugu
Programmers: Mitsugu, Morizo
Planners: Kibandoo Jun, Masked-K, Duka
Graphic: Wataru, Iwakai, Arimoto
Sound: Hanaoka, Okuda, Nakanisi

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=742&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=eightman

Eightman (c) 1991 SNK [Shin Nihon Kikaku].

A side-scrolling beat'em up / platform game.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID: NGM-025

[SNK MVS Neo-Geo Controls]
2 Players - 4 buttons Per Player (3 usables).
=> [Joystick] 8-way, [A] Punch [B] Jump [C] Special Attack

- TRIVIA -

Developed by Pallas, Eightman was released in September 1991 by SNK.

This game is based on a Japanese cartoon series from the 60s. The characters actually do not look exactly like the traditional Eightman. Nineman is Just a palette swapped Eightman.

In 2000, Taiyo System released a pachislot based on this video game, called "Eightman (Taiyo System)".

- STAFF -

Producer : Eikichi Kawasaki
Directors : Deru-Deru, Stary Cat
Programmers : Nishidon, Shinchan (as 'Shinchan-SSS')
Music Composers : Jojoha Kitapy, Yoko, Makiko
Designers : Toyota Pretty, Endress Oki, Crash Master, Shibayan, Muramama, Obata F91

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo AES (nov.10, 1991; "Eightman [Model NGH-025]")
[US] SNK Neo-Geo AES (nov.10, 1991; "Eightman [Model NGH-025]")

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=elvact2u
Taito F3 cart. published 28 years ago:

Elevator Action II (c) 1995 Taito America Corp.

North American version. For more information about the game, please see the non-US version entry; "Elevator Action Returns".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "Taito F3 System" Hardware.

Game ID: E02

Players: 4
Control: 8-way joystick
Buttons: 4

- TRIVIA -

Elevator Action II was released in February 1995 in North America. It was known outside US as "Elevator Action Returns".

- SERIES -

1. Elevator Action (1983)
2. Elevator Action II (1995)
3. Elevator Action EX (2000, Nintendo Game Boy Color)
4. Elevator Action - Death Parade (2009)
5. Elevator Action Deluxe (2011, PSN)

- PORTS -

NOTE: These are US ports only. For ports released outside the US, please see the non-US version entry, "Elevator Action Returns".

* CONSOLES: 
[US] Sony PS2 (may.16, 2007) "Taito Legends 2 [Model SLUS-21349]" 

* COMPUTERS: 
[US] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (jul.10, 2007) "Taito Legends 2"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=espradej,espradejo
Arcade Video game published 25 years ago:

ESP Ra.de. (c) 1998 Atlus.

A vertically scrolling shoot'em up game.

- TECHNICAL -

Game ID : ATC04

Cave 1st Generation Hardware

Main CPU : MC68000 (@ 16 Mhz)
Sound CPU : Zilog Z80 [Optional]
Sound Chips : Yamaha YMZ280B (@ 16.9344 Mhz) or OKIM6295 x (1 or 2) + YM2203 / YM2151 [Optional]
Other : 93C46 EEPROM

Screen orientation : Vertical
Video resolution : 240 x 320 pixels
Screen refresh : 57.55 Hz
Palette colors : 32768

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 3
=> [A] Shoot, [B] Secondary shoot, [C] Psychic bomb

- TRIVIA -

ESP Ra.de. was released in April 1998 in Japan.

Pronounced 'espraid', this game is known outside Japan as "ESP Ra.de. [International ver.]". ESP means 'ExtraSensory Perception'.

Soundtrack releases :
Dodonpachi/esprade Soundtrack [Scitron / Gamest - SGCD-000002 - Nov 6, 1998]
Guwange/ ESPrade Original Soundtrack [Cave - CVST-1000 - Dec 30, 2007]

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Counter Display : Insert a coin, hold B button and press Start.

* Stage Edit : Select your character with a specific button to choose the order of the 3 first stages :

YUSUKE :
Press A button : Houoh High School, Random, Random.
Press B button : Houoh High School, Shopping Mall At Night, Bay Area.
Press C button : Houoh High School, Bay Area, Shopping Mall At Night.

JB-5TH :
Press A button : Shopping Mall At Night, Random, Random.
Press B button : Shopping Mall At Night, Bay Area, Houoh High School.
Press C button : Shopping Mall At Night, Houoh High School, Bay Area.

IRORI :
Press A button : Bay Area, Random, Random.
Press B button : Bay Area, Houoh High School, Shopping Mall At Night.
Press C button : Bay Area, Shopping Mall At Night, Houoh High School.

* ESP Ra.de. weapons :
1) Shot : your main shot is fired with the A button, and is the basic fire. If you just tap, the character will move at maximum speed: if you hold down the button, the character will slow down, about 20% slower. When you use the normal shot and have a chain going, destroying enemies while the timer is still active will grant you the multiplied score, i.e. if you have a x15 multiplier active and you destroy enemies, they all will be worth their value x15.You need to take four big "P" power-ups to be fully powered, or 4/8/12/16 (in this order) small "P" power-ups.
2) Secondary Shoot : actually the most important of the two basic weapons: Beside making a lot of damage, it triggers multipliers for your basic points. It works in this way: if you shoot a blast of the secondary shot and hit an enemy, you can land on it from 1 to 15 energy bars (the bar is located at the bottom of the screen, on the player's side of course).  If you destroy the hit enemy with the main shot, you will also trigger a timer for your multiplier: depending on enemy's size, you can get from 0.5 to 2 seconds to continue the chain and keep having the said multiplier on score. Now, the only way to replenish said timer is to collect the bonus cubes. These cubes are released by larger (i.e. that take more hits to explode) enemies and by engulfing bullets into explosions: if this happens, every bullet will be turned into a bonus cube. Now, when you land a secondary attack on an enemy and then destroy it with the main weapon, you will trigger the multiplier bonus: said multiplier is based on the level of energy that lands on the enemy. For instance, if you land a full level 15 secondary attack on an enemy and then destroy it, you will trigger a x16 multiplier : the basic formula is Energy Bar+1=Multiplier Value, or EB+1=MV
The amount of energy in stock depends on your power level : you start at 7/15, then increase by +2 per full power-up. Now, one final note on the bonus cubes: every cube gives you back 0.1 seconds on your multiplier timer. The maximum timer, however, can never be higher than 2 seconds. Bonus cubes are also (obviously) worth points, hence the name: every bonus cube is worth 100 points x the MV, so big showers of cubes are worth a lot of points and will maintain the multiplier going.
3) Psychic bomb : is your limited weapon to get rid of enemies once you don't know what to do. It basically works in this way: you have a big energy bar on the right of the EB, which tells you how much energy you have to use on the bomb. Once you push the C button, you will release a quick blast of energy which will damage hit enemies: unlike the typical smart bomb, it won't clear the screen of all dangers. However, if you hold down the C button, you will create an aura of invincibility, and accumulate more power: this is useful to release more powerful blasts. Once you hold down the button, all bullets going against your barrier turn into bonus cubes, so you can also get back some of them. You can use up to half of the bar for one huge blast (holding down the button will consume your energy).
Now, the bonus cubes we've spoken about are also meant to make you replenish your bomb. How? Once you reach 200 cubes (counter is below the score), the game will be a bit harder and the bonus counter will flash. This also means that you will get more bullets to be cancelled into cubes with explosions, and thus a better change to keep a multiplier going.
Since we've spoken of replenishing the bomb energy, let's see how it works. Once you reach the 200 cubes value, if you don't have a full bomb bar, the bonus cubes will turn into energy bonuses. These will replenish your bomb bar, but the counter will turn quickly back to 0: once it's reset, you won't get any energy bonuses. Also, next time you will get energy bonuses will be at 300 cubes, then 400, then 500. Finally, if you die, your counter will be reduced at 75% of the stock, then 66%, then 50%, etc...

- SERIES -

1. ESP Ra.de. (1998)
2. Espgaluda (2003)
3. Espgaluda II (2005)
4. Espgaluda II [Black Label] [Model K2F-00001] (2010, XBOX360)

- STAFF -

Developed by CAVE.

Producer : Kenichi Takano
Super visor : Hiroyuki Tanaka (Atlus)
Chief programmer : Tsuneki Ikeda
Programmers : Satoshi Kohyama, Ryuichi Yabuki
Chief designer : Junya Inoue
Designers : Akira Wakabayashi, Yuko Nakamura
CG designers : Riichirou Nitta, Atushi Aburano
Sound producer : Junya Inoue
Sound director : Hiroshi Horiguchi (Two Five)
Music composer : Masahiro Kusunoki (Two Five)
Sound effects : Ryuichi Yabuki
Character voices : Mikio Yamaguchi, Yasuyuki Hirota, Yuko Nakamura, Junya Inoue, Noriko Nishimura, Kazushi Takamura
Special assist : Toshiaki Tomizawa

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=esprade
Arcade Video game published 25 years ago:

ESP Ra.de. - A.D. 2018 Tokyo (c) 1998 Atlus.

Export release (international). Game developed in Japan. See the original Japanese version for more information about the game itself; "ESP Ra.de."

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=euroch92
Arcade Video game published 31 years ago:

Euro Champ '92 (c) 1992 Taito.

European version. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game, please see the original Japanese version entry; "Hattrick Hero".

- TRIVIA -

This game is known in Japan as "Hattrick Hero" and outside Europe as "Football Champ".

In this version, the conditions (timer and score required) for the SUPER SHOOT are differents, see TIPS & TRICKS for more information.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

How to perform a SUPER SHOOT (Euro Champ '92 version):
* Timer should be between 10 and 36 seconds.
* Score must be a tie (0-0, 1-1, 2-2, ...).
* Only Player's selected Captain can perform a Super Shoot and only ONCE in a whole game (After GAME OVER, 
Super Shot becomes enabled again).
* Player's Captain should receive the ball in a certain area of the gamefield with High Pass (Button B long press)
and must not be moving at all, while receiving the ball.
-- #8: Between center point and 1/4 of the upper field.
-- #9: Between 1/4 and 1/2 of the upper field.
--#10: Between 1/2 and 3/4 of the upper field.
--#11: Same as #10 and also in a defensive position as #9.

- SERIES -

1. Euro Champ '92 (1992)
2. Taito Cup Finals (1993)
3. International Cup '94 (1994)
4. Taito Power Goal (1994)

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES: 
[EU] Nintendo SNES (1992) "Euro Football Champ [Model SNSP-HT]" 
Sony PlayStation 2 [AU] (mar.30, 2006) "Taito Legends 2 [Model SLES-53852]" 
[EU] Microsoft XBOX (mar.31, 2006) "Taito Legends 2" 
[EU] Sony PS2 (mar.31, 2006) "Taito Legends 2 [Model SLES-53852]" 

* COMPUTERS: 
[EU] Atari ST (1992) "European Football Champ" by Domark Software 
[EU] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (mar.31, 2006) "Taito Legends 2"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=excthour
Arcade Video game published 38 years ago:

Exciting Hour - The Prowrestling Network (c) 1985 Taito Corp.

A match of wits and skill with classic ring techniques used in today's popular professional wrestling arenas. The ringside announcer to signal the start of the match introduces the events. The player battles each of his 5 awesome opponents in quest of the championship. Timely use of joystick and buttons maneuvers the player into position and activates all the standard as well as spectacular moves including : Pile Driver, Sunset Flip, Rolling Sole Butt, Lariat, Plunger, Flying Body Press, everything to weaken the enemy for a pin-fall win for the count of 3, or keeping the challenger out of the ring for a twenty count. After each win, the player takes on the next opponent for another three-minute period. If he defeats all of the opponents, he earns the right to the Championship Belt and goes on to the next four in defense of his title. Colorful, fast-paced action plus realistic sound effects of hits, moves, count-down and crowd cheers adds to the atmosphere and excitement associated with the current rage of professional wrestling.

- TECHNICAL -

Game ID : TA-0015

Main CPU : MOS Technology M6502 (@ 1.5 Mhz)
Sound CPU : MOS Technology M6502 (@ 1.2 Mhz)
Sound Chips : (2x) General Instrument AY8910 (@ 1.5 Mhz), DAC

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2
=> [1] Punch, [2] Kick

- TRIVIA -

Exciting Hour was released in October 1985 by Taito under license from Technos.

This game is known outside Japan as "Mat Mania - The Prowrestling Network".
A 2-Player version of this game is known as "Mania Challenge".

In the game, if you look closely at the audience in the background, you will see a variety of recognizable characters including a boy in a Union Jack t-shirt, Darth Vader, Superman, the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man (look to the far left when outside the ring) and ZZ Top is very prominently present in the middle of the crowd.

In the game : 
* TWA stands for Technos Wrestling Association.
* Insane Warrior's name is misspelled as 'Insane Worrier'.
* Coco Savage's name is misspelled as 'Coco Savege' at the top of the intro screen, but is spelled correctly in the announcer's scrolling message. 
* The Piranha's name is misspelled both at the top of the intro screen and in the announcer's scrolling message as 'The Pirania'.

Blues Bloody, the champion in this game, is very obviously a copy of Hulk Hogan. Other wrestlers are copied from superstars of the early 80s: The Insane Warrior is a copy of Road Warrior Animal, Coco Savage is probably Kamala The Cannibal and The Piranha is probably Mil Mascaras. The main wrestler ('You') bears a striking resemblance to Kerry Von Erich. These are guesses, but all the mentioned wrestlers were very popular about the time this game was released.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Moves list :
First, basic moves :
Joystick - Move Around
Button 1 - Punch (P)
Button 2 - Kick (K)
Both Buttons - Run

While Opponent is Standing :
P+K - Dash at opponent.
P (while running) - Shoulder Block
K (while running) - Flying Press

To grab the opponent, run towards him.

While holding on to opponent :
P - Irish Whip (Throw opponent)
K - Pile Driver
P+UP - Body Slam
K+UP - Suplex

After Opponent has been thrown :
P+Opponent's direction - Elbow Smash
P - Back Body Drop
K+Opponent's direction - Clothesline
K - Reverse Mule Kick

While Opponent is on the ground :
P - Pick up opponent
K - Pin Opponent

While on the Turnbuckle :
P - Knee Drop
K - Sunset Flip

You can do three moves (two in later matches [late 30s on]) to your opponent before needing to ram him with the old 'faceblock' maneuver. However, the moves appear to be broken into categories :

Big moves - Piledriver and Brainbuster (Suplex)
Medium moves - Clothesline, Elbow, Backdrop
Small moves - Body Slam, Spinning Kick

Doesn't seem to count - Shoulder Block, Flying Body Press, Rope Moves

The 'count' works as follows. Usually you get one of each class of move in order from big to small. You can always substitute a lower move for a higher one. At certain times you will get only medium and small, especially the first series when facing Karate Fighter or The Piranha after match 5. Sometimes you won't be able to do three. You can tell because your opponent puts up a small, ineffective resistance to your second move.

Once per match, you CAN do two big moves in a row. You are guaranteed to be able to do a third move afterwards. In the first five matches, the triple is generally between 2:30 and 2:15.

* Miscellaneous notes :
1) You can only climb on the turnbuckles in the top-left and top-right corners.
2) Running towards the ropes and pressing the K button will cause you to jump out of the ring (should only be done while an opponent is out there).
3) The maximum number of jumps off the rope you can do is three - any more and the opponent will get up regardless of the amount of damage inflicted.
4) Fight as little as possible outside the ring; you run the chance of being thrown to the other end and facing a ring out loss (especially with Coco Savage and the Piranha - they are dirty fighters!).
5) When an opponent throws you, you have the choice of pressing P to do a shoulder block or K to do a flying press. The move you select should depend on the opponent's reaction - if they throw you and run, press K repeatedly to beat them with the flying press. If the opponent is standing there, it is almost a sure sign that you will be receiving one of their 'stopping moves' (i.e.: Coco's Haymaker or Piranha's choke hold). For this, press K repeatedly. If the opponent has not prepared their signature stop, this usually means they are just going to punch or kick you. Pressing P will give them a shoulder block and knock them down. Try to decide on which move you plan on doing once you see their reaction.
6) If you start to get the 'upper hand' on your opponent (which isn't that hard to do), throw him into the ropes and when he bounces back, let him collide into you (you should be the first one to get up), pick him up and do a pile driver, pick him up, throw him into the ropes and let him collide into you, pick him up and pile drive him again. You can do this for as long as you like but make sure to pin him before the time runs out. For a sure pin, just climb the top rope and land on him three times then pin.
7) A change in the music in the game indicates you are in danger of losing the match!

* List of opponents :

1) Insane Warrior
Signature Move : Body Press
Difficulty : Very Easy
Comments : Comic relief for the game. A very easy opponent to beat up and a good learning partner.

2) Karate Fighter
Signature Move : Rabbit Punch
Difficulty : Easy
Comments : Another opponent to use as a practice partner.

3) Coco Savage
Signature Move : Slingshot (grabs you by the ankles and throws you across / out of the ring).
Difficulty : Very Difficult
Comments : A dirty fighter. Will knock you down by giving you a shoulder block or knocking you on the head. Will cheat by getting you near the ropes and giving you plenty of shoulder blocks!

4) The Piranha
Signature Move : Elbow Drop
Difficulty : Moderate
Comments : The dirtiest fighter in the game. A very difficult opponent to fight with outside the ring.

5) Blues Bloody
Signature Move : Leg Drop
Difficulty : Moderate
Comments : The champ. Likes to body slam and throw opponents out of the ring.

- SERIES -

1. The Big Pro Wrestling! [Model TA-0007] (1983)
2. Exciting Hour - The Prowrestling Network (1985)

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES: 
[JP] Sony PS4 [PSN] (june.12, 2014) "Arcade Archives - Exciting Hour [Model CUSA-00782]" 
Sony PlayStation 4 [PSN] [AS] (may.21, 2015) "Arcade Archives - Mat Mania Exciting Hour" 
Sony PlayStation 4 [PSN] [KO] (nov.20, 2015) "Arcade Archives - Mat Mania Exciting Hour [Model CUSA-00782]" 

* COMPUTERS:
[JP] Sharp X68000 (feb.25, 1994) "Shusse Oozumou"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=extrmatn,extrmatnj,extrmatnur
Arcade Video game published 36 years ago:

Extermination (c) 1987 Taito.

A shoot'em up game.

- TECHNICAL -

This game runs on "The New Zealand Story" hardware.

Board Number : M6100305A
Prom Stickers : B06

Main CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 8 Mhz), Zilog Z80 (@ 6 Mhz)
Sound Chips : YM2203 (@ 3 Mhz)

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2

- TRIVIA -

Released in April 1987 in Japan.

Licensed to World Games for US manufacture and distribution.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Select stage: If you find all gates of underground rooms, you will be able to select the next stage.

- STAFF -

Director : Masaki Ogata
Game designer : Hiroyuki Sakou
Game programmers : YLW, Busuwa Kiraida, Kazutomo Ishida
Software support : Masaki Ogata, Satoshi Kuranaga
Character designers : Yukio Ishikawa, Kohzoh Igarashi, Tetsurou Kitagawa, Yoshihiko Wakita
Character coding : Hiroyuki Sakou
Original story : YLW
Sound programmers : Hisayoshi Ogura, Naoto Yagishita
Hardware analysis : Noboru Yasukawa
Art designer : Hisayasu Nakane
Tools : HP 64000 System, Mentor, Taito Animator

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=exzisus
Arcade Video game published 36 years ago:

Exzisus (c) 1987 Taito.

The player must use an 8-way joystick to take control of a space astronaut named Exzisus with two buttons to make him fire shots at and drop missiles on enemies, and launch his bird and dog-like robots at them. There are also several different powerups that he can collect to aid him in his mission:
L (Laser Light Blaster)
D (Disruption or Destruction depending upon the palette)
M (Missile)
F (Full Automatic)
A (Aerodynamic Power)
O (Option)
and, in some versions of the title, B (Barrier). When hit, Exzisus returns back to his regular humanoid form.

- TECHNICAL -

Game ID : B23

Main CPU : (4x) Z80
Sound Chips : Yamaha YM2151

Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2

It was also released as a conversion kit; "Exzisus [Conversion Kit]".

- TRIVIA -

Exzisus was released in August 1987 in Japan.

Export release: "Exzisus [Export]" (Licensed to Tad)

The design of the player spaceship is from Taito's famous shoot-em up, "Darius".

- STAFF -

PROGRAMMER: T.YOSHIKAWA, T.MURATA

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES: 
[EU] Microsoft XBOX (Oct. 14, 2005) "Taito Legends" 
[EU] Sony PS2 (Oct. 14, 2005) "Taito Legends [Model SLES-53438]" 
[US] Microsoft XBOX (Oct. 25, 2005) "Taito Legends" 
[US] Sony PS2 (Oct. 25, 2005) "Taito Legends [Model SLUS-21122]" 
[KO] Sony PlayStation 2 (jul.18, 2006) "Taito Legends [Model SLKA-15056]" 
[JP] Sony PS2 (Jan. 25, 2007) "Taito Memories II Joukan [Model SLPM-66649]" 

* COMPUTERS: 
[EU] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (Oct. 14, 2005) "Taito Legends" 
[US] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (Nov. 10, 2005) "Taito Legends"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=eyes,eyes2
Arcade Video game published 41 years ago:

Eyes (c) 1982 Rock-Ola Mfg. Corp.

The player controls a hat-wearing eyeball in a maze. As in Pac-Man, the goal is to collect all of the dots to advance to next level, but in Eyes you shoot the dots rather than eat them. Computer-controlled eyes chase and shoot at the player. Shooting a computer eye gives points and removes it from the level, but it will reappear a short time later. Being shot by a computer eye is fatal.

As the game progresses, more computer eyes are added to levels and they take less time to shoot at the player. They also move faster.

- TECHNICAL -

Model G-206

Main CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 3.072 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Namco (@ 96 Khz)

Screen orientation : Vertical
Video resolution : 224 x 288 pixels
Screen refresh : 60.61 Hz
Palette colors : 16

Players : 2
Control : 4-way joystick
Buttons : 1

- TRIVIA -

Released in July 1982.

Roogie Elliott holds the official record for this game with 23,222,320 points.

A bootleg of this game was made by Zaccaria (Italian Market).

Telko released a very similar game in 1983, called Eggor.

- STAFF -

Developed by Digitrex Techstar.

Designed by : Luis Sanchez

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=fantasia,fantasiaa,fantasiab,fantasian
Arcade Video game published 29 years ago:

Fantasia (c) 1994 Comad Industry Company, Limited.

Fantasia is a "Qix"-style adult puzzle game modeled heavily after the Kaneko game "Gals Panic!". It features photographic images of both Japanese and western models. The objective is to reveal 80% of the silhouetted girl's image within the time limit while avoiding the enemies.

To complicate things, there is a bar with a pointer at the top of the screen. If the pointer dips below a certain level (indicated by the change in color) the image will change to that of a monster. The pointer slowly creeps towards the monster side of the bar over time and moves dramatically towards the monster side whenever the player reveals a significant piece of the silhouette. Revealing the un-silhouetted part of the image moves the pointer back towards the girl side of the bar. If a round is completed while the monster's image is shown then the round must be repeated.

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU : Motorola 68000
Sound Chips : OKI6295

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 1

- TRIVIA -

Fantasia was released on March 07, 1994

The celebrity portraits :
Arnold Schwarzenegger (The Terminator)
Bruce Willis (Hudson Hawk)
Michael Jackson
Peter Weller (RoboCop)
Sylvester Stallone
Harrison Ford (Indiana Jones)

- SERIES -

1. Fantasia (1994)
2. Super Model (1994)
3. New Fantasia (1995)
4. Fantasia II (1997)
5. WOW Fantasia (2001)
6. WOW New Fantasia (2002)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=fantsia2,fantsia2a,fantsia2n
Arcade Video game published 26 years ago:

Fantasia II (c) 1997 Comad.

An adult variation - one of several released by the company - of the 1981 Taito classic, "Qix" (and, latterly, "Gal Panic" from Kaneko), in which players must 'colour in' sections of the background in order to reveal a digitised picture of a naked woman in an erotic pose. Like "Qix" and its sequels, Fantasia's levels are populated with a number of enemies who must be avoided or destroyed. As well as the enemies, players are also fighting against a tight time limit.

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 12 Mhz)
Sound Chips : OKI6295 (@ 12 Khz)

Screen orientation : Horizontal
Video resolution : 256 x 224 pixels
Screen refresh : 60.00 Hz
Palette colors : 33792

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 1

- SERIES -

1. Fantasia (1994)
2. Super Model (1994)
3. New Fantasia (1995)
4. Fantasia II (1997)
5. WOW Fantasia (2001)
6. WOW New Fantasia (2002)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=feversos
Arcade Video game published 25 years ago:

Fever SOS (c) 1998 Cave Company, Limited.

Export release. Game developed in Japan. See the original for more information about the game, "Dangun Feveron".

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=fightfev,fightfeva

Fight Fever (c) 1994 Viccom.

8 initially selectable characters face off to become the Tae Kwon Do master! After defeating the absolutely WACKY Master Taekuk, he becomes selectable as well to face off against end boss Karate Kenji.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID : 0060

[SNK MVS Neo-Geo Controls]
2 players - 4 buttons per player.
[JOYSTICK] 8-way [A] Light punch [B] Light kick [C] Heavy punch [D] Heavy kick

- TRIVIA -

Fight Fever was released in July 1994.

This game is also known in Korea as "Wang Joong Wang" (translated from Korean as 'King of the Kings').

Fight Fever is Viccom's only game developed and released for the SNK Neo-Geo MVS hardware (but was not released on the Neo-Geo AES home console).

- UPDATES -

The Korean titlescreen has a Korean flag in the background instead of flames.

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=fswords

Fighters Swords (c) 1995 SNK.

This is the Korean release of "Samurai Shodown III".

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=fhawk,fhawkj
Arcade Video game published 34 years ago:

Fighting Hawk (c) 1989 Taito.

The player controls his fighting plane 'Falcon' and fights against enemies in each round of grassy plain, iceberg, glacier, snowfield and city. His final aim is to shoot down the enemy's snowfield newest bomber 'Dragon Hat'.

- TECHNICAL -

Taito L System hardware
Prom Sticker : B70

Main CPU : (2x) Zilog Z80
Sound CPU : Zilog Z80
Sound Chips : YM2203

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2

- TRIVIA -

Even if the title screen says 1988, Fighting Hawk was released in March 1989 in Japan.

Many Japanese gamers expected this game to be along the lines of Toaplan's "Flying Shark". But the game didn't match up with Toaplan's usual style. So, the game was a flop.

Fighting hawk's BGM and graphic engine were re-used in "Master of Weapon". Originally, Master of Weapon (at a very early stage of development) was planned to be a sequel to Fighting Hawk.

The game forbids the initials 'SEX' on the high score table. If you try, it gets changed to 'H !'.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Stage selection screen: like many others games in the Taito library, this game has a hidden stage selection screen. Here is the process :
1) During boot-up, press the 'service' button.
2) "Service switch error" should appear; if it does, press 1P START (x3) and the service button (x1).
3) Stage Selection screen should appear.

- SERIES -

1. Flying Shark [TP-027] (1987)
2. Fighting Hawk (1989)
3. Fire Shark! [TP-017] (1989)

- STAFF -

Sound composer: V. Ohashi (Pinch Panchi)

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES: 
[JP] Sony PS2 (jan.25, 2007) "Taito Memories II Joukan [Model SLPM-66649]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=831&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=finalb,finalbj
Arcade Video game published 34 years ago:

Final Blow (c) 1989 Taito.

The game features a single season boxing championship run. You can select from a group of fictional fighters.

The game is essentially a side scrolling boxing game where the player moves left and right to control a boxer. With the right timing, the player can unleash a final blow punch that can KO the opponent in a single strike.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "Taito F2 System" hardware.

Prom Stickers : B82

Players: 2
Control: 8-way joystick
Buttons: Buttons: 3 [Weak/Medium/Duck]

- TRIVIA -

Final Blow was released in April 1989, even if the title screen says 1988.

The game has five boxers, each with a nickname :
Detroit Kid - The Invincible Black Panther
Dynamite Joe - The Miracle Fighter
Fernando Gomez - The South American Eagle
Kim Nang - The Korean Comet
King Jason - The Black King

- STAFF -

Software : Ichiro Fujisue, Masaya Kinoshita, Yuichi Ohnogi, Takayuki Ishiwata
Character designers : Yukiwo Ishikawa, Kazuhiro Numata
Hardware : Katujiro Fujimoto, Minoru Yoshimura
Cabinet : Hisayuki Yamaguchi, Yoshihiro Akiyama
Art designer : Akio Nomura
Sound : Zuntata Sound Team
Game designers : Yukiwo Ishikawa, Kazuhiro Numata

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] Sega Mega Drive (mar.3, 1990) "Final Blow [Model T-11033]" 
[US] Sega Genesis (june.1, 1990) "James 'Buster' Douglas Knockout Boxing" 
[EU] Sega Mega Drive (1991) "James 'Buster' Douglas Knockout Boxing" 
[JP] Sony PS2 (mar.29, 2007) "Taito Memories II Gekan [Model SLPM-66713 (TCPS-10183)]" 
[JP] Sony PS2 (june.26, 2008) "Taito Memories II Gekan [Eternal Hits] [Model SLPM-55018]" 

* COMPUTERS: 
[JP] FM Towns PC (1990) 
[US] Commodore C64 (1991) 
[EU] Commodore C64 (1991) 
[EU] Atari ST (1991) 
[EU] Commodore Amiga (1991)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=ffightj,ffightj1
Arcade Video game published 34 years ago:

Final Fight (c) 1989 Capcom Company, Limited.

Final Fight is a horizontally-scrolling beat-em-up for one or two players in which Jessica - the daughter of ex-wrestler and newly-elected Mayor of Metro City, Mike Haggar - has been kidnapped by the evil 'Mad Gear' gang. Haggar rounds up two of his closest friends, Guy and Cody, and sets out to battle Mad Gear's gang members and ultimately rescue his daughter. Players must battle through numerous run-down gang-infested stages to rescue her.

Each of the game's three playable characters have different strengths and weaknesses. Hagger is very strong but quite slow, Guy is fast but not as strong and Cody is a mix of the two. As well as the standard punch and kick moves, each character also has a special attack. This move is powerful enough to fell several enemies at once, with the trade-off that each time a special attack is executed, some of the player's health is lost. 

Enemies can be grabbed simply by walking into one of them. When an enemy is grabbed, the player can perform a 'grab attack' by pressing the attack button or can perform throw the enemy by moving the joystick left or right. If the thrown enemy hits another enemy, both will take damage.

Health levels can be replenished by finding food that lies hidden in breakable crates and barrels. Some of the Mad Gear gang members carry weapons that can be knocked from their hands, these weapons can then be picked up and used by the players. Crates and barrels may also contain weapons and random bonus items. Weapons have limited uses and will disappear if the player is disarmed by an enemy too often, weapons are also discarded when players move to a new area.

Final Fight consists of six stages, as well as two bonus rounds. At the end of each stage, players will face a powerful boss character unique to that stage.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System" hardware.
B-Board ID: 88622B-3

Players: Up to 2 simultaneously.
Control per player: 8-way joystick.
Buttons per player: 3.
=> [1] Attack, [2] Jump, [3] Release (when grabbed by enemies).

- TRIVIA -

Final Fight was released in December 1989 in the Japanese arcades. It was known there as the 8th video game made for the CP System.

This game was originally billed as the sequel to "Street Fighter" and was to be called "Street Fighter '89". While the game had become a major hit in its own right, Capcom decided to change the name to "Final Fight" and save the "Street Fighter" name for another game, 2 years later. 

Guy's name is written with the kanji meaning 'victory song'. The character of Guy has been allegedly inspired by the lead singer of the post hardcore group Fugazi, Guy Picciotto. 

The enemy character, Andore, and all of his relatives (Andore Jr., Uncle Andore, Father Andore and Grandfather Andore) are Capcom's homage to the now late WWF Champion, Andre Rene Roussimoff, better known as 'Andre the Giant'. 

Two other Mad Gear characters, Axl and Slash, are parodies of the lead singer and guitarist respectively from American rock band, 'Guns N' Roses'. 

Poison is taken from the glam rock group of the '80s, in which the singer used to wear a similar hat to the female character in the game. The character Poison is actually a male transvestite and so is Roxy (although a translation error in the Capcom Classics Collection character profiles refers to Roxy as a female). 

Abigail is a King Diamond album, whose singer (King Diamond) resembles the character in the game. 

Sodom is a famous German thrash metal band founded in the eighties. 

The enemy character 'Two P' appears in "Forgotten Worlds" as the second player ('Two P' for 2P, 'Player 2').

The game shares a similar plot with the 1984 movie 'Streets of Fire' directed by Walter Hill. Starring : Michael Paré, Diane Lane, Rick Moranis and Willem Dafoe. Here's a list of the things the movie and the game have in common (Warning! Contains movie spoilers) : 
1) The main character played by Michael Paré is named 'Tom Cody' and resembles the game character. Wears jeans and a white shirt at some points during the movie. 
2) The city is plagued by gangs and a motorcycle gang kidnaps Cody's Ex girlfriend. 
3) The cop that arranges a meeting between Cody and the Gang's boss is nothing other than a corrupted cop by the name of 'Ed Price', the only Cop in the game is called 'Eddie'. 
4) The city has an old and trashed look similar to the game. 
5) At the end of the movie, Cody leaves the girl just like in the game. Only this time there is no 'Guy' to stop him from leaving (see Final Fight ending sequence)

Known re-release: "Final Fight [B-Board 89625B-1]"
Known Export release: "Final Fight [B-Board 89624B-3]"

A bootleg of this game is known as "Final Crash". 

Before the release of "Final Fight", Capcom released a vertically scrolling driving/shoot-em-up called "Mad Gear". 

Pony Canyon/Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Final Fight : G.S.M. Capcom 3 - PCCB-00030) on May 21, 1990.

- UPDATES -

First revision:
* No Build Date screen.

Second revision:
* Build Date screen added.
* Build date: 900112

Third revision:
* Build date: 900305

Fourth revision:
* Build date: 900613

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* At the front of the train of Level 2, stand on the barrel and let the clock get to about 45. You will skip the section without defeating the Mad Gear guys. 

* Special Endings : Finish the game without having to continue to see an additional credit sequence (meet the staff). 

* Hidden Stuff : 
Gaining extra points : To gain jewels and other high points items from breakable stuff like barrels, dustbins. Execute the jump+down attack move. (Cody - headbutt, Guy - Elbow). When doing the move, rapidly jag controller left to right. Usually, jewels will appear instead of other cheap things. 
Crewing Gum : When fighting Eddie B. (Cop), you will notice that he spit out a wad of gum. That thing will give you about half a life if you pick it up. 
Last Boss : Cody is able to punch away the bolts that the last boss fires. No other character can do it. 
Off the wall attack : Besides doing the normal off the wall flying kick, you can change it into a flying elbow drop by doing down+attack. 
Hidden Gems : On the way to the last boss, there is a stage when there are some pillars. Located at the bottom of each pillar are gems. Make sure you get them. 

* Super Combo : This super combo can be easily executed with Cody or Guy, but it's a bit tougher with Haggar. To begin, initiate a punching combo (press attack, attack, attack for Cody or Guy) or (attack, attack for Haggar.) While you're pressing these buttons, hold the D-pad AWAY from your enemy. Before you do your final ending combo blow, you will throw the enemy, delivering massive damage! 
Note : You can also start this combo with a jumping knee (jump and hold down, press attack) to deal even more damage! (This will not work for Haggar). 
There's an easier way to do this: simply pull the joystick down while punching and the combo will finish throwing the enemy. 

* Cody is the only character who can attack with a knife without throwing it. Press Attack while standing next to an enemy to stab them.

- SERIES -

1. Final Fight [B-Board 88622B-3] (1989, Arcade) 
2. Final Fight 2 [Model SHVC-F2] (1993, Super Famicom) 
3. Mighty Final Fight (1993, Famicom) 
4. Final Fight Tough [Model SHVC-AFZJ-JPN] (1995, Super Famicom) 
5. Final Fight Revenge (1999, Arcade) 
6. Final Fight - Streetwise (2006, PS2/XBOX)

- STAFF -

Planner : Pon G, Akira Nishitani (Nin), Akira Yasuda (Akiman)
Programmers : Kiyomi Kaneko (Kanekon), Shin., Tomiyan, Yokoyan
Character designers : S.Y., Tissue, Prince
Backgrounds designers : Mikman, Okachan, Fukumary, Nissui
Music : Yoshihiro Sakaguchi (Youki Chan's papa)

Special thanks : CBX, Noritaka Funamizu (Poo), Chin, Yamachan

- PORTS -

Here is a list of Japanese ports. To see ports released in other regions, please see the export version entry; "Final Fight [B-Board 89624B-3]".

* CONSOLES: 
[JP] Nintendo Super Famicom (dec.21, 1990) "Final Fight [Model SHVC-FT]" 
[JP] Nintendo Super Famicom (mar.20, 1992) "Final Fight Guy [Model SHVC-FY]" 
[JP] Sega Mega CD (apr.2, 1993) "Final Fight CD [Model G-6013]" 
[JP] Sony PS2 (mar.2, 2006) "Capcom Classics Collection [Model SLPM-66317]" 

* HANDHELDS: 
[JP] Nintendo GBA (may.25, 2001) "Final Fight One [Model AGB-AFFJ-JPN]" 

* COMPUTERS: 
[JP] Sharp X68000 (jul.17, 1992)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=ffight,ffightua,ffightub,ffightu1,ffightu,ffighta,ffightbl,ffightuc
Arcade Video game published 33 years ago:

Final Fight (c) 1990 Capcom USA, Incorporated.

Export release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, see the original Japanese release entry; "Final Fight [B-Board 88622B-3]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System" hardware.
B-Board ID: 89624B-3

- TRIVIA -

The original Japanese version had a scene that shows Jessica in underwear on the TV in the abstract mode. This scene was removed in all Export versions.

The game can be unlocked after one of the cutscenes in "Final Fight - Streetwise" for the Sony PlayStation 2 and the Microsoft XBOX.

- UPDATES -

First revision:
* No Build Date screen.

Second revision:
* Buid date screen added.
* Build date: 900112

Third revision:
* Build date: 900424

Fourth revision:
* Build date: 900613

- PORTS -

Here is a list of ports released outside Japan. To see Japanese ports, please see the original Japanese version entry, "Final Fight [B-Board 88622B-3]". 

* CONSOLES: 
[US] Nintendo SNES (sept.1991) "Final Fight [Model SNS-FT-USA]" 
[AU] Nintendo SNES (1992) "Final Fight [Model SNSP-FT-AUS]" 
[EU] Nintendo SNES (mar.20, 1992) "Final Fight Guy [Model SHVC-FY]" 
[EU] Nintendo SNES (dec.10, 1992) "Final Fight [Model SNSP-FT-EUR]" 
[EU] Sega Mega CD (1993) "Final Fight CD [Model 4410]" 
[US] Sega CD (1993) "Final Fight CD [Model 4410]" 
[US] Nintendo SNES (june.1994) "Final Fight Guy [Model SNS-FY-USA]" 
[US] Microsoft XBOX (sept.27, 2005) "Capcom Classics Collection" 
[US] Sony PS2 (sept.27, 2005) "Capcom Classics Collection [Model SLUS-21316]" 
[EU] Microsoft XBOX (nov.18, 2005) "Capcom Classics Collection" 
[EU] Sony PS2 (nov.18, 2005) "Capcom Classics Collection [Model SLES-53661]" 
Microsoft XBOX 360 [XBLA] [EU] [KO] [US] [AU] (apr.14, 2010) "Final Fight - Double Impact" 
Sony PlayStation 3 [PSN] [EU] [US] (apr.15, 2010) "Final Fight - Double Impact" 
Microsoft XBOX 360 [US] (mar.27, 2012) "Capcom Digital Collection" - XBLA version 
[AU] Microsoft XBOX 360 (mar.29, 2012) "Capcom Digital Collection" - XBLA version 
[EU] Microsoft XBOX 360 (mar.30, 2012) "Capcom Digital Collection" - XBLA version 

* HANDHELDS: 
[US] Nintendo GBA (sept.26, 2001) "Final Fight One [Model AGB-AFFE-USA]" 
[EU] Nintendo GBA (sept.28, 2001) "Final Fight One [Model AGB-AFFP-EUR]" 
[US] Sony PSP (mar.22, 2006) "Capcom Classics Collection Remixed [Model ULUS-10097]" 
[EU] Sony PSP (jul.21, 2006) "Capcom Classics Collection Remixed [Model ULES-00347]" 

* COMPUTERS: 
[US] Commodore C64 [EU] (1991) 
[EU] Amstrad CPC (1991) 
[EU] Commodore Amiga (1991) 
[EU] Atari ST (1991) 
[EU] Sinclair ZX Spectrum (1991) 

* OTHERS: 
Apple iPhone/iPad [US] (nov.4, 2010) "Capcom Arcade [Model 397347348]" 
Apple iPhone/iPod [US] (sept.15, 2011) "Final Fight [Model 459663198]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=ffightj2,ffightj3,ffightj4
Arcade Video game published 33 years ago:

Final Fight (c) 1990 Capcom Company, Limited.

Re-release of "Final Fight [B-Board 88622B-3]". See this entry for more information about the game itself.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System" hardware.
B-Board ID: 89625B-1

- TRIVIA -

This re-release runs on a slighty updated hardware. The Build Date is 900305.

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=69745&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=ffightjh
Arcade Video game:

Final Fight (c) 199? Unknown [China]

A Chinese hack of Final Fight where you can select and play enemies!

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System" hardware.

- TRIVIA -

This pirate hack uses an official Japanese B-Board 91634B-2. The EPROMS have been modified. The Board uses a GAL instead of the classic PAL. There is no ROM check at the start and no logo Capcom, instead there is a chinese text. The game intro is in English.

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=finalttr
Arcade Video game published 30 years ago:

Final Tetris (c) 1993 Jeil Computer System.

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 12 Mhz), Zilog Z80 (@ 3.578545 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Yamaha YM2151 (@ 4 Mhz), OKI6295 (@ 7.575 Khz)

Screen orientation : Horizontal
Video resolution : 256 x 224 pixels
Screen refresh : 57.50 Hz
Palette colors : 256

Players : 2
Control : 8-way Joystick
Buttons : 3

- TRIVIA -

Released in August 1993.

- STAFF -

Producer : Jeon Jae Yun

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=fireshrk,fireshrkd,fireshrkdh,fireshrka
Arcade Video game published 34 years ago:

Fire Shark! (c) 1989 Toaplan Company, Limited.
 
Export version. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese version entry; "Same! Same! Same! [TP-017]".

- TECHNICAL -

Game ID : TP-017

- TRIVIA -

Fire Shark was released in November 1989.

Licensed to Romstar for USA distribution. 
Licensed to Dooyong for Korean distribution.

This game is known in Japan as Same! Same! Same! and has some differences:
* You can only play one player at a time.
* When you get hit you start over a bit behind where you left off.

- SERIES -

1. Flying Shark [TP-027] (1987)
2. Fighting Hawk (1989)
3. Fire Shark! [TP-017] (1989)

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[US] Sega Genesis (1990) [Model 34016] 
[EU] Sega Mega Drive (1991) [Model 670-1875]

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=3countb

Fire Suplex (c) 1993 SNK [Shin Nihon Kikaku].

CAN YOU SURVIVE THE ULTIMATE BATTLE?

The long-awaited, 100-Mega Shock charged Pro-Wrestling Game from NEO-GEO! 10 wrestlers, each equipped with Power Attacks and Malevolent Moves rage in the ring, biting, kicking and punching their way to the top spot in the Wrestling World. 
Competitive Play and Tage Match battles!

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID: NGM-043

[SNK MVS Neo-Geo Controls]
2 Players - 4 Buttons Per Player.
Player One : [Joystick] 8-Way, [A] Punch, [B] Kick, [C] Jump, [D] Fall
Player Two : [Joystick] 8-Way, [A] Punch, [B] Kick, [C] Jump, [D] Fall

- TRIVIA -

Fire Suplex was released on March 25, 1993 in Japan. It was developed by UPL and this is the last game developed by this manufacturer.

This game is known outside Japan as 3 Count Bout.

Fire Suplex is the only 'true' wrestling game for the SNK MVS Neo-Geo hardware but not the first. This honor goes to "King of The Monsters" (with giant monsters anyway!) :)

Blues Hablam and Blubber Man are actually the same guy with the same ring attire, only Hablam sports a mask. The same occurs for Gochack Bigbomb and Big Bomberdir with Bigbomb wearing the mask.

The character Master Barnes enters the ring wearing Shoulder Spikes similar to the ones worn by legendary wrestling tag-team The Road Warriors.

Soundtrack album releases:
[JP] Fire Suplex (PCCB-00134) (17/09/93) [Pony Canyon/Scitron]

Reviews:
[FR] June 1993 - Consoles + N.21: 94/100

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

HOW TO PLAY:
[Joystick] Moves Wrestler (to dash: push joystick twice quickly then the A or B button).
[A & B] Attack - Punch & Kick (Used in close battles).
[C] Jump
[D] Fall (Tag-in: Tag match).

USING SPECIAL MOVES:
* Move in on your opponent and press A+B buttons: POWER ATTACK.
* Move joystick left/right and press A repeatedly: MALEVOLENT MOVE.
* C+A or C+B button: JUMP
* Press B or C when your opponent hits the canvas: PIN

POWER GAUGE:
When the gauge appears on the screen, push A continually to raise Power. When the attack signal is displayed, drop your opponent. Use the combinations to drop your opponent.
* A-button + Joystick: Rope Throw.
* B-button + Joystick: Body Slam & Super Moves.
* A+B button: Power Attack.

CHARACTERS:
* Blubber Man - The Deutsch Dracula
Power Attack: German Suplex
Malevolent Move: Bloody Slash

* Gochack Bigbomb - The Raging Bull
Power Attack: Megaton Crusher
Malevolent Move: Blitzkrieg Bite

* Master Barnes - The Passionless Cyborg
Power Attack: Hyper-Drive Bomb
Malevolent Move: Thousand-Kick Thrust

* Leo Bradley - The Wild-Matted Maniac
Power Attack: Hanging Throw
Malevolent Move: Hundred-Punch Smash

* Roy Wilson - Bear-Busting Barbarian
Power Attack: Thunderbolt Buster
Malevolent Move: Bear Bite

* Terry Rogers - The Gladiator
Power Attack: Fire Suplex
Malevolent Move: The Thousand Blows

* Blues Hablam - The Mysterious Shadow Warrior
Power Attack: German Suplex
Malevolent Move: Bloody Slash

* The Red Dragon - The Scarlet Ninja
Power Attack: Super Back Clutch
Malevolent Move: Poison Mist

* Big Bombardier - The Human B-52
Power Attack: Megaton Crush
Malevolent Move: The Chomper

* The Ghandarra - The Buddhist Boss
Power Attack: Indian Arch
Malevolent Move: Furious Flames

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo AES (Apr. 23, 1993) "Fire Suplex [Model NGH-043]"
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo CD (Apr. 21, 1995) "Fire Suplex [Model NGCD-043]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=fixeight,fixeighta,fixeighth,fixeightk,fixeighttw,fixeightu
Arcade Video game published 31 years ago:

FixEight (c) 1992 Toaplan Company, Limited.

A vertically scrolling shoot'em up from Toaplan.

- TECHNICAL -

Board Number : TP-026

Main CPU : Motorola 68000
Sound Chips : Yamaha YM2151, OKI6295

Players : 2
Control : 8-Way Joystick 
Buttons : 2
=> Shoot, Bomb

- TRIVIA -

FixEight was released in July 1992.

This game is known in Japan as "FixEight - Jigoku no Eiyuu Densetsu" (translates from Japanese as 'Legend of Hell's Hero').

- SERIES -

1. Out Zone [TP-018] (1990)
2. Fixeight [TP-026] (1992)

- STAFF -

Music composed by : Toshiaki Tomizawa

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=wjammers

Flying Power Disc (c) 1994 Data East Corp.

A flying disk game from Data East.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID: NGM-065

Players: 2
Control: 8-Way Joystick
Buttons: 2
=> [A] Slide and receive/Throw, [B] Lob

- TRIVIA -

Flying Power Disc was released on February 17, 1994 in Japan.

This game is known outside Japan as Windjammers.

Each characters in game has his own native language (i.e. Costa says 'Perfecto').

Flying Power Disc contains 2 mini-games. After the second match, Dog Distance consists in catching the disc as far as possible with your dog. After the fourth match, Flying Disc Bowling allows us to make strikes and spares with the flying disc.

Flying Power Disc is based on the real world flying disc sport called '10-S'. But the inventor of the 10-S has never give permission or signed any agreement to allow Neo Geo or Data East to use 10-S as a model for Windjammers. It have never been compensated for the illegal use of 10-S rules and method of play. 10-S was created in 1977 and copyrighted in 1980.

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Fighters History Dynamite & Flying Power Disc - PCCB-00149) on March 18, 1994.

- UPDATES -

Curiously, B. Yoo of Korea is replaced with S. Miller of Britain only on the USA Territory dip switch setting. The sprites remain exactly the same, but the voice is changed to that of an Englishman.

- STAFF -

Project Leader : Takaaki Inoue
Planner : Adachi Pentax
Programmers : Takaaki Inoue, Wataru Iida
Graphic Designers : Nozu Makoto, Galactus Mina, Yoshiyuki Urushibara, El Santo Inopita, Masateru Inagaki (Flex Inagaki), Hiroshi Tamawashi, Tomoyuki Arakawa
Bug-Dashi's : Takatoshi Katahata, Kagenobu Murata
Sound Creators : Atomic & Tom & Koremasa
Special Thanks : Steve Miller, E. Kariya

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo AES (apr.8, 1994) "Flying Power Disc [Model NGH-065]" 
[US] SNK Neo-Geo AES (1994) "Windjammers - Flying Disk Game [Model NGH-065]" 
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo CD (jan.20, 1995) "Flying Power Disc [Model DECD-002]"
[US] SNK Neo-Geo CD (1995) "Windjammers - Flying Disk Game [Model DECD-002E]"
Nintendo Wii [Virtual Console] [JP] (june.22, 2010) Neo Geo version

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=footchmp,footchmpbl
Arcade Video game published 32 years ago:

Football Champ (c) 1991 Taito.

Export version. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese version entry: "Hattrick Hero".

- TRIVIA -

Football Champ was released in March 1991.

In this export version, USA and JAPAN are replaced by SPAIN and FRANCE.

- SERIES -

1. Football Champ (1991)
2. Taito Cup Finals (1993)
3. Hattrick Hero '94 (1994)
4. Taito Power Goal (1994)

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES: 
[US] Nintendo SNES (june.1992) "Super Soccer Champ [Model SNS-HT]" 
[US] Sony PS2 (may.16, 2007) "Taito Legends 2 [Model SLUS-21349]" 

* COMPUTERS: 
[US] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (jul.10, 2007) "Taito Legends 2"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=fbfrenzy

Football Frenzy (c) 1992 SNK [Shin Nihon Kikaku].

A football game where 8 teams (10 in all) take part in a single-elimination tournament to decide who is the best.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID: NGM-034

[SNK MVS Neo-Geo Controls]
2 Players - 4 Buttons Per Player.

- TRIVIA -

Football Frenzy was released on January 31, 1992.

- STAFF -

Producer : Eikichi Kawasaki
Chief Designer : Tomomi (Tomomi. M)
Designers : Mina Kawai, Toshiaki Joe, Tick, Nishi Futatsu (Futatsu!!!), Tami Sugiura
Main Programmer : Makoto
Programmers : Data Tada, Masami Tanaka
Sound : Tina Terko, Tate Norio, Jojoha Kitapy

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo AES (feb.21, 1992; "Football Frenzy [Model NGH-034]")
[US] SNK Neo-Geo AES (feb.21, 1992; "Football Frenzy [Model NGH-034]")
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo CD (sept.9, 1994; "Football Frenzy [Model NGCD-034]")
[US] SNK Neo-Geo CD (sept.9, 1994; "Football Frenzy [Model NGCD-034E]")

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=forgottnua,forgottnuaa,forgottnue,forgottnuc
Arcade Video game published 35 years ago:

Forgotten Worlds (c) 1988 Capcom USA, Incorporated.

Export release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, see the original Japanese release entry; "Lost Worlds [B-Board 88618B-2]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System" hardware
B-Board #: 88618B-2
B-Board PALs: LWCHR
CPS-B #: CPS-B-01 DL-0411-10001

- TRIVIA -

This game is known in Japan as "Lost Worlds".

An updated version was released as "Forgotten Worlds [B-Board 88621B-2]".

- PORTS -

Here is a list of all ports except Japanese ones. To see Japanese ports, please see the original Japanese version entry, "Lost World [B-Board 88618B-2]"

* CONSOLES: 
[US] Sega Genesis (nov.17, 1989) 
Sega Mega Drive [BR] (1990) by Tec Toy
[EU] Sega Mega Drive (1990) 
[EU] Sega Master System (1991) "Forgotten Worlds [Model 7056]" 
Sega Master System [BR] (1991) by Tec Toy 
NEC TurboGrafx-CD [US] (1992) "Forgotten Worlds [Model TGXCD1030]" 
[US] Microsoft XBOX (sept.27, 2005) "Capcom Classics Collection" 
[US] Sony PS2 (sept.27, 2005) "Capcom Classics Collection [Model SLUS-21316]" 
[EU] Microsoft XBOX (nov.18, 2005) "Capcom Classics Collection" 
[EU] Sony PS2 (nov.18, 2005) "Capcom Classics Collection [Model SLES-53661]" 

* HANDHELDS: 
[US] Sony PSP (mar.22, 2006) "Capcom Classics Collection Remixed [Model ULUS-10097]" 
[EU] Sony PSP (jul.21, 2006) "Capcom Classics Collection Remixed [Model ULES-00347]" 

* COMPUTERS: 
PC [MS-DOS, 3.5"] [US] (1988) 
Commodore Amiga [US] (1989) 
[US] Commodore C64 [EU] (1989) 
[EU] Sinclair ZX Spectrum (1989) 
[EU] Amstrad CPC (1989) 
[EU] Atari ST (1989) 
[EU] Amstrad CPC (1990) "Les Aventuriers"
[EU] Amstrad CPC (1991) "Capcom Collection" 
[EU] Atari ST (1991) "Capcom Collection" 
[EU] Commodore C64 (1991) "Capcom Collection" 
[EU] Commodore Amiga (1991) "Capcom Collection" 
[EU] Sinclair ZX Spectrum (1991) "Capcom Collection"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=forgottn,forgottnu,forgottna
Arcade Video game published 35 years ago:

Forgotten Worlds (c) 1988 Capcom USA, Incorporated.

Updated version/Re-release of "Forgotten Worlds [B-Board 88618B-2]". For more information about the game itself, see the original Japanese release entry; "Lost Worlds [B-Board 88618B-2]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System" hardware
B-Board #: 88621B-2
B-Board PALs: LW621
CPS-B #: CPS-B-01 DL-0411-10001

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=frogger,froggeram
Arcade Video game published 42 years ago:

Frogger (c) 1981 Konami Industry Company, Limited.

Frogger is a one or two-player game in which players must overcome a number of hazards to safely guide the green amphibian from the bottom of the screen to one of five home bases situated at the top of the screen.

The lower half of the screen consists of a bi-directional flow of traffic moving across five lanes. To navigate across the road safely, Frogger's hops must be timed to avoid the vehicles, which include buses, civilian traffic and racing cars, with different vehicle types moving at different speeds. As well as being able to hop vertically, Frogger can also move left and right, allowing him to move with the flow of traffic. 

The upper half of the screen consists of a fast-flowing river populated with logs, crocodiles and turtles. Frogger will drown if he has any contact with the water and these act as platforms onto which Frogger can hop. He must be careful to avoid contact with crocodiles' snapping jaws, however and some of the turtles will periodically dive below the water's surface, drowning Frogger. Frogger will also die if he is on a log, turtle or crocodile when it reaches the edge of the screen.

On the logs of the river section a female frog will occasionally appear and bonus points are awarded if Frogger successfully escorts her safely home. A fly also appears randomly in a home base and bonus points are awarded if Frogger enters the base when the fly is present. Conversely, a crocodile may also appear in a home base and a life is lost if Frogger enters the base while the crocodile is present.

A round is completed once five frogs have been guided safely home, after which the next round begins with an increased level of difficulty. This includes faster-moving vehicles on the road section and new, deadly hazards on the river section, including crocodiles, otters and snakes.

- TECHNICAL -

Game ID : GX392

Main CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 3.072 Mhz)
Sound CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 1.78975 Mhz)
Sound Chips : General Instrument AY8910 (@ 1.78975 Mhz)

Players : 2
Control : 4-Way Joystick

- TRIVIA -

Frogger was released by Konami in June 1981 in Japan; it became a runaway hit. 

1981 was a big year in video games. A lot of companies were putting some pretty popular games on the market and it created a very competitive atmosphere as to what company was putting out the most popular ones. In addition, 1981 continued on the trend of the 'cute' type games such as "Ms. Pac-Man", "Qix", and a host of Pac-Man clones. Konami was already becoming a force to be reckoned with in the video gaming world. With such hits as "Space War", "Scramble", and "Super Cobra", Konami was making its mark. 

The sound that can be heard when a coin is inserted into the machine was sampled by producer Richard X for the Sugababes' song, 'Freak Like Me' (and is the very first sound on the track). 

Frogger has numerous bugs, although many of these are not immediately apparent to the average player : 
1. Sections of the music will occasionally cut out, although the main melody will continue to play. 
2. On occasion, Frogger displays a somewhat haphazard approach to collision detection. One side effect of this is that the player can sometimes make a perfectly legal and safe jump and still lose a life. Another side effect of this is that the player can jump up onto the first row of turtles, and then immediately jump back. This will place the player 'off the grid', and it is now possible to jump right off the side of the screen, leading to a loss of life. 
3. There are several other odd jumps that can be made as well. Firstly, the player can 'hang off' the left side of a turtle, but attempting to do the same on the right side results in death. If the player jumps onto a home base with an alligator (and the 'gator vanishes after you jump, but before the player lands), Frogger will be killed, but he will ALSO make it home. Finally, left and right jumps on the top row of logs are sometimes much slower than usual - this is more likely to occur after previously eating a fly. 
4. Another in-game bug is that the lady frog will sometimes be invisible, but will flash red when the player jumps onto the spot where she is. 

Mark Robichek holds the official record for this game with 442,330 points. 

A Frogger unit appears in the 1999 movie 'Magnolia' and the sitcom 'Two and a Half Men'; Season 5, Episode 2 (People Who Love Peepholes). 

Frogger inspired a catchy hit song by Buckner and Garcia called 'Froggy's Lament' released on the 'Pac-Man Fever' album. 

The TV show, Seinfeld, has an episode named 'The Frogger'. George and Jerry are in Mario's Pizza which is closing down, and they find a Frogger game still there. They realize that the high score of 860,630 points has George's initials GLC [George Louis Costanza]. They reminisce about the night it happened : "I was unstoppable!... Just the right amount of grease on the joystick". George decides to buy the Frogger machine to immortalize his high score, but Jerry informs him that unplugging the game will erase all of the scores. Later, George tries in vain to call an electrician to help : "I need a guy that can rig a Frogger machine so that I can move it without losing power, 'cause I have the high score. H-hello?". Kramer suggests an electrician who can help. George says, "Kramer, listen to me. I'm never gonna have a child. If I lose this Frogger high score, that's it for me". George assembles a team and hatches a plan to salvage the game. But when he arrives, he finds the team playing the game, which has only three minutes of battery life left. They can't get it back in the closed pizzeria, but there is an open pharmacy across the street where it could be plugged in. George decides to push the machine across the highway, and an overhead shot of this feat looks much like the Frogger game itself, and the music from the game is played. At the end, George is unable to push the game onto the sidewalk and it gets destroyed by an oncoming truck. 

MB (Milton Bradley) released a board game based on this video game (same name) the same year, 'One Wrong Leap Will Get You Squished And Splattered' : in this version of the game, 2 players face off, each with their own army of frogs, logs, and automobiles. Each turn, a player spends his movement points either moving his frogs toward their goal (the other side of the board), or moving logs and cars in an attempt to block or squash the other player's frogs. Complete with 'bonus points' for landing on flies, this is actually a pretty faithful interpretation of the video-game, but far too simple to have any long-lasting interest. More of a curiosity for video game enthusiasts than anything. 

Frogger also spawned a cartoon series of the same name : Ruby-Spears Productions. Produced By Joe Ruby, Ken Spears. Originally aired September 17, 1983 as part of 'Saturday Supercade' on CBS. 

Michael Jackson used to own this game. It was sold at the official Michael Jackson Auction on April 24, 2009.

The main character appears on the 2012 animation movie "Wreck-It Ralph" from Walt Disney Animation Studios.

- SCORING -

Forward Hop : 10 points (max points per home is 100)
Frog Safely Put in Home : 50 points
Completing a Level : 1,000 points
Bringing a Lady Frog to Your Home : 200 points
Eating a Fly : 200 points

You also get a time bonus of 10 x the remaining seconds added to your score.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* When you start the game, your frog will start at the bottom of the screen. You will have 60 seconds to move your frog up 10 spaces and successfully put it in one of the homes. If you are successful, then you will try to put another frog in another home and so on until you fill up all five homes with frogs. When you do this, you progress to the next level. 

* Note the traffic flow of the two parts. The cars travel on the roadway while the logs, turtles, crocodiles, etc. travel on the water lanes in the following direction : 
a) Lanes #1, #3, and #5 go from right to left. 
b) Lanes #2 and #4 go from left to right. 

* First, you must cross the highway. You will become roadkill if a vehicle hits you or you hit a vehicle. Try to find 'lanes' in between the vehicles. You must plan for gaps to form in the first three lanes so you don't become trapped. The vehicles in the first three lanes move slowly enough that you can jump side to side with reasonable safety. 

* Lane #4 is the dangerous lane. Depending on how much time you are taking, the cars may pick up speed even though it shows slow on the chart. Keep this in mind when you are moving your frog. 

* At level 3, a snake will either be in the median or on the log in water lane #3. The snake is deadly to your frog and you cannot hop over it. 

* The turtles are pretty easy to navigate over in water lanes #1 and #4. Be wary of the diving turtles and only use them as a quick bypass to a more solid footing. If your frog is on a diving turtle when it dives, your frog will drown. 

* Again, time your jumps to coincide with the logs and turtles to ensure you will always have a solid footing to jump to. As the levels progress, you will have less things you can jump to. 

* You can jump on the backs of the crocodiles and otters. Just don't get near their mouths or they are apt to turn your frog into a meal. 

* You may see a purple lady frog hopping around on a log in water lane #2. Just cross over her to give her a piggyback ride to your home and get an extra 200 points. 

* Watch out for the snakes, they sometimes like to ride on the logs. If you see a snake on a log, jump back to solid footing. 

* Your frog cannot 'wrap-around' the screen so make sure you bail off before that footing disappears off the edge of the screen or your frog will come out the other side in a squished condition. 

* By that same token, if you have the time and necessary footing, you can hold out until the fly appears in your home before you settle your frog in. That's another 200 points. 

* Try to fill in the two end homes before going for the middle. The hardest home to get into is the left-hand one (home #1) since everything in water lane #5 goes from right to left. This means you may have to bounce back to water lane #4 so you can get a good shot at your home. 

* Speaking of getting your frogs into their homes, you must hit exact center or your frog will die. Also, keep in mind that crocodiles like to randomly appear in your home. Make sure that your home is clear before trying to settle your frog down into it. 

* Again, if you waste too much time, the things on the river will move quicker so you will have to adjust your strategy accordingly. 

* When the game is playing in attract mode, you can control the frog. When the frog reaches water lane #4, you can control the frog's movements until you move either up or down. 

* If you jump into your home at the same time the crocodile is leaving your home, you will be credited with making to your home but you will still lose a frog in the process. 

* You can dangle your frog from the left side of the turtles but not the right side. 

* Your side-to-side movements in water lane #5 may be slow and sluggish. 

* The lady frog will sometimes be invisible. In this case, the only time you know she's there is when you jump on her. She will then ride on your back to your home.

- SERIES -

1. Frogger (1981)
2. Frogger II - Three Deep (1984, Colecovision)
3. Frogger [Unreleased Prototype] (1991, Sega Game Gear)
4. Frogger [3D remake] (1997, Sony PlayStation, PC CD-ROM)
5. Frogger 2 - Swampy's Revenge (2000, PC CD-ROM, Sony PlayStation, Sega Dreamcast)
6. Frogger's Adventures Temple of the Frog (2001, Nintendo Game Boy Advance)
7. Frogger's Adventures 2 - The Lost Wand (2002, Nintendo Game Boy Advance)
8. Frogger - The Great Quest (2002, PC CD-ROM, Sony PS2)
9. Frogger Beyond (2003, PC CD-ROM, Microsoft XBOX, Nintendo GameCube)
10. Frogger's Adventures: The Rescue (2003, PC CD-ROM, Nintendo GameCube, Sony PS2)
11. Frogger - Ancient Shadow (2005, Microsoft XBOX, Sony PlayStation 2, Nintendo GameCube)
12. Frogger Helmet Chaos (2005, Nintendo DS, Nintendo GameCube, Sony PS2)
13. My Frogger Toy Trials (2007, Nintendo DS)
14. Frogger - Hyper Arcade Edition (2012, PSN)

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES: 
[EU] Magnavox Odyssey 2 (1982) 
[BR] Magnavox Odyssey 2 (1984) 
[AU] Atari 2600 (1990) "2 Pak Special: Star Warrior & Frogger"
[EU] [JP] Microsoft XBOX 360 [XBLA] (jul.12, 2006) 

* HANDHELDS: 
[EU] Nintendo Game Boy Color (1997) "Frogger [Model DMG-AFRP-EUR]" 
[JP] Nintendo GBA (may.2, 2002) "Konami Arcade Game Collection [Model AGB-AKCJ-JPN]" 
[EU] Nintendo GBA (june.21, 2002) "Konami Collector's Series - Arcade Classics [Model AGB-AKCP-EUR]" 

* COMPUTERS: 
[EU] Sinclair ZX 81 (1981) by Sega 
[EU] BBC Micro (1982) by A&F Software 
[EU] BBC Micro (1983) "Froggy" by Superior Software 
[EU] Commodore C64 (1983) 
[EU] Sinclair ZX Spectrum (1983) by Rabbit Software 
[EU] Sinclair ZX Spectrum (1983) "Froggy" by DJL Software 
[JP] Tomy Tutor (1983)
[JP] MSX (dec.1983) "Frogger [Model RC704]" 
[EU] Acorn Electron (1984) "Hopper" 
[EU] Amstrad CPC (1985) "Froggy" by R&B Software 
[EU] Oric I (1983) "Hopper" by PSS (Personal Software Services)
[JP] Sharp X68000 (1991) 

* OTHERS: 
VFD handheld game (19??) by GCL (Computer Games Limited) 
[JP] VFD handheld game by Gakken

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=kizuna

?? - Super Tag Battle (c) 1996 SNK.
(Fu'un - Super Tag Battle)

2-on-2 tag team battle with 10 selectable characters with huge sprites to challenge King Leo and the powerful shaman Jyazu. Very fast-paced and fun!

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID : NGM-216

[SNK MVS Neo-Geo Controls]
2 players - 4 buttons per player
=> [Joystick] 8-way, [A] Punch, [B] Kick, [C] Attack with weapon, [D] Switch fighter

- TRIVIA -

Kizuna Encounter was released on September 20, 1996 in Japan.

This title od this game translates from Japanese as 'Wind and Cloud - Super Tag Battle').

The game was known outside Japan as 'Kizuna Encounter - Super Tag Battle'.

- UPDATES -

In the Japanese version :
* King Lion is named 'Kage Shishioh'.
* Kim Young-Mok is named 'Kim Sue Il'.
* King Leo is named 'Shin Shishioh'.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Gozu, Mezu, Raged Chung and Jyazu are the only characters who can make double jumps.

* Boss Code (Play as either King Leo or Jyazu) : At the character selection screen highlight Mezu, then highlight the following characters in this order : Mezu, Kim, Rosa, Gozu, Rosa, Kim, Mezu, Gordon, Joker, Eagle, Hayate, Chung, King Lion & Gozu. Now press D. You should listen Jyazu's laugh to confirm the code, now select Gozu and press Up to reveal Jyazu or select King Lion and press Up to reveal King Leo. Note : Endings are disabled for either Jyazu or King Leo and they fight alone.

* Hidden Matches : Beat Jyazu with the following teams to access an extra match : Gordon & Rosa, Hayate & Eagle, King Lion & Gozu, King Lion & Mezu. This extra match consist in a fight between your two characters (one of them is controlled by the CPU).

- SERIES -

1. Fu'un Mokushiroku - Kakutou Sousei [Model NGM-059] (1995)
2. Fu'un - Super Tag Battle [Model NGM-216] (1996)

- STAFF -

Object Designers : Rolly (R), Ponta, Pinkey, G. Ishidaman, Kattsun, Tashiboo, Sasa, Futatsu, Odachan, Akairo Megane, Yorumo O. K. Yo, Tohru, Takehiro Isaji, Kaoruru
Back Designers : Muramama, Eiko, Daisuke, Hidenao JF9, Shimiji
Programmers : Jaron, 0014 Take4, Bashi
Music Composers : Jojoha Kitapy, Tate Norio, Mitsuo
Producers : Takashi Nishiyama, Hiroshi Matsumoto, Akira
Directors : Mitsuzo, Kanbei Hama, Wakama2, Suery from OBC

* Voice Actors :
Rosa : Hiroko Tsuji
Gozu : Konichi Hayashi
King Lion : Masaru Naka
Chung Paifu : Humio Niwa
Syo Hayate : Konichi Hayashi
Kim Young-Mok : Yoshiaki Fujita
Mezu : Konichi Hayashi
Gordon Bowman : Hisanori Higashi
Joker : Takeshi Kokubo
Max Eagle : Kunihiko Tatsumi
King Leo : John Hulaton
Jyazu : Enma Ito

Special Thanks : Shigeti (Shigeti Extra), Wa. Da. Mo, Gabbadon, Terarin, Hori Pu, Sumida Hisashi, Nana, Taka. Gin, Tani Tani, Tako Tako, Rei Rei, M. Yasuda (Challenger), Darci Kubo (Neo Geo do Brazil), H. Miyagami, T. Seko, Anne, NKSAYNOMKKI YHKI, Melon Special, M. Sawa, GPZ

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo AES (nov.8, 1996; "Fu'un - Super Tag Battle [Model NGH-216]")
[US] SNK Neo-Geo AES (nov.8, 1996; "Kizuna Encounter - Super Tag Battle [Model NGH-216]")
SNK Neo-Geo [EU] (nov.8, 1996; "Kizuna Encounter - Super Tag Battle [Model NGH-216]")
[JP] Sony PS2 (june.21, 2007; "Fu'un Super Combo [NeoGeo Online Collection Vol.8] [Model SLPS-25781]")
[JP] Sony PS2 (may.29, 2008; "Fu'un Super Combo [NeoGeo Online Collection The Best] [Model SLPS-25866]")
Nintendo Wii [Virtual Console] [JP] (june.28, 2011)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=savagere

風雲黙示録 格闘創世 (c) 1995 SNK [Shin Nihon Kikaku].
(Fu'un Mokushiroku - Kakutou Sousei)

10 fighters, each brandishing a weapon, fight to have a crack at the Real King Leo. There are 2 planes of action to switch from and in some cases the player can use elements of the background as weapons.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID: NGM-059

Players: 2
Control: 8-Way Joystick
Buttons: 4
=> [A] Light Punch/Strong Punch, [B] Light Kick/Strong Kick, [C] Attack with weapon/Throw, [D] Change Line

- TRIVIA -

Fu'un Mokushiroku was released on April 25, 1995 in Japan. The game was known outside Japan as Savage Reign (released one month later, on May 25, 1995).

The title of this game translates from Japanese as 'Wind and Cloud Apocalypse - Hand-to-Hand Fighting Genesis'). 'Mokushiroku' is Japanese for the Christian book of Revelation, also known as the Apocalypse. 'Sousei' is Japanese for 'creation of the world', or 'genesis'. 'Sousei' and 'Mokushiroku' are diametrically opposed, just like 'Genesis' and 'Apocalypse' - and used here as a metaphor for the conflict between Syo Hayate and Shishi-Oh (King Lion).

'Fu'un' in the series actually refers to the fighting style of the main character, Syo Hayate.

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Fu'un Mokushiroku - Kakutou Sousei - PCCB-00181) on June 21, 1995.

- UPDATES -

In the Japanese version :
* King Lion is named Kage Shishioh.
* King Leo is named Shin Shishioh.

- SERIES -

1. Fu'un Mokushiroku - Kakutou Sousei [Model NGM-059] (1995)
2. Fu'un - Super Tag Battle [Model NGM-216] (1996)

- STAFF -

Executive Producer : Eikichi Kawasaki
Producers : Takashi Nishiyama, R. Field
Front Designers : Sezamimi, Health Abe, Sugar Baby. R, Kanitaro, Masa. LC 630, Mina Kawai (Osu!), Futatsu!!!, Exe. Ponda, K -Oda- Kirigiri, Fuku. Fuku, Shio Shio Shio, Okiemon, Toshiaki Joe, Morimori, Mikarin, Toooooooooohru, Mr. 6?Adachi, Marche-Kaji, 460. Ito, Aho Kamen, Nobuhiro. J
Back Designers : Mic Senbey, Manoru, J. Mikami, Hipopo. Nao, Econo Daisuke, Ten Chan (260), Wadamomo Kagu, Miyoshi Yome, S Tami
Programmers : Magi2 Papa, Jaron, M.O.R. Jax Y. O
Sound : Jojoha Kitapy, Mariko, Yassun
Planners : Hamachi Papa, Mitsuzo, Uenoyama. Sys

* Voice Actors :
Syo Hayate : Konichi Hayashi
Gozu : Konichi Hayashi
Carol Stanzack : Kana Ohshima
Mezu : Konichi Hayashi
Max Eagle : Kunihiko Tatsumi
Nicola Zaza : Kana Ohshima
Chung Paifu : Humio Niwa
King Lion (Shishioh in Japanese version) : Masaru Naka
Gordon Bowman : Hisanori Higashi
Joker : Takeshi Kokubo
King Leo (Shin Shishioh in Japanese version) : John Hulaton

Special Thanks : Jerry G Hideki, Secret A., Y. Gushiken, Kengo Asai, Masahiko. Sawa, Nakomani Ono, K. Ohshima, Hayashi, Hurukubo, Niwa, Higashi, Nakatsuka, Tatsumi, John. F, Kanpee, SNK Design Selection All Staff

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo AES (may.26, 1995; "Fu'un Mokushiroku - Kakutou Sousei [Model NGH-059]")
[US] SNK Neo-Geo AES (may.26, 1995; "Savage Reign [Model NGH-059]")
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo CD (june.16, 1995; "Fu'un Mokushiroku - Kakutou Sousei [Model NGCD-059]")
[US] SNK Neo-Geo CD (june.16, 1995; "Savage Reign [Model NGCD-059E]")
[JP] Sony PS2 (june.21, 2007; "Fu'un Super Combo [NeoGeo Online Collection Vol.8] [Model SLPS-25781]")
[JP] Sony PS2 (may.29, 2008; "Fu'un Super Combo [NeoGeo Online Collection The Best] [Model SLPS-25866]")

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=fullthrl
Arcade Video game published 36 years ago:

Full Throttle (c) 1987 Taito corp.

Full Throttle is a point-to-point racing game in which the player drives a Mazda RX-7 [FC] and must reach each stage's end-of-level checkpoint before the time limit expires to progress to the next stage.

The car is equipped with a limited number of nitro boosts (3 by default) that gives the car a temporary burst of speed when engaged. Forked junctions appear mid-way through each stage, allowing players to choose which route they wish to take.

- TECHNICAL -

Board Number: K1100273A
Prom Sticker: B14

Main CPU: (2x) Motorola 68000 (@ 12 Mhz)
Sound CPU: Zilog Z80 (@ 4 Mhz)
Sound Chips: Yamaha YM2151 (@ 4 Mhz), OKI MSM5205 (@ 384 Khz)

Players: 1
Control: Steering wheel (locked) + 2 pedals (gas and brake, both analog) + high/low gear shift
Buttons: 1
=> Start

- TRIVIA -

Full Throttle was released in October 1987 in Japan. It was known outside Japan as "Top Speed".

The Japanese version has a territorial notice not allowing to play outside Japan.

All versions show speed in a kilometer per hour, even the US release.

Full Throttle can be converted into Chase H.Q. - one of Taito's police themed games.

This game is Taito's response to Sega's "Out Run". This game was the forerunner of the Taito Z system on which Taito's driving games were based from 1988-91 (You can spot some similarities with "Continental Circus", the first of the Taito Z games).

The player is given to control a red Mazda RX-7 [FC].

Despite having been released in Japan, Full Throttle is fully in English.

Hardware design is misspelled in staff roll as 'Hard wear design'.

Default high-score table (Best Drivers, score, stage, time and 3 initials):
1ST 450000 4 3'44''78 TAK
2ND 350000 3 2'55''45 ESH
3RD 260000 2 1'47''21 I.I
4TH 240000 2 1'50''14 RGV
5TH 220000 2 1'54''19 VFR
6TH 200000 2 1'55''21 YZF
7TH 180000 2 1'59''99 CBR

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (The Ninja Warriors : G.S.M. Taito 1 - D28B0001) on June 21, 1988. 

Zuntata Records released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Zuntata History L'ab-normal 1st - ZTTL-0038) on April 1, 1999.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* You don't get bonus points for unused turbos. You don't get a bonus turbo either, so use all the turbos during a stage, but not all at once. Using all 3 turbos one after another results in control loss caused by too high speed.

* Shift gears at around 160 km/h.

* Fastest route: choose the left fork at stage 3, take the right fork, then left at stage 4, whereas stage 5 requires you to take left fork first, then right.

* Watch out at stage 2: you may hit a tree or rock so fast you'll need to wait up to 10 seconds before you return to the road.

* Sometimes pulling the steering wheel to the limits is a wrong move. You should turn the wheel with smaller force, mainly at fast turns.

- STAFF -

Project leader, game design: Hiroyuki Sakou
Game program: Kyoji Shimamoto, Takeshi Murata, Takeshi Ishizashi
Music composer: Masahiko Takagi
Sound effect: Eikichi Takahashi
Sound adviser: Hisayoshi Ogura
Hardware design: Masahiro Yamaguchi
Custom I.C. design: Shyugi Kubota, Katsujiroh Fujimoto, Toshiyuki Sanada
Graphic design: Yoshihiko Wakita, Tetsuroh Kitagawa, Takako Uenoyama, Naoko Toshimitsu
Mechanical design: Tomio Suzuki
Mechanical engineer: Nobuyuki Iwasaki, Akira Takahashi
Cabinet design: Takeo Shiraishi
Art design: Hiroyasu Nagai

Special thanks: Nenko Nishimura, Miki Matsushita, Genya Kuriki, Hiromiki Racing team

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] Sony PS2 (mar.29, 2007) "Taito Memories II Gekan [Model SLPM-66713]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=883&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=galaga,galagao
Arcade Video game published 42 years ago:

Galaga (c) 1981 Namco. 

Galaga is a single-screen shoot-em-up in which the player controls a 'Fighter' spaceship and must defend the home planet against the on-coming hordes of alien invaders called "Galagans". The Fighter can only move left and right along the bottom of the screen. 

Galagans fly onto the screen in a variety of formations before forming troop lines at the top of the screen. Once all troop lines are formed the Galagans separate and start attacking the player's Fighter in ones, twos and threes. The top-line Boss Galaga need to be shot twice before they are destroyed. 

The Boss Galaga has a tractor beam that can capture the player's Fighter. A captured Fighter changes color from white to red and stays with that particular Boss until it is destroyed. The Fighter can be retrieved by destroying the Boss that captured it, but players must be careful not to destroy the captured Fighter itself, or that Fighter is lost. A rescued Fighter changes color back to white and links up with the player's current Fighter, doubling its fire power. 

As players progress through each screen, the speed and number of alien attacks increases. Alien formations also become more complex, making the aliens harder to shoot. 

Bonus Fighters are awarded periodically throughout the game, as players reach specific point values, as dictated by the 'Bonus Life' dip switch setting. Each enemy ship also has an assigned point value (see Scoring below). 

The alien troop lines that form at the top of the screen are, from top to bottom: Boss Galaga (in one row of four), Butterflies (red/white bug ships, in two rows of eight, directly below the Boss Galaga), and Bees (blue/yellow bug ships, in two rows of ten, directly below the Butterflies). 

In Stage 1, the enemies do not drop bombs as they fly onto the screen. However, they do so in most of the later stages. 

From Stage 4 onwards, a squadron of special bonus enemies called "transforms" start appearing. They're called transforms because Bees will begin pulsating and move out of formation to change into these bonus enemies. They appear in the form of yellow scorpions in Stages 4, 5, and 6, green 'Spy Ships' from "Bosconian" in Stages 8, 9, and 10, and Galaxian Flagships in Stages 12, 13, and 14. After that, the three different transforms are repeated in the same order. Transforms are always worthwhile targets because they are not very aggressive and are worth more than the other enemies. If all three transforms are destroyed, extra bonus points will be awarded. 

Galaga also features CHALLENGING STAGES, these consist of 40 Galagans that fly onto the screen in formations but do not drop any bombs. The object is to shoot as many of them as possible before they leave the play area. When an entire formation of eight Galagans is destroyed, bonus points are added to the player's score. If all 40 aliens are destroyed, players are awarded a special bonus of 10,000 points. 

Two new gameplay features Galaga introduced are: 
1) Players are given the chance to double their fire power. 
2) The game has a rapid fire (automatic firing) option, whereby the player simply holds the FIRE button down and the space fighter continues to fire at the Galagan army in bursts of two missiles each.

- TECHNICAL -

[Upright model]
Game ID : GG

Main CPU: Zilog Z80 (x3), MB88xx
Sound Chips: Namco 3-channel WSG, discrete circuitry (for the ship explosion sound)

Palette colors: 32 (16 colors for tiles + 16 colors for sprites)

Players: 2
Control: 2-way joystick
Buttons: 1 (FIRE)

- TRIVIA -

Galaga was released in September 1981 in Japan.

Although Galaga was a superior game, it didn't sell the large numbers that "Galaxian" did. One of the first games with a bonus stage. 

The game 'rolls over' at 999,990 points. The 1P score counter is six digits, but the 2P counter is seven digits. Therefore, most good players start a 2-player game and play exclusively on the 2P side so their score won't 'roll over' at 999,990. After the 1,000,000 mark, new Fighters are no longer awarded. 

What happens after finishing Stage 255 depends upon the skill level set in the DIP switches: 
* On the easy skill, the game resets. 
* On the medium skill, the game flips to "Stage 0" which plays as a strange cross between the 2nd Challenging Stage and a regular level where the enemies shoot. The game will advance to Stage 1 after completion, and the game will get easy again. 
* On the hard skill setting, the words "Stage 0" stay on the screen forever. No more enemies ever appear. The player can continue to move the ship and fire, but there is no way to advance to the next level, or to die. To play again, the machine must be reset. 
* On the hardest skill, the game flips to "Stage 0" which plays like Stage 1 (no extra enemies when flying onto the screen), but it is still as difficult as Stage 255. The game will advance to Stage 1 after completion, and the game will get easy again. 

If you have more than seven extra Fighters, the marker for the screen will only show 7 1/2 (!) Fighters remaining. Additional extra Fighters will still be credited, even though they won't show on the screen. 

In Japan, the Bees are referred to as 'Zako' and the Butterflies are referred to as 'Goei'. 

Stephen Krogman holds the official record for this game with 15,999,990 points. 

A Galaga unit appears in the 1983 movie 'WarGames', the 1983 movie 'Spring Break' (being played by one of the main characters), the 1984 movie 'The Karate Kid,' the 1987 movie 'Planes, Trains and Automobiles', and the sitcom 'Two and a Half Men', Season 5, Episode 2 (People Who Love Peepholes), and was shown in 2012 movie 'The Avengers' (a agent soldier was surprised playing in the Helicarrier computer).

- SCORING -

Bee: 50 points in formation or 100 points in flight.
Butterfly: 80 points in formation or 160 points in flight.
Boss Galaga: 150 points in formation or 400 points in flight.
Boss Galaga: 800 points in flight with 1 wingman.
Boss Galaga: 1,600 points in flight with 2 wingmen.
Scorpions: 160 points each, 1,000 points for destroying all 3.
Bosconian Spy Ships: 160 points each, 2,000 points for destroying all 3.
Galaxian Flagships: 160 points each, 3,000 points for destroying all 3.
Captured fighter: 500 points in formation or 1000 points in flight.
Challenging Stage: 100 points per ship destroyed if less than 40.
Challenging Stage: 10,000 points for destroying all 40 ships (Perfect).
Challenging Stage: 1,000 points on the first two Challenging Stages, 1,500 points on the 3rd and 4th, 2,000 points on the 5th and 6th, and 3,000 points from the 7th onward for destroying a complete formation of 8 ships.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Enemy Stop Shooting:
On the first stage, kill everything but the two Bees in the bottom left corner. Then just wait, dodging the enemies' shots, until the enemy no longer drops any shots towards you. After the enemies stop firing, let them pass for two more trips and then kill them. For the rest of the game, the enemies will not drop shots. It will take approximately 15 minutes for the enemies to quit shooting at you, so this trick requires a lot of patience. Note : in a 2-player game, only one person has to do the cheat for both players to benefit. But as soon as one of the player's game is over the enemies begin shooting again.

* (BUG) Take The Control Of The Fighter For Free:
During the Galaga demo, the Boss Galaga comes down and tries to tractor-beam the Fighter. As soon as that tractor-beam starts, the player can take control of the ship in the demo. The player has two choices here and this will effect how the game handles this bug : If the player allows himself to be captured, the demo will continue as normal and he has the option of controlling the player Fighter or not. The player can choose whether to save the captured Fighter, try to complete the level, etc. The demo mode will complete after 30 seconds and the high-score screen will appear. If the player takes control of the Fighter and destroys the Boss Galaga with the tractor beam, some of the characters on the screen will freeze while others are still moving and doing what they are suppose to be doing. This will last 15-20 seconds, then the game will go to the high score screen.

* Challenging stages are easier if the high score numbers are used to refine your aim. These tips assume a 6-digit high score:
1) On the first two challenging stages, aim your ships so that your left set of bullets falls between the second and third numbers in the high score list.
2) On subsequent challenging stages, aim one set of your bullets between the first and second numbers in the high score list (if the units come from the left) or between the last and next-to-last numbers (if the units come from the right). This will allow you to hit descending enemies at the highest possible point.

* Here is a neat (and useless) Galaga trick:
It is possible to end the game with a 200% ratio. The 200% hit-miss ratio trick can only be done with your first shot of the game. When the game starts, don't move, and fire only one shot. If you time it correctly, two enemies will be killed at once. Let your remaining Fighters be destroyed, and presto : a better-than-perfect result.

* Easter Egg:
1) Enter service mode.
2) Keep B1 pressed and enter the following sequence : Right(x5), Left(x6), Right(x3), Left(x7). '(c) 1981 NAMCO LTD.' will be added at the bottom of the screen.

- SERIES -

1. Galaxian (1979)
2. Galaga (1981)
3. Gaplus (1984) : also known in the USA as "Galaga 3"
4. Galaga '88 (1987)
5. Galaxian 3 Theatre 6 - Project Dragoon (1990)
6. Galaxian 3 Theatre 6 J2 - Attack Of The Zolgear (1994)
7. Galaga Arrangement (1995) : part of "Namco Classics Collection Vol.1"
8. Galaga - Destination Earth (2000, GBA, PC CD-ROM and PlayStation)
9. Galaga Arrangement (2005, PSP) : part of "Namco Museum Battle Collection" 
10. Galaga Remix (2007, Wii) : part of "Namco Museum Remix" 
11. Galaga Legions (2008, XBLA)
12. Galaga Legions DX (2010, PSN, XBLA)
13. Galaga 3D Impact (2011, Nintendo 3DS) : part of "Pac-Man & Galaga Dimensions"

- STAFF -

Music by: Nobuyuki Ohnogi

- PORTS -

NOTE : For ports released in North America, please see the Midway Upright Model entry.

* CONSOLES: 
[JP] Sega SG-1000 (1983) "Sega-Galaga [Model G-1022]" 
[TW] Sega SG-1000 (198?) "Galaga [Model W-022]" 
[JP] Nintendo Famicom (feb.15, 1985) "Galaga [Model NGG-4500]" 
[EU] Nintendo NES (1988) "Galaga [Model NES-AG-EEC]" 
[JP] Nintendo Famicom Disk (june.22, 1990) "Galaga [Model NDS-GAG]" 
[JP] Sony PlayStation (nov.22, 1995) "Namco Museum Vol.1 [Model SLPS-00107]" 
[EU] Philips CD-i (1996) "Arcade Classics [Model 810 0329]" 
[AU]Sony PlayStation (1996) "Namco Museum Vol.1 [Model SCES-00243]" 
[EU] Sony PlayStation (aug.1996) "Namco Museum Vol.1 [Model SCES-00243]" 
[JP] Sony PS2 (jan.26, 2006) "Namco Museum Arcade Hits! [Model SLPS-25590]" 
[EU] Microsoft XBOX (mar.24, 2006) "Namco Museum - 50th Anniversary" 
[EU] Sony PS2 (mar.31, 2006) "Namco Museum - 50th Anniversary [Model SLES-53957]" 
[EU] Nintendo GameCube (may.5, 2006) "Namco Museum - 50th Anniversary [Model DOL-G5NP-EUR]" 
[EU] [JP] Microsoft XBOX 360 [XBLA] (jul.26, 2006) 
[JP] Sony PlayStation 3 [PSN] (jan.29, 2009) "Namco Museum.comm [Model NPJB-00012]" 
[EU] Microsoft XBOX 360 [XBLA] (may.15, 2009) "Namco Museum - Virtual Arcade" 
[AU] Microsoft XBOX 360 [XBLA] (june.4, 2009) "Namco Museum - Virtual Arcade" 
[JP] Microsoft XBOX 360 [XBLA] (nov.5, 2009) "Namco Museum - Virtual Arcade [Model 2RD-00001]" 
[JP] Nintendo Wii [Virtual Console Arcade] (nov.24, 2009) 
[EU] Sony PlayStation 3 [PSN] (apr.1, 2010) "Namco Museum Essentials [Model NPEB-00104]" 
[AU] Sony PlayStation 3 [PSN] (apr.1, 2010) "Namco Museum Essentials" 
[EU] [AU] [JP] Microsoft XBOX One [XBOX Store] (apr.20, 2016) "Arcade Game Series - Galaga" 
[EU] [AU] Sony PlayStation 4 [PSN] (apr.20, 2016) "Arcade Game Series - Galaga [Model CUSA-03865]" 
[JP] Sony PlayStation 4 [PSN] (apr.20, 2016) "Arcade Game Series - Galaga [Model CUSA-03668]" 

* HANDHELDS: 
Nintendo Game Boy [UK] (1995) "Arcade Classic No. 3 - Galaga & Galaxian [Model DMG-AGCP-UKV]" 
[EU] Nintendo Game Boy (1995) "Arcade Classic No. 3 - Galaga & Galaxian [Model DMG-AGCP-NOE]" 
[JP] Nintendo Game Boy (1995) "Galaga & Galaxian [Model DMG-AGCJ-JPN]" 
[JP] Nintendo Game Boy (jul.21, 1996) "Namco Gallery Vol.1 [Model DMG-ANGJ-JPN]" 
[JP] Nintendo GBA (dec.7, 2001) "Namco Museum [Model AGB-ANMJ-JPN]" 
[EU] Nintendo GBA (dec.7, 2001) "Namco Museum [Model AGB-ANMP-EUR]" 
[JP] Sony PSP (feb.24, 2005) "Namco Museum [Model ULJS-00012]" 
Sony PSP [KO] (may.2, 2005) "Namco Museum [Model UCKS-45005]" 
[EU] Sony PSP (dec.9, 2005) "Namco Museum Battle Collection [Model UCES-00116]" 
[EU] Nintendo GBA (mar.31, 2006) "Namco Museum - 50th Anniversary [Model AGB-B5NP-EUR]" 
[JP] Nintendo DS (oct.11, 2007) "Namco Museum DS [Model NTR-YNMJ-JPN]" 
[EU] Nintendo DS (feb.29, 2008) "Namco Museum DS [Model NTR-YNMP-EUR]" 
Nintendo 3DS [JP] (june.23, 2011) "Pac-Man & Galaga Dimensions [Model CTR-APGJ-JPN]" 
Nintendo 3DS [AU] (aug.25, 2011) "Pac-Man & Galaga Dimensions [Model CTR-APGP-AUS]" 
Nintendo 3DS [EU] (aug.26, 2011) "Pac-Man & Galaga Dimensions [Model CTR-APGP-EUR]" 

* COMPUTERS: 
[EU] Commodore C64 (1982) Unlicensed 
[JP] Casio PV-2000
[EU] BBC B (1983) "Zalaga" by Aardvark 
[EU] Acorn Electron (1984) "Zalaga" by Aardvark 
[JP] MSX (1984) 
[JP] NEC PC-9801 (apr.1985) 
[JP] Fujitsu FM-7 (1985) 
[JP] Fujitsu FM-77 (1985) 
[EU] Sharp MZ-700 "Galao" 
[EU] Sharp MZ-1500 
[JP] Sharp X1
[EU] Sharp MZ2500
[JP] PC [MS Windows] (dec.24, 1998) "Namco History Vol.4" 
[AU] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (mar.27, 2006) "Namco Museum - 50th Anniversary" 
[EU] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (may.19, 2006) "Namco Museum - 50th Anniversary" 

* OTHERS: 
[JP] Arcade (1995) "Namco Classics Collection Vol.1"
[JP] PC [MS Windows, Online] (apr.20, 2016) "Arcade Game Series - Galaga"

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=898&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=galaxian,galaxiana,galaxbsf,galaxianbl,galaxbsf2,galaxianbl2,galaxianbl3
Arcade Video game published 44 years ago:

Galaxian (c) 1979 Namco.

Galaxian is a legendary single-screen shoot-em-up that took everything that made Taito's ground-breaking "Space Invaders" so good, and improved upon it on every level. Each screen starts with a wave of multi-colored aliens moving left and right at the top of the screen; the aliens quickly break ranks and start dive-bombing the Galaxip (player's ship) - either in single units or in groups of 3 - dropping multiple missiles as they descend. All of the aliens need to be destroyed before the player can progress to the next wave. 

- CAST OF CHARACTERS - 

Galaxip: This is the name of the ship which you control at the bottom of the screen. 

Galaxian: These attacking aliens come in three varieties: blue, purple, and red. They begin in formation at the top of the screen and will occasionally swoop down to attack you before returning to their position in the formation. 

Flagship: At least two of these appear at the top of the formation at the start of each stage. They will swoop down to attack with one or two red Galaxians if any are nearby. If a flagship is one of the last enemies left of the screen, it will run away and appear as a third Flagship at the start of the next stage.

- TECHNICAL -

This was the first title to use the now familiar 'Namco Cabinet', which was used for Galaxian, "Galaga", "Pac-Man", "Ms. Pac-Man". Several other titles used nearly identical cabinets as well. These machines are white, with painted sideart of a green dragonfly alien (done up in blue, green. and black). The marquee is rather large and displays a blue and green 'Galaxian' logo (which is painted on a sheet of glass, they don't make them like that anymore). The control panel and monitor bezel are not highly decorated, but do feature some game instructions. Finally this machine uses neon green t-molding (edge trim), it is difficult to find replacement trim in that same exact shade.

The earliest Galaxian machines used a 25-inch G02 monitor, but later machines shipped with the standard 19-inch Electrohome G07 monitor. Any normal standard resolution arcade monitor should work as a replacement. "Pac-Man" PCBs will work in Galaxian machines, but require a 4-way joystick, instead of the 2-way model that Galaxian normally has. The sound pinout is also different, so one would need to rewire the connector to hear any Pac-Man sounds. You can also plug a Galaxian PCB into a Pac-Man. Again, the sound would need to be wired up at the connector and you'd have to push UP on the joystick to fire.

Main CPU: Zilog Z80 (@ 3.072 Mhz)
Sound Chips: Tone generator and discrete circuits

Players: 2
Control: 2-way Joystick 
Buttons: 1 (FIRE) 

Alternate Japanese cabinet versions):
Buttons: 3 (LEFT, RIGHT, FIRE)

- TRIVIA -

Galaxian was released on October 31, 1979 in Japan.

Galaxian was the first video game to be released with 100 percent of its graphics displayed in true R.G.B. color. 

Space battles of all kinds played a major role during the golden age of video games. With the introduction of Galaxian, players were transported to the most colorful and challenging space battle yet.

* A place in video game history:
"Galaxian captivated the minds of quite a few arcade enthusiasts," said Chris Lindsey, director of the National Video Game and Coin-Op Museum in St. Louis. "It was a relatively early entry in the golden age of video games, and it capitalized on the enthusiasm created by the earlier video game classic, "Space Invaders", while providing a more colorful, enjoyable, and demanding gaming experience.
Galaxian had smarter bad guys than "Space Invaders", and it demanded that the player really pay attention to what was going on. And there were no shields, like many games have today. You really had to stay on the ball. Galaxian also had great sound and used elements that have since become standard -- such as flags and other symbols to mark the player's progression through different levels of game play.".

* The great 25-cent escape:
"Galaxian definitely gets an enthusiastic response," Lindsey said. "In fact, I deliberately position the game near the entrance of the museum. Often it's the first game people go to." Lindsey often sees parents trying to convey to their child the excitement of these great games. "It is funny for me when I see a father trying to explain a game to his kid. Junior really just wants to get on the game and figure it out, and Dad wants to do a demo. Dad starts instructing Junior while Junior is sort of looking around, wondering how he can get away. But Dad continues, busily explaining the nuances of the game, which he knows Junior can't get on the first play. This all shows the enthusiasm that a certain generation still has for these terrific games."
With or without a parent's help, Lindsey sees a younger generation embracing the classic arcade games. "Kids by themselves will actually do quite well on these games," Lindsey said. "I'm somewhat surprised when I see how good kids are at picking up games. I sort of think that because I'm older, I should be able to play better, and that's not always the case with video games. That's a lesson an entire generation has had to learn.".

* Namco notes:
Galaxian was one of Namco's first video games, and engineers throughout the company were gathered into a special team. As the game neared completion, the engineers suspected they had created a good game because other Namco employees were extremely "excited and crazy about the game." Once Galaxian was released, they knew they had a winner because, as one Namco engineer reported, "People [at the arcades] piled their coins onto the game cabinets to keep playing, and those who were waiting were very irritated because their turn never came. There were huge lines of people around each machine.".

The Galaxian Flagship became a trademark of Namco as it makes cameo appearances in other Namco classics:
* "Pac-Man" (1980) and "Pac-Man Plus" (1982): The flagship makes an appearance as the bonus fruit in rounds 9 and 10, and is worth 2,000 points if Pac-Man eats it. 
* "Galaga" (1981): The flagship makes an appearance as one of the "transform" ships. It splits into 2, then 3 clones of itself. They are worth 160 points each, and killing all 3 scores a bonus of 3,000 points. 
* "Dig Dug" (1982): The flagship makes an appearance as the bonus vegetable in rounds 16 and 17, and is worth 7,000 points if Dig Dug picks it up. 
* "Super Pac-Man" (1982): All regular edible items on rounds 15, 31, 47, and 63 are flagships, and they are worth 150 points each. Starting from their second appearance, Round 31, they are 160 points instead. 
* "Pac & Pal" (1983): The flagship makes an appearance as one of the "special items" that make Pac-Man turn blue when eaten, and allows him to stun the ghosts for a short while by shooting a Galaga-style tractor beam. It is worth 1,000 points if Pac-Man eats it or intercepts it from Miru. 
* "Pac-Land" (1984): The ghosts in airplanes sometimes drop flagships and they are worth 7,650 points (765 being Namco's goroawase number in Japanese) if eaten. 
* "Super Xevious" (1984): The flagship makes an appearance in a silver form and as an enemy, and sometimes several of them attack at once. They are worth 300 points each. 
* "Quester" (1987): In Round 5, the bricks form a Galaxian Flagship.
* "Pac-Mania" (1987): The flagship makes a 3-D appearance as a special item and in two forms as well, the other one being the silver form from "Super Xevious". The regular one and the silver one are worth 7,650 points if eaten.
* "Pistol Daimyo no Bouken" (1990) : The flagship makes an appearance as an enemy along with the other Galaxian characters, and they attempt to hit Pistol Daimyo with their fire. 
* "Tinkle Pit" (1994): The flagship also makes an appearance with the other Galaxian characters, but this time they appear as bonus items. It is worth 800 points if collected. 
* "Tekken" (1994 - Arcade, 1995 - PlayStation) and "Tekken 2" (1995 - Arcade, 1996 - PlayStation) : Winning at least seven rounds in Arcade Vs. mode will reveal the Galaxian flagship on the lower left (or right) hand corner of the screen. In order for this to work, "Number of Wins Shown By" must be set to Fruit. 
* "Namco Classic Collection Vol.1" (1995): The flagship makes an appearance in "Galaga Arrangement" as a Challenging Stage enemy in Space-Plant Zone (Stage 20) and normally in Space-Flower Zone (Stage 26). If killed normally, they are worth 150 points. If killed in Challenging Stage, they are worth 300 points.
* "Namco Classic Collection Vol.2" (1996): The flagship appears in both "Pac-Man Arrangement" and "Dig Dug Arrangement". In "Pac-Man Arrangement", it makes its appearance in World 4-1 and 4-2 and is worth 5,000 points if Pac-Man eats it. In "Dig Dug Arrangement", it appears in Stages 17 and 18 and is worth 7,000 points if Dig Dug picks it up.
* "Pac-Man World" (1999): The flagship appears again in a Pac-Man game. This time, the item must be collected in order to access the mazes.
* "Pac-Man World 2" (2002) and "Pac-Man World 3 (2005): The flagship teleports Pac-Man to mazes. The point value will be the same as the points earned in the maze (if completed), plus 2000.
* "Namco Museum Battle Collection" (2005): The arrangement versions of "Pac-Man" and "Dig Dug", later called "Pac-Man Remix" and "Dig Dug Remix" in the iOS version, feature the flagship. "Pac-Man Remix" features both the flagship, worth 3,200 points, and the red drone, worth 2,800 points, as fruit items, while on "Dig Dug Remix", the flagship is a vegetable item and is worth 7,000 points. 
"Dig Dug - Digging Strike" (2005): Just like the first "Dig Dug", the flagship appears as a vegetable on stage 13, except it's worth 6,000 points.
"Pac-Man Championship Edition" (2007) and "Pac-Man Championship Edition DX" (2010) : The flagship reappears, but is this time joined by the Galaga Boss, Queen Gaplus, and two drones, one each from "Galaga" and Galaxian.

Gary Whelan holds the official record for this game with 1,114,550 points, achieved August 24, 2006 at Dukinfield in the UK.

The game can be played while the main game loads in the Sony PlayStation's port of "Ridge Racer".

A Namco Galaxian until appears in April Wine's concert video 'Live in London (1981)'.

- UPDATES -

The only code difference between the original Namco version and the licensed Midway version is that the 'Bonus Galaxip' text is printed on a different line.

In Namco Set 2: 
* Lives dip switch can be set to 3 or 5 lives. The default is 3 lives.
* Extra life dip switch can be set to 4,000 (meaning a bonus Galaxip at 4,000 points), 5,000 points, 7,000 points, or None (meaning no bonus Galaxip at any time). The default is 4,000.

In Midway Set 2: 
* Extra life dip switch can be set to None, 3,000, 4,000, or 5,000. The default is None.

In the bootleg version: 
* Extra life dip switch can be set to None, 20,000, 40,000, or 80,000. The default is None.

- SCORING -

Blue Galaxian: 30 points in formation, 60 points in flight.
Purple Galaxian: 40 points in formation, 80 points in flight.
Red Galaxian: 50 points in formation, 100 points in flight.
Flagship: 60 points in formation, 150 points in flight.
Flagship: 200 points in flight with one escort.
Flagship: 300 points in flight with two escorts, Flagship killed before both escorts.
Flagship: 800 points in flight with two escorts, Flagship killed after both escorts.

* The maximum possible score shown is 999,990. Scores higher than this roll back to zero, but the high score will show the last score achieved before the rollover, which can vary from 999,990 to 999,200.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* The action starts immediately as soon as you start your game. The Galaxians will be set up in formation and your Galaxip will be placed in the middle of the bottom of the screen. The action starts immediately. You can only have one shot in the air at any time so plan your shots accordingly. The game starts off slowly with only 2 or 3 Galaxians attacking your Galaxip at one time. They will drop 3 to 4 laser shots. As the waves progress, more Galaxians will come after your Galaxip until you will usually have 10-15 at any one time swooping down on it.

Each wave starts out with the Galaxians in formation, in the following quantities (in order from top to bottom):
Flagships: 2 (plus any that have escaped from battle in the previous wave, up to a maximum of 4 altogether).
Red Galaxians (Escorts): 6 (in 1 row, directly below the flagships).
Purple Galaxians: 8 (in 1 row, directly below the red Galaxians).
Blue Galaxians: 30 (in 3 rows of 10, directly below the purple Galaxians).

Flagships and red Galaxians are special enemies : they create convoys. Flagships have other special properties (see below). Purple and blue Galaxians are regular enemies.

* The Galaxip can fire only shot on the screen at a time. It is possible to kill 2 enemies with one shot if they are flying extremely close to each other.

* Missiles shot at the formation which miss by going between columns or near an outer edge of a column, will cause the formation to pause its left-right movement for a very short moment. This will usually, but not always, prevent missed shots near the columns from hitting the enemies in the upper rows of the formation which might otherwise be hit by moving into the shot as it flies by.

* Enemies peel away from the formation and attack the Galaxip. Enemies fire at the Galaxip during their attack, but they can’t fire after they pass an invisible horizontal line just above the Galaxip.

* Enemies always begin attack runs from the edges of the formation, never from the middle. This also applies to Flagships but it is not readily observable unless there are 3 or 4 Flagships present.

* A 'swarm' is triggered by either of 2 criterion:
1. The total number of enemies in formation is 3 or less.
2. The total number of blue and purple Galaxians in formation is zero. This can occur when there are many Flagships and red Galaxians still present in formation.

* When the 'swarm' starts, enemies that begin an attack do not return to formation : they keep attacking. Once started, a 'swarm' can only be ended by killing all of the enemies and/or letting them escape, or by the Galaxip getting hit. 

* Before the 'swarm' starts, enemies that attack, which are not killed, return to the formation. Since these enemies were on the edge of the formation and able to attack once, they are very likely to attack again soon.

* When not in 'swarm', a maximum of 4 regular enemies can attack at any one time.

* Flagships and convoys can attack at any time as long as another convoy attack is not already commencing; only one convoy attack can happen at a time.

* A Flagship will always create a convoy with the maximum number of red escorts available to it, unless the 'swarm' has started.

* The Flagships 'capture' up to 3 red escorts while they are in formation :  Whenever there is a Flagship in formation directly above an escort or above it to one side, that escort is captured and cannot attack on its own. This capture effect ends when a 'swarm' begins.

* The Flagships can escape from the battle only if all three red escorts under their place in the formation have been killed. Flagships that escape will appear on the next attack wave, up to a maximum of 4 Flagships at the start of any wave.

* When an attacking Flagship is killed, all enemies stop firing for a short period of time. If this kill occurs before the 'swarm', there will also be no new attacks from the formation during this period. These benefits never occur for killing a Flagship that is in formation.

* The flags which count the rounds show a maximum of round 48; rounds 48 and up are shown as round 48. However if round 256 is achieved, the flags start to roll over, but with some graphical glitches; the flags that were showing round 48 begin to get overwritten, one at a time. This results in the big 10-flags being cut in half by the regular flags which start to appear, until all 4 of the 10-flags are replaced by small ones. 16 single flags show during rounds 256+8 and 256+9 (rounds 264 and 265). The glitch ends at round 256+10 (266), which shows a single 10 flag.

* After wave 1, it is possible to kill any one enemy, even a Flagship, in a brand new formation by shooting at just the right time and place before the formation teleports in at the start of a new round.

* The Galaxians that come down in a smooth pattern are the easiest to kill plus their shots are easy to avoid. The hard ones to kill (usually the purple Galaxians) are the ones where the Galaxian 'bounces' from side-to-side dropping shots since those shots cover a very large area.

* The corners can be a death trap. When the Galaxians come down firing, their shots do not come straight down but they angle toward the direction that the Galaxian is traveling. In addition, the Galaxians have a tendency to 'charge' into the corners. You get the points if a Galaxian rams your Galaxip but you also lose your Galaxip in the process.

* The Flagships are the big points in the game. Try to avoid shooting the red Galaxians since they act as escorts for the Flagship. Wait until a Flagship comes down with two escorts. If you can't get aligned to take all three out quickly, let them pass. If you do get a good angle on them, you will have to fire quickly to pick off the two escorts first, then the Flagship. If you hit the Flagship first, you get significantly less points.

* Do not stop moving. If you do, you will be caught in a crossfire. The Galaxians tend to leave small areas of safety open between their shots. Also, make sure you are constantly hitting their formation to reduce their numbers (again, don't kill off the red ones).

* As you progress into the higher waves, the Galaxians tend to move quicker, fly more erratic patterns, and 'gang up' on your Galaxip. Plan accordingly for this.

- SERIES -

1. Galaxian (1979)
2. Galaga (1981)
3. Gaplus (1984) : also known in the USA as "Galaga 3"
4. Galaga '88 (1987)
5. Galaxian 3 Theatre 6 - Project Dragoon (1990)
6. Galaxian 3 Theatre 6 J2 - Attack Of The Zolgear (1994)
7. Galaga Arrangement (1995) : part of "Namco Classics Collection Vol.1"
8. Galaga - Destination Earth (2000, GBA, PC CD-ROM and PlayStation)
9. Galaga Arrangement (2005, PSP) : part of "Namco Museum Battle Collection" 
10. Galaga Remix (2007, Wii) : part of "Namco Museum Remix" 
11. Galaga Legions (2008, XBLA)
12. Galaga Legions DX (2010, PSN, XBLA)
13. Galaga 3D Impact (2011, Nintendo 3DS) : part of "Pac-Man & Galaga Dimensions"

- PORTS -

NOTE: For ports released in North America, please see the Midway Upright model entry.

* CONSOLES: 
[JP] Epoch Cassette Vision (aug.10, 1981)
[JP] Atari 2600 (1983)
[JP] Nintendo Famicom (sept.7, 1984) "Galaxian [Model NGX-4500]" 
[JP] Nintendo Famicom Disk (jul.20, 1990) "Galaxian [Model NDS-GXN]"  
[JP] Sony PlayStation (june.21, 1996) "Namco Museum Vol.3 [Model SLPS-00390]" 
[AU] Sony PlayStation (1997) "Namco Museum Vol.3 [Model SCES-00268]" 
[EU] Sony PlayStation (feb.1997) "Namco Museum Vol.3 [Model SCES-00268]" 
[JP] Sony PS2 (jan.26, 2006) "Namco Museum Arcade Hits! [Model SLPS-25590]" 
[EU] Microsoft XBOX (mar.24, 2006) "Namco Museum - 50th Anniversary" 
[EU] Sony PS2 (mar.31, 2006) "Namco Museum - 50th Anniversary [Model SLES-53957]" 
[EU] Nintendo GameCube (may.5, 2006) "Namco Museum - 50th Anniversary [Model DOL-G5NP-EUR]" 
[JP] Nintendo Wii (dec.6, 2007) "Minna de Asobou! Namco Carnival [Model RVL-RNWJ-JPN]" 
[EU] Nintendo Wii (apr.18, 2008) "Namco Museum Remix [Model RVL-RN2P]" 
[KO] Nintendo Wii (apr.26, 2008) "Namco Museum Remix [Model RVL-RNWK-KOR]" 
[AU] Nintendo Wii (may.1, 2008) "Namco Museum Remix [Model RVL-RN2P]" 
[EU] Microsoft XBOX 360 (may.15, 2009) "Namco Museum - Virtual Arcade" 
[AU] Microsoft XBOX 360 (june.3, 2009) "Namco Museum - Virtual Arcade" 
[JP] Nintendo Wii [Virtual Console Arcade] (sept.29, 2009) 
[JP] Microsoft XBOX 360 (nov.5, 2009) "Namco Museum - Virtual Arcade [Model 2RD-00001]" 

* HANDHELDS: 
[UK] Nintendo Game Boy (1995) "Arcade Classic No. 3 - Galaga & Galaxian [Model DMG-AGCP-UKV]" 
[EU] Nintendo Game Boy (1995) "Arcade Classic No. 3 - Galaga & Galaxian [Model DMG-AGCP-NOE]" 
[JP] Nintendo Game Boy (1995) "Galaga & Galaxian [Model DMG-AGCJ-JPN]" 
[JP] Nintendo Game Boy (nov.29, 1996) "Namco Gallery Vol.2 [Model DMG-AN2J-JPN]" 
[JP] Nintendo GBA (dec.7, 2001) "Namco Museum [Model AGB-ANMJ-JPN]" 
[EU] Nintendo GBA (dec.7, 2001) "Namco Museum [Model AGB-ANMP-EUR]" 
[JP] Sony PSP (feb.24, 2005) "Namco Museum [Model ULJS-00012]" 
[KO] Sony PSP (may.2, 2005) as 'Old Galaga' in "Namco Museum [Model UCKS-45005]" : Marks the only ever official connection between the Galaxian and Galaga series
[EU] Sony PSP (dec.9, 2005) "Namco Museum Battle Collection [Model UCES-00116]" 
[JP] Nintendo DS (oct.11, 2007) "Namco Museum DS [Model NTR-YNMJ-JPN]" 
[EU] Nintendo DS (feb.29, 2008) "Namco Museum DS [Model NTR-YNMP-EUR]" 

* COMPUTERS: 
[EU] Exidy Sorcerer 
[JP] Apple II (1980) Star Craft Tokyo 
[JP] Apple II (1981) "Alien Typhoon" by Star Craft 
[EU] BBC B (1982) "Arcadians" by Acornsoft 
[EU] Acorn Electron (1982) "Arcadians" by Acornsoft 
[EU] Sinclair ZX81 (1982) "ZX Galaxians" by Artic 
[EU] Sinclair ZX Spectrum (1982) by Artic 
[EU] Commodore C64 (1983) "Galaxions" by Solar Software 
[EU] Commodore C64 (1983) 
[EU] Sinclair ZX Spectrum (1983) by Atarisoft 
[UK] Sinclair ZX Spectrum (1983) "Galactians" by DK'Tronics 
[JP] MSX (1984)
[EU] MSX (1984) by Bug-Byte 
[JP] Fujitsu FM-7 (1985) 
[JP] Sharp X1 by Dempa 
[JP] NEC PC-88
[EU] Atari ST (1993) "Galaxian" - PD / Shareware by Sinister Developments 
[EU] PC [MS-DOS] (1996) "Galaxi" - PD / Shareware by Kurt W. Dekker 
[EU] Commodore Amiga (1998, "Galaxians v1.3" by PD / Shareware - Kev Gallagher 
[JP] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (dec.24, 1998) "Namco History Volume 4" 
[AU] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (mar.27, 2006) "Namco Museum - 50th Anniversary" 
[EU] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (may.19, 2006) "Namco Museum - 50th Anniversary" 

* OTHERS: 
VFD tabletop game (1980) by Bandai 
VFD tabletop game (19??) "Moon Alien", alt. name, by Bandai 
VFD tabletop game [JP] (19??) "Beam Galaxian" by Bandai 
VFD handheld game (1981) "Galaxian 2" by Entex (or Futuretronics) : called Galaxian 2 because it can be a two-player game. 
[JP] VFD handheld game (1981) "Astro Galaxy" by Entex. 
VFD handheld game (1981) "Astro Invader", Hales release by Entex 
LCD Keychains handheld game (1997) by Bandai

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=galapx
Arcade Video game published 44 years ago:

Galaxian Part X (c) 1979.

Considered as a hack of "Galaxian", this game seems more like a hack of "Moon Alien" by Nichibutsu, but with the graphics changed to look more like "Galaxian". This explains why the shots move with the ship and why the fuel gauge is there. Galaxian also didn't use a 'title screen' formed with graphics, it went straight through to 'We are the Galaxians'. Also, the rate of fire is much faster and the alien's movements are more random.

- SCORING -

Blue Galaxian : 30 points in formation, 60 points in flight 
Purple Galaxian : 40 points in formation, 80 points in flight 
Red Galaxian : 50 points in formation, 100 points in flight 
Flagship : 60 points in formation, 150 points in flight 
Flagship : 200 points in flight with one escort 
Flagship : 300 points in flight with two escorts, Flagship killed before both escorts 
Flagship : 800 points in flight with two escorts, Flagship killed after both escorts

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=galaxyfg

Galaxy Fight - Universal Warriors (c) 1995 Sunsoft.

Fighting game with 8 selectable characters. Each stage is infinite in length and therefore allows lots of running attacks.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID : 0078

[SNK MVS Neo-Geo Controls]
2 players - 4 buttons per player.
=> [Joystick] 8-way, [A] Subdued attack [B] Medium attack [C] Strong attack [D] Taunt opponent

- TRIVIA -

Released in January 1995.

Galaxy Fight is Sunsoft's first game for the Neo-Geo MVS.

The bonus round character 'Bonus-Kun' is a homage to "Street Fighter"'s Ryu character.  He also appears as the bonus character in Sunsoft's other Neo Geo fighting game, "Waku Waku 7".

Reviews:
[FR] April 1995, Consoles + N.42: 81/100 (Neo-Geo version)

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

Beat the game without losing a round (you can lose continues, but not rounds) to fight a hidden boss and get the staff roll after your character's ending. If you beat this hidden boss, you'll get a group shot of all your characters.

- STAFF -

Galaxy Programmers : Yuichi Ueda, Shigetaka Inaba
Graphic Designers : Toshihiko Narita, Murakiti, Atsuki Matsui, Kouki Kita, Masashi Kazikawa, Yasuhide Maeda, Nobuhide Suzuki, Kazuhiro Watabe, Eiji Koyama, Ryuichi Kunisue, Takeshi Goya, Daisuke Fukuda
Tool Programmer : Hirokatsu Fujii
Sound Programmers : Kazuo Nii, Noriaki Urata
Music Composers : Masato Araikawa, Takayuki Sasaki
Musicians : Jun Kojime, Masato Araikawa
Music Coordinators : Atsushi Mihiro, Shoji Yogo
Voice Actors : Kazunori Hotta, Takakazu Tukamoto, Shinsuke Aoki, Naoto Sugisaka, Chiaki Kato, Tajuro, John Gibson
Director : Yuichi Ueda
Special Thanks : Akihiro Asada, Kazuyuki Watanabe, Kazuyo Uemura, Naomi Sakaguchi, Hiroshi Ito, Megumi Masuko

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] Sega Saturn (nov.22, 1995) [Model T-1510G]
[US] Sega Saturn (jul.3, 1996) [Model T-1504H]
[EU] Sega Saturn (1995) [Model T-1504H-50]
SNK Neo Geo [JP] (feb.25, 1995) [Model SUH-078]
SNK Neo Geo [US] (feb.25, 1995) [Model SUH-078]
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo CD (apr.21, 1995) [Model NGCD-078]
[US] SNK Neo-Geo CD (apr.21, 1995) [Model NGCD-078E]
[JP] Sony PlayStation (may.3, 1996) [Model SLPS-00138]
[EU] Sony PlayStation (apr.1996) [Model SLES-00197]
[JP] Sony PlayStation (mar.29, 2007; "PS1 Classics")
[US] Sony PlayStation (dec.14, 2010; "PS1 Classics")
[EU] Sony PlayStation (jan.11, 2012; "PS1 Classics") 
[JP] Sony PS2 (june.26, 2008; "Sunsoft Collection [Model SLPS-25849]")
[JP] Sony PS2 (june.18, 2009; "Sunsoft Collection [NeoGeo Online Collection The Best] [Model SLPS-25936]")
[JP] Nintendo Wii (mar.23, 2010, "Virtual Console")

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=galmedes
Arcade Video game published 31 years ago:

Galmedes (c) 1992 Visco.

Galmedes is a vertical scrolling shooter arcade game released only in Japan.. The ship has two types of attack: the standard firing weapon and a charge attack. Once the player collects all three weapons, the player can select any of those weapons during combat.

On the alien planet of Gaston, a dictator named Gildy rose to absolute power. Gildy started a plan to take over his home solar system, but upon doing so, he decided to spread his influence. After conquering his home galaxy, the next galaxy that Gildy planned on invading was the Galmedes Galaxy. In response, the unified forces of the planets of the Galmedes Galaxy have created a powerful space fighter known as the LEPTON (Launched Electro-Projectile Thermal Osmotic Nullifier). Two pilots, Foo and Bar, are selected to launch the LEPTON fighters against the invading Gastonian Forces.

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 8 Mhz), Zilog Z80 (@ 4 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Yamaha YM2151 (@ 4 Mhz)

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2

- TRIVIA -

Galmedes was released in July 1992 in Japan.

The two pilots are named Foo and Bar. This is a play on the acronym FUBAR, which means "Fouled Up Beyond All Recognition".

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=galpanic,galpanica,galsnew,galsnewj,galsnewk,galpanicb,galsnewt,galsnewu,galpanicc
Arcade Video game published 33 years ago:

Gals Panic! (c) 1990 Kaneko.

Gals Panic! is a "Qix"-style adult puzzle game.  The objective is to reveal 80% of the silhouetted girl's image within the time limit while avoiding the enemies.

To complicate things, there is a bar with a pointer at the top of the screen. If the pointer dips below a certain level (indicated by the change in color) the image will change to that of a monster. The pointer slowly creeps towards the monster side of the bar over time and whenever the player reveals a significant piece of the silhouette.  Revealing the un-silhouetted part of the image moves the pointer back towards the girl side of the bar.  If a round is completed while the monster's image is shown then the round must be repeated.

After every round there is a roulette game where the player can earn rewards or penalties that will take effect in the following round.

After winning three rounds against a girl, the graphic becomes a photographic image of that girl.

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 8 Mhz)
Sound Chips : OKI6295 (@ 12 Khz)

Screen orientation : Vertical
Video resolution : 224 x 256 pixels
Screen refresh : 60.00 Hz
Palette colors : 33792

Players : 2
Control : 4-way joystick
Buttons : 1

- TRIVIA -

Released in November 1990.

An EXPRO-02 version was distributed by Taito Corp. in Japan and Inter Trading in Korea.

- UPDATES -

The EXPRO-02 Version supports Zoom IN/OUT scroll effects, has a new Push Start & 100% Clear screens.

In the Korean EXPRO-02 version, naked girls are replaced by objects or animals.

- SERIES -

1. Gals Panic! (1990)
2. Gals Panic II (1993)
3. Gals Panic II' - Special Edition (1994)
4. Gals Panic 3 (1995)
5. Gals Panic 4 Yuu (1996)
6. Gals Panic SS (1996, Sega Saturn)
7. Gals Panic S - Extra Edition (1997)
8. Gals Panic S2 (1999)
8. Gals Panic SU (1999)
9. Gals Panic S3 (2002)

- STAFF -

Cast : Marina Matsumoto, Ayami Kida, Nami Ozawa, Yuki Miho, Emi Nagahara, Shiori Asano

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
Sega Mega-CD ("Super Gal's Panic") [Unreleased Prototype]

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=ganbare
Arcade Video game published 23 years ago:

Ganbare Marin-kun (c) 2000 Capcom Company, Limited.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the CP System hardware.
B-Board #: 91634B-2

- TRIVIA -

Ganbare Marin-kun was released in April 2000 in the Japanese arcades.

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=popbounc

Gappolin (c) 1997 Video System.

A breakout-style game.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID: 0237

Players: 2
Control: dial
Buttons: 3

- TRIVIA -

This game runs on the Neo-Geo MVS but was not released on the Neo-Geo AES home console.

This game is known outside Japan as "Pop 'n Bounce".

The game forbids the initials 'SEX' on the high score table. If you try, it gets changed to 'NON'.

- STAFF -

Producer: Furukama
Director: Nishikawa
Manager: Shiomi
Programmers: You-Chan, Gen
Designers: Akira, Oh! Kawara, Tetsudai 6, T. Tateisi, Manbow., Yamoya
Music composer: Naoki Sakamura (Nao Itamura)
Sound effects: Pirowo, Norie
Sound programmers: Mami, H. Soyama

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=garouh,garouha

Garou - Mark of the Wolves (c) 2000 SNK [Shin Nihon Kikaku].

- TECHNICAL -

[Model NGH-253]
688 Mega

- TRIVIA -

Released on February 25, 2000 in Japan and United States of America.

Related MVS version: "Garou - Mark of the Wolves [Model NGM-253]".

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=garou,garoup,garoubl

Garou - Mark of the Wolves (c) 1999 SNK.

Garou: Mark of the Wolves is a one-on-one fighting game and is the 9th title in SNK's Fatal Fury series. Ten years after crime-lord Geese Howard's death, the city of Southtown is now a peaceful place, leading it to be known as the Second Southtown. A new fighting tournament called King of Fighters: Maximum Mayhem is created, with several characters related to fighters from the previous "King of Fighters" tournaments participating.

The game features 12 characters and foregoes the plane-switching style of its predecessors in favour of standard, single-plane battles. Garou introduced the "Tactical Offense Position" (T.O.P.), a special area on the fighter's life gauge. When the gauge reaches this area, the character enters the T.O.P. mode, granting them the ability to use T.O.P. attack, gradual life recovery, and increased attack damage. 

The game also introduced the Just Defend system, which rewards players who successfully block an attack at the last moment, granting them a small amount of health recovery and the ability to immediately counter-attack out of block stun.

If players win all rounds with a ranking of AAA, they will face the boss 'Kain R. Heinlein', defeating him unlocks a special ending. If the AAA requirements are not met, Grant will be the final boss and there will be no special ending. Additionally, before facing Grant players will face a mid-boss, who, depending on which character the player is using, can be any character from the game's cast.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID : NGM-253

[SNK MVS Neo-Geo Controls]
2 players - 4 buttons per player.
[JOYSTICK] 8-way [A] Swift punch [B] Swift kick [C] Pummeler punch [D] Colossal kick

- TRIVIA -

Released in November 1999.

'Garou' translates from Japanese as 'Hungry Wolf'. 'Mark of the Wolves' is a reference to the legacy left behind by Terry to a new generation of fighters - specifically, Rock Howard. This can also refer to the legacy left by other characters from the previous Fatal Fury & Art of Fighting games. Kim Dong Hwan & Kim Jae Hoon are sons of Tae-Kwon Do fighter Kim Kaphwan. Khushmood Butt is a master of Kyokugenryu Karate, the same martial used by Ryo Sakazaki from Art of Fighting. Hokutomaru uses Shiranui-style Ninjitsu as his fighting style, this is the same ninja arts that Mai Shiranui uses, however Hokutomaru was trained by Andy Bogard.

Garou pushes the capabilities of the Neo-Geo MVS hardware to its limit, giving some of the best-looking graphics to date. Some critics saying that there is life after all in the Neo-Geo hardware, which was past its prime when the game was released.

Hokutomaru's stage has quite a few references to the rest of the "Fatal Fury" series. To the extreme left of the stage is a billboard with a picture of the old style Terry Bogard. A portrait of Geese Howard and his lieutenants can be seen on another billboard (this is the same picture that is seen in the flyer for Real Bout Fatal Fury). There is also a picture of Andy Bogard and Mai Shiranui holding hands posing as a bank advertisement right above another picture of Alfred.

The sign that Khushnood Butt shows off in his victory pose is a Kyokugen Karate dojo sign.

The Rock Howard music stage contains a part of Robert Miles' seminal trance tune "Children" (1996).

Rock Howard is the son of the notorious crime-lord Geese Howard, the boss of previous Fatal Fury games. Rock was trained to fight by Terry Bogard and has incorporated moves from Terry and Geese's styles into his own fighting style. Rock is also related to Garou's main boss of the game: Kain R. Heinlein. Geese Howard married Marie Heinlein, whom is the sister of Kain. So, we can assume that Kain is Rock's uncle.

The word 'Tizoc' (The Griffon Mask's Japanese name) means 'sick leg', or 'lame leg'. It was the name of an ancient Mexican tlatoani, or leader, who ruled from 1481 until 1486, when he was poisoned by Aztec aristocrats.

If a double KO occurs, a round is won by each fighter, which can end a battle on this quite unsatisfying note. Moreover in this case, the player has no fighting level, neither displayed on the screen nor counted for the points.

Soundtracks release:
[JP] Jan. 21, 2000; Garou - Mark of the Wolves [SCDC-00006] Scitron

- UPDATES -

The prototype version has a white background at the title screen instead a blue background on the final version. It has also a graphic bug on the Terry Bogard stage during the second round at the extreme right.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Random Fighter : Hold Start and press a Punch or Kick button at the character selection screen.

* Play as Grant : At the character select screen, highlight Dong Hwan, hold Start and press Up(x2) Down(x2), Up, Down.

* Play as Kain R. Heinlein : At the character select screen, highlight Jae Hoon, hold Start and press Down(x2), Up(x2), Down, Up.

* Play against Kain R. Heinlein : To reach Kain, you must finish the first 7 matches with an average fighting level of AAA. Your best bet would be to avoid losing any rounds throughout the preliminary 7 stages, especially Grant. If you meet this condition after defeating Grant, you'll get a cutscene featuring Kain R. Heinlein. Beat Kain to reveal your characters' true ending.

* Alternate Costume Colors : Each character has 4 colors, corresponding to each button.

* Secret Taunts : After defeating your opponent, hold Left or Right and tap Start to use an hidden taunt. Every character has two secret taunts (these can ONLY be used after defeating an opponent and before your character goes into his/her winning pose). Some of them, such as Hotaru's and Hokutomaru's are really cool! :)

Taunts in the game can affect the background stages in many ways. For example, by using a taunt during a fight in Hotaru's stage (Philanthropy Belfry) you can make the bells in the background move. Most stages have hidden animations that can only be seen by this trick so try it! :)

* Survival Mode : Insert a coin, hold A+B+C+D and press Start. You will then play a Survival Mode (quite hard one too).

* Rock's Win-pose : Rock will have a special win-pose when he finishes the opponent with a Shine Knuckle and a different one when he finishes the opponent with either a Raging Storm or the Deadly Rave Neo.

- SERIES -

1. Garou Densetsu - Shukumei no Tatakai [Model NGM-033] (1991, MVS)
2. Garou Densetsu 2 - Arata-Naru Tatakai [Model NGM-047] (1992, MVS)
3. Garou Densetsu Special [Model NGM-058] (1993, MVS)
4. Garou Densetsu 3 - Harukanaru Tatakai [Model NGM-069] (1995, MVS)
5. Real Bout Garou Densetsu [Model NGM-095] (1995, MVS)
6. Real Bout Garou Densetsu Special [Model NGM-223] (1997, MVS)
7. Real Bout Garou Densetsu 2 - The Newcomers [Model NGM-240] (1998, MVS)
8. Fatal Fury - Wild Ambition (1999, ARC)
9. Garou - Mark of the Wolves [Model NGM-253] (1999, MVS)
10. Fatal Fury First Contact [Model NEOP00111] (1999, NGPC)

- STAFF -

Exective producer : H. Matsumoto
Producers : S. Itoh, T. Tsukamoto
Planners : Kim-Ken, Y. Oda, Goory, I. Higemura, Yucky
Foreground designers : Soe Soe (SoeSoe.F), Heitarou, Rolly.R, N. Kuroki, Futatsu.N, G. Ishidamanf, Terarin, Itokatsu, S. Sasada, Eimotsu, Yuko, D-Mtl'Uchide, K. Naoe, Gi Pinoko, Yuko.K, T. Ishikawa
Background designers : M. Hirano, D. Takagi, E. Tsutsui, Tomo, Sakura-E, R. Nariai, Shimidi, Kumiko.M, C. Zanami
Special effects : Tashiboo, Masami Tanaka
Event art designers : Kaoruru, M. Hirano, C. Zanami, A. Yamada
New staff : Kohji, Z. Kadoma, Manbu, Zacky
Programmers : Bo-Fukunaga, Dan-Abe, Rotten Air
Sound : Ackey, Yassun, Hori-Hori, Okan, Q-Jirou
Title designer : Nao-Q
Illustrator : Tonko, Arita/Ymt

* Voice Actors :
Terry Bogard : Satoshi Hashimoto
Rock Howard : Eiji Takemoto
Kim Dong Hwan : Jun Hashimoto
Kim Jae Hoon : Hiroki Asakawa
Hotaru Futaba : Yuki Horie
Gato : Koji Ishii
B. Jenet : Rei Saito
Khushmood Butt (Marco Rodriguez in Japanese version) : Hikaru Hanada
Hokutomaru : Junko Takeuchi
Freeman : Eiji Yano
Tizoc (The Griffon in the Japanese version) : Hikaru Hanada
Kevin Rian : You Kitazawa
Grant : You Kitazawa
Kain R. Heinlein : Jun Hashimoto
Marky : Junko Takeuchi
Narration : Paul G.R.

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo AES (Feb. 25, 2000; "Garou - Mark of the Wolves [Model NGH-253]")
Sega Dreamcast [JP] (Sep. 27, 2001; "Garou - Mark of the Wolves [Model T-3108M]")
Sega Dreamcast [JP] (may.23, 2002; "Garou - Mark of the Wolves [SNK Best Buy] [Model T-47302M]")
[JP] Sony PS2 (june.30, 2005; "Garou - Mark of the Wolves [NeoGeo Online Collection Vol.1] [Model SLPS-25504]")
[JP] Sony PS2 (june.30, 2005; "Garou - Mark of the Wolves [NeoGeo Online Collection Vol.1] [Model SLPS-25509]")
[JP] Sony PS2 (june.30, 2005; "Garou - Mark of the Wolves [NeoGeo Online Collection The Best] [Model SLPS-25793]")

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$info=fatfury1

餓狼伝説 宿命の闘い (c) 1991 SNK Corporation.
(Garou Densetsu - Shukumei no Tatakai)

Terry Bogard & Andy Bogard enter in a tournament called the King of Fighters where they must face dangerous fighters in order to find their father's murderer, none other than the tournament's sponsor & supreme champion : Geese Howard. Joe Higashi also enters the tournament in search of the championship title. Who will come out victorious? The main features in this story-driven fighter are backgrounds that feature two battle planes for pseudo 3-D action, & excellent music!

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID : NGM-033

[SNK MVS Neo-Geo Controls]
2 players - 4 buttons per player (3 usables)
[JOYSTICK] 8-way [A] Punch [B] Kick [C] Skill

- TRIVIA -

Garou Densetsu was released in November 1991 in Japan.

The title of this game translates from Japanese as 'Legend of Hungry Wolf - Battle of Destiny'.

This game is known outside Japan as 'Fatal Fury - King of Fighters'. 

Originally called 'Real Bout', SNK opted to change the title to 'Fatal Fury'. You can see the game's original title on the banner of a store in the background of Hwa Jai's stage ('Real Bout Shop').

According to the USA flyer, the name of the game is 'Fatal Fury - The Battle of Fury'. On the ingame titlescreen, however, it's called 'Fatal Fury - King of Fighters'.

The official name of the tournament is 'The King of Fighters'. This can be verified if you look closely the promo poster seen in the name rankings. Later SNK would use this name for a popular game series of its own.

The music in a 2-player battle is taken from the first stage of "Street Smart".

This is the very first game that featured one of SNK's most famous fighters : Terry Bogard! Over the years, Terry Bogard has appeared in many games, usually in his familiar jacket with a star on his back and a cap on his head. However, what is on his cap is different (probably because he tosses so many of them, but that's a different story). Some games have him wear a blank cap, some have his cap say 'Running Wild', some have the Neo-Geo logo on them, but the commonly accepted cap is the one that says 'Fatal Fury' on it.

Terry Bogard appears in "Quiz King of Fighters" as selectable character.

This game was such a hit in Japan that an animated movie was released featuring character designs by Masami Ohbari. This movie's plot is fairly true to the game's main plot and all the characters in the game are featured. The movie was released on the USA by courtesy of Viz Video, a division of Viz Comics.

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Garou Densetsu, Last Resort - PCCB-00087) on 21/05/1992.

- UPDATES -

The Japanese version features quite different move list sets for the three main characters (In the Fatal Fury sequels as well as the King of Fighters, Terry, Andy & Joe's move list sets are clearly based on the Japanese release of this particular game). All other versions feature very simplified joystick commands for each move.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

As the game sometimes says on the continuation screen, you can tell some opponents' weak points by watching their moves carefully, which can help you figure out how to beat them. Here are a few examples :

-- If you've knocked down an opponent, you can damage them some more by charging at them with a 'dash attack' just as they're getting up, until they've been fully beaten. This may work best when playing with Andy Bogard.

-- When Tung Fu Rue changes into a hefty beast Incredible Hulk-style, he'll be briefly intangible as he beats his chest. Wait until the right moment and then dash at him (or, if you're playing with Joe Higashi, you can use his rapid punch). He won't actually fall on the ground in this form, but he'll be easier to beat until he turns back to normal as long as you can keep dash-attacking him.

-- When you're facing Hwa Jai, he'll be thrown a bottle of some kind of drink by an agent of Geese standing within the crowd of spectators, and after drinking it (during which time he'll be briefly intangible too), that's when he really lets loose with damaging attacks. If you feel Hwa Jai's too hard to deal with this way, you can try to cause him damage by a small amount, and if your lifebar is still higher than his, you can then step back on defense. He'll try hitting you with standard punches and kicks, but will not throw you, and this way, you can keep on the defensive until the timer runs out, winning simply by having more life energy left than he does.

-- When facing Billy Kane, if his pole falls away (he can either throw it at you or it can fall when he's thrown to the ground), he'll go on the defensive until another agent of Geese's tosses him another pole from within the crowd on the bridge. When he jumps up to grab hold of it, that's when you can move in and try to grab and throw him to the ground, or ram him with a dash attack.

Finally, when facing Geese Howard in the showdown match, you can move towards him as the round begins and then grab and throw him to the ground, then, by timing your attacks correctly, you can grab him in a body slam again when he gets up, eventually beating him by body-slamming him repeatedly. It's a tricky strategy, but it can work!

- SERIES -

1. Garou Densetsu - Shukumei no Tatakai [Model NGM-033] (1991, MVS)
2. Garou Densetsu 2 - Arata-Naru Tatakai [Model NGM-047] (1992, MVS)
3. Garou Densetsu Special [Model NGM-058] (1993, MVS)
4. Garou Densetsu 3 - Harukanaru Tatakai [Model NGM-069] (1995, MVS)
5. Real Bout Garou Densetsu [Model NGM-095] (1995, MVS)
6. Real Bout Garou Densetsu Special [Model NGM-223] (1997, MVS)
7. Real Bout Garou Densetsu 2 - The Newcomers [Model NGM-240] (1998, MVS)
8. Fatal Fury - Wild Ambition (1999, ARC)
9. Garou - Mark of the Wolves [Model NGM-253] (1999, MVS)
10. Fatal Fury First Contact [Model NEOP00111] (1999, NGPC)

- STAFF -

Producer : Eikichi Kawasaki
Planners : Tsukamichi, Deru-Deru
Character designers : Ponsuke, Tsuzakingyo, Deru Deru, Moriyan, Somatoreeno, Lucky Okkiy, Boko Pyon, Soe Soe
Chr. back up! : Sakita Kakaree, Kama Kama, Kimuryaer, Madarian, Batayan, Tabui Chang, Ochiai Shunin, Takepy, Simachang
Programmers : Yamatan, Kura
Prg. back up! : Konchang, Nakamuura
Sound : Konny, Yokochang, Muraisan, Tarkun, Tate&Bunnyboys, Finish Hiroshi, Michael Beard, Goodam kararee
Game assistants : Miyagami T.Ioo, S.Akutagama, Tome, Popyu Natchu 3, Tarou, Mukai

* Voice Actors :
Terry Bogard : Satoshi Hashimoto
Andy Bogard : Keiichi Nanba
Joe Higashi : Nobuyuki Hiyama
Michael Max : ???
Hwa Jai : ???
Tung Fu Rue : Shigehumi Nakai
Cheng Sinzan : Nakai Shigehumi
Duck King : Kong Kuwata
Richard Myer : Kong Kuwata
Raiden : ???
Billy Kane : Atsushi Yamanishi
Geese Howard : Kong Kuwata

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo AES (Dec. 20, 1991) "Garou Densetsu - Shukumei no Tatakai [Model NGH-033]"
[JP] Nintendo Super Famicom (Nov. 27, 1992) "Garou Densetsu - Shukumei no Tatakai [Model SHVC-GN]"
[JP] Sega Mega Drive (Apr. 23, 1993) "Garou Densetsu - Shukumei no Tatakai [Model G-4100]"
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo CD (Sep. 9, 1994) "Garou Densetsu - Shukumei no Tatakai [Model NGCD-033]"
[JP] Sony PS2 (jul.20, 2006) "Garou Densetsu Battle Archives 1 [NeoGeo Online Collection Vol.5] [Model SLPS-25664]"
Sony PlayStation 2 [US & EU] (2006) "Fatal Fury Collection"
Nintendo Wii (2007) "Virtual Console"
[JP] Sony PS2 (may.29, 2008) "Garou Densetsu Battle Archives 1 [NeoGeo Online Collection The Best] [Model SLPS-25863]")
[US] Sony PS2 (may.05, 2008) "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model SLUS-21724]"
[US] Sony PSP (may.05, 2008) "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model ULUS-10338]"
[KO] Sony PS2 (may.29, 2008) "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model SLKA-25424]"
[US] Nintendo Wii (jul.29, 2008) "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model RVL-P-RNCE]"
[EU] Sony PSP (Oct. 17, 2008) "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model ULES-01105]"
[EU] Nintendo Wii (Oct. 31, 2008) "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model RVL-P-RJZP]"
[EU] Sony PS2 (Nov. 21, 2008) "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model SLES-55232]"
[JP] Sony PSP (May. 21, 2009) "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model ULJS-193]"
Sony PlayStation Store (Dec.2010)

* COMPUTERS:
[JP] Sharp X68000 (may.21, 1993) "Garou Densetsu - Shukumei no Tatakai [Model HDX-5001]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=fatfury2

餓狼伝説2 新たなる闘い (c) 1992 SNK Corp.
(Garou Densetsu 2 - Arata-Naru Tatakai)

The lone wolves are back once again and they will battle the world's strongest fighters. However a mysterious & powerful new enemy is looking for them, the ones who defeated Geese Howard.

Can the lone wolves face this new threat and come out victorious?

Features backgrounds with 2 different background planes, improved control & some very nice music! :)

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID : NGM-047

[SNK MVS Neo-Geo Controls]
2 players - 4 buttons per player.
[Joystick] 8-way, => [A] Quick Punch [B] Quick Kick [C] Strong Punch [D] Strong Kick

- TRIVIA -

Garou Densetsu 2 was released in December 1992 in Japan.

The title of the translates from Japanese as 'Legend of Hungry Wolf 2 - The New Battle'.

This game is known outside Japan as 'Fatal Fury 2'. According to the USA flyer, the name of the game is 'Fatal Fury 2 - The Sultan of Slugs Battle Royale'.

Things that changed in this sequel :
* This game allows you to switch between the background & foreground planes at will (in the first game, you could only switch planes if the CPU was on a different battle plane!).
* The game ditches the previous game's 3 button setup (punch, kick & throw) in favor of a new 4 button setup (light & heavy punches & kicks). This is apparently one of the very first Neo-Geo fighters to use this now common button setup.
* This game introduces the use of Desperation Moves (highly damaging techniques that can only be used when the life-bar is flashing red). This game as well as "Art of Fighting" were the first fighting games to introduce these moves.
* Newcomers in the game are : Mai Shiranui, Cheng Sinzan, Kim Kaphwan, Jubei Yamada, Big Bear (aka Raiden), Axel Hawk, Lawrence Blood & Wolfgang Krauser. Richard Meyer, Michael Max, Tung Fu Rue, Duck King, Hwa Jai & Geese Howard were left out! (although some of them make some cameos during some of the game's cut-scenes!).

Just as the first game introduced the famed Terry Bogard, this game features SNK's most popular fighter lady : Mai Shiranui! :). Mai appears in "Quiz King of Fighters" as selectable character.

The Hungry Wolf is a reference to Terry Bogard, the main character in Fatal Fury. Terry, Andy and Joe (and to a lesser extent, Mai and Mary) are referred to as the Lone Wolves.

Keeping the tradition of the first game, an animated movie based on this game was released in Japan featuring character designs by Masami Ohbari. The movie was also released in the USA by Viz Video, a division of Viz Comics. After the second Fatal Fury movie was released, a third movie followed (which predated "Fatal Fury 3 - Road to the Final Victory"). It follows the adventures of the Lonely Wolves (Terry, Andy, Joe and Mai) as they attempt to prevent a power-hungry man from claiming all the parts of the legendary Armor of Mars.

When a player wins a match in a single player game, the post match screen shows people watching the tournament inside the Pao Pao Cafe from the first game, "Fatal Fury - King of Fighters".

Pony Canyon released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Garou Densetsu 2 - PCCB-00111) on 19/02/1993.

Reviews:
[FR] March 1993 - Consoles + No. 18: 97/100 (AES version)

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* You can only see any character's ending if you beat the game with a single credit used (no continues or 2-Player matches are allowed)

* Just like the first game, it's possible to use the strategy of dashing at your opponents just as they're getting up in order to damage them repeatedly.

* Billy Kane, Axel Hawk and Lawrence Blood all have stages that use a single plane, with the 'second' plane having objects on it that can injure players if they're knocked against them (all three of these bosses have ways of throwing their opponents into the background). You can knock the bosses into the background too by standing close to them while they're dazed and then hitting them with a good hard kick or punch.

- SERIES -

1. Garou Densetsu - Shukumei no Tatakai [Model NGM-033] (1991, MVS)
2. Garou Densetsu 2 - Arata-Naru Tatakai [Model NGM-047] (1992, MVS)
3. Garou Densetsu Special [Model NGM-058] (1993, MVS)
4. Garou Densetsu 3 - Harukanaru Tatakai [Model NGM-069] (1995, MVS)
5. Real Bout Garou Densetsu [Model NGM-095] (1995, MVS)
6. Real Bout Garou Densetsu Special [Model NGM-223] (1997, MVS)
7. Real Bout Garou Densetsu 2 - The Newcomers [Model NGM-240] (1998, MVS)
8. Fatal Fury - Wild Ambition (1999, ARC)
9. Garou - Mark of the Wolves [Model NGM-253] (1999, MVS)
10. Fatal Fury First Contact [Model NEOP00111] (1999, NGPC)

- STAFF -

Producer : Eikichi Kawasaki
Planners : Deru-Deru, Tsukamichi-2, Chinta
Object Designers : Higashi Pon (Higashipon Mark3), Tony Oki, Tsuzakingyo (Tsuzakingyo 2), Lionheart, U.G, Ryouji-Sei, Soe Soe (Super Soe Soe), Heitarou, Terarin, Horipu (Horigen. Pu-Ta)
Back Scroll Designers : Moriyan, Somatreeno, Oba Obata, Shibatarian, Uri Midopon, A-Chang
Character Back Up : Manuke, Teizo Muta 92, Kama Kama, Takeshi Kimura, Man, Take. P, Albinome, Pinkey. TBC440
Programmers : Yamatan (Yamatan-2' Turbo), Speaker. R
Sound : Toshio Shimizm (Shimizm), Yoko, Jojoha Kitapy, YLF. Communicate, Paciorek, Masahiko Hataya (Papaya)

* Voice Actors :
Terry Bogard : Satoshi Hashimoto
Andy Bogard : Jun Hashimoto
Joe Higashi : Katsuhisa Namase
Mai Shiranui : Akoya Sogi
Big Bear : Dango Takeda
Cheng Sinzan : Jun Hashimoto
Laurence Blood : Katsuhisa Namase
Axel Hawk : Michael Beard
Billy Kane : Katsuhisa Namase
Wolfgang Krauser : Michael Beard

Special Thanks : Kazuya Hirata, Prince Deguchi, Kura, Shinchan, Data Tada, Oh!Butch (Oh! Buchii), Carry, Kenchan, Miyagami, Satochan, Sanpo, Iwata Kun, Hiroshi Matsumoto (Finish Hiroshi), Akiko Tsuruta, Mie Kurita, Megumi Moriyama, 1st Operation Staff

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo AES (Mar.5, 1993; "Garou Densetsu 2 - Arata-Naru Tatakai [Model NGH-047]")
[JP] Nintendo Super Famicom (Nov.26, 1993; "Garou Densetsu 2 - Arata-Naru Tatakai [Model SHVC-DJ]")
[JP] NEC PC-Engine CD (Mar.12, 1994; "Garou Densetsu 2 - Arata-Naru Tatakai [Model HCD4060]")
Nintendo Super NES [US] (Apr. 1994; "Fatal Fury 2 [Model SNS-DJ]")
Nintendo Super NES [EU] (1994; "Fatal Fury 2 [Model SNSP-DJ]")
[JP] Sega Mega Drive (june.24, 1994; "Garou Densetsu 2 - Arata-Naru Tatakai [Model T-146023]")
[US] Sega Genesis (1994; "Fatal Fury 2")
[JP] Nintendo Game Boy (jul.29, 1994; "Nettou Garou Densetsu 2 - Arata-Naru Tatakai [Model DMG-X3J]")
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo CD (Sep.9, 1994; "Garou Densetsu 2 - Arata-Naru Tatakai [Model NGCD-047]")
[JP] Sony PS2 (jul.20, 2006; "Garou Densetsu Battle Archives 1 [NeoGeo Online Collection Vol.5] [Model SLPS-25664]")
[US] Sony PS2 (Aug.2007, "Fatal Fury Battle Archives Volume 1")
[EU] Sony PS2 (jul.2008, "Fatal Fury Battle Archives Volume 1")
[JP] Sony PS2 (may.29, 2008; "Garou Densetsu Battle Archives 1 [NeoGeo Online Collection The Best] [Model SLPS-25863]")

* COMPUTERS:
[JP] Sharp X68000 (Dec. 23, 1993, "Garou Densetsu 2 [Model MGX-5002]")

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=fatfury3

餓狼伝説3 遥かなる闘い (c) 1995 SNK [Shin Nihon Kikaku].
(Garou Densetsu 3 - Harukanaru Tatakai)

During a trip to Southtown to attend the inauguration of a new branch of Pao Pao Cafe by former street fighter Richard Meyer, the lone wolves (Terry Bogard, Andy Bogard, Joe Higashi & Mai Shiranui) are unwillingly caught in the middle of a desperate search for the Shiranui Scrolls and the mysterious fighters that are after them! The game features a new graphic style, 2 different background planes to fight, a grade system that shows how well you perform in battle, lots of hidden moves & combos, as well as multiple endings based on your performance. The answers shall only be uncovered by a long & fierce battle, are you up to it?

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID: NGM-069

[SNK MVS Neo-Geo Controls]
2 players - 4 buttons Per Player.
[Joystick] 8-way [A] Quick Punch [B] Quick Kick [C] Power Punch [D] Power Kick

- TRIVIA -

Garou Densetsu 3 was released in March 1995 in Japan.

The title of this game translates from Japanese as 'Legend of Hungry Wolf 3 - The Distant Battle'.

Garou Densetsu 3 overtly refers to itself by its overseas name of 'Fatal Fury 3' throughout the game.

This game is known outside Japan as 'Fatal Fury 3 - Road to the Final Victory'.

Things that changed in this particular game:
* The game introduces a deeper plane change system which proved to be somewhat clunky & difficult to use due to the tricky commands used to move between planes.
* Chain combos are introduced to add even more depth to each character's fighting style. 
* Throws are harder to use since these are slow and throw-miss animations were added.
* Newcomers in the game are Bob Wilson, Blue Mary, Franco Bash, Hon Fu, Sokaku Mochizuki, Ryuji Yamazaki, Jin Chonshu & Jin Chonrei.

Hon Fu's goofy martial artist routine & easygoing personality make him SNK's hilarious homage to Jackie Chan. Definitely not a Bruce Lee clone! :)

Kyo Kusanagi & Sie Kensou make a cameo in Pao Pao Cafe!

Pony Canyon released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Garou Densetsu 3 - PCCB-00179) on April 21, 1995.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

Reach and beat Jin Chonshu with a fighting grade above "A" and you'll fight a hidden last boss, her brother, Jin Chonrei.

One of the coolest things of this game is the fact that you can alter some backgrounds objects by slamming opponents against them. For example, you can knock away the training dummy in Joe's stage if you send an opponent flying towards it. Experiment on various stages to find more surprises!

Note : If the game is set on the USA, ASIA or EUROPE bios, the game will reset after defeating Jin Chonrei and you won't get to see the ending, however if the game is set on the JAPAN bios it will work just fine!

- SERIES -

1. Garou Densetsu - Shukumei no Tatakai [Model NGM-033] (1991, MVS)
2. Garou Densetsu 2 - Arata-Naru Tatakai [Model NGM-047] (1992, MVS)
3. Garou Densetsu Special [Model NGM-058] (1993, MVS)
4. Garou Densetsu 3 - Harukanaru Tatakai [Model NGM-069] (1995, MVS)
5. Real Bout Garou Densetsu [Model NGM-095] (1995, MVS)
6. Real Bout Garou Densetsu Special [Model NGM-223] (1997, MVS)
7. Real Bout Garou Densetsu 2 - The Newcomers [Model NGM-240] (1998, MVS)
8. Fatal Fury - Wild Ambition (1999, ARC)
9. Garou - Mark of the Wolves [Model NGM-253] (1999, MVS)
10. Fatal Fury First Contact [Model NEOP00111] (1999, NGPC)

- STAFF -

* Voice Actors :
Terry Bogard : Satoshi Hashimoto
Andy Bogard : Keiichi Nanba
Joe Higashi : Nobuyuki Hiyama
Mai Shiranui : Akoya Sogi
Geese Howard : Kong Kuwata
Sokaku Mochizuki, Ryuji Yamazaki : Koji Ishii
Bob Wilson, Hon-Fu : Toshiyuki Morikawa
Blue Mary : Harumi Ikoma
Franco Bash : B. J. Love
Jin Chonshu, Jin Chonrei : Kappei Yamaguchi

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo AES(Apr. 21, 1995; "Garou Densetsu 3 - Harukanaru Tatakai [Model NGH-069]")
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo CD (Apr. 28, 1995; "Garou Densetsu 3 - Harukanaru Tatakai [Model NGCD-069]")
[JP] Sega Saturn (june.28, 1996; "Garou Densetsu 3 - Harukanaru Tatakai [Model T-3102G]")
[JP] Sony PS2 (jul.20, 2006; "Garou Densetsu Battle Archives 1 [NeoGeo Online Collection Vol.5] [Model SLPS-25664]")
[US] Sony PS2 & [EU] (2006; "Fatal Fury Collection")
[JP] Sony PS2 (may.29, 2008; "Garou Densetsu Battle Archives 1 [NeoGeo Online Collection The Best] [Model SLPS-25863]")

* COMPUTERS:
PC [MS Windows 9x] [JP] (Sep. 19, 1996; Garou Densetsu 3 - Harukanaru Tatakai)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=fatfursp,fatfurspa

餓狼伝説スペシャル (c) 1993 SNK.
(Garou Densetsu Special)

Just as the name implies, this is a special edition of "Fatal Fury 2" filled with plenty of fun stuff. Features a few old familiar faces from the first game as newcomers; background with 2 battle planes; improved control and lots of secrets. Without a doubt, one of the better chapters in the series!

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID: NGM-058

[SNK MVS Neo-Geo Controls]
2 players - 4 buttons per player.
[JOYSTICK] 8-way [A] Quick punch [B] Quick kick [C] Strong punch [D] Strong kick

- TRIVIA -

Garou Densetsu Special was released in September 1993 in Japan.

The title of this game translates from Japanese as 'Legend of Hungry Wolf Special'.

This game is known outside Japan as 'Fatal Fury Special'.

Things that changed in this particular game :
* The combo system has been improved, hit damage has been lessened & the game speed has been increased.
* Newcomers in the game are Duck King, Tung Fu Rue, Geese Howard & Ryo Sakazaki.

Is Kim Kaphwan trying to replace Superman? You'll see for yourself when you spot him flying in Big Bear's & Terry Bogard's stages!

Pony Canyon released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Garou Densetsu Special - PCCB-00138) on 21/10/1993.

- UPDATES -

MVS (arcade) vs. Home (neo-geo) differences :
- Home : After the credits you will see all the characters grouped together and it will say to try a harder difficulty. If you beat it in the hardest difficulty it will say 'Perfect! It's a knockout, Superman!'.
- Home : If playing on the hardest difficulty and you fought Ryo Sakazaki, you will see all the characters moving around him in a circle while he, for some reason, is crying.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Fight against Ryo Sakazaki : Beat the game without losing a single round (you can lose continues, but not rounds). You'll face against "Art of Fighting"'s main character Ryo Sakazaki as a powerful extra end boss!

* Beat the game without using a single continue and after the credits you will see every character performing a special move, their portraits and giving a quote.

- SERIES -

1. Garou Densetsu - Shukumei no Tatakai [Model NGM-033] (1991, MVS)
2. Garou Densetsu 2 - Arata-Naru Tatakai [Model NGM-047] (1992, MVS)
3. Garou Densetsu Special [Model NGM-058] (1993, MVS)
4. Garou Densetsu 3 - Harukanaru Tatakai [Model NGM-069] (1995, MVS)
5. Real Bout Garou Densetsu [Model NGM-095] (1995, MVS)
6. Real Bout Garou Densetsu Special [Model NGM-223] (1997, MVS)
7. Real Bout Garou Densetsu 2 - The Newcomers [Model NGM-240] (1998, MVS)
8. Fatal Fury - Wild Ambition (1999, ARC)
9. Garou - Mark of the Wolves [Model NGM-253] (1999, MVS)
10. Fatal Fury First Contact [Model NEOP00111] (1999, NGPC)

- STAFF -

Producer : Eikichi Kawasaki
Main Planner : Tsukamichi-2
Planners : Chinta, Deru-Deru
Main Object designer : Tsuzakingyo
Object designers : Higashi Pon (as Higashipon Mega), Tony J Oki, Lionhert 31, Heitarou
Demo sketch : Tsuka
Main Scroll & Demo : Somatoreeno
Scroll & Demo : Moriyan No. 16th
Main programmer : Yamatan (as Yamatan GT-X)
Programmers : Narutaki, EP82Boy., Speaker.R
Sound creators : Toshio Shimizm (as Shimizm), Yamapy-1, Jojoha Kitapy

* Voice Actors :
Terry Bogard : Satoshi Hashimoto
Andy Bogard : Jun Hashimoto
Joe Higashi : Katsuhisa Namase
Mai Shiranui : Akoya Sogi
Big Bear : Dango Takeda
Cheng Sinzan : Jun Hashimoto
Laurence Blood : Katsuhisa Namase
Axel Hawk : Michael Beard
Billy Kane : Katsuhisa Namase
Wolfgang Krauser : Michael Beard

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo AES (Dec. 22, 1993; "Garou Densetsu Special [Model NGH-058]")
[US] SNK Neo-Geo AES (Dec. 22, 1993; "Fatal Fury Special [Model NGH-058]")
[JP] Nintendo Super Famicom (jul.29, 1994; "Garou Densetsu Special [Model SHVC-3R]")
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo CD  (Sep. 09, 1994; "Garou Densetsu Special [Model NGCD-058]")
[US] SNK Neo-Geo CD  (Sep. 09, 1994; "Fatal Fury Special [Model NGCD-058E]")
[JP] Sega Game Gear (Nov. 25, 1994; "Garou Densetsu Special [Model T-103017]")
Sega Game Gear [US] & [EU] (1994; Fatal Fury Special)
NEC PC-Engine Super CD [JP] (Dec. 02, 1994; "Garou Densetsu Special [Model HCD4067]")
[JP] Sega Mega CD (Mar. 31, 1995; "Garou Densetsu Special [Model T-60214]")
[US] Sega CD (1995; "Fatal Fury Special [Model T-60165]")
Super NES [US] (Apr. ??, 1995, "Fatal Fury Special [Model SNS-3R]")
Super NES [EU] (1995, "Fatal Fury Special [Model SNS-P-3R]")
[JP] Sony PS2 (jul.20, 2006, "Garou Densetsu Battle Archives 1 [NeoGeo Online Collection Vol.5] [Model SLPS-25664]")
[US] Sony PS2 & [EU] ("Fatal Fury Collection")
Microsoft XBOX 360 [Xbox Live Arcade] [JP] (Sep. 05, 2007, Garou Densetsu Special)
Microsoft XBOX 360 [Xbox Live Arcade] [US] & [EU] (Sep. 05, 2007, Fatal Fury Special)
[JP] Sony PS2 (may.29, 2008, "Garou Densetsu Battle Archives 1 [NeoGeo Online Collection The Best] [Model SLPS-25863]")
Nintendo Wii [Virtual Console] [JP] (Nov. 04, 2009; Garou Densetsu Special)
Nintendo Wii [Virtual Console] [US] (Mar. 01, 2010; Fatal Fury Special)
Nintendo Wii [Virtual Console] [EU] (Mar. 26, 2010; Fatal Fury Special)

* COMPUTERS:
[JP] Sharp X68000 (jul.28, 1994; "Garou Densetsu Special [Model MGX-5004]")
FM Towns [JP] (Sep. 13, 1996)
PC (1997)

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$info=gauntlet,gauntletr1,gauntletr2,gauntletr4,gauntletr5,gauntletr7,gauntletr9,gauntlets,gauntletg,gauntletgr3,gauntletgr6,gauntletgr8,gauntlet2p,gauntlet2pr3,gauntlet2pg,gauntlet2pg1
Arcade Video game published 38 years ago:

Gauntlet (c) 1985 Atari Games.

Gauntlet is a maze-based shoot-em-up for up to four players. Heavily influenced by classic fantasy conventions, players take on the role of either Thor the Warrior, Thyra the Valkyrie, Merlin the Wizard, or Questor the Elf and must play cooperatively as they explore and fight their way through the enemy-packed mazes. Competitive play is encouraged as players must fight for the limited amount of food, treasure, magic potions and power-up items that litter the dungeons. 

Each of Gauntlet's four characters have different strengths and weaknesses: Thyra has the strongest armour, Thor is best at hand-to-hand combat, Questor has the fastest speed and Merlin has the most powerful magic attacks. The object of the game is simply to survive as long as possible while exploring Gauntlet's mazes in search of treasure, food, magic potions and, ultimately, the exit that leads to the next dungeon. 

The potions - shown as blue bottles - that litter the levels offer either improved character abilities (such as 'speed' or 'extra shot power') or can be used as a 'smart bomb', destroying some or all of the on-screen monsters. Potions are also the only way to kill the game's 'Death' character that appears in many of the stages. Magic potions can be kept and used at the player's discretion by pressing 'Magic' button, although each potion can only be used once. 

The first seven mazes are always the same, but from level 8 onwards, players will find themselves on any one of over a hundred different mazes. If players survive for long enough, the mazes will be repeated in a different order. How long a player lasts depends upon the player's 'health' level. Health continually depletes as time progresses and further health is lost by contact with various monsters or their projectiles. Health can be replenished by consuming the food found in the mazes or by inserting more credits. The many treasure chests that litter the levels can be plundered for points, and collecting treasure increases a player's score multiplier when two or more players are playing the game.

- TECHNICAL -

Game ID : 136037

Main CPU : Motorola 68010 (@ 7.15909 Mhz), MOS Technology 6502 (@ 1.789772 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Yamaha YM2151 (@ 3.579545 Mhz), POKEY (Pot Keyboard Integrated Circuit) (@ 1.789772 Mhz), Texas Instruments TMS5220 (@ 650.826 Khz)

Control per player (4): 8-way joystick
Buttons per player (4): 2

- TRIVIA -

Gauntlet was released in October 1985.

Gauntlet was originally going to be called 'Dungeons' and was inspired not only by TSR's tabletop RPG, 'Dungeons & Dragons', but also by another Atari game called 'Dandy'. Dandy's creator, Jack Palevich, tried fruitlessly to get his name added to the list of credits in Gauntlet. In lieu of public recognition, Atari Games Corp gave Pelvich a Gauntlet cabinet, and he in turn agreed not to sue Atari.

Two character names were changed before release. The Valkyrie was originally named 'Amazon' and the Warrior was 'Hulk'" The first character art was produced on January 1, 1984.

Gauntlet's revolutionary, non-linear game-play gave players multiple choices, as they were no longer forced into taking a linear route through the game. Like 'Dungeons & Dragons', Gauntlet players could choose their own path, searching for keys, treasures, food and transporters to take them to other levels. Unlike most other games at the time, the player didn't always have to fight; a simpler route through the dungeon could sometimes be found, or players could simply try to make a run for it.

In the early '80s, arcades were struggling. Manufacturers created more elaborate games that operators could charge more money for ($.50!), but players were resistant to the increase. The question at Atari was: How do we get extra earnings? The idea with Gauntlet was that with four players you earn four times as much with every play. It was a drop-in/drop-out design so if someone died they could immediately rejoin or someone new could step in -- there was no down time, so the quarters just kept coming. Another choice made specifically to increase the coin drop: there was no end to the game. Gauntlet would recycle levels by flipping them horizontally and vertically once the players had run through all of them. Gauntlet was a big success in 1985. But the marketing team at Atari was actually worried about the four-player cabinet. They weren't sure four strangers would want to play a game together and they also had concerns about the four separate coin shoots (which were known to break easily). Confident in his game, Ed Logg convinced the marketing team to just go with it.

Another Gauntlet milestone was in the game's use of sound effects. Synthesized human voices had been used sporadically in games in the early eighties and while it had proved, on most occasions, to be moderately successful, was still considered something of a novelty. Gauntlet, however, revolutionized the concept of in-game speech and added immeasurably to the game's superb atmosphere. The deep timbre of Gauntlet's very own 'Dungeon Master' would guide players through the levels, informing them that 'Elf needs food, badly', or that 'Wizard is about to die' and the always-good advice that is 'Remember, don't shoot food.'

Note: The game contains exactly 212 sounds (including digitized voices, effects and musics).

It was common practice to test a new arcade game at select locations before wide release. The operator was given the cabinet for free, but in exchange they couldn't promote it (as a precaution against competition) and they would share the coin drop numbers of it and all the other machines at the location so that Atari could evaluate the new game's success against current games. But when Ed Logg came by to check on Gauntlet during its field test, he found developers from SEGA snapping photos of the cabinet. Atari pulled it from that location and didn't work with the operator henceforth. A year after Gauntlet's release in 1985, SEGA released a four-player arcade game called "Quartet" (although it was side-scrolling). 

7,848 units were sold in the U.S. A few thousand more were sold in Japan and Europe. Even though Atari considered Gauntlet a success, earlier games like "Space Invaders" and "Ms. Pac-Man" sold hundreds of thousands of cabinets. One of Gauntlet's contemporaries from Atari, the excellent Temple of Doom game, sold just 2,800 copies. 

Note : There were 20 officially released versions (see Updates section for detailed info), including 6 '2-player' versions and various Spanish, German and Japanese versions. Counting 4-player English variants alone, there were 7 releases with various bug-fixes.

The default high score screen of "Cyberball 2072" features names of many Atari arcade games, including GAUNTLET.

Charles Nagle holds the official record for this game with 4,401,169 points on March 28, 2003.

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (That's Atari Music Vol.II : G.S.M. Atari Games 2 - PCCB-00070) on September 21, 1991.

- UPDATES -

Revision 1 (4-players)
* First world release.

Revision 2 (4-players)
* Added an option called 'Disable Speech?' in the operator menu.
* Fixed some texts in attract mode.

Revision 3 (4-players)
* German release only.

Revision 4 (4-players)
* World release.

Revision 5 (4-players)
* World release.

Revision 6 (4-players)
* German release only.
* Added 'All walls turn into exits' trick (see 'Tips And Tricks' section).
* Added ability to stop the attract mode with the fire button.

Revision 7 (4-players)
* World release.

Revision 8 (4-players)
* German release only.
* Added an option called 'Reduce Text?' in the operator menu.

Revision 9 (4-players)
* World release.

Revision 10 (4-players)
* German release only.

Revision 12 (4-players)
* Japanese release only.

Revision 13 (4-players)
* Japanese release only.

Revision 14 (4-players)
* World release.
* Sequence of boards may be different : After Level 8, either every other level may be skipped (Level 9 = Level 10, Level 10 = Level 12, etc.), or every two levels may be skipped (Level 9 = Level 11, Level 10 = Level 14, etc.), or boards may be played in their normal order. (It may depend on the route taken to Level 8.)

Revision 15 (4-players)
* Spanish release only.

Revision 1 (2-players)
* German release only.
* Based on the latest 4-players revision.

Revision 2 (2-players)
* Japanese release only.

Revision 3 (2-players)
* World release.

Revision 4 (2-players)
* German release only.

Revision 5 (2-players)
* Japanese release only.

Revision 6 (2-players)
* World release.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Hints for Game Play : The following hints will help you use your health more effectively and score more points per coin :
1) Play cooperatively.
2) Allow the player with the best ability to use magic (usually Merlin the Wizard, unless one of the other players has acquired the magic potion for extra magic) to pick up the magic potions.
3) Save keys and potions and use them conservatively.
4) Pay attention to your marching order. Allow the players with the best fighting ability and armor (usually Thyra the Valkyrie and Thor the Warrior) to lead the way and fend off attacks.
5) Avoid contact with the ghosts : they take away your health very quickly and you cannot fight them hand-to-hand.

* If you remain motionless (or basically aimless) and stall off about 30 health, all of the doors will open. Everybody knows this, and the game even tells you about it. The game doesn't tell you that if you stall off about 200 health, all the walls will turn into exits! (work on Revision 6 and +) The game designers had to include this because there are some levels which require you to pick up a key before you exit. If you are already filled up with keys, and the doors are all gone, then it would be IMPOSSIBLE for you to exit, and you would starve to death. What they didn't anticipate, is that certain levels of the game which are really difficult, which would require you to take massive health losses to finish, become very simple if all the walls are exits. Or they can be effectively skipped altogether. Because the game has Monty-Hall levels with lots of food on them, you can use this cheat to only play levels which are a wash or increase your health dramatically, and cut your losses to 200 on all the really hard levels.

* The best character to play, in the LONG run, is Questor. His magic is just as good as Merlin's and his fight ability as good as Thor's. His ability to shoot through cracks in addition to all this (when he has the power potions) makes him the best. Thyra is the worst, although some people regard this as a challenge...

* To manipulate the point value of Death, shoot him. Death's point value takes the following progression : 1000-2000-1000-4000-1000-6000-1000-8000, and then back to start. His value keeps from the previous game.

* You can kill Death painlessly by teleporting on top of him.

* If a previous game ended beyond Level 8, Level 8 in the next game becomes the level that the previous game ended on. If you got a really good sequence of boards in a game and you want to repeat them, turn the machine off and on again after you've entered your high score.

- SERIES -

1. Gauntlet (1985, Arcade)
2. Gauntlet II (1986, Arcade) 
3. Gauntlet - The Deeper Dungeons (1987, Level pack for 8-bit computers) 
4. Gauntlet [Model NES-GL-USA] (1988, NES)
5. Gauntlet - The Third Encounter [Model PA2024] (1990, Lynx) 
6. Gauntlet III - The Final Quest (1991, Atari ST) 
7. Gauntlet 4 (1993, Mega Drive) 
8. Gauntlet Legends (1998, Arcade) 
9. Gauntlet Dark Legacy (2000, Arcade) 
10. Gauntlet Seven Sorrows (2006, PS2/XBOX)

- STAFF -

Designer / Programmer : Ed Logg (ED )
Game programmer : Bob Flanagan (BF )
Video graphics : Video graphics : Sam Comstock (SWC), Susan G. McBride (SGM), Alan Murphy, Will Noble, Dave Pettigrew (D F)
Engineer : Pat McCarthy (PMC)
Technician : Sae Oh (SMO), Cris Drobny (CAD)
Sound designers : Hal Canon (HAL), Earl Vickers (EAR)
Cabinet designer : Ken Hata (KEN)

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES: 
[EU] Sega Master System (1990) "Gauntlet [Model 25006]"
[US] Sony PlayStation (dec.31, 1997) "Arcade's Greatest Hits - The Atari Collection 2 [Model SLUS-00449]" 
[EU] Sony PlayStation (june.1998) "Arcade's Greatest Hits - The Atari Collection 2 [Model SLES-00712]" 
[US] Sega Dreamcast (nov.15, 2001) "Midway's Greatest Arcade Hits Vol. 2 [Model T-9714N]" 
[US] Sony PS2 (nov.18, 2003) "Midway Arcade Treasures [Model SLUS-20801]" 
[US] Microsoft XBOX (nov.24, 2003) "Midway Arcade Treasures" 
Nintendo GameCube [US] (dec.18, 2003) "Midway Arcade Treasures [Model DOL-GAKE-USA]" 
[EU] Microsoft XBOX (feb.6, 2004) "Midway Arcade Treasures" 
[EU] Sony PS2 (feb.6, 2004) "Midway Arcade Treasures [Model SLES-51927]" 
Microsoft XBOX 360 [XBLA] [US] (nov.22, 2005) [Retired in 2010]
Microsoft XBOX 360 [XBLA] [EU] (dec.2, 2005) [Retired in 2010]

Microsoft XBOX 360 [US] (nov.6, 2012) "Midway Arcade Origins" 
Sony PlayStation 3 [US] (nov.6, 2012) "Midway Arcade Origins [Model BLUS-31083]"
[EU] Microsoft XBOX 360 (nov.15, 2012) "Midway Arcade Origins" 
Sony PlayStation 3 [EU] (nov.15, 2012) "Midway Arcade Origins [Model BLES-01768]"

* HANDHELDS: 
[EU] Nintendo GBA (sept.16, 2005) "2 Games in One! Gauntlet + Rampart [Model AGB-B69P-EUR]" 
[US] Nintendo GBA (nov.3, 2005) "2 Games in One! Gauntlet + Rampart [Model AGB-B69E-USA]" 
[US] Sony PSP (dec.13, 2005) "Midway Arcade Treasures Extended Play [Model ULUS-10059]"
[EU] Sony PSP (feb.24, 2006) "Midway Arcade Treasures Extended Play [Model ULES-00180]" 
[US] [EU] [AU] Nintendo DS (Unreleased)

* COMPUTERS: 
BBC Micro [EU] (1984) 
Atari XL/XE [Cassette] [EU] (1985) 
Atari XL/XE [Disk] [US] (1985) 
Commodore C64 [Disc] [US] (1986) 
Commodore C64 [Tape] [EU] (1986) 
Tandy Color Computer [US] (1986) "Gantelet" 
[JP] MSX (1986) 
Atari ST [US] [EU] (1985) 
[EU] Amstrad CPC (1987) 
Apple IIGS [US] (1987) 
Amstrad CPC [Tape] [EU] (1987) "Les Tresors d'U.S.GOLD" 
Amstrad CPC [Disc] [EU] (1987) "Les Tresors d'U.S.GOLD" 
Commodore C64 [Tape] [EU] (1987) "Les Tresors d'U.S.GOLD" 
Commodore C64 [Disc] [EU] (1987) "Les Tresors d'U.S.GOLD" 
Sinclair ZX Spectrum [Tape] [EU] (1987) "Les Tresors d'U.S.GOLD" 
Sinclair ZX Spectrum +3 [Disc] [EU] (1987) "Les Tresors d'U.S.GOLD" 
Amstrad CPC [Tape] [EU] (1988) "Arcade Force Four" 
Amstrad CPC [Disc] [EU] (1988), "Arcade Force Four" 
Commodore C64 [Tape] [EU] (1988) "Arcade Force Four" 
Commodore C64 [Disc] [EU] (1988) "Arcade Force Four" 
Sinclair ZX Spectrum [Tape] [EU] (1988) "Arcade Force Four" 
[EU] Atari ST (1988) "Arcade Force Four" 
[EU] Amstrad CPC (198?) "El Lingote" 
[EU] Amstrad CPC (198?) "Gauntlet And Gauntlet II [Limited Edition]" 
[EU] Amstrad CPC (1988) "History In The Making" 
[EU] Sinclair ZX Spectrum (1988) "History In The Making" 
[EU] Commodore C64 (1988) "History In The Making" 
[EU] Amstrad CPC (1988) "Les Geants De L'Arcade" 
PC [MS-DOS] [US] (1988)
[EU] Amstrad CPC (1990) "Micro Club No.02" 
[US] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (jan.1, 1999) "Arcade's Greatest Hits - The Atari Collection 2"
[US] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (aug.27, 2004) "Midway Arcade Treasures" 
[EU] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (nov.23, 2004) "Midway Arcade Treasures" 

* OTHERS:
LCD handheld game [US] (1988) by Tiger Electronics : contains 9 stages in your quest to find the long-lost Sacred Orb. There are 5 different worlds for your search through and battle evil demons : The Castle, The Dark Forest, The Lost Caverns, The Unseen, and Volcana.
Mobile Phones [US] (sept.8, 2004)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$info=gaunt2,gaunt22pg,gaunt22p1,gaunt22p,gaunt2g
Arcade Video game published 37 years ago:

Gauntlet II (c) 1986 Atari Games.

Gauntlet II is a direct sequel to the legendary maze-based fantasy themed shoot-em-up, released a year earlier. Atari chose not to tinker with the core game-play mechanic to any great degree, opting instead to enhance the already excellent multi-player action that had created such a stir upon the original game's release.

As with its prequel, up to four players once again take on the role of either 'Thor the Warrior', 'Thyra the Valkyrie', 'Merlin the Wizard', or 'Questor the Elf' and must play cooperatively as they explore and fight their way through the enemy-packed mazes, collecting potions, food and treasure as they searched for the exit that would lead them to the next dungeon.

Changes to the sequel included the ability for players to play whatever character they wanted, even if that character was already in play. Characters were now colour-coded and players would find themselves taking on the role of 'Blue Elf', 'Green Wizard', etc. New in-game speech was added to allow for the new player definitions.

Other changes included the ability to 'bounce' shots off walls - known as 'Reflective Shots' - providing the correct potion was picked up. As well as new potions, Gauntlet II also featured several new monsters. The most notorious of the new additions was the Fire-breathing Dragon that guards the exit to some dungeons. This powerful creature takes multiple hits to kill and defeating it would see the players rewarded with a permanent potion and a bag of treasure.

Another notable addition was the 'It' monster: any player who was tagged by the creature would suddenly find that all of that level's monsters would ONLY chase the tagged player, completely ignoring the presence of all other players. The only way to remove this curse was to tag another player, thus making them 'it'.

New level elements were also added to further increase variety. These included dungeons with entirely invisible walls, magical walls (which changed into monsters or items when hit), stun tiles (which stunned any player that walked on them) and exits that flashed between functioning and non-functioning.

- TECHNICAL -

Game ID : 136043

Main CPU : Motorola 68010 (@ 7.15909 Mhz), MOS Technology 6502 (@ 1.789772 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Yamaha YM2151 (@ 3.579545 Mhz), POKEY (Pot Keyboard Integrated Circuit) (@ 1.789772 Mhz), Texas Instruments TMS5220 (@ 650.826 Khz)

Players : 4
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2

- TRIVIA -

The original "Gauntlet" was released in October 1985, with the Gauntlet II conversion kits coming out nearly a year later, in August 1986. A lot of the original "Gauntlet" machines of the time were switched over to Gauntlet II cabinets. They tended to stay as Gauntlet II for some time, due to the relative scarcity of kits that would convert a "Gauntlet" cabinet to that of its sequel. The proper kits were uncommon until the late eighties, by which time four-player games were taking off in a big way.

Only 209 dedicated units were produced. The selling price was $2,295.
3,250 '4-Player kits' were produced. Selling price: $595
Only 61 '2-Player kits' were produced. Selling price: $395

Competition : Atari held a promotional competition to coincide with "Gauntlet II's" initial launch. If players followed the instructions the game gives before entering a secret room (the machine provides clues on how to enter the secret rooms whenever a hidden wall is shot away on any level), the player is greeted with a screen explaining that they had been awarded extra points and inviting the player to enter his or her name.
A six-digit code would then be given which the player could put onto a competition entry form. The first 500 entries drawn won Gauntlet II T-shirts, plus a chance of winning a $5000 savings bond. Machines can also be set (via dip switches) to suppress this screen, in which case players would get a screen saying '5000 points x coins = xxx' after doing the secret room. The contest ended in 1986.

Note : the game contains exactly 205 sounds! (including digitized voices, effects and musics), less than the first Gauntlet.

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (That's Atari Music Vol.II : G.S.M. Atari Games 2 - PCCB-00070) on September 21, 1991.

- SCORING -

Key : 100 points.
Treasure : 100 - 500 points.
Each type of monster has a set score value.
Each generator is worth twice as many points as its associated monster.
Death : up to 6,000 points.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Secret Rooms : to get to a secret room, perform a secret trick on a level. Some of the secret tricks are :
1) Teleporting into the exit.
2) Pushing a movable wall into the exit
3) Keeping all the super shots
4) Not using invulnerability (this is almost always a good idea anyway)
5) Not touching a fake exit
6) Teleporting on top of Death and/or acid blobs
7) Not taking ANYTHING (the tick trick comes in handy here)

* The hints it gives to the secret room don't necessarily apply to your current level, just as on "Gauntlet". The secret trick usually doesn't work, but it is always same for any given board. You're allowed one secret trick for every 15 levels or so.

* You can kill the acid blobs! Just drop 2 potions in quick succession. This works regardless of your magic ability. It also puts the dragon back to sleep momentarily (You can also kill them with a teleporter...if there's a teleporter handy, that is).

* The '?' foods are NOT random. Grab a '?' food on health mod 20 = 7 (i.e. 27, 47, 67, etc). You'll get 200 health.

* Couple of strategy notes :
1) Reflective shots make the dragon easier
2) Invulnerability makes him very easy
3) Remember that when generators aren't on the screen, they don't generate monsters.
4) If you are playing two+ player you can kill almost all dragons with one player diverting his attention, or using an indirect attack. For example : you can find shootable walls or just stand in the right spot askew from the dragon. He will try to flame instead of fire-ball. If done correctly, you will be standing a wall away from him. Then your partner can go around and shoot flame head while the dragon is flaming away.

* If a previous game ended beyond Level 6, Level 6 in the next game becomes the level that the previous game ended on. If you got a really good sequence of boards in a game and you want to repeat them, turn the machine off and on again after you've entered your high score.

- SERIES -

1. Gauntlet (1985, Arcade)
2. Gauntlet II (1986, Arcade) 
3. Gauntlet - The Deeper Dungeons (1987, Level pack for 8-bit computers) 
4. Gauntlet [Model NES-GL-USA] (1988, NES)
5. Gauntlet - The Third Encounter [Model PA2024] (1990, Lynx) 
6. Gauntlet III - The Final Quest (1991, Atari ST) 
7. Gauntlet 4 (1993, Mega Drive) 
8. Gauntlet Legends (1998, Arcade) 
9. Gauntlet Dark Legacy (2000, Arcade) 
10. Gauntlet Seven Sorrows (2006, PS2/XBOX)

- STAFF -

Designer / Programmer : Ed Logg
Game programmer : Bob Flanagan
Video graphics : Sam Comstock, Susan G. McBride, Alan Murphy, Will Noble
Engineer : Pat McCarthy
Technician : Cris Drobny
Sound designers : Hal Canon, Brad Fuller, Earl Vickers
Cabinet designers : Ken Hata

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[US] Nintendo NES (sept.1990) "Gauntlet II [Model NES-2U-USA]" 
[EU] Nintendo NES (apr.25, 1991) "Gauntlet II [Model NES-2U]" 
Sony PlayStation 2 [AU] (2004) "Midway Arcade Treasures 2" 
[US] Microsoft XBOX (oct.11, 2004) "Midway Arcade Treasures 2 [Model MWO-3201W]" 
Nintendo GameCube [US] (oct.11, 2004) "Midway Arcade Treasures 2 [Model DOL-GAYE-USA]" 
[US] Sony PS2 (oct.11, 2004) "Midway Arcade Treasures 2 [Model SLUS-20997]" 
[EU] Microsoft XBOX (oct.29, 2004) "Midway Arcade Treasures 2" 
[EU] Sony PS2 (oct.29, 2004) "Midway Arcade Treasures 2 [Model SLES-52844]"
Sony PlayStation 3 [PSN] [US] (may.3, 2007) 
Sony PlayStation 3 [PSN] [EU] (june.29, 2007)
Microsoft XBOX 360 [US] (nov.6, 2012) "Midway Arcade Origins" 
Sony PlayStation 3 [US] (nov.6, 2012) "Midway Arcade Origins [Model BLUS-31083]"
[EU] Microsoft XBOX 360 (nov.15, 2012) "Midway Arcade Origins" 
Sony PlayStation 3 [EU] (nov.15, 2012) "Midway Arcade Origins [Model BLES-01768]"

* HANDHELDS: 
[EU] Nintendo Game Boy (1991) "Gauntlet II [Model DMG-G2-NOE]" 
[US] Nintendo Game Boy (sept.1991) "Gauntlet II [Model DMG-G2-USA]" 

* COMPUTERS:
Tandy Color Computer [US] (1986) "Gantelet II" 
[EU] Amstrad CPC (1987)
[US] Commodore C64 [EU] (1987)
PC [MS-DOS] [US] (1987)
[EU] Sinclair ZX Spectrum (1988)
Atari ST [US] (1989)
Commodore Amiga [US] (1989)
[US] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (feb.17, 2006) "Midway Arcade Treasures Deluxe Edition"
[EU] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (mar.17, 2006) "Midway Arcade Treasures Deluxe Edition" by Zoo Digital Publishing

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=gekiridn,gekiridnjgekirido
Taito F3 cart. published 28 years ago:

逆鱗弾 (c) 1995 Taito Corp.
(Gekirindan)

Blast your way through different time periods in this vertical scrolling shoot'em up.

In 3195 AD, scientists have developed a time-leap engine - but a mysterious entity known only as the Huge Boss has stolen it and used it to travel back in time and destroy 3000 years of mankind's history.

Two people rise up to defeat him: Hokuto, whose parents were murdered by the Huge Boss; and Shario, to fulfill a last promise to her dead sister. Together they pilot their aircraft and chase the Huge Boss.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "Taito F3 System" Hardware.

Prom Stickers : E11

Players : 4
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 4

- TRIVIA -

Gekirindan was released in September 1995.

The title of this game translates from Japanese as 'Reverse Scale Bullet' and is an example of 'ateji' - fitting the kanji phonetics to the name of the game to give the name double (sometimes even triple) meaning.

The game was originally named 'Fire Breaker' at early stage of development.

Lee Ota (from the Truxton series) produced this game. It's why the first and last stage, as well as the bomb/power-up system, are similar to "Truxton". The gameplay, however, is really different from Toaplan's games, so responses from Toaplan fans were not very favourable.

The name of the twin characters, Orsa and Mayoru, is a play-on-words of the third largest constellation of our solar system, Ursa Major, which means Great Bear.

All stages in this game share the same theme but remixed each time!

The game forbids the initials 'SEX' on the high score table. If you try, it gets changed to 'AAA'.

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Welcome to the Karu Land - PCCB-00196) on November 17, 1995.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Instructions:
Choose from one of three aircraft: the biplane, the helicopter and the space fighter. 
Press the Fire button for a normal attack. 
Press the Bomb button for a special attack (limited number). 
Destroy the yellow cargo ships to collect special items.

* Items list:
(H): Homing Laser
(M): Missile
(N): Napalm 
(B): Bomb
(C): Change shot type 
(P): Upgrade shot power 
(Eagle): Bonus points 
(Bonus): Bonus points 
(1UP): Extra life awarded

- STAFF -

Producer : Lee Ota
Programmers : Mr. Lee, Toten, Takahito Naoi, Riki
System engineers : Masaki Yagi (Ymot), Nob
Character designers : Yasunobu Kousokabe, Saori Hiratsuka, Ryota Sasaki, Sakotan, Miyabi Tashiro, Debi., Kao
Designer : Hidetomo Ogino
CG designer : K. Kinoshita
Sound (Zuntata) : Kazuko Umino (Karu), Koji Sakurai
Special Thanks : Takao Yoshiba, Tokimemori, Zabog Osaka, Eiji Kawabata

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] Sega Saturn (apr.18, 1997) "Gekirindan - Time Travel Shooting [Model T-7008G]" 
[JP] Sony PS2 (aug.25, 2005) "Taito Memories Gekan [Model SLPM-66092]" 
Sony PlayStation 2 [AU] (mar.30, 2006) "Taito Legends 2 [Model SLES-53852]" 
[EU] Microsoft XBOX (mar.31, 2006) "Taito Legends 2" 
[EU] Sony PS2 (mar.31, 2006) "Taito Legends 2 [Model SLES-53852]" 
[US] Sony PS2 (may.16, 2007) "Taito Legends 2 [Model SLUS-21349]" 

* COMPUTERS: 
[EU] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (mar.31, 2006) "Taito Legends 2" 
[US] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (jul.10, 2007) "Taito Legends 2"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=gemini,geminib,geminij
Arcade Video game published 36 years ago:

Gemini Wing (c) 1987 Tecmo.

A vertically scrolling shooter. Destroy enemies and collect items, such as speed, that are stored in a tail behind your ship. Press the second button to activate them one by one in the order they were collected.

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 6 Mhz)
Sound CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 4 Mhz)
Sound Chips : YM3812 (@ 4 Mhz), OKI MSM5205 (@ 384 Khz)

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2

- TRIVIA -

Released in October 1987 in Japan.

- STAFF -

Screenplay : S. Sakurazaki
Background designer : K. Niwakamaru
Logo & Base designer : Noise Holic
Monster designers : Willy Ichiro, Strong Shima, Soccer Kozou
Music / Sound Effects : Mikio Saito (Metal Yuhki)
Test play : Sugar Beet, Faw
Programmed by : Clark Gent
Directed by : S. Sakurazaki

- PORTS -

* COMPUTERS:
Sinclair ZX Spectrum (1989)
Commodore C64 (1989)
Amstrad CPC (1989)
Commodore Amiga (1989)
Atari ST (1989)
Sharp X68000 (1990)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=genix
Arcade Video game published 29 years ago:

Genix Family (c) 1994 NIX.

A rip-off of Mitchell's "Pang" set in the Far-West.

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 16 Mhz)
Sound Chips : OKI6295 (@ 8.08 Khz)

Screen orientation : Horizontal
Video resolution : 288 x 224 pixels
Screen refresh : 60.00 Hz
Palette Colors : 8192

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 3

- TRIVIA -

Released in May 1994.

- STAFF -

Software : Argi Salvador, Carlos Barahona
Hardware : Fernando Yago, Manuel Baena, Arthy
Graphics : Jordi Zudaire, Yolanda Plaza, Lourdes Marcs, M. Jose Galvez
Art designer : Tomas Bases
Sound by : Xavier Tobella

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=gpilotsh

Ghost Pilots (c) 1991 SNK [Shin Nihon Kikaku].

For more information about the game itself, please see the original MVS version entry: "Ghost Pilots [Model NGM-020]".

- TECHNICAL -

[Model NGH-020]
55 Mega

- TRIVIA -

This AES version was released on July 1, 1991 in Japan and in the United States of America (6 months after the original MVS release).

Reviews:
September 1991 - Consoles + N.1 [FR]: 88/100

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=gpilots,gpilotsp

Ghost Pilots (c) 1991 SNK.

Ghost Pilots is a vertically-scrolling shoot-em-up for one or two players set in World War II. An ambitious Nazi general has sent his forces against the Allies andwo freelance ace pilots  called Tom Phillips and Charlie Stingley, nicknamed 'Ghost Pilots', set off in their seaplanes to combat the Axis forces head on.

Before starting a stage, the player must choose one of two bomb types. In one of the two stages after the first, the player also has the option to choose a third unique bomb type (napalm bomb in the land strike stage and air mines in the air strike stage). At the start of the game a player starts with three bombs and can collect up to a maximum of nine bombs. In a two-player game, both players cannot choose the same bomb type.

Enemies consist of tanks, gunboats, jets and a number of other military units. Shooting a row of red planes grants collectible power-ups giving either stronger and more widespread firepower, or additional bombs and extra lives. Certain medium-sized enemies destroyed grant collectible bonus stars for additional score. The player loses a life if the seaplane is hit by enemy projectiles orcollides with enemy craft.

An end-of-level boss fight awaits players at the end of every stage.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID: NGM-020

[SNK MVS Neo-Geo Controls]
2 players - 4 buttons per player (2 usables).
=> [Joystick] 8-way, [A] Shoot, [B] Bomb

- TRIVIA -

Released on January 25, 1991.

- SERIES -

1. Sky Adventure (1989)
2. Ghost Pilots [Model NGM-020] (1991)

- STAFF -

Producer : Eikichi Kawasaki
Executive Directors : Takashi Nishiyama, Tama
Planner : Y.O
Sub Planner : Ishimotti
Programmers : Mr. SNK26, 001
Sound : Masahiko Hataya (Papaya)
Designers : Mioshi, Mr. Poo, 1610, R. Miyazaki, SK, N. Mori, T. Yumoto, Meshitaki, Capsule Kodama, 20 Gall Maeda, Child Higashi, 2DK Yamaguchi
Special Thanks : Helper 1, Canpai Shimizu

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo AES (jul.1, 1991; "Ghost Pilots [Model NGH-020]")
[US] SNK Neo-Geo AES (jul.1, 1991; "Ghost Pilots [Model NGH-020]")
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo CD (mar.17, 1995; "Ghost Pilots [Model NGCD-020]")
[US] SNK Neo-Geo CD (mar.17, 1995; "Ghost Pilots [Model NGCD-020E]")

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=ghouls,ghoulsu
Arcade Video game published 35 years ago:

Ghouls'n Ghosts (c) 1988 Capcom.

Export release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese release entry; "Daimakaimura [B-Board 88622B-2]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System" hardware
B-Board ID 88620B-2
B-Board PALs: DM620
CPS-B #: CPS-B-01 DL-0411-10001

There is no C-Board on these Export versions, contrary to the original Japanese release.

- TRIVIA -

Ghouls'n Ghosts was released in December 1988 in arcades outside of Japan. It is known in Japan as "Daimakaimura".

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

Debug features (US VERSION ONLY, it doesn't work on the original Japanese version) : 
How to activate the debug features.
1) Set "Game Mode" Dip Switch to "Game".
2) Set both "Coin A" and "Coin B" Dip Switches to 1C_1C.
3) Reset the game.
4) Insert a coin.
5) Set "Game Mode" Dip Switch to "Test".
6) Set the debug Dip Switches to what you want.
7) Start a 1 player game.

Some debug features :
- "Armor on New Life" is effective at the beginning of a new life. Note that even when you start without armor, you need to be hit twice.
- "Starting Weapon" is effective only when you start a new game or when you continue play.
- "Starting Level" is effective only when you start a new game (you must NOT continue play !).
- "Slow Motion" and "Invulnerability" can be changed at any time.

- SERIES -

1. Ghosts'n Goblins (1985, Arcade)
2. Ghouls'n Ghosts [B-Board 88620B-2] (1988, Arcade)
3. Super Ghouls'n Ghosts [Model SNS-CM-USA] (1991, SNES)
4. Maximo - Ghosts to Glory (2002, PS2)
5. Maximo vs. Army of Zin (2004, PS2)
6. Ultimate Ghosts'n Goblins (2006, PSP)

- PORTS -

Here is a list of all ports excluding Japanese ones. To see Japanese ports, please see the original Japanese version entry; "Daimakaimura [B-Board 88622B-2]".

* CONSOLES: 
[US] Sega Genesis (1989) 
Sega Mega Drive [BR] (1990) by Tec Toy 
Sega Mega Drive [KO] (1990) "Daemagyecheon [Model GM-5008-JM]" 
Sega Master System [US] [EU] (1990) "Ghouls'n Ghosts [Model 7055]" 
Sega Master System [BR] (1990) by Tec Toy 
[EU] Sega Mega Drive (nov.30, 1990) 
[EU] Sony PlayStation (sept.3, 1999) "Capcom Generations 2 - Chronicles of Arthur [Capcom Generations Disc 2] [Model SLES-11881]" 
[US] Microsoft XBOX (sept.27, 2005) "Capcom Classics Collection" 
[US] Sony PS2 (sept.27, 2005) "Capcom Classics Collection [Model SLUS-21316]" 
[EU] Microsoft XBOX (nov.18, 2005) "Capcom Classics Collection" 
[EU] Sony PS2 (nov.18, 2005) "Capcom Classics Collection [Model SLES-53661]" 

* HANDHELDS: 
[US] Sony PSP (oct.24, 2006) "Capcom Classics Collection Reloaded [Model ULUS-10134]" 
[EU] Sony PSP (nov.10, 2006) "Capcom Classics Collection Reloaded [Model ULES-00377]" 
[AU] Sony PSP (nov.16, 2006) "Capcom Classics Collection Reloaded" 

* COMPUTERS: 
[EU] Sinclair ZX Spectrum (1989) 
[US] Commodore C64 [EU] (1989) 
[EU] Atari ST (1989) 
[EU] Amstrad CPC (1989) 
Commodore Amiga [US] (1989) "Ghouls 'n' Ghosts"
Commodore Amiga [US] (1991) "Ghouls 'n' Ghosts & Venus the Flytrap [Chart Attack]"
Commodore Amiga [US] (199?) "Ghouls 'n' Ghosts [Platinum]"
[EU] Amstrad CPC (1990) "Coin-Op Hits II"
[EU] Amstrad CPC (1991) "Capcom Collection" 
[EU] Atari ST (1991) "Capcom Collection" 
[EU] Commodore C64 (1991) "Capcom Collection" 
[EU] Commodore Amiga (1991) "Capcom Collection" 
[EU] Sinclair ZX Spectrum (1991) "Capcom Collection" 

* OTHERS:  
Street Fighter II' Special Champion Edition Plug 'n Play TV Game [US] (2004) by Radica Games : Genesis version included as a bonus.
Apple iPhone/iPod [US] (nov.4, 2010) "Capcom Arcade [Model 397347348]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=ghox,ghoxj,ghoxjo
Arcade Video game published 32 years ago:

Ghox (c) 1991 Toaplan Company, Limited.

Under the spell of the evil Magician Jagula, who plots to conquer the world, Lucia, the goddess of light, is confined by the gates of the Netherworld. A dark age is ushered in and evil spirits from mountains and rivers roam throughout the world.

Deeply affected by the horror of the world, King Gitane of the Akura Empire summons two burly and brave men from the Eastern Country and orders them to subdue Jagula.

These 2 heroes journey through the evil spirits' lair which is cut off from the exclusive pious area. Freely manipulating their magic balls, Axis and Bilious plung into action.

- TECHNICAL -

Game ID : TP-021

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 10 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Yamaha YM2151 (@ 3.375 Mhz)

Players : 2
Control : dial
Buttons : 2

- TRIVIA -

Ghox was released in November 1991.

Licensed to Romstar for USA, to Nova Apparate GMBH & Co. for Europe, to JP Leisure Limited for UK, to Star Electronica SRL for Italy, to APM Electronics S.A. for Spain & Portugal and to Honest Trading Co. for Hong Kong.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Hidden Functions : If the 'Invulnerability dip switch' is enabled, you are invulnerable but you may also 'Pause' the game with P2 Start and restart with P1 Start.

* Power up items :
1. Purple : your own machine will grow
2. Red : a through ball
3. Blue : ball slows down
4. Green : all the balls are going to disintegrate
5. Bomb : additional bombs will be supplied
6. Heart : one up
7. Money

* Beat the last boss using the Ultimate Paddle to achieve the elusive and often sought-after good ending of the game.

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=gigaman2
Arcade Video game published 19 years ago:

Giga Man 2 - The Power Fighters (c) 2004 J-Tech Company, Limited.

- TRIVIA -

Giga Man 2 has sampled music replacing the original Q-Sound, and an MCU driving the sound. It's a genuine bootleg which was made using the 'xor tables' running on a standalone board with both hardware and software changes.

Very interesting bootleg.

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=gigawing,gigawingd
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 24 years ago:

Giga Wing (c) 1999 Capcom Ent., Inc.

North American release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese release entry; "Giga Wing [Green Board]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Blue Board [USA]

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES: 
[US] Sega Dreamcast (jul.19, 2000) [Model T-1209N] 
Sega Dreamcast [EU] (oct.20, 2000) [Model T-7008D-50]

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=gigawingj,gigawingjd
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 24 years ago:

Giga Wing (c) 1999 Capcom Company, Limited.

'Medallions' are mystic stones sent from heaven, brought evolution to human technology and lead tremendous progress to the armories. To gain their powers which the 'Stones' hold for the promised victory, many nations fought over the mystic stones and reheated the world of war. Within all the 'Stones' is the 'Medallion of Wisdom', known as the power source of all mystic stones, it had enough energy to terminate humanity. The whole world was in despair. And now, four brave worriers have risen to fly straight into the combat zone! All four had different reasons, but their ultimate goal was the same : to destroy the Medallion of Wisdom! Fight to save the humanity!

Giga Wing is a shoot-em-up set during a fictional war. The player controls one of four different futuristic aircraft and must destroy enemy aircraft, tanks, ships, and buildings using both guns and missiles mounted on the aircraft and a limited supply of bombs which damage or destroy all enemies on-screen when used.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Green Board [Japan]

Players: Up to 2.
Control: 8-way joystick per player.
Buttons: 2 per player.

- TRIVIA -

Giga Wing was released in February 1999 in Japan. It was known as the 30th video game released for the CPS-II hardware.

Known export releases: 
"Giga Wing [Blue Board]" 
"Giga Wing [Grey Board]" 
"Giga Wing [Orange Board]" 
"Giga Wing [Pink Board]" 

It was the first arcade video game to show scores in the trillions!

The game forbids the initials 'SEX' on the high score table. If you try, it gets changed to 'CAP'.

Note: There are 20 different endings! 10 of them are bad endings if you reach level 6 using more than one credit and the other 10 are good endings if you beat the game using only one credit.

Sony Music Entertainment released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (GigaWing Original Soundtrack - CPCA-1026) on April 21, 1999.

- SERIES -

1. Giga Wing [CP-S II No. 30] (1999)
2. Giga Wing 2 (2000)
3. Giga Wing Generations (2005)

- STAFF -

Planner : I. Satou, R. Hazuki
Character designer : K. Toume
Mechanic designers : S. Satou, Tadahiro Mukaide, Toshihiro Suzuki, Ken Taketoshi, Y. Ono
Object designers : Tadahiro Mukaide, S. Satou, Toshihiro Suzuki, I. Matsumura, Hiroki Akiyama, Ken Taketoshi
Scroll designers : M. Oose, Kazumi Yogi, Akemi Ootaka, K. Kusaka
Music composers & arrangers : Yasushi Kaminishi, Masahiro Yuge
Programmers : Y. Kobayashi, T. Nishi, Kaju Ishii, N. Hasimoto
Producers : Y. Ozaki, T. Minami
Executive producers : T. Fujimoto, Yoshiki Okamoto, Noritaka Funamizu
Coordinators : Tomoshi Sadamoto, T. Saitou
Sound advisers : Hiroaki Kondo (X68K), Tomohiro Masuda
Program support : K. Kaneko, M. Shinohara, S. Yamazaki, Cham Cho Choy

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES: 
Sega Dreamcast [JP] (nov.11, 1999) [Model T-1208M]

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=gigandes,gigandesa
Arcade Video game published 33 years ago:

Gigandes (c) 1990 East Technology.

A horizontal shooter with a twist. If you die, you get to keep your weapons and power-ups, but at the beginning of each stage you lose everything.

- TECHNICAL -

Taito X System hardware

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 8 Mhz), Zilog Z80 (@ 4 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Yamaha YM2610 (@ 8 Mhz)

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 3

- TRIVIA -

Even if the titlescreen says 1989 (development year), Gigandes was released in February 1990.

- UPDATES -

The Japanese version has a different level order.

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=goalx3

Goal! Goal! Goal! (c) 1995 Visco Corp.

A soccer game with all the right ingredients, skill, flair, passion, and of course, GOALS! With 28 national teams to choose from, compete in a tournament to become the best soccer nation in the world. Get past the opening group stage and go on to a round-robin elimination stage where failure is not an option. To help you on your way, hold down the shoot button until the power bar fills up and you can do a POWERFUL SUPER SHOT!

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID : 0209

[SNK MVS Neo-Geo Controls]
2 players - 4 buttons per player (3 usables)
[JOYSTICK] 8-way 
=> Offense > [A] Shoot/Special shoot [B] Pass [C] Short kick
=> Defense > [A] Sliding [B] Tackle

- TRIVIA -

This game runs on the Neo-Geo MVS and was not released on the Neo-Geo AES home console.

- STAFF -

Producer : Tetsuo Akiyama
Direction : Don Gabacho (Don Gabacyo)
Assistance : Yasuhisa Itoi
Main programmer : N. Yamaguchi
Programmers : PHA, M. Taniguchi, Gogo
Graphic designers : T. Matsu, H. Mawatari, Y. Nishino, Y. Kudou, H. Maehara, Chidori, S. Soeda, Hamigaki. Maru, J. Nakazawa, E-Ayasu
Sound by Act Japan.

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=gcpinbal
Arcade Video game published 29 years ago:

Grand Cross (c) 1994 Excellent System.

A futuristic video pinball game set in space where you use the 2 flippers to send the ball to many different enemies.

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 16 Mhz)
Sound Chips : OKI6295 (@ 8 Khz), OKI MSM5205 (@ 384 Khz)

Players : 1
Buttons : 8

- TRIVIA -

Released in October 1994.

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=gseeker,gseekeru,gseekerj
Taito F3 cart. published 31 years ago:

Grid Seeker - Project Storm Hammer (c) 1992 Taito Corp.

It is August 1999. In the skies over the Middle East, the second Persian Gulf War has begun. The early half of the 90's, the Persian Gulf War breaks out in the Middle East and prolonged fighting rapidly increases the rate of destruction of the world's natural resources. In 1999 this develops into a state of crisis where the effects of the war have resulted in an absolute shortage of reserves. Mistaken policies have resulted in the nation of the Middle East, suffering from shortages since the time of the original Persian Gulf War, taking military action against neighboring nations in an attempt to assure a supply of resources for themselves. Those nations which have managed to escape the fighting once again form a Multinational Force. Using the technology gained from research which had been done for a new type of nuclear reactor, they succeed in developing and producing GRID - a Gyrodrive Reactive Intercept Device. This is the start of Project Storm Hammer.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "Taito F3 System" Hardware.

Prom Stickers : D40

Players : 4
Control : Dial
Buttons : 4

- TRIVIA -

Grid Seeker - Project Storm Hammer was released in December 1992 in Japan.

Even if it had interesting game play and very good BGM, the game went unnoticed because the success of Capcom's "Street Fighter II - The World Warrior".

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Grid Seeker - PCCB-00131) on July 7, 1993.
Zuntata record released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Taito Game Collection - Shooting cluster 1) on June 29, 2011.

- UPDATES -

The US version has the "Winners Don't Use Drugs" screen.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* INSTRUCTIONS:

- Choose from one of the three aircraft:
-- The F-14 Fighter : The fastest of the three but has the least powerful firepower, concentrated at the front.
-- The AH-64F Attack Helicopter : The most average but fires scattered shots.
-- The B-2AT Stealth Bomber : slow moving but has the greatest fire power when upgraded.

- Press the Fire button to attack normally. 

- Hold the Fire button while moving up and down to change the position of the GRID. 

- Press the Bomb button to use one of your bombs for a massive attack, which is different according to which colour GRID you have:
-- Red : A massive fireball damaging all enemies on the screen. 
-- Blue : A concentrated forward attack. 
-- Green : Green energy swirls around hitting enemies on the screen. 
-- Yellow : A concentrated explosion in a small area, doing massive damage. 

- When the GRID is hit by an enemy bullet, the power gauge at the bottom of the screen will increase. When the gauge reaches its maximum level, you will gain an extra bomb (up to a maximum of four). 

- Collect power-up items to upgrade your aircraft.

* ITEMS LIST:
(P) Power-Up: Increases your shot power by one level to a maximum of level 7.
(H) Helper: Makes an ally support ship appear.
(G) GRID Changer: Changes your GRID shot and bomb effect according to the colour. The colour cycles between red, blue, green and yellow.

- STAFF -

Game designers : Tsukasa Ohshima, <3Nurse<3 Mizukami, Takafumi kaneko
Programmers : Takahiro Natani, Takafumi Kaneko, Mercury Hayashi, Jinji Tantou
Software : Shirou Yoshida, Youichi Sakai, Hiroyuki Minemura
Character designers : Tsukasa Ohshima, <3Nurse<3 Mizukami, Keppel Maekawa
Object art director : Lin Chinkai (Indy Chinkai)
Screen art directors : Takashi Yamada, Lin Hu-Man Gas
Graphic designers : Takashi Yamada, Kenji Hazama, Kouichi Kizato, Tamae Kisanuki, Natsuko Tsuji, Mari Fukusaki, Akiyoshi Takada, Lin Chinkai (Indy Chinkai), Space Creative, A-Wave, Visual Arts Production
Hardware engineer : Katsumi Kaneoka
Decorator : Toshiyuki Takenami
Sound directors (Zuntata) : Norihiro Furukawa, Naoto Ishita (YAG)
Producer : Toshiaki Kato

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] Sony PS2 (jul.28, 2005) "Taito Memories Joukan [Model SLPM-66057]" 
Sony PlayStation 2 [AU] (mar.30, 2006) "Taito Legends 2 [Model SLES-53852]" 
[EU] Microsoft XBOX (mar.31, 2006) "Taito Legends 2" 
[EU] Sony PS2 (mar.31, 2006) "Taito Legends 2 [Model SLES-53852]" 
[US] Sony PS2 (may.16, 2007) "Taito Legends 2 [Model SLUS-21349]" 

* COMPUTERS: 
[EU] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (mar.31, 2006) "Taito Legends 2" 
[US] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (jul.10, 2007) "Taito Legends 2"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=grindstm,grindstma
Arcade Video game published 31 years ago:

Grind Stormer (c) 1992 Toaplan.

Export release. Game developed in Japan. See the original for more information; "V-Five [TP-027]".

- TECHNICAL -

Game ID : TP-027

- TRIVIA -

Licensed to American Sammy for USA, to Unite Trading for Korea, to Charterfield for Hong Kong and Southeast Asia and to Anomoto International for Taiwan.

Grind Stormer seems to be different in the way that you pick up the items directly and don't go through the power-up bar.

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=growl,growlu,growlp,growla
Arcade Video game published 32 years ago:

Growl (c) 1991 Taito America Corp.

Export version. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese version entry; "Runark".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "Taito F2 System" hardware.

- TRIVIA -

Even if the title screen says 1990, Growl was released in February 1991 in US.

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[US] Sega Genesis (1991) "Growl [Model 11076]" 
Sony PlayStation 2 [AU] (mar.30, 2006) "Taito Legends 2 [Model SLES-53852]" 
[EU] Microsoft XBOX (mar.31, 2006) "Taito Legends 2" 
[EU] Sony PS2 (mar.31, 2006) "Taito Legends 2 [Model SLES-53852]" 
[US] Sony PS2 (may.16, 2007) "Taito Legends 2 [Modle SLUS-21349]" 

* COMPUTERS: 
[EU] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (mar.31, 2006) "Taito Legends 2" 
[US] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (jul.10, 2007) "Taito Legends 2"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=gunfront
Arcade Video game published 32 years ago:

Gun & Frontier (c) 1991 Taito Corp.

Export version. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese version entry; "Gun Frontier".

- TECHNICAL -

Taito F2 System hardware

- TRIVIA -

Gun & Frontier was released in January 1991 in the US and Europe.

- SERIES -

1. Gun & Frontier (1991)
2. Metal Black (1991)

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES: 
Sony PlayStation 2 [AU] (mar.30, 2006) "Taito Legends 2 [Model SLES-53852]" 
[EU] Microsoft XBOX (mar.31, 2006) "Taito Legends 2" 
[EU] Sony PS2 (mar.31, 2006) "Taito Legends 2 [Model SLES-53852]" 
[US] Sony PS2 (may.16, 2007) "Taito Legends 2 [Model SLUS-21349]" 

* COMPUTERS: 
[EU] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (mar.31, 2006) "Taito Legends 2" 
[US] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (jul.10, 2007) "Taito Legends 2"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=gnbarich
Arcade Video game published 22 years ago:

Gunbarich (c) 2001 Psikyo.

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU : SH-2 (@ 28.63635 Mhz)
Sound Chips : YMF278B (@ 28.63635 Mhz)

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 3

- TRIVIA -

Gunbarich was released in June 2001.

Psikyo's Gunbarich is a spin-off of "Gunbird" featuring Gunbird's protagonist Marion.

The game forbids the initials 'SEX' on the high score table. If you try, it gets changed to three smileys.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Maintenance Codes :
1-2-3-4-5 Clear Hi-Scores
0-2-9-2-0 Maintenance Mode (Stage Select etc.)
0-2-9-1-0 Clear All Data

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=gunbird,gunbirdk,gunbirdj
Arcade Video game published 29 years ago:

Gunbird (c) 1994 Psikyo.

In this vertical shoot-'em-up, you have 5 selectable characters who fight the big army of pirates but this time to restore a magic mirror.

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU : Motorola 68EC020 (@ 16 Mhz)
Sound CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 4 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Yamaha YM2610 (@ 8 Mhz)

Players : 2
Control : 8-Way Joystick
Buttons : 3
=> Shot, Bomb, Auto-Shot

- TRIVIA -

Gunbird was released in September 1994.

Marion also appears as a selectable character in another Psikyo's game : "Gunbarich".

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Gunbird 2, Gunbird - SGCD-0003) on 04/12/1998.

Note : There are 20 different endings!

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Extra Features : If you hold Test Button + PL1 Button 1 during boot, you get extra options in the test menu. A level skip, BG test usually etc...

- SERIES -

1. Gunbird (1994)
2. Gunbird 2 (1998)

- STAFF -

Staff : Hirofumi Nakamura, Artmic, Jun-Ichi Niwa, Shin Nakamura, Rick Johnson, Hyoue Ogama, Wataru Yamazaki, Hideyuki Oda, Ikuda Yosida, Youko Tsukagoshi, Hiromi Tanegasima, Toshinori Sugita, Seiki Sato, Shiori Saito, Yusa Tarou
Music Composed by : Masaki Izutani

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] Sega Saturn (dec.15, 1995; "Gunbird [Model T-14402G]")
[JP] Sony PlayStation (dec.15, 1995; "Gunbird [Model SLPS-00157]")
[JP] Sony PS2 (feb.19, 2004; "Gunbird 1&2 [Model SLPM-62469]")
[EU] Sony PS2 (mar.18, 2005; "Gunbird 1&2 [Model SLPM-62469]")

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=gunbird2,gunbird2a
Arcade Video game published 25 years ago:

Gunbird 2 (c) 1998 Psikyo.

In this vertical shoot'em up, you have five selectable characters who fight the big army of pirates but this time to collect elemental potions.

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU : SH-2 (@ 28.63635 Mhz)
Sound Chips : YMF278B (@ 28.63635 Mhz)

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 3

- TRIVIA -

Released in December 1998 in Japan.

ALUCARD, a selectable character, backwards spells DRACULA.

Aine originally appeared in "Samurai Aces" and as a hidden character in "Tengai" as Ayin. Here in Gunbird 2, he has quite a 'different' type of bomb attack :).

Gunbird 2 shares some similarities with the 1975 anime series 'Time Bokan':
* The flag symbol in Time Bokan is a clear skull and in this game is a 2P like a skull.
* The thin guy has a very ugly nose also a moustache and teeth like a rabbit (he is the same in the game and the anime).
* The fat guy has a beard. In this game and in Time Bokan, he has a semi-shaved beard (so with the exception of the beard, the guy is almost the same).
* The chief is a luxuriant woman (in the anime, she always was topless in the end).
* In Time Bokan, the bad guys always show a stupid new-robot to defeat the good guys. In the game is the same. 

Note : There are 27 different endings!

The game forbids the initials 'SEX' on the high score table. If you try, it gets changed to three smileys.

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Gunbird 2, Gunbird - SGCD-0003) on 04/12/1998.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Maintenance Code : In test mode, enter this code...
5-2-0-4-8 for Maintenance Mode [Stage Select (Loads of cool stuff here), Obj Test, BG TestPlay Status, Stage Status]
5-3-5-7-3 All Data Initialised.
5-3-7-6-5 Sit an AINE Flag1 (Displays 'AINE ?' at test, extra 'explicit' character on random box).
5-1-0-2-4 Sit an AINE Flag2 (Displays 'AINE OK' at test, use AINE by pressing 'Down' on random box).
5-3-1-5-7 AINE Flag Cancelled (Clears AINE from being playable, as default).

- SERIES -

1. Gunbird (1994)
2. Gunbird 2 (1998)

- STAFF -

Staff: Shin.Nakamura, Shiori Saito, Hiroshi Yamada, Naozumi Yorichika, Yoko Tsukagoshi, Norikazu Takemori, Emi Taniguchi, Keizou Fujita, Yousuke Iwabuchi, Kenichi Fujita, Kunihiko Nogomi, Katsuya Shikanouchi, Katsuhiro Nishida, Shinji Nohara, Masato Natsumoto
Music composed by : Masaki Izutani

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
Sega Dreamcast [JP] (mar.09, 2000; "Gunbird 2 [Model T-1213M]")
[JP] Sony PS2 (feb.19, 2004; "Gunbird 1&2 [Model SLPM-62469]")
[EU] Sony PS2 (mar.18, 2005; "Gunbird 1&2 [Model SLPM-62469]")

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=gundhara,gundharac
Arcade Video game published 28 years ago:

Gundhara - Juudan Arashi (c) 1995 Banpresto.

A two players vertical top-view shoot em up.

In a near future a group of children disappeared from a town, a secret investigator woman named 'Sarah' entered secretly into the hideout of the kidnappers, to find the reasons, children were brainwashing. It was preparation for a World War III, commanded by a tyrant transhumanist to rule the world. The government opened a emergency meeting to chose two of their best soldiers, to stop this evil plan and rescue all the hostages children's.

The players choose one of two soldiers 'Jerry Scott' from USA and 'Jinn Ayakawa' from Japan and must rescue all childrens on each level, while defeat all the enemies on the way using a variety of weapons, such as the Vulcan a shotgun a laser and a bazooka also a fire may obtained by collecting items.

- TECHNICAL -

Game ID : BP954

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 16 Mhz)
Sound Chips : X1-010 (@ 16 Mhz)

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 3

- TRIVIA -

Released in September 1995.

The subtitle of this game translates from Japanese as 'Bullet Storm'.

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=gunlock,gunlocko
Taito F3 cart. published 29 years ago:

Gunlock (c) 1994 Taito.

Export version. For more information about the game, please see the Japanese version entry, "Rayforce".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "Taito F3 System" Hardware.
Prom Stickers : D66

- TRIVIA -

Even if the title screen says 1993, Gunlock was released in January 1994 in Europe, Southeast Asia, Hong Kong, Mainland China, Taiwan and Korea.

This game appeared in the US exclusively on home consoles (See Ports below).

- SERIES -

1. Gunlock (1994)
2. Ray Storm (1996)
3. Raycrisis (1998)

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES: 
[US] Sega Saturn (1995) "Galactic Attack [Model T-8116H]" 
[EU] Sega Saturn (1995) "Galactic Attack [Model T-8116H-50]" 
[EU] Microsoft XBOX (mar.31, 2006) "Taito Legends 2" 

* COMPUTERS: 
[EU] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (mar.31, 2006) "Taito Legends 2" 
[US] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (jul.10, 2007) "Taito Legends 2" 

* OTHERS: 
Apple iPhone/iPod [US] (jan.13, 2012) "Rayforce [Model 484012905]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=gururin

Gururin (c) 1994 Face.

A unique and challenging puzzle game from Face. 3 people in color-coordinated clothing descend from the top and you must align any 3 of the same color vertically or horizontally. During the game you do not rotate the 3 falling people, you rotate the puzzle itself.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID : 0067

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 12 Mhz)
Sound CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 4 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Yamaha YM2610 (@ 8 Mhz)

Screen orientation : Horizontal
Video resolution : 320 x 224 pixels
Screen refresh : 59.19 Hz
Palette colors : 4096

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2
=> [A] Turns stage to left [B] Turns stage to right

- TRIVIA -

Released in May 1994.

Gururin translates from Japanese as something like 'accomplice' or 'cohort'. Makes sense considering the noblemen fall in pairs.

Gururin is Face's first game developed and released for the SNK Neo-Geo MVS hardware and was not released on the Neo-Geo AES home console.

- STAFF -

Planning / Producer : K. Iwanaga
Programmers : K. Iwanaga, N. Tabata, K. Hiziya
Graphic designers : M. Molohosi, K. Kumakura, M. Araki
Sound : K. Sugai, A. Iwanaga
Sound programmer : J. Kosakai

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=guwange,guwanges
Arcade Video game published 24 years ago:

Guwange (c) 1999 Atlus Company, Limited.

Destroy the evil army with 3 Japanese characters and the spirits that possess them in this beautiful vertical shoot-'em-up.

- TECHNICAL -

Game ID : ATC05

Cave 1st Generation Hardware

Main CPU : MC68000 (@ 16 Mhz)
Sound CPU : Zilog Z80 [Optional]
Sound Chips : Yamaha YMZ280B (@ 16.9344 Mhz) or OKIM6295 x (1 or 2) + YM2203 / YM2151 [Optional]
Other : 93C46 EEPROM

Players : 2
Control : 8-Way Joystick
Buttons : 3
=> [A] Shoot / Spirit, [B] Bomb, [C] Auto Fire

- TRIVIA -

Developed by Cave, Guwange was released by Atlus on June 24, 1999.

The story of Guwange is set during the Muromachi period of Japan. Sorcerers in eastern Japan would predict the day's fishing catch by the appearance of a fox-like voice from the mountains. If the voice sounded 'koon koon' then there was to be a great catch. If the voice sounded 'gwange gwange' then it was to be a horrible catch. The people soon named the place of the voice 'Prison-Gate Mountain', as all who saw the origin of this voice were never seen again. The people soon began to worship this being as the god of Prison-Gate Mountain. It is said that the men later came to call it 'Lord Guwange'. The game title of 'Guwange' appears to reflect the name of this mysterious mountain voice and also the 'bad' sound that it made to predict a horrible catch.

This game was supposed to be exported to South Korea. But Korean deliberation Organization rejected this game, because it has strong Japanese things (Korean people are really anti-Japanese).

Soundtrack releases :
Guwange / ESPrade Original Soundtrack [Cave - CVST-1000 - Dec 30, 2007]
GUWANGE Arrange Album + Original Soundtrack [Cave - CVAS-004] (2010-02-20)

- SCORING -

* Game Clear Bonus : upon clearance, the game rewards you for the following : full life segments remaining, maximum chain count, bombs remaining, and never receiving damage ('no miss').
1) Life bonus : if you have any full life segments remaining (denoted as L), this bonus is calculated by the following formula :
9,216 / (4 - L) / 32 * 10,000. If you have all three life segments remaining, but you were hit at least once, then this value is multiplied by 2. If you were never hit, then this value is multiplied by 4. Examples :
1 Full Life Segment : 9,216 / 3 / 32 x 10,000 = 96,000
2 Full Life Segments : 9,216 /2 / 32 x 10,000 = 144,000
3 Full Life Segments : 9,216 / 1 / 32 x 10,000 x 2 = 576,000
No miss : 9,216 / 1 / 32 x 10,000 x 4 = 1,152,000
It seems that no credit is given for partial life segments.
2) Chain bonus : multiply your maximum chain count by 100. Examples :
1,210 Chain : 1,210 x 100 = 121,000
15,889 Chain : 15,889 x 100 = 1,588,900
3) Bomb bonus : multiply the number of bombs remaining by 1,000,000. If you were never hit, this value is multiplied by 2. Examples :
2 bombs remaining : 2 x 1,000,000 = 2,000,000
3 bombs remaining, no miss : 3 x 1,000,000 x 2 = 6,000,000

- STAFF -

Producer : Kenichi Takano
Chief Programmer : Tsuneki Ikeda
Programmers : Satoshi Kohyama, Takashi Ichimura
Chief Designer : Junya Inoue
Designers : Akira Nakabayashi, Hiroyuki Tanaka, Atsushi Aburano, Toru Shimazu
Character Designers : Akira Nakabayashi, Junya Inoue
Calligraphy : Akira Nakabayashi
Character Voices : Yuko Nakamura, Junya Inoue, Kazushi Takamura, Takako Taniguchi, Takn Nagasawa, Takano Yoshida
Sound Producer : Junya Inoue
Music Composer : Masahiro Kusunoki
Sound Effects : Masahiro Kusunoki
Supervisor : Hiroyuki Tanaka (Atlus)
Special assist : Toshiaki Tomizawa

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
Microsoft Xbox 360 (nov.10, 2010, "Xbox Live Arcade")

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=hachamf,hachamfb,hachamfa,hachamfp
Arcade Video game published 32 years ago:

Hacha Mecha Fighter (c) 1991 NMK.

A cutesy horizontal scrolling shooter from NMK.

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 10 Mhz)
Sound Chips : YM2203 (@ 1.5 Mhz), (2x) OKI6295 (@ 24.242 Khz)

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2

- TRIVIA -

Released in September 1991.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Test Mode :
1. Hold 'Player 2 Button 1' & 'Button 2', then reset the game.
2. 'Ready ?' message is displayed in black screen.
3. Press 'Player 1 Button 2'x14.

- STAFF -

Software : Y. Koyama, T. Nakasato
Hardware : Y. Maki
Music : H. Mizushima, K. Hideya
Graphic Designers : N. Nagamine, A. Tsunoda, K. Yokoyama
Supervisor : Y. Kotoyori

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=hachoo
Arcade Video game published 34 years ago:

Hachoo! (c) 1989 Jaleco.

A side-scrolling beat-em-up from Jaleco.

- TECHNICAL -

Jaleco Mega System 1-A hardware

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 12 Mhz)
Sound CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 7 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Yamaha YM2151 (@ 3.5 Mhz), (2x) OKI6295 (@ 30.303 Khz)

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2

- TRIVIA -

Hachoo was released in September 1989.

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=hangly,hangly2,hangly3
Arcade Video game published 42 years ago:

Hangly Man (c) 1981 Nittoh.

Bootleg/Hack of "Pac-Man".

- TECHNICAL -

Nittoh made a few cocktail units that were identical to the Namco cocktail in design, but had all their instructions in English, and have the word 'Hangly' substituted for 'Namco' everywhere on the machine.

- TRIVIA -

Released in July 1981. Hangly Man is presumed to be an 'Engrish' mangling of the title 'Hungry Man'.

Hangly Man contains not one, but two different mazes. The first maze appears on the first stage and every even numbered stage thereafter. The second maze appears on the third stage and every odd numbered stage thereafter.

The first maze is an alteration to the original maze. While an extra bump has been added to the once-open bottom row, the top row has been opened up. The areas near the mouths of the escape tunnel are no longer single width tunnels, but more open. This can cause players to miss the tunnels if they are not lined up exactly right. The first maze also contains two extra sets of tunnels, one each above and below the original tunnel. Eating a power pill in the first maze can sometimes make the maze turn invisible. In some versions of Hangly-Man, the maze never reappears until you die.

The second maze is a wide-open maze, with no borders except around the very edges. The same three sets of tunnels exists as well as a new tunnel that has been positioned along the center of the top and bottom of the maze.

During the attract mode, the ghosts are introduced by their original Japanese names and nicknames.

- UPDATES -

Set 1: (Level 2 only) Eating the first power pill hides the maze until the maze is cleared, or the player loses a life, whichever comes first. After the player loses a life while the maze is hidden, eating another power pill in the same level will no longer hide the maze.

Sets 2 & 3: (All even-numbered levels) Eating a power pill hides the maze until the power pill wears off.

The copyright says "Nittoh" on Sets 1 and 3; it says "-1984-" (with the hyphens but without the quotation marks) on Set 2.

- SCORING -

Dot : 10 points.
Power pill (energizer) : 50 points.
Ghosts : 200, 400, 800, 1600 points.
Cherry : 100 points.
Strawberry : 300 points.
Peach : 500 points.
Apple : 700 points.
Pineapple : 1000 points.
Galaxian : 2000 points.
Bell : 3000 points.
Key : 5000 points.

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=htchctch
Arcade Video game published 28 years ago:

Hatch Catch (c) 1995 SemiCom.

Shoot coloured blocks at the top of the screen. When 3 or more same colored blocks draw a line, they disappear. By terminating all blocks, the stage is clear.

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 15 Mhz)
Sound CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 3.42719 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Yamaha YM2151 (@ 3.42719 Mhz), OKI6295 (@ 7.757 Khz)

Screen orientation : Horizontal
Video resolution : 320 x 240 pixels
Screen refresh : 60.00 Hz
Palette colors : 1024

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2

- TRIVIA -

Released in June 1995 in Korea.

- STAFF -

Excutive producer : Jeon Jae Youn
Game design : Han Seung Hoon
Main program : Baek Seung Ki
Program assist : Kim Jin Woo
Music compose / S.E : Jeon Seok Gee
Graphic design : Kim Eun Ae, Hong Young Joo, Whang O-Sik

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=hthero
Arcade Video game published 32 years ago:

Hattrick Hero (c) 1991 Taito Corp.

A soccer game from Taito. Challenge the world's best seven soccer teams with your amazing techniques!

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "Taito F2 System" hardware. It used a graphics extension on the board, the so called Taito F2 Expanded System (also known as the Taito F1 System).

Board Number : K11T0647A
Prom Stickers : C80

Players : 4
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2

- TRIVIA -

Hattrick Hero was released in March 1991 in Japan. It is known outside Japan as "Football Champ" and in Europe as "Euro Champ '92".

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* INSTRUCTIONS:
- If you lose or draw a match, or if your player's stamina (displayed at the top of the screen) runs out, the game is over. 

- Offensive controls (in possession of the ball):
-- Shoot : Shoot button
--- Hold the Shoot button down while not moving to lift the ball
Pass : Pass button
--- Hold the Shoot or Pass buttons down for continuous passing
---- Back-heel Pass : Turn in the opposite direction and press the Pass button
---- Heel Lift : While dribbling, press the Pass button in front of an opponent player

- Defensive controls (not in possession):
-- Sliding Tackle : Shoot / Tackle Button
-- Punch : Press the Pass button near an opponent player
-- Jump Kick : Press the Pass button while running towards an opponent player
-- Pull Shirt : Press the Pass button behind an opponent player

-Keeper controls:
-- Kick : Shoot button
-- Throw : Pass button

- After three fouls, a player will be sent off.
- Fouls are not counted if the referee is not watching!

* HOW TO PERFORM SUPER SHOOTS:
- Timer should be between 10 and 30 seconds.
- Player must have scored at least one goal before, and score must be a tie. (1-1, 2-2, ...)
- Only Player's selected Captain can perform a Super Shoot and only ONCE in a whole game (After GAME OVER, Super Shot becomes enabled again).
- Player's Captain should receive the ball in a certain area of the gamefield with High Pass (Button B long press) and must not be moving at all, while receiving the ball.
-- #8: Between center point and 1/4 of the upper field.
-- #9: Between 1/4 and 1/2 of the upper field.
--#10: Between 1/2 and 3/4 of the upper field.
--#11: Same as #10 and also in a defensive position as #9.

- SERIES -

1. Hattrick Hero (1991)
2. Hattrick Hero '93 (1993)
3. Hattrick Hero '94 (1994)
4. Hattrick Hero '95 (1994)

- STAFF -

* Consoles :
Nintendo Super Famicom [JP] (mar.27, 1992) "Hat Trick Hero [Model SHVC-HT]"
Sony PlayStation 2 [JP] (aug.25, 2005) "Taito Memories Gekan [Model SLPM-66092]"

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] Nintendo Super Famicom (mar.27, 1992) "Hat Trick Hero [Model SHVC-HT]"
[JP] Sony PS2 (aug.25, 2005) "Taito Memories Gekan [Model SLPM-66092]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=1095&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=hedpanic,hedpanicf,hedpanico,hedpanica
Arcade Video game published 24 years ago:

Head Panic - Polly & Sally Adventure (c) 1999 ESD [Excellent Soft Design].

Follow Polly & Sally as they go round the world defeating monsters, complete with landscapes & landmarks from all around the world.

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 16 Mhz)
Sound CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 4 Mhz)
Sound Chips : YM3812 (@ 4 Mhz), OKI6295 (@ 8 Khz)

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2
=> [A] Attack, [B] Jump

- TRIVIA -

Head Panic was released in June 1999.

The AAH that plays when you die is taken from Atari's "Klax" - same sound (the sound when a tile falls and you don't catch it).

Most of the sound effects in this game are ripped from Treasure's Sega Mega Drive game 'Dynamite Headdy' (1994).

- STAFF -

Producer : James Park
Graphic designers : Min Gun Seo, Moon Heo, Eun Ja Yoon
Sound : Jeong Hun Kim
Hardware Designer : Tae Wook Hwang
Programmed by : D.C. Jeong
Directed by : Tony Jeong

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=1105&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=hvyunit,hvyunitj,hvyunitjo,hvyunitja
Arcade Video game published 35 years ago:

Heavy Unit (c) 1988 Taito Corp.

A very rare and little known shooter from Kaneko with nice chunky sprites and very imaginative level design, also the music and sound effects are surely on a par with "R*Type".

- TRIVIA -

Released in November 1988 in Japan.

- STAFF -

Developed by Kaneko.

Software Section: S. Igarashi (TO-Y), Y. Yamauchi (UAY), T. Katoh
Art Design Section: K. Matsuoka, T. Tajima, H. Ichikawa, A. Funatsu, T. Okimoto, A. Yazaki
Music & Sound: T. Watanabe, S. Aizu
Hardware Section: H. Nagayoshi, H. Mikami
Management: H. Kikuchi
Director: H. Kaneko

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
NEC PC-Engine (Dec.1989)
Sega Mega Drive (Dec.1989)
Sega Mega Drive (Dec.1990, "Heavy Unit - Mega Drive Special")

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=4735&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=hellfire,hellfire1,hellfire2a,hellfire1a
Arcade Video game published 34 years ago:

Hellfire (c) 1989 Taito Corp

Nice horizontal shoot'em up feature a selectable shooting direction.

- TECHNICAL -

Game ID: TP-014
Prom Stickers: B90

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 10 Mhz), Zilog Z80 (@ 3.5 Mhz)
Sound Chips : YM3812 (@ 3.5 Mhz)

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2

- TRIVIA -

Hellfire was released in April 1989 in Japan, USA and Europe.

Early version title is 'Captain Lancer'.

Polystar released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Tatsujin : Toaplan Game Music Scene One - H24X-10005) on 25/06/1989.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Hidden Functions : If the 'Invulnerability dip switch' is enabled, you are invulnerable but you may also 'Pause' the game with P2 Start and restart with P1 Start.

- STAFF -

Developed by Toaplan. 

Music and Sound created by: Tatsuya Uemura

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
Sega Mega Drive (1990) "Hellfire [T-25073]"
Nec PC-Engine CD-ROM² (1991) "Hellfire [NAPR-1017]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=1114&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=heuksun
Arcade Video game published 26 years ago:

Heuk sun baek sa (c) 1997 F2 System.

- TRIVIA -

Heuk sun baek sa was released in August 1997.

The title of this game translates from Korean as 'Black first, kill white'.

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=12084&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=hitice,hiticej,hiticerb
Arcade Video game published 33 years ago:

Hit the Ice - The Video Hockey League (c) 1990 Williams Electronics Games, Incorporated.

Welcome to no holds barred hockey brought to you by the Video Hockey League.  It's the Reds versus the Blues, the VHL's biggest rivalry.

The same hockey rules apply, pass the puck around around the ice rink and shoot it past the opposite goalie to score. You can also check your opponent just like real hockey, only each character has their own bone-crushing way of checking, each with maximum impact and zero tolerance for your well-being.  Players can also start fights with one another to really spice things up.

For an additional credit, players can purchase a 'power drink' that will make them 'Skate Faster and Shoot Harder' at the start of the period for one minute.

Now get to the action and DROP THAT PUCK!

- TECHNICAL -

Taito B System hardware
Prom Stickers : C59

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 12 Mhz), Zilog Z80 (@ 4 Mhz)
Sound Chips : YM2203 (@ 3 Mhz), (2x) OKI6295 (@ 8 Khz)

Screen orientation : Horizontal
Video resolution : 320 x 224 pixels
Screen refresh : 60.00 Hz
Palette colors : 4096

Players : 4
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 3

- TRIVIA -

Hit the Ice was released in December 1990.

Developed and programmed by Taito Corp. In Japan, the Ice Hockey isn't a popular sport, so only a few board was released in Japan.

A Hit the Ice unit appears in the 1991 movie 'Terminator 2 - Judgment Day'.

- UPDATES -

The US version has the 'Winners Don't Use Drugs' screen.

Japanese version don't have 'locker room' screen, and has only a two-player mode.

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
NES [Taito] [Unreleased Prototype] (Based on the arcade game, but has added RPG elements)
Sega Mega Drive (1990)
NEC PC-Engine (1991)
NEC TurboGrafx 16 (1991)
Nintendo Super Famicom (1993)

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=1133&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=hotdogst
Arcade Video game published 27 years ago:

Hotdog Storm - The First Supersonics (c) 1996 Marble.

A vertically scrolling shooter.

- TECHNICAL -

Cave 1st Generation Hardware

Main CPU : MC68000 (@ 16 Mhz)
Sound CPU : Zilog Z80 [Optional]
Sound Chips : Yamaha YMZ280B (@ 16.9344 Mhz) or OKIM6295 x (1 or 2) + YM2203 / YM2151 [Optional]
Other : 93C46 EEPROM

Screen orientation : Vertical
Video resolution : 240 x 384 pixels
Screen refresh : 57.55 Hz
Palette colors : 2048

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 3

- TRIVIA -

Licensed to Ace International Co., Ltd. for distribution.

Hotdog Storm was developed by a Japanese staff but produced in South Korea. It was never released in Japan.

- STAFF -

Programmers : Nobushige Takaki, Mr.Park, Kaolton Taki, Masaaki Sasaki
Mechanical designer : Manabu Takakashi
Character designer : Kazushi Tamada
Map designers : Manabu Takakashi, Kazushi Tamada
Visual designer : Manabu Takakashi
Visual design assistant : Kazushi Tamada
Title designer : Manabu Takakashi
Title graphic designer : Kazushi Tamada
Ending designer : Kazushi Tamada
Sound team : Fumito Tamayama, Shige Masco, Yoko
Director : A.Jin

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=1149&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=hyperpac,hyperpacb
Arcade Video game published 28 years ago:

Hyper Pacman (c) 1995 SemiCom.

This is an updated version of Namco's seminal "Pac-Man", featuring forced-perspective 3-D graphics that allow the players to jump over the enemy ghosts; in a similar fashion to Namco's "Pac-Mania", released in 1987. There are secret items and food to be found on each level that increases the player's power and score. The power-ups themselves consist of a shield, helmet lasers, speed and jump shoes. Players will face a boss encounter every ten stages and the game ends after the 30th stage.

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 16 Mhz)
Sound CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 4 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Yamaha YM2151 (@ 4 Mhz), OKI6295 (@ 7.575 Khz)

Screen orientation : Horizontal
Video resolution : 256 x 224 pixels
Screen refresh : 57.50 Hz
Palette colors : 256

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 3

- TRIVIA -

Released in September 1995.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

If you eat only the small dots and not the power dots, you will gain access to a secret stage on each round (with extend, shield, helmet lasers, speed, and jump shoes). If you play with the second player, the ghost will chase you less than the first player and you will be closer to the fixed items on each stage.

- SERIES -

1. Hyper Pacman (1995)
2. Twinkle (1997)

- STAFF -

Executive Producer : Jeon Jae Yeon
Game Designer : Han Seung Hoon
Main Programmer : Kim Hyun Ho
System Programmer : Kim Jin Woo
Sound Programmer : Oh Gyeong Hun
Graphic Designer : Hong Young Joo
Sound Composer / S.E : Jeon Seok Gee
Special Thanks : Whang O Sik, Oh Hyun Sook, Jung Il Bong, Jung Ui Jin, Her Eun Ock, Kim Jang Gun

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=1163&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=hsf2
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 19 years ago:

Hyper Street Fighter II - The Anniversary Edition (c) 2004 Capcom Ent., Inc. [Capcom USA sub.]

North American release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese release entry; "Hyper Street Fighter II - The Anniversary Edition [Green Board]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Blue Board [USA]

- PORTS -

Here is a list of ports released in North America, Europe, and Australia.

* CONSOLES: 
Microsoft XBOX [AU] (2004) "Street Fighter Anniversary Collection" 
[EU] Sony PS2 (may.28, 2004) "Hyper Street Fighter II - The Anniversary Edition [Model SLES-52444]" 
[US] Sony PS2 (aug.31, 2004) "Street Fighter Anniversary Collection [Model SLUS-20949]" 
[EU] Microsoft XBOX (oct.29, 2004) "Street Fighter Anniversary Collection" 
[EU] Sony PS2 (oct.30, 2004) "Street Fighter Anniversary Collection" 
[US] Microsoft XBOX (feb.22, 2005) "Street Fighter Anniversary Collection"

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=69644&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=hsf2j,hsf2j1
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 19 years ago:

Hyper Street Fighter II - The Anniversary Edition (c) 2004 Capcom Company, Limited.

Here comes a new challenger... Every character, every move, every combo: one massive game to celebrate the 15 years of one of the greatest fighting game of all time.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Green Board [Japan]

Players: Up to 2 
Control: 8-way joystick per player
Buttons: 6 per player.
= > [1] LP (Jab), [2] MP (Strong), [3] HP (Fierce) 
= > [4] LK (Short), [5] MK (Forward), [6] HK (Roundhouse)

- TRIVIA -

Hyper Street Fighter II - The Anniversary Edition was released in December 2003 in Japan. It was known as the 38th CPS-II video game.

Known Export releases:
"Hyper Street Fighter II - The Anniversary Edition [Blue Board]"
"Hyper Street Fighter II - The Anniversary Edition [Grey Board]"

The core of the game is based on "Super Street Fighter II Turbo", but now players have up to five different versions of each character to choose from. 

The arcade intro has reverted back to the one found in "Super Street Fighter II - The New Challengers" with the new addition being the title screens from the previous SFII games alternating between lightning flashes. 

The title screens for the CPS1 games "Street Fighter II - The World Warrior", "Street Fighter II' - Champion Edition", and "Street Fighter II' - Hyper Fighting" are presented for the first time on the CPS2 hardware via this game's intro. 

Though the character select screen layout is the same as the one found in "Super Street Fighter II Turbo", its music has changed back to the character select music found in "Super Street Fighter II - The New Challengers, " which itself is a remixed version of the character select music from the CPS1 Street Fighter II games. 

The version of the character corresponds to the SFII game that they were playable in : 
'NORMAL' - "Street Fighter II - The World Warrior" 
'CHAMP' - "Street Fighter II' - Champion Edition"
- Japanese version : 'DASH' - "Street Fighter II' - Champion Edition"
'TURBO' - "Street Fighter II' - Hyper Fighting"
'SUPER' - "Super Street Fighter II - The New Challengers" 
'SUPER T' - "Super Street Fighter II Turbo"
- Japanese version : 'SUPER X' - "Super Street Fighter II X - Grand Master Challenge" 

Note: In 1-player mode and attract mode, the CPU only uses the 'SUPER X'/'SUPER T' version of each character. 

The playback format of the background music has changed from "Super Street Fighter II - The New Challengers". In the previous game, the background music will change to the 'Heavy Damage' version of the music on the second round onward when the KO sign flashes. In this game, the background music will change to the 'Heavy Damage' version of the music only if the character that triggered the KO sign to flash is in danger of losing his or her final round. 

Color schemes for the stage backgrounds are still the same as for "Super Street Fighter II - The New Challengers" and "Super Street Fighter II Turbo". However, a few background elements originally seen exclusively in "Street Fighter II - The World Warrior" have returned : 
1) The dual barrels and stack of boxes in Ken's stage (from "Champion Edition" to "Super Turbo" there was just a single barrel). 
2) The breakable 'Fuurinkazan' signs in Ryu's stage. 
3) The lantern on the left side of E. Honda's stage (originally seen exclusively on the SNES port of "Street Fighter II - The World Warrior"). 

Conversely, background elements that were present since "Super Street Fighter II - The New Challengers" are now missing : 
1) The toucan that flies away at round's end in Dee Jay's stage. 

Another change from the previous episodes can be seen at the character selection screen, when you go on Fei Long's profile, the colonial flag of Hong Kong was changed to the flag of China due to the handover in 1997. Street Fighter has to keep up with the times!

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Holding Start while selecting 'SUPER' for the version of your character will select the secret 'Super' version of the character as found in "Super Street Fighter II Turbo". 

* Pressing the Start button to select your character when using the 'NORMAL', 'SUPER', or 'Old Super' version of the character will select them in an alternate classic outfit, used originally when two players simultaneously used the old version of the same character in "Super Street Fighter II Turbo". 

* Holding Start while selecting 'SUPER T' for the version of your character will allow certain characters to 'store' their super combos.

- SERIES -

1. Street Fighter (1987)
2. Street Fighter II - The World Warrior [B-Board 90629B] (1991)
3. Street Fighter II' - Champion Edition [B-Board 91634B-2] (1992)
4. Street Fighter II' - Hyper Fighting [B-Board 91635B-2] (1992)
5. Super Street Fighter II - The New Challengers [Green Board] (1993)
6. Super Street Fighter II Turbo [Blue Board] (1994)
7. Street Fighter Alpha - Warriors' Dreams [Blue Board] (1995)
8. Street Fighter Alpha 2 [Blue Board] (1996)
9. Street Fighter III - New Generation (1997)
10. Street Fighter III - 2nd Impact : Giant Attack (1997)
11. Street Fighter Alpha 3 [Blue Board] (1998)
12. Street Fighter III - 3rd Strike : Fight For The Future (1999)
13. Hyper Street Fighter II - The Anniversary Edition [Green Board] (2003)
14. Street Fighter IV (2008)
15. Super Street Fighter IV - Arcade Edition (2010)
16. Ultra Street Fighter IV (2014)
17. Street Fighter V (2016)
18. Ultra Street Fighter II - The Final Challengers (2017, Switch)

- STAFF -

Planner : Oni-Suzuki, Mo-Z
Programmer : Shin., Hard. Yas, Meijin, Hyper Shinchan, Yu Kawamura, Yoji Mikami, Senor, .Seta
Special Programmer : Nobuaki Minomiya
Title Designer : Ukabin
Instruction Card Designer : Masako Honma, Minoru Nagaoka
Scroll Designer : Yoko Fukumoto, Kuwajima.C-Ya.R-W, Alecky.Eh
Sound Designer : Hiroaki Kondo (X68K)
Music Arranger : Mitsuhiko Takano
Producer : Kenzy Itsuno
Executive Producer : Yoshihiro Sudo
Executive Director : Noritaka Funamizu
Special Thanks : Satoshi Ise, Neo-G (H. Ishizawa), Matsukuni, Takashi Kubozono, Toru Kusano, Masayuki Fukumoto, Noriko Kato, Bug (Skill-Smith), Ru-pin, M. Masa

- PORTS -

Here is a list of ports released in Japan [JP].

* CONSOLES: 
Sony PlayStation 2 (Dec.18, 2003) "Hyper Street Fighter II - The Anniversary Edition [Model SLPM-65496]" 
Sony PlayStation 2 (Dec.18, 2003) Hyper Street Fighter II - The Anniversary Edition [Special Anniversary Pack] [Model CPCS-10007]" 
Microsoft XBOX (Oct.28, 2004) "Street Fighter Anniversary Collection [Model STJ-00001]" 
Sony PlayStation 2 (Jan.25, 2007) Hyper Street Fighter II - The Anniversary Edition [CapKore] [Model SLPM-66636]". 
Sony PlayStation 2 (Sep.18, 2008) "Hyper Street Fighter II - The Anniversary Edition/Vampire: Darkstalkers Collection Value Pack [Model CPCS-01039]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=3834&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=hsf2a,hsf2d
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 19 years ago:

Hyper Street Fighter II - The Anniversary Edition (c) 2004 Capcom Company, Limited.

Asian release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese release entry; "Hyper Street Fighter II - The Anniversary Edition [Green Board]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Grey Board [Asia]

- PORTS -

Here is a list of ports released in Asia (excluding Japan).

* CONSOLES: 
[KO] Sony PS2 (jul.22, 2004) "Street Fighter Anniversary Collection" 
[KO] Sony PS2 (sept.3, 2008) "Street Fighter Anniversary Collection [PlayStation 2 Big Hit] [Model SLKA-25437]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=69645&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=iganinju,iganinjub
Arcade Video game published 35 years ago:

Iga Ninjutsuden - Goshin no Sho (c) 1988 Jaleco.

A ninja platform game from Jaleco.

- TECHNICAL -

Jaleco Mega System 1-A hardware

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 12 Mhz)
Sound CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 7 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Yamaha YM2151 (@ 3.5 Mhz), (2x) OKI6295 (@ 30.303 Khz)

Players: 2
Control: 8-way joystick
Buttons: 2

- TRIVIA -

Iga Ninjutsuden was released in September 1988 in Japan. It was exported outside Japan as "Ninja Kazan".

The title of this game translates from Japanese as 'The Legend of Iga Ninjutsu - Book of the Five Gods'.

Iga is one of the two famous schools of ninjutsu (the ninja martial art), the other being Kouga.

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=1174&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=insectx,insectxj
Arcade Video game published 34 years ago:

Insector X (c) 1989 Taito Corporation.

Battle against the insect army with your special insecticide weapons.

The Burgoid, a tribe of midgets with dreams of conquest, have turned insects into cyborgs and formed them into a vast army which is now on the move and intending to invade planet Earth! 

To wipe out these mega-insects - which are invulnerable to ordinary weapons - humans have created an insect-sized warrior called Yanmer. The warrior wears a suit, giving him special powers and wings that are more efficient than a jet engine. 

You are Yanmer, and your mission is to destroy the Burgoid Monarch and save mankind from disaster!

- TECHNICAL -

Prom Stickers: B97

Main CPU: (2x) Zilog Z80 (@ 6 Mhz)
Sound Chips: YM2203 (@ 3 Mhz)

Screen Orientation: Horizontal
Video Resolution: 256 x 224 Pixels
Screen Refresh: 60.00 Hz
Palette Colors: 512

Players: 2
Control: 8-Way Joystick
Buttons: 2
=> Shoot, Extra Weapon

- TRIVIA -

Insector X was released in August 1989.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* INSTRUCTIONS:
- Press the Fire button to make a normal attack.
- Press the Special Attack button to use the special weapon (once you have picked up an insecticide can). 
- Power-up items appear when you defeat the Hawk Moth enemy. 
- The insecticide can is dropped by the middle boss on each stage and your special weapon becomes stronger as you pick up more insecticide cans. The colour of the can cycles between blue and brown:
-- Blue: Anti-air weapon
-- Brown: Air-to-ground weapon

* ITEMS
(P): Increases shot power
(PP): Increases shot power by two levels
(S): Increases your movement speed
(A): Auto-fire
(1UP): Extra life awarded
(Acorn): 1000 points awarded
(Thunder): Destroys all on-screen enemies

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
Sega Mega Drive [KO] (1990) "Gonchung Gundan [Model GM 4001 HG]" 
Sega Mega Drive [BR] (1990) by Tec Toy
[US] Sega Genesis (1990) "Insector X [Model 47036]" 
[JP] Sega Mega Drive (sept.7, 1990)
[JP] Nintendo Famicom (sept.20, 1990) "Insector X [Model TFC-IS]" 
[JP] Sony PS2 (aug.25, 2005) "Taito Memories Gekan [Model SLPM-66092]" 
Sony PlayStation 2 [AU] (mar.30, 2006) "Taito Legends 2 [Model SLES-53852]" 
[EU] Microsoft XBOX (mar.31, 2006) "Taito Legends 2" 
[EU] Sony PS2 (mar.31, 2006) "Taito Legends 2 [Model SLES-53852]" 
[US] Sony PS2 (may.16, 2007) "Taito Legends 2 [Model SLUS-21349]" 

* COMPUTERS: 
[EU] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (mar.31, 2006) "Taito Legends 2" 
[US] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (jul.10, 2007) "Taito Legends 2"

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=1191&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=intcup94
Taito F3 cart. published 29 years ago:

International Cup '94 (c) 1994 Taito.

Export release. Game developed in Japan. See the original for more information; "Hattrick Hero '94".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "Taito F3 System" Hardware.

Prom Stickers : D78

- SERIES -

1. Euro Champ '92 (1992)
2. Taito Cup Finals (1993)
3. International Cup '94 (1994)
4. Taito Power Goal (1994)

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=1192&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=ironclad,ironclado

Ironclad - Brikin'ger Choutetsu (c) 1996 Saurus.

It is a pseudo 3-D (3/4 perspective) horizontal shoot'em up.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID : 0220

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 3
=> [A] Shoot, [B] Robot, [C] Hyper bomb

- TRIVIA -

This game is a very rare prototype. It was shown in MVS format at the March 1996 ACME show in Orlando, Florida.

Setting an European BIOS into an emulator makes the color game darker, any other BIOS region make the color game lighter.

- STAFF -

Director : Takehiro Uematsu
Screen Play : Makoto Maeda
Program Producer : Masaaki Yuuki
Character Program : Naoto Suzuki
Screen Program : Takashi Shishido
Character Artist : Masato Miyoshi, Kengo Tanaka, Kaori Itou, Keisuke Tsugita
Screen Artist : Sachiko Miyoshi, Miwako Kojima, Yuuko Hara, Yuri Tachikawa, Sumire Azuma
Sound Producer : Shinichi Yamazaki
Sound Effects : Kazuhiko Oshikiri, Hideki Nagai
Music : Hiroyuki Takei
Promotion Stuff : Kimihiko Kobayashi, Koutarou Noumura, Tomoo Yoda, Yumiko Yasui, Miwa Izumi
Special Thanks : Kenji Ishimoto, Shirou Nakamura, Youichi Satou, Kiyoshi Matsueda, Naohide Nakagawa
Producer : Yasushi Okahara
Executive Producer : Nobuyuki Tanaka

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
SNK Neo-Geo CD (1996)

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=4234&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=jjsquawk,jjsquawkb,jjsquawkb2,jjsquawko
Arcade Video game published 30 years ago:

J.J. Squawkers (c) 1993 Athena / Able.

J.J. Squarkers is a scrolling run 'n' gun platform shoot-em-up for one or two players in which several residents from the peaceful village if Pistachio have been kidnapped. Most of the remaining villagers have fallen under a mysterious spell, making them violent. Players take on the roles of two ducks called 'Ani Karasukun' and 'Ototo Karasukun' who set out to defeat the enemy minions and restore peace to their village. 

The ducks can fire projectiles to defeat the abstract enemies they face, with their default weapon being tomatoes. Other weapons - as well as bonus and health power-ups - become available when certain enemies are killed. Available weapons include pumpkins, watermelon seeds, screws and slinkys wearing red sneakers. 

Each weapon has different strengths and weaknesses; for example the slinkys simply walk in a straight line until they either meet obstacles or the edge of screen, making it easy to deal with enemies from a distance. On the other hand, watermelon seeds can only be thrown a short distance but several are thrown at once. This effectively gives players a 'spread shot' and is more effective when multiple enemies are attacking from several directions at once.

J.J. Squarkers consists of five stages with a powerful end-of-level guardian waiting at the end of each.

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 16 Mhz)
Sound Chips : X1-010 (@ 16 Mhz)

Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2

- TRIVIA -

Released in December 1993.

A Hack of this game is known as "Simpson Junior".

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=1208&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=jyangoku
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 24 years ago:

Jangokushi - Haou no Saihai (c) 1999 Capcom.

A mahjong game from Capcom.

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 11.8 Mhz), Zilog Z80 (@ 8 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Q-Sound (@ 4 Mhz)

Players : 2
Buttons : 6

- TRIVIA -

Jangokushi Haou no Saihai was released in May 1999

The title of this game translates from Japanese as 'Jong Countries' Intentions - Supreme Ruler's Dice and Tiles'.

The title 'Jangokushi' is a pun on 'Sangokushi', the saga of the Three Kingdoms, which this game is based on.

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=8456&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=choko
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 22 years ago:

Jong Pai Puzzle Choko (c) 2001 Mitchell Corp.

An adult shanghai game from Mitchell. The objective is to clear the board of matching tiles before the timer runs out.

Each level consists a board with two or more columns of tiles and walls slowly moving toward the center of the board.  Every time a matching pair of tiles is cleared from the board the two columns momentarily shift away from the center. The game is lost if the opposing columns of tiles run into each other or into the wall. In order to legally remove matching tiles no walls or other tiles can be in a path with two or fewer bends between the matching tiles. Once per stage, the player can request help and the two columns will shift to their starting positions and matching tiles will be highlighted for a short time. If the player cannot legally remove any more tiles then the board is 'deadlocked', and the game is lost.

If the player clears the board before the timer runs out, the background girl will change into a more revealing state of undress and this new image of her will be the background for the next stage.  If the timer reaches zero the player can still attempt to clear the board but the background image will not change.  The game features four girls with two background images each and a topless image that is revealed after defeating the girl's second stage within the time limit. 
If the game is lost, upon continuing the player may select to attempt to clear the same board or try a new board of tiles.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Board: Green (Japan)

Players: Up yo 2.
Control: 8-way Joystick per player.
Buttons: 6 per player.

- TRIVIA -

Jong Pai Puzzle Choko was released in August 2001 in Japan only. It was known as the 37th game released for the CPS-II hardware.

The title translates from Japanese as 'Yangtze River Mahjong Tile Puzzle'. The kanji 'Choko' is the Japanese name of the Chinese Yangtze River.

- STAFF -

Concept Designer : Akihiro Akaishi
Planner : Futoshi Kuwahara, Satoru Tsujita
Programmer : Kaname Wada, Shigeru Komiya
Graphic Designer Object : Eiko Kato, Kazue Matsunaga, TTO
Graphic Designer Scroll : Satoshi Ida, Sachiko Shibuya, Hiroshi Katayama
Sound BGM Composer : Takafumi Wada, Takashi Kouga, Tomoyuki Takano
Sound SE Designer : Shin Yamazaki
Executive Producer : Roy Ozaki, Koichi Niida

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=joyjoy

Joy Joy Kid (c) 1990 SNK.

Two cute little kids need you to help rescue their villages. Their way is blocked by rows of blocks. Destroy the rows of blocks and help them reach the head God so their villages can be saved.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID : NGM-021

[SNK MVS Neo-Geo Controls]
2 players - 4 buttons per player (2 usables).
=> [Joystick] 8-way, [A] Turn block, [B] Use L-Ball

- TRIVIA -

Joy Joy Kid was released in November 1990 in Japan.

This game is known outside Japan as Puzzled.

- SCORING -

Each row of blocks : 100 points
Finishing of each screen : 1,000 (1st set) to 10,000 (12th set)

- STAFF -

Producer : Eikichi Kawasaki
Planner : CHP Nakata
Programmer : Nishidon (Nishido~N)
Designers : N-Chyuing Born, Komura, Burio Egresias, Sankoh Chokkyu, Shimachan -PU-
Sound : Jojoha Kitapy (Jojoha Kitamura)
Special Thanks : Hiroshi Matsumoto, Higashi Pon (Higashi Pon MK-2)

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo AES (jul.1, 1991, "Joy Joy Kid [Model NGH-021]")
[US] SNK Neo-Geo AES (jul.1, 1991, "Puzzled [Model NGH-021]")
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo CD (sept.9, 1994, "Joy Joy Kid [Model NGCD-021]")
[US] SNK Neo-Geo CD (1994, "Puzzled [Model NGCD-021E]")
Nintendo Wii [Virtual Console] [JP] (june.14, 2011)

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=2089&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=jumping,jumpinga,jumpingi
Arcade Video game published 34 years ago:

Jumping (c) 1989 Seyutu Electronics.

Bootleg of "Rainbow Islands - The Story of Bubble Bobble 2".

The main character has been redrawn, as well as the rainbow, the title screen and several other things.

The sound is slightly different because this bootleg board uses two YM2203 sound processors, while the original game uses a single YM2151.

- TRIVIA -

Bugs : the bootleggers didn't defeat the protection completely : secret rooms are broken, some dying enemy sprites have obviously wrong graphics, monsters are falling through platforms etc.

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=1239&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=jumppop,jumppope
Arcade Video game published 22 years ago:

Jumping Pop (c) 2001 ESD [Excellent Soft Design].

The object of the game is to defeat the monsters by sucking them into your vacuum. Once the monsters are inside your vacuum, they can then be used to fire outward at other monsters. But beware - if you keep the monsters inside your vacuum for too long it will explode.

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 16 Mhz)
Sound CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 3.5 Mhz)
Sound Chips : YM3812 (@ 3.5 Mhz), OKI6295 (@ 6.628 Khz)

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2

- TRIVIA -

Jumping Pop was released in June 2001.

This game appears to be a hack of "Tumble Pop" by Data East. Many of the game's sprites exist including the protagonists. The backgrounds are replaced with pictures of girls.

- SCORING -

Power Up : ???
Speed Up : ???
Barrier : ???
Plasma Gun : ???
Hyper Cleaner : ???
Alphabet : ???
1UP : ???
Rainbow Crystal : ???
Coin : ???
Big Coin : ???
Money : ???
Big Money : ???
Ruby : ???
Big Ruby : ???
Diamond : ???
Big Diamond : ???

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=3459&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=kageki,kagekij,kagekih,kagekiu
Arcade Video game published 35 years ago:

火激 (c) 1988 Taito.
(Kageki)

A rather silly 1-on-1 beat-'em-up style affair against various gang members.

- TECHNICAL -

Board Number : M6100309B
Prom Stickers : B35

Main CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 6 Mhz), Zilog Z80 (@ 4 Mhz)
Sound Chips : YM2203 (@ 3 Mhz), Samples (@ 3 Mhz)

Screen orientation : Vertical
Video resolution : 224 x 256 pixels
Screen refresh : 60.00 Hz
Palette colors : 512

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2

- TRIVIA -

Released in April 1988.

The title of this game translates from Japanese as 'Extreme'.

Developed by Kaneko.
Licensed to Romstar for US manufacture and distribution (03/1988).

- STAFF -

Game designer / Director : Hiroshi Kaneko
Production supervisor : H. Kikuchi
Project leader : K. Oikawa
Project sub leader : Hiromi Mikami
Programmers : K. Oikawa, H. Saigusa, N. Narita, T. Katoh
Graphic supervisor : M. Oikawa
Graphic designers : T. Tajima, Kazuhiro Fujimoto, K. Matsuoka, A. Funatsu, A. Kuratani, T. Okimoto, K. Awato, M. Ichikawa
Sound supervisor : Tatsuya Watanabe
Sound editer : S. Aizu
Hard designer : H. Nagayoshi
Rom editers : T. Hamada, H. Hamada, S. Igarashi, Y. Yamauchi

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
Sega Mega Drive (1991)

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=1248&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=kaiserkn,kaiserknj
Taito F3 cart. published 29 years ago:

Kaiser Knuckle (c) 1994 Taito.

A one-on-one fighting game featuring nine selectable characters and three end bosses, controlled with a single joystick and six buttons. In addition to the usual kicks and punches, each character also has a number of special moves, that can be utilized via complex joystick and button combinations. In the one player game, players can chose their first opponent, with subsequent opponents chosen randomly by the game.

Unusually for a game of this type, Kaiser Knuckle features blood; something that had hitherto only been associated with Midway's "Mortal Kombat" series. The blood option can be switched off in the game's dip settings.

Kaiser Knuckle was Taito's answer to Capcom's Street Fighter II during the fighting game trend of the 90s. Despite showing highly detailed and unique content in the arcades, it didn't catch enough attention to become a success and was never ported to home consoles.

A unique feature is that this was the first and only fighting game to feature five different strength for basic punches and kicks.

Another unique feature are power zones, these are activated when landing a special move when a character's Power (Crush in the Japanese version) meter is full. Power zones contain electricity or fire that can help improve a character's special move. Stage backgrounds can also be destroyed by the combat, getting hit fills the Power meter and when a special move connects when it is full, it greatly damages the background walls and can unlock the fire or electric zones found in levels.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "Taito F3 System" Hardware.

Prom Stickers : D84

Players : 2
Control : dial
Buttons : 6 (Weak Punch, Medium Punch, Strong Punch, Weak Kick, Medium Kick, Strong Kick)

- TRIVIA -

Kaiser Knuckle was released in July 1994 in Japan.

This game was known in US as "Global Champion".

An updated prototype of this game is known to exists as "Dan-Ku-Ga". The project was cancelled.

- STAFF -

Image Illustrator : Nobuteru Yuki
Project Leader : Takeshi Kobori
Planners : Takeshi Kobori, Hiromi Mikami, Yuji Sakamoto, Hiroshi Aoki
Main Character Designers : Yuji Sakamoto, Takeshi Kobori
Character Designers : Hiroto Nizato, Hiromi Mikami, Atsushi Iwata, Shinichi Arai, Makoto Fujita, Horitaka Kawamoto, Takayuki Isobe, Shin Tanaka, Shinjiro Sugitani, Seiji Kawakami, Kazuhiro Numata, Yukiwo Ishikawa (Yukio Abe), Nobuhiro Hiramatsu, Hiroyo Kujirai, Tomohisa Yamashita, Tsuyoshi Tanigawa, Hideyuki Kato, Keisuke Nishioka, Tatsuya Ushiroda, Hiroshi Nishida
Assistants : Peacock, Production IG, Vap
Main Programmer: Hiroshi Aoki
Programmers : Kosuke Usami, Kumi Tsuchiya, Tatsuo Nakamura, Isao Oyama
Music Composer : Yasuhisa Watanabe (Zuntata)
Sound Effect Designer : Katsuhisa Ishikawa (Zuntata)
Recording Engineer : Munehiro Nakanishi (Zuntata)
System Engineers : Katsumi Kaneoka, Hironobu Suzuki
Designers : Kumi Mizobe, Takeshi Kobori
Mechanic engineer : Koichi Otsu

* CAST :
Kazuya : Kazuki Yao
Barts : Ryutaro Okiayu
Lihua : Saeko Shimazu
Liza : Aya Hisakawa
Gekkou : Hideo Ishikawa
J-McCoy : Kazunari Tanaka
Wulong : Yasushi Horibata
Marco : Ichiro Otowa
Boggy : Andrew Holms
Gonzales : Hisao Egawa
Azteca : Ryu Kuzu
General : Steve Yamashita
Narrator : Randy Sexton

Special Thanks : Yoshihisa Nagata, Yuji Iwasaki, Minoru Masuyama, Yasuo Tsumori, Tsukasa Oshima, Akira Kurayabashi, Tatsuhiko Abe, Kenji Nakatsuka, Makoto Tanaka, Takao Kawashima, Koichi Morita, S.Yamakata, VG Kumagaya R&D, VG Tokyo R&D, VG Osaka R&D, Taito America, Taito Europe, Ebina Factory

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=karnovr

Karnov's Revenge (c) 1994 Data East Corp.

The quest to defeat the mysterious Baron of Battlers, the mysterious "K", is on. In order to get to this grotesque gladiator, you need to fight your way through 13 with the most skilled, most deadly of all combatants in the world of physical contact. Use your powers of pulverization, psychic energy blasts, and ridiculous strength to become the explosive fighting god in FIGHTER'S HISTORY DYNAMITE!!!

Don't just participate in history, MAKE IT! The sequel of the first "Fighter's History", this time ported in the Neo Geo MVS Hardware. In this new version of the original game several changes and improvements were made to enhance the gameplay: now the battles are faster and more technical, with the usual friendly combo system that makes the fight so spectacular. There are also some powerful hidden moves added for most of the characters. Even the graphic was slightly enhanced, with a nice color palette and some wonderful backgrounds (especially Zazie's).

The game actually suffered from the reputation to be a 'SFII clone' given by the general opinion from the first episode. Thanks to this new chapter of the saga, which was particularly appreciated by the Neo Geo fans because it is one of the rare 'SFII style' beat'em ups on the Neo Geo this changed.

A really nice and classical beat'em up, still worthy to be played, especially for the real fans of the 2-D beat'em up.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID : NGM-066

[SNK MVS Neo-Geo Controls]
2 Players - 4 Buttons Per Player.
=>[Joystick] 8-Way, [A] Fast Punch [B] Strong Punch [C] Fast Kick [D] Strong Kick

- TRIVIA -

Karnov's Revenge was released March 17, 1994. An important fact about this game is that it's the third Data East game to be manufactured on the Neo-Geo hardware.

This game is known in Japan and USA as "Fighter's History Dynamite" while in Europe as Karnov's Revenge.

New features and changes of the game:
* The controls discard the six button system of the first episode for the typical four buttons of the Neo Geo pad. In this way, the middle punch and middle kick attack are no longer available.
* New stages for every character and new background music.
* The portrait of every character was retouched a bit. Especially, the portraits of FeiLin and Karnov were both redrawn.
* New color schemes for the alternative suit's color of every character. However, the standard suit color of all the characters is still the same as that of the first Fighter's History episode.
* New vocal samples for every characters, except for Clown, Karnov and Mizoguchi: however, for Mizoguchi new samples for the win poses and a new 'scream of defeat' was added (in the first Fighter's History, when Mizoguchi lost, she emitted the generic KO sample shared with other characters).
* The in-game sprites of every character were retouched slightly in some determinate frames. 
* The design of Karnov was redrawn from the first episode.
* Faster gameplay. 
* New moves and new tricks for every character.
* New endings for every character. Even Clown and Karnov now have their own ending sequence.

The stage of Marstorius takes place in a ring placed inside the Colosseum of Rome.

The three children in the middle of the Samchay's stage are the two little brothers and sister of Samchay.

The extra round against the bull named 'Ox' (see TIPS AND TRICKS section to learn more) is a retrieval to the similar bonus game in "Karate Champ" (one of the first fighting games of the history, developed by same Data East on 1984).

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Fighter's History Dynamite & Flying Power Disc - PCCB-00149) on March 18, 1994.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Karnov's Revenge introduced 'one-two attacks' to the series. Players can press a Strong attack button while connecting with a Weak attack button to chain the attacks into themselves.

The following special moves aren't listed in the instruction manual. These secret moves aren't super moves, just hidden special moves with less obvious motions. Samchay, Clown, and Karnov do not have these moves. Here's a quick legend: U=Up, D=Down, B=Back, F=Forward, DF=Down/Forward, and so on. A=Button A (LP), B=Button B (HP), C=Button C (LK), D=Button D (HK). Charge=Hold listed direction for 2 or more seconds

RAY
Thunder Dynamite Tackle: Charge B, F, F + A or B (Initial backward charge is longer than normal)

FEILIN
Kakkou HakkakuSoubiKen: Charge D, DB, DF, F, UF + A or B (can also be charged with DB, but may not come out as often, slides through projectiles)

RYOKO
KataGuruma: F, UF, U, UB, B + A or B (perform near opponent, may be done back to forward or forward to back regardless of facing left or right, doesn't damage opponent but sets them up for juggle combos)

MATLOK
Loop Hurricane: Charge D, U + C and D (tap C+D to maintain spin, can move left or right)

LEE
MouKo Kouhazan: B, F, DB, DF + A and B (destroys projectiles)

MIZOGUCHI
Shotensai: B, DB, D + A, B, C and D (press all four buttons simultaneously, perform close to your opponent)

JEAN
Rodanto: Charge F, D, DB, B + C or D (can be charged with DF)

MARSTORIUS
Drill Power Slam: F, UF, U, UB, B + A or B (may be done back to forward or forward to back regardless of facing left or right)

YUNGMIE
Fire Kick: Tap A and C repeatedly (can then move left and right)

ZAZIE
Deshikakato: U, D + C or D

* Beat the game without using a continue to see all the characters in chibi form grouped together during the credits. 

* If you beat the game without losing a single round you'll get an extra secret fight against a bull (Ox).

* Weak Points: The Weak Points and the relates dizzy system remained the same of the first episode. Thus, heavy hits will flash the weak point (determinate part of the suit of the character) and after a while further hits taken will make fly away the weak point with a BOING! sound and the character will get dizzy. Here is the list of weak point for all the characters of the game...
Ray : lightning (on shirt) 
Feilin : breastplate
Ryoko : headband
Matlock : headgear
Lee : knees
Mizoguchi : headband
Jean : leg band
Marstorius : leg warmers
Yungmie : waistband
Zazie : headband 
Clown : mask
Karnov : necklace
Ox (bull) : horns

- SERIES -

1. Fighter's History (1993, Arcade) 
2. Karnov's Revenge [Model NGM-066] (1994, Arcade) 
3. Fighter's History - Mizoguchi Kikiippatsu!! [Model SHVC-AF3J-JPN] (1995, Super Famicom)

- STAFF -

Project Leader : Min
Planners : Shintoku, Nod Suzuki
Software Designers : Min, Hal, Nod Suzuki
Graphic Designers : Shintoku, Mori 2, Oguri, Kazumi, Yoshinari Kaihou, Chie Kitahara, Masateru Inagaki (072Inagaki), Yuzuru Tsukahara, Hiroki Narisawa, Yasuko Kurohiji, Seiji Satoh, Gashima, H. Shibahara, Koji Tomura
Sound Composers : Seiichi Hamada (Atomic), Tomoyoshi Sato (Tom), Seilah, Masaaki Iwasaka (Koremasa), Shogo
Special Thanks To : Hiroaki Yoshida (Maro), Steve Miller, E. Kariya, M. Andoh, A. Taya, Ichikawa, Murata, Takatoshi Katahata

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo AES (apr.28, 1994) "Fighter's History Dynamite [Model NGH-066]" 
[US] SNK Neo-Geo AES (apr.28, 1994) "Fighter's History Dynamite [Model NGH-066]" 
SNK Neo-Geo [EU] (apr.28, 1994) "Karnov's Revenge [Model NGH-066]" 
[US] SNK Neo-Geo CD [JP] (dec.22, 1994) "Fighter's History Dynamite [Model DECD-003]" 
[JP] Sega Saturn (jul.4, 1997) "Fighter's History Dynamite [Model GS-9107]" 
[JP] Sega Saturn (jul.4, 1997) "Fighter's History Dynamite [Model GS-9153]" : with 1MB RAM Cart 
[MX] Zeebo [BR] (apr.16, 2010)
Nintendo Wii [Virtual Console] [JP] (june.8, 2010) "Fighter's History Dynamite" 
Nintendo Wii [Virtual Console] [US] (dec.3, 2010) "Fighter's History Dynamite" 
Nintendo Wii [Virtual Console] [EU] (dec.27, 2010) "Karnov's Revenge"

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=1264&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=kicknrun
Arcade Video game published 37 years ago:

Kick and Run (c) 1986 Taito Corp.

A soccer game from Taito.

- TECHNICAL -

Prom Stickers : A87

Main CPU : (3x) Z80, Motorola M68705
Sound Chips : YM2203

Players: 4
Control: 8-way joystick
Buttons: 2

- TRIVIA -

Kick and Run was released in November 1986.

The spelling of 'Argentina' is wrong, it is spelt 'Argentine' (this is the French word for Argentina).

- STAFF -

Programmer : Takeshi Ishizashi

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
Nintendo Famicom Disk [JP] (sept.13, 1988) "Kick and Run [TFD-KIC]" 
[JP] Sony PS2 (jan.25, 2007) "Taito Memories II Joukan [Model SLPM-66649]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=1266&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=kickoff
Arcade Video game published 35 years ago:

Kick Off - Jaleco Cup (c) 1988 Jaleco.

A soccer game from Jaleco.

- TECHNICAL -

Jaleco Mega System 1-A hardware

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 12 Mhz)
Sound CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 7 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Yamaha YM2151 (@ 3.5 Mhz), (2x) OKI6295 (@ 30.303 Khz)

Screen orientation : Horizontal
Video resolution : 256 x 224 pixels
Screen refresh : 60.00 Hz
Palette colors : 1024

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2

- TRIVIA -

Released in June 1988.

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=kikikai
Arcade Video game published 37 years ago:

奇々怪界 (c) 1986 Taito Corp.
(KiKi KaiKai)

Priestess Sayo-chan must repel ghosts in order to rescue Seven Lucky Gods!

The Seven Lucky Gods have been kidnapped by giant ghosts. Armed with talismans and a purification rod, Sayo-Chan must travel to the ghost village and defeat the enemies who are determined to stop her rescuing the Gods.

- TECHNICAL -

Prom Stickers : A85

Main CPU : (2x) Zilog Z80 (@ 6 Mhz), Motorola M68705 (@ 2 Mhz)
Sound Chips : YM2203 (@ 3 Mhz)

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2

- TRIVIA -

KiKi KaiKai was released in October 1986.

The title of this game translates from Japanese as 'Strange Old Story of Mystery World'.

The main character is actually a Shinto priestess (as is Miko from "Tengai"). Her main weapons are 'o-fuda', which are talismans that she shoots. She also has a purification rod that she uses to swipe at enemies up close.

A pirate version if known as "Knight Boy".

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Secret characters : when 'Game Over' screen appears, hold UP key until the screen change. The bear (kuma) and the valley (tani) should appear on the title screen. It means that this game have been developed by Taito Kumagaya (kuma + tani) Laboratory. And if you start the game when these characters are displayed,  on life is added to your play (3 by default, the game should start with 4 lives).

* Wave a flag at a lamp post with a red orb inside it and you will get a powerup.

* There are several types of letters or messages  :
White - increase range
Red - increse firepower
Yellow - big letters

* You can also pick up 'eggs' along the way. These eggs are activated by hitting fire & flag at the same time.
Blue - freezes all monsters for a given period of time, also those off screen.
Yellow - kill everything on screen.

* The 'gremlins' don't kill you but they slow you down. You can lose them by running around a lamppost.

- SERIES -

1. KiKi KaiKai (1986, Arcade)
2. Kiki KaiKai - Nazo no Kuro Manteau [Model SHVC-KK] (1992, Super Famicom)
3. Kiki KaiKai - Tsukiyo Soushi [Model SHVC-3N] (1994, Super Famicom)
4. Kiki KaiKai Advance [Model AGB-AKIJ-JPN] (2001, GBA)

- STAFF -

Author : Hisaya Yabusaki
Programmer : Kazutomo Ishida, Daisuke Sasaki
Character Designer : Nenko Nishimura, Kazuya Mikata
Sound Effector : Naoto Yagishita
Music Composer : Hisayoshi Ogura
Director : Mikio Hatano

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
Nintendo Famicom Disk System [JP] (aug.28, 1987) "Kiki KaiKai - Dotou Hen [Model TFD-KIK]" 
[JP] NEC PC-Engine (mar.27, 1990) "KiKi KaiKai [Model TP02009]" 
[JP] Sony PS2 (jul.28, 2005) "Taito Memories Joukan [Model SLPM-66057]" 
Sony PlayStation 2 [AU] (mar.30, 2006) "Taito Legends 2 [Model SLES-53852]" 
[EU] Microsoft XBOX (mar.31, 2006) "Taito Legends 2" 
[EU] Sony PS2 (mar.31, 2006) "Taito Legends 2 [Model SLES-53852]" 
[US] Sony PS2 (may.16, 2007) "Taito Legends 2 [Model SLUS-21349]" 
[JP] Sony PS4 [PSN] (jul.15, 2016) "Arcade Archives - KiKi KaiKai [Model CUSA-03709]" 
Sony PlayStation 4 [PSN] [US] (sept.14, 2016) "Arcade Archives - KiKi KaiKai [Model CUSA-03721]" 

* HANDHELDS: 
Sony PSP [AS] (jan.3, 2006) "Taito Memories Pocket [Model UCAS-40040]" 
[JP] Sony PSP (jan.5, 2006) "Taito Memories Pocket [Model ULJM-05076]" 
Sony PSP [KO] (feb.10, 2006) "Taito Memories Pocket" 
[EU] Sony PSP (oct.6, 2006) "Taito Legends Power-Up [Model ULES-00473]" 
[AU] Sony PSP (nov.9, 2006) "Taito Legends Power-Up [Model ULES-00473]" 
[US] Sony PSP (may.17, 2007) "Taito Legends Power-Up [Model ULUS-10208]" 

* COMPUTERS: 
[EU] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (mar.31, 2006) "Taito Legends 2" 
[US] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (jul.10, 2007) "Taito Legends 2" 
[JP] MSX (feb.10, 1987)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=kotm2,kotm2p,kotm2a

King of the Monsters 2 - The Next Thing (c) 1992 SNK.

This sequel adds a few new elements such as small, annoying enemies on the battlefield in addition to the main foe in each stage.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID: NGM-039

[SNK MVS Neo-Geo Controls]
2 Players - 4 Buttons Per Player (3 Usables).
=> [Joystick] 8-Way, [A] Punch [B] Kick [C] Jump

- TRIVIA -

King of the Monsters 2 was released on May 25, 1992.

- SERIES -

1. King of the Monsters [Model NGM-016] (1991)
2. King of the Monsters 2 - The Next Thing [Model NGM-039] (1992)

- STAFF -

Planner & Director : Hamachi Papa
Chief Designer : Mitsuzo (Mitsuzou)
Main Character Designers : Abe, Taka, Pan, Ponda, Ahokamen
Main Scroll Designers : Sakai Goma, Manoru
Sub Designers : Kilitao, Bob Fukumizu
Main Programmer : Magi2
Sub Programmers : Hiroshi & Tadashi, Nishiura, Cyber Kondo, Atomic Abe
Music Designers : Tarkun, Toshio Shimizm (Shimizum), Jojoha Kitapy, Team C2H5OH
Producer : Kawano
Executive Producer : Eikichi Kawasaki

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo AES (june.19, 1992; "King of the Monsters 2 - The Next Thing [Model NGH-039]")
[US] SNK Neo-Geo AES (june.19, 1992; "King of the Monsters 2 - The Next Thing [Model NGH-039]")
[JP] Nintendo Super Famicom (dec.22, 1993; "King of the Monsters 2 - The Next Thing [Model SHVC-KT]")
Nintendo Super NES [US] (june.??, 1994; "King of the Monsters 2 [Model SNS-A7SE]")
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo CD (sept.9, 1994; "King of the Monsters 2 - The Next Thing [Model NGCD-039]")
[US] Sega Genesis (??? ??, 1994; "King of the Monsters 2 [Model T-103056]")
Nintendo Wii [Virtual Console] [JP] (apr.12, 2011)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=kotmh

King of the Monsters (c) 1991 SNK [Shin Nihon Kikaku]

- TECHNICAL -

[Model NGH-016]
55 Mega

- TRIVIA -

This AES version was released on July 1, 1991 in Japan and United States of America (5 months after the MVS release).

For more information about the game itself, please go to the original MVS entry: "King of the Monsters [Model NGM-016]".

Reviews:
November 1991 - Consoles + N.2 [FR]: 91/100

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=kotm

King of the Monsters (c) 1991 SNK.

If "Rampage" were a beat-'em-up and set in Japan, it would be King of the Monsters. Destroy the city while destroying your opponent!

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID : NGM-016

[SNK MVS Neo-Geo Controls]
2 Players - 4 buttons per player (3 usables).
=> [Joystick] 8-way, [A] Punch [B] Kick [C] Run

- TRIVIA -

Released in February 1991.

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (King of the Monsters / Quiz Daisousasen - G.S.M. 1500 / PCCB-00072) on 21/09/1991.

- SERIES -

1. King of the Monsters [Model NGM-016] (1991)
2. King of the Monsters 2 - The Next Thing [Model NGM-039] (1992)

- STAFF -

Producer & Director : Hamachi Papa
Chiff designer : Mitsuzo
Main designer : Tomomi
Background designers : Taka, Sakai
Character designers : Joe Toshiaki, Cagamaru, Yu-Zo, Y-Tick, Fuziki Boke
Main programmer : Makoto
Assistant programmer : Yamatan
Sound creaters : Tarukun, Konny, Ten6 Jaguars

Special thanks : Y. Ebara, H. Tanaka, M. Yokoyama, Yoko Hiro

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo AES (jul.1, 1991; "King of the Monsters [Model NGH-016]")
[JP] Nintendo Super Famicom (jul.31, 1992; "King of the Monsters [Model SHVC-KM]")
[JP] Sega Mega Drive (Nov. 26, 1993; "King of the Monsters [Model G-4104]")
[US] Sony PS2 may.05, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model SLUS-21724]"
[US] Sony PSP may.05, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model ULUS-10338]"
[KO] Sony PS2 may.29, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model SLKA-25424]"
[US] Nintendo Wii jul.29, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model RVL-P-RNCE]"
[EU] Sony PSP Oct. 17, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model ULES-01105]"
[EU] Nintendo Wii Oct. 31, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model RVL-P-RJZP]"
[EU] Sony PS2 Nov. 21, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model SLES-55232]"
[JP] Sony PSP May. 21, 2009 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model ULJS-193]"

* COMPUTERS:
PC (2000)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=kingdmgp
Arcade Video game published 29 years ago:

Kingdom Grandprix (c) 1994 Eighting / Raizing.

Export release. Game developed in Japan. See the original for more information; "Shippuu Mahou Daisakusen - Kingdom-Grandprix".

- TRIVIA -

Released in September 1994.

- SERIES -

1. Sorcer Striker (1993)
2. Kingdom Grandprix (1994)
3. Dimahoo [Blue Board] (2000)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=knightb
Arcade Video game:

Knight Boy (c) 198? Unknown..

Pirate version of "Kiki KaiKai".

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=knightsja
Arcade Video game published 32 years ago:

Knights of the Round (c) 1991 Capcom Company, Limited.

Knights of the Round is a horizontally-scrolling beat-em-up based loosely on the legend of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. Arthur, after training to become a knight, pulled the sacred sword of Excalibur from the rock. He then new that his destiny was to become the first King of the Britons and Merlin sends Arthur and his two closest companions, Lancelot and Perceval, to overthrow the evil king Garibaldi and to unite England.

Knights of the Round features role-playing elements in the form of its level advancement system, with fighters automatically being upgraded to new weapons and armour as they advance through the game. There are seven stages, each with its own boss and a variety of generic enemies that try to stop the players' progress. 

Success in combat relies strongly on players' blocking ability, which is triggered by pressing the ATTACK button then pressing the joystick BACK as the opponent strikes. If successful, the player gains a few seconds of invincibility in which to counter-attack. However, if no enemy strikes the player-character while they're blocking, they will tire and drop their guard, making them vulnerable to attack. Blocking is vital in certain cases, since some bosses will only be vulnerable after their attack has been blocked by the player.

Players can perform a desperation attack by pressing both the ATTACK and JUMP buttons simultaneously. This strikes multiple enemies but player-characters lose some health every time they use it. At various points in the game the players get to ride a horse, enabling them to attack enemies from horseback. Horses can stamp on enemies by pressing the joystick FORWARDS twice. On occasion, enemy characters and bosses also ride horses.

HEROES

* Arthur - The main protagonist, Arthur is a well-balanced character in both speed and power. His weapon is Excalibur. He can perform a special attack - a powerful slashing blow - by pressing ATTACK then holding the joystick TOWARDS the enemy. Initially, Arthur wears chain-mail and leather armour. After levelling-up, Excalibur becomes stronger and he eventually gets better armour. Arthur is also the most powerful character when on horseback.
    
* Lancelot - A talented swordsman, Lancelot is the fastest character but lacks strength. His special attack is the jumping kick, achieved by pressing ATTACK then holding the joystick UP. Lancelot's weapon is a sabre. Lancelot starts out wearing a blue tabard with a yellow cross. After levelling-up, he gains plate armour and a broader sabre.
    
* Perceval - The son of a blacksmith, Perceval is the strongest character but lacks agility. He is the only character who can dash by tapping the joystick forward twice, cancelled into a "Giant Swing" by pressing the ATTACK button while dashing. At first, Perceval has blond hair and light armour. After levelling-up, Perceval eventually becomes bald with a beard and gains heavier armour.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System" hardware.
B-Board #: 89625B-1

Players: Up to 3 simultaneous
Control per player: 8-Way Joystick
Buttons per player: 2
=> [1] Attack, [2] Jump

- TRIVIA -

Knights of the Round was released in November 1991 in the Japanese arcades. It was known there as the 18th video game made for the CP-S system.

Knights of the Round is based on the story of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. 

Len Hanley holds the official record for this game with 431,450 points.

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Varth : G.S.M Capcom 6 - PCCB-00110) on February 19, 1993.

Known re-release: "Knights of the Round [B-Board 91634B-2]"
Known Export release: "Knights of the Round [B-Board 91635B-2]"

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

Earning Extra Lives : In Stage 2, lose 1 life against boss. Beat him. When you come to the 3rd stage, don't break the barricades, just wait. First kill the Fat-Man and the Soldier. 
Warning : If you launch a desperation attack (attack+jump), all the effort will be lost. 
Then wait until the Bird Man comes run against you. Hit him with a strong strike (Push front+punch). Don't hit him while is recovering. Wait until he runs to you again and make the same. you can kill him after 3 strikes (unless with Lancelot). 
If you're done correctly, hit the barricade of the above, don't pick the food, try to turn apart it, and you'll get a surprise... a chess piece with 2 lives (2Up) waiting for you. 
If you kill the second Bird-Man in the same way, the second item in the barricade will give you 1 more level (green sceptre). 
If you remember, a 3rd Bird-Man gets into the castle when you break the bridge's barricade. Do the same trick with him inside, break the down barricade, break the item and you'll get one more life (1Up).

- STAFF -

Game Designers : Boyoyon, Hachi, K. Suke, Nis 7
Music Sound : Isao Abe (Oyaji)
Programmers : Ayrton Tsuna !!, Hero Hero, Cky
Object Designers : Ikusan Z, Tanuki, Imomushi, Jun Matsumura (Jun), Sho
Scroll Designers : Fukumoyan, Pooh!, Kyochan, Marchan

- PORTS -

Here is a list of Japanese ports. For ports released in other regions, please see the Export version entry; "Knights of the Round [B-Board 91635B-2]"

* CONSOLES: 
[JP] Nintendo Super Famicom (june.10, 1994) "Knights of the Round [Model SHVC-LO]" 

* HANDHELDS: 
[JP] Sony PSP (sept.7, 2006) "Capcom Classics Collection [Model ULJM-05104]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=knightsj
Arcade Video game published 32 years ago:

Knights of the Round (c) 1991 Capcom Company, Limited.

Japanese re-release. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese release entry; "Knights of the Round [B-Board 89625B-1]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System" hardware.
B-Board #: 91634B-2

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=69765&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=knights,knightsu,knightsb,knightsb2,knightsb3
Arcade Video game published 32 years ago:

Knights of the Round (c) 1991 Capcom Company, Limited.

Export release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese release entry; "Knights of the Round [B-Board 89625B-1]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System" hardware.
B-Board #: 91635B-2

- PORTS -

Here is a list of ports released outside Japan. To see Japanese ports, please see the original Japanese version entry; "Knights of the Round [B-Board 89625B-1]"

* CONSOLES: 
[EU] Nintendo SNES (1994) "Knights of the Round [Model SNSP-LO-EUR]" 
[US] Nintendo SNES (apr.1994) "Knights of the Round [Model SNS-LO-USA]" 
[US] Microsoft XBOX (nov.24, 2006) "Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 2" 
[US] Sony PS2 (nov.24, 2006) "Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 2 [Model SLUS-21473]" 
Sony PlayStation 2 [AU] (apr.11, 2007) "Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 2 [Model SLES-54561]" 
[EU] Sony PS2 (apr.13, 2007) "Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 2 [Model SLES-54561]" 

* HANDHELDS: 
[US] Sony PSP (oct.24, 2006) "Capcom Classics Collection Reloaded [Model ULUS-10134]" 
[EU] Sony PSP (nov.10, 2006) "Capcom Classics Collection Reloaded [Model ULES-00377]" 
[AU] Sony PSP (nov.16, 2006) "Capcom Classics Collection Reloaded"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=kbash2
Arcade Video game published 24 years ago:

Knuckle Bash 2 (c) 1999 Unknown manufacturer.

This bootleg of the Toaplan original game, Knuckle Bash:
* Does not run on the YM2151 sound hardware but on an OKI6295.
* Has a different title screen.
* Levels are in different order.
* The football player is selectable from the very beginning.

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=kbash,kbashk,kbashp
Arcade Video game published 30 years ago:

Knuckle Bash (c) 1993 Toaplan Company, Limited.

3 wacky characters go after the Bulls and others who would dare threaten the peace of the city!

- TECHNICAL -

Game ID : TP-023

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 16 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Yamaha YM2151 (@ 3.375 Mhz), OKI6295 (@ 7.575 Khz)

Control per player: 8-way joystick
Buttons per player: 3

- TRIVIA -

Knuckle Bash was released in May 1993.

Licensed to Atari Games for European and North American distribution.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Hidden Functions : If the 'Invulnerability dip switch' is enabled, you are invulnerable but you may also 'Pause' the game with P2 Start and restart with P1 Start.

- SERIES -

1. Knuckle Bash (1993)
2. Knuckle Bash 2 (1999)

- STAFF -

Designer : Junya Inoue

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=1306&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=eto
Arcade Video game published 29 years ago:

Kokontouzai Eto Monogatari - Neko Datte Eto no Nakama ni Naritakatta (c) 1994 Visco.

Place up to 3 blocks of the same colour, horizontally, vertically or in an 'L' shape which can be done in any direction.

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 8 Mhz), Zilog Z80 (@ 4 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Yamaha YM2151 (@ 4 Mhz)

Screen orientation : Horizontal
Video resolution : 320 x 240 pixels
Screen refresh : 60.00 Hz
Palette Colors : 4096

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2

- TRIVIA -

Released in May 1994.

The title of this game translates from Japanese as 'Once Upon A Time Chinese Zodiac Story - The Cat Who Wanted To Become Part of the Chinese Zodiac'.

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=strahl,strahlj,strahlja,strahljbl
Arcade Video game published 31 years ago:

Koutetsu Yousai Strahl (c) 1992 UPL.

The game takes place in modern times where a great depression has swept over the world. Amidst the depression and its riots of jobless workers, a mad scientist starts his plan of world domination. Taking command in the titular fortress orbiting Earth, the evil Doctor Gegeben Funkerun uses his own robots, flying fortresses and mercenaries to wreak havoc across the globe until all his demands are met. Assisting the attacked and weakened governments, workers across the nations help develop a series of jet fighters called the Aizerun Geist to use against the forces of Dr. Funkerun and save the world.

Before each stage begins, players are given a choice of weapons to purchase at a hangar for the Aizerun Geist. There are four weapons within three tiers to choose from including Main Attack, Sub Weapon and Bomb. Of the Main Attack the player can choose Twin Shot, Laser, Heavy Laser and the Charge Shot. Of the Sub Weapons, players can choose additional firepower, Homing Missiles, Shielded Options or an energy barrier. Players can stock up on multiple bombs including Small bombs, rockets, larger bombs or napalm.

The Aizerun Geist provides tactical advantages during combat with the use of its manually directional Sub Weapon. Players are able to direct additional firepower in five directions including vertical and horizontal by pressing the bomb button while firing. The game runs for six stages through various settings such as a jungle, stormy skies, Tokyo and Fortress Strahl itself.

- TECHNICAL -

Game ID : UPL-91074

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 12 Mhz)
Sound Chips : YM2203 (@ 1.5 Mhz), (2x) OKI6295 (@ 24.242 Khz)

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2

- TRIVIA -

Koutetsu Yousai Strahl was released in February 1992.

The title of this game translates from Japanese as 'Steel Fortress Strahl'.

After producing this video game, UPL went bankrupt in February 1992. So, they cancelled 2 game projects: 'Break Show' and 'High speed! ~do'. Some staff members established a new video game company called 'Scarab', which changed its name to 'feelplus' in 2005. feelplus stopped developing games in 2011.

- STAFF -

Co-produced by Nihon Maicom Kaihatsu (NMK) and Sales by Taito.

Game designer : Kinya Adyama
Game programmer : Ken-Ichi Kunikyo
Music composer : Yoshio Nagashima
Object designers : Kadru Kamigiku, Ichiro Shibasaki, Mutsuo Kaneko, Kinya Adyama
Background designers : Mindru Tomizawa, Megumi Fujii
Hardware works : Nobuyuki Narita

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=kozure
Arcade Video game published 36 years ago:

Kozure Ookami (c) 1987 Nichibutsu.

A side-scrolling shooter, based on the manga 'Lone Wolf and Cub', with beat-'em-up elements featuring the KILLER BABY CARRIAGE CANNON!

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 8 Mhz)
Sound CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 3.072 Mhz)
Sound Chips : YM3812 (@ 4 Mhz), (2x) DAC

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2

- TRIVIA -

Released in December 1987 in Japan.

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Mahjong Sound Graffiti : G.S.M. Nichibutsu 2 - PCCB-00051) on 21/01/1991.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

To jump press both the attack and block buttons.
Break the stone statues in background for power-ups.
To use an additional weapon, press block when you have the baby cart.

- STAFF -

Sound composer : Kenji Yoshida

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=sdodgeb

くにおの熱血闘球伝説 (c) 1996 Technos Japan Corp.
(Kunio no Nekketsu Toukyuu Densetsu)

The popular game of Dodge Ball is a rather unique sport in which teams of three players try to knock each other out with the help of special moves and team attacks. In this game you take control of a team and must beat all other teams (you can even recruit the other team's leader after beating them!) in order to face the  current Dodge Ball champion and take the title. Features cool anime style graphics, catchy music & great sound effects, plenty of moves at your disposal and a solid challenge level. Dodge Ball anyone? :)

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID : NGM-208

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 4
=> [A] Shoot/Catch, [B] Pass/Dodge, [C] Jump, [D] Faint/Provoke

- TRIVIA -

Literaly 'Kunio's Hotblooded Dodgeball Legend'.

This game is known outside Japan as 'Super Dodge Ball'.

This game runs on the Neo-Geo MVS but was never released on the Neo-Geo AES home console.

This is yet another game by Technos that features characters inspired by the River City Ransom manga. In the overhead map at the beginning of each match, all characters are drawn in a comical small body style, apparently as an homage of the famous NES games that featured the River City Ransom characters.

Kunio appears in "Renegade" / "Nekketsu Kouha Kunio-Kun" as main characters.

After the release of this game, Technos Japan went bankrupt (December 15, 95). Since the licenses of Kunio-Kun and Dodge-Ball had a great values in the 90's, former Technos Japan staff established a new company.

- UPDATES -

The International versions of this game are almost identical to the Japanese version (no voice cuts as in the Magical Drop games), only the title screen is completely different & the fact that Shinji's taunt is censored outside Japan (Instead of merely shaking his fist angrily at his opponents, Shinji gives them the middle finger!).

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Characters turn VERY slowly in this game, this means that you can score free hits if you either run past them and smack them with the ball, or pass the ball to a teammate that has already been defeated!

* Beat the game without continuing to see a special screen after the credits with all the characters grouped together.

- SERIES -

1. Super Dodge Ball [Model TA-0022] (1987, ARC)
2. Kunio no Dodgeball dayo Zen'in Shuugou! (1993, SFC)
3. Kunio no Nekketsu Toukyuu Densetsu [Model NGM-0208] (1996, MVS)
4. Super Dodge Ball Advance (2001, GBA)
5. Super Dodgeball Brawlers (2008, NDS)

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=2713&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=kurikintj,kurikinta,kurikint,kurikintu
Arcade Video game published 35 years ago:

Kuri Kinton (c) 1988 Taito Corporation.

With your super kung-fu skills, penetrate the enemy's headquarters to rescue the Chris family.

At the end of the 20th century, the world has gone through vast changes. Country borders around the world are constantly changing and every day brings further territorial expansion and new threats of power struggles. 

A member of the World Secret Police Organization (WSPO) has obtained information about an upcoming coup, but before it could be turned over to the WSPO he and his daughter were captured. Before his capture he was able to send a detailed letter to his counterpart in the People's Republic of China, code-named Kuri Kinton, along with a plea for help. 

It's all up to Kuri Kinton now to save the captives and restore the delicate balance of power.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the Taito L System Hardware.
Board Number : J1100147A
Prom Stickers : B42

Main CPU : (2x) Zilog Z80 (@ 6 Mhz)
Sound Chips : YM2203 (@ 3 Mhz)

Screen Orientation : Horizontal
Video Resolution : 320 x 224 Pixels
Screen Refresh : 60.00 Hz
Palette Colors : 256

Players : 2
Control : 8-Way Joystick
Buttons : 2
=> Attack, Jump

- TRIVIA -

Kuri Kinton was released in July 1988 in Japan.

The title of this game translates from Japanese as 'Honor League Gold Association'. Note that there is a Japanese dish called 'kuri-kinton' which is mashed sweet potatoes and chestnuts.

Zuntata Records released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Zuntata History L'ab-normal 1st - ZTTL-0038) on April 1, 1999.

- UPDATES -

The prototype version has :
* Difficulty very unoptimized.
* Dipswitches for invincibility and slow motion.
* No end credits.
* No water in level 2/3, only brown garbage instead.
* Some other minor things (graphic glitches vs. bosses, bad-oriented continue screen, etc.).
* The green carpet in level 2 isn't animated.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

INSTRUCTIONS:

- Holding down the Attack button charges up your power and allows you to shoot an energy ball. 

- When you stand still for a period of time, an aura appears around your body, which increases your attack and defence power. Your aura has three phases and can be upgraded from red to yellow and then to blue:
-- Red Aura : Increases attack power by 25%. Disappears when hit. 
-- Yellow Aura : Increases attack power by 50%. Downgrades to red when hit. 
-- Blue Aura : Increases attack power by 75%. Downgrades to yellow when hit. 

- Pay close attention to your energy level as well as the energy level of attacking enemies. 

- The game ends when you run out of energy or the last boss is destroyed. 

- There are a total of five different levels and a powerful leader to eliminate at the end of each level. When you destroy a leader, you will be awarded bonus points and extra power, and you will advance to the next level.

- STAFF -

Creators : Wolf Kato, Crusher Ishikawa, Yasuyuki Hiwatashi
Hardware Designers : Hiroyuki Noguchi, Minoru Yoshimura
Sound Designers : Masahiko Takagi, Yasuhisa Watanabe
Character Designers : Seiji Kawakami, Yoshihiko Wakita, s.c. Mizutani, s.c. Tomita, s.c. Kimura, s.c. Kusano, Thanks Santasan
Publicity Supervisor : Naoko Yoshida
Special Thanks To : Takeshi Murata, Kyoji Shimamoto, Takeshi Ishizashi, Onijust (Onijust. H), Hideki Hashimoto, Toshiaki Tsukano, Takeshi Ishii, Akira Saitou, Takako Kojima, Toshiyuki Nishimura, Toshio Kohno, Junji Yarita, Hiroyuki Sakou, Yukiwo Ishikawa (Yukio Ishikawa), Tsutomu Yoshikawa
Game Designer : Kei. S

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] Sony PS2 (jul.28, 2005) "Taito Memories Joukan [Model SLPM-66057]" 
Sony PlayStation 2 [AU] (mar.30, 2006) "Taito Legends 2 [Model SLES-53852]" 
[EU] Microsoft XBOX (mar.31, 2006) "Taito Legends 2" 
[EU] Sony PS2 (mar.31, 2006) "Taito Legends 2 [Model SLES-53852]" 
[US] Sony PS2 (may.16, 2007) "Taito Legends 2 [Model SLUS-21349]" 
[JP] Sony PS2 (june.28, 2007) "Taito Memories Joukan [Eternal Hits]" 

* HANDHELDS: 
Sony PSP [AS] (jan.3, 2006) "Taito Memories Pocket [Model UCAS-40040]" 
[JP] Sony PSP (jan.5, 2006) "Taito Memories Pocket [Model ULJM-05076]" 
Sony PSP [KO] (feb.10, 2006) "Taito Memories Pocket" 
[EU] Sony PSP (oct.6, 2006) "Taito Legends Power-Up [Model ULES-00473]" 
[AU] Sony PSP (nov.9, 2006) "Taito Legends Power-Up [Model ULES-00473]" 
[US] Sony PSP (may.17, 2007) "Taito Legends Power-Up [Model ULUS-10208]" 

* COMPUTERS: 
[EU] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (mar.31, 2006) "Taito Legends 2" 
[US] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (jul.10, 2007) "Taito Legends 2"

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=1333&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=ktiger2
Taito F3 cart. published 28 years ago:

Kyuukyoku Tiger II (c) 1995 Taito.

A vertically scrolling shooter.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "Taito F3 System" Hardware.

Prom Stickers : E15

Players : 4
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 4

- TRIVIA -

Produced by Takumi Corp., a new company established by former Toaplan staff.

Kyuukyoku Tiger II was released in November 1995 by Taito. The title of this game translates from Japanese as 'Ultimate Tiger II'.

This was Takumi's first arcade video game. Even if it was developed by former Toaplan staff, however, this game was a flop because it had nothing to do with the first game of the series, "Kyuukyoku Tiger".

This game is known outside Japan as "Twin Cobra II".

The game forbids the initials 'SEX' on the high score table. If you try, it gets changed to 'AAA'.

- SERIES -

1. Kyuukyoku Tiger (1987)
2. Kyuukyoku Tiger II (1995)

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] Sega Saturn (1997) "Kyuukyoku Tiger II Plus [Model T-18715G]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=1340&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=landmakr,landmakrp,landmakrj
Taito F3 cart. published 25 years ago:

Land Maker (c) 1998 Taito.

The objective of this game is to shoot a certain colored block to other blocks of the same color to create a building. The larger the building the greater damage that is done to the player's opponent which in effect speeds up the moving counter which pushes the blocks ever closer to the edge after which the player or opponent will lose the battle.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "Taito F3 System" Hardware.

Prom Stickers : E61

Players : 4
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 4

- TRIVIA -

Released in June 1998.

The game forbids the initials 'SEX' on the high score table. If you try, it gets changed to 'AAA'.

- UPDATES -

REVISION 1 (Japanese release) :
* Software version : 2.01 J
* Build date : 1998/06/01 16 :30

REVISION 2 :
* Software version : 2.02 O
* Build date : 1998/06/02 17 :00

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Alternative Gameplay : press Shoot, Left, Right, Shoot on the titlescreen before inserting coins. If done correctly, a small character will appear. On the next play, you will play on different stage layout.

- STAFF -

* Consoles :
Sony PlayStation (1999)

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
Sony PlayStation (1999)

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=1348&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=lans2004

Lansquenet 2004 (c) 1998 Unknown.

Pirate hack of "Shock Troopers - 2nd Squad".

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=4745&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=lresort,lresortp

Last Resort (c) 1992 SNK.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID : NGM-024

[SNK MVS Neo-Geo Controls]
2 players - 4 buttons per player (2 used)
=> [A] Attack/Charge attack, [B] Restart the move

- TRIVIA -

Released in March 1992.

The city depicted in the first two stages of the game is very similar to that of Neo Tokyo from the anime film 'Akira'.

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Garou Densetsu, Last Resort - PCCB-00087) on 21/05/1992.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

Beat the game two times to see the real ending and credits.

- STAFF -

Producer : Yasumi Tozono
Designers : Yoshio Shimizo, Mitsuo Kodama, Tatsuya Shinkai, Toshimi Tanaka, Khozoh Nagashima, Hajime Itoh, Senaroh Hotta, Sahori Etoh, Eri Kohjitani
Sound : Toshio Shimizm, Tate Norio (Yamate)
Programmer : Takefumi Yamamoto (Syndicate)

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo AES (apr.24, 1992; "Last Resort [Model NGH-024]")
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo CD (September, 9, 1994; "Last Resort [Model NGCD-024]")
[US] Sony PS2 may.05, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model SLUS-21724]"
[US] Sony PSP may.05, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model ULUS-10338]"
[KO] Sony PS2 may.29, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model SLKA-25424]"
[US] Nintendo Wii jul.29, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model RVL-P-RNCE]"
[EU] Sony PSP Oct. 17, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model ULES-01105]"
[EU] Nintendo Wii Oct. 31, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model RVL-P-RJZP]"
[EU] Sony PS2 Nov. 21, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model SLES-55232]"
[JP] Sony PSP May. 21, 2009 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model ULJS-193]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=1361&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=lbowling

League Bowling (c) 1990 SNK [Shin Nihon Kikaku].

A colourful and playable ten-pin bowling game for 1 to 4 players, offering a choice of three scoring methods : 'Regulation', 'Flash' and 'Strike 90'.

The game begins with players selecting either a right or left-handed bowler, before choosing what weight they want their bowling balls to be. Once the match starts properly, Power and Direction meters will appear and players must use both their judgement and timing to select and execute the desired bowl. Timing is key as players are only allowed twenty seconds to make each shot.

The 'Strike 90' mode awards players ninety points for a strike and sixty points for a spare. In the 'Flash' game mode, the points flash across the lane as the players throw the ball. Should they succeed in knocking down the standing pins, the points that are displayed at the time the pins are struck will be added to the players' scores.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID : NGM-019

[SNK MVS Neo-Geo Controls]
2 Players - 4 Buttons Per Player (only 1 usable).
[Joystick] 8-Way, [A] Set Controls/Set Power

- TRIVIA -

League Bowling was released on December 10, 1990.

Nadia from Secret of Blue Water make a cameo in this game. She appears on the background (e.g : when you choose your hand, left or right, at the begin).

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
SNK Neo-Geo (jul.1, 1991; "League Bowling [Model NGH-019]")
SNK Neo-Geo CD (Sept. 9, 1994; "League Bowling [Model NGCD-019]")
Sony PlayStation Store (Dec.2010)

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=1364&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=lomakai
Arcade Video game published 35 years ago:

Legend of Makai (c) 1988 Jaleco.

North American release. Game developed in Japan. See the original for more information; "Makai Densetsu".

- TRIVIA -

Released in October 1988.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

The correct spell at the end of the game is 'GIXGARD'.

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=1370&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=legion
Arcade Video game published 36 years ago:

Legion - Spinner-87 (c) 1987 Nichibutsu USA.

North American release. Game developed in Japan. See the original Japanese release for more information about the game itself; "Choutoki Meikyuu Legion".

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=72264&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=lightbr,lightbrj
Taito F3 cart. published 29 years ago:

Lightbringer (c) 1994 Taito.

Four mythical heroes traverse dungeons and castles to find and defeat the source of evil corruptive power that is threatening their land. Gameplay is refreshingly less linear than most beat'em ups.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "Taito F3 System" Hardware.

Prom Stickers : D69

Players : 4
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 4

- TRIVIA -

Lightbringer was released in February 1994 in Japan. It was known outside Japan as "Dungeon Magic".

The game forbids the initials 'SEX' on the high score table. If you try, it gets changed to '???'.

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Lightbringer - PCCB-00154) on May 20, 1994.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Characters list:

Ash is an ex-knight with excellent swordsmanship.
- Power Attack : Arc Sword - attacks enemies by leaping into the air.
- Special Attack : Berserk - temporary invincibility + continuous attacks.

Gren is a roving eastern warrior and is an expert in martial arts. 
- Power Attack : Break Off - makes a single attack with his sword.
- Special Attack : Fire Blast - explosion damages nearby enemies.

Cisty is a fairy with great magic and archery skills. Her whole family was destroyed long ago by the evil spirit. 
- Power Attack : Arrow - attacks distant enemies with an arrow.
- Special Attack : Summon - summons spirits to defeat enemies.

Vold is a very old and powerful magician who wields a magic staff. 
- Power Attack : Magic - attacks with various magical spells. 
- Special Attack : Meteors - causes meteor showers.

- STAFF -

Project leader : Keppel Maekawa
Game designers : Keppel Maekawa, Turtle Mizukami, Mucha
Software : Takahiro Natani, Hiroyuki Tanaka, Takafumi Kaneko, Toshiyuki Hayashi, Kunio Kuzukawa
Character designer : Kawamoyan
Character bit works : Kawamoyan, Makenjy, Zyjy-30, Akiyoshi Takada, Bibiko, Mari Fukusaki (Fire Fukusaki), Mochi Mochi Natsuko, Shigeki Yamamoto
All music and sound effects : Nakayama Jyotohei (Zuntata)
Music sound effects director : Hisayoshi Ogura (Zuntata)
Instructions : Naoto Hashizume
Image illustration : Kouichirou Yonemura
Hardware works : Hironobu Suzuki, Katumi Kaneoka

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES: 
[JP] Sony PS2 (jul.28, 2005) "Taito Memories Joukan [Model SLPM-66057]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=1388&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=liquidk,liquidku
Arcade Video game published 33 years ago:

Liquid Kids (c) 1990 Taito Corp.

Export version. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese version entry; "Mizubaku Daibouken".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "Taito F2 System" hardware.

Game ID: F2-System No. 07

Board Number: K1100593A
Prom Stickers: C49

- UPDATES -

The US version has the "Winners Don't Use Drugs" screen.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Teddy Bear Cheat : in the demo mode during the attract mode, press 20 times the bubble button and a cute picture of a bear will appear in the right bottom of the screen.

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
Sony PlayStation 2 [AU] (mar.30, 2006) "Taito Legends 2 [Model SLES-53852]" 
[EU] Microsoft XBOX (mar.31, 2006) "Taito Legends 2" 
[EU] Sony PS2 (mar.31, 2006) "Taito Legends 2 [Model SLES-53852]" 
[US] Sony PS2 (may.16, 2007) "Taito Legends 2 [Model SLUS-21349]" 

* COMPUTERS:
Commodore Amiga (Unreleased)[N1]
[EU] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (mar.31, 2006) "Taito Legends 2" 
[US] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (jul.10, 2007) "Taito Legends 2" 

N1: A port of Liquid Kids was planned for release on the Commodore Amiga by Manchester's 'Ocean Software', but despite the game being completed, the publishers decided that Liquid Kids would fail at retail and its release was cancelled. The Amiga version's lead programmer finally released the code to the Amiga community in 2003, allowing gamers to enjoy what was a very accomplished conversion for the first time.

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=1391&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=lizwiz
Arcade Video game published 38 years ago:

Lizard Wizard (c) 1985 Techstar.

The player must use an eight-way joystick to take control of the Lizard Wizard, whose mission is to help free the people who are caught within the planet Zyfus. The Lizard Wizard does this by shooting the rocks that fly out of that erupting volcano at the bottom of the screen which will burst into flames if he misses them and get eaten by the dragon-like lizards for their fire. As the prisoners emerge from the volcano, the Lizard Wizard must also rescue them from the planet by taking them to the platforms on the surface. The player must also face Spydors on certain levels, which must be killed before they reach the surface.

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 3.072 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Namco 3-channel WSG (@ 96 Khz)

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 1

- TRIVIA -

Released in November 1985.

Licensed to Sunn.

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=1394&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=lostwrld,lostwrldo
Arcade Video game published 35 years ago:

Lost Worlds (c) 1988 Capcom.

Lost Worlds is a horizontally-scrolling shoot-em-up in which two genetically engineered, jet-pack wearing super-soldiers must battle an evil god known as 'Emperor Bios' who has destroyed most of the Earth, turning it into a desolated wasteland known as the 'Dust World'. 

Gameplay features multi-directional shooting, with the super-soldiers able to rotate through 360 degrees, allowing them to fire in any direction. The soldiers are each accompanied by a satellite module orbiting them that provides additional fire-power. 

As with the super-soldiers, the satellite can also be rotated; rotating the soldier while firing will only rotate the aim of the satellite, while rotating the soldier while NOT firing will not only rotate the satellite's aim, it will also move its relative position to the player-character.

Defeated enemies drop blue 'Zenny Coins', these are the game's currency and can be collected for use in the shops that appear at the halfway point of each stage. Items that can be bought consist primarily of new weapons for the satellite module, but also include a health kit to restore lost vitality, armour that allows players to sustain greater damage, a larger health gauge and even tips on how to defeat the boss that awaits at the end of the current stage.

Lost Worlds consists of nine stages, each ending with a boss fight. The stages and their bosses are:
* Dust World Area 1 - Magnetic Paramecium
* Dust World Area 2 - Dust Dragon
* Dust World Area 3 - God of War
* Pyramid World Area 1 - Rah
* Pyramid World Area 2 - Centipede
* Pyramid World Area 3 - Tutankhamen
* Sky World Area 1 - Iceman
* Sky World Area 2 - Whodin & Laidin
* Sky World Area 3 - Bios

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System" hardware
B-Board #: 88618B-2
B-Board PALs: LWCHR
CPS-B #: CPS-B-01 DL-0411-10001

Players: Up to 2
Control: 8-way joystick, Spinner
Buttons: 1 per player.

- TRIVIA -

Lost Worlds was released in July 1988 in the Japanese arcade. It was the first video game released for this system (Known as 'CP-S No. 01').

The game is known outside Japan as Forgotten Worlds. Here are some known export releases:
"Forgotten Worlds [B-Board 88618B-2]"
"Forgotten Worlds [B-Board 88621B-2]"

Lost Worlds is the third and final game in Capcom's 'Jet-Pack Hero' trilogy (with the first two games being 1985's "Section Z" and 1986's "Side Arms") and, as with the first two games, is a one or two player sideways scrolling shoot-em-up.

While Lost Worlds isn't a sequel to "Black Dragon", it does share similarities with it: In both games the player fights dragons, and also collects 'ZENNY' coins, money to buy weapons and armour in shops. Also, both games feature intros depicting dragons attacking cities.

The first player character, Unknown Soldier, appears as an assist character in "Marvel vs. Capcom - Clash of Super Heroes". The second player character appears in "Final Fight" as an enemy member of the Mad Gear gang; he was then called 'Two P' (for 2P, player 2).

The shop music used in this game was later remade and used as the shop music for "SNK vs. Capcom - Card Fighters Clash".

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Daimakaimura : G.S.M. Capcom 1 - D28B-0011) on January 11, 1989.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

The DRESS (lips icon): 
Only available on last stage(9)last shop. 
Investing 99990 on the DRESS, after clear the final boss the zenny spent on the items you have in your inventory is REFUNDED IN SCORE.

- STAFF -

Game designers : Akira Yasuda (Akiman), Akira Nishitani (Nin), Noritaka Funamizu (Poo), Kihaji Okamoto
Soft programmers : Youchi, Noriko, Takako, Nouchi
Object designers : Kurichan, Takata, Shinsyudon, Sintan, Emetaro
Scroll designers : Miki Chan (Mik), Hanachan, Kuramoyan, Nouochan, Black man
Sound : Tamayo Kawamoto, Yoshihiro Sakaguchi (Yukichan No papa)
Hardware : Shinji Kuchino
Mechatronics : Katuhiko Kamimori

- PORTS -

Here is a list of Japanese ports. To see ports released in other regions, please see the export version entry; "Forgotten Worlds [B-Board 88618B-2]".

* CONSOLES: 
[JP] Sega Mega Drive (nov.18, 1989) "Forgotten Worlds [Model G-4016]" 
[JP] NEC PC-Engine Super CD-ROM² System (mar.27, 1992) [Model NAPR1025] 
[JP] Sony PS2 (mar.2, 2006) "Capcom Classics Collection [Model SLPM-66317]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=1411&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=macrossp
Arcade Video game published 27 years ago:

Macross Plus (c) 1996 Banpresto.

A vertically scrolling shooter.

- TECHNICAL -

Game ID : BP964

Main CPU : Motorola 68EC020 (@ 25 Mhz)
Sound CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 16 Mhz)
Sound Chips : ES5506 (@ 16 Mhz)

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 4

- TRIVIA -

Released in December 1996 in Japan.

Default highscore table (RANKING) :
1  0300000
2  0160000
3  0100000
4  0070000
5  0050000
6  0030000
7  0010000

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Hidden Ending : Beat the game twice in a row to see a different ending than the first.

- SERIES -

1. Super Spacefortress Macross (1992)
2. Super Spacefortress Macross II (1993)
3. Macross Plus (1996)

- STAFF -

Producer : Toshifumi Kawashima
Director : T. Komazawa
Programmer : Kazuaki Yamaryo
Chf. designer : Noboru Inamoto
CG Designers : Hiroshi Fukazawa, Naomi Hasegawa, Masakazu Togami
3-D Designers : Koji Takada, Koji Yokoe
Music : Kenichi Suzuki
Game designer : Moss.

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=1428&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=msword,mswordr1,mswordu
Arcade Video game published 33 years ago:

Magic Sword - Heroic Fantasy (c) 1990 Capcom Company, Limited.

Export release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, see the original Japanese release entry; "Magic Sword - Heroic Fantasy [B-Board 89625B-1]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System" hardware.
B-Board ID: 89624B-3

- UPDATES -

Revision 1:
* Build date: 900623

Revision 2:
* Build date: 900725
* Magic attacks hexagram graphic replaced by a lightning bolt.

- PORTS -

Here is a list of ports released outside Japan. To see Japanese ports, please see the original Japanese version entry; "Magic Sword - Heroic Fantasy [B-Board 89625B-1]".

* CONSOLES:
[US] Nintendo SNES (aug.1992) "Magic Sword [Model SNS-MD-USA]" 
[EU] Nintendo SNES (mar.18, 1993) "Magic Sword [Model SNSP-MD-EUR]" 
[US] Microsoft XBOX (nov.24, 2006) "Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 2" 
[US] Sony PS2 (nov.24, 2006) "Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 2 [Model SLUS-21473]" 
Sony PlayStation 2 [AU] (apr.11, 2007) "Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 2 [Model SLES-54561]" 
[EU] Sony PS2 (apr.13, 2007) "Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 2 [Model SLES-54561]" 
Microsoft XBOX 360 [XBLA] [US] [EU] [AU] [KO] (apr.14, 2010) : part of "Final Fight: Double Impact" 
Sony PlayStation 3 [PSN] [US] [EU] (apr.15, 2010) : part of "Final Fight: Double Impact" 

* HANDHELDS: 
[US] Sony PSP (mar.22, 2006) "Capcom Classics Collection Remixed [Model ULUS-10097]" 
[EU] Sony PSP (jul.21, 2006) "Capcom Classics Collection Remixed [Model ULES-00347]"

* OTHERS: 
Apple iPhone/iPad [US] (nov.4, 2010) "Capcom Arcade [Model 397347348]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=69750&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=mswordj
Arcade Video game published 33 years ago:

Magic Sword - Heroic Fantasy (c) 1990 Capcom Company, Limited.

The land has been cast in darkness by Drokmar, who has been corrupted by the Black Orb; an artefact that promises immortality to anyone who comes under the influence of the orb's powerful sorcery. Two warriors set out to fight their way through fifty levels of platform beat-em-up, in order to destroy the orb - which lies at the top of the Dragon Tower - and free their lands.

Treasure chests litter the levels which, when smashed open, release treasure items, magic power-ups, keys, food and weapons. As players fight their way through the levels, they will come across a number of trapped prisoners. As long as the heroes are carrying keys, prisoners can be released who will then fight alongside the players, with each prisoner possessing their own unique attacks. Weapons and power-ups can be picked up to aid players in their quest and food can be found and eaten to increase player health.

As the players ascend the tower, they will be granted new magical weapons after each boss they defeat. The player's weapons are affected by a 'magic bar' that charges over time. When fully charged, the weapon has a powerful ranged attack, but when not charged only a close attack is produced. A magical staff will grant increased range attack ability. A magical blast may be generated by pressing the Attack and Jump buttons at once, but costs health.

There are multiple paths in the game, and two separate endings. Hidden doors can be used to skip levels when found - usually by attacking a wall or a particular spot.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System" hardware.
B-Board ID: 89625B-1

Players: Up to 2 simultaneously.
Control per player: 8-Way Joystick
Buttons per player: 2
=> [1] Attack, [2] Jump

- TRIVIA -

Magic Sword was released in June 1990 in the Japanese arcades. It was known there as the 11th video game made for the CP-S system.

Known Export release: "Magic Sword - Heroic Fantasy [B-Board 89624B-3]"

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Street Fighter II : G.S.M. Capcom 4 - PCCB-00056) on March 21, 1991.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Magic Sword items :
1) King crown : magical protection.
2) Gauntlet : increase power.
3) Golden pot : healing magic for partner.
4) Crystal ball : detect treasure boxes.
5) Pedant : double score.
6) Magic potion : increases magic skill.
7) Bell : summons a hostile Lizardman to tame. If you have the Diamond Ring equipped he will kneel to accept you as a partner.
8) Diamond Ring : see Bell.
9) Scroll : brings good luck.

* Partners :
1) Big Man : is strong and has great endurance. His boomerang axe is powerful but slow.
2) Ninja : throws 2 to 5 stars which rebound from walls and ceiling. Fast but not so powerful.
3) Amazon : fires her crossbow continuously. Her attack is swift but lacking in power.
4) Thief : is able to locate hidden treasure chests and traps. His bomb packs quite a wallop, too.
6) Knight : is incredibly adept with his spear and is your strongest ally. He is held in the upper level of the tower.
7) Priest : lacks physical strength and speed but his holy bullets can do grave damage to undead monsters.
8) Wizard : shoots magical missiles. He has the most powerful attack but is slow and not much to speak physically.
9) Lizardman : becomes an ally only when bribed with a diamond ring. He is a brute with great strength, speed and attacking power.

* Secret Doors :
Floor 7 - When you enter the floor, walk left and hit the column. warp to level 11.
Floor 17 - Slash the left side of the last arch. Warps to floor 20.
Floor 21 - Between the imprisoned (knight) and the exit, jump left from the elevated ground while slashing. Warp to floor 24.
Floor 28 - Crouch on the platform above the first pool of acid and slash the space in the middle. Enters RED floors 29 to 32.
Floor 34 - Jump and slash the left side of the the fourth pair of hanging pillars. Warps to floor 36.
Floor 39 - Slash the ledge immediately to the left of the first door after the pit of fire. Warps to floor 42.
Floor 40 - Crouch and slash the space above the ledge before the first pit of spikes. Enters RED floors 41 to 46.

* An extra 1,000,000 points! is available on blue level 30 : there is a wizard there who levitates rocks. Jump and sword him once, and then when he causes the rocks to appear, use magic (both buttons) to turn the rocks into 8K gold pieces. You can do this until time runs out.

* On level 14, go to the second 'door' with a head on top of it, jump and hit the 'nose' several times and two gems will drop down worth 80,000 a piece.

- STAFF -

Game designers : Yoshimi Ohnishi, Tomoshi Sadamoto, Yoshiki Okamoto
Character designers : Kurisan, E. Nishihara, Keiko Kitayama, T. Saramoto
Art : Y. Fukumoto, M. Kawamura, Y. Maruyama
Title designer : Satoru Yamashita
Sound : M. Gotoh
English story : S. Maxwell
Programmers : Y. Egawa, Y. Tsunazaki, S. Okada, Y. Oronishi

- PORTS -

Here is a list of Japanese ports. To see ports released outside Japan, please see the Export version entry; "Magic Sword - Heroic Fantasy [B-Board 89624B-3]"

* CONSOLES: 
[JP] Nintendo Super Famicom (may.29, 1992) "Magic Sword [Model SHVC-MD-JPN]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=mcatadv,mcatadvj
Arcade Video game published 30 years ago:

Magical Cat Adventure (c) 1993 Wintechno.

Export release. Game developed in Japan. See the original for more information; "Catt".

This export release version has:
* Different animations.
* No storyline.
* Less GFX.
* The gameplay is also a bit different (easier).

- TECHNICAL -

Game ID : LINDA5

- TRIVIA -

Magical Cat Adventure was released in August 1993.

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=magdrop2

Magical Drop II (c) 1996 Data East.

Who says puzzle games can't be fast paced? This incredibly addictive puzzle game features hectic gameplay, cool graphics with awesome animations, fun music and different gameplay modes to choose from. Play it now but be warned, this is indeed one of the Neo-Geo's most addictive games ever!

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID : NGM-221

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2
=> [A] Catch balloons, [B] Throw balloons

- TRIVIA -

Magical Drop II was released on March 21, 1996 in Japan. 

The characters are broad parodies of a few of the characters featured in the well-known Tarot cards. 

Default highscore table (RANKING TOP5) 
1 5000 D .E 
2 4500 D .E 
3 4000 D .E 
4 3500 D .E 
5 3000 D .E 

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Magical Drop II - PCCB-00217) on June 21, 1996.

- UPDATES -

There are some serious differences between the Japanese version and the international versions of this game :

* The Japanese version has character specific endings. 

* All characters feature their own voice in the Japanese version, the European version features 4 voice tracks for all characters (some of these in Spanish) & the USA version features a single voice track for all characters.

* The Japanese version features three main different gameplay modes: Puzzle, Vs & Challenge. All other versions only feature Puzzle & Vs as selectable gameplay modes.

* The Japanese version features three selectable skill levels for each gameplay mode (Easy, Normal & Difficult). All other versions only offer Easy & Normal skill settings.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Bonus Characters : Enter the character selection screen. To play as Devil, Strength and Empress, highlight the following characters and press Down on each (in order) :
00 - The Fool
01 - Magician
02 - High Priestess
07 - Chariot
11 - Justice
17 - Sorceress
21 - World

* Play Against Black Clown : Don't lose a credit and after the battle against The Empress, Black Clown will appears.

- SERIES -

1. Magical Drop (1995, Arcade)
2. Magical Drop Plus 1! (1995, Arcade)
3. Magical Drop II [Model NGM-221] (1996, Arcade)
4. Magical Drop III [Model NGM-233] (1997, Arcade)
5. Magical Drop F - Daibouken Mo Rakujyanai! (1999, PlayStation)
6. Magical Drop V (2012, Arcade)

- STAFF -

Supervisor : Iwao Horita, Naomi Susa
Planner : Syungo Katagiri
Programmers : Tac. H, 3.2.1
Graphic Designers : S. Takeuchi, Asamin, Rie Sakurai, Mayu Sato, Hiroshi Hachiya
Sound : Masaaki Iwasaki (Koremasa), Hiroaki Yoshida (Maro) (Gamadelic), Shogo (Gamadelic)

* Character Voices :
The Fool and The Devil : Eri Tanaka
The Star : Mitsuyo Sunada
The Chariot : Nobuyuki Hiyama
The Magician : Isshin Chiba
The High Priestess and The World : Eriko
The Justice : Ring Ring
The Strength : Gorilla
The Empress : Rie Sakurai
The Black Clown : Kumiko Oka

* Foreign voices :
English : Steve Miller 
Spanish : C. Amalia
Italian : B. Maurizio
Korean : K. Hyonsub, Maki

Cooperation : Magical Drop Staff
Special Thanks : Tomohiko Ebi, K. Oshima, Osada Erika, Kanari Minoru, Y. Kawai, Y. Sakamoto, Mayu Sato, H. Jinbo, Y. Sugahara, K. Tatsukawa, Makoto Nagao, H. Nakamoto, Shingo Mitsui, K. Minegishi, Masao

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES: 
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo AES (apr.19, 1996) "Magical Drop II [Model NGH-221]" 
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo CD (may.24, 1996) "Magical Drop II [Model NGCD-221]" 
[US] SNK Neo-Geo CD (may.24, 1996) "Magical Drop II [Model NGCD-221E]" 
[JP] Nintendo Super Famicom (sept.20, 1996) "Magical Drop II [Model SHVC-AOKJ]" 
[JP] Sega Saturn (sept.27, 1996) "Magical Drop II [Model GS-9104]" 
Nintendo Wii [Virtual Console] [JP] (may.25, 2010) Neo-Geo version 
Nintendo Wii [Virtual Console] [US] (nov.29, 2010) Neo-Geo version 
Nintendo Wii [Virtual Console] [EU] (dec.03, 2010) Neo-Geo version 

* OTHERS: 
Mobile Phones [US] (mar.11, 2004)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=magdrop3

Magical Drop III (c) 1997 Data East.

More characters, more gameplay modes, more frantic gameplay, more fun! This is what every videogame sequel should be, and the sequel to one of the best puzzle games for the Neo-Geo MVS is indeed a game not to be missed! Lots of fun for one or two players!

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID: NGM-233

Players: 2
Control: 8-Way Joystick
Buttons: 3
=> [A] Catch Balloons, [B] Throw Balloons, [C] Shift the balloons a line down

- TRIVIA -

Magical Drop III was released on February 25, 1997. This is Data East's final arcade video game. 

The game now features parodies of all the characters featured in the 22 cards of the major Arcana in a Tarot card deck. These are numbered from 0 to 21 as follows : 
00. Fool 
01. Magician 
02. High Priestess 
03. Emperor 
04. Empress 
05. Hierophant 
06. Lovers 
07. Chariot 
08. Strength 
09. Hermit 
10. (Wheel of) Fortune 
11. Justice 
12. Hanged Man 
13. Death 
14. Temperance 
15. Devil 
16. Tower 
17. Star 
18. Moon 
19. Sun 
20. Judgement 
21. World 

Note that the only exception to this statement would be Black Pierrot since he does not appear in a Tarot card deck. Black Pierrot is an added bonus character to challenge really good Magical Drop 3 pros! 

Note : In puzzle and adventure modes, only 8 characters are available : Fool, High Priestess, Emperor, Lovers, Chariot, Strength, Justice and Star. 

Default highscore table : 
Name Score Reactions Time 
1ST D.E 5000 8 06:00 
2ND D.E 4500 7 05:30 
3RD D.E 4000 6 05:00 
4TH D.E 3500 5 04:30 
5TH D.E 3000 4 04:00 

Soundtrack releases (for limited edition): 
Magical Drop III - Pony Canyon / Scitron - PCCBX-00002 - March 21, 1997

- UPDATES -

The Japanese version of this game features LOTS of stuff unavailable in any other version :

* In Challenge Mode there is a story intro at the beginning explaining the reason behind the Magical Drop competition, an extra animation showing a close-up of the Magical Drop book as it opens,  an ending for each character available in the game, a "Hard" difficulty setting, as well as a bonus fortune reading when you beat the Challenge Mode or you lose against the CPU and  refuse to continue. All of this is absent in the USA & Europe versions.

* In Challenge Mode, each character has a unique set of quotes before a battle begins, this even applies in the battles against the end bosses Tower & Fortune. In the USA & Europe versions there are only two possible quotes before a fight for all characters :

Quote #1
CPU : Get out of my way!
Player : I'll never lose to you! 

Quote #2
CPU : You want to fight?
Player : Now let's see who is better!

* In Adventure mode, each character has its very own story intro as well as its very own ending which is different from the one seen in Challenge mode. Additionally this mode plays like a board game in which you compete against three other characters on the board, and if any of the others get to Empress' castle before your character, you will get a generic bad ending. If you arrive on a tile already occupied by a CPU-controlled character, you will have 2 options :
1) The option on the right : you don't want to trouble and ignore the opponent (sometimes you will have to back off 1 tile)
2) The option on the left : you fight the opponent. If you win, he or she will be eliminated but it would be the same for you if you fail, so be careful!
In the USA and European versions, there is no storyline and the only character on the board is controlled by the player. 

* Like in the previous game, each character has his/her own unique voice. The European version features less voice tracks and the USA version features a single voice track for all characters.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Play as Father Strength : At the character select screen, highlight Strength, hold C and press A or B. This trick does not work nor in puzzle mode nor in adventure mode. 

* Play with bonus characters : At the character select screen, highlight any character (Except World, World's number is 21 so she can't be used for this trick) and wait until the timer counts down to the number assigned to that character : 
00 - Fool 
01 - Magician 
02 - High Priestess 
03 - Empress 
04 - Emperor 
05 - Hierophant 
06 - Lovers 
07 - Chariot 
08 - Strength 
11 - Justice 
13 - Death 
15 - Devil 
17 - Star 
19 - Sun 
20 - Judgment 
Then push C only three times. Moon, Hanged Man, Hermit, Temperance, Tower and Fortune will appear and will now be selectable. This trick does neither work in puzzle mode nor in adventure mode. 

* Secret Stages : 
1) Moon (after Level 6) : Finish the sixth stage without exceeding 90 seconds since the beginning. 
2) Hanged Man (after Level 6) : Finish the sixth stage exceeding 300 seconds since the beginning. 
3) Black Pierrot (after Level 10) : Finish the tenth stage with at least 150000 points.

- SERIES -

1. Magical Drop (1995, Arcade)
2. Magical Drop Plus 1! (1995, Arcade)
3. Magical Drop II [Model NGM-221] (1996, Arcade)
4. Magical Drop III [Model NGM-233] (1997, Arcade)
5. Magical Drop F - Daibouken Mo Rakujyanai! (1999, PlayStation)
6. Magical Drop V (2012, Arcade)

- STAFF -

Producer : Naomi Susa
Planner : S. Katagiri
Programmers : Tac. H, Poconyan, M. Saiki
Graphic designers : S. Takeuchi, H. Hachiya, R. Sakurai, N. Ishizuka, S. Nishiwaki, Okakumi, I. Seta, T. Arakawa, H. Hashimoto, Y. Kaihou
Sound designers : Koremasa, Hiroaki Yoshida (MARO) (Gamadelic), NmRtk (Gamadelic), Sin
Voice actors : Yuichi Nagashima, Fumihiko Tachiki, Takehito Koyasu, Haruna Ikezawa, Tsumugi Osawa, Miina Tominaga, E. Tanaka, M. Sunada, Eriko, Ring-Ring, Gorilla, Zaku, Okakumi
Cast coordinate : Radon'86 (Junko Araki)
Recording studio : Japan Vistec (Osamu Iwata)
Publish : K. Oshima, T. Ebi, H. Miyashita
English translators : Mikio Brooks, Monika Hudgins, Siobhan Fallon, Ron Aughenbaugh
Debugers : K. Kusanagi, H. Ohtsubo
Special advisers : A. Wakabayashi (Nal), A. Shibazaki<3

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES: 
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo AES (apr.25, 1997) "Magical Drop III [Model NGH-233]" 
[JP] Sega Saturn (june.20, 1997) "Magical Drop III - Toretate Zoukangou! [Model T-1313G]" 
[JP] Sony PlayStation (oct.30, 1997) "Magical Drop III - Yokubari Tokudaigou! [Model SLPM-86051]" 
[JP] Sega Saturn (oct.22, 1998) "Magical Drop III - Toretate Zoukangou! [Sega Saturn Collection] [Model T-1318G]" 
[JP] Sony PlayStation (feb.25, 1999) "Magical Drop III + Wonderful! [Model SLPS-01917~8]" 
SNK Neo-Geo Pocket Color [JP] (june.24, 1999) "Magical Drop Pocket [Model NEOP00480]" 
[JP] Sony PlayStation (mar.1, 2001) "Magical Drop III + Wonderful! [Model SLPM 86755~6]" 
[US] Nintendo Wii (feb.19, 2010) "Data East Arcade Classics [Model RVL-P-R26E]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=maglordh

Magician Lord (c) 1991 Alpha Denshi Company, Limited.

AES release. For more information about the game itself, please see the MVS version entry: "Magician Lord [Model NGM-005]"

- TECHNICAL -

Cartridge ID: NGH-005
Cartridge Size: 46 Mega

- TRIVIA -

Magician Lord AES was released on April 26, 1990 in Japan. A second version was released on July 01, 1991. This second version was harder (based on the MVS version).

Reviews:
[FR] September 1990 - Joystick: 96/100
[FR] July-August 1991 - Consoles + HS N.2: 93/100
[US] January 1992 - GamePro: 25/25
[US] April 1993 - GameFan: 377/400
[JP] April 1995 - Famitsu: 18/40

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=maglord

Magician Lord (c) 1990 Alpha Denshi Company, Limited.

Magician Lord is a side-scrolling platform shoot-em-up in which players take on the roll of a wizard called Elta - the last Magician Lord - on his quest to save his homeland from the evil Gul-Agieze, who plans to resurrect the God of Destruction using 8 tomes of mystical power.

Elta has to jump, shoot and climb his way to the end of each of the game's 8 levels where he must beat a servant of Gal, along with one of Gal's sinister boss creations. To complete the game Elta must reach the final stage and defeat Az Atorse himself. If the player takes too long to complete a stage, Elta will be harassed by an invincible monster.

Elta's primary form of attack is a weak but fast-moving energy projectile that can fired in one of four directions, but by collecting the special colored orbs that occasionally appear, he can transform into a different form, making him more powerful and giving him new attacks.

These are the six different forms that Elta can assume by picking up the colored orbs:

* Dragon Warrior: In this form Elta attacks by breathing fire; a continuous short-range attack that, unlike the standard attack, can also be aimed diagonally.

* Waterman: The Waterman-form attacks with water grenades – blue bubbles of water that burst upon touching the ground and form into water pillars. The attack can hit several times for additional damage but only covers a small area.

* Poseidon: A more powerful version of the Waterman, Poseidon shoots wide waves of water that travel along the ground for several hits. It does severe damage and causes enemies to freeze and shatter on impact. While very powerful, this form moves very slowly.

* Shinobi: The Shinobi-form gains increased agility and attacks with powerful magical arcs of fire which are wide but slow-moving.

* Samurai: While limited in range, the Samurai-form is the only form that can attack through walls, shields or even multiple enemies, using a boomerang-like energy attack that does heavy damage.

* Raijin: The Raijin-form gives Elta's jumping ability a big boost as well as a unique attack that creates a continuous electrical field around his body.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID: NGM-005
Cartridge Size: 46 Mega

Players: 2
Control: 8-Way Joystick
Buttons: 2
=> [A] Shot, [B] Jump

- TRIVIA -

The project design (kukakusho) debuted in 1989 and the development started first semester of 1989. A beta version was location tested in January 1990 in Japan, this version had longer stages and this was not adapted for an arcade play (a game was too long). So, developers taked the decision to smaller all stages but cutting them off for the final version.

This is the first Alpha Denshi game for the SNK Neo-Geo MVS hardware and it was the first game which used the capabilities of the hardware (dezooming, rotate).

27 player's transforms were planned but only six were finalized due to gameplay changes.

Magician Lord MVS was released in June 1990 in Japan. At this time, this game was the Killer application for Neo-Geo, all reviews from magazines were very positive, many people wanted it and bought it.

Default highscore table :
1 50000
2 40000 RYU
3 30000
4 20000
5 10000

AES format: "Magician Lord [Model NGH-005]"

- STAFF -

Plan: Takashi Egashira
Produce: Akira Ushizawa
Back Ground Design: Tomoharu Takahashi, Kenichi Sakanishi, Takashi Egashira
Sprite Design: Akira Ushizawa, Shinji Moriyama
System Program: Eiji Fukatsu, Satoshi Okada (S.OKADA)
Main Program: Hiroyuki Ryuu, Osamu Iijima
Sub Program: Yukinori Nishikata, Teruaki Shirasawa
Sound Program: Makio Chiba
Music: Yuka Watanabe, Hiroaki Shimizu, Hideki Yamamoto
Sound: Hiroaki Shimizu, Hideki Yamamoto
Special Thanks: Yuji Noguchi, Takashi Hatono

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
SNK Neo-Geo CD (1994, "Magician Lord [Model ADCD-100]")
Nintendo Wii (2007, "Virtual Console")
[US] Sony PS2 may.05, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model SLUS-21724]"
[US] Sony PSP may.05, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model ULUS-10338]"
[KO] Sony PS2 may.29, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model SLKA-25424]"
[US] Nintendo Wii jul.29, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model RVL-P-RNCE]"
[EU] Sony PSP Oct. 17, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model ULES-01105]"
[EU] Nintendo Wii Oct. 31, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model RVL-P-RJZP]"
[EU] Sony PS2 Nov. 21, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model SLES-55232]"
[JP] Sony PSP May. 21, 2009 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model ULJS-193]"
Sony PlayStation Store (Dec.2010)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=mjnquest,mjnquestb
Arcade Video game published 32 years ago:

Mahjong Quest (c) 1991 Taito.

Mahjong game with an RPG-like setting and various power-ups.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "Taito F2 System" hardware.

Prom Stickers : C77

Players: 1
Control: Mahjong keyboard

- TRIVIA -

Developed by Whiteboard/Santos.

Released in May 1991.

- STAFF -

Sound Composer: V. Ohashi (Pinch Panchi)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=mahoudai
Arcade Video game published 30 years ago:

魔法大作戦 (c) 1993 Raizing.
(Mahou Daisakusen)

A superb vertically scrolling shooter from Raizing.

- TECHNICAL -

Game ID : RA-MA7893-01

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 16 Mhz), Zilog Z80 (@ 4 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Yamaha YM2151 (@ 3.375 Mhz), OKI6295 (@ 7.575 Khz)

Screen orientation : Vertical
Video resolution : 240 x 320 pixels
Screen refresh : 60.00 Hz
Palette colors : 2048

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2

- TRIVIA -

Released in May 1993 in Japan.

The title of this game translates from Japanese as 'Magic Great Military Operation'.

Licensed to Able for Japan distribution.

This game is known outside Japan as "Sorcer Striker".

This game is the first game created by Raizing.

Default highscore table (TODAY'S TOP 5) :
RANK NAME TYPE SCORE
1ST YOK ? 655000
2ND YAS ? 422000
3RD Z?? ? 346000
4TH SIN ? 201000
5TH ??? ? 163000

- SERIES -

1. Mahou Daisakusen (1993)
2. Shippuu Mahou Daisakusen - Kingdom-Grandprix (1994)
3. Great Mahou Daisakusen [Green Board] (2000)

- STAFF -

Music composed by: Atsuhiro Motoyama

- PORTS -

* COMPUTERS:
FM Towns PC (1993)
X68000 (1994) "Mahou Daisakusen [Model ESX-5003]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=majest12j,majest12u,majest12ua,majest12ub
Arcade Video game published 33 years ago:

Majestic Twelve - The Space Invaders Part IV (c) 1990 Taito Corp.

The third sequel to Taito's seminal "Space Invaders", Majestic Twelve leaves the classic Invaders game-play intact, but adds a slew of new alien invaders and power-ups to the mix. This, together with the vastly improved graphics that introduce colorful new backdrops - some of which scroll vertically in a similar fashion to the star-field in Namco's "Galaxian" - ensure that Majestic 12 is a worthy sequel to the legendary original.

The original game's flying saucer still makes an appearance, but instead of merely awarding bonus points when shot - as in the original game - it now drops a power-up pod for the player to retrieve. Power-ups include shield, faster shots, a laser (activated with the second button) and a giant butterfly, which freezes the invaders for a limited time.

One of the game's most memorable features was the 'Cattle Mutilation' bonus screen, in which the player must protect a heard of cattle from a number of fast-moving saucers, intent on stealing the animals. If a cow is snatched; the player must shoot the relevant saucer to free it; being careful not to actually shoot the cow itself. The '91 incarnation also introduced 'bosses' to the series for the first time; giant, screen-filling aliens that required several shots to kill.

Another major difference to the previous games in the series is that if an invader reaches the bottom of the screen, the player will simply lose a ship (in the original, the game would end once an alien had landed). Also, the player's ship now comes equipped with a shield that can withstand several hits. The shield's strength is depleted every time it takes a direct hit from one of the invaders, and too many hits will result in the shield disappearing altogether. A direct hit on an un-shielded ship will result in the loss of a player life.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "Taito F2 System" hardware.

Game ID: C64

Players: 2
Control: 8-way joystick
Buttons: 2

- TRIVIA -

Majestic Twelve was released in October 1990 in Japan.

This game is known outside Japan as "Super Space Invaders '91".

The Majestic Twelve in the title originates from a secret coalition known as Majestic Twelve in the United States who was dedicated to investigating sighting of UFOs.

This game was dedicated to Katsujiro Fujimoto.

- SERIES -

1. Space Invaders (1978, ARC)
2. Space Invaders Part II (1979, ARC)
3. Return of the Invaders (1985, ARC)
4. Majestic Twelve - The Space Invaders Part IV (1990, ARC)
5. Space Invaders DX (1994, ARC)
6. Akkanvader (1995, ARC)
7. Space Invaders Virtual Collection (1995, Virtual Boy)
8. Space Invaders X (2000, PS)
9. Space Invaders Anniversary (2003, ARC)
10. Space Invaders DS (2005, DS)
11. Space Invaders - Galaxy Beat (2005, PSP)
12. Space Invaders Extreme (2008, DS/PSP)
13. Space Invaders Extreme 2 (2009, DS)
14. Space Invaders Frenzy (2017, ARC)

- STAFF -

Director : Ichiro Fujisue
Game designer : Tomohiro Ohno
Software : Hideki Hashimoto, Takashi Kitabayashi, Norihito Taniyama, Masahiro Shimazaki, Takayuki Shinma
Hardware : Yasuhiro Shibuya
Character designers : Senba Takatsuna, Tomohiro Ohno, Masami Kikuchi, Tsuyoshi Satoh, Takayuki Miyazawa
Designer : Rintaro Doi, Kumi Mizobe
Sound : Yasuhisa Watanabe, Shiro Imaoka, Norihiro Furukawa, Kazuko Umino

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] Sony PS2 (jul.28, 2005) "Taito Memories Joukan [Model SLPM-66057]"

* HANDHELDS: 
[JP] Sony PSP (may.12, 2005) "Space Invaders Pocket [Model ULJM-05015]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=makaiden
Arcade Video game published 35 years ago:

Makai Densetsu (c) 1988 Jaleco.

- TECHNICAL -

Jaleco Mega System 1-Z hardware

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 6 Mhz)
Sound CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 3 Mhz)
Sound Chips : YM2203 (@ 1.5 Mhz)

Screen orientation : Horizontal
Video resolution : 256 x 224 pixels
Screen refresh : 60.00 Hz
Palette colors : 768

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2

- TRIVIA -

Releases in October 1988 in Japan.

The title of this game translates from Japanese as 'Legend of Makai'.

This game is known outside Japan as "Legend of Makai".

Default highscore table :
NAME SPELL SCORE AREA
1ST NMK - 30000 3
2ND AKI - 20000 3
3RD TAM - 10000 2
4TH NAO - 5000 2
5TH YOU - 4000 1
6TH MAK - 3000 1
7TH KOT - 2000 1
8TH OKA - 1000 1

- STAFF -

Sound composers : Shizuyoshi Okamura, K (Tecchan)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=maniacsq,maniacsp,maniacsqa,maniacsqu,maniacsqs
Arcade Video game published 31 years ago:

Maniac Square (c) 1992 Gaelco.

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 13 Mhz)
Sound Chips : GAELCO (@ 13 Mhz)

Screen orientation : Horizontal
Video resolution : 320 x 240 pixels
Screen refresh : 59.10 Hz
Palette colors : 65520

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 1

- TRIVIA -

Releases in April 1992.

The final version (that is very different) was released in 1996, 4 years after the prototype (see Updates section for more info).

Default highscore table (RANKING) :
NALME SCORE
1 PAB 200
2 TOM 180
3 RIC 160
4 JPC 140
5 EVM 120
6 JQB 100
7 GIF 80
8 ARJ 60
9 GOJ 40

- UPDATES -

Differences between the Prototype version (Game ID : 922804/2) and the final release :
* The Prototype uses a OKI6295 @ 8 Khz instead of the GAELCO @ 13 Mhz.
* The Prototype has a very different soundtrack, which creates a different atmosphere when playing the game (Prototype has guitar music, Final release has folk songs, such as Barnacle Bill).
* In the Prototype version there is a digital scoreboard that was not there in the final version.
* In the final release, there are no special blocks and helps.
* In the final release, when only one player plays, the playing area is centered in the screen.
* In the final release, when there is only one player playing the game, the screen has only one playing field.
* The final release is an endurance game, while the Prototype is ala Tetris from Atari, a levels game.

- STAFF -

Programmers : Tomas Cepeda, Pablo Martinez, Raul Izquierdo
Graphic designer : Gerardo Oporto

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=1556&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=mmatrix,mmatrixd
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 23 years ago:

Mars Matrix - Hyper Solid Shooting (c) 2000 Capcom Ent., Inc.

North American release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese release entry; "Mars Matrix - Hyper Solid Shooting [Green Board]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Blue Board [USA]

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[US] Sega Dreamcast (apr.31, 2001) [Model T-1221N]

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=69646&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=mmatrixj
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 23 years ago:

Mars Matrix - Hyper Solid Shooting (c) 2000 Capcom Company, Limited.

In the 25th century, Mars is home to millions of immigrants. This is because Earth was going to be overcrowded, and thus the colonization of a terraformed Mars was the only solution. The problem is, at some point, an unknown source of energy, located in the south pole, is discovered by the local government. All of a sudden, a declaration of independence arrives on Earth. What's going on? The Earth fleet goes to reveal it, with the new 'Mosquito fighters' acting as intruders...

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Green Board [Japan]

Players: Up to 2.
Control: 8-way joystick per player.
Buttons: 1 per player.

- TRIVIA -

Developed by Takumi (see Staff section for more info), Mars Matrix was released in April 2000 by Capcom. It was known as the 32th video game released for the CPS-II hardware.

The original arcade version could actually be maxed out, score wise: this means that you could get 999999999990 points (that's twelve digits), if you played in a flawless way. Note: This feature has been removed in the Dreamcast version, since that port added two extra digits in the score.

Suleputer released a 2-CD limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Mars Matrix, Giga Wing 2 Original Soundtrack - CPCA-1050, 1051) on January 11, 2001.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Mars Matrix weapons :
1) Normal rapid-fire : light-damage shooting is carried out by tapping the button.
2) Load (or beam) : By pausing between attacks, and then shooting, the beam-weapon will fire. This attack is relatively powerful, can hit multiple targets, but has a much shorter range.
3) Barrier : the absorption of enemy shots is performed by holding the attack button down. The player can choose the duration of absorption, and if they leave it pressed until the maximum, an explosion will result which destroys all enemies and shots displayed on the screen. On the other hand, absorbing only partially acts as a reflection attack: enemy projectiles are thrown back at the enemy.

* Experience system : in Mars Matrix, there is a system which makes it possible to improve the protagonist vessel(s) by collecting gold cubes. The cubes, which come from the destruction or damage to every object in the game, add to an 'experience bar' at near the top of the screen when collected in a continuous combo. A greater amount of these gold cubes will be unleashed if the player uses reflection attacks. Once the experience bar is filled, the player's weapons will become more powerful, and then the meter zeroes out for the next experience level. A small bar located in top of the screen indicates the amount of remaining time until the combo runs out; if this happens the meter zeroes out for the current level. The meter will also reset if the player's ship is destroyed while a combo is active.

- STAFF -

Developed by Takumi.
Programmers: Takafumi Nishi, Kaju Ishii, Toshihiko Onodera, Naoto Sakurada
Object designers: Ken Taketoshi, Tatsuhiro Suzuki, Hiroki Akiyama, Yuki Ootou
Scroll designers: Kazumi Yogi, Tadahiro Mukaide, Akemi Ootaka
Music composer: Yasushi Kaminishi
Sound programmer: Masahiro Yuge
Concept mechanic designers: Choco, Shorp, Nadialove Kitty, Norihiro Takikawa
Planner: Ikuwo Satoh
Producer: Yukikazu ozaki
Executive producer: Tomoaki Fujimoto

Produced by Capcom.
Producer : Tatuya Minami
Support from R&Dept. #3 : Tomoshi Sadamoto

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES: 
Sega Dreamcast [JP] (nov.9, 2000) [Model T-1238M]

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=1567&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=mshvsf,mshvsfu,mshvsfu1,mshvsfu1d
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 26 years ago:

Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter (c) 1997 Capcom Company, Limited.

North American & European release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese release entry; "Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter [Green Board]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Blue Board [USA & Europe]

- UPDATES -

Blue Board revisions:

REVISION 1:
* Build date: 970625
* US & EUROPE releases.

REVISION 2:
* Build date: 970827
* US release.

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES: 
[EU] Sony PlayStation (1999) "Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter [Model SLES-01792]" 
[US] Sony PlayStation (feb.23, 1999) "Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter [Model SLUS-00793]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=69650&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=mshvsfj1,mshvsfj2,mshvsfj
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 26 years ago:

Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter (c) 1997 Capcom.

The second 'Capcom Vs.' series fighter, featuring 17 Marvel and Street Fighter characters teaming up to face the extremely cheap Mech-Akuma!

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Green Board [Japan]

Players: Up to 2.
Control: 8-way joystick per player.
Buttons: 6 per player.
= > [1] LP, [2] MP, [3] HP
= > [4] LK, [5] MK, [6] HK

- TRIVIA -

Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter was released in June 1997 in the Japanese arcades. It was known as the 23th video game released on the CPS-II hardware.

Known export releases:
"Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter [Blue Board]"
"Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter [Grey Board]"
"Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter [Orange Board]"
"Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter [Pink Board]"

9 characters are coming from Marvel comic books-followed by their first appearance : 
Apocalypse (aka En Sabah Nur) - X-Factor #5 
Blackheart - Daredevil #270 
Captain America (aka Steve Rogers) - Captain America Comics #1 
Cyclops (aka Scott Summers) - X-Men #1 
Hulk (aka Robert Bruce Banner) - Incredible Hulk #1 
Omega Red (aka Arkady Rossovich) - X-Men #4 
Shuma-Gorath - Marvel Premiere #6 
Spider-Man (aka Peter Parker) - Amazing Fantasy #15 
Wolverine (aka James 'Logan' Howlett) - Incredible Hulk #180 

9 other character come from several Street Fighter games : 
Akuma ('Gouki' in Japan) - "Super Street Fighter II X - Grand Master Challenge" in Japan; "Super Street Fighter II Turbo" in all other regions 
Chun-Li - "Street Fighter II - The World Warrior" 
Dan Hibiki - "Street Fighter Alpha - Warriors' Dreams" in North America and Europe; "Street Fighter Zero" in Japan, Southeast Asia, Brazil, and Hispanic regions 
Dhalsim - "Street Fighter II - The World Warrior" 
Ken Masters - "Street Fighter" 
Major Bison ('Vega' in Japan) - "Street Fighter II - The World Warrior" 
Ryu - "Street Fighter" 
Sakura Kasugano - "Street Fighter Alpha 2" in the United States, Canada, and Europe; "Street Fighter Zero 2" in Japan, Southeast Asia, Brazil, Oceania, and Hispanic regions
Zangief - "Street Fighter II - The World Warrior" 

Charlie, Gambit, Rogue, and Rose appear in the background in the 'Showdown in the Park' stage. 

Blanka (of "Street Fighter" fame) can be seen within the background in the 'Death Valley' stage. 

Dan's ending is an obvious parody of the ending of the SNK game, "Art of Fighting". 

Sunburned (or Evil) Sakura has two separate endings (Japanese version): Kei chases Gouki and Sunburned Sakura after they teleport away 
1) Across the entire screen from right to left. 
2) Across half the screen before she trips, falls, and falls asleep. 

Change: There are several cameos of Rockman in this game: 
1) In the mall stage, there's a cameo of a Rockman cut-out (perhaps someone in a Rockman suit). And in relation to Capcom celebrating Rockman's "10th Anniversary" in 1997, they put a banner saying '10th Anniversary: Rockman'. 
2) In one of Norimaro's super combos, he does a cosplay of Rockman.

There is one rumored reason why Iron Man was not in this game. It is because Acclaim made an Iron Man game called "Iron Man and X-O Manowar in Heavy Metal" which was released for several consoles. 

Firstsmile released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Marvel Super Heroes Vs. Street Fighter Original Soundtrack & Arrange - FSCA-10017) on September 19, 1997.

- UPDATES -

Green Board revisions : 

REVISION 1:
* Build date: 970625

REVISION 2:
* Build date: 970702

REVISION 3:
* Build date: 970707

ADDITIONAL NOTES: 
The Japanese version features an extra playable character (his character slot on the character select screen is replaced by the MSH vs. SF logo on all non-Japanese versions), Norimaro, a silly otaku (Japanese geek specializing in anime and manga) who is a huge Chun-Li fanboy as evidence by his reaction in seeing her before the match begins. While his true intentions of entering the competition is unknown, we can assume that it was to take pictures of Chun-Li and the many superheroes. He is voiced by the comedian Kinashi Noritake and created by Capcom as being a joke character like Dan (modeled after a Japanese comedian Noritake Kinashi). He was originally going to appear in non-Japanese versions of the game, but due to cultural differences and a reference to stealing Chun-Li's panties in his ending, he was cut out. However, his programming still exists in the ROM and he even has English dialogs in the game. He even has an ending with pictures, but his ending dialogs was cut out.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Play as Evil Sakura:
At the character selection screen, highlight Hulk, hold Right for 5 sec. and press LP+HP or LK+HK.

* Play as Evil Zanglief:
At the character selection screen, highlight Blackheart, hold Left for 5 sec. and press LP+HP or LK+HK.

* Play as Armored Spiderman:
At the character selection screen, highlight Ryu, move down and hold Down for 5 sec. and press LP+HP or LK+HK.

* Play as Mephisto:
At the character selection screen, highlight Omega Red, hold Down for 5 sec. and press LP+HP or LK+HK.

* Play as U.S. Agent:
At the character selection screen, highlight Bison, hold Up for 5 sec. and press LP+HP or LK+HK.

* Play as Shadow Charlie:
At the character selection screen, highlight Dhalsim, hold Up for 5 sec. and press LP+HP or LK+HK.

* Play as Gambit:
Go to Dhalsim, hold Start, then move Left(x2), Down(x4), Right(x2), Up(x2), Right and press and hold LP+MK+HP together.

* Play as Norimaro (Japanese version only):
Norimaro will show on the character select screen (bottom middle square) if the machine is set to Freeplay or 1 coin X credit. A setting of 2 coins or above and you will only see the Marvel Super Heroes Vs. Street Fighter logo in his square.

* Beat 'em While They're Down:
After defeating your opponents, press and hold Start. Normally your character wont be able to move after the round is over but by holding Start you will not only be able to move freely (until the next round starts) but you will be able to hit your opponent and even do a Super on them!

* Change Battle Order:
When the screen shows which teams will be battling, press Punch or Kick three times to change the order of battle.

* Double Team Spidermen:
Start a new game and choose any character for your first choice followed by Spiderman as the second character. Deliberately lose, then continue and choose Silver Spiderman as your first character. The other Spiderman should be selected as your second character.

* Fight Secret Characters (Japanese Version):
To fight a secret character in the Japanese version you must do a certain amount of team super finishes :
Character #
Evil Sakura 5
Evil Zangief 6
Shadow Charlie 7

* Hyper Mode:
At the vs. screen, hold LK+MP+HK.

* Dan's Explosion:
Pick Dan as your fighter and anyone else. At the Vs. screen hold LP until the word fight disappears. When the match begins Dan will fall into a small explosion.

- SERIES -

Note: also called the 'Capcom vs.' series.

1. X-Men vs. Street Fighter [Green Board] (1996)
2. Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter [Green Board] (1997)
3. Marvel vs. Capcom - Clash of Super Heroes [Green Board] (1998)
4. Marvel vs. Capcom 2 - New Age of Heroes (2000)
5. Marvel vs. Capcom 3 (2011)

- STAFF -

Planners : Atsushi Tomita, Nakano Tau! Masahiro, Dave Matumoto
Original art works : Akira Yasuda (Akiman), Sakomizu, Ukabin
Object designers : Minobe Hiroaki Da!!, Sagata, G.Kamina, Miwaringo, Kohichi Kikutani, Hiroshi Yoshioka, Shinya Miyamoto, Kondo Masanori, Satou Rie, Takep, Yosinori Yamamoto, Jon Narancha, Toshihiro Suzuki, R. Naoi, Kanako Takami
Scroll designers : Iwai, Konomi, Hisashi Sawada, Dear Akirakun 1997, May, Inoyan, Youko Fukumoto, Kisabon, Takashi Fujiwara, Hiroshi Yuugen, Chie Morisaki, Holly Genki?, Shinnosuke, Manga-Chop
Music composers & arrange : Yuki Iwai, Yuko Kadota
Sound director : Hiroaki Kondo (X68K) (cipher)
Sound assistants : Hachi & Ise & lee, Moe.T (cipher)
Recording director : Susan Hart
Recording enginners : Paul Shubat, Dave Hatt
Programmers : Motsu, Eternal Sailor, Kaw, Silver Kadontz, You!
Producer : Kenji Kataoka
General producer : Noritaka Funamizu
Executive producer : Yoshiki Okamoto

* Voice Actors :
Zangief : Wataru Takagi
M. Bison : Tomomichi Nishimura
Dhalsim : Yoshiharu Yamada
Sakura Kasugano : Yuko Sasamoto
Akuma : Tomomichi Nishimura
Chun-Li : Yuko Miyamura
Ken Masters : Iwanaga Tetsuya
Ryu : Toshiyuki Morikawa
Dan Hibiki : Osamu Hosoi
Cyclops : Norman Spencer
Captain America : Cathal J. Dodd
Spider-Man : Patrick Chilvers
Shuma-Gorath : Franck Perry
Wolverine : Cathal J. Dodd
The Incredible Hulk : Andrew Jackson
Blackheart : Jaimz Woolvett
Omega Red : Len Doncheff
Norimaro : Noritake Kinashi
Apocalypse : Lorne Kennedy
Narrator : Tony Daniels

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES: 
[JP] Sega Saturn (Oct.22, 1998) "Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter [4MRAM Doukori Ban] [Model T-1238G]" 
[JP] Sega Saturn (Oct.22, 1998) "Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter [Model T-1239G]" 
[JP] Sony PlayStation (Feb.25, 1999) "Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter EX Edition [Model SLPS-01915]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=1572&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=mshvsfa,mshvsfa1
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 26 years ago:

Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter (c) 1997 Capcom Company, Limited.

Asian release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese release entry; "Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter [Green Board]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Grey Board [Asia]

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=69652&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=mshvsfh
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 26 years ago:

Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter (c) 1997 Capcom Company, Limited.

South American release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese release entry; "Marvel vs. Capcom - Clash of Super Heroes [Green Board]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Orange Board [South America]

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=69651&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=mshvsfb,mshvsfb1
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 26 years ago:

Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter (c) 1997 Capcom Company, Limited.

Brazilian release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese release entry; "Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter [Green Board]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Pink Board [Brazil]

- UPDATES -

Pink Board revisions : 

REVISION 1:
* Build date: 970625

REVISION 2:
* Build date: 970827

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=71694&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=msh,mshu,mshud
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 28 years ago:

Marvel Super Heroes (c) 1995 Capcom Company, Limited.

North American & European release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese release entry; "Marvel Super Heroes [Green Board]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Blue Board [USA & Europe]

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES: 
[US] Sega Saturn (sept.30, 1997) "Marvel Super Heroes [Model T-1214H]" 
[EU] Sega Saturn (dec.1997) "Marvel Super Heroes [Model T-7032H-50]" 
[US] Sony PlayStation (sept.24, 1997) "Marvel Super Heroes [Model SLUS-00257]" 
[EU] Sony PlayStation (dec.1997) "Marvel Super Heroes [Model SLES-00932]" 
Sony PlayStation 3 [PSN] [US] (sept.25, 2012) "Marvel vs. Capcom Origins" 
Microsoft XBOX 360 [XBLA] [US] [EU] [AU] (sept.26, 2012) "Marvel vs. Capcom Origins" 
Sony PlayStation 3 [PSN] [EU] (oct.10, 2012) "Marvel vs. Capcom Origins"

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=69647&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=mshj,mshjr1
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 28 years ago:

Marvel Super Heroes (c) 1995 Capcom Company, Limited.

Ten characters straight out of Marvel Comics prove their worthiness to meet Dr. Doom and Thanos. Includes special power-up gems that can be used and acquired during a match.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Green Board [Japan]

Players: Up to 2.
Control: 8-way joystick per player.
Buttons: 6 per player.
=> [1] LP (Jab), [2] MP (Short), [3] HP (Fierce)
=> [4] LK (Strong), [5] MK (Forward), [6] HK(Roundhouse)

- TRIVIA -

Marvel Super Heroes was released in October 1995 in the Japanese arcades. It was known as the 12th video game released for the CPS-II hardware.

Known export releases:
"Marvel Super Heroes [Blue Board]"
"Marvel Super Heroes [Grey Board]"
"Marvel Super Heroes [Orange Board]"
"Marvel Super Heroes [Pink Board]"

The game background is mainly inspired by the famous comic saga called the Infinity Gauntlet, published in 1991. This gauntlet is wielded by Thanos and allows him to use all the Infinity gems simultaneously.

There are 10 characters available plus the 2 bosses which appears in different Marvel comic books :
Black Heart - Daredevil #270
Captain America (aka Steve Rogers) - Captain America Comics #1
Doctor Doom (aka Victor Von Doom) - Fantastic Four #5
Hulk (aka Robert Bruce Banner) - Incredible Hulk #1
Iron Man (aka Anthony 'Tony' Stark) - Tales of Suspense #39 
Juggernaut (aka Cain Marko) - X-Men #12
Magneto (aka Erik 'Magnus' Lehnsherr) - X-Men #1
Psylocke (aka Elizabeth 'Betsy' Braddock) - New Mutants Annual #2
Shuma-Gorath - Marvel Premiere #6
Spider-Man (aka Peter Parker) - Amazing Fantasy #15
Thanos - Iron Man #55
Wolverine (aka James 'Logan' Howlett) - Incredible Hulk #180

Marvel Super Heroes was released by Capcom in memory of 'Jack Kirby' (aka 'The King of the Comics') [1917 / 1994] who was the most influential and respected illustrator and creator of comic books, at least of the super-hero/adventure variety. He was so important that, with that field now in recession, some are saying that when Jack Kirby died, he took the industry with him.

Soundtrack releases:
Marvel Super Heroes / Sony Records - SRCL-3448 - December 1, 1995

- UPDATES -

Green Board revisions : 

REVISION 1:
Build date: 951024

REVISION 2:
Build date: 951117

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

*Play as the bosses:
This only works on the Japanese version of the game, and you need the assistance of an arcade operator if using a real Arcade machine. First, enter the Service Menu by pressing the Service Switch (F2 in MAME). The menu will be in Japanese, but go to option #7, then #1, and in the first entry, press the Low Punch button until you get to a phrase that has no numbers. That should be the Free Play option. Then select the bottom entry, then option #4, then option #9 to exit the Service Menu. The game will restart and it should be in Free Play mode. Now, on the "Virtual Audio" screen, hold the Credit Switch (the 1-Player Coin Button, usually the #5 key on MAME), and press the Start button to go to the character selection screen. While still holding the Credit Switch, press the following button combinations at a normal/medium speed.

Notes: 
-If you do the button combination too fast or too slow, it will not work. 
-Also, when you enter the Dr. Doom or Anita code, you'll automatically pick Spiderman, but as long as you finish entering the code, he will turn into the character you want.

Dr. Doom:
Medium Kick, Low Punch, Down, Low Kick, Medium Punch

Thanos:
Up, Down, Left, Right, Up, Down, Left, Right, Medium Punch

Anita:
Medium Punch, Low Punch, Left, Low Kick, Medium Kick 

* Double Power : Select a fighter at the character selection screen, then press Player One Start + Player Two Start.

* Continue Fighting : Press Start immediately after winning a round to continue hitting the defeated character.

* Disable Gems : To disable Gems in two player mode both players must press and hold Start after choosing their character until the round starts.

* Change Character Color : At the character select screen move to the desired character then hold Up (if on top row) or Down (if on bottom row). After 3 seconds press any punch or kick button to select character.

* Here are the different gem effects (which acts during a short time) and when you can get them :
Time gem (Red) : You are much more faster than usual.
Space gem (Purple) : Your character get unstoppable with this super armor power.
Soul gem (Green) : Your fighter slowly recovers life.
Power gem (Pink) : Your attacks are more powerful.
Reality gem (Orange, on the fifth opponent) : Your attacks have additional effects which makes them more powerful.
Mind gem (Blue, owned by Thanos) : The character can recover about 2 energy levels in a few seconds.

The gems are owned by different opponents: we have one at the beginning, then the first opponent have the following one then the second, then the third and finally the fifth (the last one is on Thanos). Characters have some special effects using some gems (for instance Magneto got an energy field around him with the Space gem, Spiderman divides himself in two similar being for symmetrical attacks using the Power gem).

Notice that we can only use the first gem in our gem stack. If you press the Start button during the fight, you will change the gem order in your stack, allowing for you to use any desired gem at any time.

When we reach the final fight against Thanos, he steal all the gems and collects them in his gauntlet. He uses them his way (for instance : space gem creates a warp which attracts and throws rocks on his enemy).

- STAFF -

Planners : Takeshi Tezuka, Tetsuya Iijima, Tomichi, Kiyoshi Nishikawa, Kei Hiratou, Satoru Kimura
Programmers : Tarabar Hori (Tarabar-Black), Aoi-Peach, Kaw-K. Marichan, Silver-Kadontz, Nobu-Sasami, Knishi- (MadDogMc), Pon, Dna, Frk, Yama, Tomohiro Ueno, Youji
Scroll Designers : Konomi (Powerful Konomi), Buppo, Shibata Kayoko, Daisuke Nakagawa, Yumiko, Takapon, Akiko Matsunaga, Satomi Ishii, R.K, Yoichi Tanoue, M
Music Composers : Takayuki Iwai (Anarchy Takapon), Yuki Satomura (Wewe), Tatsuro Zuzuki
Sound Designers : Picard Mij, Satoshi Ise (Ayano), Ryoji Yamamoto (Ryoji)
Sound Producer : Arcade Sound Team
Voice Designers : Hiroaki Kondo (New-X?)

* Object Designers :
Thanos : Shinji Sakashita (Sakashita Thing), D-Kurita, Takayuki Kosaka, Masako. Satoh
Dr. Doom : Satoru Yamashita, Ino, Seigo Kawakami
Wolverine : Akira Yasuda (Akiman)
Spider-man : Arahijuf, Rumi Yamaguchi, Tsunenori Shirahama
Captain America : Masaaki Tanaka, Chimorin Shogun, Misako Yamamoto
Psylocke : Eripyon. N
Hulk : Makoto Ishi, K. Takechan, Miwa, Kanako Takami
Iron Man : Yoshino Hiroaki, Kiai Ryuken, Yukikaze, You-Ten Nakano, Yutaka Maruno, Cepezou, Mimura Kenji, K. Tokunaga, Eizi Murabayashi, Naoki Fukuda, Takep, Henoheno, Yuki
Magneto : A. Iwasaki
Shuma-Gorath : Masayo Tsujimoto, Jun Matsumura (27), Shinya Miyamoto, Kako, Masanori Kondo
Blackheart : Alien. Pole, Fnyaco. F. Fnyao, Dway Nishimura, Oyabin
Juggernaut : Minobe Hiroaki, R. Sato, Kazuko Kawanaka
Effect : Ntengm Nakatani, Sagata, Tanuki, Kimo Kimo

* Voice Actors :
Captain America : Cathal J. Dodd
Wolverine : Cathal J. Dodd
Black Heart : Jaimz Woolvett
Psylocke : Catherine Disher
Shuma-Gorath : Franck Perry
Spider-Man : Patrick Chilvers
Hulk : Andrew Jackson
Thanos : Andrew Jackson
Juggernaut : Rick Bennett
Iron Man : Christopher Britton
Doctor Doom : Lorne Kennedy
Magneto : Lorne Kennedy
Anounncer : Lorne Kennedy

Special Thanks : Takuya Shiraiwa (Mr. Shiraiwa), Alex Jimenez, Eric Luther (Eric Luthr), Phillp Reed (Phil Reed)

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES: 
[JP] Sega Saturn (aug.8, 1997) "Marvel Super Heroes [Model T-1215G]" 
[JP] Sony PlayStation (sept.25, 1997) "Marvel Super Heroes [Model SLPS-00763]" 

Notes: Anita is now hidden character and only playable in Japanese console version.

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=1571&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=mshh
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 28 years ago:

Marvel Super Heroes (c) 1995 Capcom Company, Limited.

South American release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese release entry; "Marvel Super Heroes [Green Board]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Orange Board [South America]

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$info=mshb,mshbr1
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 28 years ago:

Marvel Super Heroes (c) 1995 Capcom Company, Limited.

Brazilian release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese release entry; "Marvel Super Heroes [Green Board]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Pink Board [Brazil]

- UPDATES -

Pink Board revisions : 

REVISION 1:
Build date: 951024

REVISION 2:
Build date: 951117

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$info=mvscjsing
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 25 years ago:

Marvel vs. Capcom - Clash of Super Heroes (c) 1998 Capcom Company, Limited.

Japanese re-release. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese release entry; "Marvel vs. Capcom - Clash of Super Heroes [Green Board]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Black Board [Japan]

This is the Single PCB release of Marvel Vs. Capcom, it has the Program ROM stored on SIMMs similar to CPS3.  All ROM data (including the code) is identical to the regular Green Board just in different sized ROMs.

- TRIVIA -

Released in Japan only.

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$info=mvsc,mvscu,mvscud,mvscur1,mvscr1
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 25 years ago:

Marvel vs. Capcom - Clash of Super Heroes (c) 1998 Capcom Company, Limited.

North American & European release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese release entry; "Marvel vs. Capcom - Clash of Super Heroes [Green Board]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Blue Board [USA & Europe]

- TRIVIA -

Most people probably already know that some of the characters' names were changed in the export versions (e.g., Rockman was changed to Megaman, etc.). 

When they recorded the announcer's voice, she had to say both the original names and the 'Export' ones during the recording. But for some of the characters' names that were NOT changed, there were alternate pronunciations recorded.
For example, when you select Chun-Li in the original Japanese version, the way the announcer pronounces 'Chun' rhymes with 'noon'. 
In the Export versions, the way she pronounces 'Chun' rhymes with 'fun'. There is also an unused alternate pronunciation of Zangief (which sounds like 'Zain-geef') that can be heard in the Sound Test. 

Megaman's 'Rock Upper' move in the original Japanese version is called 'Mega Upper' in the Export versions, simply because the name of the character is different in Japan and Worldwide.

- UPDATES -

Blue Board revisions : 

REVISION 1:
* Build date: 971222
* US release.

REVISION 2:
* Build date: 980112
* EUROPE release.

REVISION 3:
* Build date: 980123
* US & EUROPE releases.

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[US] Sega Dreamcast (sept.30, 1999) "Marvel vs. Capcom - Clash of Super Heroes [Model T-1202N]" : Re-released as Sega All Stars edition (2000)
[US] Sony PlayStation (jan.27, 2000) "Marvel vs. Capcom - Clash of Super Heroes [Model SLUS-01059]" 
[EU] Sony PlayStation (jan.31, 2000) Marvel vs. Capcom - Clash of Super Heroes [Model SLES-02305]" 
Sega Dreamcast [EU] (june.23, 2000) "Marvel vs. Capcom - Clash of Super Heroes [Model T-7002D-61] 
Sony PlayStation 3 [PSN] [US] (sept.25, 2012) "Marvel vs. Capcom Origins" 
Microsoft XBOX 360 [XBLA] [US] [EU] [AU] (sept.26, 2012) "Marvel vs. Capcom Origins" 
Sony PlayStation 3 [PSN] [EU] (oct.10, 2012) "Marvel vs. Capcom Origins"

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$end

$info=mvscjr1,mvscj
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 25 years ago:

Marvel vs. Capcom - Clash of Super Heroes (c) 1998 Capcom Company, Limited.

Fifteen characters from all walks of the Marvel and Capcom lineups tag-battle each other including loads of special assist characters. Their only goal : beat the supreme and terrific Onslaught!

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Green Board [Japan]

Players: Up to 2.
Control: 8-way joystick per player.
Buttons: 6 per player.
= > [1] LP, [2] MP, [3] HP
= > [4] LK, [5] MK, [6] HK

- TRIVIA -

First revision is from December 1997, but most arcades didn't get the game until January 1998. It was known as the 28th video game released on the CPS-II hardware.

The game was shown at the 1998 AOU Amusement Expo show, in Japan.

Known export releases:
"Marvel vs. Capcom - Clash of Super Heroes [Blue Board]"
"Marvel vs. Capcom - Clash of Super Heroes [Grey Board]"
"Marvel vs. Capcom - Clash of Super Heroes [Orange Board]"
"Marvel vs. Capcom - Clash of Super Heroes [Pink Board]"

The game was also re-edited in Japan as "Marvel vs. Capcom - Clash of Super Heroes [Black Board]".

Here are the debut comics for the 21 Marvel characters including the Guest Characters (For those with alter-egos, they are also listed) : 
Captain America (aka Steve Rogers) - Captain America Comics #1 
Carnage (aka Cletus Kasady) - Amazing Spider-Man #359 
Colossus (aka Piotr Nikolaievitch Rasputin) - Giant-Size X-Men #1 
Cyclops (aka Scott Summers) - X-Men #1 
Gambit (aka Jean-Luc 'Remy' LeBeau) - Uncanny X-Men #266 
Hulk (aka Robert Bruce Banner) - Incredible Hulk #1 
Iceman (aka Robert 'Bobby' Drake) - Uncanny X-Men #1 
Jubilee (aka Jubilation Lee) - Uncanny X-Men #244 
Juggernaut (aka Cain Marko) - X-Men #12 
Magneto (aka Erik 'Magnus' Lehnsherr) - X-Men #1 
Onslaught - X-Men (Vol. 2) #53 
Psylocke (aka Elizabeth 'Betsy' Braddock) - New Mutants Annual #2 
Rogue - Avengers Annual #10 
Sentinel - Uncanny X-Men #14 
Spider-Man (aka Peter Parker) - Amazing Fantasy #15 
Storm (aka Ororo Munroe) - Giant Size X-Men #1 
Thor (aka Jake Olsen) - Journey Into Mystery #83 
U.S. Agent (aka John F. 'Johnny' Walker) - Captain America #351 
Venom (aka Edward 'Eddie' Brock) - Amazing Spider-Man #300 
War Machine (aka James R. 'Rhodey' Rhodes) - Iron Man #281 
Wolverine (aka James 'Logan' Howlett) - Incredible Hulk #180 

Here are the debut games for the 19 Capcom characters including the Guest Characters : 
Anita - "Night Warriors - Darkstalkers' Revenge" ("Vampire Hunter - Darkstalkers' Revenge" in Japan) 
Arthur - "Ghosts'n Goblins" ("Makaimura" in Japan) 
Captain Commando - "Captain Commando" 
Chun-Li - "Street Fighter II - The World Warrior" 
Devilotte Do Dethsatan IX (aka Devilot) - "Cyberbots - Fullmetal Madness" 
Jin Saotome - "Cyberbots - Fullmetal Madness" 
Lou - "Three Wonders" ("Wonder 3" in Japan) 
Megaman (Rockman in Japan) - Megaman (Rockman in Japan) 
Michelle Heart - "Legendary Wings" ("Ares No Tsubasa - The Legendary Soldiers" in Japan) 
Morrigan Aensland - "Darkstalkers - The Night Warriors" ("Vampire - The Night Warriors" in Japan) 
Pure and Fur - "Capcom World 2 - Adventure Quiz" 
Roll - Megaman (Rockman in Japan) 
Ryu - "Street Fighter" 
Saki - "Quiz Nanairo Dreams - Nijiirochou no Kiseki" 
Shadow - "Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter" 
Strider Hiryu - "Strider" ("Strider Hiryu" in Japan) 
Ton-Pooh - "Strider" ("Strider Hiryu" in Japan) 
Unknown Soldier - "Forgotten Worlds" ("Lost Worlds" in Japan) 
Zangief - "Street Fighter II - The World Warrior" 

Strider's ending is a reference to that of the ending in his own game ("Strider") 
Jin's ending is a reference to Gawaine's ending in "Cyberbots - Fullmetal Madness" (but with Jin taking the place of Gawaine, Onslaught taking the place of the Final Weapon of Destruction, Jin's headband taking the place of Gawaine's sword and Ryu taking the place of Jin). 
Megaman's ending is a reference to what happens in his own games ("Mega Man - The Power Battle") when he beats a boss. 
Captain Commando's ending is a reference to the ending in his own game ("Captain Commando"). 

Rumors exist for the reason War Machine was in the roster instead of Iron Man (although Hyper-Armor War Machine in the game had similar moves with Iron Man). The most popular reason being that Capcom, at the time, did not have the rights to use the Iron Man character. 

The game background is mainly inspired by the famous comic saga called Onslaught, published in 1996. As in the comic books, Onslaught appears under his two main forms (after defeating the first one, he reveals its ultimate appearance). 

Shirley Burton holds the official record for this game with 1119300 points. 

Suleputer released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Marvel Vs. Capcom OST - CPCA-1005) on March 21, 1998. 

The music from Roll's character theme (known in this game as 'Theme of Roll', but whose actual name is 'Kaze yo Tsutaete') samples "Tell It To My Heart", a song by pop artist Taylor Dayne released in 1987. The theme was composed by Yoshinori Ono (a sound engineer that would become known worldwide as the producer of the Street Fighter series a decade later), with lyrics sang by Yoshino Aoki. It was first used in the game "Rockman Battle & Chase [Model SLPS-00764]", released in 1997 on the Japanese PS1, and was once again featured in a variety of games, most notably "Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Cross Generation of Heroes", where it finally received an English localization entitled 'Where The Wind Blows'.

Michael Jackson used to own this game. It was sold at the official Michael Jackson Auction on April 24, 2009.

- UPDATES -

Green Board revisions : 

REVISION 1:
* Build date: 980112

REVISION 2:
* Build date: 980123

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Play As Hyper-Armor War Machine : At the character selection screen, highlight Zanglief and press Left(x2), Down(x2), Right(x2), Down(x2), Left(x2), Up(x4), Right(x2), Left(x2), Down(x4), Right(x2), Up(x2), Left(x2), Down(x2), Right(x2), Up(x5).

Hyper-Armor War Machine will appear above Zangief. Hyper Armor War Machine got the same moves as War Machine (with some little variations), can't jump very high, can't block attacks but can't be stopped during his attacks.

* Play As Shadow Lady : At the character selection screen, highlight Morrigan and press Up, Right(x2), Down(x4), Left(x2), Up(x4), Right(x2), Left (x2), Down(x2), Right(x2), Down(x2), Left(x2), Up(x2), Right(x2), Up(x2), Left(x2), Down(x5). Shadow Lady will appear below Gambit. Her attacks came from several characters in the game.

* Play As MSH Seinou Hulk (Marvel Super Heroes Ability Hulk) : At the character selection screen, highlight Chun Li and press Right(x2), Down(x2), Left(x2), Right(x2), Down(x2), Left(x2), Up(x4), Down(x2), Right(x2), Up(x2), Down(x4), Up(x4), Left, Up. MSH Seinou Hulk will appear above Ryu. His moves are very similar from the original Hulk.

* Play As Lilith-Kaze Morrigan (Lilith-style Morrigan) : At the character selection screen, highlight Zanglief and press Left(x2), Down(x2), Right(x2), Up(x2), Down(x4), Left(x2), Up(x4), Right, Left, Down(x4), Right(x2), Up(x4), Left(x2), Down(x4), Right, Down. Lilith-Kaze Morrigan will appear below War Machine. She makes moves a little bit different from Morrigan ones.

* Play As Roll-chan (-chan is a ''suffix for familiar 'female' person'') : At the character selection screen, highlight Zanglief and press Left(x2), Down(x2), Right(x2), Down(x2), Left(x2), Up, Right, Up(x2), Right(x2). Roll-chan will appear to the right of Megaman. Her moves are the same as Megaman.

* Play As Carnage (looks like a bloody Venom) : At the character selection screen, higlight Chun Li and press Right, Down(x4), Left, Up(x4), Right(x2), Down(x2), Left(x2), Down(x2), Right(x2), Up(x4), Left(x2), Up. High-speed Venom will appear above Chun-Li. He got the same moves as Venom but can do them very quickly.

* Change Character Lineup : Press all three Punch buttons at the 'vs.' screen to change the lineup (second chosen character is now first up). You can repeat this code again to reset the lineup.

* Continue Attacking : Press Start immediately after winning the match to move almost everywhere and have the ability to continue hitting the defeated character, even with super moves.

* Choose Your Helper : To obtain the helper of you choice, you must always hold down start and then the designated buttons, just before selecting your second character.
Shadow (Dark Charlie)- LP+MK+HP
Sentinel - MP+MK+HP
Storm - LP+LK+HP
Thor - LK+MP
Unknown Soldier - LP
Pure and Fur - LK
Anita - LP+MP+HP
Lou - MP
Rogue - LP+MP+HP+LK
Colossus - LP+MP+MK
Michelle Heart - LP+LK
King Arthur - LP+MP
Saki - HP
Ton-Pooh - LP+HP
Iceman - MP+MK
Cyclops - LP+LK+MP
Magneto - LK+HP
U.S. Agent - MK+HP
Psylock - MK
Devilot - MP+HP
Juggernaut - LP+MK

* Use Opponent's Helper : Defeat your opponent's helper in a single player game. Then, hold LK+MK+HK at the screen that displays the name of the character that won until the next match. If done correctly, your helper in the last match will be from your previous opponent's team.

* Name Changes : Enter --- as a name to have the game change it to 'SIN'. Enter AAA as a name to have the game change it to 'CAP'. Enter MMM as a name to have the game change it to 'MOT'.

* Fight Hidden Characters : In every case, you cannot lose a character. You can give up first attacks and have opponents join in, unlike what other sources tell you. A Super Finish is defined as either a Hyper Combo Finish, a Crossover Combination (or Variable Combination) Finish, or a Duo Team Attack (or Variable Cross) Finish.
1) To fight the team of Orange Hulk and Wolverine, get 3 Super Finishes.
2) To fight the team of Hyper-Armor War Machine and Captain America, get 5 Super Finishes, two of which must be Duo Team Attack Finishes.
3) To fight the team of Carnage and Spider-Man, get 6 Super Finishes, four of which must be Duo Finishes and finish six rounds under a certain amount of time.
4) To fight Lilith-Style Morrigan and Chun-Li, get 3 Super Finishes and drain your helper stocks in two matches.
5) To fight Roll and Megaman, get 5 Super Finishes, 2 of which are Duo Finishes and drain your helper stocks in six matches.
6) To fight Shadow Lady and Jin, get 6 Super Finishes, 4 of which are Duo finishes, drain your helper stocks in six matches and finish six matches under a certain amount of time.

- SERIES -

Note: also called the 'Capcom vs.' series.

1. X-Men vs. Street Fighter [Green Board] (1996)
2. Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter [Green Board] (1997)
3. Marvel vs. Capcom - Clash of Super Heroes [Green Board] (1998)
4. Marvel vs. Capcom 2 - New Age of Heroes (2000)
5. Marvel vs. Capcom 3 (2011)

- STAFF -

Planners : Atsushi Tomita, Dave Matumoto, Nakano Tau! Masahiro
Original art works : Akira Yasuda (Akiman), Shoei, Sakomizu
Object designers : Minobe Hiroaki, Akemi Kurihira, Fuji=Kazu, Sagata, G. Kamina, Miwa Sagaguchi, Kohichi Kikutanii, Masanori Kondo, Hiroshi Yoshioka, Shinya Miyamoto, Takep, Toshihiro Suzuki, Jon Narancha, Yamancha, Naony, Yuugen, Kanako Takami, Ino, Eripyon.N, Kimo Kimo
Scroll designers : Konomi, Iwai, Sawatch, M. Nakagawa, M. Kitamura, Nissui, Kanno, Himago, Kazu T, Oonisi, Takapon, Kenichi Yamahashi, Stamp Rally
Music Composers & Arrangers : Yuko K. Takehara, Masato Koda
Sound director : Ryoji Yamamoto
Recording director : Susan Hart
Recording engineers : Paul Shubat, David Stinson
Second engineers : Dave Hatt, Rick Pacholko
Programmers : Motsu, Eternal Sailor, Kaw, You!, Silver Kadontz, Teruaki Hirokado (Bakunetsu Hirokado)
Producer : Kenji Kataoka
General producer : Noritaka Funamizu
Executive producer : Yoshiki Okamoto

* Voice Actors (Art Vision):
Capcom heroes...
Strider Hiryu : Fube Tomomi 
Mega Man, Roll : Fujino Kahoru 
Morrigan :  Jinguji Yayoi
Chun Li : Miyamura Yuko 
Ryu : Toshiyuki Morikawa
Captain Commando : Nagasako Takashi 
Zangief : Takagi Wataru 
Jin : Ueda Yuji

Marvel heroes...
Jubilee : Alyson Court
Hulk : Andrew Jackson
Captain America, Wolverine : Cathal J. Dodd
Onslaught : Maurice Wint
Spider-Man : Patrick Chilvers
Venom, Thor : Rod Wilson
Gambit : Tony Daniels
War Machine : Wayne Ward

Narrator : Sally Cahill

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES: 
Sega Dreamcast [JP] (mar.25, 1999) "Marvel vs. Capcom - Clash of Super Heroes [Model T-1202M]"
[JP] Sony PlayStation (nov.11, 1999) "Marvel vs. Capcom EX Edition [Model SLPS-02368]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=mvsca,mvscar1
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 25 years ago:

Marvel vs. Capcom - Clash of Super Heroes (c) 1998 Capcom Company, Limited.

Asian release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese release entry; "Marvel vs. Capcom - Clash of Super Heroes [Green Board]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Grey Board [Asia]

- UPDATES -

Grey Board revisions : 

REVISION 1:
* Build date: 980112

REVISION 2:
* Build date: 980123

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=mvsch
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 25 years ago:

Marvel vs. Capcom - Clash of Super Heroes (c) 1998 Capcom Company, Limited. 

South American release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese release entry; "Marvel vs. Capcom - Clash of Super Heroes [Green Board]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Orange Board [South America]

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=mvscb
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 25 years ago:

Marvel vs. Capcom - Clash of Super Heroes (c) 1998 Capcom Company, Limited. 

Brazilian release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese release entry; "Marvel vs. Capcom - Clash of Super Heroes [Green Board]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Pink Board [Brazil]

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=masterw,masterwu,masterwj
Arcade Video game published 34 years ago:

Master of Weapon (c) 1989 Taito Corp.

A seven-day nuclear storm brings on a big change on the earth. The earth cracks, the sea boils and the living things change. And human is no exception. After finishing of the cursed 7-day war, the remaining people change their cells and return to the nature in order to endure severe environmental changes. However, a selected part of the people - they had been called scientists - create a computer, which can lead the people in order to leave a seed humankind. This computer is called N.

- TECHNICAL -

Taito B System hardware
Prom Sticker : B72

Main CPU : Motorola 68000, Zilog Z80
Sound Chips : YM2203

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2

- TRIVIA -

Master of Weapon was released in May 1989 in Japan.

The title on the title screen is "Master of Weapon" but the title was probably supposed to be "Master of Weapons" as the marquee says it is.

Master of Weapon was very unpopular, mostly because it was too difficult for its time. Also, it was released during the 'Tetris era' and most of the Master of Weapon boards (Taito B System) were replaced by Sega's Tetris. Despite unpopularity, some Taito fans still love Master of Weapon because the game displayed excellent graphics and an unique BGM.

After the commercial failure of Master of Weapon, Taito decided to not continue development of vertical shoot'em ups. So, the famous company Toaplan developed their next shoot'em up game for Taito, "Twin Hawk".

A very rare prototype of this game is known as "Yukiwo". According to the advisor, Senba Takatsuna, Taito Game Sales Department requested to change the game's name before the release. 'Yukiwo' is the protagonist's name and was also from the first name of the programmer, Yukiwo Ishikawa (Y.I), later known as 'Yukio Abe' and producer of "Rayforce" which took inspiration from Master of Weapon. Originally, the game was planned to be a 2-Player simultaneous game, but it became a 1-Player game after the name change.

Senba Takatsuna said the game's development took about 6 months. The Mecha design was inspired by the famous anime 'Akira'.

The music composer Hisayoshi Ogura didn't compose the actual BGM. He only did the arrangement. The actual, uncredited composer is V. Osahi. When the game changed its name to Master of Weapon, the deadline was approaching fast. So V. Osahi re-used sounds from "Jigoku Meguri" and "Fighting Hawk".

Buddhism symbols appear in Act 1 and Act 6.

Default highscore table (BEST 5) :
NO SCORE PLAY NAME
1 992300 1 Y.I
2 713000 4 KON
3 314000 4 TET
4 224000 2 T.M
5 191230 1 KYO

Gamest (Japanese arcade magazine), December 1989, a Japanese gamer called 'RVS-R. Y' got a high score of 3,922,260 points.

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Taito DJ Station : G.S.M. Taito 5 - PCCB-00037) on August 21, 1990.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Levels Select : Boot machine with service switch pressed.
Message appears : SERVICE SWITCH ERROR, press 1p Start(x3), service switch, 1p Start.
Message appears : SELECT BY DOWN SW, select level with joy Down/Up and push Start button.

* Good End : If you continue 5 times, you can have access to the last boss, defeat it to see the good end.

* 'Yukiwo' Charater : When you hit specific building in act 1, you can see 'yukiwo' charater written by Kanakata.

* Random boss : In act 4, after vanishing the first huge spaceship, small house appears in meadow. If you hit this house, a hidden boss will appears (this boss is the final boss in Metal Black and Galatic Storm).

- STAFF -

Directed & produced by : George Jyuttute
Game & character designed by : Yukiwo Ishikawa (Y.I)
Programmed by : George K-5, Takeshi Murata (T.M), Creamy Tetsu (TET), Maryin Kondoh
Art designed by : Yukiwo Ishikawa (Y.I), Takako Kojima, Dandy Yarita, Makoto Fujita, Akira Saitoh, Hisakazu Katoh, Oolong Yamada, Kenji Hazama, Animation 20, Santa Claus
Hardware designed by : Eikichi Takahashi, Hiroyuki Noguchi
Music composed & arranged by : V. Osahi(Pinch Panchi), Hisayoshi Ogura, Yasuhisa Watanabe
Graphic designed by : Hiroyasu Nagai, Kazuo Nakagawa, Animation 20

Special thanks to : Takeshi Ishizashi, Hidehiro Fujiwara, Keiichi Shibata, Ichirou Fujisue, Kenji Kaidoh, Tomio Takeda, Hiroshi Tsujino, Akira Fujita, Toshio Kohno, Masami Kikuchi, Kazuhiro Numata, Takashi Kitayabashi, Takamasa Hori

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] Sega Mega Drive (sept.27, 1991) "Master of Weapon [Model T-11063]" 
[JP] Sony PS2 (mar.29, 2007) "Taito Memories II Gekan [Model SLPM-66713]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=1579&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=matmania
Arcade Video game published 38 years ago:

Mat Mania - The Prowrestling Network (c) 1985 Taito America Corp.

Export version. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese version entry; "Exciting Hour - The Prowrestling Network"

- TECHNICAL -

Game ID : TA-0015

- TRIVIA -

Mat Mania was released in October 1985 by Taito America, under license from Technos Japan.

In this version, TWA stands for Taito Wrestling Association. The ingame original misspelling of Insane Warrior's name has been corrected. Also, Blues Bloody is now called 'Golden Hulk'. (in reference of Hulk Hogan who debuted wrestling as 'Sterling Golden'. Golden Hulk's most powerful move is the leg drop, which is Hogan's finisher).

A 2-Player version of this game is known as "Mania Challenge".

Rac Carpana holds the official record for this game with 5,000,150 points.

- SERIES -

1. Tag Team Wrestling (1983)
2. Mat Mania - The Prowrestling Network (1985)
3. Mania Challenge (1986)

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES: 
Sony PlayStation 4 [PSN] [US] (mar.24, 2015) "Arcade Archives - Mat Mania Exciting Hour [Model CUSA-00973]" 
Sony PlayStation 4 [PSN] [EU] [AU] (aug.24, 2015) "Arcade Archives - Mat Mania Exciting Hour [Model CUSA-02486]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=mofflott
Arcade Video game published 34 years ago:

Maze of Flott (c) 1989 Taito.

- TECHNICAL -

Prom Stickers : C17

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 8 Mhz), Zilog Z80 (@ 4 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Yamaha YM2151 (@ 4 Mhz), OKI MSM5205 (@ 384 Khz)

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2

- TRIVIA -

Released in November 1989.

- STAFF -

Producers : Akiyama.Sama, Usami.Sama, Kuramochi.Sama
Programmers : Myamya, Wanwan
Graphic designers : Hos, Kosuinen, Phazer.Koji, S. Miyakoshi, Ojyusan, Wan2
Sound : K. Kusatu, Yasuhisa Watanabe, S. Saitou

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=mazinger,mazingerj
Arcade Video game published 29 years ago:

Mazinger Z (c) 1994 Banpresto.

Vertical shoot'em up with 3 selectable characters : Mazinger Z, Great Mazinger and Grendizer.

- TECHNICAL -

Cave 1st Generation Hardware

Main CPU : MC68000 (@ 16 Mhz)
Sound CPU : Zilog Z80 [Optional]
Sound Chips : Yamaha YMZ280B (@ 16.9344 Mhz) or OKIM6295 x (1 or 2) + YM2203 / YM2151 [Optional]
Other : 93C46 EEPROM

Screen orientation : Vertical
Video resolution : 240 x 384 pixels
Screen refresh : 57.55 Hz
Palette colors : 16384

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 3

- TRIVIA -

Released in August 1994.

Based off the manga created by legendary artist Go Nagai in 1972.

The anime series on which this game is based was known briefly in the United States as Tranzor Z. It aired in the U.S. in 1985 and was produced by Three B. Productions, Ltd.

Default highscore table (TODAY'S TOP 8) :
TOP 100000 SUG
2ND 90000 TAG
3RD 80000 TON
4TH 70000 FAW
5TH 60000 TOM
6TH 50000 FUJ
7TH 40000 SAT
8TH 30000 SIN

- UPDATES -

If you set the territorial dip switch to Japan, not only will the Japanese title screen be shown, you will also see the boss's name (before you start fighting, written in Japanese), and cutscenes are shown in-between levels. These are absent if you set the switch to World.

- SERIES -

1. Mazinger Z (1994)
2. Mazinger Z 2

- STAFF -

Producer: Toshifumi Kawashima
Cast: Koji Kabuto, Hiroya Ishimaru, Duke Fried, Kei Tomiyama, Tetsuya Tsurugi, Keiichi Noda
Special Thanks To: Go Nagai, Takashi Nagai, Kenji Nagai, Dynamic Pl
Sound effect by : Hitoshi Sakimoto

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=megamana
Arcade Video game published 28 years ago:

Mega Man - The Power Battle (c) 1995 Capcom.

Asian release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese release entry; "Rockman - The Power Battle [B-Board 91634B-2]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System" hardware.
B-Board #: 91634B-2

- TRIVIA -

The Asian version has English text and character names, but doesn't have the voice samples the Japanese version has.

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES: 
[US] Nintendo GBA ("Mega Man Anniversary Collection") : Planned, but never published. 
Nintendo GameCube [US] (june.22, 2004; "Mega Man Anniversary Collection [Model DOL-G60E-USA]")  
[US] Sony PS2 (june.22, 2004, "Mega Man Anniversary Collection [Model SLUS-20833]") 
[US] Microsoft XBOX (mar.15, 2005, "Mega Man Anniversary Collection") 

* OTHERS:
Arcade (1995, "Capcom Play System II")

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=megaman
Arcade Video game published 28 years ago:

Mega Man - The Power Battle (c) 1995 Capcom USA, Incorporated.

North American release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese release entry; "Rockman - The Power Battle [B-Board 91634B-2]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System" hardware.
B-Board #: 91635B-2

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES: 
[US] Nintendo GBA ("Mega Man Anniversary Collection") : Planned, but never published. 
Nintendo GameCube [US] (june.22, 2004; "Mega Man Anniversary Collection [Model DOL-G60E-USA]")  
[US] Sony PS2 (june.22, 2004, "Mega Man Anniversary Collection [Model SLUS-20833]") 
[US] Microsoft XBOX (mar.15, 2005, "Mega Man Anniversary Collection") 

* OTHERS:
Arcade (1995, "Capcom Play System II")

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=mmancp2u,mmancp2ur1,mmancp2ur2
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 28 years ago:

Mega Man - The Power Battle (c) 1995 Capcom USA, Incorporated.

CPS-2 re-release of an original CSP-1 game. For more information, see the original CSP1 release entry; "Rockman - The Power Battle [CP-S No. 32]"

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Blue Board [USA]

Players: Up to 2.
Control: 8-way joystick per player.
Buttons: 3 per player.

- TRIVIA -

This version was available as a sample only.

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=megaman2,megamn2d
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 27 years ago:

Mega Man 2 - The Power Fighters (c) 1996 Capcom.

North American & European release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese release entry; "Rockman 2 - The Power Fighters [Green Board]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Blue Board [USA & Europe]

- SERIES -

1. Mega Man - The Power Battle [CP-S No. 31] (1995)
2. Mega Man 2 - The Power Fighters [CP-S II No. 17] (1996)

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[US] Nintendo GBA [Release Cancelled] 
Nintendo GameCube [US] (2004, "Mega Man Anniversary Collection [Player's Choice] [Model DOLG60E]")
Nintendo GameCube [US] (june.22, 2004; "Mega Man Anniversary Collection [Model DOLG60E]")
Sony PS2 [US] (june.22, 2004; "Mega Man Anniversary Collection [Model SLUS-20833]")
[US] Microsoft XBOX (mar.15, 2005, "Mega Man Anniversary Collection")

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=megaman2a
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 27 years ago:

Mega Man 2 - The Power Fighters (c) 1996 Capcom Company, Limited.

Asian release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese release entry; "Rockman 2 - The Power Fighters [Green Board]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Grey Board [Asia]

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=69657&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=megaman2h
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 27 years ago:

Mega Man 2 - The Power Fighters (c) 1996 Capcom Company, Limited.

South American release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese release entry; "Rockman 2 - The Power Fighters [Green Board]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Orange Board [South America]

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=71530&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=mtwins
Arcade Video game published 33 years ago:

Mega Twins (c) 1990 Capcom Company, Limited.

Export release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, see the original Japanese release entry; "Chiki Chiki Boys [B-Board 89625B-1]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System" hardware.
B-Board ID: 89624B-3

- TRIVIA -

These Export versions are censored: the kidnapped bikini girls in the later levels don't appear.

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES: 
[EU] Sega Mega Drive (1992) "Chiki Chiki Boys [Model 1075-50]" 
Sega Mega Drive [BR] (1992) "Chiki Chiki Boys" by Tec Toy 
Sega Mega Drive [AU] (1992) "Chiki Chiki Boys"
[US] Sega Genesis (1993) "Chiki Chiki Boys [Model 1075]" 
Sega Mega Drive [KO] (1993) by Samsung 
[US] Microsoft XBOX (nov.24, 2006) "Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 2" 
[US] Sony PS2 (nov.24, 2006) "Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 2 [Model SLUS-21473]" 
Sony PlayStation 2 [AU] (apr.11, 2007) "Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 2 [Model SLES-54561]" 
[EU] Sony PS2 (apr.13, 2007) "Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 2 [Model SLES-54561]" 

* HANDHELDS: 
[US] Sony PSP (mar.22, 2006) "Capcom Classics Collection Remixed [Model ULUS-10097]" 
[EU] Sony PSP (jul.21, 2006) "Capcom Classics Collection Remixed [Model ULES-00347]" 

* COMPUTERS: 
[EU] Atari ST (1991) 
[EU] Commodore Amiga (1991) 

Ports for the Commodore C64, ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC were advertised, but were never published.

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=megablst,megablstj,megablstu,megab
Arcade Video game published 34 years ago:

Megablast (c) 1989 Taito Corp.

At the end of the 21st century, war and hunger disappear on the earth, and humankind go on very well. On such occasion, it occurred to humankind that mysterious disappearances of women rise in waves in many places in the world. The cause is found by the investigation of a secretly organized 'Defending-the-earth-from-the-outside-organization'. That is, a strange contagious disease prevails throughout a planet 'Zancs' in a dark nebula, and women's generative power is lost, then, women on the earth were abducted as substitutes for having their descendants. Downson and Bogey, the choice out of the 'Defending-the-earth-from-the-outside-organization'. start on a journey to the space by using 'Megablast' which is a space fighter equipped with all available products of the earth's scientific power in order to rescue the earth women as well as lovable 'Sindy' who is also abducted together with the other earth women.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "Taito F2 System" hardware.

Prom Stickers: C11

Players: 2
Control: 8-way joystick
Buttons: 1

- TRIVIA -

Megablast was released in November 1989.

As "Master of Weapon", Megablast was very unpopular. The main reason is the game was worse than other shoot'em ups of this period. So, most boards were withdraw.

According to a former taito developer, this game was supposed to be a four-way button game. Prototypes versions exist. Also, the ending would originally be a battle between players, but they were not able to completed this function. 

Only one soundtrack include the game's sounds (composed by Zuntata):  "Taito Retro collection 5" (KDSD-00553,00554) on May 30, 2012.

- STAFF -

Sound composer: Yasuhisa Watanabe

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES: 
[JP] Sony PS2 (mar.29, 2007) "Taito Memories II Gekan [Model SLPM-66713]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=1598&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=mercs,mercsu,mercsur1
Arcade Video game published 33 years ago:

Mercs (c) 1990 Capcom Company, Limited.

Export release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, see the original Japanese release entry; "Senjou no Ookami II [B-Board 89625B-1]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System" hardware
B-Board ID: 89624B-3

- UPDATES -

US versions have the "Winners Don't Use Drugs" screen. 

REVISION 1 : 
* Build date : March 2, 1990 

REVISION 2 : 
* Build date : June 8, 1990

- SERIES -

1. Commando (1985) 
2. Mercs [CP-S No. 09] (1990) 
3. Wolf of the Battlefield - Commando 3 (2007, XBLA, PSN)

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES: 
[EU] Sega Master System (1987) "Mercs [Model 9007]" 
Sega Master System [AU] (1991) "Mercs [Model 9007]" 
[US] Sega Genesis (1991) "Mercs [Model 670-1625]"
[EU] Sega Mega Drive (1991) "Mercs [Model 670-1625-50]" 
[EU] Sony PlayStation (sept.3, 1999) "Capcom Generations 4 - Blazing Guns [Capcom Generations Disc 4] [Model SLES-31881]" 
[US] Microsoft XBOX (sept.27, 2005) "Capcom Classics Collection" 
[US] Sony PS2 (sept.27, 2005) "Capcom Classics Collection [Model SLUS-21316]" 
[EU] Microsoft XBOX (nov.18, 2005) "Capcom Classics Collection" 
[EU] Sony PS2 (nov.18, 2005) "Capcom Classics Collection [Model SLES-53661]" 

* HANDHELDS: 
[US] Sony PSP (oct.24, 2006) "Capcom Classics Collection Reloaded [Model ULUS-10134]" 
[EU] Sony PSP (nov.10, 2006) "Capcom Classics Collection Reloaded [Model ULES-00377]" 
[AU] Sony PSP (nov.16, 2006) "Capcom Classics Collection Reloaded" 

* COMPUTERS: 
[EU] Sinclair ZX Spectrum (1991) 
[EU] Commodore C64 (1991) 
[EU] Amstrad CPC (1991) 
[EU] Commodore Amiga (1991) 
[EU] Atari ST (1991)

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=1607&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=metafox
Arcade Video game published 34 years ago:

Meta Fox (c) 1989 Seta Company, Limited.

A vertically scrolling shooter.

- TECHNICAL -

Game ID : UP

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 8 Mhz), M65C02 (@ 1 Mhz)
Sound Chips : X1-010 (@ 16 Mhz)

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2

- TRIVIA -

Meta Fox was released in December 1989.

Licensed to I-Vics (International Video Computer Systems) for US distribution.
Also licensed to Taito and Jordan I.S.

Ray Ballard holds the official record for this game with 79,000 points.

- STAFF -

Producer : Jun Fujimoto
Staff : T. Ishikawa, N. Nonaka, Y. Ohta, K. Ishikawa, T. Tsuboi, M. Watanabe, K 11, Jordan, M. Asakawa, K. Nakabayashi, F. Sugiura, T. Sato, J. Fujiwara, T. Wada

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=metalb,metalbj
Arcade Video game published 32 years ago:

Metal Black (c) 1991 Taito Corp.

Earth is under attack from an alien race from the 'Nemesis' region of space, and human civilisation now stands on the brink of collapse. The invaders have utilised energy molecules - known to earth scientists as 'Newalones' - to create powerful beam weapons with which to attack Earth. In response, Earth's scientists have developed the 'Black Fly' project; a powerful space craft that utilises the same Newalone molecule technology of the alien aggressors.

Metal Black is a very playable sideways scrolling shoot-em-up which manages to feel different to other games in the genre, due to the fact that it lacks a a player-definable weapon power-up system. Instead of collecting items that provide extra speed, different weapons etc. players must collect the clusters of 'Newalone' molecules that float around each level. These molecule clusters will gradually increase the player ship's firepower.

As long as the Metal Black ship has sufficient firepower, players can activate the 'Beam Weapon', which generates a powerful energy beam that destroys everything it comes into contact with. The Beam Weapon will only last for a few seconds and its use will reduce the ship's energy levels. Once the Beam weapon de-activates, Metal Black will have vastly reduced firepower for its forward-firing laser cannon. Players must once again collect the Newalone molecule clusters to build up the ship's firepower.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "Taito F2 System" hardware. It used a graphics extension on the board, the so called Taito F2 Expanded System (also known as the Taito F1 System).

Prom Stickers: D12

Players: 2
Control: 8-way joystick
Buttons: 3

- TRIVIA -

Metal Black was released in September 1991. It was a great shoot them up game, but it didn't had the success it merit since it was published at same time of Capcom's "Street Fighter II - The World Warrior".

Metal Black was originally planned to be "Gun Frontier 2", but somewhere in the middle of development, the programmers decided that it had to be a different, unrelated game. Metal black's original storyline was too gloomy. Taito's supervisor rejected the original game project.

This was Taito's first game to show the title of the tune which plays for each stage at the start of each one.

Moriyama Yoshihiro (See Staff section for more info) is the chief of G.rev (makers of "Border Down" in 2003).

The game forbids the initials 'SEX' on the high score table. If you try, it gets changed it to '***'.

Metal Black was awared by the Gamest Game music section.

The companion star in the story is based on the Nemesis hypothesis as the source of Earth's most notable extinctions.

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Metal Black - PCCB-00079) on January 1, 1992.
Zuntata Records released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Zuntata History L'ab-normal 1st - ZTTL-0038) on April 4, 1999.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* INSTRUCTIONS:
- Press the Fire button to shoot a beam. 
- Press and hold the MAX Beam button to shoot a converging beam.
- If your beam level is at maximum, release the MAX Beam button to shoot a spreading beam for greater destructive power. 
- Collecting Newalone molecules increases the strength of both your normal and your MAX beam.
- Some enemies also collect Newalone and can fire MAX beams at you. Fire your MAX beam against an enemy MAX beam to create an energy interaction which can cause massive amounts of damage to your enemy - if your beam is stronger.

* LEVELS SELECT:
Boot machine with service switch pressed.
Message appears: SERVICE SWITCH ERROR, press 1p Start(x3), service switch, 1p Start.
Message appears: SELECT BY DOWN SW, select level with joy Down/Up and push Start button.

- SERIES -

1. Gun & Frontier (1991)
2. Metal Black (1991)

- STAFF -

Producers : Senba Takatsuna, Hori Takamasa
Game designers : Senba Takatsuna, Hori Takamasa, Kuroki Naoya, Ohno Tomohiro, Seguchi Takashi, Mizobe Kumi, Watanabe Yasuhisa, Jun Sawaki, Katsuhisa Ishikawa
Art directors : Senba Takatsuna, Ohno Wepokichi
Programmers : Tarabar, Kuroki Naoya, Seguchi Takashi
Hardware engineers : Jun Sawaki, Takeda Tomio
Decorator : Kumi Mizobe
Sound (Zuntata) : Yasuhisa Watanabe (Yack.), Ishikawa Babio
Bit pattern : Moriyama Yoshihiro, Tanaka Kuniaki, Nakahara Yoshikatsu, Tsuneoka Masatoshi, Vap-Awave
Cast : Ho Lee Chan, Zuntata, John Neianik 8th, Sakou Menme

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
Sega Saturn (may.24, 1996) "Metal Black [Model T-19902G]" 
[JP] Sony PS2 (jul.28, 2005) "Taito Memories Joukan [Model SLPM-66057]" 
Sony PlayStation 2 [AU] (mar.30, 2006) "Taito Legends 2 [Model SLES-53852]" 
[EU] Microsoft XBOX (mar.31, 2006) "Taito Legends 2" 
[EU] Sony PS2 (mar.31, 2006) "Taito Legends 2 [Model SLES-53852]" 
[US] Sony PS2 (may.16, 2007) "Taito Legends 2 [Model SLUS-21349]" 

Note : The PS2 version has a bug that breaks the control system - in the original, you could press the super button and hold it down for a directed blast. The XBOX version does not suffer from the aforementioned bug, and plays as you would expect.

* COMPUTERS: 
[EU] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (mar.31, 2006) "Taito Legends 2" 
[US] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (jul.10, 2007) "Taito Legends 2"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=mslug

Metal Slug - Super Vehicle-001 (c) 1996 Nazca.

A scrolling 'run-and-gun' platform game for one or two players, Metal Slug is a humorous parody of war and specifically of World War II and the Nazis.

The game features six enemy-packed levels, referred to as 'missions'. Players start the game armed only with a pistol, but extra weapons can be picked up and used for greater firepower. Also, at certain points during a level players will find an unused 'Super Vehicle-001' - or Metal Slug - tank which can be entered and driven. The Metal Slug is slow-moving but has very powerful weapons. If the Slug takes too many hits it will break down and start to flash, the player must then quickly exit the vehicle before it explodes. The enemy troops also have vehicles at their disposal, such as tanks, boats and helicopters.

The levels are littered with bearded hostages who, when rescued, award players with either points bonuses (in the form of medals) or weapon power-ups. Available weapons are Heavy Machine Gun, Flame Shot, Rocket Launcher and Shotgun. Hand grenades are also available.

Each level ends with at least one large enemy 'Boss' vehicle that takes many hits to destroy. Once the boss has been destroyed, bonus points are awarded for each prisoner rescued. Further bonus points are awarded if the player's Metal Slug vehicle has survived the boss battle.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID : NGM-201

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 3
=> Character > [A] Shoot, [B] Jump, [C] Grenade
=> Metal Slug> [A] Gun Attack, [B] Jump Board Vehicle, [C] Artillery Attack

- TRIVIA -

Metal Slug was released in April 1996. 

Etymology of 'Metal Slug': Meeher, the lead designer of the game for Nazca, wanted to create an armored fighting vehicle that could crawl on the ground like a 'slug'. The word 'metal' in the title indicates that the vehicle is mechanical. Initially, players considered the title to be "not good enough". Meeher later joked about the title, saying "Maybe I don't make much [sic] of a sense?" 

Slugs in Metal Slug sequels included animals (usually only the Vulcan cannon mounted on the animal, with a cannon attachment occasionally available), planes and other vehicles that did not fit Meeher's original definition. 

While being an obvious parody of World War II and the Nazi regime (the rebel army's flag is a deliberate pastiche of the Nazi "Swastika"), Metal Slug also lampoons 'Full Metal Jacket' and 'MASH'. General Morden, the rebel army's evil general, is a parody of Saddam Hussein. 

Just as the two main heroes (Marco & Tarma) appear in every chapter in the Metal Slug series, General Morden & Allen O' Neill (the machine gun wielding, trash mouth-talking, buffed soldier) are the series' classic main villains.

The tank in Metal Slug was inspired by the tank: Dominio Tank Police (1988). The tank in this anime is called Bonaparte and is piloted by Leona Ozaki.

Cliff Reese holds the official record for this game with 2,683,030 points on March 8, 2011. 

The same team that created Metal Slug had previously created a handful of games for Irem, most of which featured very similar graphics and gameplay. "Cyber Lip" (1990) had some of the core developers as the original Metal Slug. "Gunforce" (1991) and "In the Hunt" (1993) had noticeably similar gameplay, with graphics that bear a slight resemblance to Metal Slug. "Gunforce 2" (1994) not only had similar gameplay but the sounds of dying soldiers were almost exactly the same as Metal Slug. Because of this, some fans refer to Gunforce 2 as "Metal Slug Zero".

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Metal Slug features a 'blood ON' option (soldiers squirt blood when shot, instead of water). This can be activated via the 'Setting The Soft Dip' option in the game's dip switch menu. 

* When you parachute into the level at the start of a mission, press B to make the parachute disappear, allowing your character to drop to the ground more quickly. 

* Don't waste ammo. Metal Slug requires some thinking and shooting indiscriminately is not the best way to play this game. 

* Don't waste special weapons on shields. Shielded soldiers will throw their shields aside when they need to fire, so shoot at them only at this instant. Or use your knife if you manage to get close enough. 

* Use your knife against lone enemies. There is no need to waste ten rounds of your Heavy Machine Gun on a single enemy soldier. 

* When Metal Slug is dangerously low on health (but not so low that you are forced to leave it), use the frontal attack to inflict major damage. 

* Whenever you jump out of the slug, you are invincible for a brief amount of time. This is especially useful against the blue mortars, since they can't be avoided. Note, however, that there is no period of invincibility when you jump back into the slug. 

* There is apparently no 'reload time' when you throw grenades or rockets. The rate depends on how many of either are currently on-screen so if you are close to an enemy, the rate will be negligible. You may use this trick against some bosses and in any other situation to pass through unscratched. 

* The best way to earn points in to rescue hostages, but this can be tricky. The first problem is finding them, the second is to stay alive to the end of the mission to get credit for your rescues. 

As well as the easily-spotted hostages that litter the levels, there are also numerous hidden hostages: 

MISSION 1 (hostages: 10): 

Two pairs of are hostages hidden in the two waterfalls just before you get to the boss. Just blast the tops of the waterfalls and they will fall. 

MISSION 2 (hostages: 12): 

Blast down at the green bush underneath the bridge just before you reach the mid level boss (large tank on rails above you) and three secret prisoners will come running in your direction. 

MISSION 3 (hostages: 15): 

There are secret hostages hidden within the two large trees that you can blast down in the section where you have the Metal Slug tank. These seem to be random, just try blasting those trees down and sometimes they appear. 

There are hidden hostages that drop down from the sky when you are fighting the end of level boss; just don't kill the boss until they have all appeared. 

MISSION 4 (hostages: 20): 

Just after you have got the Metal Slug tank at the beginning of the level, blast the ceiling of the bar just above the light/lampshade high up on the wall at the entrance of the bar. 

At the end of level bosses you can either blast in the top right hand corner of the cave to get three hidden hostages OR blast the far bottom left hand corner for three hidden hostages. It is not possible to get both of these groups. You can only get one or the other. 

MISSION 5 (hostages: 13):

Blast the first and second houses and two hostages will appear. 

Fire at the top of the first and second trees in the stage in between the shops and houses. The first tree yields three POW's and the second only two.

Blast the undercarriage of the end of level boss after it has lifted up on stilts to get three extra prisoners who also provide useful power ups. 

MISSION 6 (hostages: 25): 

At the beginning, shoot above you to find one prisoner. 

Destroy the big pack of rocks to deliver one POW. 

Blast the small white cloud above you just after the boat you are on has run ashore to get two hidden hostages. 

When you're out of the boat, go left in the water to find some points. 

POWs appear on screen during the fight with the final boss, if you shoot in the top right corner. 

* Beat the game in two players mode to view a different ending sequence.

- SERIES -

1. Metal Slug - Super Vehicle-001 [Model NGM-201] (1996, MVS)
2. Metal Slug 2 - Super Vehicle-001/II [Model NGM-241] (1998, MVS)
3. Metal Slug X - Super Vehicle-001 [Model NGM-250] (1999, MVS)
4. Metal Slug - 1st Mission [Model NEOP00210] (1999, NGPC)
5. Metal Slug - 2nd Mission [Model NEOP00610] (2000, NGPC)
6. Metal Slug 3 [Model NGM-256] (2000, MVS)
7. Metal Slug 4 [Model NGM-263] (2002, MVS)
8. Metal Slug 5 [Model NGM-268] (2003, MVS)
9. Metal Slug 6 (2006, MVS)
10. Metal Slug 3D (2006, PS2)
11. Metal Slug 7 (2008, NDS)

- STAFF -

Designers : Akio, Susumu, Max.D, Tomohiro, T. Okui, Kozo
Planners : Meeher, Hire-Nag
Sound : Hiyamuta (Hiya!), Jim
Programmers : Hamachan, Andy A. Kurooka, T. Yokota, H. Yamada, Pierre

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
SNK Neo-Geo CD (1996)
Sony PlayStation (1997)
Sega Saturn (1997)
Sony PSP (2006, "The Metal Slug Collection")
Nintendo Wii (2006, "The Metal Slug Collection")
Sony PlayStation 2 (2006, "The Metal Slug Collection")
[US] Sony PS2 may.05, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model SLUS-21724]"
[US] Sony PSP may.05, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model ULUS-10338]"
[KO] Sony PS2 may.29, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model SLKA-25424]"
[US] Nintendo Wii jul.29, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model RVL-P-RNCE]"
[EU] Sony PSP Oct. 17, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model ULES-01105]"
[EU] Nintendo Wii Oct. 31, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model RVL-P-RJZP]"
[EU] Sony PS2 Nov. 21, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model SLES-55232]"
[JP] Sony PSP May. 21, 2009 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model ULJS-193]"
Sony PlayStation Store (Dec.2010)

* COMPUTERS:
PC DVD-ROM (2009, "Metal Slug Collection PC")

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=mslug2

Metal Slug 2 - Super Vehicle-001/II (c) 1998 SNK [Shin Nihon Kikaku].

The heroes of Metal Slug, Marco and Tarma, are called into action once again to take on the might of General Morden and his armies in this, the first of several sequels to the superb 1996 original. This time, however, Morden has acquired a number of powerful allies to aid him in his evil schemes, some of which are not even human. The 2 brave soldiers are called upon to deal with this threat once again, aided by members of the newly founded 'Sparrow Squad', Fio and Eri.

Metal Slug 2 improved on much of what made the first game great; featuring more enemies, larger bosses, more weapons, more vehicles, more hostages, more surprises and more humour than its illustrious predecessor. The occasional moments of slowdown that blighted the first game are still present, however.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID: NGM-241

Players: 2
Control: 8-way joystick
Buttons: 3
=> Character > [A] Shoot, [B] Jump, [C] Grenade
=> Metal Slug> [A] Gun Attack, [B] Jump Board Vehicle, [C] Artillery Attack

- TRIVIA -

Metal Slug 2 was shown at the 1998 AOU Amusement Expo show, in Japan. Then it was released in February 1998.

The game's alien enemies, together with the final battle and ending sequence, are a deliberate pastiche of the risible sci-fi blockbuster movie, 'Independence Day'.

On the parental advisory screen (US version), 'advisory' is misspelled as 'advisoly'.

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Metal Slug 2 Original Sound Tracks - PCCB-00311) on 17/04/1998.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

Rescued hostages are the greatest contributors of points. But you have to stay alive to get credit for your rescues (Once you complete a mission, you receive 10'000 pts for every POW).

MISSION 1, Deserts of Arabia : You are sent to control a loyalist force suspected of building weapons of mass destruction.
* The tallest tree after the 1st building contains lots of fruit and 3 hidden POW's.
* Palace : Shoot towards the right of the red banner to release 2nd lieutenant Hyakutaro Ichimonji. This mystic POW has an energy bolt which is powerful and homes in on anything you can shoot (this means structures as well; collateral damage). He'll help you until you finish the mission or die.
* You'll find the Camel Slug after the conversing Arabs. It comes equipped with a Vulcan but provides no cover against enemy fire. Like the Metal Slug, the Camel can run over enemy soldiers.
* BOSS 1, Harrier VTOL : Waves of swordsmen rush at you. Take them out before they get too close. After about 100 shots, 2 bazooka grunts open fire. Stay in between the jet exhausts. Aim for the engines as much as possible (You'll see and get 10,000 pt. for the 1st wing and 50,000 for the 2nd).

MISSION 2, Valley of the Pharaohs : Intelligence has indicated that the enemy army is using a secret Egyptian site to house military machinery.
* Use your gun to knock out an eye from the Sphinx (30,000 pts).
* Without hitting the explosive barrel, kill the Imperial Guards. Then, fire at the top right corner offscreen, for 3 POW's.
* If you stand next to the 1st and 3rd miners, they'll dig up some bonus items.
* Shoot at the top right of the support tower for a POW.
* Pyramid slope : A gem or 3 POW's are hidden at the top of the screen, right above the spot where the 1st mummy pops up.
* If you get a whiff of undead breath, you'll become a member of the undead, identifiable only by headgear. You'll be carrying only a pistol. Jumping is also quite a task. The flashing healing potions will turn you back into a human instantly.
* Near the door, get the POW's before clearing out the mummies.
* You'll catch up with Rumi Aikawa here. Shoot her for a healing potion or points.
* The eye hieroglyph before the special mummy hides a gem.
* Shoot the deceased explorer to make her give up a gem. Disgruntled, she'll give you the matching stick of dynamite.
* Jogging to the left, you'll see a few platforms to jump on. From the 2nd to the top, you can carefully jump over to the right. The long one holds 2 treasure chests. But don't stop here. Carefully jump on top of the cat statues. Shoot the chest open, which holds a magic lamp. If you are patient enough, a djinni will appear. Wait just a moment longer, and he'll grant a wish for riches. Starting from the moment the lamp is released, count the plumes of smoke and jump after the 5th one. Shoot above the right statue for another magic lamp.
* On the next level path (8th platform), the head of the hieroglyph holds gems. Shoot'em out!!
* If you let the mummy attack the explorer, you can destroy the new mummy for a gem.
* The twin-armed Slugnoid vehicle is located on one of the higher ledges of the tower of doom. The main cannon (C) fires downwards ((A)+(B) Swan Dive)
* BOSS 2, Iron Claw : Use your cannon and bombs. If you stay at the same altitude for a while, Iron Claw rears back and charges towards you. It won't fire while doing so, giving you time to get free hits in. When Iron Claw primes up, jump to the side ledges.

* BOSS 2 Freeze bug - Stop the nasty climbing! This original flaw give players an unfair advantage to eliminate Boss2 without any difficulty. Below is the following of how to activate. When the player standing on the platform which placed on the last chest, jump to the right edge of the next platform and fall to right lower platform immediately. The screen scrolls up and the boss emerges from the bottom of the screen. Instead of being killed as usual, the player is still there safe and sound ,while the boss freezes and do no climbing at all. At this moment, Just stay on the platform where you are and attack then it will be destroyed afterwards. The trick is also possible when riding the slugnoid or two players' game, but both player must do it at the same time.

MISSION 3, Supply Train : You've managed to catch up with an enemy train headed for a night shipment to the Far East.
* At the engine of the train, rescue the POW. Shoot at the smokestack from below to release 3 POW's.
* From the head of the engine, manage to clear more space with your jump to the next train for 50,000 pt.
* Use the Slug flyer which is equipped with a Vulcan that is limited in angular range.
* BOSS 3, Four Legger : While the boss is standing, jump to shoot at it. Everything except the flame-thrower can be avoided by hiding underneath its legs. If you still have the Slug flyer, stay on the left.

MISSION 4, Chinese City, Downtown : A platoon of enemy troops is stationed nearby. 
* Collect as much of the food as you can. Once you're fat, your weapons will cause more damage but you'll be slower.
* Most of the buildings can be demolished, revealing hidden POW's or bonuses. Some of the POW's can be reached by knocking down the building they're on or the one next to it.
* Right about where the monkey and fish are, jump into an opening in the walkway and find POW's and a diet shake.
* Sitting on a rooftop of the residential area is your Metal Slug.
* BOSS 4, Big Tank (kind of battleship) : Only the cannons take damage during this battle. If using the Metal Slug, try for the lower cannons first. Use the houses and boulders to aim for the higher guns.

MISSION 5, New York : The townsfolk have been complaining about strange smells and sounds coming from the sewers. Intelligence confirms that a battalion is stationed inside, ready for an invasion. 
* Jump on top of any of the cars, firing downwards. The car will burst in flames, sending you into the sky to reach a lot of bonus items.
* At the end of the street, shoot at the fire escape of the last building for 3 POW's and into the tree for fruits.
* At the underground railroad, shoot into the top of the arch for POW's.
* As soon as one of the 4 trains approaches from the right, fire immediately.
After destroying each one, run to the right to regain any lost ground.
* After marker zero (0), the track bends from here. But before you shoot at the EXIT door, fire at the ceiling. There are 3 separate spots with hostages.
* In the sewers, you see a box with an arrow on it. Find the lever and press (A) to wind it. After 3 turns, an item will drop down with a weapon or bonus.
* BOSS 5, Nuclear Submarine : Surfacing from the sewer slime, the sub attacks with a lot of lightning balls and a thunder cannon. When you see double barrels pop up, prepare for some serious thunder. Fire the Vulcan and bomb it at the same time. 

MISSION 6, Siberian Shipyard : Far from Moscow, the rebel army has secretly established war factories and rebel headquarters.
* Mountainside : the sign with the arrow hides a POW.
* Midboss, Super Soldier : Fully recovered from his wounds of Metal Slug 1, he challenges you to another showdown. The horizontal shots can be ducked. Sometimes, you can knife him once and jump away. Take whatever shots you can in the meanwhile.
* In the submarine factory, after busting the tank, use the platform to release the hostage on the higher platform.
* Small platforms give you access to some of the prisoners on the top level, but it's easier to fight aliens on the lower platform.
* When the 2nd area is clear, turn the crank to release a Laser Rifle.
* 3 POW's are hanging at the top of the screen after the 3rd area.
* A POW is hidden on the short plank in the 4th area.
* BOSS 6, Battle Drone : Use the platform to the left whenever possible. When the rod is exposed, it will prime up for 2 seconds, then fire a bolt. Keep a constant fire when free from the Battle Pods. 
* FINAL BOSS, Mothership : Fear not the various grunts and tanks, they are here to help you. Try using them for cover. Aiming upward from anywhere will hit some section of the ship. The soldiers bring in a Metal Slug later in the battle, just unload it from the truck. After a long and ruthless battle, the Mothership withdraws.

- SERIES -

1. Metal Slug - Super Vehicle-001 [Model NGM-201] (1996, MVS)
2. Metal Slug 2 - Super Vehicle-001/II [Model NGM-241] (1998, MVS)
3. Metal Slug X - Super Vehicle-001 [Model NGM-250] (1999, MVS)
4. Metal Slug - 1st Mission [Model NEOP00210] (1999, NGPC)
5. Metal Slug - 2nd Mission [Model NEOP00610] (2000, NGPC)
6. Metal Slug 3 [Model NGM-256] (2000, MVS)
7. Metal Slug 4 [Model NGM-263] (2002, MVS)
8. Metal Slug 5 [Model NGM-268] (2003, MVS)
9. Metal Slug 6 (2006, MVS)
10. Metal Slug 3D (2006, PS2)
11. Metal Slug 7 (2008, NDS)

- STAFF -

Planners : Meeher
Designers : Akio, Susumu, Cannon, Tomo, Kuichin, Kozo, Kon. Kitakichine, J.Yoshii, Ozi, Fukunishi, Nakamata, Hikaru, Hikaru, Megumi Imanishi
Programmers : Andy, Hamachan, Nakatsuka, Zen, Seeker, Pierre, Kohki (^0^)/, Hirokun
Sound : Hiyamuta (Hiya!)
Producer : Takashi Nishiyama

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo AES (Apr. 02, 1998; "Metal Slug 2 - Super Vehicle-001/II [Model NGH-241]")
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo CD (june.25, 1998; "Metal Slug 2 - Super Vehicle-001/II [Model NGCD-241]")
[JP] Sony PSP (Feb. 22, 2007; "Metal Slug Complete [Model ULJS-00090]")
[JP] Sony PS2 (may.31, 2007; "Metal Slug Complete [Model SLPS-25762]")
[JP] Nintendo Wii (Dec. 27, 2007; "Metal Slug Complete [Model RVL-RMLJ-JPN]")
[JP] Sony PS2 (june.18, 2009; "Metal Slug Complete [SNK Best Collection] [Model SLPS-25937]")
[JP] Sony PSP (june.18, 2009; "Metal Slug Complete [SNK Best Collection] [Model ULJS-00206]")

* COMPUTERS:
PC (2001)
PC DVD-ROM (2009, "Metal Slug Collection PC")

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=mslug3h

Metal Slug 3 (c) 2000 SNK [Shin Nihon Kikaku].

- TECHNICAL -

[Model NGH-256]
708 Mega

- TRIVIA -

This AES version was released one month after the original MVS release, on June 01, 2000 in Japan.

For more information about the game itself, please see the MVS version entry: "Metal Slug 3 [Model NGM-256]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=mslug3,mslug3a

Metal Slug 3 (c) 2000 SNK.

The heroes of the first 2 games return once more to do battle with the ever-present General Morden and his vast army. The third game of the series places a greater emphasis on defeating hulking boss characters than the 2 previous outings. Metal Slug 3 also introduced multiple routes through most levels, vastly increasing the replay value of the game. For example; on the first level the player reaches a point where they can either continue over land, or enter a small submarine and head down into the ocean depths, where they will be faced with a variety of huge, deadly sea-dwelling creatures.

Metal Slug 3 introduced a number of new elements that have a direct effect on the player's character - similar to the 'mummification' of the second game. The first of these is the 'fatty' affect : should the player pick up too much food (fish, for example) their character will morph in an obese version of itself. This doesn't have any detrimental effect on performance and is included purely for reasons of humour. Another effect is the now infamous 'Zombiefication'; should the player's character be attacked by a Zombie, he or she will become Zombie until they are either killed, or pick up a first-aid, which will restore the player's character back to human form. Movement while in the zombie state is slow and restricted but the player is armed with what can perhaps be best described as the 'Zombie Vomit'; a huge arc of blood that can be used to destroy oncoming enemies. A second Zombie attack while the player's character is in a Zombie state will result in the player losing a life.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID : NGM-256

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 3
=> Character > [A] Shoot, [B] Jump, [C] Grenade
=> Metal Slug> [A] Gun Attack, [B] Jump Board Vehicle, [C] Artillery Attack

- TRIVIA -

Metal Slug 3 was released in May 2000. This game was the last game in the Metal Slug series developed by SNK. The underwater stages are a graphical nod to Irem's 1993 classic, "In the Hunt". This is understandable as many of SNK's Metal Slug developers originally worked for Irem.

Metal Slug 3 features a number of sci-fi movie homages : Mission 2 features a guest appearance by the Men in Black. The carnivorous plant aliens in Mission 4 are a parody of the sci-fi musical comedy, 'The Little Shop of Horrors'. The squid-like aliens in the gigantic Mission 5 (known as 'Mars People') are a homage to the movie, 'Independence Day'. Also, the alien clones you face in this stage seem to parody the sci-fi movie clasic, 'Invasion of the body snatchers'. Finally, the last boss battle seems to be slightly inspired by the ending sequence in the sci-fi horror movie, 'Alien Resurrection'. One of the hostages (who also appeared in "Metal Slug 2" & "Metal Slug X", by the way) known as Hyakkutaro will join the fight by shooting fireballs.

Noise Factory released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Metal Slug 3 Original Soundtrack - NF-0002) on 31/01/2003.

A hack of this game was released in 2005 as "Metal Slug 6 [Hack]", one year before the official "Metal Slug 6".

- SERIES -

1. Metal Slug - Super Vehicle-001 [Model NGM-201] (1996, MVS)
2. Metal Slug 2 - Super Vehicle-001/II [Model NGM-241] (1998, MVS)
3. Metal Slug X - Super Vehicle-001 [Model NGM-250] (1999, MVS)
4. Metal Slug - 1st Mission [Model NEOP00210] (1999, NGPC)
5. Metal Slug - 2nd Mission [Model NEOP00610] (2000, NGPC)
6. Metal Slug 3 [Model NGM-256] (2000, MVS)
7. Metal Slug 4 [Model NGM-263] (2002, MVS)
8. Metal Slug 5 [Model NGM-268] (2003, MVS)
9. Metal Slug 6 (2006, MVS)
10. Metal Slug 3D (2006, PS2)
11. Metal Slug 7 (2008, NDS)

- STAFF -

Planners : Meeher, Akio
Enemy sequence : Narusawa, Arita
Character chief : Akio
Background chief : Susumu
Designers : Cannon, Tomo, Kozo, Kuichin, Flying Fox, Curry
Wizard : Andy
Enemy's brain : Aba
Programmers : Tecchan-Take, Dramania Hide, Fujisawa, Nakatsuka, Seeker
Sound : Hiyamuta (Hiya!), Captain Beroou (as Bero-ou), Hohi_Hohi, Q_Jiroo, Maitaro

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo AES (june.01, 2000; "Metal Slug 3 [Model NGH-256]")
[JP] Sony PS2 (june.17, 2003; "Metal Slug 3 [Model SLPS-25209]")
[JP] Microsoft XBOX (june.24, 2004; "Metal Slug 3 [Model DP5-00001]")
[JP] Sony PS2 (Nov. 18, 2004; "Metal Slug 3 [SNK Best Collection] [Model SLPS-25428]")
[JP] Sony PSP (Feb. 22, 2006; "Metal Slug Complete [Model ULJS-00090]")
[JP] Sony PS2 (may.31, 2007; "Metal Slug Complete [Model SLPS-25762]")
[JP] Nintendo Wii (Dec. 27, 2007; "Metal Slug Complete [Model RVL-RMLJ-JPN]")
[JP] Sony PS2 (june.18, 2009; "Metal Slug Complete [SNK Best Collection] [Model SLPS-25937]")
[JP] Sony PSP (june.18, 2009; "Metal Slug Complete [SNK Best Collection] [Model ULJS-00206]")

* COMPUTERS:
PC DVD-ROM (2009, "Metal Slug Collection PC")

* OTHERS:
Google Play (2012) Metal Slug 3

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=mslug4h

Metal Slug 4 (c) 2002 Playmore Corp.

- TECHNICAL -

[Model NGH-263]
553 Mega

- TRIVIA -

This AES version was released on June 12, 2002 in Japan and United States of America.

For more information about the game itself, please refer to the original MVS version entry: "Metal Slug 4 [Model NGM-263]".

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=mslug4

Metal Slug 4 (c) 2002 Playmore Corp.

The popular series of side-scrolling action games continues, introducing all-new characters into the plot. The world is now trembling under the fear of cyber terror, as the birth of a deadly new computer virus threatens to snatch the main military system out of every country. The virus has been created by the terrorist group known as Amadeus, and must be stopped by the four main heroes in the story. They are : Marco Rossi, an army platoon leader; Fio Germi, a superior director of an Italian secret service; Nadia Cassel, a French regular army soldier; and Trevor Spacey, a regular army sergeant. In the game introduction, the team discover that Morden is still alive and probably behind Amadeus...

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID : NGM-263

Players : 2
Control : Joystick 8-way
Buttons : 4
=> Character > [A] Shoot, [B] Jump, [C] Grenade
=> Metal Slug > [A] Gun Attack, [B] Jump Board Vehicle, [C] Artillery Attack, [D] Metal Slug Attack

- TRIVIA -

Metal Slug 4 was released in March 2002. Developed by Mega Enterprise, a South Korean company.

Mega Enterprise got Copyright of SNK's games for South Korea in 1999. In 2006, the South Korean police had an claim for arrest warrant against Lee Sang Min, president of Mega Enterprise. Lee Sang Min escaped in China, abandoning its company (only a few people occupying the office). Mega Enterprise went out of business soon after.

A hack of this game is known as "Metal Slug 4 Plus".

- SERIES -

1. Metal Slug - Super Vehicle-001 [Model NGM-201] (1996, MVS)
2. Metal Slug 2 - Super Vehicle-001/II [Model NGM-241] (1998, MVS)
3. Metal Slug X - Super Vehicle-001 [Model NGM-250] (1999, MVS)
4. Metal Slug - 1st Mission [Model NEOP00210] (1999, NGPC)
5. Metal Slug - 2nd Mission [Model NEOP00610] (2000, NGPC)
6. Metal Slug 3 [Model NGM-256] (2000, MVS)
7. Metal Slug 4 [Model NGM-263] (2002, MVS)
8. Metal Slug 5 [Model NGM-268] (2003, MVS)
9. Metal Slug 6 (2006, MVS)
10. Metal Slug 3D (2006, PS2)
11. Metal Slug 7 (2008, NDS)

- STAFF -

Hyper Organizer : Sang Min Lee

* Mega Entreprise :
Producer : Hong Ick Cho
Character Designer : Joo Hwan Sohn
Background Designer : Yong Hee Lee

* Noise Factory :
Producer : Keiko Ijuu
Sub Planner : Masafumi Fujii, Kazuki Ito
Main Programmer : Hirosi Hisikawa
Sub Programmer : Kazuaki Ezato
Character Designer : Masahiro Maeda, Yosikazu Nisikawa, Nana Maeda, Kentaro Hayasi, Ryo Fujii
Background Designer : Reiko Nagasima, Nami Takasaki
Illustration : Tonko, Naohisa Yamaguti, Masayuki Fukuoka
Sound Producer : Studio Aqua, Toshikazu Tanaka.

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo AES (june.12, 2002; "Metal Slug 4 [Model NGH-263]")
[JP] Sony PS2 (Sep. 22, 2004; "Metal Slug 4 [Model SLPS-25376]")
[JP] Microsoft XBOX (Feb. 24, 2005; "Metal Slug 4 [Model ZY3-00002]")
[JP] Sony PS2 (Nov. 23, 2005; "Metal Slug 4 [SNK Best Collection] [Model SLPS-25571]")
[JP] Sony PSP (Feb. 22, 2007; "Metal Slug Complete [Model ULJS-00090]")
[JP] Sony PS2 (may.31, 2007; "Metal Slug Complete [Model SLPS-25762]")
[JP] Nintendo Wii (Dec. 27, 2007; "Metal Slug Complete [Model RVL-RMLJ-JPN]")
[JP] Sony PS2 (june.18, 2009; "Metal Slug Complete [SNK Best Collection] [Model SLPS-25937]")
[JP] Sony PSP (june.18, 2009; "Metal Slug Complete [SNK Best Collection] [Model ULJS-00206]")

* COMPUTERS:
PC DVD-ROM (2009, "Metal Slug Collection PC")

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=mslug5h

Metal Slug 5 (c) 2004 SNK Playmore.

- TECHNICAL -

[Model NGH-268]
708 Mega

- TRIVIA -

Released on February 17, 2004 in Japan and United States of America.

For more information about the game itself, please see the original MVS version entry: "Metal Slug 5 [Model NGM-268]".

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=mslug5,mslug5b

Metal Slug 5 (c) 2003 SNK Playmore.

A research installation developing the next-generation of Metal Slugs is attacked by unknown forces and a disk containing Metal Slug secrets is stolen. Ordered to recover the disk, Marco and Tarma follow in hot pursuit. Meanwhile, Eri and Fio, investigating the Ptolemaic Army, a paramilitary syndicate active in archeological excavation, catch up with them at an ancient ruin, 'The Corridor of Fire'. The two try to storm and seize the site but are repulsed by the natives and giant Metal Slugs. This incident proves it was the Ptolemaic Army that stole the Metal Slug secrets. The military subsequently launches a second raid by the elite PF squad and Sparrows on the 'The Corridor of Fire' to recover the secrets and destroy the syndicate!!!

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID: NGM-268

Players: 2
Control: 8-way Joystick
Buttons: 4
=> Character > [A] Shoot, [B] Jump, [C] Grenade
=> Metal Slug > [A] Gun Attack, [B] Jump Board Vehicle, [C] Artillery Attack, [D] Metal Slug Attack

- TRIVIA -

Metal Slug 5 was released in November 2003.

This new episode introduces a new 'slide' move to the legendary series (actioned holding down the B button). Players can also make a sliding shot by pushing the A button while sliding.

Noise Factory released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Metal Slug 5 Original Sound Track) on 12/03/2004.

A hack of this game is known as "Metal Slug 5 Plus".

- SERIES -

1. Metal Slug - Super Vehicle-001 [Model NGM-201] (1996, MVS)
2. Metal Slug 2 - Super Vehicle-001/II [Model NGM-241] (1998, MVS)
3. Metal Slug X - Super Vehicle-001 [Model NGM-250] (1999, MVS)
4. Metal Slug - 1st Mission [Model NEOP00210] (1999, NGPC)
5. Metal Slug - 2nd Mission [Model NEOP00610] (2000, NGPC)
6. Metal Slug 3 [Model NGM-256] (2000, MVS)
7. Metal Slug 4 [Model NGM-263] (2002, MVS)
8. Metal Slug 5 [Model NGM-268] (2003, MVS)
9. Metal Slug 6 (2006, MVS)
10. Metal Slug 3D (2006, PS2)
11. Metal Slug 7 (2008, NDS)

- STAFF -

Producer : Moon
Directors : Moon, Heehaw
Sub directors : Undo, T. Hagihara
Main programmer : Undo
Sub programmers : Ick, Work Ram, Oidon
Character designers : Rinkn, Eglavr, Shio Shio Shio, Akr+Amk, Genies Kubota, Jyagadansyaku, Toad, Yuka
Background designers : Miyuki. O, Miyavi, Reiko Nagasima (as Reiko. N), Sayuri M, Misao Yoshida, Kenta
Sound produced by : Studio Aqua
Title designer : Naohisa Yamaguti

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo AES (Feb. 17, 2004; "Metal Slug 5 [Model NGH-268]")
[JP] Sony PS2 (Apr. 28, 2005; "Metal Slug 5 [Model SLPS-25495]")
[JP] Microsoft XBOX (jul.28, 2005; "Metal Slug 5 [Model B3K-00001]")
[JP] Sony PS2 (Mar. 09, 2006; "Metal Slug 5 [SNK Best Collection] [Model SLPS-25634]")
[JP] Sony PSP (Feb. 22, 2007; "Metal Slug Complete [Model ULJS-00090]")
[JP] Sony PS2 (may.31, 2007; "Metal Slug Complete [Model SLPS-25762]")
[JP] Nintendo Wii (Dec. 27, 2007; "Metal Slug Complete [Model RVL-RMLJ-JPN]")
[JP] Sony PS2 (june.18, 2009; "Metal Slug Complete [SNK Best Collection] [Model SLPS-25937]")
[JP] Sony PSP (june.18, 2009; "Metal Slug Complete [SNK Best Collection] [Model ULJS-00206]")

* COMPUTERS:
PC DVD-ROM (2009, "Metal Slug Collection PC")

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=mslugx

Metal Slug X - Super Vehicle-001 (c) 1999 SNK.

Originally released to improve upon some of the problems the previous Metal Slug game ("Metal Slug 2 - Super Vehicle-001/II") had, most notably its notorious slowdown, this update also implemented several changes to beef up the gameplay, such as new enemies, a different end boss layout and a number of new weapons and secrets. The result is a better game and one of the finest chapters in this series.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID: 0250

Players: 2
Control: 8-way joystick
Buttons: 3
=> Character > [A] Shoot, [B] Jump, [C] Grenade
=> Metal Slug> [A] Gun Attack, [B] Jump Board Vehicle, [C] Artillery Attack

- TRIVIA -

Metal Slug X was released in March 1999.

You can see up to 5 different sets of 12 characters, enemies and vehicles artwork images during the credits.

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Metal Slug 2 Original Soundtracks - PCCB-00311) on 17/04/1998.

- SERIES -

1. Metal Slug - Super Vehicle-001 [Model NGM-201] (1996, MVS)
2. Metal Slug 2 - Super Vehicle-001/II [Model NGM-241] (1998, MVS)
3. Metal Slug X - Super Vehicle-001 [Model NGM-250] (1999, MVS)
4. Metal Slug - 1st Mission [Model NEOP00210] (1999, NGPC)
5. Metal Slug - 2nd Mission [Model NEOP00610] (2000, NGPC)
6. Metal Slug 3 [Model NGM-256] (2000, MVS)
7. Metal Slug 4 [Model NGM-263] (2002, MVS)
8. Metal Slug 5 [Model NGM-268] (2003, MVS)
9. Metal Slug 6 (2006, MVS)
10. Metal Slug 3D (2006, PS2)
11. Metal Slug 7 (2008, NDS)

- STAFF -

Planners : Meeher, Akio
Enemy sequence : Narusawa, Arita
Character chief : Akio
Background chief : Susumu
Designers : Cannon, Tomo, Kozo, Kuichin, Kon. Kitakichine, Ozi
Wizard : Andy
System modernize : Nakatsuka, Zen
Enemy's brain : Hirokun, Nishino
Tool engineer : Pierre
Sound : Hiyamuta (Hiya!), Captain Beroou (as Bero-ou)
Producer : Takashi Nishiyama
Exec. producer : Yoshihiko Kodo
Hyper organizer : Eikichi Kawasaki

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo AES (may.27, 1999; "Metal Slug X - Super Vehicle-001 [Model NGH-250]")
[JP] Sony PlayStation (Jan. 25, 2001; "Metal Slug X - Super Vehicle-001 [Model SLPM-86456]")
[JP] Sony PlayStation (jul.25, 2002; "Metal Slug X - Super Vehicle-001 [SNK Best Collection] [Model SLPS-03449]")
[JP] Sony PSP (Feb. 22, 2006; "Metal Slug Complete [Model ULJS-00090]")
[JP] Sony PS2 (may.31, 2007; "Metal Slug Complete [Model SLPS-25762]")
[JP] Nintendo Wii (Dec. 27, 2007; "Metal Slug Complete [Model RVL-RMLJ-JPN]")
[JP] Sony PS2 (june.18, 2009; "Metal Slug Complete [SNK Best Collection] [Model SLPS-25937]")
[JP] Sony PSP (june.18, 2009; "Metal Slug Complete [SNK Best Collection] [Model ULJS-00206]")
[EU] Nintendo Wii [Virtual Console] (sept.13, 2012)

* COMPUTERS:
PC DVD-ROM (2009, "Metal Slug Collection PC")

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=mpang,mpangu,mpangr1,mpanga
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 23 years ago:

Mighty! Pang (c) 2000 Mitchell Corp.

North American & European release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese release entry; "Mighty! Pang [Green Board]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Blue Board [USA & Europe]

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=mpangj
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 23 years ago:

Mighty! Pang (c) 2000 Mitchell.

Mighty! Pang is the fourth game in the superb Pang series. While the artistic design has been drastically changed, Mighty! Pang retains the same gameplay of its predecessors. The game features three modes of play: panic, tour and expert modes.

Tour mode is the standard mode of play featuring 57 stages. The player goes on a tour of the world, popping balloons and picking up power-ups. Each location on the tour features a number of stages which feature a new background of a famous tourist attraction. Each stage is cleared by popping all of the balloons within that stage.

Expert mode is a mode for advanced players.  Play is broken up into stages like in tour mode but the stages are much more difficult.

Panic mode is a basic one-stage mode of play where new balloons continuously fall from the sky. The single stage is a basic one with no platforms or barriers. Some of the smallest balloons will flash and shooting these balloons will pause all of the balloons in place for a short duration of time.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Green Board [Japan]

Players: Up to 2.
Control: 8-way joystick per player.
Buttons: 6 per player.

- TRIVIA -

Mighty Pang was released in October 2000 in the Japanese arcades. It was known as the 34th video game released on the CPS-II. It was also the first Mitchell game for this hardware.

Released outside Japan as "Mighty! Pang [Blue Board]".

The game forbids the initials 'SEX' on the high score table. If you try, it gets changed to 'MIT'.

- SERIES -

1. Pang (1989)
2. Super Pang (1990)
3. Pang! 3 [B-Board 94916-10] (1995)
4. Mighty! Pang [Green Board] (2000)
5. Pang - Magical Michael (2010, Nintendo DS)

- STAFF -

Planners : Futoshi Kuwahara, Taiji Miyajima
Lead programmers : Shigeru Komiya
Lead artist : Eiko Kato
Character designer : Satoshi Ida
Art supervisor : Tetuhiro Kuroda
Assistants : Kazue Matunaga, Makoto Kobayashi, Hiroki Narisawa, Daigo Ota
Music composer : Takafumi Wada
SE designer : Yoko Mizumoto
Executive producer : Roy Ozaki
Producer : Kouichi Niida

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=spinmast

Miracle Adventure (c) 1993 Data East Corp.

Johnny & Tom, two treasure seekers must save their friend Mary from the evil Mad Doctor and his army of goofy-dressed henchmen, as well as gather the map pieces in order to find the biggest treasure in the world at the same time! Features hilarious cartoon-like character designs and sound effects, awesome looking giant bosses (check out the Chinese dragon!) & fast-paced platforming action!

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID : NGM-062

Players : 2
Control : 8-Way Joystick
Buttons : 3
=> [A] Shoot/Power Attack, [B] Jump, [C] Super Attack

- TRIVIA -

Miracle Adventure was released on December 16, 1993 in Japan.

This game is known outside Japan as 'Spinmaster'.

Miracle Adventure is Data East's first game developed and released for the SNK Neo-Geo MVS hardware.

This game seems heavily inspired by Data East's classic game "Caveman Ninja" (the artwork style, some character's animations, as well as the weapon's power up styles are a little too similar!).

The Mad Doctor also appeared as the final boss in Data East's "Tumble Pop".

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Miracle Adventure. Tatakae Genshijin 3 - PCCB-00146) on February 18, 1994.

- STAFF -

Planners : Mitsutoshi, Atsushi Kaneko
Graphic Designers : Kazumi Enomoto, Atsushi Kaneko, Sachiko Moizumi, Yuzuru Tsukahara, Hiroki Narisawa, Kaori
Sound : Oww Furukawa, Tomoyoshi Sato (Tom), Seilah
Soft : K. Minegishi, Osapan, Kazumi Enomoto, Mya
Special Thanks : Tohru Kikuchi, Hitomi Hashimoto, Makoto Nozu, Jirou Ishii (The J.I.R.O), Yuuko Nakagawa, Masanori Tokoro, Gorillarman, Matoba Tomomi (Tomomi. Y!!), Sapporo Satellite

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo AES (feb.18, 1994; "Miracle Adventure [Model NGH-062]")
Nintendo Wii [Virtual Console] [JP] (aug.3, 2010)
Nintendo Wii [Virtual Console] [US] (nov.22, 2010)
Nintendo Wii [Virtual Console] [EU] (nov.12, 2010)
Nintendo Wii [Virtual Console] [AU] (nov.12, 2010)
[MX] Zeebo [BR] (apr.16, 2010)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=missw96,missw96a,missw96b,missw96c
Arcade Video game published 27 years ago:

Miss World '96 Nude (c) 1996 Comad.

Rip-off of "Gals Panic!", featuring 'adult' photographs instead of the cartoon imagery.

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 10 Mhz)
Sound Chips : OKI6295 (@ 12 Khz)

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 1

- TRIVIA -

30,000 pieces produced.

Julia Morley (Owner/operator of the Miss World franchise), did not give consent for the title to be used in this game, and is apparently upset to see the beauty contest of the same name associated with adult material in this way.

Like many of Comad's games,the music is comprised of short MSM5205 samples and loops,which are bootlegs ripped from various well-known songs without the approval from the original music authors.

Levels contain samples and loops from these music tracks :
'Oxygene Part IV' by Jean-Michel Jarre,
'Tonight Is The Night' by La Bouche,
'Let's All Chant' by Look Twice (a cover of the song by Michael Zager Band)

This game was noted RC (refused classification) in Australia on August 9th 1996, after being submitted by the Victorian Police.

- SERIES -

1. Miss World '96 Nude (1996)
2. Miss World 2002 (2002)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=msgundam,msgundam1,msgundamb
Arcade Video game published 30 years ago:

Mobile Suit Gundam (c) 1993 Banpresto.

Ten selectable mecha from the Gundam saga battle each other for space dominance!

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 16 Mhz)
Sound Chips : X1-010 (@ 16 Mhz)

Screen orientation : Horizontal
Video resolution : 384 x 240 pixels
Screen refresh : 56.66 Hz
Palette Colors : 1536

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2

- TRIVIA -

Released in September 1993.

Known in Japan as 'Kidou Senshi Gundam'.

- SERIES -

1. Mobile Suit Gundam (1993)
2. Mobile Suit Gundam EX Revue (1994)
3. Kidou Butouden G Gundam [Model SHVC-AGMJ-JPN] (1994, Super Famicom)
4. Final Shooting - Mobile Suit Gundam (1995)
5. Kidou Senshi Gundam W - Endless Duel (1996, Super Famicom)
6. Gundam Battle Assault (1998, PlayStation)
7. Mobile Suit Gundam - Giren's Greed, Blood of Jion (2000, PlayStation)
8. Mobile Suit Gundam - Journey to Jaburo (2000, PS2)
9. Kidou Senshi Gundam - Renpou vs. Zeon [Model GDL-0001] (2001)
10. Kidou Senshi Gundam - Renpou vs. Zeon DX [Model GDL-0006] (2001)
11. Mobile Suit Gundam - Jionic Front (2001, PS2)
12. Mobile Suit Z Gundam - AEUG Vs. Titan (2003)
13. Mobile Suit Gundam SEED (2003, Sony PS2)
14. Mobile Suit Gundam - Encounters in Space (2003, Sony PS2)
15. Mobile Suit Gundam - Pilots Locus (2004, GameCube)
16. Mobile Suit Gundam Vs. Gundam Z (2004, GameCube)
17. Mobile Suit Gundam SEED - Never Ending Tomorrow (2004, PS2)
18. Mobile Suit Z Gundam - AEUG Vs. Titan DX (2004)
19. Mobile Suit Gundam - One Year War (2005, PS2)
20. Mobile Suit Gundam SEED - Federation VS ZAFT (2005)
21. Mobile Suit Gundam Climax U.C. (2006, PS2)
22. Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny - Federation VS ZAFT II (2006)
23. Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny - Federation VS ZAFT II Plus (2006, PS2)
24. Kidou Senshi Gundam - Senjou no Kizuna (2006)
25. Mobile Suit Gundam - Gundam VS. Gundam (2008)
26. Mobile Suit Gundam: Gundam vs. Gundam Next (2009)
27. Mobile Suit Gundam Extreme Vs. (2010)
28. Mobile Suit Gundam Extreme VS. Full Boost (2012)
29. Mobile Suit Gundam Extreme VS. Maxi Boost (2014)

- STAFF -

System programmers : Kazuyoshi Ishihara, Sou Kajiwara
Main programmer : Kazuyoshi Ishihara
Sub programmer : Masafumi Kaneko
Graphic designers : Yuichirou Takei, Tadahiro Negome, Mariko Suzuki; Yoshiyuki Shikano, Makoto Kobayashi, May. Du, Yukie Sugimoto, Kenji Inoue, Teiji Kobashi, Makoto Yamanaka, Takayuki Nanjyou, Kyousuke Shinba, Masaru Oshima
Sound effects : Kisao Shiomi
Music : Naoya Doi
Sound programmer : Hiroshi Yamada
Voice performance : Maruhiko
Hard : Noboru Kound, Tetuya Shimohira
Director : Makoto Kijiya
Producer : Takehiko Hoashi

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=downtown,downtownp,downtown2,downtownj
Arcade Video game published 34 years ago:

Mokugeki (c) 1989 Seta Company, Limited.

Overhead beat'em up. Save the city from the evil criminals and their morbidly obese enforcers!

- TECHNICAL -

Game ID : UD-2

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 8 Mhz), M65C02 (@ 1 Mhz)
Sound Chips : X1-010 (@ 8 Mhz)

Players : 2
Control : dial
Buttons : 2

- TRIVIA -

Mokugeki was released in August 1989 in Japan.

It was known outside Japan as DownTown. Licensed to Romstar for US distribution.

- STAFF -

Produced by : Jun Fujimoto
Game designers : Team Tam Chan, Jun Fujimoto, Kazuaki Nakanishi, Kumulin Asako, Kasazy Miyuki
Game programmer : Kazuaki Nakanishi
Character designers : Asako Kumura, Miyuki Kasajima
Help character designer : Tomokazu Sunaga
Scroll & Map designer : Asako Kumura
Attribute data : Blue
Music by Goblin Sound.
Featuring : Zero Yotsumoto
Sound effects : Natsu System
PCM16 music system : Katsuji Nagai, Takayuki Suzuki, Noboru Miyanari
Board design : Keiji Ishikawa

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=miexchng

Money Idol Exchanger (c) 1997 Face.

Handling money has never been so much fun! This incredibly original puzzle game lets you take control of  hilariously designed characters in a cute Japanese superhero theme and boggle your mind with a puzzle system reminiscent of the Magical Drop games but with a tricky-to-master coin handling twist. Good graphics with lots of funny animations (the intro is indeed a joy to behold!), cool pop music & lots of challenge make this game a true gem to behold!

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID : NGM-0231

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2
=> [A] Catch coins, [B] Throw coins

- TRIVIA -

Money Idol Exchanger was released in January 1997 in Japan. It's Face's last video game.

This game is known outside Japan as Money Puzzle Exchanger.

This game runs on the Neo-Geo MVS and was never released on the Neo-Geo AES home console.

The coins in the USA & European versions are generic looking coins featuring values of 1, 5, 10, 50, 100 & 500. In the Japanese version, the cents are localized just like those seen on 'Moujya'.

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Money Idol Exchanger - PCCB-00260) on 16/05/1997.

- STAFF -

Producer: Kengo Asai
Planner: Starman
Programmer: Piggy
Graphic Designers: Sabby, Toshikazu Uechi, Mariko Sumiyoshi, Mutsuo Kaneko
Sound Director: Shigeaki Irie (Anithin')
Composers & Sound Programmers: Kennosuke Suemura, Norihiko Togashi
Character Designer & Animation Part: Atsuko Ishida
Animation studio: JC Staff

Voice Cast: Sakura Tange, Yukana Nogami, Yuko Nagashima, Rumi Kasahara, Machiko Toyoshima, Houko Kuwashima, Hideo Ishikawa, Daisuke Sakaguchi

Special Thanks: Satoshi Nakamura, ZK, Yamada Rokugatsu, Wakkey, Shinichi Kawaguchi, Naoko Ito

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] Nintendo Game Boy (aug.29, 1997) [Model DMG-AMEJ]
[JP] Sony PlayStation (nov.5, 1998) [Model SLPS-00963]
[JP] Sony PlayStation (mar.23, 2000) [Model SLPS-02644]
[JP] Sony PlayStation (feb.13, 2008, "PS1 Classics")
[US] Sony PlayStation (nov.16, 2010, "PS1 Classics")

* COMPUTERS:
[JP] PC-CD Windows 95/98/2000 (2001)
[US] PC Windows 10 Apps (Apr.5, 2019)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=moremore
Arcade Video game published 24 years ago:

More More (c) 1999 SemiCom.

More More is a collection of 17 different mini-games to challenge the player's skill. The player may select one game to attempt out of the four or five games that are active at each stage. If the player successfully meets the challenge in the game then he can continue to play. If the player achieves an 'excellent' rating in four games then they will receive an extra life.

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 16 Mhz)
Sound CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 4 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Yamaha YM2151 (@ 4 Mhz), OKI6295 (@ 7.575 Khz)

Screen orientation : Horizontal
Video resolution : 256 x 224 pixels
Screen refresh : 57.50 Hz
Palette Colors : 256

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 3

- TRIVIA -

Developed by 1st Team Exit.

Looking inside the sample eprom you can read : 'YM-2151 and OKI program by Kim Jinwoo'

- SERIES -

1. More More (1999)
2. More More Plus - Puzzle Express (1999)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=moremorp
Arcade Video game published 24 years ago:

More More Plus - Puzzle Express (c) 1999 SemiCom.

More More Plus is the sequel to "More More" with much improved graphics and the addition of three more games. The game features a collection of 20 different mini-games to challenge the player's skill. Unlike the previous game, players can now select any of the 20 games at any time. If the player successfully meets the challenge in the mini-game then he can continue to play. If the player achieves an "excellent" rating in four games then they will receive an extra life.  The game is over once the player has lost of their lives.

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 16 Mhz)
Sound CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 4 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Yamaha YM2151 (@ 4 Mhz), OKI6295 (@ 7.575 Khz)

Screen orientation : Horizontal
Video resolution : 256 x 224 pixels
Screen refresh : 57.50 Hz
Palette colors : 256

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 3

- TRIVIA -

Developed by 1st Team Exit.

- SERIES -

1. More More (1999)
2. More More Plus - Puzzle Express (1999)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=mspacmat
Arcade Video game published 42 years ago:

Ms. Pac Attack (c) 1981.

Basically this game is "Pac-Man", with a few minor differences. The major difference is that the ghosts have fewer restrictions on their movement, making them more formidable. Also adding to the challenge are the different mazes and the fact that the fruit no longer stays in one place, but moves in, out and around the maze. Fortunately there is a power pellet in each corner that (usually) turns the ghosts blue for a period of time, allowing you to eat them for points.

The main difference being the order of levels has been changed. As in the regular "Ms. Pac-Man" game, the maze turns invisible at a certain point. However, in Ms. Pac Attacks, this point is reached much earlier - at about the 144th screen instead of the 255th.

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 3.072 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Namco 3-channel WSG (@ 96 Khz)

Screen orientation : Vertical
Video resolution : 224 x 288 pixels
Screen refresh : 60.61 Hz
Palette colors : 16

Players : 2
Control : 4-way joystick
Buttons : 1

- TRIVIA -

Ms. Pac Attack seems to be a hack of "Ms. Pac-Man Plus", as while the mazes are the same as Ms. Pac-Man Plus, they come out in a different order.

While the Ms. Pac-Man hacks are creative with the mazes, they have trouble dealing with other aspects of play. One problem the Ms. Pac-Man hacks have is that the fruit walks along the routes of the original mazes, making the fruit unreachable during part of its walk to and from the center. Also, the ghosts slow down at odd places during the first three racks. Such slowing down only makes sense by looking at the original mazes and seeing where the tunnels would be.

Unlike the Pac-Man hacks, the Ms. Pac-Man hacks don't mess with the scores you get from eating dots, fruit and ghosts.

- SCORING -

Dot : 10 points
Energizer : 50 points
Ghosts : 200, 400, 800, 1600 points
Cherry : 100 points
Strawberry : 200 points
Peach : 500 points
Pretzel : 700 points
Apple : 1000 points
Pear : 2000 points
Banana : 5000 points

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=mspacpls
Arcade Video game published 42 years ago:

Ms. Pac-Man Plus (c) 1981 Two-Bits Score.

Basically this game is "Pac-Man", with a few minor differences. The major difference is that the ghosts have fewer restrictions on their movement, making them more formidable. Also adding to the challenge are the different mazes and the fact that the fruit no longer stays in one place, but moves in, out and around the maze. Fortunately there is a power pellet in each corner that (usually) turns the ghosts blue for a period of time, allowing you to eat them for points.

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 3.072 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Namco 3-channel WSG (@ 96 Khz)

Screen orientation : Vertical
Video resolution : 224 x 288 pixels
Screen refresh : 60.61 Hz
Palette colors : 16

Players : 2
Control : 4-way joystick

- TRIVIA -

Ms. Pac-Man Plus seems to be the original "Ms. Pac-Man" hack, as the mazes here show up the same way they do in Ms. Pac-Man (each maze shows up in each rack between the intermissions).

While the Ms. Pac-Man hacks are creative with the mazes, they have trouble dealing with other aspects of play. One problem the Ms. Pac-Man hacks have is that the fruit walks along the routes of the original mazes, meaning the fruit is unreachable during part of its walk to and from the center. Also, the ghosts slow down at odd places during the first three racks. Such slowing down only makes sense by looking at the original mazes and seeing where the tunnels would be.

Unlike the Pac-Man hacks, the Ms. Pac-Man hacks don't mess with the scores you get from eating dots, fruit and ghosts.

- SCORING -

Dot : 10 points
Energizer : 50 points
Ghosts : 200, 400, 800, 1600 points
Cherry : 100 points
Strawberry : 200 points
Peach : 500 points
Pretzel : 700 points
Apple : 1000 points
Pear : 2000 points
Banana : 5000 points

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=mspacman,mspacmnf,mspacmab,mspacmab2,mspacmab3,mspacmbe,mspacmab4
Arcade Video game published 41 years ago:

Ms. Pac-Man (c) 1982 Midway. 

In this, the first proper sequel to Namco's legendary pill eating maze game, players must once again run around a number of mazes, eating all of the pills that are scattered throughout. The ever-present ghosts (Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Sue) return to hamper the player's progress. The infamous 'Power Pills' are also present and correct, with four appearing in each maze. 

Namco introduced a number of changes and enhancements over the original game. The first difference is in the main character. For the first time in video-game history, the game's lead character was female. Ms. Pac-Man is almost identical to the original character with two main differences; she wears a bow in her 'hair', and is also wearing lipstick. 

Another change from the original is that the bonus fruit items are no longer static but now move randomly around the mazes. 

Ms Pac-Man features four different maze layouts, which alternate every two to four rounds : 

The first maze is only encountered in Rounds 1 and 2, and has 220 dots and 4 Power Pills. There are two sets of tunnels in this maze equidistant from the center of the maze. You must clear this maze two times before moving on to the next maze. 

The second maze is only encountered in Rounds 3, 4, and 5, and has 240 dots and 4 Power Pills. There are two sets of tunnels in this maze; one set in the lower half, and the other set at the very top. You must clear this maze three times before moving on to the next maze. 

The third maze is first encountered in Round 6 and has 238 dots and 4 Power Pills. Unlike all other mazes, there is only one set of tunnels in this maze, slightly above the center of the board. You must clear this maze four times before moving on to the next maze. 

The fourth and final unique maze is first encountered in Round 10 and has 234 dots and 4 Power Pills. There are two sets of tunnels in this maze, directly next to one another in the middle of the maze. The turns at the entrance to the tunnels change the usual immediate accessibility of the tunnels and should be taken in to account. You must clear this maze four times before moving on to the next maze. 

After Round 13, the game alternates every four rounds between the third and fourth mazes. 

Finally, the ghosts' movement patterns are also completely different from those of the original game. 

As in the original game, intermission scenes will be played after certain rounds. Ms. Pac-Man's intermissions tell the story of how Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man met, fell in love, and had a baby. Ms. Pac-Man's intermissions are also preceded by a sign and a title. 3 intermissions are present : 

1) Act I - They Meet : Pac-Man, the star of the original game, enters the screen being chased by Inky while Ms. Pac-Man enters from the other side being chased by Pinky. As the two of them are about to collide, they quickly move upwards, causing Inky and Pinky to collide. Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man face each other at the top of the screen, and a heart appears above them. This intermission is played after Round 2. 

2) Act II - The Chase : Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man are seen giving each other a playful chase. One chases the other in one direction, and they take turns alternating who chases who and in what direction. After three turns, they chase each other twice more at a faster speed. This intermission is played after Round 5. 

3) Act III - Junior : Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man anxiously await the arrival of a stork, who flies overhead with a bundle. As the stork is about to pass over them, he releases the bundle, which drops to the ground in front of Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man, and opens up to reveal a baby Pac. This intermission, which is played after Rounds 9, 13, and 17, would later serve as the introductory sequence to "Jr. Pac-Man". 

No intermission is present between rounds after the 18th one.

- TECHNICAL -

[Upright model] 
[No. 595] 

The upright model came in the standard Namco/Midway cabinet. This is the same 'swoopy' cabinet that "Galaxian", "Galaga", and "Pac-Man" came in as well. These featured painted side-art of Ms. Pac-Man and the ghosts, along with some pink accent lines. The last 10, 000 or so Ms. Pac-Man machines to roll off the assembly line had sticker side-art instead, it was the same basic scene, but the colors were brighter, and there were a few minor differences in the layout of the graphics. The marquee showed an image of Ms. Pac-Man lounging on her own logo, with a ghost off to the side. The exact colors used on the marquee varied a bit over the production run (as did the paint codes used on the side). The control panel and monitor bezel had a single design that covered both of them, that of a blue background with a pink or maroon stripe going around it, with a few game instructions printed upon them. 

Main CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 3.072 Mhz) 
Sound Chips : Namco 3-channel WSG (@ 96 Khz)  

Players : 2 
Control : 4-way joystick

- TRIVIA -

Ms. Pac-Man was released on January 13, 1982 in the USA, even if the copyright year is 1981.

Having won their enhancement kit lawsuit against Atari, General Computing went to Bally Midway and showed them an enhancement kit that they were working on for Pac-Man called Crazy Otto. Crazy Otto was a character similar to Pac-Man with the exception that he had legs. GCC was going to bluff Midway into letting them release their enhancement kit by telling them that they won their lawsuit against Atari, and that they just wanted Midway's blessing. Midway suggested that they create a sequel to the original Pac-Man instead of an enhancement kit, and GCC got to work on Ms. Pac-Man. Ms. Pac-Man had two prior names before settling on the one that everyone knows. 'Mrs. Pac-Man' was the original, but some of the women employees at Midway had a problem with that, so it was changed to 'Miss Pac-Man'. When someone pointed out the third intermission, where Pac and Ms. Pac welcome "Jr. Pac-Man" (or Baby Pac-Man) into the fold, they changed it to the final name of 'Ms. Pac-Man'. Midway released "Baby Pac-Man" as a pinball/video hybrid, and General Computing sued the company, claiming they had created the concept of a Pac Family. They won the suit and were awarded royalties from Pac Family merchandise. 

The logo for General Computer Corporation is present among the graphics, probably a leftover from the game's days as Crazy Otto.

In its initial run, 110,000 units were produced in the U.S. making it the best selling domestic arcade video game of all time. 

The game added a few improvements over the original : 
* Non-deterministic artificial intelligence for the ghosts, making it harder for enthusiasts to follow set patterns through levels. 
* A variety of different mazes used through the game. 
* Bonus items (such as cherries and pretzels) entered the maze and bounced through it, rather than appear in a set location as in the original, making the player go out of his way to attain it. 
* Brand new sound effects, including a new 'death' sound and opening theme. 

It was also one of the more successful of early arcade games in the female demographic, which has been attributed to 'Ms. Pac-Man' being a girl - although the Ms. Pac-Man sprite was little more than "Pac-Man" with eyelashes, a bow, lipstick and a dimple. 

After the 255th level, the maze (including dots) disappears. The game becomes unplayable, since there are no more dots to eat. 

Chris Ayra holds the record for this game on 'Regular' settings with 920,310 points on August 16, 1998. 

Victor Kunisada holds the record for this game on 'Speed-Up' settings with 922,810 points on June 16, 2001. 

Vancouver, Canada (Reuters) - Little 7-year old Al Nagac attained the Guinness World Record for Ms. Pac-Man v.2.97 with a score of 18,976,048. Al was exhausted and dehydrated and asked for several glasses of skim milk after shattering the longtime record of 11,056,736 set by Faith DeRivera, who was onhand to congratulate the victor with a kiss on the cheek. 

A Ms. Pac-Man unit appears in the 1983 movie 'WarGames', in the 1983 movie 'Joysticks', in the 1984 movie 'Tightrope' (the cab appears in the background of the bar scene), in the 1990 movie 'The Grifters', in the 1999 movie 'Man In The Moon' and in the 2002 movie 'Van Wilder'. 

Milton Bradley (MB) released a board game based on this video game in 1983. Up to 4 players can play. The maze is divided into four colored areas, representing each player; the object of the game is to clear all the dots in your colored area. Only one player at a time controls Ms. Pac-Man; the other players control the ghosts. Once a ghost catches Ms. Pac-Man, the player controlling that ghost takes over control of Ms. Pac-Man. 

Michael Jackson used to own this game (Midway upright). It was sold at the official Michael Jackson Auction on April 24th, 2009.

- SCORING -

Dot : 10 points 
Power pill (energizer) : 50 points 
Ghosts : 200, 400, 800, 1,600 points 
Cherry : 100 points 
Strawberry : 200 points 
Peach : 500 points 
Pretzel : 700 points 
Apple : 1,000 points 
Pear : 2,000 points 
Banana : 5,000 points

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* The most dangerous section of the first maze is the long path at the very top. It is safest to clear it when the ghosts are blue, or at least 3 of them occupy the bottom half of the maze. 

* There are a couple of dangerous sections in the second maze. The pathways above and below the T section at the top of the maze can be particularly easy to get trapped in. It is easiest to clear these when all 4 ghosts are close on your tail, or after eating one of the top two power pellets. The two sections directly above the lower escape tunnels on either side should also be cleared with caution. 

* The most dangerous section of the 3rd maze is the center of the bottom, directly below where you begin. It is advisable to clear it out as early as possible before the ghosts can organize and trap you. The top section of the maze presents the ghosts with many pathways to reach you, so use caution. 

* The most dangerous sections of the 4th maze is the section that you begin in, and the section directly above the ghosts' den. The very top section of the maze should also be cleared with caution. 

* Secret Message : the message 'GENERAL COMPUTER CORPORATION Hello, Nakamura!' is buried at the end of the Ms. Pac-Man ROM image (Masaya Nakamura was head of Namco). 

* There's a fairly well-known glitch in the game - if you put a coin in when the Ms. Pac-Man marquee title first appears but before Blinky appears then the first board will be blue instead of pink and will remain blue until you either finish the board or lose a life, after which the board will return to its normal color.

- SERIES -

1. Pac-Man (1980, ARC)
2. Ms. Pac-Man (1981, ARC)
3. Super Pac-Man (1982, ARC) 
4. Pac-Man Plus (1982, ARC)
5. Jr. Pac-Man (1983, ARC)
6. Professor Pac-Man (1983, ARC)
7. Pac-Land (1984, ARC) 
8. Pac-Mania (1987, ARC) 
9. Pac-Attack (1993, SNES, Genesis; 1994, Game Boy, Game Gear)
10. Pac-Man 2 - The New Adventures [Model SNS-25-USA] (1994, SNES, Genesis)
11. Pac-In-Time [Model SNS-APTE-USA] (1994, SNES, PC) 
12. Pac-Man Arrangement (1996, ARC) : part of "Namco Classics Collection Vol.2"
13. Pac-Man VR (1996, ARC)
14. Pac-Man World [Model SLUS-00439] (1999, PS) 
15. Pac-Man - Adventures in Time (2000, PC)
16. Ms. Pac-Man - Maze Madness [Model SLUS-01018] (2000, PS) 
17. Ms. Pac-Man - Quest for the Golden Maze (2001, PC)
18. Pac-Man All-Stars (2002, PC)
19. Pac-Man Fever [Model SLUS-20197] (2002, PS)
20. Pac-Man World 2 [Model SLUS-20224] (2002, PS2, GC, XBOX) 
21. Pac-Man Vs. [Model DOL-PRJE-USA] (2003, GC)
22. Pac-Pix [Model NTR-APCE-USA] (2005, DS) 
23. Pac-Man Pinball Advance [Model AGB-BP8E-USA] (2005, GBA)
24. Pac-Man Arrangement (2005, PSP) : part of "Namco Museum Battle Collection [Model ULUS-10035]" 
25. Pac'n Roll [Model NTR-APNE-USA] (2005, DS) 
26. Pac-Man World 3 [Model SLUS-21219] (2005, PSP, PS2, GC, XBOX, PC, DS)
27. Pac-Man World Rally [Model SLUS-21328] (2006, GameCube, PS2, PSP, PC)
28. Pac-Man Championship Edition (2007, XBLA) 
29. Pac-Man Championship Edition DX (2010, XBLA, PSN) 
30. Pac-Man Party [Model RVL-SP7E-USA] (2010, Wii)
31. Pac-Man Battle Royale (2011, ARC) 
32. Pac-Man Tilt (2011, 3DS) : part of "Pac-Man & Galaga Dimensions [Model CTR-APGE-USA]"
33. Pac-Man Championship Edition DX+ (2013, XBLA, PSN, Steam)
34. Pac-Man Dash! (2013, Android/iOS)
35. Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures (2013, 3DS, XBOX 360, PS3, Wii U, PC)
36. Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures 2 (2014, 3DS, XBOX 360, PS3, Wii U, PC)

- STAFF -

Co-Creator: Steve Golson

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES: 
Atari
[US] 2600 "Ms. Pac-Man [Model CX2675]" (1982)
[US] 5200 "Ms. Pac-Man [Model CX5243]" (1983)
[US] 7800 "Ms. Pac-Man [Model CX7807]" (1984)
[US] XEGS (198?)

Nintendo NES
[US] (1990) by Tengen 
[US] "Ms. Pac-Man [Model NES-M9-USA]" (nov.1993)

Sega Master System
[EU] "Ms. Pac-Man [Model 301030]" (1991)
[BR] (1991) by Tec Toy 

Sega Mega Drive / Genesis
[US] (1991) by Tengen
[EU] (1992) by Time Warner Interactive 

Nintendo SNES
[US] "Ms. Pac-Man [Model SNS-AN8E-USA]" (sept.1996)
[EU] "Ms. Pac-Man [Model SNSP-AN8P-EUR]" (mar.27, 1997)

Sony PlayStation
[JP] "Namco Museum Vol.3 [Model SLPS-00390]" (june.21, 1996)
[AU] "Namco Museum Vol.3 [Model SCES-00268]" (1997)
[US] "Namco Museum Vol.3 [Model SLUS-00398]" (jan.31, 1997) 
[EU] "Namco Museum Vol.3 [Model SCES-00268]" (feb.1997)

Nintendo 64
[US] "Namco Museum 64 [Model NUS-NNME-USA]" (oct.31, 1999)

Sega Dreamcast
[US] "Namco Museum [Model T-1403N]" (june.25, 2000)

Sony PlayStation 2
[US] "Namco Museum [Model SLUS-20273]" (dec.4, 2001)
[US] "Namco Museum - 50th Anniversary [Model SLUS-21164]" (aug.30, 2005)
[JP] "Namco Museum Arcade Hits! [Model SLPS-25590]" (jan.26, 2006)
[EU] "Namco Museum - 50th Anniversary [Model SLES-53957]" (mar.31, 2006)

Nintendo GameCube
[US] "Namco Museum [Model DOL-GNME-USA]" (oct.9, 2002)
[US] "Namco Museum - 50th Anniversary [Model DOL-G5NE-USA]" (aug.30, 2005)
[EU] "Namco Museum - 50th Anniversary [Model DOL-G5NP-EUR]" (may.5, 2006) 

Microsoft XBOX 
[US] "Namco Museum" (oct.9, 2002)
[US] "Namco Museum - 50th Anniversary [Model NMO-2201A-NM]" (aug.30, 2005)
[EU] "Namco Museum - 50th Anniversary" (mar.24, 2006)

Microsoft XBOX 360 [XBLA]
[US] [EU] [JP] (jan.10, 2007) 
[US] "Namco Museum - Virtual Arcade [Model 21022]" (nov.4, 2008) 
[EU] "Namco Museum - Virtual Arcade" (may.15, 2009) 
[AU] "Namco Museum - Virtual Arcade" (june.3, 2009) 
[JP] "Namco Museum - Virtual Arcade [Model 2RD-00001]" (nov.5, 2009)
[KO] [EU] [AU] "Pac-Man Museum" as DLC. (feb.26, 2014)
[US] "Pac-Man Museum" as DLC. (feb.26, 2014)
[JP] "Pac-Man Museum" as DLC. (june.25, 2014)

Sony PlayStation 3 [PSN]
[US] "Pac-Man Museum [Model NPUB-31383]" as DLC. (feb.25, 2014) 
[EU] [AU] "Pac-Man Museum [Model NPEB-01892]" as DLC. (feb.26, 2014) 
[KO] "Pac-Man Museum" as DLC. (feb.26, 2014) 
[JP] "Pac-Man Museum" as DLC. (june.25, 2014)

Microsoft XBOX One [XBOX Store]
[US] [EU] [AU] [JP] (apr.20, 2016) "Arcade Game Series - Ms. Pac-Man" 

Sony PlayStation 4 [PSN]
[US] (apr.20, 2016) "Arcade Game Series - Ms. Pac-Man [Model CUSA-03957]" 
[EU] [AU] (apr.20, 2016) "Arcade Game Series - Ms. Pac-Man [Model CUSA-03864]" 
[JP] (apr.20, 2016) "Arcade Game Series - Ms. Pac-Man [Model CUSA-03671]" 

* HANDHELDS: 
Atari Lynx
[US] (1990) "Ms. Pac-Man [Model PA2057]" 

Nintendo Game Boy
[EU] "Ms. Pac-Man [Model DMG-N4]" (1993) 
[US] "Ms. Pac-Man [Model DMG-N4-USA]" (oct.1993)

[US] Sega Game Gear (1995)

Nintendo Game Boy Color
[US] "Ms. Pac-Man - Special Color Edition [Model DMG-AQCE-USA]" (1999)
[EU] "Ms. Pac-Man - Special Colour Edition [Model DMG-AQCP-EUR]" (1999)

Nintendo Game Boy Advance 
[US] "Namco Museum [Model AGB-ANME-USA]" (june.10, 2001)
[JP] "Namco Museum [Model AGB-ANMJ-JPN]" (dec.7, 2001)
[EU] "Namco Museum [Model AGB-ANMP-EUR]" (dec.7, 2001)
[US] "Namco Museum - 50th Anniversary [Model AGB-B5NE-USA]" (aug.30, 2005)
[EU] "Namco Museum - 50th Anniversary [Model AGB-B5NP-EUR]" (mar.31, 2006)

Sony PSP
[JP] "Namco Museum [Model ULJS-00012]" (feb.24, 2005)
[US] "Namco Museum Battle Collection [Model ULUS-10035]" (aug.23, 2005)

* COMPUTERS: 
[US] Atari 800 (1982) "Ms. Pac-Man [Model RX8043]" 
[US] Apple II (1983) 
[EU] Commodore C64 (1983) 
[US] Commodore C64 (1983) "Ms. Pac-Man [Model RX8545]" 
[US] PC [Booter] (1983) 
[US] Commodore VIC-20 (1983) 
[US] Texas Instruments TI-99/4A (1983) 
Tandy Color Computer (1983) "Miss Gobbler" 
Tandy Color Computer (1984) "Ms. Maze" 
[EU] Sinclair ZX Spectrum (1984)

PC [MS Windows]
[JP] "Namco History Vol.3" (june.9, 1998)
[US] "Microsoft Revenge of Arcade" (jul.31, 1998)
[US] "Microsoft Return of Arcade Anniversary Edition" (2000) 
[US] "Namco Museum - 50th Anniversary" (oct.25, 2005) 
[AU] "Namco Museum - 50th Anniversary" (mar.27, 2006)
[EU] "Namco Museum - 50th Anniversary" (may.19, 2006)

Steam
[US] [EU] Pac-Man Museum as DLC. (feb.25, 2014)
[US] (apr.19, 2016) "Arcade Game Series - Ms. Pac-Man [Model 403410]" 

* OTHERS: 
[US] VFD handheld game (1981) by Coleco 
[US] LCD handheld game (1992) by Micro Games of America 
[US] Arcade (1998) "Galaxy Games StarPak 2" 
[US] Arcade (2001) "Ms. Pac-Man/Galaga - Class of 1981" 
[US] Mobile Phones (june.13, 2003) 
[US] Ms. Pac-Man TV Game (2004) by Jakk's Pacific 
[US] Arcade (2005) "Pac-Man - 25th Anniversary Edition" 
[US] Ms. Pac-Man TV Game Wireless Version (2005) by Jakk's Pacific 
[US] Mobile Phone (jan.5, 2005) "Ms. Pac-Man for Prizes"
[US] Apple iPod (feb.27, 2007) "Ms. Pac-Man [Model 284736660]" 
[US] Apple iPhone (jul.9, 2008) 
[US] Blackberry (nov.23, 2009) "Ms. Pac-Man [Model 4532]" 
[US] Windows Mobile (mar.23, 2010) "Ms. Pac-Man by Namco" 
[US] Arcade (2010) "Pac-Man's Arcade Party" : included in home cabaret and cocktail models only 
[US] Apple iPhone/iPad (feb.10, 2011) "Ms. Pac-Man for iPad [Model 404072981]" 
[US] Android Market (mar.18, 2011) by Namco
[US] Arcade (2018) "Pac-Man's Pixel Bash" : only available if the machine is set to Free Play

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=1698&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=mugsmash
Arcade Video game published 33 years ago:

Mug Smashers (c) 1990 Electronic Devices.

A sideways scrolling beat-em-up in the mould of "Final Fight", "Double Dragon" et. al. Mug Smashers features a colourful array of somewhat camp protagonists to the fighting genre. The usual array of fighting moves and occasional weapon pick-ups (such as knives, spanners and a gun) feature.

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 12 Mhz)
Sound CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 4 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Yamaha YM2151 (@ 3.579545 Mhz), OKI6295 (@ 8.5 Khz)

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 3

- TRIVIA -

Released in December 1990.

Developed in cooperation with 3-D Games from England.

All music and sound effects are ripped from "The Combatribes".

- STAFF -

General manager : Paolo Di Nunno
Supervisor : Ben Boux
Software : Bruno Lacchini, Roberto Zeni
Art : Renato Panicacci
Harwdare : Fabio Veronessi, Marco Di Nunno

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=1701&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=multchmp,multchmpk,multchmpa
Arcade Video game published 25 years ago:

Multi Champ (c) 1998 ESD [Excellent Soft Design].

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 16 Mhz)
Sound CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 4 Mhz)
Sound Chips : YM3812 (@ 4 Mhz), OKI6295 (@ 8 Khz)

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2

- TRIVIA -

Multi Champ was released in November 1998 in Korea.

Multi Champ is ESD's first arcade video game.

Among the songs played in the background are Beatles' songs, including 'Hey Jude', 'I Wanna Hold Your Hand' and 'Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da'.

About ESD : Founded on April 1, 1998, Excellent Soft Design (ESD) started their business in the arcade game industry. Working not only in game development but in manufacturing and overseas sales activities, ESD is growing into one of today's leading game makers in Korea.

- SERIES -

1. Multi Champ (1998)
2. Multi Champ Deluxe (1999)

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=1702&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=mchampdx,mchampdxa,mchampdxb
Arcade Video game published 24 years ago:

Multi Champ Deluxe (c) 1999 ESD [Excellent Soft Design].

This game contains 6 games :
A "Columns" clone.
A "Pang" clone.
A "Solitaire" clone.
A "Shanghai" clone.
A "Pac-Man" clone.
A "Tetris" clone.

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 16 Mhz), Zilog Z80 (@ 4 Mhz)
Sound Chips : YM3812 (@ 4 Mhz), OKI6295 (@ 8 Khz)

Players : 2
Control : 8-way Joystick
Buttons : 2

- TRIVIA -

Released in November 1999 in Korea.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Different background settings : in Service Mode/Menu Configurations/Option Back Type :
None = Tropical beach scenes provided.
Bikini only = 10 sexy women to choose from.
Nude only = 10 nude women to choose from.
Bikini + Nude = 20 women to choose from.

- SERIES -

1. Multi Champ (1998)
2. Multi Champ Deluxe (1999)

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=4245&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=ganryu

武蔵巌流記 (c) 1999 Visco.
(Musashi Ganryuki)

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID : 0252

[SNK MVS Neo-Geo Controls]
2 players - 4 buttons per player (3 usables)
[JOYSTICK] 8-way [A] Sword attack, [B] Jump, [C] Chain attack

- TRIVIA -

The title of this game translates from Japanese as 'Musashi Ganryu Tale'.

This game is known outside Japan as 'Ganryu'.

This game runs on the Neo-Geo MVS but was not released on the Neo-Geo AES home console.

On April 14th, 1612, Musashi defeated the famous - and some think superior - fencer Sasaki Ganryu Kojiro using a simple wooden sword which he carved from a boat oar on the way to the duel. Musashi had an opportunity to see Kojiro's sword sometime before the duel and knew of it's great length. Musashi carved the wooden sword to be of greater length. When Musashi arrived on the beach for the duel, he kept the wooden sword hidden behind him until the duel began. He jumped over a low strike of Kojiro, reaching about a meter off the ground and came down hard on Kojiro's head with his heavy wooden sword. Kojiro lay dying on the sand and Musashi left in a hurry without killing him. Some of Musashi's critics call him a coward for not killing him, but Musashi had proved his point as the killing of Kojiro was not the goal - defeating him was. This is why the Kojiro character in Musashi Ganryuki has a huge gash on his forehead. The storyline of Musashi Ganryuki is that Kojiro has come back from the dead to try and kill Musashi.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

Here are the statistics for the two characters :
Musashi : Power 4 - Dexterity 2 - Vitality 4
Suzume : Power 2 - Dexterity 5 - Vitality 3

- STAFF -

Producer : Ume.W
Programmers : S. Kawakatsu
Sound : Yasuko Reeb
Graphic designers : Hanage, R.T, M.K, Mi, T. Nakahata, F. Onishi, T. Nakazawa, Mo, Sadaijin

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=1704&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=mbomberj
Arcade Video game published 30 years ago:

Muscle Bomber - The Body Explosion (c) 1993 Capcom.

A 1-on-1 fighting game in which players choose from 10 different wrestlers and take to the ring to try and defeat their larger-than-life opponents. Each wrestler has an assortment of moves, including his own special 'super slam'. The object of the game is to win and defend the championship by pinning or putting a submission hold on your opponent.

There are 2 different game modes to select and play : Single Match or Tag Team 'Battle Royal'. In Single Match, players choose to be one of eight wrestlers including 'Mike Hagger', 'Alexander The Grater', 'El Stingray', 'King Rasta Mon', 'Titanic Tim', 'Gunloc', 'Biff Bolshevik' and 'The Great Oni' ('Jumbo Jack' and 'The Scorpion' cannot be selected in this game).

Once a wrestler has been selected, players will compete in a world-wide tournament against the other 9 wrestlers (including 'Jumbo Jack' and 'The Scorpion') in respective matches. In each match, players must defeat each of their respective opponents by a pinfall, count-out or submission in order to proceed to each of the following matches. Once all opponents are defeated, the winner will be crowned champion and players will have to face all opponents again to defend their title.

In Tag Team 'Battle Royal', players can choose to play as any 2 of the 10 wrestlers for their tag team, including 'Jumbo Jack' and 'The Scorpion'. Here, the player and his or her partner have to eliminate both of the 2 wrestlers on the opposing tag team, in order to win the match and proceed to the next. During these matches, if the player is eliminated before his or her partner is, the match will be declared no contest and it will be a draw.

During each bout in this game, metal buckets and/or glass bottles will sometimes be thrown into the ring which can be picked by the players' wrestler(s) and used as weapons against their opponents.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System" hardware.
B-Board #: 91634B-2

# of Players: Up to 4
Type of controls (per player): 8-way joystick
# of buttons (per player): 3
=> [1] Attack, [2] Jump, [3] Pin

- TRIVIA -

Muscle Bomber was released in July 1993 in the Japanese arcades. It was known there as the 27th video game made for CP-S system. It is known outside Japan as "Saturday Night Slam Masters".

Hara Tetsuo, who designed the characters in the Muscle Bomber games, is a popular manga artist in Japan. He is famous for his work on 'Hokuto no Ken' (aka 'Fist of the North Star').

Some characters in the game are based on real life wrestlers. Such examples are the Great Oni, who is based on legendary Japanese wrestler the Great Muta, El Stingray, who is based on Mexican wrestler Lizmark, Alexander the Grater is based on former WCW and IWGP world champion Big Van Vader, and Jumbo Flapjack is based on the late Canadian wrestler Earthquake.

One of the wrestlers is Mike Haggar from the game Final Fight. Also, one of the wrestlers named Gunloc is related to Guile from Street Fighter II. Additionally his clone, named Biff, is a friend of Zangief from Street Fighter II.

King Rasta Mon was the original design for Street Fighter II character Blanka, but rejected later on in favor of the most 'beast-like' design.

Biff Slamkovich appears in the background of Ken's stage in "Street Fighter Alpha 2".

Default highscore table :
CHAMP 100000 CAP
1st 95000 COM
2nd 90000 C P
3rd 85000 SYS
4th 80000 TEM
5th 75000 TOM

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Muscle Bomber - PCCB-00136) on September 17, 1993.

- SERIES -

1. Muscle Bomber - The Body Explosion [CP-S No. 27] (1993)
2. Muscle Bomber Duo - Heat Up Warriors [CP-S No. 28] (1993)
3. Super Muscle Bomber - The International Blowout [Green Board] (1994)

- STAFF -

Planners : Tomy, Saddy, Koguma
Object Designers : Mount-S, Ikusan Z, Q (Q;clever), Imomushi, Kazz. Ist, Yorio, Tom, Chama(c), Rikagon
Scroll Designers : Buppo, Okachan, Taka
Programmers : H.M.D., B.I.N, Shaver, Semari!, Yu Bono
Sound Designers : Masaki Izutani (T. Yomage), Toshio Kajino (Toshi), Syun Nishigaki (Syun), Kiyo, Nobuhiro Oouchi (Nobu. Oouchi)
Assists : Eripyon. N (Eripon), Ball Boy (Ball-Boy), Yuusuke, Chin, Go, Iwai, Tetsuya., Tenman, Vlad T.
Special Thanks : Yoshiki Okamoto (Kihaji), Noritaka Funamizu (Poo), Akira Yasuda (Akiman), Akira Nishitani (Nin), K-Man, Meshi
USA Support : James Goddard (DJames "Mon"), Alex Jimenez, David Winstead (Dr. Dave W.)

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES: 
FM Towns Marty [JP] (nov.1993) [Model HMF-161] 
[JP] Nintendo Super Famicom (mar.30, 1994) [Model SHVC-ZW]

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=1705&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=mbombrdj
Arcade Video game published 30 years ago:

Muscle Bomber Duo - Heat Up Warriors (c) 1993 Capcom Company, Limited.

- TECHNICAL -

Capcom Play System Hardware (CP-S)
B-Board #: 91634B-2

Players: Up to 4
Control (per player): 8-Way Joystick
Buttons (per player): 3
=> [1] Grab, [2] Attack, [3] Jump

- TRIVIA -

Muscle Bomber Duo was released in December 1993 in the Japanese arcades. It was known there as the 28th video game made for this system.

Exported as "Muscle Bomber Duo - Ultimate Team Battle [B-Board 91635B]".

Mike Haggar from "Final Fight" appears on this game as selectable character.

Default highscore table :
CHAMP 100000 CAP
1st 95000 COM
2nd 90000 C P
3rd 85000 SYS
4th 80000 TEM
5th 75000 TOM

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Muscle Bomber - PCCB-00136) on September 17, 1993.

- SERIES -

1. Muscle Bomber - The Body Explosion [CP-S No. 27] (1993)
2. Muscle Bomber Duo - Heat Up Warriors [CP-S No. 28] (1993)
3. Super Muscle Bomber - The International Blowout [Green Board] (1994)

- STAFF -

Planners : Tomy, Saddy, Koguma
Object Designers : Mount-S, Ikusan Z, Q;clever, Imomushi, Kazz.Ist, Yorio, Tom, Chama(c), Rikagon
Scroll Designers : Buppo, Okachan, Taka
Programmers : H.M.D., B.I.N, Shaver, Semari!, Yu Bono
Sound Designers : Masaki Izutani (T. Yomage), Toshio Kajino (Toshi), Syun Nishigaki (Syun), Kiyo, Nobu. Oouchi
Assists : Eripon, Ball Boy (Ball-Boy), Yuusuke, Chin, Go, Iwai, Tetsuya., Tenman, Vlad T.
Special Thanks : Yoshiki Okamoto (Kihaji), Noritaka Funamizu (Poo), Akira Yasuda (Akiman), Akira Nishitani (Nin), K-Man, Meshi
USA Support : James Goddard (DJames "Mon"), Alex Jimenez, David Winstead (Dr. Dave W.)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=mbombrd
Arcade Video game published 30 years ago:

Muscle Bomber Duo - Ultimate Team Battle (c) 1993 Capcom Company, Limited.

Export release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese release entry; "Muscle Bomber Duo - Heat Up Warriors [B-Board 91634B-2]".

- TECHNICAL -

Capcom Play System Hardware (CP-S)
B-Board #: 91635B

- TRIVIA -

Certain wrestlers had their names changed for non-Japanese audiences. They are as follows :
Zalazoff - Biff Slamkovich.
Colt - Gunloc.
Budo - Oni.
Stinger - El Stingray.
Sheep - Alexander The Grater.
Gomes - Rasta.
Kimala - Jumbo.
Astro - Scorpion.

- SERIES -

1. Muscle Bomber - The Body Explosion [CP-S No. 27] (1993)
2. Muscle Bomber Duo - Heat Up Warriors [CP-S No. 28] (1993)
3. Super Muscle Bomber - The International Blowout [Green Board] (1994)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=mnight,mnightj
Arcade Video game published 36 years ago:

Mutant Night (c) 1987 UPL.

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 6 Mhz)
Sound CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 5 Mhz)
Sound Chips : (2x) Yamaha YM2203 (@ 1.5 Mhz)

Screen orientation : Horizontal
Video resolution : 256 x 192 pixels
Screen refresh : 60.00 Hz
Palette Colors : 768

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2

- TRIVIA -

Released in December 1987.

Licensed to Kawakus for distribution.

In Act 9 there is a grey robot dragon which resembles Bub and Bob from Taito's "Bubble Bobble".

- STAFF -

Game designed by : Tsutomu Fuzisawa
Characters designers : Tsutomu Fuzisawa, Takashige Shichijyo, Akemi Tsunoda, Noriko Nihei
Programmer : Takashi Hayashi
BGM & Sound composer : Yukari Shimada
Data make : Tsutomu Fuzisawa, Takashige Shichijyo

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES: 
[JP] Sony PlayStation 4 [PSN] (feb.16, 2017) "Arcade Archives - Mutant Night [Model CUSA-05976]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=1710&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=mutnat

Mutation Nation (c) 1992 SNK [Shin Nihon Kikaku].

Two lone warriors with an array of special mutant powers attempt to restore order to this futuristic wasteland.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID : NGM-014

[SNK MVS Neo-Geo Controls]
2 Players - 4 Buttons Per Player (2 usables)
=> [A] Attack/Special Attack [B] Jump

- TRIVIA -

Mutation Nation was released in March 1992.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

The game includes different items which change the special attack :
* A : Spirit attack
* B : Explosion attack
* C : Thunder god's attack
* D : Tornado attack
* Golden : Deathblow (can be used only one time, after this the item disappears)

- STAFF -

Producer : Eikichi Kawasaki
Planner : Ishimotti
Programmer : Ooisaurus
Sound : Masahiko Hataya (Papaya)
Designers : Mioshi, Yokosuka!!, A. Miyazaki, 1610,last!!, Sk, Yumo, Tajiyan, J. Mikami
Special Thanks : Takashi Nishiyama (Nishiyama), Tama, Y. O, Yuki, Akira Goto, Jojoha Kitapy (Jojouha Kitapy)

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo CD apr.17, 1992; "Mutation Nation [Model NGH-014]"
[US] SNK Neo-Geo CD apr.17, 1992; "Mutation Nation [Model NGH-014]"
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo CD feb.25, 1995; "Mutation Nation [Model NGCD-014]"
[US] SNK Neo-Geo CD feb.25, 1995; "Mutation Nation [Model NGCD-014E]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=nam1975

NAM-1975 (c) 1990 SNK [Shin Nihon Kikaku].

NAM-1975 is a war themed shoot-em-up set during the final months of the Vietnam war and offers one or simultaneous two-player gameplay. The story begins with the two soldiers called Silver and Brown entering the war to rescue Dr. R. Muckly, an ex-scientist of the US Army who has been kidnapped by the 'Northside Terrorists'. Dr. Muckly's daughter, Nancy, has also been kidnapped and is presumed imprisoned.

As the game progresses it's revealed that Dr. Muckly is a madman who is building a gigantic laser cannon with which to take over the world, players must fight through enemy-packed stages to reach and defeat the evil scientist. The game is an into-the-screen shoot-em-up with the action viewed from a third-person perspective. Players can move left and right, as well as run and somersault to avoid the incoming enemy fire. 

Players are initially armed with only a standard infinite-ammo machine gun and ten grenades. When certain enemies are killed, however, they drop more powerful guns or grenades that can be collected and used by the players. Weapons that can be picked up are:

* Balcan (A more powerful machine gun)
* Flamethrower (for taking out ground units only)
* Missile Launcher. 
* Grenades
* Spark Bomb
* Napalm Bomb.

Occasionally, an enemy soldier will appear holding a hostage. If players kill the soldier and save the hostage, the hostage joins the player and shoots at enemies until either the player is killed or reaches the end of the stage.

The final battle against Dr. Muckly does not allow continues and if players lose all of their lives during the battle, the game is over.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID : NGM-001

Players: 2
Control: 8-way joystick
Buttons: 3
=> [A] Machine gun, [B] Special weapon, [C] Run/Emergency control

- TRIVIA -

NAM-1975 was released on April 26 1990 in Japan.

This is the first game developed for the SNK Neo-Geo MVS hardware

One of NAM-1975's influences was the 1987 Stanley Kubrick film, Full Metal Jacket. There are even some scenes which mirror the film such as the screaming soldier in the intro with the 'Born To Kill' helmet, and a Vietnamese lady with an AK-47 (which is seen near the end of the movie).

NAM-1975 was a blatant plagiarism of TAD Corp's "Cabal", released in September 1988.

- STAFF -

Producer : Eikichi Kawasaki
Main director : Dachipee
Sub director : Fukupee (New Face)
Programmer : ZAC, Kurasan (New Face)
Design chief : Satopee
Designers : Nakapee, Fukupee, Satopee, Ishipee, Miyopee, Kawapee (New Face), Sakapee (New Face), Yamapee (New Face)
Sound : Yoko. O
Hard : Fukusan

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo AES (jul.1, 1991, "NAM-1975 [Model NGH-001]")
[US] SNK Neo-Geo AES (jul.1, 1991, "NAM-1975 [Model NGH-001]")
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo CD (sept.9, 1994, "NAM-1975 [Model NGCD-001]")
[US] SNK Neo-Geo CD (sept.9, 1994, "NAM-1975 [Model NGCD-001E]")

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=1719&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=nastar
Arcade Video game published 34 years ago:

Nastar (c) 1989 Taito.

Export version. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese version entry; "Rastan Saga II".

- TECHNICAL -

Taito B System hardware
Game ID : B81

- TRIVIA -

Nastar was released in March 1989 (even though the title screen says 1988).

- SERIES -

1. Rastan (1987)
2. Nastar (1989)
3. Warrior Blade - Rastan Saga Episode III (1992)

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES: 
Sony PlayStation 2 [AU] (mar.30, 2006) "Taito Legends 2 [Model SLES-53852]" 
[EU] Microsoft XBOX (mar.31, 2006) "Taito Legends 2" 
[EU] Sony PS2 (mar.31, 2006) "Taito Legends 2 [Model SLES-53852]" 

* COMPUTERS: 
[EU] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (mar.31, 2006) "Taito Legends 2"

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=1725&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=nastarw
Arcade Video game published 34 years ago:

Nastar Warrior (c) 1989 Taito America Corp.

North American version. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese version; "Rastan Saga II".

- TECHNICAL -

Taito B System hardware
Prom Sticker : B81

- TRIVIA -

Nastar Warrior was released in March 1989 in North America.

This game is known in Japan as "Rastan Saga II" and outside Japan as "Nastar".

- SERIES -

1. Rastan (1987)
2. Nastar Warrior (1988)
3. Warrior Blade - Rastan Saga Episode III (1991)

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES: 
[US] Sega Genesis (1990) "Rastan Saga II" 
[US] Sony PS2 (may.16, 2007) "Taito Legends 2 [Model SLUS-21349]" 

* COMPUTERS: 
[US] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (jul.10, 2007) "Taito Legends 2"

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=1726&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=nemo,nemor1
Arcade Video game published 33 years ago:

Nemo (c) 1990 Capcom Company, Limited.

Export release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese release entry; "Nemo [B-Board 89625B-1]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System" hardware.
B-Board #: 89624B-3

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=69757&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=nemoj,nemoja
Arcade Video game published 33 years ago:

Nemo (c) 1990 Capcom Company, Limited.

One night, as Nemo sleeps, he is visited in a dream by the King of Slumberland, who invites Nemo to come and play with the King's daughter, the Princess. Nemo finds himself unable to find the Princess however, so he and 'Flip', a strange companion who also turns up in the dream, decide to explore Slumberland and find the king.

Nemo is a colourful and abstract platform shoot-em-up set in the dream world of Slumberland, a surreal world in which childrens' toys are running amok and must be destroyed. Nemo is armed with a magical staff that emits a burst of magic to destroy the many enemies, some of which require multiple hits. A number of power-ups also appear at regular intervals to aid Nemo in his quest through seven tough stages.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System" hardware.
B-Board # 89625B-1

Players: Up to 2 simultaneously.
Control: 8-Way Joystick per player.
Buttons: 2 per player.
=> Magic, Jump

- TRIVIA -

Nemo was released in November 1990 in Japan. It was known there as the 13th video game made for this system.

Known Export release: "Nemo [B-Board 89624B-3]".

Little Nemo in Slumberland was the original comicstrip from Winsor Mc Kay published in the New York Herald in 1904. He also made the first movie animation around 1910's. Tokyo Movie Shinsha (TMS) in 1990 got the rights to make an animated movie based in the comicstrip, later they gave the rights to Capcom to make the Arcade games.

The second player in Nemo, Flip, appears in the music video of Tom Petty's 'Running down a Dream'.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* New Final Scenes : if you beat the game in one credit, you get special bonus scenes at the end. These parody two other Capcom classics, "Ghouls'n Ghosts" and "Final Fight".

- STAFF -

Planners : Noritaka Funamizu (Poo), Popo P, Chin
Chief object designer : Nemotani
Object designers : Hiramacho, Mizuho, Popo P, Chin
Chief scroll designer : Tanupooh
Scroll designers : Oyuu, Konomi (Powerful Konomi), Taiyaki
Chief programmer : CBX
Programmers : Cherry, Wakio
Sound composer : Shimopii
Character supporters : Popo P, Noritaka Funamizu (Poo), CBX
Character coordinator : Nemotani
Character effecter : Chin
Editors : Noritaka Funamizu (Poo), Popo P, Chin, CBX
Director : Yoshiki Okamoto

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=neobombe

Neo Bomber Man (c) 1997 Hudson Soft.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID: 0093

Players: 2
Control: 8-way joystick
Buttons: 1
=> [A] Bomb set/Kick bomb/Throw bomb

- TRIVIA -

Neo Bomber Man was released in May 1997 in Japan.

This game runs on the Neo-Geo MVS but was not released on the Neo-Geo AES home console.

- SERIES -

1. Bomber Man (1984, MSX)
2. Bomber Man (1985, Famicom)
3. Bomber Man Special (1986, MSX)
4. Bomber Man (1990, Famicom Disk System)
5. Bomber Man (1991, Arcade)
6. Bomber Man II [Model HFC-2X] (1991, Famicom)
7. Bomber Man World (1992, Arcade)
8. Bomber Man '93 [Model HC92061] (1992, PC-Engine)
9. Hi-Ten Bomberman (1993, Custom Hardware - High Definition System)
10. Super Bomber Man [Model SHVC-H6] (1993, Super Famicom)
11. Bomber Man '94 [Model HC93065] (1993, PC-Engine)
12. Super Bomber Man 2 [Model SHVC-M4] (1994, Super Famicom)
13. Super Bomber Man 3 [Model SNSP-AS6P] (1995, Super Famicom)
14. Super Bomber Man 4 [Model SHVC-A4BJ] (1996, Super Famicom)
15. Neo Bomber Man (1997, MVS) 
16. Super Bomber Man 5 [Model SHVC-A5SJ] (1997, Super Famicom) 
17. Bomber Man Online (2002, PC)
18. Bomber Man DS [Model NTR-P-ABMJ] (2005, DS)
19. Bomber Man Live (2007, XBLA)
20. Bomber Man Portable [Model ULJM-05034]  (2006, PSP)
21. Custom Battler Bomber Man [Model NTR-P-YBAJ] (2008, DS)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=neodrift

Neo Drift Out - New Technology (c) 1996 Visco.

Neo Drift Out - New Technology is a rally-themed racing game viewed from an overhead isometric perspective. Players choose to race in one of three Japanese rally-spec vehicles: the Mitsubishi Lancer, the Subaru Impreza and the Toyota Celica, with each car offering a different balance of Speed, Control and Body.

The game consists of a short practice stage, followed by up to six race stages, each set in its own location and offering different driving conditions. To progress to the next race, players must reach the current stage's finish line within a set time limit. Failure to cross the line in time results in game over. Each stage also featues a mid-way checkpoint that must be reached within a set time.

During a race, on-screen arrows advise players of upcoming corners and bends, and prompts warn them of hazards, these can include patches of ice, rocks, barrels, cones and ramps. Rival drivers also pose a hazard as they can ram into the player's car, causing it to spin out. Many stages include short-cuts and the six racing stages and their driving surfaces are:

Stage 1: European - Urban street stage
Stage 2: African - Savanna stage set in the African wilderness
Stage 3: Snow Land - Asphalt stage with patches of snow
Stage 4: Southern Hemisphere - Rocky cliff-based island stage
Stage 5: Scandinavian - Snow and ice-covered stage
Stage 6: Great Britain - Verdant forest stage

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID : 0213

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2
=> [A] Accelerator [B] Brake

- TRIVIA -

Released in March 1996 in Japan.

- SERIES -

1. Drift Out (1991)
2. Drift Out '94 - The Hard Order (1994)
3. Super Drift Out - World Rally Championships (1994, Nintendo Super Famicom)
3. Neo Drift Out - New Technology (1996)

- STAFF -

Executive producer : Tetsuo Akiyama
Producer : Don Gabacho
Code : Y. Nakayama, N. Sawa, Hagi. Saito, M. Honma, C. Ohmori
Gfx : T. Nakahata, M. Shimura, M. Hasegawa

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
SNK Neo-Geo CD (1996)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=neomrdo

Neo Mr. Do! (c) 1996 Visco Corp.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID : 0207

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 1
=> [A] Attack enemy

- TRIVIA -

Neo Mr. Do runs on the Neo-Geo MVS but was never released on the Neo-Geo AES home console.

- SERIES -

1. Mr. Do! (1982)
2. Mr. Do's Castle (1983)
3. Mr. Do's Wild Ride (1984)
4. Do! Run Run (1984)
5. Neo Mr. Do! (1996)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=neogeo,ng_mv1,ng_mv1f,ng_mv1fz,ng_mv2f,ng_mv4f
Arcade System published 33 years ago:

Neo-Geo MVS (c) 1990 SNK Corp.

A cartridge-based arcade system board. The MVS stands for Multi Video System, and as its name suggest, offers owners the ability to put up to six different arcade titles into a single cabinet, a key economic consideration for operators with limited floorspace. With its games stored on self-contained cartridges, a game cabinet can be exchanged for a different game title by swapping the game's ROM-cartridge and cabinet artwork.

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU: Motorola 68000 (@ 12 Mhz)
Sound CPU: Zilog Z80 (@ 4 Mhz)
Sound Chips: Yamaha YM2610 (@ 8 Mhz)

TOTAL RAM: 214 KB.
- Main Motorola 68000 RAM: 64 KB (32 KB x2).
- Video RAM: 84 KB.
-- Main VRAM: 64 KB (32 KB x2)
-- Palette memory: 16 KB (8 KB x2)
-- Fast video sprite RAM: 4 KB (2 KB x2)
- Zilog Z80 Sound RAM: 2 KB.
- Battery-backup save NVRAM: 64 KB.

On-board ROM: 512 KB
- Zoom look-up table: 128 KB
- Fix layer graphics: 128 KB
- Zilog Z80 sound: 128 KB
- Motorola 68000 BIOS: 128 KB

Display resolution: 320×224 px (many games only use the centermost 304 px)
Color palette: 65,536 (16-bit) (not RGB565, but RGB666, where the lowest bit of each channel is shared with one bit)
Maximum colors on screen: 4096 (12-bit)
Maximum sprites on screen: 380
Minimum sprite size: 1x2 px
Maximum sprite size: 16x512 px
Maximum sprites per scanline: 96
Simultaneous scroll planes: 3
Aspect ratio: 4:3

- TRIVIA -

Released on April 26, 1990 in Japan, the same day as the Neo-Geo AES console.

MVS stand for 'Multi Video System', Neo-Geo means 'New World'.

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=neocup98

NeoGeo Cup '98 - The Road to the Victory (c) 1998 SNK.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID: NGM-244

Players: 2
Control: 8-way joystick
Buttons: 3
=> Attack > [A] Shoot/Low pass, [B] High pass, [C] Short pass
=> Defense > [A] Sliding, [B] Rough play/Tackle, [C] Action player shift

- TRIVIA -

NeoGeo Cup '98 was released in May 1998. It was actually a hack of "Super Sidekicks 3" made by SNK themselves. His subtitle is a homage for "Fatal Fury 3 - Road to the Final Victory"

A serious bug: Using a USA bios rom if you insert a coin on the 'winners don't use drugs' screen on a single slot the games will use the neogeo bios s1 tileset rather than the game tiles, this causes most of the graphics to be hidden and the games to be unplayable, it will also end up using the mainboard z80 bios so sound will be broken, the games should fix themselves if you let them run another attract loop after gameover, on a multi-slot the games will reset. This is one of the first 4 'gigapower' games, the bug was fixed after that.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* View The Name List : At title screen hold A+B+C and press Start to begin.

* Each team has 0, 1, 2, or 3 strengths. It stands to reason that the best team will probably have 3 strengths, unless you like an  unusual combination like attack & defense. Here are the 16 teams that have 3 strengths : Croatia, Nigeria, Italy, France, Holland, Brazil, Argentina, England, Germany, Spain, Denmark, Colombia, Mexico, Romania, Portugal, Yugoslavia

- SERIES -

1. Tokuten Oh [Model NGM-052] (1992)
2. Tokuten Oh 2 - Real Fight Football [Model NGM-061] (1994)
3. Tokuten Oh 3 - Eikoue no Michi [Model NGM-081] (1995)
4. The Ultimate 11 - SNK Football Championship [Model NGM-215] (1996)
5. NeoGeo Cup '98 - The Road to the Victory [Model NGM-244] (1998)

- STAFF -

President : Eikichi Kawasaki
Director : H. Kawano
Planners : SNK R&D Center, Fighting Shooter
Chief programmer : Uzumasa SeVEN
Main programmers : EJ2OWRX, Yuritaro
Programmer : Toppo George
Sound : Ackey, Pearl Shibakichi
Designers : Kanitoru, Performaru, Shio Shio Shio(c), Gow Travolta, Daisy "Tateko", Toooooooooohru, Nelson Pigu, Tenuking, Blendy Cop, Lisa-Nari, Silicone Grown, Kaoline
Models : Tom Powell, Bug Stopper (Bug Stoper), H. Kawano, Mic-Senbey, Love&Soul, Gow Travolta, Daisy "Tateko", Tenuking, Performaru-2, George. Y, Tom Karji, J. Miki, GC8-WRX, Jichoh Ninomiya

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo AES (jul.30, 1998; "NeoGeo Cup '98 - The Road to the Victory [Model NGH-244]")
SNK Neo-Geo Pocket [JP] (Oct. 28, 1998; "NeoGeo Cup '98 - The Road to the Victory [Model NEOP00020]")
SNK Neo-Geo Pocket Color [JP] (Apr. 15, 1998; "NeoGeo Cup '98 Plus - The Road to the Victory [Model NEOP00390]")

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=newfant,newfanta
Arcade Video game published 28 years ago:

New Fantasia (c) 1995 Comad.

An adult variation - one of several released by the company - of the 1981 Taito classic, "Qix" (and, latterly, "Gal Panic" from Kaneko), in which players must 'colour in' sections of the background in order to reveal a digitized picture of a naked woman in an erotic pose. Like "Qix" and its sequels, Fantasia's levels are populated with a number of enemies who must be avoided or destroyed. As well as the enemies, players are also fighting against a tight time limit.

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 10 Mhz)
Sound Chips : OKI6295 (@ 12 Khz)

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 1

- TRIVIA -

70,000 pieces produced! One of the biggest success for Comad.

This game was noted RC (refused classification) in Australia on August 9th 1996, after being submitted by the Victorian Police.

The celebrity portraits :
Arnold Schwarzenegger (The Terminator)
Uncle Fester
Robin Williams (Toys)
Peter Weller (Robocop)
Yasser Arafat
Saddam Hussein

- SERIES -

1. Fantasia (1994)
2. Super Model (1994)
3. New Fantasia (1995)
4. Fantasia II (1997)
5. WOW Fantasia (2001)
6. WOW New Fantasia (2002)

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=1755&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=nightstr,nightstrj,nightstru
Arcade Video game published 34 years ago:

Night Striker (c) 1989 Taito.

Night Striker is a 3-D shoot-em-up rendered with fast moving, sprite-scaled graphics. Players must guide an armoured hover car through a number of scrolling levels - destroying waves of enemies in the process - in an attempt to rescue a scientist who has been kidnapped by a terrorist organization. A large guardian awaits players at the end of each level, with each one taking several hits to destroy.

Instead of having a set number of lives, the player's vehicle is equipped with a shield that depletes whenever the player is hit by enemy fire or has collisions with either enemies or scenery. The player's shields are recharged at the end of every level.

Night Striker takes its influences from many landmark games of the sprite scaling genre, all of which are Sega releases. The basic shoot-em-up gameplay is similar in style to both 1985's "Space Harrier" and 1987's "Thunder Blade". Some of the game's levels resemble those of 1988's "Galaxy Force II" as well as "Thunder Blade", while the game's level structure - a 'pyramid' of levels that allows players to chose their own route through the game with the use of end-of-level forked roads - is borrowed from the 1986 classic, "Out Run".

- TECHNICAL -

Taito Z System hardware
Prom Stickers : B91

Main CPU : (2x) Motorola 68000
Sound CPU : Zilog Z80
Sound Chips : Yamaha YM2610

Players : 1
Control : stick
Buttons : 2

- TRIVIA -

Night Striker was released in July 1989 in Japan and in October 1989 internationally.

Only 303 Japanese versions were produced.

The eerie and ambient game soundtrack is by Zuntata, an internal team of composers within Taito responsible for other great soundtracks including Darius Gaiden, Gun-Lock, G-Darius.

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Darius II : G.S.M. Taito 4 - PCCB-00010-12) on November 11, 1989.

A new version of the soundtrack was released in 1998 and is sprinkled with anecdotes (spoken in Japanese) about the game (Z-Replica Vol. 2 - Urban Trail Night Striker - ZTTL-0025).

Zuntata Records released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Zuntata History L'ab-normal 1st - ZTTL-0038) on April 1, 1999.

- UPDATES -

The US version has the 'Winners Don't Use Drugs' screen.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* If you become 'out of control', you can shoot enemies until the continue screen appears.

* When you are on the roads, you will get a 8X bonus score (this don't work on Sky, Rivers and Sea).

- STAFF -

Producer: Tohru Sugawara
Director: Kenshi Kaito
Software: Tohru Sugawara, Hideki Hashimoto, Toshiaki Tsukano, Tmr-Win, Iromust, Takashi Kitabayashi
Character designers: Kohzoh Igarashi, Minori Ishino, Takako Kojima, Kenshi Kaito
Hardware: Toshiyuki Sanada
Electric: Tomio Takeda
Mechanic: Tohru Yamamoto, Tohru Hirata, Tomio Suzuki, Nobuyuki Iwasaki
Designers: Shinobu Sekiguchi, Akio Nomura
Sound & music composed by (Zuntata): Masahiko Takaki
Executive producer: Keisuke Hasegawa

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES: 
[JP] Sega Mega CD (may.28, 1993) "Night Striker [Model T-11014]" 
[JP] Sony PlayStation (jul.28, 1995) "Night Striker [Model SLPS-00050]" 
[JP] Sega Saturn (june.14, 1996) "Night Striker S [Model T-19901G]"
[JP] Sony PS2 (mar.29, 2007) "Taito Memories II Gekan [Model SLPM-66713]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=nwarr,nwarru,nwarrud
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 28 years ago:

Night Warriors - Darkstalkers' Revenge (c) 1995 Capcom Company, Limited.

North American & European release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese release entry; "Vampire Hunter - Darkstalkers' Revenge [Green Board]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Blue Board [USA & Europe]

- TRIVIA -

The original Japanese version featured an expanded epilogue on each character's ending. This was removed in the Export releases and only features the character art in the background. 

Also in these Export versions : 
* Gallon is named Jon Talbain.
* Zabel Zarock is named Lord Raptor. 
* Aulbath is named Rikuo.
* Phobos is named Huitzil.
* Lei-Lei is named Hsien-Ko.

- UPDATES -

Blue Board revisions : 

REVISION 1:
* Build Date: 950316
* EUROPE release

REVISION 2:
* Build Date: 950406
* US release

- PORTS -

(North American and European releases only) 

* CONSOLES: 
[EU] Sega Saturn (1996) "Night Warriors - Darkstalkers' Revenge [Model T-7009H-50]" 
[US] Sega Saturn (feb.22, 1996) "Night Warriors - Darkstalkers' Revenge [Model T-1208H]" 
Sony PlayStation 3 [PSN] [US] (mar.12, 2013) "Darkstalkers Resurrection" 
Microsoft XBOX 360 [XBLA] [US] (mar.13, 2013) "Darkstalkers Resurrection" 
Sony PlayStation 3 [PSN] [EU] (mar.13, 2013) "Darkstalkers Resurrection"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=nwarra
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 28 years ago:

Night Warriors - Darkstalkers' Revenge (c) 1995 Capcom Company, Limited.

Asian release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese release entry; "Vampire Hunter - Darkstalkers' Revenge [Green Board]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Grey Board [Asia]

- PORTS -

(Asian releases only)

* CONSOLES: 
Microsoft XBOX 360 [KO] (mar.14, 2013) "Darkstalkers Resurrection" 
Microsoft XBOX 360 [AS] (mar.14, 2013) "Vampire Resurrection" 
Sony PlayStation 3 [KO] (mar.14, 2013) "Darkstalkers Resurrection" 
Sony PlayStation 3 [AS] (mar.14, 2013) "Vampire Resurrection"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=nwarrh
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 28 years ago:

Night Warriors - Darkstalkers' Revenge (c) 1995 Capcom Company, Limited.

South American release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese release entry; "Vampire Hunter - Darkstalkers' Revenge [Green Board]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Orange Board [South America]

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=nwarrb
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 28 years ago:

Night Warriors - Darkstalkers' Revenge (c) 1995 Capcom Company, Limited.

Brazilian release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese release entry; "Vampire Hunter - Darkstalkers' Revenge [Green Board]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Pink Board [Brazil]

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=nitd,nitdbl

Nightmare in the Dark (c) 2000 Eleven / Gavaking.

A peaceful (yet creepy looking!) gravekeeper embarks on a night-shift battle against zombies & other night dwellers in order to put an end to the grave robbing mystery before the local villagers panic! Features very nice graphics with cool backgrounds, great soundtrack & pretty fun gameplay in the same style as "Snow Bros. - Nick & Tom", "Tumble Pop" & "Zupapa!". The deceased must rest in peace, so be sure to remind them of this fact! :)

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID: 0260

Players: 2
Control: 8-way joystick
Buttons: 3
=> [A] Attack/Throw fireball, [B] Jump, [C] Attack/Throw fireball

- TRIVIA -

Released in January 2000.

This game runs on the Neo-Geo MVS but was not released on the Neo-Geo AES home console.

The game forbids the initials 'SEX' on the high score table. If you try, it gets changed to 'KING'.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Alternate Costumes : At the beginning of the game (work at the continue screen too), hold the folowing buttons and press Start to choose an alternate costume : A = Blue, B = Red, C = Green, D = Yellow, AB = Grey, CD = Purple, AC = Orange, BD = Black.

* Shoot the treasure chests with fire and they will churn out lots and lots of diamonds until they disappear. As long as you do not get hit, the diamonds will continue to go up in value until they finally reach 10,000 each. Grabbing the sacks will add multipliers (2X, 4X, up to 8X) that will further increase your score.

* There are many cracks in the wood/stone of most levels. Some of these will reveal a fireball that will make your shot fly all over the board. Experiment with throwing at different angles to find these hidden spots. Most will clear the entire board as the ball flings out of control.

- STAFF -

Programmer : Hisanori Takeuchi (AM FACTORY)
Graphic designers : Hiroshi Yokoyama, Masayuki Taguchi, Tsuyoshi Yoneyama, Taketumi Watanabe (ELEVEN)
Sound composer : Kim
Data convert : Tatsuya Watanabe (PAON)
Director : Akihiko Uto

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=ncombath

Ninja Combat (c) 1991 Alpha Denshi Company, Limited.

AES version. For more information about this game itself, please refer to the original MVS entry: "Ninja Combat [Model NGM-009]".

- TECHNICAL -

[Model NGH-009]
46 Mega

- TRIVIA -

This AES version was released on July 01, 1991 in Japan and United States of America.

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=ncombat

Ninja Combat (c) 1990 Alpha Denshi Company, Limited. 

The ninja castle must be invaded! After you defeat certain boss enemies, they become playable characters as well!

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID: NGM-009

Players: 2
Control: 8-Way Joystick
Buttons: 3
=> [A] Attack/Super Attack, [B] Jump, [C] Special

- TRIVIA -

Ninja Combat was released in July 1990.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

By holding the A button until the attack gauge reaches full and then releasing it, you can unleash a burst of magical energy that can affect many of the enemies on screen. However, this has an effect similar to what happens in Final Fight: when you use this power, it decreases some of your life gauge.

By pressing the C button and then the A button, you can perform a special somersault attack that can be used to knock down a couple enemies in a row.

Only the main 2 players, Joe and Hayabusa, can pick up special weapons like swords, hachets and maces. The other 3 players (Musashi, Kagerow, and Gembu), who become selectable after appearing as sub-bosses, do not. To let go of a special weapon that you've picked up, press the B button.

- STAFF -

Producer & Director : Tsutomu Maruyama
Programmers : Eiji Fukatsu, Hideo Kamoda, Yukinori Nishikata, Teruaki Shirasawa
Character Designers : Hatsue Honbe, Kazushige Hakamata, Shinji Moriyama
Scroll Designers : Tsutomu Maruyama, Mitsunari Ishida, Kenichi Sakanishi
Music Composers & Sound Effects : Hideki Yamamoto, Hiroaki Shimizu

Special Thanks : Yukio Gotoh, Yuka Watanabe, Akira Ushizawa

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo AES (jul.1, 1991, "Ninja Combat [Model NGH-009]")
[US] SNK Neo-Geo AES (jul.1, 1991, "Ninja Combat [Model NGH-009]")
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo CD (oct.31, 1994, "Ninja Combat [Model ADCD-101]")
Sony Playstation 2 [JP] (dec.18, 2008, "ADK Tamashii [Model SLPS-25906]")
[JP] Nintendo Wii (may.27, 2008, "Virtual Console") [Model EAMJ]
[US] Nintendo Wii (june.2, 2008, "Virtual Console") [Model EAME]
[EU] Nintendo Wii (june.13, 2008, "Virtual Console") [Model EAMP]
[AU] Nintendo Wii (june.13, 2008, "Virtual Console")

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=ncommand

Ninja Commando (c) 1992 Alpha Denshi Company, Limited.

3 ninjas are sent on a mission to stop a madman named Spider from trying to use a time machine to mess with history. The game is almost like a tongue-in-cheek reworking of "Time Soldiers", which Alpha Denshi made 5 years earlier, with ninjas as the protagonists this time.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID: NGM-050

Players: 2
Control: 8-Way Joystick
Buttons: 3
=> [A] Shoot, [B] Somersault, [C] Ninja Tricks

- TRIVIA -

Ninja Commando was released on April 30, 1992.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

The more you press the A button repeatedly, the more firepower you'll produce.

Press the A and B button together to fire shuri-ken (star-shaped blades). Unlike the main firepower, which is only straight ahead, the shuri-ken can be fired in all directions by moving the joystick in the opposite direction of which you wish to aim (example : to fire to the left, move the joystick to right and vice versa). This is also the best way to deal with a few of the bosses here : for example, on the stage set in feudal Japan, there are two giant sumo wrestlers who appear as sub-bosses. The main firepower seems to only have minor effect on them, but the shuri-ken are much more effective.

The C button is for firing magical bursts of energy. One drawback is that, similar to "Final Fight" this can cause a little of your life energy to be drained, so it should be used very carefully.

- STAFF -

Producer: Tsutomu Maruyama
Director: Tsutomu Maruyama
Executive Producer : Kazuo Arai
Director Of Software : Eiji Fukatsu
System programmers : Makio Chiba, Satoshi Okada (SNK)
Programmers : Ryu Hiroyuki, Yuji Noguchi
Character Designers : Tsutomu Maruyama, Shinji Moriyama (as Sinji Moriyama), Takashi Hatono, Hidemi Nagatomo, Hideyuki Kusano
Music Composer : Yuka Watanabe

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo AES (may.29, 1992; "Ninja Commando [Model NGH-050]")
[US] SNK Neo-Geo AES (may.29, 1992; "Ninja Commando [Model NGH-050]")
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo CD (oct.31, 1994; "Ninja Commando [Model ADCD-004]")
[JP] Sony PS2 (dec.18, 2008; "ADK Tamashii [Model SLPS-25906]")
Nintendo Wii [Virtual Console] [JP] (june.24, 2008; "Ninja Commando [Model EAPJ]")
Nintendo Wii [Virtual Console] [US] (jul.11, 2008; "Ninja Commando [Model EAPE]")
Nintendo Wii [Virtual Console] [AU] (jul.11, 2008; "Ninja Commando)
Nintendo Wii [Virtual Console] [EU] (jul.14, 2008; "Ninja Commando [Model EAPP]")

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=gaiden
Arcade Video game published 35 years ago:

Ninja Gaiden (c) 1988 Tecmo.

Export release. Game developed in Japan. See the original for more information; "Ninja Ryukenden".

- TRIVIA -

Even though the title screen says 1988, Ninja Gaiden was released in February 1989 in North America.

- SERIES -

1. Ninja Gaiden (1988)
2. Ninja Gaiden (1989, NES)
3. Ninja Gaiden Episode II - The Dark Sword of Chaos (1990, NES) 
4. Ninja Gaiden Episode III - The Ancient Ship of Doom (1991, NES) 
5. Ninja Gaiden (2004, XBOX)
6. Ninja Gaiden Black (2005, XBOX)
7. Ninja Gaiden Sigma (2007, PS3)
8. Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword (2007, DS)
9. Ninja Gaiden II (2008, XBOX 360)
10. Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 (2009, PS3)
11. Ninja Gaiden 3 (2012, PS3, XBOX 360)
12. Ninja Gaiden 3 - Razor's Edge (2012, Wii U; 2013, PS3, XBOX 360)

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[US] Nintendo NES (mar.1989) "Ninja Gaiden [Model NES-NG-USA]" 
Nintendo Wii [Virtual Console Arcade] [US] (dec.21, 2009)

* Hanhelds : 
Atari Lynx [US] (1991) "Ninja Gaiden [Model PA2039]" 
Sega Game Gear [US] (1991)

* COMPUTERS:
PC [MS-DOS] [US] (1990)

* OTHERS:
Tiger Handheld LCD Game (1988)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=kazan
Arcade Video game published 35 years ago:

Ninja Kazan (c) 1988 Jaleco.

Export release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese release entry; "Iga Ninjutsuden - Goshin no Sho".

- TECHNICAL -

Jaleco Mega System 1-A hardware

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=ninjamas

Ninja Master''s ～覇王忍法帖～ (c) 1996 SNK
(Ninja Master's Haoh Ninpou Chou)

Criminally overlooked and combo-friendly medieval Japanese fighter with great animation. Ten selectable characters and two end bosses.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID : 217

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 4
=> [A] Light Punch, [B] Strong Punch, [C] Light Kick, [D] Strong Kick

- TRIVIA -

Ninja Master's Haoh Ninpou Chou was released in May 1996.

The subtitle of this game translates from Japanese as 'Supreme Ninja Arts Scroll'.

The main design, as well as some of the special moves of the character 'Karasu' seem to be quite inspired by the main character of the 1994 movie hit 'The Crow' which was in turn, based on the graphical novel of the same name by James O. Barr (Even the name 'Karasu' stands as the Japanese word for "crow"!). :)

The character 'Nobunaga' is based on the real Japanese warrior 'Nobunaga Oda' who, during Japan's medieval period, overthrew the Ashikaga shogunate and ended a long period of internal strife by uniting half of Japan's provinces under his rule. In doing so he paved the way for the reunification of the country under the Tokugawa shogunate in the following century. His merciless use of power as well as his skill as a military strategist made him one of the most powerful & feared leaders in Japan. The image of him in the game as a warrior who wields the demons power may have been some sort of a criticism to his eager embrace of Western culture, religion & technology.

The character 'Goemon' is based on Ishikawa Goemon, the most famous thief in Japan on the Edo era (about 400 years ago) known to steal large sums of money from bad people and give the money to the poor. In other words, he was Japan's very own version of Robin Hood!

The character 'Sasuke' seems inspired on Sarutobi Sasuke, a famous legendary ninja with a strong sense of justice created in Tachikawa literature at the end of the Meiji period. Another source of inspiration may have been 'Ninja Kamui' an old anime series whose main character Kamui was an incredibly skilled ninja who wanted to abandon his ways as a killer thus becoming a 'nukenin' (runaway ninja) and marked for death by his own clan that vows to pursue and eliminate him.

Sountrack releases :
[JP] Ninja Master's Haoh Ninpou Chou - G.S.M 1500 Series - PCCB-00209, March 21, 1996, Pony Canyon / Scitron

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Play As Ranmaru And Nobunaga (Player 1) : Highlight Kamui and press Left, Down, Left, Up, Left, Down, Left, Up, Right, Down, Right, Up and hit C+D.

* Play As Ranmaru And Nobunaga (Player 2) : Highlight Sasuke and press Right, Down, Right, Up, Right, Down, Right, Up, Left, Down, Left, Up and hit C+D.

* Time Attack Mode : At the character select screen, highlight Kamui and press Down, Left, Up, Left, Down, Left, Up, Left, Down, Right(x4), Up, C+D. Now choose your character.

* Successfully complete the game with a single credit within 8:30:00 minutes and the game shows you how to execute your character's 'finisher' move!

- STAFF -

Developed by ADK.

Producer & Planner : Hiroyuki Toda
Chief Planner : Kazuhiro Shibata
Planners : Visitor Y. Oni, M. Honda
System Programmers : Eiji Fukatsu, Makio Chiba
Sound Programmer : Makio Chiba
Desgin Tool Programmer : Ryu Hiroyuki
Total Adviser : Kenichi Sakanishi
Chief Programmer -Main- Program : Teruaki Shirasawa
-Demo- Program : Maichikin
Chief Sprite Designer : Kazushige Hakamata
Sprite Designers : Gensan, Hideyuki Yamada, Yokoo, Muneki Shiraishi, Hiroshi Ohzono, Tohru Okamura, West-Maison, Takahiro Arahata, Mitsugu. T, Shigechi, Ruc, Hirotaka Orita, Syoichi Satoh, H. Hasegawa-CRM, Kei Kuramochi, Hitoshi Aoki, Ben, Yukari Shinozaki
Scroll Designers : Shinji Moriyama (Sinji Moriyama), Masako Sato, Kaori Kumagai, Kazunori Uchiumi
Demo Designers : Masato Mitsuya, Sinku
Sound : Hiroaki Kujirai, Yuka Watanabe, Hiroaki Shimizu, Takeshi Muramatsu
Sound Effect : Hiroaki Kujirai (Kujirai Type-02)

* Character Voices :
Sasuke : Kabao Kikkawa
Tenho : Shinobu Sekimoto
Kamui, Raiga, Unzen : Masahiko Yano
Natsume, Narration : Mayumi Minoda
Kasumi : Masami Katou
Goemon : T. Mukaiyama
Houoh : Yoshikatsu Fujio
Karasu : Kouichi Koba
Ranmaru : Yasue Ishii
Nobunaga : Masao Harada

Market Research : Yukio Gotoh (Yukio Gotou)
Public Information : Taguchi-1, Satsuki Ito, Sugiyama Kiyotaka, Kayo Yamagata
Quality Controls : Nagata Shogatsu, Masao Tachikawa, Sugiyama Kiyotaka, Takagi, Uma
Special Thanks : Tomobe Seijin, Studio Bihou
Executive Producer : Kazuo Arai
BGM : Back Of My Mind, Hiroaki Kujirai

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo AES (june.28, 1996) "Ninja Master's Haoh Ninpou Chou [Model NGH-012]"
[US] SNK Neo-Geo AES (june.28, 1996) "Ninja Master's Haoh Ninpou Chou [Model NGH-217]"
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo CD (sept.27, 1996) "Ninja Master's Haoh Ninpou Chou [Model ADCD-012]"
Sony Playstation 2 [JP] (dec.18, 2008) "ADK Tamashii [Model SLPS-25906]"
[JP] Nintendo Wii (jul.26, 2011) "Virtual Console"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=ryukendn,ryukendna
Arcade Video game published 34 years ago:

Ninja Ryukenden (c) 1989 Tecmo.

Ryu, the Dragon Ninja, travels the world to defeat evil wherever he finds it.

- TECHNICAL -

Game ID : 6215

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 9.216 Mhz)
Sound CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 4 Mhz)
Sound Chips : (2x) Yamaha YM2203 (@ 4 Mhz), OKI6295 (@ 7.575 Khz)

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 3

- TRIVIA -

Ninja Ryukenden was released in February 1989 in Japan.

The title of this game translates from Japanese as 'Legend of the Ninja Dragon Sword'.

This game is known outside Japan as "Shadow Warriors" and in US as "Ninja Gaiden".

This game is featured as a hidden bonus game in the XBOX title "Ninja Gaiden Black". 

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Ninja Ryukenden : G.S.M. Tecmo 1) on 01/02/1989.

- SERIES -

1. Ninja Ryukenden (1989)
2. Ninja Ryukenden (1988, Nintendo Famicom)
3. Ninja Ryukenden II - Ankoku no Jashin Ken (1990, Nintendo Famicom) 
4. Ninja Ryukenden III - Yomi no Hakobune (1991, Nintendo Famicom) 
5. Ninja Gaiden (2004, Microsoft XBOX)
6. Ninja Gaiden Black (2005, Microsoft XBOX)
7. Ninja Gaiden Sigma (2007, Sony PlayStation 3)
8. Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword (2007, Nintendo DS)
9. Ninja Gaiden II (2008, Microsoft XBOX 360)
10. Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 (2009, Sony PlayStation 3)
11. Ninja Gaiden 3 (2012, Sony PlayStation 3, Microsoft XBOX 360)
12. Ninja Gaiden 3 -  Razor's Edge (2012, Nintendo Wii U; 2013 Sony PlayStation 3, Microsoft XBOX 360)

- STAFF -

Supervision, Script, Background, Dark corps design : Strong Shima
Musician : Mikio Saito (Metal Yuhki), Putaro, Ryuichi Nitta (Shitamachi Kajiya), Angirus
Art design : Bayashi

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES: 
[JP] Nintendo Famicom (dec.9, 1988) "Ninja Ryukenden [Model TCF-NY]" 
[JP] NEC PC-Engine (jan.24, 1991) "Ninja Ryukenden [Model HC92052]" 
Nintendo Wii [Virtual Console Arcade] [JP] (jul.28, 2009) [Model E6PJ] 

* HANDHELDS: 
[JP] Sega Game Gear (nov.1, 1991) "Ninja Gaiden [Model G-3215]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=ninjakd2,ninjakd2a,ninjakd2b,ninjakd2c
Arcade Video game published 36 years ago:

Ninja-Kid II (c) 1987 UPL.

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 6 Mhz)
Sound CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 5 Mhz)
Sound Chips : (2x) Yamaha YM2203 (@ 1.5 Mhz)

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2

- TRIVIA -

Ninja-Kid II was released in July 1987 in Japan.

This game is known in US as "Rad Action" and "JT 104".

It was ported on consoles in Japan as 'Ninja-kun - Ashura no Shou' (translates from Japanese as 'Ninja Kid - Chronicle of Ashura').

- SERIES -

1. Ninja-kun - Majou no Bouken (1984)
2. Vs. Ninja Jajamaru-kun (1985)
3. Ninja-Kid II (1987)

- STAFF -

Game designer : Tsutomu Fuzisawa
Program designer : Satoru Kinjo
Character designers : Tsutomu Fuzisawa, Akemi Tsunoda
Sound composer : Tsutomu Fuzisawa
BGM creator: Mecano Associates
Data maker : Takashi Hayashi

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] Nintendo Famicom (1988) "Ninja-Kun - Ashura no Shou [Model UPL-NJ]" 
[JP] Sony PlayStation 4 [PSN] (2015) "Arcade Archives:Ninja-Kun - Ashura no Shou [Model CUSA-02310]" 
[EU] [AU] Sony PlayStation 4 [PSN] (2016) "Arcade Archives: Ninja-Kid II [Model CUSA-03382]"

* COMPUTERS:
[JP] MSX

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$info=nost,nostj,nostk
Arcade Video game published 30 years ago:

Nostradamus (c) 1993 Face Company, Limited.

A great vertical scrolling shooter.

On July 1999, a nuclear catastrophe succumbed the planet earth in a absolute destruction and darkness, countries are underwater and ruined, only a few survivors have resisted the undermining and collapse of the humanity, two brave pilots will have the task of saving and defend the rest of world and help to rise from the ashes all the civilization.

Players control one of the two aircraft piloted by a male pilot named 'Dalas' and a female pilot named 'Joanna' and must shoot down hordes of enemies and avoid his attacks while pick up 'power items' to then defeat the level boss to advance to next levels.

- TECHNICAL -

Game ID : LINDA25

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 16 Mhz), Zilog Z80 (@ 7 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Yamaha YM2610 (@ 8 Mhz)

Players : 2
Control : 8-Way Joystick
Buttons : 1
=> Shoot

- TRIVIA -

Nostradamus was released in September 1993.

Nostradamus, was a French apothecary and reputed seer who published collections of prophecies that have since become famous worldwide, known for his book Les Propheties, which appeared in 1555, since the publication of this book, which has rarely been out of print since his death, Nostradamus has attracted a following that, along with much of the popular press, credits him with predicting many major world events.

- STAFF -

Main programmer : M. Nagasawa
Enemy programmers : N. Maruyama, F. Ohtani
BG graphics designers : C. Mutsukura, H. Nasu, K. Igarashi
Obj graphics designers : N. Oikawa, K. Higeta, D. Furuuchi, H. Noma
Music composers : Mika Nozawa, Matsudaira Ako
Sound effects : A. Iwanaga
Spec & Director : K. Igarashi

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$info=omegafs
Arcade Video game published 34 years ago:

Omega Fighter Special (c) 1989 UPL Company, Limited. [Universal PlayLand].

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$info=omegaf
Arcade Video game published 34 years ago:

Omega Fighter (c) 1989 UPL.

While similar to most vertical scrolling shooters, Omega Fighter is unique in its gameplay, level and enemy focus: rather than flying through multiple levels, the player faces an enormous space battle cruiser which contains every level.

There are two weapons that the player picks up, and if the player picks up a different powerup, it will always reset to its lowest level:
(I) - Ion Laser: Shoots straight, pick up more to increase damage at a cost of decreasing length. Ideal for close combat.
(W) - Wide Shot: Shoots bullets in wider range when collecting more of them. Ideal for taking enemies from afar but deals less damage.

There are also two items that are pressed by the bomb button, and players may pick up to two of them:
Silver - Activate to slow down everything on screen. Useful to dodge bullets and getting closer for higher score.
Gold - Destroy all enemies on screen, score depends on closeness to player prior to using the item.

- TECHNICAL -

Game ID : UPL-89016

Main CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 6 Mhz)
Sound CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 5 Mhz)
Sound Chips : (2x) Yamaha YM2203 (@ 1.5 Mhz)

Screen orientation : Vertical
Video resolution : 192 x 256 pixels
Screen refresh : 60.00 Hz
Palette colors : 1024

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2

- TRIVIA -

Released in September 1989.

Soundtrack releases :
Omega Fighter, Atomic Robo-Kid / UPL [Pony Canyon / Scitron - PCCB-00038 - Aug 21, 1990]

- STAFF -

Staff : Iwatani, Nobuyuki Narita, Abe, Akemi Tsunoda, Nikei, Shigksa, T.T, Ohnuma
Composed by : Mechano Associates

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$end

$info=opwolfb
Arcade Video game published 35 years ago:

Operation Bear (c) 1988 Bear Corporation Korea.

Bootleg version of "Operation Wolf".

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 12 Mhz), (2x) Zilog Z80 (@ 4 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Yamaha YM2151 (@ 4 Mhz), (2x) MSM5205 (@ 384 Khz)

Screen orientation : Horizontal
Video resolution : 320 x 240 pixels
Screen refresh : 60.00 Hz
Palette Colors : 8192

Players : 1
Control : lightgun
Buttons : 2

- TRIVIA -

This bootleg of Operation Wolf proved popular as a game in its own right and even outscored the original in location tests. The reason? The lightgun on Operation Bear was a free roaming replica machine gun on a chain, which could be carried more realistically than the mounted joystick of Operation Wolf.

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$end

$info=zedblade

Operation Ragnarok (c) 1994 NMK.

Operation Ragnarok is a sideways scrolling shoot-em-up for one or two players. Players can chose from three different ships, each with varying speeds.

As well as ship choices, there are three different selectable weapon systems available; one each for the front and rear firing weapons and one for projectile weapons (such as Homing Missiles).

Some enemies and waves drop bonuses and weapon power-up items when destroyed. Hyper-Bombs (very powerful 'Smart Bombs') can also be picked up.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID : 0076

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2
=> [A] Shot, [B] Bomb

- TRIVIA -

Operation Ragnarok was released in September 1994 in Japan.

Operation Ragnarok is known outside Japan as Zed Blade.

This game runs on the Neo-Geo MVS but was never released on the Neo-Geo AES home console.

The game forbids the initials 'AAA' on the high score table. If you try, it gets changed to 'YOU'.

- STAFF -

Software : Ore Dayo
Graphic designers : Kate Seki, Ikezu Kenzi, Big Usi, Uisaku, Saiyer Kitamura, Mingmei
Sound : Manabu Namiki (Santaruru)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=othunder,othundero,othunderu,othunderuo,othunderj,othunderjsc
Arcade Video game published 35 years ago:

Operation Thunderbolt (c) 1988 Taito Corp.

Operation Thunderbolt is a light-gun controlled shoot-em-up in which one or two players take on the role of Special Forces operatives. They must take on a terrorist group that has seized a US passenger plane which is threatening to execute all hostages if their demands to release terrorist prisoners are not met within 24 hours.

The plane landed in Africa and the hostages were removed and hidden at several different locations throughout the region. The CIA calls on Roy Adams, hero of the 'Operation Wolf' mission of the previous year, to find and rescue the American hostages. This time, Roy decides to take along a trusted comrade called Hardy Jones.  

The game is a direct sequel to "Operation Wolf" and as with the first game, players are constantly attacked by waves of enemy soldiers and vehicles. Enemies can throw hand grenades and knives, as well as launch missiles at the players, while enemy vehicles can also shoot missiles, launch rockets and use rapid-fire machine guns. The players' ammunition and grenades are limited but can be topped-up by shooting barrels and crates.

While Operation Thunderbolt plays very similarly to it's prequel, scenes no longer simply scroll horizontally - every second of the game's eight stages feature 3D into-the-screen action.

- TECHNICAL -

Prom Stickers : B67

Main CPU : Motorola 68000
Sound CPU : Zilog Z80
Sound Chips : Yamaha YM2610

Players : 2
Control : Lightgun
Buttons : 2
=> Shoot, Grenade

- TRIVIA -

Operation Thunderbolt was released in December 1988 in Japan. It was then released in February 1989 in the US and in March 1989 in Europe.

The game's plot is loosely based on a real life incident known as 'Operation Entebbe' which consisted of the hijacking of Air France Flight 139 which took place in June 27, 1976 and ended on July 4, 1976. One year later, Menahem Golam directed a movie based on the incident called 'Mivtsa Yonatan'. Coincidentally the English title of the film is called 'Operation Thunderbolt'.

- UPDATES -

Two different versions were released in US; the new one features some changed texts (during introduction).

- SERIES -

1. Operation Wolf (1987)
2. Operation Thunderbolt (1988)
3. Operation Wolf 3 (1994)
4. Operation Tiger (1998)

- STAFF -

Project reader : Masaki Ogata
Game designers : Junji Yarita, Hiroyuki Sakou
Game programmers : Daisuke Sasaki, Akira Ootsuki, Youzou Koma, Tatsuo Nakamura, Shinji Soyano
Music composer : Spratter. A
Sound editers : Masahiko Takaki, Kazuyuki Onui, Yasuko Yamada
Character designers : Junji Yarita, Yoshihiko Wakita, Minori Ishino, Taira Sanuki, Hisakazu Katoh
PCB designer : Takashi Ohara
Mechanical designer : Itsuji Yamada
Cabinet designer : Atushi Iwaoka
Art designers : Hiroyasu Nagai, Osamu Matsuura

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
Amstrad GX4000 [EU] (1990)
[US] Nintendo SNES (oct.1994) "Operation Thunderbolt [Model SNS-36]" 
[EU] Microsoft XBOX (oct.14, 2005) "Taito Legends" 
[EU] Sony PS2 (oct.14, 2005) "Taito Legends [Model SLES-53438]" 
[US] Microsoft XBOX (oct.25, 2005) "Taito Legends" 
[US] Sony PS2 (oct.25, 2005) "Taito Legends [Model SLUS-21122]" 
[KO] Sony PS2 (jul.18, 2006) "Taito Legends [Model SLKA-15056]" 
[JP] Sony PS2 (jan.25, 2007) "Taito Memories II Joukan [Model SLPM-66649]" 

* COMPUTERS:
[EU] Amstrad CPC (1989) 
[EU] Sinclair ZX Spectrum (1989) 
[EU] Commodore Amiga (1989) 
[EU] Atari ST (1989) by Ocean 
[US] Commodore C64 [EU] (1990) 
Amstrad CPC+ [EU] (1990)
[EU] Atari ST (1991) by Hit Squad 
[EU] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (oct.14, 2005) "Taito Legends" 
[US] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (nov.10, 2005) "Taito Legends"

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$end

$info=opwolf,opwolfa,opwolfj,opwolfp,opwolfjsc
Arcade Video game published 36 years ago:

Operation Wolf (c) 1987 Taito Corp.

Operation Wolf is a light-gun controlled shoot-em-up in which the player takes on the role of Special Forces operative 'Roy Adams' and must infiltrate and capture six heavily fortified bases, with the ultimate aim of rescuing five trapped hostages and guiding them to safety.

In order to complete each stage, the player must shoot as many enemy soldiers and vehicles as that stage requires. Enemy soldiers can throw hand grenades and knives, while enemy vehicles can shoot missiles and launch rockets. The player's ammunition and grenades are limited, but can be stocked up by shooting barrels and crates. Occasionally a high-powered machine gun power-up appears, allowing the player's gun to have unlimited ammo and an increased rate of fire for 10 seconds. Completing the 'Powder Magazine' stage fills the player's ammunition and grenade supplies to maximum.

The hostages do not appear until the 'Concentration Camp' stage. Here, the player must protect them from harm as they run to safety. During the 'Airport' stage, the player must fend off enemy attacks as the hostages run toward the open hatch of an airplane as it taxis along a runway. A bonus is awarded based on the number of hostages that successfully board the plane.

A damage bar is displayed to the right of the main play screen, this increases each time the player takes a hit. The damage bar also increases if a civilian or hostage is shot. Energy boost items randomly appear which, if shot, decrease damage by five points. In addition, the player recovers a large amount of damage after completing the Village stage, and a small amount after completing each of the others. If the damage bar fills completely or if the player runs out of ammunition and grenades, the game ends. Farm animals, in the form of chickens and pigs, will occasionally run across the screen; Shooting these will reveal bonus items such as health or ammunition.

Once the game is completed, the player is returned to the first mission, but with an increased level of difficulty. The game's six stages are:
* Communication Setup
* Jungle
* Village
* Powder Magazine
* Concentration Camp
* Airport

- TECHNICAL -

Board Number : M4300189A
Prom Stickers : B20

Main CPU : Motorola 68000, Zilog Z80 (x2) (C-chip is a z80!)
Sound Chips : Yamaha YM2151, OKI MSM5205 (x2)

Players : 1
Control : lightgun
Buttons : 2

- TRIVIA -

Operation Wolf was released in November 1987.

Mark Twitty holds the official record for this game with 212350 points.

A bootleg of this game is known as "Operation Bear".

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (The Ninja Warriors : G.S.M. Taito 1 - D28B0001) on June 21, 1988.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Time your grenade shots to wipe out more than one enemy vehicle at a time. It is rarely smart to use a grenade on a single vehicle. Grenades are not plentiful enough to use in this fashion.

* When the large, blond enemy soldiers (with toting large machine guns) appear in stage four (Ammo Dump), shooting them in the face will take them down quickly. Otherwise, a grenade or lots of bullets will be required. Also in stage four, keep a stream of fire going just to the right corner of the mortar behind the sandbags. You will plug the guy shooting at you early and you will not be distracted by incoming mortar fire.

* Each round cleared heals three damage points and the village round heals twenty damage points. If you are playing on a generous machine (mucho power drinks) or an easy machine and you are a great shot, you may have less than three damage points near the end of the first stage (enemy radar) or less than twenty damage points near the end of the village scene. If so, leave one helicopter alive. When it flies on screen, pump it with nine bullets. This gives you points and you can finish it with one shot if you need to. The helicopters often take just one damage point and take a long time to deliver their damage. All the while they do this, power drinks, grenades, and ammunition may show up so you can stock up before the round has to end. Blow-up the helicopter when you have three or twenty damage points depending on the round.

* On the fifth stage (Concentration Camp), you are likely to finish this round shooting foot soldiers. If you are a good shot, wait until they flash. Sometimes, the enemies do not flash or shoot. The longer you delay the end of the round, the more likely you are to have ammo, grenades, and power drinks drift into the scene.

* If you play a game that allows you to select the scene in which you fight, choose the village when you have 15-20 damage points so you can make the most of the village's healing bonus where twenty damage points will be removed. Also, do not select the ammo dump. It uses more ammo than it gives, delivers inevitable damage to you, and the three helicopters the ammo dump sends to reinforce the final round are nothing compared to the onslaught you face at the ammo dump.

- SERIES -

1. Operation Wolf (1987)
2. Operation Thunderbolt (1988)
3. Operation Wolf 3 (1994)
4. Operation Tiger (1998)

- STAFF -

Developed by East Technology.

Cast : Eigo Okajima, Katuhiko Hirano, Satoru Komiya, Toshihiro Kimura, Masaru Tamura, Naoaki Wataya
Direct of photography : Eigo Okajima
Music by : Hiroshi Tuda
Planned by : Eigo Okajima

* Design :
All characters : Masaru Tamura, Op & Ed, Saori Ohkura
Title & Capture : Saori Ohkura
1st scene : Masaru Tamura, Natuko Tanahara
2nd scene : Masaru Tamura, Natuko Tanahara, Saori Ohkura
Extra scene : Masaru Tamura
3rd scene : Naoaki Wataya
4th scene : Naoaki Wataya
Final scene : Naoaki Wataya
States : Natuko Tanahara, Saori Ohkura
Effects : Masaru Tamura, Naoaki Wataya
All mechanics : Naoaki Wataya

* Program :
Event : Katuhiko Hirano, Satoru Komiya
1st scene : Katuhiko Hirano
2nd scene : Satoru Komiya
Extra scene : Toshihiro Kimura
3rd scene : Katuhiko Hirano, Toshihiro Kimura
4th scene : Satoru Komiya
Final scene : Toshihiro Kimura
System : Katuhiko Hirano

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] Nintendo Famicom (mar.31, 1989) "Operation Wolf [Model TFC-OW]" 
[JP] NEC PC-Engine (aug.31, 1990) "Operation Wolf [Model NAPH-1010]" 
[EU] Sega Master System (1990) "Operation Wolf [Model 7039]" 
[EU] Nintendo NES (1992) "Operation Wolf - Take No Prisoners"
[EU] Microsoft XBOX (oct.14, 2005) "Taito Legends" 
[EU] Sony PS2 (oct.14, 2005) "Taito Legends [Model SLES-53438]" 
[KO] Sony PS2 (jul.18, 2006) "Taito Legends [Model SLKA-15056]" 
[JP] Sony PS2 (mar.29, 2007) "Taito Memories II Gekan [Model SLPM-66713]" 

* COMPUTERS:
[EU] Atari ST (1988)
[EU] Sinclair ZX Spectrum (1988)
[EU] Commodore C64 (1988)
[EU] MSX (1988)
[EU] Amstrad CPC (1988) [Keyboard / Joystick version]
[EU] Amstrad CPC (1989) [LightGun version]
[AU] Commodore Amiga (1989) "Amiga Champions" 
[JP] FM Towns PC (1990) "Operation Wolf [Model HMB-126]"
[US] PC [MS Dos]
[EU] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (oct.14, 2005) "Taito Legends"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$info=opwolf3,opwolf3u,opwolf3j
Arcade Video game published 29 years ago:

Operation Wolf 3 (c) 1994 Taito Corp.

Operation Wolf 3 is a light-gun controlled shoot-em-up in which a terrorist organization known as 'SKULL' has taken over an island and are armed with nuclear missiles. Two agents, codenamed 'Hornet' and 'Queen Bee' (players one and two respectively) are dispatched by the United Nations taskforce, 'Federation for Freedom', and must take down the SKULL organisation and disarm the nuclear missiles.

Unlike the limited ammo found in the first game in the series, players now have unlimited ammo. As long as the trigger is squeezed, weapons will fire on full automatic. Once the ammo meter is depleted, the rate of fire decreases sharply. When the trigger is released, the meter instantly refills. Players can also carry a limited supply of grenades, although only three bombs can be carried at any one time, as opposed to the nine of the first game. As players progress through the stages, various power-ups can be found, such as stronger weapons and extra grenades. 

A bonus round appears after every second stage. This consists of a shooting gallery and players must hit as many targets as possible to earn bonus points.

The game's five stages are:
* Warehouse
* Expressway
* Wasteland
* The Tower of Them (Missile silo)
* Final stage - A nuclear missile has launched and must be destroyed mid-flight.

- TECHNICAL -

Game ID : D74

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 14.346 Mhz)
Sound CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 4 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Yamaha YM2610B (@ 8 Mhz)

Players : 2
Control : Lightgun
Buttons : 2
=> Shoot, Grenade

- TRIVIA -

Operation Wolf 3 was released in September 1994.

This arcade machine came in 2 different styles. Alternate artwork and alternate guns colour.

- SERIES -

1. Operation Wolf (1987)
2. Operation Thunderbolt (1988)
3. Operation Wolf 3 (1994)
4. Operation Tiger (1998)

- STAFF -

Cast : Eigo Okajima, Katuhiro Hirano, Satoru Komiya, Toshihiro Kimura, Masaru Tamura, Naoaki Wataya as Terrolists
Direct of Photography : Eigo Okajima
Design all Characters : Masaru Tamura
Design OP & ED : Saori Ohkura
Design title & Capture : Saori Ohkura
Design 1st Scene : Masaru Tamura, Natuko Tanahara
Design 2nd Scene : Masaru Tamura, Natuko Tanahara, Saori Ohkura
Extra Scene : Masaru Tamura
Design 3rd, 4th & Final Scene : Naoaki Wataya
States : Natuko Tanahara, Saori Ohkura
Effects : Masaru Tamura, Naoaki Wataya
All Mechanics : Naoaki Wataya
Program Event : Katuhiko Hirano, Satoru Komiya
Program 1st Scene : Katuhiko Hirano
Program 2nd & 4th Scene : Satoru Komiya
Program Extra & Final Scene : Toshihiro Kimura
Program 3rd Scene : Katuhiko Hirano, Toshihiro Kimura
System : Katuhiko Hirano
Music by : Hiroshi Tuda
Planned by : Eigo Okajima

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=zintrckb

押し出し ジントリック (c) 1996 SNK.
(Oshidashi Zintrick)

Bootleg release of Neo-Geo CD exclusive game "Oshidashi Zintrick [Model ADCD-104]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 3
=> Mode 1 : [A] Spin, [B] Shot, [C] Special attack
=> Mode 2 : [A] Shot, [B] Spin, [C] Special attack
=> Mode 3 : [A] Spin, [C] Special attack

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Play As Ryu Eagle (Ninja):
Put the machine in 'Free Play' mode (via dip switches), at the character selection screen, highlight Subberg, hold Up+B and press A.

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=outzone,outzonea,outzoneb,outzonec,outzoneh,outzonecv
Arcade Video game published 33 years ago:

Out Zone (c) 1990 Toaplan.

A vertically scrolling run and gun game, in which the player controls a soldier who must fight his way through 7 increasingly difficult levels. At the end of each level a boss must be defeated before the player can progress any further.

- TECHNICAL -

Game ID : TP-018

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 10 Mhz), Zilog Z80 (@ 3.5 Mhz)
Sound Chips : YM3812 (@ 3.5 Mhz)

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 3

- TRIVIA -

Out Zone was released in August 1990.

Several characters from other Toaplan games make cameo appearances as powerups or bonuses :
* Six plane squadron from "Flying Shark" fly on the screen shooting enemies in an upside down V shape pattern.
* The "Truxton" ship follows the player helping out.
* ZIG-01 from "Zero Wing" flies on the screen dragging a bunch of '5000' points bonuses.
* Pipiru, Toaplan's mascot from "Zero Wing" can be summoned in level 1 from shooting a hole in a rock. It is vulnerable to all weapons, but it will bring a significant score bonus if safely taken to the level's boss.

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Out Zone, Snow Bros. - PCCB-00044) on 21/10/1990.

- UPDATES -

Out Zone new version uses different enemies in some stages and has extra bonuses compared to the old version. The music sequences are also in different orders between the sets.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Hidden Functions : If the 'Invulnerability dip switch' is enabled, you are invulnerable but you may also 'Pause' the game with P2 Start and restart with P1 Start.

- SERIES -

1. Out Zone [TP-018] (1990)
2. Fixeight [TP-026] (1992)

- STAFF -

Music and sound created by : Tatsuya Uemura

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=overtop

Over Top (c) 1996 ADK.

You drive different vehicles in this 3D-like 2D game. The backgrounds are quiet nicely done. The task is to finish every race before certain time. There are many hidden shortcuts in this game.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID: 212

Players: 2
Control: 8-way joystick
Buttons: 2
=> [A] Accelerate speed, [B] Reduce speed

- TRIVIA -

Released in April 1996.

- STAFF -

Producer : Kazuo Arai
Editors : Mitsunari Ishida, M. Ohwada
Car Rendering : J. Seki, T. Kuroiwa
Sprite Editor : K. Ohnishi
Sprite Designers : H. Tsukano, K. Ohashi, E. Kuboshima
Scroll Chief : Rie Mori
Scroll Designers : Misako Ohno, M. Himeno, K. Uchiumi, Kaori Kumagai
Programmers : E-Chan, Donpei
System Programmers : Makio Chiba, Hideo Kamoda
Hard Engineer : Eiji Fukatsu
Character Maker Programmer : Hiroyuki Ryu
Sound Effects : Hideki Yamamoto
Music : Takao Ohshima, Keiichiroh Segawa
Public : Satsuki Itoh, Hajime Taguchi, Kiyotaka Sugiyama, Kayo Yamagata
Director : Takashi Egashira

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo AES (may.24, 1996, "Over Top [Model ADH-011]")
SNK Neo-Geo CD (jul.5, 1996, "Over Top [Model ADCD-011]")

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=p47j,p47je,p47b
Arcade Video game published 35 years ago:

P-47 - The Freedom Fighter (c) 1988 Jaleco.

P-47 is a two-dimensional, scrolling shooter type of game. You play as the pilot of a P-47. Your mission is to basically destroy as many of the enemies as you possibly can. This means eliminating as many air and ground units as you can. You will be going through four missions (each being broken up into two parts) and at the end of each of these parts is an enemy boss for you to tangle with. Although you have unlimited ammunition, the enemy will make you pay for the invasion into their homeland. You will be able to accomplish this with various power-ups and also a second player (if they buy in). Your mission won't be easy but it is necessary so you can secure both the skies and ground for our troops.

The game is broken up into four missions. Within these four missions, there are 2 parts. One part involves going over land and the other part has you either going over water or being up in the air. Regardless of which part you are on, you will still have to deal with the same basic things. After part two of mission four, the missions will repeat again with mission one.

- TECHNICAL -

Jaleco Mega System 1-A hardware

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 12 Mhz)
Sound CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 7 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Yamaha YM2151 (@ 3.5 Mhz), (2x) OKI6295 (@ 30.303 Khz)

Screen orientation : Horizontal
Video resolution : 256 x 224 pixels
Screen refresh : 60.00 Hz
Palette colors : 1024

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2

- TRIVIA -

P-47 was released in May 1988.

This game is known outside Japan as "P-47 - The Phantom Fighter".

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (G.S.M. Jaleco 1 - D28B0003) on 12/08/1988.

- SCORING -

Scoring in this game is complicated. There are a lot of enemy units for you to take out. In addition, some units have multiple parts which also score points. You also get points for collecting items and making it through a mission. The enemy units are broken up into air, ground and boss.

ENEMY AIR UNIT
BOMBER, LARGE (FACES RIGHT) : 3,000
BOMBER, LARGE (TAN) : 3,000
BOMBER, MEDIUM (FACES RIGHT) : 2,000
BOMBER, MEDIUM (FACES LEFT) : 1,500
FIGHTER/BOMBER, SMALL (FACES LEFT) : 1,000
FIGHTER/BOMBER, LARGE (FACES RIGHT) : 5,000
HELICOPTER, MEDIUM : 300
HELICOPTER, POWER-UP : 500
PLANE, JET : 200
PLANE, JET (TAN) : 300
PLANE, PROPELLER : 100
PLANE, PROPELLER (TAN) : 200
PLANE, ROCKET : 500
ROCKET, V1 : 100
ROCKET, TWO-FIN : 100

ENEMY GROUND UNITS
MOTORCYCLE : 2,000
RAIL GUN, LARGE (GUN ONLY) : 1,000
RAIL GUN, LARGE (TURRET) : 3,000
RAIL GUN, SMALL : 1,000
SELF-PROPELLED HOWITZER : 3,000
TANK, LARGE : 600
TANK, MEDIUM : 400
TANK, VERY LARGE : 5,000
TURRET, GROUND : 100
TURRET, TRAIN : 400
TRUCK, ANTI-AIRCRAFT : 200
TRUCK, DEDICATED ANTI-AIRCRAFT : 400
TRUCK, HALFTRACK : 300
TRUCK, QUAD ANTI-AIRCRAFT : 500
TRUCK, RADAR : 2,000

ENEMY BOSSES
BATTLESHIP, MAIN GUN : 5,000
BATTLESHIP, SECONARY BATTERY : 2,000
BATTLESHIP, TERTIARY BATTERY : 1,000
BATTLESHIP, ANTI-AIRCRAFT BATTERY : 500
BOMBER, VERY LARGE : 20,000
BOMBER, HUGE : 40,000
RAIL GUN, LARGE : 10,000
TANK, HUGE (GREEN) : 20,000
TANK, HUGE (SILVER) : 50,000

In addition to the above scoring, you also get points for the number of item power-ups you collect and for finishing each part of a mission. The scores for collection of item power-ups are :
1 ITEM : 1,000 POINTS
2 ITEMS : 2,000 POINTS
3 ITEMS : 3,000 POINTS
4 ITEMS : 4,000 POINTS
5 ITEMS : 5,000 POINTS
6 ITEMS : 10,000 POINTS
7 ITEMS : 20,000 POINTS
8-10 ITEMS : 30,000 POINTS

You will also score 10,000 points for completing a mission part.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

As soon as you start the game, you will immediately be placed into the thick of the action. Be ready for anything.

* This game is very fast-paced and it only gets harder as you progress through the missions. This means you will have to be constantly aware of what is happening from both in the air and on the ground.

* Your fighter has unlimited firepower in both bullets and also auxiliary weapons such as bombs and missiles. Use this to your advantage by laying down a solid wall of firepower to prevent any enemy units from getting close to your fighter.

* Make sure, though, that you are constantly aware of where an enemy unit is because you will also have to gauge where its fire will be heading. In addition, most enemy units move so they basically will 'shoot and scoot' making it harder for you to pinpoint their location.

* To take care of units that like to roam around, lay down a 'carpet' of bombs or other heavy firepower. Your bombs drop down much faster than an enemy unit can move so you can basically overwhelm them with superior firepower.

* Some enemies require more then one hit to take them out. This means you will have to use a combination of different offensive weapons to destroy them. This will be especially true when you are fighting the bosses.

* Make sure you know the lay of the land at all times. Some topography has some extremes in both hills and valleys. Sometimes your only choice is to go above a mountain peak that has a lot of ground and air units guarding it. This means you will have to unleash some serious firepower to make it safely over.

* Ensure that you know how to regulate your speed depending on the current conditions. You can go no further to the front than the right side of the screen nor any further back than the left. Use this speed-up, slow-down to avoid enemy fire and to eliminate targets before they become unmanageable.

* Make sure you eliminate all helicopters that have items so you can ensure you have the right kind of power-up plus you can also get free men.

* When you encounter large formations of planes, the best weapons are the missiles or exploding bombs. These can clear out large holes in those formations plus they can prove rather deadly to the bigger planes as well.

* Overall, this game involves the application of massive amounts of firepower in order to survive the next mission. This isn't to say, however, that paying attention and constantly moving aren't also important... they are vital to your survival.

- SERIES -

1. P-47 - The Freedom Fighter (1988)
2. P-47 Aces (1995)

- STAFF -

Developed by Nihon Maicom Kaihatsu (NMK).

Sound composer : Shizuyoshi Okamura

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
NEC PC-Engine (mar.1989)
Sega Mega Drive (The Freedom Star) (1990) (unreleased)

* COMPUTERS:
Amstrad CPC (1989)
Atari ST (1989)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=p47
Arcade Video game published 35 years ago:

P-47 - The Phantom Fighter (c) 1988 Jaleco.

Export version. Game developed in Japan. See the original for more information; "P-47 - The Freedom Fighter".

- SERIES -

1. P-47 - The Phantom Fighter (1988)
2. P-47 Aces (1995)

- PORTS -

* COMPUTERS:
Sinclair ZX Spectrum (1989)
Commodore C64 (1989)
Commodore Amiga (1989)
Amstrad CPC (1989)
Atari ST (1989)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=pacplus
Arcade Video game kit published 41 years ago:

Pac-Man Plus (c) 1982 Bally Midway.

The ghosts are the same, if their edible forms are changed. The maze is familiar, if a bit off in color. The prizes in the center are a bit different. Be careful, however : Pac-Man may eat a power pill and find that Blinky, who is right in front of the energizer for him to immediately eat, is still red, and now Pac-Man is dead. Also, you might want to try eating the ghosts after eating the center prize. They'll return to their normal forms shortly after turning visible.

- TECHNICAL -

Conversion kit for Pac-Man or Ms. Pac-Man.
Kit ID: 0338

Players: 2 
Control: 4-way joystick 
Buttons: 1

- TRIVIA -

Pac-Man Plus was released on March 13, 1982 in the USA. It was developed by Bally Midway without the approval of Namco. Released as an upgrade kit for the original "Pac-Man" where the action on screen has been 'upgraded' so that the old patterns and tried-and-true ways of playing no longer have any validity.

The programming is a lot like "Pac-Man" except that the maze is outlined in green instead of blue. The prizes that appear in the middle of the maze are cans of Coke, cocktails, green beans, cakes, gift-wrapped boxes, etc. Whenever Pac-Man eats an energizer, the ghosts not only turn blue but they also get apple stems on their heads. On later levels, sometimes only three of the ghosts turn blue.

The game plays exactly like the original except that there are various events (apparently selected at random) that may or may not occur after Pac-Man eats one of the four power pellets. These events include but are not limited to : the maze's structure becoming temporarily invisible, the ghosts turning invisible while they are blue, or only three of the four ghosts turning blue. The prizes in the middle of the maze can also act as a power pellet. Another difference is that later in the game the maze's structure becomes permanently invisible.

In the attract mode, the Game Over message underneath the ghost pen during demo play changes its color to match the maze outline as soon as Pac-Man's first energizer wears off. It changes back to red after Pac-Man is killed.

Shannon Ryan holds the official record for this game with 3,213,900 points.

- SCORING -

The scoring system is very similar to the original Pac-Man game. 

Dots : 10 points 
Energizers : 50 points 
Ghosts after eating energizer : 200, 400, 800, 1,600 points 
Ghosts after center prize : 400, 800, 1,600, 3,200 points 
Soda Can : 100 points 
Vitmo : 300 points
Peas : 500 points
Apple : 700 points
Grapes : 1,000 points
Galaxian : 2,000 points
Bread : 3,000 points
Pancakes : 5,000 points

- SERIES -

1. Pac-Man (1980, ARC)
2. Ms. Pac-Man (1981, ARC)
3. Super Pac-Man (1982, ARC) 
4. Pac-Man Plus (1982, ARC)
5. Jr. Pac-Man (1983, ARC)
6. Professor Pac-Man (1983, ARC)
7. Pac-Land (1984, ARC) 
8. Pac-Mania (1987, ARC) 
9. Pac-Attack (1993, SNES, Genesis; 1994, Game Boy, Game Gear)
10. Pac-Man 2 - The New Adventures [Model SNS-25-USA] (1994, SNES, Genesis)
11. Pac-In-Time [Model SNS-APTE-USA] (1994, SNES, PC) 
12. Pac-Man Arrangement (1996, ARC) : part of "Namco Classics Collection Vol.2"
13. Pac-Man VR (1996, ARC)
14. Pac-Man World [Model SLUS-00439] (1999, PS) 
15. Pac-Man - Adventures in Time (2000, PC)
16. Ms. Pac-Man - Maze Madness [Model SLUS-01018] (2000, PS) 
17. Ms. Pac-Man - Quest for the Golden Maze (2001, PC)
18. Pac-Man All-Stars (2002, PC)
19. Pac-Man Fever [Model SLUS-20197] (2002, PS)
20. Pac-Man World 2 [Model SLUS-20224] (2002, PS2, GC, XBOX) 
21. Pac-Man Vs. [Model DOL-PRJE-USA] (2003, GC)
22. Pac-Pix [Model NTR-APCE-USA] (2005, DS) 
23. Pac-Man Pinball Advance [Model AGB-BP8E-USA] (2005, GBA)
24. Pac-Man Arrangement (2005, PSP) : part of "Namco Museum Battle Collection [Model ULUS-10035]" 
25. Pac'n Roll [Model NTR-APNE-USA] (2005, DS) 
26. Pac-Man World 3 [Model SLUS-21219] (2005, PSP, PS2, GC, XBOX, PC, DS)
27. Pac-Man World Rally [Model SLUS-21328] (2006, GameCube, PS2, PSP, PC)
28. Pac-Man Championship Edition (2007, XBLA) 
29. Pac-Man Championship Edition DX (2010, XBLA, PSN) 
30. Pac-Man Party [Model RVL-SP7E-USA] (2010, Wii)
31. Pac-Man Battle Royale (2011, ARC) 
32. Pac-Man Tilt (2011, 3DS) : part of "Pac-Man & Galaga Dimensions [Model CTR-APGE-USA]"
33. Pac-Man Championship Edition DX+ (2013, XBLA, PSN, Steam)
34. Pac-Man Dash! (2013, Android/iOS)
35. Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures (2013, 3DS, XBOX 360, PS3, Wii U, PC)
36. Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures 2 (2014, 3DS, XBOX 360, PS3, Wii U, PC)

- PORTS -

* OTHERS: 
[US] Super Pac-Man TV game (2006) by Jakks Pacific 
[US] Arcade Gold featuring Pac-Man (2007) by Jakks Pacific 
[US] Retro Arcade featuring Pac-Man (2008) by Jakks Pacific 
[US] Pac-Man Connect and Play (2012) by Bandai
[US] Arcade (2018) "Pac-Man's Pixel Bash"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=pacman,pacmod,pacmanf,pacmanblb
Arcade Video game published 43 years ago:

Pac-Man (c) 1980 Midway Mfg. Co.

Export release by Bally/Midway for North America. Game developed by Namco and originally known as Puckman in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese release entry, "Puckman [Upright model]".

- TECHNICAL -

Upright model
Game No. 932

- TRIVIA -

Pac-Man was released by Midway Manufacturing, under license from Namco, in the USA on October 10, 1980. 96,000 units were produced in America. 

Reportedly, when Bally/Midway obtained the rights to Pac-Man, Namco was offering four different games, which ended up being licensed to Game Plan and Bally/Midway. Game Plan's Ken Anderson reports that he and Bally's Dave Marofske flipped a coin to see who would get first crack at the games. Game Plan won and chose a tank game (which they released as "Tank Battalion") over Pac-Man. The other game they got was released as "King & Balloon". Bally/Midway, meanwhile, took Pac-Man and "Rally-X".

Midway made the following changes to the game (from the original Namco version):
- The game's name (and likewise its main character) has been changed to Pac-Man. Refer to the Namco Upright version entry, Trivia section, for details behind this name change. 
- The name/nickname combinations for the ghosts in this version are:
Shadow - "Blinky" (red ghost)
Speedy - "Pinky" (pink ghost)
Bashful - "Inky" (cyan ghost)
Pokey - "Clyde" (orange ghost)
- Notice that the pink ghost's nickname remains unchanged from the Japanese version.
- Unlike the Japanese version, the American version has no DIP switch for alternate ghost names.  

The game's cult status in the early 80's was such that it inspired a hit single by 'Buckner and Garcia' called 'Pac-Man Fever'. Initially released as a single in December, 1981, it eventually reached #9 on the pop charts.  It was so popular the label encouraged them to record an entire album with video game themed songs.  The album 'Pac-Man Fever' was quickly released in January of 1982 featuring 8 songs based on Donkey Kong, Frogger, Asteroids, Centipede, and other popular games.

The game also spawned a virtual cottage industry of best-selling how-to books strategy guides on how to beat the game by using patterns with names like the "Bazo's Breaker", the "Donut Dazzler" and the "GET pattern" (named after the first initials of the members of a team of players from Davis, California: George Huang, Ed Bazo, and Tom Fertado). 

A Pac-Man unit appears in the movie 'Getting There', in the 1982 movie 'Jekyll & Hyde - Together Again', in the 1982 movie 'Fast Times at Ridgemont High', in the 1983 movie 'WarGames', in the 1983 movie 'Joysticks', in the 1983 movie 'Koyaanisqatsi - Life out of Balance', in the 1985 movie 'The Heavenly Kid', in the 1985 movie 'Better Off Dead', and in the 1986 movie 'The Color of Money'. 

A Pac-Man unit appears in the pilot of Season One of 'The A-Team'. It is where Amy (Melinda Culea) meets Murdock (Dwight Schultz) for the first time. 

MB (Milton Bradley) released a board game based on this video game in 1982 (Pac-Man Game, 'As Much Fun as the Action Packed Arcade Game of the Same Name'). In this board game, the dots in the maze are represented by white marbles. There are also yellow marbles representing the power pills in the maze. There are also two ghosts pawns of the same color in the game. The object is to roll the dice and move your Pac-Man playing piece around the maze gobbling up as many marbles as you can using the count on one die, and move either ghost pawn using the count on the other die. There are yellow dots imprinted on the game board to lay out the path each character must take; these dots do not count as spaces. Use the ghosts to try to catch your opponents. When this happens, that opponent is sent back home and surrenders two marbles to the player who moved the ghost. If a Pac-Man gobbles up a yellow marble, that player earns the right to gobble a ghost. When this happens, the gobbled ghost is returned to the ghost pen, the player takes two marbles away from any opponent, and the player's yellow marble is returned to the game board. Once the maze is cleared of white marbles, the game is over and the player with the most white marbles (yellow marbles do not count) is the winner. 

'Pac-Man' is also the nickname of the Filipino boxing champion Manny Pacquiao. The two-time world champion earned the distinction as the only boxer who has knocked down both future Mexican 'Hall of Famer' Marco Antonio 'Baby Face Assassin' Barrera (knocked out in 11th round) and Erik 'El Terrible' Morales (knocked out in 10th round). Pacquiao has been on the top 10 list of the best 'pound-for-pound' fighters in the world. 

In the multi-racial country of Malaysia, 'Pac-Man' is a slang term coined to describe men who only date ladies of other races. 

The name 'Pac-Man' has been given to a nebula, cataloged as NGC 281. The Pac-Man Nebula is an H II region in the constellation of Cassiopeia. It includes or is near the open cluster IC 1590, the double star HD 5005, and several Bok globules. The shape of the nebula resembles the famous video game icon, Pac-Man. It is visible in amateur telescopes from dark sky locations. 

The Cassini Robotic spacecraft (Cassini-Huygens) were captured images during a close pass to the moon of Saturn named 'Mimas', and collected by the composite infrared spectrometer (CIRS). The images show the fluctuating temperatures experienced by Mimas. The combined map with this images form a shape of this character Pac-Man. 

On May 21, 2010, to celebrate Pac-Man's 30th Anniversary, Google, the famous internet search engine, has created the first ever interactive Doodle! This doodle allowed people to play Pac-Man on the home page (at the place of the original logo).

- UPDATES -

Midway's new revision program for Pac-Man was released in December 1981; the new program increases the difficulty of the game and adds a new challenge to players already familiar with the original.

- PORTS -

NOTE: Only ports released in North America [US] are listed here. For ports released in other regions, please see the original Namco (Japanese version) upright entry. 

* CONSOLES: 
Bally Astrocade "Muncher" 
Emerson Arcadia "Gobbler" 
Atari 2600 (1981) "Pac-Man [Model CX2646]" 
Atari 5200 (1982) "Pac-Man [Model CX5208]" 
Mattel Intellivision (1983) "Pac-Man [Model 70251]" 
Nintendo NES (1987) by Tengen 
Nintendo NES (nov.1993) "Pac-Man [Model NES-P7]" 
Sony PlayStation (jul.31, 1996) "Namco Museum Vol.1 [Model SLUS-00215]" 
Nintendo 64 (oct.31, 1999) "Namco Museum 64 [Model NUS-NNME-USA]" 
Sega Dreamcast (june.25, 2000) "Namco Museum [Model T-1403N]" 
Sony PlayStation 2 (dec.4, 2001) "Namco Museum [Model SLUS-20273]" 
Microsoft XBOX (oct.9, 2002) "Namco Museum" 
Nintendo GameCube (oct.9, 2002) "Namco Museum [Model DOL-GNME-USA]" 
Sony PlayStation 2 (aug.30, 2005) "Namco Museum - 50th Anniversary [Model SLUS-21164]" 
Microsoft XBOX (aug.30, 2005) "Namco Museum - 50th Anniversary [Model NMO-2201A-NM]" 
Nintendo GameCube (aug.30, 2005) "Namco Museum - 50th Anniversary [Model DOL-G5NE-USA]" 
Microsoft XBOX 360 [XBLA] (aug.9, 2006) 
Microsoft XBOX 360 [XBLA] (nov.4, 2008) "Namco Museum - Virtual Arcade [Model 21022]" 
Sony PlayStation 3 (jul.16, 2009) "Namco Museum Essentials [Model NPUB-30086]" 
Nintendo Wii (nov.16, 2010) "Namco Museum Megamix" 
Sony PlayStation 3 [PSN] (feb.25, 2014) "Pac-Man Museum [Model NPUB-31383]" 
Microsoft XBOX 360 [XBLA] (feb.26, 2014) "Pac-Man Museum"
Microsoft XBOX One [XBOX Store] (apr.20, 2016) "Arcade Game Series - Pac-Man"
Sony PlayStation 4 [PSN] (apr.20, 2016) "Arcade Game Series - Pac-Man [Model CUSA-03955]" 

* HANDHELDS: 
Sega Game Gear (1991) "Pac-Man [Model T-14018]" 
Nintendo Game Boy (apr.1991) "Pac-Man [Model DMG-PC-USA]"  
SNK Neo-Geo Pocket Color (jul.31, 1999) "Pac-Man [Model NEOP00551]" 
Nintendo Game Boy Color (aug.1999) "Pac-Man - Special Color Edition [Model DMG-AACE-USA]" 
Nintendo Game Boy Advance (jul.12, 2001) "Pac-Man Collection [Model AGB-APCE-USA]" 
Sony PSP (aug.23, 2005) "Namco Museum Battle Collection [Model ULUS-10035]" 
Nintendo DS (sept.18, 2007) "Namco Museum DS [Model NTR-YNME-USA]" 
Nintendo 3DS (jul.26, 2011) "Pac-Man & Galaga Dimensions [Model CTR-APGE-USA]" 

* COMPUTERS: 
Tandy Color Computer (1981) "Pac-Tac" 
Atari 400 (1982) 
Atari 800 (1982) "Pac-Man [Model CXL4022]" 
Commodore VIC-20 (1982) 
PC [Booter] (1982) "PC-Man" 
Tandy Color Computer (1982) "Ghost Gobbler" 
Tandy Color Computer (1982) "Pack Maze" 
Apple II (1983) 
Commodore C64 (1983) by Thunder Mountain 
Commodore C64 (1983) "Pac-Man [Model RX8502]" 
PC [Booter] (1983) 
PC [Booter] (1983) "Ascii Man", a part of the "Friendlyware PC Arcade" suite 
PC [MS-DOS] (1983) 
Tandy Color Computer (1983) "Pac Jaws" 
Tandy Color Computer (1983) "Pac-Tac II" 
Texas Instruments TI-99/4A (1983) "Pac-Man [Model RX8500]"
Tandy Color Computer (1990) "Pac-Dude"
Apple II GS (1992) "Pac Man GS"
Apple Macintosh (1992) "Mac-Man"
PC [MS Windows 95, CD-ROM] (1995) "Mac-Man", part of "Windows Arcade Pack" 
PC [MS Windows 95, 3.5"] (mar.31, 1996) "Microsoft Return of Arcade" 
Tandy Color Computer 3 (1997) 
PC [MS-DOS] (1997) "Champ Pac-Em" - CHAMProgramming 
PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (2000) "Microsoft Return of Arcade Anniversary Edition" 
PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (oct.25, 2005) "Namco Museum - 50th Anniversary" 
PC [MS Windows, Online] (2009) "Namco All Stars: Pac-Man and Dig Dug" by WildTangent Games 
Apple iPhone/iPad (mar.31, 2010) "Pac-Man for iPad [Model 363297482]"  
PC [MS Windows, Online] (aug.4, 2010) "Namco All-Stars: PAC-MAN" by WildTangent Games 
Steam (feb.25, 2014) "Pac-Man Museum [Model 236470]" 
Steam (apr.19, 2016) "Arcade Game Series - Pac-Man [Model 394160]" 

* OTHERS: 
VFD handheld game (1981) by Coleco. 
LCD handheld game (1992) by Micro Games of America 
Arcade (1996) "Namco Classics Collection Vol.2" 
LCD handheld color game (1999) released by Micro Games of America 
Arcade (2000) "Ms. Pac-Man/Galaga - 20th Anniversary Class of 1981 Reunion" as a hidden game. 
Namco Classics TV game (2003) by Jakks Pacific 
Mobile Phones (june.13, 2003) 
Arcade (2005) "Pac-Man - 25th Anniversary Edition" 
Super Pac-Man TV game (2006) by Jakks Pacific 
Arcade Gold featuring Pac-Man (2007) by Jakks Pacific 
Retro Arcade featuring Pac-Man (2008) by Jakks Pacific 
Apple iPhone/iPod (jul.9, 2008) "Pac-Man [Model 281656475]" 
Android Market (sept.23, 2008)
BlackBerry (june.30, 2009) "Pac-Man [Model 967]" 
Android (jan.11, 2010) 
Windows Mobile (mar.15, 2010)
Apple iPhone/iPod (mar.31, 2010) "Pac-Man for iPad [Model 363297482]" 
Arcade (2010) "Pac-Man's Arcade Party" 
Android Market (2011) 
Pac-Man Connect and Play (2012) by Bandai 
Apple iPhone/iPod (mar.13, 2012) "Namco Arcade [Model 465606050]" 
Android Market (apr.6, 2012) by Namco Networks America 
Android (mar.22, 2013) "Pac-Man + Tournaments"
Arcade (2018) "Pac-Man's Pixel Bash"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=samsho4k

Pae Wang Jeon Seol - Legend of Warrior (c) 1996 SNK [Shin Nihon Kikaku].

Korean censored version of "Samurai Shodown IV - Amakusa's Revenge".

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=palamed,palamedj
Arcade Video game published 33 years ago:

Palamedes (c) 1990 Taito.

- TECHNICAL -

Taito L System hardware
Board Number : K1100610A
Prom Stickers : C63

Main CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 6 Mhz)
Sound Chips : YM2203 (@ 3 Mhz)

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2

- TRIVIA -

Released in October 1990.

In the Tournament Mode, the green-beret soldier from "Operation Wolf" and the green dinosaur from "Bubble Bobble" can be seen.

- SERIES -

1. Palamedes (1990)
2. Palamedes 2 (1991, Nintendo Famicom)

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
Nintendo Famicom (1990)
Nintendo Game Boy (1990)

* COMPUTERS:
MSX2 (1990)
FM Towns PC (1991)

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=1927&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=pang,pangb,pangbold,pangba,pangb2,pangbb,pangbp,pangbc
Arcade Video game published 34 years ago:

Pang (c) 1989 Mitchell Corp.

Export release. Game developed in Japan. See the original Japanese release for more information; "Pomping World".

- TRIVIA -

Pang was released in December 1989 in Europe.

A bootleg version was released in 1990.

- SERIES -

1. Pang (1989)
2. Super Pang (1990)
3. Pang! 3 [B-Board 94916-10] (1995)
4. Mighty! Pang [Green Board] (2000)
5. Pang - Magical Michael (2010, Nintendo DS)

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES: 
Amstrad GX4000 [EU] (1990) 
[EU] Sony PlayStation (june.1998) "Super Pang Collection [Model SLES-00043]" 

* HANDHELDS: 
[EU] Nintendo Game Boy (1993) "Pang [Model DMG-AG-NOE]"  
[AU] Sony PSP (jul.11, 2007) "Capcom Puzzle World" 
[EU] Sony PSP (jul.13, 2007) "Capcom Puzzle World [Model ULES-00647]" 

* COMPUTERS: 
[EU] Commodore Amiga (1989) 
[EU] Amstrad CPC (1990) 
[EU] Atari ST (1990) 
[EU] Commodore C64 (1991) 
[EU] Sinclair ZX Spectrum (1991) 

* OTHERS: 
Mobile phone [Nokia 7650] (2003)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=pang3j
Arcade Video game published 28 years ago:

Pang! 3 - Kaitou Tachi no Karei na Gogo (c) 1995 Mitchell.

The second sequel to the superb 1989 original, Pang! 3 retains the same gameplay of its predecessors but adds vastly improved graphics and a choice of three difficulty levels; Beginner, Normal and Panic. On both the 'Normal' and 'Panic' skill levels, players can choose from 4 different playable characters; each possessing different strengths and weaknesses, such as a double harpoon or quick shots. On the beginner level, players can only use the Mexican character.

Another notable difference is in the game's use of backdrops : instead of the world landmarks of the first two games, Pang! 3 features classical works of art in the form of paintings and sculptures.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System" hardware.
B-Board #: 94916-10

Players: Up to 2
Control per player: 8-way joystick
Buttons per player: 3

- TRIVIA -

Pang! 3 was released in May 1995 in the Japanese arcades. It was known there as the 31th video game made for this system.

The subtitle of this game translates from Japanese as 'The Magnificent Afternoon of the Mysterious Thieves'.

Known export releases : 
[EU] "Pang! 3 [B-Board 94916-10]" 
[US] "Buster Buddies [B-Board 94916-10]"

Here is a detailed list of famous paintings appearing in this order :
'La Bohémienne Endormie' by Henri Julien Rousseau, 1897.
'The Scream' by Edvard Munch, 1893.
'Thirty-Six Views of Mt. Fuji' by Katsushika Hokusai, 19th century.
'Still Life : Vase with twelve sunflowers' by Vincent Van Gogh, 1888.
'Les Glaneuses' by Jean Francois Millet, 1857.
'Moulin Rouge - La Goulue' by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, 1891.
'Le Dejeuner des Canotiers' by Pierre August Renoir, 1881.
'Portrait of Leopold Zborowski' by Amedeo Modigliani, 1916.
'La Nascita di Venere' by Sandro Filipepi aka 'Botticelli', 1485.
'La Grande Odalisque' by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, 1814.
'Mona Lisa' by Leonardo da Vinci, 1506.
'Actor Otani Oniji II as Yakko Edohei' by Toshusai Sharaku, 1794.

The game forbids the initials 'SEX' on the high score table. If you try, it gets changed to '???'.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Stage Select : select Normal mode while putting the joystick down.

* Expert Mode : select Normal mode with 1P and 2P SHOT buttons simultaneously.

* Win 500 points In Panic Mode : hold down the joystick and 500 points will be added to your score every few seconds.

- SERIES -

1. Pang (1989)
2. Super Pang (1990)
3. Pang! 3 - Kaitou Tachi no Karei na Gogo [CP-S No. 31] (1995)
4. Mighty! Pang (2000)

- STAFF -

Planners : Da., Futoshi Kuwahara, S. Obata (Manhattan)
Programmers : Cat, Yoshinobu Inada (Ine), T. Misawa
Character designers : Imo, Tom-Pang, S. Kitamura, Ban, Miyo.
Artists : Y.N, Akagi, Joe, A. Hamada
Music composer : Isao Abe (Oyaji)
Sound designers : Toshio Kajino, Hiroaki Kondo
Supervisor : Yoshiki Okamoto (Kihaji Okamoto)

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] Sony PlayStation (mar.14, 1997) "Super Pang Collection [Model SLPS-00360]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=1932&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=pang3,pang3r1,pang3b,pang3b2,pang3b3,pang3b4,pang3b5
Arcade Video game published 28 years ago:

Pang! 3 (c) 1995 Mitchell.

Export release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese release entry; "Pang! 3 - Kaitou Tachi no Karei na Gogo [B-Board 94916-10]".

- TECHNICAL -

Capcom Play System hardware (CP-S)
B-Board #: 94916-10

- TRIVIA -

This game is known in North America as "Buster Buddies".

Sheila Van Buren holds the official record for this game with 2,256,411 points.

- SERIES -

1. Pang (1989)
2. Super Pang (1990)
3. Pang! 3 [B-Board 94916-10] (1995)
4. Mighty! Pang [Green Board] (2000)
5. Pang - Magical Michael (2010, Nintendo DS)

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[EU] Sony PlayStation (june.1998) "Super Pang Collection [Model SLES-00043]" 

* HANDHELDS: 
[EU] Sony PSP (jul.13, 2007) "Capcom Puzzle World [Model ULES-00647]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=1931&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=panicbom

Panic Bomber - Bomber Man (c) 1995 Eighting.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID: NGM-073

Players: 2
Control: 8-way joystick
Buttons: 1
=> [A] Change bombers formation

- TRIVIA -

Developed by Hudson Soft. The game was originally released on the PC-Engine CD as "Panic Bomber - Bomber Man [Model HCD4069]".

Panic Bomber Bomber Man for Arcades was released in January 1995 on the Neo-Geo MVS but was never released on the Neo-Geo AES home console.

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=1933&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=peekaboo,peekaboou
Arcade Video game published 30 years ago:

Peek-a-Boo! (c) 1993 Jaleco Company, Limited.

- TECHNICAL -

Jaleco Mega System 1-D hardware

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 10 Mhz)
Sound Chips : OKI6295 (@ 12 Khz)

Players : 2
Control : paddle
Buttons : 4

- TRIVIA -

Peek-a-Boo was released in May 1993.

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=1942&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=pengo,pengoa,pengob,pengoc,pengoj,pengoja,pengojb,pengojbl
Arcade Video game published 41 years ago:

Pengo (c) 1982 Sega.

Pengo is an action game set in an overhead maze constructed of ice blocks. The player controls Pengo, a red penguin that lives in the Antarctic and fights the blob-like Sno-Bees. The objective of the game is for Pengo to survive a series of rounds by eliminating all Sno-Bees, while amassing bonuses by bringing together the three diamonds dispersed in the maze.

The Maze itself is an interactive environment. Each section of wall is a block of ice that can be pushed onto the Sno-bees to destroy them. Pressing the button while pushing the joystick will cause Pengo to push the ice block in the direction he is facing. The block will slide until it hits either a wall or another ice block, crushing any Sno-Bees in its path. Crushing more than one Sno-Bee at once will increase the number of points awarded.

As the player crushes the Sno-Bees, new ones hatch from eggs located within ice blocks. Each time a new one hatches, blocks containing eggs that have still not hatched yet are briefly identified by flashing the color of that round's Sno-Bees. A certain number of eggs will hatch immediately at the start of each round - this is also the maximum number of active Sno-Bees at any one time in the round. Eggs can be eliminated by crushing the ice blocks that contain them. If Pengo pushes a side wall at the edge of the screen, the water vibrates, any adjacent Sno-Bees will be briefly stunned and are eliminated if Pengo walks over them in this state. 

The Sno-bees themselves will destroy the ice blocks as they move around each level, so speed is of the essence. Some of the blocks are 'Diamond blocks' which cannot be destroyed but can be re-used by Pengo. 

After 60 seconds elapse in a round without a player or enemy death, the game enters into sudden death mode; the music tempo and movement of the Sno-Bees accelerates. If a single Sno-Bee remains in the round, a jingle plays and the Sno-Bee accelerates in an attempt to reach a corner, where it safely fades away.

There are a total of 16 rounds in the game. After round 16 is cleared, the game loops back to round 1.

- TECHNICAL -

Game ID: 834-0386

Main CPU: Zilog Z80 (@ 3.02 Mhz)
Sound Chips: Namco 3-channel WSG (@ 96 Khz)

Players: 2
Control: 4-way joystick
Buttons: 1 (PUSH)

Pengo is known to have two different marquees. One marquee depicts Pengo standing next to the game's logo, with one leg up on an ice block, and one hand pushing against the O in the logo; the Sega logo appears in small print directly underneath the O. The other marquee depicts Pengo pushing an ice block, with the Sega logo appearing on the lower right corner of the marquee in a larger print.

- TRIVIA -

Pengo was released in September 1982 in Japan, in October 1982 in North America, and in December 1982 in Europe.

Pengo makes a cameo appearance in "Up'n Down". If a player manages to pass the first 4 rounds in under a minute each, he will appear in the water of round 5 riding a surfboard.

The color for the Sno-Bees is different in each round and follows an eight-round pattern: green, red, yellow, pink, orange, yellow, light blue, yellow.

Demonstration gameplay in the attract mode always plays Round 5, with the orange Sno-Bees.

The song that is played during the brief intermissions that appear after every even-numbered round is cleared is "Ode to Joy" from the fourth movement of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.

Rodney Day holds the official record for this game with 1110370 points.

A bootleg of this game is known as "Penta".

- UPDATES -

In Japanese versions:
- The maze is visibly drawn at the start of each round.
- The default top 5 high scores are all 20,000, and the default names are AAA, KKK, III, RRR, and AAA. 
- The in-game theme music is an 8-bit interpretation of the 1969 Gershon Kingsly composition known as "Popcorn", made most famous in 1972 by the instrumental band Hot Butter.
- The total number of enemies in each round is as follows: 6 in rounds 1 and 2, 8 in rounds 3-7, 10 in rounds 8-11, and 12 in rounds 12-16.

In export versions:
- The maze is loaded instantly at the start of each round
- The default top 5 high scores are all 0, and the default names are MMM, MMM, III, ZZZ, and UUU.
- Snappy original music is used as the in-game theme instead of the "Popcorn" song.
- The total number of enemies in each round is as follows: 6 in round 1, 8 in rounds 2-5, 9 in rounds 6 and 7, 10 in rounds 8 and 9, 11 in rounds 10 and 11, and 12 in rounds 12-16.

In all Japanese versions except the non-encrypted one, rounds are referred to in-game as "Acts".

Later versions correct a Test Menu Bug that is present in version Japan, 315-5010 type, Rev C.

In Export versions except version World, 315-5007 type, rev A (formerly set 4 in mame):
- The curtain speed is fastest.
- The demo mode is different.
- Delay before player can move at the start of a stage changed from 64 frames to 16 frames.
- Delay before the next level loads after an intermission changed from 64 frames to 16 frames.
- Delay before the sky rapidly changes colors in the intro changed from 64 frames to 48 frames.

Version World, 315-5007 type rev A introduced a number of changes to make the game flow faster than in other sets:
- Number of frames before the level completion time is shown changed from 32 to 8.
- Number of frames after a time bonus is calculated changed from 128 to 64.
- Number of frames before the screen wipes after the player has died changed from 128 to a single frame.

- SCORING -

Smashing an ice block : 30 points. 
Smashing an ice block with a Sno-Bee inside : 500 points. 
Walking over a stunned Snow-Bee : 100 points. 
Killing a Snow-Bee with an ice block : 400 points. 
Killing two Snow-Bees at once with one ice block : 1600 points. 
Killing three Snow-Bees at once with one ice block : 3200 points. 
Killing four Snow-Bees at once with one ice block : 6400 points. 
Lining up the three diamond blocks with one or zero of them touching a wall : 10000 points.
Lining up the three diamond blocks with two or more touching a wall : 5000 points.
Completing screen in under 20 seconds : 5000 bonus points. 
Completing screen in 20-29 seconds : 2000 bonus points. 
Completing screen in 30-39 seconds : 1000 bonus points. 
Completing screen in 40-49 seconds : 500 bonus points. 
Completing screen in 50-59 seconds : 10 bonus points. 
Completing screen in 60 seconds and over : no bonus points.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* The last remaining Sno-Bee on the screen will try to escape. If you do not kill it before it reaches one of the corners it will disappear.

* The indicator at the top of the screen tells you how many Sno-Bee eggs are still unhatched and hidden in ice blocks.

* A certain number of Sno-Bee eggs will hatch immediately at the start of each round. This is also the maximum number of active Sno-Bees you can have at any one time during the round. In rounds 1-4, this number is three; in rounds 5-16, it is four.

* Every time a Sno-Bee egg hatches, some ice blocks will flash, revealing the locations of Sno-Bee eggs that have not hatched yet. You can destroy the ice block to eliminate that Sno-Bee egg before it even hatches.

* When you kill the last Sno-Bee you have a couple of seconds to crush up to four ice blocks for an extra 30 points each.

* Concentrate your efforts on lining up the diamond blocks. The 10000 points are the biggest single score in the game, and stunning all the Sno-Bees is also a valuable side effect. You can then kill them easily by pushing ice blocks onto them rather than running over them (400 points as opposed to 100).

* Lining up the three diamond have another side effect: the remaining ice blocks with a Sno-Bee inside will be flash to the end of screen.

* Try to kill more than one Sno-Bee at a time, as two or more together are worth more points than killing them individually.

* Easter Egg:
In the attract mode, push the two joys to up, press the two action buttons and one button of start game, and it will show the credits of the game. After a few seconds, the game will reset. The wait can be stopped pushing the 1P Start button.

- SERIES -

1. Pengo (1982)
2. Pengo! (2010)
3. Finger Pengo (2011, iPhone/iPod)

- STAFF -

Developed by Coreland Technology.

Directed by: Nobuo Kodera
Programed by: Akira Nakakuma
Designed by: Shinji Egi
Involved in the project: Tsutomu Iwane

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[US] Atari 5200 (1983) "Pengo [Model CX5236]"
[US] Atari 2600 (1984) "Pengo [Model CX2690]"
Atari XEGS
[JP] Sega Game Gear (oct.6, 1990) [Model G-3202] 
[EU] Sega Game Gear (1991) 
[JP] Sega Mega Drive (dec.22, 1995; "Pepenga Pengo [Model G-4133]")
[JP] Sega Saturn (feb.28, 1997) "Sega Memorial Selection Vol.1 [Model GS-9135]"
Nintendo Wii [Virtual Console] [JP] (aug.4, 2009) Mega Drive version.

* COMPUTERS:
[US] Atari 800 (1983)
BBC Micro [EU] (1983) 
[US] Commodore C64 [EU] (1983)
[EU] Commodore C64 (1983)
[US] Commodore C64 (1983, "Petch")
[EU] Commodore C64 (1983, "Petch")
Tandy Color Computer [US] (1983, "Pengon")
[EU] Amstrad CPC (1986, "Troglo")
Atari 800 (Pengon)
Commodore 64 (Pengon)
Dragon 32 (Pengon)
Vic-20 (Pengon) (unreleased?) (The only mention online is that the developer says he made it.)
Sinclair QL (Pengi) (1985) (The Pengi games are very close to the original arcade game.)
BBC Micro (Pengi)
Acorn Electron (Pengi)
PC [MS Windows 98] [JP] (1998) "Memorial Selection [Model HCJ-0147]"

* OTHERS:
LCD handheld game [US] (1982) by Bandai.
VFD portable game [US] (1983) by Bandai.
Blackberry [US] (aug.28, 2009; "Pengo Mobile [Model 3107]") 
Mobile phones [US] (2003) 
Apple iPhone/iPod [US] (feb.2, 2011) [Model 416880921]

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=1944&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=phantasm
Arcade Video game published 32 years ago:

Phantasm (c) 1991 Jaleco.

Phantasm is a scrolling platform shoot-em-up in which game's hero is ambushed by a criminal syndicate, who kidnap his girlfriend and shoot him dead. The hero's spirit is summoned by his girlfriend's father and given a mission to save her from the mysterious syndicate that now holds her hostage. Only then can he rest in peace.

At the start of the game players choose to possess one of four enemy characters to begin their quest. When the possessed body is killed, providing there is a living enemy nearby (other than that of a boss) the player can possess them and continue playing. Each time this is done, it costs the player 'spirit energy'. Should the hero die when there are no enemies close by for the player to possess; the game is over.

The hero must fight his way through six stages to infiltrate the syndicate's base, collecting a key on stages 2, 5, and 6 as he progresses. If he has all three keys upon reaching the final leg of Stage 6, the hero can unlock the girl's cell, possess her and help her to fight her way out of the base. If not, he must abandon her and face the syndicate's leader alone. Once the syndicate's leader is defeated the base blows up, so with the latter option, the girl is not saved.

- TECHNICAL -

Jaleco Mega System 1-A hardware

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 12 Mhz)
Sound CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 7 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Yamaha YM2151 (@ 3.5 Mhz), (2x) OKI6295 (@ 30.303 Khz)

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2
=> [A] Fire, [B] Jump

- TRIVIA -

Released in May 1991, this game is known outside Japan as "Avenging Spirit".

A Korean bootleg/hack of this game is known as "Monky Elf".

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Good Ending : You must find the three keys to unlock the door in which your girlfriend is held hostage in order to see the good ending.

- STAFF -

Total Planner : Toku
Game Designer : Myaa
Programmer : T. Hata
Character Designers : Sanbo, H. Mamoru
B.G. Designers : Seven Star, C 57
Sound Producer : Tykoon Mori
Sound Composer : Studio O.K.
Special Thanks To : Miyuki-Chan, Dark Elf

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
Nintendo Game Boy (1992)

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=1957&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=pipibibsbl,pipibibsbl3
Arcade Video game published 31 years ago:

Pipi & Bibis (c) 1992 Ryouta Kikaku.

- TRIVIA -

Released in March 1992.

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=34421&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=whoopee
Arcade Video game published 32 years ago:

Pipi & Bibis (c) 1991 Toaplan Company, Limited.

- TECHNICAL -

[Teki Paki hardware]

- TRIVIA -

Pipi & Bibis was released in March 1992.

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=3161&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=pirates,piratesb
Arcade Video game published 29 years ago:

Pirates (c) 1994 NIX.

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 16 Mhz)
Sound Chips : OKI6295 (@ 8.08 Khz)

Screen orientation : Horizontal
Video resolution : 288 x 224 pixels
Screen refresh : 60.00 Hz
Palette Colors : 8192

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 3

- TRIVIA -

Released in December 1994.

- STAFF -

Story board : Lourdes Marcos Diaz, Yolanda Plaza De Prado
Game programmers : Argimiro Salvador, Carlos Barahona, Fernando Yago
Graphic designer : Tomas Bases
Sound and music : Xavier Tobella
Hardware designers : Fernando Yago, Manuel Baena, Arthy
Game skill : Jordi Zudaire, Mikel Asurmendi
Coordinator : Fernando Yago

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=1976&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=plgirls
Arcade Video game published 31 years ago:

Play Girls (c) 1992 Hot-B.

- TECHNICAL -

Taito L System hardware

Main CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 6 Mhz)
Sound Chips : YM2203 (@ 3 Mhz)

Screen orientation : Vertical
Video resolution : 224 x 320 pixels
Screen refresh : 60.00 Hz
Palette Colors : 256

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2

- SERIES -

1. Play Girls (1992)
2. Play Girls 2 (1993)

- STAFF -

Producer : Hiroshi Omori
Designers : Tomosama, Fun
Programmers : Masato Kimura, Takumi Nakayama

- PORTS -

* COMPUTERS:
IBM PC (1992)

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=1984&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=plgirls2,plgirls2b
Arcade Video game published 30 years ago:

Play Girls 2 (c) 1993 Hot-B.

- TECHNICAL -

Taito L System hardware

Main CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 6 Mhz)
Sound Chips : YM2203 (@ 3 Mhz)

Screen orientation : Vertical
Video resolution : 224 x 320 pixels
Screen refresh : 60.00 Hz
Palette Colors : 256

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2

- SERIES -

1. Play Girls (1992)
2. Play Girls 2 (1993)

- STAFF -

Project leader : Yamaguchi
Producers : Hiroshi Omori, Ko....Shi To...En
Programmers : Yamaguchi, Y. Hirasawa, Y. Satoh
Graphic designers : R. Kinoshita, Watashi, Fun, Terukirimaru, Kusukusu, Barbara, Salem

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=1985&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=pgoal

Pleasure Goal - 5 on 5 Mini Soccer (c) 1996 Saurus.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID: NGM-0219

Players: 2
Control: 8-way joystick
Buttons: 4
=> Offense > [A] Shoot, [B] Pass, [C] Trick play, [D] Save
=> Defense > [A] Steal ball, [B] Intercept, [C] Change player, [D] Save

- TRIVIA -

Pleasure Goal has an advert for "Ironclad" in it on the advertising boards.

- STAFF -

Executive producer : N. Tanaka
Planner : Ishimotti
Programmers : A. Ooi, K. Kawakubo, S. Yamane
Designers : Suitanakano, J. Mikami.24, Kiyoshi Matsueda, Kurara Kiri, Yuri Tachikawa, Azuma, Yuko Hara, Naohide Nakagawa
Sound : Sin Chan, Kaz Oshikiri

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
SNK Neo-Geo CD (1996)

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=1987&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=plotting,plottinga,plottingb,plottingu
Arcade Video game published 34 years ago:

Plotting (c) 1989 Taito.

Export version. For more information about the game itself please see the original Japanese version entry; "Flipull".

- TECHNICAL -

Taito L System hardware
Board Number : K1100440A
Prom Stickers : B96

- TRIVIA -

Plotting was released in July 1989.

This game is known in Japan as "Flipull".

- UPDATES -

The US version has the "Winners Don't Use Drugs" screen.

- PORTS -

NOTE: These are ports released outside Japan and Asia. For Japanese and Asian ports, please see the original Japanese version entry, "Flipull". 

* CONSOLES: 
[EU] Amstrad GX4000 (1990) 
[EU] Microsoft XBOX (oct.14, 2005) "Taito Legends" 
[EU] Sony PS2 (oct.14, 2005) "Taito Legends [Model SLES-53438]" 
[US] Microsoft XBOX (oct.25, 2005) "Taito Legends" 
[US] Sony PS2 (oct.25, 2005) "Taito Legends [Model SLUS-21122]" 
[KO] Sony PS2 (jul.18, 2006) "Taito Legends [Model SLKA-15056]" 

* HANDHELDS: 
[US] Nintendo Game Boy (apr.1990) "Flipull [Model DMG-FP-USA]" 

* COMPUTERS: 
[EU] Sinclair ZX Spectrum (1990) 
[EU] Commodore C64 (1990) 
[EU] Commodore Amiga (1990) 
[EU] Atari ST (1990) 
[EU] Amstrad CPC+ (1990) 
[EU] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (oct.14, 2005) "Taito Legends" 
[US] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (nov.10, 2005) "Taito Legends"

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=1989&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=plumppop
Arcade Video game published 36 years ago:

Plump Pop (c) 1987 Taito.

Use a trampoline to bounce a baby animal into the blocks. You can choose from a cat, a dog and a pig.

- TECHNICAL -

Prom Stickers : A98

Main CPU : (2x) Zilog Z80
Sound Chips : YM2203

Players : 2
Control : dial
Buttons : 2

- TRIVIA -

Plump Pop was released in November 1987 in Japan.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Clouds can be walked upon.

* Catch bonus items with your trampoline for extra points

- STAFF -

Directed by : Yoshihisa Nagata
Game designed by : Mitsukoh Kimura (M.K), Toshio Kohno, Onijust
Programmed by : Yoshihisa Nagata, Yuji Iwasaki, Masaki Ogata
Art designed by : Masami Kikuchi, Kazuya Mikata, Shinobu Iwabuchi, Sachiko Yamana, Kazuya Suzuki, Mitsuru Ogawa
Mechanical engineer : Yasunori Hatsuta
Designed by : Naoko Yoshida
Hardware designed by : Toshiyuki Sanada, Tadashi Kushiro, Noboru Yasukawa
Sound created by : Hisayoshi Ogura (OGR)

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES: 
[EU] Microsoft XBOX (oct.14, 2005) "Taito Legends" 
[EU] Sony PS2 (oct.14, 2005) "Taito Legends [Model SLES-53438]" 
[US] Microsoft XBOX (oct.25, 2005) "Taito Legends" 
[US] Sony PS2 (oct.25, 2005) "Taito Legends [Model SLUS-21122]" 
[KO] Sony PS2 (jul.18, 2006) "Taito Legends [Model SLKA-15056]" 
[JP] Sony PS2 (mar.29, 2007) "Taito Memories II Gekan [Model SLPM-66713]" 

* COMPUTERS: 
[EU] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (oct.14, 2005) "Taito Legends" 
[US] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (nov.10, 2005) "Taito Legends"

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=1990&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=plusalph
Arcade Video game published 34 years ago:

Plus Alpha (c) 1989 Jaleco.

- TECHNICAL -

Jaleco Mega System 1-A hardware

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 12 Mhz)
Sound CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 7 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Yamaha YM2151 (@ 3.5 Mhz), (2x) OKI6295 (@ 30.303 Khz)

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2

- TRIVIA -

Released in June 1989 in Japan.

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Plus Alpha - PCCB-00015) on 15/12/1989.

- STAFF -

Main programmer : Papa Sekiya
Character programmer : Motoko
Special programmer : Yuma Yoshida
Main character designer : Rolling.N
Character designers : Otappie Etoh, U. Keijiro
Main scroll designer : Nekomasa
Scroll designers : Markun!, Otatuku
Opening designer : Nekomasa
Present designer : Markun! Takahashi
Ending designer : Otatuku Etoh
Sound : Tsukasa Tawada
Voice actress : Eppin Honda
Sound programmer : Panic Yunma
Game designer : Momonga

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=1991&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=pnickj
Arcade Video game published 29 years ago:

Pnickies (c) 1994 Capcom Company, Limited.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System" hardware.
[B-Board #: 89625B-1

Players: Up to 2 simultaneously.
Control per player: 8-way joystick
Buttons per player: 2

- TRIVIA -

Pnickies was released in June 1994 in the Japanese arcades. It was known there as the 29th video game made for this system.

Developed by Compile.

- SCORING -

Two ball set : 100 points.
20 ball set : 10,050 points.
40 ball set : 75,050 points.
60 ball set : 400,050 points.
71 ball set : 1,000,050 points.
72 ball set : 10,557,336 points.

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=1992&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=pnyaa,pnyaaa

Pochi to Nyaa (c) 2003 Aiky.

Pochi to Nyaa is a cutesy puzzle game where the objective is to match the colored invaders in chains much in the vein of the Sega game "Puyo Puyo Fever". Pochi to Nyaa features three different modes of play: story mode, vs. computer mode, and two player vs. mode.

Story mode is a bare bones, single player game with three difficulty settings. The player works to build up chains in order to gain more time to play in one endless level. Once the timer runs out the game is over.

Vs. Computer mode is more of a real story mode where the player takes on the role of the novice wizard Prim, who has foolishly been lured into the "Pochi and Nyaa Tournament" by the promises of pudding. Before each battle Prim engages her opponent in a brief dialogue in order to advance the storyline. The player advances to the next opponent after winning one round. If the player loses the round then it is game over.

Vs. Player mode is a standard two player battle mode and begins with a character select screen.  After the characters are selected there is a short dialogue to introduce the players' characters and then the battle begins. Whoever wins two round of gameplay is the victor. Unlike many other two player games, Pochi to Nyaa vs. mode is played on one credit and so once the winner is announced the game is over.

In both single player mode games there is a brief introduction to the gameplay to assist the novice player.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID : 0267

Players : 2
Control : 8-way Joystick
Buttons : 3
=> [A] Turn nyan counterclockwise, [B] Turn nyan clockwise, [C] Change fally nyan to spiky nyan

- TRIVIA -

Released in December 2003.

The game is known outside Japan as "Pochi and Nyaa".

'Pochi' is a common name for a 'dog', and 'Nyaa' is the typical sound for a 'cat', so the title translates as 'Puppy and miaw'. The title is a pun : there is an extra char, so it can be read as 'Pochitto Nyaa', and Pochitto is the sound for a button quickly pressed.

This game was out first out on the Sega Naomi hardware in 2002, and was ported to the SNK Neo-Geo MVS at the end of 2003 (but was not released on the Neo-Geo AES home console).

- STAFF -

Producer : Masamitsu Niitani (Moo Niitani)
Sound Designer : Ichi, Masamitsu Niitani (Moo Niitani)
Instruction : Kashima Tadayuki
Sound Produce : Tanaka Katumi
Sound Direction and Design : Hayashi Kou (Oak-Sun Sound Design), Nagata Daisuke (Oak-Sun Sound Design), Hayashi Kou (Oak-Sun Sound Design), 
Voice Actor : Masamitsu Niitani (Moo Niitani), Kemi
Development Cooperation : Oak-Sun Sound Design

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
Sony PlayStation 2 (2004)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=pkladies,pkladiesl,pkladiesla,pkladiesbl,pkladiesbl2
Arcade Video game published 34 years ago:

Poker Ladies (c) 1989 Mitchell.

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 8 Mhz)
Sound Chips : OKI6295 (@ 7.5 Khz), YM2413 (@ 4 Mhz)

Screen orientation : Horizontal
Video resolution : 384 x 240 pixels
Screen refresh : 60.00 Hz
Palette Colors : 2048

Players : 1

- TRIVIA -

Also licensed to Leprechaun.

The graphics were developed by Akira Yasuda (aka Akiman, who soon became one of the most beloved Capcom artists) for the game "Mahjong Gakuen". He also helped develop the 'interaction' that happened in the bridge scenes, where by pressing a certain button you did kinky 'things' to the naked gals on the screen. Indeed, the effort put into "Mahjong Gakuen" could not be wasted for a Japanese release only, so Capcom developed "Poker Ladies" for worldwide release. The gameplay was also changed from a mahjong game to a poker game. This version was released by Mitchell instead of Capcom, and in the USA it was released by Leprechaun.

The 'interaction' feature would be used to better and more explicit effect in "Lady Killer", as well as in the bonus rounds in "Gals Panic S" and "Gals Panic S2".

- UPDATES -

Leprechaun's Poker Ladies version has some differences :
* 3 hands instead of 4.

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=popnpop,popnpopu,popnpopj
Taito F3 cart. published 25 years ago:

Pop'n Pop (c) 1998 Taito.

Pop'n Pop is a puzzle game using balloons. This is not only a puzzle game blended with a shooting invaders style game.

Move the player character with the joystick and change the position and release the balloons upwards using the 2 push buttons. Line up 3 or more of the same color balloons to pop them and clear the round by bursting all the balloons.
Many bosses appear using a variety of tricks to impede your progress.

There are 3 game modes.
- Puzzle Mode: Play by yourself or with another person to challenge the computer.
- VS CPU Mode: Play against the computer by yourself.
- 2 Player VS Mode: Play against your opponent with your selected characters.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "Taito F3 System" Hardware.

Prom Stickers : E51

Players: 4
Control: 8-way joystick
Buttons: 4

- TRIVIA -

Pop'n Pop was developed by Dreams for Taito and released in February 1998 (even if the titlescreen says 1997).

All the characters in Pop'n Pop were selected from previous Taito games. Bubby&Bobby from Rainbow Islands, Sayo&Miki from Kiki-KaiKai, Bob&Jim from Don-Doko-Don, and Tiki&PyuPyu from New Zealand Story.

The game forbids the initials 'SEX' on the high score table. If you try, it gets changed to 'AAA'.

- UPDATES -

The US version has the "Winners Don't Use Drugs" screen.

- STAFF -

Producers : Yoshihisa Nagata, Tsukasa Oshima
Director : Tomohiro Nishikado
Planners : Tomohiro Nishikado, Kenichi Hiza
Programmers : Kuniaki Watanabe, Shinya Sasaki, Kenichi Murohushi, Yasuhito Nagumo, Tomoaki Kasuya
Character designer : Atsushi Haruta
Graphic designer : Kazuhiro Fujii, Miyuki Sasaki, Nariyuki Sakamoto, Atsushi Haruta
Sound director : Kenichi Kamio
Sound data : Hiroshi Nishikawa (Light Link Music)
Design works : Hidetomo Ogino
Quality warranty : Nobuhiro Koyama
Production control : Seiji Watanabe, Kazuyori Masumoto, Kazuhiko Azuma, Eiji Maruyama, Takeshi Nakatani

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES: 
[EU] Sony PlayStation (1998) "Pop'n Pop [Model SLES-01971]" 
[JP] Sony PlayStation (oct.22, 1998) "Pop'n Pop [Model SLES-01971]"  
[EU] Microsoft XBOX (mar.31, 2006) "Taito Legends 2" 

* HANDHELDS: 
Nintendo Game Boy Color [US] (dec.17, 2000) "Yogi Bear - Great Balloon Blast [Model CGB-BBXE-USA]" 
Nintendo Game Boy Color [EU] (2001) 
Nintendo Game Boy Color [JP] (feb.16, 2001) "Pop'n Pop [Model CGB-BJPJ-JPN]" 

* COMPUTERS: 
[EU] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (mar.31, 2006) "Taito Legends 2" 
[US] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (jul.10, 2007) "Taito Legends 2"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=pspikes2

Power Spikes II (c) 1994 Video System.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID : 0068

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2
=> [A] At service Toss/Hit ball, [B] Toss/Hit ball

- TRIVIA -

Power Spikes II was released in October 1994 in Japan.

A very rare prototype version of this game is known as "Super Volley '94".

- SERIES -

1. Super Volleyball (1989)
2. Power Spikes (1991)
3. Power Spikes II (1994)

- STAFF -

Producer : Kouzi Furukawa
Project leaders : Takayuki Uesugi, T. Hosokawa
Publicity Manager : K. Siomi
Main programmer : Sugar
Sub programmers : You-Chan, Any L-2
Chief designer : Takumi Matsui
Main designers : Hikari Hino, Manbow, Oh!Kawara, Eriko, Takasu, Akira, Hitoshi Nakamura, Rika, T. Tateishi
Sub designer : T. Sakon (as 'MSX Sakon')
Music composer : Soushi Hosoi (HOSO_Q)
Sound effects : Norie
Main sound programmer : M. Yamana
Sub sound programmer : H. Soyama

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
SNK Neo-Geo CD (1995)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=pgear,pgearr1
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 29 years ago:

Powered Gear - Strategic Variant Armor Equipment (c) 1994 Capcom Company, Limited. 

An up-to-3-player side-scrolling beat'em up game where four selectable mechs and their respective pilots try to save Earth from battle with a sister planet's renegade army. Parts of destroyed mechs can be outfitted onto your mech to create interesting and deadly combinations.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Green Board [Japan]

Players: Up to 3.
Control: 8-way joystick per player.
Buttons: 3 per player.
=> [1] Arm attack, [2] Jump, [3] Weapon attack

- TRIVIA -

Powered Gear - Strategic Variant Armor Equipment was released on September 16, 1994 in Japan. It was known as the 7th CPS-II game.

This game is known outside Japan as "Armored Warriors". Here is a list of known export releases:
"Armored Warriors [Blue Board]"
"Armored Warriors [Grey Board]"

Sony Music Works released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Powered Gear Arcade Game Track - SRCL-3089) on December 1, 1994.

- UPDATES -

Green Board releases : 

REVISION 1 :
* Build date : 940916

REVISION 2 :
* Build date : 941024

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Selecting Joint Parts : While the demo appears for joint machine, the player who gets the radio machine must enter the following keys...
Beta-Cannon - Hold Up.
Gamma-Battler - Hold Left or Right.
Alpha-Fortress - Hold Down.

* Selecting Parts : At the stage title screen, hold B+C (over 1 sec.) and then enter the following keys...
Bomber - Leftup
Death Drill - Up
Missile - Rightup
Laser blade - Left
Force claw - Right
Flame - Leftdown
Chain spark - Down
Laser - Rightdown

Note : You can select both the arm and the sub weapon at the same time, but, if you enter codes for arm or sub weapon twice only the later code will work.

- SERIES -

1. Powered Gear - Strategic Variant Armor Equipment [Green Board] (1994)
2. Cyberbots - Fullmetal Madness (1995)

- STAFF -

Planners: Kiyo, T.H.T.Fuji, Tuchihashi Bakabon
Programmers: Y. Tunazaki Forever, Hero Hero, H. HASssssY, Hamachan, Dress
Mechanical and object designers: Yochabare, E. Kuratani, H. Uemura, Naoki Fujisawa, Y. Maruno, H. Yoshino, You-Tenkozow (You.Ten Kozow), Igami, Nekokan, U.F.O, Naoki Fukuda, Bakky
Art designers: Matsumoto, Y. Maruyama, M. Oshino, Takuji Mishima, Saru, Kohei Akiyama
Sound composer: Takayuki Iwai (Anarchy Takapon)
Sound designer: Tomuyuki Kawakami (T.K NY)
Special adviser: Noritaka Funamizu (Poo), Shochan, Kenkn, Meshi, Furoboh
Character designer: T.O.M
AD designers: Sensei, Sakomizu
Director: Yoshiki Okamoto (Kihaji Okamoto)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=preisle2

Prehistoric Isle 2 (c) 1999 Yumekobo.

A side-scrolling shooter featuring helicopters and a great sequel to the previous game, filled with great details and good pre-rendered graphics combined with good sound effects.

The plot takes us this time in the future where they have been a series of attacks in some parts of the world, leaving destruction in its wake, all this is caused once again by a invasion of legions of dinosaurs, to control this disastrous tragedy, we resort to the army, who sends two of his best helicopter armed with high-tech weapons, with which it hopes to eradicate the prehistoric menace.

The players controls one of two types of helicopters, main difference is in the type of weaponry, both are re-powered by a series of power-ups which is obtained by eliminating the enemies, the Blue One has a wide and straight ahead shot and the bomb is a huge powerfull wave cannon and the Green One fires a spread shot and the bomb fires a multitude of grenades that eliminates effectively the enemies in front. There are to rescue and defend several civilians survivors of all the Jurassic army to earn points and power-ups to face the enemy boss of end phase and go the next level.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID : 0255

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2
=> [A] Shoot, [B] Bomber

- TRIVIA -

Prehistoric Isle 2 was released in September 1999.

This game is known in Japan as "Prehistoric Isle 2 - Genshi Tou".

This game runs on the Neo-Geo MVS but was not released on the Neo-Geo AES home console.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Challenge star : Successfully complete a stage without losing any lives.

* Bonus Time : Build your weapon to maximum level, then select the same color again. Kill your enemies while in bonus time to increase the score multiplier up to x16.

* Extra Bonus score: Near the end of stage, always are a TOUCH ME helicopter to rescue the civilians you pick un in the stage (not in stage 3 and 6). Instead of droping them there, avoid that helicopter and carry them to the end of the stage and beat the boss, obviously without dying. For every rescued civilian, you will get a 1x multiplier, so you can multiply the bonus by 5 if rescue all the civilians.

- SERIES -

1. Prehistoric Isle in 1930 (1989)
2. Prehistoric Isle 2 (1999)

- STAFF -

Executive producers : S. Takaoka, Tanaka
Producer(rq) : James. W
Planner : Barso
Direction helpers : Satoshi ito, H. Miyagami, J. Seki
Main programmer : Yuki
Programmers : Y. Takasaki, Buttaku99, Masumura
Tool programmer : Hiroaki Torii
Chief designers : Y. Yonezawa, T. Nagakubo
Designers : Masato Miyoshi, Michitaka Ishida, Yuko Hara, T.Hirokawa, Matsumoto Kiyoshi, Sho Tabira, kyo Yamanaka
Design helpers : S. Katou, K. Mikamoto, R. Nagashima, H. Nobe, H. Ochiai, M. Shibata
Sound designer & music composer : Masahiko Hataya

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=sailormn,sailormnn,sailormno,sailormnh,sailormnnh,sailormnj,sailormnnj,sailormnk,sailormnnk,sailormnoh,sailormnoj,sailormnok,sailormnot,sailormnou,sailormnt,sailormnnt,sailormnu,sailormnnu
Arcade Video game published 28 years ago:

Pretty Soldier Sailormoon (c) 1995 Banpresto.

A 1 or 2-player sideways scrolling beat-em-up sees the Sailor Senshi fighting their way through five levels of anime-based combat. Each Sailor Soldier - chosen from a selection of 5, stiletto and mini skirt-wearing combatants - can punch, kick, jump, and throw their enemies; before finally reaching the traditional end-of-level boss.

As with Capcom's "Final Fight", and indeed many other games of the genre, items that aid the player are either dropped by beaten enemies or revealed after hitting certain obstacles and containers. Food can be used to replenish lost health and various trinkets can be picked up for bonus points. Finally, magic crystals can be found and are needed to activate the 'special attack' move. This works in a similar way to Sega's "Shinobi", with every enemy on the screen taking a hit.

Players must have at least one crystal to use the Special attack and up to 5 crystals can be carried at once. The more crystals the player holds when the special attack is utilized, the more effective it is against the game's enemies. Each level features its own unique, anime style animation. On level five, Sailor Soldier's signature attack move, from the original Japanese anime upon which the game is based, makes an appearance.

- TECHNICAL -

Game ID : BP945A

Runs on the Cave 68000 System Hardware.

Main CPU : MC68000 (@ 16 Mhz)
Sound CPU : Zilog Z80 [Optional]
Sound Chips : Yamaha YMZ280B (@ 16.9344 Mhz) or OKIM6295 x (1 or 2) + YM2203 / YM2151 [Optional]
Other : 93C46 EEPROM

Screen Orientation : Horizontal 
Video Resolution : 320 x 240 Pixels 
Screen Refresh : 57.55 Hz 
Palette Colors : 32768
 
Players : 2
Control : 8-Way Joystick
Buttons : 3
=> [A] Attack, [B] Jump, [C] Special Attack

- TRIVIA -

Sailor Moon was released on March 22, 1995.

This game was developed by Gazelle Co, Ltd., and is based on the Toei Manga cartoons and comics of the same name :
'Sailor Moon' : 'Moon Tiara Action'.
'Sailor Mercury' : 'Mercury Bubble Spray'.
'Sailor Mars' : 'Mars Fire Soul'.
'Sailor Jupiter' : 'Supreme Thunder'.
'Sailor Venus' : 'Twin Crescent Beam'.

- UPDATES -

The US version published and developed by Sega has the 'Winners Don't Use Drugs' screen.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

Whenever Tuxedo Mask appears, pick up the rose he throws to regain full health.

- STAFF -

Supervisor: Naoko Takeuchi, Fumio Osano
Executive Producer: Kisaburoh Higashi
Producer: Johan Satoh
Total Co-ordinator: Toshifumi Kawashima
Director: Hiroyuki Fujimoto
Art Director: Satoshi Iwataki
Art Co-director: Toshinobu Komazawa
Graphic Designers: Mihoko Sudoh, Otokazu Eda, Yuhko Tataka, Shingo Ishikawa, Mikio Yamaguchi, Kumi Kayama, Noboru Inamoto, Junya Inoue, Masayuki Ohsumi, Tohru Iwataki
Animation Director: Kensei Sasaki
Animation art director: Kazuko Tadano
Animator: Hiromi Matsushita, Studio Live
Animation Digitizers: Miki Higuchi, Mutsuo Danki, Hiroko Koyano, Mayumi Onodera
Music Composer: Seiichi Sakurai
Sound Effects: Yoshitatsu Sakai
Hardware Supervisor: Hideki Ikinaga
Hardware Co-ordinator: Kazuhisa Takasu
Hardware Designer: Hiroyuki Nagayoshi
All program works by: Hiroyuki Fujimoto
Game Designers: Hiroyuki Fujimoto, Satoshi Iwataki

* Character Voice [From the default hiscore table initials] :
[KOT]: Kotono Mitsuishi (Sailor Moon)
[AYA]: Aya Hisakawa (Sailor Mercury)
[MIC]: Michie Tomizawa (Sailor Mars)
[EMI]: Emi Shinohara (Sailor Jupiter)
[RIK]: Rika Fukami (Sailor Venus)

Special Thanks To: Hiroshi Takeda, Iriya Azuma, Higuchi Munehisa, Haruhisa Udagawa, Akira Nagamatsu, Kunihito Hiramatsu, Masaki Onda

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=progearj,progearjbl,progearjd
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 22 years ago:

Progear no Arashi (c) 2001 Capcom Company, Limited.

In a time when the industrialization of the world had just begun, various inventions appeared and changed the life of the peaceful kingdom. One of them was a propeller that evolved from pure wind generation by using the created electricity to re-rotate it. It was called 'The Professional Gear', or just 'Progear'. This invention was the key to conquer the great wide open sky. Another discovery made the ancient dream of the immortal body come true. But it was affordable only by some wealthy elderly. They formed a new council called 'the Motorouin' and declared the current government as a corruptive and greedy establishment and that they want to correct it by a new educational system, in order to create a new race of man. So they built a military force to realize the first step of their plan, which was the takeover of the kingdom. The government decided to stop the aggression by putting it's own army in motion. It was a dreadful battle with many victims. But it was won by the Motorouin. This battle is mentioned in the books of history as 'The Punishment of the Sages'.

A group of young pilots, actually children whose families were killed in that war, finally decided to fight back. They secretly developed a new powerful weapon which adults were not able to use. They called it 'Gun Flyer' and installed it in all of their planes. The Storm of Progear was about to begin!

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Green Board [Japan]

Players: Up to 2.
Control: 8-way joystick per player.
Buttons: 2 per player.
=> [1] Shot/Gunner shot, [2] Bomb

- TRIVIA -

Progear no Arashi was released in January 2001 in the Japanese arcades. It was known as the 35th game released on the CPS-II hardware.

The title of this game translates from Japanese as 'Storm of Progear'.

Developed by Cave, this is their first horizontal-scrolling shoot'em up.

The game is known outisde Japan as just 'Progear'. Here is a list of known Export releases:
"Progear [Blue Board]"
"Progear [Grey Board]"

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* The game features 2 different planes with their own statistics :
Gambler (Ring Reed) - blue plane : Weapon : Wide shot - Speed : Normal
Militant (Bolt Voiyer) - green plane : Weapon : Focus shot - Speed : Fast

After choosing a plane, the player will pick a gunner from the three following :
Alpha gun flyer (Chain) : Explosion missile
Beta gun flyer (Nail) : Cannon ball
Gamma gun flyer (Rivet) : Homing missile

* Extra Gun-flyer Formation forward : Press Button 1 and 2 the same time with pressing 2P start button when you decide a gunner to enable extra Gun-flyer formation.

* Extra Gun-flyer Formation middle : Press Button 1 and 2 the same time when you decide a gunner to enable extra Gun-flyer formation.

* Extra Gun-flyer Formation back : Press Button 1 or 2 the with pressing 2P start button when you decide a gunner to enable extra Gun-flyer formation.

* Extra Character Costume : You can select an extra character costume on the character selection screen during holding Start Button.

* To enable the 2nd loop of the game you need to use 2 bombs or less during the whole game.

* The endings for each Pilot and Gunner combination changes depending on the Gunner's Data level at the end of the game.

- STAFF -

Developed by Cave.
Producer : Kenichi Takano
Director : Junya Inoue
Chief Programmer : Tsuneki Ikeda
Programmer : Satoshi Kohyama, Takashi Ichimura
Designer : Akira Wakabayashi, Hiroyuki Tanaka, Fusayuki Watariguchi, Kengo Arai
Sound Producer : Junya Inoue
Music Composer : Yukinori Kikuchi
Sound Effecter : Ryuichi Yabuki
Special Assist : Toshiaki Tomizawa
Character Voice : Mitsuo Furusawa, Junya Inoue, Aki Sibata, Midori Katou, Masayo Hirasaka
Special Thanks : Yasushi Imai
Character & Mechanic Design : Junya Inoue

Produced by Capcom.
Producer : Tatsuya Minami
Support Capcom R&D Dept. #3 : Tomoshi Sadamoto

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=progear,progearud
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 22 years ago:

Progear (c) 2001 Capcom Ent., Inc.

North American release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese release entry; "Progear no Arashi [Green Board]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Blue Board [USA]

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=psyforce,psyforcej
Arcade Video game published 27 years ago:

Psychic Force (c) 1996 Taito Corporation.

A great fighting game with eight selectable characters.

The plot takes place in the year 2010, where selected individuals are blessed with the power of psychic abilities. All people imbued with this power are called "Psychiccers" and uses a specific element such as fire, ice or gravity in fighting. 

Time after Psychiccers are shunned by normal people because of their unnatural abilities and that most cases turn violent and deadly. All of that changes one day when a mysterious corporation known as "NOA" appears and offers Psychiccers a place in their company. Headed by a man named Keith Evans, the corporation seeks to create a perfect utopia for Psychiccers and that they'll eliminate anyone who stands in their way. 

Challenging NOA's ambition is a small independent group known as "Anti-NOA" and that one of its members, a young American Psychiccer named Burn Griffiths, seeks to confront and stop his old friend Keith from going through with his extreme plans of creating a Psychiccer-only world.

- TECHNICAL -

Taito FX-1A hardware
Prom Stickers : E22

Main CPU : PSX (@ 16.9344 Mhz)
Sound CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 4 Mhz)
Sound Chips : SPU (@ 4 Mhz), YM2610B (@ 8 Mhz)

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 6

- TRIVIA -

Development name: Kaiser Knuckle 2. It was originally planned as a sequel to "Kaiser Knuckle" but was cancelled. Later, it was revived as Psychic Force.

Even if the title screen says 1995, Psychic Force was released in April 1996 in Japan.

Zuntata Records released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Psychic Force Original Soundtracks - ZTTL-0001) on 11/10/1996.

An OVA anime based on the game was released in 1997.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Play As Keith : After inserting a credit, hold Button1+Button2+Button3+Start Button until game shows the character select screen. If input is successful, Keith appears in character select screen.

- SERIES -

1. Psychic Force (1996)
2. Psychic Force EX (1996)
3. Psychic Force 2012 (1998)

- STAFF -

Illustrator : Kenichi Ohnuki
Producer : Takeshi Kamimura
Planners : Takeshi Kamimura, Hiroshi Aoki
Programmers : Hiroshi Aoki, Tabby, Kousuke Usami, Isao Ooyama, Kumi Tsuchiya
Character coordinators : Yuji Sakamoto, Hiroto Nizato, Takayuki Isobe, Tsutomu Matsuda, Hiroshi Nishida
Music composer : Hideki Takahagi (Zuntata-J.A.M)
Sound effect coordinator : Ishikawa Babio (BABI) (Zuntata-J.A.M)
Sound programmer : Yasuhisa Watanabe (Zuntata)
Designer : Naoto Hashizume

Cast : Mitsuaki Madono, Ayako Shiraishi, Minami Takayama, Kyousei Tsukui, Yousuke Akimoto, Ayusei Nakao

Special Thanks: Seiji Kawakami, Minoru Masuyama, Kazuya Ishida, Toshihiro Fukui, Kei Shimizu, Yukiko Shinbo, Kozi Nakanowatari, Doya, Tereas, Saine Ohtori, Tohko Akiyama, Alumii Sateaux, Yda Furuya Yuji, Lak T.M., Kamasan

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] Sony PlayStation (1996) "Psychic Force [Model SLPS-00520]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=puchicar,puchicarj,puchicaru
Taito F3 cart. published 26 years ago:

Puchi Carat - Gemstone Ohkoku no Sekai (c) 1997 Taito Corp.

Hit the ball with your paddle to destroy jewels in this simple but addictive puzzle game.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "Taito F3 System" Hardware.

Prom Stickers : E46

Players : 4
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 4

- TRIVIA -

Puchi Carat was released in October 1997.

The title of this game translates from Japanese as 'Small Karat - Gemstone Kingdom World'.

The game forbids the initials 'SEX' on the high score table. If you try, it gets changed to 'AAA'.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* PLAY AS PATORACO:
After inserting a coin, when C-Mond is teaching how to play, press A(x3) and Start. She will be available between Garnet and Shyst.

* 3RD COSTUME:
Press A button and Start at the same time when selecting your character.

- STAFF -

Producer : Atsuchi Taniguchi
Director : Takahiro Fujito
Game designers : Atsuchi Taniguchi, Takahiro Fujito, Chiho Maeda, Ken Ninomiya, Mari Fukusaki, Yoko Kaneko, Kazuhiro Fujimoto, Nabuhiro Hosomi, Yasuhisa Watanabe (Zuntata)
Character graphics : Chino Maeda, Ken Ninomiya, Mari Fukusaki, Yoko Kaneko, Kazuhiro Fujimoto, Nobuhiro Hosomi
Sound : Yasuhisa Watanabe (Zuntata)
Programmers : Nichiaki Kaneko (I.T.L), Tomoaki Kasuyagi (I.T.L), Yasuhito Nagumo (I.T.L)
Character designer : Yasunobu Kousokabe

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES: 
[JP] Sony PlayStation (june.25, 1998) "Puchi Carat [Model SLPS-01435]" 
[EU] Sony PlayStation (2000) "Puchi Carat [Model SLES-02070]" 
Nintendo Game Boy Color [JP] (apr.23, 1999) "Puchi Carat [Model DMG-ACUJ-JPN]" 
Nintendo Game Boy Color [EU] (dec.8, 2000) "Puchi Carat [Model DMG-AIQP-EUR]" 
[JP] Sony PS2 (jul.28, 2005) "Taito Memories Joukan [Model SLPM-66057]" 
Sony PlayStation 2 [AU] (mar.30, 2006) "Taito Legends 2 [Model SLES-53852]" 
[EU] Microsoft XBOX (mar.31, 2006) "Taito Legends 2" 
[EU] Sony PS2 (mar.31, 2006) "Taito Legends 2 [Model SLES-53852]" 
[US] Sony PS2 (may.16, 2007) "Taito Legends 2 [Model SLUS-21349]" 

* COMPUTERS: 
[EU] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (mar.31, 2006) "Taito Legends 2" 
[US] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (jul.10, 2007) "Taito Legends 2"

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=2062&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=puckman,puckmod,puckmanf,puckmanh
Arcade Video game published 43 years ago:

Puckman (c) 1980 Namco.

Puckman is the seminal and hugely influential arcade game in which the player guides the legendary Puckman around a single-screen maze eating dots. Puckman is constantly pursued in his task by four colored ghosts. Each ghost has its own unique personality and behavioural patterns and a single touch from any of the ghosts results in Puckman losing a life. When all of Puckman's lives are lost, the game is over.

Power pills are situated in each corner of the rectangular maze and eating one of these makes Puckman temporarily invincible; the four ghosts also change to dark blue in color and can now be eaten by Puckman. But watch out...a flashing blue ghost indicates that the power pill is about to wear off and the ghosts are about to transform back to their former selves again. Once Puckman eats a blue ghost, this 'skinned' ghost then becomes visible as a pair of eyes only, will return to the ghost pen in the middle of the maze, regenerate into its former self, and return to the maze to continue its pursuit of Puckman. 

Each maze contains 240 dots and 4 power pills, and all must be eaten to complete the level; whereupon the entire sequence begins again with an increased level of difficulty (the action increases in speed and power pills decrease in effectiveness). 

Twice in every level, a bonus fruit or prize item will temporarily appear in the middle of the maze below the ghost pen. Puckman can eat these bonus items to receive extra points. Also, there is an escape tunnel on each side of the maze that Puckman can use to escape any ghosts that are currently closing in on him. The ghosts can also use the tunnel, but take longer to pass through it than Puckman, making escape a little easier. 

Between certain rounds, funny intermissions will be played featuring Puckman and the ghosts in funny situations. Three intermissions are present: 
1) The red ghost chases Puckman across the screen and off the side. Then he re-appears running in the opposite direction, having turned blue, followed by a giant Puckman! This intermission is played after Round 2. 
2) The red ghost is again chasing Puckman, but this time he rips his red sheet on a nail on the ground, and we can see his pink body under the sheet! This intermission is played after Round 5. 
3) The red ghost chases Puckman across the screen once more, this time with his sheet sewn. They disappear at the left side and then the ghost reappears coming back the opposite direction. This time he is bare and drags his sheet behind him. This intermission is played after Rounds 9, 13 and 17. 

No intermission is present between rounds after the 18th one.

- TECHNICAL -

The original Namco Puckman Upright model came in a white cabinet that may look familiar to most gamers. This cabinet is the same 'swoopy' design used for Pac-Man and Galaxian. The only actual design difference was the coin door. The Japanese version had a tall coin door with a single coin mech, while the U.S. version, Pac-Man, had a fat coin door with two coin mechs installed. However, the graphics on the Japanese machine were completely different from those of the U.S. machine. The marquee had the 'Puckman' logo off to the right-hand side at an angle, and showed a scene with half a dozen cartoon Puckmen eating power pellets, with a few ghosts lingering off to the side. The monitor bezel was largely red and was of a circular design and had many Puckmen lounging around the perimeter of the circle. The control panel continued the reddish graphics and had instructions in Japanese, along with a yellow ball-top 4-Way joystick and Start buttons for each player. The sideart was a large circular sticker that advertised the game's name, and had many cartoon Puckmen in action around the edges of the circle, with the word Namco displayed prominently at the bottom. The cabinet was finished off with yellow t-molding on the edges. 

Main CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 3.072 Mhz) 
Sound Chips : Namco 3-channel WSG 

Players : 2 
Control : 4-way joystick

- TRIVIA -

The game was first introduced to the Japanese arcade market on May 22, 1980 and caught the hearts and imaginations of the public like no other game before it, and few since. It is still regarded as the hallmark of the 'golden age' of video games and an icon of 1980's popular culture.

The game was originally known in Japan as Puckman, but due to the West's predilection with changing words to vulgarities by scratching part of the word off (in this case, changing the word 'Puck' to something rather less socially acceptable by scratching off part of the letter 'P'), the name was changed to Pac-Man for its release to the American arcade market in October 1980. The name 'Pac-Man' comes from the Japanese slang term 'paku-paku', which describes the motion of the mouth opening and closing during eating and translates to English as 'to eat'.

Export releases:
[US] "Pac-Man [Model 932]"

Toru Iwatani, author and designer of Puckman: "Puckman's character is difficult to explain even to the Japanese -- he is an innocent character. He hasn't been educated to discern between good and evil. He acts more like a small child than a grown-up person. Think of him as a child learning in the course of his daily activities. If someone tells him guns are evil, he would be the type to rush out and eat guns. But he would most probably eat any gun, even the pistols of policemen who need them." 

Puckman was, quite literally, conceived at lunchtime. Iwatani, then in his mid 20s, was very hungry and ordered himself a pizza for lunch. He took one slice, and, looking at the rest of the pizza, Puckman was born. However, in later years, Iwatini has suggested the shape was based on the Japanese character 'kuchi', meaning mouth. He rounded off this shape, and created the classic shape. The game took 1 1/2 years to complete and had five people on its team. Puckman is the greatest selling arcade game of all time and is arguably also the world's most recognized video-game character of all time. It had its own cartoon, lunch box, board game, stickers and hundreds of other products. This was largely due to Puckman being the first truly distinctive video-game 'character', and it changed the face of video games forever. Puckman was the first video game to be as equally popular to women as it was with men. 

* A place in video game history: "Pac-Man is the most universally known arcade game," said Chris Lindsey, director of the National Video Game and Coin-Op Museum in St. Louis. "Everybody knows about Pac-Man. And, I've noticed, almost everybody can play Pac-Man pretty well. Pac-Man makes just about the best use of the joystick one can imagine. It's so intuitive that it puts other games to shame in terms of how easy it is for a person to walk up, stick a quarter in the machine, and start doing something meaningful. At the time, Pac-Man introduced a completely unique style of game play and was also highly identifiable in terms of its music. With Pac-Man, everything was there. The video game industry needs another game that captures the public's heart like Pac-Man, and so far, no one has been able to come up with it." 

* The great 25-cent escape: "People expect to see Pac-Man when they come into the museum, and without fail, when they see it, they want to play it," Lindsey said. "People remember spending hours and hours at Pac-Man. They like to see how good they are now when they play it. And I would say that, perhaps more than any other game, the same playing skills still apply. Perhaps it's because of the intuitive game play. You don't have to memorize the behavior of a wide array of enemies as you do with some other games. You just have to remember that when the ghosts turn blue, you only have seconds, until they start seriously blinking, to go and get them. And Pac-Man is a little looser in its style of game play - more open. For instance, you can kill time in the lower left hand corner until you see an opening between the ghosts, and you can strategize a bit more: You can play with the tunnels, you can play with the position of the ghosts in relation to the energizers. Even people who haven't played in years remember those strategies."

After all these years, the challenge of Pac-Man still remains. 

"You can also get into some really fun jams, when you've got a ghost on your tail and you have to make a decision about whether you're going to go left, or right, or straight at the next junction, which is in .03 seconds," Lindsey said. "It gets to be pretty tense, especially when those ghosts start moving really fast and the energizers aren't lasting as long. Pac-Man can be a real heart-thumping game." 

After the 255th level, Puckman/Pac-Man presents the player with the infamous 'split-screen' level, where the left-half of the screen is normal, but the right-half of the screen is garbled with a mess of letters, numbers, symbols and other graphics. This level cannot be completed because there are not enough dots on screen to be eaten! This is the result of a bug in the routine drawing the fruits at the bottom of the screen, according to the round number. Indeed, the code works as follows: 
1) it increases the last round number by one; 
2) it checks if the result is smaller than 8 (in this case, you still would not have enough fruits to fill the line and some blank space must be drawn); 
3) it checks if the result is larger than 19 (in this case, it has only to draw keys); 
4) finally, it fills the bottom bar with the correct fruits. 

In particular, if the round number is smaller than 8, the game draws as many fruits as the previous round number. This produces an undesirable effect right after the 255th level. 

Indeed, 256 = 255+1 becomes 00 for the CPU (which expects to use the last 2 hexadecimal digits only, and 256 = 100 in hex)! 

Therefore, the game thinks to be in one of the first 7 levels (because 0 is smaller than 7), but it tries to draw 255 fruits (because the last round number was 255). Of course, there is no space for that many fruits to be displayed and the game starts to draw garbage on the main screen. 
Fixing the original code (either through a cheat in emulation, or hacking the roms on the PCB) would results in a 256th level identical to the first one (cherries will appear) but harder, since ghosts will behave as they do in levels beyond the 19th. 

The alien spaceship 'Galaxian' makes an appearance as the prize in the 9th and 10th boards. 

Note : Excluding bootlegs, there are 23 different name/nickname combinations for the ghosts in Puckman/Pac-Man (29 including 'Sue' from 'Ms. Pac-Man', 'Tim' from 'Jr. Pac-Man', 'Common' and 'Grey Common' from the Japanese version of 'Pac-Mania', and 'Funky' and 'Spunky' from the American version of 'Pac-Mania'). 

'Galaxian' boards will run in Pac-Man machines, but the sound pinout is different, so the pinout at the connector would have to be modified. To fire, one would have to press UP on the joystick. 

Billy Mitchell, Rick Fothergill, Chris Ayra, Tim Balderramos and Donald Hayes all hold the official record for this game on 'Regular (TGTS)' settings with a perfect score of 3,333,360 points on July 3, 1999, July 31, 1999, February 16, 2000, December 4, 2004 and July 21, 2005, respectively. 

Chris Ayra holds the official record for the fastest time to get a perfect game on 'Regular' settings with 3:42:05 on April 2, 2002. 

Ron Corcoran holds the official record for this game on 'Speedup' settings with 1,321,020 points on May 13, 2001.

- UPDATES -

The attract mode's title sequence introduces the ghosts with name/nickname combinations displayed on the upper half of the screen. 

The default name/nickname combinations for the ghosts in the original Japanese version are : 
Oikake - "Akabei" (translation: Chaser - "Red Guy") (red ghost)
Machibuse - "Pinky" (translation: Ambusher - "Pink Guy") (pink ghost)  
Kimagure - "Aosuke" (translation: Fickle - "Blue Guy") (cyan ghost) 
Otoboke - "Guzuta" (translation: Stupid - "Slow Guy") (orange ghost)  

The Japanese version also has a DIP switch for alternate name/nickname combinations for the ghosts. These alternate names are : 
Urchin - "Macky" (red ghost) 
Romp - "Micky" (pink ghost) 
Stylist - "Mucky" (cyan ghost) 
Crybaby - "Mocky" (orange ghost) 

The name/nickname combinations for the ghosts in the North American version are : 
Shadow - "Blinky" (red ghost)
Speedy - "Pinky" (pink ghost)
Bashful - "Inky" (cyan ghost)
Pokey - "Clyde" (orange ghost)

Unlike the Japanese version, the American version has no DIP switch for alternate ghost names.

ADDITIONAL NOTES: 

In a later revision ("Japan Set 2" in Mame): 
* At the top of the title screen, instead of 'Nickname', it says 'Ghost'. 
* The 'Press Start' screen displays 1981 as the year of release, instead of 1980.

- SCORING -

Dot : 10 points. 
Power pill (energizer) : 50 points. 
Ghosts : 200, 400, 800, 1,600 points. 
Cherry : 100 points. 
Strawberry : 300 points. 
Peach : 500 points. 
Apple : 700 points. 
Pineapple : 1,000 points. 
Galaxian : 2,000 points. 
Bell : 3,000 points. 
Key : 5,000 points.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* The number of lives Puckman starts with depends on the 'Lives' dip switch setting (1, 2, 3, or 5; the default is 3).

* An extra life is awarded based on the 'Extra Lives' dip switch setting (10,000, 15,000, 20,000, or None; the default is 10,000). 

* Fruits appear twice on each board. The first fruit appears after Puckman has eaten 70 dots; the second fruit appears once there are only 70 dots remaining in the maze. 

* At the beginning of a round, the ghosts won't immediately pursue Puckman. Use this time the best as you can. 

* Puckman can turn corners faster than the ghosts can, so turning many corners can help you escape ghosts. 

* The tunnel allows Puckman and the ghosts to instantly travel from one side of the maze to the other. While traveling through the tunnel, Puckman moves at normal speed, but the ghosts' speed is reduced in half. This provides Puckman with a good opportunity to put some distance between him and the ghosts, but be careful not to get trapped by another ghost entering the opposite side. 

* Stall Puckman from entering the tunnel and then, just before the ghosts reach him, send him through the tunnel. By attracting the ghosts to one side of the screen, you reduce Puckman's chances of meeting them when he emerges on the other side of the screen.

* If you hold the joystick in a direction that is blocked by a wall, Puckman will turn in that direction as soon as he reaches a passage leading in that direction. Remember this to turn corners as fast as you can. 

* Remember that eating dots will slow Puckman down a little bit: avoid parts of the maze in which you've not been yet if you are trying to escape ghosts! 

* Try not to eat power pills until the ghosts are near. The longer Puckman waits, the closer the ghosts get, and the easier it is for Puckman to eat them once they have turned blue. 

* Mind that, as the levels increases, the ghost speed increases as well! 

* In later rounds, you're not going to be able to eat ghosts after eating a power pill, because the vulnerability time decreases to zero. This is when you need to learn how to avoid the ghosts understanding their movement and their moving patterns! 

* Right above the ghost pen, there are two paths leading upward to the upper part of the maze. The ghosts never travel upward through these holes while they're in their normal forms; they only do while they're blue after Puckman has eaten a power pill. Indeed, they only exit the area around the ghost pen from the sides or the bottom. These are not completely safe corners, since ghosts can travel downward through them, anyway they often represents a safe passage to flee from ghosts pursuing you around the ghost pen. 

* Ghosts' Movements : First of all, remember that ghosts are not always following you! Their movements follow two distinct phases: one in which they avoid Puckman and one in which they hunt him down. In the former phase, each ghost patrols his personal corner of the maze. In the latter one, they will try to find Puckman, following their personal 'behavior': 
1) The red ghost tends to patrol the top-right corner of the maze and he follows Puckman always trying to minimize their respective distance. 
2) The pink ghost tends to patrol the top-left corner of the maze and he follows Puckman trying to reach a position slightly in front of Puckman, in the direction he's moving. 
3) The cyan ghost tends to patrol the bottom-right corner of the maze and he has the most complicated AI since he moves towards a point determined by both Puckman's position and the red ghost's position. 
4) The orange ghost tends to patrol the bottom-left corner of the maze and he only tries to be close to Puckman, without hunting him directly. 

Ghosts alternate these two different behaviors (hiding and hunting) a few times in each round, then they start to pursue Puckman restlessly until all the dots are eaten, or they manage to catch him. 

Additionally, as soon as a certain number of dots has been cleared from the maze (this number decreases as the levels pass), the red ghost's speed will increase and he won't stop to search for Puckman anymore.

- SERIES -

1. Puckman (1980, ARC) 
2. Super Pac-Man (1982, ARC) 
3. Pac & Pal (1983, ARC) 
4. Pac-Land (1984, ARC) 
5. Pac-Mania (1987, ARC) 
6. Hello! Pac-Man [Model SHVC-PN-JPN] (1994, Super Famicom, Mega Drive) 
7. Pac-In-Time [Model SHVC-APTJ-JPN] (1994, Super Famicom; 1995, Game Boy) 
8. Pac-Man Arrangement (1996, ARC) : part of "Namco Classics Collection Vol.2"
9. Pac-Man World [Model SLPS-02345] (1999, PS) 
10. Ms. Pac-Man Maze Madness [Model SLPS-03000] (2000, PS) 
11. Pac-Man World 2 [Model SLPS-25141] (2002, PS2, PC) 
12. Pac-Man Arrangement (2005, PSP) : part of "Namco Museum [Model ULJS-00012]" 
13. Pac 'n Roll [Model NTR-APNJ-JPN] (2005, DS) 
14. Pac-Pix [Model NTR-APCJ-JPN] (2005, DS) 
15. Pac-Man Arrangement Plus (2006, PSP) : part of "Namco Museum Vol.2 [Model ULJS-00047]" 
16. Pac-Man Championship Edition (2007, XBLA) 
17. Pac-Man Championship Edition DX (2010, XBLA, PSN) 
18. Pac-Man Party [Model RVL-SP7J-JPN] (2010, Wii)
19. Pac-Man Battle Royale (2011, ARC) 
20. Pac-Man Tilt (2011, 3DS) : part of "Pac-Man & Galaga Dimensions [Model CTR-APGJ-JPN]"
21. Pac-Man Championship Edition DX+ (2013, XBLA, PSN) 
22. Pac-World (2014, 3DS, Wii U, PS3)
23. Pac-World 2 (2014, 3DS, Wii U, PS3)

- STAFF -

Designed by : Toru Iwatani 
Programmed by : Hideyuki Mokajima 
Music & Sound by : Toshio Kai

- PORTS -

NOTE: For ports released in North America, please see the Midway Pac-Man (North American version) upright entry. 

* CONSOLES: 
[JP] Atari 2600 (1983) 
[JP] Nintendo Famicom (nov.2, 1984) "Pac-Man [Model NPM-4500]" 
[EU] Nintendo NES (1990) 
[AU] Nintendo NES (1990)
[JP] Nintendo Famicom Disk (may.18, 1990) "Pac-Man [Model NDS-PAC]" 
[JP] Sony PlayStation (nov.22, 1995) "Namco Museum Vol.1 [Model SLPS-00107]" 
[AU] Sony PlayStation (1996) "Namco Museum Vol.1 [Model SCES-00243]" 
[EU] Sony PlayStation (aug.1996) "Namco Museum Vol.1 [Model SCES-00243]" 
[JP] Sony PS2 (jan.26, 2006) "Namco Museum Arcade Hits! [Model SLPS-25590]" 
[EU] Microsoft XBOX (mar.24, 2006) "Namco Museum - 50th Anniversary" 
[EU] Sony PS2 (mar.31, 2006) "Namco Museum - 50th Anniversary [Model SLES-53957]" 
[EU] Nintendo GameCube (may.5, 2006) "Namco Museum - 50th Anniversary [Model DOL-G5NP-EUR]" 
[EU] [JP] [AU] Microsoft XBOX 360 [XBLA] (aug.9, 2006) 
[EU] Microsoft XBOX 360 (may.15, 2009) "Namco Museum - Virtual Arcade" 
[AU] Microsoft XBOX 360 (june.3, 2009) "Namco Museum - Virtual Arcade" 
[JP] Microsoft XBOX 360 [XBLA] (nov.5, 2009) "Namco Museum - Virtual Arcade [Model 2RD-00001]" 
[JP] Sony PlayStation 3 (jan.29, 2009) "Namco Museum.comm [Model NPJB-00012]" 
[EU] Sony PlayStation 3 (apr.1, 2010) "Namco Museum Essentials [Model NPEB-00104]" 
[AU] Sony PlayStation 3 (apr.1, 2010) "Namco Museum Essentials" 
[KO] [EU] [AU] Microsoft XBOX 360 [XBLA] (feb.26, 2014) "Pac-Man Museum" 
[EU] [AU] Sony PlayStation 3 [PSN] (feb.26, 2014) "Pac-Man Museum [Model NPEB-01892]" 
[KO] Sony PlayStation 3 [PSN] (feb.26, 2014) "Pac-Man Museum" 
[JP] Microsoft XBOX 360 [XBLA] (june.25, 2014) "Pac-Man Museum" 
[JP] Sony PlayStation 3 [PSN] (june.25, 2014) "Pac-Man Museum" 
[EU] [AU] [JP] Microsoft XBOX One [XBOX Store] (apr.20, 2016) "Arcade Game Series - Pac-Man"
[EU] [AU] Sony PlayStation 4 [PSN] (apr.20, 2016) "Arcade Game Series - Pac-Man [Model CUSA-03862]" 
[JP] Sony PlayStation 4 [PSN] (apr.20, 2016) "Arcade Game Series - Pac-Man [Model CUSA-03670]" 

* HANDHELDS: 
[JP] Nintendo Game Boy (nov.16, 1990) "Pac-Man [Model DMG-PCA]" 
[JP] Sega Game Gear (jan.29, 1991) "Pac-Man [Model T-14017]" 
[EU] Nintendo Game Boy (1991) "Pac-Man [Model DMG-PC-NOE]" 
[AU] Nintendo Game Boy (1991) "Pac-Man [Model DMG-PC-AUS]" 
[EU] Nintendo Game Boy Color (1999) "Pac-Man - Special Colour Edition [Model DMG-AACP-EUR]" 
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo Pocket Color (aug.26, 1999) "Pac-Man [Model NEOP00550]" 
[EU] SNK Neo-Geo Pocket Color (oct.1, 1999) "Pac-Man [Model NEOP0055]" 
[EU] Nintendo Game Boy Advance (dec.7, 2001) "Pac-Man Collection [Model AGB-APCP]" 
[JP] Nintendo Game Boy Advance (jan.11, 2002) "Pac-Man Collection [Model AGB-APCJ-JPN]" 
[JP] Sony PSP (feb.24, 2005) "Namco Museum [Model ULJS-00012]" 
[KO] Sony PSP (may.2, 2005) "Namco Museum [Model ULJS-45005]" 
[EU] Sony PSP (dec.9, 2005) "Namco Museum Battle Collection [Model UCES-00116]" 
[EU] Nintendo Game Boy Advance (mar.31, 2006) "Namco Museum - 50th Anniversary [Model AGB-B5NP-EUR]" 
[JP] Nintendo DS (oct.11, 2007) "Namco Museum DS [Model NTR-YNMJ-JPN]" 
[EU] Nintendo DS (feb.29, 2008) "Namco Museum DS [Model NTR-YNMP-EUR]" 
[JP] Nintendo 3DS (june.23, 2011) "Pac-Man & Galaga Dimensions [Model CTR-APGJ-JPN]" 
[AU] Nintendo 3DS (aug.25, 2011) "Pac-Man & Galaga Dimensions [Model CTR-APGP-AUS]" 
[EU] Nintendo 3DS (aug.26, 2011) "Pac-Man & Galaga Dimensions [Model CTR-APGP-EUR]" 

* COMPUTERS: 
Exidy Sorcerer (1981) "Chomp" 
[EU] BBC B (1982) by Acornsoft : Renamed "Snapper" after Acornsoft was sued. 
[EU] Commodore C64 (1983) 
[JP] Sharp X-1 (1983) 
[EU] Sharp MZ-80K Pacman
[JP] Fujitsu FM-7 (1984)
[EU] Acorn Electron (1984) "Snapper" 
[JP] MSX (1984) 
[EU] MSX (1984)
[EU] Amstrad CPC (1985) 
[EU] Thomson TO8 (1986) "Compilation Contacthoms" 
Atari ST (1986) "Spook - Mighty Munchers" 
[EU] Sinclair ZX Spectrum 
[JP] Sharp X68000 (1988) 
[JP] PC9801 (nov.13, 1992) by Wiz 
[JP] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (june.9, 1998) "Namco History Vol.3" 
[AU] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (mar.27, 2006) "Namco Museum - 50th Anniversary" 
[EU] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (may.19, 2006) "Namco Museum - 50th Anniversary" 
[AU] PC [Online] (feb.25, 2014) "Pac-Man Museum" 
[EU] Steam (feb.25, 2014) "Pac-Man Museum" 
[JP] PC [Online] (apr.20, 2016) "Arcade Game Series - Pac-Man" 

* Arcade : 
[JP] (1996) "Namco Classics Collection Vol.2"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=pulirula,pulirulaj,pulirulaa
Arcade Video game published 32 years ago:

PuLiRuLa (c) 1991 Taito Corporation.

PuLiRuLa is a six-level, sideways scrolling beat-em-up for 1 or 2 players that defies any logic in either its theme or its graphical approach; that places the players in a dream-like world populated by armies of strange and bizarre creatures. 

PuLiRuLa's plot centres around the world of 'Radishland'. Each of Radishland's six towns is kept running smoothly with the aid of a giant key, which is necessary to keep the world's 'time-flow' moving. The key is stolen by a mysterious enemy and the timeflow is disrupted. Players must fight their way through waves of increasingly abstract enemies in their quest to recover the key and restore time to Radishland. 

To aid players in their quest, they are each armed with a magical stick, with which they can hit and defeat the game's abstract enemies. Players are also armed with a limited number of smart bombs, capable of killing multiple enemies. The smart bombs are as visually unique as the rest of the game; taking the form of such things as a herd of running animals, a purple dancing blob-like man or a man in a giant microwave oven who captures and cooks any on-screen enemies. When killed, the enemies disappear and an animal or townsperson is released from inside the creature.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "Taito F2 System" hardware. It used a graphics extension on the board, the so called Taito F2 Expanded System (also known as the Taito F1 System).

Prom Stickers: C98

Screen Orientation: Horizontal

Players: 2
Control: 8-Way Joystick
Buttons: 2
=> Magic, Jump

- TRIVIA -

PuLiRuLa was released in November 1991. 

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (PuLiRuLa - PCCB-00091) on July 17, 1992.

- STAFF -

Producer: Hidehiro Fujiwara
Character: Kat, Zawakichi, Carry An Hirrcky
Sound (Team Zuntata): Kazuko Umino (Karu.), Yasuhisa Watanabe (Yack)
Software: Iromust TMR, Exit Kardy, Magician Kaz
Hardware: Yasuhiro Shibuya
Designers: Mt. Mihara B. E. Umakboh
Character Designers: Zak Munn, Masami Kikuchi, Mutter Tomy, E. Bang De Boo. M
Model: E. Saton Go 2

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES: 
FM Towns Marty [JP] (1994) 
Sega Saturn (aug.28, 1997) "PuLiRuLa [Arcade Gears Vol. 1] [Model T-26106G]" 
[JP] Sony PlayStation (aug.28, 1997) "PuLiRuLa Arcade Gears [Model SLPS-00928]" 
[JP] Sony PS2 (jul.28, 2005) "Taito Memories Joukan [Model SLPM-66057]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=pulstar

Pulstar (c) 1995 Aicom.

Pulstar is a sideways scrolling shoot-em-up set in the year 2248, in which the first recorded sign of alien life is discovered on Mars. A signal emanates from the red planet and from it an object is observed travelling at light-speed out of the Solar System. Earth scientists are wary of what this could mean and warn the world's defenses to prepare for a possible attack.

Eight years later, an alien fleet follows the signal and begins attacking the human space craft awaiting them in Neptune's orbit. The battle spreads throughout the Solar System and within two years Neptune is destroyed, Jupiter is turned into a star and more than half of Earth's continents disappear from rising ocean levels and the planet's changing axis as a result. Kaoru Yamazaki, lone fighter pilot of the Dino246, is one of the few survivors of the Pulstar attack force, founded to save the Solar System from the alien invaders.

Pulstar borrows many of its visual and gameplay elements from all three games in Irem's legendary "R-Type" series, including the Beam weapon and R-type's infamous pod attachment. Unlike "R-Type", however, Pulstar's pod cannot be detached from the front of the ship and merely acts as a shield to protect the player's ship.

The game includes a weapon power bar which consists of two halves. The right-hand side of the bar turns blue when the fire button is held down and when released, it delivers a devastating beam of energy. The left-hand side turns red when the fire button is pressed repeatedly in quick succession, shooting out a barrage of smaller, rapid blasts.

Pulstar consists of eight challenging levels, with the player able to start the game on any one of the first four.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID : 0089

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2
=> [A] Attack/Charge attack, [B] Restart the move

- TRIVIA -

Released in August 1995.

Pulstar was one of the first games on the NEO-GEO to use state-of-the-art SGI rendered graphics like those found in Nintendo Super Famicom's "Donkey Kong Country".

The pre-production name of this game was 'Reaction'.

Tracy Miller holds the official record for this game with 68,350 points.

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Pulstar - PCCB-00192) on 21/10/1995.

- STAFF -

Staff : Nenko, M. Yoshida, T. Nagakubo, Naomi, Daikiti, K. Katoku, K. Urahama, K. Okabe, Toshio. I, Yamadasan, Shion, F. Ryuze
Music composed by : Harumi Fujita, Yasuaki Fujita

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
SNK Neo-Geo CD (1995)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=pzloop2
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 22 years ago:

Puzz Loop 2 (c) 2001 Mitchell Corp.

European release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese release entry; "Puzz Loop 2 [Green Board]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Blue Board [Europe]

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=69663&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=pzloop2j,pzloop2jr1,pzloop2jd
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 22 years ago:

Puzz Loop 2 (c) 2001 Capcom Co.

Gameplay is exactly the same as its predecessor, with the player needing to deplete all the colored balls before they hit the center of the screen.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Board: Green (Japan)

Players: Up to 2.
Control: Spinner per player.
Buttons: 4 per player.

- TRIVIA -

Developed by Mitchell Corp., Puzz Loop 2 was released in February 2001 in the Japanese arcades. It was known as the 36th video game released for the CPS2 hardware.

The most popular new feature of Puzz Loop 2 was the two-player versus mode.

The game forbids the initials 'SEX' on the high score table. If you try, it gets changed to 'MIT'.

- UPDATES -

Green Board revisions : 

REVISION 1:
* Build date: 010205

REVISION 2:
* Build date: 010226

- SERIES -

1. Puzz Loop (1998)
2. Puzz Loop 2 [CP-S II No. 36] (2001)

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=2078&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=pbobble
Arcade Video game published 29 years ago:

Puzzle Bobble (c) 1994 Taito Corp.

Puzzle Bobble is an arcade puzzle game offering either one or two-player competitive play, in which the aim is to clear each play area of the coloured bubbles clustered in the upper half of the screen. 

This is achieved by firing bubbles up the screen - with the angle of trajectory dictated by the player - at the clusters of bubbles. The aim is to forms chains of like-coloured bubbles, making them disappear. At regular intervals the 'ceiling' of the play area - together with any bubbles stuck to it - will drop one row down the screen, decreasing the size of the play area making life more difficult for players. The game is over when the bubbles reach the very bottom of the play area.

In the single-player game there are thirty-two rounds to complete. In the two-player 'versus' mode, the winner is the player who clears their arena first. Both players have an identical arrangement of coloured bubbles in each arena and when a player removes a large group of bubbles (four or more), some of them are transferred to the opponent's arena.

Bubbles will fire automatically if the player remains idle. After clearing the arena, the next round begins with a new pattern of bubbles to clear.

- TECHNICAL -

Taito B System hardware

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 12 Mhz), Zilog Z80 (@ 4 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Yamaha YM2610B (@ 8 Mhz)

Players : 4
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 3

- TRIVIA -

Puzzle Bobble was released in June 1994. it was the first in the hugely successful puzzle series from Taito.

The game was originally called Bubble Buster. The Bubble Buster title screen is buried in the game itself.

This game is known in US as "Bust-A-Move".

This game was re-released 6 months later (December 1994) on the SNK Neo-Geo MVS hardware as "Puzzle Bobble [MVS]".

As well as typically cute Japanese animation (Bub and Bob from "Bubble Bobble" operate the cannon) and music, the game's mechanics and level design were beautifully balanced, and the game was terrifically successful at the arcades, spawning several sequels (see Series section for more information). It is unusual in being popular with women and girls.

If you look closely at the bubbles, you'll notice that the enemies from Bubble Bobble are trapped inside; a different enemy for each different colored bubble. The following chart shows which enemies are trapped in which color bubble :
Legend : Color of Bubble => Bubble Bobble Enemy Inside
Blue => Zen-Chan
Yellow => Pulpul
Red => Invader
Green => Drunk
Purple => Monsta
Orange => Banebou
Black => Hidegonsu
White => Mighta

The game forbids the initials 'SEX' on the high score table. If you try, it gets changed to 'AAA'.

During the credits you can see one of the constellations form the image of a fish, that fish is a boss from the "Darius" series; also made by Taito.

According to Twin Galaxies, the official electronic scoreboard, Kim Korpilahti holds the official records for this game with 16013660 points (difficulty 6) on November 6, 2004.

Zuntata Records released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Puzzle Bobble Variety - ZTTL-0009) on July 6, 2008.

- SCORING -

Pop bubbles of the same color : each bubble is worth 10 points.
Drop bubbles : the first bubble is 20, and each additional bubble scores double.
Thus : bubbles dropped score
1 20
2 40
3 80
4 160
5 320
6 640
7 1280
8 2560
9 5120
10 10240
11 20480
12 40960
13 81920
14 163840
15 327680
16 655360
17 or more 1310720

Bonus points : are awarded based on how fast you completed the stage.

Time you completed points awarded
0-5 sec. 50,000
6 sec. 49,160
7 sec. 48,320
8 sec. 47,480
9 sec. 46,640
10 sec. 45,800
.
.
64 sec. 440
65+ seconds or greater NO BONUS

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

There is a special bonus of a million points on rounds 9 and 13. This is achieved by linking up a number of ORANGE bubbles on round 9 and BLUE bubbles on round 13.

- SERIES -

1. Puzzle Bobble (1994)
1. Puzzle Bobble [MVS] (1994)
2. Puzzle Bobble 2 (1995)
2. Puzzle Bobble 2 [MVS] (1999)
3. Puzzle Bobble 2X (1995)
4. Puzzle Bobble 3 (1996)
5. Puzzle Bobble 4 (1997)
6. Super Puzzle Bobble (1999)
7. Azumanga Daioh Puzzle Bobble (2002)
8. Super Puzzle Bobble 2 (2002, Sony PlayStation 2)
9. Super Puzzle Bobble All-Stars (2003, Nintendo GameCube)
10. Puzzle Bobble Vs. (2003, Nokia N-Gage)
11. Ultra Bust-a-Move (2004, Microsoft XBOX)
12. Puzzle Bobble Pocket (2005, Sony PSP)
13. Puzzle Bobble DS (2005, Nintendo DS)
14. Space Puzzle Bobble (2008, Nintendo DS)
15. Puzzle Bobble Wii (2009, WiiWare - Nintendo Wii)

- STAFF -

Game designer : Seiichi Nakakuki
Programmer & Game designer : Tkhc.02
Programmer & System designer : Tmr
Programmer & Play designer : Nob
Character & Game designer : Kazuhiro Kinoshita
Character designers : Komai Ryota, Miwa Kamiya
Music composed by : Kazuko Umino, Yasuko Yamada
Sound effects : Hideki Takahagi
Sound soft : Naoto Yagishita
Sound producer : Hiroshige Tonomura
Designers : Hiroyasu Nagai (Super Star Nagai), Takao Yoshiba (T. Yoshiba), Makoto Osaka (M. Osaka), Nobuaki Kuroki, Yuichi Onogi (Y. Onogi)
Supervisers : Masaki Yagi, Takuro Saito (T. Saito), G Rox, H. Kato, K. Tajima

Special Thanks: Hisao Shimizu (H. Shimizu), Hidehiro Fujiwara (H. Fujiwara), M. Hashimoto (M. Hashimoto), Youichirou Kugimiya (Y. Kugimiya), Koji Terada (K. Terada), Takahiro Fujito (T. Fujito), Ryuichi Matsuse (R. Matsuse), Masami Kikuchi (M. Kikuchi), Chiho Maeda (C. Maeda), Masatoshi Tsuneoka (M. Tsuneoka), Yutaka Nagayama (Y. Nagayama), E. Matsunaga (E. Matsunaga), Yoshihiro Mori (Y. Mori), Takumi Toyoda (T. Toyoda), Takahiko Koike (T. Koike), VG Tokyo Staff, & Ebina Factory Staff, Ichiro Fujisue

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] Nintendo Super Famicom (jan.13, 1995) "Puzzle Bobble [Model SHVC-AYKJ]" : Re-released as Nintendo Power edition (dec.1, 1997) 
Nintendo Super Famicom [US] (mar.1995) "Bust-A-Move [Model SNS-AYKE]" 
Nintendo Super Famicom [EU] (june.29, 1995) "Puzzle Bobble: Bust-A-Move [Model SNSP-AYKP]" 
[US] SNK Neo-Geo CD (1995) "Bust-A-Move [Model NGCD-083E]" 
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo CD (apr.27, 1995) "Puzzle Bobble [Model NGCD-083]" 
Panasonic 3DO [US] (1995) "Bust-A-Move [Model FZ-SM0252]" 
Panasonic 3DO [JP] (nov.22, 1995) "Puzzle Bobble [Model FZ-SJ0252]" 
Sega Game Gear [US] (1995) "Bust-A-Move" 
[JP] Sega Game Gear (aug.2, 1996) "Puzzle Bobble [Model T-11047]" 
SNK Neo-Geo Pocket [EU] (1999) Puzzle Bobble Mini [Model NEOP0020]" 
SNK Neo-Geo Pocket [JP] (mar.26, 1999) "Puzzle Bobble Mini [Model NEOP00200]" 
SNK Neo-Geo Pocket [US] (apr.30, 1999) "Bust a Move Pocket [Model NEOP00201]" 
[JP] Bandai WonderSwan (jul.1, 1999) "Puzzle Bobble [Model SWJ-SUN003]" 
[JP] Sony PSP (dec.22, 2004) "Puzzle Bobble Pocket [Model ULJM-05011 (TCPS-10102)]" 
Sony PSP [KO] (may.2, 2005) "Puzzle Bobble Pocket [Model UCKS-45016]" 

* COMPUTERS:
PC [MS Windows 95, CD-ROM] [US] (1999)

* OTHERS: 
Mobile Phones [US] (aug.4, 2003) 
Apple iPhone/iPad [US] (sept.4, 2009)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=pbobble2,pbobble2j,pbobble2o
Taito F3 cart. published 28 years ago:

Puzzle Bobble 2 (c) 1995 Taito.

Puzzle Bobble 2 is an arcade puzzle game offering one or two-player competitive play and is the first sequel to the hugely successful original. 

As with the first game, the aim is to clear each play area of the coloured bubbles clustered in the upper half of the screen. This is achieved by firing bubbles up the screen - with the angle of trajectory dictated by the player - at the clusters of bubbles. The aim is to forms chains of three or more like-coloured bubbles, making them disappear. 

At regular intervals the 'ceiling' of the play area - together with any bubbles stuck to it - will drop one row down the screen, decreasing the size of the play area making life more difficult for players. The game is over when the bubbles reach the very bottom of the play area.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "Taito F3 System" Hardware.

Prom Stickers : E10

Players : 4
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 4

- TRIVIA -

Puzzle Bobble 2 was released in July 1995.

This game is known in United States, Canada, Mexico and Brazil as "Bust-A-Move Again".

This game runs on the Taito F3 System hardware but it was re-released (licensed to SNK) on the SNK Neo-geo MVS hardware in 1999 as "Puzzle Bobble 2 [MVS]".

If you look closely at the bubbles, you'll notice that the enemies from "Bubble Bobble" are trapped inside; a different enemy for each different colored bubble. The following chart shows which enemies are trapped in which color bubble :
Legend : Color of Bubble => "Bubble Bobble" Enemy Inside
Blue => Zen-Chan
Yellow => Pulpul
Red => Invader
Green => Drunk
Purple => Monsta
Orange => Banebou
Black => Hidegonsu
White => Mighta

On the last level, you will see characters from "Bubble Bobble" & "Rainbow Islands".

The game forbids the initials 'SEX' on the high score table. If you try, it gets changed to 'AAA'.

Stepehn Krogman holds the official records for this game with 75275450 points (factory setting).

Zuntata Records released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Puzzle Bobble Variety - ZTTL-0009) on March 28, 1997.

- SCORING -

Pop a bubble : 10 points.

Drop bubbles : the first bubble is 20, and each additional bubble scores double.
Thus : bubbles dropped score
1 20
2 40
3 80
4 160
5 320
6 640
7 1280
8 2560
9 5120
10 10240
11 20480
12 40960
13 81920
14 163840
15 327680
16 655360
17 or more 1310720

Unlike Puzzle Bobble, there is a way to get more than 1.31 million points. It's possible to get 2621440, 5242880, or even 10485760 points! To do this :
* You need 17 or more bubbles.
* One of these bubbles must touch exactly one bubble of a group of
similarly colored bubbles.
* The bubble that pops the similarly colored group of bubbles must
not touch the group of 17 or more bubbles.

Bonus points : are awarded based on how fast you completed the stage.

Time you completed points awarded
1-5 sec. 500,000
6 sec. 494,600
7 sec. 481,700
8 sec. 469,400
9 sec. 458,400
. .
. .
46 sec. 14,100
47 sec. as low as 300 or NO BONUS
48+ seconds or greater NO BONUS

- SERIES -

1. Puzzle Bobble (1994)
1. Puzzle Bobble [MVS] (1994)
2. Puzzle Bobble 2 (1995)
2. Puzzle Bobble 2 [MVS] (1999)
3. Puzzle Bobble 2X (1995)
4. Puzzle Bobble 3 (1996)
5. Puzzle Bobble 4 (1997)
6. Super Puzzle Bobble (1999)
7. Azumanga Daioh Puzzle Bobble (2002)
8. Super Puzzle Bobble 2 (2002, Sony PlayStation 2)
9. Super Puzzle Bobble All-Stars (2003, Nintendo GameCube)
10. Puzzle Bobble Vs. (2003, Nokia N-Gage)
11. Ultra Bust-a-Move (2004, Microsoft XBOX)
12. Puzzle Bobble Pocket (2005, Sony PSP)
13. Puzzle Bobble DS (2005, Nintendo DS)
14. Space Puzzle Bobble (2008, Nintendo DS)
15. Puzzle Bobble Wii (2009, WiiWare - Nintendo Wii)

- STAFF -

Game designer : Seiichi Nakakuki
Character designers : Kazuhiro Kinoshita, Baw Baw (Bawbaw), Ko-Ji Terada, Kat, T. Akitsu-Osaru-, Rie Amino, Uoosy Maler, Yuko Kajihara, Ryota Sasaki, Yasunobu Kousokabe, Miwa Kamiya, Rieko Kobayashi, Miyabi Tashiro, Masami Kikuchi, Anpanmanda, Saori Hiratsuka, Vap Corp.
Programmers : Hiroshi Maruyama, Junichiro Noguchi
Sound (Zuntata) : Nakayama Joutohei, Kazuko Umino, Yasuko Yamada, Syu
Designers : Kumi Mizobe, T. Yoshiba, M. Osaka, Y. Mori

- PORTS -

NOTE: These are only ports released outside North America. For North American ports, see "Bust-A-Move Again".

* CONSOLES:
[EU] Sony PlayStation (1996) "Bust-A-Move 2 Arcade Edition [Model SLES-00278]" 
[JP] Sony PlayStation (mar.29, 1996) "Puzzle Bobble 2 [Model SLPS-00284]" 
Nintendo 64 [EU] (1998) "Bust-A-Move 2 - Arcade Edition [Model NUS-NBUP-EUR]" 
[JP] Sony PS2 (aug.25, 2005) "Taito Memories Gekan [Model SLPM-66092]" 
[EU] Microsoft XBOX (oct.14, 2005) "Taito Legends" 
[EU] Sony PS2 (oct.14, 2005) "Taito Legends [Model SLES-53438]" 
[KO] Sony PS2 (jul.18, 2006) "Taito Legends [Model SLKA-15056]" 

* HANDHELDS: 
[EU] Nintendo Game Boy (1998) "Bust-A-Move 2 - Arcade Edition [Model DMG-ABUP-EUR]" 
[JP] Nintendo Game Boy (apr.10, 1998) "Puzzle Bobble GB [Model DMG-AGPJ-JPN]" 

* COMPUTERS:
PC [MS Windows 95/MS-DOS, CD-ROM] [EU] (1997) "Bust-A-Move 2 Arcade Edition" 
[EU] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (oct.14, 2005) "Taito Legends" 

* OTHERS: 
SNK Neo-Geo MVS [JP] (1999) "Puzzle Bobble 2 [Model NGM-0248]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=pbobbl2n

Puzzle Bobble 2 (c) 1999 SNK Corp.

MVS conversion port of the original Taito F3 game of the same name.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID : NGM-248

- TRIVIA -

This game is known in North America as "Bust-A-Move Again [Model NGM-248]".

Even though it is not shown on the title screen, the marquee and promotional fliers for the US version call the game "Bust-A-Move Again EX", which was probably used to differentiate from the original Taito F3 version released years earlier.

The original US release of "Bust-A-Move Again" for the Taito F3 board removed all Puzzle Bobble style levels, story, characters and replaced Bub and Bob with generic human hands. However, this MVS port retains the original Puzzle Bobble 2 assets for the US release.

This MVS version is a port from the 1995 version of "Puzzle Bobble 2" and is the first (and maybe the only at this time) port from 'coin-op to coin-op'!

- SERIES -

1. Puzzle Bobble (1994)
1. Puzzle Bobble [MVS] (1994)
2. Puzzle Bobble 2 (1995)
2. Puzzle Bobble 2 [MVS] (1999)
3. Puzzle Bobble 2X (1995)
4. Puzzle Bobble 3 (1996)
5. Puzzle Bobble 4 (1997)
6. Super Puzzle Bobble (1999)
7. Azumanga Daioh Puzzle Bobble (2002)
8. Super Puzzle Bobble 2 (2002, Sony PlayStation 2)
9. Super Puzzle Bobble All-Stars (2003, Nintendo GameCube)
10. Puzzle Bobble Vs. (2003, Nokia N-Gage)
11. Ultra Bust-a-Move (2004, Microsoft XBOX)
12. Puzzle Bobble Pocket (2005, Sony PSP)
13. Puzzle Bobble DS (2005, Nintendo DS)
14. Space Puzzle Bobble (2008, Nintendo DS)
15. Puzzle Bobble Wii (2009, WiiWare - Nintendo Wii)

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=21231&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=pbobble2x
Taito F3 cart. published 28 years ago:

Puzzle Bobble 2X (c) 1995 Taito.

Puzzle Bobble 2X is an expanded version of "Puzzle Bobble 2":
* Either or none of them can be chosen from the menu in the test section.
* It has a Christmas and a Happy New Year intro.
* It has the extra mode built-in.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "Taito F3 System" Hardware.

Prom Stickers : E10

Players : 4
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 4

- TRIVIA -

Puzzle Bobble 2X was released in November 1995.

- SERIES -

1. Puzzle Bobble (1994)
1. Puzzle Bobble [MVS] (1994)
2. Puzzle Bobble 2 (1995)
2. Puzzle Bobble 2 [MVS] (1999)
3. Puzzle Bobble 2X (1995)
4. Puzzle Bobble 3 (1996)
5. Puzzle Bobble 4 (1997)
6. Super Puzzle Bobble (1999)
7. Azumanga Daioh Puzzle Bobble (2002)
8. Super Puzzle Bobble 2 (2002, Sony PlayStation 2)
9. Super Puzzle Bobble All-Stars (2003, Nintendo GameCube)
10. Puzzle Bobble Vs. (2003, Nokia N-Gage)
11. Ultra Bust-a-Move (2004, Microsoft XBOX)
12. Puzzle Bobble Pocket (2005, Sony PSP)
13. Puzzle Bobble DS (2005, Nintendo DS)
14. Space Puzzle Bobble (2008, Nintendo DS)
15. Puzzle Bobble Wii (2009, WiiWare - Nintendo Wii)

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] Sega Saturn (jul.26, 1996) "Puzzle Bobble 2X [Model T-1106G]" 
[JP] Sega Saturn (apr.4, 1997) "Puzzle Bobble 2X + Space Invaders [Model T-1111G]" 

* COMPUTERS:
PC [Windows 95 Ver.1.0, CD-ROM] [US] (1998)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=pbobble3,pbobble3u,pbobble3j
Taito F3 cart. published 27 years ago:

Puzzle Bobble 3 (c) 1996 Taito.

Link 3 or more colored bubbles by shooting an identical colored bubble. When they are joined together, they pop.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "Taito F3 System" Hardware.

Prom Stickers : E29

Players : 4
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 4

- TRIVIA -

Puzzle Bobble 3 was released in November 1996.

One of the playable characters is an enemy character from "Real Puncher".

Another of the characters is a homage to Capcom's Ryu, complete with Shouryuken and Hadoken motions when he gets good combos. In his winning pose (where he turns his back to the player), he has the Taito logo on his back.

The game forbids the initials 'SEX' on the high score table. If you try, it gets changed to 'PB3'.

Soundtrack releases :
Puzzle Bobble Variety / Zuntata [Zuntata Records - ZTTL-0009 - Mar 28, 1997]

- UPDATES -

The US version has both a "Winners Don't Use Drugs" screen and a "Recycle It, Don't Trash It!" screen.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Alternative Game-play : press Shoot, Left, Right, Shoot on the title-screen before inserting coins. If done correctly, a small character will appear. On the next play, you will play on a different stage layout.

- SERIES -

1. Puzzle Bobble (1994)
1. Puzzle Bobble [MVS] (1994)
2. Puzzle Bobble 2 (1995)
2. Puzzle Bobble 2 [MVS] (1999)
3. Puzzle Bobble 2X (1995)
4. Puzzle Bobble 3 (1996)
5. Puzzle Bobble 4 (1997)
6. Super Puzzle Bobble (1999)
7. Azumanga Daioh Puzzle Bobble (2002)
8. Super Puzzle Bobble 2 (2002, Sony PlayStation 2)
9. Super Puzzle Bobble All-Stars (2003, Nintendo GameCube)
10. Puzzle Bobble Vs. (2003, Nokia N-Gage)
11. Ultra Bust-a-Move (2004, Microsoft XBOX)
12. Puzzle Bobble Pocket (2005, Sony PSP)
13. Puzzle Bobble DS (2005, Nintendo DS)
14. Space Puzzle Bobble (2008, Nintendo DS)
15. Puzzle Bobble Wii (2009, WiiWare - Nintendo Wii)

- STAFF -

Game designers : Seiichi Nakakuki, T. Saito
Programmers : Nak (Njk Techno), Maru (Njk Techno)
Character designers : Takao Yoshiba, Midori, Mari, Chino Maeda, M. Ishizuka
Music composer : Yukiharu Urita (Zuntata)
Designer : Kumi Mizobe
Round designers : Aya Yamamoto, Ayako Ishitsuka, Ayumi Kuroda, Chiaki Tanaka, Daiki Tanihiro, Etsuko Nakaya, Iesato Mikami, Ikue Sakuma, Junichi Sakurada, Junko Tanaka, Kaori Saito, Kazuaki Kimura, Kazuma Mori, Keiko Yano, Kiyotaka Yokota, Kuniaki Yamamoto, Mai Miyata, Masahiko Inoue, Masaki Iida, Miwa Akieda, Naoko Okada, Naoki Matsumoto, Naomi Abe, Ryo Sasaki, Souichiro Takakura, Sumiyo Kurosaki, Susumu Tsukamoto, Tsuyoshi Kanetani, Yasuki Fujino, Yoshimichi Omori
Voice performers : Adachi Tsubame Youchien, C. Tanaka, Y. Sekiguchi
Narration assists : Norihiro Furukawa (Zuntata), Richard H.B (Zuntata)

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[EU] Sega Saturn (1997) "Bust-A-Move 3 [Model T-8155H-50]" 
[JP] Sega Saturn (mar.28, 1997) "Puzzle Bobble 3 [Model T-1109G]" 
[JP] Sega Saturn (aug.8, 1997) "Puzzle Bobble 3 for SegaNet [Model GS-7113]" 
[US] Sega Saturn (dec.31, 1997) "Bust-A-Move 3 [Model T-31103H]" 
[JP] Sony PlayStation (nov.6, 1997) "Puzzle Bobble 3 DX [Model SLPS-01065]" 
[EU] Sony PlayStation (feb.27, 1998) "Bust-A-Move 3 DX [Model SLES-00991]" 
[US] Sony PlayStation (feb.28, 1999) "Bust-A-Move '99 [Model SLUS-00725]" 
Nintendo 64 [EU] (nov.1998) "Bust-A-Move 3 DX [Model NUS-NB3P]" 
Nintendo 64 [JP] (mar.5, 1999) "Puzzle Bobble 64 [Model NUS-NPBJ]" 
Nintendo 64 [US] (apr.30, 1999) "Bust-A-Move '99 [Model NUS-NB3E]" 
[EU] Nintendo Game Boy (1998) "Bust A Move 3 DX [Model DMG-A3VP]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=2082&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=pbobble4,pbobble4u,pbobble4j
Taito F3 cart. published 26 years ago:

Puzzle Bobble 4 (c) 1997 Taito.

Shoot colored bubbles towards clusters of other bubbles. When groups of similarly colored bubbles are formed, the bubbles burst.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "Taito F3 System" Hardware.

Prom Stickers : E49

Players : 4
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 4

- TRIVIA -

Puzzle Bobble 4 was released internationally on December 19, 1997.

The game forbids the initials 'SEX' on the high score table. If you try, it gets changed to 'AAA'.

- UPDATES -

The US version has a "Winners Don't Use Drugs" screen and a "Recycle It, Don't Trash It!" screen.

- SERIES -

1. Puzzle Bobble (1994)
1. Puzzle Bobble [MVS] (1994)
2. Puzzle Bobble 2 (1995)
2. Puzzle Bobble 2 [MVS] (1999)
3. Puzzle Bobble 2X (1995)
4. Puzzle Bobble 3 (1996)
5. Puzzle Bobble 4 (1997)
6. Super Puzzle Bobble (1999)
7. Azumanga Daioh Puzzle Bobble (2002)
8. Super Puzzle Bobble 2 (2002, Sony PlayStation 2)
9. Super Puzzle Bobble All-Stars (2003, Nintendo GameCube)
10. Puzzle Bobble Vs. (2003, Nokia N-Gage)
11. Ultra Bust-a-Move (2004, Microsoft XBOX)
12. Puzzle Bobble Pocket (2005, Sony PSP)
13. Puzzle Bobble DS (2005, Nintendo DS)
14. Space Puzzle Bobble (2008, Nintendo DS)
15. Puzzle Bobble Wii (2009, WiiWare - Nintendo Wii)

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] Sony PlayStation (aug.6, 1998)
[US] Sony PlayStation (oct.31, 1998) "Bust-A-Move 4 [Model SLUS-00754]" 
[EU] Sony PlayStation (apr.15, 1999) "Bust-A-Move 4 [Model SLES-01389]" : Also released as a Value Series edition in 2001 and as an 'Acclaimed Range' edition in 2002.
Nintendo Game Boy Color [US] (june.1999) "Bust-A-Move 4 [Model DMG-AA4E]" 
Sega Dreamcast [JP] (mar.16, 2000) "Puzzle Bobble 4 [Model T-42301M]" 
Nintendo Game Boy Color [JP] (apr.28, 2000) "Puzzle Bobble 4 [Model DMG-AA4J]" 
[US] Sega Dreamcast (may.31, 2000) "Bust-A-Move 4 [Model T-8117N]" 
Sega Dreamcast [EU] (june.9, 2000) "Bust-A-Move 4 [Model T-8109D-05]" 
NUON [Unreleased] (2001) "Bust-A-Move 4" 
[JP] Sony PlayStation (apr.25, 2002) "Simple 1500 Series Vol.93: The Puzzle Bobble 4 [Model SLPM-87057]" 

* COMPUTERS:
[US] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (jan.31, 2000)

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=2083&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=pbobblen,pbobblenb

Puzzle Bobble (c) 1994 Taito Corp.

MVS conversion port of the original Taito B System game of the same name.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID : NGM-083

- TRIVIA -

Puzzle Bobble for MVS was released in December 1994 (Taito's first game on this hardware).

This game was originally released six months earlier (June 1994) on the Taito B System as "Puzzle Bobble".

Perform well during the game and after the credits you will get a special contest image with a scrambled message.

Stepehn Krogman holds the official records for this game with 13,874,390 points (difficulty 6) on November 6, 2004.

Zuntata Records released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Puzzle Bobble Variety - ZTTL-0009) on March 28, 1997.

- UPDATES -

The US version has :
* 'Recycle It, Don't Trash It!' screen added.
* Additional 'Winners Don't Use Drugs' screen added.

- SERIES -

1. Puzzle Bobble (1994)
1. Puzzle Bobble [MVS] (1994)
2. Puzzle Bobble 2 (1995)
2. Puzzle Bobble 2 [MVS] (1999)
3. Puzzle Bobble 2X (1995)
4. Puzzle Bobble 3 (1996)
5. Puzzle Bobble 4 (1997)
6. Super Puzzle Bobble (1999)
7. Azumanga Daioh Puzzle Bobble (2002)
8. Super Puzzle Bobble 2 (2002, Sony PlayStation 2)
9. Super Puzzle Bobble All-Stars (2003, Nintendo GameCube)
10. Puzzle Bobble Vs. (2003, Nokia N-Gage)
11. Ultra Bust-a-Move (2004, Microsoft XBOX)
12. Puzzle Bobble Pocket (2005, Sony PSP)
13. Puzzle Bobble DS (2005, Nintendo DS)
14. Space Puzzle Bobble (2008, Nintendo DS)
15. Puzzle Bobble Wii (2009, WiiWare - Nintendo Wii)

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=2079&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=pzlbreak,pzlbreaka
Arcade Video game published 26 years ago:

Puzzle Break (c) 1997 SemiCom.

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=34416&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=puzzledp

Puzzle de Pon! (c) 1995 Taito.

Drop the target plate before time runs out to clear each stage. To finish game, clear 39 different stages...
Level 03 : GET Aries
Level 06 : GET Taurus
Level 09 : GET Gemini
Level 12 : GET Cancer
Level 15 : GET Leo
Level 18 : GET Virgo
Level 21 : GET Libra
Level 24 : GET Scorpio
Level 27 : GET Sagittarius
Level 30 : GET Capricorn
Level 33 : GET Aquarius
Level 36 : GET Pisces
Level 39 : Sun

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID : 0202

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 12 Mhz)
Sound CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 4 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Yamaha YM2610 (@ 8 Mhz)

Screen orientation : Horizontal
Video resolution : 320 x 224 pixels
Screen refresh : 59.19 Hz
Palette colors : 4096

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 1
=> [A] Ball firing

- TRIVIA -

Released in November 1995.

Licensed to Visco.

This game runs on the Neo-Geo MVS and was not released on the Neo-Geo AES home console.

Ron Corcoran holds the official records for this game with 2,960,001 points (factory setting) on 12/20/1998.

- SERIES -

1. Puzzle de Pon! (1995)
2. Puzzle de Pon! R! (1997)

- STAFF -

Producer : Tetsuo Akiyama
Direction : Don Gabacho (Don Gabagyo)
Assistance : Yaushisa Itoi
Programmers : Basser Teramachi, Gold Finger Iwasawa
Designers : Bear Kill The Kuro, E-Ayasu (Speed King), Micoto. A. Bryant, Stealth The. Tajiman, Tamu
Sound music : Light Link Music, Kenichi Kamio

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=2086&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=puzzldpr

Puzzle de Pon! R! (c) 1997 Taito.

Drop the target plate before time runs out to clear each stage. To finish game, clear 39 different stages...
Level 03 : GET Aries
Level 06 : GET Taurus
Level 09 : GET Gemini
Level 12 : GET Cancer
Level 15 : GET Leo
Level 18 : GET Virgo
Level 21 : GET Libra
Level 24 : GET Scorpio
Level 27 : GET Sagittarius
Level 30 : GET Capricorn
Level 33 : GET Aquarius
Level 36 : GET Pisces
Level 39 : Sun

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID : 0235

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 1 
= > [A] Ball firing

- TRIVIA -

Licensed to Visco.

This game runs on the Neo-Geo MVS and was not released on the Neo-Geo AES home console.

- SERIES -

1. Puzzle de Pon! (1995)
2. Puzzle de Pon! R! (1997)

- STAFF -

Producer : Tetsuo Akiyama
Direction : Don Gabacho (Don Gabagyo)
Assistance : Yaushisa Itoi
Programmers : Basser Teramachi, Gold Finger Iwasawa
Designers : Bear Kill The Kuro, E-Ayasu (Speed King), Micoto. A. Bryant, Stealth The. Tajiman, Tamu
Sound music : Light Link Music, Kenichi Kamio

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=2087&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=uopoko,uopokoj
Arcade Video game published 25 years ago:

Puzzle Uo Poko (c) 1998 Jaleco.

Uo Poko is a puzzle game for one or two players (co-operative). The aim is to clear the screen of coloured glass balls by dropping like-coloured balls down onto them. Connecting three or more like-coloured balls creates a chain reaction and causes them to disappear.

Balls are launched into the play area via a joystick controlled 'pinball-plunger' and as in Pinball, the further the plunger is pulled back, the further the coloured ball will travel. Mastering the strength and distance required is essential in order to drop each ball accurately onto its target. To allow players to learn how to use the plunger, the first two stages feature a guide line which shows exactly where a ball will drop. From the third stage onwards, players must use their judgement alone.

Bonus points are awarded if a stage is completed quickly enough. If too much time is taken, however, the bottom of the stage will start to rise, pushing the balls already in play towards the top of the screen. If the top of the screen is reached, the game is over.

Uo Poko features thirty stages of play.

- TECHNICAL -

Game ID : CV02

Cave 1st Generation Hardware

Main CPU : MC68000 (@ 16 Mhz)
Sound CPU : Zilog Z80 [Optional]
Sound Chips : Yamaha YMZ280B (@ 16.9344 Mhz) or OKIM6295 x (1 or 2) + YM2203 / YM2151 [Optional]
Other : 93C46 EEPROM

Screen orientation : Horizontal
Video resolution : 320 x 240 pixels
Screen refresh : 57.55 Hz
Palette colors : 32768

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick

- TRIVIA -

Released in February 1998 in Japan.

- UPDATES -

The Japanese version has an additional subtitle which can be translated as "Lots of Fish".

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

When the Submarine appears, launch a bubble above, if you succeed, a laser will start destroying the touched bubbles.

- SERIES -

1. Uo Poko - Lots of Fish (1998)
2. Himitsu no Hana Poko

- STAFF -

Developed by Cave.

Sound composer : Ryuichi Yabuki

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=3032&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=puzznic,puzznicj,puzznici,puzznicb,puzznicba,puzznicu
Arcade Video game published 34 years ago:

Puzznic (c) 1989 Taito Corp.

This is a puzzle game in which the aim is to move symbol-bearing blocks onto identically-symboled blocks in order to eliminate them. Blocks can only be moved left or right, or dropped downwards. 

The order in which the blocks are eliminated needs careful planning, as it's sometimes necessary to destroy three blocks at a time, or use blocks as bridges for other blocks. Some puzzle screens have moving background blocks that act as elevators, making careful timing essential. 

Should the player make a mistake and destroy or move the wrong blocks, each puzzle screen allows for a set number of 'retries' (depending on the dipswitch settings). A retry resets all tiles to their original positions. 

The game consists of eight levels, with each level consisting of four separate puzzle screens. Once a level has been completed, players can chose which level to tackle next. This translates into 36 separate puzzle screens to be completed in any one game, chosen from a total of 144 puzzle screens, giving the game much replay value.

- TECHNICAL -

Taito L System hardware
Prom Stickers : C20

Main CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 6 Mhz)
Sound Chips : YM2203 (@ 3 Mhz)

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2

- TRIVIA -

Puzznic was released in October 1989.

- UPDATES -

On the Japanese version, we can play for Eurasian naked pictures. This feature was removed for Export versions.

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
NEC PC-Engine (1990)
Nintendo Famicom (1990)
Nintendo Game Boy
Sony PlayStation (2001)

* COMPUTERS:
Sinclair ZX Spectrum (1990)
Commodore C64 (1990)
Amstrad CPC (1990)
Commodore Amiga (1990)
Atari ST (1990)
NEC PC-9801 (1990)
FM Towns PC (1990)
X68000 (1990, "Puzznick")

* OTHERS:
Nokia N-Gage ("Taito Memories") : unreleased

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=2091&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=qad
Arcade Video game published 31 years ago:

Quiz & Dragons - Capcom Quiz Game (c) 1992 Capcom USA, Incorporated.

USA Export release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the Japanese release entry; "Quiz & Dragons - Capcom Quiz Game [B-Board 91634B-2]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System" hardware.
B-Board #: 89625B-1

- TRIVIA -

Quiz & Dragons was released in July 1992 in the North American arcades.

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES: 
[US] Microsoft XBOX (nov.24, 2006) "Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 2" 
[US] Sony PS2 (nov.24, 2006) "Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 2 [Model SLUS-21473]" 
Sony PlayStation 2 [AU] (apr.11, 2007) "Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 2 [Model SLES-54561]" 
[EU] Sony PS2 (apr.13, 2007) "Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 2 [Model SLES-54561]" 

* HANDHELDS: 
[US] Sony PSP (mar.22, 2006) "Capcom Classics Collection Remixed [Model ULUS-10097]" 
[EU] Sony PSP (jul.21, 2006) "Capcom Classics Collection Remixed [Model ULES-00347]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=69770&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=qadjr
Arcade Video game published 29 years ago:

Quiz & Dragons - Capcom Quiz Game (c) 1994 Capcom Company, Limited.

Japanese re-release.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System" hardware.
B-Board #: 91634B-2

# of Players: Up to 2 simultaneous.
# of Buttons: 4 per player.

- TRIVIA -

The game was known as the 22th video game made for the CP System.

This Japanese re-release hosts some major changes and improvements:
* Now you can roll the dice by yourself - No automatic roll.
* Characters start with only 3 points of life.
* Characters gain experience points and level up, increasing their maximum life points and gaining items.
* A Name Entry screen before you begin.
* You can now choose to use or keep the items for later quiz battles.
* Graphics and design changed to have the more Capcom-fighter hand-drawn look.
* Different musics.
* Different Capcom logo screen.
* Story changes.
* Much more animation added.
* Monster placement on the playfields is different.
* The questions are more Anime, Manga and Game-oriented.

- STAFF -

Music Composer: Isao Abe (Oyaji)

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=2105&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=qzchikyu
Arcade Video game published 31 years ago:

クイズ地球防衛軍 (c) 1992 Taito.
(Quiz Chikyuu Bouei-gun)

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "Taito F2 System" hardware.

Prom Stickers : D19

Players : 2
Buttons : 5

- TRIVIA -

Released in February 1992 in Japan (even if the copyright year is 1991).

The title of this game translates from Japanese as 'Quiz Earth Defense Force'.

- STAFF -

Sound composer : Yoshiro Horie

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=2110&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=qcrayon
Arcade Video game published 30 years ago:

Quiz Crayon Shin-chan (c) 1993 Taito.

A Japanese quiz game from Taito.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "Taito F2 System" hardware.

Prom Stickers : D55

Players : 2
Buttons : 5

- TRIVIA -

Quiz Crayon Shin-chan was released in August 1993 in Japan.

Crayon Shin-Chan is a famous Anime/manga series created in 1992 by Urusui Yoshito.

Urusui Yoshito was a Japanese famous cartoonist, he worked in 'Crayon Shin-Chan' and many others mangas. He drawn Nohara Shinnosuke for character act like for many 5-year old children. This means it appears very naughty boy in his cartoon, and get quickly popular in the Japanese magazine called 'Manga Town'. Many Japanese people read it, and enjoyed Nohara Shin. That was very funy and makes great answer to Japanse Socality! So, Nohara Shin and Nohara family became heroes of Kazukabe City, Saitama. Also writer of Crayon Shin-chan, Urusui Yoshito died in 2009, Japanese people still enjoy it.

- SERIES -

1. Quiz Crayon Shin-chan (1993)
2. Crayon Shin-chan - Ora To Asobo (1993)

- STAFF -

Charater designer : Urusui Yoshito
Charater voice : Yajima Akiko
Sound composers : Shizuo Aizawa (Splatter A), Blastman.F, Yasuko Yamada (Zuntata)

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=2111&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=quizhq
Arcade Video game published 33 years ago:

Quiz H.Q. (c) 1990 Taito.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "Taito F2 System" hardware.

Prom Stickers : C53

Players : 2
Buttons : 5

- TRIVIA -

Quiz H.Q. was released in July 1990.

The game is loosely based on the Chase HQ series.

- STAFF -

Producers : Fumio Horiuchi, Kougi Ohmae
Programmers : Vanarna, Shirou Yoshidan, Shinichirou Endoh, Kentrou Ueno, Ayako Yoshida
Sound : Kazuko Umino, Kayo Kawamoto, Hiroshige Tonomura
Hard : Yasuhiro Shibuya
Designer : Kumi Mizobe

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=2120&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=qjinsei
Arcade Video game published 30 years ago:

クイズ人生劇場 (c) 1993 Taito.
(Quiz Jinsei Gekijoh)

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "Taito F2 System" hardware.

Game ID: D48

Players: 2
Buttons: 5

- TRIVIA -

Quiz Jinsei Gekijoh was released in March 1993 in Japan.

The title of this game translates from Japanese as 'Quiz Human Life Theatre'.

- STAFF -

Sound composer : Yasuko Yamada
Voices : Kazuko Umino (karu), Norihiro Furukawa (Nakayama-Joutouhei), Shuichiro Nakazawa (SHU), Naoto Yagishita (YAG), Shiina Funakura

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=qndream
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 27 years ago:

Quiz Nanairo Dreams - Nijiirochou no Kiseki (c) 1996 Capcom.

A quiz game where your goal is to befriend a number of female and obtain the crystals which are used to defeat the Devil King.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Board: Green (Japan)

Players: Up to 2.
Buttons: 4 per player.

- TRIVIA -

Quiz Nanairo Dreams was released in August 1996 in the Japanese arcades. It was known as the 19th video game released for the CPS2 hardware.

The title of this game translates from Japanese as 'Quiz Seven Color Dreams - Miracle of Rainbow Color Village'.

One of Quiz Nanairo Dreams' very pretty girls (Saki) appears as an assist character in "Marvel vs. Capcom - Clash of Super Heroes".

Victor Entertainment released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Quiz Nanairo Dreams Nijiirochou no Kiseki, Super Puzzle Fighter II X - VICL-40210) on 22/01/1997.

- STAFF -

Staff : Kadontz, Isao Abe, Setsuo Yamamoto, Masato Koda, Hiroaki Kondo (X68K), Moe-T, Saru, Hiro, Umazono

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES: 
[JP] Sony PlayStation (june.27, 1997) [Model SLPS-00875] 
[JP] Sega Saturn (june.27, 1997) [Model T-1220G]

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=2127&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=qzshowby
Arcade Video game published 29 years ago:

Quiz Sekai wa SHOW by Shobai (c) 1994 Taito.

- TECHNICAL -

Taito B System hardware
Prom Stickers : D72

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 16 Mhz), Zilog Z80 (@ 4 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Yamaha YM2610B (@ 8 Mhz)

Players : 4
Buttons : 4

- TRIVIA -

Released in May 1994 in Japan only.

The title of this game translates from Japanese as 'Quiz The World Show By Shobai'.

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=2132&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=qtono2j
Arcade Video game published 28 years ago:

Quiz Tonosama no Yabou 2 - Zenkoku-ban (c) 1995 Capcom.

A feudal Japanese quiz game from Capcom.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System" hardware.
[CP-S No. 30]

# of Players (per player): 2
#of Buttons (per player): 4

- TRIVIA -

Quiz Tonosama no Yabou 2 was released in January 1995 in the Japanese arcades. It was known there as the 30th video game made for this system.

The title of this game translates from Japanese as 'Quiz Ambition of Feudal Lord 2 - Nationwide Edition'.

- SERIES -

1. Quiz Tonosama no Yabou (1991)
2. Quiz Tonosama no Yabou 2 - Zenkoku-ban [B-Board 90629B-3] (1995)

- STAFF -

Staff : Tori, Motsu, Katsuo, Kaddon, You!, Yumkio.N, RK, Takayuki Iwai (Anarchy Takapon), Satomi, Syun Nishigaki (SYUN), Ryoji

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=2136&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=qtorimon
Arcade Video game published 33 years ago:

苦胃頭捕物帳 (c) 1990 Taito.
(Quiz Torimonochou)

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "Taito F2 System" hardware.

Game ID : F2-System No. 04
Prom Stickers : C41

Players : 2
Buttons : 4

- TRIVIA -

Quiz Torimonochou was released in February 1990 in Japan.

The title of this game translates from Japanese as 'Quiz Arrest Notebook'.

Note: The large kanji pronounced as 'quiz' actually means 'suffering stomach head'.

- STAFF -

Sound composer: Masahiko Takagi, Yasuhisa Watanabe

- PORTS -

* COMPUTERS:
Sharp X68000 (1992)

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=2137&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=rdaction
Arcade Video game published 36 years ago:

Rad Action (c) 1987 World Games.

North American release. Game developed in Japan. See the original for more information; "Ninja Kid-II".

- TECHNICAL -

Game ID : UPL-87003

- TRIVIA -

Rad Action was released in July 1987 by World Games in the USA. Licensed from UPL.

- SERIES -

1. Ninjakun Majou no Bouken (1984)
2. Vs. Ninja Jajamaru-kun (1985)
3. Rad Action (1987)

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES: 
[US] Sony PlayStation 4 [PSN] (oct.27, 2015) "Arcade Archives - Ninja-Kid II [Model CUSA-03374]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=2152&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=rotd

Rage of the Dragons (c) 2002 Playmore Corp.

Rage of the Dragons is an original fighting game with 14 selectable fighters plus Abubo (sub-boss, hidden character) and Johann (final boss).

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID: NGM-264

Players: 2
Control: 8-way Joystick
Buttons: 4
=> [A] Weak Punch, [B] Weak Kick, [C] Strong Punch, [D] Strong Kick

- TRIVIA -

Released in June 2002, Rage of the Dragons is the first fighting game developed by Evoga Entertainment. This game is a collaboration between Evoga (Mexico), Brezza Soft (Japan) and Noise Factory (Japan).

Evoga tried to make a new "Double Dragon" game and attempted to acquire the rights to "Double Dragon" from Technos Japan but they refused to sell. Without the proper rights to use the Double Dragon property, Evoga decided to do a game that pays homage to the Double Dragon series instead. For example, William 'Billy' Lewis, James 'Jimmy' Lewis and 'Abubo' are analogous to the characters Billy Lee, Jimmy Lee and Abobo from "Double Dragon". One funny thing about these Evoga characters is that they appear in Noise Factory's "Matrimeele", which is based on the Power Instinct series by Atlus.

Pupa Salgueiro & Cassandra Murata are the only characters in the game that have two super moves instead of just one. These being the Ultimate Quexada (for Pupa) and a ground version of the White Wave (for Cassandra).

Linda, the famous lady with the whip in the Double Dragon games makes an appearance as one of Abubo's girlfriends in his intro pose as well as in the second Abubo cutscene.

Alice Carroll's name seems curiously inspired in the famous children's book "Alice in Wonderland" and by the name of its author Lewis Carroll. Odd...

Jones features many funny references to Bruce Lee such as his outfit (Bruce Lee's famous outfit in the 'Game of Death' movie), a few of his moves & poses, and a suspicious quote in his ending! :)

The stage of Radel and Annie is a night club called 'Noise Factory' just as one of the 3 companies which worked on the game.

On the parking lot stage, there is a TV screen displaying credits for a movie. It contains Engrish text 'Special Sanks' instead of 'Special Thanks'.

Noise Factory released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Rage of the Dragons Original Arrange Album) on 13/09/2002.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Play as Abubo : at the character select screen, press quickly Up(x4), Down(x3), Left(x2), Right. A little melody indicates that the cheat worked and Abubo should appear on center.

* The game encourages the use of team up attacks. In fact, by finishing each opponent with a team up attack will get you some nice grades & a respectable score! (perfect lifebars with this tip will get you a handsome SSS grade every time!!!) :)

* Jones' air version of his First Impact combo is broken against Alice since the last hit will always miss! Beware! :/

* Johann, the last boss in the game cannot be dizzied since he lacks a dizzy animation, this can be seen by performing a team up attack on him. This makes this already cheap boss even harder to defeat! :/

* After each battle, a rank is determined based on your fighting level. Here are the different levels and the bonus points awarded to the player if he reaches them :
SSS : 100,000 points
SS : 75,000 points
S : 50,000 points
A : 25,000 points
B : 10,000 points
C : 7,500 points
D : 5,000 points
E : 0 point

- STAFF -

Producer : Boss
Directors : Angel Sword, Mamaro, Hidenari Mamoto
Sub. Directors : Mr. Vo, Tetsu
Planners : Mr. Vo, EDU
Main Programmer : Hidenari Mamoto
Sub. Programmers : Kazuaki Ezato, Hirosi Hisikawa
Character Designers : Super Dotter K', Mr. Vo, Mamero, Dessy, Nankin, Bel Mont, Hikaru Suf, Shio Shio Shio, Rinkenedu, Edu, Shuhey Kawasaki, Jaga Danshaku
Background Designers : Miyukichi, Kuramoyan, Reiko Nagasima (Reiko N), Fukkie, MR.Vo, Darb, Shin Ryu
Illustration : Ooma Bunshichiro
Sound Producer : Studio Aqua
Testers : Bel Mont, Orochi, Shin Ryu, G. Miyazaki, Y. Takahasi, S. Adati, Y. Karu, Y. Sinihara
Special Thanks : Y. Jinno, Keiko Ijuu, Muking, Tozani, Vic Dom Cas, Eri San, Moon Dragon, Zhila, Ryuushika, Rau, O-841, Kaiware

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo AES (Sep. 20, 2002) "Rage of the Dragons [Model NGH-264]"
[US] SNK Neo-Geo AES (Sep. 20, 2002) "Rage of the Dragons [Model NGH-264]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=bjourney

Raguy (c) 1991 Alpha Denshi Company, Limited.

Raguy is an environmentally-themed scrolling platform game for one or two players in which the peaceful home planet of Raguy has been invaded by the evil Daruma tribe. The Daruma are polluting the planet as they consume its dwindling resources and time is running out. 

Taking on the role of a heroic young man called 'Blue' (with the second player playing 'Princess Fa' in the two-player game), players must fight through fourteen stages, split over four different worlds, to defeat the Daruma and save the planet's eco system. 

Both Blue and Princess Fa have the ability to stun enemies by hitting them with a large leaf that serves as their default weapon. Once stunned, enemies can be picked up and thrown as projectiles at other enemies. Blue and Princess Fa can also shrink in size in order to access hidden areas, but they are not able to stun enemies while in shrunken form. If only one player is shrunk, they can be picked up by the other player and thrown as a projectile at enemies. Blue and the Princess can also jump on enemies' heads and propel them at other enemies, but if the enemy ricochets and hits the player, the player takes damage.

As well as the default leaf weapon, other weapons in the form of either boomerangs or bombs can be picked up and all weapons can be powered-up three times. Other items that can aid the players' quest include a plant stem that increases player Speed and additional hearts that increase player health.

Flowers are scattered throughout the stages and these are the game's currency to be used in the shops that occasionally appear. There are two different types of shop, offering either tips and advice for overcoming certain obstacles, or health, attribute and weapon power-ups.

At the end of each world players must battle a large boss character. Once the boss has been defeated, the game offers a branching path with players able to choose their next route.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID: NGM-022

Players: 2
Control: 8-Way Joystick
Buttons: 3
=> [A] Throw Enemy, [B] Jump, [C] Change Size

- TRIVIA -

Raguy was released in March 1991 in Japan.

This game is known outside Japan as Blue's Journey.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

There are multiple endings to the game :
- Get a high score to live happily ever after.
- Get a very low score to get the cold shoulder from the princess.
- Beat the game while being cursed.
- If you challenged your rival early in the game he will challenge you again. Beat him to get the princess. Lose to lose the princess. A tie and the princess can't decide.

- STAFF -

Author / Planner : Takashi Hatono
Chief designer : Yohko Igarashi
Scroll designers : Kenichi Sakanishi, Takashi Egashira, Tomoharu Takahashi
Sprite designers : Kazushige Hakamata, Hideyuki Yamada
Programmers : Osamu Iijima, Yuji Noguchi
Music composer : Yuka Watanabe
Sound effect : Hideki Yamamoto
Hard Wearer : Eiji Fukatsu
Sound programmer : Makio Chiba
Character voices : Hideyuki Yamada, Yuka Kurosawa, Yohko Igarashi, Takashi Hatono

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo AES (jul.01, 1991) "Raguy [Model NGH-022]"
[US] SNK Neo-Geo AES [EU] (jul.01, 1991) "Blue's Journey [Model NGH-022]"
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo CD (oct.31, 1994) "Raguy [Model ADCD-001]"
Nintendo Wii [Virtual Console] [JP] (oct.23, 2007) [Model EAFJ]
Nintendo Wii [Virtual Console] [US] (nov.09, 2007) [Model EAFE]
Nintendo Wii [Virtual Console] [EU] (nov.12, 2007)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=raimais,raimaisj,raimaisjo
Arcade Video game published 35 years ago:

Raimais (c) 1988 Taito.

A great maze chase game.

The players take the lead of beautiful Rika Midorikawa, a heroine of bikers, in order to rescue her kidnapped brother, she must ride her 3 wheeled jet vehicle to challenge and explores the labyrinths while collect all the dots and pick the power-ups to defeat or avoid all the enemies in each stage, to open the exits and destroy the big bosses and win to rescue his captive brother.

- TECHNICAL -

Taito L System hardware
Prom Sticker : B36

Main CPU : (2x) Zilog Z80 (@ 6 Mhz)
Sound CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 4 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Yamaha YM2610 (@ 8 Mhz)

Players : 2
Control : 4-way joystick
Buttons : 2

- TRIVIA -

Raimais was released in April 1988 in Japan.

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Taito DJ Station : G.S.M. Taito 5 - PCCB-00037) on August 21, 1990.

- UPDATES -

The original Japanese version has a storyline and voices. They was removed on the Export versions (see Tips and Tricks section for more information).

- SCORING -

Energy Plates come in 8 colors:
White: 50 points
Orange: 60 points
Light blue: 70 points
Green: 80 points
Red: 90 points
Blue: 100 points
Purple: 110 points
Yellow: 120 points

Metal Plates are different. Multiple passes are required to collect these. Every 8 rounds the number of passes increases by 1.
Round 1 to Round 8: 2 times
Round 16 to Round 9: 3 times
Round 17 to Round 24: 4 times
Round 25 to Round 32: 5 times

The points awarded for Metal Plates are calculated by the round number x 50. So in the 10th round these will be 500 points.
Since Metal Plates have the highest points, to get a high score the player may choose mazes with plenty of this type of plate.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

In each level the player starts from the bottom row. If the player collects every "Energy Plate" (the dots) in a stage, all enemies and the items the player did not take disappear. 8 gates will be opened, two in each direction, to proceed to the next stage. The direction chosen determines which maze is next. Taking either door in the same direction has the same outcome. One of them probably is a backup, in case the maze design blocks one of the gates.

There are 4 different maze types associated with the 4 directions:
Up: Red Maze
Down: Blue Maze
Left: Gray Maze
Right: Green Maze

The direction taken does not affect the stage design. For example, if Down is chosen on round 22nd, the same 23rd round will be seen.

ITEMS LIST:
(S) Slow Down: Slows down enemies.
(L) Laser: Gives ability to fire a laser to destroy enemies. The laser can be fired with the item button. This item can be collected more than once to increase the fire rate (maximum 4). This ability is kept after losing a life, but not to the next maze. There is also automatic rapid-fire available by holding down the item button.
(A) Armour: Gives shield to protect player from dangers. Like the laser, the more items you take, the more hit points can be gained.
(P) Extend: Awards an extra life.
(B) Brake: Opens up 2 gates to advance to the next stage without requiring the current one be cleared.
(C) Crash: Clears dots on the screen. This works like passing over every dot on the screen once, so Metal Plates may still require more passes.
(O) Other Route: Opens an entrance to the reverse round where a giant boss may be hiding.
(R) Rainbow: Causes a random effect. Some possible effects are cleaning up all plates on the screen including Metal Plates, or giving a powerful shield.

The Japanese version of the game has a storyline and 4 endings. The game checks several variables to determine which ending you get, the most important being whether or not you have the Light Mirror. However, beyond obtaining the mirror, there are two other variables that determine whether or not you can access the endings:
- Whether or not you’ve lost any lives: you must do a no-miss clear.
- How many stages you’ve completed: it must be under 17.

So here are the different endings you can get:
1) Reach the last stage going through 17 stages or more and by having the Light Mirror.
2) Reach the last stage going through 17 stages or more and by not having the Light Mirror.
3) Reach the last stage going through 16 stages or less without losing a life, and by having the Light Mirror.
4) Reach the last stage going through 16 stages or less without losing a life, and not having the Light Mirror.

This mirror can be obtained at the Reverse Round entrance at 23rd Round (down).

- STAFF -

Staff : Akira Fujita, Shiro Yoshida, Yuji Sasaki, Shinichiro Kanari, Kei Kitsuno, Ichiro Fujisue, Hideki Hashimoto, Takashi Ishii, Akira Iwai, Yasuo Tsumori, Kenji Kaido, Takashi Ono, Hiroshi Ogawa, Hirotoshi Okura, Chitose Asakura, Naomi Ono, Hiromi Nishibori, Masahiro Murakami, Akira Inoue, Tetsuro Kitagawa, Yukio Ishikawa, Kazuya Mikata, Genya Kuriki, Taira Sanuki, Makoto Fujita, Yukie Kimura, Hitomi Kusano, Hideyuki Tomita, Tetsuya Mizutani, Teruyuki Ozeki, Masayuki Kikuchi, Naomasa Kitatani, Shiro Saito, Natsuki Hirosawa, Yoshinori Aiura, Masahiko Takaki, Kazuyuki Onui, Naoto Yagishita, Shizuo Aizawa, Hirokazu Matsubara, Yuta Saito, Taro Arakawa, Rika Fukami, Hiroyuki Noguchi, Minoru Yoshimura, Tsukasa Nakamura, Tomio Takeda, Junji Yarita, Hidehiro Fujiwara, Toshiyuki Nishimura, Hiroshi Tsujino, Taito Design Room, Taito Ebina, Koji Kenjo

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
Nintendo Famicom Disc System [JP] (oct.28, 1988) "Yuu Maze [Model TFD-UMZ]"
[JP] Sony PS2 (aug.25, 2005) "Taito Memories Gekan [Model SLPM-66092]" 
Sony PlayStation 2 [AU] (mar.30, 2006) "Taito Legends 2 [Model SLES-53852]" 
[EU] Microsoft XBOX (mar.31, 2006) "Taito Legends 2" 
[EU] Sony PS2 (mar.31, 2006) "Taito Legends 2 [Model SLES-53852]" 
[US] Sony PS2 (may.16, 2007) "Taito Legends 2 [Model SLUS-21349]" 

* HANDHELDS: 
Sony PSP [AS] (jan.3, 2006) "Taito Memories Pocket [Model UCAS-40040]" 
[JP] Sony PSP (jan.5, 2006) "Taito Memories Pocket [Model ULJM-05076]" 
Sony PSP [KO] (feb.10, 2006) "Taito Memories Pocket" 
[EU] Sony PSP (oct.6, 2006) "Taito Legends Power-Up [Model ULES-00473]" 
[AU] Sony PSP (nov.9, 2006) "Taito Legends Power-Up [Model ULES-00473]" 
[US] Sony PSP (may.17, 2007) "Taito Legends Power-Up [Model ULUS-10208]" 

* COMPUTERS: 
[EU] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (mar.31, 2006) "Taito Legends 2" 
[US] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (jul.10, 2007) "Taito Legends 2"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=rainbow
Computer published 40 years ago:

Rainbow 100-B (c) 1983 Digital Equipment Corp. [DEC]

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=rallybik
Arcade Video game published 35 years ago:

Rally Bike (c) 1988 Taito Corp.

Export release. Game developed in Japan. See the original for more information; "Dash Yarou".

- TECHNICAL -

Game ID : TP-012
Board Number : M6100335A
Prom Stickers : B45

- TRIVIA -

Released in May 1988.

- STAFF -

Music composed by : Ree Ohta

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
Nintendo Famicom (1990)

* COMPUTERS:
Sharp X68000 (1991)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=rambo3,rambo3p
Arcade Video game published 34 years ago:

Rambo III (c) 1989 Taito Corp.

Assume the role of Rambo and Colonel Sam Trautman as they fight the soviet army in Afghanistan.

- TECHNICAL -

Taito B System hardware
Board Number : K1100485A
Prom Stickers : B93

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 12 Mhz), Zilog Z80 (@ 4 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Yamaha YM2610 (@ 8 Mhz)

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2

- TRIVIA -

Released in May 1989 in Japan and in September 1989 in Europe.

Based on the movie of the same name. The movie 'Rambo III' is rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America. It is intended for mature audiences and parental guidance is advised. Children under 17 are not admitted unless they are accompanied by a parent or adult guardian.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Level select : boot machine with service switch pressed.
Message appears : SERVICE SWITCH ERROR, press 1p Start(x3), service switch, 1p Start.
Message appears : SELECT BY DOWN SW, select level with joy Down/Up and push Start button.

- STAFF -

Game programmers : T. Katoh, H. Yayama, Mom. Kobayashi, K. Kondoh, Takeshi Ishizashi
Character Designers : Takashi Yamada, Noritaka Kawamoto, Kenji Hazama, Seiji Kawagishi, Kazumasa Fuseya, A. Yamamoto, Kohzoh Igarashi, Tomita Takaaki, Y. Iwata
Game designer : Akira Saitoh
P.C.B. designer : Eikichi Takahashi
Designers : Kazuo Nakagawa, Hiroyasu Nagai
Sound designers (Team Zuntata) : Masahiko Takagi, Yasuko Yamada, Pinch Punch

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=rastan,rastana,rastanb
Arcade Video game published 36 years ago:

Rastan (c) 1987 Taito.

Export version. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese version entry; "Rastan Saga".

- TECHNICAL -

Prom Stickers : B04

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 8 Mhz), Zilog Z80 (@ 4 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Yamaha YM2151 (@ 4 Mhz), OKI MSM5205 (@ 384 Khz)

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2
=> Slash, Jump

- TRIVIA -

Rastan was released in March 1987. It was originally known in Japan as "Rastan Saga".

This export version has some differences from the original Japanese version:
- In the attract mode, a description of the objects appears instead of the original opening sequence.
- The game is hardest at some points. If you waste too many time without advancing in the stage, 8 bats will attack you (instead of 2 in the original version).
- Also in the original Japanese version, when the player complete a Round, the victory screen has text pertaining to the storyline. In the overseas versions, there is a generic victory screen with generic text (You are a brave warrior for having cleared such a stage).

- SERIES -

1. Rastan (1987)
2. Nastar (1989)
3. Warrior Blade - Rastan Saga Episode III (1992)

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES: 
[EU] Sega Master System (1988) "Rastan [Model 7022]" 
[EU] Microsoft XBOX (oct.14, 2005) "Taito Legends" 
[EU] Sony PS2 (oct.14, 2005) "Taito Legends [Model SLES-53438]" 
[KO] Sony PS2 (jul.18, 2006) "Taito Legends [Model SLKA-15056]" 

* HANDHELDS: 
Sony PSP [AS] (jan.3, 2006) "Taito Memories Pocket [Model UCAS-40040]" 
Sony PSP [KO] (feb.10, 2006) "Taito Memories Pocket" 
[EU] Sony PSP (oct.6, 2006) "Taito Legends Power-Up [Model ULES-00473]" 
[AU] Sony PSP (nov.9, 2006) "Taito Legends Power-Up [Model ULES-00473]" 

* COMPUTERS: 
[EU] Commodore C64 (1988)
[EU] Sinclair ZX Spectrum (1988)
[EU] Amstrad CPC (1988)
[EU] Amstrad CPC (1988) "Taito Coin-Op Hits" 
[EU] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (oct.14, 2005) "Taito Legends"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=rastanu,rastanua,rastanub
Arcade Video game published 36 years ago:

Rastan (c) 1987 Taito America Corp.

North American version. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese version entry; "Rastan Saga".

- TRIVIA -

Rastan was released in March 1987 in North America by Taito America Corp.

It was known in Japan as "Rastan Saga".

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES: 
Sega Master System [US] (1988) "Rastan [Model 7022]" 
[US] Microsoft XBOX (oct.25, 2005) "Taito Legends" 
[US] Sony PS2 (oct.25, 2005) "Taito Legends [Model SLUS-21122]" 

* HANDHELDS: 
[US] Sony PSP (may.17, 2007) "Taito Legends Power-Up [Model ULUS-10208]" 

* COMPUTERS: 
Tandy Color Computer [US] (1988) "Warrior King" 
[US] Commodore C64 (1988)
Apple IIGS (1990)
PC [MS-DOS, 5.25"] [US] (1990)
[US] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (nov.10, 2005) "Taito Legends"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=rastsaga,rastsagaa,rastsagab,rastsagaabl
Arcade Video game published 36 years ago:

Rastan Saga (c) 1987 Taito.

Rastan Saga is a platform hack 'n' slash game in which a single player guides a barbarian hero through six fantasy-themed levels, fighting through hordes of mythological fantasy creatures, including orcs, skeletal warriors and multi-headed hydra.

The hero is initially armed with only a standard sword but more powerful weapons can be picked up, as well as health potions and protective items that give increased protection against enemy attack, these can be either a shield, a mantle or a body armour.

New weapons are picked up by hitting them with the current weapon. Collected weapons and power-ups will only last for a limited time and once an equip-able item has been picked up, an icon will appear on the lower right corner of the screen, indicating the item's effect. Rastan can only wield one weapon at a time (which consists of a mace, an axe and a fireball-shooting sword in addition to the standard sword), as well as only one type of armour, but other items (such as the necklace and ring) can be worn at the same time. 

Defeated enemies sometimes leave behind jewels that earn bonus points. In addition to the health potions, the rare golden sheep's head will restore Rastan's health completely. Players should be wary that some collectable items are cursed and will have a detrimental effect on the hero's health and performance. 

A powerful boss character awaits Rastan at the end of each stage.

- TECHNICAL -

Prom Stickers: B04

Main CPU : Motorola 68000, Zilog Z80
Sound Chips : Yamaha YM2151, OKI MSM5205

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2
=> Slash, Jump

- TRIVIA -

Rastan Saga was released in March 1987 in Japan. It was known outside Japan as simply "Rastan".

Rastan was inspired by the 'Conan the Barbarian' saga novels, by Robert E Howard. In the background of the first stage, giant stone statues can be seen that bear more than a passing resemblance to the statues that featured in 'The Lord of the Rings - Fellowship of the Ring'. While the film appeared several years AFTER Rastan, the famous LotR concept artwork that featured in the deluxe addition of the book had been available for some time.

The main character, Rastan, appears as a selectable character, 'Miracle Rastan', in "Champion Wrestler".

The game contains several bonus items that are not normally dropped by enemies: A golden armature, a brown scroll and a yellow scroll. Graphics for these can be seen in the tile-sets and modifications to game's data tables can cause them to be dropped. The golden armature acts like the existing armature, the scrolls do nothing.

The game contains a built in test mode, activated by the value of two bytes towards the end of the code roms. Invincibility can be selected, causing 'NO-HIT' to be displayed at the bottom of the title screen. The starting level can also be modified.

The game forbids the initials 'SEX' on the high-score table. If you try, they get changed to 'AHA'.

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Kyukyoku Tiger : G.S.M. Taito 2 - D28B0008) on November 21, 1988.
Zuntata Records released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Zuntata History L'ab-normal 1st - ZTTL-0038) on April 1, 1999.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* If you die on the final stage, the game ends and you cannot continue; this means that the entire final level must be completed on a SINGLE credit. In order to make this even remotely possible you should deliberately die at the end of the fifth stage while fighting the boss (a multi-headed dragon). You should then use another credit to continue and defeat the dragon with your first man (with as little damage as possible). If you cannot defeat him with the first man and little damage, kill off the remaining men and start with a fresh credit. Always go after the special weapons where possible; if special weapons run out, jumping and striking doubles the damage done with the sword. Pushing up and the jump button will jump higher than pushing the jump button alone.

* The game attract sequence does not reveal the purpose of the rod. If you are carrying it, killing an enemy of any type causes all other on-screen enemies of the same type to die.

* If you are going for a high-score, always 'pick-up' the poisons. They are worth a lot of points.

* The ring can always be obtained in the first level castle. Proceed past the 3 ropes, down the next long chain and then up the next long chain. Slowly nudge this chain offscreen and two enemies appear on the left-hand side, one of which always carries the ring.

* Chains in castles can often be traversed upwards much quicker by repeatedly jumping against a nearby wall. Others needing to be traversed downwards can be missed by jumping off and falling. The level 4 boss is virtually impossible to defeat unless this tactic is used, in order to meet him carrying the hammer.

* Repeated high vertical jumps are a good method to use to 'stall', when on slopes approaching bouncing fireballs.

* Many players don't know that the 'mud' first encountered on level 2 does not actually kill you, it just causes you to sink down requiring many quick jumps to get out.

- SERIES -

1. Rastan Saga (1987)
2. Rastan Saga II (1989)
3. Warrior Blade - Rastan Saga Episode III (1992)

- STAFF -

Game designer : Nenko Nishimura
Game programmers : Yoshinori Kobayashi, Hideaki Tomioka, Touru Takahashi, Hideo Kazama
Character designer : Nenko Nishimura
Art designers : Nenko Nishimura, Taira Sanuki, Seiji Kawakami, Genya Kuriki
Hardware engineer : Noboru Takeshita
Hardware designer : Masahiro Yamaguchi
Music composers And Sound Effects : Naoto Yagishita, Masahiko Takaki
Art advisor : Junji Yarita

Special thanks to : K. Sanbe

- PORTS -

Japanese ports only.

* CONSOLES:
Sony PS2 (2005) "Taito Memories Joukan [Model SLPM-66057]" 

* HANDHELDS: 
Sega Game Gear (1991) "Rastan Saga [Model T-11037]"  
Sony PSP (2006) "Taito Memories Pocket [Model ULJM-05076]" 

* COMPUTERS:
MSX2 (1988) "Rastan Saga [Model TMS-05]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=rastsag2
Arcade Video game published 34 years ago:

Rastan Saga II (c) 1989 Taito.

The sequel to Rastan. Defeat the monsters with various attack methods and three different weapons!

In the land of Rastania stands a most sacred shrine called Sky Scraper. It is said that the man who rules Sky Scraper rules the Earth. An evil tribe is now trying to invade this holy place so that they might rule. To protect the shrine, a courageous young man has challenged the invaders...

- TECHNICAL -

Taito B System hardware
Prom Sticker : B81

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 12 Mhz), Zilog Z80 (@ 4 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Yamaha YM2610 (@ 8 Mhz)

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2

- TRIVIA -

Even if the title screen says 1988, Rastan Saga II was released in March 1989 in Japan.

Rastan Saga was a good game, but this sequel was not and got very bad reputation from Japanese gamers.

This game is known outside Japan as "Nastar" and in US as "Nastar Warrior".

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Taito DJ Station : G.S.M. Taito 5 - PCCB-00037) on August 21, 1990.
Zuntata Records released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Zuntata History L'ab-normal 1st - ZTTL-0038) on April 1, 1999.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* INSTRUCTIONS:
Press Up and Attack to perform an upwards attack. 
Press Down and Attack to perform a low attack. 
Hold down the Jump button for a higher Jump. 
If your life bar runs out, you will lose a life. 
Collect items and weapons to gain more power. 
You always start each stage equipped with a sword and shield. 

* WEAPONS LIST:
Sword & Shield: Normal Power/Normal Speed/Normal Range
Long Sword: High Power/Slow Speed/Long Range
Iron Claw: Low Power/Fast Speed/Short Range

* ITEMS LIST:
Crest of Flame: Shoot fireballs from your sword
Crest of Time: Increases time by 50 seconds
Crest of Thunder: Shoots thunderbolts from sword
Crest of Champions: Destroys all on-screen enemies
Hydra Fang: Gives you a skeleton shield
Wizard's Cape: You take half damage from enemies
Harpy Wing: Increases speed
Blue Power Star: Recover 1 physical strength
Yellow Power Star: Recover 3 physical strength
Red Power Star: Recover full physical strength
Green Jewel: Turns all enemies into Blue Power Stars
Wise Man's Stone: Upgrade your character's level by 1

* LEVEL SELECT:
Boot machine with service switch pressed.
Message appears: SERVICE SWITCH ERROR, press 1p Start(x3), service switch, 1p Start.
Message appears: SELECT BY DOWN SW, select level with joystick Down/Up and push Start button.

- SERIES -

1. Rastan Saga (1987)
2. Rastan Saga II (1989)
3. Warrior Blade - Rastan Saga Episode III (1992)

- STAFF -

Programmers : Hideaki Tomioka, Mari Iwano, Kazuhiko Sugiyama, Ted Aono, Manabu Doi
Hardware designer : Eikichi Takahashi
Music composed by : Hisayoshi Ogura
Sound editor : Yasuhisa Watanabe
Graphic designer : Hiroyasu Nagai
Game and art designer : Hisaya Yabusaki

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] NEC PC-Engine (jul.6, 1990) "Rastan Saga II [Model TP02012]" 
[JP] Sega Mega Drive (aug.10, 1990) "Rastan Saga II [Model T-11043]" 
[JP] Sony PS2 (aug.25, 2005) "Taito Memories Gekan [Model SLPM-66092]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=2180&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=rayforce,rayforcej
Taito F3 cart. published 29 years ago:

Rayforce (c) 1994 Taito Corp.

A great vertically scrolling shooter, featuring a lock-on secondary weapon.

The player is provided with a powerful ship called the RVA-818 X-LAY, which is outfitted with two weapons: a primary weapon that fires straight lasers and increases in power when the player accumulates power-ups, and a secondary lock-on missile launcher, which can also be increased in power, that can target up to eight enemies at once by moving the targeting reticle. This weapon is used to attack enemies that appear on a lower plane than that of your aircraft, which are inaccessible to the player's primary weapon. 

The plot centers in the distant future, human governments, across the planet Earth, construct a massive supercomputer, named "Con-Human". The purpose of this computer is to govern the planet's environmental systems, verifying proper nutrients and care is provided to ensure the culture of humans and animal alike.

However, disaster strikes when, after a cloned human's mind is linked with the system, Con-Human becomes sentient and insane. It begins to induce calamities across the planet, constructing corrupt clones of existing organisms, destroying its human masters and exterminating the nature it was intended to protect, apparently intending to replace everything with what Con-Human considers improved versions of themselves.

After prolonged war, Con-Human has succeeded in exterminating 99.8% of humankind, with the remnants fleeing to space colonies. Meanwhile, Con-Human remakes the very interior of Earth. As a result, Earth, as humanity knew it, has utterly ceased to exist, transformed into a planet-sized mobile fortress that is in fact Con-Human's body. Con-Human intends to use the transformed Earth to seek out and destroy the colonies, erasing all remaining traces of old life from the universe and leaving only the new life that it personally created. Now, taking the full-scale offensive, mankind develops powerful ships, one of them the RVA-818 X-LAY starfighter, to fight the oppressive machine by destroying the now-infected Earth entirely.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "Taito F3 System" Hardware.

Prom Stickers : D66

Players : 4
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 4

- TRIVIA -

Even if the title screen says 1993, Rayforce was released in January 1994 in Japan.

Rayforce had great BGM and graphics, so it was very popular in the Japanese gamer community in its time. But not for long... When Street Fighter 2 was released, many a shoot'em up fan turned into an SF2 fan.

The game producer, Yukio Abe, took inspiration for this game from its first work; "Master of Weapon". A lot of ideas were reused.

The game forbids the initials 'SEX' on the high score table. If you try, it gets changed to 'BOO'.

This game is known in European arcades as "Gunlock".

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Rayforce - PCCB-00153) on April 21, 1994.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* INSTRUCTIONS:
- Press the Fire button to fire your cannon. 
- Target enemies at low altitude or on the ground using the Fire button, then press the Laser button to fire your lock-On laser at them. Destroy multiple targeted enemies for extra points. 
- Pick up items for extra fire-power. 

* ITEMS LIST:
Green: Gives you an extra lock-on laser.
Yellow: Upgrades your cannon by one level.
Red: Collect three to upgrade your cannon by one level.

- SERIES -

1. Rayforce (1994)
2. Ray Storm (1996)
3. Ray Crisis (1998)

- STAFF -

Producer : Yukiwo Ishikawa (Yukio Abe)
Directors : Yukiwo Ishikawa (Yukio Abe), Tatsuo Nakamura
Game designers : Tatsuo Nakamura, Yukio Abe, Tomohisa Yamashita
Software : Tatsuo Nakamura, Shinji Soyano, Hikaru Taniguchi, Masao Kashino, Isao Ooyama
Character Graphics designers : Hideyuki Kato, Tomohisa Isobe, Shinjirou Sugitani, Hiroyo Kujirai, Yasuhiro Noguchi
Screen Graphics designers : Hideyuki Kato, V.A.P, Peacock
Music & Sound effects : Tamayo Kawamoto (Zuntata)
Sound effects : Munehiro Nakanishi (Zuntata)
Sound direction : Hiroshige Tonomura (TONO) (Zuntata)
Design works : Kyoko Umezu
Hardware : Katsumi Kaneoka

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES: 
[JP] Sega Saturn (sept.14, 1995) "Layer Section [Model T-1101G]" 
[JP] Sony PS2 (jan.25, 2007) "Taito Memories II Joukan [Model SLPM-66649]"

* COMPUTERS:
[EU] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (1998) "Layer Section"

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=2183&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=rbff2,rbff2k

Real Bout Garou Densetsu 2 - The Newcomers (c) 1998 SNK Corp.

23 of the finest South Town fighters in the 7th installment of this SNK game.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID : NGM-240

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 4
=> [A] Punch [B] Kick [C] Power Attack [D] Move Between Planes

- TRIVIA -

This game was shown at the 1998 AOU Amusement Expo show, in Japan. it was then released in March 1998.

The title of the game translates from Japanese as 'Real Bout Hungry Wolf Legend 2'.

This game is known outside Japan as 'Real Bout Fatal Fury 2 - The Newcomers'.

Things that changed in this particular game :
* The game now features 'single plane' stages (like the ones seen in "Fatal Fury - King of Fighters", "Fatal Fury 2" & "Fatal Fury Special") in which you can slam enemies against background objects!
* The breakable objects system seen in Real Bout Special is gone. Also the "evil character" versions of some characters are gone as well.
* Newcomers in this game are : Li Xiangfei, Rick Strowd & Alfred.

A serious bug : Using a USA bios ROM if you insert a coin on the 'winners don't use drugs' screen on a single slot the games will use the neogeo bios s1 tile-set rather than the game tiles, this causes most of the graphics to be hidden and the games to be unplayable, it will also end up using the main-board z80 bios so sound will be broken, the games should fix themselves if you let them run another attract loop after game-over, on a multi-slot the games will reset. This is one of the first 4 'gigapower' games, the bug was fixed after that.

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Real Bout Garou Densetsu 2 The Newcomers / PCCB-00310) on April 17, 1998.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Fight against Alfred : Begin game play in single player mode, finish off the first 10 fights with no losses, score over 750000 by the time the 10th fight is won, land 5 P.POWER moves or 7 S.POWER moves. You will fight Alfred in a desert type stage.

* You may scope out each character's best records by tapping A button to move forward or B button to move back at the score ranking screen :).

- SERIES -

1. Garou Densetsu - Shukumei no Tatakai [Model NGM-033] (1991, MVS)
2. Garou Densetsu 2 - Arata-Naru Tatakai [Model NGM-047] (1992, MVS)
3. Garou Densetsu Special [Model NGM-058] (1993, MVS)
4. Garou Densetsu 3 - Harukanaru Tatakai [Model NGM-069] (1995, MVS)
5. Real Bout Garou Densetsu [Model NGM-095] (1995, MVS)
6. Real Bout Garou Densetsu Special [Model NGM-223] (1997, MVS)
7. Real Bout Garou Densetsu 2 - The Newcomers [Model NGM-240] (1998, MVS)
8. Fatal Fury - Wild Ambition (1999, ARC)
9. Garou - Mark of the Wolves [Model NGM-253] (1999, MVS)
10. Fatal Fury First Contact [Model NEOP00111] (1999, NGPC)

- STAFF -

Executive Producer : Takashi Nishiyama
Producer : Hiroshi Matsumoto
Co-Producer : S. Itoh
Planners : Tsukamichi (Tsuka Michi+2), Takahisa Yariyama, Maja OH! Mori, Oda-Q, Emi-Gon
Design Front : Soe Soe (Soe-Soe), Honekawa Now-45Kg, Nobuyuki Kuroki, Ito-Taku, Ogura Eiichi, Nal, Y. Ashizawa, G. Ishidaman (G. Ishida Man DX), Yas. Kamae, Mimika, Tashiboo, Tokumasa, Yuuichi Uchide, CG, Team CG. Works
Back Designers : Mic Senbei, Murayama, Tomo, Daisuke, Risa, Sakura3, Midorin, Hidenao. J, Shimiji, Eiko
Demo Designers : Kaoruru, Uruuru, Kumiko. M
Sound : Sha-V, Miwa, Marino, Captain Beroou
Programmers : Boffffffng (as Bof), Kura, Air as G. Rok. (Konbu)
Supervisors : Kiyoshi Asai, SG Melon
Voice Actors : Satoshi Hashimoto, Nobuyuki Hiyama, Toshiyuki Morikawa, Kappei Yamaguchi, Atsushi Yamanishi, Hiroyuki Arita, Keiichi Nanba, Akoya Sogi, Kong Kuwata, Koji Ishii, Harumi Ikoma, B. J. Love, Tanny Yamaguchi, Mami Kingetsu, Hiro Yuuki, Mi Yeon Jeong, Ji Hwan Ahn
Special Thanks : Sekotch, Anne, Uni & Buri (XO), Bashi, Shochan, Asami Don, Oh!Butch

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo AES (Apr. 29, 1998; "Real Bout Garou Densetsu 2 [Model NGH-240]")
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo CD (jul.23, 1998; "Real Bout Garou Densetsu 2 [Model NGCD-240]")
[JP] Sony PS2 (Feb. 22, 2007; "Garou Densetsu Battle Archives 2 [NeoGeo Online Collection Vol.6] [Model SLPS-25698]")
[JP] Sony PS2 (may.29, 2008; "Garou Densetsu Battle Archives 2 [NeoGeo Online Collection The Best] [Model SLPS-25864]")
[EU] Nintendo Wii [Virtual Console] (oct.04, 2012)

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=2188&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=rbff2h

Real Bout Garou Densetsu 2 (c) 1998 SNK [Shin Nihon Kikaku].

For more information about this game, please go to the original MVS release : "Real Bout Fatal Fury 2 - The Newcomers [Model NGM-240]".

- TECHNICAL -

[Model NGH-240]
539 Mega

- TRIVIA -

Real Bout Garou Densetsu 2 was released on April 29, 1998 in Japan.

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=47894&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=rbffspec,rbffspeck

Real Bout Garou Densetsu Special (c) 1997 SNK Corp.

'Hey, how's it goin', dude?' More old Fatal favorites return to the bout and bring the total of selectable fighters to 19.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID : NGM-223

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 4
=> [A] Punch [B] Kick [C] Power Attack [D] Move Between Planes

- TRIVIA -

Even if the copyright year is 1996, this game was released to the public in January 1997.

The title translates from Japanese as 'Real Bout Hungry Wolf Legend Special'

This game is known outside Japan as 'Real Bout Fatal Fury Special'.

Things that changed in this particular game :
* The game modifies the plane switching system a bit.
* Ring out system is modified into the instant dizzy system (By breaking background objects!).
* Newcomers in the game are Cheng Sinzan, Tung Fu Rue, Laurence Blood & Wolfgang Krauser. 'Evil' versions of some characters are available as well.

Terry's theme in this game is a remixed version of Terry's familiar "Fatal Fury 2" music (Kurikinton).

Soundtrack releases :
February 5, 1997 ; Real Bout Garou Densetsu Special [CD] [PCCB-00240] - Pony Canyon

- UPDATES -

MVS (Arcade) vs. AES (Neo-Geo) differences :
On the AES (Neo-Geo) Geese is a playable character by imputing a code. On the MVS (Arcade) version he was removed as a playable character for being too strong.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Play as Shadow/EX Fighter : Shadow/EX fighter is an evil version of the selected character with a different move-list set as well as a different ending than his/her original counterpart. This code only works with the following characters : Andy Bogard, Billy Kane, Blue Mary, Tung Fu Rue.
1) At the character selection screen, highlight the character of your choice, hold Start and press B(x2), C(x2).
2) While continuing to hold Start, hold B, pause one second and hold C.
3) While continuing to hold Start+B+C, press A or D to select the Shadow version of the character.
4) Pressing A or D will select a different color.

* Fight against Geese Howard : Begin game play in single player mode, win all rounds, do not score less than a 'B' rank in any battle and get more than 750,000 points befire fighting Wolfgang Krauser. You will fight Geese Howard in a special 'Nightmare' match.

* You can see different sets of funny outtakes during the credits if you consecutively beat the game 5 or 6 times before they start to repeat themselves.

- SERIES -

1. Garou Densetsu - Shukumei no Tatakai [Model NGM-033] (1991, MVS)
2. Garou Densetsu 2 - Arata-Naru Tatakai [Model NGM-047] (1992, MVS)
3. Garou Densetsu Special [Model NGM-058] (1993, MVS)
4. Garou Densetsu 3 - Harukanaru Tatakai [Model NGM-069] (1995, MVS)
5. Real Bout Garou Densetsu [Model NGM-095] (1995, MVS)
6. Real Bout Garou Densetsu Special [Model NGM-223] (1997, MVS)
7. Real Bout Garou Densetsu 2 - The Newcomers [Model NGM-240] (1998, MVS)
8. Fatal Fury - Wild Ambition (1999, ARC)
9. Garou - Mark of the Wolves [Model NGM-253] (1999, MVS)
10. Fatal Fury First Contact [Model NEOP00111] (1999, NGPC)

- STAFF -

Producers : Takashi Nishiyama, Hiroshi Matsumoto, S. Itoh
Planners : Takahisa Yariyama, Higashi Pon, Oh! Majaharu, Tsukamichi (Tsuka_Michi)
Obj Designers : Rio, Soe Soe (Soe. Soe. 96), Oda_Bash, N. Kuroki, Lionheart35, Mizu. Mizu, G. Ishidaman (Ishidamanace), Ossya!, Takehiro Isaji, Y. Ashizawa, Kaoruru, Nishikawa, Mika R. Winner Ero_Beer_Toku
Back Designers : Mic Senbey, Midorin, Tomo, Nari, Locate, Taka_Oh!!
Demo Designers : Sezabon, N. Kuroki, Ogura_A_1
Effects : Tashiboo, Akirya
Sound : Tate Norio, Konny, Toshio Shimizm (Shimizm), Ackey, Brother Hige, Mariko, Macky, Kyochan (Kyo_Chan), Miwa, Imo
Programmers : Bo_ffffffffng (as Bof), Naoyan Apchiba
Supervisors : Stg_Oyaji 145H, Mim_104 Melon, R. Tuneoka

* Voice Actors :
Terry Bogard, Kim Kaphwan : Satoshi Hashimoto
Joe Higashi : Nobuyuki Hiyama
Bob Wilson, Hon Fu : Toshiyuki Morikawa
Jin Chonshu & Chonrei : Kappei Yamaguchi
Billy Kane : Atsushi Yamanishi
Laurence Blood : Hiroyuki Arita
Tung Fu Rue, Cheng Sinzan : Shigefumi Nakai
Andy Bogard : Keiichi Nanba
Mai Shiranui : Akoya Sogi
Duck King, Geese Howard : Kong Kuwata
Sokaku Mochizuki, Ryuji Yamazaki : Koji Ishii
Blue Mary : Harumi Ikoma
Franco Bash, Wolfgang Krauser, Announcer (English) : B. J. Love

Special Thanks : Kura, MF_Yama. Remix, Shochan, Asami Don

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo AES (Feb. 05, 1997; "Real Bout Garou Densetsu Special [Model NGH-223]")
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo CD (Mar. 30, 1997; "Real Bout Garou Densetsu Special [Model NGCD-223]")
[JP] Sega Saturn (Dec. 25, 1997; "Real Bout Garou Densetsu Special [Model T-3117G]")
[JP] Sega Saturn (Dec. 25, 1997; "Real Bout Garou Densetsu Special [Model T-3119G]")
[JP] Nintendo Game Boy (Mar. 27, 1998; "Nettou Real Bout Garou Densetsu Special [Model DMG-ARBJ-JPN]")
[JP] Sega Saturn (Aug 06, 1998; "Real Bout Garou Densetsu Best Collection [Model T-3124G]")
[JP] Sony PS2 (Feb. 22, 2007; "Garou Densetsu Battle Archives 2 [NeoGeo Online Collection Vol.6] [Model SLPS-25698]")
[JP] Sony PS2 (may.29, 2008; "Garou Densetsu Battle Archives 2 [NeoGeo Online Collection The Best] [Model SLPS-25864]")

* COMPUTERS:
PC (2001)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=rbff1,rbff1a,rbff1k,rbff1ka

Real Bout Garou Densetsu (c) 1995 SNK.

16 characters, some old and some new, breathe new life into the Fatal Fury series.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID: NGM-095

Players: 2
Control: 8-way joystick
Buttons: 4
=> [A] Punch [B] Kick [C] Power Attack [D] Move Between Planes

- TRIVIA -

Real Bout Garou Densetsu was released on December 21, 1995 in Japan.

The title of the game translates from Japanese as 'Real Bout Hungry Wolf Legend'.

This game is known outside Japan as 'Real Bout Fatal Fury'.

Things that changed in this particular game :
* The game uses a different 4 button setup this time around (punch, kick, power attack & plane switch) This was done to make the plane change mechanics easier to master.
* Chain combos are easier to pull this time around as well.
* This is one of the very few 2-D fighters to feature ring outs!
* Newcomers in the game are : Kim Kaphwan, Duck King & Billy Kane.

Pony Canyon released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Real Bout Garou Densetsu - PCCB-00203) on 07/02/1996.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

An additional cut-scene can be seen by beating the game with either Terry or Andy Bogard.

- SERIES -

1. Garou Densetsu - Shukumei no Tatakai [Model NGM-033] (1991, MVS)
2. Garou Densetsu 2 - Arata-Naru Tatakai [Model NGM-047] (1992, MVS)
3. Garou Densetsu Special [Model NGM-058] (1993, MVS)
4. Garou Densetsu 3 - Harukanaru Tatakai [Model NGM-069] (1995, MVS)
5. Real Bout Garou Densetsu [Model NGM-095] (1995, MVS)
6. Real Bout Garou Densetsu Special [Model NGM-223] (1997, MVS)
7. Real Bout Garou Densetsu 2 - The Newcomers [Model NGM-240] (1998, MVS)
8. Fatal Fury - Wild Ambition (1999, ARC)
9. Garou - Mark of the Wolves [Model NGM-253] (1999, MVS)
10. Fatal Fury First Contact [Model NEOP00111] (1999, NGPC)

- STAFF -

Big boss : Eikichi Kawasaki
Producers : Takashi Nishiyama, H. Matsumoto, S. Itoh
Planners : Tsuka-Michi, T. Yariyama, OH! Saba Meron
Obj. designers : Higashi Pon, Mika.Poh, Fuku Fuku, Astro 1, Suke Chichi, Takehiro Isaji, Tsuzaki.A, Kamae 34, S. Tenuking, Yure Chichi, Soe Soe, G. Ishidaman
Back. designers : Mic.Senbey, Midorin, Tomo, Ema Sue, Banamen, R. Nariai, Umechan
Demo designers : Sezabon, Enokichi, Ega Nataku, Jida-Q, Maki-Torowa, Muramama, Sho-Chan
effects : March Kaji, Kaoruru, Itokatsu, Tashiboo
Programmers : Tony Oki (Tony-MF-Oki), Bo-Ffffffffng
Sound : Toshio Shimizm (as Shimizm), SHA-V
Special advisers : Stg-Oyaji 145H, Masahiko. Sawa

* Voice Actors :
Terry Bogard : Satoshi Hashimoto
Andy Bogard : Keiichi Nanba
Joe Higashi : Nobuyuki Hiyama
Mai Shiranui : Akoya Sogi
Sokaku Mochizuki : Koji Ishii
Bob Wilson : Toshiyuki Morikawa
Blue Mary : Harumi Ikoma
Franco Bash : B. J. Love
Geese Howard : Kong Kuwata
Hon-Fu : Toshiyuki Morikawa
Ryuji Yamazaki : Koji Ishii
Kim Kaphwan : Satoshi Hashimoto
Jin Chonshu : Kappei Yamaguchi
Jin Chonrei : Kappei Yamaguchi
Billy Kane : Atsushi Yamanishi
Duck King : Kong Kuwata

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo AES (Jan. 26, 1996; "Real Bout Garou Densetsu [Model NGH-095]")
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo CD (Feb. 23, 1996; "Real Bout Garou Densetsu [Model NGCD-095]")
[JP] Sega Saturn (Sep. 20, 1996; "Real Bout Garou Densetsu [Model T-3105G]")
[JP] Sony PlayStation (Jan. 10, 1997; "Real Bout Garou Densetsu [Model SLPS-00640]")
[JP] Sony PlayStation (jul.23, 1998; "Real Bout Garou Densetsu [The Best] [Model SLPM-86108]")
[JP] Sega Saturn (Aug. 06, 1998; "Real Bout Garou Densetsu Best Collection [Model T-3124G]")
[JP] Sony PS2 (Feb. 22, 2007; "Garou Densetsu Battle Archives 2 [NeoGeo Online Collection Vol.6] [Model SLPS-25698]")
[JP] Sony PS2 (may.29, 2008; "Garou Densetsu Battle Archives 2 [NeoGeo Online Collection The Best] [Model SLPS-25864]")

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=2187&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=recordbr
Arcade Video game published 35 years ago:

Recordbreaker (c) 1988 Taito.

Export release. Game developed in Japan. See the original for more information; "Go for the Gold".

- TECHNICAL -

Board Number : K1100371A
Prom Stickers : B56

- TRIVIA -

Released in September 1988.

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=2195&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=rezon
Arcade Video game published 32 years ago:

Rezon (c) 1991 Allumer, Limited.

A reasonably playable, if wholly unremarkable sideways-scrolling shoot-em-up that unashamedly rips off Irem's legendary "R*Type". Unfortunately, Rezon lacks any of R*Type's innovations in either level design or the weapons available to the player. One attribute it does share with the Irem classic, however, is that it is extremely difficult.

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU: Motorola 68000 (@ 16 Mhz)
Sound Chips: X1-010 (@ 16 Mhz)

Players: 2
Control: 8-way joystick
Buttons: 3

- TRIVIA -

Rezon was released in September 1991 in Japan.

- STAFF -

Programmer : Jun Ichikawa
Assistants : Kenji Kikkawa, Hiroshi Yamanaka
Graphic designers : Yoshiyuki Shikano, Yukie Sugimoto, Manabu Namiki, Noriaki Yamaguchi, Tadahiro Negome
Music & sound : Hideyuki Ueno
Hardware : Noboru Kohno

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=2215&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=ridingf,ridingfu,ridingfj
Taito F3 cart. published 31 years ago:

Riding Fight (c) 1992 Taito Corporation.

A one or two player fighting/racing game that takes place on a 3-D rendered track, set in a futuristic city. Each player rides on a hover board and must jump, kick and punch the many enemies who constantly attack, as well as punching or jumping over trackside obstacles. An end-of-level boss awaits the players and must be destroyed before the players can progress to the next level.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "Taito F3 System" Hardware.
Prom Stickers: D34

Screen Orientation: Horizontal

Players: 2
Control: Dial
Buttons: 2
=> Attack, Jump

- TRIVIA -

Riding Fight was released in December 1992.

The game graphics were an outsourcing work done by Natsume and VAP.

- UPDATES -

Ver. 1.0O

Ver. 1.0A: USA version, has the "Recycle It, Don't Trash It!" screen.
 
Ver. 1.0J: Japanese version.

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=2219&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=ridheroh

Riding Hero (c) 1991 SNK [Shin Nihon Kikaku].

AES release. See the original MVS entry for more information about the game itself.

- TECHNICAL -

Cartridge ID: NGH-006
Cartridge Size: 46 Mega.

- TRIVIA -

Released on July 1, 1991 in Japan and in the US.

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=47582&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=ridhero

Riding Hero (c) 1990 SNK.

A Hot Battle Awaits You On The Way To The W.G.P Racing Title! After getting the 'International A License', a young racer battles his way to the Suzuka 8 Hour Race. Featuring 3 ways to play! W.G.P mode, RPG mode or Multi Play mode. GO FOR THE GLORY!

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID: NGM-006

Players: 2
Control: 8-way joystick
Buttons: 3
=> [A] Accelerator, [B] Brake, [C] Turbo

- TRIVIA -

Released in July 1990.

Riding Hero is the first Neo-Geo game to feature the 'Multi Play Function', this lets you 'link' cabinets together so players can race each other side by side.

- STAFF -

Producer : Eikichi Kawasaki
Director : Hiroshi Matsumoto
Programmer : H. Deep. T
Music : Synthesize Yamada
Sound Effects : Jojoha Kitapy (Jojoha Kitamura)
Character Designers : Kouichi Sakita, Takurin. K, Kimie. M, Masayo. S
Special Thanks: Kura, Masapee. K, Pao-Pao, Mr. Noric, Takayuki. M, Cock-A-Doodle-Doo

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo AES (jul.1, 1991; "Riding Hero [Model NGH-006]")
[US] SNK Neo-Geo AES (jul.1, 1991; "Riding Hero [Model NGH-006]")
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo CD (may.26, 1995; "Riding Hero [Model NGCD-006]")
[US] SNK Neo-Geo CD (may.26, 1995; "Riding Hero [Model NGCD-006E]")

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=2220&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=ringdest,ringdstd
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 29 years ago:

Ring of Destruction - Slammasters II (c) 1994 Capcom Company, Limited.

European release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese release entry; "Super Muscle Bomber - The International Blowout [Green Board]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Blue Board [Europe]

- TRIVIA -

The names of several characters and the name of the game itself were changed in the Export releases. These changes re not reflected in the Tokyo stage, however. In this stage there is a jumbo monitor in the background which displays the original names of the characters who are fighting (in Japanese) and then displays the Super Muscle Bomber logo. Below is a list of the name changes.
(Japanese name - Export version name)
Alexei Zalazof - Biff Slamkovich 'The Rocking Ruskie'
Mysterious Budo - Great Oni
El Stinger - El Stingray
Sheep The Royal - Alexander 'The Grater'
Kimala The Bouncer - Jumbo 'Flap' Jack
Lucky Colt - Gunlock
Titan The Great - Titanic Tim
'Missing IQ' Gomes - King Rasta 'Mon'
Astro - The Scorpion

- SERIES -

1. Saturday Night Slam Masters [CP-S No. 27] (1993)
2. Muscle Bomber Duo - Ultimate Team Battle [CP-S No. 28] (1993)
3. Ring of Destruction - Slammasters II [CP-S II No. 06] (1994)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=ringdesta
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 29 years ago:

Ring of Destruction - Slammasters II (c) 1994 Capcom Company, Limited.

Asian release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese release entry; "Super Muscle Bomber - The International Blowout [Green Board]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Grey Board [Asia]

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=ringrage,ringrageu,ringragej
Taito F3 cart. published 31 years ago:

Ring Rage (c) 1992 Taito Corporation.

8 selectable digitized wrestlers fight in tag team tournament, take part in Royal Rumble or survival match.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "Taito F3 System" Hardware.

Prom Stickers: D21

Screen Orientation: Horizontal

Players: 4
Control: Dial
Buttons: 2
=> Punch, Kick

- TRIVIA -

Ring Rage was released in August 1992.

- UPDATES -

The US version is slightly different, it has the "Winners Don't Use Drugs" screen.

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
Nintendo Game Boy

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=roboarmy,roboarmya

Robo Army (c) 1991 SNK [Shin Nihon Kikaku]. 

Robo Army is a horizontally-scrolling beat-em-up for one or two players who take on the roles of two cybernetically-enhanced soldiers called Rocky and Maxima and must attempt to stop am invading cyber army called 'Hell Jeed' from enslaving the human race.

The game uses three buttons: 
A - Attack
B - Jump
C - Energy blast

Hitting the jump and attack button simultaneously lets Rocky and Maxima attack behind them. Collecting energy balls makes the energy blast more powerful, similar to the magic potions in Sega's "Golden Axe". One major difference, however, is that the special attack here can be used several times to diminishing effect before it finally runs out.

Players can often pick up a fallen robot's limb to club other robots to death with. Also, if players approach a weakened enemy and press forward and the A button at the right time, Maxima or Rocky will rip the enemy in half.

Finally, a defeated enemy will occasionally drop a glowing icon of a human fist. Picking this up causes Rocky or Maxima to bend over and transform into a futuristic buggy-like vehicle. Any enemies Maxima and Rocky touch while in buggy form instantly explode while hitting the attack button allows them to speed across the screen to quickly run enemies down. The buggy only lasts for a limited time, however.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID : NGM-032

Players : 2
Control : 8-Way Joystick
Buttons : 3
=> [A] Punch, [B] Jump, [C] Kick/Get Super-Powers with Cyber-Ball

- TRIVIA -

Robo Army was released on October 30, 1991 in Japan.

Player 2's character appears as a striker character in "The King of Fighters 2000" as Rocky.

- STAFF -

Excutive Producer : Eikichi Kawasaki
Programmers : Oh!Butch, Arcbbcov, Shochan, Ma2, Kawaii
Sound : Yamapy-1, Konny
Production Designer : Kouichi Sakita
Designers : Takeshi Kimura, Take-P, Shimachan, UG Wada, Pinkey
Associate Producer : Hiroshi Matsumoto (Finish Hiroshi)
Planners : Akira Goto, Yarie

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo AES (dec.20, 1991; "Robo Army [Model NGH-032]")
[US] SNK Neo-Geo AES (dec.20, 1991; "Robo Army [Model NGH-032]")
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo CD (apr.21, 1995; "Robo Army [Model NGCD-032]")
[US] SNK Neo-Geo CD (apr.21, 1995; "Robo Army [Model NGCD-032E]")

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=rockmanj
Arcade Video game published 28 years ago:

Rockman - The Power Battle (c) 1995 Capcom.

Have you ever pictured a Rockman game that allows to skip all the platform elements and just grapple against the bosses? That's pretty much the main idea in this game! Choose from Rockman, Protoman or Bass and battle against classic bosses in the series. Features great 2-D graphics, solid control, and a nice use of strategy (since the right order of weapons will rid you of specific enemies in no time!).

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System" hardware.
B-Board #: 91634B-2

Players: Up to 2
Control per player: 8-way joystick
Buttons per player: 3

- TRIVIA -

Rockman was released in September 1995 in the Japanese arcades. It was known there as the 32th video game made for this system.

The game is known outside Japan as "Mega Man - The Power Battle". Here are some known export releases:
"Mega Man - The Power Battle [B-Board 91634B-2]" (Asia)
"Mega Man - The Power Battle [B-Board 91635B-2]" (USA)

It was re-released on the new Capcom system (CPS-2) the same year as "Rockman - The Power Battle [Green Board]".

Sony Records released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Rockman - The Power Battle : Arcade Gametrack - SRCL-3451) on December 1, 1995.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Easter Egg : sometimes when you fight Shade Man, the background music is a version of the theme song from the Makaimura series. This seems to happen at random.

- SERIES -

1. Rockman - The Power battle [CP-S No. 32] (1995)
2. Rockman 2 - The Power fighters [CP-S II No. 17] (1996)

- STAFF -

Planners : Ohko 25th, Zanzo, (^_^")
Programmers : Teruaki Hirokado, Giu Chan, Marh, Ohi
Object designers : K. Tokunaga, Top Joy, You-Tenkozow, Sensei, Takep, Eizi Murabayashi, Delta, Jun Ikawa, Jon, Tanida, Dja, Koga. M, Zephyr Sakuno

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
SNK Neo-Geo Pocket Color [JP] (jul.6, 2000; "Rockman - Battle & Fighters [Model NEOP00940]") 
[JP] Sony PS2 (aug.5, 2004; "Rockman Power Battle Fighters Model SLPM-62491]") 

* Arcade:
Capcom Play System II (1995)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=rmancp2j
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 28 years ago:

Rockman - The Power Battle (c) 1995 Capcom Company, Limited.

CPS-2 version of "Rockman - The Power Battle [CP-S No. 32]". For more information about the game itself, please see the original CSP-1 release entry.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Green Board [Japan]

Players: Up to 2.
Control: 8-way joystick (per player)
Buttons: 3 (per player)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=rockman2j
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 27 years ago:

Rockman 2 - The Power Fighters (c) 1996 Capcom.

Building upon the previous game, you must battle Dr. Wily's evil robot criminals with the help of Megaman, Protoman, Bass & Duo. Features cool 2-D graphics and the same tried & true Mega Man controls. Pay attention to Dr. Light's advice and you may reach Dr. Wily's fortress and come out victorious!

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Green Board [Japan]

Players: Up to 2.
Control: 8-way joystick per player.
Buttons: 3 per player.

- TRIVIA -

Rockman 2 - The Power Fighters was released in July 1996 in the Japanese arcades. It was known as the 17th video game released for the CPS-II hardware.

The game is known outside Japan as "Mega Man 2 - The Power Fighters". Here is the list of known export releases:
"Mega Man 2 - The Power Fighters [Blue Board]"
"Mega Man 2 - The Power Fighters [Grey Board]"

The music may seem familiar since the Japan-only Rockman Memories series uses the same music in some stages.

The game forbids the initials 'SEX' on the high score table. If you try, it gets changed to 'HKD'.

Victor Entertainment released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Rockman 2 - The Power Fighters : Capcom Game Soundtrack - VICL-2173) on September 21, 1996.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Execute a special move by pushing UP when releasing a charged attack.

* Alternate ending sequence : Play the game with 2 characters instead of one. The ending sequence will change depending on the 2 characters you used.

- SERIES -

1. Rockman - The Power battle [CP-S No. 32] (1995)
2. Rockman 2 - The Power fighters [CP-S II No. 17] (1996)

- STAFF -

Game designer : Ohko
Programmers : Teruaki Hirokado, Pon, You!
Character designers : Shinji Sakashita, Satoru Yamashita, Shinua.M, "Ba-Ji Aasuki "Runta, Dja
Scroll designers : Kisabon, Buchi, Koichi Takeda, Inoyan
Sound effects : Moe.T
Music : Yuki, Hideki Okugawa (Hideki Ok), Kadota Yuko, Masato Koda, Tatsuro Zuzuki (Tatsuro-), Syun Nishigaki, Setsuo Yamamoto
Voice actors : Hekiru Shiina, Jin Yamanoi, Koji Tobe, Takashi Nagasako, Takko Ishimori
Producer : Yoshimi Ohnishi
General producer : Noritaka Funamizu

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
SNK Neo-Geo Pocket Color [JP] (jul.6, 2000; "Rockman - Battle & Fighters [Model NEOP00940]") 
[JP] Sony PS2 (aug.5, 2004; "Rockman Power Battle Fighters [Model SLPM-62491]")

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=rodland,rodlandj,rodlandjb,rodlanda,rodlandjb2
Arcade Video game published 33 years ago:

Rod-Land (c) 1990 Jaleco.

Rod-Land is a cute and colourful platform game for one or two players in which two fairy sisters - 'Tam' and 'Rit' - must rescue their kidnapped mother from the 'Maboots Tower' fortress.

The fairies are armed with the 'Rods of Sheesanomo' - two magical rods that enable the fairies to catch enemies in a force-field and slam them into the platforms to kill them - and must clear each level of enemies to move onto the next and eventually reach and infiltrate the Tower.

As well as the magical rods used for attacking enemies, the fairies can also create a magical ladder - in a fashion very similar to that used in Taito's "Rainbow islands" - which can be utilised anywhere on a level and allows players to reach other platforms or escape from pursuing enemies. Each player can utilise only one magically-created ladder at any one time and the creation of a new ladder removes the previously-created one.

A level is only completed when all enemies have been killed. Some defeated enemies drop bonus items, such as fruit, missiles and bombs.

Each of the game's levels features brightly coloured flowers. If players manage to collect all of these, the 'Extra Game' mode begins. During this time-limited mode all of the level's enemies turn red and move much faster. If the enemies are killed in time, they drop an alphabetic letter that can be collected to spell the word 'EXTRA' and earn players an extra life.

- TECHNICAL -

Jaleco Mega System 1-A hardware

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 12 Mhz)
Sound CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 7 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Yamaha YM2151 (@ 3.5 Mhz), (2x) OKI6295 (@ 30.303 Khz)

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2 (Catch, Create magical ladder)

- TRIVIA -

Released in April 1990.

This game is known in Japan as "Rod Land - Haha wo Motomete 30 Kai".

Rod-Land contains a second episode (see 'Tips And Tricks' section) known in Japan as "Rod Land - Tozasareta Sekai". This time, the storyline has an alien pyramid landing in Fairland and in this episode, it is the girls' father that must be rescued. The gameplay is identical to that of the first episode, with only graphical differences separating the two.

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Rod-Land - PCCB-00028) on 21/05/1990.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* One feature unique to Rod-Land is that the game's sequel is already included and becomes available upon completion of the first game. While the graphics, enemies and level layouts have been changed, gameplay is identical to the first game.

- How to access 'Part 2 : The Unknown Pyramid', the Second Episode (note : this can also be unlocked via the dip switches settings)...
English version : after inserting a coin, press DOWN three times, then START.
Japanese version : after inserting a coin, press UP three times, then START.

- How to access 'Part 1 : Rescue My Mom', the first episode, when the second is enabled (via dip switches settings)...
English version : after inserting a coin, press UP three times, then START.
Japanese version : after inserting a coin, press DOWN three times, then START.

* The game has 3 endings, depending on the following:
- Enable the default 1st Story (Rescue My Mom) through the Arcade's DIP Switches and beat the 31 levels.
- Enable the 2nd Story (The Unknown Pyramid) through the Arcade's DIP Switches and beat the extra 31 levels.
- Enable the 1st or 2nd Story (depending on which is enabled as the default one) through the secret code and beat the extra level 32.

- STAFF -

Music composed by: Tsukasa Tawada

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
Nintendo Famicom (1992)
Nintendo Game Boy (1993)
Sony PlayStation [Port of Famicom version] (2003, "Yousei Monogatari Rod-Land" - Included in "Jaleco Collection Vol. 1")

* COMPUTERS:
Amstrad CPC (1990)
Commodore C64 (1991)
Commodore Amiga (1991)
Atari ST (1991)
Sinclair ZX Spectrum (1992)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=rygar,rygar2,rygar3
Arcade Video game published 37 years ago:

Rygar - Legendary Warrior (c) 1986 Tecmo.

Export release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese release entry; "Argos no Senshi - Legendary Warrior".

- TRIVIA -

Rygar was released in May 1986.

The differences between the US and Japanese (Argus no Senshi) are :
* The demo sequences are different.
* The Japanese version seems to have more hidden powers, stars and an extra free life.
* The US version is more biased towards stars and explosions.

- UPDATES -

The differences between the US (set 1) and US (set 2) are :
* 'Set 2' has a bug in the code which lets p2 start a game when p1 is already playing. You need to set a dip-switch to enable this behavior (it is usually on by default). If you press '2' while p1 is playing a single player game, 'Set 2' will check that you have 1 or more credit before it registers that you're now in a 2 player game, but it won't deduct the credit. That's a bad bug and probably accounts for why a bug-fix version was released.
* In 'Set 2', if p2 starts while p1 is already playing, it says 'playre2' instead of 'player2' at the top right.
* The first screen of 'Set 2' says 'ALL RIGHT RESERVED' - missing an 'S' - that's fixed in 'Set 1'

- SERIES -

1. Rygar - Legendary Warrior (1986, Arcade)
2. Rygar [Model NES-RY-USA] (1987, NES)
3. Rygar - The Legendary Adventure (2002, PS2)
3. Rygar - The Battle of Argus (2009, Wii)

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[US] Microsoft XBOX (sept.14, 2005) "Tecmo Classic Arcade" 
[EU] Microsoft XBOX (oct.21, 2005) "Tecmo Classic Arcade" 
[US]Sony PlayStation 4 [PSN] (aug.19, 2014) "Arcade Archives - Rygar [Model CUSA-00993]" 

* HANDHELDS: 
[US] Atari Lynx (1990) "Rygar - Legendary Warrior [Model PA2043]" 

* COMPUTERS:
[EU] Commodore C64 (1987)
[EU] Amstrad CPC (1987) "Rygar let's fight!!!" 
[EU] Sinclair ZX Spectrum (dec.1, 1987)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=ryujin,ryujina
Arcade Video game published 30 years ago:

Ryu Jin (c) 1993 Taito.

A vertically scrolling shoot'em up.

- TECHNICAL -

Taito B System hardware
Game ID : M6100663A

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 12 Mhz), Zilog Z80 (@ 4 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Yamaha YM2610 (@ 8 Mhz)

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 3

- TRIVIA -

Released in December 1993 in Japan.

The title of this game translates from Japanese as 'Dragon God'.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Basic shot for power :
Blue - Vulcan
Red - Laser

* Usable fighter & Special attack :
Sword Breaker (Blue) - Fireball Bomb
Vaulge (Green) - Lightning Volt
Shamseel (Red) - Flash Bomb
Phalcyon (Purple) - Wave Attack

- STAFF -

Programmers : T. Kaki, T. Kim!!, K. Hirano
Graphic designers : K. Sakai, T. Chida, Suzuki!, N. Wataya, Syocyan, M. Tamura, Y. Takeda, N. Tanahara, S. Ohkura
Sound : H. Tsuda, T. Inohaya

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=aof2a

龍虎の拳2 (c) 1994 SNK [Shin Nihon Kikaku].
(Ryuuko no Ken 2)

Japanese AES version. For more information about the game, please see the original MVS version entry: "Art of Fighting 2 [Model NGM-056]".

- TECHNICAL -

[Model NGH-056]
178 Mega

- TRIVIA -

This Japanese AES was released in March 11, 1994 in Japan.

In this AES version, the player can choose the difficulty level from EASY to MVS (hardest than HARD). The game speed from 85% to 130% and the language mode: JAPANESE, ENGLISH or SPANISH.

- SERIES -

1. Ryuuko no Ken [Model NGH-044] (1992)
2. Ryuuko no Ken 2 [Model NGH-056] (1994)
3. Art of Fighting - Ryuuko no Ken Gaiden [Model NGH-096] (1996)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=aof2

龍虎の拳2 (c) 1994 SNK Corp.
(Ryuuko no Ken 2)

12 selectable characters are available in this martial arts fighting game, each showing progressive damage on their bodies during the fight.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID : NGM-056

[SNK MVS Neo-Geo Controls]
2 players - 4 buttons per player
=> [A] Punch [B] Kick, [C] Throw, [D] Psyche

- TRIVIA -

Ryuuko no Ken 2 was released in March 1994 in Japan.

This game is known outide Japan as Art of Fighting 2.

Geese Howard's guest appearance (see 'Tips And Tricks' section) tries to tie this game's story with the Fatal Fury games. Apparently, this game takes place a few years before the events occurred in "Fatal Fury - King of Fighters" since Geese looks quite young and uses a very different fighting style (instead of his trademark Aikido which he learned in Japan). Another fact is the special ending when you defeat Geese (you get to see when he gives the order to eliminate Jeff Bogard who happens to be Terry & Andy Bogard's father, before he heads to Japan to learn that country's martial art techniques). This fact also explains why Ryo Sakazaki is so damn powerful in his "Fatal Fury Special" appearance (after all, he was already a powerful & skilled fighter and has had more time than most of the Fatal Fury characters to brush up on his techniques!). Obviously, all these storyline details were ignored in the King of Fighters series for the sake of convenience (All the "Art of Fighting" characters should be way older than the Fatal Fury characters in that game!).

In Temjin's ending, Terry Bogard makes a guest appearance as a little boy!

- UPDATES -

The Japanese version features different voice actors for some characters (John Crawley, Robert Garcia & King).

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

Adjust the game difficulty setting up to level 8 in order to boost game's overall speed!

It may be downright cheap & silly, but if you successfully manage to throw an opponent and then hit him with a special move as he gets up, you will dizzy your opponent! This can be done over and over again with most characters... :/

Beat opponents with a special move at the end of the decisive round to see a special 'defeat' animation (some auto-combos & special moves that lift the opponent of the ground won't work though).

Defeat all opponents in two rounds only to fight a special battle against Fatal Fury's main villain & owner of Southtown : Geese Howard (Notice that it is possible to use continues & use different characters as long as you defeat your opponents in 'two rounds only'!). :)

- SERIES -

1. Ryuuko no Ken [Model NGM-044] (1992)
2. Ryuuko no Ken 2 [Model NGM-056] (1994)
3. Art of Fighting - Ryuuko no Ken Gaiden [Model NGM-096] (1996)

- STAFF -

Objects designers : Soe Soe (Forever Soe-soe), Pinkey!(Boomer), Terarin, Hori Pu-
Back up : Moriyan, Somatoreeno
Programmers : John guso, Ma2
Directed by : Dog.Gotoh, Shigeti

* Voice Actors :
Ryo, John : Masaki Usui
Robert, Micky, Lee : Kazuhiro Inage (Key Inage)
Yuri : Kaori Horie
Takuma : Eiji Tsuda
King : Harumi Ikoma
Temjin, Kisaragi : Yoshinori Shima
Big, Jack : ???

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo AES (Mar. 11, 1994; "Ryuuko no Ken 2 [Model NGH-056]")
[US] SNK Neo-Geo AES (Mar. 11, 1994; "Art of Fighting 2 [Model NGH-056]")
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo CD (Sep. 09, 1994; "Ryuuko no Ken 2 [Model NGCD-056]")
[US] SNK Neo-Geo CD (1994; "Art of Fighting 2 [Model NGCD-056E]")
[JP] Nintendo Super Famicom (Dec. 21, 1994; "Ryuuko no Ken 2 [Model SHVC-AAFJ-JPN]")
[JP] Sony PS2 (may.11, 2006; "Ryuuko no Ken - Ten Chi Jin [NeoGeo Online Collection Vol.4] [Model SLPS-25610]")
[US] Sony PS2 (may.17, 2006; "Art of Fighting Anthology [Model SLUS-21487]")
[JP] Sony PS2 (june.21, 2007; "Ryuuko no Ken - Ten Chi Jin [NeoGeo Online Collection The Best] [Model SLPS-25790]")
Nintendo Wii [Virtual Console] [JP] (june.17, 2008; "Ryuuko no Ken 2 [Model EALJ]")
Nintendo Wii [Virtual Console] [EU] (jul.11, 2008; "Art of Fighting 2 [Model EALP]")
Nintendo Wii [Virtual Console] [US] (jul.28, 2008; "Art of Fighting 2 [Model EALE]")

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=aof

龍虎の拳 (c) 1992 SNK Corp.
(Ryuuko no Ken)

An early Neo-Geo martial arts fighting game with 2 selectable characters in 1-player mode and 8 selectable characters in 2-player mode which also features a long-nosed end boss. Progressive damage is shown on each fighter's face for a dramatic effect.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID : NGM-044

[SNK MVS Neo-Geo Controls]
2 players - 4 buttons per player
= > [A] Punching attack, [B] Kicking attack, [C] Throw enemy, [D] Taunt

- TRIVIA -

Ryuuko no Ken was released in September 1992 in Japan.

The title of this game translates from Japanese as 'Dragon and Tiger Fist'.

This game is known outside Japan as Art of fighting" 

A bootleg of this game is known as "Fit of Fighting".

SNK's second fighting-game franchise. It was the first fighting game by SNK to feature the character designs of former SNK illustrator Shinkiro, who would go on to do the character designs for the later "Fatal Fury" and "The King of Fighters" games.

This is the first fighting game to feature the 'camera zoom' - where the camera zooms in when the fighters are close together and zooms out when the fighters move away from each other. This is also the first fighting game to utilize a 'spirit meter'. Every time a special move is executed the spirit meter is depleted accordingly. The more powerful the special move, the more it depletes. When it's empty special moves can't be done anymore, however, you can recharge the spirit meter by standing still and holding the A or B button leaving you totally defenseless.

Robert Garcia design was inspired by the famous actor Steven Seagal.
Takuma Sakazaki desgin was inspired by Masutatsu Oyama.

The Haou Shokou Ken was referred to as the Haou Ken (or as the game put it, the 'Haow-Ken'). Its similarity to Ryu's (of "Street Fighter" fame) Hadou Ken forced the name change.

The character's fighting stance and their victory pose depends on how beaten up they are.

Lee Pai Long is called Lee Piron in the game's source code.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Play as Todoh, Jack, Lee, King, Micky and John : player 2 must join.

* Play as Mr. Big and Mr. Karate : reach them on 1P Game, then player 2 must join.

* Move Command Delay : its possible to input the commands for any special or super move but it is not necessary to press the corresponding attack button right away, this allows you to delay any move for as long as you want in order to surprise an opponent! This trick also enables you to perform slower versions of some special moves such as projectile attacks. Try it! :)

- SERIES -

1. Ryuuko no Ken [Model NGM-044] (1992)
2. Ryuuko no Ken 2 [Model NGM-056] (1994)
3. Art of Fighting - Ryuuko no Ken Gaiden [Model NGM-096] (1996)

- STAFF -

Producer: Eikichi Kawasaki
Directors: Hiroshi Matsumoto (Finish Hiroshi), Dog Akira, Matakichi. Chan, Mastang. 2
Programmers: John Guso, Cross. Moon D.S.K
Object Designers: Hatarakuogsan, Muta Teizon, Kama Kama, Tree. Village. Ken, Kylly Maclako, Pinkey. 2, Lionheart, Tony Oki (Tony. R. Oki), Outim Amadok Eel, Toyochan, 7.7812.8270.Kubo, Ayustat Shin 25, I000.Taroh Age22, Gynos. Crash!, Dir Tetsuzan, 555 Zi5han, Ahokamen. Boke, Bo. Bo, Kiritao. Y, Gmhenson Jr
Back Designers: Muramama. 2, Take. P, Shimachan, Moriyan, H. Skallter, Ug
Sound: Paciorek, Masahiko Hataya (Papaya), Yamapy-1, Jojoha Kitapy, Toshio Shimizm (as Shimizum)

* Voice Actors:
Ryo Sakazaki: Masaki Usui
Robert Garcia: Eiji Yano
Ryuhaku Todoh: Takayuki Sakai
Jack Turner: ???
Lee Pai Long: Eiji Yano
King : Harumi Ikoma
Micky Rogers: Michael Beard
John Crawley: Masaki Usui
Mr. Big: ???
Mr. Karate: Takayuki Sakai

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo AES (Dec.11, 1992) "Ryuuko no Ken [Model NGH-044]"
[US] SNK Neo-Geo AES (Dec.11, 1992) "Art of Fighting [Model NGH-044]"
[JP] Nintendo Super Famicom (Oct.29, 1993) "Ryuuko no Ken [Model SHVC-RW]"
Nintendo Super NES [US] (Dec. 1993) "Art of Fighting [Model SNS-RW]"
Nintendo Super NES [EU] (Dec. 1993) "Art of Fighting [Model SNSP-RW]"
[US] Sega Genesis (Jan.13, 1994) "Art of Fighting [Model 1146]"
[JP] Sega Mega Drive (Jan.14, 1994) "Ryuuko no Ken [Model G-4113]"
[EU] Sega Mega Drive (1994) "Art of Fighting [Model 1146-50]"
[JP] NEC PC-Engine CD (Mar.26, 1994) "Ryuuko no Ken [Model HCD4061]"
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo CD (Sep.9, 1994) "Ryuuko no Ken [Model NGCD-044]"
[US] SNK Neo-Geo CD (1994) "Art of Fighting [Model NGCD-044E]"
[JP] Sony PS2 (may.11, 2006) "Ryuuko no Ken - Ten Chi Jin [NeoGeo Online Collection Vol.4] [Model SLPS-25610]"
[JP] Sony PS2 (june.21, 2007) "Ryuuko no Ken - Ten Chi Jin [NeoGeo Online Collection The Best] [Model SLPS-25790]"
Nintendo Wii [Virtual Console] [US] (Oct.8, 2007)
Nintendo Wii [Virtual Console] [EU] (Nov.11, 2007)
[US] Sony PS2 (may.05, 2008) "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model SLUS-21724]"
[US] Sony PSP (may.05, 2008) "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model ULUS-10338]"
[KO] Sony PS2 (may.29, 2008) "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model SLKA-25424]"
[US] Nintendo Wii (jul.29, 2008) "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model RVL-P-RNCE]"
[EU] Sony PSP (Oct. 17, 2008) "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model ULES-01105]"
[EU] Nintendo Wii (Oct. 31, 2008) "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model RVL-P-RJZP]"
[EU] Sony PS2 (Nov. 21, 2008) "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model SLES-55232]"
[JP] Sony PSP May. 21, 2009 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model ULJS-193]"
Sony PlayStation Store (Dec.2010)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=sci,scia,sciu,scij
Arcade Video game published 34 years ago:

S.C.I. - Special Criminal Investigation (c) 1989 Taito corporation.

A direct sequel to 1988's "Chase H.Q.", S.C.I. once again puts the player in charge of an unmarked police car - this time a red Nissan 300ZX [Z32] T-Top turbo - in which the player must chase and capture a criminal mastermind before the time limit expires. Graphically, S.C.I. is very similar to its predecessor, although there are slight improvements with both a better use of color and the introduction of some weather effects; such as the rainy thunderstorm on the stages #1 and #4. Unlike the first game, the player is armed with a gun; this is used to take out criminals and roadblocks as the player races against the time limit, and also to capture the criminal mastermind and make an arrest before the time limit expires.

- TECHNICAL -

This game was available in at least 3 different dedicated cabinets, plus it was also sold as a conversion kit for "Chase H.Q".
* The sitdown version is a strange plastic monstrosity with a huge monitor. This may have been a Japan only release, as the cabinet looks very similar to the popular Japanese cabinet style.
* The standup versions are all very solid wooden affairs, covered with full painted sideart (very few games still used painted sideart in the late eighties).
All versions use Happ Controls force feedback steering wheels (the ones that can spin all the way around), a high low shifter (different versions had this on different sides), and a single pedal (gas, but some versions featured also a brake pedal).

Runs on Taito Z System hardware
Board Number: M4300140A
Prom Stickers: C09

Main CPU: (2x) Motorola 68000 (K1100492A, K1100491A)
Sound CPU: Zilog Z80
Sound Chips: Yamaha YM2610
Screen resolution: 320x240 (horizontal).

Players: 1
Control: Steering wheel (270 or 360 degree range; set in dip switches), 2-speed gear shifter (high and low) + 1 or 2 pedals (gas and brake; most cabinets have only one pedal - gas)
Buttons: 2
=> A = shoot the gun, B = use turbo.

- TRIVIA -

S.C.I. - Special Criminal Investigation was released in October 1989.

The player is given to control a red Nissan 300ZX [Z32] T-Top turbo, known in Japan as Nissan Fairlady Z Z32.

Soundtrack releases:
S.C.I / Taito - Pony Canyon / Scitron - PCCB-00024 - April 21, 1990

- UPDATES -

The Japanese version shows speed in a kilometer per hour, world and US version use a mile per hour.

Nancy is called Karen in world and US versions.

The Japanese version has a different voice and has less English text than in releases for the US and the rest of the world. Additionally, it has a territorial notice not allowing to play outside Japan, the cop siren is repainted to red and the message after stage #6 is spoken by a voice-over actor not mentioned in the staff roll.

The US version has the "Winners Don't Use Drugs" screen. Moreover, it has a territorial notice not allowing to play outside Mexico, Canada and the US.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* A little known, serious bug is in this game: Start a new game, and accelerate VERY slowly until your score reaches 90. Now STOP and just let the time run out. Once your game ends, don't continue, just let the timer run down. Once that happens, you'll notice that your score will SKYROCKET to the ridiculous amount of 76,543,210 (cheater!).

* The arrow on stages #3 and #4 always points right unlike its predecessor.

* Don't turn left on the aforementioned stages: you'll not be able to catch the criminal.

* You have only 1 turbo and 1 chance to complete stage #6. You'll have no option to continue the game after 30 seconds run out.

* After you insert the coin and are on 'Push start button' screen, hold the start button to simulate car's ignition. Remember to release the button.

* Don't error the coin: the game will lock up.

- SERIES -

1. Chase H.Q. (1988)
2. S.C.I. - Special Criminal Investigation (1989)
3. Super Chase - Criminal Termination (1993)
4. Ray Tracers (1997, Sony PlayStation)
5. Chase H.Q. 2 (2007)

- STAFF -

Project leader: George Jyuttute
Game design: Hiroyuki Sakou, Fumio Horiuchi, Eiji Nishikawa
Software: George K-5, Yuichi Kikuchi, David Uematsu, Kazunori Sako
Character design: Oolong Yamada, Gyoza Ohmae, Kawamoyan, Gishikun, Kazumasa Fuseya, Gomachan, Neko Minako, Kouzou Igarashi, Takatsuna Senba, Tetsuya Shinoda, Takayuki Ogawa
Sound creator: Zuntata
Hardware: Masahiro Yamaguchi, Yuzuru Yoshimura
Mechanical design: Itsuji Yamada, Kazuaki Sasaki, Takaaki Deguchi
Design: Atsushi Iwaoka

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] NEC PC-Engine (Jan. 25, 1991) "S.C.I. - Special Criminal Investigation [Model TP03016]" 
Amstrad GX4000 [JP] (1991)
[EU] Sega Master System (1992) "Special Criminal Investigation [Model 7079]" 
[US] Sega Genesis (Oct. 22, 1992) "Chase H.Q. II [Model T-11106]" 
[JP] Sega Mega Drive (Oct. 23, 1992) "Super H.Q. [Model T-11163]" 
[JP] Sega Saturn (Jun. 9, 1996) "Chase H.Q. + S.C.I. [Model T-1105G]" 
[JP] Sony PS2 (Jan. 25, 2007) "Taito Memories II Joukan [Model SLPM-66649]" 

* COMPUTERS:
[EU] Atari ST (1990) "Chase H.Q. II - Special Criminal Investigation" 
Commodore Amiga [US] (1990) "Chase H.Q. II - Special Criminal Investigation" 
[EU] Sinclair ZX Spectrum (1990) "Chase H.Q. II" 
Amstrad CPC+ [EU] (1991) 
[US] Commodore C64 [EU] (1990) "Chase H.Q. II - Special Criminal Investigation"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=ssmissin
Arcade Video game published 31 years ago:

S.S Mission (c) 1992 Comad Industry Company, Limited.

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 10 Mhz)
Sound CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 4 Mhz)
Sound Chips : OKI6295 (@ 12.121 Khz)

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2

- TRIVIA -

S.S Mission has a code rip-off off the original game "Thunder Dragon".

- STAFF -

Graphic designers : T.C Choi, W.H Seo, J.A Park, K.Y Chang
Producer : K.S An
Manager : H.N Yee
Game designer : M.W Kim
Programmers : J.S Na, Y.M Park
Scenario writer : J.V Kim
Sound creator : Y.J Youn

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=stg
Arcade Video game published 32 years ago:

S.T.G - Strike Gunner (c) 1991 Tecmo.

A vertically scrolling shooter.

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 8 Mhz)
Sound Chips : X1-010 (@ 16 Mhz)

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2

- TRIVIA -

Released in April 1991.

- STAFF -

Developed by Athena Co. Ltd.

Written and designed by : Undead Tama
Screen play by : Undead Tama
Sound by : Sho
Produced by : Shin Nakamura
Directed by : Undead Tama

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
Nintendo Super Famicom (1992)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=sabotenb,sabotenba
Arcade Video game published 31 years ago:

Saboten Bombers (c) 1992 NMK.

A platform game with gameplay similar to Snow Bros. and Bubble Bobble.

Saboten Bombers is a single screen platform game. The gameplay consists of throwing bombs at the enemies, and avoiding being hit by the enemy bombs. There are a variety of enemies and colorful backgrounds. The game has over 50 levels, and also a versus mode. The game has many collectables, the most notable of which is the cake which gives the player an extra life after collecting 8 pieces.

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 10 Mhz)
Sound Chips : (2x) OKI6295 (@ 24.242 Khz)

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2

- TRIVIA -

Saboten Bombers was released in April 1992.

Licensed to Tecmo for distribution.

The title of this game translates from Japanese as 'Cactus Bombers'.

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=stdragon,stdragona,stdragonb
Arcade Video game published 34 years ago:

Saint Dragon (c) 1989 Jaleco.

Saint Dragon is a horizontally-scrolling shoot-em-up in which the galaxy is under threat from a malevolent race of cyborgs. Half animal, half machine, the cyborgs have already conquered most of the galaxy and now have their sights set on the galaxy's last hope, 'The Planet of the Golden Dragon'. A lone mechanoid dragon, unhappy with the actions of his comrades, rebels and sets out to thwart their invasion.

The Dragon is initially armed with a plasma bolts and fiery breath but tokens - resembling bronze-coloured eggs - can be shot to release power-ups to upgrade the dragon's firepower, offering either pulse torpedoes, a laser, bouncing bombs, ring lasers or a turret. 

Other tokens can upgrade the dragon's speed or initiate a hyper mode which temporarily gives the dragon maximum firepower and invulnerability. As well as the weapons, the dragon also has an armoured tail which follows the player's movement, allowing it to be used as a defensive shield.

The game consists of six stages, each culminating in a battle with a large end-of-level guardian.

- TECHNICAL -

Jaleco Mega System 1-A hardware

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 12 Mhz)
Sound CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 7 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Yamaha YM2151 (@ 3.5 Mhz), (2x) OKI6295 (@ 30.303 Khz)

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2

- TRIVIA -

Saint Dragon was released in March 1989.

The Kanji in the title screen actually reads 'Tenseiryuu', which aptly defines the game's title pretty well.

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Saint Dragon - PCCB-00003) on 21/09/1989.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

To make the 3rd level boss to show up, destroy the 6th big structure (the last one) that comes at the last part of the level. If you do not destroy it, the boss won't appear to fight you and you go straight to level 4.

- STAFF -

Produced by NMK.

Music composed by: Shizuyoshi Okamura (Sizzla), Tecchan

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
NEC PC-Engine (1990) "	Tenseiryuu - Saint Dragon [Model AC90001]"

* COMPUTERS:
Sinclair ZX Spectrum (1990) "Saint Dragon [Model 001527]"
Commodore C64 (1990)
Amstrad CPC (1990) "Saint Dragon [Model 001213]"
Commodore Amiga (1990)
Atari ST (1990)
MSX (1990)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=samesame,samesame2,samesamecn
Arcade Video game published 34 years ago:

Same! Same! Same! (c) 1989 Toaplan.

A vertically scrolling shoot 'em up from Toaplan.

- TECHNICAL -

Game ID : TP-017

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 10 Mhz)
Sound Chips : YM3812 (@ 3.5 Mhz)

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2

- TRIVIA -

Same! Same! Same! was released in November 1989 in Japan.

The title of this game translates from Japanese as 'Shark! Shark! Shark!'.

The game is known outside Japan as "Fire Shark!".

Offical high score recorded: 10,000,000 points (reached counter stop) by gamer 'JAG-POW', posted on Basic-Magazine (Japanese arcade game magazine).

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Hidden Functions: If the 'Invulnerability dip switch' is enabled, you are invulnerable but you may also 'Pause' the game with P2 Start and restart with P1 Start.

- SERIES -

1. Hi Sho Zame (1987)
2. Fighting Hawk (1988)
3. Same! Same! Same! (1989)

- STAFF -

Music created by: Masanori Yuge

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] Sega Mega Drive (nov.2, 1990) [Model T-40013]

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=samuraia
Arcade Video game published 30 years ago:

Samurai Aces (c) 1993 Psikyo.

Export release. Game developed in Japan. See the original for more information; "Sengoku Ace".

- TRIVIA -

Released in April 1993.

- SERIES -

1. Samurai Aces (1993)
2. Tengai - Sengoku Ace Episode II (1996)
3. Sengoku Cannon - Sengoku Ace Episode III (2005, Sony PSP)

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
Sony PlayStation 2 (2004, "Psikyo Shooting Collection Vol. 2")

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=samsho4

Samurai Shodown IV - Amakusa's Revenge (c) 1996 SNK.

The 4th installment of the weapons-based one-on-one fighting series features seventeen selectable characters and two end bosses. Changes to the established formula include the removal of both aerial blocking and the switch-around move (the latter of which which allowed a player to move quickly behind their opponent's back). Dodges, which allowed players to evade/side-step attacks are also gone.

Players can no longer charge up their own POW gauge but a new move called the 'CD combo' was added; players can press the C and D buttons together, triggering a strike that can be followed up by a sequence of button taps.

SNK also added a "suicide" move, allowing a player to forfeit a round. The advantage to this is that the one committing suicide will start the next round with a full "POW" gauge. Certain finishes also enable a "fatality" move in the vein of "Mortal Kombat".

Some of the series' older characters were restored for the 4th game, including Charlotte, Tam Tam and Jubei Yagyu. The entire cast of the previous game also returns, although some have been redrawn to further enhance the cartoonish look.

Joining the cast are the two ninja brothers:

* Kazuki Kazama - member of the Kazama ninja clan specializing in fire jutsu, he deserts to rescue his younger sister, Hazuki, from Amakusa's clutches.
    
* Sogetsu Kazama - older brother to Kazuki and Hazuki who uses water jutsu; unlike Kazuki, he stays with the clan and is ordered to assassinate his brother for leaving.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID : NGM-0222

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 4
=> [A] Light attack with weapon, [B] Medium attack with weapon, [C] Strong attack with weapon, [D] Kick

- TRIVIA -

Samurai Spirits - Amakusa Kourin (translates from Japanese as 'Samurai Spirits - Amakusa's Descent') was released in October 1996 in Japan.

This game is known outside Japan as 'Samurai Shodown IV - Amakusa's Revenge'.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Beat the entire game in the time limit to see a picture of Wan-Fu or Sieger after the end credits. Who appears is entirely at random though.

* In order to see a special win pose with the puppies, win with a double
perfect using Slash Galford. Galford will say, 'Arigato!' as the puppies
scamper across the screen.

* I'm Not Afraid Of You! : think you are really good? Tap START 3 times quickly to make your character drop his/her sword. Now show your opponents that the most fearsome weapons are the ones you were born with! Note : a few characters are really hampered by the loss of weapon (e.g. Haohmaru, Kazuki, Sogetsu) and a few are not really affected (Nakoruru, Rimururu, Hanzo).

* Sepukku (Suicide) : press Back, then move your joystick a quarter circle from forwards to down and press START to make your character kill himself/herself and lose the current round (Useless trick? Not quite since you will start the next round with a full rage gauge!).

* Silly Name Trick : now this is weird! At the naming screen input 'AAA' as your name to make your character faint!

- SERIES -

1. Samurai Spirits [Model NGM-045] (1993)
2. Shin Samurai Spirits - Haohmaru Jigoku Hen [Model NGM-063] (1994)
3. Samurai Spirits - Zankurou Musouken [Model NGM-087] (1995)
4. Samurai Spirits - Amakusa Kourin [Model NGM-222] (1996)
5. Samurai Spirits 64 (1997)
6. Samurai Spirits 2 - Asura Zanmaden (1998)
7. Kenkaku Ibunroku Yomigaerishi Soukou no Ha - Samurai Spirits Shinshou (1999, PSX)
8. Samurai Spirits Zero [Model NGM-270] (2003)
9. Samurai Spirits Zero Special [Model NGM-272] (2004)
10. Samurai Spirits - Tenkaichi Kenkakuden (2005)
11. Samurai Shodown - Edge of Destiny (2008)

- STAFF -

Executive producer : Eikichi Kawasaki
Producers : Y. Koudou, H. Kawano, Bad Apples
Planners : Head-Ken, Tomi Yan, Kouji Takaya, Guro
Support from : Masami Nakaoka, Eiji Shiroi, Y. Kawase, Araiichi, Nao.Q.
Back team : Yasupuu (as Yasu-Puu), Anta-Baka, Y. Yoshimitsu, Yoshiko, Pu-Suke, Has, Y, N. Azumi, Chu
Programmers : Kura, Llaoyllakcuf, Dan-ABE
Sound : Yamapy-1, Jojoha Kitapy, Mitsuo, Sha-V

* Voice Actors :
Tam Tam : Toshikazu Nishimura
Galford : Mantaro Koichi
Hanzo Hattori : Toshimitsu Arai
Jubei Yagyu : Kiyoshi Kobayashi
Sogetsu Kazama : Naoki Oikawa
Kazuki Kazama : Atsushi Yamanishi
Genjuro Kibagami : Kong Kuwata
Haohmaru : Masaki Usui
Charlotte : Harumi Ikoma
Tokisada Shirou Amakusa : Eiji Yano
Kyoshiro Senryou : Monster Maetsuka
Ukyo Tachibana : Eiji Yano
Basara Kubikiri : Masahiro Nonaka
Gaira Kafuin : Takeshi Watanabe
Shizumaru Hisame : Miho Kaneda
Nakoruru : Harumi Ikoma
Rimururu : Megumi Matsumoto
Zankuro Minazuki : Enma Ito

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo AES (Nov. 29, 1996; "Samurai Spirits - Amakusa Kourin [Model NGH-222]")
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo CD (Dec. 27, 1996; "Samurai Spirits - Amakusa Kourin [Model NGCD-222]")
[JP] Sega Saturn (Oct. 02, 1997; "Samurai Spirits - Amakusa Kourin [Model T-3116G]")
[JP] Sega Saturn (Oct. 02, 1997; "Samurai Spirits - Amakusa Kourin [Model T-3118G]")
[JP] Sony PlayStation (Dec. 25, 1997; "Samurai Spirits - Amakusa Kourin Special [Model SLPS-01171]")
[JP] Sega Saturn (Aug. 06, 1998; "Samurai Spirits Best Collection [Model T-3123G]")
SNK Neo-Geo Pocket [JP] (Dec. 25, 1998; "Samurai Spirits! [Model NEOP00080]")
SNK Neo-Geo Pocket [JP] (Dec. 25, 1998; "Samurai Spirits! [Special Box] [Model NEOP90010]")
[JP] Sony PlayStation (Apr. 24, 2003; "Samurai Spirits - Amakusa Kourin Special [PSone Books] [Model SLPS-91513]")
[JP] Sony PS2 (jul.24, 2008 "Samurai Spirits - Rokuban Shobu [NeoGeo Online Collection Vol.12] [Model SLPS-25839]")
[JP] Nintendo Wii (jul.24, 2008; "Samurai Spirits - Rokuban Shobu [Model RVL-RSSJ-JPN]")
[JP] Sony PS2 (june.18, 2009; "Samurai Spirits - Rokuban Shobu [NeoGeo Online Collection The Best] [Model SLPS-25934]")

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=samsho3h

Samurai Spirits - Zankurou Musouken (c) 1995 SNK [Shin Nihon Kikaku].

Home (AES) release of "Samurai Spirits - Zankurou Musouken [Model NGM-087]".

- TECHNICAL -

GAME ID: NGH-087
GAMe Size: 282 Mega

- TRIVIA -

Released on December 01, 1995 in Japan.

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=samsho3

Samurai Spirits - Zankurou Musouken (c) 1995 SNK.

To have no fear, to slice and die! To survive! Continuing the aesthetic tradition and high quality of the very successful series featuring 12 selectable characters to fight Zankuro, a very powerful demon samurai.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID : 0087

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 12 Mhz)
Sound CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 4 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Yamaha YM2610 (@ 8 Mhz)

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 4
=> [A] Light attack with weapon, [B] Medium attack with weapon, [C] Strong attack with weapon, [D] Kick

- TRIVIA -

Samurai Spirits - Zankurou Musouken was released in October 1995 in Japan. Literally 'Samurai Spirits - Zankuro's Matchless Sword'.

This game is known outside Japan as 'Samurai Shodown III' and in Korea as "Fighters Swords". The full US name for the game is "Samurai Shodown III - Blades of Blood".

Kafuin Gaira is a Buddhist monk whose weapons are giant 'mala', or Buddhist prayer beads. When Gaira wins the first round of a match, he throws a few punches and says 'Tenchu!', which means 'retribution!'. Gaira says a traditional Buddhist prayer for his fallen opponent when he wins the final round of the match. 'Namu amida butsu', Gaira's prayer, is basically 'go to heaven' or 'rest in peace'.

Shizumaru Hisame is a homage to Himura Kenshin (a character from the manga 'Rurouni Kenshin').

Zankuro Minazuki is a homage to Raijyuta Isurugi (another character from 'Rurouni Kenshin').

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Play as Zankuro : This tip only works in 2-Player mode. Select Haohmaru, hold START and then go to the following characters : Genjuro, Basara, Kyoshiro, Ukyo, Rimururu, Haohmaru, Shizumaru, Nakoruru, Hanzo, Amakusa, Gaira, Galford and Shizumaru. Wait until the timer reach 03 and then press A and B.

- SERIES -

1. Samurai Spirits [Model NGM-045] (1993)
2. Shin Samurai Spirits - Haohmaru Jigoku Hen [Model NGM-063] (1994)
3. Samurai Spirits - Zankurou Musouken [Model NGM-087] (1995)
4. Samurai Spirits - Amakusa Kourin [Model NGM-222] (1996)
5. Samurai Spirits 64 (1997)
6. Samurai Spirits 2 - Asura Zanmaden (1998)
7. Kenkaku Ibunroku Yomigaerishi Soukou no Ha - Samurai Spirits Shinshou (1999, PSX)
8. Samurai Spirits Zero [Model NGM-270] (2003)
9. Samurai Spirits Zero Special [Model NGM-272] (2004)
10. Samurai Spirits - Tenkaichi Kenkakuden (2005)
11. Samurai Shodown - Edge of Destiny (2008)

- STAFF -

Executive producer : Eikichi Kawasaki
Programmers : Abe Jaron, Oh!Butch, Magic2papa
Back team : N. Azumi, Mayu K., Yoshimitsu, Yoshi-Ko, Chu, Guchi, Etsuko, Satoni, Has
Special effects by 'POW team'.

* Voice Actors :
Haohmaru : Masaki Usui
Nakoruru : Harumi Ikoma
Rimururu : Tomo Sakurai
Hanzo Hattori : Toshimitsu Arai
Galford : Kazuhiro Inage (Key Inage)
Kyoshiro Senryou : Monster Maetsuka
Ukyo Tachibana, Tokisada Shirou Amakusa : Eiji Yano
Genjuro Kibagami : Kong Kuwata
Basara Kubikiri : Masahiro Nonaka
Shizumaru Hisame : Miho Kaneda
Gaira Kafuin : Kouji Suizu
Zankuro Minazuki : Hiroyuki Arita

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo AES (Dec. 01, 1995; "Samurai Spirits - Zankurou Musouken [Model NGH-087]")
[US] SNK Neo-Geo AES (Dec. 01, 1995; "Samurai Shodown III [Model NGH-087]")
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo CD (Dec. 29, 1995; "Samurai Spirits - Zankurou Musouken [Model NGCD-087]")
[US] SNK Neo-Geo CD (Dec. 29, 1995; "Samurai Shodown III [Model NGCD-087E]")
[JP] Nintendo Game Boy (Aug. 23, 1996; "Nettou Samurai Spirits - Zankuro Musouken [Model DMG-ASZJ-JPN]")
Sony PlayStation  [JP] (Aug. 30, 1996; "Samurai Spirits - Zankurou Musouken [Model SLPS-00350]")
[JP] Sega Saturn (Nov. 08, 1996; "Samurai Spirits - Zankuro Musouken [Model T-3104G]")
[JP] Sega Saturn (Nov. 08, 1996; "Samurai Spirits - Zankuro Musouken [Model T-3106G]")
Sony PlayStation  [JP] (Mar. 20, 1997; "Samurai Spirits - Zankurou Musouken [The Best] [Model SLPS-91024]")
[JP] Sega Saturn (Aug. 06, 1998, "Samurai Spirits Best Collection [Model T-3123G]")
Sony PlayStation  [JP] (Apr. 24, 2003; "Samurai Spirits - Zankurou Musouken [PSone Book] [Model SLPS-91514]")
[JP] Sony PS2 (jul.24, 2008 "Samurai Spirits - Rokuban Shobu [NeoGeo Online Collection Vol.12] [Model SLPS-25839]")
[JP] Nintendo Wii (jul.24, 2008 "Samurai Spirits - Rokuban Shobu [Model RVL-RSSJ-JPN]")
[JP] Sony PS2 (june.18, 2009 "Samurai Spirits - Rokuban Shobu [NeoGeo Online Collection The Best] [Model SLPS-25934]")

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$info=samsh5sp,samsh5sph,samsh5spho

Samurai Spirits Zero Special (c) 2004 SNK Playmore.

An 'upgrade' of the Samurai Spirits Zero episode with its 24 fighters plus 4 more characters : Amakusa, Gaoh, Zankuro and Mizuki. It's probably the ultimate game released on MVS since SNK Playmore decided to develop its future games on AtomisWave.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID : NGM-272

Players : 2
Control : 8-way Joystick
Buttons : 4
=> [A] Light attack, [B] Medium attack, [C] Kick/Break defence, [D] Lie down/Forward roll/Back roll/Small jump/Dodge

- TRIVIA -

Samurai Spirits Zero Special was released in April 2004 in Japan.

This game is known outside Japan as 'Samurai Shodown V Special'.

The original version of the game contain some bugs and characters don't have fatalities. To correct that, SNK Playmore released corrected cartridges (without any problems) which can be recognized by a small NeoGeo sticker on the top right

On the game box, SNK put the following message : 'A final Farewell. To all of our customers, who have purchased NeoGeo rom cartridges up till now, thank you very much. We offer our most heartfelt gratitude for your loyal patronage over these 14 full years and hope for your continued support for our games on the many other platforms we will provide products for in the future. NeoGeo fans rule!'.

Some rumors says that SNK Playmore wanted to release an other upgrade of "Samurai Shodown V" on NeoGeo MVS called "Samurai Shodown V Special Final" including 2 new characters, some new stages and the correction of all the original game's bugs. A location test occurred in Tokyo in october 2004 but then SNK Playmore denied developing this game.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* I'm Not Afraid Of You! : think you are really good? Tap Start 3 times quickly to make your character drop his/her sword. Now show your opponents that the most fearsome weapons are the ones you were born with!

* The game has several last bosses: Amakusa,  Zankuro, Gao and Muzuki. In order to reach the latter bosses, you need to perform a fatality on the former ones. If you don't, you'll instead get a bad ending.

- SERIES -

1. Samurai Spirits [Model NGM-045] (1993)
2. Shin Samurai Spirits - Haohmaru Jigoku Hen [Model NGM-063] (1994)
3. Samurai Spirits - Zankurou Musouken [Model NGM-087] (1995)
4. Samurai Spirits - Amakusa Kourin [Model NGM-222] (1996)
5. Samurai Spirits 64 (1997)
6. Samurai Spirits 2 - Asura Zanmaden (1998)
7. Kenkaku Ibunroku Yomigaerishi Soukou no Ha - Samurai Spirits Shinshou (1999, PSX)
8. Samurai Spirits Zero [Model NGM-270] (2003)
9. Samurai Spirits Zero Special [Model NGM-272] (2004)
10. Samurai Spirits - Tenkaichi Kenkakuden (2005)
11. Samurai Shodown - Edge of Destiny (2008)

- STAFF -

* Voice Actors :
Announcer/Narrator : Satoshi Taki
Haohmaru : Masaki Usui
Nakoruru : Harumi Ikoma
Yoshitora Tokugawa : Hiro Yuki
Mina Majikina : Satsuki Yukino
Ukyo Tachibana : Eiji Yano
Rimururu : Hitomi Nabatame
Yunfei Liu : Satoshi Taki
Kusaregedo the demon : Go Shinomiya
Genjuro Kibagami : Kong Kuwata
Rera : Kyoko Hikami
Kyoshiro Senryo : Monster Maetsuka
Rasetsumaru : Tsuguo Nakajima (formerly Mogami)
Kazuki Kazama : Atsushi Yamanishi
Sogetsu Kazama : Naoki Oikawa
Enja : Shintarou Ohata
Suija : Ikuji Nose
Hanzo Hattori : Toshimitsu Arai
Galford : Mantaro Koichi 
Shizumaru Hisame : Miho Kaneda
Jubei Yagyu : Kiyoshi Kobayashi
Basara : Masahiro Nonaka
Gaira Caffeine : Takeshi Watanabe
Charlotte : Harumi Ikoma
Tam Tam : Toshikazu Nishimura
Zankuro Minazuki : Kazuhiro Nakata
Shiro Tokisada Amakusa : Takashi Ohara
Rashoujin Mizuki : Shizuka Ito
Gaoh Kyougoku Hinowanokami : Kenji Utsumi

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo AES (jul.09, 2004; "Samurai Spirits Zero Special [Model NGH-272]")
[US] SNK Neo-Geo AES (jul.09, 2004; "Samurai Shodown V Special [Model NGH-272]")

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$info=samsho5,samsho5a,samsho5h,samsho5b

Samurai Spirits Zero (c) 2003 SNK Playmore.

A 5th episode of the Samurai Shodown saga on Neo-Geo with 24 selectable characters plus Poppy (secret character) plus 3 bosses (Sankuro the mid-boss, Yumeji the sub-boss and the general Gaoh as final boss).

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID : NGM-270

Players : 2
Control : 8-way Joystick
Buttons : 4
=> [A] Light attack, [B] Medium attack, [C] Kick/Break defence, [D] Lie down/Forward roll/Back roll/Small jump/Dodge

- TRIVIA -

Samurai Spirits Zero was released in October 2003 in Japan. Called ZERO because its story takes place before the first Samurai Spirits episode.

This game is known outside Japan as Samurai Shodown V.

Parts of Shiki's personality are homages to Rei Ayanami (a character from Evangelion) and Mugen no Jyuunin. As a matter of fact, one of her winquotes was taken word-for-word from a quote in Evangelion.

Rera first appeared in a Nakoruru OVA titled 'Nakoruru - Ano hito kara no okurimono'.

Sankuro's name and moves (which call out his henchmen), collectively, contain all the digits from one to nine.

Yumeji's attacks are all borrowed from other characters (for most of them, she morphs into the character she is borrowing the move from). Her Shin Musou Ittou-ryuu Kagerou and Shin Musou Ittou-ryuu Sasame Yuki - Sen are all borrowed from Ukyo's Bust moves in SS4 (Ukyo only has his Slash moves from SS4 in SS5). She also borrows : Charlotte's Bayonette Lunge, Genjuro's Sanren Satsu, Hanzo's Ninpou Mozu Otoshi, Haohmaru's Ougi - Kogetsu Zan, Jubei's Yagyu Shingan Tou - Souha, Kyoshiro's Choubi Jishi, Nakoruru's Annu Mutsube, Rimururu's Rupush Kamui Weison Pekoru, Ukyo's Hiken Tsubame Gaeshi, Yoshitora's Yon no Tachi - Tsubaki.

The creator of the manga 'Rurouni Kenshin', Nobuhiro Watsuki, helped to make 'Yoshitora Tokugawa'. Nobuhiro Watsuki has declared many times his love for the Samurai Spirits video-games. You can find some characters in his work strictly copied from these series.

Card game : In December 2006, Sabertooth Games released a Samurai Shodown V collectable card game set for it's Universal Fighting System (UFS) game.

- UPDATES -

If you put the game in 'Japan territory' via the MVS bios setting, the story mode will be completed by little scenes of dialogs between the different characters.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Costume Color Select : everyone has four outfit colors chosen by A, B, C or D. The (D) button ones seem to be the oddest ones.

* Play as Poppy : on the character select screen highlight 'Kazuki' and then move Left, Right, Left(x2), Right(x2), Left(x2), Right and then button A to select (use buttons B to D instead for different colors).

* I'm Not Afraid Of You! : think you are really good? Tap Start 3 times quickly to make your character drop his/her sword. Now show your opponents that the most fearsome weapons are the ones you were born with!

* Secret Win Pose : if you get a Perfect win in the second round with Galford, one of Poppy's puppies will show up and run forward, only to stumble and land on it's stomach.

* Pursuit Reset : pick Jubei and perform a Big Pursuit when unarmed (press Up+B+C when your opponent is down). The game will reset.

- SERIES -

1. Samurai Spirits [Model NGM-045] (1993)
2. Shin Samurai Spirits - Haohmaru Jigoku Hen [Model NGM-063] (1994)
3. Samurai Spirits - Zankurou Musouken [Model NGM-087] (1995)
4. Samurai Spirits - Amakusa Kourin [Model NGM-222] (1996)
5. Samurai Spirits 64 (1997)
6. Samurai Spirits 2 - Asura Zanmaden (1998)
7. Kenkaku Ibunroku Yomigaerishi Soukou no Ha - Samurai Spirits Shinshou (1999, PSX)
8. Samurai Spirits Zero [Model NGM-270] (2003)
9. Samurai Spirits Zero Special [Model NGM-272] (2004)
10. Samurai Spirits - Tenkaichi Kenkakuden (2005)
11. Samurai Shodown - Edge of Destiny (2008)

- STAFF -

Illustrators : Dorio Takaya, Takkun, Sakuraitohru, Murasaki, Yukikage, Takahashi
Character designers : Nobuhiro Watsuki, Takuro Fuse, Ponkichi, Kentaro Maruta, Gunpom, C. Takahashi, Qon, Yuichi Nakatani, Shinosuke, Kusarehada, Takayanagi K', Takaomi, Shuhei Hayashi, Kano Toyo, Tomisu, Toshirou Hara, Taisuke Satoh, Yasuhiro Nightow
[Marehen Breaker] : Kazuhiro Mikuma, Kengo Tanaka
[Tachyon] : Miyazaki-Atu
[Mechanic Arms] : Manabu Sakai, Yoshiki Oyabu, Toshiharu Tagami
??? : Daisuke Shimada
??? : Morita Kazuro, Ken, Hide. H, M. Kawamura, Nakamura Yoshihiro
Music Compose : Suemura Kennosuke, Kuroiwa Haruhiko
Arrange & Sound Design : Suemura Kennosuke
Sound Effect : Miyazaki Seiji
Sound Director : Matsuo Atsuya, Hide. H
Producer : Yasuo Tanaka

* Voice actors :
Announcer/Narrator : Satoshi Taki
Haohmaru : Masaki Usui
Nakoruru : Harumi Ikoma
Yoshitora Tokugawa : Hiro Yuki
Mina Majikina : Satsuki Yukino
Ukyo Tachibana : Eiji Yano
Rimururu : Hitomi Nabatame
Yunfei : Satoshi Taki
Kusaregedo the demon : Go Shinomiya
Genjuro Kibagami : Kong Kuwata
Rera : Kyoko Hikami
Kyoshiro Senryo : Monster Maetsuka
Rasetsumaru : Tsuguo Nakajima (formerly Mogami)
Kazuki Kazama : Atsushi Yamanishi
Sogetsu Kazama : Naoki Oikawa
Enja : Shintarou Ohata
Suija : Ikouji Nose
Hanzo Hattori : Toshimitsu Arai
Galford : Mantaro Koichi
Shizumaru Hisame : Miho Kaneda
Jubei Yagyu : Kiyoshi Kobayashi
Basara : Masahiro Nonaka
Gaira Caffeine : Takeshi Watanabe
Charlotte : Harumi Ikoma
Tam Tam : Toshikazu Nishimura
Sankuro Yorozu : Tomoyuki Shimura 
Yumeji Kurokouchi : Mitsuki Saiga
Gaoh Kyougoku Hinowanokami : Kenji Utsumi

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo AES (Dec. 11, 2003; "Samurai Spirits Zero [Model NGH-270]")
[JP] Sony PS2 (jul.29, 2004; "Samurai Spirits Zero [Model SLPS-25346]")
[JP] Sony PS2 (???? ??, 2005; "Samurai Spirits Zero [SNK Best Collection] [Model ????-?????]")
[JP] Sony PS2 (jul.24, 2008 "Samurai Spirits - Rokuban Shobu [NeoGeo Online Collection Vol.12] [Model SLPS-25839]")
[JP] Nintendo Wii (jul.24, 2008 "Samurai Spirits - Rokuban Shobu [Model RVL-RSSJ-JPN]")
[JP] Sony PS2 (june.18, 2009 "Samurai Spirits - Rokuban Shobu [NeoGeo Online Collection The Best] [Model SLPS-25934]")

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$info=samshoh

Samurai Spirits (c) 1993 SNK [Shin Nihon Kikaku].

- TECHNICAL -

[Model NGH-045]
118 Mega

- TRIVIA -

Released on August 11, 1993 in Japan.

For more information about the game itself, please see the original MVS entry : "Samurai Shodown [Model NGM-045]".

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$info=samsho

Samurai Spirits (c) 1993 SNK.

The game that put the Neo-Geo on the map! Superb weapons-based fighter featuring 12 characters, bonus rounds and one end boss.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID : NGM-045

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 4
=> With weapon : [A] Light attack, [B] Medium attack
=> Without weapon : [A] Light punch, [B] Medium punch, [C] Light kick, [D] Medium kick

- TRIVIA -

Samurai Spirits was released in July 1993 in Japan.

The game is known outside Japan as 'Samurai Shodown'

Samurai Spirits is the first game that introduced weapon fighting into the fighting game genre. The game used an upgraded version of the scaling graphics engine that was originally featured in "Art of Fighting".

Samurai Spirits also started SNK's reputation for their unique style of Engrish, known as SNKgrish in their games.

Unlike "Mortal Kombat", the usage of blood in this game is generally accepted, and the decision to replace blood with 'white blood' remains a sore point among fans of this series.

Samurai Spirits is considered by some to portray Japanese culture and language effectively. Unlike most American versions of Japanese video games, the characters in this game (including the announcer) generally speak fluent Japanese with subtitles, and traditional Japanese music is often heard during gameplay. Samurai Shodown takes most of its characters from either historical sources or characters from the Ninja Scroll anime. In fact, a few designers that worked on Samurai Shodown also worked on the Ninja Scroll anime...

Haohmaru is based on the legendary samurai Miyamoto Musashi (1584-1645), whose fighting philosophy heavily influenced that of the Haohmaru character.

Ukyo Tachibana is Based on Sasaki Kojiro Genryu (1572-1612), Musashi's skilled rival.

Jubei Yagyu is based on the historical Yagyu Jubei Mitsuyoshi (1606-1644), who was a sword instructor to the Tokugawa shogunate. The Yagyu clan was a famous clan of samurai.

Hattori Hanzo Masashige (1541-1596) was the most famous of the Iga Ninja clan. He was a genius at leading night raids on forts and fiefs and became a feared assassin. Under his leadership, Iga Ninja became so notorious that Nobunaga felt it necessary to obliterate the Iga Ninja clan.

Wan-Fu seems to be a combination of two famous Chinese warriors. The first is a famous Chinese swordsman who was a rebel during the Ch'ing Dynasty. His name was Wang Ts-bin Wu, but he became known as Da Dao Wang Wu ('Big Scimitar Wang Wu'). The second lead bases Wan Fu upon the ancient, almost legendary, founder of the Chou Dynasty, King Wu Wang.

Kyoshiro Senryo is based on Nemuri Kyoshiro, a fictional character created by Shibata Tosaburo. 'Kyoshiro' translates to something like 'deranged fellow'. Tosaburo's Kyoshiro had nothing to do with kabuki theater as does Samurai Shodown Kyoshiro. Kyoshiro's weapon is called a naginata.

Charlotte is based on a character in the manga 'The Rose of Versailles' by Riyoko Ikeda (1972).

Gen-an Shiranui looks much like Mushizo, the hunchback demon of Ninja Scroll. Gen-an's weapon is modeled after the weapon wielded by Shijima, the shadow demon, from Ninja Scroll. Although they share a surname, Gen-an is not a relative of Mai Shiranui of the Fatal Fury/King of Fighters series.

Amakusa Shiro Tokisada (1622-1638) led a Christian uprising against the Tokugawa shogunate in the Shimabara region of Japan.

Nakoruru is a homage to Sailor Moon.

A 'Kuroko' is a traditional Kabuki theater stagehand. They are traditionally dressed in black and took care of scenery and other behind-the-scenes needs during a Kabuki performance, just like modern theater stagehands. In the case of Samurai Shodown, Kuroko is the referee for each match in Samurai Shodown I and II. The black strip of fabric hanging over a Kuroko's face is to signify that they are not part of the Kabuki performance, just helping with the props. The red and white flags that Kuroko has are used in traditional martial arts matches, where each successful hit gets the corresponding fighter's flag raised.

Mai Shiranui (of Fatal Fury) appears in Haohmaru's and Gen-An's endings.

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Samurai Spirits - PCCB-00135) on 17/09/1993.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Alternate Costume Colors : Highlight a fighter at the character selection screen and press D.

* Sleeping Mamahaha : This is just hilarious! To see this while playing as Nakoruru simply stand still, after a 8 secs or so Mamahaha will land on Nakoruru's shoulder, start yawning and then it will fall asleep!

* Poppy's Puppies : To see a truly cool & funny secret pose with Galford, Get a PERFECT against an opponent while unarmed. You must finish the battle with anything except a throw though!

* Tam Tam's Broken Ending : If you use continues while beating the game with Tam Tam, you will miss a part of the whole ending (You can't see his real face). Beat the game with one credit in order to see his face.

* Wan-fu's Sword Explosion Bug : While playing as Wan-fu trap an enemy against the edge of the screen then perform the Explosive Sword Drop with the B button (HCB + B) to throw the sword and land next to the opponent. Since most players as well as the CPU are likely to block the move, crouch and hit them with the C button (a short kick). This will make the move unblockable and causes tons of damage!

* Cut-proof Characters? : Sometimes a finishing slash will cut most opponents in half, however some characters (these being Kyoshiro & Amakusa) cannot be cut in half!

- SERIES -

1. Samurai Spirits [Model NGM-045] (1993)
2. Shin Samurai Spirits - Haohmaru Jigoku Hen [Model NGM-063] (1994)
3. Samurai Spirits - Zankurou Musouken [Model NGM-087] (1995)
4. Samurai Spirits - Amakusa Kourin [Model NGM-222] (1996)
5. Samurai Spirits 64 (1997)
6. Samurai Spirits 2 - Asura Zanmaden (1998)
7. Kenkaku Ibunroku Yomigaerishi Soukou no Ha - Samurai Spirits Shinshou (1999, PSX)
8. Samurai Spirits Zero [Model NGM-270] (2003)
9. Samurai Spirits Zero Special [Model NGM-272] (2004)
10. Samurai Spirits - Tenkaichi Kenkakuden (2005)
11. Samurai Shodown - Edge of Destiny (2008)

- STAFF -

Executive producer : Eikichi Kawasaki
Main producer : Rocket Queen
Producers : Bonehead Ken, Satoppe-, Tomi Yan, Fukui Tomoaki
Front designers : Violetche Nakamoto, Miki, Masami Tanaka, K.Shintani-F91, Go-Go (Dave Bros), Kazu, The.Fool, Ryu! (Dave Bros), Erina.Makino
Back designers : Fukui Tomoaki, AAA, Keisen (as Oshioki-Keisen), Yasupuu, N. Azumi (as N. Azumichan), Okap-, Mayu K., Erina.Makino
Programmers : Nishidon, K2, Zombi Abe, Cyber Kondo, Z'N
Music : Tate Norio, Masahiko Hataya (Papaya)
Submissions : Ryu! (Dave Bros), AAA, Miki, Okap-, The.Fool, Mayu K., Erina.Makino

* Character designers :
Jubei Yagyu : Masami Tanaka, Miki, Kuma.Bee, Kazu
Earthquake : Go-Go (Dave Bros), K.Shintani-F91, Kazu
Hanzo Hattori : Violetche Nakamoto, Keisen (as Oshioki.Keisen), K.Shintani-F91, N. Azumi (as N. Azumichan), The.Fool, Erina.Makino
Ukyo Tachibana : Kazu, The.Fool
Wan-fu : Go-Go (Dave Bros), K.Shintani-F91, The.Fool, Ryu! (Dave Bross)
Gen-an Shiranui : K.Shintani-F91, Keisen (as Oshioki-Keisen), N. Azumi (as N. Azumichan), Ryu! (Dave Bross), The.Fool
Galford : Violetche Nakamoto, Keisen (as Oshioki-Keisen), K.Shintani-F91, N. Azumi (as N. Azumichan), The.Fool, Erina.Makino
Kyoshiro Senryo : Kazu, Erina.Makino
Tam Tam : Miki, Masami Tanaka, Go-Go (Dave Bros)
Haohmaru : K.Shintani-F91, Erina.Makino
Nakoruru : Violetche Nakamoto, Keisen (as Oshioki-Keisen), The.Fool
Shirou Tokisada : Miki
Charlotte, Poppy : Kuwa.Bee
Mamahaha : Erina.Makino

* Voice actors :
Haomaru, Hanzo Hattori, Galford, Earthquake : Masaki Usui
Jubei Yagyu, Wan-Fu : Takayuki Sakai
Ukyo Tachibana, Gen-an Shiranui, Shiro Tokisada Amakusa : Eiji Yano
Kyoshiro Senryo, Tam Tam : Kazuhiro Inage (Key Inage)
Nakoruru, Charlotte : Harumi Ikoma

Special thanks : M.Mioshi, Yama.O, Yama.R, Yama.P, Honda.NR, Sk, Yokosuka. Boy, Morioka, Chika2, J.Mikami, Miyakami, Atsushi, Iwata Kun, Y.Yoshida, Yoshi.Kaneko, Speaker.R, Magi2spapa, Ma2, D.S.K

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo AES Aug. 11, 1993 "Samurai Spirits [Model NGH-045]"
[US] SNK Neo-Geo AES Aug. 11, 1993 "Samurai Shodown [Model NGH-045]"
[JP] Nintendo Game Boy june.30, 1994 "Nettou Samurai Spirits [Model DMG-X4J]"
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo CD Sep. 09, 1994 "Samurai Spirits [Model NGCD-045]"
[JP] Nintendo Super Famicom Sep. 22, 1994 "Samurai Spirits [Model SHVC-A7SJ-JPN]"
Nintendo Super NES [US] Nov. ??, 1994 "Samurai Shodown [Model SNS-P-A7SE]"
Nintendo Super NES [EU] ???. ??, 1994 "Samurai Shodown [Model SNS-P-A7SP]"
[US] Nintendo Game Boy Nov. ??, 1994 "Samurai Shodown [Model DMG-X4]"
[JP] Sega Mega Drive Nov. 19, 1994 "Samurai Spirits [Model G-4127]"
[EU] Sega Mega Drive ???. ??, 1994 "Samurai Shodown [Model 670-6282-50]"
[US] Sega Genesis ???. ??, 1994 "Samurai Shodown [Model T-103066]"
[JP] Sega Game Gear Dec. 16, 1994 "Samurai Spirits [Model T-103027]"
Sega Game Gear [US] ???. ??, 1994 "Samurai Shodown"
Panasonic 3DO [JP] Feb. 10, 1995 "Samurai Shodown [Model FZ-SJ3155]"
[US] Sega CD ???. ??, 1995 "Samurai Shodown [Model T-60175]"
Sega Mega-CD [EU] ???. ??, 1995 Samurai Shodown
[JP] Sony PlayStation Mar. 26, 1998 "Samurai Spirits - Kenkaku Yubinan Pack [Model SLPS-00647]"
[JP] Sony PS2 jul.24, 2008 "Samurai Spirits - Rokuban Shobu [NeoGeo Online Collection Vol.12] [Model SLPS-25839]"
[JP] Nintendo Wii jul.24, 2008 "Samurai Spirits - Rokuban Shobu [Model RVL-RSSJ-JPN]"
[US] Sony PS2 may.05, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model SLUS-21724]"
[US] Sony PSP may.05, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model ULUS-10338]"
[KO] Sony PS2 may.29, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model SLKA-25424]"
[US] Nintendo Wii jul.29, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model RVL-P-RNCE]"
[EU] Sony PSP Oct. 17, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model ULES-01105]"
[EU] Nintendo Wii Oct. 31, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model RVL-P-RJZP]"
[EU] Sony PS2 Nov. 21, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model SLES-55232]"
[KO] Nintendo Wii Feb. 24, 2009 "Samurai Spirits - Rokuban Shobu [Model RVL-RSSK-KOR]"
[US] Sony PS2 Mar. 24, 2009 "Samurai Shodown Anthology [Model SLUS-21629]"
[US] Sony PSP Mar. 24, 2009 "Samurai Shodown Anthology [Model ULUS-10401]"
[EU] Sony PSP Mar. 27, 2009 "Samurai Shodown Anthology [Model ULES-01211]"
[EU] Nintendo Wii Apr. 04, 2009 "Samurai Shodown Anthology [Model RVL-RSSE]"
[JP] Sony PSP May. 21, 2009 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model ULJS-193]"
[JP] Sony PS2 june.18, 2009 "Samurai Spirits - Rokuban Shobu [NeoGeo Online Collection The Best] [Model SLPS-25934]"
[JP] Sony PSP june.24, 2010 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [SNK Best Collection] [Model ULJS-00297]"
Sony PS3 [PlayStation Store] Dec. ??, 2010 

* COMPUTERS:
FM Towns [JP] ???. ??, 1995 "Samurai Spirits [Model JH-012]"

* OTHERS:
Mobile Phones [US] jul.15, 2004 Samurai Shodown

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=wofhfh
Arcade Video game published 24 years ago:

Sangokushi II - Huo Fenghuang (c) 1999 Unknown.

Chinese bootleg of "Sangokushi II".

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=wofa,wofabl
Arcade Video game published 31 years ago:

Sangokushi II (c) 1992 Capcom Company, Limited.

Asian version. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese version entry; "Tenchi wo Kurau II - Sekiheki no Tatakai [B-Board 91634B-2]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the CP System hardware.
B-Board #: 91634B-2

- TRIVIA -

Sangokushi II was released in October 1992 in Asia. It is known in Japan as "Tenchi wo Kurau II - Sekiheki no Tatakai" and in the rest of the world as "Warriors of Fate".

The title of this game translates from Japanese as 'Annals of the Three Kingdoms II'.

- SERIES -

1. Tenchi wo Kurau (1989)
2. Sangokushi II (1992)

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
FM Towns Marty (ported by Koei)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=slammast,slammastu,slampic,slampic2
Arcade Video game published 30 years ago:

Saturday Night Slam Masters (c) 1993 Capcom Company, Limited.

Export release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese release entry; "Muscle Bomber - The Body Explosion [B-Board 91634B-2]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System" hardware.
B-Board #: 91635B-2

- TRIVIA -

Saturday Night Slam Masters was released in July 1993 outside Japan. It is known in Japan as "Muscle Bomber - The Body Explosion". 

Certain wrestlers had their names changed from Japanese audiences. They are as follows :
Biff Slamkovich - Aleksey Zalazof.
Gunloc - Lucky Colt.
The Great Oni - Mysterious Budo.
El Stingray - El Stinger.
Alexander The Grater - Sheep The Royal.
King Rasta Mom - Missing IQ Gomes.
Jumbo Flap Jack - Kimala The Bouncer.
Scorpion - Astro.

- SERIES -

1. Saturday Night Slam Masters [CP-S No. 27] (1993)
2. Muscle Bomber Duo - Ultimate Team Battle [CP-S No. 28] (1993)
3. Ring of Destruction - Slammasters II [CP-S II No. 06] (1994)

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES: 
[AU] Nintendo SNES (1994) [Model SNSP-ZW] 
[US] Nintendo SNES (june.1994) [Model SNS-ZW] 
[EU] Nintendo SNES (sept.1994) [Model SNSP-ZW-EUR] 
[US] Sega Genesis (1994) 
[EU] Sega Mega Drive (1994)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=samsho2k,samsho2ka

Saulabi Spirits (c) 1994 SNK [Shin Nihon Kikaku].

Korean release of "Samurai Shodown II".

- TRIVIA -

Sometimes also known as "Jin Saulabi Tu Hon".

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=neobattl
Arcade Video game published 31 years ago:

SD Gundam Neo Battling (c) 1992 Banpresto.

A vertically scrolling shooter.

- TECHNICAL -

Game ID : BP923

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 16 Mhz)
Sound Chips : X1-010 (@ 16 Mhz)

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 1

- TRIVIA -

SD Gundam Neo Battling was released in November 1992 in Japan only.

SD stands from 'Super Deformed'.

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=selfeena
Arcade Video game published 32 years ago:

Sel Feena (c) 1991 East Technology.

- TECHNICAL -

Taito B System hardware

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 12 Mhz), Zilog Z80 (@ 4 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Yamaha YM2610 (@ 8 Mhz)

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 3

- TRIVIA -

Released in September 1991.

- STAFF -

Directer : Shimachan
Programmers : H. Ikeda, Junia, Kim, T. Kakinuma, Tony.Snow, Y. Yoshiura
Sound : Tsuda
Character designers : Irisawa, Kanuma, Kawashima, Nagoshi, Sakai
Supervisor : Takioka
Special thanks to : A. Inoue, E. Ogura, Y. Katsumata

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=sengoku3,sengoku3a

Sengoku 3 (c) 2001 SNK.

Sengoku 3 is a horizontally-scrolling beat-em-up for one or two players that differs from other games in the genre due to the complexity of its chain-combo based combat system. Rather than being limited to that standard one attack button, one jump button and a life-draining special move, Sengoku's button set-up is more akin to a one-on-one fighting game, with a light attack, heavy attack and long-ranged attack button, all of which can be utilised to create combos. 

Rather than simply mashing the attack buttons to create combo attacks, each of the game's four playable characters has an arsenal of special moves using directional inputs. Each character also has a super bar and several super moves that use varying levels of energy from this bar.

Sengoku 3 also introduces throwing weapons to the series but rather than just picking up dropped items and using them immediately, the game allows players to stash ranged weapons (but only one type at a time) including shuriken, bombs and kunai. As well as hitting enemies from distance, these weapons can also be integrated into players' attack combos.

Each stage end with a boss fight and two of the game's end-of-level bosses, once defeated, can later be selected as playable characters for the final two stages. The game's four playable characters (and two bosses who can become playable) are:

* Kegatsura
A Ninja and the main character of Sengoku 3. He's slower and stronger than average. His first super move is a diagonal downward beam of energy from his sword. For his second super move, he energizes himself with electricity and dashes forwards, slicing anything in his path as he streaks across the screen. He can also use the classic ninja staple; the Izuna Drop. His ultimate move is a lightning spell. 

* Falcon
A Spanish Ninja adept at very long combos. His first super move is a flame projectile shaped like a phoenix. His second is a dashing move. If he connects with an enemy during the dash, he performs a quick combo ending with a powerful flaming sword uppercut. His ultimate is a fire spell. 

* Kurenai
A female Ninja, Kurenai is the fastest character but also the weakest. She has excellent combo potential and is good for keeping multiple enemies at bay. Her first special is a spinning tornado slash. Her second special involves her creating three duplicates and dashing in various directions, hitting anything in her vicinity. Her ultimate attack summons a bunch of kaede leaves that damage everything on screen. 

* Kongoh
Kongoh is the strongest and slowest character. His first super move involves him stunning his enemy and then throwing them. His second is merely him tossing his rod forward. His ultimate attack creates a rain of falling iron rods. 

* Byakki
Byakki is one of the bosses that joins the fight after the third mission. He summons a demon from the underworld during most of his attacks and his first super move makes the demon's claw rise from the ground, hitting any enemy near it multiple times. His second summons a demon who then slashes any enemies directly in front of it. In his ultimate attack, he summons the demon who then causes meteors to strike all the enemies on screen.

* Okuni
Okuni is the second boss who, when defeated, becomes playable, also after the third mission. She mainly focuses on long range attacks and her combos are somewhat lacking. Her first move is a simple projectile wind burst. Her second is an electric attack using her fan. Her ultimate attack is a tornado of flower petals.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID : 0261

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 4
=> [A] Weapon attack/Special attack 1, [B] Barehanded blast/Special attack 2, [C] Jump, [D] Projectile toss

- TRIVIA -

Released in October 2001.

Developed by Noise Factory (their first game) for the original SNK Corp. (SNK's last official title).

Sony Music Entertainment / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Sengoku Densyo 2001 Original Soundtrack - SCDC-00102) on 18/07/2001.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Play as Okuni and Byakki: Finish China (Easy), Italy (Hard), and Japan (Hard) - This tip was given on the original game flyer.

Sengoku 3's greatest asset is the sheer number attacking options available to players. There are numerous ways to start a combo, the most obvious of which is to simply walk up to an enemy and start hitting the light attack button, but at any time during a light attack combo you can interrupt with a heavy attack - a slower, more powerful attack that usually brings a weapon into the picture - and depending on how many light attacks you've already executed, the heavy attack will be different. 

You can usually use two or three heavy attacks in succession, with the last one typically ending the combo, but in the same chain you can also go back to light attacks after a heavy attack. If your timing is good, it's possible to 'juggle' an enemy as they fly away from you using various techniques, like dashing by double-tapping the forward button. 

Dashing into an enemy damages them slightly, knocks them away from your character and sets up a juggle opportunity, even if the enemy you dash into is already airborne. By using these methods in combination with good timing, you can keep combos going for 20-30 hits.

- SERIES -

1. Sengoku Densyo [Model NGM-017] (1991)
2. Sengoku Densyo 2 [Model NGM-040] (1993)
3. Sengoku 3  [Model NGM-261] (2001)

- STAFF -

Producer, planner : Keiko Ijuu
Sub planners : Masahiro Maeda, Hidenari Mamoto
Main programmer : Hidenari Mamoto
Sub programmer : Kazuaki Ezato
Character designers : Masahiro Maeda, Yosikazu Nisikawa, Nana Isiguro
Background designers : Masafumi Fuji, Miyuki Okazaki
Sound producer -Studio Aqua- : Toshikazu Tanaka
Voice artists -Character Land- : Koreya Nannda, Yukihiro Fujimoto, Syuusuke Sada, Takahiro Araki, Sayuri Koizumi, Runnna Wasio, Tika Iwami

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=sngkace,sngkacea
Arcade Video game published 30 years ago:

Sengoku Ace (c) 1993 Psikyo.

A vertically scrolling shooter.

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU : Motorola 68EC020 (@ 16 Mhz)
Sound CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 4 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Yamaha YM2610 (@ 8 Mhz)

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2 (FIRE, BOMB)

- TRIVIA -

Released in April 1993.

The title of this game translates from Japanese as 'Civil War Ace'.

This game is known outside Japan as "Samurai Aces".

Sengoku Ace is the very first game developed by Psikyo (Psikyo was founded in 1992 in Tokyo).

Note : There are 22 different endings!

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Extra features : If you hold Test Button + PL1 Button 1 during boot, you get extra options in the test menu. A level skip, BG test usually etc...

- SERIES -

1. Sengoku Ace (1993)
2. Sengoku Blade - Sengoku Ace Episode II (1996)
3. Sengoku Cannon - Sengoku Ace Episode III (2005, Sony PSP)

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] Sony PS2 (Dec. 02, 2004) "Sengoku Ace & Sengoku Blade [Psikyo Shooting Collection Vol.2] [Model SLPM-62563]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=sengoku2

Sengoku Densyo 2 (c) 1993 SNK [Shin Nihon Kikaku].

The Mad Shogun rises again, this time taking over various periods in the time stream. Now you're permanently armed with a sword and must save different eras from the wrath of the Mad Shogun!

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID : NGM-040

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 4
=> On foot > [A] Slice [B] Sever [C] Jump [D] Change
=> On a horse > [A] Forward attack [B] Rear attack

- TRIVIA -

Sengoku Densyo 2 (translates from Japanese as 'Civil War Tradition 2') was released in Febuary 1993 in Japan.

This game is known outside Japan as just 'Sengoku 2'.

Reviews:
[FR] May 1993 - Consoles + No. 20: 83/100 (AES version)

- SERIES -

1. Sengoku Densyo [Model NGM-017] (1991)
2. Sengoku Densyo 2 [Model NGM-040] (1993)
3. Sengoku 3  [Model NGM-261] (2001)

- STAFF -

Producer : Yanbaru
Director : Sick Of
Programmers : Shinchan (as 'Shinchan-SSSS'), Nuckey Nuckey Fuji Nuckey
Graphic Designers : U-Rakuchou, M-Marohie, Mic-Senbey, Dadamushi, Ui---su Shio, Guillotine Kama
Music : Tate Norio
Sound effects : Yoko

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
SNK Neo-Geo (Apr.9, 1993; "Sengoku Densyo 2 [Model NGH-040]")
SNK Neo-Geo CD (Mar.17, 1995; "Sengoku Densyo 2 [Model NGCD-040]")

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=sengokuh

Sengoku Densyo (c) 1991 SNK [Shin Nihon Kikaku].

- TECHNICAL -

[Model NGH-017]
55 Mega

- TRIVIA -

Released on July 1, 1991 in Japan.

Related MVS version : "Sengoku [Model NGM-017]".

Reviews:
September 1991 - Consoles + N.1 [FR]: 38/100

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=sengoku

Sengoku Densyo (c) 1991 SNK [Shin Nihon Kikaku].

Two warriors, endowed with spiritual gifts, fight to stop the resurrection of the Mad Shogun. Lots of very interesting enemies and beautiful scenery. The player also has the ability to morph into different fighters.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID : NGM-017

Players : 2
Control : 8-Way Joystick
Buttons : 3
=> [A] Attack [B] Jump [C] Change

- TRIVIA -

Sengoku Densyo (translates from Japanese as 'Civil War Tradition') was released on February 12, 1991 in Japan.

This game is known outside Japan as just Sengoku. 

The game includes different items which change the special attacks :
* Green : When 10 green items are collected, life gauge gain 1up
* Red : Samurai sword
* Blue : Double sword
* Purple : Holy sword
* Gold : Unknown effect

In level 2, there is a store called 'Boutique Athena' in the background with the original Athena logo from 1986's "Athena" by SNK.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

Hold the attack button for a couple seconds to launch a burst of energy from the player's fist.

There are some samurais whose swords can be broken if the player bashes the attack button enough times. remember that this trick can be done when the player is in his normal form and bare-handed (no sword power-ups).

- SERIES -

1. Sengoku Densyo [Model NGM-017] (1991)
2. Sengoku Densyo 2 [Model NGM-040] (1993)
3. Sengoku 3  [Model NGM-261] (2001)

- STAFF -

Producer : Yanbaru
Programmers : Shinchan (as 'Shinchan-SSS'), Oh!Butch
Sound : Tate Norio, Toshio Shimizm (as Shimizum)
Pictures : U-Rakuchou, Marohie, Mic-Senbey, Chulip-Nao, Dadamusi, Sick of
Game Assistants : Dirty-H-Miyamaki, Phantom Iwata, HTMS-Sugimori
Directors : Tama, Moonmin

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo AES (jul.1, 1991; "Sengoku Densyo [Model NGH-017]")
[JP] Nintendo Super Famicom (Sept. 22, 1993; "Sengoku Densyo [Model SHVC-G5]")
[JP] Sega Mega CD (Dec. 28, 1993; "Sengoku Densyo [Model T-24034]")
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo CD (Mar. 17, 1995; "Sengoku Densyo [Model NGCD-017]")
[US] Sony PS2 may.05, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model SLUS-21724]"
[US] Sony PSP may.05, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model ULUS-10338]"
[KO] Sony PS2 may.29, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model SLKA-25424]"
[US] Nintendo Wii jul.29, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model RVL-P-RNCE]"
[EU] Sony PSP Oct. 17, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model ULES-01105]"
[EU] Nintendo Wii Oct. 31, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model RVL-P-RJZP]"
[EU] Sony PS2 Nov. 21, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model SLES-55232]"
[JP] Sony PSP May. 21, 2009 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model ULJS-193]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=mercsj
Arcade Video game published 33 years ago:

戦場の狼II (c) 1990 Capcom.
(Senjou no Ookami II)

The US faces a grave crisis! The former president has been kidnapped by a group of revolutionaries while on a trip on Central Africa meant to promote world peace. Take control of three highly skilled anti-terrorist soldiers and venture through enemy lines to save the former president & annihilate the rebel army in the process. Features solid graphics & sound, plenty of weapons & vehicles to use and hulking bosses to defeat.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System" hardware
B-Board ID: 89625B-1

Players: Up to 3
Control per player: 8-way joystick
Buttons per player: 2

- TRIVIA -

Senjou no Ookami II was released in March 1990 in Japan. It is known outside Japan as "Mercs". 

The title of this game translates from Japanese as 'Wolf of the Battlefield II'.

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (G.S.M. Capcom 3 - PCCB-00030) on May 21, 1990.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* At the end of Stage 1, a large plane rises in front of the player. If you stand .25 to .5 inches up from the bottom of the cliff, and line up so your bullets will hit just to the right of the plane's center, it cannot hit you with its cannon. This takes practice.

- SERIES -

1. Senjou no Ookami (1985)
2. Senjou no Ookami II [CP-S No. 09] (1990)

- STAFF -

Chief designer : S. Okano, Tokuro Fujiwara (A. Kume), Kijima
Character designers : Hitoshi Nishio, T. Hayashi
Sound : M. Gotoh
Sound programmer : Yoshihiro Sakaguchi (Y. Sakaguchi)
Programmers : M. Akahori, T. Ohta, Y. Matsui

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES: 
[JP] Sega Mega Drive (sept.27, 1991) "Senjou no Ookami II [Model G-4051]" 
[JP] Sega Saturn (nov.12, 1998) "Capcom Generation Dai 4 Shou Kokou no Eiyuu [Model T-1235G]" 
[JP] Sony PlayStation (nov.12, 1998) "Capcom Generation Dai 4 Shou Kokou no Eiyuu [Model SLPS-01701]" 
[JP] Sony PS2 (mar.2, 2006) "Capcom Classics Collection [Model SLPM-66317]" 

* HANDHELDS: 
[JP] Sony PSP (sept.7, 2006) "Capcom Classics Collection [Model ULJM-05104]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=2392&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=shadoww,shadowwa
Arcade Video game published 35 years ago:

Shadow Warriors (c) 1988 Tecmo.

Export release. Game developed in Japan. See the original for more information; "Ninja Ryukenden".

- TRIVIA -

Even though the title screen says 1988, Shadow Warriors was released in February 1989 in Europe.

- SERIES -

1. Shadow Warriors (1988)
2. Shadow Warriors (1989, NES) 
3. Shadow Warriors II - The Dark Sword of Chaos (1990, NES) 
4. Ninja Gaiden (2004, Microsoft XBOX)
5. Ninja Gaiden Black (2005, Microsoft XBOX)
6. Ninja Gaiden Sigma (2007, PS3)
7. Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword (2007, DS)
8. Ninja Gaiden II (2008, XBOX 360)
9. Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 (2009, PS3)
10. Ninja Gaiden 3 (2012, PS3, XBOX 360)
11. Ninja Gaiden 3 - Razor's Edge (2013, XBOX 360, PS3, Wii U)

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES: 
[EU] Nintendo NES (aug.15, 1991) "Shadow Warriors [Model NES-66-EUR]" 
[EU] Sega Master System (1992) "Ninja Gaiden [Model 670-2262-50]" 
Nintendo Wii [Virtual Console Arcade] [EU] [AU] (nov.13, 2009) "Ninja Gaiden" 

* HANDHELDS: 
[EU] Sega Game Gear (1991) "Ninja Gaiden" 
Sega Game Gear [BR] (1991) by Tec Toy

* COMPUTERS:
[EU] Sinclair ZX Spectrum (1990)
[EU] Commodore C64 (1990)
[EU] Amstrad CPC (1990)
[EU] Commodore Amiga (1990)
[EU] Atari ST (1990)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=matrim,matrimbl

Shin Gouketsuji Ichizoku Toukon - Matrimelee (c) 2002 Playmore.

Revived from the New Power Instinct series, the Goketsuji clan has appeared newly on the MVS Neo-Geo! In addition to the familiar 11 characters, individual fresh 4 join in the heated Head Decision Match. You will be overwhelmed by the spectacular graphics and the BGM. Attention to the memorial Marriage Battle over the right to the throne and get ready!

- TECHNICAL -

SNK Neo-Geo MVS harware
Game ID : NGM-266

Players : 2
Control : 8-way Joystick
Buttons : 4
=> [A] Weak Punch, [B] Weak Kick, [C] Strong Punch, [D] Strong Kick

- TRIVIA -

Developed by Noise Factory & Atlus. Also licensed to SNK Playmore for manufacture and distribution.

Even if the copyright year shows 2002, this game was officialy released in public March 2003.

The title of this game translates from Japanese as 'True Gouketsuji Family Fighting Spirit - Matrimelee' ('Gouketsuji' is literally means 'Overpowering Blood Temple Family').

Known outside Japan as 'Matrimelee',

Some characters from the Power Instinct series received some minor name changes in this game :
Thin Nen => Chinen
Otane => Tane
Oume => Ume
Kurara => Clara
Annie => Anny
Pochi => Poochy

Also the transformation sequences from previous games has been almost completely ditched in this game (with the only exceptions of  super moves from Kanji, Clara & Princess Sissy; as well as one of Tane's win poses).

While there have been a few fighting games that feature a vocal track as BGM (Roll's BGM in "Marvel vs. Capcom - Clash of Super Heroes", Arina's BGM in "Waku Waku 7" & Roomy's BGM in "Galaxy Fight - Universal Warriors" are but a few examples of this), the Japanese version of this game's BGM features an unprecedented number of excellent & quite hilarious vocal tracks for many stages. Chinen BGM is nothing short of awesome!

Jones is the only selectable character from "Rage of the Dragons" that won't challenge you on the 3rd & 5th battle. This is odd...

Abubo ("Rage of the Dragons"' sub-boss character) makes an unlikely cameo as one of Princess Sissy box surprises!

Kang Jae-Mo ("Rage of the Dragons" wrestler) makes a hilarious cameo in one of Jones' super moves.

Default highscore table (Ranking) :
RANK SCORE NAME
1ST 0500000 PLM
2ND 0450000 ATL
3RD 0400000 MTM
4TH 0350000 NEO
5TH 0300000 GEO

Noise Factory released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Shin Gouketsuji Ichizoku Toukon - Matrimelee / Original Soundtrack) on May 01, 2003.

- UPDATES -

The US version of this game completely removed all the vocal tracks from the Japanese version and are replaced with the BGM of the "Rage of the Dragons" guest characters, causing those tracks to be recycled quite a few times. Such strange issue had already been seen in a few previous Neo-Geo games such as the Magical Drop games.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Enable "Rage of the Dragons" Characters : At the character selection screen, press Up(x4), Down(x3), Left(x2) and Right. The screen will go black and reappear with Lynn, Mr. Jones, Jimmy and Elias in the center of the character select screen.

* Play As Princess Sissy : After you choose your character, press and hold A+B+C+D until the match begins and you'll play as Princess Sissy.

- SERIES -

1. Power Instinct (1993)
2. Power Instinct 2 (1994)
3. Gogetsuji Legends (1995)
4. Gouketsuji Ichizoku 3 - Groove on Fight [Model 610-0374-34] (1997)
5. Matrimelee (2003) 
6. Shin Gouketsuji Ichizoku - Bonnou Kaihou (2006, Sony PlayStation 2)
7. Power Instinct V (2009)

- STAFF -

Producer : Keiko Ijuu
Directors : Keiko Ijuu, Marohie. M
Sub Directors : Hidenari Mamoto, 55
Main Programmers : Hidenari Mamoto
Sub Programmers : Kazuaki Ezato, H. Hishikawa
Character Designers : Marochie. M, Super Dotter K', Dessy, Shio Shio Shio, Orie Kinugasa
Background Designers : Miyukichi, Miyavi, Kuramoyan
Illustration : Range Murata, Tomokazu Nakano, Ooma Bunshichiro
Sound Producer : Studio Aqua
Vocalists : Toshikazu Tanaka (Dencyu), Masanosuke Fujiwara, Momoeika, Ryuji Mutou, Moamo & Cheiko, Uchida, Nami Matsusima, Aya Fujimoto
Voice Actors : R. Riken, Shinya Moriguchi, Akihisa Muramoto, N. Chinatsu, Mina Yamamoto, Nahomi, Ikuro. I, Sayaka Mishimura, Aumi Jinga
Special Thanks: H. Yokoyama, A. Morita

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo AES (may.29, 2003; "Shin Gouketsuji Ichizoku Toukon Matrimelee [Model NGH-2660]")
[US] SNK Neo-Geo AES (may.29, 2003; "Matrimelee [Model NGH-266]")
[JP] Sony PS2 (may.25, 2006; "Shin Goketsuji Ichizoku : Bonnou Kaihou [Model SLPM-66278]"): features an online mode, new characters and a card battle system called 'lusts cards system'.

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=samsho2

真 SAMURAI SPIRITS 覇王丸地獄変 (c) 1994 SNK Corporation.
(Shin Samurai Spirits - Haohmaru Jigoku Hen)

Shin Samurai Spirits is a one-on-one fighting game featuring 15 weapon-wielding combatants, fighting to earn the right to face the game's powerful and difficult end boss.

Building upon the success of the first game, SNK added several new characters and more moves. This is particularly evident in the addition of the POW meter, which acts as a super special-move meter. These moves not only cause severe damage to opponents but also break their weapons, forcing them to fight unarmed for a short time before a replacement weapon is issued.

Gameplay was further expanded to include several new movement options, including the ability to roll forwards and backwards, to duck to avoid high attacks, or to do small hops to avoid low strikes. This was also the first game to incorporate an offensive blocking technique, or 'parry'. Via a command issued at the last second, players can deflect an incoming attack and leave their adversary open to counter-attack. 

Shin Samurai Spirits featured cameo appearances from other SNK characters, as well as a hidden boss who would occasionally come out to challenge players.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID : NGM-063

Players : 2
Control : 8-Way Joystick
Buttons : 4
=> [A] Light Attack with weapon, [B] Medium Attack with weapon, [C] Light Kick, [D] Medium Kick

- TRIVIA -

Shin Samurai Spirits was released in October 1994.

The title of the game translates from Japanese as 'True Samurai Spirits - Haohmaru's Incident In Hell'.

This game is known outside Japan as 'Samurai Shodown II'.

Kafuin Nicotine (Anglicized as 'Caffiene') is based somewhat on the Ninja Scroll character Dakuan who shares outfit and is armed with similar weapons. The 'papers' that Nicotine throws are called 'o-fuda', which are talismans inscribed with a prayer to endow them with certain powers. Japanese occultism and lore at work.

Neinhalt Sieger's name translates from German as 'non-stop victory'.

Genjuro Kibagami is a huge reference to a Japanese hanafuda deck. Hanafuda is a Japanese card game in which all cards represent a certain flower and time of the year. The hanafuda cards can be seen when Genjuro hits his opponent with special moves. Among the cards seen are wistaria, maple and peony. All cards shown are from an actual hanafuda deck.

Ryuhaku Todo (of AOF) appears in Gen-An's ending.

If you wait a long time, Hikyaku will throw food and/or bombs to the screen. Every so often, Kim Kaphwan (of Fatal Fury) will come out instead.

Kuroko's moves are largely borrowed from other characters.

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Shin Samurai Spirits - PCCB-00164) on 02/11/1994.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Alternate Costumes Colors : Press D instead of A to choose your character.

- SERIES -

1. Samurai Spirits [Model NGM-045] (1993)
2. Shin Samurai Spirits - Haohmaru Jigoku Hen [Model NGM-063] (1994)
3. Samurai Spirits - Zankurou Musouken [Model NGM-087] (1995)
4. Samurai Spirits - Amakusa Kourin [Model NGM-222] (1996)
5. Samurai Spirits 64 (1997)
6. Samurai Spirits 2 - Asura Zanmaden (1998)
7. Kenkaku Ibunroku Yomigaerishi Soukou no Ha - Samurai Spirits Shinshou (1999, PSX)
8. Samurai Spirits Zero [Model NGM-270] (2003)
9. Samurai Spirits Zero Special [Model NGM-272] (2004)
10. Samurai Spirits - Tenkaichi Kenkakuden (2005)
11. Samurai Shodown - Edge of Destiny (2008)

- STAFF -

Producer : Bad Apples
Executive producer : Eikichi Kawasaki
Main planner : K.Y. Hayate 
Programmers : Nishidon, Oh!Butch, Abe, Cyber Kondo
Sound : Tate Norio, Yamapy-1
Narration : Kiyoshi Kobayashi
Submissions : Babilu, Ryu!, Rodem.Yam, Kakugo.Koji, Junichi, Koba.B, Yozora
Fixs : Keisen (as Tokimeki Keisen), Cyber Kondo, Y. Nishiguchi, Satomi.S

* Front character :
Haohmaru : V Shintani, Masami Tanaka, Y. Koyasu
Nakoruru : Puutaro Katori, Masami Tanaka, Riding Monkey, Kouji Takaya, Y. Koyasu, E. Ohira, Mamahira
Hanzo Hattori : Makino Sakana, Pon. Yashamaru, Keisen (as Tokimeki Keisen)
Galford : Makino Sakana, Pon. Yashamaru
Poppy : Kuwa.Bee
Wan-Fu : Babilu, Ryu!, Keisen (as K. Tokimeki Keisen), Y. Koyasu, Yuhki.N, Rodem.Yam, Kakugo.Koji
Ukyo Tachibana : Harleydavidson, Sleeping, Wolf, Kouji Takaya, Chu
Kyoshiro Senryo : Harleydavidson, Sleeping, Wolf, Kouji Takaya
Gen-An Shiranui : V Shintani, Masami Tanaka, Y. Koyasu, Yuhki.N, Rodem.Yam, Yozora
Earthquake : Riding Monkey, K., Chu
Yubei Yagyu : Makino Sakana, Pon. Yashamaru, Keisen (as Tokimeki Keisen), Masami Tanaka, Y. Koyasu, Rodem.Yam, Yozora
Charlotte : Kuwa.Bee, Yoshi.M.Kaneko
Genjuro Kibagami : Takachan.O, Masami Tanaka, Harleydavidson, Yoshimitsu, Kouji Takaya, Chu, E. Ohira
Cham Cham : V Shintani, Masami Tanaka, Riding Monkey, Takachan.O, Kouji Takaya, E. Ohira, Y. Nishiguchi, Satomi.S
Paku Paku : Kuwa.Bee
Neinhalt Sieger : Harleydavidson, Sleeping, Wolf, Kouji Takaya, Yoshimitsu, Yuhki.N
Nicotine Caffeine : Makino Sakana, Pon. Yashamaru, Mayu K., Y. Koyasu, Yozora, Koba.B
Rashoujin Mizuki : Kuwa.Bee, Masami Tanaka, riding Monkey, Y. Koyasu
Ambrosia : Riding Monkey, K.
Kuroko : Yoshi.M.Kaneko, Kuwa.Bee, K., Riding Monkey, Y. Koyasu

* Back character :
Haohmaru : Yasupuu, Yuhki.N, Chu, Satomi.S
Nakoruru : N. Azumi, Y. Nishiguchi, Satomi.S
Hanzo Hattori : Yasupuu, K., Mayu K., Y. Nishiguchi
Galford : Mayu K., Chu
Wan-Fu : Okadasan
Ukyo Tachibana : Yasupuu, Yuhki.N, Satomi.S
Kyoshiro Senryo : N. Azumi, Kouji Takaya, Chu, E. Ohira
Gen-An Shiranui : Okadasan, Harleydavidson, Mayu K., Yuhki.N
Earthquake : Okadasan, Yoshimitsu
Yubei Yagyu : N. Azumi
Charlotte : Mayu K., Yuhki.N, Y. Nishiguchi
Genjuro Kibagami : Mayu K.
Cham Cham : Yasupuu, Yoshimitsu, Chu, Y. Nishiguchi
Neinhalt Sieger : Yoshimitsu, Chu
Nicotine Caffeine : Yoshimitsu, Keisen (as Tokimeki Keisen)
Rashoujin Mizuki : Okadasan, E. Ohira
Kuroko : Yuhki.N, Rodem.Yam, Chu

* Planner :
Haohmaru : Tomi Yan
Nakoruru : Tomi Yan
Hanzo Hattori : K.Y. Hayate
Galford : Chu
Wan-Fu : Yukika
Ukyo Tachibana : Bad Apples
Kyoshiro Senryo : Yukika
Gen-An Shiranui : Bad Apples
Earthquake : Yukika
Yubei Yagyu : K.Y. Hayate
Charlotte : Bad Apples
Genjuro Kibagami : Yukika
Cham Cham : Bad Apples
Neinhalt Sieger : K.Y. Hayate
Nicotine Caffeine : Tomi Yan
Rashoujin Mizuki : Kouji Takaya
Kuroko : Yoshimitsu

* Programm :
Haohmaru : Abe
Nakoruru : Oh!Butch
Hanzo Hattori : Abe
Galford : Abe
Wan-Fu : Abe
Ukyo Tachibana : Abe
Kyoshiro Senryo : Abe
Gen-An Shiranui : Oh!Butch
Earthquake : Oh!Butch
Yubei Yagyu : Abe
Charlotte : Abe
Genjuro Kibagami : Oh!Butch
Cham Cham : Abe
Neinhalt Sieger : Oh!Butch
Nicotine Caffeine : Oh!Butch
Rashoujin Mizuki : Oh!Butch, Abe
Kuroko : Oh!Butch

* Voice actors :
Haohmaru : Masaki Usui
Nakoruru : Harumi Ikoma
Hanzo Hattori : Toshimitsu Arai
Galford : Kazuhiro Inage
Wan-Fu : Toshikazu Nishimura
Ukyo Tachibana : Eiji Yano
Kyoshiro Senryo : Monster Maetsuka (as Atsushi Maezuka)
Gen-An Shiranui : Eiji Yano
Earthquake : Masaki Usui
Yubei Yagyu : Kiyoshi Kobayashi
Charlotte : Harumi Ikoma
Genjuro Kibagami : Kong Kuwata
Cham Cham : Reiko Chiba
Paku Paku : Kenji Ikeda
Neinhalt Sieger : Kong Kuwata
Nicotine Caffeine : Monster Maetsuka (as Atsushi Maezuka)
Rashoujin Mizuki : Harumi Ikoma
Kuroko : Toshikazu Nishimura

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo AES (Dec. 02, 1994; "Shin Samurai Spirits - Haohmaru Jigoku Hen [Model NGH-063]")
[US] SNK Neo-Geo AES (Dec. 02, 1994; "Samurai Shodown II [Model NGH-063]")
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo CD (Dec. 15, 1994; "Shin Samurai Spirits - Haohmaru Jigoku Hen [Model NGCD-063]")
[US] SNK Neo-Geo CD (Dec. 15, 1994; "Samurai Shodown II [Model NGCD-063E]")
[JP] Sony PlayStation (Mar. 26, 1998; "Samurai Spirits - Kenkaku Yubinan Pack [Model SLPS-00647]")
[JP] Sony PS2 (jul.24, 2008 "Samurai Spirits - Rokuban Shobu [NeoGeo Online Collection Vol.12] [Model SLPS-25839]")
Nintendo Wii [Virtual Console] [JP] (jul.23, 2008 "Shin Samurai Spirits - Haohmaru Jigoku Hen [Model EAEJ]")
[JP] Nintendo Wii (jul.24, 2008 "Samurai Spirits - Rokuban Shobu [Model RVL-RSSJ-JPN]")
Nintendo Wii [Virtual Console] [EU] (Aug. 07, 2008 "Samurai Shodown II [Model EAEP]")
Nintendo Wii [Virtual Console] [US] (Aug. 25, 2008 "Samurai Shodown II [Model EAEE]")
[JP] Sony PS2 (june.18, 2009 "Samurai Spirits - Rokuban Shobu [NeoGeo Online Collection The Best] [Model SLPS-25934]")

* HANDHELDS:
SNK Neo-Geo Pocket Color [US] (Apr. 30, 1999) "Samurai Shodown! 2 [Model NEOP00301]"
SNK Neo-Geo Pocket Color [JP] (june.10, 1999) "Samurai Spirits! 2 [Model NEOP00300]"
SNK Neo-Geo Pocket Color [JP] (june.20, 2000) "Samurai Spirits! 2 [NGP Best Collection] [Model NEOP00307]"

* COMPUTERS:
PC [MS Windows 9x] [JP] (1996) Shin Samurai Spirits - Haohmaru Jigoku Hen
PC [MS Windows 9x] [US] (2000) Samurai Shodown II

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=ragnagrd

Shin-Oh-Ken (c) 1996 Saurus.

Pre-rendered pixelation puts somewhat of a damper on this Japanese fantasy fighter. Eight selectable characters and three end bosses.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID : NGM-0218

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 4
=> [A] Light Punch, [B] Light Kick, [C] Strong Punch, [D] Strong Kick

- TRIVIA -

Shin-Oh-Ken was released in May 1996 in Japan.

The title of the game translates from Japanese as 'True King Fist'.

This game is known outside Japan as Ragnagard.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Play As Behemoth : In character select screen, highlight Syuten-Dozi and press B, C, B, C, B(x2), C, then press A or D to select.

* Play As Eelis : In character select screen, highlight Benten and press C(x2), B(x2), C, B, C, then press A or D to select.

* Play As Lucifer : In character select screen, highlight Susano and press B, C(x3), B(x3), C, then press A or D to select.

- STAFF -

Developed by System Vision.

Game Designer : Hiroaki Fujimoto
Character Designer : Hiroaki Fujimoto
World Designers : Hiroaki Fujimoto, Motohiro Toshiro
Graphics : Hiroaki Fujimoto, Motohiro Toshiro, Koyama, Ryoumi Momota, Kyoosuke Motoya, Yasunori Hayashi
Animation : Kyoosuke Motoya, Hiroaki Fujimoto, Koyama
Fonts : Ryoumi Momota, M. Kihara, Zizi
Programmers : Zakky , Yas, Hideki Suzuki
Technical Adviser : Masaaki Yuuki
Music : Hideki Suzuki
Sound : Hideki Suzuki
Voices : Sawatari Mutuki, Haruki, Sayu Mitou, Ishikawa, Hiroaki Fujimoto, Kyoosuke Motoya
Tuning : Hiroaki Fujimoto, Masaaki Nagahora, Yuusuke Kunitomo
Sales Promoters : Osamu Nagano, Kimihiko Kobayashi, Miwa Izumi, Tomoo Yoda
Art Director : Koutarou Noumura
Director : Ryoumi Momota
Producers : Takahiro Shima, Yasushi Okahara
Executive Producer : Nobuyuki Tanaka

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo AES (jul.26, 1996) [Model NGH-218]
[US] SNK Neo-Geo AES (jul.26, 1996) [Model NGH-218]
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo CD (aug.23, 1996) [Model NGCD-218]
[JP] Sega Saturn (apr.4, 1997, "Shin-Oh-Ken [Model T-3113G]")
Nintendo Wii [Virtual Console] [JP] (oct.18, 2011)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=shippumd
Arcade Video game published 29 years ago:

疾風魔法大作戦キングダム-グランドプリ (c) 1994 Eighting / Raizing.
(Shippuu Mahou Daisakusen - Kingdom-Grandprix)

A vertically scrolling shooter with a racing theme. You have the choice of either firing (when the button is pressed) or boosting (when the button is held).

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 16 Mhz), Zilog Z80 (@ 4 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Yamaha YM2151 (@ 3.375 Mhz), OKI6295 (@ 7.575 Khz)

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2

- TRIVIA -

Shippuu Mahou Daisakusen was released in September 1994 in Japan.

The title of this game translates from Japanese as 'Hurricane Magic Great Military Operation'.

This game is known outside Japan as "Kingdom Grandprix" (the subtitle became the title).

- SERIES -

1. Mahou Daisakusen (1993)
2. Shippuu Mahou Daisakusen - Kingdom-Grandprix (1994)
3. Great Mahou Daisakusen [Green Board] (2000)

- STAFF -

Voice : Hiroaki Ishikawa, Juurota Kosugi, Miki Ito, Rikako Aikawa
Graphics : Kazuyuki Nakashima, Kenichi Yokoh, Ryuichi Yamakawa
Program : Yuichi Toyama (Healthy Toyama), Yasunari Watanabe
Music Compose & S.E. : Hitoshi Sakimoto (YmoH.S), Masaharu Iwata (Rezon)
Special Thanks To: Atsuhiro Motoyama
Art Work : Akihiro Yamada

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] Sega Saturn (1996)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=shocktr2

Shock Troopers - 2nd Squad (c) 1998 SNK.

More of an update than a full-blown sequel, Shock Troopers - 2nd Squad picks up where the first game - released a year earlier - left off. Once again, one or two players face the might of a terrorist army who are threatening to destroy the world by launching a newly developed weapon-of-mass-destruction if their wishes - to be given absolute control of the newly-founded nation of Billberk - aren't granted.

Like many Neo Geo sequels, 2nd Squad doesn't particularly do anything the original didn't do. There are some improvements, however; graphics have been given a brush up and level design is a little more imaginative than that of the already impressive original.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID: NGM-246

Players: 2
Control: 8-way joystick
Buttons: 3 => [A] Shot attack/Close range attack, [B] Bomb attack, [C] Jump/Get in a vehicle/Get out a vehicle
=> Leon > [A] Spread shot/Combat knife, [B] Power napalm
=> Angel > [A] Front shot/Tear gus, [B] Wide napalm
=> Lulu > [A] Wide shot/Revolver, [B] Normal bomb
=> Toy > [A] Laser shot/Stan gun, [B] Sonic bomb

- TRIVIA -

Released in October 1998.

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Shock Troopers Second Squad, Shock Troopers - PCCB-00355) on 01/1999.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

Here are the 4 characters with their codenames and statistics :
* Leon (aka Lion Heart) : Speed 1 - Attack 4 - Defense 4 - Evasion 1
* Angel (aka Ceramic Arms) : Speed 2 - Attack 3 - Defense 2 - Evasion 3
* Lulu (aka Lightning Eyes) : Speed 4 - Attack 1 - Defense 1 - Evasion 3
* Toy (aka Ice Brain) : Speed 3 - Attack 2 - Defense 3 - Evasion 2

- SERIES -

1. Shock Troopers [Model NGM-238] (1997)
2. Shock Troopers - 2nd Squad [Model NGM-246] (1998)

- STAFF -

Developed by Saurus.

Exective producer : Nobuyuki Tanaka
Producer : Yasushi Okahara
Exective director : Kenji Ishimoto
Main planner : Mitsuki Pkc Saito
Sub planner : Hotlips
Chief programmer : Jo.
Programmers : Levin Takasaki, Dis, Buttaku H. K
Tool programmer : Hiroaki Torii
Technical adviser : Yuki
Chief front designer : Kurara Kiri
Front designers : Masato Miyoshi, Tsuru-Chang, Michitaka Ishida, Satoshi Ishiguro, Naruhiro Kishimoto
Chief back designer : Miwako Kojima
Back designers : Yuko Hara, Matsumoto Kiyoshi, Kaori Nishioka, Takazumi Hirokawa
Character designer : Aki
Sound producer : Masahiko Hataya
Music composer : Masaki Kase (World Wide Wave)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=shocktro,shocktroa

Shock Troopers (c) 1997 SNK.

Shock Troopers pits the players against a mighty terrorist group who are holding a girl hostage, in order to force her grandfather to surrender a powerful drug which will enable the terrorists to control the minds of the grandfather's soldiers and create a huge, unstoppable army.

Shock Troopers is a multi-directional scrolling shoot-em-up for one or two players that builds upon the foundations laid by Capcom's 1985 classic, "Commando (Capcom)" and also borrows heavily from Commando's sequel, '"Mercs". As well as enemy troops, players must contend with tanks, choppers and assorted military vehicles, and must also be careful to avoid any of the landmines that litter the levels. Extra weapons and health can be picked up from destroyed enemy vehicles, as well as being found in enemy supply crates. Shock Troopers is effectively three games in one as players can chose one of three different routes; each made up of different levels. The game also offers greater variety of gameplay than other of the genre; with levels having the players travel on the back of fast moving vehicles, climbing a rock face etc.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID: NGM-238

Players: 2
Control: 8-way joystick
Buttons: 4
=> [A] Shot/Close range attack, [B] Evasive Maneuver, [C] Special attack, [D] Change player (in team battle mode only)

- TRIVIA -

Released in November 1997.

This game was not released on the Neo-Geo AES home console.

The character Marie has the same voice as King from Art of Fighting.

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Shock Troopers Second Squad, Shock Troopers - PCCB-00355) on 01/1999.

- SERIES -

1. Shock Troopers [Model NGM-238] (1997)
2. Shock Troopers - 2nd Squad [Model NGM-246] (1998)

- STAFF -

Developed by Saurus.

Executive producer : Nobuyuki Tanaka
Executive director : Yasushi Okahara (Yasushi Okaharo)
Planner : kenji Ishimoto
Object designers : Masato Miyoshi, Yoichi Sato, Kaori Ito, Hideo Akimoto, Michitaka Ishida, Narushiro Kishimoto
B.G. designers : Sachiko Miyoshi, Yuri Tachikawa, Yasuhori Tsuruoka, Naoko Tanaka
Programmers : Takashi Shishido, Yosuke Takasaki, Daiyoshi Sato
Music composers & Sound effects : Masahiko hataya, Masaki kase

* Voices :
Jackal : Taiyo Ofune
Milky : Reina Hayami
Loki : Kinnosuke Todoroki
Southern cross : Sinkichi Kaji
Marie bee : Suzue Isaribi
Rio : Isamu Kida
Maru : Kaeru Tsuchiya
Big mama : Towako Tendo
Cecilia : Yuka Utsumi
Commander : Meijin Takahashi

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[US] Sony PS2 may.05, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model SLUS-21724]"
[US] Sony PSP may.05, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model ULUS-10338]"
[KO] Sony PS2 may.29, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model SLKA-25424]"
[US] Nintendo Wii jul.29, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model RVL-P-RNCE]"
[EU] Sony PSP Oct. 17, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model ULES-01105]"
[EU] Nintendo Wii Oct. 31, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model RVL-P-RJZP]"
[EU] Sony PS2 Nov. 21, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model SLES-55232]"
[JP] Sony PSP May. 21, 2009 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model ULJS-193]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=silentd,silentdj,silentdu
Arcade Video game published 31 years ago:

Silent Dragon (c) 1992 Taito Corporation.

Four brawlers take up arms to destroy the evil gangs.

- TECHNICAL -

Taito B System hardware

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 16 Mhz), Zilog Z80 (@ 4 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Yamaha YM2610 (@ 8 Mhz)

Screen orientation : Horizontal
Video resolution : 320 x 224 pixels
Screen refresh : 60.00 Hz
Palette colors : 4096

Players : 4
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 3

- TRIVIA -

Silent Dragon was released in April 1992.

Silent Dragon was developed by an outside team called 'East Technology', PCBs are copyrighted 'ET' which stands for 'East Technology'.

The third boss in this game is an homage to Jagi from the manga 'Hokuto no Ken'.

- STAFF -

Developed by East Technology.

Programmers : E. Ogura, Y. Katumata, T. Kaki, T. Kim, T. Odd
Music composed by : T. Noaki
Sound effects : T. Noaki, H. Tsuda
Voices : Nozaki, Hasyepon, Irisawa, Sakai, Takeda
Character designers : K. Sakai, T. Chida, T. Irisawa, N. Wataya, Y. Takeda
Supervisor : N. Takioka

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=silkworm,silkwormj,silkwormp,silkwormb,silkwormb2
Arcade Video game published 35 years ago:

Silkworm (c) 1988 Tecmo.

A shooter game where you control either a jeep or a helicopter and travel through the enemy terrain, shooting various enemies.

- TECHNICAL -

CPU PCB Number : A-41909, 6217A
GFX - Graphics PCB Number : B-41909, 6217B

Main CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 6 Mhz)
Sound CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 4 Mhz)
Sound Chips : YM3812 (@ 4 Mhz), OKI MSM5205 (@ 384 Khz)

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 3

- TRIVIA -

Released in March 1988 in Japan.

- UPDATES -

In the non-Japanese version (set 1 in MAME), the dipswitch for coin A corresponds to what is typically the left coin input, and dipswitch B corresponds to the right.
In the Japanese version (set 2 in MAME), the dipswitches are swapped, so that dipswitch B corresponds to the left coin, and A to the right. The 1st set also does not display the Japanese warning screen.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Double Bonus : When the big flying ship comes (the one in 4 pieces) that gives you one bonus for each player, fire repeatedly on the second piece before it is in place. If it is destroyed before it is in place, you will be given two bonuses per player instead of one.

* At the end of level 5 : When you arrive to the final enemy, around the hand pointing up of the statue there are two hidden icons. You can fire up with the jeep (or diagonal with the chopper), and you will see that your shots gets stopped by something invisible. If you keep firing, finally two new icons will appear (of course you don't have to kill the final enemy). Take this icon, and you will have a bonus. The bonus depends on your rank. If you have the Eagle rank you will earn 500,000 bonus points. If you don't have it, then you will earn 100,000 bonus points and the Eagle rank.

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
Nintendo Famicom (1990)
Nintendo Super NES ("Super Silkworm") [Unreleased Prototype]

* COMPUTERS:
Amstrad CPC (1988)
Atari ST (1988)
Sinclair ZX Spectrum (1989)
Commodore C64 (1989)
Commodore Amiga (1989)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=snowbros,snowbrosj,snowbrosa,snowbrosb,snowbrosc,snowbrosd,snowbroswb
Arcade Video game published 33 years ago:

Snow Bros. - Nick & Tom (c) 1990 Toaplan.

One or two players take on the roles of snowmen Nick and Tom as they battle a variety of monsters over fifty platform-based, single screen levels. 

The snowmen can throw snowballs at the enemies with the aim of encasing them completely in snow. The encased enemies can then be kicked in order to destroy them and this is achieved by standing next to the snowball and pressing the "kick out" button. This sends the giant snowball flying around the screen, killing any enemies that lay in its path. 

If players take too much time to complete a stage, an evil pumpkin head will appear and try to kill them. The pumpkin is invincible but can be stunned with snowballs. After a short time the evil pumpkin will spawn ghosts that can travel freely around the stage as they seek out Nick and Tom. These ghosts can't be killed or stunned, so the player's only hope is to avoid them while eliminating the remaining standard enemies, to move on to the next screen as soon as possible.

When players defeat an enemy, it may drop a coloured potion bottle. These can be picked up and act as power-ups:
* Yellow = Long shot
* Red = Speed up
* Blue = Bigger snowballs (encases monsters quicker)
* Green = Inflates the players like a balloon and lets them fly around the screen, killing any monsters they touch.

Every 10th level features a battle with a large end-of-level boss.

- TECHNICAL -

Game ID : MIN16-02

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 8 Mhz)
Sound CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 6 Mhz)
Sound Chips : YM3812 (@ 3 Mhz)

Screen orientation : Horizontal
Video resolution : 256 x 224 pixels
Screen refresh : 57.50 Hz
Palette colors : 256

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2

- TRIVIA -

Snow Bros. was released in April 1990. 

Like Taito's "Liquid Kids", Snow Bros. was licensed to Manchester's Ocean Software for conversion to both the Atari ST and the Commodore Amiga home computers but, again like "Liquid Kids", Ocean decided that the game wouldn't perform well at retail and the game was cancelled. It has since been released, in its entirety, to the emulation community and is a fine conversion.

This game was released as a conversion kit only (often factory installed in a generic cabinet), so any such machine could be converted into a proper Snow Bros. machine. This title is JAMMA compatible (the circuit board for it is one of the smallest ever made, it is barely larger than a Nintendo Famicom cartridge). The marquee for this title shows a 'Snow Bros.' logo, with two snowmen, and a couple of cartoon enemies in the background - in keeping with the game's 'cute' theme.

Licensed to Romstar for USA distribution.

A bootleg of this game is known as "The Winter Bobble".

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Out Zone, Snow Bros. - PCCB-00044) on 21/10/1990.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Killing all the monsters on a level with a single snowball causes money bonuses, worth 10,000 points, to fall down, but sometimes a glowing cake bonus will appear instead. When the cake is collected, the game stops and four blue snowball creatures appear for a short time. If these enemies are killed, they each provide a letter : S,N,O or W. Collect all four of these letters for an extra life. The glowing cake can also appear at other times during the game.

* Hidden Functions : If the 'Invulnerability dip switch' is enabled, you are invulnerable but you may also 'Pause' the game with P2 Start and restart with P1 Start.

- SERIES -

1. Snow Bros. - Nick & Tom (1990)
2. Snow Bros. 2 - With New Elves (1994)
3. Snow Brothers 3 - Magical Adventure (2002)

- STAFF -

Music composed by : Osamu Ohta

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
Nintendo Famicom (1991)
Sega Mega Drive (1993)
Nintendo Game Boy ("Snow Bros. Jr.") : includes 10 additional (new) levels after you complete all 50 from the arcade.

* COMPUTERS:
Commodore Amiga (Unreleased).

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=snowbro2,snowbro2b
Arcade Video game published 29 years ago:

Snow Bros. 2 - With New Elves (c) 1994 Hanafram Company, Limited.

A direct sequel to the 1990 original, Snow Bros. 2 plays identically to its predecessor; the only notable difference being the introduction of three new playable characters - the 'New Elves' of the game's subtitle.

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 16 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Yamaha YM2151 (@ 3.375 Mhz), OKI6295 (@ 20.454 Khz)

Screen Orientation : Horizontal 
Video Resolution : 320 x 240 Pixels
Screen Refresh : 60.00 Hz
Palette Colors : 65536

Players : 4
Control : 8-Way Joystick
Buttons : 2
=> Shoot, Jump

- TRIVIA -

Developed by Toaplan, Snow Bros. 2 - With New Elves was Released in April 1994 by Hanafram Co., Ltd.

After the development of Snow Bros. 2, Toaplan faced a bankruptcy and closed its doors in the same year.

This game is known in Japan as "Otenki Paradise - Snow Bros. 2" (translates from Japanese as 'Weather Paradise').

- UPDATES -

On Japanese dipswitch settings (Otenki Paradise) and Korean dipswitch settings, the portraits on the character select screen are different.

- SERIES -

1. Snow Bros. - Nick & Tom (1990)
2. Snow Bros. 2 - With New Elves (1994)
3. Snow Brothers 3 - Magical Adventure (2002)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=socbrawlh

Soccer Brawl (c) 1992 SNK [Shin Nihon Kikaku].

- TECHNICAL -

Cartridge ID: NGH-031
Cartridge Size: 46 Mega

- TRIVIA -

This AES version was released on March 13, 1992 in Japan.

For more information about the game itself, please see the original MVS entry : "Soccer Brawl [Model NGM-031]".

Reviews:
April 1992 - Joypad N.7 (Page 119) [FR]: 94/100

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=socbrawl

Soccer Brawl (c) 1992 SNK.

A futuristic soccer game.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID: NGM-031

[SNK MVS Neo-Geo Controls]
2 players - 4 buttons per player (2 used)
=> Attack : [A] Kick/Power shoot, [B] Pass
=> Defense : [A] Sliding cut/Arm punch, [B] Heading

- TRIVIA -

Released in February 1992.

- STAFF -

Produced by : Eikichi Kawasaki
Front designers : Strong-Ko-Kongoh, Bomber Kanae, T. Yokoyama, Sambo Asako
Back designers : M.K, S. Chinatsu
Programmers : Mantaru Hantaru, From A to Z
Music : Domitory Room102, Wolf.Gang Amadeus Yamada
Directed by : Fire Narisuke

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
SNK Neo-Geo (Mar.12, 1992; "Soccer Brawl [Model NGH-031]")
SNK Neo-Geo CD (Mar.31, 1995 "Soccer Brawl [Model NGCD-031]")

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=soldivid,soldividk
Arcade Video game published 26 years ago:

Sol Divide - Sword of Darkness (c) 1997 Psikyo.

An excellent horizontal scrolling shoot-em-up.

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU : SH-2 (@ 28.63635 Mhz)
Sound Chips : YMF278B (@ 28.63635 Mhz)

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 3

- TRIVIA -

Sol Divide Sword of Darkness was released in May 1997.

The game forbids the initials 'SEX' on the high score table. If you try, it gets changed to three smileys.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Unlock Extra Maintenance : if you hold Test Button + PL1 Button 1 during boot, you get extra options in the test menu (Stage Select).

- STAFF -

Staff : Katsuya Terada, Shin Nakamura, Jun-Ichi Niwa, Shiori Saito, Hiroshi Yamada, Wataru Yamazaki, Naozumi Yorichika, Toshinori Sugita, Mitsuo Kodama, Hideyuki Oda, Masaki Izutani, Yoko Tsukagoshi, Ikuya Yoshida, Norikazu Takemori, Emi Taniguchi, Hideto Kamioka, Hirotsugu Imoto, Keisuke Takagi, Kotaro Ogata, Keizo Fujita, Kunio Asahara, Kentaro Maki, Kunihiko Nogomi, Kenichi Fujita

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] Sega Saturn (jul.02, 1998) "Sol Divide - Sword of Darkness [Model T-14423G]"
[JP] Sony PlayStation (jul.02, 1998) "Sol Divide - Sword of Darkness [Model SLPS-01463]"
[JP] Sony PS2 (Mar. 31, 2005) "Sol Divide & Dragon Blaze [Psikyo Shooting Collection Vol.3] [Model SLPM-62593]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=soldam,soldamj
Arcade Video game published 31 years ago:

Soldam - Action Puzzle Game (c) 1992 Jaleco.

- TECHNICAL -

Jaleco Mega System 1-A hardware

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 12 Mhz)
Sound CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 7 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Yamaha YM2151 (@ 3.5 Mhz), (2x) OKI6295 (@ 30.303 Khz)

Screen orientation : Horizontal
Video resolution : 256 x 224 pixels
Screen refresh : 60.00 Hz
Palette Colors : 1024

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2 (ROTATE LEFT, ROTATE RIGHT)

- TRIVIA -

Released in September 1992.

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Soldam - PCCB-00108) on 01/1993.

- STAFF -

Chief programmer : Sas
Programmers : Shu, Karasawa
Graphic designers : Takarod, AP Sinya, Tatsuzo, Keijiroh
Game designer : Kurashima
Sound composers : Y. Suzuki, Atsuyoshi Isemura, Takashiba
Sound programmer : Panic Yunma
Project leader / Game designer : Momonga

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
Nintendo Game Boy (1993)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=solfigtr
Arcade Video game published 32 years ago:

Solitary Fighter (c) 1991 Taito Corporation.

Six street toughs battle for prize money in an underground fighting competition. Some stages have weapons to throw at the opponent. DOGOOOOOON!

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "Taito F2 System" Hardware.
Prom Stickers: C91

Screen Orientation: Horizontal

Players: 2
Control: 8-Way Joystick
Buttons: 3
=> Punch, Jump, Kick

- TRIVIA -

Solitary Fighter was released on February 27, 1991.

The game is the same as Violence Fight except for onscreen UI tweaks (diferent life & power meters) but also at random times a woman carrying a knife appears in the battle and stays close you the fighters, waiting to randomly attack the player before retreating. She can be attacked like an enemy to drive her off though.

- SERIES -

1. Violence Fight (1989)
2. Solitary Fighter (1991)

- STAFF -

Game Programmers: Takeshi Ishizashi, Akio Uematsu, PZR400 Mom 
Game Designers: Takao Horiuti, Masakazu Iwahashi
Character Effects: Lin Chinkai
Sound Designers: Kazuko Umino (Zuntata)
Hard Designer: Takashi Ohara
Character Designers: Takashi Yamada, Keisuke Nishioka, Creamy Tetsu, Bin Kaneko
Designer: Hiroyasu Nagai
Special Thanks: G C Hamer, Osaka RD

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=sonicwi2

Sonic Wings 2 (c) 1994 Video System.

The first sequel to the superb vertically scrolling shoot-em-up "Sonic Wings", players once again take control of a Jet fighter aircraft and take to the skies to destroy enemy jets, boats, helicopters, gun emplacements and huge end-of-level bosses. The graphics are every bit as accomplished as those of the prequel and the game delivers a good level of challenge.

The end-of-level bosses change from game-to-game; a nice touch that adds variety to an already solid game.

Players can choose to play as any one of eight different fighter pilots, each of which pilots a different jet :
* American F-117A Nighthawk piloted by Robo-Keaton. 
* American A-10 Thunderbolt II piloted by Mao Mao. 
* Japanese Fighter-Support X piloted by Hien. 
* Japanese F-15 Eagle piloted by Captain Silver. 
* International F-14 Tomcat piloted by Cindy and Ellen. 
* International YF-23 Black Widow II piloted by Spanky. 
* French Rafale piloted by Steve. 
* British Sea Harrier FRS2 piloted by Bobby.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID : NGM-075

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2 
=> [A] Main shot, [B] Special weapon

- TRIVIA -

Sonic Wings 2 was released in July 1994 in Japan. This game is known outside Japan as Aero Fighters 2.

This represents the second game in the Sonic Wings series and the first one on the Neo-Geo MVS.

The game's storyline changes according to the pilots currently selected, this applies to the endings as well. So try out different pair combinations in order to see some truly wacky endings!

In one part of the city in the Japan stage, you can see Red Rabbit (from "Rabio Lepus") on a sign, a poster of Mao Mao, a small sign with Mambu on it, and of course that infamous 'Heroin Magic' sign. Also, Check out the theme park in the U.S.A. stage. Among the rides, you can see the Red Rabbit, Tenukie, and Mambu.

There are three last bosses in the game, but they appear randomly. The most common one is Lar, a giant black sphere with an eye. The second rarest one is Tenukii, a white sheet ghost. And the third and most difficult to get is Mambu, a giant sunfish. You can get three bad endings if you let the last bosses escape.

There are a total of 47 endings in the game. Eight are for the individual character endings, twenty-eight are for the team endings, three are for the bad endings and eight for beating the 2nd loop with each character.

The game forbids the initials 'SEX' on the high score table. If you try, it gets changed to 'OH!'.

Soundtrack album releases :
[JP] Sonic Wings 2 (PCCB-00158) (16/12/94) [Pony Canyon/Scitron]

- UPDATES -

In the Japanese version of the game, Spanky is called Whity and Steve is called Angela.

- SERIES -

1. Sonic Wings (1992, ARC)
2. Sonic Wings 2 [Model NGM-075] (1994, ARC)
3. Sonic Wings 3 [Model NGM-097] (1995, ARC)
4. Sonic Wings Limited (1996, ARC)
5. Sonic Wings Assault [Model NUS-NSAJ] (1997, N64)

- STAFF -

Plan : Count IKuei
Program : Aiz!, You-Chan
Design : K. Yamamotoya, Takasu, Akira, Armored Cruiser, Oh! Kawara, Manbow Yokoyama, Eriko
Sound : Soushi Hosoi (Hoso-Q), Pirowo, Norie, Tarako, Hira
Assist : Mac, 840AV, Matsunami, Sisyou, K. Nakajima, T. Sakon, Masako, Hiki, Takashi Tateishi (T. Tateishi)

Special Thanks: Masahiko Kimura, M. Hihara

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
SNK Neo Geo AES [JP] (1994) "Sonic Wings 2 [Model NGH-075]"
SNK Neo-Geo CD (1994)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=sonicwi3

Sonic Wings 3 (c) 1995 Video System.

The third game in this excellent series adheres to the solid shoot-em-up template set down by its predecessors. The player takes on the role of a Jet Fighter aircraft pilot whose mission is to combat world terrorism. The object of the game is to fly from country to country and destroy all opposition around the world, before flying into outer space to combat the menace responsible for the terrorism. Each pilot has his own storyline that ties in with the game.

One enemy shot destroys the player's plane and releases a special power-up that the plane may have been carrying. If the player's final ship is destroyed, all power-ups and extra bombs are released and can be collected if the player chooses the 'continue' option, or if a second player is still active. However, on the final mission in Outer Space, the player is forced to start again at the beginning of the space mission, unless 2 players are active.

Sonic Wings now features an array of 10 selectable pilots :
American Vought F4U Corsair piloted by Robo-Keaton. 
American Northrop P-61 Black Widow piloted by the Blazers. 
Japanese Mitsubishi A6M Zero-Sen piloted by Hien. 
Japanese Aichi M6A1 Seiran piloted by Mao Mao. 
Soviet Il-2 Stormovik piloted by Chaika and Pooshka. 
Soviet Polikarpov I-16 piloted by Spanky. 
German Dornier Do-335 Pfeil piloted by Malcolm ('Pfeil' is german for 'Arrow') 
German Junkers Ju-87 Stuka piloted by Kowful and River. 
British Westland Whirlwind piloted by Alex and Pictus. 
British Fairy Swordfish piloted by Cindy and Ellen. 

There are also 2 secret planes (see the TIPS AND TRICKS section for details) :
The Aka Usagi (Red Rabbit) piloted by Kotomi. 
The Diabloon piloted by The Man.

Planes Spec. :
Vought F4U Corsair can have 3 power-ups and 5 bombs.
Northrop P-61 Black Widow can have 3 power-ups and 7 bombs.
Mitsubishi A6M Zero-Sen have 3 power-ups and 5 bombs.
Aichi M6A1 Seiran can have 2 power-ups and 5 bombs.
Il-2 Stormovik can have 2 power-ups and 7 bombs.
Polikarpov I-16 can have 4 power-ups and 6 bombs.
Dornier Do-335 Pfeil can have 3 power-ups and 4 bombs.
Junkers Ju-87 Stuka can have 4 power-ups and 7 bombs.
Westland Whirlwind can have 3 power-ups and 6 bombs.
Fairy Swordfish can have 1 power-up and 7 bombs.
Aka Usagi (Red Rabbit, see below) can have 2 power-ups and 4 bombs.
Diabloon (see below) can have 7 power-ups and 2 bombs.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID : NGM-097

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2
=> [A] Shot, [B] Special weapon

- TRIVIA -

Sonic Wings 3 was released in October 1995 in Japan.

This game is known outside Japan as "Aero Fighters 3".

This represent the latest game in the Sonic Wings series for the Neo-Geo MVS.

Malcolm from 1993's "Ta-o Taido" makes an appearance as a pilot. His plane has a special charged shot ability that is unique to him and Spanky (by holding Fire button).

The strange ship that appears at the end of each level and warps away after the boss is defeated first appeared in "Turbo Force" as a regular enemy during Stage 2.

There are four random last bosses in the game, two for the Sea stage and two for the Space stage. In the Sea level, the most common one is Bagarius, a large alien submarine. The rarer one is a Giant Squid, you can't attack it and it doesn't attack you. In the Space level, the most common one is Gurabura, a UFO. And the rarer one is Soh Takeko, a mahjong piece. You can get four bad endings if you let them escape. 

There are a total of 23 endings in the game. Twelve are for the individual character endings, six are for the team endings, four are for the bad endings and one when you beat the 2nd loop.

The game forbids the initials 'SEX' on the high score table. If you try, it gets changed to 'HEY'.

Soundtrack album releases :
[JP] Sonic Wings 3 (PCCB-00193) (20/10/1995) [Pony Canyon/Scitron]

- UPDATES -

In the Japanese version of the game, Spanky is called Whity.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Choose your next stage: 
After beating the stage boss of level 1, 4 and 7, a checkered plane will appear. Destroy the plane's left or right wing to determine your next stage.

* Play As Red Rabbit Kotomi (from "Rabio Lepus") :
1) Insert your coin(s)
2) Press and hold B+Start during all the following sequence. Now, at the character selection screen :
3) Press Down when the timer reaches 7 and when the nose of the plane points towards you.
4) Press Down when the timer reaches 5 and when the nose of the plane points towards you.
5) Press Down when the timer reaches 2 and when the nose of the plane points towards you.
6) Press Down when the timer reaches 0 and when the nose of the plane points towards you. Red Rabbit will appear.

* Play As Diabloon (from "Turbo Force") :
1) Insert your coin(s)
2) Press and hold B+Start during all the following sequence. Now, at the character selection screen :
3) Press Right.
4) Press Down when the timer reaches 7 and when the nose of the plane points towards you.
5) Press Down when the timer reaches 5 and when the nose of the plane points towards you.
6) Press Down when the timer reaches 2 and when the nose of the plane points towards you.
7) Press Down when the timer reaches 0 and when the nose of the plane points towards you. Diabloon will appear.

- SERIES -

1. Sonic Wings (1992, ARC)
2. Sonic Wings 2 [Model NGM-075] (1994, ARC)
3. Sonic Wings 3 [Model NGM-097] (1995, ARC)
4. Sonic Wings Limited (1996, ARC)
5. Sonic Wings Assault [Model NUS-NSAJ] (1997, N64)

- STAFF -

Planner : Count IKuei
Programmers : Aiz!, You-Chan, Sysyou
Designers : Armored Cruiser, Takasu, Akira, Manbow Yokoyama, T. Tateishi, K. Yamamotoya, A. Sakamura, A., Kaz, Hiki, T. Matsui, Oh! Kawara, M. Cats.I, Hil, T. Sakon
Sound : Q, P, Noise

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
SNK Neo-Geo CD (1995)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=sstriker,sstrikerk
Arcade Video game published 30 years ago:

Sorcer Striker (c) 1993 Raizing.

Export release. Game developed in japan, See the original for more information; "Mahou Daisakusen".

- SERIES -

1. Sorcer Striker (1993)
2. Kingdom Grandprix (1994)
3. Dimahoo [Blue Board] (2000)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=spacegun,spacegunj,spacegunu
Arcade Video game published 33 years ago:

Space Gun (c) 1990 Taito Corp.

As a member of a special Search And Rescue unit. you (and an optional friend) are told to investigate an S.O.S. distress signal that was sent from a space station. what you don't know is that a group of vicious aliens have taken the colonists hostage. luckily for you, you're armed with a plasma pulse gun and four sets of grenades that are quite special (aside from the common grenade that explodes, some will freeze, incinerate, and even slice and dice the aliens).

- TECHNICAL -

Taito Z System hardware
Prom Stickers : C57

Main CPU : (2x) Motorola 68000
Sound Chips : Yamaha YM2610

Players : 2
Control : lightgun
Buttons : 3

- TRIVIA -

Space Gun was released in October 1990

Zuntata Records released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Zuntata History L'ab-normal 1st - ZTTL-0038) on April 1, 1999.

A Space Gun unit appears in the 1994 French movie 'La Vengeance d'une Blonde'.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Using Bombs, each Bomb has a specific effect.
1) Fire: Aliens will burn.
2) Bomb: Aliens will explode.
3) Sword: Aliens will be cut.
4) Freeze: Aliens will be frozen.

* Harder mode: If you stay at as low health as possible, the difficulty will be harder. And if you reach the time out, a powerful Alien will appear.

* Good Ending: Your cockpit should not be destroyed in last stage.

- STAFF -

Producers : Yuji Iwasaki, Atsuchi Taniguchi
Software : Yuji Iwasaki, Shinji Soyano, T. Nakamura, Hikaru Taniguchi, Kazutomo Ishida, Takashi Ishii
Sound (Zuntata) : Norihiro Furukawa (Wiz Master AKD.), Naoto Yagishita
Monster designers : T. Sekipon, H. Katochin, Atsuchi Taniguchi, V.A.P
Designers : Hiroyasu Nagai, A. Nomura, V.A.P, Peacock
Mechanical engineers : I. Yamada, Y. Tsuriya, T. Tsurumi
Hardware : M. Yamaguchi, K. Mimura, Y. Shibuya
Characters : T. Sekipon, H. Katochin, Atsuchi Taniguchi, H. Kuzirai, T. Matsumoto, Nobuhiro Hiramatsu, Yukiwo Ishikawa (Yukio Abe), V.A.P, Peacock

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[EU] Sega Master System (1992) "Space Gun [Model 9010]" 
[EU] Microsoft XBOX (oct.14, 2005) "Taito Legends" 
[EU] Sony PS2 (oct.14, 2005) "Taito Legends [Model SLES-53438]" 
[US] Microsoft XBOX (oct.25, 2005) "Taito Legends" 
[US] Sony PS2 (oct.25, 2005) "Taito Legends [Model SLUS-21122]" 
[KO] Sony PS2 (jul.18, 2006) "Taito Legends [Model SLKA-15056]" 
[JP] Sony PS2 (jan.25, 2007) "Taito Memories II Joukan [Model SLPM-66649]" 

* COMPUTERS:
[EU] Sinclair ZX Spectrum (1992)
[EU] Commodore C64 (1992)
[EU] Amstrad CPC (1992)
[EU] Commodore Amiga (1992)
[EU] Atari ST (1992)
[EU] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (oct.14, 2005) "Taito Legends" 
[US] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (nov.10, 2005) "Taito Legends"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=spacedx,spacedxj,spacedxo,spcinvdj
Arcade Video game published 29 years ago:

Space Invaders DX (c) 1994 Taito Corp.

A modern and fitting tribute to Taito's 1978 seminal shoot-em-up, "Space Invaders". 

There are now 3 different game modes to choose from. These include a faithful recreation of the legendary original - available in both upright and cocktail versions - and replete with a simulation of the infamous "coloured plastic overlay" that was used to add the impression of full colour graphics to the original game.

The 2 remaining game modes are 'Versus', with simultaneous split-screen 2-player action, and "Parody", which features characters and graphics from other well-known Taito games, such as "The New Zealand Story", "Bubble Bobble" and "Liquid Kids". Despite the graphical changes, the Parody version plays identically to the original game, and all modes retain the original, legendary sound effects.

- TECHNICAL -

This game was available in 3 different cabinet models : the single-control upright model with one control panel that 2 players must share, the dual-control upright, where the players have their own control, and stand next to one another, and the head-to-head cocktail, where the players sit on opposite sides of the cabinet and the screen flips its orientation for each player's turn.

The 'Versus' game mode is available on the dual-control upright model only.

Taito B System hardware
Prom Stickers : D89

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 12 Mhz), Zilog Z80 (@ 4 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Yamaha YM2610 (@ 8 Mhz)

Players : 4
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 3

- TRIVIA -

Space Invaders DX was released in September 1994.

This game runs originally on the Taito B System hardware, but there is also an alternate version of this game released on Taito F3 System hardware (Game ID : D93).

In ''Parody Game Mode'', a LOT of characters taken from early Taito games appear at each level, here is the list :
Level 1 - Characters from "The New Zealand Story".
Level 2 - Characters from "The Fairyland Story".
Level 3 - Characters from "Bubble Bobble".
Level 4 - Characters from "Rainbow Islands - The Story of Bubble Bobble 2".
Level 5 - Characters from "Mizubaku Adventure".
Level 6 - Characters from "Arkanoid".
Level 7 - Characters from "KiKiKaiKai".
Level 8 - Characters from "Darius".
Level 9 - Characters from "Don Doko Don".

- UPDATES -

Revision 1 :
* Software version : 2.0.
* Japanese release only.

Revision 2 :
* Software version : 2.1.
* Japanese and American release (The US version has the "Winners Don't Use Drugs" and "Recycle It, Don't Trash It" screens).
* Added 'Configuration' menu and 'Factory setting' option in the operator menu.

Revision 3 :
* Taito F3 System hardware.
* Software version : 2.6.
* Japanese release only.

- SCORING -

Bottom two rows: 10 pts 
Middle two rows: 20 pts 
Top row: 30 pts 
Saucer: Mystery

- SERIES -

1. Space Invaders (1978, ARC)
2. Space Invaders Part II (1979, ARC)
3. Return of the Invaders (1985, ARC)
4. Majestic Twelve - The Space Invaders Part IV (1990, ARC)
5. Space Invaders DX (1994, ARC)
6. Akkanvader (1995, ARC)
7. Space Invaders Virtual Collection (1995, Virtual Boy)
8. Space Invaders X (2000, PS)
9. Space Invaders Anniversary (2003, ARC)
10. Space Invaders DS (2005, DS)
11. Space Invaders - Galaxy Beat (2005, PSP)
12. Space Invaders Extreme (2008, DS/PSP)
13. Space Invaders Extreme 2 (2009, DS)
14. Space Invaders Frenzy (2017, ARC)

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] Nintendo Super Famicom (mar.25, 1994) "Space Invaders - The Original Game [Model SHVC-IC]" 
Nintendo Super NES [AU] (1997) "Space Invaders - The Original Game [Model SNSP-IC-AUS]" 
Nintendo Super NES [EU] (1997) "Space Invaders - The Original Game [Model SNSP-IC-EUR]" 
Nintendo Super NES [US] (nov.1997) "Space Invaders - The Original Game [Model SNS-IC-USA]" 
Nuon [US] (june.1, 2000) "Space Invaders XL [Model 11109]" 
[JP] NEC PC-Engine CD (jul.28, 2005) "Space Invaders - The Original Game [Model NAPR-1050]" 
[JP] Sony PS2 (jul.28, 2005) "Taito Memories Joukan [Model SLPM-66057]" 
Sony PlayStation 2 [AU] (mar.30, 2006) "Taito Legends 2 [Model SLES-53852]" 
[JP] Sega Saturn (dec.13, 1996) "Space Invaders [Model T-1107G]"
[EU] Microsoft XBOX (mar.31, 2006) "Taito Legends 2" 
[EU] Sony PS2 (mar.31, 2006) "Taito Legends 2 [Model SLES-53852]" 
[US] Sony PS2 (may.16, 2007) "Taito Legends 2 [Model SLUS-21349]" 

* COMPUTERS: 
[EU] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (mar.31, 2006) "Taito Legends 2" 
[US] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (jul.10, 2007) "Taito Legends 2"

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=2540&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=stakwin,stakwindev

Stakes Winner - GI Kinzen Seihae no Michi (c) 1995 Saurus.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID : 0088

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2
=> [A] Slight acceleration, [B] Sharp acceleration

- TRIVIA -

Stakes Winner was released in September 1995 in Japan.

The subtitle of the game translates from Japanese as 'Stakes Winner - Way of Joyful Success'.

This game is known outside Japan as just Stakes Winner (no subtitle).

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Breeder's Cup Classic Race : Win first place in Race 5 or Race 9 to race in the Breeder's Cup Classic at Churchill Downs.

* Prix De l'Arc de Triomphe Race : Win first place in Race 12 to race in Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe in Paris.

- SERIES -

1. Stakes Winner (1995)
2. Stakes Winner 2 (1996)

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
SNK Neo-Geo CD (1996)
Sega Saturn (1996, "Stakes Winner - GI kinzen Seihae no michi")
Sony PlayStation (1996, "Stakes Winner - GI Kanzen Seihahe no Michi")

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=2608&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=stakwin2

Stakes Winner 2 (c) 1996 Saurus.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID : 0227

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 12 Mhz)
Sound CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 4 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Yamaha YM2610 (@ 8 Mhz)

Screen orientation : Horizontal
Video resolution : 320 x 224 pixels
Screen refresh : 59.19 Hz
Palette colors : 4096

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 3
=> [A] Slight acceleration/Decelerate, [B] Sharp acceleration, [C] Special move

- TRIVIA -

Released in September 1996.

This game is known in Japan as 'Stakes Winner 2 - Saikyou Uma Densetsu' (translates from Japanese as 'Stakes Winner 2 - Legend of the Mightiest Horse').

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* How to unlock the endings: The game has between 16 and 18 races depending on your performance. If you get a game over and change your horse, the race count will reset. Reset the count mid game or near the end to get the extra endings. Also, the endings are slightly different depending on the gender of the horse.
- Good Ending 1: Win in all the races. It doesn't matter on how many you participate in, it can be 1 out of 1 or 17 out of 17, but you need to win on every one of them.
- Good Ending 2: Participate in over 8 races and don't win all of them. 
- Bad Ending 1: Participate in between 1 and 7 races and don't win all of them. 
- Bad Ending 2: Participate in just 1 race and lose it.

- SERIES -

1. Stakes Winner (1995)
2. Stakes Winner 2 (1996)

- STAFF -

Game designer : Hajime Yasuhara, Yas
Chief programmer : Yas
Programmers : Yas, Takuya Kawamura
Technical adviser : Masaaki Yuuki
Chief designer : Ryoumi Momota
Graphics designers : Ryoumi Momota, Motohiro Toshiro, Yasunori Hayashi, Chigusa Yokoyama, Yoshinori Hayashi, Hiroaki Fujimoto, Kyoosuke Motoya, Takayuki Koyama
Animation : Ryoumi Momota, Motohiro Toshiro, Chigusa Yokoyama
Fonts : Ryoumi Momota
Cource designers : Hajime Yasuhara, Yasunori Hayashi
Title designers : Koutarou Noumura
Illustlation : Miso Suzuki
Music composers : Hiroyuki Takei, Shuichi Kurosawa, Hiromu Sasaki, Tsuyoshi Sasaki
Sound effects & Sound programmer : Hideki Suzuki
Voices : Rintarou Hamano
Tuning : Hajime Yasuhara, Yas, Ryoumi Momota, Motohiro Toshiro, Takuya Kawamura, Yasunori, Hayashi, Chigusa Yokoyama, Yoshinori Hayashi, Hiroaki Fujimoto, Kyoosuke Motoya, Takayuki Koyama
English version : Bob Timbello
Sales promoters : Osamu Nagano, Miwa Izumi, Tomoo Yoda
Producer : Takahiro Shima
Executive producers : Nobuyuki Tanaka

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
Sega Saturn (1997, "Stakes Winner 2 - Saikyou Uma Densetsu")
Sony PlayStation (1997)

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=2609&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=sfach
Capcom CPS Changer game published 28 years ago:

Street Fighter Alpha - Warriors' Dreams (c) 1995 Capcom Company, Limited.

CPS Changer release of SFA. Identical to the Arcade release.

- TRIVIA -

SFA for CPS Changer was released in July 1995.

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=67876&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=sfa,sfar1,sfau,sfar2,sfar3,sfad
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 28 years ago:

Street Fighter Alpha - Warriors' Dreams (c) 1995 Capcom USA.

North American & European release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese release entry; "Street Fighter Zero [Green Board]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Blue Board [USA & Europe]

- TRIVIA -

Street Fighter Alpha - Warriors' Dreams was released in June 1995 in North America and Europe.

In these export versions, to maintain consistency with the previous games: 
* Nash is named Charlie.
* Gouki is named Akuma.
* Vega is named M. Bison.

Also, the original Japanese version plays an instrumental version of 'Itoshisato Setsunasato Kokorotsuyosato' during Dramatic Battle mode, the song which is played in the animated SFII movie during the 2-on-1 battle between Ryu and Ken with Vega (M. Bison in the export versions). It was not only changed in the export versions, but also in the home ports.

- UPDATES -

Blue Board revisions:

NOTE: US releases also cover Canada. 

REVISION 1:
* Build date: 950605
* EUROPE release. 

REVISION 2:
* Build date: 950627
* US and EUROPE releases.

REVISION 3:
* Build date: 950718
* EUROPE release. 

REVISION 4:
* Build date: 950727
* EUROPE release.

- SERIES -

1. Street Fighter (1987)
2. Street Fighter II - The World Warrior [B-Board 90629B] (1991)
3. Street Fighter II' - Champion Edition [B-Board 91634B-2] (1992)
4. Street Fighter II' - Hyper Fighting [B-Board 91635B-2] (1992)
5. Super Street Fighter II - The New Challengers [Green Board] (1993)
6. Super Street Fighter II Turbo [Blue Board] (1994)
7. Street Fighter Alpha - Warriors' Dreams [Blue Board] (1995)
8. Street Fighter Alpha 2 [Blue Board] (1996)
9. Street Fighter III - New Generation (1997)
10. Street Fighter III - 2nd Impact : Giant Attack (1997)
11. Street Fighter Alpha 3 [Blue Board] (1998)
12. Street Fighter III - 3rd Strike : Fight For The Future (1999)
13. Hyper Street Fighter II - The Anniversary Edition [Green Board] (2003)
14. Street Fighter IV (2008)
15. Super Street Fighter IV - Arcade Edition (2010)
16. Ultra Street Fighter IV (2014)
17. Street Fighter V (2016)
18. Ultra Street Fighter II - The Final Challengers (2017, Switch)

- PORTS -

Here is a list of ports released in North America, Europe, and Australia.

* CONSOLES: 
[US] Sony PlayStation (dec.21, 1995) "Street Fighter Alpha - Warriors' Dreams [Model SLUS-00197]" 
[EU] Sony PlayStation (may.1996) "Street Fighter Alpha - Warriors' Dreams [Model SLES-00199]" 
[US] Sega Saturn (1996) "Street Fighter Alpha - Warriors' Dreams [Model T-1206H]"  
[EU] Sega Saturn (jan.25, 1996) "Street Fighter Alpha - Warriors' Dreams [Model T-7008H-50]" 
Sony PlayStation 2 [AU] (2006) "Street Fighter Alpha Anthology" by THQ
[US] Sony PS2 (june.13, 2006) "Street Fighter Alpha Anthology [Model SLUS-21317]" 
[EU] Sony PS2 (jul.7, 2006) "Street Fighter Alpha Anthology [Model SLES-54085]" 

* HANDHELDS: 
Nintendo Game Boy Color [EU] (1999) "Street Fighter Alpha - Warriors' Dreams [Model CGB-AFZP-EUR]" 
Nintendo Game Boy Color [US] (mar.2000) "Street Fighter Alpha - Warriors' Dreams [Model CGB-AFZE-USA]" 

* COMPUTERS: 
PC [Windows 9x, CD-ROM] [US] (june.14, 2000) 

* OTHERS: 
Mobile Phones [US] (apr.2, 2005) "Street Fighter Alpha - Rapid Battle" 
Windows Mobile [US] (dec.16, 2009)
BlackBerry [US] (dec.21, 2009) "Street Fighter Alpha [Model 5342]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=2649&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=sfa2,sfa2u,sfa2ur1
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 27 years ago:

Street Fighter Alpha 2 (c) 1996 Capcom.

North American & European release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese release entry; "Street Fighter Zero 2 [Green Board]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Blue Board [USA & Europe]

- TRIVIA -

Street Fighter Alpha 2 was released in February 1996 in Europe and in March 1996 in the USA.

In these export releases: 
Nash is named Charlie.
Vega is named M. Bison. 
Gouki is named Akuma.
Shin Gouki is named Shin Akuma.
Satsui no Hadou ni Mezameta Ryu is named Evil Ryu.

In the original Japanese version, specific locations are displayed on the 'next stage' screen. All export versions just tell you which country the stage is in. Perhaps someone at Capcom USA was too lazy to translate the location-specific text (which is in Japanese) and just used the country name (which is in English). Below are the place names that were left out of the non-Japanese versions, translated into English... 
(Character : Stage location) 
Ryu : Suzaku Castle, Japan 
(Sagat vs.) Ryu : a big prairie, Australia 
Ken : San Francisco Bay, USA 
Chun-Li : Beijing, China 
Sagat : Ayuthaya Temple Ruins, Thailand 
Adon : Bank of the Chao Phraya River, Thailand 
Birdie : London Station Underground, England 
Charlie ('Nash' in Japan) : Detroit Highway, USA 
Guy : Metro City, USA 
Rose : Genova City Port, Italy 
Sodom : Arizona Desert, USA 
M. Bison ('Vega' in Japan) : Atop the VTOL, Brazil 
(Charlie vs.) M. Bison : Guiana Highlands - Great Waterfalls, Venezuela 
Akuma ('Gouki' in Japan) : Gokuentou, Japan 
Dan : Temple Street, Hong Kong 
Dhalsim : Bank of the Ganges River, India 
Zangief : Bilsk Steelworks, USSR 
Gen : Shanghai, China 
Rolento : New York, USA 
Sakura : Setagaya-ku, 2-Choume, Tokyo, Japan

- UPDATES -

Blue Board revisions : 

REVISION 1
* Build date: 960229
* EUROPE release

REVISION 2
* Build date: 960306
* US release

REVISION 3
* Build date: 960430
* US release

- SERIES -

1. Street Fighter (1987)
2. Street Fighter II - The World Warrior [B-Board 90629B] (1991)
3. Street Fighter II' - Champion Edition [B-Board 91634B-2] (1992)
4. Street Fighter II' - Hyper Fighting [B-Board 91635B-2] (1992)
5. Super Street Fighter II - The New Challengers [Green Board] (1993)
6. Super Street Fighter II Turbo [Blue Board] (1994)
7. Street Fighter Alpha - Warriors' Dreams [Blue Board] (1995)
8. Street Fighter Alpha 2 [Blue Board] (1996)
9. Street Fighter III - New Generation (1997)
10. Street Fighter III - 2nd Impact : Giant Attack (1997)
11. Street Fighter Alpha 3 [Blue Board] (1998)
12. Street Fighter III - 3rd Strike : Fight For The Future (1999)
13. Hyper Street Fighter II - The Anniversary Edition [Green Board] (2003)
14. Street Fighter IV (2008)
15. Super Street Fighter IV - Arcade Edition (2010)
16. Ultra Street Fighter IV (2014)
17. Street Fighter V (2016)
18. Ultra Street Fighter II - The Final Challengers (2017, Switch)

- PORTS -

These are ports released in North America, Europe, and Australia.

* CONSOLES: 
[EU] Sega Saturn (1996) "Street Fighter Alpha 2 [Model T-7026H-50]" 
[US] Sega Saturn (sept.30, 1996) "Street Fighter Alpha 2 [Model T-1213H]" 
[US] Sony PlayStation (sept.30, 1996) "Street Fighter Alpha 2 [Model SLUS-00258]"  
[US] Nintendo SNES (nov.1996) "Street Fighter Alpha 2 [Model SNS-AUZE-USA]" 
[EU] Sony PlayStation (dec.1996) "Street Fighter Alpha 2 [Model SLES-00496]" 
[EU] Nintendo SNES (dec.19, 1996) "Street Fighter Alpha 2 [Model SNSP-AUZP-EUR]" 
Sony PlayStation 2 [AU] (2006) "Street Fighter Alpha Anthology" by THQ
[US] Sony PS2 (june.13, 2006) "Street Fighter Alpha Anthology [Model SLUS-21317]" 
[EU] Sony PS2 (jul.7, 2006) "Street Fighter Alpha Anthology [Model SLES-54085]" 

* COMPUTERS: 
PC [MS Windows 9x, CD-ROM] [US] (nov.1, 1997) 
PC [MS Windows 9x, CD-ROM] [EU] (1998)

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=2650&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=sfa3,sfa3u,sfa3ur1,sfa3ud,sfa3us
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 25 years ago:

Street Fighter Alpha 3 (c) 1998 Capcom.

North American & European release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, see the original Japanese release entry; "Street Fighter Zero 3 [Green Board]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Blue Board [USA & Europe]

- TRIVIA -

Bam Margera of MTV's 'Jackass' and 'Viva La Bam' has owned this game before in his house. In the episode of 'Viva La Bam' called "Uncivil War", one of the arcade cabinets in Bam's laundry room running "Street Fighter Alpha 3" can be briefly shown for a second.

In all Export releases : 
- Gouki is named Akuma.
- M. Bison is named Balrog.
- Nash is named Charlie. 
- Vega is named M. Bison.
- Shin Vega is named Final Bison.
- Balrog is named Vega.

In Europe and the Western Hemisphere : 
- The Z-ISM is called A-ISM (representing Alpha).

In the original Japanese version, specific locations were given for each stage (in Japanese) along with the name of the country (in English). Only the country name is given in all Export versions, with the more specific info being removed instead of being translated. Here is the list:
Adon: Khmer Historic Ruins, Thailand 
Akuma ('Gouki' in Japan): Oni Fang Cave, Japan 
Balrog ('M. Bison' in Japan), M. Bison ('Vega' in Japan), Juni & Juli: Secret Point 48106 (since there was no country given for 'Secret Point 48106', its name is left completely blank in the Export versions)
Birdie: Train Cemetery, England 
Blanka: Madeira River branch - swampland, Brazil 
Cammy: Mikonos Island, Greece 
Charlie ('Nash' in Japan): Frankfort Hangar, U.S.A. 
Chun-Li: Zhidan Plaza, China 
Cody: Metro City - City Police Detention Center, U.S.A. 
Dan: Hinode Park (translated from Japanese as 'Sunrise Park'), Japan 
Dhalsim: In front of Jaunpur Monument, India 
E. Honda: Higashikomagata - Katomi kontou, Japan 
Gen: Victoria Harbor, Hong Kong 
Guy: Under 22nd Street overhead, U.S.A. 
Karin, Sakura: Flower Shoutengai (translated from Japanese as Flower Shopping Street), Japan (NOTE: In Sakura's version, the sky is daylight; in Karin's version, night has fallen.) 
Ken: Hotel Masters, U.S.A. 
R. Mika: Sardine Beach Special Ring, Japan 
Rolento: New York Camouflaged Subway, U.S.A. 
Rose: Palazzo Mistero (Translated from Italian as Palace of Mystery), Italy 
Ryu: Genbugahara (translated from Japanese as 'Genbu Plain'), Japan 
Sagat: Nagpa Resting Shakyamuni the Buddha Statue, Thailand 
Sodom: Manhattan Building 49 F, U.S.A. 
Vega ('Balrog' in Japan): Requena Spiral Tower, Spain 
Zangief: Akademu Gorodowa blast furnace, U.S.S.R.

- UPDATES -

Blue Board revisions : 

REVISION 1:
* Build date: 980629
* US release

REVISION 2:
* Build date: 980904
* US and EUROPE releases

- SERIES -

1. Street Fighter (1987)
2. Street Fighter II - The World Warrior [B-Board 90629B] (1991)
3. Street Fighter II' - Champion Edition [B-Board 91634B-2] (1992)
4. Street Fighter II' - Hyper Fighting [B-Board 91635B-2] (1992)
5. Super Street Fighter II - The New Challengers [Green Board] (1993)
6. Super Street Fighter II Turbo [Blue Board] (1994)
7. Street Fighter Alpha - Warriors' Dreams [Blue Board] (1995)
8. Street Fighter Alpha 2 [Blue Board] (1996)
9. Street Fighter III - New Generation (1997)
10. Street Fighter III - 2nd Impact : Giant Attack (1997)
11. Street Fighter Alpha 3 [Blue Board] (1998)
12. Street Fighter III - 3rd Strike : Fight For The Future (1999)
13. Hyper Street Fighter II - The Anniversary Edition [Green Board] (2003)
14. Street Fighter IV (2008)
15. Super Street Fighter IV - Arcade Edition (2010)
16. Ultra Street Fighter IV (2014)
17. Street Fighter V (2016)
18. Ultra Street Fighter II - The Final Challengers (2017, Switch)

- PORTS -

NOTE: These are only ports released in North America, Europe, and Australia. 

* CONSOLES:
[US] Sony PlayStation (apr.30, 1999) "Street Fighter Alpha 3 [Model SLUS-00821]" 
[EU] Sony PlayStation (2000) "Street Fighter Alpha 3 [Model SLES-01863]" 
[US] Sony PlayStation (2000) "Street Fighter Alpha 3 [Greatest Hits] [Model SLUS-00821GH]" 
[US] Sega Dreamcast (may.31, 2000) "Street Fighter Alpha 3 [Model T-1203N]" 
Sega Dreamcast [EU] (sept.29, 2000) "Street Fighter Alpha 3 [Model T-7005D-50]" 
Sony PlayStation 2 [AU] (2006) "Street Fighter Alpha Anthology" 
[US] Sony PS2 (june.13, 2006) "Street Fighter Alpha Anthology [Model SLUS-21317]" 
[EU] Sony PS2 (jul.7, 2006) "Street Fighter Alpha Anthology [Model SLES-54085]" 

* HANDHELDS: 
[EU] Nintendo GBA (nov.29, 2002) "Street Fighter Alpha 3 [Model AGB-AZUP-EUR]"  
[US] Nintendo GBA (dec.1, 2002) "Street Fighter Alpha 3 [Model AGB-AZUE-USA]" 
[AU] Sony PSP (2006) "Street Fighter Alpha 3 MAX" by THQ
[US] Sony PSP (feb.7, 2006) "Street Fighter Alpha 3 MAX [Model ULUS-10062]" 
[EU] Sony PSP (mar.10, 2006) "Street Fighter Alpha 3 MAX [Model ULES-00235]" 

For further details, please see the "Street Fighter Zero 3 Upper" entry.

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=2651&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=sfa3h,sfa3hr1
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 25 years ago:

Street Fighter Alpha 3 (c) 1998 Capcom Company, Ltd

South American release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, see the original Japanese release entry; "Street Fighter Zero 3 [Green Board]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Orange Board [South America]

- TRIVIA -

This Export version supports a card (possibly meaning 'ticket') dispenser, and when the game's options in test mode have the dispenser turned on, when there's no dispenser installed on the machine, a 'NO CARD' message will appear during the attract mode, and when you're playing the game.

- UPDATES -

Orange Board revisions : 

REVISION 1:
* Build date: 980629

REVISION 2:
* Build date: 980904

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=69670&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=sfa3b
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 25 years ago:

Street Fighter Alpha 3 (c) 1998 Capcom Company, Ltd

Brazilian release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, see the original Japanese release entry; "Street Fighter Zero 3 [Green Board]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Pink Board [Brazil]

- TRIVIA -

This Export version supports a card (possibly meaning 'ticket') dispenser, and when the game's options in test mode have the dispenser turned on, when there's no dispenser installed on the machine, a 'NO CARD' message will appear during the attract mode, and when you're playing the game.

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=71671&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=sf2dkot2
Arcade Video game published 31 years ago:

Street Fighter II - Champion Edition [Double KO Turbo Two] (c) 1992 Unknown.

- TRIVIA -

This Street Fighter II- Champion Edition hack has :
1. Increased Game speed.
2. Pressing START changes character (the CPU does this too).
3. Dragon punches reach across the width of the playfield.
4. More fireballs!
5. Fireballs follow a sinusodial path.
6. Various special moves can be performed while airborne.
6. E. Honda's stage is dripping with blood.

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=25960&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=sf2yyc
Arcade Video game published 31 years ago:

Street Fighter II - Champion Edition [YYC] (c) 1992 HCR.

YYC is a hack of the world version (920313) of "Street Fighter II' - Champion Edition".

- TECHNICAL -

Capcom Play System hardware (CPS)

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 6 (LP, MP, HP, LK, MK, HK)

- TRIVIA -

In this hacked version of SFII CE :
1. Many 'Special' moves can be executed while in the air.
2. Ability to change characters while in play, by hitting the 1 & 2 Player START buttons.
3. Many distant attacks are launched in ZigZag.
4. Some players have faster moving speeds.

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=2656&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=sf2ebbl,sf2stt,sf2ebbl2,sf2ebbl3
Arcade Video game published 31 years ago:

Street Fighter II - The World Warrior (c) 1992 TAB-Austria.

TAB-Austria's bootleg.

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=36263&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=sf2ja,sf2eb,sf2ua
Arcade Video game published 32 years ago:

Street Fighter II - The World Warrior (c) 1991 Capcom Company, Limited.

Re-release/Updated hardware. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese release entry; "Street Fighter II - The World Warrior [B-Board 90629B]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System" hardware.
B-Board #: 90629B-2

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=69758&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=sf2,sf2jc,sf2ee,sf2ub,sf2uc,sf2ud,sf2ue,sf2uf,sf2ug,sf2ui,sf2uk,sf2ed,sf2em,sf2en,sf2ea,sf2uh,sf2um,sf2ef
Arcade Video game published 32 years ago:

Street Fighter II - The World Warrior (c) 1991 Capcom Company, Limited. 

Re-release/Updated hardware. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese release entry; "Street Fighter II - The World Warrior [B-Board 90629B]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System" hardware.
B-Board #: 90629B-3

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=69759&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=sf2j,sf2jl,sf2jh,sf2jf,sf2j17
Arcade Video game published 32 years ago:

Street Fighter II - The World Warrior (c) 1991 Capcom.

Street Fighter II - The World Warrior is the legendary fighting game that defined the fighting game genre. One or two players can choose from eight selectable World Warriors and must defeat the other seven, before finally taking on four non-selectable 'boss' characters. 

Each fighter is as distinctive in feel and fighting style as they are in physical appearance, with each protagonist possessing several fantastical 'special moves' (the first genuine example of such in the fighting genre) to accompany the usual array of kicks, punches and throws. These special moves, while being difficult to execute due to the complexity of the joystick and buttons combinations required, allows the fighter to inflict huge amounts of damage on their opponent. 

Street Fighter II is a fighting game in the truest sense of the word, with deceptively deep and strategic gameplay ensuring that experienced players would destroy simple 'button mashers' with relative ease.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System" hardware.
B-Board # 90629B

Players: Up to 2.
Control: 8-way joystick  per player.
Buttons: 6 per player.
= > [1] LP (Jab), [2] MP (Strong), [3] HP (Fierce) 
= > [4] LK (Short), [5] MK (Forward), [6] HK (Roundhouse)

- TRIVIA -

Street Fighter II was released in February 1991 in the Japanese arcades. It was known as the 14th video game made for the CP System.

Known re-releases:
"Street Fighter II - The World Warrior [B-Board 90629B-2]"
"Street Fighter II - The World Warrior [B-Board 90629B-3]"

SFII was the fighting game that changed the face of video-games forever. So innovative was the game, that many of the game-play elements that fighting fans now take for granted, appeared HERE first. Within just weeks of release, its place in gaming history was assured. Any fighting game that has appeared after SFII is influenced - to a greater or lesser degree - by the Capcom legend. 

During the development of SFII (and before the release of Final Fight), the very first free-hand drawing was done in the fall of 1988. At this time, eight prototype characters and an Island design was drawn. Just like the world map of the final version, the island would scroll on-screen to show the next destination, culminating at the top of the island. 

* With the rapid success of SFII, it was rumored that Mattel, the makers of Barbie, sued Capcom for using the name Ken - insisting that people would confuse the Street Fighter character with that of Barbie's boyfriend. To avoid further litigation Capcom gave Ken a surname. 

* Fans of Street Fighter are well accustomed to the story of 'Sheng Long'. SFII was already very popular in the arcades when the April issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM) came out. The story relates to a supposed secret character in SFII; his name was Sheng Long, the 'master' of Ryu and Ken. To reach him, according to EGM, the player had to survive a number of matches against M. Bison WITHOUT actually touching him. Should you achieve this, Sheng Long would apparently appear and kill Bison, and the player would then fight him instead. His style was essentially a mix of Ryu's and Ken's styles, but was much faster and inflicted far greater damage. When the EGM issue came out, thousands of gamers spent hours pouring money into SFII machines, trying to get to this non-existent character. Capcom had neither confirmed nor denied the Sheng Long story - obviously spotting the increase in revenue the mythical character could generate - and it was only much later that EGM themselves admitted that it was just an April Fools' joke. 

* There were only ever THREE official Capcom versions of SFII, at least until the switch to the CPS2 system was made. The first was "Street Fighter II - The World Warrior"; more commonly referred to as 'Street Fighter II'. The second was "Street Fighter II' - Champion Edition" (also known in Japan as "Street Fighter II Dash" because the Japanese refer to the apostrophe after the 'II' as a 'dash') and many operators from that era will probably relate to the problems that its release caused. Capcom originally made 'Champion Edition' available only in dedicated form - insisting that only a limited number of these dedicated units would be manufactured - and the game would never be produced in kit form. After everyone who could afford the machines had invested in the expensive dedicated units, Capcom, somewhat inevitably, began producing the game in kit form, claiming that they never knew how much demand there would be for the game. After the earnings from 'Champion Edition' began to subside, the infamous 'grey market' enhancements began to appear. Many of these went by names like 'Turbo', 'Hyper', and 'Super', including the 'Rainbow Edition' and 'Accelerator T1'. In early 1993, Capcom sued these manufacturers for copyright infringement and thus put an end to the development and distribution of these unauthorized enhancement kits. Capcom then released "Street Fighter II' - Hyper Fighting" (known as "Street Fighter II' Turbo - Hyper Fighting" in Japan), as the 'official' "Champion Edition" upgrade. This, just like the grey market kits, was a simple ROM upgrade to the "Champion Edition" board. Later on, Capcom developed the CPS2 (A/B) system that featured "Super Street Fighter II - The New Challengers" and its sequel "Super Street Fighter II Turbo" (known as "Super Street Fighter II X - Grand Master Challenge" in Japan), the final 'Street Fighter II' game until the 2003 release of "Hyper Street Fighter II - The Anniversary Edition".

The Ken music theme was certainly inspired by Cheap Trick's song; Mighty Wings (1986).

* Each stage has background colors that would change in later versions of the game (mainly time of day changes), here are the original color schemes for each stage background :
1) Ryu stage : The stage has red-orange sky and a yellow moon.
2) E. Honda stage : The walls are dark blue; the floor is royal blue. The big picture (excluding the sun) is black. The 'Victory' sign is blue. The Hiragana Yu on the left is purple.
3) Blanka stage : The snake is green, and the wooden houses are in brighter colors than in "Street Fighter II' - Champion Edition".
4) Guile stage : The sky is daylight. There is teal tinted canopy on the jet. The symbol on the ground is blue. The missile linings are yellow. The people in the background wear green, but that doesn't change until "Super Street Fighter II - The New Challengers".
5) Ken stage : The boat is red; the 2 guys on top are wearing brown clothes and purple clothes. On the bottom are the bald man in grey shirt, a man in white bowler and white coat, a woman in pink dress, and a guy in the cyan shirt and brown pants. The guy in the trenchcoat and hat is blue.
6) Chun Li stage : The 2 customers wear blue, the meat store's roof is light blue and its sign is red, the meats hanging on the ceiling are pink, the man holding the chicken wears green, the "Shanghai Friend Corridor" is light blue with red letters, the water sign is green, and the ground is a bright beige.
7) Zangief stage : The floor is silver, and the area to the left is red. The 'Attention' flyers are tan with brown letters.
8) Dhalsim stage : The stage has red curtains, a teal stone floor, and a red carpet.
9) Balrog ([JP] M. Bison) stage : The stage floor is blue. The guy throwing confetti at win/lose wears orange, the car to the left is navy blue, and the car to the right is black.
10) Vega ([JP] Balrog) stage : The stage and floor are orange, and the Flamenco dancers are dressed in yellow.
11) Sagat stage : The Buddhist statue is silver, and the grass is a lighter shade of green than in later versions of the game.
12) M. Bison ([JP] Vega) stage : the sky is daylight. The palace roof is pale red, and the bell is olive-green with red trim.

* Mike the Bison : many have conjectured whether Mike from the original "Street Fighter" is the same as Balrog ('Mike Bison' in Japan) from SFII. While Capcom of Japan confirms this, Capcom of America strenuously denied it (mainly due to the possibility of Mike Tyson filing a lawsuit). In Japan, as long as the name is changed, it's far easier to basically rip off someone else's character and have it treated as an original creation (in America it would be some form of copyright/identity theft). Ironically, as a result of the name change, Vega is a better fitting name for the Spanish warrior. (Vega is known as 'Balrog' in Japan. The name Balrog has its roots in Nordic mythology, while Vega is a Hispanic name.)

The E in E. Honda's name stands for his first name, Edmund; the M in M. Bison's name stands for 'Major'.

* About Chun Li : Chun Li is notable for being one of the first successful and popular female video game protagonists. When SFII was released, most female characters in games existed as objectives to be rescued or cast in the roles of other supporting characters, such as townspeople, girlfriends, the occasional opponent, or simply background decoration. Beyond RPGs, there were very few female heroes in action-based video games. After the success of SFII and Chun Li's popularity, female protagonists became more and more common. Since then, in games with selectable characters, at least, there will generally always be one or two selectable female characters. 

* About M. Bison ('Vega' in Japan) : His design shares more than one detail with Kato, a character of the anime 'Doomed Megalopolis'. Like Kato, M. Bison is tall and thin, wears a red military uniform, keep wind his body with a black mantle when he's not fighting and possesses some obscure evil powers: even the star impressed on his hat (until Super Street Fighter II) is similar to the design of Kato.

The cabinet and the main characters Ryu, Ken, Zangief Chun Li, Cammy, Blanka and M. Bison, make an appearance on the 2012 animation movie 'Wreck-It Ralph' from Walt Disney Animation Studios.

- UPDATES -

Here is the list of all versions : 

910129
* WORLD release.

910206 
* US release. 

910214 
* WORLD, US and JAPAN releases. 

910228 
* WORLD and US releases. 

910306 
* US and JAPAN releases. 

910318 
* WORLD and US releases. 

910411 
* US and JAPAN releases.

910522 
* WORLD, US and JAPAN releases.

911101 
* US release.

911210 
* JAPAN release. 

920312
* JAPAN release.

ADDITIONAL NOTES : 

US versions have the "Winners Don't Use Drugs" screen.

In the Japanese versions : 
* Balrog is named 'M. Bison' (in this case, the M stands for 'Mike', see Trivia section above for further details). 
* Vega is named 'Balrog'. 
* M. Bison is named 'Vega'. 
* Guile's deceased friend Charlie is named 'Nash'. 
* Guile's wife Jane is named 'Julia'. 
* Guile's daughter Amy is named 'Chris', however there is no mention of her name anywhere in Guile's Japanese ending. 

None of the endings are translated 100% accurately from Japanese to English, but most are pretty close : 
* Blanka's ending : In the non-Japanese versions, Blanka's mother says that he was lost when his plane crashed in Brazil when he was a baby. 
In the Japanese versions there is no explanation of how, when, or where mother and son were separated. 
Since the anklets she gave to Jimmy BEFORE they were separated still fit him, he was probably not supposed to be a baby when he was lost. 
* Chun Li's ending : Chun Li refers to M. Bison's organization as 'Bison's drug'. This was probably supposed to be 'drug ring', as the word 'ring' was added in later versions of the game. 
In the Japanese versions, she calls it 'the organization of evil'; there is no mention of drugs. 
* Dhalsim's ending : In the Japanese versions, Dhalsim says that the photograph is of him a long time ago. 
In the non-Japanese versions, he says it is him 'in his past life'. 
Since only three years had passed, he obviously didn't actually mean that he had died and been reincarnated since the photograph had been taken. 
* Guile's ending : In the non-Japanese versions, Guile asks M. Bison if he remembers : him (Guile), him and Charlie and Cambodia. Bison says he remembers and that Guile was not the runt he was then. 
None of this is said in the Japanese versions. 
In the non-Japanese versions, after his wife Jane stops Guile from killing Bison, she says that killing him won't bring Charlie back, only make Guile a murderer, just like Bison. 
In the Japanese versions, 'Julia' only says that killing 'Vega' won't bring 'Nash' back. She does not say that it would make Guile a murderer.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Characters stats : If you enter the classic Konami code UP(x2), DOWN(x2), LEFT, RIGHT, LEFT, RIGHT, MP, LP on the Player-2 side during the demo fight in attract mode, it makes a bunch of zeros appear. 
First line contains 0001 0002 0003 0004 
Second line contains 0005 0006 0007 0008 0009 0010 0011 0012 

0001 = No idea, probably some sort of 'experience points' for 1P side. 
0002 = The no. of coins put in in the left-hand slot. 
0003 = Same as 0001, but for 2nd player. 
0004 = Same as 0002, but for right-hand slot. 
0005 = No. of times Ryu has been used. 
0006 = No. of times Honda has been used. 
0007 = No. of times Blanka has been used 
0008 = No. of times Guile has been used. 
0009 = No. of times Ken has been used. 
0010 = No. of times Chun Li has been used. 
0011 = No. of times Zangief has been used. 
0012 = No. of times Dhalsim has been used. 

* Special Ending : Finish the game on 1 credit to see an additional credit sequence. 

* To get Ryu vs. Ryu : Start a fresh game on the left side (1P). Select any character other than Ryu. Play the game until you reach Ryu. Lose. Join in the game on the other side and hit 2P BEFORE the timer runs out. Select Ryu and enjoy fighting Ryu. 

* Guile Freeze Himself (aka 'Pose' and 'Statue') : Get close enough to your opponent to do an upside down kick. Charge back on the joystick. After charging back, press roundhouse to execute the upside down kick, while continuing to charge back. As soon as Guile kicks and starts to flip around to land on the ground, throw a Sonic Boom with fierce (this is why we have been charging back). Guile will freeze standing up on one leg (which is one of the frames of Guile's landing after the upside down kick). 

Un-freeze : You can 'un-freeze' at any time, even after the round ends (that makes it a good pause). To do so, execute a Flash Kick (charge down for 2 seconds then press up and any kick). 

* Guile's Handcuffs (aka 'Freeze the Enemy') : Though its not required, its easiest to do this move when the enemy is dizzy. Charge down for 2 seconds. Then press UP (as if you were doing a Flash Kick) and hit the Strong and Forward buttons, while trying to hit strong a split second before hitting forward. Basically what you are doing is throwing your opponent with strong, and while in middle of the throw, you do a Flash Kick. When this move is done, you see all of the frames of Guile's Strong throw, however instead of flying across the screen at the end of the throw, the enemy sticks to you. 

Un-handcuff : The 'un-handcuff' is the difficult part because it requires doing Guile's Shadow Throw. Charge back for 3 seconds then hit forward on the joystick along with the Fierce and Roundhouse buttons. Just like in the Handcuffs, you should try to hit the Roundhouse button slightly before the Fierce button. Also, you should hit the buttons slightly after moving the joystick forward. You can practice this by throwing Sonic Booms and seeing how far forward you can walk and still throw the sonic boom. 

* Guile Invisible Throw (aka 'Shadow Throw', 'Magic Throw', 'Phantom Throw') : Charge back then hit forward on the joystick along with the Fierce and Roundhouse buttons. Just like in the Handcuffs, you should try to hit the Roundhouse button slightly before the Fierce button. Also, you should hit the buttons slightly after moving the joystick forward. You can practice this by throwing sonic booms and seeing how far forward you can walk and still throw the sonic boom. 

* Guile Reset the Machine (aka 'Blackout') : Do a throw with Strong. Then do a Flash Kick before the opponent hits the ground. You can also try doing this by doing a Flash Kick with Fierce and Roundhouse. 

* Dhalsim Invisible glitch : Throw a Yoga Fire (down, down-forward, forward) with both the Fierce and Forward buttons. This only works on versions 3 and 4 of the SFII boards. 

* Blanka Double Roll Bite (Blanka rolls slow, then fast then bites without landing) : Do a slow roll (with Jab). While rolling, charge for a second roll. Roll with Fierce before Blanka lands. While in the second roll, push the joystick forward and hit Fierce to bite. 

* Ken or Ryu Get Stuck on the car and bounce : Start the car bonus round. Break the left (or right) side of the car until it blocks. Face away from the car. Do a jump toward the car. Kick right after you jump but not at the same time as you jump. If you are lucky, you will be facing backwards. This is a tough one, so have patience. 

* Ken or Ryu Endless Hurricane Kick : Do a normal Hurricane kick then tap Roundhouse extremely fast (fast enough to do Honda's Hundred Hand Slap, Chun Li's Lightning Leg, or Blanka's Electricity) while Ken or Ryu is in the air. 

* Zangief Turbo Short : This is another glitch that is fun only to do once. If you hit your opponent with low Short, do another low Short, then hit Jab as fast as possible. If a 3rd low Short would have hit the opponent a Short will come out even though you are hitting Jab. If the short would have missed, Jab usually comes out even though short will from time to time.

- SERIES -

1. Street Fighter (1987)
2. Street Fighter II - The World Warrior [B-Board 90629B] (1991)
3. Street Fighter II' - Champion Edition [B-Board 91634B-2] (1992)
4. Street Fighter II' - Hyper Fighting [B-Board 91635B-2] (1992)
5. Super Street Fighter II - The New Challengers [Green Board] (1993)
6. Super Street Fighter II Turbo [Blue Board] (1994)
7. Street Fighter Alpha - Warriors' Dreams [Blue Board] (1995)
8. Street Fighter Alpha 2 [Blue Board] (1996)
9. Street Fighter III - New Generation (1997)
10. Street Fighter III - 2nd Impact : Giant Attack (1997)
11. Street Fighter Alpha 3 [Blue Board] (1998)
12. Street Fighter III - 3rd Strike : Fight For The Future (1999)
13. Hyper Street Fighter II - The Anniversary Edition [Green Board] (2003)
14. Street Fighter IV (2008)
15. Super Street Fighter IV - Arcade Edition (2010)
16. Ultra Street Fighter IV (2014)
17. Street Fighter V (2016)
18. Ultra Street Fighter II - The Final Challengers (2017, Switch)

- STAFF -

Planners: Akira Nishitani (Nin), Akira Yasuda (Akiman)
Character designers: S.Y, Ikusan Z, Sho, Erichan, Pigmon, Katuragi, Mak!!, Manbou, Ball Boy (Ballboy), Kurisan, Q (Q Kyoku), Mikiman, Tanuki, Yamachan, S-Taing, Nissui, Buppo, Ziggy, Zummy, Nakamura, M. Okazaki
Programmers: Shin, Marina, Macchan, Ecchro!!
Sound: Yoko Shimomura (Shimo-P), Isao Abe (Oyaji-Oyaji)
Special Thanks: CBX, Noritaka Funamizu (Poo), Kiyomi Kaneko (Kanekon), Shono

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES: 
Nintendo Super Famicom/SNES
[JP] "Street Fighter II - The World Warrior [Model SHVC-S2]" (june.10, 1992)
[US] "Street Fighter II - The World Warrior [Model SNS-S2-USA]" (jul.1992)
[EU] "Street Fighter II - The World Warrior [Model SNSP-S2-NOE]" (Dec.17, 1992)

Sony PlayStation
[EU] "Street Fighter Collection 2 [Model SLES-01721]" (1998)
[US] "Street Fighter Collection 2 [Model SLUS-00746]" (Oct.31, 1998)
[JP] "Capcom Generation Dai 5 Shou Kakkutouka Tachi [Model SLPS-01725]" (Dec.3, 1998)

Sega Saturn
[JP] "Capcom Generation Dai 5 Shou Kakkutouka Tachi [Model T-1236G]"  (Dec.3, 1998)

Microsoft XBOX
[US] "Capcom Classics Collection" (Sep.27, 2005)
[EU] "Capcom Classics Collection" (Nov.18, 2005)

Sony PlayStation 2
[US] "Capcom Classics Collection [Model SLUS-21316]" (Sep.27, 2005)
[EU] "Capcom Classics Collection [Model SLES-53661]" (Nov.18, 2005)
[JP] "Capcom Classics Collection [Model SLPM-66317]" (Mar.2, 2006)

* HANDHELDS: 
Nintendo Game Boy
[EU] "Street Fighter II [Model DMG-ASFP-NOE]" (1995) 
[JP] "Street Fighter II [Model DMG-ASFJ-JPN]" (Aug.11, 1995)
[US] "Street Fighter II [Model DMG-ASFE-USA]" (Sep.1995)

Sony PSP
[JP] "Capcom Classics Collection [Model ULJM-05104]" (Sep.7, 2006)
[US] "Capcom Classics Collection Reloaded [Model ULUS-10134]" (Oct.24, 2006)
[EU] "Capcom Classics Collection Reloaded [Model ULES-00377]" (Nov.10, 2006)
[AU] "Capcom Classics Collection Reloaded" (Nov.16, 2006)

* COMPUTERS: 
[EU] Atari ST (1992)
[EU] Commodore Amiga (1992) 
[EU] Commodore C64 (1992)) 
[US] [EU] PC [MS-DOS, 3.5"] (1992) 
[EU] Sinclair ZX Spectrum (1992) 
[JP] Sharp X68000 (1993) 
[EU] Atari ST (1993)

* OTHERS: 
[JP] Mobile Phones (Dec.2004) 
[US] Apple iPhone/iPod (Nov.4, 2010) "Capcom Arcade [Model 397347348]" 
[US] Apple iPhone/iPod (Sep.15, 2011) "Street Fighter II Collection [Model 459660048]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=2657&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=sf2qp1
Arcade Video game published 30 years ago:

Street Fighter II - The World Warrior [Quicken Pt-1] (c) 1993 Testron, Incorporated.

A hack of "Street Fighter II - The World Warrior". Here are the enhancements list:
* 1st & 2nd players select any characters.
* New moves.
* New patterns.
* Jumps higher.
* Runs faster & Faster moves.
* Transforming characters.
* Quicker game timer.
* Increased levels of difficulty.
* Characters fight in mid air.
* And much more...

- TRIVIA -

This hack was available as a 'enhancement kit' at $179 from Testron, Inc. in 1993.

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=32427&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=sf2thndr,sf2thndr2
Arcade Video game published 32 years ago:

Street Fighter II - The World Warrior [Thunder Edition] (c) 1991 Unknown.

A very rare hack of "Street Fighter II - The World Warrior".

- TECHNICAL -

This particular hack uses a modified B-board PAL which mirrors the CPS-B registers at an alternate address.

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=34085&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=sf2v004
Arcade Video game published 31 years ago:

Street Fighter II! Champion Edition [V004] (c) 1992.

V004 is a hack of "Street Fighter II' - Champion Edition".

- TECHNICAL -

Capcom Play System hardware (CPS)

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 6 (LP, MP, HP, LK, MK, HK)

- TRIVIA -

In this hacked version of SFII CE :
1. All characters may perform any special move in the air.
2. The gameplay speed is much much faster.

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=2658&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=sf2m2
Arcade Video game published 31 years ago:

Street Fighter II' - Champion Edition (c) 1992 Mega Co.

Pirate version.

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=33292&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=sf2accp2
Arcade Video game published 31 years ago:

Street Fighter II' - Champion Edition [Accelerator Pt+.II] (c) 1992 Testron.

Accelerator Pt+.II (aka Final Victory) is a hack of "Street Fighter II' - Champion Edition":
1. It is possible to change characters partway through the fight (with Start button).
2. All characters may perform any special move in the air.
3. M. Bison's Psycho Crusher does not make a sound when it is performed.
4. Ryu's dragon punch (with HP) moves across the entire screen.
5. Ryu's Hurricane kick (with HK) moves across the entire screen.
6. Ken and Ryu "Fireballs" LP : bounce slowly across screen. MP : angle downward. HP : angle upward.

- TECHNICAL -

Capcom Play System hardware (CPS)

Players: 2
Control: 8-way joystick
Buttons: 6 (LP, MP, HP, LK, MK, HK)

- TRIVIA -

This hack was available as a 'enhancement kit' at $149 from Testron, Inc. in 1992.

The title screen advertises what appears to be Testron's telephone number, which is 607-326-7212.

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=2660&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=sf2acc,sf2acca
Arcade Video game published 31 years ago:

Street Fighter II' - Champion Edition [Accelerator!] (c) 1992 Testron.

Another hack of "Street Fighter II' - Champion Edition".

- TRIVIA -

Released in September 1992.

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=32426&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=sf2ceja,sf2cejb,sf2cejc,sf2dongb,sf2cet
Arcade Video game published 31 years ago:

Street Fighter II' - Champion Edition (c) 1992 Capcom.

This was the first official sequel to the legendary one-on-one fighting game, Street Fighter II - The World Warrior. 

As with its predecessor, battles take place over a series of 'best two-out-of-three' rounds. The objective of each round is to deplete the opponent's 'vitality' before the timer runs out. If both opponents knock each other out at the same time, or if the timer expires with both fighters having equal amounts of vitality remaining, a 'Double KO' or 'Draw Game" is declared and additional rounds will be played to sudden death. 

New gameplay additions included the ability to play as any of the four boss characters (increasing the playable roster from eight to twelve) and the option for both players to use the same characters in two-player fights, with an alternate colour scheme introduced to distinguish them from each other. Some minor gameplay revisions were also made to balance the characters out. 

Additionally, while in World Warrior one-player games could last up to ten rounds in the event of there being no clear winner (at which point the game made the player lose by default), in the "Champion Edition" this was reduced to just four rounds.

Playable characters:
* Ryu - a Japanese martial artist seeking to hone his skills.
* E. Honda - a sumo wrestler from Japan.
* Blanka - a beast-man from Brazil who was raised in the jungle.
* Guile - a former USAF special forces operative from the US.
* Ken - Ryu's former training partner and rival, from the US.
* Chun-Li - a Chinese female martial artist and Interpol officer.
* Zangief - a pro wrestler from the former Soviet Union.
* Dhalsim - a yoga master from India with stretchable limbs.
* Balrog - an American boxer, similar in appearance real-life boxer, Mike Tyson.
* Vega - a Spanish cage fighter who uses a unique style of ninjutsu.
* Sagat - a Muay Thai master, scarred by Ryu at the end of a previous tournament.
* M. Bison - leader of the criminal organization, 'Shadaloo'.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System" hardware.
B-Board #: 91634B-2

# of Players: Up to 2 simultaneously.
Control : 8-way joystick 
Buttons : 6 
=> [1] LP (Jab), [2] MP (Strong), [3] HP (Fierce) 
=> [4] LK (Short), [5] MK (Forward), [6] HK (Roundhouse)

- TRIVIA -

Street Fighter II' - Champion Edition was released in March 1992 in the Japanese arcades. It was known there as the 21st video game made for this system.

Known export release: "Street Fighter II' - Champion Edition [B-Board 91635B-2]".

In Japan, the apostrophe-like character on the game's official logo is actually a prime symbol and thus the official title is pronounced Street Fighter II Dash - Champion Edition.

This game is an enhanced version of "Street Fighter II - The World Warrior" : 
* Added an alternate color scheme for each character and the ability to select boss characters (Balrog, Vega, Sagat, M. Bison). 
* Each stage had different background colors from the original (mainly time of day changes), here are the background changes : 
1) Ryu stage : now has midnight blue sky instead of red-orange, and has yellow moon.
2) E. Honda stage : the walls are now yellow, the big picture (excluding the sun) is now blue-purple. The 'Victory' sign is now red-orange. The Hiragana Yu on the left is now red.
3) Blanka stage : the snake is now red, and the houses are now wood color.
4) Guile stage : The sky is now sunset. The tinted canopy on the jet is now purple. The symbol on the ground is now red, and the missile linings are now red.
5) Ken stage : The boat is now blue. The 2 guys on top are now wearing brown clothes and orange clothes. The guy in the trenchcoat and hat is now yellow.
6) Chun Li stage : The 2 customers now wear pink, the meat store's roof is now orange and its sign is now green, the meats on the ceiling are now brown, the "Shanghai Friend Corridor" sign is now pale green with red letters, and the ground is now a darker color.
7) Zangief stage : The floor is now gold and to the left is now copper. The "Attention" flyers are now red with yellow letters.
8) Dhalsim stage : The stage now has blue curtains, silver stone floor, and blue carpet.
9) Balrog ([JP] M. Bison) stage : The floor is now purple. 
10) Vega ([JP] Balrog) stage : The stage now sports a dark blue hue, and the Flamenco dancers are now dressed in pink.
11) Sagat stage : Buddhist statue is now gold, and the grass is now a darker green.
12) M. Bison ([JP] Vega) stage : The sky is evening this time.

* New moves were added for some characters. 
* The portraits of Chun Li and M. Bison have been recolored. 
* Overall hit damage was reduced (favoring combos attacks instead of special moves). 
* Special moves were tweaked a bit (i.e. : the fighting styles of Ryu and Ken were distinguishable from one another) 
* The main title screen was changed from black to blue. 
* Various cosmetic enhancements were made to each character's physical appearance. 
* Ryu's original SFII stage featured breakable 'Fuurinkazan' signs. These signs have been removed in this game and are not seen again until "Hyper Street Fighter II - The Anniversary Edition". 
* In Ken's original SFII stage, there were two barrels and a stack of boxes which were a single breakable item. From "Street Fighter II' - Champion Edition" to "Super Street Fighter II Turbo" ("Super Street Fighter II X - Grand Master Challenge" in Japan), there is just a single barrel in Ken's stage. The two barrels and stack of boxes from the original SFII would later return in "Hyper Street Fighter II - The Anniversary Edition". 
* Sagat's stage in the original SFII had a palm tree in the foreground. The palm tree is gone in this game and does not return.

- UPDATES -

Revision 1:
* Build date: 920322

Revision 2:
* Build date: 920513

Revision 3:
* Build date: 920803

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Characters stats: If you enter the classic Konami code Up(x2), Down(x2), Left, Right, Left, Right, MP, LP on the 2nd player side during the demo fight in attract mode, it makes a bunch of zeros appear. 
First line contains 0001 0002 0003 0004 
Second line contains 0005 0006 0007 0008 0009 0010 0011 0012 0013 0014 0015 0016 

0001 = No idea, probably some sort of 'experience points' for 1P side. 
0002 = The no. of coins put in in the left-hand slot. 
0003 = Same as 0001, but for 2nd player. 
0004 = Same as 0002, but for right-hand slot. 
0005 = No. of times Ryu has been used. 
0006 = No. of times Honda has been used. 
0007 = No. of times Blanka has been used. 
0008 = No. of times Guile has been used. 
0009 = No. of times Ken has been used. 
0010 = No. of times Chun Li has been used. 
0011 = No. of times Zangief has been used. 
0012 = No. of times Dhalsim has been used. 
0013 = No. of times Balrog (M. Bison in Japan) has been used. 
0014 = No. of times Sagat has been used. 
0015 = No. of times Vega (Balrog in Japan) has been used. 
0016 = No. of times M. Bison (Vega in Japan) has been used. 

* Special Ending: finish the game on one credit to see an additional credit sequence.

- SERIES -

1. Street Fighter (1987)
2. Street Fighter II - The World Warrior [B-Board 90629B] (1991)
3. Street Fighter II' - Champion Edition [B-Board 91634B-2] (1992)
4. Street Fighter II' - Hyper Fighting [B-Board 91635B-2] (1992)
5. Super Street Fighter II - The New Challengers [Green Board] (1993)
6. Super Street Fighter II Turbo [Blue Board] (1994)
7. Street Fighter Alpha - Warriors' Dreams [Blue Board] (1995)
8. Street Fighter Alpha 2 [Blue Board] (1996)
9. Street Fighter III - New Generation (1997)
10. Street Fighter III - 2nd Impact : Giant Attack (1997)
11. Street Fighter Alpha 3 [Blue Board] (1998)
12. Street Fighter III - 3rd Strike : Fight For The Future (1999)
13. Hyper Street Fighter II - The Anniversary Edition [Green Board] (2003)
14. Street Fighter IV (2008)
15. Super Street Fighter IV - Arcade Edition (2010)
16. Ultra Street Fighter IV (2014)
17. Street Fighter V (2016)
18. Ultra Street Fighter II - The Final Challengers (2017, Switch)

- STAFF -

Planner: Akira Nishitani (Nin), Akira Yasuda (Akiman)
Character designers: S.Y, Ikusan Z, Sho, Erichan, Pigmon, Katuragi, Mak!!, Manbou, Ball Boy (Ballboy), Kurisan, Q Kyoku, Mikiman, Tanuki, Yamachan, S-Taing, Nissui, Buppo, Ziggy, Zummy, Nakamura, Okazaki
Programmers: Shin., Marina, Macchan, Ecchro!!
Sound: Yoko Shimomura (Shimo-P.), Isao Abe (Oyaji-Oyaji)

Special Thanks: CBX, And, Noritaka Funamizu (Poo), Kiyomi Kaneko (Kanekon), Shono., Hirakin., Nac Kai, Erlingr Ogachy, James Goddard (DJames.)

- PORTS -

Here is a list of ports released in Japan only. To see non-Japanese ports, please see the Export version entry; "Street Fighter II' - Champion Edition [B-Board 91635B-2]".

* CONSOLES: 
[JP] NEC PC-Engine (june.12, 1993) "Street Fighter II' - Champion Edition [Model HE93002]" 
[JP] Sega Mega Drive (sept.28, 1993) "Street Fighter II' Plus - Champion Edition [Model T-12033]" 
[JP] Nintendo Super Famicom (jul.11, 1993) "Street Fighter II Turbo - Hyper Fighting [Model SHVC-TI]" 
[JP] Sega Saturn (dec.3, 1998) "Capcom Generation Dai 5 Shou Kakkutouka Tachi [Model T-1236G]" 
[JP] Sony PlayStation (dec.3, 1998) "Capcom Generation Dai 5 Shou Kakkutouka Tachi [Model SLPS-01725]" 
[JP] Sony PS2 (mar.2, 2006) "Capcom Classics Collection [Model SLPM-66317]" 

* HANDHELDS: 
[JP] Sony PSP (sept.7, 2006) "Capcom Classics Collection [Model ULJM-05104]" 

* COMPUTERS: 
[JP] Sharp X68000 (nov.26, 1993) 

* OTHERS: 
CPS Changer [JP] (1994)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=sf2ce,sf2ceua,sf2ceub,sf2ceuc,sf2ceea,sf2ceblp,sf2ceec
Arcade Video game published 31 years ago:

Street Fighter II' - Champion Edition (c) 1992 Capcom Company, Limited.

Export release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese release entry; "Street Fighter II' - Champion Edition [B-Board 91634B-2]".

- TECHNICAL -

Capcom Play System hardware (CP-S) 
B-Board #: 91635B-2

- PORTS -

Here is a list of ports released outside Japan. To see Japanese ports, please see the original Japanese version entry; "Street Fighter II' - Champion Edition [B-Board 91634B-2]".

* CONSOLES: 
[AU] Nintendo SNES (1993) "Street Fighter II Turbo - Hyper Fighting" 
Sega Mega Drive [AU] (1993) "Street Fighter II' - Special Champion Edition [Sega Gold Collection]" 
Sega Mega Drive [BR] (1993) "Street Fighter II' - Special Champion Edition [Model 047020]" by Tec Toy 
[EU] Nintendo SNES (aug.1993) "Street Fighter II Turbo - Hyper Fighting [Model SNSP-TI-EUR]" 
[US] Nintendo SNES (aug.1993) "Street Fighter II Turbo - Hyper Fighting [Model SNS-TI-USA]" 
[US] Sega Genesis (sept.27, 1993) "Street Fighter II' - Special Champion Edition [Model T-12016]" 
[EU] Sega Mega Drive (oct.1993) "Street Fighter II' - Special Champion Edition [Model 670-4179]" 
Sega Master System [BR] (1997) "Street Fighter II [Model 030.010]" by Tec Toy 
[EU] Sony PlayStation (1998) "Street Fighter Collection 2 [Model SLES-01721]" 
[US] Sony PlayStation (oct.31, 1998) "Street Fighter Collection 2 [Model SLUS-00746]" 
[US] Microsoft XBOX (sept.27, 2005) "Capcom Classics Collection" 
[US] Sony PS2 (sept.27, 2005; "Capcom Classics Collection [Model SLUS-21316]" 
[EU] Microsoft XBOX (nov.18, 2005) "Capcom Classics Collection" 
[EU] Sony PS2 (nov.18, 2005) "Capcom Classics Collection [Model SLES-53661]" 

* HANDHELDS: 
[US] Sony PSP (oct.24, 2006) "Capcom Classics Collection Reloaded [Model ULUS-10134]" 
[EU] Sony PSP (nov.10, 2006) "Capcom Classics Collection Reloaded [Model ULES-00377]" 
[AU] Sony PSP (nov.16, 2006) "Capcom Classics Collection Reloaded" 

* COMPUTERS: 
[US] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (2003) "Capcom Arcade Hits Volume 1" 

* OTHERS: 
Mobile Phones [US] (2008) 
Apple iPhone/iPad [US] (nov.4, 2010) "Capcom Arcade [Model 397347348]" 
Apple iPhone/iPod [US] (sept.15, 2011) "Street Fighter II Collection [Model 459660048]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=sf2koryu
Arcade Video game published 31 years ago:

Street Fighter II' - Champion Edition [Kouryu] (c) 1992 Yu.

Kouryu is a hack of "Street Fighter II' - Champion Edition".

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Trick : 99 credits in kouryu for free!
1) Turn off the machine (so you have the default hi-scores)
2) Play a game and beat the hi-score ( its 99.999)
3) Enter 'WBH' as initials for 1st place.
4) You got 99 credits in game.

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=sf2m3
Arcade Video game:

Street Fighter II' - Champion Edition [M3] (c) 199? Unknown

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=sf2m4
Arcade Video game:

Street Fighter II' - Champion Edition [M4] (c) 199? Unknown

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=sf2m5
Arcade Video game:

Street Fighter II' - Champion Edition [M5] (c) 199? Unknown

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=sf2m6
Arcade Video game:

Street Fighter II' - Champion Edition [M6] (c) 199? Unknown

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=sf2m7
Arcade Video game:

Street Fighter II' - Champion Edition [M7] (c) 199? Unknown

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=sf2m8
Arcade Video game:

Street Fighter II' - Champion Edition [M8] (c) 199? Unknown

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=sf2rb,sf2rb2,sf2rb3
Arcade Video game published 31 years ago:

Street Fighter II' - Champion Edition [Rainbow] (c) 1992 Hung Hsi.

- TECHNICAL -

Capcom Play System hardware (CPS)

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 12 Mhz)
Sound CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 3.579545 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Yamaha YM2151 (@ 3.579545 Mhz), OKI6295 (@ 7.576 Khz)

Screen orientation : Horizontal
Video resolution : 384 x 224 pixels
Screen refresh : 60.00 Hz
Palette colors : 4096

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 6 (LP, MP, HP, LK, MK, HK)

- TRIVIA -

Street Fighter II Rainbow is a special hacked version of "Street Fighter II' - Champion Edition". There are some special features in this program. First, the game has increased speed. Midair moves are also possible, just execute your favorite attack in the air. All fireballs (except Yoga Flame) are homing, meaning that they move toward the opponent, even when they jump. All jab fireballs are extremely slow. Strong fireballs are medium speed. Fierce fireballs are lightning fast, hitting instantaneously. You also have the ability to do multiple fireballs. In other words, you can throw a new fireball before the old one hits. You can climb the screen indefinitely, (jump, do a special move, jump, do a special move, etc.). Also, throws have seemingly unlimited vertical range.

The best part of this game is the ability to switch characters in the middle of a round. This is done by pressing START on the player controller that you are.  Starting with Ryu, the cycle is as follows : Ryu -> E. Honda -> Blanka -> Guile -> Ken -> Chun Li -> Zangief -> Dhalsim -> M. Bison -> Sagat -> Balrog -> Vega

Ryu :
1. Fierce dragon punch goes across the screen (arcing dragon punch).
2. Roundhouse hurricane kick goes across the screen.

E. Honda : Hundred hand slap often fires a Ken/Ryu fireball.

Blanka :
1. Electricity often fires a Ken / Ryu fireball.
2. All Rolls arc up. You can do continuous rolls easily by charging for the next roll while rolling and executing it while in the air, at the end of the original roll.

Guile :
1. Sonic booms are no charge.
2. Hit your opponent with slow and fast sonic booms at the same time.

Ken : Roundhouse hurricane kick is fast and travels across the screen. It almost always will dizzy.

Chun-Li : Lightning Kick sometimes releases a Ken/Ryu fireball.

Zangief :
1. Hand Spin sometimes throws a fireball.
2. Try doing the handspin in the air and jumping afterwards.

Dhalsim : Slide Roundhouse reaches across screen. He wals very fast.

M. Bison : Psycho crusher is much faster.

Sagat : Kick button based Tigers take the same effect as punch based fireballs.

Balrog : Sliding Punches (with the punch buttons) make Ken/Ryu fireballs. Use jab for the best effect.

Vega : Rolls throw Ken/Ryu fireball.

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=sf2red,sf2reda
Arcade Video game published 31 years ago:

Street Fighter II' - Champion Edition [Red Wave] (c) 1992.

Red Wave is a pirate version of "Street Fighter II' - Champion Edition".

In this version of SFII CE:
1. It is possible to change characters partway through the fight by hold Start button (as a roulette).
2. Many 'Special' moves can be executed while in the air.

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=sf2hf,sf2hfu
Arcade Video game published 31 years ago:

Street Fighter II' - Hyper Fighting (c) 1992 Capcom.

Export release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese release entry; "Street Fighter II' Turbo - Hyper Fighting [B-Board 91634B-2]".

- TECHNICAL -

Capcom Play System hardware (CP-S) 
B-Board #: 91635B-2

- TRIVIA -

Street Fighter II' Hyper Fighting was released in December 1992 outside Japan. It is known in Japan as "Street Fighter II' Turbo - Hyper Fighting".

- SERIES -

1. Street Fighter (1987)
2. Street Fighter II - The World Warrior [B-Board 90629B] (1991)
3. Street Fighter II' - Champion Edition [B-Board 91634B-2] (1992)
4. Street Fighter II' - Hyper Fighting [B-Board 91635B-2] (1992)
5. Super Street Fighter II - The New Challengers [Green Board] (1993)
6. Super Street Fighter II Turbo [Blue Board] (1994)
7. Street Fighter Alpha - Warriors' Dreams [Blue Board] (1995)
8. Street Fighter Alpha 2 [Blue Board] (1996)
9. Street Fighter III - New Generation (1997)
10. Street Fighter III - 2nd Impact : Giant Attack (1997)
11. Street Fighter Alpha 3 [Blue Board] (1998)
12. Street Fighter III - 3rd Strike : Fight For The Future (1999)
13. Hyper Street Fighter II - The Anniversary Edition [Green Board] (2003)
14. Street Fighter IV (2008)
15. Super Street Fighter IV - Arcade Edition (2010)
16. Ultra Street Fighter IV (2014)
17. Street Fighter V (2016)
18. Ultra Street Fighter II - The Final Challengers (2017, Switch)

- PORTS -

Here is a list of ports released outside Japan. To see Japanese ports, please see the original Japanese version entry; "Street Fighter II' Turbo - Hyper Fighting [B-Board 91634B-2]".

* CONSOLES: 
[AU] Nintendo SNES (1993) "Street Fighter II Turbo - Hyper Fighting" 
Sega Mega Drive [AU] (1993) "Street Fighter II' - Special Champion Edition [Sega Gold Collection]" 
Sega Mega Drive [BR] (1993) "Street Fighter II' - Special Champion Edition [Model 047020]" by Tec Toy
[EU] Nintendo SNES (aug.1993) "Street Fighter II Turbo - Hyper Fighting [Model SNSP-TI-EUR]" 
[US] Nintendo SNES (aug.1993) "Street Fighter II Turbo - Hyper Fighting [Model SNS-TI-USA]" 
[US] Sega Genesis (sept.27, 1993) "Street Fighter II' - Special Champion Edition [Model 670-4179]" 
[EU] Sega Mega Drive (oct.1993) "Street Fighter II' - Special Champion Edition [Model 670-4179]" 
[EU] Sony PlayStation (1998) "Street Fighter Collection 2 [Model SLES-01721]" 
[US] Sony PlayStation (oct.31, 1998) "Street Fighter Collection 2 [Model SLUS-00746]" 
[US] Microsoft XBOX (sept.27, 2005) "Capcom Classics Collection" 
[US] Sony PS2 (sept.27, 2005) "Capcom Classics Collection [Model SLUS-21316]" 
[EU] Microsoft XBOX (nov.18, 2005) "Capcom Classics Collection" 
[EU] Sony PS2 (nov.18, 2005) "Capcom Classics Collection [Model SLES-53661]" 
Microsoft XBOX 360 [XBLA] [EU] [US] (aug.2, 2006) 

* HANDHELDS: 
[US] Sony PSP (oct.24, 2006) "Capcom Classics Collection Reloaded [Model ULUS-10134]" 
[EU] Sony PSP (nov.10, 2006) "Capcom Classics Collection Reloaded [Model ULES-00377]" 
[AU] Sony PSP (nov.16, 2006) "Capcom Classics Collection Reloaded" 

* OTHERS: 
Apple iPhone/iPad [US] (nov.4, 2010) "Capcom Arcade [Model 397347348]" 
Apple iPhone/iPod [US] (sept.15, 2011) "Street Fighter II Collection [Model 459660048]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=sf2hfj
Arcade Video game published 31 years ago:

Street Fighter II' Turbo - Hyper Fighting (c) 1992 Capcom.

This is the second SFII follow-up. Here's what's new: 
* Gameplay is SIGNIFICANTLY sped up to intensify the pace of the game. 
* More special moves (ie. Chun Li's fireball, Dhalsim's Yoga Teleport) are added for each character except for M. Bison. 
* New color schemes are added for each character (but the color schemes for the stage backgrounds are still the same as they were for Champion Edition). 
* The addition of mid-air special moves for Chun Li, Ryu and Ken are introduced. 
* Platform graphics (resembling the medal ceremonies in the Olympics) are added to each character's ending, featuring the character you completed the game with at the first-place platform, M. Bison at the second-place platform, and Sagat at the third-place platform. The musical setting for this display is the music from the home stage of the character standing on the 1st-place platform (If you completed the game with Sagat or M. Bison, the one you used stands on the 1st-place platform, the other one on the 2nd-place platform, and Vega occupies the 3rd-place platform).

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System" hardware.
B-Board #: 91634B-2

Players: Up to 2 simultaneously.
Control per player: 8-way joystick
Buttons per player: 6
= > [1] LP (Jab), [2] MP (Strong), [3] HP (Fierce) 
= > [4] LK (Short), [5] MK (Forward), [6] HK (Roundhouse)

- TRIVIA -

Street Fighter II' Turbo - Hyper Fighting was released in December 1992 in the Japanese arcades. It was known there as the 24th video game made for this system.

Exported as "Street Fighter II' - Hyper Fighting [B-Board 91635B-2]".

This ROM upgrade to "Street Fighter II' - Champion Edition" was an idea by Capcom USA employee James Goddard in response to the rampant unauthorized hacks that arcade operators were installing in their SFII'CE machine to make the game play faster, have mid-air special moves, change characters on-the-fly, and all sorts of other strange things. The hacks made the game interesting again to those who wanted something new in the game, but destroyed the balance of the game. 

The 'Hyper Fighting' upgrade was an attempt to incorporate many of the ideas present in the hacks while maintaining game balance. The way those ideas were implemented were taken from "Super Street Fighter II - The New Challengers", which was still being developed at the time and was planned to be the direct successor to SFII'CE before all the unauthorized hacks forced this upgrade to be made. Ironically, this unforeseen upgrade is considered the best and most balanced game in the SFII series.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

Special Ending : finish the game on one quarter to see additional credit sequence.

- SERIES -

1. Street Fighter (1987)
2. Street Fighter II - The World Warrior [CP-S No. 14] (1991)
3. Street Fighter II' - Champion Edition [CP-S No. 21] (1992)
4. Street Fighter II' Turbo - Hyper Fighting [CP-S No. 24] (1992)
5. Super Street Fighter II - The New Challengers [CP-S II No. 01] (1993)
6. Super Street Fighter II X - Grand Master Challenge [CP-S II No. 03 Bis] (1994)
7. Street Fighter Zero [CP-S II No. 11] (1995)
8. Street Fighter Zero 2 [CP-S II No. 15] (1996)
9. Street Fighter Zero 2 Alpha (1996)
10. Street Fighter III - New Generation (1997)
11. Street Fighter III - 2nd Impact : Giant Attack (1997)
12. Street Fighter Zero 3 [CP-S II No. 29] (1998)
13. Street Fighter III - 3rd Strike : Fight For The Future (1999)
14. Hyper Street Fighter II - The Anniversary Edition [CP-S II No. 38] (2003)
15. Street Fighter IV (2008)
16. Super Street Fighter IV (2010)
17. Ultra Street Fighter IV (2014)
18. Street Fighter V (2016)
19. Ultra Street Fighter II - The Final Challengers (2017, Switch)

- STAFF -

Planners : Akira Nishitani (Nin), Akira Yasuda (Akiman)
Character Designers : S.Y, Ikusan Z, Sho, Erichan, Pigmon, Katuragi, Mak!!, Manbou, Ball Boy (Ballboy), Kurisan, Q (Q Kyoku), Mikiman, Tanuki, Yamachan, S-Taing, Nissui, Buppo, Ziggy, Zummy, Nakamura, M. Okazaki
Programmers : Shin., Marina, Macchan, Ecchro!!
Sound : Yoko Shimomura (Shimo-P.), Isao Abe (Oyaji-Oyaji)
Design Support : James Goddard (DJames.)
Special Thanks : CBX, And, Noritaka Funamizu (Poo), Kiyomi Kaneko (Kanekon), Shono, Hirakin, Nac Kai, Erlingr Ogachy, Zenji, Super Joe (Super Cheap Joe)

- PORTS -

Here is a list of ports released in Japan only. To see non-Japanese ports, please see the Export version entry; "Street Fighter II' - Hyper Fighting [B-Board 91635B-2]".

* CONSOLES: 
[JP] Nintendo Super Famicom (jul.11, 1993) "Street Fighter II Turbo - Hyper Fighting [Model SHVC-TI]" 
[JP] Sega Mega Drive (Sep.28, 1993) "Street Fighter II' Plus - Champion Edition [Model T-12033]" 
[JP] Sega Saturn (Dec.3, 1998) "Capcom Generation Dai 5 Shou Kakkutouka Tachi [Model T-1236G]" 
[JP] Sony PlayStation (Dec.3, 1998) "Capcom Generation Dai 5 Shou Kakkutouka Tachi [Model SLPS-01725]" 
[JP] Sony PS2 (Mar.2, 2006) "Capcom Classics Collection [Model SLPM-66317]" 

* HANDHELDS: 
[JP] Sony PSP (Sep.7, 2006) "Capcom Classics Collection [Model ULJM-05104]" 

* OTHERS: 
[JP] CPS Changer (1994)

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=2665&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=sfzch,sfzbch
Capcom CPS Changer game published 28 years ago:

Street Fighter Zero (c) 1995 Capcom Co., Ltd.

CPS Changer release of SFZ. Identical to the Arcade release.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

OPTION MENU
Press Start 2 + Pause (F2 in MAME) at same time for 1 second.

It Contains: Game config (difficulty, damage, time and sound test) & Button config (change buttons).

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=sfz2alh,sfz2alj,sfz2al,sfz2alb,sfz2ald,sfz2alr1
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 27 years ago:

Street Fighter Zero 2 Alpha (c) 1996 Capcom Company, Limited.

An enhanced version of "Street Fighter Zero 2" released in arcades in Japan, southeast Asia, Brazil, and Hispanic regions. In North America and Europe, where its predecessor is known as "Street Fighter Alpha 2", this enhanced version appears on home consoles only.

- TECHNICAL -

Capcom Play System II hardware (CPS II)
Game ID : CP-S II No. 18

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 11.8 Mhz), Zilog Z80 (@ 8 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Q-Sound (@ 4 Mhz)

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 6
= > [1] LP, [2] MP, [3] HP
= > [4] LK, [5] MK, [6] HK

- TRIVIA -

Street Fighter Zero 2 Alpha was released in August 1996. 

This game is very similar to it's predecessor, "Street Fighter Zero 2". It is slightly enhanced, giving some of the characters a new move or two. There are also additional game modes added, such as 'Dramatic Battle' (2 vs. 1), 'Shin Akuma Mode' and 'Survival'.

- UPDATES -

Here is the list of all versions : 

960805
* Green Board [Japan] release.

960813
* Orange Board [South America] and Pink Board [Brazil] releases.

960826
* Grey Board [Asia] release.

Unlike most other CPS2 titles, this one never had a Blue Board release in the arcades.

ADDITIONAL NOTES : 

In the Green Board [Japan] release : 
* Charlie is called 'Nash' 
* M. Bison is called 'Vega' 
* Akuma is called 'Gouki' 
* Evil Ryu is called 'Satsui No Hadou Ni Mezameta Ryu' (translated as "Ryu in which the surge of the intent to kill has awakened")

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Two vs. One Battle : Hold LK+MK+HK and press Start at the start screen. 

* Fight Your Mid Boss : Win five rounds with a Super finish or Custom Combo finish, and don't lose a round before the sixth match.

* Fight Shin Akuma : Hold MK+MP and press Start at the start screen. 

* Survival Battle : Hold LP+MP+HP and press Start at the start screen. 

* SFII' Versions Of Ryu, Ken, Sagat, M. Bison, Dhalsim, Zangief : Highlight the character and press Start. 

* Evil Ryu : Highlight Ryu and press Start twice. 

* SFII Costume Chun Li, SFII' Chun Li : Highlight Chun Li and press Start once for SFII costume Chun Li, twice for SFII' Chun Li. 

* Choose A Win Pose : Hold Start + any attack button after winning a round to determine your win pose.

* Alternate Colors For Sakura : Highlight Sakura and press Start(x5). 

* Stage Select : Can only be done when a second player enters the game, therefore the message "Here Comes A New Challenger!!" must appear before returning to the select screen. On the select screen, highlight a character icon and hold Start for 2 seconds. Then choose your fighter. If you want the grassy Australia stage (the tall grass), hold Start on Sagat's icon for 2 seconds then select your character (do not let go of Start). To select the Venezuela stage (the waterfall), do the same steps you would do to select Australia, except hold Start on Charlie's icon instead of Sagat's.

- SERIES -

1. Street Fighter (1987)
2. Street Fighter II - The World Warrior [CP-S No. 14] (1991)
3. Street Fighter II' - Champion Edition [CP-S No. 21] (1992)
4. Street Fighter II' Turbo - Hyper Fighting [CP-S No. 24] (1992)
5. Super Street Fighter II - The New Challengers [CP-S II No. 01] (1993)
6. Super Street Fighter II X - Grand Master Challenge [CP-S II No. 03 Bis] (1994)
7. Street Fighter Zero [CP-S II No. 11] (1995)
8. Street Fighter Zero 2 [CP-S II No. 15] (1996)
9. Street Fighter Zero 2 Alpha (1996)
10. Street Fighter III - New Generation (1997)
11. Street Fighter III - 2nd Impact : Giant Attack (1997)
12. Street Fighter Zero 3 [CP-S II No. 29] (1998)
13. Street Fighter III - 3rd Strike : Fight For The Future (1999)
14. Hyper Street Fighter II - The Anniversary Edition [CP-S II No. 38] (2003)
15. Street Fighter IV (2008)
16. Super Street Fighter IV (2010)
17. Ultra Street Fighter IV (2014)
18. Street Fighter V (2016)
19. Ultra Street Fighter II - The Final Challengers (2017, Switch)

- STAFF -

Planner : Noritaka Funamizu (Poo), Neo_G, Kanetaka 
Programmers : Cham Cho Choy, Pon, Arikichi Kiyoko, Hard.Yas (-Becret Player-), Shinchan (as 'Hyper Shinchan'), Super Sailor (Birdie) 
Scroll designers : Konomi, Shibata Kayoko, Daisuke Nakagawa, Y. Kyo, Kisabon, Ohnishi, Tama, M. Chiezou, Kazu.T, Takapon, Yoichi Tanoue (Tanopu), Yamamoto.K, Megu Megu, Buchi, Hirokazu Yonezuka, Kanno, Inoyan, Shinnosuke, Hooly, Fukumoyan, Otsuki Teikoku 
Object designers : Eripyon.N (Eri_Eri), Ball Boy, Yu_Suke, Makoto Ishi, A. Iwasaki, Arahi Juf, Seigo Kawakami (Ushi), K.Takechan, Alien Pole, Kuri Geruge, Nasaaki, Masayo Tsujimoto, Shinya Miyamoto, Rumi-Yamaguchi, Chimorin Shogun, H.I = rassi, Takayuki Kosaka, Reiko Komatsu, Sagata 
Visual planner : Haruo Murata (as "Mucchi") 
Original artwork : Holyhomerun 
Sound & voices : Hiroaki Kondo (X68K) 
Music compose & Arrange : Syun Nishigaki, Setsuo Yamamoto, Tatsuro Zuzuki (Tatsuro-) 
All sound produced by Arcade Sound Team. 
Producer : Noritaka Funamizu (Poo) 

* Voice Actors : 
Ryu : Katashi Ishizuka 
Adon, Gen, Zangief, Birdie, Sodom : Wataru Takagi 
Chun Li : Yuko Miyamura 
Ken Masters, Guy : Tetsuya Iwanaga 
Dhalsim : Yoshiharu Yamada 
Sakura Kasugano : Yuko Sasamoto 
Rolento Schugerg : Jin Yamanoi 
Charlie : Toshiyuki Morikawa 
Rose : Yuko Miyamura 
Sagat : Miki Shinichiro 
Akuma, Major Bison : Tomomichi Nishimura 
Dan Hibiki : Osamu Hosoi

- PORTS -

Home versions have three different titles : 
[JP] "Street Fighter Zero 2 Dash" 
[EU] "Street Fighter Alpha 2 Dash" 
[US] "Street Fighter Alpha 2 Gold" 

* CONSOLES: 
[EU] Sega Saturn (1997) "Street Fighter Collection [Model T-7033H-50] [Disc 2]" 
[JP] Sega Saturn (sept.18, 1997) "Street Fighter Collection [Model T-1223G] [Disc 2]" 
[JP] Sony PlayStation (oct.23, 1997) "Street Fighter Collection [Model SLPS-00801]" 
[US] Sega Saturn (nov.30, 1997) "Street Fighter Collection [Model T-1222H] [Disc 2]" 
[US] Sony PlayStation (nov.30, 1997) "Street Fighter Collection [Model SLUS-00584]" 
[EU] Sony PlayStation (jul.1998) "Street Fighter Collection [Model SLES-10998]" 
Sony PlayStation 2 [AU] (2006) "Street Fighter Alpha Anthology" by THQ
[JP] Sony PS2 (may.25, 2006) "Street Fighter Zero - Fighters Generation [Model SLPS-66409]" 
[US] Sony PS2 (june.13, 2006) "Street Fighter Alpha Anthology [Model SLUS-21317]" 
[EU] Sony PS2 (jul.7, 2006) "Street Fighter Alpha Anthology [Model SLES-54085]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$info=sfz2j,sfz2n,sfz2jd,sfz2jr1
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 27 years ago:

Street Fighter Zero 2 (c) 1996 Capcom Company, Limited.

Eighteen fighters go head-to-head this time around, featuring a few "Final Fight" alumni.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Green Board [Japan]

Players: Up to 2.
Control: 8-way joystick per player.
Buttons: 6 per player.
= > [1] LP, [2] MP, [3] HP
= > [4] LK, [5] MK, [6] HK

- TRIVIA -

Street Fighter Zero 2 was released in February 1996 in the Japanese arcades. It was known there as the 15th video game released for the CPS2 hardware.

Known Export releases:
"Street Fighter Alpha 2 [Blue Board]"
"Street Fighter Zero 2 [Grey Board]"
"Street Fighter Zero 2 [Orange Board]"
"Street Fighter Zero 2 [Pink Board]"

Guy, Rolento and Sodom are from Capcom's "Final Fight" - Guy as a selectable character, Sodom as the second boss, and Rolento as the fourth boss. Guy's and Rolento's music are taken from "Final Fight". 

In Guy's stage you will see many familiar faces from "Final Fight". There's Mike and Jessica Haggar, Cody, Poison, Andorre and a few other bosses in the background - most of the "Final Fight" characters that have gone on to other games are there. 

In Rose's battle location there are represented the 'gondole', the typical elements of another and more famous Italian sea-town, Venice. This is clearly wrong cultural knowledge by Capcom's programmers. 

Here is a list of cameos in Ken's Yacht stage : 
* Eliza (It's her birthday after all!) 
* Captain Commando & Sho 
* Strider Hiryu (wielding a teddy bear!) 
* Lynn Kurosawa (from Alien Vs Predator) 
* Morrigan, Felicia, Zabel Zarock ('Lord Raptor' outside Japan) & Lei-Lei ('Hsien-Ko' outside Japan) (these last two are pretty much alive in this cameo, unlike in the Vampire & Vampire Savior games!) :) 
* Michelle Heart (from "Ares no Tsubasa" as another waitress!) 
* A few thugs from "Final Fight" (working as waiters?!) 

Dan Hibiki, the pink-clad Shotokan fighter, was an attempt by Capcom to make fun of SNK fighting games. Ryo Sakazaki was thought to be so much like Ryu that Capcom had to make a statement. Dan is mainly a hybrid of Ryo Sakazaki and Robert Garcia from the "Art of Fighting" series. This is most evident in his appearance in which he has Robert Garcia's trademark pony tail and Ryo Sakazaki's black undershirt. His animations were heavily tailored to look like a take on the aforemetioned characters. Dan's father was killed by Sagat (This is the man who Sagat hits with a Tiger Uppercut during the Ryu vs. Sagat intro in "Street Fighter Alpha 3"), so Dan developed his own style of fighting called 'Saikyo-ryuu', which is Japanese for 'strongest style', a poke at the "Art of Fighting" 'Kyokugen' karate style ('Kyokugen" is Japanese for 'extreme'). Fei Long makes a guest appearance in Dan's stage. 

The sumo wrestler 'Fujinoyama' that Sodom challenges in his ending had so much of a resemblance to E. Honda that Capcom, for "Street Fighter Alpha 3", changed it to E. Honda. 

The Australian prairie stage where Sagat fights Ryu is based on the opening scene of the animated 'Street Fighter II Movie', in which Ryu and Sagat fight in a prairie during a thunderstorm. 

Victor Entertainment released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Street Fighter Zero 2 : Capcom Game Soundtrack - VIZL-24) on June 21, 1996.

After the first release of SFZ2, an upgraded version of the game called "Street Fighter Zero 2 Alpha" was released in Japanese arcades in August 1996, and to home consoles in North America and Europe in 1997. It included some enhancements like new moves, a unique variation of Sakura, the survival mode, the dramatic battle and the player was able to fight with Zangief, Dhalsim and 'Satsui no Hadou Mezameta Ryu' (Evil Ryu).

- UPDATES -

Green Board revisions:

REVISION 1:
* Buid date: 060227

REVISION 2:
* Buid date: 960430

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Alternate Costume Colors : Highlight a fighter at the character selection screen and press punch or kick for the two standard outfits (punch is the original color). For two alternative outfits press two punch or two kick buttons together. 

* Alternate Chun-Li Costumes : Hold Start and highlight Chun-Li at the character selection screen. After five seconds, press LP, MP, or HP for a blue costume (without trousers); press LP+MP+HP for a pink costume. 

* Play as Satsui no Hadou ni Mezameta Ryu (translated as 'Ryu in which the surge of the intent to kill has awakened'; known as 'Evil Ryu' in Export releases) : Highlight Ryu at the character selection screen, then press Start for one second. Then highlight Adon, Gouki, Adon, then return to Ryu. Then hold Start for one second, while holding start press any attack button. 

* Grass Stage : Select two-player mode. Hold Start at the character selection screen, then highlight Sagat for five seconds. Then highlight any character, release Start and press any attack button. 

* Waterfall Stage : Select two-player mode. Hold Start at the character selection screen, then highlight Vega for five seconds. Then highlight any character, release Start and press any attack button. 

* Sally in Every Stage : In Dhalsim's stage you may have noticed a girl who cheers for him. That is his wife Sally, known as Sari in the Street Fighter comic book series by Udon. When you play as Dhalsim, its possible to make her appear on every fight by holding down LP+HK before the fight starts (You must do this at the beginning of every round). 

* Alternate Sodom Stage : An alternate version of Sodom's stage appears every 4096 matches. The artwork on his truck is different. The Japanese text is replaced with English and the man on the side of the trailer is now wearing sunglasses. This alternate version of the stage is the one used in "Street Fighter Zero 2 Alpha". 

* Fight against Shin Gouki : It only works with the character's first color (meaning the original color). Fight through the game without losing a single round. Get at least three perfect wins and three super special finishes. Shin Gouki appears as your last boss now.

- SERIES -

1. Street Fighter (1987)
2. Street Fighter II - The World Warrior [CP-S No. 14] (1991)
3. Street Fighter II' - Champion Edition [CP-S No. 21] (1992)
4. Street Fighter II' Turbo - Hyper Fighting [CP-S No. 24] (1992)
5. Super Street Fighter II - The New Challengers [CP-S II No. 01] (1993)
6. Super Street Fighter II X - Grand Master Challenge [CP-S II No. 03 Bis] (1994)
7. Street Fighter Zero [CP-S II No. 11] (1995)
8. Street Fighter Zero 2 [CP-S II No. 15] (1996)
9. Street Fighter Zero 2 Alpha (1996)
10. Street Fighter III - New Generation (1997)
11. Street Fighter III - 2nd Impact : Giant Attack (1997)
12. Street Fighter Zero 3 [CP-S II No. 29] (1998)
13. Street Fighter III - 3rd Strike : Fight For The Future (1999)
14. Hyper Street Fighter II - The Anniversary Edition [CP-S II No. 38] (2003)
15. Street Fighter IV (2008)
16. Super Street Fighter IV (2010)
17. Ultra Street Fighter IV (2014)
18. Street Fighter V (2016)
19. Ultra Street Fighter II - The Final Challengers (2017, Switch)

- STAFF -

Planner : Noritaka Funamizu (poo), Neo_G, Kanetaka
Programmers : Cham Cho Choy, Pon, Arikichi Kiyoko, Hard.Yas (-Becret Player-), Shinchan (as 'Hyper Shinchan'), Super Sailor (Birdie)
Scroll designers : Konomi, Shibata Kayoko, Daisuke Nakagawa, Y.Kyo, Kisabon, Ohnishi, Tama, M.Chiezou, Kazu.T, Takapon, Yoichi Tanoue (Tanopu), Yamamoto.K, Megu Megu, Buchi, Hirokazu Yonezuka, Kanno, Inoyan, Shinnosuke, Hooly, Fukumoyan, Otsuki Teikoku
Object Designers : Eripyon.N (Eri-Eri), Ball Boy, Yu-Suke, Makoto Ishi, A. Iwasaki, Arahi Juf, Seigo Kawakami (Ushi), K.Takechan, Alien Pole, Kuri Geruge, Nasaaki, Masayo Tsujimoto, Shinya Miyamoto, Rumi-Yamaguchi, Chimorin Shogun, H.I.=rassi, Takayuki Kosaka, Reiko Komatsu, Sagata
Visual planners : Mucchi (Harvo. M)
Original artwork : Holyhomerun
Sound & voice : Hiroaki Kondo (X68K)
Music compose & arrange : Syun Nishigaki, Setsuo Yamamoto, Tatsuro Zuzuki (Tatsuro-)
All sound produce by Arcade Sound team.
Producer : Noritaka Funamizu (poo)

* Voice Actors :
Ryu : Katashi Ishizuka
Adon, Gen, Zangief, Birdie, Sodom : Wataru Takagi
Chun-Li : Yuko Miyamura
Ken Masters, Guy : Tetsuya Iwanaga
Dhalsim : Yoshiharu Yamada
Sakura Kasugano : Yuko Sasamoto
Rolento Schugerg : Jin Yamanoi
Nash : Toshiyuki Morikawa
Rose : Yuko Miyamura
Sagat : Miki Shinichiro
Gouki, Vega : Tomomichi Nishimura
Dan Hibiki : Osamu Hosoi

- PORTS -

These are Japanese ports only.

* CONSOLES: 
[JP] Sony PlayStation (Aug.9, 1996) "Street Fighter Zero 2 [Model SLPS-00415]" 
[JP] Sega Saturn (Sep.14, 1996) "Street Fighter Zero 2 [Model T-1212G]" 
[JP] Nintendo Super Famicom (Dec.20, 1996) "Street Fighter Zero 2 [Model SHVC-AUZJ-JPN]" 
[JP] Sony PS2 (may.25, 2006) "Street Fighter Zero - Fighters Generation [Model SLPS-66409]" 

* COMPUTERS: 
[JP] PC [MS Windows 9x, CD-ROM] (Mar.12, 1998) : Bundled with the original "Street Fighter Zero"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$info=sfz2a,sfz2ad
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 27 years ago:

Street Fighter Zero 2 (c) 1996 Capcom Company, Limited.

Asian release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese release entry; "Street Fighter Zero 2 [Green Board]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Grey Board [Asia]

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$info=sfz2h
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 27 years ago:

Street Fighter Zero 2 (c) 1996 Capcom Company, Limited.

South American release. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese release entry; "Street Fighter Zero 2 [Green Board]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Orange Board [South America]

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$info=sfz2b,sfz2br1
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 27 years ago:

Street Fighter Zero 2 (c) 1996 Capcom Company, Limited.

Brazilian release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese release entry; "Street Fighter Zero 2 [Green Board]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Pink Board [Brazil]

- UPDATES -

Pink Board releases : 

REVISION 1
* Build date: 960304

REVISION 2
* Build date: 960531

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$info=sfz3j,sfz3jr1,sfz3jr2,sfz3jr2d
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 25 years ago:

Street Fighter Zero 3 (c) 1998 Capcom Company, Limited.

25 fighters mix it up to have a shot at Shin Vega in the height of his power! Featuring 3 fighting styles for each character.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Green Board [Japan]

Players: Up to 2.
Control: 8-way joystick per player.
Buttons: 6 per player.
= > [1] LP, [2] MP, [3] HP
= > [4] LK, [5] MK, [6] HK

- TRIVIA -

Street Fighter Zero 3 was released in June 1998 in the Japananese arcades. It was known as the 29th video game released on the CPS2 hardware.

Known export releases:
"Street Fighter Alpha 3 [Blue Board]"
"Street Fighter Zero 3 [Grey Board]"
"Street Fighter Alpha 3 [Orange Board]"
"Street Fighter Alpha 3 [Pink Board]"

Guy, Cody, Sodom and Rolento are from Capcom's "Final Fight" - Guy and Cody as selectable characters, Sodom as the second boss and Rolento as the fourth boss in "Final Fight". "Final Fight" boss 'Edi E' makes appearances in some of Cody's finishing poses.

The reason for Mike Haggar's (the third selectable character in "Final Fight") non-appearance in Street Fighter was that he was too similar to Zangief. Furthermore, it could be because during the "Street Fighter Zero" storyline, Mike Haggar was assumed to be the mayor of Metro City (a part of New York) at the time. 

In Guy's stage there is a group from "Final Fight" cheering Guy on. They consist of: Mike Haggar, Andorre Jr., Axl and poison. Also in the background against one of the buildings there is a advert for a Rockman Drink just under the Capcom Logo. 

Karin Kanzuki is the first Street Fighter to have originated from a comic book (actually, a manga). She first appeared in a girls' manga that had Sakura Kasugano as the main character. 

The three ISMs have some symbolic meaning : 
* X-ISM represents "Super Street Fighter II X - Grand Master Challenge". That is, this ISM matches closely to the gameplay style found therein. There are, however, a few differences between X-ISM in Zero 3 and Super Street Fighter II X, mainly because of the Zero 3 game engine. 
* Z-ISM represents Zero. That is, it is closest to the style of the previous Zero games. 
* V-ISM represents Variable, as in 'Variable Combination', meaning 'Custom Combo'. This merely represents how you can use your super bar. 

Even though "Super Street Fighter II X - Grand Master Challenge" is known as "Super Street Fighter II Turbo" outside Japan, X-ISM is still known as X-ISM in all export releases of Zero 3.

Attack of the Vega Dolls: Each Vega doll is named after a month of the year in the language of their supposed origin. It is said that they wield different tools, but generally share the same style. It is said that they generally worked as a team. 
1) Enero (January) from Spain uses a microphone. 
2) Fevrier (February) from France uses a gun. 
3) Marz (March) from Germany uses a laptop and dyes her hair. Enero and Marz are the information and recon members of the team. 
4) Aprile (April) from Italy is the medical member of the team. At the beginning of SFA3, Aprile's brother had asked Rose to find her whereabouts. 
5) Satsuki (May) is Japanese and wields a sword. Some say Sakura was supposed to be kidnapped instead of Satsuki, but Sakura evaded capture. This belief is consistent with the fact that all 12 dolls (and Cammy) were 16 at the time of SFA3. 
6) Juni (June) is German and fights unarmed. 
7) Juli (July) is also German and also fights unarmed. Despite the claims of some sources, Juni and Juli are not related (none of the Bison dolls are). 
8) Santamu (August) is Vietnamese, but of African heritage. SANTAMU is the equivalent of Vietnamese's 8th month. However, the Vietnamese's spelling should be 'Thang Tam'. It's a compound word of 'month' & 'eight', obviously. She wields a spear and can also unleash a small monkey to attack for her. 
9) Xiayu (September) is Chinese and wields the nunchaku. 
10) Jianyu (October) is also Chinese and wields a staff. 
11) Noembelu (November) is Mexican and is a member of T. Hawk's tribe (thus T. Hawk was looking for her and not Juli as the story implied). She wields a pair of hatchets on ropes. 
12) Decapre (December) is Russian and her appearance is similar to that of Cammy. 

Cammy had tried to save the Vega dolls in her SFZ3 ending because, due to the extent of their brainwashing, they would have died with Vega otherwise. It is said that the inspiration of the Vega dolls was Yuka Minakawa's novels named collectively as 'Cammy History'. Before the fight, Cammy throws a red coat, this comes from Street Fighter 2 the Animated Movie. 

Various characters of the game make a cameo in a marvel comic-book of Deadpool, the Merc with a mouth, vol.1 number 8. They appear in the shadows like mercenaries of the infernal house, the place where Deadpool obtains his merc jobs. We can recognize Adon, Dhalsim and Akuma as shadows, Sagat appears drawn and coloured. There are two more fighters, one appears to be Cammy. The artist of this Deadpool issue is Ed McGuiness. 
In number 27 of Deadpool's comic, the author Joe Kelly, makes a homage to the Street Fighter series. In this comic Deadpool does a "Shoryuken" to Kitty Pride to make Wolverine attack him.

The background music from Dan Hibiki's stage (Performance) samples "Welcome To My Mind", a song by techno group Psykosonik released in 1993.

Suleputer released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Street Fighter Zero 3 Original Soundtrack - CPCA-1012, 1013) on September 21, 1998.

An upgraded version of SFZ3 appeared as "Street Fighter Zero 3 Upper" in 2001. Previously hidden characters M. Bison, Juni and Juli are playable from the start. In addition, past Street Fighter legends Guile, Dee Jay, Fei Long and T. Hawk are now playable as well. This brings the total count to 34 playable characters! 

An even further upgraded version of SFZ3, called "Street Fighter Zero 3 Double Upper" appeared for the Sony PSP in 2006, and adds Eagle (from the original Street Fighter), Yun (from SFIII), Maki (from the Super Famicom Final Fight 2) and newcomer Ingrid. This now brings the total count of playable characters to 38!

- UPDATES -

Green Board revisions : 

REVISION 1:
* Build date: 980629

REVISION 2:
* Build date: 980727

REVISION 3:
* Build date: 980904

Revision 1 had two bugs involving Karin : First, she could do her Kanzuki-ryuu Kou'ou Ken super in X-ISM (which she shouldn't be able to do, as it was her second super). Second, Karin's normal throw in Mazi Mode could do 99% damage.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Title Color Chart : The color of the title screen denotes what secrets are currently available. After a few weeks of play, the title screen will change color, so in a few months after your SFZ3 machine has been installed, it should reach the final color (light blue). The explanation of the colors is shown below :
Cream - (default color)
Green - Classical Mode
Red - M. Bison, Juni and Juli become playable
Dark Blue - Mazi Mode
Purple - Saikyou Mode
Light Blue - Can select one of the three Battle Modes

* Random Select : The Random Select squares are normally invisible. But, there are two for the first player and two for the second. The 1P squares are located in the upper-right corner of the diamond and the lower-right. The 2P squares are in the upper-left corner and the lower-left corners.

* Hidden Characters : The three hidden charactes are M. Bison, the boxer and Juni and Juli, two prototype 'dolls' created by Vega's Shadowloo organization. Once the game's title screen has become the proper color (see 'Title Color Chart', above), their score listing will show up in the High Score listing and they become playable...
1) To choose M. Bison, pause on Karin for five seconds, then move to any Random Select square, hold the Start button and press any button.
2) To use Juli, pause on Karin for five seconds, then move to any Random Select square. If the square is on the left side of the screen, choose her by holding Left and pressing any button. If the square is on the right side, then hold Right and press any button instead.
3) To use Juni, pause on Karin for five seconds, then move to any Random Select square. If the square is on the top of the screen, choose her by holding Up and pressing any button. If the square is on the bottom, then hold Down and press any button instead.

* Hidden Modes Of Play : There are three secret modes that affect basic gameplay. Once the game's title screen has become the proper color (see 'Title Color Chart', above), you can select a hidden mode to use...
1) To use Classical Mode, insert your coin, hold down HP+HK and press Start. You can release HP+HK once you're at the Player Select Screen. Then, pick your character. When you start the round your super power bar will be gone and you will have Street Fighter 2 moves.
2) To use Mazi Mode, insert your coin, hold down MP+MK and press Start. You can release HP+HK once you're at the Player Select Screen. Then, pick your character.
3) To use Saikyou Mode, insert your coin, hold down LP+LK and press Start. You can release HP+HK once you're at the Player Select Screen. Then, pick your character.

* Hidden Battle Mode : Once the game's title screen has become the proper color (see 'Title Color Chart', above), you can select a hidden battle mode...
1) Final battle mode : After picking your ISM, hold Start+LP+MK+HP. You'll fight Shin Vega for one battle only. It's just like the last battle; win and you get your ending, lose and you get the bad ending.
2) Dramatic battle mode : Hold LK+MK+HK, then press Start. Keep holding those buttons at Player Select Screen for a moment. You'll fight a 2 on 1 battle for 6 rounds, in which you face two CPU-controlled opponents.
3) Survival mode : Insert your coin(s), hold LP+MP+HP and press Start. Keep holding those buttons at Player Select Screen. You'll get to fight all 27 characters in continuous one-round battles.

* Secret Messages (this trick only works on Japanese SFZ3 machines) : After winning a battle, press and hold Start as well as any other button. Between battles, a message will appear on the screen, depending on the button you're holding.

* Sally In Every Stage : In Dhalsim's stage you may have noticed a girl who cheers for him. That is his wife Sally, known as Sari in the Street Fighter comic book series by Udon. When you play as Dhalsim, its possible to make her appear on every fight by holding down LP+HK before the fight starts (you must do this at the beginning of every round).

* Alternate Sodom BGM : When fighting against Sodom (VS or CPU), you'll get to hear a different tune if it is on X-ISM mode. Apparently the tune is inspired on his boss tune in "Final Fight".

- SERIES -

1. Street Fighter (1987)
2. Street Fighter II - The World Warrior [CP-S No. 14] (1991)
3. Street Fighter II' - Champion Edition [CP-S No. 21] (1992)
4. Street Fighter II' Turbo - Hyper Fighting [CP-S No. 24] (1992)
5. Super Street Fighter II - The New Challengers [CP-S II No. 01] (1993)
6. Super Street Fighter II X - Grand Master Challenge [CP-S II No. 03 Bis] (1994)
7. Street Fighter Zero [CP-S II No. 11] (1995)
8. Street Fighter Zero 2 [CP-S II No. 15] (1996)
9. Street Fighter Zero 2 Alpha (1996)
10. Street Fighter III - New Generation (1997)
11. Street Fighter III - 2nd Impact : Giant Attack (1997)
12. Street Fighter Zero 3 [CP-S II No. 29] (1998)
13. Street Fighter III - 3rd Strike : Fight For The Future (1999)
14. Hyper Street Fighter II - The Anniversary Edition [CP-S II No. 38] (2003)
15. Street Fighter IV (2008)
16. Super Street Fighter IV (2010)
17. Ultra Street Fighter IV (2014)
18. Street Fighter V (2016)
19. Ultra Street Fighter II - The Final Challengers (2017, Switch)

- STAFF -

Producer : Noritaka Funamizu (poo)
Director :  Naoto Ohta, Mamoru Ohhashi, Buruma, Ohko Zero5
Visual Planner : Haruo Murata
Programmers : CHam, Hard.Yas ~?-ism~, Pon, Hyper SHinchan, 24 ~Nishi~, Minomi ~Rocan-ism~, Reiko Toh, Senor, Knight Rider Giu, Ittetsu
Character Design : Akiman, Osusi
Title Design : Shoei
Object Design : Eri-N, Fujihara, Mizuho, Takemoto, Hitoshi Igarashi, Mizupyon, Kimo Kimo Jinzin, Ball Boy, Yuesuke, D-Durita, A.Iwasaki, Kaname, Fuzil & Peliko, Chimorin Shogun, Sagata, Ikusan Z, Katasan, Yu-Ten Nakano, Tomohiko Ohsumi, Hiro, Rimichan, Reiko Komatsu, Kozuchi Tamura, Touichi Matsuo, Makoto Ishii
Scroll Design : Asae Nisituji-Ba, S.Mukai (Jijii), H.Yonezuka, Kohama Akeguro, Y.Tanoue (Tanopu), Ryo Uno, Yoko.Fukumoto, Takako Nakamura, Kazu.T, A.Ohnishi, N.Niiyama, C.Iwai, Sawatch, K.Yamahashi, H.Ohnishi
Main Music Compose : Anarchy Takapon
Sub Music Compose : Yuki Iwai, Isao Abe, Hideki Okugawa, Tetsuya Shibata
Sound Direction : Hiroaki Kondo (X68k)
Sound Design : Moe.t, Satoshi Ise
Test Play : Nuki, M.P Oni_Suzuki, SKill Smith-Bug, Skill SMith-TTK, M Kunishige, Miura.F.Katsusuke, Yoshihiro Tomita, Akimon Murata
Special Thanks
Market Producer : Kouji Nakajima
General Producer : Noritaka Funamizu (poo), YOshiki Okamoto

* Voice Actors : 
Narrator : Greg Irwin
Ryu, Nash : Tohiyuki Morikawa
Ken, Guy : Tetsuya Iwanaga
Chun-Li : Yuko Miyamura
Dhalsim : Yohiharu Yamada
Blanka, Balrog : Yuji Ueda
E. Honda : Masashi Sugawara
Cammy, Juli, Juni : Akiko Komoto
M. Bison, Cody : Koichi Yamadera
Sagat : Miki Shinichiro
Gouki, Vega : Tomomichi Mishimura
Birdie, Gen, Adon, Zangief, Sodom : Wataru Takagi
Rolento : Jin Yamanoi
Rose : Michiko Neya
Dan : Osamu Hosoi
Sakura : Yuko Sasamoto
Karin : Miho Yamada
R. Mika : Junko Takeuchi

- PORTS -

NOTE: These are ports released in Japan only.

* CONSOLES: 
[JP] Sony PlayStation (Dec.23, 1998) "Street Fighter Zero 3 [Model SLPS-01777]" 
[JP] Sega Dreamcast (jul.8, 1999) "Street Fighter Zero 3 - Saikyooryuu Doujou [Model T-1203M]" 
[JP] Sega Saturn (Aug.6, 1999) "Street Fighter Zero 3 [Model T-1247G]" 
[JP] Sony PS2 (may.25, 2006) "Street Fighter Zero - Fighters Generation [Model SLPM-66409]" 

* HANDHELDS: 
[JP] Nintendo Game Boy Advance (Sep.27, 2002) "Street Fighter Zero 3 Upper [Model AGB-AZUJ-JPN]" 
[JP] Sony PSP (Jan.19, 2006) "Street Fighter Zero 3 Double Upper [Model ULJM-05082]" 

For further details on most of these ports, please see the "Street Fighter Zero 3 Upper" entry.

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=sfz3a,sfz3ar1
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 25 years ago:

Street Fighter Zero 3 (c) 1998 Capcom Company, Limited.

Asian release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, see the original Japanese release entry; "Street Fighter Zero 3 [Green Board]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Grey Board [Asia]

- UPDATES -

Grey Board revisions : 

REVISION 1:
* Build date: 980701

REVISION 2:
* Build date: 980904

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=sfzj,sfzjr2,sfzjr1
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 28 years ago:

Street Fighter Zero (c) 1995 Capcom Co, Limited.

The new look of the Street Fighter series, with ten characters including old favorites and new surprises.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Green Board [Japan]

Players: Up to 2.
Control: 8-way joystick per player.
Buttons: 6 per player.
= > [1] LP, [2] MP, [3] HP 
= > [4] LK, [5] MK, [6] HK

- TRIVIA -

Street Fighter Zero was released in June 1995 in the Japanese arcades. It was known there as the 11th video game released for the CPS2 hardware.

Known Export releases:
"Street Fighter Alpha - Warriors' Dreams [Blue Board]"
"Street Fighter Zero [Grey Board]"
"Street Fighter Zero [Orange Board]"
"Street Fighter Zero [Pink Board]"

The Zero series of games take place between the original Street Fighter and Street Fighter II. The scar on Sagat's chest in SFII is said to be from Ryu's Shouryuuken during the final battle in the original Street Fighter. In SF Zero, Sagat has the scar on his chest, so it must take place after the first Street Fighter. The character Nash was mentioned in Guile's ending in SFII. He is a friend of Guile who was killed by Vega. Since Nash is still alive in the Zero series, it must take place before SFII.

This is the first Street Fighter game to have the Dramatic Battle Mode, a feature no doubt inspired by the Japanese animated movie, 'Street Fighter II', where Ken and Ryu team up to fight M. Bison in the final battle.

This game marks the first time Gouki's name is displayed on-screen in the game.

Ryu / Guy stages : 
The "Son Son" convenience store in Ryu and Guy's stages is named after an earlier Capcom game of the same name. 
A poster for the animated feature film version of Street Fighter II can be seen on display.
The kanji on the small sign on the bath-house means 'Honda Bath'. 
The curtain on the bath-house (in Guy's version of the stage) says 'yu' in hiragana, which is the reading for the 'bath' kanji on the 'Honda Bath' sign. 
In "Street Fighter Zero 3", Edmond Honda's stage is in front of this (or a similar-looking) bath-house with slightly different signs on it. 
In "Street Fighter II - The World Warrior" (and all its follow-ups), Honda's stage is inside of a bath house.

Guy and Sodom are from Capcom's "Final Fight" - Guy as selectable character and Sodom as the second boss in Final Fight. Guy's music is taken from "Final Fight".

Sodom is a westerner who is obsessed with Japanese culture and apparently doesn't speak Japanese very well. In the Japanese versions of these games, Sodom's victory quotes are meaningless sentences composed of English words (e.g., 'SHOW BY HUNG JAW') followed by a Japanese translation of what he actually meant to say. In Sodom's ending, he claims about reforming and renaming the Mad Gear gang into something with four kanji. Those kanji read 'Ma-do-gi-a'. Now this could just be random kanji that, when strung together, sound like 'Mad Gear', but by the same token, it can sound like 'Mad Doggie'. The jitte weapons Sodom uses were used by policemen in feudal Japan.

Change of Race: In the original "Street Fighter", Birdie looked Caucasian. In SF Alpha, Birdie is black. The reason for this change is explained in one of Birdie's "Street Fighter Zero 3" win quotes (he was sick at the time of the first Street Fighter).

Sony Music Entertainment released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Street Fighter Zero Arcade Game Track - SRCL-3297) on August 21, 1995.

- UPDATES -

Green Board releases:

REVISION 1:
* Build date: 950605

REVISION 2:
* Build date: 950627

REVISION 3:
* Build date: 950727

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Play as Gouki: Put the cursor on the [?] on your side and hold Start, then press... 
Player 1 : Down(x3), Left(x3), LK+HK (or for different costume press LP+HP). 
Player 2 : Down(X3), Right(x3), LK+HK (or for different costume press LP+HP). 

* Play as Vega: Put the cursor on the [?] on your side and hold Start, then press... 
Player 1 : Down(x2), Left(x2), Down, Left(x2), LK+HK (or for different costume press LP+HP) 
Player 2 : Down(x2), Right(x2), Down, Right(x2), LK+HK (or for different costume press LP+HP) 

* Play as Dan: After inserting a coin, press and hold Start. Then on the character selection screen go to the [?] box. Then quickly press LP, LK, MK, HK, HP, MP. To get the alternate costume (green) press HP, HK, MK, LK, LP, MP. 

* Dramatic Battle Mode : In 2-player mode, have Player 1 highlight Ryu and Player 2 highlight Ken at the character selection screen. 
1) Have Player 1 hold Start and press Up, Up. 
2) Release Start then press Up, Up, LP. 
3) Have Player 2 hold Start and press Up, Up. 
4) Release Start then press Up, Up, HP. If done correctly, Ryu and Ken will face M. Bison.

* Alternate Costume Colors : Highlight a fighter at the character selection screen and press LK, MK or HK.

* Fight against Gouki: Highlight a fighter at the character selection screen. Hold Start+MP+MK until Akuma appears and beats up your opponent on the first stage. You will now fight him instead.

* Fight against Dan: Select any player. End each match with the same winning quote. Do not lose any of your first five matches. When you reach your sixth opponent, the message 'Here comes a new challenger' will appear and you will fight Dan (Dan's stage is basically the same as Adon's and Sagat's, except it is sunset). After the match, the game will continue in its normal fashion. (NOTE : To select a winning quote, just hold down and a certain button combination of 3 total buttons when you win your second round. This varies from character to character, but every character can select 2 by holding down with 3 punches or down with 3 kicks).

- SERIES -

1. Street Fighter (1987)
2. Street Fighter II - The World Warrior [CP-S No. 14] (1991)
3. Street Fighter II' - Champion Edition [CP-S No. 21] (1992)
4. Street Fighter II' Turbo - Hyper Fighting [CP-S No. 24] (1992)
5. Super Street Fighter II - The New Challengers [CP-S II No. 01] (1993)
6. Super Street Fighter II X - Grand Master Challenge [CP-S II No. 03 Bis] (1994)
7. Street Fighter Zero [CP-S II No. 11] (1995)
8. Street Fighter Zero 2 [CP-S II No. 15] (1996)
9. Street Fighter Zero 2 Alpha (1996)
10. Street Fighter III - New Generation (1997)
11. Street Fighter III - 2nd Impact : Giant Attack (1997)
12. Street Fighter Zero 3 [CP-S II No. 29] (1998)
13. Street Fighter III - 3rd Strike : Fight For The Future (1999)
14. Hyper Street Fighter II - The Anniversary Edition [CP-S II No. 38] (2003)
15. Street Fighter IV (2008)
16. Super Street Fighter IV (2010)
17. Ultra Street Fighter IV (2014)
18. Street Fighter V (2016)
19. Ultra Street Fighter II - The Final Challengers (2017, Switch)

- STAFF -

Planners : Noritaka Funamizu (Poo), Haruo Murata (Mucchi), H. Itsuno (-Tomoshibi-)
Programmers : Cham Cho Choy, Egw, "Tege Killer" Jyaian, Knight Rider Giu, Ogt_Dm, Pon, Arikichi Kiyoko, Hard.Yas (-Gouki-), Hamachan, Shinchan (as 'Hyper Shinchan'), Super Sailor (Vega), Matsushita -Adon- Masakazu
Scroll designers : Konomi, Buppo, Shibata Kayoko, Akiko Matsunaga, Daisuke Nakagawa, Maeno Megumi, Isono, Sm, Mago, Mr. Oranda
Object designers : Eripyon.N (Dokkim), Yatsunonawa (D), Jun Matsumura (27), Makoto Ishii, Chama(c), Gonta, Ari Inukichi, Seigo Kawakami (Ushi), M. Nakatani (KotatuToNeko), Alien Pole, Kuriotoko, Chimorin Syogun, K.Takechan, Masaaki, Dway Nishimura, Norihide = Fnyako.F, Shin-Ya.M, Super-8, Masayo Tsujimoto (Noriko), R, Sagata, Takayuki Kosaka
Music composers : Isao Abe (Oyaji), Syun Nishigaki (Kobekko), Setsuo Yamamoto (Purple), Kadota Yuko (Pop'n), Kuru-Kuru Chance Iwami, Mizuta Naoshi (Groovy)
Sound designers : Hiroaki Kondo (X68K), Ryoji
Producer : Iyono Pon

* Voice Actors :
Ryu, Charlie : Toshiyuki Morikawa
Chun-Li : Yuko Miyamura
Ken, Guy : Tetsuya Iwanaga
Adon, Birdie, Sodom : Wataru Takagi
Rose : Yuko Miyamura
Sagat : Miki Shinichiro
Akuma, M. Bison : Tomomichi Nishimura

- PORTS -

Here is a list of Japanese ports.

* CONSOLES: 
[JP] Sony PlayStation (dec.22, 1995) "Street Fighter Zero [Model SLPS-00176]" 
[JP] Sega Saturn (jan.26, 1996) "Street Fighter Zero [Model T-1206G]" 
[JP] Sony PS2 (may.25, 2006) "Street Fighter Zero - Fighters Generation [Model SLPS-66409]" 

* HANDHELDS: 
Nintendo Game Boy Color [JP] (mar.30, 2001) "Street Fighter Alpha - Warriors' Dreams [Model CGB-BFZJ-JPN]" 

* COMPUTERS: 
PC [MS Windows 9x] [JP] (1997) : Bundled with "Street Fighter Zero 2"

* OTHERS: 
CPS Changer [JP] (1995)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=sfza,sfzar1
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 28 years ago:

Street Fighter Zero (c) 1995 Capcom Company, Limited.

Asian release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese release entry; "Street Fighter Zero [Green Board]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Grey Board [Asia]

- UPDATES -

Grey Board revisions : 

REVISION 1: 
* Build date: 950605

REVISION 2:
* Build date: 950627

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=sfzh,sfzhr1
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 28 years ago:

Street Fighter Zero (c) 1995 Capcom Company, Limited.

South American release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese release entry; "Street Fighter Zero [Green Board]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Orange Board [South America]

- UPDATES -

Orange Board revisions : 

REVISION 1:
* Build date: 950627

REVISION 2:
* Build date: 750718

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=sfzb,sfzbr1
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 28 years ago:

Street Fighter Zero (c) 1995 Capcom Company, Limited.

Brazilian release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese release entry; "Street Fighter Zero [Green Board]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Pink Board [Brazil]

- UPDATES -

Pink Board revisions : 

REVISION 1:
* Build date: 950727

REVISION 2:
* Build date: 951109

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=striderj
Arcade Video game published 34 years ago:

ストライダー飛竜 (c) 1989 Capcom Company, Limited.
(Strider Hiryu)

Strider Hiryu is a multi-directional scrolling platform beat-em-up in which the player takes control of 'Strider Hiryu', a ninja-style warrior who must defeat a legendary being known as 'Grandmaster Meio'. 

Set in a dystopian future in the year 2048, Meio has been watching Earth from his own distant galaxy and has created a space station (known as 'The Third Moon') between Earth and its moon in order to rule over the Human race. 

Armed with a curved sword known as a 'Falchion', Strider must travel the globe to find and destroy Meio. Numerous power-ups can be obtained from metallic item boxes carried by certain enemies. These include an extension to Hiryu's attack range that lasts for one hundred slashes, two types of health aids (represented by the kanji used to write Hiryu's name), a max health extension, an extra life and a power-up that not only makes Hiryu invulnerable to attack, but also increases his own attack abilities via shadow images of himself for 30 seconds. 

Hiryu can also summon robotic companions known collectively as "options" that help him fight enemies. These consist of up to two mushroom-like droids, a saber-toothed tiger and a hawk. These are referred to as Options A, B and C respectively. 

Strider Hiryu is highly agile and has the ability to latch onto walls and ceilings using a metallic hook; a concept which set the game apart from other platformers and allowed for highly inventive level design. 

The game consists of five stages: 
* Kazakh Soviet Sot Republic (called "St. Petersburgh" during the arcade game's attract sequence), 
* Siberian Wilderness 
* Aerial Battleship Ballog 
* Amazonian Jungle 
* The Third Moon. 

Each stage is divided into a number of smaller sections, with each section imposing its own time limit. Strider initially has a three-point health gauge (which can be increased to five points with health extension power-ups) and will lose a life when the health gauge is fully depleted. Lives are also lost by either falling into a bottomless pit, or failing to complete a section within the time limit. 

The game ends once all lives are lost, but continues are available.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System" hardware.
B-Board ID: 89625B-2

Players: 2 (alternatively).
Control: 8-way joystick.
Buttons: 2.
=> [1] Slash, [2] Jump

- TRIVIA -

Strider Hiryu was originally released in March 1989 in Japan. It was known there as the third video game made for this system. It is known outside Japan as just "Strider".

The title of this game translates from Japanese as 'Flying Dragon Strider'. 

Known re-releases: 
"Strider Hiryu [B-Board 91634B-2]" (1991) 

Known export releases: 
"Strider [B-Board 89624B-2]" 
"Strider [B-Board 89624B-3]" 

Strider became one of Capcom's early hits before "Street Fighter II - The World Warrior", revered for its innovative gameplay, multilingual voice clips during cutscenes. 

Hiryu did not have his beginnings at the Arcades, but rather at the black and white pages of a manga anthology. The original Strider Hiryu manga was serialized between May and October 1988 issues of the Monthly Comp Comics and was illustrated by Tatsumi Wada (an alias of Strider's creator, Moto Kikaku or perhaps the other way around). Capcom was heavily involved in the production of the manga, which led to the creation to the later CPS game. The manga told the story of former Strider, Hiryu, who retired after killing his older sister, Mariya, who went insane for some mysterious reasons. A few years since the incident, Hiryuu is forced out of retirement by Strider director Matic when he tells the news of Kain's capture by enemy forces. The Strider Hiryu arcade game was released shortly after the manga finished it's run, although the game barely has anything to do with the plot of the manga. 

As Strider was made before the fall of Communism, one could take this as a 'cold war'-era game. The main plot of the story revolves around the fact that nuclear war had broken out and a Russian secret weapon went on a rampage, the only people being able to stop it are 'Earth's Final Guardians', the Striders. Hiryu is the youngest of the Striders. Kafazu (the setting of Strider) is yet another obfuscated name (think Gotham City and New York, for you Batman fans). It's actually Kazhakstan. If you don't know what that is, it's a country in central Asia. The number of mosques in Kafazu also reflects the fact that Kazhakstan is a mainly muslim population. 

Strider Hiryu was resurrected in 1998 as a character in "Marvel vs. Capcom - Clash of Super Heroes". 
One of the three girls at the end of level 2 appears as a striker character (Ton-Pooh) in "Marvel vs. Capcom - Clash of Super Heroes". 

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Strider Hiryu : G.S.M. Capcom 2 - D25B1001) on May 21, 1989.

- SCORING -

When you complete a level, you get the following bonus points...
1: 5,000 points
2: 8,000 points
3: 10,000 points
4: 10,000 points
5: 30,000 points

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

1 - During the game you can have the maximum of 2 'helpers'. Every time you get a helper, it will use the 'last' slot available of your life meter, or be, if you receive a damage, you will lose this life-slot and will lose your helper.
2 - Try to 'link' your helper(s) in the 'left-side' slots, because you will lose the helpers only if you get a lot of damage. On the 1st stage, be with only 2 life-slots when catching the helpers, it will maintain they more safe.
3 - If you have only 2 life-slots, and both 2 helpers, try to find the 'tiger' icon, but don't catch it. Get damage until you have only 1 life-slot. Now catch the tiger icon. The tiger will help you a few seconds, and it is over you will own the 2 helpers, but it will use only one slot, the left-slot. You will lose it only if you die (time-over not included).
4 - If you lose a life by 'time-over', your stock of 'helpers' will maintain, and it will keep on the same "slot" of the helpers.

- SERIES -

1. Strider Hiryu [B-Board 89625B-2] (1989, Arcade)
2. Strider Hiryu 2 (1999, Arcade)
3. Strider (2014, PS4, Xbox One)

- STAFF -

Object Designers : Shinji Sakashita (Sakashita Thing), Take Pong, Tissue (Tisshu), Makizoe, Tery, Terabo, Hisabo, Kuribo, Komsan, Gin
Scroll Designers : Teiki, Rie. Poo, Ziggy, Rinma, Marilyn Higuchi, Morilyn, Kintaro
Soft Programmers : T. Maruchi, Tae 250r, Mikkun, Tadaken, Kiyomi Kaneko (Kanekon), Dorompa. E, Ka~kuny, Check. Masa
Music by : Junko Tamiya
Planning Advisers : Tokuro Fujiwara (Arthur), Yossan
Game Planner : Hiroichi Yotsui (Isuke)

- PORTS -

All Japanese ports are listed here. To see non-Japanese ports, please see the 'outside Japan' version's entry; "Strider [B-Board 89624B-2]" 

* CONSOLES: 
NEC PC Engine Arcade CD-ROM² [JP] (sept.22, 1994) "Strider Hiryu [Model NAPR-1041]"
[JP] Sega Mega Drive (sept.29, 1990) "Strider Hiryu [Model G-4037]"
[JP] Sony PlayStation (feb.24, 2000) "Strider Hiryu 1&2 [Disc 2] [Model SLPS-02621]" 
[JP] Sony PlayStation (oct.24, 2006) "Strider Hiryu [Capcom Game Books Series] [Model SLPM-87401]" 

* COMPUTERS: 
[JP] Sharp X68000 (1992)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=striderjr
Arcade Video game published 32 years ago:

Strider Hiryu (c) 1991 Capcom Company, Limited.

Re-release of "Strider Hiryu [B-Board 89625B-2]". See this entry for more information about the game itself.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System" hardware.
B-Board ID: 91634B-2

- TRIVIA -

This re-edition was released in 1991 in Japan only. The title screen copyright date is unchanged.

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=strider
Arcade Video game published 34 years ago:

Strider (c) 1989 Capcom Company, Limited.

Export release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, see the original Japanese version entry; "Strider Hiryu [B-Board 89625B-2]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System" hardware.
B-Board ID: 89624B-2

- TRIVIA -

On the title screen of these Export versions, Strider is written in English on top of the 'Hiryu' Kanji. The 'Hiryu' kanji are colored with a purple gradient. Instead of in the Japanese version's where Strider is written in katakana to the left of the 'Hiryu' kanji. The 'Hiryu' kanji starts out red, then catches on fire. 

Also, in the US version, Strider Hiryu is missing his yell when swinging his sword. 

The game was soon re-edited as "Strider [B-Board 89624B-3]".

- SERIES -

1. Strider [CP-S No. 03] (1989) 
2. Strider 2 (1999)

- PORTS -

All released outside Japan are listed here. To see Japanese ports, please see the original Japanese entry of the game; "Strider Hiryu [B-Board 89625B-2]". 

* CONSOLES: 
[US] Nintendo NES (jul.1989) "Strider [Model NES-HX-USA]" 
[US] Sega Genesis (1990) "Strider" 
Sega Mega Drive [BR] (1991) "Strider" by Tec Toy
[EU] Sega Mega Drive (1991) "Strider"
Sega Master System [US] [EU] (1991) "Strider [Model 9005]" 
Sega Master System [KO] (1993) "Strider" by Samsung
Sega Master System [BR] (1993) "Strider" by Tec Toy 
[US] Sony PlayStation (jul.28, 2000) "Strider 2 [Disc 2] [Model SLUS-01163]" 
[EU] Sony PlayStation (dec.15, 2000) "Strider 2 [Disc 2] [Model SLES-12867]" 
[US] Microsoft XBOX (nov.24, 2006) "Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 2" 
[US] Sony PS2 (nov.24, 2006) "Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 2 [Model SLUS-21473]" 
Sony PlayStation 2 [AU] (apr.11, 2007) "Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 2 [Model SLES-54561]" 
[EU] Sony PS2 (apr.13, 2007) "Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 2 [Model SLES-54561]" 

* HANDHELDS: 
[US] Sony PSP (mar.22, 2006) "Capcom Classics Collection Remixed [Model ULUS-10097]" 
[EU] Sony PSP (jul.21, 2006) "Capcom Classics Collection Remixed [Model ULES-00347]" 

* COMPUTERS: 
[EU] Amstrad CPC (1989) 
[EU] Atari ST (1989) : Re-released as a Budget edition (1990) 
[EU] [US] Commodore C64 (1989) 
[EU] Commodore Amiga (1989) 
PC [MS-DOS, 5.25"] [EU] (1989) 
[EU] Sinclair ZX Spectrum (1989) 
[EU] Amstrad CPC (1990) by Kixx 
[EU] Amstrad CPC (1990) "Les Aventuriers" 
[EU] Amstrad CPC (1991) "Capcom Collection" 
[EU] Atari ST (1991) "Capcom Collection" 
[EU] Commodore C64 (1991) "Capcom Collection" 
[EU] Commodore Amiga (1991) "Capcom Collection" 
[EU] Sinclair ZX Spectrum (1991) "Capcom Collection" 

* OTHERS: 
Tiger Handheld LCD Game [US] (19??)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=striderua
Arcade Video game published 34 years ago:

Strider (c) 1989 Capcom USA, Incorporated.

Re-release of "Strider [B-Board 89624B-2]". Refer to this entry for more information about the game itself.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the CP System hardware.
B-Board ID: 89624B-3

- TRIVIA -

This re-release was available in North America only.

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=s1945,s1945a,s1945j,s1945nj,s1945k,s1945bl,s1945n
Arcade Video game published 28 years ago:

Strikers 1945 (c) 1995 Psikyo.

In 1945, the second world war ended. Soon, there was peace, but an organization of high-ranking military officers from all over the world form a global army known as CANY. Their mission was to conquer the world. CANY activity was found in areas like the Soviet Union, America, Japan, and even Germany. It is revealed that CANY had weapons never seen before from rockets to mechanical walkers. The world quickly formed a group of pilots and planes called the Strikers whose mission is to rid of CANY from the world.

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU : Motorola 68EC020 (@ 16 Mhz)
Sound CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 4 Mhz)
Sound Chips : YMF278B (@ 33.8688 Mhz)

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 3

- TRIVIA -

Released in June 1995.

The game forbids the initials 'SEX' on the high score table. If you try, it gets changed to a smiley, and 'THAT IS WRONG' appears.

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Strikers 1945 II, Strikers 1945 - SGCD-0001) on 20/12/1997.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Unlock Extra Maintenance : if you hold Test Button + PL1 Button 1 during boot, you get extra options in the test menu. A level skip, BG test usually etc...

* Sexy Pilots Images & Names : if you make a perfect score, you can see how the sexy pilots look and what their names are. In practice, this means getting three gold medals at the end of each stage (for time, accuracy and completion). This should be done in the first loop of the game, the pilot of the plane you chose will be seen at the end of this first loop. Two pilots will be seen if it's a two-player game. The pilots can also be seen in the Extra Maintenance menu.

- SERIES -

1. Strikers 1945 (1995)
2. Strikers 1945 II (1997)
3. Strikers 1945 Plus (1999)
4. Strikers 1999 (1999)

- STAFF -

Staff : Jun-ichi Niwa, Shin Nakamura, R.J. Bashmet, Hyoue Ogawa, Wataru Yamazaki, Hideyuki Oda, Youko Tsukagoshi, Hiromi Tanegashima, Masaki Izutani, Ikuya Yoshida, Norikazu Takemori, Toshinori Sugita, Seiki -SSS- Sato, Shiori Saito, Yusataro

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] Sega Saturn (june.28, 1996) "Strikers 1945 [Model T-14407G]"
[JP] Sony PlayStation (jul.19, 1996) "Strikers 1945 [Model SLPS-00407]"
Sony PlayStation 2 (JP] (Aug. 05, 2004, "Strikers 1945 I&II [Psikyo Shooting Collection Vol.1] [Model SLPM-62515]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=s1945ii
Arcade Video game published 26 years ago:

Strikers 1945 II (c) 1997 Psikyo.

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU : SH-2 (@ 28.63635 Mhz)
Sound Chips : YMF278B (@ 28.63635 Mhz)

Players : 2
Control : 8-Way Joystick
Buttons : 2
=> Shoot, Bomb

- TRIVIA -

Strikers 1945 II was released in October 1997.

The game forbids the initials 'SEX' on the high score table. If you try, it gets changed to three smileys.

Scitron / Gamest released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Strikers 1945 II, Strikers 1945 - SGCD-0001) on 20/12/1997.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Unlock Extra Maintenance : if you hold Test Button + PL1 Button 1 during boot, you get extra options in the test menu (Stage Select - buggy!, BG Test).

- SERIES -

1. Strikers 1945 (1995)
2. Strikers 1945 II (1997)
3. Strikers 1945 Plus (1999)
4. Strikers 1999 (1999)

- STAFF -

Staff : Yoshiyuki Takami, Shin Nakamura, Hiroshi Yamada, Shiori Saito, Naozumi Yorichika, Hideyuki Oda, Yoko Tsukagoshi, Masaki Izutani, Norikazu Takemori, Emi Taniguchi, Keisuke Takagi, Hideto Kamioka, Keizo Fujita, Kunio Asahara, Kenichi Fujita, Kunihiko Nogomi

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] Sega Saturn (oct.22, 1998; "Strikers 1945 II [Model T-20402G]")
[JP] Sony PlayStation (oct.22, 1998; "Strikers 1945 II [Model SLPS-01637]")
[JP] Sony PlayStation (sept.28, 2000; "Strikers 1945 II [SuperLite 1500 Series] [Model SLPM-86631]")
[JP] Sony PS2 (aug.05, 2004; "Strikers 1945 I&II [Psikyo Shooting Collection Vol.1] [Model SLPM-62515]")
[JP] Sony PS2 (jul.14, 2005; "Strikers 1945 I&II [Psikyo Shooting Collection Vol.1] [Taito Best] [Model SLPM-62653]")
[EU] Sony PS2 (jul.16, 2004; "1945 I&II The Arcade Games [Model SLES-51741]")

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=s1945p

Strikers 1945 Plus (c) 1999 Psikyo.

After inserting quarters and hitting the Start button, the player chooses one of 6 planes (plus 1 hidden plane) or can opt for a random choice.

The available fighters are :
* P-38 Lightning
* Vought XF5U 'Flying Pancake'
* Spitfire Mk. VI
* Zero Type 52
* Focke Wulf Ta 152
* Fiat G.56
* XP-55 Ascender (Hidden) 

The first 4 stages are in random order, while the last 4 are sequential. Players collect weapon powerups, bombs, and gold bars for points. Each plane has a unique 'supershot' which is charged by damaging enemies and fired by holding then releasing the fire button. Supershots can be stored, although the number varies from plane to plane. Using a Bomb results in a large friendly fighter swooping onto the screen and blocking shots while returning fire for a few seconds.

After the player beats the final boss, the game starts again from the beginning, albeit at a much higher difficulty level. All level are similar to the ones in Strikers 1945 II. Only one of the 4 bosses that are randomly chosen and the 6th boss is changed.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID : 0254

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 12 Mhz)
Sound CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 4 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Yamaha YM2610 (@ 8 Mhz)

Screen orientation : Horizontal
Video resolution : 320 x 224 pixels
Screen refresh : 59.19 Hz
Palette colors : 4096

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2
=> [A] Shot/Supershot, [B] Support attack

- TRIVIA -

Released in December 1999.

This is an updated version of "Strikers 1945 II" and is exclusive to the Neo-Geo. This is Psikyo's first and only game developed and released for the Neo-Geo MVS (but was not released on the Neo-Geo AES home console).

The game forbids the initials 'SEX' or 'KKK' on the high score table. If you try, they get changed to 3 smileys.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Play as Ascender : At the selection screen, highlight the '?' symbol and press Down+A+B.

* Play as Ascender (Alternate) : Highlight the '?' symbol and press Up, Down, Up, Down, UP(x4), Down. Ascender should appear.

- SERIES -

1. Strikers 1945 (1995)
2. Strikers 1945 II (1997)
3. Strikers 1945 Plus (1999)
4. Strikers 1999 (1999)

- STAFF -

Composers : Masaki Izutani

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=2688&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=s1945iii,s1945iiibl
Arcade Video game published 24 years ago:

Strikers 1999 (c) 1999 Psikyo.

Year 1999, fall. The countless super minimum machine group 'nano-machine', which came flying, invaded the principal weapon and military terminals of each country from outer space and began multiplication. This weapon group which is automated with the 'nano-machines' repeated  attack with non discrimination and the metropoles of each country were in a devastating state. A fear of the extensive nuclear warfare with the strategy nuclear missile error morphism hit the world!!! Barely the unit of each country which prevents the invasion of the 'nano- machine' is summoned because of the unmanned weapon eradication  maneuvers. So, fighting with the weapons of the entire world was not enough. The Strikers start the attack on the enemy center! By the way of the time of half a century, new legend of special force STRIKERS now starts!

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU : SH-2 (@ 28.63635 Mhz)
Sound Chips : YMF278B (@ 28.63635 Mhz)

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 3

- TRIVIA -

Strikers 1999 was released in October 1999 in Japan.

Export releases: This game is known outside Japan as Strikers 1945 III.

The game forbids the initials 'SEX' on the high score table. If you try, it gets changed to three smileys.

The Chaos Queen is the only boss in the game that is pure organic, unlike the others, which are robotics.

Scitron & Art released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Strikers 1999 - SCDC-00004) on 21/01/2000.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Maintenance Code : in test mode, enter this code...
8-1-6-5-0 Maintenance Mode
0-1-9-9-9 Secret Command Enabled (X-36 is available by pressing 'Up' on random box).
8-1-6-3-0 Secret Random Enabled (X-36 is available on Random Box with luck).
8-1-6-2-0 Secret All Disabled (X-36 is not available).
8-1-6-1-0 All Data Erased.
1-2-3-4-5 Reset Scores.

* Technical Bonus : each boss, excluding the last one, has a weak point called 'the core' that is exposed outside for some few seconds. When the player airplane gets close to it at a fixed distance, it turns red. It is possible to defeat the boss quickly by attacking intensively the core at that point in time. The Technical Bonus is added if you destroy the core.

* Super Shot : when an enemy plane is shot the energy accumulates in the level gauge. When there's enough energy accumulated in the level gauge the super shot can be discharged by pressing continously the shot button. While the super shot is discharging the energy of the level gauge keeps decreasing. When energy becomes 0 the super shot stops being able to shoot. In Strikers 1945 III a cancellation function was attached to the super shot so the energy at the level gauge can be preserved.

- SERIES -

1. Strikers 1945 (1995)
2. Strikers 1945 II (1997)
3. Strikers 1945 Plus (1999)
4. Strikers 1999 (1999)

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=2687&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=superchs,superchsj,superchsu,superchsp,superchsp2
Arcade Video game published 30 years ago:

Super Chase - Criminal Termination (c) 1993 Taito Corporation.

- TECHNICAL -

Board Number : K11E0740A
Prom Stickers : D46

Main CPU : Motorola 68EC020 (@ 16 Mhz), 68000 (@ 16 Mhz)
Sound CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 16 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Ensoniq ES5505 (@ 13.343 Mhz)

Players : 2
Control : Steering wheel
Buttons : 6

- TRIVIA -

Even if abstract mode says TAITO 1992 (developement year), Super Chase was released in February 1993.

The development name was 'Chase 3'.

- UPDATES -

The US version is slightly different, it has the 'Winners Don't Use Drugs' screen.

- SERIES -

1. Chase H.Q. (1988)
2. S.C.I. - Special Criminal Investigation (1989)
3. Super Chase - Criminal Termination (1993)
4. Ray Tracers (1997, Sony PlayStation)
5. Chase H.Q. 2 (2007)

- STAFF -

* Consoles :
Nintendo Super Famicom (1993) "Super Chase H.Q."

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
Nintendo Super Famicom (1993) "Super Chase H.Q."

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=2706&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=scfinals,scfinalso,scfinalsoc
Taito F3 cart. published 30 years ago:

Super Cup Finals (c) 1993 Taito.

A soccer game from Taito.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "Taito F3 System" Hardware.

Board Number : K11E0776A
Prom Stickers : D49

Players : 4
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 4

- TRIVIA -

Super Cup Finals was released in November 1993.

This game is also known as "Taito Cup Finals" and in Japan as "Hattrick Hero '93".

The game forbids the initials 'SEX' on the high score table. If you try, it gets changed it to '!!!'.

Zuntata Records released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Zuntata Rare Collection - ZTTL-0022) on 05/1998.

- SERIES -

1. Football Champ (1991)
2. Taito Cup Finals (1993)
3. Hattrick Hero '94 (1994)
4. Taito Power Goal (1994)

- STAFF -

Planner : Takeshi Kobori
Character designers : Takeshi Kobori, Yuji Sakamoto, Hideyuki Kato, Hiroyo Kujirai, Hiromi Mikami, Shinjiro Sugitani
Software : Kazutomo Ishida, Kusago Nagahara, Shinji Soyano, Kousuke Usami, Xxx Hayashi
Designers : Naoto Hashizume, Takeshi Kobori
Sound : Shuichiro Nakazawa (Zuntata)
Hardware : Katsumi Kaneoka

* CAST : 
Player & Gk : Masashi Tsuzura
Manager : Suminori Hase, Yuji Sakamoto
Referee : Shin Tanaka
Lady : Seiji Kawakami
Doctor : Hiroto Nizato
Nurse : Hiromi Mikami
Stunt : Tomohisa Yamashita

Assistant : Shin Tanaka
Directors : Takeshi Kobori, Marutake

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=superg
Arcade Video game published 44 years ago:

Super Galaxians (c) 1979 Zaccaria.

Italian hack of "Galaxian". The game is faster than the original.

- SCORING -

Blue Galaxian : 30 points in formation, 60 points in flight 
Purple Galaxian : 40 points in formation, 80 points in flight 
Red Galaxian : 50 points in formation, 100 points in flight 
Flagship : 60 points in formation, 150 points in flight 
Flagship : 200 points in flight with one escort 
Flagship : 300 points in flight with two escorts, Flagship killed before all escorts 
Flagship : 800 points in flight with two escorts, Flagship killed after all escorts

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=sgemf,sgemfd
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 26 years ago:

Super Gem Fighter - Mini Mix (c) 1997 Capcom.

North American & European release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese release entry; "Pocket Fighter [Green Board]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Blue Board [USA & Europe]

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES: 
[EU] Sony PlayStation (1998) [Model SLES-01378] 
[US] Sony PlayStation (1998) [Model SLUS-00653] 
Sony PlayStation 2 [AU] (2006) "Street Fighter Alpha Anthology" 
[US] Sony PS2 (june.13, 2006) "Street Fighter Alpha Anthology [Model SLUS-21317]" 
[EU] Sony PS2 (jul.7, 2006) "Street Fighter Alpha Anthology [Model SLES-54085]" 
Sony PlayStation [PSOne Classics] [US] (feb.8, 2011) 

* OTHERS: 
Apple iPhone/iPod [US] (jul.7, 2012) released under the Japanese title of "Pocket Fighter" [Model 472112905]

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=smbomb,smbombr1
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 29 years ago:

Super Muscle Bomber - The International Blowout (c) 1994 Capcom Company, Limited.

Fourteen selectable wrestlers fight to win the belt in this cross over wrestling/2D fighting game.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Green Board [Japan]

Players: Up to 2.
Control: 8-way joystick per player.
Buttons: 5 per player.
=> [1] Grab, [2] LP, [3] HP
=> [5] LK, [6] HK

- TRIVIA -

Super Muscle Bomber was released in August 1994 in the Japanese arcades. It was known as the 6th video game released on the CPS2 hardware.

This game is known outside Japan as "Ring of Destruction - Slammasters II". Here is a list of known Export releases:
"Ring of Destruction - Slammasters II [Blue Board]"
"Ring of Destruction - Slammasters II [Grey Board]"
"Ring of Destruction - Slammasters II [Orange Board]"

Hara Tetsuo, who designed the characters in the Muscle Bomber games, is a popular manga artist in Japan. He is famous for his work on Hokuto no Ken (aka Fist of the North Star).

Sony Music Entertainment released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Super Muscle Bomber Arcade Game Track - SRCL-2919) on October 21, 1994.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* BIFF
- SUPER 1 : Catch then Up, UpLeft, Left
- SUPER 2 : Catch then Up, UpLeft, Left then Catch

* BLACK WIDOW
- SUPER 1 : Catch then Down, Left, Up
- SUPER 2 : Catch then Down, Left, Up then Catch

* GRATER
- SUPER 1 : Catch then Right, UpRight, Up
- SUPER 2 : Catch then Right, UpRight, Up then Catch

* GUNLOC
- SUPER 1 : Catch then Up, UpLeft, Left
- SUPER 2 : Catch then Up, UpLeft, Left then Catch

* HAGGAR
- SUPER 1 : Catch then 360°
- SUPER 2 : Catch then 360° then Catch

* JUMBO
- SUPER 1 : Catch then Half Circle toward
- SUPER 2 : Catch then Half Circle toward then Catch

* ONI
- SUPER 1 : Catch then 360°
- SUPER 2 : Catch then 360° then Catch

* ORTEGA
- SUPER 1 : Catch then Left, Down, DownLeft
- SUPER 2 : Catch then Left, Down, DownLeft then Catch

* RASTA
- SUPER 1 : Catch then Down, Up
- SUPER 2 : Catch then Down, Up then Catch

* SABER
- SUPER 1 : Catch then DownRight, UpRight
- SUPER 2 : Catch then DonwRight, UpRight then Catch

* SCORPION
- SUPER 1 : Catch then Up, Down
- SUPER 2 : Catch then Up, Down then Catch

* STINGRAY
- SUPER 1 : Catch then Right, Down, DownRight
- SUPER 2 : Catch then Right, Down, DownRight then Catch

* TITAN
- SUPER 1 : Catch then DonwLeft, Down, Up
- SUPER 2 : Catch then DonwLeft, Down, Up then Catch

* WRAITH
- SUPER 1 : Catch then Right, UpRight, Up
- SUPER 2 : Catch then Right, UpRight, Up then Catch

- SERIES -

1. Muscle Bomber - The Body Explosion [CP-S No. 27] (1993)
2. Muscle Bomber Duo - Heat Up Warriors [CP-S No. 28] (1993)
3. Super Muscle Bomber - The International Blowout [Green Board] (1994)

- STAFF -

Character Designer & Illustrator : Tetsuo Hara
Planners : Tomy, Ari
Object Designers : Ikusan Z, Imomushi, Kakkun, Yorio, Rikagon, K. Takechan, Hirohito, Kamameshi (Kamamesi), Rumichan
Scroll Designers : Ziggy, Miyao, Taka
Programmers : Kazuhito Nakai, Shaver, Yuko Kawamura (Tate), Hiroshi Nakagawa (Raoh)
Sound : Toshio Kajino, Syun Nishigaki (Shun), Isao Abe (Oyaji)
Assists : B G, Batayon, Hideo, Tora, Hin-Hans, Ponta, Hiroaki Kondo
Special Thanks : MB&MBD, Pacho Team, Lovelies, Shinchan-Men, Takuya Shiraiwa (Mr. Shira), Original Staff
Team USA Support : Alex Jimenez

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=spang,spangj,spangbl,spangbl2
Arcade Video game published 33 years ago:

Super Pang (c) 1990 Mitchell Corp.

Super Bang is a sequel to the 1989 original in which one or two players control characters armed with harpoon guns who must destroy the numerous different-sized balloons that bounce around each single-screen stage. When hit by a harpoon, the balloons break down into smaller fragments, in a similar fashion to Atari's 1979 classic, "Asteroids". 

Players can only fire the harpoon guns virtually upwards but can move left and right and climb the ladders that appear on many of the stages. The game has two different modes of play:

* PANIC MODE
In this mode, players face an endless rain of bubbles and must simply last as long as possible. The default weapon is the bubble shot and cannot be changed at any time. Each time a bubble is popped, a rainbow bar at the bottom is slowly filled. Filling the bar all the way raises the level number and the bar depletes back to zero. As more bubbles are popped, both remaining and incoming bubbles move faster. A 'Panic' music plays when there's a very large amount of bubbles on the screen, but the normal music returns once enough bubbles are popped.

There is also one special type of bubble that appears rarely. The bubble has a clock image engraved. Whenever the bubble bounces, the engraving changes to a star, and when the bubble bounces again, the engraving changes back to a clock. Popping the bubble when the clock engraving is present causes all bubbles to stop movement completely for 9 seconds, while popping the bubble when the star engraving is present causes all bubbles to be popped and the game screen gets cleared.

* TOUR MODE
In this mode players move from stage to stage, travelling around the world. The introductory stage is set in Japan and is the only stage set in this location. After Japan, players travel to parts of Asia, Europe and the Americas. Each location has three stages, with each set at a different time of day: daytime, evening and night. The few exceptions to the three-stage rule are Venice (evening and night stages only), The Mayan Ruins and the Caribbean Sea (both having only day and evening stages).

Each stage has a set layout, consisting of walls, destructible glass walls, invisible walls, ladders and ice. There are forty different stages in the Tour mode.

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU: Zilog Z80 (@ 8 Mhz)
Sound Chips: OKI6295 (@ 7.5 Khz), YM2413 (@ 4 Mhz)

Players: 2
Control: 8-way joystick
Buttons: 1 (FIRE)

- TRIVIA -

Super Pang was released in September 1990.

This game was also released by Capcom for North America as "Super Buster Bros.".

The game forbids the initials 'SEX' on the high score table. If you try, it gets changed it to '???'.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Stage Select on Tour Mode: Select Tour mode. Hold down the joystick and press fire button. 

* Win 500 Points in Panic Mode: Hold down the joystick and 500 points will be added to your score every few seconds by forcing the bubbles spawns. When the bubbles quota is reached on the screen, this trick don't work.

* Win 100,000 Points in Panic Mode: If you go without shooting anything for the amount of time it takes for the background song to repeat, you will automatically get 100,000 points, but the speed of the balls will suddenly become extremely fast.

- SERIES -

1. Pang (1989)
2. Super Pang (1990)
3. Pang! 3 [B-Board 94916-10] (1995)
4. Mighty! Pang [Green Board] (2000)
5. Pang - Magical Michael (2010, Nintendo DS)

- STAFF -

Planners: Uda, Futoshi Kuwahara
Designers: Kurihara, Furukawa
Programmers: Shinohara, Nakai
Composer: Takaoka

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES: 
[EU] Nintendo SNES (1992) "Super Pang [Model SNSP-SN]" 
[JP] Nintendo Super Famicom (aug.7, 1992) "Super Pang [Model SHVC-SN]" 
[JP] Sony PlayStation (mar.14, 1997) "Super Pang Collection [Model SLPS-00360]" 
[EU] Sony PlayStation (june.1998) "Super Pang Collection [Model SLES-00043]" 

* HANDHELDS: 
[AU] Sony PSP (jul.11, 2007) "Capcom Puzzle World" 
[EU] Sony PSP (jul.13, 2007) "Capcom Puzzle World [Model ULES-00647]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=spf2t,spf2td,spf2tu
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 27 years ago:

Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo (c) 1996 Capcom.

Export release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese version entry; "Super Puzzle Fighter 2 II [Green Board]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Blue Board [USA & Europe]

- UPDATES -

Blue Board releases : 

REVISION 1:
* Build date: 960529
* EUROPE release

REVISION 2:
* Build date: 960620
* US release

- PORTS -

Here is a list of ports released in regions where the arcade version was released as a Blue Board.

* CONSOLES:
[EU] Sega Saturn (1997) "Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo [Model T-7030H-50]" 
[US] Sega Saturn (feb.28, 1997) "Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo [Model T-1215H]" 
[US] Sony PlayStation (nov.30, 1996) "Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo [Model SLUS-00418]" 
[EU] Sony PlayStation (jul.1997) "Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo [Model SLES-00605]" 
Microsoft XBOX 360 [XBLA] [US] [EU] (aug.29, 2007) "Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix" 
Sony PlayStation 3 [PSN] [US] (aug.29, 2007) "Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix" 
Sony PlayStation 3 [PSN] [EU] (may.29, 2008) "Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix" 
Microsoft XBOX 360 [US] (mar.27, 2012) "Capcom Digital Collection" - XBLA version 
[AU] Microsoft XBOX 360 (mar.29, 2012) "Capcom Digital Collection" - XBLA version 
[EU] Microsoft XBOX 360 (mar.30, 2012) "Capcom Digital Collection" - XBLA version

* HANDHELDS: 
[EU] Nintendo GBA (mar.28, 2003) "Super Puzzle Fighter II [Model AGB-AZ8P-EUR]" 
[US] Nintendo GBA (mar.31, 2003) "Super Puzzle Fighter II [Model AGB-AZ8E-USA]" 

* COMPUTERS:
PC [MS Windows 9x, CD-ROM] [US] (1998)

* OTHERS: 
Mobile Phones [US] (june.2006) "Super Puzzle Fighter II: Network Battle" 
BlackBerry [US] (mar.3, 2010) "Super Puzzle Fighter II [Model 6466]" by Beeline Interactive, Inc.
Apple iPhone/iPad [US] (nov.4, 2010) "Capcom Arcade [Model 397347348]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=2742&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=spf2ta
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 27 years ago:

Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo (c) 1996 Capcom Company, Limited.

Asian release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese version entry; "Super Puzzle Fighter II X [Green Board]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Grey Board [Asia]

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=spf2th
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 27 years ago:

Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo (c) 1996 Capcom Company, Limited.

South American release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese version entry; "Super Puzzle Fighter II X [Green Board]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Orange Board [South America]

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=spf2xj,spf2xjd
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 27 years ago:

Super Puzzle Fighter II X (c) 1996 Capcom Co, Limited.

Super Puzzle Fighter II X is a puzzle game for one or two players based upon Capcom's legendary "Street Fighter" and "Vampire" series of fighting games. 

Super Puzzle Fighter II X's gameplay is reminiscent of Sega's superb 1992 puzzle game, "Puyo Puyo" with players taking on the role of one of the famous Street Fighter characters, represented visually between the two play areas in the middle of the screen. The aim is to manipulate falling coloured gem blocks, matching the colours to gems already in the play area; before finally destroying them with orbs of a like colour. 

Gems can only be eliminated by coming into contact with a 'Crash Gem' of the same colour. This eliminates all adjacent gems of that colour, setting up the potential for huge chain reactions. 

As gems are eliminated, garbage blocks called 'Counter Gems' will drop into the opponent's playfield; these will eventually become normal gems, but only after they count down to zero (most Counter Gem countdowns start at '5' and are reduced by one each time a new pair of gems is dropped on that board), until that time they cannot be eliminated by normal means. The only way to eliminate Counter Gems before they become normal gems is to place a Crash Gem of that colour nearby so it eliminates at least one normal gem. If this is done, all Counter Gems immediately adjacent to the Crash Gem will be taken out as well. 

Additionally, gems of the same colour that form squares or rectangles (of at least two blocks tall and wide) in the pit become a giant Power Gem of that size and color; eliminating these as part of a combo increases the number of Counter Gems that would otherwise normally appear on the opponent's board. 

The only other type of piece to appear is a diamond, which eliminates all the normal, Power, Counter and Crash gems of whichever colour gem it lands on. This, too, will cause Counter Gems to appear on the opponent's board. 

Whenever a player destroys a number of blocks, their on-screen Street Fighter counter-part will be shown attacking the opponent character. The fighting move used is dependent on both the colour and number of blocks the player has destroyed. 

The available in-game characters, and games from which they are taken (based on first appearance) are : 
* Ryu ("Street Fighter") 
* Ken ("Street Fighter") 
* Chun-Li ("Street Fighter II - The World Warrior") 
* Sakura ("Street Fighter Zero 2 [CP-S II No. 15]") 
* Morrigan ("Vampire - The Night Warriors [CP-S II No. 05]") 
* Donovan ("Vampire Hunter - Darkstalkers' Revenge [CP-S II No. 09]") 
* Lei Lei ("Vampire Hunter - Darkstalkers' Revenge [CP-S II No. 09]") 
* Felicia ("Vampire - The Night Warriors [CP-S II No. 05]") 

Hidden characters:
* Gouki ("Super Street Fighter II X - Grand Master Challenge [CP-S II No. 03 Bis]") 
* Dan ("Street Fighter Zero [CP-S II No. 11]") 
* Devilotte ("Cyberbots - Fullmetal Madness [CP-S II No. 10]")

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Green Board [Japan]

Players: Up to 2.
Control: 8-way joystick per player.
Buttons: 2 per player.
=> ROTATE LEFT, ROTATE RIGHT

- TRIVIA -

Super Puzzle Fighter II X was released in May 1996 in the Japanese Arcades. It was known there as the 16th video game released for the CPS2 hardware.

The title is derived from "Super Street Fighter II X - Grand Master Challenge", but most of the graphics, sounds, and presentation is inspired by "Street Fighter Zero".

The game is known outside Japan as "Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo". Here are some known Export releases : 
"Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo [Blue Board]"
"Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo [Orange Board]"
"Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo [Grey Board]"

Devilot (secret character) is from "Cyberbots - Fullmetal Madness" (on the S-008 Super-8).

In the background of Chun-Li's stage, there is "Son Son" flying around on a cloud.
Sakura's stage is based on Ryu and Guy's stages from "Street Fighter Zero".
Ryu's stage is a variation of this, with a bunch of strange stuff in the background.
Ken's stage is based on Ken and Nash's stages from "Street Fighter Zero".
Dan's stage is a variation of this stage, set at a different time of day.
Gouki's stage is based on his "Street Fighter Zero 2" stage.

Victor Entertainment released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Quiz Nanairo Dreams Nijiirochou no Kiseki, Super Puzzle Fighter II X - VICL-40210) on January 22, 1997.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Play as Gouki : Move to Morrigan if you're player one or to Felicia if you're player two, then press and hold Start. Move the joystick Left, Down, Left, Down, Left, Down and then hold Left and press any button. Player two should move the joystick Right, Down, Right, Down, Right, Down then hold Right and press any button.

* Play as Dan : Move to Morrigan if you're player one or to Felicia if you're player two. Press and hold Start, move the joystick Down 13 times and then hit any other button.

* Play as Devilot : Move to Morrigan if you're player one or to Felicia if you're player two. Press and hold the Start button and move the joystick Down 13 times. Wait for the clock to reach 10 seconds and then hit any other button.

- STAFF -

Game designers : Murasaki Umagoyasi, SPP Iorya
Programmers : Knight Rider Giu, Cham Cho Choy, Shinchan, Eternal Sailor, Team Dirtyberet
Scroll designers : Nissui, Iwai, Meiko. K, Saru, Hisoya Akemi, Ojiji, S. Kuwatch, Takky, Konsutantinkun, Hiro
Character designers : Edayan, Goidanokei
Object designers : Masarusan N, Ino, Aska
Sound designer : Hiroaki Kondo (X68K)
Sound assists : Satoshi Ise
Music & Arrangement composers : Tatsuro Zuzuki (Tatsuro-), Isao Abe, Yuko Kadota, Syun Nishigaki, Setsuo Yamamoto, Takayuki Iwai (Anarchy Takapon)
Producers : Noritaka Funamizu, Saddy
Sound staff : Hideki Okugawa, Ryoji Yamamoto
Design staff : Daigo Ikeno, Masae Okano, Satoshi Ukai, Shinchiro Komizu
Producer : Yoshimi Ohnishi
General producer : Noritaka Funamizu
Supervisor : Yoshiki Okamoto

* Cast :
Felicia, Lei Lei, narration : Araki Kae
Devilot, Morrigan : Jinguuji Yayoi
Chun Li : Miyamura Yuko
Sakura : Sakamoto Yuko
Ryu : Hoshi Souichirou
Dan : Hosoi Osamu
Ken, Donovan : Iwanaga Tetsuya
Gouki : Tomomichi Nishimura

- PORTS -

Here is a list of ports released in Japan. For ports released outside Japan, please see the Export version entry; "Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo [Blue Board]".

* CONSOLES:
[JP] Sega Saturn (dec.6, 1996) "Super Puzzle Fighter II X [Model T-1213G]" 
[JP] Sony PlayStation (dec.6, 1996) "Super Puzzle Fighter II X [Model SLPS-00611]" 
Sega Dreamcast [JP] (jul.5, 2001) "Super Puzzle Fighter II X for Matching Service [Model T-1250M]" 

* HANDHELDS: 
[JP] Nintendo GBA [Unreleased]

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=ssi,ssia,ssib
Arcade Video game published 33 years ago:

Super Space Invaders '91 (c) 1990 Taito Corp.

Export version. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese version entry; "Majestic Twelve - The Space Invaders Part IV".

- TECHNICAL -

Taito F2 System hardware
Prom Stickers : C64

- TRIVIA -

Super Space Invaders '91 was released in November 1990.

- SERIES -

1. Space Invaders (1978, ARC)
2. Space Invaders Deluxe (1979, ARC)
3. Space Invaders II (1980, ARC)
4. Return of the Invaders (1985, ARC)
5. Super Space Invaders '91 (1990, ARC)
6. Space Invaders DX (1994, ARC)
7. Space Invaders '95 - Attack of the Lunar Loonies (1995, ARC)
8. Space Invaders (1999, PS)
9. Space Invaders 25th Silver Anniversary (2003, ARC)
10. Space Invaders Revolution (2005, DS)
11. Space Invaders Evolution (2005, PSP)
12. Space Invaders Extreme (2008, DS/PSP)
13. Space Invaders Extreme 2 (2009, DS)
14. Space Invaders Frenzy (2017, ARC)

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[EU] Sega Master System (1991) "Super Space Invaders [Model MK-27023]" 
[AU] Sony PlayStation 2 (mar.30, 2006) "Taito Legends 2 [Model SLES-53852]" 
[EU] Microsoft XBOX (mar.31, 2006) "Taito Legends 2" 
[EU] Sony PS2 (mar.31, 2006) "Taito Legends 2 [Model SLES-53852]" 
[US] Sony PS2 (may.16, 2007) "Taito Legends 2 [Model SLUS-21349]" 

* HANDHELDS: 
[US] Sega Game Gear (1992) "Super Space Invaders [Model T-48078]" 
[EU] Sega Game Gear (1992) "Super Space Invaders [Model T-88028-50]" 

* COMPUTERS:
[US] Commodore C64 [EU] (1991)
[EU] Amstrad CPC (1991)
[EU] Atari ST (1991)
[EU] Commodore Amiga (1991)
Sinclair ZX Spectrum (1992)
[US] PC [MS-DOS] (1991)
[EU] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (mar.31, 2006) "Taito Legends 2" 
[US] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (jul.10, 2007) "Taito Legends 2" 

* OTHERS:
[US] Nokia N-Gage "Taito Memories" : release cancelled

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=macross
Arcade Video game published 31 years ago:

Super Spacefortress Macross (c) 1992 Banpresto.

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 10 Mhz)
Sound Chips : YM2203 (@ 1.5 Mhz), (2x) OKI6295 (@ 24.242 Khz)

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2

- TRIVIA -

Released in September 1992 in Japan.

This game is known in Japan as "Chou-zikuu Yousai Macross" (translates from Japanese as 'Super Space Fortress Macross').

Superdimensional Fortress Macross was created as a filler show. Studio Nue was building up to make a series called Superdimensional Cavalry Southern Cross, but they released Macross first. It proved to be their biggest hit, so popular that they extended it from 24 to 35 episodes. They followed up with Superdimensional Century Orguss, which didn't do quite as well, but was still popular enough to spawn a six OVA sequel (Orguss II) in the early 90s. Ironicly, Southern Cross did poorly and was cancelled after only 23 episodes.

Macross, however, has become a major anime staple. After the original series in 1982, there was a movie released in 1984 called 'Do You Remember Love?' This game is based on that movie. Later came a music special, 'Macross Flashback 2012', and then came 'Macross II' (see the history entry for "Super Spacefortress Macross II" for more details), 'Macross Plus' (1994, four OVAs and one movie), 'Macross 7' (1993, 49 TV episodes, 2 OVAs one movie), and 'Macross 7 Dynamite' (4 OVAs).

The Macross movie was written in such a way that somebody could understand it without having seen any of the TV series. As such, a lot of events had to be changed, often quite a bit. As such, Studio Nue considered it to be an alternate timeline from the original series. In the first episode of 'Macross 7', it is established the DYRL was a movie made within the official Macross continuity.

A number of leftover Valkyrie toys were later converted into Transformers toys on AUTOBOT named Jetfire. Because they were forbidden to use a Valkyrie in the Transformers TV show, the animated version was redesigned and renamed 'Skyfire'. The only time an animated version of Jetfire appeared was in the commercial for the Jetfire toy.

Macross is also known worldwide as the first saga of Robotech (the other two sagas adapted are 'Southern Cross' and 'Genesis Climber Mospeada').

Default highscore table (TODAY's BEST SCORE) :
1 3210 1 HIKARU
2 2940 1 MAGS
3 2390 1 MINMAY
4 2020 1 MISA
5 1780 1 FOCKER
6 1130 1 CLODIA
7 1070 1 KAKIZAKI
8 850 1 BRITAI
9 380 1 MIRIA
10 170 1 BODDLEZE

- SERIES -

1. Super Spacefortress Macross (1992)
2. Super Spacefortress Macross II (1993)
3. Macross Plus (1996)

- STAFF -

Graphic designers : Ikezu Kenzi, Wisaku, NA, Kate Seki, Nao, Mingmei
Software : Ore Dayo, Tommysan
Sound : Hide-Kaz, Papa, Manabu Namiki (Taro)
Hardware : Yuki, Drunker, Tuna Banan
Producer : Toshifumi Kawashima
Planner : Masahiko Takahashi

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=macross2,macross2g,macross2k
Arcade Video game published 30 years ago:

Super Spacefortress Macross II (c) 1993 Banpresto.

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 10 Mhz)
Sound CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 4 Mhz)
Sound Chips : YM2203 (@ 1.5 Mhz), (2x) OKI6295 (@ 24.242 Khz)

Screen orientation : Horizontal
Video resolution : 384 x 224 pixels
Screen refresh : 57.00 Hz
Palette colors : 1024

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2

- TRIVIA -

Releases in September 1993.

This game is known in Japan as "Chou-zikuu Yousai Macross II" (translates from Japanese as 'Super Space Fortress Macross II').
The OVA series Macross II was created shortly after Japan's economic collapse in the early 90s. The amount of truly new material dropped off sharply, and sequels to old favorites that already had a built-in following were in vogue. It was made without the input of the original creators, Shoji Kawamori and Studio Nue, and the resulting series was fairly dire.

The plug was going to be pulled after four episodes, but it sold well amongst anime fans in America (who were starved for Macross of ANY kind at the time), so the US anime company, US Renditions financed the creation of two more episodes. Macross II became the first work of anime to be financed by an American anime company. Fortunately, USR and their notoriously low-quality works are long-gone, the rights to most of their titles having gone to Manga Video, including Macross II. Macross II was officially declared an alternate timeline by Studio Nue, who then made Macross Plus as an official sequel to Macross. Hopefully this knowledge will not affect your game enjoyment ^_^!

Default highscore table (TODAY'S GAMEST) :
BEGINNER COURSE 159000 GAMEST
MEDIUM COURSE 259000 GAMEST
EXPERT COURSE 309000 GAMEST

- UPDATES -

A special version of the game was sent to the GAMEST magazine for review. This version has an extra Pause feature when holding down a button, useful for capturing screenshots.

- SERIES -

1. Super Spacefortress Macross (1992)
2. Super Spacefortress Macross II (1993)
3. Macross Plus (1996)

- STAFF -

Software : Ore~, Tommy
Sound : Hide-Kaz, Abraham, Manabu Namiki (Taro), Mr. Takami
Graphic designers : Gaku, Mingmei, Midori, Kate<3Seki, Zangi Eisaku, Ikezu Kenzi
Planner : Mor, Mug
Superviser : Yukichan
Producers : Toshifumi Kawashima

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=ssf2,ssf2u,ssf2ud,ssf2r1
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 30 years ago:

Super Street Fighter II - The New Challengers (c) 1993 Capcom Company, Limited.

Export release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese version entry; "Super Street Fighter II - The New Challengers [Green Board]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Blue Board [USA & Etc.]

- TRIVIA -

In M. Bison's ending in the Export versions, Bison says 'Not even the 'Ancient One' dared to challenge me!'. In the original Japanese version, where he's known as Vega, he doesn't say anything like this.

Localizations liberties were taken with Cammy's and Fei-Long's endings in the Export versions of SSFII, changing their whole context.

Some of the voice samples of Cammy and Dee Jay were changed from the original version:
(Japanese version quote - Export version quote.)
* Cammy : 'Spiral Arrow' - 'Cannon Drill'
* Cammy : 'Cannon Spike' - 'Thrust Kick'
* Dee Jay : 'Slash' - 'Max Out'

- UPDATES -

Blue Board revisions : 

REVISION 1:
* Build date: 930911
* WORLD and USA releases

REVISION 2:
* Build date: 931005
* WORLD release

- PORTS -

Here is a list of ports released in regions where the arcade version was released as a Blue Board : 

* CONSOLES: 
[EU] Nintendo SNES (sept.1994) "Super Street Fighter II - The New Challengers [Model SNSP-XW-EUR]" 
[US] Nintendo SNES (june.1994) "Super Street Fighter II - The New Challengers [Model SNS-XW-USA]" 
[US] Sega Genesis (1994) "Super Street Fighter II - The New Challengers [Model T-12056]" 
[EU] Sega Mega Drive (june.1994) Super Street Fighter II - The New Challengers [Model 670-5448-50]" 
[EU] Sega Saturn (1997) "Street Fighter Collection [Model T-7033H-50] [Disc 1]" 
[US] Sega Saturn (nov.30, 1997) "Street Fighter Collection [Model T-1222H] [Disc 1]" 
[US] Sony PlayStation (nov.30, 1997) "Street Fighter Collection [Model SLUS-00423]" 
[EU] Sony PlayStation (jul.1998) "Street Fighter Collection [Model SLES-00998]" 

* COMPUTERS: 
[EU] Commodore Amiga (1995) 
PC [MS-DOS, CD-ROM] [US] [EU] (1996)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=ssf2j,ssf2jr1,ssf2jr2
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 30 years ago:

Super Street Fighter II - The New Challengers (c) 1993 Capcom Company, Limited.

The fourth game in the SFII series featured all new graphics, redone sounds, and above all, four characters new to the series. Here is a full list of changes from previous SFII games:

* New title screen with new music. 

* Completely new portraits for all characters. M. Bison ('Vega' in Japan) now has a winged-skull on his hat instead of a star. 

* New endings for the bosses. The last part of Chun Li's ending is also modified, letting the player choose whether she should now live a normal girl's life or continue being a detective. 

* Vega ('Balrog' in Japan) no longer climbs the fence on his stage prior to doing his 'Flying Barcelona Attack' or 'Izuna Drop' moves. He now just jumps to the edge of the screen and jumps off, as he does in the other stages. 

* Voice samples for all characters and announcer re-recorded with different actors. Each character now have their own unique voice so there is no more shared voice samples (e.g. the male 'KO' scream). 

* Background music playback is handled differently. The background music will play continuously from Round 1 to Round 2 until a character causes the KO sign to flash on Round 2, which will trigger the 'Heavy Damage' version of the music. From Round 3 onward, the music is played in the same format as in previous SFII games. 

* Four completely new stage backgrounds with new background music to accompany the New Challengers. 

* Color schemes for the twelve original stage backgrounds have changed once again : 
1) Ryu stage: The sky is now near evening, and the moon is now white with a touch of light blue. 
2) E. Honda stage: The walls are now light blue, and the big picture (excluding the sun) is now red-orange. 
3) Blanka stage: The vine where the snake is coiled is now light green, and people to the right have changed a bit. The river behind the village is now a clear blue. 
4) Guile stage: The sky is back to daytime, the canopy on the jet is now clear, and the people in the background are now dressed in blue. The symbol on the ground is back to blue, but the missile linings are still red. 
5) Ken stage: The tugboat has been replaced with a yacht, the two guys on the top now wear orange clothes and white clothes. On the bottom, the first person now wears a green shirt and has gray hair, the second person now wears white t-shirt and yellow pants, the third person now has long hair and wears white top and pink skirt, the fourth person now wears light blue shirt and orange pants, and the guy in the trenchcoat and hat is now replaced by a new person in blue shirt and navy blue pants.
6) Chun Li stage: The sky is now sunset, the two customers now wear orange, the meat store's roof is now green with its sign back to red, the guy holding the chicken now wears blue, the "Shanghai Friend Corridor" sign is now red-orange with yellow letters, the guy to the right now wears green pants, and the water sign is now blue.
7) Zangief stage: The stage floor is now green, and the area to the left is back to red. In addition, the fence on the left foreground is now lowered a bit. 
8) Dhalsim stage: The curtains and stone floor are now green, and the carpet is back to red. 
9) Balrog ([JP] M. Bison) stage: While the stage floor is still purple, the 'Las Vegas' on the floor is now yellow. The car to the left is now blue, and the car to the right is now green. The guy throwing the confetti at win/lose now wears yellow, the guy next to the car to the left now wears purple and the guy next to the guy throwing the confetti has been redesigned.
10) Vega ([JP] Balrog) stage: The stage floor now shows off a green hue, and the fence now comes crashing down at the start of the fight. 
11) Sagat stage: Buddhist statue is still gold, and now it's sunset. In addition, a big city is now visible in the distance. 
12) M. Bison ([JP] Vega) stage: The sky is now back to daytime, and the guys sitting Indian style praying (and stands up angrily after breaking a big statue) are now dark-skinned. The roof of the palace is now red with green trim, and the linings on the giant bell that were previously red are now black.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Green Board [Japan]

Players: Up to 2. 
Control: 8-way joystick per player.
Buttons: 6 per player.
= > [1] LP (Jab), [2] MP (Strong), [3] HP (Fierce) 
= > [4] LK (Short), [5] MK (Forward), [6] HK (Roundhouse)

- TRIVIA -

September 1993 was the first revision of the game, but most arcades didn't get the game until October 1993. It was known as the first CPS2 video game released.

Known Export releases:
"Super Street Fighter II - The New Challengers [Blue Board]"
"Super Street Fighter II - The New Challengers [Grey Board]"
"Super Street Fighter II - The New Challengers [Orange Board]"
 
While New Challengers Cammy, Fei Long and T. Hawk were created by Japanese employees at Capcom, the Jamaican kickboxer Dee Jay is the first and only Street Fighter to have been created by an American Capcom employee (James Goddard). Dee Jay's pant leg was originally going to have 'MANTIS' written on it instead of 'MAXIMUM'. It was changed so that when the sprite was flipped over (when Dee Jay faces the opposite direction), the letters would not appear to be backwards. That is, all of the letters in 'MAXIMUM' look the same when flipped over, but the 'N' and 'S' in 'MANTIS' will be backwards when flipped. 

Fei Long is Capcom's homage to Bruce Lee. 

Sony Records released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Super Street Fighter II Arcade Game Track - SRCL-2822) on January 21, 1994. 

Michael Jackson used to own this game (serial number: 21900255228). It was sold at the official Michael Jackson Auction on April 24, 2009.

A special version of this game is known as "Super Street Fighter II - The Tournament Battle".

- UPDATES -

Green Board revisions : 

REVISION 1:
* Build date: 930910

REVISION 2:
* Build date: 930911

REVISION 3:
* Build date: 931005

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Each character has eight outfit colors. Press LP to choose the original Street Fighter II color, MP for the Champion Edition color, HP for the Turbo (i.e. 'Hyper Fighting') color, any Kick button or the Start button for one of 4 new colors, or hold any button (except the Start button) for 3 seconds for the secret color.

- SERIES -

1. Street Fighter (1987)
2. Street Fighter II - The World Warrior [B-Board 90629B] (1991)
3. Street Fighter II' - Champion Edition [B-Board 91634B-2] (1992)
4. Street Fighter II' - Hyper Fighting [B-Board 91635B-2] (1992)
5. Super Street Fighter II - The New Challengers [Green Board] (1993)
6. Super Street Fighter II Turbo [Blue Board] (1994)
7. Street Fighter Alpha - Warriors' Dreams [Blue Board] (1995)
8. Street Fighter Alpha 2 [Blue Board] (1996)
9. Street Fighter III - New Generation (1997)
10. Street Fighter III - 2nd Impact : Giant Attack (1997)
11. Street Fighter Alpha 3 [Blue Board] (1998)
12. Street Fighter III - 3rd Strike : Fight For The Future (1999)
13. Hyper Street Fighter II - The Anniversary Edition [Green Board] (2003)
14. Street Fighter IV (2008)
15. Super Street Fighter IV - Arcade Edition (2010)
16. Ultra Street Fighter IV (2014)
17. Street Fighter V (2016)
18. Ultra Street Fighter II - The Final Challengers (2017, Switch)

- STAFF -

Planners : Noritaka Funamizu (Poo), Haruo Murata (Mucchi)
Character Designers : Kurisan, Ikusan Z, Q, Yorio, Tanuki, Katuragi, Matsunaga, Rikagon, Simpsons, Pei, Mikiman, Buppo, M. Okazaki, Taka, Akiko. O, K. Crown, Hiroshi Shibata (Shibataro)
Programmers : Shin., Kid, Min, EGW, Aoi Mix, Tarabar Hori (Tarabar)
Music : Syun Nishigaki (Syun), Isao Abe (Oyaji)
Sound : Nobuhiro Oouchi (Nobu. Oouchi), Toshio Kajino (Toshio)
Special Thanks : Akira Nishitani (Nin), Akira Yasuda (Akiman), CBX, David Winstead (Dr. Dave), Alex Jimenez (Raven Jimenez)

- PORTS -

Here is a list of ports released in Japan (where the arcade version was released as a Green Board) : 

* CONSOLES: 
[JP] Nintendo Super Famicom (june.25, 1994) "Super Street Fighter II - The New Challengers [Model SHVC-XW]" 
[JP] Sega Mega Drive (june.25, 1994) "Super Street Fighter II - The New Challengers [Model T-12043]" 
FM Towns Marty [JP] (oct.28, 1994) "Super Street Fighter II - The New Challengers [Model HMF-162]" 
[JP] Sega Saturn (sept.18, 1997) "Street Fighter Collection [Model T-1223G] [Disc 1]" 
[JP] Sony PlayStation (oct.23, 1997) "Street Fighter Collection [Model SLPS-00800]" 

* COMPUTERS: 
[JP] Sharp X68000 (sept.30, 1994) 

* OTHERS: 
LCD handheld game (19??) released by Tiger Electronics. 
LCD Barcodzz handheld game (19??) released by Tiger Electronics.

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=ssf2a,ssf2ar1
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 30 years ago:

Super Street Fighter II - The New Challengers (c) 1993 Capcom Company, Limited.

Asian release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese version entry; "Super Street Fighter II - The New Challengers [Green Board]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Grey Board [Asia]

- UPDATES -

Grey Board revisions : 

REVISION 1:
* Build date: 930914

REVISION 2:
* Build date: 931005

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=ssf2tb,ssf2tbj,ssf2tbr1,ssf2tbd,ssf2tbh,ssf2tbj1,ssf2tba,ssf2tbu
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 30 years ago:

Super Street Fighter II - The Tournament Battle (c) 1993 Capcom.

An exclusive 8-player single-elimination tournament mode of "Super Street Fighter II - The New Challengers", only available when four SSFII cabinets are connected together and all of them configured to "Tournament" mode. This special mode consists of four simultaneous matches: the initial eliminations, the simifinals, and the finals.

After the first set of matches is over, players are re-arranged accordingly based on their position: winners are sent to either of the two cabinets on the left and losers are sent to either of the two cabinets on the right. In the finals, the players competing for first place are sent to the first (leftmost) cabinet, the third-place players to the second cabinet, etc.

- TECHNICAL -

Capcom Play System II hardware (CPS II) 

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 11.8 Mhz), Zilog Z80 (@ 8 Mhz) 
Sound Chips : Q-Sound (@ 4 Mhz) 

Players : 2 
Control : 8-way joystick 
Buttons : 6 
= > [1] LP (Jab), [2] MP (Strong), [3] HP (Fierce) 
= > [4] LK (Short), [5] MK (Forward), [6] HK (Roundhouse)

- TRIVIA -

SSFII The Tournament Battle was released in September 1993.

If you have ever wondered why the characters in "Super Street Fighter II - The New Challengers" have a ridiculous eight costume colors, then now you will know. This special version is quite rare but allows eight players to fight in a tournament. The reason for the eight costume colors is so all eight players can choose the same character and not get confused about which one they are.

- UPDATES -

Here is the list of all revisions : 

930911 
* Blue Board (World)
* Green Board (Japan) 

931005
* Green Board (Japan)
* Grey Board (Asia)
* Orange Board (South America)

931119 
* Blue Board (World)

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Super Secret Colors : Hold down the button you use to select your character for three seconds or so and you can get what is called the 'super' secret color (Note: You can't use the 1P or 2P start buttons to get the secret color).

- PORTS -

This special "Tournament Battle" is available as the 'Tournament' game mode (selectable item on the Main Menu screen) only on the Nintendo Super NES/Super Famicom and Sega Genesis/Mega Drive ports of "Super Street Fighter II - The New Challengers". 

For information on release dates and regions where available, please see the "Super Street Fighter II - The New Challengers" entry, "Ports" section.

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$info=ssf2t,ssf2tu,ssf2tur1
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 29 years ago:

Super Street Fighter II Turbo (c) 1994 Capcom Company, Limited.

Export release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese release entry; "Super Street Fighter II X - Grand Master Challenge [Green Board]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Blue Board [USA & World]

- TRIVIA -

Super Street Fighter II Turbo was released in February 1994 outside Japan. It is known in Japan as "Super Street Fighter II X - Grand Master Challege".

In these Export versions, Gouki is named Akuma and all of Akuma's dialogue was removed instead of being translated. If Akuma wins a battle in SSF2 Turbo, he has no victory quotes.

Akuma's ending was all completely removed from the Export versions, with only a credit roll if you beat the game with him, along with pictures of his defeated opponents.

Some characters' endings are translated inaccurately.

- UPDATES -

Blue Board revisions : 

REVISION 1:
* Build date: 940223
* WORLD and USA releases

REVISION 2:
* Build date: 940323
* USA release

- SERIES -

1. Street Fighter (1987)
2. Street Fighter II - The World Warrior [B-Board 90629B] (1991)
3. Street Fighter II' - Champion Edition [B-Board 91634B-2] (1992)
4. Street Fighter II' - Hyper Fighting [B-Board 91635B-2] (1992)
5. Super Street Fighter II - The New Challengers [Green Board] (1993)
6. Super Street Fighter II Turbo [Blue Board] (1994)
7. Street Fighter Alpha - Warriors' Dreams [Blue Board] (1995)
8. Street Fighter Alpha 2 [Blue Board] (1996)
9. Street Fighter III - New Generation (1997)
10. Street Fighter III - 2nd Impact : Giant Attack (1997)
11. Street Fighter Alpha 3 [Blue Board] (1998)
12. Street Fighter III - 3rd Strike : Fight For The Future (1999)
13. Hyper Street Fighter II - The Anniversary Edition [Green Board] (2003)
14. Street Fighter IV (2008)
15. Super Street Fighter IV - Arcade Edition (2010)
16. Ultra Street Fighter IV (2014)
17. Street Fighter V (2016)
18. Ultra Street Fighter II - The Final Challengers (2017, Switch)

- PORTS -

Here is a list of ports released in regions where the arcade version was released as a Blue Board.

* CONSOLES: 
Panasonic 3DO [US] (1994) "Super Street Fighter II Turbo [Model FZ-SM3851]" 
Panasonic 3DO [EU] (1994) "Super Street Fighter II Turbo [Model FZ-SE3851]" 
Commodore Amiga CD32 [EU] (1996) 
[EU] Sega Saturn (1997) "Street Fighter Collection [Model T-7033H-50] [Disc 1]" 
[US] Sega Saturn (nov.30, 1997) "Street Fighter Collection [Model T-1222H] [Disc 1]" 
[US] Sony PlayStation (nov.30, 1997) "Street Fighter Collection [Model SLUS-00423]" 
[EU] Sony PlayStation (jul.1998) "Street Fighter Collection [Model SLES-00998]" 
[US] Microsoft XBOX (nov.24, 2006) "Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 2" 
[US] Sony PS2 (nov.24, 2006) "Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 2 [Model SLUS-21473]" 
Sony PlayStation 2 [AU] (apr.11, 2007) "Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 2 [Model SLES-54561]" 
[EU] Sony PS2 (apr.13, 2007) "Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 2 [Model SLES-54561]" 
Microsoft XBOX 360 [XBLA] [US] [EU] (nov.26, 2008) "Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix" 
Sony PlayStation 3 [PSN] [US] (nov.25, 2008) "Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix" 
Sony PlayStation 3 [PSN] [EU] (feb.19, 2009) "Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix" 

* HANDHELDS: 
[US] Nintendo GBA (oct.30, 2001) "Super Street Fighter II Turbo Revival [Model AGB-AG5E-USA]" 
[EU] Nintendo GBA (nov.2, 2001) "Super Street Fighter II Turbo Revival [Model NTR-AXRP]" 

* COMPUTERS: 
Commodore Amiga [US] (1995) 
[EU] Commodore Amiga (1996) 
PC [MS-DOS, CD-ROM] [US] (may.1995) by GameTek

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$info=ssf2xj,ssf2xjr1,ssf2xjr1d
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 29 years ago:

Super Street Fighter II X - Grand Master Challenge (c) 1994 Capcom Company, Limited.

Here is a list of changes from "Super Street Fighter II - The New Challengers" : 
* Modified title screen with new music. 
* The 'Character Select' screen's background music is changed. The new song is based on the title screen theme of the CPS1 SFII games. 
* After each character's ending, a new piece of artwork is displayed for that character. In Ryu's new art, the kanji 'Fuurinkazan' are written on his belt. These are the same kanji that are displayed on the breakable signs in Ryu's stage in "Street Fighter II - The World Warrior" and "Hyper Street Fighter II - The Anniversary Edition". 
* New artwork in Dhalsim's ending. The picture of Dhalsim and his son is replaced with a new picture of Dhalsim with his wife and son. The photograph on the wall now shows Dhalsim with Sagat and Vega (It used to show two generic guys). 
* All bonus games have been removed.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Green Board [Japan]

Players: Up to 2. 
Control: 8-way joystick per player.
Buttons: 6 per player.
= > [1] LP (Jab), [2] MP (Strong), [3] HP (Fierce) 
= > [4] LK (Short), [5] MK (Forward), [6] HK (Roundhouse)

- TRIVIA -

Super Street Fighter II X - Grand Master Challenge was released in February 1994 in the Japanese arcade. It was known as the 'third bis' video game released for the CPS2 hardware.

The game is known outside Japan as "Super Street Fighter II Turbo". Here are some known Export releases:
"Super Street Fighter II Turbo [Blue Board]"
"Super Street Fighter II Turbo [Grey Board]"
"Super Street Fighter II Turbo [Orange Board]"

Also a special 'Rent' version known as "Super Street Fighter II X - Grand Master Challenge [Yellow Board]" has been found.

Originally all of the additional features that were added in this game (Gouki, Supers, etc.) were planned for the original SSFII, but were left out due to time restraints. 

Origins of Gouki ('Akuma' outside Japan) : The name 'Sheng Long' comes from the Japanese 'shouryuu', meaning 'rising dragon'. The kanji used in 'shouryuu' was pronounced as if it was Cantonese. One of Ryu's win quotes in the English version of "Street Fighter II" said, 'You must defeat Sheng Long to stand a chance'. At the time, fans of Street Fighter II thought that Sheng Long had referred to a person - the supposed master of Ryu and Ken, and not one of Ryu's moves (the Shouryuu Ken). 

The creation of Gouki comes from an April Fool's joke in Electronic Gaming Monthly magazine where the editors claimed that you could fight Sheng Long in the game by not touching Vega ('M. Bison' outside Japan), the final boss of "Street Fighter II". Sheng Long would then come out of nowhere and kill Vega, and you would fight him. Sheng Long was supposed to have the moves of Ryu and Ken, but did much more damage and was also faster. To make this joke more believable, fake screenshots were made. Soon after, many fans, believing that the joke was true, flocked to "Street Fighter II" machines, hoping that they could fight a non-existent character. When asked about whether the joke was true, Capcom did not confirm nor deny it as the sudden infusion of money into their machines was driving up business; Capcom USA was taken in by the gag, and actually contact Capcom Japan and asked if the Sheng Long thing was legit. Only much later was this joke was revealed as such, by Electronic Gaming Monthly themselves. Ironically, in "Super Street Fighter II Turbo", parts of this story became true. Like the joke, Akuma would appear from out of nowhere and kill Bison, and you would fight him, and similarly, Akuma had the moves of Ryu and Ken, and was much faster and dealt much more damage. As many people were accustomed to Sheng Long, many people called Akuma erroneously by the name Akuma Long. The move that was used to kill Bison (the Shun Goku Satsu) was also erroneously called the Bison Killer. 

Shin-Gouki, Shin-Gouki and Shin-Gouki : Depending on the kanji that's used for 'Shin', Gouki is of one of several personalities. As regular Gouki (considered to be an evil character by Capcom of America, but just an antihero by Capcom of Japan), he does not condone unnecessary roughness (he helps out those in need and only fights when either under self-defense or when challenged to a match - and any match is a deathmatch in his book). Shin-Gouki found in "Street Fighter Zero 2" is just regular Gouki not pulling his punches (it's the unnecessary roughness thing). Another note: Gouki lives and trains on the island of Gokuentou, reported to have been destroyed in "Street Fighter Zero 2" (but Ryu was the only witness). Or, if you believe the non-canonical Pocket Fighter, turned into a tourist trap :-p 

All of Gouki's voice samples are actually recycled voice samples from the other male characters.

In this Japanese version only, Gouki had two text endings, which translate as follows... 
1) -If the last fight was against Vega- 
Gouki : Evil Emperor, you say... nothing more than words. Real victory can only come from a fist. That is all. 
There was no one to stop Gouki from that moment onwards. 
2) -If the last fight was against Gouki- 
Gouki : Something within... what's this ? 
?? : I am the shadow of the condemned. You have killed the demon of this curse, and so you shall be condemned no more! 
Gouki : I now reside in darkness. Even death is beneath me... excellent! 
....That man returned to the darkness and disappeared. 

The character select music is a remixed version of the music found in the attract mode intro of the CPS1 SFII games. This is the first SFII game not to use some variation of the character select music from the CPS1 games.

Sony Records released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Super Street Fighter II Arcade Game Track - SRCL-2822) on January 21, 1994.

- UPDATES -

Green Board revisions : 

REVISION 1:
* Build date: 940223

REVISION 2:
* Build date: 940311

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Play as Old-version Characters : Select your character with LP, then enter the code below while the plane flies to the top of the screen then press LP again. If done correctly you should hear a sound and your character's costume colors in their portrait should change. Old-version characters have no super combos and cannot reduce throw damage... 
Old Chun Li : Down(x3), Up 
Old Dee Jay : Down(x2), Up(x2) 
Old Bison : Down, Up(x2), Down 
Old Dhalsim : Down, Up(x3) 
Old Ken : Left(x3), Right 
Old Fei Long : Left(x2), Right(x2) 
Old Vega : Left, Right(x2), Left 
Old T. Hawk : Right(x2), Left(x2) 
Old Ryu : Right(x3), Left 
Old Guile : Up, Down(x3) 
Old Sagat : Up, Down(x2), Up 
Old Cammy : Up(x2), Down(x2) 
Old Honda : Up(x3), Down 

* Play as Gouki : At the character select screen, highlight Ryu and hold for 3 sec., highlight T. Hawk and hold for 3 sec., highlight Guile and hold for 3 sec., highlight Cammy and hold for 3 sec., highlight Ryu and hold for 3 sec., press all 3 punches and Start at the same time at the end of you counting. 

* Gouki as Final Boss : If you reach the final stage on a single credit (no continues), you will fight Gouki instead of Vega. 

* Each character has 8 outfit colors. Press LP to choose the new Super Turbo color, MP for the Champion Edition color, HP for the Hyper Fighting color, any Kick button or the Start button for one of four Super colors, or hold any attack button (except the Start button) for 3 seconds for the secret color. If you use the old version of a character, you will see that character's original "Street Fighter II" color. 

* End Credits : If you beat the entire game without continuing, you will get to see the ending credits. If you don't lose a single round, the new ending artwork for each character is shown during the credits. Otherwise, you will see demos of the different characters fighting each other on various stages during the credits.

- SERIES -

1. Street Fighter (1987)
2. Street Fighter II - The World Warrior [CP-S No. 14] (1991)
3. Street Fighter II' - Champion Edition [CP-S No. 21] (1992)
4. Street Fighter II' Turbo - Hyper Fighting [CP-S No. 24] (1992)
5. Super Street Fighter II - The New Challengers [CP-S II No. 01] (1993)
6. Super Street Fighter II X - Grand Master Challenge [CP-S II No. 03 Bis] (1994)
7. Street Fighter Zero [CP-S II No. 11] (1995)
8. Street Fighter Zero 2 [CP-S II No. 15] (1996)
9. Street Fighter Zero 2 Alpha (1996)
10. Street Fighter III - New Generation (1997)
11. Street Fighter III - 2nd Impact : Giant Attack (1997)
12. Street Fighter Zero 3 [CP-S II No. 29] (1998)
13. Street Fighter III - 3rd Strike : Fight For The Future (1999)
14. Hyper Street Fighter II - The Anniversary Edition [CP-S II No. 38] (2003)
15. Street Fighter IV (2008)
16. Super Street Fighter IV (2010)
17. Ultra Street Fighter IV (2014)
18. Street Fighter V (2016)
19. Ultra Street Fighter II - The Final Challengers (2017, Switch)

- STAFF -

Planners : Noritaka Funamizu (Poo), Haruo Murata (Mucchi), Hassy, Kimo Kimo 
Character designers : Akira Yasuda (Akiman), Kurisan, Hayashi, Tanuki, Erichan, Ikusan Z, Q, Yu-Suke, Youjiro, Inukichi, Fukumoyan, Buppo, Angus, SM, S. Kuwajima, Kisabon, Hiroki Ohnishi, Takky, Matsuchan, May, Kazu, Iwai, N-Gawa, RK., Shochan 
Programmers : Shin., Min, Kid, Mitsu, Garamon, Domesan, Ouchi, Chabin, Kimoto, Inaba 
Music : Syun Nishigaki (Syun), Isao Abe (Oyaji) 
Sound : Nobuhiro Oouchi (Nobu. Oouchi), Toshio Kajino
Special Thanks : CBX, EGW, Sado, Tetsuya Iijima (Iijima), M. Michi, E-Bou

- PORTS -

Here is a list of ports released in Japan (where the arcade version was released as a Green Board).

* CONSOLES: 
[JP] Panasonic 3DO (nov.13, 1994) "Super Street Fighter II X - Grand Master Challenge [Model FZ-SJ3851]" 
[JP] Sega Saturn (sept.18, 1997) "Street Fighter Collection [Model T-1223G] [Disc 1]" 
[JP] Sony PlayStation (oct.23, 1997) "Street Fighter Collection [Model SLPS-00800]" 
[JP] Sega Dreamcast (dec.22, 2000) "Super Street Fighter II X for Matching Service [Model T-1236M]" 

* HANDHELDS: 
[JP] Nintendo GBA (jul.13, 2001) "Super Street Fighter II X - Revival [Model AGB-AXRJ-JPN]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$info=superman,supermanj,supermanu
Arcade Video game published 35 years ago:

Superman (c) 1988 Taito Corporation.

Superman is a horizontal video game and may be played by one or two players interactively. The second player controlling a red Superman character, teams up with the first player in this battle against the evil Alien Powers.

Each players uses a joystick to move his Superman character while walking or in flight. Two buttons aside each joystick are used to throw punches, kick or emit Superman's Heat Vision, a high-intensity laser which destroys all in its path. As Suprman picks up various colored crystals, he is awarded with addtitional energy and weapons including a Super Blast Punch and Mass Terminator. Items such as cars, gasoline cans, etc. can also be picked up and hurled at approaching enemies.

The many stages in the game are located in different cities of the U.S. and provide the player with real variety:
1st round: New York
2nd round: San Francisco
3rd round: Las Vegas
4th round: Washington
5th round: Alien Space Ship

- TECHNICAL -

Taito X System hardware
Board Number : K1100390A
Prom Stickers : B61

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 8 Mhz), Zilog Z80 (@ 4 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Yamaha YM2610 (@ 8 Mhz)

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2
[1] PUNCH, [2] KICK

- TRIVIA -

Superman was released in December 1988 in North America and Europe. It was then released in February 1989 in Japan.

The game begins with the brilliant musical score composed by John Williams for 'Superman... The Movie'.

- STAFF -

Directed by : Toshiyuki Nishimura
Game designer : Hidehiro Fujiwara
Programmers : Tohru Sugawara, Hideaki Tomioka, Hideki Hashimoto, Mari Iwano, Tadakazu Aono
Character designer : Nenko Nishimura
Art designers : Yoshihiro Wakita, Junji Yarita, Taira Sanuki, Shinobu Iwabuchi, Akira Saito, Minori Ishino, Takako Kozima, Toshiyuki Nishimura
Hardware : Noboru Yasukawa
Music sfx : Masahiko Takaki, Kazuyuki Ohnui, Shizuo Aizawa (Splatter A.), Takami Asano
Graphic designer : Natsuki Hirosawa

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$info=svc,svcboot

SVC Chaos - SNK Vs. Capcom (c) 2003 Playmore Corp.

A one-on-one fighting game - the collaboration between Capcom and SNK - pits seventeen well-known SNK combatants against seventeen of Capcom's most famous game characters.

'SVC Chaos' primarily utilizes the command system of the "King of Fighters" series, incorporating light/strong kicks, punches, cancels and charging attacks. Unlike its predecessor, however, "Capcom vs. SNK 2", SvC features no air guards and lacks a 'groove system', instead focusing on quicker game play and online competition.

Each character is equipped with a basic three-bar system for executing 'Exceeds' (special attacks), with basic filling options attributed to strikes and damage. Additionally, the sprites from the various series received new models and some special effects were changed in the command lists (For example, the player can no longer increase the damage of the 'Zujou Sashi' used by Choi Bounge by tapping the buttons).

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID : NGM-269

Players : 2
Control : 8-way Joystick
Buttons : 4
=> [A] Weak punch [B] Weak kick [C] Strong punch [D] Strong kick

- TRIVIA -

Released in July 2003.

Here are the 17 SNK characters (plus Evil Mr Karate) and their first appearance in video games :
Athena Asamiya - "Athena"
Choi Bounge - "The King of Fighters '94"
Earthquake - "Samurai Shodown" ("Samurai Spirits" in Japan)
Iori Yagami - "The King of Fighters '95"
Kasumi Todoh - "Art of Fighting 3 - The Path of the Warrior" ("Ryuuko no Ken Gaiden" in Japan)
Kim Kaphwan - "Fatal Fury 2" ("Garou Densetsu 2 - Arata-Naru Tatakai" in Japan)
Kyo Kusanagi - "The King of Fighters '94"
Geese Howard - "Fatal Fury - King of Fighters" ("Garou Densetsu - Shukumei no Tatakai" in Japan)
Genjyuro Kibagami - "Samurai Shodown II" ("Samurai Spirits II" in Japan)
Goenitz - "The King of Fighters '96"
Mai Shiranui - "Fatal Fury 2" ("Garou Densetsu 2 - Arata-Naru Tatakai" in Japan)
Mars People - "Metal Slug - Super Vehicle-001"
Mr Karate - "Art of Fighting 2" ("Ryuuko no Ken 2" in Japan) as Takuma Takazaki
Orochi Iori - "The King of Fighters '97"
Ryo Sakazaki - "Art of Fighting" ("Ryuuko no Ken" in Japan)
Shiki - "Samurai Shodown 64" ("Samurai Spirits 64" in Japan)
Terry Bogard - "Fatal Fury - King of Fighters" ("Garou Densetsu - Shukumei no Tatakai" in Japan)

There are also 17 Capcom characters (plus Shin Akuma) and here are their first appearances:
Akuma (Gouki in Japan) - "Super Street Fighter II Turbo" ("Super Street Fighter II X" in Japan)
Balrog (M. Bison in Japan) - "Street Fighter II - The World Warrior"
Chun-Li - "Street Fighter II - The World Warrior"
Dan Hibiki - "Street Fighter Alpha - Warriors' Dreams" ("Street Fighter Zero" in Japan)
Demitri -  "Darkstalkers - The Night Warriors" ("Vampire - The Night Warriors" in Japan)
Dhalsim - "Street Fighter II - The World Warrior"
Guile - "Street Fighter II - The World Warrior"
Hugo - "Final Fight"
Ken Masters - "Street Fighter"
M. Bison (Vega in Japan) - "Street Fighter II - The World Warrior"
Red Arremer - "Ghosts'n Goblins"
Ryu - "Street Fighter"
Sagat - "Street Fighter"
Tessa - "Red Earth" ("Warzard" in Japan)
Vega (Balrog in Japan) - "Street Fighter II - The World Warrior"
Violent Ken - "Street Fighter Alpha 3" ("Street Fighter Zero 3" in Japan)
Zero - "Mega Man X" ("Rockman X" in Japan)

The super bar is called the 'Groove Power Gauge'; a reference to "Capcom Vs. SNK 2 - Mark of the Millenium 2001".

Bao (from the King of Fighters series) makes a cameo in a few of Hugo's pre-battle and win poses.

The Athena that features in SVC Chaos is the original Athena character design that featured in the character's debut platform game, "Athena", instead of the usual Asimaya Athena that appears in virtually every other SNK game. Notably, a lot of her moves are now very different, and she wears noticeably less clothes due to the fact Athena loses her dress during Athena's intro. Athena's fighting moves are inspired by the manga/anime 'Saint Seiya'.

The 'Sennou Ken' character is based on the psycho-controlled Ken in the SF animated movie. A lot of Mars People's moves are references to numerous UFO-based staples; Independence is a reference to the movie 'Independence Day', for example.

The 'Dan Hibiki' character is once again used as a vehicle for numerous genre parodies. If you perform his super-taunt he parodies Joe Higashi and Yuri Sakazaki's taunts. Also, two of his new moves are parodies of the Kyokugen moves. In the first of these moves, Dan attempts to do one of the larger fireballs performed in one Ryo's desperation move, but it has the same range as his regular fireball. On the second move, Dan attempts to perform his own powerful punch similar to Ryo's Exceed move, but after the move charges and connects Dan grabs his arm in pain and then pretends it was nothing.

While using Demitri, if you perform Midnight Bliss on Orochi Iori, Iori will turn into Miss X (from SNK Gal Fighters on the Neo Geo Pocket) as he's choking him.

Suleputer released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game on November 2003.

Some well-known hacks of the game include :
"SVC Chaos - SNK Vs. Capcom Plus".
"SVC Chaos - SNK Vs. Capcom Super Plus".

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Random Select : On the character select screen, hold Start to activate a roulette-like feature.

* Play as Geese : Hold Start and press Left(x3), Down, Left, Up, Right, Up, then press a button to select.

* Play as Dan : Hold Start and press Down, Left(x7), then press a button to select.

* Play as Goenitz : Hold Start and press Down(x3), Right, Down, Left(x3), then press a button to select.

* Play as Demitri : Hold Start and press Right(x3), Left, Up, Right, Down, Up, then press a button to select.

* Play as Mars People : Hold Start and press Up, Down, Right(x3), Up, Down, Left(x2), Down, then press a button to select.

* Play as Zero : Hold Start and press Up, Right(x2), Left(x2), Down, Up(x3), Right, then press a button to select.

* Play as Orochi Iori : Hold Start and press Up(x3), Down, Left, Right, Down, Left, then press a button to select.

* Play as Violent Ken : Hold Start and press Up(x2), Down, Left(x2), Right, Left, Up, then press a button to select.

* Fight against Red Arremer :
1) Finish 5 rounds with supers/specials.
2) Do not lose any rounds.
3) Finish off at least one character with block damage.
If done correctly, your character will be transported to Hell after the fight with Shin Akuma/Shin Mr. Karate, where he/she will have to fight Red Arremer. Note : Some people (like Dan and Demitri) have alternate endings for fighting and winning in Hell.

* Fight either Mars People or Zero : Don't lose any rounds, Don't win any rounds by "Time Out", win 3 rounds by using an Exceed Move.

* Fight Geese Howard or Demitri Maximoff : Don't lose any rounds, Don't win any rounds by "Time Out", win 1 round by using an Exceed Move.

*Fight Goenitz or Dan Hibiki : Fail to meet either of the above requirements.

Also your opponent on Stage 6 determines who you will fight in Stages 7 and 8.

* Fight Orochi Iori (Stage 7) and Serious Mr. Karate (Stage 8) : Stage 6 opponent is a Capcom character.

* Fight Violent Ken (Stage 7) and Shin Akuma (Stage 8) : Stage 6 opponent is an SNK character.

* Fight Athena : Don't lose any rounds during Stages 1 through 7, Don't win any rounds by block damage.

* Mid-Bosses : your performance in Stages 1 through 3 affects who you will fight in Stage 4.

* Final Bosses : your performance in Stages 1 through 7 affects if you'll fight either Athena or Red Arremer (in Stage 9) after beating Stage 8 (Shin Akuma or Serious Mr. Karate). Your performance in Stage 8 will not affect any of these conditions.

* See character's true/good ending : Defeat Athena or Red Arremer in Stage 9. If you lose to Athena or Red Arremer then you cannot continue. Many characters (such as Dan and Demitri) have different endings for beating either Athena or Red Arremer.

* CPU Character Patterns : before you start the game the CPU randomly picks one of the predetermined patterns of opponents. This affects stages 1 through 3 and 5 & 6. Stage 4 is the predetermined mid-boss. Here are the predetermined pattern of fighters.
Pattern 1 : Kim, Dhalsim, Mai, Bison, Kyo
Pattern 2 : Vega, Earthquake, Chun-Li, Choi, Ryo
Pattern 3 : Shiki, Balrog, Kasumi, Sagat, Iori
Pattern 4 : Guile, Genjyuro, Tessa, Kim, Ken
Pattern 5 : Tessa, Sagat, Mr. Karate, Chun-Li, Ryo
Pattern 6 : Chun-Li, Kasumi, Hugo, Mr. Karate, Guile
Pattern 7 : Mr. Karate, Hugo, Shiki, Dhalsim, Terry
Pattern 8 : Choi, Mai, Vega, Genjyuro, Akuma
Pattern 9 : Kasumi, Chun-Li, Shiki, Tessa, Mai
Pattern 10 : Earthquake, Vega, Akuma, Ken, Ryu
Pattern 11 : Dhalsim, Hugo, Kyo, Balrog, Iori
Pattern 12 : Iori, Guile, Bison, Kim, Ken
Pattern 13 : Ryu, Balrog, Kim, Sagat, Ryo
Pattern 14 : Terry, Choi, Earthquake, Genjyuro, Guile
Pattern 15 : Kyo, Ken, Ryo, Ryu, Terry
Pattern 16 : Balrog, Vega, Sagat, Bison, Akuma

So let's say the CPU randomly chooses Pattern 16 (which interesting enough follows the boss pattern of Street Fighter II plus Akuma), you would fight Balrog, Vega, and Sagat in stages 1 through 3, fight the mid-boss in stage 4, fight Bison and Akuma in stages 5 through 6, and then fight Orochi Iori and Serious Mr. Karate in stages 7 through 8 (since the stage 6 opponent was a Capcom character).

- SERIES -

1. SNK Vs. Capcom - The Match of the Millennium (1999, Neo Geo Pocket Color)
2. Capcom Vs. SNK - Millennium Fight 2000 (2000)
3. Capcom Vs. SNK - Millennium Fight 2000 Pro (2001)
4. Capcom Vs. SNK 2 - Millionaire Fighting 2001 (2001)
5. SVC Chaos - SNK Vs. Capcom [Model NGM-269] (2003)

- STAFF -

* Consoles :
SNK Neo-Geo [JP] (Nov. 14, 2003; "SVC Chaos - SNK Vs. Capcom [Model NGH-269]")
Sony PlayStation 2 [JP] (Dec. 18, 2003; "SVC Chaos - SNK Vs. Capcom [Model SLPS-25316]")
Microsoft XBOX [JP] (Oct. 07, 2004; "SVC Chaos - SNK Vs. Capcom [Model DI1-00001]")
Sony PlayStation 2 [JP] Mar. 15, 2005; "SVC Chaos - SNK Vs. Capcom [SNK Best Collection] [Model SLPS-25484]")

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo AES (Nov. 14, 2003; "SVC Chaos - SNK Vs. Capcom [Model NGH-269]")
[JP] Sony PS2 (Dec. 18, 2003; "SVC Chaos - SNK Vs. Capcom [Model SLPS-25316]")
[JP] Microsoft XBOX (Oct. 07, 2004; "SVC Chaos - SNK Vs. Capcom [Model DI1-00001]")
[JP] Sony PS2 Mar. 15, 2005; "SVC Chaos - SNK Vs. Capcom [SNK Best Collection] [Model SLPS-25484]")

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=syvalion,syvalionp,syvalionu,syvalionw
Arcade Video game published 35 years ago:

Syvalion (c) 1988 Taito Corp.

Control the mechanical dragon Syvalion and find your way through ever-changing magical dungeon.

- TECHNICAL -

Taito H System hardware
Prom Sticker : B51

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 12 Mhz), Zilog Z80 (@ 4 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Yamaha YM2610 (@ 8 Mhz)

Players : 2
Control : trackball
Buttons : 1

- TRIVIA -

Syvalion was released in October 1988 in Japan.

Spin-off of the Darius Series! (at the middle of the Syvalion storyline, the Player helps the people of the planet 'Darius').

The Player character, Syvalion, makes an appearance in "Darius Brust (2009, PSP)".

The producer of this game is Hisayoshi Ogura, a Famous Member of Taito's Sound Team Zuntata. He is known for the musical score at the "Darius" Series, "The Ninja Warriors", "Legend of Kage", "Zolid Infitiny". In 2007, he left Taito.   

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Syvalion : G.S.M. Taito 3 - D28B0014) on March 21, 1989.
Zuntata Records released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Zuntata History L'ab-normal 1st - ZTTL-0038) on April 1, 1999.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* When you start a new game, you can choose between Training and Expert mode. In the Expert Mode, the stages design are different.

- STAFF -

Produced by : Hisayoshi Ogura (OGR)
Music composed by : Yasuhisa Watanabe (YAC)
Staff : Fukio Mitsuji (MTJ), (T.S), (M.F), (G.K), (TSM), (NGI)

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] Nintendo Super Famicom (jul.24, 1992) "Syvalion [Model SHVC-SY]" 
[EU] Nintendo SNES (1993) "Syvalion [Model SNSP-SY]" 
[US] Nintendo SNES : release cancelled
[JP] Sony PS2 (jul.28, 2005) "Taito Memories Joukan [Model SLPM-66057]" 
Sony PlayStation 2 [AU] (mar.30, 2006) "Taito Legends 2 [Model SLES-53852]" 
[EU] Sony PS2 (mar.31, 2006) "Taito Legends 2 [Model SLES-53852]" 
[US] Sony PS2 (may.16, 2007) "Taito Legends 2 [Model SLUS-21349]" 

* COMPUTERS: 
[JP] Sharp X68000 (sept.14, 1990)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=cupfinal
Taito F3 cart. published 30 years ago:

Taito Cup Finals (c) 1993 Taito.

European release. Game developed in Japan. See the original for more information; "Hattrick Hero '93".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "Taito F3 System" Hardware.

- TRIVIA -

Released in February 1993 in Europe.

European version later re-released as "Super Cup Finals" (November 1993).

- SERIES -

1. Euro Champ '92 (1992)
2. Taito Cup Finals (1993)
3. International Cup '94 (1994)
4. Taito Power Goal (1994)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=pwrgoal
Taito F3 cart. published 29 years ago:

Taito Power Goal (c) 1994 Taito.

European release. Game developed in Japan. See the original for more information; "Hattrick Hero '95".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "Taito F3 System" Hardware.

- TRIVIA -

Released in November 1994 in Europe.

- SERIES -

1. Euro Champ '92 (1992)
2. Taito Cup Finals (1993)
3. International Cup '94 (1994)
4. Taito Power Goal (1994)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=tshingen
Arcade Video game published 35 years ago:

Takeda Shingen (c) 1988 Jaleco.

The honorable samurai fights to remove the evil samurai and their hordes of soldiers from Japan.

- TECHNICAL -

Jaleco Mega System 1-A hardware

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 12 Mhz)
Sound CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 7 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Yamaha YM2151 (@ 3.5 Mhz), (2x) OKI6295 (@ 30.303 Khz)

Screen orientation : Horizontal
Video resolution : 256 x 224 pixels
Screen refresh : 60.00 Hz
Palette Colors : 1024

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 3

- TRIVIA -

Released in August 1988 in Japan.

"Shingen - Samurai-Fighter" is the English version.

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
NEC PC-Engine (1989)

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=2827&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=tforceh
Arcade Video game published 34 years ago:

Task Force Harrier (c) 1989 UPL Company, Limited.

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 10 Mhz)
Sound CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 3 Mhz)
Sound Chips : YM2203 (@ 1.5 Mhz), (2x) OKI6295 (@ 24.242 Khz)

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 3

- TRIVIA -

Task Force Harrier was released in October 1989.

Licensed to American Sammy for US manufacture and distribution.

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Task Force Harrier - PCCB-00041) on 21/09/1990.

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=truxton2
Arcade Video game published 31 years ago:

達人王 (c) 1992 Toaplan Company, Limited.
(Tatsujin Oh)

Gameplay is similar to the previous Tatsujin. Tatsujin Oh has six huge areas, each with a boss at the end; the game loops these six areas forever. Lives are given out at 70000 points, then every 200000 points after; players start with three.

There are power-ups to increase ship speed, add a smartbomb to your stock, and change/strengthen your current weapon. Red fires bombs in a small area around your ship,  blue is a homing laser, and green fires wide-reaching salvos of green shots.

- TECHNICAL -

Game ID : TP-024

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 16 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Yamaha YM2151 (@ 3.375 Mhz), OKI6295 (@ 20.454 Khz)

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 4

- TRIVIA -

Tatsujin Oh was released in October 1992 in Japan.

The title of this game translates from Japanese as 'Master Ruler'.

This game is known outside Japan as Truxton II.

Toaplan Company, Limited was a video game developer from Japan. They were responsible for the creation of a wide array of relatively famous scrolling shooters and other arcade games. The company declared bankruptcy in 1994.

- UPDATES -

As with many Toaplan games, the original Japanese version is harder than export versions. Truxton II is like the original Truxton, where all regional versions are on a single board, controlled by a jumper; anything labeled Tatsujin Oh will be harder than anything labeled Truxton II (Europe and USA versions).

- SERIES -

1. Tatsujin [TP-013B] (1988)
2. Tatsujin Oh [TP-024] (1992)

- STAFF -

Staff : Lee Ota
Music composed by : Masahiro Yuge

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
FM Towns Marty (1993) "Tatsujin Oh"

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=2983&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=truxton
Arcade Video game published 35 years ago:

Tatsujin (c) 1988 Taito Corp.

Taking place somewhere in the near future of space travel, an alien armada is invading the player's home planet aboard 5 gargantuan asteroids. After surviving an attack on the player's cargo barge, players board and pilot one remaining fighter and challenge the aliens in a desperate attempt to quell the alien invasion and divert their asteroid fortresses in the process.

Tatsujin is a vertical scrolling shooter arcade game, featuring 8 levels with non-stop action and 5 bosses.

- TECHNICAL -

Game ID : TP-013B
Prom Stickers : B65

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 10 Mhz), Zilog Z80 (@ 3.5 Mhz)
Sound Chips : YM3812 (@ 3.5 Mhz)

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2

- TRIVIA -

Tatsujin was released in October 1988 in Japan.

The title of this game translates from Japanese as 'Master'.

This game is known outside Japan as Truxton.

Polystar released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Tatsujin : Toaplan Game Music Scene One - H24X-10005) on 25/06/1989.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Hidden Functions : If the 'Invulnerability dip switch' is enabled, you are invulnerable but you may also 'Pause' the game with P2 Start and restart with P1 Start.

- SERIES -

1. Tatsujin [TP-013B] (1988)
2. Tatsujin Oh [TP-024] (1992)

- STAFF -

Developed by Toaplan.

Staff : Lee Ota
Music composed by : Masahiro Yuge

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
Sega Mega Drive (1989) "Tatsujin [Model G-4020]"
NEC PC-Engine (1992) "Tatsujin [Model TP-04022]"
FM Towns Marty "Tatsujin"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=tknight
Arcade Video game published 34 years ago:

Tecmo Knight (c) 1989 Tecmo.

Export release. Game developed in Japan. See the original for more information; "Wild Fang".

- TRIVIA -

Released in May 1989.

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=tekipaki,tekipakit
Arcade Video game published 32 years ago:

Teki-Paki (c) 1991 Toaplan.

- TECHNICAL -

Game ID : TP-020

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 10 Mhz)
Sound Chips : YM3812 (@ 3.375 Mhz)

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2

- TRIVIA -

Released in June 1991.

This game in known in Japan and Asia as "Teki-Paki - Sennou Game" (subtitle translates from Japanese as 'Brainwashing Game').

Licensed to Romstar for USA.
Licensed to Honest Trading Co. for Hong Kong and to Spacy Co. Ltd for Taiwan.

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Vimana / Teki-Paki - PCCB-00071) on 21/09/1991.

- STAFF -

Music composed by : Tomoaki Takanohashi

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=2858&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=wofch
Capcom CPS Changer game published 29 years ago:

Tenchi wo Kurau II - Sekiheki no Tatakai (c) 1994 Capcom Co., Ltd.

CPS Changer release of Tenchi wo Kurau II. Identical to the Arcade release.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

-Option Menu-
Press Start 2 + Pause (F2 in MAME) at same time for 1 second.

It Contains: Game config (difficulty, damage, time and sound test).

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=wofj
Arcade Video game published 31 years ago:

Tenchi wo Kurau II - Sekiheki no Tatakai (c) 1992 Capcom Company, Limited.

Tenchi wo Kurau II is a horizontally-scrolling beat-em-up for up to three players set in the fictional land of Shang-Lo, a country ruled under an iron fist of violence by the dark lord, Akkila-Orkhan. 

Having reduced his own country to ruin and despair, Akkila-Orkhan is now looking to his neighboring countries for fresh lands to conquer. One man will rise up against this black tide. His name was Kuan-Ti, and with the aid of the five greatest warriors and the one wisest minds in his realm, Kuan-Ti will fight to defend his people and his lands.

Players choose to play as one of five different fighters, each of which utilizes two buttons; 'Attack' and 'Jump'. Each fighter has one or more air throws, as well as a Special move (Down, Up, Attack) and a special attack. The latter is executed by pressing the Attack and Jump buttons simultaneously. This move is powerful enough to fell several enemies at once, with the trade-off that each time a special attack is executed, some of the player's health is lost.  

Holding down and tapping the attack button will perform a dashing attack. Powerful weapons, including swords, axes, maces and daggers, can found and used by the players. Health levels can be replenished by finding food that lies hidden in breakable containers. 

During the game players will occasionally find a 'gong bell' that will summon a War-Horse that can be mounted and ridden. The Horse greatly increases offensive attacks and, with the exception of Kadan, equips each character with a long-range weapon, regardless of whether or not they carried one before. Each character can also perform special moves while riding the horse.

The game's five playable characters are:
* Kan-U: The most balanced character who specializes in bare-knuckle combat.
* Chou-Hi: The strongest but slowest character, he also fights bare fisted. His special can cause enemies to explode with a punch.
* Chou-Un: Fast and with good range, but less powerful than the other characters. Wears blue armour and fights with a sword that can cleave through enemies.
* Kou-Chuu: An old man who attacks with bow and arrows but lacks exceptional close range attacks. His dash attack into special combo move is powerful when mastered.
* Gi-En: Specialises in short-range combat, he posesses Guile's flash kick as his special attack and has the best combos.

Tenchi wo Kurau II consists of nine standard stages and two additional bonus stages.

- TECHNICAL -

Capcom Play System Hardware (CP-S)
B-Board #: 91634B-2

# of Players: Up to 3
Type of control (per player): 8-Way Joystick
# of Buttons (per player): 2
=> [1] Attack, [2] Jump

- TRIVIA -

Tenchi wo Kurau II was released in October 1992 in the Japanese arcades. It was known there as the 23th video game made for the CP-S system.

The title of this game translates from Japanese as 'Heaven and Earth Recieving Blows II - Battle of Red Wall'.

Known export releases:
"Warriors of Fate [B-Board 91635B-2]" (WORLD including USA)
"Sangokushi II [B-Board 91634B-2]" (Asia)

This game is known in US as "Warriors of Fate" and in Asia as "Sangokushi II".

The background and all characters were based on an actual history : The Period of Three Kingdoms after the 'Han' Dynasty in China. Character designs were based on a popular Japanese manga called 'Destruction of Heaven and Earth' published by Shueisha in Japan and created by Moto Kikaku.

Soundtrack releases :
Tenchi wo Kurau II -Sekiheki no Tatakai -G.S.M. Capcom 7- / Alfh Lyra [Pony Canyon / Scitron - PCCB-00133 - August 20, 1993]

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

Special Attack : Attack+Jump

Every character can perform his own special move by the combination : Down, Up + Attack

Press Down+Jump to perform a dash-attack spin against the enemies.

During the game, sometimes you'll found a "gong bell" that will summon the Horse for the player.
The Horse gives great offensive attacks against the enemies, and also gives to every character a long-rage weapon (despite Kadan): also, some characters that didn't carry any weapons normally (Portor and Kassar) will get it after they'll go up the horse.
Every character can perform some special moves when it's riding the horse:
* Standard Special Attack (press attack+jump): You'll lose energy every time you'll perform it. 
* Powerful slash with special wave: backward, forward + attack. Can slice apart some enemies. With Kadan you'll obtain a fire bolt.
* Dash: forward + Jump: It is also possible to combine the attack button to perform a long range attack after the dash (except for Kadan)
* Run and Slash: every direction (backward or forward) + jump (2 times rapidly): this move is similar to the standard special, but the player will not lose energy to perform it, it is possible to move while using it, and the enemies can be hit more than one time in this way: although, some enemies are able to block this attack, if they'll hit the player.

Sometimes, the horse will be used even by some bosses, and the player can get it after the boss will get down. By the way, some bosses are able to use the horse too, and they can benefit from its usage like the player.

Violent Boss Kill : if you'll finish the boss with a special move, you'll execute him in a very brutal way. Most of times the boss will be sliced apart, but you can also decapitate him with determined moves.

- SERIES -

1. Tenchi wo Kurau [B-Board 88622B-3] (1989)
2. Tenchi wo Kurau II - Sekiheki no Tatakai [B-Board 91634B-2] (1992)

- STAFF -

Planners: Noritaka Funamizu (Poo), Kin
Programmers: Domesan, Xor, Tsu-Zy, 34-Sakontz
Character Designers: Fukumoyan, Kyochan, Tenman, Tama Chan, Tanuki, Ball Boy (Ballboy), Mizumo, Yuusuke, Nonsuchi, Youjiro, Saotome, Kurata-N, Ume
Onnanoko Designer: Akira Yasuda (Akiman)
Sound: Masaki Izutani (T. Yomage), Toshio Kajino (Bull), Oyabun, Inu

Special Thanks: Akira Nishitani (Nin), James Goddard (DJames.), Alex Jimenez

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] Sony PlayStation (mar.22, 1996) [Model SLPS-00203]
[JP] Sega Saturn (sept.6, 1996) [Model T-1207G]
[JP] Sony PlayStation (oct.24, 2006, Capcom Game Books Edition) [Model SLPM-87400]
[JP] Sony PlayStation (oct.26, 2011, PSOne Classics Edition)

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=2868&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=dynwarj
Arcade Video game published 34 years ago:

天地を喰らう (c) 1989 Capcom.
(Tenchi wo Kurau)

Tenchi wo Kurau is a side-scrolling beat-em-up based on Japanese manga books of the same name and is a re-enactment of the historical battles between the Kingdom of Shu and the Yellow Turban rebels. Up to two players assume the roles of one of the four Chinese generals riding on horseback whose goal is to wipe out the 'Huang Ching', the organization responsible for the unrest of the Han Dynasty, and to eventually defeat the tyrant, Dong Zhuo.

The game is controlled with three buttons: attack left, attack right, or use special tactics. Inserting more coins increases the maximum life of the player. The game features traditional RPG elements as completing stages and collecting yellow orbs increases the player character's experience points, eventually enabling them to level-up, this increases the character's vitality and weapon strength. Weapons are upgraded for every 3rd blue orb collected, treasure increases a player's score, while food packs replenish player vitality (health).

Tenchi wo Kurau offers four selectable characters, each with their own varying amounts of attack power and initial vitality. As well as having weaponry exclusive to them, each character also has a unique partner character during certain special attacks.

The game features a total of eight stages, with each one representing a corresponding province from the historic battles of the Manga stories on which the game is based.

- TECHNICAL -

Capcom Play System hardware (CPS) 
B-Board ID: 88622B-3

Players: Up to 2. 
Control: 8-way joystick per player.
Buttons: 3 per player.

- TRIVIA -

Tenchi wo Kurau was released in April 1989 in the Japanese arcades. It was known there as the 4th video game made for the CP-S system. It is known outside Japan as "Dynasty Wars".

The title of this game translates from Japanese as 'Heaven and Earth Recieving Blows'.

Known Re-releases: "Tenchi wo Kurau [B-Board 91634B-2]"
Known Export releases: "Dynasty Wars [B-Board 88622B-3]"

The background story and all characters are based on factual history : the Period of Three Kingdoms after the 'Hen' Dynasty in China. Character designs were based on a popular Japanese comic called 'Destruction of Heaven and Earth'. 

The Tenchi wo Kurau series is based on the Chinese tale best known as Romance of the Three Kingdoms. 

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Strider Hiryu : G.S.M. Capcom 2 - D25B1001) on May 21, 1989.

- SERIES -

1. Tenchi wo Kurau [B-Board 88622B-3] (1989)
2. Tenchi wo Kurau II - Sekiheki no Tatakai [B-Board 91634B-2] (1992)

- STAFF -

Producer : Yoshiki Okamoto (Kihaji Okamoto)
Game designers : Noritaka Funamizu (Poo), S. Sato, K. Kataoka
Programmers : Y. Mutsunobu, M. Kobayashi, Y. Tsunasaki
Obj Designers : Kurichan, Y. Tamago, M. Tanabe, M. Matsuura, Shinji Sakashita
Scr Designers : Fukumoyan, M. Konishi, M. Miyao, K. Koizumi
Sound music : Manami Goto
Illustration : S. Shintani

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES: 
[JP] NEC PC-Engine (1991) 
NEC PC-Engine Super CD-ROM² [JP] (june.17, 1994) [Model NAPR1030] 
[JP] Nintendo Game Boy (apr.22, 1994) [Model DMG-ETJ]

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=dynwarjr
Arcade Video game published 32 years ago:

Tenchi wo Kurau (c) 1991 Capcom Company, Limited.

Re-release of "Tenchi wo Kurau [B-Board 88622B-3]". See this entry for more information about the game itself.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System" hardware.
B-Board ID: 91634B-2

- TRIVIA -

This Re-edition was released in 1991 in Japan only.

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=69742&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=tengai,tengaij
Arcade Video game published 27 years ago:

Tengai - Sengoku Ace Episode II (c) 1996 Psikyo.

Nice horizontal shoot'em up with 5 selectable characters who have their own storyline and ending.

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU : Motorola 68EC020 (@ 16 Mhz)
Sound CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 4 Mhz)
Sound Chips : YMF278B (@ 33.8688 Mhz)

Players : 2
Control : 8-Way Joystick
Buttons : 2
=> Fire, Special

- TRIVIA -

Tengai was released in April 1996.

The title of this game translates from Japanese as 'Beyond The Heavens'.

This game is known in Japan as "Sengoku Blade - Sengoku Ace Episode II", which literally means 'Civil War Blade - Civil War Ace Episode II'.

The game forbids the initials 'SEX' on the high score table. If you try, it gets changed to 3 smileys, and 'THAT all IS all WRONG' appears.

Soundtrack releases (for limited edition) :
Sengoku Blade / Psikyo [Pony Canyon / Scitron - PCCB-00216 - May 17, 1996]

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Extra Features : if you hold Test Button + PL1 Button 1 during boot, you get extra options in the test menu. A level skip, BG test usually etc...

* Play As Ayin : at the character selection screen, highlight the [?] and press Up(X3), Down(X3), Up(X7) and Ayin will appear.

- SERIES -

1. Samurai Aces (1993)
2. Tengai - Sengoku Ace Episode II (1996)
3. Sengoku Cannon - Sengoku Ace Episode III (2005, Sony PSP)

- STAFF -

Music Composed by : Masaki Izutani

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] Sega Saturn (nov.22, 1996; "Sengoku Blade - Sengoku Ace Episode II [Model T-14410G]")
[JP] Sony PS2 (dec.02, 2004; "Sengoku Ace & Sengoku Blade [Psikyo Shooting Collection Vol.2] [Model SLPM-62563]")
[JP] Sony PS2 (dec.01, 2005; "Sengoku Ace & Sengoku Blade [Psikyo Shooting Collection Vol.2] [Taito Best] [Model SLPM-62563]")
[EU] Sony PS2 (dec.02, 2006; "Samurai Aces [Model SLES-53872]")

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=2869&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=kabukikl

Tengai Makyou SHIN DEN (c) 1995 Hudson Soft.

Japanese swordplay fighting game with 8 selectable characters and 4 end-bosses and random bonus items appearing in the playfield. A notable effort that has been overlooked by the arcade fighter community.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID : NGM-092

[SNK MVS Neo-Geo Controls]
2 players - 4 buttons per player.
[Joystick] 8-way, [A] Weak Attack [B] Medium Attack [C] Weak Kick [D] Medium Kick

- TRIVIA -

Tengai Makyou SHIN DEN was released in June 1995 in Japan.

The title od this game translates from Japanese as 'Region Beyond Heaven - The New Legend'

This game is known outside Japan as 'Far East of Eden - Kabuki Klash'.

Tengai Makyou SHIN DEN is Hudson's first game developed and released for the Neo-Geo MVS. This game is based in the world of the 'Far East of Eden' RPG series which has appeared on many console platforms.

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Tengai Makyou SHIN DEN - G.S.M. 1500 / PCCB-00191) on 17/11/1995.

- STAFF -

Executive producers : Tadahiro Nakano, Hiroshi Igaro
Producer : Takafumi Horio
Director : Osamu Kimura
System support : Mikio Ueyama
Graphic designer : Torajiro Tsujino
Sound director : Shigeaki Irie
Sound composers : Masaaki Nishizawa, Kennosuke Suemura, Eisaku Nanbu
Sound engineer : Sudou Hirokazu
Sound effect : Gen
Programmers : SP.R22, Ken23, Arrow
Object designers : A. Ono, M. Kusanagi, S. Ootomo, Popo, H. Ando, Tamasu, Urachu
Scroll designers : Kizarin, Mikiman7, Okachu, Yamame
Total planner : Oyabun
Project manager : Masa
Examiner : Hebisan, Daichan, Marika

* CAST:
Manjimaru Sengoku : Kazu Ikura
Ziria : Mitsuo Iwata
Danjuro Kabuki : Kappei Yamaguchi
Yagumo : Ai Orikasa
Kinu : Azumi Inoue
Tsunade : Hiroko Emori
Taro Gokuraku : Shoichiro Akaboshi
Orochimaru : Kaneto Shiozawa
Manto Ace : Shigeru Chiba
Jyashinsai, Lucifeller : Seizou Katou

Special Thanks: Tomonori Matsunaga, Syuichiro Nishiya, Kenji Fukuya, Kawausosan, Shinchan, Kazu

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo CD (Nov.1995) [Model NGCD-092]

* COMPUTERS:
PC (2000)

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=813&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=terracre,terracren,terracrea,terracreo
Arcade Video game published 38 years ago:

Terra Cresta (c) 1985 Nichibutsu.

Terra Cresta is a vertically-scrolling shoot-em-up set over a scrolling landscape of islands and enemy installations. The player pilots the 'Wing Galibur' and is under constant attack from enemy spaceship waves, ground-based guns and turrets, dinosaurs and three up to different mothercraft ships.

Ground-based silos bearing numbers appear at regular intervals, these can be shot to release a ship upgrade component, which then attaches to the player's current ship, increasing both its size and firepower. Every numbered component the following abilities:

1 (Alpha): This is the Wing Galibur, the default craft and the fleet’s lead ship. It fires twin projectiles from the front.

2 (Beta): This doubles both the Galibur’s firepower and its size. 

3 (Gamma): Ship number three gives the Galibur tail guns, enabling it to shoot behind as well as in front.

4 (Delta): The fourth ship provides a concussive beam that tears through smaller enemies and inflicts greater damage on larger enemies.

5 (Epsilon): The fifth ship generates a force field behind the Galibur, protecting it from attacks from the rear.

Using the 'Formation' button splits the ship components into a wide formation for limited time, giving increased fire power. The number of parts acquired determines the formation. For example, if the player has picked up two ship parts then a triangle is formed, with the player's main ship at the rear of the formation. During this, the components are invulnerable to all enemy fire, while Wing Galibur itself is not and if the Galibur itself is hit, the player will lose a life

When all four numbered parts have been collected, the player's ship transforms into a firey Phoenix and is indestructible for a limited time.

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 8 Mhz)
Sound CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 4 Mhz)
Sound Chips : (2x) Yamaha YM2203 (@ 4 Mhz), (2x) DAC

Screen orientation : Vertical
Video resolution : 224 x 256 pixels
Screen refresh : 60.00 Hz
Palette colors : 256

Players : 1
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2
=> [A] Shoot, [B] Formation

- TRIVIA -

Terra Cresta was released in November 1985.

You can become a phoenix like in the title screen if you collect all the ship parts :).

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (G.S.M. Nichibutsu 1 - D28B0004) on September 21, 1988.

- UPDATES -

New version uses a YM3526 (@ 4 Mhz) sound chip instead of a YM2203

- SERIES -

1. Moon Cresta (1980)
2. Terra Cresta (1985)
3. Dangar - Ufo Robo (1986)
4. Terra Force (1987)
5. Terra Cresta II - Mandoraa no Gyakushuu (1992, NEC PC Engine)

- STAFF -

Staff : Shigeki Fujiwara, Isao Shiki, Hisaya Tsutsui, R. Yamada
Music composed by : Kenji Yoshida

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] Nintendo Famicom (September 27, 1986) "Terra Cresta [NBF-TC]"
[US] Nintendo NES (March 1990) "Terra Cresta [Model NES-TQ-USA]" 
[JP] Sony PS2 (October 27, 2005) "Terra Cresta [Oretachi Geasen Zoku] [Model SLPM-62661]" 
[JP] Sony PlayStation 4 [PSN] (November 20, 2014) "Arcade Archives - Terra Cresta [Model CUSA-01254]" 
[AS] Sony PlayStation 4 [PSN] (May 14, 2015) "Arcade Archives - Terra Cresta" 
[US] Sony PlayStation 4 [PSN] (May 19, 2015) "Arcade Archives - Terra Cresta [Model CUSA-00983]" 
[EU] [AU] Sony PlayStation 4 [PSN] (September 15, 2015) "Arcade Archives - Terra Cresta [Model CUSA-02658]" 

* COMPUTERS:
[EU] Amstrad CPC (1986)
[EU] Sinclair ZX Spectrum (1986)
[US] [EU] Commodore C64 (1987)
[JP] Sharp X68000 (November 20, 1992) "Moon Cresta + Terra Cresta [Model DP-3205023]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=terraf,terrafj,terrafb,terrafjb
Arcade Video game published 36 years ago:

Terra Force (c) 1987 Nichibutsu.

A standard shooter. All levels are divided in 2 parts : overworld with vertical orientation and underground with horizontal.

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 8 Mhz)
Sound CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 3.072 Mhz)
Sound Chips : YM3812 (@ 4 Mhz), (2x) DAC (@ 4 Mhz)

Screen orientation : Horizontal
Video resolution : 320 x 240 pixels
Screen refresh : 57.00 Hz
Palette colors : 2048

Players : 1
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2 => [A] Shoot, [B] Bomb

- TRIVIA -

Released in December 1987.

Terra Force uses the same innovative overworld/underground and perspective changing gameplay found in Nichibutsu's earlier game "Mag Max".

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (G.S.M. Nichibutsu 1 - D28B0004) on 21/09/1988.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Terra Force power-ups
B : bomb power-up
L : laser firepower
S : speed-up
P : force field

- SERIES -

1. Moon Cresta (1980)
2. Terra Cresta (1985)
3. Dangar - Ufo Robo (1986)
4. Terra Force (1987)
5. Terra Cresta II - Mandoraa no Gyakushuu (1992, NEC PC Engine)

- STAFF -

Game designer : Shigeki Fujiwara
Game programmers : Kakefu, Shinya Okuda
Character designers : Takanori Tanaka, Yuki Yasuda
Title designer : Shinji Kubota
Sound composer : Noburu Yoshida
Sound programmer : Yoshinori Mitta
Hardware engineer : Isao Shiki

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES: 
[JP] Sony PlayStation 4 [PSN] (nov.17, 2016) "Arcade Archives - Terra Force [Model CUSA-04470]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=tetrisp2,tetrisp2j,tp2m32,tetrisp2ja,tetrisp2a
Arcade Video game published 26 years ago:

Tetris Plus 2 (c) 1997 Jaleco.

This game features some very nice gameplay. There's the addition of an ingame character who wanders on the blocks while you play. Secondly there's a storyline for the game. You get different bonuses on your journey as you keep going on. The game gets quite challenging after you've played some levels.

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 12 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Yamaha YMZ280B (@ 16.9344 Mhz)

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 3 (ROTATE LEFT, ROTAGE RIGHT, BOMB)

Alternate version runs on the Jaleco Mega System 32 hardware.

- TRIVIA -

Released in September 1997.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Expert Level : Hold Start Button then input code : [Up, Right, Down, Left]x3 in Puzzle Mode Level Selection screen. If it's accepted, Expert Level item will appear.

- SERIES -

1. Tetris Plus (1995)
2. Tetris Plus 2 (1997)

- STAFF -

Developed by The Tetris Company.

Character voices -Joshuko- : Sachiko Sugawara
Directors : Taro Sasahara, YU1 Sekine
Programmers : Shuji Ohno, Koichi Satoh
Graphic designers : Takashi Hashizume, Pyonkey Matsuo, Satoshi Higashida, Koichi Narita, Tatsuhiro Suzuki, Hiroshi Shigesawa, Ken Kogawa
Sound : Kenichi Kamio

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=tgm2
Arcade Video game published 23 years ago:

Tetris The Absolute - The Grand Master 2 (c) 2000 Arika.

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU : SH-2 (@ 28.63635 Mhz)
Sound Chips : YMF278B (@ 28.63635 Mhz)

Screen orientation : Horizontal
Video resolution : 320 x 240 pixels
Screen refresh : 60.00 Hz
Colors palette : 5120

Players : 2
Control : 8-way Joystick
Buttons : 3

- TRIVIA -

This game was released in December 2000 in Japan only.

If you enter the initials, they will be changed to 'ARK', which stands for Arika, the company that made the game :
'666'
'A  '
'AA '
'AAA'
'AHO'
'ASS'
'AUM' (Aum Shinrikyo, now known as Aleph, is a Japanese new religious movement organization)
'DIE'
'ETA'
'FUC'
'FUK'
'HIV'
'IRA'
'KKK'
'OSI'
'PEE'
'PIS'
'PLO'
'SEX'

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Maintenance Code :
4-1-5-7-3 All Data Initialized.
4-1-7-6-5 Best Score Erased.

The following 4 are also tested for, but appear to be disabled :
1-3-5-7-9
0-2-4-6-8
4-1-3-7-3
5-0-2-1-3

- SERIES -

1) Tetris The Grand Master (1998)
2) Tetris The Absolute - The Grand Master 2 (2000)
3) Tetris The Absolute - The Grand Master 2 Plus (2000)
4) Tetris The Grand Master 3 - Terror-Instinct (2005)
5) Tetris The Grand Master 4 - The Masters of Round (2009)

- STAFF -

Sound Staff: Megaten, Rya
Background Design: Iwaroka, Matsumoto, Roki, Yamaguchi, Funato, Tanaka, Matsumura, Tanaoka, Dan, Ushiroda, Yamamoto, Tsuruha
Effect Design: Sakai
Programmer: Karasawa, Hashidate
Visual Design: Chiba
Director: Hashidate
Planner & Producer: Mihara

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=tgm2p
Arcade Video game published 23 years ago:

Tetris The Absolute - The Grand Master 2 Plus (c) 2000 Arika.

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU : SH-2 (@ 28.63635 Mhz)
Sound Chips : YMF278B (@ 28.63635 Mhz)

Screen orientation : Horizontal
Video resolution : 320 x 240 pixels
Screen refresh : 60.00 Hz
Colors palette : 5120

Players : 2
Control : 8-way Joystick
Buttons : 3

- TRIVIA -

This game was released in Japan only.

If you enter the initials '666', 'A  ', 'AA ', 'AAA', 'AHO', 'ASS', 'AUM', 'DIE', 'ETA', 'FUC', 'FUK', 'HIV', 'IRA', 'KKK', 'OSI', 'PEE', 'PIS', 'PLO', or 'SEX', they will be changed to 'ARK', which stands for Arika, the company that made the game.

- SERIES -

1) Tetris The Grand Master (1998)
2) Tetris The Absolute - The Grand Master 2 (2000)
3) Tetris The Absolute - The Grand Master 2 Plus (2000)
4) Tetris The Grand Master 3 - Terror-Instinct (2005)
5) Tetris The Grand Master 4 - The Masters of Round (2009)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=tetrist
Arcade Video game kit published 35 years ago:

Tetris (c) 1988 Sega Enterprises, Ltd.

Nastar Conversion Kit.

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=tetristh
Arcade Video game published 35 years ago:

Tetris (c) 1988 Sega Enterprises, Ltd.

Taito H release.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "Taito H" system hardware.

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=astyanax,astyanaxa
Arcade Video game published 34 years ago:

The Astyanax (c) 1989 Jaleco USA

Export release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese release entry; "The Lord of King".

- TECHNICAL -

Jaleco Mega System 1-A hardware

- TRIVIA -

Mythology note: In Greek mythology, Astyanax (means 'King of the city') was the son of Hector and Andromache. He was killed during the Trojan War by Neoptolemus, who threw the infant from a wall and told his mother 'Since my father (Achilles) killed his father (Hector) he might try to avenge the death. He also could become King of Troy and we want no more kings of Troy!'.

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=ctribe,ctribeb,ctribeua,ctribeb2,ctribej,ctribeu1
Arcade Video game published 33 years ago:

The Combatribes (c) 1990 Technos.

Three player simultaneous melee battle in which larger-than-life fighters battle against rival gang members. As well as being able to pick up objects such as motorcycles etc. and throw them at the enemies, players also have a number of interesting fighting moves that can be unleashed upon their opponents. These include picking up unconscious enemies and hitting OTHER enemies with them, as well as banging two enemies' heads together and smashing recumbent enemies' heads into the ground to finish them off.

- TECHNICAL -

Game ID : TA-0028

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 12 Mhz)
Sound CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 3.579545 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Yamaha YM2151 (@ 3.579545 Mhz), OKI6295 (@ 8.5 Khz)

Players : 3
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2
=> Attack, Jump

- TRIVIA -

Released in June 1990.

One of the clown thugs in level 2 were inspired by the Joker character from the 1989 Batman film.

In Act 3, an advertisement for "Block Out" appears on the two sets of TV screens.

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Double Dragon 3, The Combatribes - PCCB-00065) on 21/06/1991.

- UPDATES -

The US version is slightly different, it has the 'Winners Don't Use Drugs' screen.

- STAFF -

Software : Naritaka Nishimura, T. Saito, I. Kanakubo
Hardware : Kenji Nishikawa
Character designers : Koji Ogata, H. Shibata, T. Ando, T. Ohshumi
BG designers : Shinichi Saito, Masamichi Katagiri, Takehisa Izumiyama, Hideaki Sakamoto
Musics : Kazunaka Yamane
Sound effects : K. Mori
Music software : Michiya Hirasawa
Directed by : A. Tanimoto, Noriyuki Tomiyama

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] Nintendo Super Famicom (dec.23, 1992) "The Combatribes [Model SHVC-CR]"
[US] Nintendo Super NES  (mar.??, 1993) "The Combatribes [Model SNS-CR]"
[US] Nintendo Wii [Virtual Console] (nov.20, 2009)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=flstory,flstoryo
Arcade Video game published 38 years ago:

The Fairyland Story (c) 1985 Taito Corp.

A precursor to 1986's "Bubble Bobble", the player controls a spell-casting elf who turns evil wizards, witches and other enemies into cakes and either pushes them from the platform ledges, or shoots then repeatedly to destroy them. If an enemy touches the player character, the elf becomes entrapped in a magic bubble and floats away. Each level takes place inside a variety of castles.

- TECHNICAL -

Board Number : M4300034B
Prom Stickers : A45

Main CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 5.3665 Mhz), Motorola M68705 (@ 2 Mhz)
Sound CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 4 Mhz)
Sound Chips : General Instrument AY8910 (@ 2 Mhz), MSM5232 (@ 2 Mhz), DAC

Players : 2
Control : 2-way joystick
Buttons : 2

- TRIVIA -

The Fairyland Story was released in July 1985.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

INSTRUCTIONS:
- Insert Coin and select a one or two player game. 
- Use Ptolemy's magic to turn monsters into cakes. Keep sprinkling magic on the cakes to destroy them, or drop them onto other monsters for bonus points. 
- Destroy all the monsters to clear the level. 
- If a monster touches Ptolemy, or a cake falls on her, a life will be lost. 
- Enemy wizards can shrink Ptolemy. If they hit Ptolemy while she is already shrunk, a life will be lost. 
- Ptolemy can stand on top of monsters. 
- Picking up an item will cause various effects, including upgrading Ptolemy's magic.
- When all Ptolemy's lives are lost, the game will end. 
- On levels 8 through to 98 there is a continue option.

- STAFF -

From highscore table : (KBT), (MAD), Onijust (ONJ), (KMJ), Ishida (ISD)

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES: 
[JP] Sony PS2 (jul.28, 2005) "Taito Memories Joukan [Model SLPM-66057]" 
Sony PlayStation 2 [AU] (mar.30, 2006) "Taito Legends 2 [Model SLES-53852]" 
[EU] Microsoft XBOX (mar.31, 2006) "Taito Legends 2" 
[EU] Sony PS2 (mar.31, 2006) "Taito Legends 2 [Model SLES-53852]" 
[US] Sony PS2 (may.16, 2007) "Taito Legends 2 [Model SLUS-21349]" 

* HANDHELDS: 
Sony PSP [AS] (jan.3, 2006) "Taito Memories Pocket [Model UCAS-40040]" 
[JP] Sony PSP (jan.5, 2006) "Taito Memories Pocket [Model ULJM-05076]" 
Sony PSP [KO] (feb.10, 2006) "Taito Memories Pocket" 
[EU] Sony PSP (oct.6, 2006) "Taito Legends Power-Up [Model ULES-00473]" 
[AU] Sony PSP (nov.9, 2006) "Taito Legends Power-Up [Model ULES-00473]" 
[US] Sony PSP (may.17, 2007) "Taito Legends Power-Up [Model ULUS-10208]" 

* COMPUTERS: 
[JP] MSX (1987) 
[JP] Sharp X68000 (sept.27, 1991) 
[EU] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (mar.31, 2006) "Taito Legends 2" 
[US] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (jul.10, 2007) "Taito Legends 2"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=daraku
Arcade Video game published 25 years ago:

The Fallen Angels (c) 1998 Psikyo.

A very solid 2-D fighting game with beautiful pre-rendered backgrounds. 8 selectable fighters and 2 end bosses.

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU : SH-2 (@ 28.63635 Mhz)
Sound Chips : YMF278B (@ 28.63635 Mhz)

Players: 2
Control: 8-way joystick
Buttons: 4
=> Weak Punch, Strong Punch, Weak Kick, Strong Kick

- TRIVIA -

The Fallen Angels was shown at the 1998 AOU Amusement Expo show, in Japan. It was then released in March 1998 in Japan. It was known in Japan as "Daraku Tenshi" (translates from Japanese as 'Fallen Angel').

Using the Bitmap Dump option in the test menu you can come across several title screens. "Gut Reaction", "Rubbin Out" and "A Blow For Freedom". There are 2 screens for "Gut Reaction".

They also misspelt start as 'strat' in the test screen.

Hidden within the graphic ROMs are the sprites of four characters that were taken out of the game. It is believed that the game may have not been entirely completed, given that four characters were cut from the game, the character bio's contain varying errors, and some of the staff went over to SNK (Cool and Harry appear very similar to KOF 99's K' and Maxiama characters).

Pony Canyon released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Daraku Tenshi: The Fallen Angels - PCCB-00305) on 01/04/1998.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Unlock Extra Maintenance : if you hold Test Button + PL1 Button 1 during boot, you get extra options in the test menu (Obj Test, Obj Dump etc.).

- STAFF -

Producer: Kouzou Fujimoto
Directer: Mitsuo Kodama
Planer: Deathler
Front designers: Exo Skeleton, Kotaro Ogata, Hiroyuki Otani, Metal God, 108, Yoshiko Sowa, Tokimeki Goro, Kenzo Sumiko
Back designers: Hajime Ito, Noriko Tomishima
Programmers: Takahiro Inoue, Shinaghiku 555, Naruto, Kazufumi Yoshida
Sound: Masaki Izutani, Kumi Tanioka
Character Designer: Shinichi Morioka

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=kodja
Arcade Video game published 32 years ago:

The King of Dragons (c) 1991 Capcom Company, Limited.

The King of Dragons is a horizontally-scrolling hack 'n' slash beat-em-up for up to three players who must travel through the kingdom of Malus, defeating the army of monsters who have invaded their world, before finally defeating their leader, the red dragon Gildiss.

The game's controls consist of a single attack button and a jump button. By pressing both buttons simultaneously, the character will unleash a magical attack that strikes all on-screen enemies at once, with the trade-off that each time a special attack is executed, some of the player's health is lost.  

King of Dragons features a level advancement system. Points scored for killing monsters and picking up gold count towards experience and the character gains levels at regular intervals. With each level, the character's health bar increases and other attributes, such as attack range, are also improved. At the point of levelling up, the character is also invulnerable for a few seconds. Along the way, different weapon and armour upgrades can be picked up.

Player can choose from five playable characters, each with their own strengths and weaknesses: 
* The Fighter is very good with melee attacks and defense but lacks magical ability. 
* The Dwarf can dodge and block attacks, has decent melee attacks but little magic ability. 
* The Elf is agile and uses his bow for ranged attacks but is not physically strong. 
* The Cleric has good defense, melee attacks and magic (and can heal his comrades) but poor agility. 
* The Wizard has poor defense but very good magical attacks and fast melee attacks.

The fighter, cleric and dwarf can also use their shield to block certain attacks by tilting the joystick back right before the impact. The King of Dragons features sixteen stages of play.

- TECHNICAL -

Capcom Play System Hardware (CP-S)
B-Board #: 89625B-1

Players: Up to 3 simultaneous
Control per player: 8-Way Joystick
Buttons per player: 2
=> [1] Attack, [2] Jump

- TRIVIA -

The King of Dragons was released in July 1991 in the Japanese arcades. It was known there as the 15th video game made for this system.

Known re-release: "The King of Dragons [B-Board 90629B-3]"

Derek, Ravel, Leger, Vargas and Aldo all returned in the Japan-only release Capcom World 2.

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Captain Commando : G.S.M. Capcom 5 - PCCB-00083) on March 21, 1992.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Strange Item :
Ice Star : sometimes in 2P mode at second stage, an ice star appears after breaking the wood cask. It seems it only restores energy like a fruit.  
Gold Gauntlet : sometimes at fourth stage, a gold gauntlet appears after breaking the second-last chest. It seems useless. 
Cutpurse's Sack : it's a small sack with a light blue question mark that is dropped by Cutpurses after they get hit during the game. A hidden trick or simply a Capcom's joke? 

* Gaining extra points :
1) Eat a fruit or a elixir at full energy: this gives 5000 experience points.
2) Hit flying objects like wolves archers arrows, skeletons lances and knights archers arrows.
3) Hit Cutpurse : they take away items like gold's sacks, rubys, pearls, gems, diamonds and fruits.
4) Kill all the green lizard spearmen during the battle with the Wyvern at fourteenth stage (they can release a lot of diamonds or precious).
5) Hit Gildiss fireballs : some of these turns into green apples that at full full energy gives 5000 experience points each-one.
6) Don't use magic attacks or magic crystals at bosses : these kinds of attacks are incredibly more powerful than normal attacks so a boss needs many less hits to kill him.

* BOSSES and POWER-UP WEAPON STRATEGY : middle or end level bosses give experience points for each hit taken while normal monsters give experience points ONLY when they die (it has no matter how strong is the attack, they give ALWAYS the same experience points). 
- With Elf, Fighter, Cleric and Dwarf : DON'T power-up your weapon during the game and ALWAYS use the LEVEL-1 WEAPON. So a boss needs many more hits to kill him (remember? more hits > more experience points). To gain extra point it has no matter if character power-up or not bow (for Elf) or shield (for Fighter, Cleric and Dwarf).
- With Wizard : DON'T power-up your weapon during the game and use the LEVEL-1 WEAPON until the wizard can take the LEVEL-5 WEAPON (a wood staff with metal headpiece and red gem/orange flame). This weapon isn't much powerful but a singular attack to a boss increases three times the experience points for each hit. 

* INFINITE WOLVES ARCHERS TRICK: At the beginning of the sixth stage on the beach, don't go forward but wait. After a few seconds a blue wolf archer appears and after you kill him, another appears then another one in sequence (then two wolves at a time, then three at a time and then four at a time) to infinity. One single wolf is equal to 1300 experience points, so the player can accumulate points and win a life every 450k points. If the player wants to squeeze millions of points he has to kill wolves very fast and win a life before the timer reaches zero. Then after he rises again with a new life, he starts again to kill wolves and repeats in the same method.
- In the early 'World revision' (July 1991). (Time doesn't run faster when the 'GO cursor' is flashing, so player can kill wolves without going forward (but he isn't forced to do it).
- In the World, Japanese (August 1991) and US revision (September 1991): Time runs faster when the 'GO cursor' is flashing, so the player is forced to go forward step by step, kill a pair of wolves and before the next 'GO cursor' is flashing once, go forward step by step again (this method is very hard).

ADDITIONAL NOTES : Each character has a maximum of 24 level-up during all the game. This means a full bar of energy with 96 Health Point.

- STAFF -

Music Composer: Yoko Shimomura
Other staffs: Chin, Tomoshi, Tolaya, Gyo, Shimopi, HK, Yama, Mikiman, Miyao, Iwai, SSS, Mizuho, Hayashi, Manbou, Guych, Dany, Blbon, Ogachy, Hirabe, Wakio

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES: 
[JP] Nintendo Super Famicom (mar.4, 1994) "The King of Dragons [Model SHVC-EI]" 
[US] Nintendo SNES (apr.1994) "The King of Dragons [Model SNS-EI-USA]" 
[EU] Nintendo SNES (aug.1994) "The King of Dragons [Model SNSP-EI-NOE]"
[US] Microsoft XBOX (nov.24, 2006) "Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 2" 
[US] Sony PS2 (nov.24, 2006) "Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 2 [Model SLUS-21473]" 
Sony PlayStation 2 [AU] (apr.11, 2007) "Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 2 [Model SLES-54561]" 
[EU] Sony PS2 (apr.13, 2007) "Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 2 [Model SLES-54561]" 

* HANDHELDS: 
[JP] Sony PSP (sept.7, 2006) "Capcom Classics Collection [Model ULJM-05104]" 
[US] Sony PSP (oct.24, 2006) "Capcom Classics Collection Reloaded [Model ULUS-10134]" 
[EU] Sony PSP (nov.10, 2006) "Capcom Classics Collection Reloaded [Model ULES-00377]" 
[AU] Sony PSP (nov.16, 2006) "Capcom Classics Collection Reloaded"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=kod,kodu,kodj,kodb,kodr1,kodr2
Arcade Video game published 32 years ago:

The King of Dragons (c) 1991 Capcom Company, Limited.

New release. For more information about the game itself, see the original Japanese release entry; "The King of Dragons [B-Board 89625B-1]".

- TECHNICAL -

B-Board #: 90629B-3

It contains a 4-Mbit EPROM instead of 4x1-Mbits EPROMs on the original B-Board 89625B-1.

- TRIVIA -

Here is a list of features found in these new revisions:
* A weaver effect of character sprites at the beginning of characters selection screen.
* A different sound effect is used when a character gains a level-up, enters a stage or rises again.
* More difficult (more enemies).
* Enemies appearance is very different from the early 'World revision' of the game (July 1991).
* Cleric is less powerful than in the early 'World revision'. It starts with 40 Health Point instead of 48.
* The first extra live is at 200k points instead of 100k.
* Time runs faster when the 'GO cursor' is flashing.
* Count down of time starts from 30 seconds when a life is lost. This happens every time a character is killed by enemies while remaining time is less than 30 seconds.
* Fruit restores only 12 Health Point (banana 10 Health Point, big red apple 24) instead of 16 in the early 'World revision'.
* A dead Boss restores only 12 Health Point instead of 16 in the early 'World revision'.
* Magic attacks and magic crystals destroy directly enemies flying objects (so you get more experience points). These are wolves archers arrows, skeletons lances and knights archers arrows.
* Mimic Chests release a pool of acid after breaking them.
* New enemies like green lizard spearmen and dark red lizard swordsmen.
* Player doesn't gain the extra strawberry after the killing of the Orc King (the Boss of the first stage).
* The gait of the Wyvern (the Boss of the third and of the fourteenth stage) is different; it has also only triple fireball/iceball attacks.
* Back attacks of the Hydra (the Boss of the fourth stage) are more powerful.
* Additional green apple no more available on the five stage.
* Frontal punch attack of the Cyclops (the Boss of the sixth and fifteenth stage) is faster than in the early 'World revision'.
* New different background music in the last duel with evil red dragon Gildiss.
* A new Gildiss attack : an animated breath of flame after he changes the direction he's facing during the battle.
* Added a new credit sequence with Gildiss and beauty fairy.

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=69763&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=kof94

The King of Fighters '94 (c) 1994 SNK.

24 selectable characters in fixed teams of three clash to defeat Rugal Bernstein.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID : NGM-055

[SNK MVS Neo-Geo Controls]
2 players - 4 buttons per player.
[JOYSTICK] 8-way, [A] Light punch, [B] Light kick, [C] Strong punch, [D] Strong kick

- TRIVIA -

Released in August 1994.

The King of Fighters (or KOF for short) revolutionized the fighter genre with the introduction of 3 member team fighting called the 'team battle system', and by combining elements of two of SNK's existing fighting game in "Fatal Fury - King of Fighters" and "Art of Fighting", as well as bringing back characters from games predating the MVS in "Ikari Warriors" and "Psycho Soldier". A new game in the series is produced every year.

At the demo previous to the first Rugal encounter, Rugal shows your team the statues he has gathered by turning his opponents into them. One of the statues is of a guy that looks a lot like Capcom's Guile making a Sonic Boom. Capcom later confirmed that it was indeed Guile's statue in "Capcom Vs. SNK - Millenium Fight 2000". When Guile fights Rugal that statue is shown and later destroyed by Guile.

Kyo Kusanagi : Since Kyo was created as a snazzy character capable of holding his own against the main characters of "Fatal Fury - King of Fighters" and "Art of Fighting", coming up with the right design was quite a lengthy undertaking. Kyo's personality remained a mystery until the final stages of development. Originally, he was to be called 'Sho Kirishima', but during the latter stages of development, his designers decided on the name of Kyo Kusanagi, and Sho got a rapid name change. The setting for the Orochi Saga, in which we learn that Kyo's ancestors defeated the Orochi of the Yamata, began with this game.

Benimaru Nikaido : This character was loosely based on a comic book character (Jean-Pierre Polnaref from "Jojo's Bizarre Adventure"), and even after the name of Benimaru was decided on, game developers gave the poor guy an identity crisis by continuing to call him by the comic book character's name. The voice for this character, too, had a peculiar bent to it, and when Benimaru's designer heard his creation's victory line of 'Thank you' recited for the first time, rumor has it that he couldn't work for days after : the reading had nothing to do with the character's original image. His speech patterns have led some to question Benimaru's preferences as far as certain lifestyles are concerned.

Goro Daimon : This character comes from the designers' desire to create a judo athlete who uses dynamic body tosses. His initial designs incurred the criticism of some fellow designers who were of the opinion that it was just plain loopy for Daimon to fight wearing Japanese geta (wooden clogs), but Goro's creators were adamant and he kept his footwear. The suggestions for his laconic victory lines and the sound of an explosion when Goro is victorious also stuck.

Terry Bogard : When the concept for KOF was first formulated, Terry was tacked on to the roster as an afterthought, but his popularity skyrocketed! He became the character who got the designers' utmost attention, and they fretted over various aspects of his character. In the first KOF, Terry became the powerhouse, getting a super punch cancel move added to his arsenal and becoming the fearsome character he is today.

Andy Bogard : Compared to Andy's original form ("Fatal Fury - King of Fighters"), Andy changed little in his move to KOF, but what he got in return was the addition of his Ultra Disruptor move to his arsenal of moves. When first added, it boasted overwhelming power : it was easy to use, never missed, trumped other moves, and annihilated all opponents.

Joe Higashi : Joe is a character who underwent a major image makeover from his transition from "Fatal Fury - King of Fighters". The victory pose of KOF '94 initially lacked the toothy smile we're familiar with now. It was quite a thorn in the side that we felt inappropriate for Joe's legion of fans. So, in rethinking the original design, we added the pearly whites that makes Joe to loveable character he is today.

Ryo Sakazaki : Ryo (as can be said of all characters from "Art of Fighting") has so many Special Moves that it seems almost unfair to the other characters, and in the designing stage, the Art of Fighting team tended to be the strongest. The designers focused on adjusting this imbalance without taking out any moves, but in the end Ryo and his team remain the toughest competitors.

Robert Garcia : Overall, KOF's characters are fit and trim, but compared to their original concepts, Robert is the slimmest of them all. Matched up against Kensou, he chide his adversary in Japanese with an Osaka accent, allowing players to enjoy the amusing word play that Osaka comedians are known for.

Takuma Sakazaki : Since the Takuma of "Art of Fighting 2" closely resembled Daimon, he received a karate tunic in his ensemble to set him apart and that's why he looks the way he does today. He originally had a combo attack after the 'Super Shrike Gale' move that appeared to be a glitch. Hence, during game development, this move was taken out, but the game designers thought that he just wasn't Takuma without this move and it was put back in. The designers slightly regret their decision because Takuma's become quite a mean little bugger as a result.

Yuri Sakazaki : Yuri is a disciple of Kyokugen Karate but her appearances in the KOF series are frequently as a member of the women fighters' team. Originally in KOF '94 there was no such team and production began on King Billy Big Bear as the English team. But "Art of Fighting 2" was completed at that time and the designers pressed to put Yuri into KOF, replacing her with Big Bear, who was presenting various problems, for various reasons (hah, hah) concerning capacity. Enter Yuri, goodbye Billy! (A tragedy, we know) And so the originally planned team started life anew as the mighty women fighters' team.

Heidern : Heidern was devised as a cold-blooded killing machine when he first saw digital life, but as the KOF story unfolded, Heidern's designer identified with the character and provided him with a tragic past. When his super special moves were completed, the moves were so wild that game designers worried that he would have to be depicted as a sorcerer or an alien in order to explain his dazzling moves.

Ralf Jones : In the first stages of Ralf's development, he appeared shirtless to truly express the feeling of ikari or rage, but during the designing phase, someone felt his look was a bit dated and Ralf got the apparel he's now known and loved for. He originally had special moves that allowed him to use grenades, setting him apart from other team members, and a distinctive design, but his use of grenades in a fighting competition was deemed a bit unfair, so he lost that particular talent.

Clark Steel : At the beginning of development, the only differences in designs for Ralf and Clark was one had a hat and the other had a bandanna, but Clark later got a pair of sunglasses to become the character he is today. Clark basically looks a lot like Ralf, but since the designer in charge of adjusting this character worked on his hit accuracy, action speed and attack strength, their combat style is where the true differences between the two can be found.

Athena Asamiya : Given that Athena is always the most highly anticipated character of the series, the pressure to keep her on the roster at any cost is pretty overwhelming. And because SNK staff focuses so much on her, SNK have been accused of favoritism. Japanese fans asked SNK to dress her in a sailor blouse and skirt, but we scrubbed that idea because SNK felt it wouldn't translate overseas and be a bit too risque. But SNK made up for that omission with her wild entrance actions (Hubba! Hubba!).

Sie Kensou : Compared with Athena, Kensou's design has been a bit slapdash. In the previous title, Athena stole the show and since we felt Kensou was a bit too overshadowed by her, SNK gave him a radically new look to appeal to our female fans. We're often asked about Kensou's use of Japanese with an Osaka accent in the game, but he's always done that since his Psycho Soldier days. In other words, he's been doing it far longer than Robert has.

Chin Gentsai : When SNK first decided to try our hands at a fighting game, SNK felt we just had to have a geezer who used the Drunken Fist form of martial arts. Getting the OK, SNK introduced this character as Athena's teacher. As we aimed to create a genuine Drunken Fist master, SNK thought it would be hard to get the right touch, but since designer was good at drawing old guys, the finished product far exceeded original expectations. Unfortunately for the designer, he was unable to shake this habit and all of his subsequent characters tended to look like spry old men.

Mai Shiranui : Regarding Mai's familiar pause action... One day, the designer for Mai asked if it was all right to increase Mai's pause actions, and because the powers that be thought there was enough remaining memory for the game (actually there wasn't) they said, 'Go for it'. When the completed pose was presented, it knocked people flat. Due to this pose's potency, however, Mai's eye-popping motions were stilled in the KOF '94 international home version.

King : As far as King's super special moves go, there were various reasons why the 'Surprise Rose' was initially scheduled to be scrapped. Just when the development staff was worrying about coming up with a move that was something different, though, King's designer whipped this move up, it was well received, and it became her super special move, with no alterations needed.

Heavy D! : Since there has been a number of boxers in fighting games, Heavy D! was designed with the intent to create a different type of pugilist. When he first appeared on the drawing board, D! was not intended to be that big a character, but as he evolved and stood among the other characters it became apparent that he was one huge dude. ...Due to certain production circumstances, however, D! kept his imposing stature and came to be the character he is today.

Lucky Glauber : Known as the basketball fighter, Lucky's original image was based on the character appearing in the Bruce Lee movie, 'Game of Death'. Though originally created with that image in mind, his first design was deemed too plain and he then received his current look. His ability to use karate, though, is a remnant of his original conception.

Brian Battler : Brian came into being well before the KOF project came down the pike, and he's one of the oldest characters. He originally wore a helmet and chest pad, but he shed that equipment to arrive at his current design.

Kim Kaphwan : At first, the duo of Chang and Choi were set to team with another vicious criminal to form the Fugitive Team, but due to certain circumstances the third criminal was replaced with Kim and the familiar team came into being. The addition of Kim was considered somewhat forced, however, so Kim received the mission of rehabilitating the two.

Chang Koehan : Chang was originally far more violent than he is today, but once he teamed up with Kim, he became mellowed a bit. Chang's super special move, the Wild Ball, was originally designed as a test move, but it got such a good response that it was put into the game without alteration. This move is a pastiche of Kim's Phoenix Kick.

Choi Bounce : Choi is KOF's mighty novelty character. His original design looked way too much like a certain someone, so he was hastily given a new look a month before the final character designs had to be completed, giving Choi's designers one major headache. The first time Choi displayed his attacking and retreating moves and rolled around the screen, he revealed not only his fighting abilities but his talent for physical comedy.

An interesting thing about Chang and Choi : Chang was the tallest and heaviest KOF character, while Choi was the lightest and shortest. The duo is very popular in Japan, but hated by American fans. Because of their size differences, they have made a (quite) comedic couple, making the Korean team (or the Kim team) the comedy-relief team of KOF.

Rugal Bernstein : The concept for this character at the time was to make the mightiest (most violent) and most evil boss character ever. As everyone knows, Rugal is the King of Bosses who boasts the most appearances in the KOF series as a boss character, but even considering the whole genre known as 'competitive fighting games', his story and moves have changed ever so gradually while appearing in so many titles, he's one of the few bosses to have been loved (heh, heh) over such a long period.

Ralph and Clark are playable characters in the Foma 90x Series Mobile Phones game 'Metal Slug Survivors'.

Brazil Stage's background music (Jungle Bouncer) samples "Surprise! You're Dead!", a song from Faith No More (1989).

The background music from USA Stage (Slum No. 5), Japan Stage (Esaka) and the 2nd Rugal Stage (Showdown R & D) all contain voice samples from "Gutfest '89", a song from Digital Underground.

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (The King of Fighters '94 - PCCB-00162) on 21/10/1994.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Select Victory Pose : Press a Punch or Kick button immediately after winning a match.

* Critical Hit Oddity : A critical hit is an attack done at the opponent while he/she is attacking. In this game there is a bug that enables either the CPU or the player to take out insane amounts of damage if this is done right. An easy-to-do example is to counter Kim's Hisho-Kyaku with Heidern's Moon Cutter (you must hit Kim's legs with Heidern's hand), if done right you'll take 80-90% off Kim's life-bar in one hit! Try it with other characters and be amazed (This does not work in any other game in the KOF series, though!). :)

* Beat the game without continuing to see all the characters grouped together on the The End screen.

- SERIES -

1. The King of Fighters '94 [Model NGM-055] (1994, Arcade)
2. The King of Fighters '95 [Model NGM-084] (1995, Arcade)
3. The King of Fighters '96 [Model NGM-214] (1996, Arcade)
4. The King of Fighters '97 [Model NGM-232] (1997, Arcade)
5. The King of Fighters '98 - The Slugfest [Model NGM-242] (1998, Arcade)
6. The King of Fighters '99 - Millennium Battle [Model NGM-251] (1999, Arcade)
7. The King of Fighters 2000 [Model NGM-257] (2000, Arcade)
8. The King of Fighters 2001 [Model NGM-262] (2001, Arcade)
9. The King of Fighters 2002 - Challenge to Ultimate Battle [Model NGM-265] (2002, Arcade)
10. The King of Fighters 2003 [Model NGM-271] (2003, Arcade)
11. The King of Fighters NeoWave (2004, Arcade)
12. The King of Fighters Maximum Impact (2004, PS2)
13. The King of Fighters XI (2005, Arcade)
14. The King of Fighters Maximum Impact 2 [Model SLPS-25638] (2006, PS2)
15. The King of Fighters Maximum Impact - Regulation A (2007, Arcade)
16. The King of Fighters Maximum Impact - Regulation A2 (2008, Arcade)
17. The King of Fighters '98 - Ultimate Match (2008, Arcade)
18. The King of Fighters XII (2009, Arcade)
19. The King of Fighters XIII (2010, Arcade)
20. The King of Fighters XIII Climax (2012, Arcade)

- STAFF -

Executive producer : Eikichi Kawasaki
Producer : Takashi Nishiyama
Chief director : M. Kuwasashi
Sub director : Haruo Tomita, Yosisi Hashimoto
System director : Toyochan
System editor : Khozoh Nagashima (as K. -Mac- Nagashima)
Graphic director : Mitsuo Kodama
Front designers : Yoshiko Kubo, Tatsuya Shinkai, Koji Hamada, Tatsuru Murakemi, Peach Hagihara, Mai-Yamasaki, Nobunaga Mikan, Morioka Shinichi, Akihiko Nasu, Miki Asakura, Jetta, Yuichirow Hiraki, Yoshiko Ogata, Masa Sato, Kazuhiro Toba, Yujirou Hayami, Miho Uematsu, Akiko Yukawa
Back designers : Kenta-Ro, Tsugumi Maeda, Hirolin hajime, Sahori Etoh, Eri Kohjitani, Kaori Kusunoki
Programmers : Shinchan (as 'Shinchan-Gts'), S. Fujinuki
Sound : Masahiko Hataya (Papaya), Brother Hige, Pearl Sibakiti, Ackey

* Voice Actors :
Terry Bogard : Satoshi Hashimoto
Andy Bogard : Jun Hashimoto
Joe Higashi : Katsuhisa Namase
Athena Asamiya : Reiko Fukui
Sie Kensou : Eiji Yano
Brian Battler : Eiji Yano
Chin Gentsai : Toshikazu Nishimura
Kyo Kusanagi : Masahiro Nonaka
Benimaru Nikaido : Monster Maetsuka
Choi Bounce : Monster Maetsuka
Ralf Jones : Monster Maetsuka
Goro Daimon : Masaki Usui
Ryo Sakazaki : Masaki Usui
Heavy D! : Toshikazu Nishimura
Lucky Glauber : Kazuhiro Inage (Key Inage)
Robert Garcia : Kazuhiro Inage (Key Inage)
Kim Kaphwan : Satoshi Hashimoto
Chang Koehan : Hiroyuki Arita
Heidern : Toshimitsu Arai
Clark Steel : Yoshinori Shima
Mai Shiranui : Akoya Sogi
King : Harumi Ikoma
Yuri Sakazaki : Kaori Horie
Takuma Sakazaki : Eiji Tsuda
Rugal Bernstein : Toshimitsu Arai

Special thanks : Y. Tozono, Hiroto Ikuta, Mitsuru, Shinsuke, Takayuki Mizono, Souji Takamori, Kentarou Isomura, Hiroto Kittaka, Masa Naganuma, Hideki G. Smith, Y.Gushiken,
Secret A., Ossan Kick S.O, M. Yamamoto, Hangyojin-F, Omega 1, Omega 2, Omega 3, Kiritao, Mermaid Blue, Kanitaro, Omega Z

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo AES (Oct. 01, 1994; "The King of Fighters '94 [Model NGH-055]")
[US] SNK Neo-Geo AES (Oct. 01, 1994; "The King of Fighters '94 [Model NGH-055]")
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo CD (Nov. 2, 1994; "The King of Fighters '94 [Model NGCD-055]")
[US] SNK Neo-Geo CD (???. ?, 1994; "The King of Fighters '94 [Model NGCD-055E]")
[JP] Sony PS2 (Dec. 28, 2004; "The King of Fighters '94 Re-Bout [Model SLPS-25448]")
[JP] Sony PS2 (Dec. 28, 2004; "The King of Fighters '94 Re-Bout [Model SLPS-25449]")
Nintendo Wii [Virtual Console] [JP] (Nov. 06, 2007; "The King of Fighters '94 [Model EAGJ]")
Nintendo Wii [Virtual Console] [EU] (Nov. 23, 2007; "The King of Fighters '94 [Model EAGP]")
Nintendo Wii [Virtual Console] [US] (Jan. 07, 2008; "The King of Fighters '94 [Model EAGE]")
[US] Sony PS2 may.05, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model SLUS-21724]"
[US] Sony PSP may.05, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model ULUS-10338]"
[KO] Sony PS2 may.29, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model SLKA-25424]"
[US] Nintendo Wii jul.29, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model RVL-P-RNCE]"
Nintendo Wii (Oct.2008, "The King of Fighters Collection: The Orochi Saga")
Sony PlayStation 2 (Oct.2008, "The King of Fighters Collection: The Orochi Saga")
Sony PSP (Oct.2008, "The King of Fighters Collection: The Orochi Saga")
[EU] Sony PSP Oct. 17, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model ULES-01105]"
[EU] Nintendo Wii Oct. 31, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model RVL-P-RJZP]"
[EU] Sony PS2 Nov. 21, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model SLES-55232]"
[JP] Sony PSP May. 21, 2009 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model ULJS-193]"
Sony PlayStation Store (Dec.2010)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=kof95h

The King of Fighters '95 (c) 1995 SNK [Shin Nihon Kikaku].

- TECHNICAL -

[Model NGH-084]
250 Mega

- TRIVIA -

This AES version was released on September 01, 1995 in Japan (2 months after the original MVS release).
 
For more information about this game itself, please visit the original MVS section : "The King of Fighters '95 [Model NGM-084]".

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=47816&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=kof95,kof95a

The King of Fighters '95 (c) 1995 SNK.

8 teams comprised of 3 characters each square off again to take out Rugal Bernstein.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID : NGM-084

[SNK MVS Neo-Geo Controls]
2 players - 4 buttons per player.
[JOYSTICK] 8-way, [A] Weak punch, [B] Weak kick, [C] Strong punch, [D] Strong kick

- TRIVIA -

Released in July 1995.

The background for the Japan Team is, in fact, a real place.

Yuri's Chou Upper is very similar to Sakura's own Shou'ou Ken.

Iori Yagami : Since the KOF '95 project began with the concept of introducing Iori as Kyo's rival, he became known as a character who was a member of a rival school of martial arts that had a connection to the Ancient Arts of the Kusanagi. He was also given the ability to use a different color of flames other than Kyo's (red flames), along with various other characteristics. When you think of Iori Yagami, his intense personality most likely comes to mind. His moves are unique, and his singular choice of hairstyle, wardrobe, and manner of speaking was certainly a personality that broke the mold for characters in fighting games at that time. During the initial location tests to determine the popularity of the game, Iori was the character who stood out most. His hair and his lines to provoke his opponents ('You think I'm scary, do you?') excited his fans to no end. What set him apart are his memorable lines: 'You cry! You scream! Then you die!', 'Think of me when you gaze at the moon', and a whole catalog of others too numerous to list here.

Billy Kane : Along with Eiji, Billy appears as Iori's 'teammate' (ha, ha) in KOF'95. With the three rivals to the heroes coincidentally appearing on a single team, the name of the 'Rival Team' was decided upon as an afterthought. But since we couldn't wait for the rest of the world to get used to that concept and given the insanity of Iori, the team had to disband after their single appearance in KOF'95. As memory serves, the designers for this team were so motivated to create this team that their finished product was quite impressive. As a matter of fact, the voice actors worked like busy beavers to give the characters their lines. These characters were portrayed by Mr. Namase in '95, Mr. Yamanishi in '97, '98 and '02 and Seijiro in '03.

Omega Rugal : After apparently dying in KOF '94, Rugal's resurrection in KOF '95 turned him, convincingly enough, into a cyborg (prosthetic arms) armed (pardon the pun) with the power of the Orochi. In the subsequent titles of KOF '98 and KOF 2002, Rugal was brought back not once but twice to conclude story-lines. Why? "He's the only character who truly represents the ultimate KOF boss". Among these, Omega Rugal from KOF '98 was the most powerful and had the flashiest moves, so he's one of our personal favorite boss characters of the series.

Saisyu Kusanagi : His first appearance was, of course, in KOF '94, but his presence in KOF '95 was never planned (because he was supposed to have died in '94). During the final stages of KOF '95, he suddenly was inserted as a mid-level boss. That's who Saisyu Kusanagi is. Given that spur of the moment appearance, it's quite unexpected that he's still a very popular character? no offense to him, mind you. During location tests for the game, not one of his fans read the Chinese characters for his name as 'Saisyu', and he came to be known as 'Shibafune'.

Ralph and Clark are playable characters in the Foma 90x Series Mobile Phones game 'Metal Slug Survivors'.

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (The King of Fighters '95 - PCCB-00187) on 19/08/1995.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Play as Rugal and Saisyu Kusanagi : At the team edit screen, the 15 second counter, press and hold Start. While holding start, push Up+B, Right+C, Left+A and Down+D. The two bosses should then appear on either side of the counter and the counter should reset back to 15.

* Select Victory Pose : Press a Punch or Kick button immediately after winning a match.

* Beat the game on Hard or MVS mode without continuing to see a collage of all the teams after the credits.

- SERIES -

1. The King of Fighters '94 [Model NGM-055] (1994, Arcade)
2. The King of Fighters '95 [Model NGM-084] (1995, Arcade)
3. The King of Fighters '96 [Model NGM-214] (1996, Arcade)
4. The King of Fighters '97 [Model NGM-232] (1997, Arcade)
5. The King of Fighters '98 - The Slugfest [Model NGM-242] (1998, Arcade)
6. The King of Fighters '99 - Millennium Battle [Model NGM-251] (1999, Arcade)
7. The King of Fighters 2000 [Model NGM-257] (2000, Arcade)
8. The King of Fighters 2001 [Model NGM-262] (2001, Arcade)
9. The King of Fighters 2002 - Challenge to Ultimate Battle [Model NGM-265] (2002, Arcade)
10. The King of Fighters 2003 [Model NGM-271] (2003, Arcade)
11. The King of Fighters NeoWave (2004, Arcade)
12. The King of Fighters Maximum Impact (2004, PS2)
13. The King of Fighters XI (2005, Arcade)
14. The King of Fighters Maximum Impact 2 [Model SLPS-25638] (2006, PS2)
15. The King of Fighters Maximum Impact - Regulation A (2007, Arcade)
16. The King of Fighters Maximum Impact - Regulation A2 (2008, Arcade)
17. The King of Fighters '98 - Ultimate Match (2008, Arcade)
18. The King of Fighters XII (2009, Arcade)
19. The King of Fighters XIII (2010, Arcade)
20. The King of Fighters XIII Climax (2012, Arcade)

- STAFF -

Executive producer : Eikichi Kawasaki
Producer : Takashi Nishiyama
Chief director : M. Kuwasashi
Sub director : Toyochan, Haruo Tomita, Namaan-Hiroto
System director : Toyochan
System editor : Khozoh Nagashima (as 'K. -Mac- Nagashima')
Front designers : Tatsuya Shinkai, Tatsuru Murakemi (as 'Ru!Murakemi'), C.A.C. Yamasaki, Goro Hamada, Akihiko Nasu, Yuichirow Hiraki, Ha Gi Ha Ra, H. Otani, Miki Asakura, Yoshiko Ogata, Jacky Sato, Kazuhiro Toba (as 'Toba'), Hayamiponbashi, Miho Uematsu, Akiko Yukawa, Shinsuke Yamamoto, Kalkin Mizuno, K. Isomura, Hiroto Kittaka, Kohrin, Meguronomikan, Red Hawk
Back designers : Jetta, Hayashi K-34, Tsugumi, Sahori Etoh (as 'Sahori-E24'), Eri Kohjitani, Kaori Kusunoki (as 'Kusunoki-084'), Souzi Takamori
Programmers : Shinchan (as 'Shinchan-R32'), S. Fujinuki, Cyber Kondo
Sound-music : Masahiko Hataya (Papaya), Tate Norio, Brother Hige, Pearl Sibakiti, Ackey
Sound effects : Yamapy-1, Macky, Mitsuo, Sha-V, Kyo-Chan

* Voice Actors :
Kyo Kusanagi : Masahiro Nonaka
Benimaru Nikaido : Monster Maetsuka
Goro Daimon : Masaki Usui
Yuri Sakazaki : Kaori Horie
Mai Shiranui : Akoya Sogi
King : Harumi Ikoma
Iori Yagami : Kunihiko Yasui
Billy Kane : Katsuhisa Namase
Eiji Kisaragi : Yoshinori Shima
Terry Bogard : Satoshi Hashimoto
Andy Bogard : Keiichi Nanba
Joe Higashi : Nobuyuki Hiyama
Ryo Sakazaki : Masaki Usui
Robert Garcia : Kazuhiro Inage (Key Inage)
Takuma Sakazaki : Eiji Tsuda
Athena Asamiya : Moe Nagasaki
Sie Kensou : Eiji Yano
Chin Gentsai : Toshikazu Nishimura
Kim Kaphwan : Satoshi Hashimoto
Choi Bounce : Monster Maetsuka
Chang Koehan : Hiroyuki Arita
Heidern : Toshimitsu Arai
Ralf Jones : Monster Maetsuka
Clark Steel : Yoshinori Shima
Saisyu Kusanagi : Keiichirou Sakaki
Omega Rugal : Toshimitsu Arai

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo AES (Sep. 01, 1995; "The King of Fighters '95 [Model NGH-084]")
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo CD (Sep. 29, 1995; "The King of Fighters '95 [Model NGCD-084]")
[JP] Sega Saturn (Mar. 28, 1996; "The King of Fighters '95 [Model T-3101G]")
[JP] Nintendo Game Boy (Apr. 26, 1996; "Nettou The King of Fighters '95 [Model DMG-AKFJ-JPN]")
[JP] Sony PlayStation (june.28, 1996; "The King of Fighters '95 [Model SLPS-00351]")
[JP] Sega Saturn (Dec. 31, 1996; "Gentei KOF Double Pack [Model T-3110G]")
[JP] Sony PlayStation (Mar. 28, 1997; "The King of Fighters '95 [The Best] [Model SLPS-91026]")
[JP] Sega Saturn (Oct. 01, 1998; "The King of Fighters Best Collection [Model T-3125G]")
[JP] Sony PS2 (Apr. 20, 2006, "The King of Fighters - Orochi Hen [NeoGeo Online Collection Vol.3] [Limited Edition] [Model SLPS-25535]")
[JP] Sony PS2 (Apr. 20, 2006, "The King of Fighters - Orochi Hen [NeoGeo Online Collection Vol.3] [Model SLPS-25605]")
[JP] Sony PS2 (june.21, 2007, "The King of Fighters - Orochi Hen [NeoGeo Online Collection The Best] [Model SLPS-25791]")
[US] Nintendo Wii (Oct.2008, "The King of Fighters Collection: The Orochi Saga")
[US] Sony PS2 (Oct.2008, "The King of Fighters Collection: The Orochi Saga")
[US] Sony PSP (Oct.2008, "The King of Fighters Collection: The Orochi Saga")
Nintendo Wii [Virtual Console] [US] (apr.26, 2010)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$info=kof96h

The King of Fighters '96 (c) 1996 SNK [Shin Nihon Kikaku].

- TECHNICAL -

[Model NGH-214]
362 Mega

- TRIVIA -

This AES version was released on September 27, 1996 in Japan and United States of America (2 months after the MVS release).

For more information about the game itself, please go to the original MVS section : "The King of Fighters '96 [Model NGM-214]".

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$info=kof96

The King of Fighters '96 (c) 1996 SNK.

The 3rd chapter in this groundbreaking series brings 27 classic SNK characters together against Goenitz, the final boss.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID : NGM-214

[SNK MVS Neo-Geo Controls]
2 players - 4 buttons per player.
=> [Joystick] 8-way, [A] Weak Punch, [B] Weak Kick, [C] Strong Punch, [D] Strong Kick

- TRIVIA -

Released in July 1996.

This is the first game to include special phrases and poses when two characters in particular fight. In this game, it happens only with Kyo Vs. Iori, Terry Vs. Geese and Ralf Jones vs Clark Steel.

Ryo Sakazaki's fighting stance changed from the regular 'dukes up' to try and distance him from being thought of as a Ryu ripoff. His basic moves, however, remained unchanged.

Yuri's Yuri Chou Mawashi Geri is a knock-off of Ryu's Tatsumaki Senpuu Kyaku.

If you look at the game code for this game, you would have seen more moves that were originally planned for this game, but never made the cut (for some characters, these moves debuted in later games).
Among those moves that were cut were Kyo's Saishuu Kessen Ougi 'Mu Shiki', Daimon's Arashi no Yama, Robert's Muei Senpuu Juudan Kyaku, Ralf's Umanori Vulcan Punch, Clark's Running Three, Geese's Deadly Rave and Choi's Hou'ou Kyaku.

Geese's music (Geese ni Katakori) is a remixed version of his Fatal Fury 1 theme music (Geese ni Kiss).
A remixed version of Big Shot! (originally Terry's theme music in "Fatal Fury 3 - Road to the Final Victory") was used as the Fatal Fury Team's music.

About Leona : Along with the extensive overhaul to the team lineup of KOF '96, Leona entered the series as a replacement for Heidern, leader of the Ikari Team. Introducing the plot element of Heidern's adopted daughter had been dreamed up by the game designers before the production of KOF '96, and the details surrounding her origins gradually came to include a crucial role as a descendant of the Orochi tribe. Designed with the ardent love of her designers, Leona's special moves are markedly unique compared to the other characters, and reveal the particular tastes of her designers.

About Mature : She used to be Rugal's secretary. For the chief game planner at the time, it seems that both she and Vice were given the image of the 'ruthless woman' and the 'cruel woman' respectively, but when they became actual characters things got a little hectic, and someone came up with, 'Rugal had a secretary, didn't he. Make it two and run with that'. So these two characters came into being (Talk about slacking off). Consequently, they received additional characteristics : they were actually spies sent to observe Rugal and the descendants of the Orochi 8ketsu Clan.

About Vice : If Mature was the 'ruthless woman', Vice was to be the 'cruel woman'. The official illustrations for Vice and Mature remain extremely popular, and we're glad we could supply our fans with these images that cannot be reduced to pixels. The period of development for KOF '96 dragged on right up to the time of its scheduled release. At the location test for this title, Mature and Vice were still not included in the game. It's not that they were hidden, but there wasn't enough time to insert them into this initial version (we can talk about this calmly now, but at the time...forget about it!).

About Goenitz : In spite of the fact of Goenitz's sole official appearance in '96, he continues to have a considerable following of fans to this day, making him one of KOF's most popular characters. With strength that surpasses Rugal, the boss character of '94 and '95, the episode of the young Goenitz taking out the eye of Rugal was added to the game's story. Rugal, in turn, relieved Heidern of one of his eyes, which makes us think that SNK sure seems to have a lot of one-eyed characters, witness Gilbert, Jubei Yagyu, and Ramon. If you look carefully at the Goenitz the designer drew at the time (with a little help), you'll notice the shiver-inducing moment in which Goenitz appears to have six fingers.

About Geese Howard : The dream event for SNK's most recognizable characters! ...and what dream event would be complete without the appearance of Geese? Naturally, he's the character who people hope appears in the game each year, and there were plans to have him appear in KOF '95 long before. Various considerations at the time, however, led developers to abandon this plan. Then, with the time being ripe, Geese reappeared in KOF '96. Even throughout the game, this boss team received special treatment : things like leitmotif music were prepared for each member and at the time of this title's release, enthusiasm for this game reached a feverish pitch. Numerous special moves were prepared for Geese, but in view of the memory capacity and time required for adjustments, a good number of Super Special Moves had to be left out. A waste, really...

About Wolfgang Krauser : In KOF '96 the Boss Team was formed! And with that, Krauser entered the tournament, teaming up with his half brother Geese... but at the time, in terms of memory limitations and the KOF system of that time, it was a tough environment to faithfully depict the Krauser of Fatal Fury. Developers still cringe remembering the numerous criticisms, big and small, regarding the Fatal Fury Team's treatment. KOF '96 saw the debut of Krauser as a player character, but in the ending sequence he did make a cameo in KOF '94.

About Mr. BIG : For a variety of reasons, the Krauser of KOF got a bad rap, but BIG received favorable reviews from the fans. BIG is an austere villain brimming over with adult appeal-that's the character of Mr. BIG. The behavior of the women who hang with him also is based on a certain video the designers of the time often watched. The woman mutters, "He's bad", but just what does that actually mean? The truth remains a deep mystery. During the development stage, a positive slide for his Super Special Moves included one labeled "Spinning Stick Thrust, Kind of Like an Anti-Air Assault". We'd like to think that the move wasn't scrapped because of the vagueness of its name, but it's too bad the general public never got to see it. It rocks!

Leona, Ralph and Clark are playable characters in the Foma 90x Series Mobile Phones game 'Metal Slug Survivors'.

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (The King of Fighters '96 - PCCB-00223) on 21/08/1996.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Alternate costume colors : press D when selecting a fighter on the character selection screen.

* Select victory pose : press a Punch or Kick button immediately after winning a match.

* Finish the game using one of these combinations to see the special endings :
1) Chizuru, Kyo, Iori
2) Goenitz, and 2 more characters except Chizuru

- SERIES -

1. The King of Fighters '94 [Model NGM-055] (1994, Arcade)
2. The King of Fighters '95 [Model NGM-084] (1995, Arcade)
3. The King of Fighters '96 [Model NGM-214] (1996, Arcade)
4. The King of Fighters '97 [Model NGM-232] (1997, Arcade)
5. The King of Fighters '98 - The Slugfest [Model NGM-242] (1998, Arcade)
6. The King of Fighters '99 - Millennium Battle [Model NGM-251] (1999, Arcade)
7. The King of Fighters 2000 [Model NGM-257] (2000, Arcade)
8. The King of Fighters 2001 [Model NGM-262] (2001, Arcade)
9. The King of Fighters 2002 - Challenge to Ultimate Battle [Model NGM-265] (2002, Arcade)
10. The King of Fighters 2003 [Model NGM-271] (2003, Arcade)
11. The King of Fighters NeoWave (2004, Arcade)
12. The King of Fighters Maximum Impact (2004, PS2)
13. The King of Fighters XI (2005, Arcade)
14. The King of Fighters Maximum Impact 2 [Model SLPS-25638] (2006, PS2)
15. The King of Fighters Maximum Impact - Regulation A (2007, Arcade)
16. The King of Fighters Maximum Impact - Regulation A2 (2008, Arcade)
17. The King of Fighters '98 - Ultimate Match (2008, Arcade)
18. The King of Fighters XII (2009, Arcade)
19. The King of Fighters XIII (2010, Arcade)
20. The King of Fighters XIII Climax (2012, Arcade)

- STAFF -

Producer : Takashi Nishiyama
Chief Director : Kuwayan
System Director : Toyochan
Sub Director : Toyochan, Haruo Tomita, Namaan-Hiroto, T. Hosokawa
System Editor : Khozoh Nagashima (as K. -Mac- Nagashima)
Front Designers : Tatsuru Murakemi (as Tatsuru-Man), C.A.C. Yamasaki, Goro Hamada, Akihiko Nasu, Yuichirow Hiraki, Hagihara Shagiko, Naisyo...., Miki Asakura, Joe-Terry Sato, Kazuhiro Toba (as 'Toba'), ....., Miho Uematsu, Akiko Yukawa, Shinsuke Yamamoto, Kalkin Mizuno (as Kal Mizuno), Mitsuru Kawasaki, Kohrin, Nishida Mika, T. I-NO-U-E, 44Oka, Aska Tahara
Back Designers : Sahori Etoh (as 'Etosan'), Manoru, Bibidebabidebu, Tsugumi A., Eri Kohjitani, Kaori Kusunoki (as '214 Kusu'), Souzi Takamori, M. Yokoyama, Muneki Raishi
Programmers : Shinchan (as 'Shinchan-R32'), S. Fujinuki, Cyber Kondo
Sound : SHA-V, Konny, Masahiko Hataya (Papaya), Toshio Shimizm (as 'Shimizm'), Yamapy-1, Tate Norio, Brother Hige, Ackey, Miwa

* Voice Actors :
Kyo Kusanagi : Masahiro Nonaka
Benimaru Nikaido, Ralf Jones, Choi Bounce : Monster Maetsuka
Goro Daimon, Ryo Sakazaki : Masaki Usui
Mai Shiranui : Akoya Sogi
King : Harumi Ikoma
Kasumi Todoh, Vice, Leona : Masae Yumi
Iori Yagami : Kunihiko Yasui
Mature : Hiroko Tsuji
Terry Bogard, Kim Kaphwan : Satoshi Hashimoto
Andy Bogard : Keiichi Nanba
Joe Higashi : Nobuyuki Hiyama
Robert Garcia : Mantaro Koichi
Yuri Sakazaki : Kaori Horie
Athena Asamiya : Tamao Satou
Sie Kensou : Eiji Yano
Chin Gentsai : Toshikazu Nishimura
Clark Steel, Goenitz : Yoshinori Shima
Chang Koehan : Hiroyuki Arita
Geese Howard : Kong Kuwata
Mr. Big : Masaru Naka
Wolfgang Krauser : B. J. Love
Chizuru Kagura : Akiko Saitou

Special Thanks To : Y. Inui, Team POW, Team Syunsuke '96, M. Yasuda, Kazu. Takinaka

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo AES (Sep. 27, 1996; "The King of Fighters '96 [Model NGH-214]")
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo CD (Oct. 25, 1996; "The King of Fighters '96 [Model NGCD-214]")
[JP] Sega Saturn (Dec. 31, 1996; "The King of Fighters '96 [Model T-3108G]")
[JP] Sega Saturn (Dec. 31, 1996; "The King of Fighters '96 [Model T-3109G]")
Sega Saturn  [JP] (Dec. 31, 1996; "Gentei KOF Double Pack [Model T-3110G]")
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo CD (Feb. 14, 1997; "The King of Fighters '96 [NeoGeo Collection] [Model NGCD-229]")
[JP] Sony PlayStation (jul.04, 1997; "The King of Fighters '96 [Model SLPS-00834]")
[JP] Nintendo Game Boy (Aug. 08, 1997; "Nettou The King of Fighters '96 [Model DMG-AK6J-JPN]")
[JP] Sony PlayStation (jul.23, 1998; "The King of Fighters '96 [The Best] [Model SLPM-86110]")
[JP] Sega Saturn (Oct. 01, 1998; "The King of Fighters Best Collection [Model T-3125G]")
[JP] Sony PS2 (Apr. 20, 2006, "The King of Fighters - Orochi Hen [NeoGeo Online Collection Vol.3] [Limited Edition] [Model SLPS-25535]")
[JP] Sony PS2 (Apr. 20, 2006, "The King of Fighters - Orochi Hen [NeoGeo Online Collection Vol.3] [Model SLPS-25605]")
[JP] Sony PS2 (june.21, 2007, "The King of Fighters - Orochi Hen [NeoGeo Online Collection The Best] [Model SLPS-25791]")

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$info=kof97oro

The King of Fighters '97 Oroshi Plus 2003 (c) 2003 Unknown.

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$info=kof97pls

The King of Fighters '97 Plus (c) 2003 Unknown.

This hack "The King of Fighters '97" unlocks 6 new characters : Orochi Iori, Orochi Leona, Orochi Yashiro, Orochi Shermie, Orochi Chris and Orochi the final boss.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.

Players : 2
Control : 8-way Joystick
Buttons : 4
=> [A] Weak Punch, [B] Weak Kick, [C] Strong Punch, [D] Strong Kick

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$info=kof97h

The King of Fighters '97 (c) 1997 SNK [Shin Nihon Kikaku].

- TECHNICAL -

[Model NGH-232]
460 Mega

- TRIVIA -

This AES version was released on September 25, 1997 in Japan and United States of America (2 months after the original MVS release).

For more information about this game itself, please visit the original MVS release : "The King of Fighters '97 [Model NGM-232]".

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$info=kof97,kof97k

The King of Fighters '97 (c) 1997 SNK.

9 teams of 3 and 2 solo entries pump the number of selectable characters up to 29 in a battle to defeat the evil Orochi and those infected with his blood.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID : NGM-232

[SNK MVS Neo-Geo Controls]
2 players - 4 buttons per player.
[JOYSTICK] 8-way, [A] Weak punch, [B] Weak kick, [C] Strong punch, [D] Strong kick

- TRIVIA -

Released in July 1997.

Yuri has a long record of taking movements from other characters, especially Capcom (see previous KOF entries). In this new opus : Yuri's new special attack 'Hien Rekkou' is a knock off of Ken's Shoryuu Reppa.

Roddy and Cathy from "Top Hunter - Roddy & Cathy" appear in the Kowloon background at the extreme left.
Other characters appearing in the Kowloon stage are : Roddy Birts and Lenny Creston from "Art of Fighting 3 - The Path of the Warrior".
The American Sports team from "The King of Fighters '94".
Lee Pai Long, Tung Fu Rue and Jubei Yamada from "Art of Fighting" and "Fatal Fury Special" and King's Waitresses with Rugal's panther.

The Terry's theme music was originally from "Real Bout Fatal Fury Special".
The Ryuji Yamazaki and Mary's Blues theme music was originally from "Real Bout Fatal Fury Special".
The Athena Asamiya thene music come from "Psycho Soldier".

The name of the 3 characters instrumental in the defeat of Orochi have some relation to the original legend :
1) Kyo Kusanagi : The Kusanagi is the name of the sword that was used to kill the Great Serpent.
2) Iori Yagami : One of his moves, the Ya Sakazuki, means '8 wine cups', which were needed to get the Great Serpent drunk.
3) Chizuru Kagura : She was the last surviving member of the Yata clan and the mirror used to seal Orochi away was a homage to the mirror in the legend (in the legend, it was a mirror created by the Great Serpent's tears).

In this iteration of KOF and the following games where he is a playable character, Choi Bounge gains a special throw (using the D button) where he pokes his claws up the opponents rear, this is actually supposed to be a Japanese prank, but the pranksters do not use claws.

About Ryuji Yamazaki : To bring the story that had grown too large and out of control back on track, the members of the Orochi 8ketsu Clan were teamed up in '97. By doing this, the dev. team thought, the story would reach its conclusion for the time being... but among the 3 new faces including Leona's father Gaidell, the dev. team lacked one more member for the 8ketsu. What should we do?... And along came Ryuji Yamazaki to bail us out of our predicament. A snake charmer that even looked like a snake, he became a popular villain. He once humbled himself, joined up with the Fatal Fury team, and blended into the world of KOF more than we had predicted. The game planner at that time really knocked himself out to provide new moves for Yamazaki. Idea after idea got a short trip to the circular file (Attract opponent after Snake Charmer move; Seven Serpent Dagger Throw, etc.), and those failures led to successful moves like the Sand Sweeper.

About Blue Mary : Receiving the strong support of fans in a magazine's popularity poll, Blue Mary made her name known to the public, appearing in KOF from '97. Losing to Blue Mary in the popularity contest, as a matter of fact, was Duck King. This popularity contest truly decided the fate of these 2. From '97 to '03, Mary became a regular to the series for the staff. Duck, on the other hand, hit the skids, and he was relegated to cameos at the side of screens, in backgrounds, or as a Striker character. Doesn't this fleeting episode make you think about the impermanence of everything? Since the designer in charge of Mary preferred her outfit in "Fatal Fury 3 - Road to the Final Victory", she's kept that look until now. It seems to have worked.

About Yashiro Nanakase : Yashiro's team was created to offset the remaining top 3 characters. With the combination of their use of 3 elements-Kyo and Chris representing fire, Benimaru and Shermie signifying lightning, and Daimon and Yashiro standing in for the earth-the concept for Yashiro and his cohorts as rivals to the series' heroes was further emphasized. It also explains the battle of hairstyles (and bands, too) between Yashiro and Iori. In consideration to events going on in the world today, designers have expiated some of Yashiro's more wicked ending lines-such as, 'Execution, accomplished.'-and tossed them into the dustbin of game history. Incidentally, some of the production codes for his Super Special Move commands consisted of moves like the '260 Million Slams'. Some of his dumped moves included 'Human Surfing'.

About Shermie : Shermie is a glamorous girl who works as a fashion designer and plays in a band as a hobby. But in fact she is one of the 4 Orochi leaders who's adept at body slams. Come to think of it, she's quite an enigmatic character. The material for Shermie the 'Raging Lightning Flash' comes from L the Third. And even more trivia : the character of Yashiro comes from Bl.. G... Xa..gle and the character of Chris is derived from A.T. V...ms. The design for Shermie was easily decided on. Given her long bangs that will absolutely never reveal her eyes, she was called Tesse from "Waku Waku 7" at one time. Her hidden eyes burn with a homicidal glare it is said, but there's no material that reveals what her face actually looks like.

About Chris : Chris can kill with an innocent smile on his face-kind of a creepy personality trait, come to think of it (but he looks so cute, doesn't he?). To pull things together and bring the story concerning the leaders of the Orochi and the 8-ketsu clan to its climax once and for all in '97, a lot of story elements were forced onto Chris who became the vessel fort the Orochi (this actually began from the early stages of production). And there's a story behind Chris's Super Special Move line, 'Ripping the chrysalis, the butterfly flutters'.

About Orochi : At first, designers planned a rather extreme setting in which a buck-naked Chris battled with a glowing energy ball, but for better or worse went with the current design (A survey of the designers garnered a mere 2 votes for the design for a buck-naked Chris). Incidentally, his design codename was 'Chief'. A lot of people were against the name 'Orochi', too, but these days it has become a firmly established proper noun in gaming lingo.

About Orochi Iori : The powers that be, who created the stories for the boss characters to heat things up for the series with KOF '97, first decided to make the final boss an Orochi to conclude the series' "Orochi Saga". The stage bosses were an easy choice : the 3 remaining characters of the Four Orochi Deities. This was followed with the suggestion to make the final boss Iori, 'berserk with the Orochi blood rage'. So the 'Minor', 'Middle', and 'Major' bosses were decided, with the 'Orochi Iori' we know and love rounding off the quartet as the final boss. Because this character was originally designed as a player character at the time, he's designed to mow down the other characters with relative ease.

About Orochi Leona : If Iori appeared berserk with the Orochi blood, the other successor in the bloodline of the 8-ketsu Clan, Leona, was also destined to go berserk someday. That's how this character came about. But inexplicably the design team wanted to heat up battles against the computer. So various sequences such as televised broadcasts were added, and provided a turn of nail-biting events that sent players to a 'fork in the game' that would pit them up against either Orochi Iori or Orochi Leona in the end. But savvy players who knew how to get a character to appear would be able to select their particular routes.

About Kyo Kusanagi Version '94 : Along with KOF '96 game system changes, Kyo got a new arsenal of different Special Moves, and the wielder of the 'Dark Thrust' was as popular as ever. And designers also added the KOF '94 version of Kyo Kusanagi to satisfy all our fans. Designers were apprehensive about returning to the old character design, but this all disappeared with the warm acceptance of fans.

About Shingo Yabuki : : The code name for this character in the early stages was 'Shingo Suzuki'. The plainness of his name conversely suited Shingo quite well, we thought, but what do you think ? He was originally based on Kyo with the concept of becoming a comic, everyday guy foil, but in spite of our intention to promote him simply and plainly, he was splashed all over the place and his silhouette appeared in pre-promotion campaigns in magazines, becoming an extensively hyped character. And his voice was supplied by the famous Japanese voice actor Taketo Koyasu. And one more thing, Shingo is a character who can't shoot flames. And probably never will.

The dialogue heard during the Title Screen music (4th Fire) goes as follows:
"They're back to the heat... For the answer they've long been searching for.
Is it their fate, or just a bloody coincidence? It shall be clear, as three powers will be as one...
Now, the fourth phase is about to begin!
The King of Fighters '97.
The story moves towards its violent destiny."

A hack of this game is known as "The King of Fighters '97 Plus" and allows you to play evil versions of Leona, Iori and the Orochi team plus Orochi himself.
Another hack is known as "King of Gladiator".

Leona, Ralph and Clark are playable characters in the Foma 90x Series Mobile Phones game 'Metal Slug Survivors'. 

Pony Canyon released a 2 CD limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (The King of Fighters '97 - PCCB-00273) on 20/08/1997.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Play as KOF94 style Kyo Kusanagi : highlight Kyo, hold START and press any button.

* Play as Orochi Iori : at the character select screen, highlight Iori, then hold Start and press Left, Right, Left, Right, Left, Right, Left, Right, Left, Right, A+C.

* Play as Orochi Leona : at the character select screen, highlight Leona, then hold Start and press Up, Down, Up, Down, Up, Down, Up, Down, Up, Down, B+D.

* Play as Orochi New Team : enter the Orochi Leona code, then return to the character section screen, hold Start and press Up, Left, Down, Right, Up, Down, B+C.

* Select victory pose : press a Punch or Kick button immediately after winning a match.

* Preview Power Ase : hold Start while choosing your fighter order and a face will appear over each person. If the face is neutral, your power will get passed on. If the face is smiling, your power will get passed on, with one additional one. If the face is angry, you will lose your power.

* Seven Iori in screen : play Iori vs Iori both in extra mode charge powers, both Iori should be in full screen gape one Iori should live power with (A) and rapidly max with (C), second Iori should press (A+B) rapidly (F,D,F+A) than rapidly round joystick clockwise 4,5 times. You can see seven Iori in screen. NOTE WHEN SECOND IORI WILL PRESS (A+B) FIRST IORI POWER SHOULD TOUCH TO THE SECOND.

* Finish the game using one of these combinations to see the special endings :
1) Kyo, Shingo, and anyone except Iori or Benimaru
2) Kyo, Iori, Chizuru
3) Yuri, King, Mai
4) Ralf, Clark, Athena
5) Kyo, Terry, Ryo
6) Benimaru, Joe, Kim
7) Terry, Mary, Joe (only in the Japanese version)
8) Kyo, Mai, Billy (only in the Japanese version)
9) Yamazaki, Chang, Choi (only in the Japanese version)

- SERIES -

1. The King of Fighters '94 [Model NGM-055] (1994, Arcade)
2. The King of Fighters '95 [Model NGM-084] (1995, Arcade)
3. The King of Fighters '96 [Model NGM-214] (1996, Arcade)
4. The King of Fighters '97 [Model NGM-232] (1997, Arcade)
5. The King of Fighters '98 - The Slugfest [Model NGM-242] (1998, Arcade)
6. The King of Fighters '99 - Millennium Battle [Model NGM-251] (1999, Arcade)
7. The King of Fighters 2000 [Model NGM-257] (2000, Arcade)
8. The King of Fighters 2001 [Model NGM-262] (2001, Arcade)
9. The King of Fighters 2002 - Challenge to Ultimate Battle [Model NGM-265] (2002, Arcade)
10. The King of Fighters 2003 [Model NGM-271] (2003, Arcade)
11. The King of Fighters NeoWave (2004, Arcade)
12. The King of Fighters Maximum Impact (2004, PS2)
13. The King of Fighters XI (2005, Arcade)
14. The King of Fighters Maximum Impact 2 [Model SLPS-25638] (2006, PS2)
15. The King of Fighters Maximum Impact - Regulation A (2007, Arcade)
16. The King of Fighters Maximum Impact - Regulation A2 (2008, Arcade)
17. The King of Fighters '98 - Ultimate Match (2008, Arcade)
18. The King of Fighters XII (2009, Arcade)
19. The King of Fighters XIII (2010, Arcade)
20. The King of Fighters XIII Climax (2012, Arcade)

- STAFF -

Producer : Takashi Nishiyama
Chief director : Toyohisa Tanabe
Sub director : Haruo Tomita, Tomoko, Namaan-Hiroto, T. Hosokawa, K. Hikida (Yanya)
System editor : Khozoh Nagashima (as K. -Mac- Nagashima)
Front designers : 8Shiro-7Kase, C.A.C. Yamasaki, Wormhead Hagi, Mina Kawai, Shio Shio Shio, Miki Asakura, Miho Uematsu, Akiko Yukawa, Shinsuke Yamamoto, Mitsuru Kawasaki, Hiroto Kittaka, T. I-NO-U-E, 44Oka, Aska Tahara
Back designers : Sahori Etoh (as Sahori), Pal Co. Ltd., Manoru, Kaori Kusunoki, Souzi Takamori, K, M. Yokoyama, Muneki Raishi, Kanamaru
Special effects : T Shin, Nishida Mika, K. Isomura, -------M--------, Kohrin
Programmers : S. Fujinuki, Cyber Kondo, Souta Ichino
Sound : SHA-V, Toshio Shimizm (as 'Shimizm'), Jojoha Kitapy, Yamapy-1, Tate Norio, Ackey, Kyo-Chan, Zoe, Marimo
Adjusters : Kiyoshi Asai, Tubolin-Sawa, NWO-Melon
Bug checkers : Anne, Y. Gushiken?, Sanpo, Y. Kabashima, Hanyao, Tomo Chan

* Voice Actors :
Kyo Kusanagi : Masahiro Nonaka
Benimaru Nikaido, Ralf Jones, Choi Bounce : Monster Maetsuka
Goro Daimon, Ryo Sakazaki : Masaki Usui
Terry Bogard : Satoshi Hashimoto
Andy Bogard : Keiichi Nanba
Joe Higashi : Nobuyuki Hiyama
Robert Garcia : Mantaro Koichi
Yuri Sakazaki : Kaori Horie
Leona : Masae Yumi
Clark Steel : Yoshinori Shima
Athena Asamiya : Yukina Kurisu
Sie Kensou : Eiji Yano
Chin Gentsai : Toshikazu Nishimura
Chizuru Kagura : Akiko Saitou
Mai Shiranui : Akoya Sogi
King : Harumi Ikoma
Kim Kaphwan : Satoshi Hashimoto
Chang Koehan : Hiroyuki Arita
Yashiro Nanakase : Makoto Awane
Shermie : Hazuki Nishikawa
Chris : Rio Ogata
Ryuji Yamazaki : Koji Ishii
Blue Mary : Harumi Ikoma
Billy Kane : Atsushi Yamanishi
Iori Yagami : Kunihiko Yasui
Shingo Yabuki : Takehito Koyasu
Yuki (Kyo's girlfriend) : Tomoko Kojima

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo AES (Sep. 25, 1997; "The King of Fighters '97 [Model NGH-232]")
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo CD (Oct. 30, 1997; "The King of Fighters '97 [Model NGCD-232]")
[JP] Sega Saturn (mar.26, 1998; "The King of Fighters '97 [Model T-3120G]")
[JP] Sega Saturn (mar.26, 1998; "The King of Fighters '97 [Model T-3121G]")
[JP] Sony PlayStation (may.28, 1998; "The King of Fighters '97 [Model SLPM-86084]")
[JP] Sega Saturn (Oct. 01, 1998; "The King of Fighters Best Collection [Model T-3125G]")
SNK Neo-Geo Pocket [JP] (Oct. 28, 1999; "King of Fighters R-1 [Pocket Kakutou Series] [Model NEOP00010]")
[JP] Sony PlayStation (june.24, 1999; "The King of Fighters '97 [The Best] [Model SLPM-86245]")
[JP] Sony PlayStation (Mar. 27, 2003; "The King of Fighters '97 [PSone Books] [Model SLPS-91511]")
[JP] Sony PS2 (Apr. 20, 2006, "The King of Fighters - Orochi Hen [NeoGeo Online Collection Vol.3] [Limited Edition] [Model SLPS-25535]")
[JP] Sony PS2 (Apr. 20, 2006, "The King of Fighters - Orochi Hen [NeoGeo Online Collection Vol.3] [Model SLPS-25605]")
[JP] Sony PS2 (june.21, 2007, "The King of Fighters - Orochi Hen [NeoGeo Online Collection The Best] [Model SLPS-25791]")

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$info=kof98h

The King of Fighters '98 - Dream Match Never Ends (c) 1998 SNK [Shin Nihon Kikaku].

- TECHNICAL -

[Model NGH-242]
683 Mega

- TRIVIA -

This AES version was released on September 23, 1998 in Japan.

For more information about this game itself, please go to the original MVS release : "The King of Fighters '98 - The Slugfest [Model NGM-242]".

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$info=kof98,kof98a,kof98k,kof98ka

The King of Fighters '98 - The Slugfest (c) 1998 SNK.

The King of Fighters '98: The Slugfest is a one-on-one fighting game for one or two players, featuring 38 selectable characters. As with previous games in the series, players can choose between two different playing styles: Advance and Extra. 

* Extra is similar to "King of Fighters '94" and is more suited to defensive play, as the fighters only have one power gauge and cannot run. They can instead sidestep to avoid incoming attacks and can also perform unlimited super moves when their energy is low. 

* Advanced mode gives the fighters the evasive roll introduced in "King of Fighters '96" and lets them store up to three full power gauges at once. This means they can choose to expend a gauge to get a damage boost, rather than letting it happen automatically. It also allows fighters to use more than one gauge to inflict more powerful versions of their super moves (instead of having to wait until their health is low). Fighters can also expend a gauge to quick roll out of an attack after successfully blocking it.

Both the 'Extra' and 'Advanced' modes have been tweaked since the previous game. Unlike KOF '97, fighters will return to normal if they perform a Super Special Move in MAX state. Also, when a fighter loses a round, they are given a handicap in their favour. In Extra mode, the time it takes to charge their power gauge to its maximum level is shortened. In Advance mode, the fighter's stock capacity of Power Gauges is increased by one.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID : NGM-242

[SNK MVS Neo-Geo Controls]
2 players - 4 buttons per player.
[JOYSTICK] 8-way, [A] Weak punch, [B] Weak kick, [C] Strong punch, [D] Strong kick

- TRIVIA -

Released in July 1998.

This game is known in Japan as "The King of Fighters '98 - Dream Match Never Ends".

It is said that this game is a 'dream match' for more reasons than one - this KOF is said to exist only in Shingo's dream - each character in this dream match was Shingo's impression of these characters, based on either personal experience or his notes in his notebook.

Yuri has a long record of taking movements from other characters, especially Capcom (see previous KOF entries). In this new opus : Yuri's new special attack 'Shin! Chou Upper' is a knock off of Ryu's Shin Shoryuu Ken. She also has a movement similar to Terry's burn knuckle. Finally, her Forward+A is a parody of Sakura's Flower Kick.

KOF98 contains pieces of music from older KOFs.
For example, the character select music when a second player joins in is straight from KOF 96 (it's called Roulette).
Here's a complete list of themes, the teams (or individuals) they belong to and the games they were taken from :
Esaka? (Japan Team) : KOF 96 (Japan Team's theme music).
Esaka (95-style Kyo Kusanagi) : KOF 94 (Japan Team's theme music).
Kurikinton (Fatal Fury Team) : Fatal Fury 2 (Terry Bogard's theme music).
Art of Fight (Art of Fighting Team) : Art of Fighting (Ryo Sakazaki's and Ryuhaku Todo's theme music).
Rumbling in the City (Ikari Team) : KOF 96 (Ikari Team's theme music).
Shin! Senritsu no Dora (Psycho Soldier Team) : KOF95 (Psycho Soldier Team's theme music).
Fairy (Gals Fighters Team) : KOF 96 (Chizuru Kagura's theme music).
Seoul Town (Korea Team) : Real Bout Fatal Fury (Kim Kaphwan's theme music).
Bloody (New Face Team) : KOF 97 (New Face Team's theme music).
Rhythmic Hallucination (Orochi Yashiro) : KOF 97 (Orochi New Face Team's theme music).
C62 (Ryuji Yamazaki) : Real Bout Fatal Fury Special (Ryuji Yamazaki's theme music).
Blue Mary's Blues (Blue Mary) : Real Bout Fatal Fury Special (Blue Mary's theme music).
London March (Billy Kane) : Real Bout Fatal Fury Special (Billy Kane's theme music).
Arashi no Saxophone (Iori Yagami) : KOF 95 (Revenge Team's theme music).
Arashi no Saxophone 2 (Mature, Vice) : KOF 96 (Iori Team's theme music).
Slum No. 5 (USA Sports Team) : KOF 94 (USA Sports Team's theme music).
Still Green (Shingo Yabuki) : KOF 97 (Shingo Yabuki's theme music).
Ketchaku R&D (Omega Rugal) : first half from KOF 94 (Rugal Bernstein's theme music), second half from KOF 95 (Omega Rugal's theme music).
Ne! ('94 Gals Fighters Team) : KOF 94 (Gals Fighters Team's theme music).

Also to note that the music that is played prior to facing Rugal (Kettou R&D) is also from KOF 94 (as the theme for Rugal's first form).

When Choi Bounge appears, a 7 seconds sample from a song is played. This song is 'Choi Bounge Ondo', which appeared in the KOF 97 Arrange SoundTracks. The song became quite popular in Japan.

Mr. Big from "Art of Fighting" makes a small cameo appearance in the USA Wharf background, during the first rounds.

About Kyo Version 95 : Because the introduction of different versions for this character included as "hidden features" in KOF '97 was such a hit with fans, designers thought, another version of Kyo in KOF '98 would make the game more inviting. Designers also remember that both versions for Kyo Kusanagi for game tests were equally popular. This concept for different versions of this character subsequently became the basis for the 'Kyo clones'.

In the Japan Street stage, during the second round if you look in the middle of the background where some shops are, you can see tiny moving people who look like Iori, Mai and Terry Bogard. In the third and fifth round, you can see two people doing hand signals, they look similar to Kyo Kusanagi & Shingo Yabuki. In the fourth round, you can see Mai and Terry.

A serious bug : Using a USA bios rom if you insert a coin on the 'winners don't use drugs' screen on a single slot the games will use the neo+geo bios s1 tile-set rather than the game tiles, this causes most of the graphics to be hidden and the games to be unplayable, it will also end up using the main-board z80 bios so sound will be broken, the games should fix themselves if you let them run another attact loop after game over, on a multi-slot the games will reset. This is one of the first 4 'gigapower' games, the bug was fixed after that.

Leona, Ralph and Clark are playable characters in the Foma 90x Series Mobile Phones game 'Metal Slug Survivors'.

Soundtrack releases:
[JP] Aug. 19, 1998; The King of Fighters '98 - Dream Match Never Ends [PCCB-00334] - Pony Canyon.
[JP] Sep. 18, 1998; The King of Fighters '98 - Dream Match Never Ends Arrange Sound Trax [PCCB-00337] - Pony Canyon.
(JP] Oct. 07, 1998; The King of Fighters '98 - Dream Match Never Ends Drama CD [PCCB-00339] - Pony Canyon.

- UPDATES -

At the Intro music (CIPHER) and the Staff Roll BGM (ZERO) a sample used says 'mot*er fu**er'. Apparently, this sample was removed in some non-Japanese carts.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Orochi Team (Evil Chris, Evil Shermie, Evil Yashiro) : at the Character select screen, hold Start and press any button on the normal team (Chris, Shermie, Yashiro).

* KOF94 Art of Fighting characters (Ryo, Robert, Yuri) : at the character select screen, hold Start and press any button on the Art of Fighting characters.

* KOF95 style Kyo : at the Character select screen, hold Start on Kyo and press any button.

* Real Bout 2 characters (Mai, Terry, Andy, Billy) : at the Character select screen, hold Start on the respective characters and press any button.

* View attitudes : hold Start at the match-up screen to view the attitudes of your opponents.

* Select victory pose : immediately press A, B, C, or D after defeating your opponent.

* Fight Vs Shingo Yabuki : you must win the first three levels by 3-0.

* Finish the game using one of these combinations to see the special endings :
1) Kyo, Shingo, Saisyu
2) Kyo, Iori, Chizuru
3) Kyo, Iori, Shingo
4) Kyo, Saisyu, Chris
5) Kyo, Terry, Ryo
6) Benimaru, Andy, Robert
7) Goro, Joe, Yuri
8) Terry, Clark, Lucky
9) Ryo, Yuri, Takuma
10) Yuri, Mai, Athena
11) Heidern, Ralf, Leona
12) Yashiro, Chris, Yamazaki
13) Rugal, Vice, Mature
14) Shermie, Vice, Mature
15) Shingo, Chris, Kensou
16) Kim, Saisyu, Takuma
17) Billy, Joe, Chang
18) Chin, Chang, Choi

- SERIES -

1. The King of Fighters '94 [Model NGM-055] (1994, Arcade)
2. The King of Fighters '95 [Model NGM-084] (1995, Arcade)
3. The King of Fighters '96 [Model NGM-214] (1996, Arcade)
4. The King of Fighters '97 [Model NGM-232] (1997, Arcade)
5. The King of Fighters '98 - The Slugfest [Model NGM-242] (1998, Arcade)
6. The King of Fighters '99 - Millennium Battle [Model NGM-251] (1999, Arcade)
7. The King of Fighters 2000 [Model NGM-257] (2000, Arcade)
8. The King of Fighters 2001 [Model NGM-262] (2001, Arcade)
9. The King of Fighters 2002 - Challenge to Ultimate Battle [Model NGM-265] (2002, Arcade)
10. The King of Fighters 2003 [Model NGM-271] (2003, Arcade)
11. The King of Fighters NeoWave (2004, Arcade)
12. The King of Fighters Maximum Impact (2004, PS2)
13. The King of Fighters XI (2005, Arcade)
14. The King of Fighters Maximum Impact 2 [Model SLPS-25638] (2006, PS2)
15. The King of Fighters Maximum Impact - Regulation A (2007, Arcade)
16. The King of Fighters Maximum Impact - Regulation A2 (2008, Arcade)
17. The King of Fighters '98 - Ultimate Match (2008, Arcade)
18. The King of Fighters XII (2009, Arcade)
19. The King of Fighters XIII (2010, Arcade)
20. The King of Fighters XIII Climax (2012, Arcade)

- STAFF -

Producer : Takashi Nishiyama
Chief director : Toyohisa Tanabe
Sub director : Haruo Tomita, Honey-Bunny-Kaju, Tak.Yamashita, Hiroto Namada, T. Hosokawa, K. Hikida (Yanya), Tomonori Kamio
System editor : Khozoh Nagashima (as K. Nagashima)
Demo designers : Kalkin Mizuno, Dandy, Matuisan!, M. Yokoyama, Masato
Special effects : Nishida Mika, Aoyama
Programmers : S. Fujinuki, Cyber Kondo, Souta Ichino
Sound : SHA-V, Tate Norio, Marimo
Adjuster : Kiyoshi Asai, Hataboh de Go!, M-Panic! Plus
Bug Checker : Anne, Sanpo, H. Shimmei, R. Tsune, 8097 :K.I (Non)

* Front Designer :
Chief : Blaster-Lu
Kyo, Shingo : Akiko Yukawa
Ryo : Mitsuru Kawasaki, T. I-NO-U-E
Benimaru, Iori, Yamazaki : Miki Asakura
Robert, Lucky : Mitsuru Kawasaki
Daimon, Terry, Takuma : Shinsuke Yamamoto
Yuri, Brian : Mina Kawai
Leona, Ralf, Clark, Heidern : Dear Ichi Jerry
Andy, Athena, Chizuru, Mai, Rugal : C.A.C. Yamasaki
Joe, Billy : Hiroto Kittaka
Kim, Heavy D! : T. I-NO-U-E
Kensou, Chin, Choi : 44Oka
Chang, Mary, Saisyu : Tahara Ujyu-
Yashiro : Shio Shio Shio
Shermie, King : Miho Uematsu
Chris : Hiroto Kittaka
Mature/Vice : Shio Shio Shio, Miho Uematsu, Akiko Yukawa
Chief : Yurika

* Back Designer :
JPN-Street Stage : Manoru
USA-Yard Stage : Tohru Nakanishi
China Stage : K.W
JPN-Temple Stage : Yurika
Korea Stage : Tsugumi A.
USA-Wharf Stage : Tsugumi A.
Mid-East Stage : Muneki Raishi
Rugal Stage : Souzi Takamori
Spain Stage : M.K

* Voice Actors :
Kyo : Masahiro Nonaka
Daimon/Ryo : Masaki Usui
Benimaru/Ralf/Choi : Monster Maetsuka
Terry/Kim : Satoshi Hashimoto
Andy : Keiichi Nanba
Joe : Nobuyuki Hiyama
Robert : Mantaro Koichi
Yuri : Kaori Horie
Leona/Vice : Masae Yumi
Clark : Yoshinori Shima
Athena : Haruna Ikezawa
Kensou/Brian : Eiji Yano
Chin/Heavy D! : Toshikazu Nishimura
Chizuru : Akiko Saitou
Lucky : Kazuhiro Inage (Key Inage)
Mai : Akoya Sogi
Chang : Hiroyuki Arita
Yashiro : Makoto Awane
Shermie : Hazuki Nishikawa
Chris : Rio Ogata
Yamazaki : Koji Ishii
Billy : Atsushi Yamanishi
Rugal/Heidern : Toshimitsu Arai
Takuma : Eiji Tsuda
Saisyu : Keiichirou Sakaki
King/Mary/Announce : Harumi Ikoma
Mature : Hiroko Tsuji
Shingo : Takehito Koyasu
Iori : Kunihiko Yasui

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo AES (Sep. 23, 1998; "The King of Fighters '98 - Dream Match Never Ends [Model NGH-242]")
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo CD (Dec. 23, 1998; "The King of Fighters '98 - Dream Match Never Ends [Model NGCD-2420]")
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo CD (Dec. 23, 1998; "The King of Fighters '98 - Dream Match Never Ends [Limited Edition] [Model NGCD-24201]")
SNK Neo-Geo Pocket Color [JP] (Mar. 19, 1999; "King of Fighters R-2 [Pocket Kakutou Series] [Model NEOP00230]")
[JP] Sony PlayStation (Mar. 25, 1999; "The King of Fighters '98 - Dream Match Never Ends [Model SLPM-86201]")
Sega Dreamcast [JP] (june.24, 1999, "The King of Fighters - Dream Match 1999 [Model T-3101M]")
[JP] Sony PlayStation (Mar. 09, 2000; "The King of Fighters '98 - Dream Match Never Ends [SNK Best Collection] [Model SLPM-86435]")
Sega Dreamcast [JP] (Dec. 21, 2000, "The King of Fighters - Dream Match 1999 [Dreamcast Collection] [Model T-3105M]")
[JP] Sony PlayStation (Mar. 27, 2003; "The King of Fighters '98 - Dream Match Never Ends [PSone Books] [Model SLPS-91512]")

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$info=kof99h

The King of Fighters '99 - Millennium Battle (c) 1999 SNK [Shin Nihon Kikaku].

- TECHNICAL -

[Model NGH-251]
673 Mega

- TRIVIA -

This AES version was released on September 23, 1999 in Japan and United States of America. It includes a Neo-Geo KOF99 telephone card.

Related Coin-Op video game: "The King of Fighters '99 - Millennium Battle [Model NGM-251]".

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$info=kof99,kof99k,kof99p,kof99e,kof99ka

The King of Fighters '99 - Millennium Battle (c) 1999 SNK.

Introducing the new 'striker' system! Each team is expanded to four characters, with a total of 30 selectable characters set on defeating Krizalid and his evil feather coat.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID : NGM-251

[SNK MVS Neo-Geo Controls]
2 players - 4 buttons per player.
[JOYSTICK] 8-way, [A] Weak punch, [B] Weak kick, [C] Strong punch, [D] Strong kick

- TRIVIA -

Released on July 22, 1999 in Japan.

The Fatal Fury Team music theme is a remixed version of Terry's theme in "Fatal Fury Wild Ambition".

About K' (K Dash) : K' initially sported a slicked back hairstyle, but this was nixed by the powers that be and that's how the 'hairdo' for the hero of the NESTS Chronicles got changed. The reason for his hair being bushier than need be may be a reflection of the conditions around him. "Garou - Mark of the Wolves" was being developed concomitantly with KOF '99, so the staff learned that MOW's main character (Rock) looked like K' (causing the supervising designer to lose a few pounds from panic).

About Maxima : With the growing influence of teenagers, it seems the concept for Maxima evolved from a desire to introduce a sober and reliable middle-age character (sad state of affairs though when a twenty-something male is referred to as 'middle-aged'). The designers were initially supposed to design a character that used body slams, but the finished character became a fist-fighter. Strange how things happen, isn't it? Maxima was originally modified by the male scientist Dr. Makishima, but in a serialized KOF comic that came out in Hong Kong, he, for some reason, became a 'beautiful woman doctor'. This comic is hard to get your hands on in other parts of the world, but check it out if you have the opportunity.

About Whip : The plan was to introduce this character in KOF '96, but since Leona was already a part of the Ikari Team she began her series of appearances in KOF '99. Since Leona exposes comparatively more skin, Whip sports less revealing but body-hugging fashions that leave a little more to the imagination. The number of dots used on Whip's whip were reduced to express a feeling of speed and power - a daring method of expression. The supervising designer was sweating bullets over this when the design was checked (he feared he'd be accused of slacking off), but in the end the concept was approved without incident. The designers hoped that she would be accepted as an independent, whip-brandishing character rather than just another member of the Ikari Team.

About Pao : Due to circumstances regarding the game structure, a new character had to be added to the Psycho Soldier Team, and various ideas for this additional character were formulated. Some of these included: 'a younger idol from Athena's agency'; 'a love rival pitted against Kensou', 'a mighty male character with a scary appearance but a heart of gold and a love of nature', 'an old woman who looks after Chin Gentsai', and many others. With the appearance of Pao, the average age of the Psycho Soldier Team dropped dramatically...or was supposed to, but things didn't actually change that much (it dropped from 42 to 34 years old).

About Li Xiangfei : When development began for KOF '99, the designers grappled over which character from Real Bout 2 to choose, Rick Stroud or Li Xiang Fei. Giving the reasons that a cute female character and a Chinese boxer was desired, they unanimously selected Li Xiang Fei. Needless to say, the designers who came to this decision were all men. Typical! With the actual execution of this, however, the designers struggled to bring the character into the KOF world without ruining her image created in the Fatal Fury series. As you all know Li's move names in the Japanese version are all derived from place names in Osaka, so the designers enjoyed the work of coming up with names following this rule when new moves were added. Moves like Eiki Shuho (Vanguard Blast, in English) and Daikoku-cho (Big and Ugly Ultimatum) give her twice the appeal for local fans...

About Jhun Hoon : The savior of Chang Koehan and Choi Bounge, an evil fighter who's Kim's alter-ego, a fellow disciple who looks like Kim - these were some of the concepts for Jhun, but as you can gather from the current character he's way different from what was planned. And since he's not an evil character, this naturally meant Chang and Choi would not be saved from their predicament; so, sadly, they continue to walk the slow and steady path to redemption that they've been walking these long 10 years. Jhun is also the first character in KOF history to adopt the concept of the 'pose'. Coming up and creating this kind of move really put the designers to the test.

About Kyo Kusanagi-1 : Actually Kyo Kusanagi-1 and Kyo Kusanagi-2 were not scheduled to appear in KOF '99 at the time. Nor were Kyo or Iori Yagami supposed to either. Designers initially decided to leave them out because of the new storyline and wanted to focus more attention on the new character of K'. But for various reasons, designers came to the conclusion that designer couldn't leave these popular characters in limbo, so they got a reprieve (and a new wardrobe, too). Designers also felt the old Kyo dressed in his school uniform was necessary and hurried to include him in the game (See Kyo Kusanagi-2 for more details).

About Kyo Kusanagi-2 : Production was reaching its climax when the idea for including various Kyos was hit upon... While the staff kvetched - "Should the design for Kyo in a student's uniform come from KOF '94 or KOF '95?"; "We don't have time to think this over!" - the project head said : "Make two designs". The staff objected timidly : "Are you nuts? We don't have time for that!". So the project planner remarked, "OK, then. I'll design them". Having hung up his character-designing clothes years ago, the head planner whipped up designs Kyo Kusanagi-1 and Kyo Kusanagi-2 in no time. Naturally, designers were blown away by his mastery and speed rivaling that of a street-performing sketch artist.

Leona, Ralph and Clark are playable characters in the Foma 90x Series Mobile Phones game 'Metal Slug Survivors'.

Soundtracks:
[JP] Aug. 18, 1999; The King of Fighters '99 [PCCB-00387] - Pony Canyon
[JP] Sep. 17, 1999; The King of Fighters '99 [Arrange Sound Trax] [PCCB-00393] - Pony Canyon
[JP] Oct. 06, 1999; The King of Fighters '99 [Drama CD] [PCCB-00394] - Pony Canyon

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Play as 'Real' Kyo Kusanagi or Iori Yagami (you need to get 'K.I' on the logo screen to be able to use Kyo or Iori).
1) To get 'K', you must use a team of 4 random characters consisting at least of three of these characters : K, Maxima, Benimaru, Shingo, Whip, Kyo-1 or Kyo-2.
2) To get 'I', you must use a team of 4 random characters consisting at least of three of these characters : Leona, Athena, Bao, Xiangfei, Kasumi, Kim or Jhun.
3) Then you must defeat Kryzalid and a screen will show you how to do the code.
4) For 'Real' Kyo Kusanagi, highlight the roulette selection box. Then, hold Start and press Left, Right, Up, Left, Down, Right. Kyo's picture will replace the sun symbol to confirm correct code entry.
5) For Iori Yagami, highlight the roulette selection box. Then, hold Start and press Right, Left, Up, Right, Down, Left. Iori's picture will appear replace the cresent moon symbol to confirm correct code entry.

* Fight Kyo Kusanagi or Iori Yagami : To fight Kyo Kusanagi or Iori Yagami you must : Choose one of the 7 full teams to battle with the computer. After clearing the 5th stage take note of your Battle Ability. Defeat Kryzalid. After finishing the Boss Stage, if the Battle Ability after the 5th stage is between 200 and 280 points Iori will appear. Otherwise if the Battle Ability is above 280 points Kyo will appear.

* Display character order : hold Start when selecting your character's fighting order.

* Select victory pose : press a Punch or Kick button immediately after winning a match.

* (BUG) The Power of The 'Ko'ou Ken' : when using Takuma, activate the Counter Mode, then go to the opposite edge of the screen. Now, send a Weak (slow) Ko'ou Ken at the opponent and complete the movement for the special. The special will hit first and then the Ko'ou Ken hits the opponent in the middle of the attack. The opponent gets frozen even when it should be dizzy for the finish of the special.

* Finish the game using one of these combinations to see the special endings :
1) Kyo Kusanagi with anyone except Iori Yagami.
2) Iori Yagami with anyone except Kyo Kusanagi.

There is a different ending for some predefined Teams if Krizalid will be defeated while using a specific fighter :
1) Fatal Fury Team (Mai)
2) Psycho Soldiers Team (Kensou)

- SERIES -

1. The King of Fighters '94 [Model NGM-055] (1994, Arcade)
2. The King of Fighters '95 [Model NGM-084] (1995, Arcade)
3. The King of Fighters '96 [Model NGM-214] (1996, Arcade)
4. The King of Fighters '97 [Model NGM-232] (1997, Arcade)
5. The King of Fighters '98 - The Slugfest [Model NGM-242] (1998, Arcade)
6. The King of Fighters '99 - Millennium Battle [Model NGM-251] (1999, Arcade)
7. The King of Fighters 2000 [Model NGM-257] (2000, Arcade)
8. The King of Fighters 2001 [Model NGM-262] (2001, Arcade)
9. The King of Fighters 2002 - Challenge to Ultimate Battle [Model NGM-265] (2002, Arcade)
10. The King of Fighters 2003 [Model NGM-271] (2003, Arcade)
11. The King of Fighters NeoWave (2004, Arcade)
12. The King of Fighters Maximum Impact (2004, PS2)
13. The King of Fighters XI (2005, Arcade)
14. The King of Fighters Maximum Impact 2 [Model SLPS-25638] (2006, PS2)
15. The King of Fighters Maximum Impact - Regulation A (2007, Arcade)
16. The King of Fighters Maximum Impact - Regulation A2 (2008, Arcade)
17. The King of Fighters '98 - Ultimate Match (2008, Arcade)
18. The King of Fighters XII (2009, Arcade)
19. The King of Fighters XIII (2010, Arcade)
20. The King of Fighters XIII Climax (2012, Arcade)

- STAFF -

Producer : Takashi Nishiyama
Chief director : Hiroto Namada (as 'Namadachan'), T. Hosokawa
Sub director : Haruo Tomita, Sexy-Dynamite-Kaju, K. Hikida (Yanya), Tomonori Kamio, Strass(Woo), Toshiomi, Yukixyuki, Lonely Aoki
Design chief : Regeon.Toyanaka, (^_^)
Front designers : T. I-NO-U-E (K'/Kim), Shinsuke Yamamoto (Maxima/Terry), Miki Asakura (Benimaru/Chin), Mina Kawai (as Kawai.Sama) (Yuri/Takuma/Choi), Shio Shio Shio (Ryo/Robert), Winnie the Whipooh (Leona/Whip/Mary), Youki.T.Ohyama (Ralf), M.Endo (Clark), Akiko Yukawa (Shingo/Athena/Kasumi), Miho Uematsu (Xiangfei/King), Mitsuru Kawasaki (Kensou/Bao), Styleos (Kyo/Chang), Roppongi Marito (Jhun/Joe), C.A.C. Yamasaki (Krizalid/Andy/Mai/Iori)
Back designers : Manoru (Sewege.Sys), K. W (Park), Muneki Raishi (Alley), Tohru Nakanishi (Airport), Tsugumi A. (Museum), Nobuyuki Kobayashi (Boss)
Demo designers : Kalkin Mizuno, M. Yokoyama, Khozoh Nagashima (as K. -G3- Nagashima)
Special effects : Aooon
Programmers : Cyber Kondo, Souta Ichino, Abetak
Sound : Sha-V, Zoe, Marimo, Usako-X, Tate Norio, Toshio Shimizm (as 'Shimizm'), Hori-Hori
Adjusters : Kiyoshi Asai, Toshiyuki Hata, Haruo.K, Tomoaki Kawamoto
Bug checkers : T. Seko, M. Sawa

* Voice Actors :
K' : Yuuki Matsuda
Maxima : Katsuyuki Konishi
Benimaru Nikaido : Monster Maetsuka
Shingo Yabuki : Takehito Koyasu
Terry Bogard : Satoshi Hashimoto
Andy Bogard : Keiichi Nanba
Joe Higashi : Nobuyuki Hiyama
Mai Shiranui : Akoya Sogi
Ryo Sakazaki : Masaki Usui
Robert Garcia : Mantaro Koichi
Yuri Sakazaki : Kaori Horie
Takuma Sakazaki : Eiji Tsuda
Leona : Masae Yumi
Ralf Jones : Monster Maetsuka
Clark Steel : Yoshinori Shima
Whip : Shiho Kikuchi
Athena Asamiya : Haruna Ikezawa
Sie Kensou : Eiji Yano
Chin Gentsai : Toshikazu Nishimura
Bao : Kanako Nakano
King : Harumi Ikoma
Blue Mary : Harumi Ikoma
Kasumi Todoh : Masae Yumi
Li Xiangfei : Mami Kingetsu
Kim Kaphwan : Satoshi Hashimoto
Choi Bounce : Monster Maetsuka
Chang Koehan : Hiroyuki Arita
Jhun Hoon : Kazuya Ichijo
Kyo-1 : Masahiro Nonaka
Kyo-2 : Masahiro Nonaka
Krizalid : Yoshiyuki Iwamoto
Kyo Kusanagi : Masahiro Nonaka
Iori Yagami : Kunihiko Yasui

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo AES (Sep. 23, 1999; "The King of Fighters '99 - Millennium Battle [Model NGH-251]")
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo CD (Dec. 02, 1999; "The King of Fighters '99 - Millennium Battle [Model NGCD-251]")
[JP] Sony PlayStation (Mar. 23, 2000; "The King of Fighters '99 - Millennium Battle [Model SLPM-86462]")
Sega Dreamcast [JP] (Mar. 30, 2000, "The King of Fighters '99 Evolution [Model T-3102M]")
[JP] Sony PlayStation (Mar. 29, 2001; "The King of Fighters '99 - Millennium Battle [SNK Best Collection] [Model SLPM-86784]")
Sega Dreamcast [JP] (Oct. 25, 2001; "The King of Fighters '99 Evolution [SNK Best Buy] [Model T-3109M]")
Nintendo GBA [JP] (Jan. 01, 2002; "The King of Fighters EX - NeoBlood [Model AGB-AKOJ-JPN]")
Nintendo GBA [JP] (Jan. 01, 2002; "The King of Fighters EX - NeoBlood [Model AGB-S-FSKCKOJ]")
[JP] Sony PlayStation (jul.25, 2002; "The King of Fighters '99 - Millennium Battle [SNK Best Collection] [Model SLPS-03450]")

* COMPUTERS:
PC (MS Windows, 2000, "The King of Fighters '99 Evolution")

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$info=kf2k5uni

The King of Fighters 10th Anniversary 2005 Unique (c) 2004 Unknown.

Pirate hack of "The King of Fighters 2002 - Challenge to Ultimate Battle".

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$info=kof2000,kof2000n

The King of Fighters 2000 (c) 2000 SNK.

34 characters, plus the popular striker system, await to be selected to team up and defeat the mighty Zero and his incredible bladed coat!

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID : NGM-257

[SNK MVS Neo-Geo Controls]
2 players - 4 buttons per player.
[JOYSTICK] 8-way, [A] Weak punch, [B] Weak kick, [C] Strong punch, [D] Strong kick

- TRIVIA -

Released in July 2000.

About Ramon : This character was designed with one of Neo-Geo's major markets in mind, South America. He's a stout, masked wrestler who uses tricky body slam moves. These 3 points form the major concept behind the creation of Ramon. Ramon's designer at the time loved pro-wrestling fighting moves, and we remember him carefully studying these. The fruits of this labor crystallized themselves in the Lucha Dolore known as Ramon. With his use of 'Lucha Libre' moves and not those of traditional 'pro-wrestling', the staff team hope you can enjoy experiencing the attention to detail, intensity, and enthusiasm of Ramon's designer at that time.

About Vanessa : Vanessa's entrance in KOF at the time put a stop to the parade of increasingly younger characters appearing in the game, especially the women characters who were all teenagers for the most part. This is the reason for creating the concept of a thirty-something woman who broke all the rules and overflowed with adult appeal. Her style has become the topic of many humorous comic strips. In her first appearance in the Sega Dreamcast version of KOF '99 as a Striker character, she was a bit irreverent. And in KOF 2000, she officially entered the tournament as a player character. Designers wanted to introduce her as a player character in KOF '99, but legend has it that she had to sit it out due to certain time constraints.

About Lin : This character was selected out of the encyclopedic character background materials (whose volume would rival the Encyclopedia Britannica!) of the supervising planners. Lin is tied to the Flying Brigands 'HIzoku', who were introduced as a KOF side story in the NESTS Chronicles, but without the knowledge of the staff, and when Ron showed up in the ending sequence, there were some awfully surprised designers. With all the special moves and actions for this character the programmers and planners had a rough time working on this character. He brought tears to the eyes of the developers, but not for the usual reasons.

About Seth : Seth was created as part of a set with Vanessa, appearing for the first time in the Sega Dreamcast version of KOF '99. His initial name was 'Dick'. The name had deep significance for his designer. Based on the strong wishes of the supervising designer, the powerful image of a big, dark, middle-aged man with a Mohawk haircut who used the arts of self-defense was decided on. Since Seth was created first, Vanessa's clothes were designed to match his. This made some people surmise things like Seth was Vanessa's husband.

About Hinako Shijo : At first designers sought to create a character similar to Chie in the Japanese comic Jarinko Chie (Downtown Story) who used sumo moves. The supervising designer, however, succumbed to insistent requests to use 'a debutante', and Hinako gradually transformed into a wellborn young maiden. She was to fight barefoot, but that idea got eighty-sixed. The tape remaining on her fingers is a tiny remnant of her original concept. Since her appearance grew further and further away from that of a sumo wrestler, the names for her moves use those of actual sumo moves to preserve the essence of the sumo wrestler in her original character.

About Kula Diamond : To add dimensions to the villainous NESTS organization of the NESTS Chronicles and excitement to the story, the need to create an enemy for the huge and individualistic K' arose. Manipulator of the 'Anti-K' Arts', her ice symbolizes the foil to the flames of K'. That's what Kula Diamond's all about. During production Designers elicited the opinions of newly hired female designers regarding Kula's mannerisms to "make her girlish gestures appropriately girlish" (but left the actual design work to the veteran supervising designer). Designers think we succeeded in faithfully depicting a 14-year-old girl... Asking Kula's designer about his impressions at the time, he immediately answered : "Kula had an easy delivery. She didn't give me any pain". The actual work appeared difficult, but it seems he enjoyed his work.

About Candy Diamond : Candy is the robot you can see during Kula's Special Move displays, animated sequences, and as a Striker. Since Candy's not a player character she doesn't stand out like the other characters, but she does appear in the gut-wrenching episode that depicts her emotions for Kula when she's torched saving her mistress in the Kula ending of KOF 2000. If you haven't yet seen this, what're you waiting for? Hurry up and clear the game with Kula to find out!

About Zero : Zero is the boss of Krizalid from KOF '99, but his position in a company would be similar to that of 'division chief'. Because of his black beard and noble manner, designers are sure he's regarded as a rather scary 'division chief' in the organization. His guiltless betrayal of Krizalid speaks volumes about his true personality, in stark contrast to his dislike of traitors listed in his profile. Incidentally, The names of some of Zero's moves come from the Japanese anime 'Hokuto no Ken'.

About Diana : Diana's the Amazon featured in Kula's sequences. She used to be a top executive for NESTS but is portrayed as Kula's guardian in the background story. If you compared NESTS to a company... designers often use this metaphor, but designers don't have a clue which position would fit her or Foxy. Judging by her loathing of elite managers (college boys), designers could say she's a 'big-sister section chief' who climbed the corporate ladder with extremely hard work. Working with a "fabulous babe" boss like her would be whack (but a bit scary, though)!

Robert's 'Ryuugeki Ken' is a knock-off of the Sonic Boom (It isn't in "The King of Fighters '99 - Millennium Battle" because of its looks, despite the charging motion).

There are 2 symbolic things that tell you how the people at SNK were forseeing the end of their company. Kyo's theme is called 'Good Bye Esaka', Esaka is the avenue where the SNK building and Neo Geo Land are (Esaka means 'entrance to the hill'). The second thing is the destruction of the city that started all : South Town (Home of "Fatal Fury - King of Fighters" and "Art of Fighting" - however, note that in "Garou - Mark of The Wolves", Second South was rebuilt near South Town. Also noted is the fact that every Kyo theme before 'Tears' had 'Esaka' in it ('Esaka' in 94, 'Funky Esaka' in 95, 'Esaka?' in 96 and 'Esaka Forever' in 97).
The reason for those names is that in "The King of Fighters '94", Kyo's team stage is below a bridge in the Esaka area near SNK. In "The King of Fighters '95", they fight in front of Neo Geo Land, again, in Esaka in front of the SNK building. In "The King of Fighters '96", they fight in top of a bridge also in the Esaka area. In "The King of Fighters '97" there is no Esaka stage, however, this was supposed to be the last KOF as SNK planned to move to the Hyper NeoGeo 64, it was like a glorious farewell to KOF, however, things went different. Finally, in "The King of Fighters '98 - The Slugfest", the Esaka stage appears again; they fight below a bridge in front of the Neo Geo Land.

* Origin of Alternate Strikers :
Another Benimaru (Benimaru) : Alternate art for Benimaru.
Another K' (K') : Alternate art for K'.
Another Robert (Robert) : Alternate art for Robert (inspired from the early "Art of Fighting" days).
Athena (Athena) : Athena as she appeared in her first game, "Athena".
Baijang (Chin) : (Not too sure, but it could be Tung Fu Rue's panda).
Billy Kane (Andy) : "Fatal Fury - King of Fighters" (Andy is second banana for the good guys, Billy is second banana for the bad guys).
Chizuru Kagura (Mai) : KOF, Mai's teammate in '97/'98.
Chris (Whip) : KOF, part of the New Face Team.
Cosplayer Kyoko (Shingo) : A girl dressing up as Kyo (in his old outfit), Kyoko is the 'feminine form' of Kyo (ie, what Christina would be to Chris) - Voice by Haruna Ikezwa.
Duck King (Joe) : "Fatal Fury - King of Fighters".
Duke Edwards (Ramon) : "Burning Fight" - Voice by Kong Kuwata.
Eiji Kisaragi (Lin) : "Art of Fighting".
Fiolina Germi (Vanessa) : "Metal Slug - Super vehicle-001".
Foxy (Kula) : KOF, Kula's guardian.
Gai Tendou (Takuma) : Main character in "Buriki One in Tokyo - World Grapple Tournament '99", where Ryo has a cameo - Voice by Nobuyuki Hiyama.
Geese Howard (Terry) : Terry's old nemesis from "Fatal Fury - King of Fighters".
Goenitz (Leona) : KOF, final boss in "The King of Fighters '96".
Goro Daimon (Seth) : KOF '94-'98 (retired at the time to raise children).
Kaede (Ryo) : "The Last Blade".
Kang Baedal (Jhun) : Original design for Jhun - Voice by Eiji Takemoto.
Kaoru Watabe (Bao) : KOF (Kaoru is an Athena fan who lost both her legs and her fan letter to Athena was what made her join the '97 tournament, Kaoru now has artificial legs, thanks to Athena) - Voice by Ayako Kawasumi.
Kensou (Kensou) : Kensou as he appeared in his first game, "Psycho Soldier".
Kim Dong Hwan (Chang) : "Garou - Mark of the Wolves", Kim's older son.
Kim Jae Hoon (Choi) : "Garou - Mark of the Wolves", Kim's younger son.
Kim Sue-Il (Kim) : "Kizuna Encounter - Super Tag Battle" - Voice by Yoshiaki Fujita.
Lilly Kane (Hinako) : "Fatal Fury - King of Fighters", Billy's younger sister and Joe's girlfriend - Voice by Yumi Kakazu.
Li Xiangfei (Kasumi) : "Fatal Fury - King of Fighters", Kasumi's teammate in '99.
Mature/Vice (Iori) : Iori's teammates from '96/'98.
Nakoruru (Yuri) : "Samurai Shodown".
Rocky (Maxima) : Player 2's character from "Robo Army".
Ryuji Yamazaki (Mary) : "Fatal Fury - King of Fighters", Mary's teammate in '97/'98.
Shermie (Clark) : KOF, part of the New Face Team.
Shishi-Ou/King Lion (King) : Main villain in "Savage Reign" - Voice by Katsuhisa Nakatsuka.
Sho Kirishima (Kyo) : Original design for Kyo.
Yashiro Nanakase (Ralf) : KOF, part of the New Face Team.

* Maniac Striker Origins :
Another Iori (Iori) : Alternate art for Iori.
Cool Choi (Choi) : Alternate art for Choi.
G-Mantle (Ryo) : This character is King, appears in "Art Of Figthing 2" previous her battle in history mode.
Neo & Geo (Ramon) : They are not the SNK mascots :), they appear in the game "Quiz Daisousa Sen - The Last Count Down", where they are the private eyes Neo MacDonald and Geo Kentacky.
Thier last names are a spoof to two Fast Food restaurant chains.
Kentacky is the Japanese reading for Kentucky - Voice by Hiroyuki Arita.
Rugal Bernstein (Kula) : KOF, considered to be the 'franchise boss' (much like Bison for SF).
Saisyu Kusanagi (Kyo) : KOF, Kyo's father.
Smart Chang (Chang) : Alternate art for Chang.
Unknown (Kasumi) : "Art of Fighting", Kasumi's father (Ryuhaku Todo) - Voice by Arita Goto.

Leona, Ralph and Clark are playable characters in the Foma 90x Series Mobile Phones game 'Metal Slug Survivors'.

Soundtracks:
[JP] Aug. 23, 2000; The King of Fighters 2000 [SCDC-00035] - Scitron

- UPDATES -

Japanese vs. USA differences :
- Blood has been removed.
- Mai's chest doesn't bounce.
- The team specific ending musics have been replaced with one generic track.
- The Ikari Team's ending has been modified. In the Japanese version, Whip raises a gun and shoots Zero.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Enable the Mid-boss, Kula : put the cursor on Whip, press Start, put the cursor on Vanessa, press Start, put the cursor on Seth, press Start, put the cursor on Maxima, press Start, put the cursor on K', press Start, put the cursor on Random, press Start, now press Up, Down. Kula appears below the Random icon in 2 secs.

* Enable the Maniac Strikers : at the Striker Select Screen, highlight 'Another Striker', Press up, Left(x3), Right(x3), Down. These characters have Maniac Strikers : Chang, Choi, Iori, Kula, Kyo, Ramon and Ryo.

* Todo as Special Striker : to use Todo as your stiker, select Kasumi, then do the secret striker code Up, Left(x3), Right(x3), Down. It will show a blacken version of Todo (Kasumi's father from "Art of Fighting").

* Select victory pose : press a Punch or Kick button immediately after your opponent is defeated.

* Alternate costume colors : highlight in order Kyo, Benimaru, K', Terry, Mary, Mai, Whip or Choi, then press C+D at the character selection screen.

* Finish the game using one of these combinations to see the special endings :
1) Kyo, Iori, anyone except Kula and roulette selection.
2) Kula, any other characters.

- SERIES -

1. The King of Fighters '94 [Model NGM-055] (1994, Arcade)
2. The King of Fighters '95 [Model NGM-084] (1995, Arcade)
3. The King of Fighters '96 [Model NGM-214] (1996, Arcade)
4. The King of Fighters '97 [Model NGM-232] (1997, Arcade)
5. The King of Fighters '98 - The Slugfest [Model NGM-242] (1998, Arcade)
6. The King of Fighters '99 - Millennium Battle [Model NGM-251] (1999, Arcade)
7. The King of Fighters 2000 [Model NGM-257] (2000, Arcade)
8. The King of Fighters 2001 [Model NGM-262] (2001, Arcade)
9. The King of Fighters 2002 - Challenge to Ultimate Battle [Model NGM-265] (2002, Arcade)
10. The King of Fighters 2003 [Model NGM-271] (2003, Arcade)
11. The King of Fighters NeoWave (2004, Arcade)
12. The King of Fighters Maximum Impact (2004, PS2)
13. The King of Fighters XI (2005, Arcade)
14. The King of Fighters Maximum Impact 2 [Model SLPS-25638] (2006, PS2)
15. The King of Fighters Maximum Impact - Regulation A (2007, Arcade)
16. The King of Fighters Maximum Impact - Regulation A2 (2008, Arcade)
17. The King of Fighters '98 - Ultimate Match (2008, Arcade)
18. The King of Fighters XII (2009, Arcade)
19. The King of Fighters XIII (2010, Arcade)
20. The King of Fighters XIII Climax (2012, Arcade)

- STAFF -

* Consoles :
SNK Neo-Geo [JP] (Dec. 21, 2000; "The King of Fighters 2000 [Model NGH-257]")
Sega Dreamcast [JP] (Aug. 08, 2002; "The King of Fighters 2000 [Model T-47303M]")
Sony PS2 [JP] (Nov. 28, 2002; "The King of Fighters 2000 [Model SLPS-25156]")
Nintendo GBA [JP] (Jan. 01, 2003, "The King of Fighters EX 2 - Howling Blood [Model AGB-AEXJ-JPN]")
Sony PS2 [JP] (Nov. 17, 2004; "The King of Fighters 2000 [SNK Best Collection] [Model SLPS-25429]")
Sony PS2 [JP] (Apr. 17, 2007; "The King of Fighters - Nests [NeoGeo Online Collection Vol.7] [Model SLPS-25661]")
Sony PS2 [JP] (may.29, 2008; "The King of Fighters - Nests [NeoGeo Online Collection The Best] [Model SLPS-25865]")

* Others :
Nokia N-Gage (2005, "The King of Fighters Extreme")

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo AES (Dec. 21, 2000; "The King of Fighters 2000 [Model NGH-257]")
Sega Dreamcast [JP] (Aug. 08, 2002; "The King of Fighters 2000 [Model T-47303M]")
[JP] Sony PS2 (Nov. 28, 2002; "The King of Fighters 2000 [Model SLPS-25156]")
Nintendo GBA [JP] (Jan. 01, 2003, "The King of Fighters EX 2 - Howling Blood [Model AGB-AEXJ-JPN]")
[JP] Sony PS2 (Nov. 17, 2004; "The King of Fighters 2000 [SNK Best Collection] [Model SLPS-25429]")
[JP] Sony PS2 (Apr. 17, 2007; "The King of Fighters - Nests [NeoGeo Online Collection Vol.7] [Model SLPS-25661]")
[JP] Sony PS2 (may.29, 2008; "The King of Fighters - Nests [NeoGeo Online Collection The Best] [Model SLPS-25865]")

* OTHERS:
Nokia N-Gage (2005, "The King of Fighters Extreme")

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$info=kof2001h

The King of Fighters 2001 (c) 2002 Eolith Company, Limited.

- TECHNICAL -

[Model NGH-262]
681 Mega

- TRIVIA -

Released on March 14, 2002 in Japan and United States of America.

MVS version : "The King of Fighters 2001 [Model NGH-262]".

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$info=kof2001

The King of Fighters 2001 (c) 2001 Eolith.

With the largest KOF lineup totaling at 40 characters, newcomers Eolith do a great job at delivering high quality fighting action along with one of the most difficult pairs of bosses in fighting game history!

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID : NGM-262

[SNK MVS Neo-Geo Controls]
2 players - 4 buttons per player.
[JOYSTICK] 8-way, [A] Light punch, [B] Light kick, [C] Strong punch, [D] Strong kick

- TRIVIA -

Released in October 2001.

A hack of this game is known as "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon 2003".

About Ron : the planners at the time enthusiastically came up with the idea of the Flying Brigands, the idea being to add a thrilling side story to KOF. Ron became the chief of this bunch. His first appearance came in the ending sequence for Benimaru's Team in KOF 2000. This ending sequence got first-rate reviews for its content and presentation, becoming one of the most popular episodes in the history of KOF. From KOF 2000 on, the background story became more complex on various levels, but subsequently SNK had a few problems (sniff, sniff) causing Ron's creators (the planners at the time) to go their different ways... Whenever the current staff who continue to work on KOF run into the original staff on the train to work, they are sure to grill them about Ron's background (thanks for your cooperation, by the way!). As a result of all this, he made a grand entrance as the boss characters' Striker in KOF 2001. The numerous characters who were involved with him, too, continue their exploits in the world of KOF even now. Ron is a character who uses the tricky actions from Chinese boxing and he continues work on reaching his ghoulish objective to be able to manipulate the dead. Just when he'll be able to appear as a player character is a mystery even to us...

About May Lee : one reason of existence for May came from a consideration of the needs of our Korean fans. In addition to that, Eolith, a sponsor at the time, expressed their desire for a character like a 'Korean Athena'.  This request asked for an 'idol-like visual fighter', or something along that line, and designers recall that it really threw us for a loop. Through trial and error, designers arrived at a character that was a long way from the original concept, but with this process May Lee, the perky tae kwon do fighter for justice, was born. Designers got her name from the person who was in charge of Eolith (Eolith Co., Ltd.) at the time.

About Foxy : Rumor has it that a lot of fans think Foxy died in KOF 2001, but she's alive and well (LAUGH). Initially there were no plans for her to become a player character, but her presence was needed as the story developed and she got the go-ahead. Originally Foxy was to be a character spun off from Diana, but it seems the plan just didn't work. In the end there just wasn't enough time; the graphics were worked out with great effort, but she got the boot as a result of time constraints.

About K9999 : K9999 is Eolith's homage to Tetsuo from Akira. His voice actor also did Tetsuo. For various reasons K9999 is a scary character to deal with. Of course he's based on 'you know who' and has, well, similarities that we're happy a certain 'you know who' didn't object to. If you count the similarities between 'you know who' and the other 'you know who', you'd be counting from now to St. Swithun's Day. K9999 boasts a big following of fans in Korea and Japan, but no other character has such obstacles against him appearing in KOF again.

About Angel : Angel was realized through the overwhelming passion of her designer (LAUGH). You could say that there was just no stopping him. You can see his preferences in almost every aspect of her. She's a real rascal who has a lot of special moves like the 'Unchained Circle' and is one tough customer to deal with. Designers splurged on the voice for Angel in KOF 2001 and hired Mina Tominaga, a famous Japanese voice actress. Angel's designer was quite pleased with that...

About Zero (The Original) : the supervising designer was dissatisfied with KOF 2000's Zero so he struggled with his disappointment and completed this character. Must have been that little mustache (LAUGH). And the character of Glaugan (King Lion) at his side also got nixed and wasn't used in KOF 2000 either. Talk about not getting your way! Along with polishing Zero, he was tortured with mission to realize his first boss character after leaving SNK that surpassed Krizalid's presence and strength.

About Igniz : since all designer's sponsor had to say to us-about 100 times-about Igniz was "make him hot", "make him hot", and "make him hot", Designers made him, well, a real stud. The standards for handsome characters in fighting games for Asian fans are exacting; and there is a tendency for people here to shy away from ugly and comic characters. Designer think he serves so well as a foil, the lead character comes off all the better.

Yuri's battle start pose is a knock-off of Felicia's battle start pose in "Vampire Savior - The Lord Of Vampire". Besides this, Yuri has the special attack of Gouki, the one that grabs your opponent and then the screen turns black as he gives you 30 hits in 3 seconds. This move is called the 'Yuri Chou Enbu' (means 'Yuri Super Flame Dance'). The move can only be made with the special gauge at max (with at least 1 striker - The sequence is : A, A Forward, B, C). Yuri will get Gouki's 'Messatsu' pose if you finish your opponent with it. It's a parody of Gouki's super finish splash screen (the one with the kanji 'ten' on it when he finishes his opponent with the Shun Goku Satsu).

Athena, in one of her win poses, dances about and says 'Yattai!' in a very familiar way... She's parodying Chun-Li!

The little kid that appears in Terry Bogard's win poses is none other than a young Rock Howard from "Garou - Mark of The Wolves". Since Garou takes place in 2008, Rock is still a young kid in training during this game.

Leona, Ralph and Clark are playable characters in the Foma 90x Series Mobile Phones game 'Metal Slug Survivors'.

Soundtracks:
[JP] Dec. 19, 2001; The King of Fighters 2001 - Original Sound Trax [SCDC-00143]

- UPDATES -

If you set the region to Korea in the MVS test menu, the voices of all of the Korea Team change and May Lee is renamed Lee Jinju

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Choose Your Winning Pose : Press a button immediately after beating the opponent and before the 'You Win' mark appears. Each button gives a specific winning pose.

* Secret ending: beat the game with an edit team, but K', Maxima, Whip, Kula, Angel and Foxy must be absent from it.

- SERIES -

1. The King of Fighters '94 [Model NGM-055] (1994, Arcade)
2. The King of Fighters '95 [Model NGM-084] (1995, Arcade)
3. The King of Fighters '96 [Model NGM-214] (1996, Arcade)
4. The King of Fighters '97 [Model NGM-232] (1997, Arcade)
5. The King of Fighters '98 - The Slugfest [Model NGM-242] (1998, Arcade)
6. The King of Fighters '99 - Millennium Battle [Model NGM-251] (1999, Arcade)
7. The King of Fighters 2000 [Model NGM-257] (2000, Arcade)
8. The King of Fighters 2001 [Model NGM-262] (2001, Arcade)
9. The King of Fighters 2002 - Challenge to Ultimate Battle [Model NGM-265] (2002, Arcade)
10. The King of Fighters 2003 [Model NGM-271] (2003, Arcade)
11. The King of Fighters NeoWave (2004, Arcade)
12. The King of Fighters Maximum Impact (2004, PS2)
13. The King of Fighters XI (2005, Arcade)
14. The King of Fighters Maximum Impact 2 [Model SLPS-25638] (2006, PS2)
15. The King of Fighters Maximum Impact - Regulation A (2007, Arcade)
16. The King of Fighters Maximum Impact - Regulation A2 (2008, Arcade)
17. The King of Fighters '98 - Ultimate Match (2008, Arcade)
18. The King of Fighters XII (2009, Arcade)
19. The King of Fighters XIII (2010, Arcade)
20. The King of Fighters XIII Climax (2012, Arcade)

- STAFF -

Executive producers : Jeon Ju Young, Yosh Jinno
Producer : Chil Suk Choi
Director : Lee Seon Ho
Main engineer : S. Fujinuki
Engineers : Nakamura, Koji Shinza, T. Hayashi
Demo designers : Narisato, Asuka, Eimotsu
Script writer : Teampow
Chief planners : H. Iga, Hatarow
Sequence chief : M. Ruyun
Sub planners : Kaba, Ued_Aiko
Adjusters : T-2000, Yuta Lix Sawad (as Lix), Nakasan, Jun, U_Ske, Minaru, Fujiiri
Music & Sound designers : Masahiko Hataya (as WBM M. Hataya), Kidon (as WBM Kidon)
Title designers : Naohisa Yamaguti (Naohisa's Factory)

* Front Designers :
K', Kyo, Shingo, Iori, Takuma, Angel : Styleos
Maxima, Lin, Benimaru, Seth, Mai, Hinako, Kensou, Kim, Choi, Zero, Igniz : C.A.C. Yamasaki
Whip, Leona, Ralf, Clark, Heidern, Mary, Kula, Foxy : Kii & Kuu
Drimon, Terry, Yuri : Dice
Vanessa : Kamada
Ramon, Joe, Athena, Chin : Taku & Takukko
Andy : C.A.C. Yamasaki, Taku & Takukko
Ryo, Robert, King : Kamada
Xangfei, Bad : Unotti
K9999 : Styleos, Dice, Unotti
Chang : Bandee, Taku & Takukko
May : C.A.C. Yamasaki, Kamada

* Back Designers :
Japan stage : Guttyon
Italy stage : Mae
Mexico stage : Jaepe, Nobuyuki Kobayashi
America, brazil and Igniz stage : ????
China stage : Masae M.
Korea and Zero stage : Nobuyuki Kobayashi

* Voice Actors :
K' : Yuuki Matsuda
Iori Yagami : Kunihiko Yasui
Maxima : Katsuyuki Konishi
Vanessa : Kaori Minami
Whip : Shiho Kikuchi
Seth : Hidetoshi Nakamura
Lin : Takaya Kuroda
Ramon : Eiji Takemoto
Kyo Kusanagi : Masahiro Nonaka
Leona : Masae yumi
Benimaru Nikaido : Monster Maetsuka
Ralf Jones : Monster Maetsuka
Goro Daimon : Masaki Usui
Clark Steel : Yoshinori Shima
Shingo Yabuki : Takehito Koyasu
Heidern : Toshimitsu Arai
Terry Bogard : Satoshi Hashimoto
King : Harumi Ikoma
Andy Bogard : Keiichi nanba
Mai Shiranui : Akoya Sogi
Joe Higashi : Nobuyuki Hiyama
Hinako : Ayako Kawasumi
Blue Mary : Harumi Ikoma
Li Xiangfei : Mami Kingetsu
Ryo Sakazaki : Masaki Usui
Kula : Yumi Kakazu
Robert Garcia : Mantaro Koichi
Foxy : Haruna Ikezawa
Yuri Sakazaki : Kaori Horie
K9999 : Nozomu Sasaki
Takuma Sakazaki : Eiji Tsuda
Angel : Miina Tominaga
Athena Asamiya : Haruna Ikezawa
Zero : Toshimitsu Arai
Kensou : Eiji Yano
Igniz : Norio Wakamoto
Chin : Toshikazu Nishimura
Bao : Kanako Nakano
Kim Kaphwan : Satoshi Hashimoto
Chang : Hiroyuki Arita
Choi : Monster Maetsuka
May : Tomoko Kawakami
Ron : Takaya Kuroda
Krizalid : Eiji Yand
Diana : Haruna Ikezawa
Kogorou : Eiji Yand
Hizoku Bigmen (SAI) : Takaya Kuroda
Hizoku Women (LAN) : Yumi Kakazu
Hizoku Child (CHATO) : Yumi Kakazu
Announce : Mighty Inagaki

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo AES (Mar. 14, 2002; "The King of Fighters 2001 [Model NGH-262]")
Sega Dreamcast [JP] (Dec. 26, 2002; "The King of Fighters 2001 [Model T-47304M]")
[JP] Sony PS2 (Oct. 23, 2003; "The King of Fighters 2001 [Model SLPS-25266]")
[JP] Sony PS2 (Feb. 15, 2005; "The King of Fighters 2001 [SNK Best Collection] [Model SLPS-25458]")
[JP] Sony PS2 (Apr. 17, 2007; "The King of Fighters - Nests [NeoGeo Online Collection Vol.7] [Model SLPS-25661]")
[JP] Sony PS2 (may.29, 2008; "The King of Fighters - Nests [NeoGeo Online Collection The Best] [Model SLPS-25865]")

* COMPUTERS:
PC [MS Windows] (2001?)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=kof2002,kof2002b

The King of Fighters 2002 - Challenge to Ultimate Battle (c) 2002 Playmore Corp.

The King of Fighters 2002: Challenge to Ultimate Battle is a one-on-one fighting game for one or two players and is the ninth game in the series.

The game discarded the 4-on-4 "Striker Match" format used in the previous three games in the series and returned to the 3-on-3 Battle format used prior to "King of Fighters '98".

The King of Fighters 2002 also revamped the Power Gauge system into a format similar to the one used in KOF '97. As with previous games in the series, the Power Gauge is filled as the player attacks their opponent or performs Special Moves. The number of Power Gauges the player can stock up is increased by one with each member of the team. For example, the first member of the team can stock up to three Power Gauges, while the third member can stock up to five. 

A single Power Gauge stock can be used to either perform a Counter-attack and evasion technique while guarding against an opponent's attack, to use a Super Special Move, or to initiate the MAX Activation state. The same case also applies to the 1-on-1 format, in which the Power Gauge the player can stock up is also increased by one with each round loss (for example, on the first round, the player can stock up to three Power Gauges, while losing two rounds allows the player to stock up to five).

During MAX Activation, the player's offensive and defensive strength is increased for a short period. In this state, a Super Special Move can be used without consuming Power Gauge stock. There are also MAX Super Special Moves, which are Super moves that can only be performed during MAX Activation with one Power Gauge stock, and MAX2 moves, that require two stocks while low on health.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID : NGM-265

[SNK MVS Neo-Geo Controls]
2 players - 4 buttons per player.
[JOYSTICK] 8-way, [A] Light punch, [B] Light kick, [C] Strong punch, [D] Strong kick,

- TRIVIA -

Developed by Eolith Co., Ltd.

Released in October 2002.

About Kusanagi : As the NESTS Chronicles began, Kyo's school uniform changed to a white outfit but his trademark was his black school uniform (even though he's over 20!). Because of some desired the return of the old Kyo, he was inserted into the game at the last moment. In KOF 2003, KUSANAGI was treated as phantom that Chizuru produced with the power of the Mirror of the Yata. But you can't have Kyo without a school uniform. Maybe in Chizuru's mind Kyo will always be a high school student.

About Orochi Yashiro : The characters commonly referred to as Shadow Yashiro, Shadow Shermie, and Shadow Chris were first formulated to balance out the Japan Team of Kyo, Benimaru, and Daimon. Needless to say, Yashiro was 'a character who used powerful body slams associated with the earth and earthquakes' in the same vein Daimon did. He's a dynamic guy who doesn't fret over tiny details, but his hobby is playing guitar in his band. The band's name has never been officially revealed, but it is known as 'C.Y.S.' He idolizes the guitarist Paul Gilbert, and has quite a detailed background story to him.

About Orochi Shermie : If Yashiro offsets Daimon, Shermie is Benimaru's counterpart who ''manipulates lightning and thunderclap attacks''. But the supervising planner made sure, through trial and error, Shermie would simply not become a ''female Benimaru''. Various ideas were added to make her a new, unique character. The ''Moonless Thundercloud'' Shermie heaves up with a belch is an example of this, as is the ''Willow Whip'' move she uses to mow down opponents with flailing arms. Incidentally, these moves were called the ''Explosive Belch'' and the ''Back off, You Beasty'' moves during development.

About Orochi Chris : Chris, of course, is Kyo's counterpart, 'a manipulator of flame'. At the inception of production, the plan was for Chris to use the 'Flame of Darkness (Black Flame)', but the black flames were hard to see so the designers settled for purple ones. When it came time to name Chris's arsenal of moves, we remember the director saying, 'The Dark Orochi Wave sounds good'. But other planners objected : 'It's dumb for an Orochi character to have 'Orochi Wave' as a move name. It's like saying, Call me Mr. Chris'. Regardless, the director won out.

The little kid that appears in Terry Bogard's win poses is none other than a young Rock Howard from "Garou - Mark of The Wolves". Since Garou takes place in 2008, Rock is still a young kid in training during this game.

KOF2002 contains pieces of music from older KOFs. Here's a complete list of themes, the teams (or individuals) they belong to and the games they were taken from :
Tears (Kyo Kusanagi) - "The King of Fighters '99 - Millennium Battle" (Kyo Kusanagi's theme music).
Kurikinton (Fatal Fury Team) - "Fatal Fury 2" (Terry Bogard's theme music).
Beauty & The Beast (Art of Fighting Team) - "The King of Fighters 2000" (Art of Fighting Team's theme music).
Jungle Bouncer (Ikari Team) - "The King of Fighters '94" (Ikari Team's theme music).
Psycho Soldier (Athena Asamiya) - "Psycho Soldier" (what part of the game?).
Diet (Gals Fighters Team) - "Art of Fighting 2" (Yuri Sakazaki's theme music).
Arashi no Saxophone 2 (Iori Team) - "The King of Fighters '96" (Iori Team's theme music).
Bloody (New Face Team) - "The King of Fighters '97" (New Face Team's theme music).
KD-0079 (Hero Team) - "The King of Fighters '99 - Millennium Battle" (Hero Team's theme music).
KD-0084 (2000 Team) - "The King of Fighters 2000" (Hero Team's theme music).
Seoul ni Ikou (Kim) - "Fatal Fury 2" (Kim theme music).

Soundtrack releases:
[JP] Nov. 20, 2002; The King of Fighters 2002 Original Sound Trax [SCDC-00221] - Scitron

Some known hacks of this game are known as :
"The King of Fighters 10th Anniversary - All Team Battle"
"The King of Fighters 10th Anniversary 2005 Unique"
"The King of Fighters 10th Anniversary Extra Plus"
"The King of Fighters Special Edition 2004"
"The King of Fighters 2002 Plus"
"The King of Fighters 2002 Magic Plus"
"The King of Fighters 2002 Magic Plus II"

Leona, Ralph and Clark are playable characters in the Foma 90x Series Mobile Phones game 'Metal Slug Survivors'.

- UPDATES -

If you put the game in 'Korea territory' via the MVS bios setting, all Korea Team's voices changes.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Play as Kusanagi : at the character selection screen, highlight Kyo and press Up, Down, Right, Left, Down, Up, Left, Right.

* Orochi versions of Sherimie, Chris And Yashiro : just hold down Start on them at the character selection screen. This is better than having to use some power stocks to transform in battle with the normal versions.

* Choose your winning pose : to get a specific winning pose, simply press any button just after beating the opponent.

* Alternate costume colors : all characters have 4 alternate costume colors (by pressing A, B, C or D).

* Roulette : press and hold Start at the character select screen and push any button (Press any direction on the joystick before pushing the button to select a random team).

- SERIES -

1. The King of Fighters '94 [Model NGM-055] (1994, Arcade)
2. The King of Fighters '95 [Model NGM-084] (1995, Arcade)
3. The King of Fighters '96 [Model NGM-214] (1996, Arcade)
4. The King of Fighters '97 [Model NGM-232] (1997, Arcade)
5. The King of Fighters '98 - The Slugfest [Model NGM-242] (1998, Arcade)
6. The King of Fighters '99 - Millennium Battle [Model NGM-251] (1999, Arcade)
7. The King of Fighters 2000 [Model NGM-257] (2000, Arcade)
8. The King of Fighters 2001 [Model NGM-262] (2001, Arcade)
9. The King of Fighters 2002 - Challenge to Ultimate Battle [Model NGM-265] (2002, Arcade)
10. The King of Fighters 2003 [Model NGM-271] (2003, Arcade)
11. The King of Fighters NeoWave (2004, Arcade)
12. The King of Fighters Maximum Impact (2004, PS2)
13. The King of Fighters XI (2005, Arcade)
14. The King of Fighters Maximum Impact 2 [Model SLPS-25638] (2006, PS2)
15. The King of Fighters Maximum Impact - Regulation A (2007, Arcade)
16. The King of Fighters Maximum Impact - Regulation A2 (2008, Arcade)
17. The King of Fighters '98 - Ultimate Match (2008, Arcade)
18. The King of Fighters XII (2009, Arcade)
19. The King of Fighters XIII (2010, Arcade)
20. The King of Fighters XIII Climax (2012, Arcade)

- STAFF -

Executive producer : Jeon Ju Young
Producer : Chil Suk Choi
Director : Lee Seon Ho
Demo designers : Ogura, Norisato, Asuka
Planners : T-2000, Uri Uri, M. Ruyun, Ume-Zono
Music & Sound designers : Tate Norio, Masahiko Hataya (as WBM M. Hataya)
Adjusters & Bug checkers : T-2000, 4F01 Kuroemon, 4F02 Oomae, C>B K Kuboken, Yuta Lix Sawad, Yamachan Rakira, Ume-Zono
Main engineer : S. Fujinuki
Programmers : Narutaki, T. Hayashi, M. Yusuke

* Front Designers :
Seth, Maxima, Benimaru, Billy, Chris, Andy, Mai, Yamazaki, May, Rugal : C.A.C. Yamasaki
Ryo, Robert, Vanessa, Kensou, Takuma : Kamada
Angel, Kyo, Iori, Kim, Vice, Yashiro : Kaori
Athena, Ramon, Joe, Chin, Chang, Choi : Taku & Takukko
Leona, Ralf, Clark, Shermie, Whip, Kula : ('_')

* Back Designers :
Italy, Mexico, Nests stage : Nobuyuki Kobayashi (as Koba)
Cambodia, Boss stage : ???
Holland : Masae M.
China : Guttyon
Korea : ???

* Voice Actors :
Kyo Kusanagi : Masahiro Nonaka
Benimaru Nikaido : Monster Maetsuka
Ralf Jones : Monster Maetsuka
Choi Bounce : Monster Maetsuka
Goro Daimon : Masaki Usui
Ryo Sakazaki : Masaki Usui
Terry Bogard : Satoshi Hashimoto
Kim Kaphwan : Satoshi Hashimoto
Andy Bogard : Keiichi Nanba
Joe Higashi : Nobuyuki Hiyama
Chang Koehan : Hiroyuki Arita
Athena Asamiya : Haruna Ikezawa
Kensou : Eiji Yano
Chin Gentsai : Toshikazu Nishimura
Leona : Masae Yumi
Vice : Masae Yumi
Clark Steel : Yoshinori Shima
Robert Garcia : Mantaro Koichi
Takuma Sakazaki : Eiji Tsuda
Mai Shiranui : Akoya Sogi
Yuri Sakazaki : Kaori Horie
May Lee Jinju : Tomoko Kawakami
Iori Yagami : Kunihiko Yasui
Mature : Hiroko Tsuji
Yamazaki : Koji Ishii
Blue Mary : Harumi Ikoma
Billy Kane : Atsushi Yamanishi
Yashiro Nanakase : Makoto Awane
Shermie : Hazuki Nishikawa
Chris : Rio Ogata
K' : Yuuki Matsuda
Maxima : Katsuyuki Konishi
Whip : Shiho Kikuchi
Vanessa : Kaori Minami
Seth : Hidetoshi Nakamura
Ramon : Eiji Takemoto (as Hidehumi Takemoto)
Kula Diamond : Yumi Kakazu
K9999 : Nozomu Sasaki
Angel : Mayumi Shintani
Kusanagi : Mitsuo Iwata
Rugal Bernstein : Norio Wakamoto
Athena's friend 1 : Masae Yumi
Athena's friend 2 : Hazuki Nishikawa
Candy : Masae Yumi
Diana : Haruna Ikezawa

Announcement : Eiji Yano

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo AES (Dec. 18, 2002; "The King of Fighters 2002 - Challenge to Ultimate Battle [Model NGH-265]")
Sega Dreamcast [JP] (june.19, 2003; "The King of Fighters 2002 - Challenge to Ultimate Battle [Model T-47305M]")
[JP] Sony PS2 (Mar. 25, 2004; "The King of Fighters 2002 - Challenge to Ultimate Battle [Model SLPS-25347]")
Sega Dreamcast [JP] (Nov. 11, 2004; "The King of Fighters 2002 - Challenge to Ultimate Battle [Dreamcast Collection] [Model T-47305M-1]")
[JP] Microsoft XBOX (Mar. 24, 2005; "The King of Fighters 2002 - Challenge to Ultimate Battle [Model ZQ6-00003]")
[JP] Sony PS2 (Nov. 23, 2005; "The King of Fighters 2002 - Challenge to Ultimate Battle [SNK Best Collection] [Model SLPS-25573]")
[JP] Sony PS2 (Feb. 26, 2009; "The King of Fighters 2002 - Unlimited Match [Model SLPS-25915]")
[JP] Sony PS2 (june.24, 2010; "The King of Fighters 2002 - Unlimited Match [Tougeki ver.] [Model SLPS-25983]")

* OTHERS:
Arcade [JP] (Jan. 24, 2011; "The King of Fighters 2002 - Ultimated Match for Nesica Live")

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=kof2003h

The King of Fighters 2003 (c) 2003 SNK Playmore.

- TECHNICAL -

[Model NGH-271]

- TRIVIA -

Released on March 18, 2004 in Japan.

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$info=kof2003,kf2k3bl,kf2k3bla

The King of Fighters 2003 (c) 2003 SNK Playmore.

A new edition of the KOF series with 32 selectable fighters plus Evil Kusanagi, Chizuru and Maki Kagura, Adelheid Bernstein and the final boss Mukai.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID : NGM-271

[SNK MVS Neo-Geo Controls]
2 players - 4 buttons per player.
=>[Joystick] 8-way, [A] Light punch [B] Light kick [C] Strong punch [D] Strong kick

- TRIVIA -

Released in November 2003, KOF2k3 represents the latest opus in the series to run on the SNK Neo-Geo MVS hardware.

Two new systems have been adopted : 'Tactical Leader System' which sets up a leader favorably treated in capability in a team and 'Multi-Shift' in which player characters can be changed freely during 3 on 3 battle.

About Ash Crimson : Unlike the usual KOF hero characters, Ash was designed with the intent to create an 'attractive evil character'. Because the supervising designer created a rough design that fit the desired appearance to a 'T', little was changed for this character's design. Incidentally, the team story quotes casually from Robert Browning's 'Spring Song', but no one on the staff took interest in this (Boo hoo). And the bit about Shanghai Crabs was the original material for the character 'Rojin'.

About Duo Long : When speaking of the Flying Brigands, you have quite a collection of especially unique-looking characters, but Duo Long is, unlike those of his ilk so far, an orthodox, handsome character. The model for this character is a certain Romanian vampire and hunter with the same first letter for his name. A subtly embroidered dragon is depicted on the back of Duo Lon's costume, but according to the illustration's supervising designer Falcoon, this character sports a detailed character that follows the steady work of traditional craftsmen with the scales drawn one at a time...

About Shen Woo : The first concept for this character was a wild and sexy guy. The development codename for him was ''The Third Man'', and along those lines he became Woo Shen, his name 'flip-flopping' to the current name, and the latter moniker seemed to stick. Because Ash has his particular appearance (LAUGH), Shen, no matter how you look at it, appears more like the main character. His character closely resembles certain aspects of Ralf and Yashiro in many ways, so designers toiled to create distinctive moves for this character. According to the supervising designer, 'What knotted my stomach most was the shortness of time we had for development'.

About Tizoc : To tell the truth, Raiden was to appear in KOF 2003, but before the characters were finally decided on, Tizoc took his place. Along with the change to KOF 2003's game system, designers were able to create movements heretofore impossible with KOF until now, allowing us to add the style of Tizoc for that very reason. It's unclear whether there were plans or not to introduce Grant from "Garou - Mark of the Wolves" along with Tizoc for a friendly tag team battle. It may not be very well known, but the Japanese name for Tizoc is 'Griffon Mask'. But we felt Tizoc for the English version had a nice ring to it.

About Gato : Keeping the demands of the Chinese market in mind, designers included a user of orthodox Chinese boxing in the game to follow our marketing plans and enter the battle with Tizoc from "Garou - Mark of the Wolves". Halfway through the development process, he became the character that was busy getting burned, frozen, and slapped around with a giant metal ball by other characters to experiment with the overhauled program. When Gato appeared, many groundless rumors circulated that 'Hotaru had made a comeback' and other such rumors to the same. Whatever command you enter, be aware that Hotaru Futaba is nowhere to be found in KOF 2003, and Gato is here to stay!

About Malin : KOF 2003 saw the absence of Choi Bounge, so why not make a nimble and cute girl character?! And with that sentiment, Malin was born. It took quite an effort to arrive at the initial design for this character, but when we entered the actual work for KOF 2003, the creation of this character was a piece of cake. In the appearance sequence, the supervising designer poured his sincerity into the transformation scene. But the Arcadia magazine realized that she wasn't included in their feature articles and regretted their mistake. If you consider our preferences, designers insisted on the spelling for this character to be 'Malin' and not 'Marin'. This is the humble preference of the supervising designer and a mystery to us all.

About Maki Kagura : If the younger sister Chizuru Kagura is the stork, the elder sister Maki Kagura's name comes from the tortoise (storks live a thousand years, but tortoises live 10,000). The background story for these two twins comes from KOF '96, but with their appearance in KOF 2003, some designers suggested Maki's hair be shortened to distinguish her from her kid sister. She appears in KOF 2003 as she always does (Her bangs are slightly different, however, so people who have confidence in their powers of observation, beware!). For the location test of KOF 2003, many players who defeated Chizuru were vanquished by the awesome elder sister Maki. So the fate of players was often decided with the appearance of Maki-you just don't mess around with this character!

About Adelheid : To widen the worldview of KOF with the desire to add a separate story to the main tale, designers added this character devised as a set with her kid sister Rose. Designers think many picked up on this, but Adelheid is a common female name among Swiss and Germans, and is the name from which the diminutive of Heidi's derives. In the Adelheid stage of KOF 2003, the soundtrack begins with Chopin's 'Revolutionary Etude', but including something like this on the NEO-GEO system required a huge amount of memory which overwhelmed the voice data of other characters. Designers believe it was worth it, but producers may have dissed the supervising designers of other characters in the process.

About Rose : If Hinako was the modern, unconventional 'na?f', Rose is the classic 'sophisticate' character. She has an overpowering sense of pride and high-handedness. She's also selfish and moody. If things don't go her way, watch out! But she's a real babe and not only that, she's rich! (Laugh). The voice actor for Rose also worked on Malin and Maki Kagura. Because she had a tough schedule providing the voice for three characters in one day, she was really put through a tough trial. The staff regrets this and gives their thanks from the bottom of the ocean.

About Mukai : With the belief that a fighting game boss 'must be easy to understand', designers adopted the 'ability to fossilize' to give impact to Mukai's presence. Designers then matched the design of this character to this ability. So as far as the procedure of development is concerned, Mukai was quite an unorthodox creation. The concept and design came off without a hitch, but arriving at his name was a difficult process. He's among the first of the KOF series boss characters who would be graced with the Japanese honorific of '-san'.

Leona, Ralph and Clark are playable characters in the Foma 90x Series Mobile Phones game 'Metal Slug Survivors'.

Scitron Digital Content released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (The King of Fighters 2003 Original Sound Trax - SCDC-00337) on 24/04/2004.

Hacks of this game are known as :
"The King of Fighters 2004 Plus".
"The King of Fighters 2004 Ultra Plus".

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Play as Evil Kusanagi : Hold Down, then rotate control stick clockwise to Upleft then rotate counter-clockwise to Upright, then press any button.

* Play as Chizuru and Maki : Hold Up, then rotate control stick counter-clockwise to Upright then rotate clockwise to Downleft, then press any button.

* Final Bosses : To fight Adelheid, defeat Kusanagi (the mid-boss) without using a Desperation Move as your final hit that KOs him. To fight Chizuru/Maki followed by Mukai, defeat Kusanagi (the mid-boss) using a Desperation Move as your final hit that KOs him.

* Endings : There are different endings for beating either Adelheid or Mukai. You can also see an extended ending for a non-Team-Edit team when you beat Mukai. Here are the teams with extended endings (the order the characters are selected does not matter) :
Ash, Duo Lon, Shen
Terry, Joe, Tizoc
Ryo, Robert, Yuri
Kim, Chang, Jhun
Leona, Ralf, Clark
Gato, Yamazaki, Billy
King, Mary, Mai
Shingo, Benimaru, Daimon
Athena, Hinkao, Malin
K', Maxima, Whip
Kyo, Iori, Chizuru
Kyo, Benimaru, Daimon (picture only after staff roll)
Mai, King, Yuri (picture only after staff roll)

- SERIES -

1. The King of Fighters '94 [Model NGM-055] (1994, Arcade)
2. The King of Fighters '95 [Model NGM-084] (1995, Arcade)
3. The King of Fighters '96 [Model NGM-214] (1996, Arcade)
4. The King of Fighters '97 [Model NGM-232] (1997, Arcade)
5. The King of Fighters '98 - The Slugfest [Model NGM-242] (1998, Arcade)
6. The King of Fighters '99 - Millennium Battle [Model NGM-251] (1999, Arcade)
7. The King of Fighters 2000 [Model NGM-257] (2000, Arcade)
8. The King of Fighters 2001 [Model NGM-262] (2001, Arcade)
9. The King of Fighters 2002 - Challenge to Ultimate Battle [Model NGM-265] (2002, Arcade)
10. The King of Fighters 2003 [Model NGM-271] (2003, Arcade)
11. The King of Fighters NeoWave (2004, Arcade)
12. The King of Fighters Maximum Impact (2004, PS2)
13. The King of Fighters XI (2005, Arcade)
14. The King of Fighters Maximum Impact 2 [Model SLPS-25638] (2006, PS2)
15. The King of Fighters Maximum Impact - Regulation A (2007, Arcade)
16. The King of Fighters Maximum Impact - Regulation A2 (2008, Arcade)
17. The King of Fighters '98 - Ultimate Match (2008, Arcade)
18. The King of Fighters XII (2009, Arcade)
19. The King of Fighters XIII (2010, Arcade)
20. The King of Fighters XIII Climax (2012, Arcade)

- STAFF -

* Consoles :
SNK Neo-Geo [JP] (Mar. 18, 2004; "The King of Fighters 2003 [Model NGH-271]")
SNK Neo-Geo [US] (Mar. 18, 2004; "The King of Fighters 2003 [Model NGH-271]")
Sony PlayStation 2 [JP] (Oct. 28, 2004; "The King of Fighters 2003 [Model SLPS-25407]")
Microsoft XBOX [JP] (Aug. 25, 2005; "The King of Fighters 2003 [Model A2N-00002]")
Sony PlayStation 2 [JP] (Mar. 9, 2006, "The King of Fighters 2003 [SNK Best Collection] [Model SLPS-25635]")
Sony PlayStation 2 [EU] (Apr. ??, 2006) [Model SLES-53382]
Sony PlayStation 2 [AU] (Jan. 16, 2007)
Microsoft XBOX [EU] (Mar. 3, 2006)
Sony PlayStation 2 [US] (Feb. 8, 2005; "The King of Fighters 2002 & 2003") [Model SLUS-20995, Model SLUS-20996]
Sony PlayStation 2 [EU] (Feb. 8, 2005; "The King of Fighters 2002 & 2003")
Microsoft XBOX [US] (Aug. 31, 2005; "The King of Fighters 2002 & 2003")

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo AES (Mar. 18, 2004; "The King of Fighters 2003 [Model NGH-271]")
[US] SNK Neo-Geo AES (Mar. 18, 2004; "The King of Fighters 2003 [Model NGH-271]")
[JP] Sony PS2 (Oct. 28, 2004; "The King of Fighters 2003 [Model SLPS-25407]")
[JP] Microsoft XBOX (Aug. 25, 2005; "The King of Fighters 2003 [Model A2N-00002]")
[JP] Sony PS2 (Mar. 9, 2006, "The King of Fighters 2003 [SNK Best Collection] [Model SLPS-25635]")
[EU] Sony PS2 (Apr. ??, 2006) [Model SLES-53382]
Sony PlayStation 2 [AU] (Jan. 16, 2007)
[EU] Microsoft XBOX (Mar. 3, 2006)
[US] Sony PS2 (Feb. 8, 2005; "The King of Fighters 2002 & 2003") [Model SLUS-20995, Model SLUS-20996]
[EU] Sony PS2 (Feb. 8, 2005; "The King of Fighters 2002 & 2003")
[US] Microsoft XBOX (Aug. 31, 2005; "The King of Fighters 2002 & 2003")

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=lordofk,lordofkb,lordofkbp
Arcade Video game published 34 years ago:

The Lord of King (c) 1989 Jaleco.

The Lord of King is a scrolling platform hack 'n' slash game for one or two players, set in a fantasy world populated by creatures from Greek mythology. The world of Man has been overun by demon hoards and with no one to stand against the forces of evil, the people cower and tremble in fear. Finally, the gods decide to intervene and chose a brave young warrior by the name of Roche, whom they grant the mythical Fire Axe. Roche must embark on a journey to the Castle of Algerine in order to defeat the demon overlord, Argos, and restore peace to the world.

Each player-character is armed with an axe as their primary means of attach. The axe has a power gauge that fills automatically when the player is not swinging it. When the gauge is filled, the axe will burst into flame, allowing for a stronger attack. This allows players to choose between faster weak swings or slow strong ones. Each hero is also capable of casting a thunder attack a magical spell that acts as a smart bomb and kills or hurts all on-screen enemies (the player must have at least one arrowhead in stock to perform a thunder attack).

Power-ups can be found hidden inside destructable stone pillars that periodically rise up from the ground. These include crystals that earn extra points, red jewels that give players additional health, a shield for greater protection and a golden arrowhead that increases the strength of the player's thunder attack by up to four levels .periodically rise up from the ground. These include crystals that earn extra points, red jewels that give players additional health, a shield for greater protection and a golden arrowhead that increases the strength of the player's thunder attack by up to four levels (the player must have at least one arrowhead in stock to perform a thunder attack).

The game consists of six stages, with a tough end-of-level guardian waiting ast the end of each.

- TECHNICAL -

Jaleco Mega System 1-A hardware

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 12 Mhz)
Sound CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 7 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Yamaha YM2151 (@ 3.5 Mhz), (2x) OKI6295 (@ 30.303 Khz)

Players: 2
Control: 8-way joystick
Buttons: 3

- TRIVIA -

The Lord of King was released in November 1989 in the Japanese arcades.

This game is known in US as "The Astyanax". In Greek mythology, Astyanax (meaning "protector of the city") was the son of Hector, the crown prince of Troy, and his wife, Princess Andromache of Cilician Thebe.

- STAFF -

Producer & Director : Tokuhiro Takemori
Game designers : Tokuhiro Takemori, Nenko
Graphic designers : Nenko, Ns Naochan, Kan-Chan, Tomoko Sugoh
Programmed by : Satoru K.
Music composed by : Kiyoshi Yokoyama

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] Nintendo Famicom (1989)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=tnzs,tnzso,tnzsj,tnzsjo,tnzsop,tnzsuo,tnzsoa,tnzsb,tnzs2,
Arcade Video game published 35 years ago:

The New Zealand Story (c) 1988 Taito Corp.

Set in Antipodean country of the game's title, The New Zealand Story is an eight-way scrolling platform game featuring Tiki the Kiwi bird. Tiki and his friends have been kidnapped by the evil 'Wally', a large blue leopard seal who wants the birds for his next meal. Tiki quickly escapes and sets about rescuing his trapped friends.  

The game's stages are made up of platforms with a caged kiwi bird awaiting rescue at the end of each. Touching the cage releases the trapped Kiwi and an open window appears, indicating the completion of the stage. 

Tiki starts the game armed with a bow and arrows, but weapon pick-ups can be found including bombs, a laser gun and bouncing fireballs. Tiki must jump between platforms, with the length of the button press dictating the strength of the jump. Some platforms have spikes and barbed plants are also scattered throughout the stages. Any contact with these results in the loss of a player life.

During his quest Tiki can commandeer a variety of different vehicles, including balloons, blimps and UFOs. Vehicles can be found ready for use or can be stolen from an enemy. When using a vehicle, the jump button must either by tapped repeatedly or held down to keep it afloat (the method being dictated by the vehicle used). 

Some stages feature underwater sections; as soon as Tiki drops into water, he is suddenly wearing a snorkel. As he swims his oxygen level - indicated by a meter - gradually decreases. Before the air runs out Tiki must either jump out of the water, or find an air pocket to replenish his oxygen. 

The game features four main zones, each consisting of four rounds. A boss fight occurs at the end of each zone. The complex level design rewards exploration, with bonus items and alternate routes to be found, as well as secret level warps that transport the player to a later level. The warps are invisible until shot several times by the player (see 'TIPS AND TRICKS' for more details).

- TECHNICAL -

Prom Sticker : B53

Main CPU : (2x) Zilog Z80, I8X41
Sound Chips : YM2203

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2

See 'UPDATES' section for more information about the new hardware version...

- TRIVIA -

Released in September 1988, the hero of this game, Tiki the kiwi, also appears in other Taito games like "Liquid Kids" ("Mizubaku Daibouken") and "Bubble Symphony" ("Bubble Bobble II") as a guest star.

Zoological Note : Unlike Tiki, a real Kiwi bird is a brown in color and is roughly the size as a domestic chicken. It is flightless and its distinctive plumage resembles hair more than feathers. The Kiwi bird lives only in New Zealand and, due to its rarity in the wild, is a protected species.

- UPDATES -

WORLD NEW VERSION :
* New hardware revision.
* Three Z80 and no M-Chip (8742 MPU).

JAPAN VERSION :
* Standard hardware.
* Two Z80 and the M-Chip.

WORLD OLD VERSION :
* Standard hardware.
* Harder gameplay.
* Old Taito logo.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

The following is for the Japanese version of the game which, curiously, was the version that tended to be converted to the various home formats; regardless of territory

Throughout the game there are several hidden 'Warp' gates, which take you to secret areas and later levels.

Round 1-1 : In the last room of this stage, there are 3 identical platforms placed above one another. Go to the highest one, face left and jump about whilst shooting, after 5 shots a warp should appear. This takes you into a enclosed box on round 2-1, only this time it has got the 'E','X','T' letters. There is an escape warp to the right which you must shoot to make it appear. From here you are taken to round 1-4 (in an inaccessible area below the boss room) where you'll find the green 'E','N','D' letters, you now have your first extra life. To get to know more about round 1-4 (which is important in the game) keep on reading.

Round 1-2 : In the start area, jump onto the second platform and shoot to your left 5 times. A warp should appear, enter it and you'll be taken to a room of the secret round (the secret round is a place where almost ALL of the secret rooms are found - like separate rooms in any level - and you can't visit more than one at a time, since they are all separated by closed walls). There are two large columns with water one to either side of you. Each has an open Warp above it. The right warp will take you to an upper place in level 1-2, where you simply collect some apples (for points) and then continue through the level normally. The left warp, which is the better of the two, takes you to a place under the level. Going from left to right, you find a place with upwards tunnels you can jump in. Go to the one full right, since there you will find the letters 'red E' and 'X'. Then, going all the way up, you are just near the cage at the end of the level.

Round 1-3 : This level has two warps...
1) The first needs a vehicle and is just after you fly down to the big open area of this round.  Fly downwards while staying close to, and facing the left-hand wall, keep firing towards the wall and about two thirds of the way down, the first Warp will appear. This will take you to a secret round where you collect the 'red E','X', 'T','green E' letters then on a hidden place of round 2-1,where you collect the 'N' and 'D' letters : EXTEND, and also you can choose to finish round 2-1 OR...
2) The second Warp is in the last room. Climb out of the water and head straight upwards - the trapped Kiwi is to your left). This will take you to a secret round, which also has got a secret warp in it! The round has the 'TEND' letters, exits to 1-4, and a Warp exit to 2-2.

Round 1-4 : This round has a Warp, but it's only accessible from another Warp that appears on a LATER level (2-1). Once you have come to this level via the Warp on 2-1, go to the platform directly UNDERNEATH the Boss room (after you've collected the letter), the Warp is in the far left corner of the upper-most platform underneath the Boss room and takes you to level 2-4.
Note : The trick of using the 2-1 warp to go back to 1-4 infinitely doesn't work in the WORLD revision. The programmers added some blocks to the box so that the Kiwi cannot be sucker in the warp.

Round 2-1 : This is one of the key rounds of the game, as it allows for one or two tricks and has two warps. The first one is in the right corner of the closed box at the end of the level. You can get inside the box from the warp on level 1-1. However, it's possible to enter the Warp from OUTSIDE the closed box by using a flying vehicle and, for preference the laser weapon or Fire Staff.. If you've only got arrows ,bombs, or a laser and no vehicle, take advantage of the microbes that appear nearby. Keep killing them any time they appear (if you move away from the screen where they appear they will appear more often) until the Fire Staff appears. Once opened, just jump in it from below. You will be taken BACK to the secret area in level 1-4. This means that you can effectively keep going BACK to level 1.4 through the Warp as many times as you wish, stocking up on points and bonus lives as you go.

Should you chose NOT to do this, you can head for the second Warp. First, ensure that when you are at the enclosed box and that you also have a vehicle. Simply fly OVER the enclosed box and drop down behind the caged Kiwi. On your right there is a 'ladder', go up this and you'll be in a small, enclosed room; shoot the lower-left edge of the room and the Warp appears. This will take you to an independent secret level which has 2 possible exits. The first is at the end of the level - after the yellow lift you head down and left and drop through a hole in the floor - this takes you to level 2-3. The second exit is a warp. Stand on the yellow rising block and jump from it so you can stand on the wall to your right (you would do this anyway, to avoid the ceiling spikes and get to the exit...). Shoot 5 times and a Warp appears. This will take you to another secret level - with a number of enemies - and the letters 'Green E' and 'T'. Take the letters, kill all of the enemies and enter the Warp that subsequently appears.

Round 2-2 : The only warp on this level is in the upper right-hand corner and can only be reached with a vehicle. This takes you to the end of the level.

Round 2-3 : Also one warp on this round. This is found in the place left to the 'Red E' (bottom righ of the level). This will take you to a place with a 'Red E' and an 'X', and a warp from there to an advanced point on level 2-3.

Round 2-4 : Before the Boss Room (the one with the octopus) shoot to the right - standing on the blocks over the spikes - and a warp will appear on the fifth block from the left. This leads to a secret level with enemies and the letters 'T' and 'Green E', and THEN to level 3-1, inside the 'box'.

Round 3-2 : There is a warp near to the end of the level on the wall between the two 'pools' of water with waterfalls, This will take you to a room in the secret level, with a church for background. Nothing to take, just a warp on the floor that will take you to level 3-3.

Round 4-1 : This round has got 3 warps, the maximum in this game. The first (and most rewarding) is over the last diagonal row of spikes, in the upper 'dry' part of the level (most of the level is underwater). Fly up there, shoot 5 times as usual and take the warp. It will take you to a place in the secret round and then to level 4-4. There are two further warps that can be found in a long, left-to-right section, just after you have passed the BIG masses of water.

Round 4-4 : This level has two sub-areas, divided by a barrel at the end of the areas. In the area with the horizontal 'barrel', there is an empty space below it. Shoot it and a warp appears. This takes you to a room in level 2-4, with 2 letters, an 'E' and an 'X', and then you take a warp in that room that takes you to the second area of level 4-4.

Round 5-1 : This is the last level known to have a warp. Walk on the floor with the small volcano until the last platforms on the left. Go up and then left, you will fall down to a place with some blocks and more volcanoes. Shoot to the right right, and take the warp. This takes you to a room in the secret round with 2 red E's and another Warp to a secret level room - with two X's - and from there to level 5-1 again, near the big room.

* Heaven Rounds : The heaven levels are secret levels that can only reached when Tiki has lost all of his previous lives and is killed by a SOLID PROJECTYLE (such as arrows, stones, bombs, boomerangs, spears, etc.) If you drown ,fall on spikes or lava, get burned by laser, flames or UFO missiles, or are killed by contact with an enemy, a life is lost. The Heaven levels only appear after level 3.1.

* Teddy Bear Cheat : In the demo mode during the attract mode, press fire 3 times, and a cute picture of a bear will appear in the bottom-left corner of the screen.

- STAFF -

Main staff : Kazutomo Ishida, Hisaya Yabusaki, Akira Ootsuki, Makoto Fujita, Koichi Ooyama
Sound effects : Hisayoshi Ogura, Yasuko Yamada, Yasuhisa Watanabe
One-time staff : Mitsukou Kimura, Naoko Toshimitsu

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES: 
[JP] NEC PC-Engine (feb.23, 1990) "The New Zealand Story [Model TP02007]" 
[JP] Sega Mega Drive (mar.3, 1990) "The New Zealand Story [Model T-11013]" 
[EU] Nintendo NES [AU] (1991) "The New Zealand Story [Model NES-38]" 
[US] Nintendo NES (mar.1991) "Kiwi Kraze [Model NES-2K-USA]" 
[EU] Sega Master System (1992) "The New Zealand Story [Model 27035]" 
[JP] Sony PS2 (aug.25, 2005) "Taito Memories Gekan [Model SLPM-66092]" 
[EU] Microsoft XBOX (oct.14, 2005) "Taito Legends" 
[EU] Sony PS2 (oct.14, 2005) "Taito Legends [Model SLES-53438]" 
[US] Microsoft XBOX (oct.25, 2005) "Taito Legends" 
[US] Sony PS2 (oct.25, 2005) "Taito Legends [Model SLUS-21122]" 
[KO] Sony PS2 (jul.18, 2006) "Taito Legends [Model SLKA-15056]" 

* HANDHELDS: 
Sony PSP [AS] (jan.3, 2006) "Taito Memories Pocket [Model UCAS-40040]" 
[JP] Sony PSP (jan.5, 2006) "Taito Memories Pocket [Model ULJM-05076]" 
Sony PSP [KO] (feb.10, 2006) "Taito Memories Pocket" 
[EU] Sony PSP (oct.6, 2006) "Taito Legends Power-Up [Model ULES-00473]" 
[AU] Sony PSP (nov.9, 2006) "Taito Legends Power-Up [Model ULES-00473]" 
[US] Sony PSP (may.17, 2007) "Taito Legends Power-Up [Model ULUS-10208]" 
[AU] Nintendo DS (jan.25, 2007) "New Zealand Story Revolution [Model NTR-ANZP-AUS]" 
[EU] Nintendo DS (feb.2, 2007) "New Zealand Story Revolution [Model NTR-ANZP-EUR]" 
[JP] Nintendo DS (may.31, 2007) "New Zealand Story DS [Model NTR-ANZJ-JPN]" 
[US] Nintendo DS (feb.13, 2008) "New Zealand Story Revolution [Model NTR-ANZE-USA]" 

* COMPUTERS: 
[EU] Sinclair ZX Spectrum (1989) 
[US] Commodore C64 [EU] (1989) 
[EU] Atari ST (1989) 
[EU] Amstrad CPC (1989) 
[EU] Commodore Amiga (1989) 
FM Towns PC [JP] (1989) 
[JP] Sharp X68000 (jul.15, 1989) 
Amstrad CPC [FR] (1990) "Le Monde des Merveilles" 
[EU] Amstrad CPC (1991) "Addicted To Fun - Rainbow Collection" 
[EU] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (oct.14, 2005) "Taito Legends" 
[US] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (nov.10, 2005) "Taito Legends"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=ninjak,ninjakj,ninjaku
Arcade Video game published 32 years ago:

The Ninja Kids (c) 1991 Taito Corporation.

The Ninja Kids is a horizontally-scrolling hack 'n' slash beat-em-up for up to four players who must defeat a demented cult plotting to summon Satan. A karate sensei sends out his four ninja puppets to combat this looming threat. 

All four ninjas carry different weapons and have different fighting styles. As well as their weapons, each ninja also has a screen-filling magical attack based on one of four elements (earth, fire, wind and water). 

* Hanzo (blue) uses a fast katana that generates waves for extra range. He uses water magic. 

* Sasuke (yellow) wields a kusarigama (chain and sickle) for close and long-range attacks. He uses wind magic.

* Akame (red) prefers to keep his distance while pelting enemies with shuriken and fire magic.

* Genta (green) is quite powerful with his sansetsukon (three-part staff) and earth magic. 

As well as the standard jump and attack-based combat, double-tapping the joystick any direction makes the ninja puppets perform an evasive tumble that damages any enemies they come into contact with.

Each of the game's stages is littered with background objects (such as litter bins, tables, etc.) and destroying these reveals hidden power-ups and bonus items. These range from health-restoring sushi to items that make the ninjas temporarily invincible, surrounding them with an elemental shield that allows them to mow down enemies.

The Ninja Kids consists of five stages, with a tough boss battle at the end of each.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "Taito F2 System" Hardware.

Prom Stickers: C85

Screen Orientation: Horizontal

Players: 4
Control: 8-Way Joystick
Buttons: 2
=> Attack, Jump

- TRIVIA -

Released in April 1991 in Japan (even if titlescreen says 1990).

- UPDATES -

The US version has the 'Winners Don't Use Drugs' screen.

In the US version, all the references to 'Satan' were changed to the 'Evil One'.

- STAFF -

Game Director: Takeshi Ishizashi
Game Designer: Keppel Maekawa
Programmers: Takeshi Ishizashi, Fzr.Mom
Hardware Designers: Eikichi Takahashi, S. Watanabe
Character Designers: Pokeel Yamada, Jsunji Matsumoto
Sound Composers: Fumiaki Imaoka (FUMMY), Hiroshige Tonomura (TONO), Norihiro Furukawa (WIZ. MASTER), V. Ohashi (Underground Sound Guerrilla Team PINCH-PUNCH) (PINCH PUNCH)
Designer: Rintaro Doi
Special Thanks: Kawamoyan

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[EU] Microsoft XBOX (oct.14, 2005) "Taito Legends" 
[EU] Sony PS2 (oct.14, 2005) "Taito Legends [Model SLES-53438]" 
[US] Microsoft XBOX (oct.25, 2005) "Taito Legends" 
[US] Sony PS2 (oct.25, 2005) "Taito Legends [Model SLUS-21122]" 
[KO] Sony PS2 (jul.18, 2006) "Taito Legends [Model SLKA-15056]" 
[JP] Sony PS2 (jan.25, 2007) "Taito Memories II Joukan [Model SLPM-66649]" 

* COMPUTERS: 
[EU] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (oct.14, 2005) "Taito Legends" 
[US] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (nov.10, 2005) "Taito Legends"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=ninjaw,ninjawj,ninjawu,ninjaw1
Arcade Video game published 35 years ago:

The Ninja Warriors (c) 1988 Taito.

Two ninjas fight an entire army to destroy an evil dictator in this horizontal action game, which features physical damage on our heroes.

- TECHNICAL -

Board Number : M4300086H
Prom Stickers : B31

Main CPU : (2x) Motorola 68000 (ID : K1100325A, K1100312A) (@ 8 Mhz)
Sound CPU : Zilog Z80 (ID : K1100313A) (@ 4 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Yamaha YM2610 (@ 8 Mhz), (4x) Volume (@ 8 Mhz)

Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2 (DAGGER, SHURIKEN)

- TRIVIA -

Released in February 1988 in Japan (even if the title screen says 1987).

Licensed by Romstar for US distribution.

The strange resolution of this game was due to the original cabinet which had a wide screen made out of three monitors.

Banglar, the main enemy who looks like Yoda from the star wars films makes a cameo appearance in "Aqua Jack" 2 years after appearing in The Ninja Warriors.

Brian Chapel holds the official record for this game with 188,900 points.

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (The Ninja Warriors : G.S.M. Taito 1 - D28B0001) on June 21, 1988.
Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (The Ninja Warriors - Famous Recording Series - PCCB-00074) on October 21, 1991.
Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (The Ninja Warriors - Complete Album - PCCB-00116) on March 19, 1993.

- SERIES -

1. The Ninja Warriors (1988, Arcade)
2. The Ninjawarriors Again [Model SHVC-NI] (1994, Super Famicom)
3. The Ninja Saviors - Return of the Warriors (2019, Switch & Playstation 4)

- STAFF -

Produced by : Yojiro Suekado
Directed by : Masaki Ogata
Written by : Onijust
Executive producer : Hisao Yunoki
Director of software : Daisuke Sasaki
Programmers : Yoshihisa Nagata, Yuji Iwasaki, Yoshiyuki Watabe, Masaki Ogata, Daisuke Sasaki
Production designer : Yukiwo Ishikawa
Character designers : Masami Kikuchi, Yoshihiro Wakita, Toshiyuki Nishimura, Taira Sanuki, Shinobu Iwabuchi, Sachiko Yamana, Junji Yarita, Kohzoh Igarashi, Tetsuro Kitagawa, Yukiwo Ishikawa
Assistant character designers : Visual Arts Produtcion, Animation 20, Space Creative
Supervising editor : Tetsuro Kitagawa
Editors : Masami Kikuchi, Yukiwo Ishikawa
Costume designer : Hiroshi Wagatsuma
Hardware designer : Toshiyuki Sanada
Assistant hardware engineer : Satoru Shimomura
Music composed and directed by (Zuntata) : Hisayoshi Ogura
Assistant sound programmer (Zuntata) : Naoto Yagista
Sound editor (Zuntata) : Yasuhisa Watanabe
Sound hardware designer : Tsukasa Nakamura
Publicity supervisor : Hisayoshi Nakane
Game designed by : Onijust

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] NEC PC-Engine (june.30, 1989) "The Ninja Warriors [Model TP01002]" 
[JP] Sega Mega CD (mar.12, 1993) "The Ninja Warriors [Model T-11024]" 
[US] Sony PlayStation 4 [PSN] (sept.7, 2017) "Arcade Archives - The Ninja Warriors [Model CUSA-05116]" 
[EU] [AU] Sony PlayStation 4 [PSN] (sept.7, 2017) "Arcade Archives - The Ninja Warriors [Model CUSA-09273]" 
[JP] Sony PlayStation 4 [PSN] (sept.7, 2017) "Arcade Archives - The Ninja Warriors [Model CUSA-03708]" 

* COMPUTERS:
[EU] Sinclair ZX Spectrum (1989)
[US] [EU] Commodore C64 (1989)
[EU] Amstrad CPC (1989)
[EU] Commodore Amiga (1989)
[EU] Atari ST (1989) by Virgin Games
[EU] Atari ST (1990) by 16 Blitz Tronix

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=aof3k

The Path of the Warrior - Art of Fighting 3 (c) 1996 SNK.

Korean release. For more information about the original game, please see the original Japanese release entry; "Art of Fighting - Ryuuko no Ken Gaiden [Model NGM-096]".

- TRIVIA -

This Korean release has various changes:

* Wang Koh-San has been renamed to Park.

* The only available languages in the game are English, Spanish and Portuguese; there was no Korean localization, and Japanese cannot be accessed.

* The game will not switch its region to Japan if played in a Japanese system; you get the normal US release instead. This means that all Japanese graphics are unused in this version.

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=punisherj
Arcade Video game published 30 years ago:

The Punisher (c) 1993 Capcom Company, Limited.

The Punisher is a side-scrolling beat-em-up based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name, in which one or two players take on the role of either 'The Punisher' or 'Nick Fury' and must battle through six dangerous locales filled with violent criminal gangs, leading to a final confrontation with criminal mastermind, 'The Kingpin'.

As well as the standard punch and kick moves, each character also has a special attack. This move is powerful enough to fell several enemies at once, with the trade-off that each time a special attack is executed, some of the player's energy is lost. Energy levels can be replenished by finding food that lies hidden in some of the background objects that litter the levels.

Many enemies carry weapons, such as axes, baseball bats, swords and knives and should players manage to knock these from the enemies' hands, the heroes can pick up the weapons and use them against the enemies. In keeping with their comic book counterparts, each player character also carries a handgun; this only comes into play when confronted with gun-wielding enemies, at which point the players' guns are drawn automatically. Once the gun-carrying enemies have been killed, the players' guns are automatically re-holstered.

A large and powerful gang boss awaits the heroes at the end of each stage. The five gang bosses are Scully, Guardroid, Bonebreaker, Bushwacker and Guardroid 2. The sixth and final level takes place in The Kingpin's lair, ending with a showdown with the criminal mastermind himself.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System" hardware.
B-Board #: 91634B-2

# of players: Up to 2 simultaneous.
Type of control (per player): 8-Way Joystick
# of buttons (per player): 2 
=> [1] Attack, [2] Jump

- TRIVIA -

The Punisher was released in April 1993 in the Japanese arcades. It was known there as the 26th video game made for this system.

Exported as "The Punisher [B-Board 91635B-2]".

This game features the main characters from the comic books respectively titled 'The Punisher' (First appearance : Amazing Spider-Man 129, 1973) and 'Nick Fury' (First appearance : Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos 1, 1963), Agent of SHIELD, both published by Marvel Comics. The acronym SHIELD stands for 'Surpreme Headquarters International Espionage Law-enforcement Division'.

Scully, the first of the boss villains here, is loosely based on a villain named Chester Scully who appeared in issues 22-23 (August and September, 1989) of the Punisher's first ongoing series, which ran from 1987 to 1995. The leaping kicks he uses in the game are an homage to the cover of the 23rd issue where his comic book counterpart is shown attacking the Punisher by kicking at him while jumping.

Bushwacker, the 4th stage boss, is based on the homonymous Marvel's super villain (enemy of Daredevil, The Punisher and Wolverine). Although, there are some aesthetic differences from his appearance in the game and in the original comic: half of his face is horribly scared in the comic, while in the game his face seems in good conditions. Also, his special right arm, altered bionically to function as a gun, is still revealed on his real form on the comic, while in the game he can turn his arms from normal form to guns form, like a type of mutant morph (and this should sound incongruous, because he's a mutant's hunter on the Marvel's comics). He appear on the Capcom's game before he was hired by Kingpin for kill Punisher in the original Punisher comic series, so his presence fit perfectly in the game's plot.

Jigsaw, the non-boss enemy appearing in the 2nd area of the final stage (elevator's top) is one of the most dangerous enemies of Punisher in the original comic series. Although, is showed different in the game - in the game he appears like a commando-mercenary, while in the comic he was a former killer of a notorious mobster family of New York. - By the way, his scared face (caused by the same Punisher in the comics) is identical to his original appearance on the comics.

Bruno Costa, the bald gangster with sunglasses appearing in the scenes of attract mode and during the first stages of the game, is also showed in the comic, and he's the responsible of the massacre of the Frank's Castle family, like the game says. However, Punisher killed him in the comic's series, while in the game he's killed by Guardroid (the 2nd stage boss).

Hidden Bonus Level : Looking in the game source code, there's a hidden second bonus game in stage directory. It shows an airplane hijacking or something and two of the generic game thugs burst through the winshield. They run across the screen to the left and then punisher shows up. There are several stewardesses on the floor as hostages and when you go over to them they get freed. But then the stage like instantly is interrupted and randomly takes you to the score screen after every stage and says 'Stage 7 complete' and then switches to an alternate credits screen with all the enemies in the game running across and doing random things. It's probably a part of the game not completed and not remove from the final product and still present in the source code. The only way to see this hidden stage is to browse the source code or using a cheat with emulator like MAME.

Soundtrack releases :
Pony Canyon / Scitron - Tenchi wo Kurau II The Battle of Red Wall : G.S.M. Capcom 7 - PCCB-00133 - August 20, 1993.

An unofficial Chinese version is known as "Biaofeng Zhanjing".

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Super Kick : Down, Up+Attack

* Super Air Kick : Forward(x2), Jump, Down+Attack

* Special Ending : finish the game without having to continue to see a different credit sequence (badguy parade).

* On 2nd area of first stage, the enemy Cool will appear for few seconds from a open door, then he will flee : if you're fast, you can kill him before he disappear with the handgun that the players draw automatically in that moment.

* When you're in the 2nd area of stage 2, the gangsters' mansion in Florida, there are 3 jail cells in which 3 girls are being held hostage. Break open the cells and then stand still. The girls will give the players thank-you hugs that restore energy to their lifebars.

* At the end of the 2nd stage you'll fight against the Guardroid. At the end of the room where the battle is set, you'll found an huge bed and a painting in the wall. Destroy this objects for obtain extra weapons and energy that could help you during the fight

* In the 3rd stage (the harbor) you'll encounter several cars, where gangster carrying machine gun will exit from there for attack the players. If you destroy those cars before they'll exit from there, they'll disappear in the explosion: also, you can see the poor driver carbonized after the car's explosion!

* The Punisher and Nick Fury's personal handguns are usually drawn automatically whenever enemies carrying firearms - and also the robots called 'Pretty Boy' - turn up. With the exception of the robots, which are tougher to deal with, try to refrain from killing the enemies armed with guns until after you've killed some of those who aren't carrying guns. This certainly comes in useful during the showdown at the end with the Kingpin, who's drawn much larger here than he was in Sega's own "Spider-Man - The Videogame", made 2 years earlier.

- STAFF -

Game Designers : Akira Yasuda (Akiman), Maeda, Buchi, Jun Keiba, Junichi Ohno (Ohn)
Program Designers : Kazuhito Nakai, Tomohiro Ueno, Y. Kawabata, Mitsu, Y. Mikami (ZZR)
Character Designers : Eripyon. N, Matsunaga, Mayo Seriya, Daniel, Vlad T., Inukichi, Minobe Hiroaki (Minobeyan), Yokota Yokozo, Koizumi, Iwai, Go, T. Tathivana, Mikiman, Marilyn Higuchi, Harusan
Sound Designers : Yoko Shimomura (Pi B Shimomura), Isao Abe, Toshio Kajino, Syun Nishigaki, Nobuhiro Oouchi (Nobu. Oouchi)
Director : Noritaka Funamizu (Poo)
System Adviser : Jaboon
Illustration Designer : Sensei
Special Thanks : Tanuki, Yasushi Ikeda (Ikebomb), Yuko Takehara (Yuko), Koguma, Alex Jimenez (Alex), Scott

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=punisher,punisheru,punipic,punipic2,punipic3,punisherh
Arcade Video game published 30 years ago:

The Punisher (c) 1993 Capcom Company, Limited.

Export release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese release entry; "The Punisher [B-Board 91634B-2]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System" hardware.
B-Board #: 91635B-2

- TRIVIA -

In these Export releases, the Super Kick results blood graphics on the enemy instead of blue flames in the original Japanese version.

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES: 
[US] Sega Genesis (june.1, 1994)
[EU] Sega Mega Drive (1995)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=superspy

The Super Spy (c) 1990 SNK.

Infiltrate terrorist hideouts and beat up the bad guys in this gender-bending (but still good) first-person beat-em-up with RPG elements.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID : NGM-011

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 3
=> [A] Punch/Use weapon, [B] Kick, [C] Choose weapon

- TRIVIA -

Released in October 1990.

A few rooms in the game feature a G-Mantle poster hanging on the wall, this character was later used as a striker character in "The King of Fighters 2000".

- STAFF -

Boss : Eikichi Kawasaki
Programmers : Hiroshi & Tadashi, Magi2, Kura
Sound composer : Masahiko Hataya (Papaya)
Sound effects : Tarkun, Toshio Shimizm (as Shimizum)
Producer : Konny
Planner : Akira Goto
Front designers : Tsukamichi Atsu, N M, UG Wada, Takeshi Kimura
Scroll designers : Moriya, Take P Natsuji, Wara, Tony Oki, Kyoko T

Special thanks : Sakita, Tsuzaki, Shibahara, Higashi, Koshino, Yamaguchi, Taro

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
SNK Neo-Geo (jul.1,1991; "The Super Spy [Model NGH-011]")
SNK Neo-Geo CD (Sep. 9,1994; "The Super Spy [Model NGCD-011]")

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=2762&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=wintbob
Arcade Video game published 33 years ago:

The Winter Bobble (c) 1990 Sakowa Project.

Bootleg of "Snow Bros. - Nick & Tom".

Two snowmen battle cute Japanese critters over 50 platform based screens. Turn the enemy critters into snowballs and then boot them around the platforms knocking down everything in their path. Pick up Sushi for extra points. When a screen is cleared of monsters you move on to the next level.

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 12 Mhz)
Sound CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 6 Mhz)
Sound Chips : YM3812 (@ 3 Mhz)

Screen orientation : Horizontal
Video resolution : 256 x 224 pixels
Screen refresh : 57.50 Hz
Palette Colors : 256

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=3172&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=trally

Thrash Rally (c) 1991 Alpha Denshi.

Thrash Rally is a top-down perspective rally racing game for one or two players. Each race begins with players asked to choose a vehicle in which to race, with each offering a different balance between handling, acceleration, vehicle endurance and top speed. 

There are two racing modes on offer. The first, World Rally Championship, features rounds that take place over lap-based circuits, with each lap having to be completed within a set time limit. World Rally mode offers players a choice of six different rally cars.

The second mode is the Paris-to-Dakar rally. This doesn’t feature laps but is a point-to-point race, with each stage having to be completed within a set time limit. In addition to the six rally cars of the World Rally mode, the Paris-to-Dakar Rally also allows players to race in either a buggy, a motorbike, or a truck.

All tracks feature a variety of different road surfaces, such as snow, gravel, sand or water. Many of the tracks also feature a variety of jumps and chicanes, as well as track-based obstacles that should be avoided.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID : NGM-038

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2
=> [A] Accelerate, [B] Brake

- TRIVIA -

Released in November 1991.

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo AES (dec.20, 1991, "Thrash Rally [Model NGH-038]")
[US] SNK Neo-Geo AES (dec.20, 1991, "Thrash Rally [Model NGH-038]")
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo CD (oct.31, 1994, "Rally Chase [Model ADCD-003]")
[US] SNK Neo-Geo CD (1994, "Rally Chase [Model ADCD-003]")

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=3wonders,3wondersu,3wondersh,3wondersr1,3wondersb
Arcade Video game published 32 years ago:

Three Wonders (c) 1991 Capcom Company, Limited.

Export releases. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese release entry; "Wonder 3 [B-Board 89625B-1]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System" hardware.
B-Board #: 89624B-3

- TRIVIA -

These Export versions have some differences to the original Japanese version:
* The action game is called 'Midnight Wanderers' instead 'Roosters'.
* Midnight Wanderers is slightly easier in a few ways: the stage 1 mid-boss has a lower rate of fire, the stage 1 end-boss is less aggressive by shooting more and punching less.

- PORTS -

Here is a list of ports released outside Japan. For Japanese ports, please see the original Japanese version entry; "Wonder 3 [B-Board 89625B-1]". 

* CONSOLES: 
[US] Microsoft XBOX (nov.24, 2006) "Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 2" 
[US] Sony PS2 (nov.24, 2006) "Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 2 [Model SLUS-21473]" 
Sony PlayStation 2 [AU] (apr.11, 2007) "Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 2 [Model SLES-54561]" 
[EU] Sony PS2 (apr.13, 2007) "Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 2 [Model SLES-54561]" 

* HANDHELDS: 
[US] Sony PSP (mar.22, 2006) "Capcom Classics Collection Remixed [Model ULUS-10097]" 
[EU] Sony PSP (jul.21, 2006) "Capcom Classics Collection Remixed [Model ULES-00347]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=thunderl,thunderla
Arcade Video game published 33 years ago:

Thunder & Lightning (c) 1990 Seta.

A ball and paddle game.

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 8 Mhz)
Sound Chips : X1-010 (@ 16 Mhz)

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2

- TRIVIA -

Thunder & Lightning was released in December 1990 in Japan. It was licensed to Romstar for US manufacture and distribution.

- SERIES -

1. Thunder & lightning (1990)
2. Block Carnival (1992)

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] Nintendo Famicom (1991) "Family Block [Model ATH-4T]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=2884&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=tdragon,tdragon1,tdragonb,tdragonb2,tdragonb3
Arcade Video game published 32 years ago:

Thunder Dragon (c) 1991 NMK.

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 10 Mhz)
Sound Chips : YM2203 (@ 1.5 Mhz), (2x) OKI6295 (@ 24.242 Khz)

Screen orientation : Vertical
Video resolution : 224 x 256 pixels
Screen refresh : 60.00 Hz
Palette colors : 1024

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2

- TRIVIA -

Released in August 1991.

Licensed to Tecmo for distribution.

- UPDATES -

A bootleg version uses the "Raiden" (seibu) sound hardware (a Z80 @ 3.579545 Mhz), all musics from "Raiden" are present =).

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Secret Message : Reset game and hold down Player 2 buttons 1 and 2. If you did it fast enough, you will see the message 'Ready?'. If not try again. Press P1 Button 2(x14). If you did this correctly, you should see another message '4th June. 1991'. And you are in the test mode.

- SERIES -

1. Thunder Dragon (1991)
2. Thunder Dragon 2 (1993)

- STAFF -

Producer : Yukio Tomonari
Director : Yosuke Ono
Game designer : Merry Tamio
Programmer : Lieut. Col. Ore
Scenario writer : Ikezu Kenzi
Sound creator : Hide-Kaz
Graphic designers : Ikezu Kenzi, Giant Ama

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=tdragon2,tdragon2a
Arcade Video game published 30 years ago:

Thunder Dragon 2 (c) 1993 NMK.

A vertically scrolling shoot'em up.

- TECHNICAL -

Game ID : UPL-93091

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 10 Mhz)
Sound CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 4 Mhz)
Sound Chips : YM2203 (@ 1.5 Mhz), (2x) OKI6295 (@ 24.242 Khz)

Screen orientation : Vertical
Video resolution : 224 x 384 pixels
Screen refresh : 57.00 Hz
Palette Colors : 1024

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 3

- TRIVIA -

Released in October 1993 in Japan.

This game is also known as "Big Bang - Power Shooting".

- SERIES -

1. Thunder Dragon (1991)
2. Thunder Dragon 2 (1993)

- STAFF -

Planner : W.W. Miyakawa
Programmer : Ore-Dayo
Co-programmer : Ryu Kikuchi
Graphic designers : Ikezu-Kenji, Kate Seki, Gaku Arita, Aniki Nisimura, Uisaku Origami
Sound creator : Manabu Namiki (Taro)
Sound adviser : Hide-Kaz

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=thundfox,thundfoxu,thundfoxj
Arcade Video game published 33 years ago:

Thunder Fox (c) 1990 Taito Corp.

The world is being overrun by terrorists! Not to worry, since two super soldiers are on the case of wiping out this threat. Features nice graphics and sound, along with solid side-scrolling "Rolling Thunder" style action as well as some side scrolling shooter stages to mix things up.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "Taito F2 System" hardware. It used a graphics extension on the board, the so called Taito F2 Expanded System. (also known as the Taito F1 System).

Prom Stickers : C28

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 3 (ATTACK, JUMP, SPECIAL WEAPON)

- TRIVIA -

Thunder Fox was released in August 1990.

As odd as it may sound, this is one of the very few game that lets you use melee attacks with some firearms without actually firing a single shot, this allows you to use these only when you really need extra firepower! It is so strange that this idea is not used more often! :)

- UPDATES -

The US version has the 'Winners Don't Use Drugs' screen.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Timer Bonus: If you destroy the bosses quickly, you can get bonus points.

- STAFF -

Game designer : Keppel Maekawa
Creators : Wolf Kato, Oki, Van Van, CZ-601, Takahiro Natani, Mizushima-ya.Mii, FZR-Mom
Character designers : Noritaka Kawamoto, Nishikawa, Morimoto, Kazama, Omae, Yamada, Kawagishi
Designer : Hiroyasu Nagai
Sound director : Hisayoshi Ogura (OGR.)
Music composer : Kazuko Umino (Karu.)
Sounds effects editor : (Pochi.)

Special Thanks : Tyrant-Mac

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[US] Sega Genesis (1991)
[JP] Sega Mega Drive (june.26, 1991) "Thunder Fox [Model T-11113]" 
[EU] Microsoft XBOX (oct.14, 2005) "Taito Legends" 
[EU] Sony PS2 (oct.14, 2005) "Taito Legends [Model SLES-53438]" 
[US] Microsoft XBOX (oct.25, 2005) "Taito Legends" 
[US] Sony PS2 (oct.25, 2005) "Taito Legends [Model SLUS-21122]" 
[KO] Sony PS2 (jul.18, 2006) "Taito Legends [Model SLKA-15056]" 
[JP] Sony PS2 (mar.29, 2007) "Taito Memories II Gekan [Model SLPM-66713]" 

* COMPUTERS:
[EU] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (oct.14, 2005) "Taito Legends" 
[US] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (nov.10, 2005) "Taito Legends"

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=2894&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=tndrcade
Arcade Video game published 36 years ago:

Thundercade / Twin Formation (c) 1987 Taito Corp.

Export version. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese version entry; "Tokushu Butai U.A.G.".

- TECHNICAL -

Game ID : UA-0

- TRIVIA -

Thundercade was released in October 1987.

It has a dip switch that let the operator change the game name to 'Twin Formation'.

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[US] Nintendo NES (jul.1989) [Model NES-UD]

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=2897&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=tokib
Arcade Video game published 33 years ago:

Toki (c) 1990 Datsu Electronics.

Bootleg of the TAD original.

- TRIVIA -

This pirate version was available on February 26, 1990 in Japan.

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=34718&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=ssideki4

Tokuten Oh - Honoo no Libero (c) 1996 SNK.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID : NGM-215

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 3
=> Attack > [A] Shoot/Low pass, [B] High pass, [C] Short pass
=> Defense > [A] Sliding, [B] Rough play, [C] Action player shift

- TRIVIA -

Tokuten Oh - Honoo no Libero was released in October 1996 in Japan.

The title translates from Japanese as 'Top Scorer - Flame of Libero'.

This game is known outside Japan as 'The Ultimate 11 - SNK Football Championship'.

- SERIES -

1. Tokuten Oh [Model NGM-052] (1992)
2. Tokuten Oh 2 - Real Fight Football [Model NGM-061] (1994)
3. Tokuten Oh 3 - Eikoue no Michi [Model NGM-081] (1995)
4. The Ultimate 11 - SNK Football Championship [Model NGM-215] (1996)
5. NeoGeo Cup '98 - The Road to the Victory [Model NGM-244] (1998)

- STAFF -

Cast : Mr.Rod, Kuwayan, Bug Stopper, I. Etsuko, Tsubo-Tsubo, Namaan-Hiroto, YNY with Catbrow
Camera : Kentarou
Light-1 : Hiroto
Light-2 : Lemon Angeler
Chief Director : RC-31Kai
Planners : Y. Romario, I. Etsuko, Galmaster Yanya
Programmers : CC8WRX, Toppo George
Sound-Music : Tate Norio, Miki
Art director : Newsea
Designers : M-Chiesa, Neotridagger-ZMC, Shio Shio Shio, Oights, Commando,Keiko, Blendy-Cop!, Isso, Lovely Mimori!!, Z-Tom3, Commando Miyako
Sponsor : Akai
Executive producer : Takashi Nishiyama
Music composer : Chan Chakorin
Hard designer : Kucchan
Programmers : Blbon, Takako

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo AES [Dec. 20, 1996; "Tokuten Oh - Honoo no Libero [Model NGH-215]")

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=3016&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=ssideki2

得点王2 リアル ファイト フットボール (c) 1994 SNK.
(Tokuten Oh 2 - Real Fight Football)

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID : NGM-061

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 3
=> Attack > [A] Shoot/Low pass, [B] High pass, [C] Short kick
=> Defense > [A] Sliding, [B] Tackle/Rough play, [C] Action player shift

- TRIVIA -

Tokuten Oh 2 was released in April 1994 in Japan.

This game is known outside Japan as 'Super Sidekicks 2 - The World Championship'.

- SERIES -

1. Tokuten Oh [Model NGM-052] (1992)
2. Tokuten Oh 2 - Real Fight Football [Model NGM-061] (1994)
3. Tokuten Oh 3 - Eikoue no Michi [Model NGM-081] (1995)
4. The Ultimate 11 - SNK Football Championship [Model NGM-215] (1996)
5. NeoGeo Cup '98 - The Road to the Victory [Model NGM-244] (1998)

- STAFF -

President : Eikichi Kawasaki
Chief programmer : Uzumasa
Main programmer : Ep82boy.
Programmers : Yuritan, T. Nakamura
Chief designer : Yellow Beat
Main designers : Mic-Senbey, Mina, Mittu!!!
Designers : Shio Shio Shio(c), Tetujin, Geogemichael, Mr. ?9Adachi, Tenchan, Marche
Models : Bug Stopper, James W. Hove, River Field, Mr. Go, Yuz-Senbey, Tommy Shu, Carge, Beach Round
Sound : Jojoha Kitapy, Brother Hige, Akibon
Planners : Snk R&D Center, Rosanjin

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo (May.27, 1994) "Tokuten Oh 2 - Real Fight Football [Model NGH-061]"
[US] SNK Neo-Geo (1994) "Super Sidekicks 2 [Model NGH-061]"
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo CD (Sep.09, 1994) "Tokuten Oh 2 - Real Fight Football [Model NGCD-061]"
[US] SNK Neo-Geo CD (1994) "Super Sidekicks 2 [Model NGCD-061E]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=ssideki3

Tokuten Oh 3 - Eikoue no Michi (c) 1995 SNK.

Super Sidekicks is the 3rd game in the famous Super Sidekicks series of soccer games. Featuring 6 competition modes for 64 world wide teams. Utilizes Digitized Trace Animation and 3-D camera angled shots for realistic on-the-fly action graphics.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID : NGM-081

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 3
=> Attack > [A] Shoot/Low pass, [B] High pass, [C] Short pass
=> Defense > [A] Sliding, [B] Tackle/Rough play, [C] Action player shift

- TRIVIA -

Tokuten Oh 3 was released in March 1995 in Japan.

The title translates from Japanese as 'Top Scorer - Way of Glory'.

This game is known outside Japan as 'Super Sidekicks 3 - The Next Glory'.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

Each team has 0, 1, 2, or 3 strengths. It stands to reason that the best team will probably have 3 strengths, unless you like an unusual combination like Attack & Defense. Here are the 9 teams that have 3 strengths : Holland, Brazil, Germany, Sweden, Argentina, Italy, France, Belgium, Denmark

- SERIES -

1. Tokuten Oh [Model NGM-052] (1992)
2. Tokuten Oh 2 - Real Fight Football [Model NGM-061] (1994)
3. Tokuten Oh 3 - Eikoue no Michi [Model NGM-081] (1995)
4. The Ultimate 11 - SNK Football Championship [Model NGM-215] (1996)
5. NeoGeo Cup '98 - The Road to the Victory [Model NGM-244] (1998)

- STAFF -

President : Eikichi Kawasaki
Director : H. Kawano
Planner : Snk R&D Center, Fighting Shooter
Chief programmer : Uzumasa Seven
Main programmers : Ej20Wrx, Yuritaro
Programmer : Toppo George
Sound : Ackey, Pearl Shibakichi
Designers : Kanitaro, Performaru, Shio Shio Shio, Gow Travolta, Daisy "Tateko", Toooooooooohru, Nelson Pigu, Tenuking, Blendy Cop, Lisa-Nari, Silicone Grown, Kaoline
Models : Tom Powell, Bug Stopper (Bug Stoper), H. Kawano, Mic-Senbey, Love&Soul, Gow Travolta, Daisy "Tateko", Tenuking, Performaru-2, George.Y, Tom.Karji, Bruce Tee, J. Miki, Gc8-Wrx, Jighoh Ninomiya

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo AES (Apr. 07, 1995; "Tokuten Oh 3 - Eikoue no Michi [Model NGH-081]")
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo CD (june.23, 1995; "Tokuten Oh 3 - Eikoue no Michi [Model NGCD-081]")
[US] Sony PS2 may.05, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model SLUS-21724]"
[US] Sony PSP may.05, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model ULUS-10338]"
[KO] Sony PS2 may.29, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model SLKA-25424]"
[US] Nintendo Wii jul.29, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model RVL-P-RNCE]"
[EU] Sony PSP Oct. 17, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model ULES-01105]"
[EU] Nintendo Wii Oct. 31, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model RVL-P-RJZP]"
[EU] Sony PS2 Nov. 21, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model SLES-55232]"
[JP] Sony PSP May. 21, 2009 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model ULJS-193]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=ssideki

得点王 (c) 1992 SNK.
(Tokuten Oh)

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID : NGM-052

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2
=> Offense > [A] Long kick/Shoot, [B] Pass
=> Defense > [A] Slide, [B] Tackle

- TRIVIA -

Tokuten Oh was released in December 1992 in Japan.

The title translates from Japanese as 'Top Scorer'.

This game is known outside Japan as 'Super Sidekicks'.

Reviews:
[FR] March 1993 - Consoles + No. 18: 90/100 (AES version)

- SERIES -

1. Tokuten Oh [Model NGM-052] (1992)
2. Tokuten Oh 2 - Real Fight Football [Model NGM-061] (1994)
3. Tokuten Oh 3 - Eikoue no Michi [Model NGM-081] (1995)
4. The Ultimate 11 - SNK Football Championship [Model NGM-215] (1996)
5. NeoGeo Cup '98 - The Road to the Victory [Model NGM-244] (1998)

- STAFF -

Producer : Eikichi Kawasaki
Planner : Ishimotti
Sound : Jojoha Kitapy, Yoko
Designers : Mioshi, S.K., Younger Face, Eri Kohjitani, J-Mikami, Mori-P
Programmers : Mabushi, Narutaki, Ep82boy.

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo AES (Feb. 19, 1993; "Tokuten Oh [Model NGH-052]")
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo CD (Mar.31, 1995; "Tokuten Oh [Model NGCD-052]")
Sony PlayStation Store (Dec.2010)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=tophuntr

Top Hunter - Roddy & Cathy (c) 1994 SNK.

Top Hunter: Roddy & Cathy is a horizontally-scrolling beat-em-up for one or two players who take on the role of the galaxy's top bounty hunters, Roddy and Cathy, who are sent to put a stop to a colony of galactic pirates called the Klaptons, who threaten and plunder the cosmos. Four high-ranking Klaptons have taken control of four elemental planets and big rewards are offered for the capture of Sly, Misty, Mr. Bigman and Dr. Burn.

The game's action takes place on two plains, with players able to jump between the foreground and background at will. This switching mechanic is integral to getting through some parts of the game. In addition to standard jump and attack mechanics, both players have the ability to extend their arms outwards. This ability can be used to grab items and enemies, some of which can then be thrown. The arm can also be extended vertically upwards, allowing players to pull themselves up onto ledges, pull items down to them, or pull handles to trigger events, such as dropping rocks onto enemies.

Each stage has several collectables to be found, including health, weapon power-ups and extra time. At certain points during a stage, players may come across a Mecha; this is a bi-pedal mechanical walker that gives players more power. The mecha also has limited health, however and the player will be forced out of it when it starts flashing. 

Top Hunter: Roddy & Cathy is split into four planets: Forest, Ice, Wind, and Fire and players can choose which planet to tackle first. Depending on what stage is picked first, the layout of that stage will change. For example, if the player picks the Ice world before the Forest world, the Forest world's starting layout will be different. 

After completing all four worlds, the player is taken to the final stage, where they must fight a rematch with the four bosses before the final battle with the game's antagonist, Captain Klapton.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID : NGM-046

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 3
=> [A] Punch/Arm stretch/Throw objects, [B] Jump, [C] Change planes

- TRIVIA -

Released in May 1994.

The game borrows plenty of ideas from many of SNK's most popular fighting games at the time of its release. The two-plane stages were first used in "Fatal Fury - King of Fighters", also Roddy & Cathy feature special moves that fans of "Fatal Fury - King of Fighters" and "Art of Fighting" are sure to recognize.

Mashing the attack button will make Roddy and Cathy go into a combo, with Roddy eventually letting out a flurry of punches, while Cathy does a Hyakuretsukyaku/Lightning Kick move. Doing a quarter-circle forward motion and hitting the attack button precisely will make the player do a Ko'ouken (or a hadouken with one hand) attack, while doing a shoryuken motion will make the player do a shoryuken/koho attack. The player can also do Terry Bogard's power wave as well.

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Top Hunter - Shisekai Gakkyoku Zatsugidan - PCCB-00157) on July 21, 1994.

- STAFF -

Producer : Eikichi Kawasaki
Planners : Yasumi Tozono (Tozono), M. Matsuda, Y. Hashimoto
Front Designers : Tatsuya Shinkai, Khozoh Nagashima, C.A.C. Yamasaki, Mikarin Nishida
Back Designers : Hirolin Hajima, Munk Etoh, Kaori Kusunoki, Eri Kohjitani, Oda Nobunaga
Programmers : Carib, Shochan, Imasa. F, Data Tada
Sound : Yoko, Jojoha Kitapy, Shiba Pooh, Akky, Masahiko Hataya (Papaya), Toshio Shimizm (Shimizm)
Designers : Nao Q., Lolie Nishioka, K. Kinoko, Mohko Hung
Special Thanks : James Hove, H. Tanaka, Miyagami, STG Oyaji

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo AES june.24, 1994; "Top Hunter - Roddy & Cathy [Model NGH-048]"
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo CD Sep. 29, 1994; "Top Hunter - Roddy & Cathy [Model NGCD-048]"
[US] Sony PS2 may.05, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model SLUS-21724]"
[US] Sony PSP may.05, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model ULUS-10338]"
[KO] Sony PS2 may.29, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model SLKA-25424]"
[US] Nintendo Wii jul.29, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model RVL-P-RNCE]"
[EU] Sony PSP Oct. 17, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model ULES-01105]"
[EU] Nintendo Wii Oct. 31, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model RVL-P-RJZP]"
[EU] Sony PS2 Nov. 21, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model SLES-55232]"
[JP] Sony PSP May. 21, 2009 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model ULJS-193]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=topland,toplandj
Arcade Video game published 35 years ago:

Top Landing (c) 1988 Taito.

A 3-D flight simulation game were you can choose destinations like Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo, Osaka, Rio de Janeiro, Seydey, Fukuoka and Washington.

- TECHNICAL -

Taito Air System hardware
Prom Stickers : B62

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 12 Mhz), Zilog Z80 (@ 4 Mhz), TMS32025 (@ 24 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Yamaha YM2610 (@ 8 Mhz)

Players : 2
Control : stick
Buttons : 4

- TRIVIA -

Released in September 1988. Taito's first 3-D game!

The 1-3 stage soundtrack was re-used in "Jet de Go! Pocket" on Sony PSP.

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Kyukyoku Tiger : G.S.M. Taito 2 - D28B0008) on 21/11/1988.
Zuntata Records released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Zuntata History L'ab-normal 1st - ZTTL-0038) on 01/04/1999.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* When you are out of the course, the crewman doesn't say the 'arrive message'.

* You can't get a perfect score! The game has been programmed to never give a perfect score to the player, even if their landing was great.

* When you land at the Tokyo international airport, you are able to land a second time. You can't score points for doing this, though.

- SERIES -

1. Midnight Landing (1987)
2. Top Landing (1988)
3. Landing Gear (1996)
4. Landing High Japan (1999)
5. Jet De GO! (2000, Sega Dreamcast)
6. Jet De GO! (2002, Sony PlayStation 2)
7. Jet De GO! Pocket (2005, Sony PSP)

- STAFF -

Music composed by Zuntata.

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=tpgolf

Top Player's Golf (c) 1990 SNK.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID: NGM-003

Players: 2
Control: 8-Way Joystick
Buttons: 2

- TRIVIA -

Top Player's Golf was released on May 23, 1990.

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo AES (jul.1, 1991; "Top Player's Golf [Model NGH-003]")
[US] SNK Neo-Geo AES (jul.1, 1991; "Top Player's Golf [Model NGH-003]")
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo CD (sept.9, 1994; "Top Player's Golf [Model NGCD-003]")
[US] SNK Neo-Geo CD (sept.9, 1994; "Top Player's Golf [Model NGCD-003E]")

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=trstar,trstaro,trstarj,trstaroj
Arcade Video game published 30 years ago:

Top Ranking Stars (c) 1993 Taito.

6 boxers fight each other with their own special attack to win the world unity open weight boxing title match.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "Taito F3 System" Hardware.

Players: 4
Control: 8-way joystick
Buttons: 4

- TRIVIA -

Released in July 1993.

This game is known in US as "Prime Time Fighter".

- STAFF -

Project leader : George K-S
Game designers : Fumio Horiuchi, Masakazu Iwahashi
Software designers : Soliton K+H+Y Sako, Mail, Wolf Kato
Base character designers : N. Korammer, Vap Corp.
Character designers : Yhaway Hasama, Y.N. Dessy, Akiyoshi Takada, Jijiy Yamada, Bibiko Tamae Kisanuki, Natsuco Mochi-Mochi, Mari Fukusaki (Mari-Konga Fukusaki), Kouittya Kisato, Vap Corp.
Art Designer : Hiroyasu Nagai (Super Psychicer Nagai)
Hardware designer : Katsumi Kaneoka
Sound designer : Yoshiro Horie
Executive producer : Keisuke Hasegawa

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=topspeed,topspeedu
Arcade Video game published 36 years ago:

Top Speed (c) 1987 Taito corporation.

Export version. For more information about the game, please see the original Japanese version entry: "Full Throttle".

- TRIVIA -

Top Speed was released in October 1987. Licensed to Romstar for US manufacture and distribution.

Top Speed removes territorial notice. Both US and world roms have no warning before the game. Also, Full Throttle is replaced by Top Speed before staff roll (line: Full Throttle is over!).

A Top Speed unit appears in the 1989 movie "The Wizard" (though it was erroneously referred to as Capcom's "F-1 Dream" in the movie).

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=toppyrap
Arcade Video game published 27 years ago:

Toppy & Rappy (c) 1996 SemiCom.

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 16 Mhz), Zilog Z80 (@ 4 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Yamaha YM2151 (@ 4 Mhz), OKI6295 (@ 7.575 Khz)

Screen orientation : Horizontal
Video resolution : 256 x 224 pixels
Screen refresh : 57.50 Hz
Palette colors : 256

Players : 2
Control : 8-way Joystick
Buttons : 3

- STAFF -

Producer : J.Y. Jeon
Plan : Slime
Program : Mad1004
Graphic : O.S. Hwang, S.H. Kim, K.H. Kim, Y.J. Hong
Music : S.K. Jeon
Effect : S.K. Jeon, B.G. Shin

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=arkatour,arkatour2
Arcade Video game published 36 years ago:

Tournament Arkanoid (c) 1987 Romstar.

Tournament Arkanoid is an update of the original "Arkanoid" that was released exclusively in the United States. It has an entirely new set of levels, some more difficult than any levels of the original game. Otherwise, gameplay in general is entirely identical to the original.

- TRIVIA -

Tournament Arkanoid was released by Romstar, under license by Taito, in March 1987 in the USA.

This game is basically "Arkanoid" with an entirely new set of levels. For more information on the game, please see the original Taito Japan entry.

The layout of level 2 is a drawing of the US flag, with the stars represented by silver blocks.

The layout of level 4 is a drawing of Chack'n from "Chack'n Pop". Chack'n's eyes are made out of indestructible gold blocks.

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=aodk

痛快GANGAN行進曲 (c) 1994 SNK Corp.
(Tsuukai Gangan Koushinkyoku)

1-on-1 fighter featuring 8 selectable characters.

The game's major innovation is the ability to walk into the background, in a similar manner to side-scrolling beat 'em ups such as "Streets of Rage" or "Final Fight" because of this, unlike many other 2-D fighting games, the game uses one action button to jump, it also does not use the 'D' button, (Which many of SNK's other fighters did), only 2 action buttons are used for attacking (punch and kick), instead grappling and grabbing opponents (Pressing the A & B buttons simultaneously) is the focus of the gameplay, opponents can counter being grabbed, as well as break free. Also featured is weapon play, again similar to beat 'em ups, weapons can be picked up and thrown, or used in special & standard attacks. Weapons are thrown in by background crowd members who will step forward to toss them into the ring. Another (strange) innovation of the game is that characters start to sweat -graphically- after a while.

Characters have unusually high health for the genre, with multiple, different coloured, health bars in one bar similar to a method of health bars used for boss characters in games of the time, in addition to this, each character has a 'Crazy Meter' at the bottom of the screen, which is built up as characters attack, this gives the character a special, often very bizarre, attack that will kill the opponent outright, known as the GanGan Attack in Japan, and the Crazy Attack in the US.

Battles are joined by irreverent, sometimes humorous pre-fight banter from characters, the dialog differs depending on whom each opponent is, and a clashing of 2 small images of the characters eyes, which clash in the center of the screen.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
MVS ID: NGM-074
ADK ID: ADM-008

[SNK MVS Neo-Geo Controls]
2 players - 4 buttons per player (3 usables).
=> [Joystick] 8-Way, [A] Punch [B] Kick [C] Jump

- TRIVIA -

Tsuukai Gangan Koushinkyoku was released in July 1994 in Japan.

This game is known outside Japan as Aggressors of Dark Kombat. (A)ggressors of (D)ark (K)ombat = ADK. The title is also a kind of pun on "Mortal Kombat".

The title of this game translates from Japanese as 'Thrilling Intense March'. GANGAN is also Japanese onomatopoeia for the sound of a large bell or a scolding voice.

Criticism: Aggressors of Dark Kombat is a somewhat unknown title compared to SNK's other fighting franchises such as "Fatal Fury", "Art of Fighting" and their signature fighting title "The King of Fighters" and was not found in great numbers in arcades, nor did it's home console version sell well, and it is generally considered by reviewers and fans of the genre of the time, to be a mediocre title. Now, Aggressors of Dark Kombat is considered a cult game, recommended for all those gamers who wants a different game of those mentioned before.

The game features 8 selectable characters, these characters are not named anywhere in-game, unusual for the genre, which usually gives the character's name in the menu, and almost always places it at some point around the character's health bar. 7 of the characters are new and also appears Kotaro Fuuma from "World Heroes".
* Joe Kusanagi - His nickname is 'Red Panther of Honmoku' and is the protagonist of this story. Joe is the most powerful and famous brawler of the Eastern zone of Japan (know as Kanto). Bored of doesn't find good opponents in his zone, he heard rumors about strong guys in the Western zone, so he travels there to confirm the rumor. Joe is the balanced character in the game, with many combo moves and various techniques. Apart of this game, he appears as a cameo in one of Kisarah's attacks in Neo Geo Battle Coliseum.
* Kisarah Westfield - Her nickname is 'Naive Tomboy'. An English school girl who is known as a femme fatale in Japanese schools. But Kisarah falls in love with Joe Kusanagi and now chases him to obligate Joe to be her boyfriend. She is the only female in this game, the most famous character, and one of the most versatile characters from this game. Kisarah appears as a selectable character in "Neo Geo Battle Coliseum" and as a SNK character card in "SNK vs. Capcom - Card Fighters DS".
* Goh Kidokoro - His nickname is 'Strong Spirit from Naniwa'. Goh is the most famous brawler in Western zone of Japan (known as Kansai) and he has his own gang. Goh got the news about the arrival of 'Red Panther from Honmoku' and now is waiting to fight against this new menace for his goal of nationwide conquest. Goh is the grappler from this game, with many powerful grabs and various powers.
* Kotaro Fuuma - His nickname is 'Angry Hurricane'. His story in the game is simply that he got lost during one of his travels through time and landed in 1994 Japan, where the game takes place, becoming involved in the ensuing fights. Like the rest of characters in AODK, Fuuma doesn't have powers (only his EnRyuuHa signature move from WH series makes the transition with him), but in return, he gains many combo moves and a teleport.
* Leonhalt Domador - His nickname is 'Black Bull'. A German brawler who escapes from his native country as a refugee. He comes to Japan to convert in the most strong fighter of all, no matter what for. Leonhalt is the tallest, slowest and the most powerful fighter from this game. Also he's the rival for Sheen Genus.
* Sheen Genus - His nickname is 'Rising Tiger'. A Canadian amateur wrestler who wants with his group to make his own professional Wrestling Federation, and now is searching strong people to join to him. Sheen is the wrestler of the game and is the rival of Leonhalt Domador. Recently appears in "SNK vs. Capcom - Card Fighters DS" as an Action card.
* Lee Hae Gwan - His nickname is 'White Fang'. A Chinese martial artist who lives in Japan and works for a school. Now he searches for revenge against the brawler who makes disasters in his school: Leonhalt Domador. Lee is one of the fastest characters in the game, who has a good arsenal of kicks and various martial tricks.
* Bobby Nelson - His nickname is 'Brown Bullet'. An African-American boy who is a basketball player and wanted to be known and famous. To achieve his objective, Bobby is traveling the world, waiting to be discovered. Bobby is the fastest and smallest character in this game, and the only one who always have a weapon within (in this case, his basket ball). Recently appears in "SNK vs. Capcom - Card Fighters DS" as an Action card, along with Sean Matsuda from "Street Fighter III".

The game features written lyrics at the credits roll for each character, either it was not feasible to get vocal works for these songs, or it could be an attempt to invite gamers to have fun with these by attempting some sort of karaoke. The latter option seems highly probable due to the popularity of karaoke in Japan.

Soundtrack releases :
[JP] October 21, 1994, "Tsuukai Gangan Koushinkyoku [GSM 1500 Series] [PCCB-00163] - Pony Canyon / Scitron

- UPDATES -

There are almost no differences between the Japanese release of this game & the International versions aside from the rather drastic name change, but it is worth taking notice that there is blood to be found when you use a critical hit on an opponent on the Japanese release only.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Some throws that either break bones or hit the opponent's crotch will stun opponents for quite a long time, allowing you to get an easy chance for a big combo.

* Beat the game 2 times in a row to see all the characters in a super deformed style at the end of the credits.

* Beat the game 2 times in a row and without using a continue to get a longer Karaoke sequence and a group shot of chubby versions of the characters.

- STAFF -

Developed by ADK.

Executive Producer : Kazuo Arai
Producer, Action Plan, Game Director : Tsutomu Maruyama
Director, Game Plan : Takashi Hatono
Second director, Algolism Plan : Kenji Sawatari
Marketing Researcher : Yukio Gotoh
System Planner : Tsutomu Maruyama
System Programmers : Eiji Fukatsu, Makio Chiba
Programmers : Hideo Kamoda, Teruaki Shirasawa, M. Ando, Satoru Kubota
Editor : Mitsunari Ishida
Sound Direction : Tsutomu Maruyama
Sound & Music : Hideki Yamamoto, Hiroaki Shimizu, Hiroaki Kujirai, K. Kasuga, Takeshi Muramatsu, Yuka Kurosawa
Art Director : Tsutomu Maruyama
Graphic Designers : Kazushige Hakamata, Hideyuki Toda, Kimitoshi Yokoo, Muneki Shiraishi, Hideyuki Yamada, Hajime Suzuki, H. Ozono, Tohru Okamura, Atsushi Kobayashi, M. Yoshikoshi, Masato Mitsuya, Y. Nishidate, R. Nakajima, Yasuyuki Sohara, Kenichi Sakanishi, Hideyuki Kusano, Masano Ohno, Takashi Egashira, Shinji Moriyama, Satsuki Ito, Masako Sato, K. Ohashi, K. Ohnishi, Takahiro Arahata, S. Endo, T. Yamazaki, M. Honda, M. Himeno, T. Aoyagi, J. Seki, F. Kurihara
Demo Character Design : Koji Fujita
Public Information : Koji Fujita, Hajime Taguchi
Character Voices : Naoki Ogata, Yoshikatsu Fujio, Kazumasa Katsura, Yasue Ishii, H. Ando, Michael Naishtut, Dario Louis Pohissi, Julie Oppenheimer, Yang Ju Il
Schedule Manager : Kenichi Sakanishi
Special Thanks : H. Ando, Yuji Noguchi, K. Ono

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo (aug.26, 1994) "Tsuukai Gangan Koushinkyoku [Model NGH-074]"
[US] SNK Neo-Geo (aug.24, 1994) "Aggressors of Dark Kombat [Model NGH-074]"
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo CD (jan.13, 1995) "Tsuukai Gangan Koushinkyoku [Model ADCD-008]"
[US] SNK Neo-Geo CD (1994) "Aggressors of Dark Kombat [Model ADCD-008E]"
[JP] Sony PS2 (dec.18, 2008) "ADK Tamashii [Model SLPS-25906]"
[JP] Nintendo Wii [Virtual Console] (May, 10, 2011)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=tubeit
Arcade Video game published 30 years ago:

Tube-It (c) 1993 Taito.

Export version. For more information about the game, please see the original Japanese version entry; "Cachat".

- TECHNICAL -

Taito L System hardware

Main CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 6 Mhz)
Sound Chips : YM2203 (@ 3 Mhz)

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2 (ROTATE LEFT, ROTATE RIGHT)

- TRIVIA -

This game is known in Japan as "Cachat".

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES: 
[EU] Microsoft XBOX (oct.14, 2005) "Taito Legends" 
[EU] Sony PS2 (oct.14, 2005) "Taito Legends [Model SLES-53438]" 
[US] Microsoft XBOX (oct.25, 2005) "Taito Legends" 
[US] Sony PS2 (oct.25, 2005) "Taito Legends [Model SLUS-21122]" 
[KO] Sony PS2 (jul.18, 2006) "Taito Legends [Model SLKA-15056]" 

* COMPUTERS: 
[EU] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (oct.14, 2005) "Taito Legends" 
[US] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (nov.10, 2005) "Taito Legends"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=twineagl
Arcade Video game published 35 years ago:

Twin Eagle - Revenge Joe's Brother (c) 1988 Seta Company, Limited.

A vertical shoot-em-up that places the player's helicopter against multiple attacking targets in the air, sea, and land. Collecting the weapon and speed power-ups throughout the game is vital since the gameplay is quite difficult.

The object of the game, which is not explained further, is to avenge Joe's brother - which is probably not assumed to be the player, but presumably a friend of the player who lost his brother to the enemy. (It uses bad English grammar on the subtitle of the screen, using "revenge" as a verb, as apposed to "avenge".  That being said, it's a pretty tight game otherwise.)  To do so, you must destroy the fortress on the very last level. When you start the game and it scrolls onto the starting screen, the background contains the different levels that you must survive. Ground and sea levels alternate with fighter jet levels.  The starting position of the ground enemies and drones with helicopter blades do not vary from game to game; but fighter jets come on in random positions.

- TECHNICAL -

Board Number : M6100326A
Prom Stickers : UA2

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 8 Mhz), M65C02 (@ 1 Mhz)
Sound Chips : X1-010 (@ 16 Mhz)

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2
=> [A] Shoot, [B] Bomb

- TRIVIA -

Twin Eagle was released in April 1988 in Japan by Taito.

Licensed to Romstar for US distribution.

The entire sound production was done by a freelancer sound team, Goblin Sound. A hard-to-find soundtrack CD was released by Seta in 1989 whose title is given as "Twin Eagle and Real Majhong 3" or "SETA GAME MUSIC SCENE ONE Twin EAGLE & SUPER REAL MAHJONG PIII #01". The rock song that plays during the fighter jet battles is called "Early Warning (Can't sleep over 3 hours)". It is not clear who the artist(s) are on it. It has verses with most of the lyrics in Japanese, but choruses in English. The bridge is in Japanese, with a vocal line and overdubbed vocals with different lyrics at the same time. There's a tasty eight-bar lead break in the song, too. The game only features a clip from the song, and is evidently a different take from the version on the CD.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Power-up items :
1) M = Shot Multiplier
2) L = Slightly increased shot length
3) S = Slightly increased helicopter speed, cumulative
4) B = Extra bomb
5) Although it is ultra-rare, a floating icon can appear (instead of a balloon) which contains a full multi-shot power-up. This doesn't always show up, but when it does, it is (virtually?) always in the forest level before the city level at the end.

* Completely destroying the bunkers before shooting any of the men behind them almost always yields a shot-multiplier power-up. One can regularly have the maximum number of shot multipliers by the end of the first level by using this trick. This does not seem to work past the first level; as the bunkers are usually missing in front of the men in later levels. When you run out of missiles, you still have your regular guns, which can do a lot of damage with enough power-ups. Fire as often as you can when you are using the guns, and keep firing. It is always good to pick up missiles, unless you are on the first level, and it could interfere with getting a red balloon. Part of the trick to playing the game is to scroll the screen from side to side and to pick off the enemies that are placed on opposite sides to harass you.

* By learning the pattern of when and where enemies appear, you can neutralize them before they can do you any harm. This is especially true with hitting the helicopter drones as they come on screen, and nuking the screen just before the guided missile truck. It is best to use the nuke when your helicopter is positioned at the very bottom of the screen. Otherwise, it may only be partially effective; as it destroys only things ahead of you, and up to a certain angle to the side.

* It is important to conserve nukes, unless you are dying a lot; or are being overwhelmed after just dying. Therefore, particularly if you are practiced, and have shot power-ups, taking out the guided missile trucks with your shots can save nukes. If you can shoot the trucks when fairly close while strafing from one side to another, you fairly consistently can get the guided missiles to pass harmlessly off the side of the screen. If you aren't so close and haven't taken them out with a nuke, they may circle the screen three times before finally going away. Depending on the situation, this may not be practical. If there are a lot of enemies on the screen, or don't have shot power-ups, nuking the truck may be your best option.

* During the fighter jet sequences at the end of each level, you may see light-blue jets, gun-metal colored jets, and/or red jets. The first two can usually be taken out with shots, and are relatively easy. The gun-metal jets also shoot missiles as well as flashing-dot shots. The red jets fire a LOT of missiles and flashing-dot shots; and once one comes, others often come. Again, conserving nukes is important, so only use them if you have to; but if you are in a situation with the jets you won't otherwise survive, it is always better to use up nukes and survive than to save a nuke and die. It is pretty common to have to use a nuke to survive an attack of red jets.

* The helicopter drones always come onto the top of the screen in groups, with each member of a group entering in nearly the same place. Then, they fly around a lot, making you dodge them, firing shots, and generally complicating the situation. It's usually good to try to hit them right as they come onto the screen; and while you can hit them later, your main focus should be hitting them as they come onto the screen. This should take much higher priority than hitting them later. Sometimes only hitting a few this way can make it much easier to survive when a lot come onto the screen. You can usually survive a wave of them by moving to one side, then the top of the screen, to the other side, and then back down; if other enemies aren't being a problem. The last member of a group of drones may linger on the screen more and fire more shots at you than the others.

* Helicopters come to attack you head-on at various points in the game. They don't fire at you much if you can safely pass them. Near the beginning of level two, you face three in a row. You'll usually want to strafe them (although you can just dodge them, too), having some shot power-ups; but keep well back from them, as they like to release a lot of shots when they get near you. A common blunder is to dodge these three to the right, without enough of a head-start.

* Destroying the bunker at the end isn't too hard; especially if you can manage to have some shot power-ups and bombs at that point. Be wary of the guided missile trucks as you approach it: a bomb can be well-used as you approach all the enemies just outside the bunker wall. Shoot at the wall to break it to enter. You will see one more guided missile truck, with hardly any other attackers. This you should be able to take out with shots. Once you get to the main bunker, there will be infantry in green fatigues shooting at you, and helicopter drones that just keep coming. Get rid of all the guys in green fatigues first; doing whatever is needed to survive the drones. Once they are gone, only a single nuke seems to be needed to destroy the bunker; or else a LOT of shooting.

- SERIES -

1. Twin Eagle - Revenge Joe's Brother (1988)
2. Twin Eagle II - The Rescue Mission (1994)

- STAFF -

Produced by : Jun Fujimoto
Game designed by : MTY, Yam
Game programmed by : MTY
Game sub programmed by : Kazuaki Nakanishi
System programmed by : H. Kobayashi, K. Yoshii
Graphic designed by : Sachiko
Character designers : K. Sato, A. Kumura, M. Kasajima, M. Takeda

Music direction by Goblin Sound.
Music composers : Zero Yotsumoto, T. Suzuki, Conrad T. Kozawa
Music performers : T. Suzuki, Zero Yotsumoto, Coke Taguchi, T. Tanno, S. Tsutsui
Sound edited by : T. Suzuki, T. Hasegawa

Allugataya system : T. Hasegawa, T. Suzuki, K. Okuda
Game advised by : J. Narita
Graphic editer designed by : M. Watanabe
68K Chan : K. Ishikawa
Board designed by : Nobuyuki Nonaka
Pcm 16 : K. Oiyama
Vdc : T. Iwata, K. Oiyama
Vrc : Nobuyuki Nonaka
Sound filter : Shyachou, M. Tanaka
Eigiyou : T. Ishikawa, Y. Ota
Jimu : T. Watanabe, T. Hiroi, K. Komura, M. Tanaka
Koubai : M. Harada, M. Iwata
Koumu : Y. Ikegai
Seizou : A. Aranaga, T. Sasho, K. Tominaga
Character model maked by : M. Takeda, Kazuaki Nakanishi, S. Tanaka

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[US] Nintendo NES (1989) "Twin Eagle - Revenge Joe's Brother [Model NES-2E-USA]"
[JP] Nintendo Famicom (1991) "Twin Eagle - Revenge Joe's Brother [Model VIS-2E]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=twinhawk,twinhawku
Arcade Video game published 34 years ago:

Twin Hawk (c) 1989 Taito.

Export release. Game developed in Japan. See the original for more information about the game itself; "Daisenpuu".

- TECHNICAL -

Taito X System hardware
Prom Stickers : B87

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 3

- TRIVIA -

Released in June 1989.

There are several differences between Twin Hawk and its Japanese version Daisenpuu:
* Twin Hawk supports two simultaneous players.
* Daisenpuu supports two players, but only one at a time. Because of this, it also supports Cocktail cabinets.
* In Twin Hawk, both planes are purple and pink for player 1 and 2 respectively.
* In Daisenpuu, the planes are green for both players.
* In Twin Hawk, when you die, you continue the game at your current position.
To compensate this, they increased the health of bigger enemies and the rank/dynamic difficulty (enemies start shooting sooner and faster).
* In Daisenpuu, when you die, you continue the game at predefined positions. 
* In Daisenpuu, big blue bullets are faster (like the ones in the first boss), making those attacks much more difficult to dodge.
* In Twin Hawk, small orange bullets (like the ones in the beginning) have worse visibility. In Daisenpuu they're more yellow and have better contrast against the background.

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
Sega Mega Drive (1990)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=twinqix
Taito F3 cart. published 28 years ago:

Twin Qix (c) 1995 Taito Corp.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "Taito F3 System" Hardware.

Players : 4
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 4

- TRIVIA -

This game was cancelled before it was released. Only one Japanese prototype board is known to have been manufactured.

The game forbids the initials 'SEX' on the high score table. If you try, it gets changed to 'H !'. In Japanese 'H' is often used as a shortening of the word 'hentai', meaning pervert.

- SERIES -

1. Qix (1981, ARC)
2. Qix II - Tournament (1982, ARC)
3. Super Qix (1987, ARC)
4. Ultimate Qix (1991, MD)
5. Twin Qix (1995, ARC)
6. Battle Qix (2002, ARC)
7. Qix ++ (2009, XBLA)

- STAFF -

Project leader : Keppel Maekawa
Software designer : Harumi. K
Game designers : Tukasa Oshima, Takafumi Kaneko
Character designer : Izumi Takemoto
Graphic designer : Akiyoshi Takada, Lin Chinkai (Indy Chinkai), Takashi Yamada, Takeshi Ninomiya, Shigeki Yamamoto, Masato Shinchi, Kawamoyan
Sound : Nakayama Jotohei (Zuntata)
Printing designer : Kumi Mizobe
Hardware works : Takeshi Kinugasa

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=twinkle,twinklea
Arcade Video game published 26 years ago:

Twinkle (c) 1997 SemiCom.

A sequel to "Hyper Pacman". The power-ups tossed throughout the mazes consist of vision goggles, helmet/laser helmets, speed, hyperspeed, jump shoes, bonus stages and free pac-men. The game ends after the 40th stage.

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 16 Mhz)
Sound CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 4 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Yamaha YM2151 (@ 4 Mhz), OKI6295 (@ 7.575 Khz)

Screen orientation : Horizontal
Video resolution : 256 x 224 pixels
Screen refresh : 57.50 Hz
Palette colors : 256

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2 (JUMP, LASER)

- SERIES -

1. Hyper Pacman (1995)
2. Twinkle (1997)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=twinspri

Twinkle Star Sprites (c) 1997 SNK.

Twinkle Star Sprites is a competitive scrolling shooter game originally created by ADK. It was ADK's last production for the Neo-Geo platform. The gameplay, which can be characterized as a combination of a fixed shooter and a versus puzzle game, uses combinations of shots, as well as timed power-ups to attempt to damage the opponent. These attacks also serve as counters to the opponent's attack.

An interesting & highly cute hybrid between a Vs style puzzle game & an overhead shooter, players may choose to play the Story Mode in order to see the misadventures of Load Ran & her faithful yet somewhat annoying Rabbicat as they try to find the Magical Twinkle Star & save their world from the evil Mevious & his henchmen. The other option is to play the Free Character Mode in which you are able to pick any character (see codes under Tips and Tricks) to play the game and see their very own comical ending. A second player may challenge you at any time.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID : 0224

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2b[A] Shoot/Use attack-stopper, [B] Bomb

- TRIVIA -

Twinkle Star Sprites was released in January 1997.

The game's concept seems to be a funny parody of the Sailor Moon manga, however the game's comic relief 'Rabbicat' seems to be a parody of Tenchi Muyo's very own cute mascot & comic relief 'Ryo-Oh-Ki' the cabbit.

Load Ran & Sprites feature different endings in the Free Character Mode, these endings are completely different to the one seen in the Story Mode.

In the story mode, Mevious will either taunt or praise you if continues have been used during your game or not!

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Twinkle Star Sprites - PCCB-00247) on 21/02/1997.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

There are two types of standard attacks: a normal shot and a charge-up shot. Each character starts with two bombs which enables him in the event of desperate plight, to clean with the screen while briefly acquiring a state of invincibility. The two players' playfields are separated by a vertical bar, each one having its own independent of the other. Series of enemies arrive from the top of the screen. The player is to successfully destroy them in chains (combos), which will send one or more fireball projectiles to the screen of his adversary (Normal Attack). Shooting at Normal Attacks several times reflects them back as glowing Reverse Attacks. If Reverse Attacks are reflected again, a number of powerful counterattacks in the shape of one or more indestructible enemies appear (Extra Attack). Reflecting many Reverse Attacks at once can instead summon a boss (Boss Attack).

* The Extra Attacks and the Boss Attack vary from one character to another.

* The power gauge fills as the player destroys enemies up to three levels. By holding down the fire button and releasing when a certain level is reached, the player can launch a character-specific charge shot to assist the player in clearing enemies from his screen. At Level 1, the charge shot is launched. At Level 2, the charge shot and three Extra Attacks against the opponent are launched. At Level 3 (Max Level), the charge shot and a Boss Attack are launched. Firing charge shots at Level 2 and above will decrease the power gauge.

* 30–40 seconds into a round, a blue orb appears among a chain of enemies. If this orb is destroyed in a chain, the player achieves Fever status for the next several seconds. Chains created during Fever generate faster and more plentiful Normal Attacks per enemy destroyed, which can prove to be very dangerous to the opponent if large chains are made.

* Both players are given five life points at the start of a round.

* Colliding into an enemy costs 1 life point, but the player cannot be killed this way; if a player has one life point left, he will be left with one half of a life point. When this happens, his character is stunned for a short while and is reduced in speed and attack power for several seconds after recovery, all the while left more vulnerable to opponent attacks.

* Getting hit by a Normal Attack, Reverse Attack, Extra Attack or the projectiles from a Boss cost 3 life points.
    
* The match is over when a player loses all his life points.

* When a player takes damage, his opponent recovers life points equal to half of the damage taken.

* If a round lasts longer than 100 seconds or the player does not fire a shot for more than 30 seconds, a Death enemy appears. If a player is hit by this enemy, he will lose immediately (Death Attack). The Death can be destroyed as any other enemy, but always comes back, harder to kill. Additionally, if a player is successful in volleying the "death" character over to his opponent's side, and the death character touches the opponent, the opponent dies instantly. This is a possible, though difficult, way to win. This, of course, would require the player to be skilled enough to avoid obstacles and not fire for more than 30 seconds.

* Special Codes:
Play As Sprites : At the character select screen, put the selector on Ran and press Up(x4), A.

Play As Memory : At the character select screen, put the selector on Ran and press Down(x4), A.

Play As Mevious : At the character select screen, put the selector on Griffon and press Up(x4), A.

Play As Dark Ran : At the character select screen, put the selector on Griffon and press Down(x4), A.

* After the Game Over screen, Load Ran & Rabbicat rate your performance and either praise you or give you advice to improve your score, get a very high score (1,000.000 and above) in order to attain the highest rating and make Load Ran blush.

- STAFF -

Developed by ADK.

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo CD (Feb.1997) "Twinkle Star Sprites [Model ADCD-013]"
[JP] Sega Saturn (Dec.1997) "Twinkle Star Sprites [Model T-37301G]"
Sega Dreamcast [JP] (Mar.2000) "Twinkle Star Sprites [Model T-3103M]"
[JP] Sony PS2 (Dec.2008) "ADK Tamashii [Model SLPS-25906]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=earthjkr,earthjkrp,earthjkra,earthjkrb
Arcade Video game published 30 years ago:

U.N. Defense Force - Earth Joker (c) 1993 Visco Corp.

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 8 Mhz), Zilog Z80 (@ 4 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Yamaha YM2151 (@ 4 Mhz)

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2

- TRIVIA -

Released in May 1993.

- STAFF -

Producer : Tetsuo Akiyama
Assistant producer : Keisuke Usami
Director : Don Gabacho (Don Gabacyo)
Programmers : IDEB 77Kg, ON0721-ST, M. Nakajima, AD-26255417J
Character designers : K. Takahashi, T. Takahashi
Music composers : K. Fukumori, Space Creative

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=unsquad
Arcade Video game published 34 years ago:

U.N. Squadron (c) 1989 Capcom USA, Incorporated.

North American release. For more information on this game itself, refer to the original Japanese entry; "Area 88 [B-Board 88622B-3]".

- TECHNICAL -

Capcom Play System Hardware (CP-S)
B-Board: 89624B-2

- TRIVIA -

U.N. Squadron was released in August 1989 in North America by Capcom USA. It is known in Japan as "Area 88".

In this version, the special mission is missing.

- SERIES -

1. U.N. Squadron [CP-S No. 06] (1989) 
2. Carrier Airwing [CP-S No. 12] (1990)

- PORTS -

All ports were listed in USA version including European ports. Please refer to the original Capcom entry for Japanese ports.

* CONSOLES: 
[US] Nintendo SNES (sept.1991) [Model SNS-E8]
[EU] Nintendo SNES (dec.10, 1992) [Model SNSP-E8]

* COMPUTERS: 
[EU] Amstrad CPC (1990)
[EU] Atari ST (1990)
[EU] Sinclair ZX Spectrum (1990)
[US] Commodore C64 [EU] (1990)
Commodore Amiga [US] (1990)
[EU] Amstrad CPC (1991) "Capcom Collection" 
[EU] Atari ST (1991) "Capcom Collection" 
[EU] Commodore C64 (1991) "Capcom Collection" 
[EU] Commodore Amiga (1991) "Capcom Collection" 
[EU] Sinclair ZX Spectrum (1991) "Capcom Collection"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=usclssic
Arcade Video game published 34 years ago:

U.S. Classic (c) 1989 Seta Company, Limited.

A golf game from Seta.

- TECHNICAL -

Board Number : M6100430A
Prom Stickers : UE2

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 8 Mhz), M65C02 (@ 1 Mhz)
Sound Chips : X1-010 (@ 16 Mhz)

Players : 1
Control : trackball
Buttons : 1

- TRIVIA -

U.S. Classic was released in March 1989 in Japan.

Licensed to Romstar for US distribution.
Also licensed to Taito.

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=cawingj
Arcade Video game published 33 years ago:

U.S. Navy (c) 1990 Capcom.

U.S. Navy is a horizontally-scrolling shoot-em-up for one or two players set in the 1990s, a decade of great change marked by growing friendships between old enemies and never before seen levels of co-operation between powerful nations of the world. However, in 1997, using new weapons designed in secrecy, the Middle Eastern country of 'Rabu' threatens to destroy this new and fragile peace. 

Players chose to pilot any one of three different jet fighters and must battle their way through ten enemy-packed stages. Each fighter has a fuel bar which is full at the start of each stage but gradually decreases, additional fuel is lost each time the fighter takes damage from an enemy.

Bonus points and money based on player performance are awarded at the end of each stage, the money can then be used to upgrade the player jet's weapons and shields.

The three player-selectable jet fighters are:
* F/A-18 Hornet - The most balanced aircraft available. It can handle air-to-air and air-to-ground sorties.
* F-14 Tomcat - Dedicated air-to-air fighter. Not as capable in air-to-ground combat but it is a formidable fighter.
* A-6 Intruder - Principle ground attack aircraft. It is not well suited for air-to-air.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System" hardware
B-Board ID: 89625B-1

Players: Up to 2
Control per player: 8-way joystick
Buttons per player: 2
=> [1] Shoot, [2] Special Weapon

- TRIVIA -

U.S. Navy was released in October 1990 in the Japanese arcades. It was known there as the 12th video game made for the CP-S system.

Known export release: "Carrier Airwing [B-Board 89624B-3]"

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Street Fighter II : G.S.M. Capcom 4 - PCCB-00056) on March 21, 1991.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Real Ending : beat the game in one credit.

* Secret items :

Mission 2 :
White Mech (10000 pts) - After the large helicopter and when the suspended road finished, go up quickly and shoot.

Mission 3 :
Rabbit (20000 pts) - Shoot on the 9th tree or release a bomb.
Cow (10000 pts) - Destroy the ground monticule in top of the hill right after the 9th tree (you can make turns to the cow by shooting on).
Man (6000 pts) - Shoot between the base of the mountain and the cuirassier.

Mission 6 :
Snowman (4000 pts) - Shoot at the base of the 4th iceberg.

Mission 7 :
Small bear (8000 pts) - Towards the end of the level, shoot at the middle of the 1st gray mountain, just before the 1st volcano.

Mission 8 :
Mech with a flag (20000 pts) - Release a bomb behind the second house.

Mission 9 :
Red Mech (10000 pts) - Shoot at the base of the fortress wall.
Yashichi - Destroy the red turret located on a footbridge.

Mission 10 :
Yashichi  - Destroy the red turret located at the top of the engines.

- SERIES -

1. Area 88 [CP-S No. 06] (1989)
2. U.S. Navy [CP-S No. 12] (1990)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=irrmaze

Uchan Nanchan no Hono'o no Challenger - Ultra Denryu Iraira Bou (c) 1997 SNK.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID : 0236

Players : 2
Control : trackball
Buttons : 2

- TRIVIA -

Ultra Denryu Iraira Bou was released in August 1997 in Japan. It was the first that required a trackball on the Neo-Geo MVS. It was never released on the Neo-Geo AES home console.

The title translates from Japanese as 'Uchan Nanchan's Flame of the Challenger - Ultra Irritating Electric Stick'. Uchan Nanchan is a Japanese comedy team consisting of Uchimura Teruyoshi and Nanbara Kiyotaka.

Based on a popular Japanese game show, called 'Dengeki Iraira Bou' literaly 'Electric Irritating Stick'.

This game is known outside Japan as 'The Irritating Maze'.

- STAFF -

Developed by Saurus.

Producer : N. Tanaka
Directer : Yasushi Okahara
Designers : Miwako Kojima, C. Yoda, Y. Hara, N. Nakagawa, S. Ishiguro
Programmers : Y. Sakamoto, M. Yuuki, A. 00I
Sound : Masahiko Hataya, H. Takei, H. Togashi, K. Matsueda

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=uecology
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 30 years ago:

Ultimate Ecology (c) 1993 Capcom Company, Limited.

Ultimate Ecology is a side-scrolling shoot-em-up for one or two players with an ecological theme, in which the player takes on the role of 'Ice P. Molly' and must battle a ruthless mega corporation called 'Goyolk K.K.' whose pollution-generating industrial machines are slowly destroying the eco system of the once-beautiful planet Elwood.

The game features an interesting play mechanic with the addition of an extended metal arm mounted to the side of the player's ship. The arm has a powerful weapon on the end of it and can be rotated through 360 degrees. The rotatable weapon is also impervious to all enemy contact and can be used as a shield. 

The weapon comes in four different forms, each of which can be powered up before being fired by holding down the fire button for several seconds (these are known as 'charge shots'). The four weapons and their corresponding charge shots are: 

*Energy Ball*
Used for concentrated, rapid-fire attacks. High-energy balls can be fired using charge shots.

*Hammer*
Normal shot is a penetration bomb, uses charge shots for long-range attacks.

*Laser Sword*
Emits a continuous, powerful energy beam. Slashing it around increases both its reach and offensive power.

*Foil*
Normal shot is a scatter bomb that bursts in several directions. It's charge shots include tracers and penetration bombs.

In addition to the rotatable arm, the player's ship is also equipped with 'Sub-Weapons', these emit from the front of the player's ship and consist of three different weapon types:

* Vulcan (standard forward-firing lasers)
* Bomb
* Homing missiles

Both the sub and rotatable weapons can be powered-up by collecting the relevant icons.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Green Board [Japan]

Players: Up to 2.
Control: 8-way joystick per player.
Buttons: 3 per player.

- TRIVIA -

Ultimate Ecology was originally released in December 1993 in Japan. It was known as the third video game released on the CPS-II hardware.

The game was actually designed by a Japanese gamer, who won a Capcom-sponsored competition to design a game for the arcade giant.

The cabinet used an 8-way stick and 3 buttons, but the game was originally designed to use a spinner with push-to-fire like Forgotten Worlds.

The game is known outside Japan as "Eco Fighters". Here is a list of known export releases:
"Eco Fighters [Blue Board]"
"Eco Fighters [Grey Board]"
"Eco Fighters [Orange Board]"

Shinseisha/Gamest released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Ultimate Ecology - GCD-2) on January 22, 1994.

- STAFF -

Object Designers: S.Y, Imomushi, Chama(c), The Pin K, Dway Nishimura (Dway!), Ovava, Minobe Hiroaki (Minobeyan), Kakunaka
Scroll Designers: Go, Y.N, May, Ziggy, Oyami, Hiropon
Programmers: Yuuka, A. Komorini, Tilde Kaw, Commander Guchi, Some-P
Sound Designers: Toshio Kajino, Hiroaki Kondo
Music Composer: Syun Nishigaki (Syun)
Voices: Nishihara K-ta, Nemoto Yoshiya, Yokoyama Chisa
Planners: Meshi, Konou, Etos
Special Thanks To: Sho, Sensei, Nezumi, Buppo, Shin, Aoi Mix, Tarabar Hori (Tarabar), Y. Ida, Takuya Shiraiwa (Mr. Shiraiwa), Gamest
Producer: Yoshiki Okamoto (Kihaji Okamoto)
Original Planner: Mori Keisuke

- PORTS -

* HANDHELDS: 
[JP] Sony PSP (sept.7, 2006) "Capcom Classic Collection [Model ULJM-05104]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=3017&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=umanclub
Arcade Video game published 31 years ago:

Ultraman Club - Tatakae! Ultraman Kyoudai!! (c) 1992 Banpresto.

- TECHNICAL -

Game ID : BP922

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 16 Mhz)
Sound Chips : X1-010 (@ 16 Mhz)

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2

- TRIVIA -

Released in July 1992.

The subtitle of this game translates from Japanese as 'Fight! Ultraman Brothers!'.

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=undrfire,undrfireu,undrfirej
Arcade Video game published 29 years ago:

Under Fire (c) 1994 Taito.

Hoping to compete with Konami's "Lethal Enforcers". this Taito light gun shoot 'em-up has players assuming the role of a special operatives police officer against a vicious gang who's taken over various neighbourhoods, a convenience store, and even an amusement park.

- TECHNICAL -

Board Number : M43E0288
Prom Stickers : D67

Main CPU : Motorola 68EC020 (@ 16 Mhz)
Sound CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 16 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Ensoniq ES5505 (@ 15.238 Mhz)

Players : 2
Control : lightgun
Buttons : 3

- TRIVIA -

Released in February 1994 (even if the title screen says 1993).

Zuntata Records released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Zuntata Rare Selection Vol.5 - ZTTL-0036) on 20/02/1999.

- UPDATES -

The US version is slightly different, it has the "Recycle It, Don't Trash It!" screen.

In the Japanese version, some ememies voices are replaced by 'Go to hell'.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Save the hostage: If you save hostages, you can recover health.

* Full Power Machine Gun: some part of the stages must have the 'Full Power Machine Gun' item, it have 120 ammo and no reload.

* Blast anything: If you Blast anything on stage, you will get the 'Full Power Machine Gun' item too.

- STAFF -

Producers : Hisao Shimizu, Ichiro Fujisue
Directed by : Naomitsu Abe
Screenplay by : Yusuke Tsuda
Programmers : Masaki Yagi (Ymot Yagi), Iromust TMR, TKHC-1, NOB
Characters creators : Chiho Maeda, Uoosy Mahler, Miwa Kamiya, Yuko Kajihara, Miyabi Tashiro, Naomitsu Abe, Yusuke Tsuda
Hardware designers : Yasuhiro Shibuya, Hajime Aga, Tomio Takeda, Hironobu Suzuki, Digital Stream Corp.
Mechanical coordinators : Jun Nishiyama

* Cast : Anita Platacis, Carlos Laguardia, Carol Glaser, Ed Manning, Gail Smolen, Greg Hasler, Jim Belt, John Pipp, Larry Stallman, Mike Fountain, Paul Torres, Reg Winter, Rich Zver, Susan Schultz, Toni Jordan, Yoshi Nakanishi, Ichiro Fujisue, Masaki Yagi, Takaaki Tomita, Tsune Tsune, Tatsuya Ushiroda, Yusuke Tsuda, Keisuke Kogure, Takao Yoshiba, Osamu Inoue

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=3027&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=mustang,mustangs,mustangb,mustangb2
Arcade Video game published 33 years ago:

US AAF Mustang (c) 1990 UPL.

You take control of a US fighter-fighter plane. And keep going on, by shooting dozens of enemy plane. This side scrolling game has good BGs.

- TECHNICAL -

Game ID : UPL-90058

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 10 Mhz)
Sound Chips : YM2203 (@ 1.5 Mhz), (2x) OKI6295 (@ 24.242 Khz)

Screen orientation : Horizontal
Video resolution : 256 x 224 pixels
Screen refresh : 60.00 Hz
Palette colors : 1024

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2
=> [A] Shoot, [B] Bomb

- TRIVIA -

Developed by Nihon Maicom Kaihatsu(NMK).

Released in May 1990.

Also licensed to Seoul Trading.

- UPDATES -

The bootleg version use the "Raiden" (seibu) sound hardware (a Z80 @ 3.579545 Mhz), all musics from "Raiden" are present =).

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Secret message : During machine reset, press buttons1+2 on player2 side. 'Ready?' will appear. Then press button1 14 times on player1 side. The release date will appear.

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=3035&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=vfive
Arcade Video game published 30 years ago:

V-Five (c) 1993 Toaplan.

A vertically scrolling shoot 'em up from Toaplan.

- TECHNICAL -

Game ID : TP-027

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 10 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Yamaha YM2151 (@ 3.375 Mhz)

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2

- TRIVIA -

Released in December 1992 in Japan.

This game is known outside Japan as "Grind Stormer".

This would be Ikeda Tsunemoto's first game at Toaplan. He went on to become a founding member of Cave, where he still works as a lead programmer. It is due to him that the phenomenon of the 'Danmaku'; the huge walls of bullets seen in "Donpachi" etc., came about.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Hidden Functions: If the 'Invulnerability dip switch' is enabled, you are invulnerable but you may also 'Pause' the game with P2 Start and restart with P1 Start.

* Bomber Mode: Input code Right, Left, Button2, Left, Down, Button1, Up, Left on title screen after inserted a credit. Displayed 'BOMBER. Ver' and the game system is changed to "Grind Stormer"'s one.

- STAFF -

Director : Kenichi Takano
Programmers : Sigue Hayasato, Tsuneki Ikeda
Graphic designers : Y. Naora, Mikio Yamaguchi
Sound director : Masahiro Yuge
Presented by Toaplan.

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] Sega Mega Drive (1994) "V-Five [Model T-48173]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=3039&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=vampj,vampja,vampjr1
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 29 years ago:

Vampire - The Night Warriors (c) 1994 Capcom Co, Limited.

Vampire - The Night Warriors is a one-on-one beat-em-up in which a powerful alien demon called 'Pyron' has invaded Earth to add to his collection of the planets that he has already devoured. Enter the world's most fearsome monsters who, ironically, are Mankind's last line of defense.

The game features ten playable characters (Demitri Maximoff, Jon Talbain, Victor von Gerdenheim, Lord Raptor, Morrigan Aensland, Anakaris, Felicia, Oboro Bishamon, Rikuo and Sasquatch) with two non-playable boss characters - Huitzil and Pyron - as the final opponents of the single-player game.

Night Warriors uses the gameplay system Capcom developed for their "Street Fighter II" series, but with several new gameplay additions, such as Air Blocking, Crouch Walking and Chain Combos. 

The game featured a 'Special' meter similar to the 'Super Combo' gauge from "Super Street Fighter II Turbo", in which players could fill the gauge to perform either a unique combo-type move or a powered-up version of one of their specials (called "EX", and a concept which would appear in later Night Warriors games as well as "Street Fighter III"). 

Unlike the 'Super Combo' gauge', the Special in Night Warriors gradually depletes unless players performs their super move. This prevents players from preserving their super moves for later use.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Green Board [Japan]

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 6
=> [1] LP (Jab), [2] MP (Short), [3] HP (Firece) 
=> [4] LK (Strong), [5] MK (Forward), [6] HK (Roundhouse)

- TRIVIA -

Vampire - The Night Warriors was released in June 1994 in Japan. It was known as the 5th CPS-II game.

The game is known outside Japan as "Darkstalkers - The Night Warriors". Here are some known export releases:
"Darkstalkers - The Night Warriors [Blue Board]"
"Darkstalkers - The Night Warriors [Grey Board]"
"Darkstalkers - The Night Warriors [Orange Board]"

Suleputer released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Vampire - The Night Warriors Arcade Game Track - SRCL-2969) on September 7, 1994.

- UPDATES -

Green Board revisions : 

REVISION 1
* Build date: 940630

REVISION 2
* Build date: 940705

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Character Select In Attract Mode : In attract mode, when the computer is on the Character Select screen, it's possible to choose the characters with the 1p & 2p Start buttons.

* Alternate Costume Color : Highlight a fighter at the character selection screen and press Start.

* Hidden Tune : Beat the game with one credit, after inputting your name hold Down+LK+MK until the end credits appear. If done correctly, you'll be listening to the secret ending tune.

- SERIES -

1. Vampire - The Night Warriors [Green Board] (1994, Arcade)
2. Vampire Hunter - Darkstalkers' Revenge [Green Board] (1995, Arcade)
3. Vampire Savior - The Lord of Vampire [Green Board] (1997, Arcade)
4. Vampire Savior 2 - The Lord of Vampire [Green Board] (1997, Arcade)
5. Vampire Hunter 2 - Darkstalkers' Revenge [Green Board] (1997, Arcade)
6. Darkstalkers 3 - Vampire Savior (1999, PlayStation)
7. Darkstalkers Chronicles - The Chaos Tower (2005, PSP)

- STAFF -

Planners : Junichi Ohno, Gyo, Jun Koike
Programmers : Atsushi Ohuchi, Akiyoshi Eshiro, Toshihiko Tsuji, Morimichi Suzuki, Hiroshi Inaba
Object Designers : Kurisan, Hiroshi Shibata, Keiko Kitayama, Mizuho Kageyama, Takashi Hayashi, Q, Toshikazu Matsumoto, Kimo Kimo, Who, Tohru Takaoko, Mizupyon
Scroll Designers : Yuki Kyotani, Kaori Matsumoto, Hiroyuki Imahori, Akemi Isoe, Tamayo Takeo, Miyuki Hongoh, Saru
Sound Designers : Toshio Kajino (1970.2.25), Tomuyuki Kawakami (T.K NY) (1971.8.31)
Music Composers : Takayuki Iwai (Anarchy Takapon) (1969.11.19), Hideki Okugawa (Hideki.OK) (1970.3.28)

* Voice Actors : 
Demitri : Nobuyuki Hiyama
Gallon, Zabel Zarock, Aulbath : Yuji Ueda
Morrigan : Yayoi Jinguji
Felicia : Kae Araki
Sasquatch, Bishamon, Anakaris, Victor, Narration : Kan Tokumaru

- PORTS -

Here is a list of ports released in Japan only.

* CONSOLES:
[JP] Sony PlayStation (mar.22, 1996) Vampire - The Night Warriors [Model SLPS-00036]" 
[JP] Sony PS2 (may.19, 2005) "Vampire - Darkstalkers Collection [Model SLPM-65998]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=3042&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=vhuntj,vhuntjr1,vhuntjr2
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 28 years ago:

Vampire Hunter - Darkstalkers' Revenge (c) 1995 Capcom Company, Limited.

The second game in the Darkstalkers series includes 14 horrific fighters.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Green Board [Japan]

Players : 2
Control : 8-Way Joystick
Buttons : 6
=> [1] LP (Jab), [2] MP (Short), [3] HP (Fierce)
=> [4] LK (Strong), [5] MK (Forward), [6] HK (Roundhouse)

- TRIVIA -

Vampire Hunter was released in March 1995 in Japanese arcades. It was known as the 9th video game released on the CPS-II hardware.

The game was known outside Japan as Night Warriors, here is a list of known Export releases:
"Night Warriors - Darkstalkers' Revenge [Blue Board]"
"Night Warriors - Darkstalkers' Revenge [Grey Board]"
"Night Warriors - Darkstalkers' Revenge [Orange Board]"
"Night Warriors - Darkstalkers' Revenge [Pink Board]"

Sony Records released a 2-CD limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Vampire Hunter: Darkstalker's Revenge - SRCL-3197/8) on May 21, 1995.

- UPDATES -

Green Board releases:

REVISION 1:
* Build Date: 950302

REVISION 2:
* Build Date: 950307

REVISION 3:
* Build Date: 950316

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Alternate Costume Colors : highlight a fighter at the character selection screen. 
1) Press Roundhouse to select the costume color from Darkstalkers. 
2) Press Start to select the secondary costume color from Darkstalkers. 
3) Press Jab+Forward to select the dark costume version. 

* Secret End Tune : beat the game with one credit, after your character's victory pic appears on the screen, hold Up. The secret tune shall then appear as the credits start. 

* SPECIAL 

Anakaris : 
1) (3/4 max) Naraku no Ana : Left, DownLeft, Down, DownRight, Right + 2 Kicks 
2) (1/2 max) Pharaon Magic : MK, LP, Down, LK, MP 
3) (Anywhere) Pharaon Split : LP, LP, Down, MK, HK 

Bishamon : 
1) (Close) Oni Kubi Hineri : Right, DownRight, Down, DownLeft, Left + 2 Punches 
2) (Anywhere) Kasane Giri : Left, DownLeft, Down, DownRight + 2 Kicks 

Demitri : 
1) (Far) Demon Blast : Down, Right, DownRight + 2 Kicks 
2) (Close) Midnight Pleasure : Down, Right, DownRight + 2 Punches 

Donovan : 
1) (Anywhere) Change Immortal : MP, LP, Left, LK, MK 
2) (Anywhere) Press of Death : Left, DownLeft, Down, DownRight, Right + Kick (LK = close, MK = medium, HK = far) 

Felicia : 
1) (3/4 max) Dancing Flash : Right, Down, DownRight + 2 Punches 
2) (Anywhere) Please Help Me : Left, DownLeft, Down, DownRight, Right + 2 Kicks 

Jon Talbain ('Gallon' in Japan) : 
1) (Anywhere) Mirage Body : Left, DownLeft, Down, DownRight, Right + 2 Kicks 
2) (Anywhere) Dragon Cannon : Right, DownRight, Down, DownLeft, Left + 2 Punches 

Hsien-Ko ('Lei Lei' in Japan) : 
1) (Anywhere) Chireitou : Left, DownLeft, Down, DownRight + 2 Kicks 
2) (Anywhere) Tenraiha : LK, HK, MP, MP, Up 

Lord Raptor ('Zabel Zarock' in Japan) : 
1) (1/2 max) Evil Scream : Right, Left + 2 Punches 
2) (1/2 max) Death Voltage : Right, DownRight, Down, DownLeft + 2 Kicks 
3) (Anywhere) Hell Dunk : Right, Down, DownRight + 2 Punches 

Morrigan : 
1) (Sweep distance) Darkness Illusion : LP, LP, Right, LK, HP 
2) (Anywhere) Valkrie Turn : Right, RightDown, Down, DownLeft, Left, Kick, then (LK = close, MK = medium, HK = far) 
3) (Anywhere) Astral Vision : LP, LP, Right, MP, HP 

Huitzil ('Phobos' in Japan) : 
1)(Anywhere) Confusioner : Right, Down, DownRight + 3 Kicks 
2)(Anywhere) Final Guardian : Left, DownRight, Down, DownLeft + 2 Kicks 

Pyron : 
1)(Anywhere) Cosmo Disruption : Left, DownLeft, Down, DownRight, Right + 2 Punches or 2 Kicks (Hold and release 2 Punches or 2 Kicks)

Rikuo ('Aulbath' in Japan) : 
1) (1/2 max) Aqua Spread : Right, DownRight, Down + 2 Punches or 2 Kicks 
2) (Anywhere) Water Jail : Right, Down, DownRight + 2 Punchs 
3) (Anywhere) Sea Rage : Left, DownLeft, Down, DownRight + 2 Punchs 
4) (Close) Direct Scissors : Down(x2) + 2 Punches (Only works HK or Start)  

Sasquatch : 
1) (Anywhere) Big Freezer : Left, DownLeft, Down, DownRight + 2 Punches 
2) (3/4 max) Big Ice Burn : Left, DownLeft, Down, DownRight + 2 Kicks 

Victor : 
1) (Anywhere) Thunder Break : Down (2s), Up + 2 Punchs 
2) (Corps to corps) Great Gerdenheim : Left, DownLeft, Down, DownRight + 2 Kicks (Press Punch to grab)

- SERIES -

1. Vampire - The Night Warriors [Green Board] (1994, Arcade)
2. Vampire Hunter - Darkstalkers' Revenge [Green Board] (1995, Arcade)
3. Vampire Savior - The Lord of Vampire [Green Board] (1997, Arcade)
4. Vampire Savior 2 - The Lord of Vampire [Green Board] (1997, Arcade)
5. Vampire Hunter 2 - Darkstalkers' Revenge [Green Board] (1997, Arcade)
6. Darkstalkers 3 - Vampire Savior (1999, PlayStation)
7. Darkstalkers Chronicles - The Chaos Tower (2005, PSP)

- STAFF -

Game Designers : Junichi Ohno (Ohn), Nohah
Sound Designers : Tomuyuki Kawakami (T.K NY), Toshio Kajino
Music Composers : Takayuki Iwai (Anarchy Takapon), Hideki Okugawa (Hideki Ok), Akari Kaida (Akari. K -Lemon-)
Object Designers : Kurisan (Kuri), Tanuki, Ikusan Z, Takashi Hayashi, Shibata Hiroshi, Kitasan, Mizuho, Q, The Who, Kimo Kimo, Shisui, Yorio, Z666, Pei, Mizupyon, G. Kamina, Chunkichi, Tsuyoshi, Kamameshi, "Kouda" Isi. B, Yanagi Kagerou, Yoshioka, Dekao, Kick, Syuuchan, Kidai,, Kozuchi, Delta
Scroll Designers : Kyo, Tamachan, Motokazz. S, Aya
Program Designers : Panda, T.J, Odawara Hassssssy, Mo. Suzuki, Min, Ittetsu, Tsuna Hayahide, Hero Hero, Hdo, Tora&Yume&Hide (Tora Papa & Yume & Hide Mama)
Producer : Yoshiki Okamoto (Kihaji Okamoto)

* Voice Actors :
Demitri Maximoff, Donovan Baine, Pyron : Nobuyuki Hiyama
Jon Talbain, Lord Raptor, Rikuo : Yuji Ueda
Morrigan Aensland : Yayoi Jinguji
Felicia : Kae Araki
Victor Von Gerdenheim, Bishamon, Sasquatch, Anakaris, Narration : Kan Tokumaru
Hsien-Ko : Michiko Neya
Huitzil : Jurota Kosugi
Cecil : Kyoko Hikami

Special Thanks : Noritaka Funamizu (Poo), Spikey, Haruo Murata (Mucchi), Alex Jimenez, Takuya Shiraiwa (Mr. Shiraiwa)

- PORTS -

(Japanese releases only)

* CONSOLES: 
[JP] Sega Saturn (feb.23, 1996) "Vampire Hunter - Darkstalkers' Revenge [Model T-1202G]"
[JP] Sony PS2 (may.19, 2005) "Vampire - Darkstalkers Collection [Model SLPM-65998]" 
[JP] Microsoft XBOX 360 (mar.14, 2013) "Vampire Resurrection [Model JES1-00280]" 
Sony PlayStation 3 [JP] (mar.14, 2013) "Vampire Resurrection [Model BLJM-60567]" 
Sony PlayStation 3 [PSN] [JP] (mar.17, 2013) "Vampire Resurrection [Model NPJB-00312]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=vhuntjr1s
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 28 years ago:

Vampire Hunter - Darkstalkers' Revenge [Stop version] (c) 1995 Capcom Company, Limited.

- TRIVIA -

Ultra rare version. Changes are little and unknown.

For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese version entry: "Vampire Hunter - Darkstalkers' Revenge [Green Board]".

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=47318&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=vhunt2,vhunt2r1,vhunt2d
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 26 years ago:

Vampire Hunter 2 - Darkstalkers' Revenge (c) 1997 Capcom Company, Limited.

Fourteen well-animated creatures from Hell rip, tear and otherwise fight for control of the nether-realms.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Green Board [Japan]

Players: Up to 2.
Control: 8-way joystick per player.
Buttons: 6 per player.
= > [1] LP, [2] MP, [3] HP
= > [4] LK, [5] MK, [6] HK

- TRIVIA -

Vampire Hunter 2 was released in September 1997 only in Japan. It was known there as the 27th video game released for the CPS2 hardware.

This game is not a actual sequel, but rather a redesigned version, using the newest Darkstalkers engine. It even includes a reworked version of "Vampire Savior 2"'s intro, which removes all references to Jedah, Bulleta, Q-Bee and Lilith.

Capcom cheated with Vampire Hunter 2, since, chronologically, Anita would be in her teens by the time of Vampire Savior, but they removed Donovan from "Vampire Savior"'s storyline, bringing in Bulleta, instead.

Huitzil (Phobos' name outside of Japan) is the diminutive of 'Huitzilopochtli' (which means 'Blue Hummingbird on the Left'). He was the chief god of the great Aztec city Tenochtitlan and became after his death the Aztec god of the Sun and War.

- UPDATES -

Green Board revisions : 

REVISION 1:
* Build date: 970913

REVISION 2:
* Build date: 970929

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Hidden Warriors: The first will appear if you make 3 'DARK FORCE' or 3 'EX FINISH' without losing a round. The second will appear after 6 'EX FINISH' without losing a round.

* Shoul Mode: On the character select screen, go to the [?] box, press Start 5 times, then push any punch or kick button.

* Alternate Shoul Mode: on the character select screen, go to the character whom you would like to use first stage, then press Start 3 times, after that go to the [?] box, press Start 5 times, then push any punch or kick button.

* Marionette Mode: On the character select screen, go to the [?] box, press Start 7 times, then push any punch or kick button.

* Priest Bishamon: On the character select screen, go to Bishamon, hold Start and press any punch or kick button.

- SERIES -

1. Vampire - The Night Warriors [Green Board] (1994, Arcade)
2. Vampire Hunter - Darkstalkers' Revenge [Green Board] (1995, Arcade)
3. Vampire Savior - The Lord of Vampire [Green Board] (1997, Arcade)
4. Vampire Savior 2 - The Lord of Vampire [Green Board] (1997, Arcade)
5. Vampire Hunter 2 - Darkstalkers' Revenge [Green Board] (1997, Arcade)
6. Darkstalkers 3 - Vampire Savior (1999, PlayStation)
7. Darkstalkers Chronicles - The Chaos Tower (2005, PSP)

- STAFF -

* Voice Actors :
Demitri, Donovan, Pyron : Nobuyuki Hiyama
Gallon, Zabel Zarock, Aulbath : Yuuji Ueda
Morrigan : Yayoi Jinguji
Felicia : Kae Araki
Victor, Bishamon, Sasquatch, Anakaris : Kan Tokumaru
Lei Lei : Michiko Neya
Phobos : Jyurouta Kosugi
Cecil : Kyoko Hikami

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES: 
[JP] Sony PS2 (may.19, 2005) "Vampire - Darkstalkers Collection [Model SLPM-65998]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=3045&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=vsav,vsavd,vsavu
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 26 years ago:

Vampire Savior - The Lord of Vampire (c) 1997 Capcom Company, Limited.

North American & European release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese release entry; "Vampire Savior - The Lord of Vampire [Green Board]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Blue Board [USA & Europe]

- TRIVIA -

In the Export versions: 
Bulleta is named B. B. Hood (Baby Bonnie Hood).
Lei-Lei is named Hsien-Ko.
Gallon is named Jon Talbain.
Zabel Zarock is named Lord Raptor.
Aulbath is named Rikuo.

- PORTS -

(North American and European ports only)

* CONSOLES: 
[EU] Sony PlayStation (nov.18, 1998) "Darkstalkers 3 [Model SLES-01719]" 
[US] Sony PlayStation (nov.30, 1998) "Darkstalkers 3 [Model SLUS-00745]" 
Sony PlayStation 3 [PSN] [US] (mar.12, 2013) "Darkstalkers Resurrection" 
Microsoft XBOX 360 [XBLA] [US] (mar.13, 2013) "Darkstalkers Resurrection" 
Sony PlayStation 3 [PSN] [EU] (mar.13, 2013) "Darkstalkers Resurrection"

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=69678&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=vsavj
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 26 years ago:

Vampire Savior - The Lord of Vampire (c) 1997 Capcom Company, Limited.

Fifteen characters fight to end the reign of Jedah, the Vampire Savior and save their own souls!

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Green Board [Japan]

Players: Up to 2
Control: 8-way joystick per player.
Buttons: 6 per player.
= > [1] LP, [2] MP, [3] HP
= > [4] LK, [5] MK, [6] HK

- TRIVIA -

Vampire Savior was released in May 1997 in the Japanese arcades. It was known there as the 22th video game released for the CPS2 hardware.

Known export releases:
"Vampire Savior - The Lord of Vampire [Blue Board]"
"Vampire Savior - The Lord of Vampire [Grey Board]"
"Vampire Savior - The Lord of Vampire [Orange Board]"

Secret Title: Darkstalkers - Jedah's Damnation (hosted in a gfx rom but not used in the game). Some Blue Board copies were hacked to use the 'Jedah's Damnation' title.

Lilith was originally slightly different, in back-story, to the one we know now. She was what is occasionally referred to as a white-wing, with her angelic heritage hidden from view most of the time. This idea was dropped, due to, supposedly, too many angel characters in games. Briefly, She was redesigned as a hermaphrodite, but that too was dropped, most likely due to the fact it would have courted controversy, and instead she was made into part of Morrigan.

Victor Entertainment released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Vampire Savior : Capcom Game Soundtrack - VICL-60098, 60099) on August 21, 1997.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Hidden Warriors : to reach your character's hidden warrior, you must finish the stage without losing any energy bats, and without timeouts. The KO move MUST be an EX Finish. Dark Force or ES Finishes may be acceptable, but an EX Finish is preferred. If you meet this condition, you'll get a 'Here comes a new challenger' prompt as you enter the fourth stage. Each character has their own boss character fights (i.e. Demitri's final boss is Morrigan, Jedah's final boss is Demitri, etc.), and after you finish the first 6 stages, you must defeat your character's boss character in Stage 7 to finish the game. If your character's final boss is Jedah, there will be a special intro scene. 

* Play as Original Jon Talbain ('Gallon' in Japan) : at the character select screen, highlight Jon Talbain ('Gallon') and press Start and all three punch buttons at the same time. 

* Shoul Mode : on the character select screen, go to the [?] box, press Start 5 times, then push any punch or kick button. 

* Alternate Shoul Mode : on the character select screen, go to the character whom you would like to use first stage, press Start 3 times, after go to the [?] box, press Start 5 times, then push any punch or kick button. 

* Win Poses : by holding any attack button at the end of a fight, you may choose most of each character's win poses. However, there are a few that can't be seen with this trick, such as Felicia's perfect win pose. 

* Tricks : even though the Start button is mostly used as a taunt button, there are a few characters that can use it for some rather silly moves such as Sasquatch & Felicia. 

If you leap at the enemy's head without attacking while using Felicia, you'll sit on their heads as long as neither player moves at all. An extra taunt? :) 

* EX MOVES : 

Anakaris : 
1) (3/4 max) In the Sarcophage : Left, DownLeft, Down, DownRight, Right + 2 Punches 
2) (1/2 max) Pharao Magic I : MK, LP, Down, LK, MP 
3) [Need 2 powers] (1/2 max) Pharao Magic II : HK, MP, Down, MK, HP 
4) [Need 3 powers] (1/2 max) Pharao Magic III : HK, MP, LK, Down, LP, MK, HP 

B. B. Hood ('Bulleta' in Japan) : 
1) (Anywhere) Hunt the Duck : Left, DownLeft, Down, DownRight, Right + 2 Punches 
2) (Near) Beautiful Memory : Left, DownLeft, Down, DownRight, Right + 2 Kicks 
3) (Close) Apple Blast : Right, DownRight, Down, DownLeft, Left + 2 Kicks 

Bishamon : 
1) (Close) Oni Kubi Hineri : Right, DownRight, Down, DownLeft, Left + 2 Punches 
2) (Anywhere) Enma Seki : Left, DownLeft, Down, DownRight + 2 Kicks 

Demitri : 
1) (3/4 max) Demon Pillion : Down, Right, DownRight + 2 Kicks 
2) (Sweep distance) Sucking the Blood : Right, Down, DownRight + 2 Punches 
3) [Need 2 powers] (Sweep Distance) Midnight Pleasure : LP, MP, Right, MK, MK 

Felicia : 
1) (3/4 max) Weapon X - 11 hit : Left, DownLeft, Down, DownRight, Right + 2 Punches 
2) (Anywhere) Help Me, Please - 34 hit : Left, DownLeft, Down, DownRight, Right + 2 Kicks 

Hsein Ko ('Lei Lei' in Japan) : 
1) (Anywhere) The Blast : Left, DownLeft, Down, DownRight, Right + 2 Punches 
2) (Anywhere) Chireitou : Left, DownLeft, Down, DownRight, Right + 2 Kicks 
3) (Anywhere) Tenraiha : LK, HK, MP, MP, Up 

Jedah : 
1) (Anywhere) Finale Rosso : Down (x2) + 2 Punches 
2) (Anywhere) Plova Di Selbo : Left, DownLeft, Down, DownRight, Right + 2 Kicks, Tap MK to grap opponent 

Jon Talbain ('Gallon' in Japan) : 
1) (Anywhere) Dragon Cannon : Left, DownLeft, Down, DownRight, Right + 2 Kicks 
2) (Close) Moment Slice : LP, MP, Right, LK, MK 

Lilith : 
1) (near) Bats : Right, Down, DownRight + 2 Kicks 
2) (near) Luminous Vision : LP, LP, Right, LK, HP 
3) [Need 2 powers] (Far) Gloomy Puppet Show : Down, DownRight, Right + 2 Kicks 

Lord Raptor ('Zabel Zarock' in Japan) : 
1) (1/2 max) Evil Scream : Right, Left + 2 Punches 
2) (1/2 max) Death Voltage : Right, DownRight, Down, DownLeft + 2 Kicks 
3) (Anywhere) Hell Dunk : Right, Down, DownRight + 2 Punches 

Q-Bee : 
1) (3/4 max) Chrysalid : Right, Down, DownRight + 2 Punches 
2) (Anywhere) Bee attack : Left, DownLeft, Down, DownRight, Right + 2 Kicks 

Morrigan : 
1) (Sweep Distance) Darkness Illusion : LP, LP, Right, LK, HP 
2) (Anywhere) Valkyrie Turn : Right, RightDown, Down, DownLeft, Left, (any) Kick, then LK (close), or MK (medium), or HK (far) 
3) (Anywhere) Shocked : Right, HP, MP, LP, Right 
4) (Anywhere) Finishing Shower : MP, LP, Left, LK, MK 

Rikuo ('Aulbath' in Japan) : 
1) (1/2 max) Aqua Spread : Right, DownRight, Down + 2 Kicks or 2 Punches 
2) (Anywhere) Water Jail : Right, Down, DownRight + 2 Punches 
3) (Anywhere) Sea Rage - 8 hit : Left, DownLeft, Down, DownRight, Right + 2 Punches 
4) [Need 3 powers] (Close) Direct Scissors : Down(x2) + 2 Punches 

Sasquatch : 
1) (Anywhere) Big Freezer : Left, DownLeft, Down, DownRight + 2 Punches 
2) (3/4 screen max) Big Eisbahn : Left, DownLeft, Down, DownRight + 2 Kicks 
3) (Close) Big Sledge : 720 degrees + 2 Kicks 

Victor : 
1) (Anywhere) Thunder Break : Down (2s), Up + 2 Kicks 
2) (Corps to corps) MEGA Gerdenheim : 720 degrees + 2 Kicks

- SERIES -

1. Vampire - The Night Warriors [Green Board] (1994, Arcade)
2. Vampire Hunter - Darkstalkers' Revenge [Green Board] (1995, Arcade)
3. Vampire Savior - The Lord of Vampire [Green Board] (1997, Arcade)
4. Vampire Savior 2 - The Lord of Vampire [Green Board] (1997, Arcade)
5. Vampire Hunter 2 - Darkstalkers' Revenge [Green Board] (1997, Arcade)
6. Darkstalkers 3 - Vampire Savior (1999, PlayStation)
7. Darkstalkers Chronicles - The Chaos Tower (2005, PSP)

- STAFF -

Main music composer : Takayuki Iwai (Anarchy Takapon) 
Sub music composer : Masato Koda (Cipher) 
Sound effects & Voice edit : Moe.T (Cipher) 
Sound drivers : Yasushi Ikeda" A!Ohana" 
Sound Tool : Tomohiro Masuda (Q~CVE) 
Sound "Q_64M" hardware : Ida~~~~~~~N 
Character designers : Eripyon.N (Eripyonsuke), Makoto Ishii, Fujihara, Ari, Takemoto, Rumi Chan, Takayuki Kosaka, Reiko Komatsu, Masarusan-N, Kuri, Tanuki, Kitasan, Ball Boy, Mizuho, Q, Who, Kimo Kimo, N_Labo, You-Ten Nakano, Mizupyon, Kaname, Tsuyoshi, Fuzii & Peliko, G.Kamina, Yoshioka, Isi-B Gao, Hitoshi Igarashi, Kozuchi 
Scroll designers : Yuki Kyotani, Yumiko Nakatsuka, Tamachan, Morisaki Chie, Goro Suzuki (1996), Kanno, Yuugen, Pokkemon 
Program designers : Shinchan (as 'Hyper Shinchan'), Cham Cho Choy, Pon, Min, Ittetsu, 24 (nishi), Moto $ Tomo Nogi, Teruaki Hirokado, Hard.Yas (-Jedah-) 
Planners : S. Obata, Neo_G H.Ishizawa, Malachie, Nohah, Kanetaka (Kinta) 
Producer : Tetsuya Iijima 
General producers : Noritaka Funamizu, Yoshiki Okamoto 

* Voice Actors : 
Jedah : Isshin Chiba 
Q-Bee, B. B. Hood : Miyuki Matsushita 
Lilith : Hiroko Konishi 
Demitri : Nobuyuki Hiyama 
Morrigan : Yayoi Jinguji 
Felicia : Kae Araki 
Rikuo, Lord Raptor, Jon Talbain : Yuuji Ueda 
Victor, Bishamon, Sasquatch, Anakaris : Kan Tokumaru 
Hsien-Ko : Michiko Neya 
Emily : Kozue Yoshizumi

- PORTS -

(Japanese ports only)

* CONSOLES: 
[JP] Sega Saturn (apr.16, 1998) "Vampire Savior - The Lord of Vampire [Model T-1228G]" 
[JP] Sony PlayStation (nov.5, 1998) "Vampire Savior EX Edition [Model SLPS-01700]" 
[JP] Sony PS2 (may.19, 2005) "Vampire - Darkstalkers Collection [Model SLPM-65998]" 
[JP] Microsoft XBOX 360 (mar.14, 2013) "Vampire Resurrection [Model JES1-00280]" 
Sony PlayStation 3 [JP] (mar.14, 2013) "Vampire Resurrection [Model BLJM-60567]" 
Sony PlayStation 3 [PSN] [JP] (apr.17, 2013) "Vampire Resurrection [Model NPJB-00312]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=3046&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=vsava
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 26 years ago:

Vampire Savior - The Lord of Vampire (c) 1997 Capcom Company, Limited.

Asian release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese release entry; "Vampire Savior - The Lord of Vampire [Green Board]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Grey Board [Asia]

- PORTS -

(Asian ports only)

* CONSOLES: 
Microsoft XBOX 360 [AS] (mar.14, 2013) "Vampire Resurrection" 
Microsoft XBOX 360 [KO] (mar.14, 2013) "Darkstalkers Resurrection" 
Sony PlayStation 3 [AS] (mar.14, 2013) "Vampire Resurrection [Model BLAS-50562]" 
Sony PlayStation 3 [KO] (mar.14, 2013) "Darkstalkers Resurrection"

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=69680&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=vsavh,vsavb
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 26 years ago:

Vampire Savior - The Lord of Vampire (c) 1997 Capcom Company, Limited.

South American release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese release entry; "Vampire Savior - The Lord of Vampire [Green Board]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Orange Board [South America]

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=69679&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=vsav2,vsav2d
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 26 years ago:

Vampire Savior 2 - The Lord of Vampire (c) 1997 Capcom Company, Limited.

Fifteen characters fight to end the reign of Jedah, the Vampire Savior and save their own souls!

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Green Board [Japan]

Players: Up to 2.
Control: 8-way joystick per player.
Buttons: 6 per player.
= > [1] LP, [2] MP, [3] HP
= > [4] LK, [5] MK, [6] HK

- TRIVIA -

Vampire Savior 2 was released in September 1997 in the Japanese arcades. It was known there as the 26th video game released for the CPS2 hardware.

During the intro, a fast montage of images appears in a snap second. If you slow down the emulation, you'll find that the images are actually sketches of various characters from the game (Notably, "Vampire Hunter 2" had a fast montage too, at the same point in the intro, but with different artwork).

Donovan's appearance in this game is part of a lie by Capcom : In the original draft for Vampire Savior, Donovan would have been turned into a type of demon, while Anita, now in her teens, would be added to the roster, most likely as a 'new' character. However, instead, both characters were cut, and only restored, suddenly ageless, for Vampire Savior 2, without the changes.

This game is not canon due to the above errata, and other chronological faults, like the inclusion of Pyron, who was destroyed in the original tournament.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Hidden Warriors: the first will appear if you make 3 'DARK FORCE' or 3 'EX FINISH' without losing a round. The second will appear after 6 'EX FINISH' without losing a round. 

* Shoul Mode: on the character select screen, go to the [?] box, press Start 5 times, then push any punch or kick button. 

* Alternate Shoul Mode: on the character select screen, go to the character whom you would like to use in the first stage, press Start 3 times, after that go to the [?] box, press Start 5 times, then push any punch or kick button. 

* Marionette Mode: on the character select screen, go to the [?] box, press Start 7 times, then push any punch or kick button. 

* Priest Bishamon: on the character select screen, go to Bishamon, hold Start and press any punch or kick button. 

* Vampire Hunter 2 Phobos: Hold start and select Phobos. He will have the gameplay of Vampire Hunter 2. 

* EX MOVES 

Anakaris : 
1) (3/4 max) In the Sarcophage : Left, DownLeft, Down, DownRight, Right + 2 Punches 
2) (1/2 max) Pharao Magic I : MK, LP, Down, LK, MP 
3) [Need 2 powers] (1/2 max) Pharao Magic II : HK, MP, Down, MK, HP 
4) [Need 3 powers] (1/2 max) Pharao Magic III : HK, MP, LK, Down, LP, MK, HP 

Baby Bonnie Hood ('Bulleta' in Japan) : 
1) (Anywhere) Hunt the Duck : Left, DownLeft, Down, DownRight, Right + 2 Punches 
2) (Near) Beautiful Memory : Left, DownLeft, Down, DownRight, Right + 2 Kicks 
3) (Close) Apple Blast : Right, DownRight, Down, DownLeft, Left + 2 Kicks 

Bishamon : 
1) (Close) Oni Kubi Hineri : Right, DownRight, Down, DownLeft, Left + 2 Punches 
2) (Anywhere) Enma Seki : Left, DownLeft, Down, DownRight + 2 Kicks 

Demitri : 
1) (3/4 max) Demon Pillion : Down, Right, DownRight + 2 Kicks 
2) (Sweep distance) Sucking the Blood : Right, Down, DownRight + 2 Punches 
3) [Need 2 powers] (Sweep Distance) Midnight Pleasure : LP, MP, Right, MK, MK 

Donovan : 
1) (Anywhere) Immortal Transformation : MP, LP, Left, LK, MK 
2) (Anywhere) Breath of Death : Left, DownLeft, Down, DownRight, Right + Kick (LK = close, MK = medium, HK = far) 

Felicia : 
1) (3/4 max) Weapon X - 11 hit : Left, DownLeft, Down, DownRight, Right + 2 Punches 
2) (Anywhere) Help Me, Please - 34 hit : Left, DownLeft, Down, DownRight, Right + 2 Kicks 

Hsein Ko ('Lei Lei' in Japan) : 
1) (Anywhere) The Blast : Left, DownLeft, Down, DownRight, Right + 2 Punches 
2) (Anywhere) Chireitou : Left, DownLeft, Down, DownRight, Right + 2 Kicks 
3) (Anywhere) Tenraiha : LK, HK, MP, MP, Up 

Huitzil ('Phobos' in Japan) : 
1)(Anywhere) Big Laser : Left, DownLeft, Down, DownRight, Right + 2 Punches 
2)(Anywhere) Confusioner : Right, Down, DownRight + 3 Kicks 
3)(Anywhere) Final Guardian : Left, DownRight, Down, DownLeft + 2 Kicks 

Jedah : 
1) (Anywhere) Finale Rosso : Down (x2) + 2 Punches 
2) (Anywhere) Plova Di Selbo : Left, DownLeft, Down, DownRight, Right + 2 Kicks, Tap MK to grap opponent 

Lilith : 
1) (near) Bats : Right, Down, DownRight + 2 Kicks 
2) (near) Luminous Vision : LP, LP, Right, LK, HP 
3) [Need 2 powers] (Far) Gloomy Puppet Show : Down, DownRight, Right + 2 Kicks 

Lord Raptor ('Zabel Zarock' in Japan) : 
1) (1/2 max) Evil Scream : Right, Left + 2 Punches 
2) (1/2 max) Death Voltage : Right, DownRight, Down, DownLeft + 2 Kicks 
3) (Anywhere) Hell Dunk : Right, Down, DownRight + 2 Punches 

Pyron : 
1)(Anywhere) Cosmo Disruption : Left, DownLeft, Down, DownRight, Right + 2 Punches or 2 Kicks 

Q-Bee : 
1) (3/4 max) Chrysalid : Right, Down, DownRight + 2 Punches 
2) (Anywhere) Bee attack : Left, DownLeft, Down, DownRight, Right + 2 Kicks 

Morrigan : 
1) (Sweep distance) Darkness Illusion : LP, LP, Right, LK, HP 
2) (Anywhere) Valkyrie Turn : Right, RightDown, Down, DownLeft, Left, (any) Kick, then LK (close), or MK (medium), or HK (far) 
3) (Anywhere) Shocked : Right, HP, MP, LP, Right 
4) (Anywhere) Finishing Shower : MP, LP, Left, LK, MK 

Victor : 
1) (Anywhere) Thunder Break : Down (2s), Up + 2 Kicks 
2) (Corps to corps) MEGA Gerdenheim : 720 degrees + 2 Kicks

- SERIES -

1. Vampire - The Night Warriors [Green Board] (1994, Arcade)
2. Vampire Hunter - Darkstalkers' Revenge [Green Board] (1995, Arcade)
3. Vampire Savior - The Lord of Vampire [Green Board] (1997, Arcade)
4. Vampire Savior 2 - The Lord of Vampire [Green Board] (1997, Arcade)
5. Vampire Hunter 2 - Darkstalkers' Revenge [Green Board] (1997, Arcade)
6. Darkstalkers 3 - Vampire Savior (1999, PlayStation)
7. Darkstalkers Chronicles - The Chaos Tower (2005, PSP)

- STAFF -

Producer : Noritaka Funamizu 
General producers : Noritaka Funamizu, Yoshiki Okamoto 
Main music composers : Takayuki Iwai (Anarchy Takapon) 
Sub music composers : Tetsuya Shibata (Cyber-T) 
Sound effects & Voice edit : Moe.T (Cipher) 
Sound drivers : Yasushi Ikeda" A!Ohana" 
Sound tool : Tomohiro Masuda (Q~CVE) 
Sound "Q_64M" hardware : Ida~~~~~~~N 
Character designers : Eripyon.N (Eripyonsuke), Makoto Ishii, Fujihara, Ari, Takemoto, Rumi Chan, Takayuki Kosaka, Reiko Komatsu, Masarusan-N, Kuri, Tanuki, Kitasan, Ball Boy, Mizuho, Q, Who, Kimo Kimo, N_Labo, You-Ten Nakano, Mizupyon, Kaname, Tsuyoshi, Fuzii & Peliko, G.Kamina, Yoshioka, Isi-B Gao, Hitoshi Igarashi, Kozuchi, Shisui 
Scroll designers : Yuki Kyotani, Yumiko Nakatsuka, Tamachan, Morisaki Chie, Goro Suzuki (1996), Kanno, Yuugen, Pokkemon 
Program designers : Shinchan (as 'Hyper Shinchan'), Cham Cho Choy, Pon, Min, Ittetsu, 24 (nishi), Tomo & Moto May!, Teruaki Hirokado, Hard.Yas (-Savior2-) 
Planners : S. Obata, Neo_G H.Ishizawa, Malachie, Nohah, Kanetaka (Kinta) 

* Voice Actors : 
Jedah : Isshin Chiba 
Q-Bee, Bulleta : Miyuki Matsushita 
Lilith : Hiroko Konishi 
Demitri, Donovan, Pyron : Nobuyuki Hiyama 
Zabel Zarock : Yuuji Ueda 
Morrigan : Yayoi Jinguji 
Felicia : Kae Araki 
Victor, Bishamon, Anakaris : Kan Tokumaru 
Lei Lei : Michiko Neya 
Phobos : Jyurouta Kosugi 
Cecil : Kyoko Hikami 
Emily : Kozue Yoshizumi

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES: 
[JP] Sony PS2 (may.19, 2005) "Vampire - Darkstalkers Collection [Model SLPM-65998]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=varthj,varthjr,varthb,varthb2,varthb3
Arcade Video game published 31 years ago:

Varth - Operation Thunderstorm (c) 1992 Capcom Company, Limited.

A shoot'em up from Capcom.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System" hardware. 
B-Board #: 88622B-3 

Players : 2 
Control : 8-way joystick 
Buttons : 2 (FIRE, BOMB)

- TRIVIA -

Varth was released in June 1992 in the Japanese arcades. It was known there as the 19th video game made for the CP-S system. 

Known export releases: 
"Varth - Operation Thunderstorm [B-Board 89624B-3]" 
"Varth - Operation Thunderstorm [B-Board 91635B-2]" 

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Varth : G.S.M Capcom 6 - PCCB-00110) on February 19, 1993.

- STAFF -

Planners: Vally Dack Kelbon, Natural Sai Sai, Nijiken Mouri, Odds Maker Maetake
Scroll designers: Kintaro, Kuramoyan, Maru Chan, Mon Chan
Object designers: Kurata N, Manbou, Hanisawa, Ume
Programmers: Ohuchi, Meijin T, Hac, Okosama Ecchiro, Komorichie Darkside
Sound: T. Yomage, P, Bull
Directors: Kihaji Okamoto, Noritaka Funamizu (Poo), Akira Nishitani (Nin)
Producer: Kihaji Okamoto

- PORTS -

No port for this game ever appeared in Japan.

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=varth,varthr1
Arcade Video game published 31 years ago:

Varth - Operation Thunderstorm (c) 1992 Capcom Company, Limited.

Export release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese release entry; "Varth - Operation Thunderstorm [B-Board 88622B-3]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System" hardware.
B-Board #: 89624B-3

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES: 
Sony PlayStation 2 [AU] (apr.11, 2007) "Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 2 [Model SLES-54561]" 
[EU] Sony PS2 (apr.13, 2007) "Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 2 [Model SLES-54561]" 

* HANDHELDS: 
[EU] Sony PSP (jul.21, 2006) "Capcom Classics Collection Remixed [Model ULES-00347]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=69769&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=varthu
Arcade Video game published 31 years ago:

Varth - Operation Thunderstorm (c) 1992 Romstar, inc.

Export release for North America. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese release entry; "Varth - Operation Thunderstorm [B-Board 88622B-3]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System" hardware.
B-Board #: 91635B-2

- TRIVIA -

Published by Romstar under license from Capcom USA.

- PORTS -

Here is a list of ports released in North America only.

* CONSOLES: 
[US] Microsoft XBOX (nov.24, 2006) "Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 2" 
[US] Sony PS2 (nov.24, 2006) "Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 2 [Model SLUS-21473]" 

* HANDHELDS: 
[US] Sony PSP (mar.22, 2006) "Capcom Classics Collection Remixed [Model ULUS-10097]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=69768&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=viewpoin,viewpoinp

Viewpoint (c) 1992 Sammy.

A excellent isometric shooter game.

The player controlling a spaceship through futuristic and claustrophobics space corridors, while fighting on endless battles against swarms of assorted enemies and powerful giant mechanical bosses. You will have at your disposal a main weapon consisting a pulse laser which can be charged up for increased damage and three bombs: one that can make a wave of fire that starts from behind the player's ship and scrolls "up" the screen, another that makes a powerful circular nova-like blast, and one that shoots several mini-missiles capable of homing in on multiple targets. The game has 6 great stages in total.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID : 051

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2
=> [A] Shot/Charge shot, [B] Bomb

- TRIVIA -

Released in October 1992. This is Sammy's only game developed and released for the SNK Neo-Geo MVS hardware.

Viewpoint was awarded both Best Graphics and Best Music in a Cartridge Game in Electronic Gaming Monthly's 1992 video game awards.

The "One, Two, Three, Four, Hit It!" opening sound cue was sampled from the Kurtis Blow song "AJ Scratch" which appears on the 1984 Kurtis Blow album "Ego Trip".

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Viewpoint - PCCB-00112) on 19/02/1993.

- STAFF -

Game designers : Nenko, Morii, Terasaka, Mokichi, Akahoushi, Run
Programmers : S. Kinjo, M. Tani
Sound : Sizla, Masaki Kase, Megumi M.
Polygonizer : N. Yamaguchi
Graphic designers : Ashin, H. Takeuchi, Yuri Tomura, Maxma, Miyaki, Ken Katoku, Chirico
BG designers : Hiroppi T., K. Nishithuka

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
FM Towns Marty (1993)
Sega Mega Drive (1994)
SNK Neo-Geo CD (1995)
Sony PlayStation (1995)
Sega Saturn (1996)

* COMPUTERS:
[JP] Sharp X68000 (1995, Viewpoint)

- CONTRIBUTE -

<a href="https://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=3071&o=2">Edit this entry</a>
$end

$info=vimana,vimanan,vimanaj
Arcade Video game published 32 years ago:

Vimana (c) 1991 Toaplan.

Players control their ship over a constantly scrolling background; the scenery never stops moving until the final level is reached. Players have three weapons at their disposal: the standard shot, a charge shot and a bomb weapon.

The standard shot weapon is a twin-shot weapon capable of strengthening in size and power with upgrades. However, the player has to tap the fire button to fire rapidly; once the button is held down, the ship charges a stronger version of the normal shot capable of spreading out across the entire screen in twelve directions. The player’s bomb weapon, the Circle Bomb, encircles the ship once activated and seeks out enemies upon an additional tap of the bomb button.

There are a total of four items for the player to pick up shot strength, circle bomb, points, and and extra life.

- TECHNICAL -

Game ID : TP-019

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 10 Mhz)
Sound Chips : YM3812 (@ 3.5 Mhz)

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 3

- TRIVIA -

Vimana was released in May 1991. It was licensed to Tecmo for Japanese, to Romstar for US and to Nova Apparate GMBH & Co for Europe distribution.

The game was not good and was one of the rare flop from Toaplan.

When you start the game, you'll see two elephants that the ship takes off from. On top of that they closely resemble Hindu drawings from India. The background for this game is based on a thousand's of years old book called the mahabarata that is regarded as a bible (sorta) for millions of Hindu's in India. When you read some of the verses in it you'll find funny descriptions of vehicles that the gods used that closely resemble modern aircraft of today. They are called Vimana's that carry *magical* axes and spears :). The mahabarata also describe what appears to be a technological war with missiles, nukes and huge flying fortresses and something which could be interpreted as radiation poisoning! The ancient Babylonian and Indian civilizations have often been an interesting pool for speculation and creative thinking regarding alien interference on earth in ancient times...

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Vimana / Teki-Paki - PCCB-00071) on 21/09/1991.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Hidden Functions : If the 'Invulnerability dip switch' is enabled, you are invulnerable but you may also 'Pause' the game with P2 Start and restart with P1 Start.

* If you kill the second boss quickly, you can see a new boss called 'Toa'.

- STAFF -

Music composed by : Toshiaki Tomizawa

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=viofight,viofightu,viofightj
Arcade Video game published 34 years ago:

Violence Fight (c) 1989 Taito Corp.

Control different characters with various fighting styles and engage in single or two-player bouts.

In the early 1950's, a game called Violence Fight was popular in the US crime world. Fighters from all over the USA would compete against each other to become that year's champion. The winner stood to make a considerable amount of money. 

In downtown LA, a manager called Blinks is training up a new fighter called Bad Blue. He is a strong contender to become the champion and desperately needs the prize money.

- TECHNICAL -

Taito B System Hardware
Prom Stickers : C16

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 12 Mhz), Zilog Z80 (@ 6 Mhz)
Sound Chips : YM2203 (@ 3 Mhz), OKI6295 (@ 8 Khz)

Players : 2
Control : 8-Way Joystick
Buttons : 3
=> Punch, Jump, Kick

- TRIVIA -

Violence Fight was released in November 1989 in Europe and in December 1989 in Japan. It was then released in the US on April 25, 1990.

You can see the Twin Towers (World Trade Center) on one of the night stages played on attract mode.

- UPDATES -

The US version has the "Winners Don't Use Drugs" screen.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* INSTRUCTIONS:
- Press the Punch and Kick buttons simultaneously to duck. 
- Press Punch and Jump together or Kick and Jump together to execute special moves. 
- When your opponent is tired, walk up and throw them with the Punch button. 
- Boxes and barrels can also be lifted and thrown by using the Punch button. 
- Proceed through six stages, each consisting of a three round bout. Win two rounds to proceed to the next stage. 
- Each round has a time limit of 100 seconds. 
- Every two stages you will reach a bonus stage. Winning the bonus stage will increase your punch or kick strength. 
- If you are knocked down, rapidly press the buttons to get up quickly. 

* CHARACTERS LIST:

Bad Blue
Height: 187 cm
Weight: 98 kg
Birthday: June 11, 1938
Hometown: Los Angeles, California
Special Moves: Rolling kick, Stardust punch
Profile: Bad was Street Champion last year. He has a sharp fighting technique and is tipped to be this year's champion.

Ben Smith
Height: 189 cm
Weight: 105 kg
Birthday: February 8, 1935
Hometown: Carson City, Nevada
Special Moves: Tornado kick, Machinegun punch
Profile: The 'Eagle of Nevada', Ben is a former Marine. He is very agile and can make impressive jumps.

Lick Joe
Height: 190 cm
Weight: 135 kg
Birthday: September 25, 1925
Hometown: Ardmore, Oklahoma
Special Moves: Atomic chop, Drop kick
Profile: Lick Joe is a former professional wrestler, but had his licence revoked after killing or seriously injuring 13 other wrestlers. He is very strong but slow.

Lee Chen
Height: 183 cm
Weight: 80 kg
Birthday: July 4, 1935
Hometown: Miami, Florida
Special Moves: Whirlwind legs, Mantis hands
Profile: During his childhood, Lee was trained as an assassin in China.

Ron Max
Height: 192 cm
Weight: 120 kg
Birthday: October 21, 1932
Hometown: San Antonio, Texas
Special Moves: Health head-butt, Health blow
Profile: Ron has incredible destructive power and a head so hard that he can crack rocks with it.

Tony Won
Height: 225 cm
Weight: 115 kg
Birthday: January 5, 1940
Hometown: New York
Special Moves: Double knuckle, Health claw
Profile: Tony is the other favourite to win and he will do anything to ensure that he does.

* LEVEL SELECT:
Boot machine with service switch pressed.
Message appears: SERVICE SWITCH ERROR, press 1p Start(x3), service switch, 1p Start.
Message appears: SELECT BY DOWN SW, select level with joy Down/Up and push Start button.

- SERIES -

1. Violence Fight (1989)
2. Solitary Fighter (1991)

- STAFF -

Game Programmers : Takeshi Ishizashi, Yumi Inoue
Game Designer : Yukihiko Sakamoto
PCB Designer : Eikichi Takahashi
Sound Designers (Team Zuntata) : Masahiko Takagi, Yasuko Yamada, Yasuhisa Watanabe
Cabinet Designer : Hiroyasu Nagai
Character Designers : Kenji Hazama, Kazumasa Fuseya, Takashi Yamada, Noritaka Kawamoto, Seiji Kawagishi, Kouji Ohmae, Reiko Mithuoka, Minako Morimoto
Special Thanks : Nathuo Nichiai, Toshio Kouno

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] Sony PS2 (aug.25, 2005) "Taito Memories Gekan [Model SLPM-66092]" 
Sony PlayStation 2 [AU] (mar.30, 2006) "Taito Legends 2 [Model SLES-53852]" 
[EU] Microsoft XBOX (mar.31, 2006) "Taito Legends 2" 
[EU] Sony PS2 (mar.31, 2006) "Taito Legends 2 [Model SLES-53852]" 
[US] Sony PS2 (may.16, 2007) "Taito Legends 2 [Model SLUS-21349]" 

* COMPUTERS: 
[EU] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (mar.31, 2006) "Taito Legends 2" 
[US] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (jul.10, 2007) "Taito Legends 2"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=volfied,volfiedu,volfiedj,volfiedjo,volfiedo,volfieduo
Arcade Video game published 34 years ago:

Volfied (c) 1989 Taito Corp.

Volfied is an abstract action shoot-em-up and is an update of Taito's 1981 classic, "Qix". Set in a distant galaxy, a space pilot returns to his home world of Volfied to find it under attack by an unknown alien force. The planet's few remaining inhabitants are hiding underground and have managed to get a signal through to the pilot asking for his help. The pilot must eliminate the alien threat and save his people.

The player controls a craft (called 'The Monotros') that can move around the edges of a rectangle. Holding down the draw button allows the craft to move into unclaimed territory and draw lines in an attempt to create a closed rectangle. If completed, the captured area changes to a different background graphic. 

Each stage features a large enemy and several smaller enemies and when the player's spaceship succeeds in claiming a rectangular section, the side in which the main enemy is located is considered to be the 'outside'. Any smaller enemies ending up on the 'inside' are killed, resulting in point bonuses. Players are only in danger from enemies while they are actually drawing a line, although each level must be completed within a tight time limit.

Grey boxes sometimes appear on the field that award a random power-up when collected (by being trapped 'inside' a completed rectangle). These range from extra speed or upgraded weapons, to a temporary enemy freeze.

- TECHNICAL -

Prom Stickers : C04

Main CPU : Motorola 68000, Zilog Z80
Sound Chips : YM2203

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 1

- TRIVIA -

Volfied was released in July 1989.

- UPDATES -

The US version has the "Winners Don't Use Drugs" screen.

- STAFF -

Game designer : Fukio Mitsuji (MTJ)
Software : Yoshinori Kobayashi (Y.K), Tsukano (TKN), OKI (OKI)
Character designers : Fukio Mitsuji (MTJ), Taira Sanuki (T.S), Genya Kuriki (KRK), Iwabuchi (IWB), TEC Team (TEC), V.P Team (V.P)
Sound : Hisayoshi Ogura (OGR)
Hardware : Ohara (OHR)
Instruction : Hiroyasu Nagai (NGI)

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] NEC PC-Engine (dec.27, 1989) "Volfied [Model TP01005]"  
[US] Sega Genesis (1991) "Ultimate Qix" 
[JP] Sega Mega Drive (jan.25, 1991) "Volfied [Model T-11103]" 
Sony PlayStation (dec.20, 2001) "Simple 1500 Series Vol.80 - The Jintori - Volfied 1500 [Model SLPM-86971]" 
[US] Sony PlayStation (dec.1, 2003) "Qix Neo [Model SLUS-01561]" 
[EU] Microsoft XBOX (oct.14, 2005) "Taito Legends" 
[EU] Sony PS2 (oct.14, 2005) "Taito Legends [Model SLES-53438]" 
[US] Microsoft XBOX (oct.25, 2005) "Taito Legends" 
[US] Sony PS2 (oct.25, 2005) "Taito Legends [Model SLUS-21122]" 
[KO] Sony PS2 (jul.18, 2006) "Taito Legends [Model SLKA-15056]" 
[JP] Sony PS2 (mar.29, 2007) "Taito Memories II Gekan [Model SLPM-66713]" 

* COMPUTERS:
FM Towns PC [US] (1991)
[US] Commodore C64 [EU] (1991)
[EU] Sinclair ZX Spectrum (1991) : advertised but never released.
[EU] Amstrad CPC (1991) : advertised but never released.
Commodore Amiga [US] (1991)
Atari ST (1991)
PC [MS-DOS, 5.25"] [US] (1991) 
[EU] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (oct.14, 2005) "Taito Legends" 
[US] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (nov.10, 2005) "Taito Legends"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=wakuwak7

Waku Waku 7 (c) 1996 Sunsoft.

A hilarious parody of different styles of anime and video games featuring seven selectable characters and a nasty end boss! It's worth playing for the dialogue alone.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID : 0225

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 4
=> [A] Quick punch, [B] Quick kick, [C] Strong punch, [D] Strong kick

- TRIVIA -

Released in November 1996.

'Waku Waku' is Japanese onomatopoiea for sounds of excitement.

The bonus stage battle against Bonus Kun, the Shotokan punching bag, is a parody of Ryu and Ken of "Street Fighter" fame. Watch him imitate all of their best moves! It also appears that Bonus Kun's music stage is a parody of 'The Theme of Ryu', which is, as the name implies, the theme music for Ryu in "Street Fighter II - The World Warrior".

Pony Canyon released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Waku Waku 7 - PCCB-00215) on 21/08/1996.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Reverse Title : accumulate 7 credits and the title will be reversed (77 too).

* Alternate Costume Colors : press B, C, or D when selecting a fighter on the character selection screen.

* Choose Black Color : on character selection screen, press Down+A+B+C+D simultaneously.

* Change Winning Mark : on character selection screen, press Left+Start simultaneously. If done right, a voice will be heard. Doing the code again changes the marks back to normal.

* Change CPU Character Color : on character selection screen, press Upperright+Start+A simultaneously.

* Widescreen Mode : on character selection screen, press Right+Start+C simultaneously.

* Arina Stage Song Lyrics : when fighting Arina, before 'Round 1' appears, press Start, then A+D.

- STAFF -

Programmers : Yuichi Ueda, Shige. YTM. Inaba
Graphic Designers : Murakichi, Chupon, Kouki Kita, Toshihiko Narita, Yasuhide Maeda, Atsuki Matsui, Masasashi Kajikawa, Takuro Nagai, Kazuhito Terada, Naoto Kunimori, Tatsuya Doe
Sound Composers : Kazuo Nii, Noriaki Urata
Music Composer : Masato Araikawa
Musicians : Masayoshi Kondo, Hiroshi Koizumi, Andre Black, Yayoi Sakiyama, Eri Kusaka
Voice Actors & Actress : Yoko Okouchi, Yoshinori Kudo, Mariko Masuda, Osamu Nakamoto, Tokoshige Tsujimura, Ben Izawa, Toshiyuki Fujita, Kazunori Hotta, Chitose Omi, Naho Hattori, Yukitoshi Hirano
Music Coordinators : Atsushi Mihiro, Hideo Zaitsu
Waku Waku Director : Yuichi Ueda
Special Thanks : Kazuyuki Watanabe, Naoki Kodaka, Kazuyo Umemura, Tatsuo Mori, Kazuko Harman, Naomi Sakaguchi, Megumi Masuko, Noriaki Kitamutra

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo AES (dec.27, 1996) [Model NGH-225]
[JP] Sega Saturn (june.20, 1997) [Model T-1515G]
[JP] Sega Saturn (june.20, 1997) [Model T-1516G]
[JP] Sony PS2 (june.26, 2008, "Sunsoft Collection [Model SLPS-25849]")
[JP] Sony PS2 (june.18, 2009, "Sunsoft Collection [The Best] [Model SLPS-25936]")
[JP] Nintendo Wii (apr.27, 2010, "Virtual Console")

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=wrofaero
Arcade Video game published 30 years ago:

War of Aero - Project MEIOU (c) 1993 Yang Cheng Electronic.

- TECHNICAL -

Game ID : 93111A

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 16 Mhz)
Sound Chips : X1-010 (@ 16 Mhz)

Screen orientation : Vertical
Video resolution : 240 x 384 pixels
Screen refresh : 60.00 Hz
Palette Colors : 1536

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 3

- STAFF -

Programmer : J. Ichikawa
Graphci designers : Y. Sugimoto, H. Kanemaru
Character designers : J. Ichikawa, H. Kanemaru
Sound programmer : H. Yamanaka
Sound : Y. Ogawa, H. Shiomi
Director : J. Ichikawa

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=warriorb
Arcade Video game published 31 years ago:

Warrior Blade - Rastan Saga Episode III (c) 1992 Taito Corporation.

Warrior Blade is a fantasy-themed hack-and-slash game for one or two players, featuring both horizontal and vertically scrolling levels. Unlike previous Rastan games that featured only Rastan himself, players can now choose to play as one of three different warriors: Rastan, Dewey (a hireling) or Sophia (a thief).

Players must then fight their way through a multitude of enemy-packed levels set in a variety of different locations, such as castles, a forest, a swamp and on board a sinking ship. Certain levels also have the players riding on animals, such as horses and dragons. Coins and treasure items can be found in the numerous barrels and chests that litter the levels, as well as being dropped by some defeated enemies. Bonus points and vitality - depending on the amount of treasure collected - are awarded upon the level's completion.

As well as coins and treasure, other bonus items can be found that give weapon and magical-weapon power-ups, as well as extra vitality (health).

Level progression through the game is not linear. After the very first level, 'Depon Road', players are presented with a map of the Kingdom, and can choose which of four different routes they wish to take next. The available routes are; Castle (Northwest), Tower (Northeast), Ship (Southwest) and Palace (Southeast).

- TECHNICAL -

Prom Stickers: D24 

Main CPU: Motorola 68000 @ 16MHz 
Sound CPU: Zilog Z80 @ 4MHz 
Sound Chips: YM2610, (4x) Volume 

Two screens
Screens Orientation: Horizontal
Video Resolution: 320 x 240 Pixels (640x240)
Screen Refresh: 60.00 Hz
Palette Colors: 8192

Players: 2 
Control: 8-way joystick 
Buttons: 2 (SWING/FIRE, JUMP)

- TRIVIA -

Warrior Blade was released in May 1992 in Japan, even if the title screen says 1991 (development year).

Unlike other games running on the Darius 2 Twin Screen hardware, Warrior Blade has a slightly different GFX set for the 2nd screen, as the game's programmers ran out of scr GFX space.

Soundtrack releases:
Gaesen Oh - Scitron Game Music Mega Mix Vol.1 [KGCD-0001] (1994)
Nouvelle Vague -G.S.M. Taito 7- [PCCB-00086] (1995)
Z-REPLICA Vol.3 Legend THE RASTAN  [ZTTL-0029] (1998)
ZUNTATA LIVE 1998 "güten Talk" from the earth ~AUDIO FILE~ [ZTTL-0031] (1998)
ZUNTATA LIVE 1998 "güten Talk" from the earth ~VISUAL FILE~ (1998)
ZUNTATA HISTORY L'ab-normal 2nd [ZTTL-0039] (1999)

- SCORING -

Scoring in this game is relatively hard since there are a lot of things you can get points for. Also, some enemies require more then one hit to finish them off. Here is the scoring table :

Archers : 100 Points
Bird : 300 Points
Copper Coin : 10 Points
Gold Coin : 100 Points
Lizard Soldiers : 700 Points
Lizards : 250 Points
Lizards with clubs : 250 Points
Natives : 200 Points
Plants : 50 Points
Priests : 200 Points
Shark : 350 Points
Silver Coin : 50 Points
Soldier on Dragon : 100 Points
Soldiers : 250 Points
Swordmen : 100 Points
Treasure : 500 Points
Undead (Mummies) : 100 Points
Wizard : 200 Points

You also get points for clearing an area. In addition, you will also get a time bonus of the time remaining x 100. The only two areas you don't get the time bonus added on are Horseman's Forest and Wind Canyon.  The clear bonuses are as follows :
DEPON RD : 1,000 points
HORSEMAN'S FOREST : 5,000 points
WIND CANYON : 5,000 points
All other areas are 10,000 points.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Round Select Mode :
1) Hold Service Switch button, then reset the game.
2) Press : Service(x3), Start, Service, on displayed 'Service Switch Error' message.
3) Enter Round Select Mode in case of success.

* The Bosses : There are seven bosses to deal with in this game. They are known as 'Area Guard' in the game. Here is the list with a couple of strategies :

KING ZANANSTAFF : After you break through the tower floor, you will be deposited in a throne room. In front of your character will sit a skeletal man on a throne. After a few seconds of powering up, the battle will begin.
1) There are a couple of threats you must deal with against this boss.
a) The first threat is from the boss. He likes to throw blue fireballs at your character. They are easy to sidestep but are still a nuisance.
b) The second threat is from above. Skulls fall from the ceiling. After a couple of seconds, they form into skeleton warriors. Usually there are three to four around at any time. They can cause a lot of problems, especially when you are closing on King Zananstaff.
2) You first need to let the king throw his fireball and step away from it. Once he has done that, close on him real rapidly (unless you have a ranged weapon) and start pounding on him. You will know when your hits are registering because he will light up.
3) When he gets ready to throw another fireball (he will cock his arm back), get away from him and sidestep it. Also, by this time, you will have to deal with the skeleton warriors. It only takes one hit to bring them down but they could block your path and keep you in the fireballs path.
4) Repeat the above pattern until the king is destroyed. It should take 20 hits to bring him down.

PYLEX = PYLON : After you complete your trek to the top of the spiral tower, this boss awaits. A fire will start and this boss will appear. He is skeletal looking with a demons head. Plus, he is on fire.
1) When this boss appears, get outside of his range. He has a pretty long reach so you will need to jump around and move constantly.
2) You won't get hurt by just running by him but if he hits you, be prepared for a big energy loss.
3) One of his favorite tactics is to jump up and imprison your character within his flaming rib cage. This also can do some heavy-duty damage.
4) The best way to take out this boss is to watch his hand on your side. When he raised it, go in and start hacking away at his rib cage. You will know your hits are registering because he will briefly turn blue.
5) After a couple of hits, he will jump up. Watch the shadow on the ground since that is an indicator of his impact point. Run or jump out of the way and continue the above pattern of slashing and backing off.
6) It takes 16 hits to turn this flaming skeleton into kindling.

FINSTERNIS : Well, you couldn't go through a few bosses without having to deal with one knowledgeable in the mystic arts. Finsternis brings that reality to you. He appears as a robed man.
1) This battle opens up with Finsternis creating five rocks that go in orbit around him. You need to quickly break up these rocks or he will launch them at your character.
2) After you have busted the rocks, Finsternis will disappear and reappear on the other side of the screen.  At the same time, he will launch two attacks : Scrolls and fire. The scrolls attack is just a bunch of scrolls being thrown at your character and it doesn't do a whole lot of damage. It's the mini fireballs that can do some serious damage.
3) After taking out the rocks, there is a slight delay before Finsternis disappears. Get some shots in on him. Again, he will briefly light up when you hit him.
4) When he reappears, be prepared for the scroll and fire bombardment. As soon as its finished, go in and unload upon him some more. If you managed to get enough hits the first time, this should finish him off. If not, he will disappear and reappear attacking with scrolls and fire from another location.
5) 16 hits will help this boss become part of the mystical universe.

DESMOSTYLUS : This is one of the harder bosses to deal with. The reason is the fact you don't deal directly with the boss initially, but deal with the minions he creates.
1) After he has settled in his floating throne, he will create five water dragons. They look like snakes but have dragon heads. They will go in and out of the water and aim for your character.
2) In order to score hits on Desmostylus, you have to destroy his water dragons. There are usually three or four at any given moment until you have destroyed 16 of them. This isn't easy since they have the tendency to cover each other so if you get a shot on one, at one or two will have a shot at your character. This will definitely require a lot of maneuvering around so you don't get trapped. Once you have dispatched 16, all you need to do is give the boss a good whack.
3) After that, the rest is history as the boss gets committed to a watery grave.

PAS=DE=DAUX : Another skeletal boss but one with a new twist. This one has two heads, one human and the other demonic. In addition, instead of hands, he has blades at the ends of his four arms.
1) This boss doesn't actually have any real surprises, he uses his four blades to deadly effect and also tries to corner your character against the side of the screen.
2) The best way to take out this boss is to wait until the arm is raised on your characters side. Then rush in and get a couple of good shots. Keep in mind, only the end of your weapon can do damage so don't crowd in too close to this boss.
3) Keep up the pattern and jump to the other side if you don't have room to maneuver on the side you're on.
4) One thing to keep in mind, after you get 14 hits on this boss, he will fall apart. Don't let this fool you though, he isn't finished yet. You still will need to get two more hits to totally finish this boss off.

GIFFKRAKE : When you get to the other end of the ship, this boss awaits you. He will only briefly appear human before he transforms into a mutated octopus.
1) This boss doesn't move but his tentacles have a long range and can tag you for some big damage.
2) In order to get hits on this boss, you must first get through his tentacles. It only takes 4 hits to take a tentacle out but keep in mind that the other five tentacles will be gunning for your character. In addition, the tentacles will reattach to Giffkrake so you must be quick.
3) Once you have broken through the tentacle barrier, start beating on the main body. You may have to back off to deal with the tentacles.
4) Keep up this pattern. After 16 hits, Giffkrake will be seafood.

LORD LUDERKAWN : This boss starts out as an armored warrior. Don't let that fool you because he soon turns into a demon.
1) This boss is pretty quick and it will take all of your skill to maneuver around to get hits in on him.
2) In addition, he has a nasty little breath weapon that can do major damage if your character is in its path.
3) Again, the best way to hit this boss is to ''dance'' around him. Get a couple of hits and maneuver away before he has a chance to counterstrike.
4) Continue to move in and out getting in hits if you can.  After 16 hits, you can say bye-bye to the boss as he transforms back into the armored warrior.

This game consists of an introductory and final area. In between are four areas and subareas you can choose from. You can choose any area that you haven't been through already. First, though, there are some basic strategies one must be aware of before playing the game.

* Remember, you can move in eight directions on the screen. So if an enemy is in front of you, you can sidestep around that enemy and possibly can get a shot from the side or rear.

* A lot of times, enemies will come at you in a tightly packed group before they spread out.  Get in a hit while they are tightly packed and you can hit more then one in your one hit. This proves to be very valuable considering the fact that most enemies in this game require multiple hits to kill them. The difference between life and death could be that one extra hit.

* Break open all barrels and crates along the way. There are many objects that can be of major use to your character. Items such as the Arms of Thunder which hits the enemy with a lightening bolt in addition to your regular hit. Healing potions to restore your vitality and actually to make you immune, for a time period, to enemy attacks. You also may find the crystal orb which allows you to have an indestructible wizard fight at your side. This is especially helpful when the screen is full of enemies.

* When there are too many enemies to handle at once, sometimes jumping into the middle of the group and swinging wildly can do a lot of good. Since you know you will get a hit regardless of where you aim, you may be able to ''thin'' the herd and give yourself better odds in the process.

* Each area has a timer attached to it. You can gain extra time by getting to specific parts of an area or by getting objects. You don't want to sit around too long in one area though. The enemy will not give up and continue to send in more troops to delay your movement even more. Sometimes a good strategy is to run. You run by double-tapping the joystick in the direction you wish to travel. Your run is only broken by an enemy or object in your way. You may not get as many points, but you can make it through levels quicker.

* When you have the wizard with your character, the only way to regenerate magical energy is by picking coins and treasures. This basically means a lot of fighting and breaking up things. It is worth it, though, since the wizard has a very powerful arsenal of spells to assist your character.

Now, we will go through each area and subarea you will have to go through to complete the game. You 
ill have 50 on the timer for each level. Again, this number may go up or down dramatically depending on what events or actions take place. Ok, let's go adventuring.

DEPON ROAD : This is your introduction to this world. There aren't a whole lot of threats to deal with in this area.
1) You will first be assaulted by eight plants. Usually an attack is powerful enough to take out two in one hit.
2) Depending on how fast you move through this area, you may also encounter lizards and lizards with clubs.

CASTLE : The castle area consists of two subareas. It is in these areas that you will encounter a big variety of enemies.

HORSEMAN's FOREST : Your character will be on horseback for this area. The major threats are mounted soldiers and archers. In addition, fallen logs will be scattered on the road also for you to jump.
1) The soldiers and archers are pretty easy to deal with. Just make sure you don't get in the line of fire of the archers since their arrows can cause your character some pain. The soldiers just swing their swords and attempt to hit your character.
2) You can use your mount as a weapon in addition to the attack your character makes. If you can bump one of the enemy riders on their mount, it will then only take one hit, instead of two, to knock them down.
3) When you see this character : ''!'', it means that get prepared to jump. If you fail to jump, your mount will stumble and your character will take damage.
4) There will be 20 mounted archers and soldiers for your character to deal with.

THE ENCHANTED CASTLE OF ZANASTAFF : 
1) You will first run into natives and priest before you even cross the bridge. They are easy to deal with, plus, if you're playing as Rastan, you will grab some and throw them.
2) Continue down the corridor and you will be attacked by mummies and soldiers.
3) Go up the stairs and attack the door to break it down. More enemy awaits, mostly soldiers and lizard soldiers.
4) Make sure you break open the barrels since you can get either Arms of Fire or Thunder. They help greatly in thinning the enemy ranks. You will soon come upon an area that has three gaps bordered by three thin platforms. Be careful crossing over this area. In addition, birds holding rocks will appear to make your trip even more perilous.
5) Jump on the chain and ride it to the top. Swing your sword before getting off the chain to take care of anybody too close to your landing spot.
6) Continue down this path until you get to the end. The floor will collapse and you will deal with the Area Guard : King Zananstaff.
7) When you defeat King Zananstaff, you will get the ''Crown of Ishulin''. This crown gives your character extra power in attacks.

TOWER : The tower area consists of two subareas.

WIND CANYON : In this subarea, you will be a dragon rider.  Major threats are just the
mounted soldiers who try to knock you off your dragon.
1) The soldiers are real easy to deal with in this subarea. You have a lot of room to move about and you should be able to knock them off their mounts with little trouble.
2) Use your mount as a weapon. If a soldier is coming under your character, just bring your mount on top of him.

MAHADIDEKARADI SPIRAL TOWER :
1) This battle basically has you battling your way up a huge tower. The usual enemies abound to prevent your getting any higher.
2) When you reach the top, the tower will catch on fire and Area Guard Pylex=Pylon will emerge to do battle.
3) When you defeat him, the ''Moon Crystal'' is your reward. The crystal gives your character extra magic power.

PALACE : The Palace area consists of two subareas.

KA FA MOUNTAIN : You will start this level by sliding down a huge mountain. To make your slide even more fun, boulders and chasms will be in your way.
1) Use the boulders to your advantage. You will only encounter lizard soldiers in this subarea. They pack themselves together pretty tightly so the boulders usually damage three or four of them. Makes your job a whole lot easier.
2) When you see this character : ''!'', get ready to jump over a chasm. If you don't, then it's goodnight to your character.
3) After getting to the bottom of the mountain, you will have to deal with a few lizards until you get to the Area Guard.
4) When you defeat Finsternis, you will advance to the next subarea.

PALACE OF THE BLACK DEMON RELIGION : This subarea has a lot of floor level traps. These traps are spears or blades coming in and out of the lower part of the wall.
1) All manner of enemies will attack your character. You do, though, have extra help. This help is in the form of the traps that are along the floor. Cause your enemies to stay in those trapped areas and you won't have to do much in the way of killing them.
2) By that same thought, don't get caught in these traps. They will drain your energy very quickly if you are getting hit by two to three at a time.
3) You will go down two sets of chains to make it to the Area Guard Desmostylus.
4) Once you have cleared out the Area Guard, your reward is ''Brave Geran's Necklace''. This necklace gives your character extra speed.

SHIP : This area consists of two subareas.

HARBOR VILLAGE OF PESLO : 
1) There are a lot of barrels and crates in this area. Make sure you break into all of them since there are a lot of good things to be had.
2) The usual enemies are around to make your life more interesting. Deal with them accordingly.
3) You will eventually come onto a pier. This is where you will battle the Area Guard Pas=De=Deux.
4) When you have eliminated the Area Guard you will head to the next subarea.

PIRATE SHIP SOUTHERNKID : When you enter the ship, the floor will be covered with water. The big threat here are the sharks. They tend to not only attack in the water, but they also fly out of the water to attack.
1) Once you go up the chains to the next deck, the enemies will be the ones you have gotten used to battling. Be wary of holes in the deck since your character will have to jump over them.
2) Go up another chain and continue to battle toward the end of the ship.
3) When you make it to the end of the ship, part of the deck will collapse and the next Area Guard, Giffkrake will be there to greet your character.
4) Defeat him and your reward is ''The Horenon Daiamond Image''. This gives your character increased protection.

THE TEMPLE OF GULESTOPALIS : After realizing that your character still needs the Treasure of Depon, your character embarks on a journey to the final conflict.
1) You will encounter light resistance as you get to the Area Guard Lord Luderkawn.
2) After defeating him, a volcano erupts destroying the area. Your characters sail off into the sunset.

- SERIES -

1. Rastan Saga (1987)
2. Rastan Saga II (1989)
3. Warrior Blade - Rastan Saga Episode III (1992)

- STAFF -

Game design director : PPR. Kaito
Software programmers : Tany Vfr, Ten Shimezo, Hisao Maeda, Kenzo Nomura, Takayuki Ishiwata, K.Y, Yuji Hiroshige, Arms Marchant Toyoda
Character graphics designers : Makoto Fujita, Masami Kikuchi, Hidetaka Ishii, Masahiro Katou, Kohzoh Igarashi, Y. Kikuchi
All music composed and arrenged by : Masahiko Takaki (Zuntata)
Sound effects and data programmers : Yasuhisa Watanabe (Zuntata), Norihiro Furukawa (Zuntata)
Hardware system engineers : T. Ohhara, Toshiyuki Sanada, Yahachi Don Masao
Electric harness : Shin-Tsuchida, Y. Yoshitomi, O.Z.-Aki
Cabinet designers : Jun Nishiyama, Koji Enomoto, Kazu Tabuchi, I. Yama
Cabinet decoration : Hiroyasu Nagai (Excellent Nagai), Y. Aiura, Kyoko Umezu
P.C.B. inspector : Fumio Takeda
Produced by : PPR.Kaito
Project cooperation : Fujiwaran X, Sakou Menme

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES: 
[JP] Sony PS2 (mar.29, 2007) "Taito Memories II Gekan [Model SLPM-66713]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$info=wof,wofu,wofr1,wofpic,wofr1bl
Arcade Video game published 31 years ago:

Warriors of Fate (c) 1992 Capcom Company, Limited.

World release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese version entry; "Tenchi wo Kurau II - Sekiheki no Tatakai [B-Board 91634B-2]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System" hardware.
B-Board: 91635B-2

- TRIVIA -

Warriors of Fate was released in October 1992 outside Japan and Asia. It is known in Japan as "Tenchi wo Kurau II - Sekiheki no Tatakai" and in Asia as "Sangokushi II".

There are quite a few things that were changed or taken out between the original Japanese version and Warriors of Fate. They are listed as follows :
* After the bonus stage, a scene with the 3rd emperor making comments was cut.
* After the bonus stage, there was an additional conversation with the advisor and Kuan-Ti.
* All names in-game were accompanied by their kanji.
* All names were changed and aren't even properly translated from the originals.
* Before the bonus stage, there is a scene where Kuan-Ti is discussing with the 3rd emperor is cut.
* In stage 1, a short message from the advisor was taken out.
* In stage 1, the boss gave a short dialogue.
* In stage 3, during the opening the boss has a short dialogue.
* In stage 4, the boss had a short dialogue.
* In stage 5, Akkila-Orkhan has a short dialogue.
* In stage 5, the boss had a short dialogue.
* In stage 5, after killing the boss there is a long scene dealing with a woman and a baby that was completely cut.
* In stage 6, there were additional lines between the player and Kuan-Ti.
* In stage 8, a short message from the advisor was taken out.
* In stage 8, the boss has a short dialogue.
* In stage 9, a short message from the advisor was taken out.
* In stage 9, there was a conversation between player and the boss.
* In stage 9, you can select from 2 decisions which could determine which of 3 endings you would get.
* Some weapons were generalized in the World version.
* The demo opening and text is different giving more detail from the events that occurred in Tenchi o Kurau 1.
* The text 'Tekishou (boss name) uchiitotarii' was accompanied with the voice at the end of every stage (The enemy commander (boss name) has been killed!).

- SERIES -

1. Dynasty Wars [B-Board 88622B-3] (1989)
2. Warriors of Fate [B-Board 91635B-2] (1992)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$info=weststry,weststrya
Arcade Video game published 32 years ago:

West Story (c) 1991 Datsu Alliance.

Pirate version of "Blood Bros.".

- TRIVIA -

Released in January 1991.

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$info=wgp,wgpj,wgpjoy,wgpjoya,wgpu
Arcade Video game published 33 years ago:

WGP - Real Racing Feeling (c) 1990 Taito.

- TECHNICAL -

Board Number : K1100537A
Prom Stickers : C32

Main CPU : (2x) Motorola 68000 (@ 12 Mhz)
Sound CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 4 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Yamaha YM2610 (@ 8 Mhz)

Players : 2
Control : stick
Buttons : 7

- TRIVIA -

Even if the title screen says 1989, WGP was released in March 1990.

- STAFF -

Programmers : Yoshinori Kobayashi, Osaru Kinoshita, Yuji Hiroshige, Masahiro Okamoto, Tarabar Hori
Character designers : Seiji Kawakami, Tetsuya Shinoda, Yasuhiko Kikuchi, Tsuyoshi Satou, Atsumi Yoshino
Hardware : Yasuhiro Shibuya, Toshihiro Tanaka, Tsukasa Nakamura, Tadashi Kushiro, Yasushi Yamanouchi
Mechanic : Tohru Yamamoto, Nobuyuki Iwasaki, Shigeio Ueda
Sound by (Zuntata) : (Mar), Yasuhisa Watanabe (Yack)
Graphic designer : Rintarou Doi
Cabinet designer : Shinobu Sekiguchi
Direction & Game designer : Hiroyuki Sakou

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$info=wiggie
Arcade Video game published 29 years ago:

Wiggie Waggie (c) 1994 Promat.

A rip-off of Seta's "Thunder & Lightning" featuring naked women.

- TECHNICAL -

Wiggie Waggie & Super Bar run on a bootleg SETA board with an OKI M6295 replacing the X1-010 sound chip.

Both games are based on "Thunder & Lightning" code.

- TRIVIA -

One of the game melodies is a low sampling rated piece of "Mehve To Corvette No Tatakai" music track from "Nausicaä of the Valley of Wind" anime.

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$info=wildfang,wildfangs
Arcade Video game published 34 years ago:

Wild Fang (c) 1989 Tecmo.

Wild Fang is a sideways scrolling beat-em-up for 1 or 2 players with a medieval setting. Players take on a variety of orcs, ogres, demons and other mythical creatures in their bid to destroy Satan, decapitating each enemy they encounter in order to collect their skulls for points and power-ups.

The player's character is an armor wearing beastmaster who sits atop of a fist-fighting giant.  Upon the player's command, the player may switch his mount into a tiger and attack with his mace.  Within each stage, there are also power-ups that allow the player to morph into a laser breathing dragon for a limited period of time.

The player's life bar is represented by a fire breathing dragon in the upper corner.  With each hit the player takes, the fire breath grows smaller.  Once the life bar is depleted the player's mount is killed and the player travels on foot and fights with throwing daggers.  If hit in this form then the player loses a life.  The game is over when all of a players lives are lost.

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 9.216 Mhz)
Sound CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 4 Mhz)
Sound Chips : (2x) Yamaha YM2203 (@ 4 Mhz), OKI6295 (@ 7.575 Khz)

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 3

- TRIVIA -

Released in May 1989.

Export releases:
Known as "Tecmo Knight".

- STAFF -

Programmers : Pochi, HB.M, EXP2148
Graphic designers : Bruter, Noise, Yohkun, D.H.Max
Character designers : Bruter, Noise, S?nager, Yohkun
Sound creators : Mikio Saito (Metal Yuhki), Mayu
Hardware : Yoshida San
Directed by : Strong Shima

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=willowj
Arcade Video game published 34 years ago:

Willow (c) 1989 Capcom Company, Limited.

Willow is a sideways scrolling platform shoot-em-up game loosely based upon the movie of the same name. Players take on the role of one of two characters: Willow Ufgood or Madmartigan. The hero's mission is to rescue the baby Elora Danan from the evil Queen Bavmorda and bring her back safely. If the quest fails, the Queen will plunge the world into darkness and chaos.

The game consists of 6 levels, each representing a scene from the movie. Defeated enemies drop gold coins that can be collected by the player. In addition, each level is littered with locked treasure chests that can be shot open and the treasure within collected. The gold can be used to purchase a number of weapons and character power-ups from a nearby shop (represented on screen by a wise old man). All power-ups will stay with the player until all lives are lost and the game is over.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System" hardware.
B-Board ID: 88622B-3

Players: Up to 2 simultaneously.
Control: 8-Way Joystick per player.
Buttons: 2 per player.
=> [1] Fire/Swing, [2] Jump

- TRIVIA -

Willow was released in June 1989 in the Japanese arcades. It was known there as the 5th video game made for the CP System.

The gagem is licensed by Lucasfilm and based on the movie of the same name.

Known Export releases: "Willow [B-Board 89624B-3]".

- SCORING -

Scoring in this game is relatively hard since there are a lot of things you can get points for. Also, you get money for many of the monsters you kill. This money, though, will only remain around for a couple of seconds so you have to be quick to pick it up. Here is the scoring table :
Archer : 50 Points - 10 Golds
Axe Thrower : 200 Points - 10 Golds
Bat : 200 Points - 10 Golds
Devil Dog : 100 Points - 10 Golds
Eagle : 200 Points - 10 Golds
Fish : 200 Points - 200 Golds
Projectile thrower : 1500 Points - 100 Golds
Snake : 50 Points - 10 Golds
Snowball : 100 Points
Soldier : 50 Points - 100 Golds
Spear Thrower : 500 Points - 100 Golds
Troll : 500 Points - 100 

The Bosses :
Sorcerer : 500 Points - 200 Golds
Devil Dog : 7000 Points - 10000 Golds
Sergeant Claw : 2100 Points - 400 Golds
Wizard : 6500 Points - 10000 Golds
Dragon : 10000 Points - 1000 Golds
Sorsha : 15000 Points - 10000 Golds
Two-headed Dragon : 20000 Points - 10000 Golds
Kael : 10000 Points - 10000 Golds
Bavmorda : 0 Points - 0 Golds

In addition to the above, you can get money or items from the treasure chests. Attacking the chests is enough to open them.

You will receive a bonus at the end of each stage. The bonus comes out to be :
1) Time (in seconds) x 100 x Stage Number
2) Life (in bars) x 100 x Stage Number

I.E. : For Stage 2 you had 1:31 in time left and three bars of life, your bonus would be :
91 seconds x 100 x 2 = 18200 points for Time
3 bars    x 100 x 2 = 600 points for Life
Grand Total Bonus : 18800 points

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* DEBUG MODE: How to activate the debug features...
1) Set "Game Mode" Dip Switch to "Game".
2) Set both "Coin A" and "Coin B" Dip Switches to 1C_1C.
3) Reset the game.
4) Insert a coin.
5) Set "Game Mode" Dip Switch to "Test".
6) Set the debug Dip Switches to what you want.
7) Start a 1 player game.

Some debug features :
- "Starting Level" is effective only when you start a new game (you must NOT continue play !)
- Once you set "Maximum magic/sword power" to "On", setting it to "Off" won't have any effect until you start a new game (you must NOT continue play !)
- "Slow Motion Delay" is effective only when "Slow Motion" is set to "On"
- Even if "Freeze" Dip Switch is set to "On" a message will be displayed to its end.
- I can't tell what kind of infos are displayed when "Display Debug Infos". Dip Switch is sry to "On" :(Any hint about them are welcome !
- Both "Coin A" and "Coin B" Dip Switches must be set to "2 Coins/1 Credit" to make this mode available. If only one Dip Switch is set to it, it is the same as 2C_1C.
- When the "Stage Magic Continue" Dip Switch is set to "On", your magic and sword power will be increased at the end of the level if you haven't bought the magic/sword item. But you won't notice this before you use the character again. For example, magic power will be increased at the end of level 1 but you won't notice it before level 3, and sword power will be increased at the end of level 2 but you won't notice it before level 4.

* The Bosses : There are nine bosses to deal with in this game. Watch the Boss Vitality meter to see how much damage you are doing to them. As you damage them, they will lose a bar off the meter.

SORCERER (Vitality unknown) :
1) First, get off the bridge and onto the cliff. This will make the battle easier to fight.
2) Basically, just keep firing in his direction and jump to attack when needed. When he attacks, just jump over his spells.
3) This will take a while but keep pounding on him and you will send him back to school.

DEVIL DOG (Vitality : 4) : At the end of Stage I, a sorcerer appears telling you to turn back. To prove
his point, he magically makes a regular Devil Dog grow to huge proportions.
1) The main attacks the dog makes are its flame breath and claws. You must keep mobile at all times to avoid the effects of these.
2) When the dog crouches, it is read to release a hot-breath torrent. This is the time to jump up and make your shots count. The pooch will flash every time a hit is scored.
3) The fire rolls along the ground so you may have to jump a couple of times to avoid it. Don't get too close to the paws or the dog will claw you.
4) Continue to watch the dog crouch down and attack. Eventually, you will have housebroken the animal.

SERGEANT CLAW (Vitality unknown) : At the middle of Stage III, you will be on an island. Follow the gnome's advice regarding this boss.
1) When the Sergeant is standing up, none of your attacks will affect him. It is only when he is crouched down and attacked can you hit him.
2) You will have to power jump (diagonal + jump) over him to avoid his claw.
3) Continue to attack between his attacks when he is crouched down. Eventually, you will take him out.

WIZARD (Vitality : 10) : This is the boss you have to deal with at the end of Stage III.
1) He has two major attacks. He will use fire demons and fire attacks on you.
2) The fire demons can be eliminated with regular attacks. You must, however, jump over the fire attacks which tend to cause a splash effect.
3) This boss spends most of his time in the air so you will have do power jumps in order to attack him. Just watch out for the fire demons he launches.
4) Continue this pattern and you will defeat the Wizard.

DRAGON (Vitality unknown) : This is the boss you deal with halfway through Stage IV.
1) This bosses main attack is its fire breath. It will either hover over your character or shoot flames from an angle. The object is to keep moving so you don't get toasted.
2) The Dragon tends to fly in a pattern. It will stay high for a while, then it will swoop down to attempt to claw your character. Use of the power jump is strongly recommended.
3) You can get in three to four hits between fire breaths if you time things right. In addition, if you are under the Dragon, you can get in an additional one or two hits.
4) Keep moving around and striking and this Dragon should be dinner before you know it.

SORSHA (Vitality : 12) : This is the boss at the end of Stage IV.
1) Sorsha's main claim is that she is fast and she is very nimble on the jump. The best attack is to trap her on a side and go to work.
2) When you have Sorsha near a side, attack rapidly to prevent her from getting in an attack. After she loses a couple of bars of vitality, she will jump out of the way.
3) Pursue her and get her trapped again. Watch out for her counterattacks since they can be rather devastating.
4) Continue this pattern to finish her off.

TWO-HEADED DRAGON (Vitality : 16 per head) : This is the boss at the end of Stage V.
1) You will be on a wooden bridge while both heads assail you with their fiery breath.
2) The heads tend to fire at the same time. After they have fired, get up there and get in a few whacks.  Because there are two heads, your hits will usually be spread out between them. Don't worry about going for a specific head right now.
3) The heads will bob back and forth. If you want to go after one head, then you must wait for the target head to be in front of the other one.
4) Power jumps will definitely save you on this one. Back up and when the heads fire, power jump over the rolling fire to get your attacks in. Watch out for the heads dropping suddenly since that usually means a bite attack.
5) Continue this pattern to finish the critter off.

KAEL : (Vitality : 16) : This is the boss near the end of Stage VI.
1) Kael is a very tough warrior. What he lacks in maneuverability he makes up in attack power.
2) As with Sorsha, try to corner him along the edges so you can pound on him. He does, though, have more of a tendency to jump straight up to another platform, then try to get behind you. Watch for when he jumps up.
3) Continue to move around and trap him on the edges and this powerful warrior will be sent packing.

BAUVMORDA (Vitality : 23) : This boss is the final boss of the game.
1) This is probably one of the toughest bosses you will ever have to face. Bauvmorda has quite an arsenal of attacks that can devastate your character if you're not ready. Follow the gnome's advice regarding protection.
2) Bauvmorda has a variety of attacks, some of them are :
a) She attacks with little crystal-like objects that rotate around her.
b) She attacks from above with fire.
c) She animates a BBQ grill thing when she is down to about 10 vitality. This thing attacks in conjunction with Bauvmorda's attacks.
3) During her crystal attacks, you will be doing a lot of power jumping. Try to get in shots where you can since there is little room to move between the crystals.
4) When Bauvmorda goes airborne, power jump up to attack her. Watch out for the objects that burst into flames. She will tend to go back and forth across the top.
5) When the BBQ grill gets animated, make sure you keep track of it since it is also attacking along with Bauvmorda. It takes too much time and firepower to destroy the grill. Time better spent tearing into Bauvmorda.
6) Continue with this pattern and the world will be safe again.

You will start the game at Stage I (unless you are continuing). You will only have a basic attack and your wits when you start the game. In addition, each stage is timed so you will not only have to beat your enemies, you will also have to beat the clock. The only good news is that if you die, you don't lose any items or upgrades either on your continues or next man. Listed below are the Stages.

STAGE I. Crossroad (Character : Willow)
* Head right until you get to the bridge. Climb up the cliff and cross the bridge. Go to the end and climb the cliff.
* Open the treasure chest for 200G then head to the left. You will see a couple of stone pedestals and a treasure chest at the end. Go over and collect 100G, then head back to the right.
* At the end of the cliff, drop off and you will be next to a gnome. Time to shop. After you exit the shop, go right across the bridge and you will have to tangle with the Sorcerer.
* After that battle, go right to the treasure chest and collect the Holy Water. Then go down the mountain.
* At the bottom, on a ledge is another gnome. Go chat with him. After you exit the shop, go to the right. Be quick since the rock will sink under your weight.
* Keep going right and at the end you will have to deal with the Devil Dog.

STAGE II. Cherlindrea's Forest (Character : Madmartigan)
* Go right until you get under a balcony. Jump up and head to the left. Go all the way left to open the treasure chest and get the 200G.
* Go back right and get onto the next balcony (3rd level). Go left to get the next treasure chest of 100G then head right again.
* At the end of the walkway, fall off onto a ledge with a treasure chest to get 100G. Drop down to ground level and head right.
* Enter the shop (press up on the joystick) to do your business. Then exit and head right.
* Go up to the next level then power jump across the two sets of stairs. Continue to climb to the top and go right.
* Jump off the balcony and onto the cart. Your job is to now defend against the soldiers, archers, devil dogs, and eagles dropping rocks.
* After an adventuresome ride, the stage will end.

STAGE III. Fin Raziel's Island (Character : Willow)
* Go up the cliff and head to the top left to chat with the gnome. After you are done shopping, go back down the cliff and head right.
* Upon the next two terraces are treasure chests. They each contain 100G. Finish climbing the mountain and to your right will be a series of stone pedestals.
* You will have to cross eight pedestals, each at varying heights. In addition, eagles will be around to make your journey that much harder.
* The second to last pedestal will sink down, make sure you jump off it to the next one. That one will sink also so quickly jump off it to the island. It's time to deal with Sergeant Claw.
* After you take care of the good Sergeant, a stone platform will connect the island you're on to the next island to the right. Go all the way to the end and chat with the gnome.
* Hop into the boat and cross the sea. Be ready for a hard fight with the soldiers, archers, and fish.
* At the end, you will tangle with the Wizard.

STAGE IV. Sorsha's Camp (Character : Madmartigan)
* This stage starts with Madmartigan going up a hill. You will not only have to deal with the soldiers, but also snowballs that are rolling down the hill. At the top of the hill is a gnome. Heed his words about the dragon.
* After chatting with the gnome, you will go downhill again. Open the treasure chest for 100G and proceed right into the cave. At the end is the Dragon.
* After clearing out the dragon, jump up to the next platform and go left. Talk to the gnome. When you exit, continue to head right and jump up on the cave roof. Then power jump left and go to the end.
* You will see a brownie suspended in mid-air. Go over and get him down. From now on, you have an ally who attacks whenever you change the direction you are facing. The brownie's attacks can be quite devastating.
* Go back right and follow along the path. You will pass many tents so be prepared for a big fight with soldiers, spear throwers, and archers. The brownie should greatly help you out.
* Sorsha will be at the end waiting, take her down then jump on the sled with Willow. At the end of this track, make sure you jump to avoid the boulder.

STAGE V. Tir Asleen Castle (Character : Willow or Madmartigan (some players prefer Willow due to distance attacks))
* Head right until you get to the wall. Go up to the next level and get the Holy Water from the treasure chest.
* Head left until you get to the gnome. After doing your shopping, head right again and climb up to the next level.
* Go right to the door and press up to enter the next hallway.
* The main danger here are the walls that drop and the soldiers pushing spiked blocks toward your character. You will need to be quick with the trigger finger to get through this hallway.
* At the end of the path, cross the top platforms to reach the gnome in the upper, right corner.
* Go down and around the spiked pits. You will be heading to your left. Collect the 100G from the treasure chest. At the bottom, head right.
* Go across the wooden bridge to tangle with the Two-Headed Dragon.

STAGE VI.  Nockmaar Castle
* Head right. On the 2nd upper platform is a treasure chest containing 100G. Press up at the end of the walkway to enter the door.
* Keep going right and you will encounter another gnome. After chatting with him, you are faced with a pit of spikes. To the right, you will see a small wooden ledge. Timing is the key to this part. You will have five seconds to jump to the next wood ledge to the right. Do this until your reach the other side.
* Again, another bed of spikes awaits you. The ledges exist for about three seconds now. Cross over and you will be in front of two doors. This is the start of the maze. Going through the wrong door puts you at the beginning of the area it connects to. Go through the left door. The right door will put you back through this first area again.
* In this area, you will be cross pits with spiked ceilings that will descend into them. Again, timing is crucial to prevent damage. You will cross over several of these before you reach three doors. Take the left door. The middle door puts you back into the first area and the right door will make you do the second area again.
* The third area consists of two levels. Both are equally dangerous since you have the soldiers pushing the spiked blocks. Due to not have a ranged weapon, you may need to power jump over these guys. Continue to the right and you will encounter four doors. Two on the top and two on the bottom. Take the upper, right door. The upper, left door leads to the second area; the lower, left door leads to the first area; and the lower, right door leads back to the third area.
* You will tangle with Kael to get through this area. Go through the door and you will change over to Willow.
* Climb the platforms in front of you. You may have to power jump on a few since they are too high to just do a regular jump. Watch out for the projectile and axe throwers in this area. At the top platform, chat with the gnome to do your final stocking up. Then go in the door to deal with Bavmorda.

After you take her down, the credits will roll and your game will be over.

- STAFF -

Planners: Kawanorider, Deru-Deru Itoh
Programmers: Yukio Arai (Professor Arai), Kyoko Tomita (Queen Tomita), Yokoyan, Ueyan
Character Designers: Frunky Kazu, Yokota Yokozo (Bakuhatsu Yokozo), Terukun, Hiramacho, Kuribow, Puttsun Midori, Sadakichi, Oyuu, Rinma, Okachan
Music Composer: Ogeretu Kun
Hard Designer: Kucchan
Direction: Yoshiki Okamoto (Kihaji Okamoto)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=willow,willowu,willowuo
Arcade Video game published 34 years ago:

Willow (c) 1989 Capcom USA, Incorporated.

Export release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, see the original Japanese release entry; "Willow [B-Board 88622B-3]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System" hardware.
B-Board ID: 89624B-3

- UPDATES -

There is an incorect Japan 'warning' on the first USA releases. Capcom USA soon removed this warning by releasing a new proper revision.

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=wits
Arcade Video game published 34 years ago:

Wit's (c) 1989 Visco Corp.

A game with play much like "Tron"'s Light Cycles game, but with the ability to jump and speed burst.

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 8 Mhz)
Sound Chips : X1-010 (@ 16 Mhz)

Players : 4
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2

- TRIVIA -

Developed by Athena Corp.

Wit's was released in October 1989.

- STAFF -

Producer : Sakae Nakamura
Game director : Crazy Tom
Game designers : Crazy Tom, Hironobu Tamai
Composer : Shotaro Sasaki
Manupilater : Kouichi Ishibashi
Programmer : Tom_boy
Character designers : Hironobu Tamai, Yuka Kamosaki, Sayaka Hozumi
Sound mixers : Enjoy Sasaki, Tarako Ishibashi
Hardware service : Drunkard Nonaka
Monitor : Sayuri Murakami, Zensack Yamamura

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
Nintendo Famicom (1990)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=wonder3
Arcade Video game published 32 years ago:

Wonder 3 (c) 1991 Capcom Company, Limited.

Wonder 3 is a multi-choice arcade game in which players can choose to play any one of three different, fully self-contained games. The three games are:

* Midnight Wanderers - Quest for the Chariot 
A horizontally-scrolling platform shoot-em-up in which one or two players control two Elves called 'Lou' and 'Siva'. The Elves are tasked with entering the Demon's castle to liberate the legendary Chariot of Light from the evil demon, Gaia. The Elves are initially armed with a relatively low-powered gun, but new more powerful weapons can be found in some of the numerous wooden chests that litter the levels. In addition, many of the game's enemies – and all mid and end-level bosses – drop heart-emblazoned playing cards when killed. Once enough of these cards have been collected, players are awarded an extra life. Some of the wooden chests also contain heart cards.

* Chariot - Adventure Through the Sky
A horizontally-scrolling shoot-em-up. Chariot is set in the same world as the first game and despite being of a completely different genre, is a direct sequel to it. The two Elves must now fly the rescued 'Chariot of Light' through scrolling enemy-packed levels to defeat the demon Lar and rescue their kidnapped princess. Chariot borrows several gameplay elements from other shoot-em-ups. 

* Don't Pull
An action/puzzle game similar to "Pengo" and Capcom's own "Pirate Ship Higemaru", that involves pushing blocks to crush monsters.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System" hardware.
B-Board #: 89625B-1

Players: Up to 2.
Control: 8-way joystick per player.
Buttons: 3 per player.
=> Roosters : [A] Attack, [B] Jump
=> Chariot : [A] Shot, [B] Tail shot
=> Don't Pull : [A] Push Block/Break Block, [B] Push Block/Break Block

- TRIVIA -

Wonder 3 was originally released in May 1991 in Japan. It was known there as the 16th video game made for this system. It is known outside Japan as "Three Wonders".

This game is known outside Japan as "Three Wonders". Here are some known export releases : 
"Three Wonders [B-Board 89624B-3]". 

The main character of the action game (Roosters) appears as a striker character (Lou) in "Marvel vs. Capcom - Clash of Super Heroes". 

The roar that the bosses make when they die is sampled from 'Return of the Jedi' - it's the bellow that Jabba the Hutt makes when Bib Fortuna rudely awakens him to the arrival of Luke Skywalker in his throne room. 

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Captain Commando : G.S.M. Capcom 5 - PCCB-00083) on March 21, 1992.

- STAFF -

Game Designer : Udatoshi
Programmer : Koma Chan
Character Designer : Kurisan
B.G. Designer : Kuramoyan
Sound Composer : Masaki Izutani (T. Yomage)
Director : Yoshiki Okamoto (Kihaji Okamoto)

- PORTS -

Here is a list of ports released in Japan only. For ports released outside Japan, please see the Export version entry; "Three Wonders [B-Board 89624B-3]" 

* CONSOLES: 
[JP] Sony PlayStation (apr.2, 1998) "Wonder 3  [Model SLPS-00927]"
[JP] Sega Saturn (mar.5, 1998) "Wonder 3 [Model T-26107G]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=wh2j

World Heroes 2 Jet (c) 1994 SNK.

This update of World Heroes 2 introduces two new characters, Ryofu and Jack and 2 new modes of play - the Tournament and the Forging of Warriors.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID : NGM-064

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 3
=> [A] Punch, [B] Kick, [C] Challenge

- TRIVIA -

Developed by ADK. ADK's name is 'Alpha Denshi Kikaku'.

Released in April 1994.

Jack the Ripper is based on the real Jack the Ripper, who brutally murdered and mutilated five prostitutes in London in 1888.
Ryofu is based on the real Lu Bu Fengxian, one of the famous warrior of the Three Kingdoms period.

Soundtrack releases :
[JP] February 18, 1994 - World Heroes 2 Jet [GSM 1500 Series] [PCCB-00148]
[JP] August 19, 1994 - World Heroes 2 Jet Image Album [PCCB-00160] - Pony Canyon Scitron

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Endings : World Heroes 2 Jet is a very fun game, but only has 4 different endings available. Here is how to get each of these :
Ending 1 - Beat Zeus in 'Tournament Mode' in the second or third round with 25% of remaining energy or less in your character's lifebar.
Ending 2 - Beat Zeus in 'Tournament Mode' in the second or third round with 75% of remaining energy in your character's lifebar.
Ending 3 - Get a 'Perfect' against Zeus in 'Tournament Mode' in the second or third round (This is the true ending, since the developer's credits will appear only in this one!).
Ending 4 - Defeat 4 opponents in 'The Forging of Warriors Mode' to see this ending.

* Alternate costume Colors : Press B or C when selecting a character.

- SERIES -

1. World Heroes [Model NGM-053] (1992)
2. World Heroes 2 [Model NGM-057] (1993)
3. World Heroes 2 Jet [Model NGM-064] (1994)
4. World Heroes Perfect [Model NGM-090] (1995)

- STAFF -

Producer & Planner : Kenji Sawatari
Producer & Director : Akira Ushizawa
Market Research : Yukio Gotoh
System Programmers : Eiji Fukatsu, Makio Chiba
Sound Programmer : Makio Chiba
Design-Tool Programmer : Ryu Hiroyuki
Main Programmers : Tat&MST, E-Chan, Puyo (Toshi)
Editor : Sho
Music & Sound Effects : Hideki Yamamoto, Yuka Watanabe, Hiroaki Shimizu
Chief Scroll Designers : Kenichi Sakanishi
Scroll Designers : Takashi Egashira, Mitsunari Ishida
Chief Sprite Designer : Hiroyuki Toda
Sprite Designers : Hideyuki Yamada, Muneki Shiraishi, Yokoo, Giga. S, Yasuyuki Sohara, West-Maison, Kazushige Hakamata (K-Hakamata), Yoshiaki Ono
Graphic Designers : Gensan, Rie Mori, Masato Mitsuya
Public Information : K. Fujita, S. Itoo II'
Game Adviser : Tsutomu Maruyama
Executive Producer : Kazuo Arai
Event Produce Take : Koji T. Shimizu, James Steins

Special Thanks : Rulia 046, H. Ando (K-Fuuma), M. Honda, K. Takada, A. Kawamoto, M. Kamimura, F. Kawazoe, F. Sokabe, S. Miura, F. Miwa, S. Nakano, Endo, Taga, Hiroshi Ohzono, Nogu-P, M. Kosugi, T. Yamazaki

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo AES (june.10, 1994, "World Heroes 2 Jet [Model NGH-064]")
[US] SNK Neo-Geo AES (june.10, 1994, "World Heroes 2 Jet [Model NGH-064]")
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo CD (nov.11, 1994, "World Heroes 2 Jet [Model ADCD-007]")
[JP] Nintendo Game Boy (feb.24, 1995, "Nettou World Heroes 2 Jet [Model DMG-AWJJ]")
[US] Nintendo Game Boy (aug.??,  1995, "World Heroes 2 Jet [Model DMG-AWJE]")
[EU] Nintendo Game Boy (??? ??, 1995) 
[JP] Sony PS2 (oct.18, 2007, "World Heroes Gorgeous [Model SLPS-25782]")
[US] Sony PS2 (mar.11, 2008, "World Heroes Anthology [Model SLUS-21725]")
Sony PlayStation 2 [AU] (sept.25, 2008, "World Heroes Anthology")
[EU] Sony PS2 (nov.7, 2008, "World Heroes Anthology [Model SLES-55233]")
[JP] Sony PS2 (june.18, 2009, "World Heroes Gorgeous [NeoGeo Online Collection The Best] [Model SLPS-25933]")

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=wh2

World Heroes 2 (c) 1993 ADK.

14 characters and 2 end bosses do battle in normal or death match modes.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID : NGM-057

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 3
=> [A] Punch, [B] Kick, [C] Body Slam

- TRIVIA -

World Heroes 2 was released in April 1993.

Captain Kidd is based on the real Captain William Kidd (1645-1701).
Erick is loosely based on Erik the Red.
Mudman is similar to protagonist of Daijiro Morohoshi's "Mud Men" series in Monthly Sh?nen Champion Z?kan.
Ryoko is based on famous real-life judoka Ryoko Tani (formerly Ryoko Tamura). Fighter's History, released in the same year as this game, featured a character with the same basis and name (on a related note).
Shura is based on the legendary Muay Thai hero Nai Khanom Tom.
The last boss of this game was inspired by the character 'Baoh' from the manga of the same name.

The difficulty setting seems to have no effect on the game, the game is just as difficult on Level 1 as it is on Level 8!

The 'Skinhead' Deathmatch level, like in the first game, does not feature any trap or hazard to look out for, however the loser in this particular ring will get his/her head shaven! :)

Soundtrack releases:
[JP] June 18, 1993 - World Heroes 2 [GSM 1500 Series] [PCCB-00122]
[JP] Oct. 21, 1993 - World Heroes 2 Image Album [PCCB-00137]

Literature:
[JP] Sep. 30, 1993 - World Heroes 2 [Gamest Extra No.99]

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Alternate Costume Colors : Press B button when selecting a character.

* Most characters have a preset multi-hit combo that can be used by simply tapping the punch button many times while next to an enemy!

* Some characters that have hold-type throws (Kim Dragon, Ryoko, Muscle Power, Rasputin & J. Maximum) can drain LOTS of energy of a CPU controlled fighter by quickly shaking the joystick left or right while performing a hold! Oddly enough, this trick does not seem to work with some character's holds such as Janne, Captain Kidd & Mudman though!

- SERIES -

1. World Heroes [Model NGM-053] (1992)
2. World Heroes 2 [Model NGM-057] (1993)
3. World Heroes 2 Jet [Model NGM-064] (1994)
4. World Heroes Perfect [Model NGM-090] (1995)

- STAFF -

Producer : Kenji Sawatari
Planner : Kenji Sawatari, Yokoo
Director : Akira Ushizawa
Assistant Director : Sho (Y. Ono)
Main Programmers : Tat&MST (Tat.MST), Marbo (Toshi), Wizard Nogup
System Programmers : Eiji Fukatsu, Makio Chiba, E-Chan
Sound Programmer : Makio Chiba
Character Maker : Ryu Hiroyuki
Character Designers : Kazushige Hakamata, Takashi Hatono, Shinji Moriyama, Hideyuki Yamada, Yoshiaki Ono, Muneki Shiraishi, Yokoo, Hidemi Nagatomo, Hiroyuki Toda, Atsushi Kobayashi, Giga. S (R. Nakajima)
Scroll Designers : Kenichi Sakanishi, Takashi Egashira, Mitsunari Ishida, Katsue Matsuzaki, Rie Mori, Hideyuki Kusano, Yasuyuki Sohara
Demo Designers : Rie Mori, Koji Fujita, Masato Mitsuya
Music And Sound Effects Composers : Hideki Yamamoto, Hiroaki Shimizu, Yuka Watanabe
Voice Cast : Michio Ootani (Take), Shinji Miura (Take), Hitoshi Sogabe (Take), Akihiko Kawamoto (Take), Sanae Saitoh (Take), Shouzoh Nakano (Take), Kenji Takada (Take), Kimihiko Sakuma (Take), Yoshiyuki Tsukada (Take), Mari Kamimura (Take), Masato Mitsuya (Gekidan ADK), Yuka Watanabe (Gekidan ADK), Giga. S (R. Nakajima) (Gekidan ADK), Yoshiki Ono (Gekidan ADK), Takashi Hatono (Gekidan ADK)
Graphic Adviser : Tsutomu Maruyama
Executive Producer : Kazuo Arai

Special Guest : Koji T. Shimizu
Special Thanks : Yukio Gotoh, Shinichi Tamura, Hideo Kamoda, Teruaki Shirasawa, Akira IIdaka, Tomoko Oohira

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo AES (june.4, 1993) "World Heroes 2 [Model ALH-006]"
[US] SNK Neo-Geo AES (june.4, 1993) "World Heroes 2 [Model NGH-057]"
NEC PC-Engine Super CD-ROM [JP] (june.4, 1994) "World Heroes 2 [Model HCD4063]"
[JP] Nintendo Super Famicom (jul.1, 1994) "World Heroes 2 [Model SHVC-JI]"
Nintendo Super Famicom [US] (sept.1994) [Model SHVC-JI]
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo CD (apr.14, 1995) "World Heroes 2 [Model ADCD-006]"
[US] SNK Neo-Geo CD (1995) 
[JP] Sony PS2 (oct.18, 2007, "World Heroes Gorgeous [Model SLPS-25782]")
[US] Sony PS2 (mar.11, 2008, "World Heroes Anthology [Model SLUS-21725]")
Sony PlayStation 2 [AU] (sept.25, 2008, "World Heroes Anthology")
[EU] Sony PS2 (nov.7, 2008, "World Heroes Anthology [Model SLES-55233]")
[JP] Sony PS2 (june.18, 2009, "World Heroes Gorgeous [NeoGeo Online Collection The Best] [Model SLPS-25933]")  
[JP] Nintendo Wii (nov.15, 2011, "Virtual Console")

* COMPUTERS:
FM Towns PC

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=whp

World Heroes Perfect (c) 1995 SNK.

A new button layout for the final game in the series greets the 16 fighters, 1 hidden fighter and 2 end bosses.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID : [Model NGM-090]

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 12 Mhz)
Sound CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 4 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Yamaha YM2610 (@ 8 Mhz)

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 4
=> [A] Weak Punch, [B] Normal Punch, [C] Weak Kick, [D] Normal Kick

- TRIVIA -

World Heroes Perfect was released in May 1995. The game was feveloped by ADK. ADK's name is 'Alpha Denshi Kikaku'.

Son Gokuu is based on the famous mythological character known as Sun Wukong from "Journey to the West".

Since World Heroes Perfect, ADK games has gone out of business and all intellectual properties and copyrights to the games and characters have passed to SNK Playmore. Hanzo, Fuuma, Mudman and Neo-Dio would then appear in the fighting game "NeoGeo Battle Coliseum" (along with Kisarah from Aggressors of Dark Kombat, also by ADK) as a result.

Soundtrack Releases :
[JP] July 21, 1995 - World Heroes Perfect [PCCB-00185] - Pony Canyon / Scitron.
[JP] August 19, 1995 - World Heroes Perfect Arrange Sound Trax [PCCB-00188] - Pony Canyon / Scitron.

- UPDATES -

In the Japanese version of the game, there is Japanese text underneath each players life bar during a fight displaying the player's taunts, yells and screams during a fight in text form. Combo information is also shown there when you do a combo. This feature is removed from non-Japanese versions of the game. This also occurred in World Heroes 2 Jet.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Alternate Costume Colors : Press D button when selecting a character.

* Play Against Son Gokuu : Get 3 special stage finishes on the each round. If you're done correctly, you will fight Son Gokuu.

* Play as Son Gokuu : At the character selection screen, Hold C and press Up (x2), Down (x2), Left (x2), Right (x2), then press BC at the same time. If you're done correctly, Son Gokuu will appear left side of Jack the Ripper.

* Play as Neo-Dio : At the character selection screen, Hold B and press Up (x2), Down (x2), Left (x2), Right (x2), then press BC at the same time. If you're done correctly, Neo-Dio will appear right side of Ryofu.

- SERIES -

1. World Heroes [Model NGM-053] (1992)
2. World Heroes 2 [Model NGM-057] (1993)
3. World Heroes 2 Jet [Model NGM-064] (1994)
4. World Heroes Perfect [Model NGM-090] (1995)

- STAFF -

Producer & Planner : Muneki Shiraishi
Chief Planner : Takashi Hatono
Planner : Ken Kazama
Market Researcher : Yukio Gotoh
System Programmers : Eiji Fukatsu, Makio Chiba
Sound Programmers : Makio Chiba
Design-Tool Programmer : Ryu Hiroyuki
Main Programmers : MKY, Tat&MST, E-Chan, Syd, Maguro
Editor : Kobayan
Music & Sound Effects : Hideki Yamamoto, Yuka Watanabe, Hiroaki Shimizu, Takeshi Muramatsu, Hiroaki Kujirai, Takao Ohshima, Keiichiroh Segawa
Chief Scroll Designers : Takashi Egashira
Scroll Designers : Hideyuki Kusano, Misako Ohno, Ryonosuke
Chief Sprite Designer : Gensan
Sprite Designers : ZZ-R, Giga. S, Takahiro Arahata, Mitsugu
Effect Sprite Designer : West-Maison
Chief Demo Designer : M. Yoshikoshi
Demo Designer : G. Aoyagi
Public Information : Tsukasa, Ito, Detchi1

* Character Voices :
Event Produce Take : Mitsutake Taga, Jin Sokabe, Akihiko Kawamoto, Mari Kamimura, Katsuy Miura, Shouzoh Nakano, Yoshimitsu Endoh
Step Action Team : Yoshikatsu Fujio, Kazumasa Katsura, Yasue Ishii, Ken Kazama
ADK Staff : Yuka Watanabe, Takashi Hatono, Yoshiaki Ono, Masato Mitsuya, West-Maison

Test Players : Foo., Nagata Shogatsu, Masao Tachikawa, Uma, Kiyotaka Takagi
Game Adviser : Akira Ushizawa
Special Thanks : Rulia 046
Executive Producer : Kazuo Arai

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo AES (june.30, 1995, "World Heroes Perfect [Model NGH-090]")
[US] SNK Neo-Geo AES (june.30, 1995, "World Heroes Perfect [Model NGH-090]")
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo CD (jul.21, 1995, "World Heroes Perfect [Model ADCD-009]")
[US] SNK Neo-Geo CD (jul.21, 1995, "World Heroes Perfect [Model ADCD-009E]")
[JP] Sega Saturn (aug.9, 1996, "World Heroes Perfect [Model T-3103G]")
[JP] Sony PS2 (oct.18, 2007, "World Heroes Gorgeous [Model SLPS-25782]")
[US] Sony PS2 (mar.11, 2008, "World Heroes Anthology [Model SLUS-21725]")
Sony PlayStation 2 [AU] (sept.25, 2008, "World Heroes Anthology")
[EU] Sony PS2 (nov.7, 2008, "World Heroes Anthology [Model SLES-55233]")
[JP] Sony PS2 (june.18, 2009, "World Heroes Gorgeous [NeoGeo Online Collection The Best] [Model SLPS-25933]")
[JP] Nintendo Wii [Virtual Console] (jan.11, 2011)
[EU] Nintendo Wii [Virtual Console] (oct.18, 2012)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=wh1

World Heroes (c) 1992 Alpha Denshi Company, Limited.

8 heroes from different time periods compete to thwart Geegus, the evil alien end boss! Includes an extremely fun and unique death match mode!

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID : NGM-053

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 3
=> [A] Punch, [B] Kick, [C] Throw

- TRIVIA -

World Heroes was released on July 28, 1992. It is Alpha Denshi's first game in the fighting game genre. It was even the last game with the Alpha logo labeled within the game before the developer became ADK; however, the Alpha logo was last used on one of the arcade flyers of its sequel.

Due to the game's success in the fighting game market, the game was followed by a sequel, World Heroes 2, less than a year later.

The popular "Death Match" mode (removed from World Heroes 2 Jet and World Heroes Perfect) may have been inspired by the growing popularity of deathmatch style pro-wrestling in Japan at the time which was mostly made famous by Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling.

Hanzo is based on the real Hanzo Hattori Musashige (just like Hanzo in "Samurai Shodown").
Fuuma is based on the real Kotaro Fuuma Nobuyuki (1581-1603).
Kim Dragon is Alpha Denshi's homage to Bruce Lee (1940-1973).
Janne is based on the real Jeanne d'Arc who was burned in 1431.
Rasputin is based on the real Gregoriy Yefimovich Rasputin (1869-1917).
Brocken is loosely based on Rudolph von Stroheim from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure.
Muscle Power is most likely based on the real Hulk Hogan (1953-20XX).
J. Carn is based on the real Genghis Khan (1162-1229).

The first World Heroes game is also the only game in the series where Kim Dragon is Chinese. He was then changed into a South Korean character for the rest of the World Heroes series.

The name of the Scientist who invents the time machine in the intro is Dr. Brown which might have been inspired by the character Dr. Emmett L. Brown (a.k.a. Doc) from the Back To The Future movies.

Soundtrack releases:
[JP] Jan. 21, 1993 - World Heroes [GSM 1500 Series] [PCCB-00106]

- SERIES -

1. World Heroes [Model NGM-053] (1992)
2. World Heroes 2 [Model NGM-057] (1993)
3. World Heroes 2 Jet [Model NGM-064] (1994)
4. World Heroes Perfect [Model NGM-090] (1995)

- STAFF -

Producer and director : Kenji Sawatari
Planners : Kenji Sawatari, Kimitoshi Yokoo
Main programmers : Tat&MST (Tat), Marbo (Toshi), Yuji Noguchi
System programmers : Eiji Fukatsu, Makio Chiba, E-Chan
Sound programmer : Makio Chiba
Character designers : Kazushige Hakamata, Takashi Hatono, Shinji Moriyama, Hideyuki Yamada, Sho No, Muneki Shiraishi, Kimitoshi Yokoo, Hajime Suzuki, Hiroyuki Toda, Akira Ushizawa, Hatsue Sakanishi, Katsue Matsuzaki, Rie Mori, Giga.S (R. Nakajima), Koji Fujita, Yasuyuki Sohara, Atsushi Kobayashi
Scroll designers : Kenichi Sakanishi, Takashi Egashira, Mitsunari Ishida
Music and sound effects composer : Hiroaki Shimizu, Hideki Yamamoto, Yuka Watanabe

Special Thanks : Yukio Gotoh, Tsutomu Maruyama, Shinichi Tamura, Mitsunari Ishida, Ryu Hiroyuki, Yuko Nishino, Masato Mitsuya, Hideki Miyakami (SNK), Koji Hamada (SNK), Hideki Fujii (SNK)

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo AES Sep. 11, 1992 "World Heroes [Model NGH-053]"
[JP] Nintendo Super Famicom 1993 "World Heroes [Model SHVC-WZ]"
Sega Mega Drive (1994)
[JP] SNK Neo-Geo CD 1995 "World Heroes [Model ADCD-005]"
Nintendo Wii [Virtual Console] (2007
[JP] Sony PS2 2007 "World Heroes Gorgeous [Model SLPS-25782]"
Sony PlayStation 2 2008 "World Heroes Anthology"
[US] Sony PS2 may.05, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model SLUS-21724]"
[US] Sony PSP may.05, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model ULUS-10338]"
[KO] Sony PS2 may.29, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model SLKA-25424]"
[US] Nintendo Wii jul.29, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model RVL-P-RNCE]"
[EU] Sony PSP Oct. 17, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model ULES-01105]"
[EU] Nintendo Wii Oct. 31, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model RVL-P-RJZP]"
[EU] Sony PS2 Nov. 21, 2008 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model SLES-55232]"
[JP] Sony PSP May. 21, 2009 "SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 [Model ULJS-193]"
[JP] Sony PS2 2009 "World Heroes Gorgeous [NeoGeo Online Collection The Best] [Model SLPS-25933]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=wwfsstar,wwfsstarj,wwfsstaru7,wwfsstarb,wwfsstaru4,wwfsstaru6,wwfsstarc,wwfsstarb2
Arcade Video game published 34 years ago:

WWF Superstars (c) 1989 Technos Japan Corporation.

A tag-team wrestling game with 6 WWF superstars to choose from.

- TECHNICAL -

Game ID : TA-0024

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 10 Mhz), Zilog Z80 (@ 3.579545 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Yamaha YM2151 (@ 3.579545 Mhz), OKI6295 (@ 8.5 Khz)

Players: Up to 2
Control per player: 8-Way Joystick
Buttons per player: 2
=> Punch, Kick

- TRIVIA -

WWF Superstars was released in July 1989.

You can choose from the following 6 wrestlers : Hulk Hogan, Randy 'Macho Man' Savage, The Ultimate Warrior, Hacksaw Jim Duggan, The Big Boss Man and The Honky Tonk Man. If you manage to win the first three games you finally face Andre the Giant and 'The Million Dollar Man' Ted DiBiase.

Andre and DiBiase have the only submission maneuvers in the game - The Canadian Backbreaker and The Million Dollar Dream Sleeperhold respectively. Both moves do a lot of damage, taking up 5 life squares unless your partner can rescue you from the hold.

Billy Lee, the main character of the "Double Dragon" series, is visible among the first row of the cheering crowd.

The game also features appearances from Virgil (the manager of Andre and DiBiase), 'Mean' Gene Okerlund (the announcer) and Miss Elizabeth (1960-2003) who appears in a cut-scene when you win the tag team titles.

Wrestler's real names :
Hulk Hogan - Terry Gene Bollea
Randy Savage - Randall Mario "Randy" Poffo (1952-2011)
The Ultimate Warrior - Warrior (born James Brian "Jim" Hellwig but legally changed his name to Warrior in 1993) (1959-2014)
'Hacksaw' Jim Duggan - James Edward "Jim" Duggan, Jr.
The Big Boss Man - Raymond W. "Ray" Traylor, Jr. (1962-2004)
Honky Tonk Man - Roy Wayne Farris
Andre The Giant - André René Roussimoff (1946-1993)
Ted DiBiase - Theodore Marvin "Ted" DiBiase, Sr.

At the time of the game's release, the actual WWF Tag Team Champions were The Brain Busters (Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard) who are absent from the game.  DiBiase and Andre (known as The Mega Bucks), never won the tag teams titles.

Also at the time of release, 'Ravishing' Rick Rude (1958-1999) was the WWF Intercontinental Champion but he too is absent from the game.

- UPDATES -

The US version is slightly different, it has the "Winners Don't Use Drugs" screen.

Only the Japanese version has stats and a biography of each wrestler during the attract mode.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* There's a mildly amusing glitch in WWF Superstars involving Randy Savage. Use him & then pick anyone else and play until you face Andre and DiBiase.
1) With Savage as your active wrestler and Andre as the legal man, climb in and out of the bottom of the ring until Andre decides to climb out after you. When you begin to see those first few animation frames of his lumbering descent, quickly walk backwards to the left side of the screen.
2) Dash at Andre so that the instant his final animation frame has him standing on the ring floor you'll have connected with a flying clothesline. For a second, you will have 'pulled' an additional Andre out of the standing Andre's body with that flying clothesline! The standing Andre vanishes once the clothesline has taken its course and the prostrate Andre then becomes the active sprite.

- SERIES -

1. WWF Superstars [Model TA-0024] (1989)
2. WWF WrestleFest [Model TA-0031] (1991)
3. WWF Superstars 2 (1992, Nintendo Game Boy)

- STAFF -

Director: Yoshihisa Kishimoto

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
Nintendo Game Boy (1991)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=wwfwfest,wwfwfestj,wwfwfestub,wwfwfestk,wwfwfestu,wwfwfestu1
Arcade Video game published 32 years ago:

WWF WrestleFest (c) 1991 Technos Japan Corporation.

10 selectable wrestlers fight in a tag team tournament or take part in the Royal Rumble.

- TECHNICAL -

Game ID : TA-0031

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 12 Mhz)
Sound CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 3.579545 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Yamaha YM2151 (@ 3.579545 Mhz), OKI6295 (@ 7.759 Khz)

Players : 4
Control : 8-Way Joystick
Buttons : 2 
=> Punch, Kick

- TRIVIA -

WWF Wrestlefest was released in July 1991.

Also licensed to Tecmo.

The only WWF Technos game to not feature theme music for any of the individual wrestlers.

The announcer is Michelle 'Mike' McGuirk, who would sometimes substitute for Howard Finkel, the WWF's longtime ring announcer. McGuirk worked as a ring announcer for the WWF between 1988 and 1993 before she left because, according to her, she refused sexual advances made upon her by WWF owner Vince McMahon.

The game's announcer incorrectly announces Sergeant Slaughter's finishing move. Slaughter's finishing move (digging a knuckle into the opponent's temple) is announced as a 'Cobra Clutch', whereas that move is called 'The Torture Bar'. A Cobra Clutch looks totally different : DiBiase's Million Dollar Dream is a Cobra Clutch.

You can beat the Legion of Doom and get their titles via a count-out in the Tag Team portion of the game (Saturday Night's Main Event). This is incorrect : in pro wrestling, a championship only changes hands via a pinfall or a submission. If the champion/champions are counted-out or are disqualified, they lose the match, but they hold on to their titles.

The rules for the Royal Rumble are not quite correct. In WrestleFest, you can be eliminated by being thrown from the ring, or the traditional means (pin, submission, etc.). This is not correct. Ever since the WWF Royal Rumble started, the rules for elimination have never changed. The ONLY way to be eliminated is to be thrown over the top rope. No pinfalls, no submissions. In fact, the referee should not be in the ring during a Royal Rumble as he remains on the outside of the ring to confirm elimination has occurred.

Although the rules for the steel cage match has changed over the years, the Steel Cage Matches in WrestleFest are not done correctly, by pro wrestling rules at the time of release. Again, there should not be a referee in the ring and pinfalls or submissions do not count. To win a steel cage match, you must be the first to escape the steel cage... either by breaking the door open and crawling out, or by climbing over the top (in both cases you win when your feet touch the ground first outside the ring). In the present day however, pinfalls do count and a referee is present although you still can win by escaping the cage.

Crush and Smash are not the original members of Demolition. Crush joined the team in 1990 when Ax (Bill Eadie) suffered from ill health caused by an allergic reaction to shellfish and the WWF wanted to 'hide' his illness on television by adding a third member to the team to make them look stronger. This game was made just as Crush replaced him, but at the time of actual release, Demolition had already broken up. Smash was repackaged as The Repo Man while Crush turned face (good guy) and the 2 feuded for a while.

Crush and Smash may not be played separately in the tag-team (Saturday Night's Main Event) game. You must pick them both for your tag team, to get either. Of course, you may play either of them in The Royal Rumble.

You may not play either member of Legion of Doom under any circumstances: they are unavailable to pick for both games (Saturday Night's Main Event and The Royal Rumble). Much like the game's precursor, "WWF Superstars," the champions are reserved for the AI only.

The real names of the wrestlers:
Hulk Hogan: Terry Bollea (1953)
The Ultimate Warrior: James Hellwig (1959-2014)
The Big Boss Man: Ray Traylor (1962-2004)
Earthquake: John Tenta (1963-2006)
Sergeant Slaughter: Robert Remus (1948)
The Million Dollar Man: Ted DiBiase (1954)
Jake The Snake: Aurelian Smith (1955)
Mr. Perfect: Curt Hennig (1958-2003)
Smash of Demolition: Barry Darsow (1959)
Crush of Demolition: Brian Adams (1964-2007)
Hawk of LOD: Michael Hegstrand (1957-2003)
Animal of LOD: Joe Laurinaitis (1960-2020)

Each superstar has a trademark hold that can be done when your opponent's energy is low.
Hulk Hogan : Legdrop Off The Ropes
Ultimate Warrior : Gorilla Press
Big Boss Man : The Boss Man Slam
Earthquake : Earthquake Vertical Splash
Sergeant Slaughter : Cobra Clutch
Ted DiBiase : The Million Dollar Dream
Jake The Snake Roberts : The DDT
Mr. Perfect : Perfect-Plex
Smash of Demolition : Suplex
Crush of Demolition : Back Breaker
Hawk of LOD : Clothesline Off The Rope Turnbuckle
Animal of LOD : Clothesline Off The Rope Turnbuckle

At the time of the game's release, the actual WWF Tag Team Champions were The Nasty Boys (Brian Knobbs and Jerry Sags) who are absent from the game, although the Legion of Doom would defeat the Nasties to claim their first WWF Tag Team Titles one month later at Summerslam 1991.

- UPDATES -

The US version is slightly different, it has the "Winners Don't Use Drugs" screen.

- SERIES -

1. WWF Superstars [Model TA-0024] (1989)
2. WWF WrestleFest [Model TA-0031] (1991)
3. WWF Superstars 2 (1992, Nintendo Game Boy)

- STAFF -

Character Designers: Hiroshi Shibata, Koji Sakuma, Michiaki Ishida, Makoto Shirai, Toru Tsuboya, Koji Minagawa
Character Design Assist: Koji Ogata
B.G. Designers: Takehisa Izumiyama, Toshiyuki Osumi
Programmers: Tatsumi Saito, Isamu Kanakubo, Genei Fukuhara, Teruhiro Maeda, Naritaka Nishimura
Hardware: Kenji Nishikawa
Editors: Hiroshi Sato, Ai Onoe, Yasuhiro Ohi
Sound Programmer: Yoshihiro Kameoka
Director: Shinichi Saito
Producer: Kunio Taki

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$info=xmcota,xmcotar1,xmcotar1d,xmcotau
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 29 years ago:

X-Men - Children of the Atom (c) 1994 Capcom Company, Limited.

North American & European release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese version entry; "X-Men - Children of the Atom [Green Board]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Blue Board [USA & Europe]

- UPDATES -

Blue Board revisions : 

REVISION 1:
* Build date: 950105
* US and EUROPE releases.

REVISION 2:
* Build date: 950331
* EUROPE release.

- PORTS -

(North American and European ports only)

* CONSOLES: 
[EU] Sega Saturn (1996) "X-Men - Children of the Atom [Model T-8108H-50]" 
[US] Sega Saturn (1996) "X-Men - Children of the Atom [Model T-8108H]" 
[EU] Sony PlayStation (1998) "X-Men - Children of the Atom [Model SLES-00198]" 
[US] Sony PlayStation (feb.1998) "X-Men - Children of the Atom [Model SLUS-00044]" 

* COMPUTERS: 
PC [MS-DOS] [US] (may.31, 1997) 
PC [MS-DOS] [EU] (1997)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$info=xmcotaj1,xmcotaj,xmcotaj2,xmcotaj3
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 29 years ago:

X-Men - Children of the Atom (c) 1994 Capcom Company, Limited.

X-Men: Children of the Atom is a one-on-one fighting game based around the Marvel comics characters. Released around the time of the mid-1990s X-Men animated series of the same name, the game's plot is based on the "Fatal Attractions" story arc from the comics as players control one of the X-Men or their enemies in their fight against the villain Magneto. 

Players can choose between one of six X-Men members or four of their enemies (for a total of ten selectable characters) and proceed to compete in a series of best-two-out-of-three bouts, before battling Juggernaut and then Magneto himself.

The player has an X-Power gauge (similar to the Super Combo gauge in "Super Street Fighter II Turbo" and the Special gauge in "Darkstalkers") that builds as the player performs regular or special moves. X-Power gauge starts at Level 1 and reaches Level 2 when it becomes half-full, at which point an Aura will begin to surround the player's character until it becomes full and reaches MAX level. Players can then perform an "X-Ability", which consumes a small portion of the X-Power gauge, or a "Hyper X", which consumes a greater portion of the same gauge. Breaking one's fall from a throw or performing a counter-throw will also consume a portion of the X-Power gauge when performed.

Other features introduced in this game include Super Jumps, the ability to roll away or towards an opponent after falling, the ability to determine the aim of a projectile move (such as Cyclops' optic blasts) and the ability to pursue an opponent after performing a throwing attack for additional attacks. 

After selecting a character, the player can choose between manual or automatic blocking. By selecting to automatically block attacks, some features will not be available during gameplay.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Green Board [Japan]

Players: Up to 2.
Control: 8-way joystick per player.
Buttons: 6 per player.
=> [1] LP (Jab), [2] MP (Short), [3] HP (Fierce)
=> [4] LK (Strong), [5] MK (Forward), [6] HK (Roundhouse)

- TRIVIA -

X-Men COTA was released in December 1994 in the Japanese arcades. It was known there as the 8th video game released for the CPS2 hardware.

Known export releases:
"X-Men - Children of the Atom [Blue Board]"
"X-Men - Children of the Atom [Grey Board]"
"X-Men - Children of the Atom [Orange Board]"

A special 'Rent' version is known to exists as "X-Men - Children of the Atom [Yellow Board]".

It is the first fighting game produced by Capcom using characters under license from Marvel Comics, widely praised for its faithfulness in capturing the spirit of its namesake comics, by using colorful animation and voice actors (see Staff section for more information) from the 'X-Men' animated series.

All characters are coming from Marvel comic books (except Akuma) :
Akuma ('Gouki' in Japan) - "Super Street Fighter II Turbo" (Super Street Fighter II X - Grand Master Challenge" in Japan)
Colossus (aka Piotr Nikolaievitch Rasputin) - Giant-Size X-Men #1
Cyclops (aka Scott Summers) - X-Men #1
Juggernaut (aka Cain Marko) - X-Men #12
Iceman (aka Robert 'Bobby' Drake) - Uncanny X-Men #1
Magneto (aka Erik 'Magnus' Lehnsherr) - X-Men #1
Omega Red (aka Arkady Rossovich) - X-Men #4
Psylocke (aka Elizabeth 'Betsy' Braddock) - New Mutants Annual #2
Sentinel - Uncanny X-Men #14
Silver Samurai (aka Kenichiro Harada) - Daredevil #111
Spiral (aka Rita Ricochet) - Longshot #1
Storm (aka Ororo Munroe) - Giant Size X-Men #1
Wolverine (aka James 'Logan' Howlett) - Incredible Hulk #180

Unlike previous incarnations of X-Men video games, X-Men - Children of the Atom also allowed players to helm popular X-Men villains, such as Omega Red; the mutant hunting android Sentinel; Spiral, lackey of Mojo; and Silver Samurai. Also, because this game was released around the same time as "Super Street Fighter II Turbo", programmers also included Akuma (see Tips And Tricks section for more information).

The game, along with SSFII Turbo, is considered as one of the first fighting games to popularize the now often-used ideas of 'Super Jumps', 'Super Combos', and 'Tech. Hit', which meant that an attempted grab or throw had been negated by the opponent. Furthermore, the game was the precursor to the Capcom 'Vs. series', with elements and characters from this game having been combined with "Street Fighter Alpha - Warriors' Dreams" to create "X-Men vs. Street Fighter".

Sony Records released a limited-edition soundtrack album (X-Men Arcade Game Track - SRCL-3120) on March 24, 1995.

- UPDATES -

Green Board revisions : 

REVISION 1 : 
* Software version : 1.00.
* Build date : 941208

REVISION 2 : 
* Software version : 2.00.
* Build date : 941217

REVISION 3 :
* Software version : 2.10.
* Build date : 941219 

REVISION 4 : 
* Software version : 3.00
* Build date : 950105

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Play as Akuma (Player 1) : Highlight Spiral and wait 3 seconds, then move without stopping through : Silver Samurai, Psylocke, Colossus, Iceman, Colossus, Cyclops, Wolverine, Omega Red and stop on Silver Samurai. Wait 3 seconds there and press and hold : LK+HP+HK.

* Play as Akuma (Player 2) : Highlight Storm and wait 3 seconds, then move without stopping through : Cyclops, Colossus, Iceman, the Sentinel, Omega Red, Wolverine, Psylocke, Silver Samurai and stop on Spiral. Wait 3 seconds there, then press and hold : LK+HP+HK.

* Play as Juggernaut (Player 1 and 2) : Input Akuma code, then after the battle press Up/Left TWICE and you should see Juggernaut's face.

* Play against Akuma : You must use 'manual block' and win every match without continuing. Defeat your opponents two rounds in a row (don't lose a round), having 'first attack' on each round. You must also win the final round of each battle with your Hyper-X.

* Continue Attacking : Press Start immediately after winning the match to continue hitting the defeated character.

- STAFF -

Game Planners : Akira Nishitani (Nin), Noritaka Funamizu (Poo), Hiratou K-Suke (X68K), Kiyo, Fuji, Tomita Otouto
Programmers : Aoi-Tokimeki, Tarabar Hori (Tarabar - Black), K. Nishi-Man, Sailor-Ponkichi, O.G.T. -Iron Liver, Mo Suzuki-Memorial, Min-T3, Hard. Yas (-466P+K-), Kaw. Hiroshima
Object Designers : Satoru Yamashita, Ino, Kuriotoko, Yue, Minobe Hiroaki (Minobe), M. Nakatani, Ari, Eripyon. N, Miwazo, M. Sato, Kamonchashi Sato, Kazuko Kawanaka Pyo!, Dway Nishimura, Igami, Youjiro, Sagat, Ta, Jun Matsumura (26), Hitoshi Nishio (Vip. T2), G. Kamina, Ushi, H. Yoshino, Eiji, Naoki Fukuda, H.S, Manish, Shinya Kitamura
Scroll Designers : Fukumoyan, Yamapuu, May, Devil Ohnishi, Kazu, Akiko. O, Hiroko. N, Iwai, Kisabon, RK
Music Composers : Takayuki Iwai (Anarchy Takapon), Syun Nishigaki, Hideki Okugawa (Hideki Ok), Isao Abe (Oyaji)
Sound Designers : Hiroaki Kondo (X68K), Toshio Kajino

* Voice Actors :
Psylocke, Storm, Spiral : Catherine Disher
Cyclops : Norman Spencer
Wolverine : Cathal J. Dodd
Beast : George Buza
Colossus, Iceman, Sentinel : Dan Hennessey
Silver Samurai : Yasushi Ikeda (Ike-Bomb)
Omega Red : Len Doncheff
Juggernaut : Rick Bennett
Magneto : Lorne Kennedy

Special Thanks : Alex Jimenez, Eric Luther, Phillip Reed, Mark Ericsson, Dana Morshed, Mike Thomas, John Conroy, Paul T. Takaki, Kumino Asakura, Takuya Shiraiwa (Mr. Shiraiwa)

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES: 
[JP] Sega Saturn (nov.22, 1995) "X-Men - Children of the Atom [Model T-1203G]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=xmcotaa,xmcotaar1,xmcotaar2
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 29 years ago:

X-Men - Children of the Atom (c) 1994 Capcom Company, Limited.

Asian release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese version entry; "X-Men - Children of the Atom [Green Board]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Grey Board [Asia]

- UPDATES -

Grey Board revisions : 

REVISION 1:
* Build date: 941217

REVISION 2:
* Build date: 950105

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=xmcotah,xmcotahr1
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 29 years ago:

X-Men - Children of the Atom (c) 1994 Capcom Company, Limited.

South American release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese version entry; "X-Men - Children of the Atom [Green Board]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Orange Board [South America]

- UPDATES -

Orange Board revisions : 

REVISION 1: 
* Build date: 950105

REVISION 2: 
* Build date: 950331

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=xmcotajr
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 29 years ago:

X-Men - Children of the Atom (c) 1994 Capcom Company, Limited.

Japanese special 'Rent' version. For more information about the game itself, please see the first public release entry; "X-Men - Children of the Atom [Green Board]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Yellow Board [Rent version]

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$info=xmvsf,xmvsfr1,xmvsfu,xmvsfur1,xmvsfu1d,xmvsfur2
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 27 years ago:

X-Men vs. Street Fighter (c) 1996 Capcom Company, Limited.

North American & European release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese version entry; "X-Men vs. Street Fighter [Green Board]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Blue Board [USA & Europe]

- UPDATES -

Blue Board releases: 

REVISION 1:
* Build date: 960910
* US and EUROPE releases
* Version 1

REVISION 2:
* Build date: 961004
* US and EUROPE releases
* Version 2

REVISION 3:
* Build date: 961023
* US release
* Version 3

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES: 
[US] Sony PlayStation (1998) "X-Men vs. Street Fighter [Model SLUS-00627]" 
[EU] Sony PlayStation (nov.1998) "X-Men vs. Street Fighter [Model SLES-01247]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=xmvsfj,xmvsfjr1,xmvsfjr2,xmvsfjr3
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 27 years ago:

X-Men vs. Street Fighter (c) 1996 Capcom Company, Limited.

X-Men vs. Street Fighter is a one-on-one beat-em-up for one or two players and is Capcom's third fighting game to feature Marvel Comics characters, with characters from Marvel's X-Men franchise being pitted against the cast from Capcom's own Street Fighter series.

The game uses a system similar to the style developed in "Marvel Super Heroes" and adds the tag team gameplay feature. Instead of the usual best-two-out-of-three round format, the game's matches consist of two-on-two battles between tag teams. The player controls one character at a time, while the other waits off-screen. The starting character can tag the waiting one in at any time by hitting the Hard Punch and Hard Kick buttons, which activates the 'Variable Attack'; the tag partner will jump in with an attack and taunt briefly. 

During their taunt, they are vulnerable to counter-attack. The dormant character will be able to recover a portion of their vitality, while the current character is fighting. If one character loses all of their vitality, then the tag partner will automatically come to play. A match is over when both members of a team are defeated or if the timer on the match clock reaches zero.

There are other ways to bring the character's partner in; the "Variable Counter", which replaces the Infinity Counter of Marvel Super Heroes, breaks the player's guard to bring the teammate in with a counterattack at the cost of a level of super meter. Also, the "Variable Combination" is a two-character Hyper Combo (the super moves featured in the game) which costs two levels, and will switch the player's current character as long as neither character gets hit during their Hyper Combos.

The X-Men characters come largely unchanged from "X-Men: Children of the Atom" and "Marvel Super Heroes", while three characters new to the series are introduced in the form of Rogue, Gambit and Sabretooth. The Street Fighter characters use their "Street Fighter Alpha 2" forms, although their special moves were given upgrades to match the larger-than-life atmosphere of the Marvel games (for example, Ryu's Hadouken is much larger than it is in other games). 

This game marks the first appearance of 'Shadaloo' depiction of Cammy, who would reappear in the console versions of "Street Fighter Alpha 2 Gold", as well as in "Street Fighter Alpha 3".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Green Board [Japan]

Players: Up to 2.
Control: 8-way joystick per player.
Buttons: 6 per player.
= > [1] LP, [2] MP, [3] HP
= > [4] LK, [5] MK, [6] HK

- TRIVIA -

In August 1996, a prototype of the game was being tested at several arcades across the countries. One difference in this prototype is that Gambit has a different coat color, and his hair is much lighter. The left sleeve of Gambit's coat is white. This was possibly a graphics problem and was fixed in the final version.

X-Men vs. Street Fighter was released in September 1996 in Japan. It was known there as the 20th video game released for the CPS2 hardware.

Known export releases:
"X-Men vs. Street Fighter [Blue Board]"
"X-Men vs. Street Fighter [Grey Board]"
"X-Men vs. Street Fighter [Orange Board]"
"X-Men vs. Street Fighter [Pink Board]"

9 characters are coming from Marvel comic books, followed by their first appearance : 
Apocalypse (aka En Sabah Nur) - X-Factor #5 
Cyclops (aka Scott Summers) - X-Men #1 
Gambit (aka Jean-Luc 'Remy' LeBeau) - Uncanny X-Men #266 
Juggernaut (aka Cain Marko) - X-Men #12 
Magneto (aka Erik 'Magnus' Lehnsherr) - X-Men #1 
Rogue - Avengers Annual #10 
Sabretooth (aka Victor Creed) - Iron Fist #14 
Storm (aka Ororo Munroe) - Giant Size X-Men #1 
Wolverine (aka James 'Logan' Howlett) - Incredible Hulk #180 

9 other characters come from several Street Fighter games : 
Akuma ('Gouki' in Japan) - "Super Street Fighter II X - Grand Master Challege" in Japan; "Super Street Fighter II Turbo" in all other regions. 
Cammy - "Super Street Fighter II - The New Challengers" 
Charlie ('Nash' in Japan) - "Street Fighter Alpha - Warriors' Dreams" in the United States, Canada, and Europe; "Street Fighter Zero" in Japan, Southeast Asia, Brazil, and Hispanic regions 
Chun-Li - "Street Fighter II - The World Warrior" 
Dhalsim - "Street Fighter II - The World Warrior" 
Ken Masters - "Street Fighter" 
Major Bison ('Vega' in Japan) - "Street Fighter II - The World Warrior" 
Ryu - "Street Fighter" 
Zangief - "Street Fighter II - The World Warrior" 

In the game, teams are preselected and the player never encounter random teams. Here are the different teams the player will fight against : 
* Cyclops and Ryu 
* Zangief and Juggernaut 
* Storm and Charlie 
* Dhalsim and Sabretooth 
* Rogue and Chun-Li 
* Bison and Magneto 
* Gambit and Ken 
* Wolverine and Cammy 

Akuma is outside the teams as he is an hidden character (see 'Tips and Tricks' section). After defeating six of these teams, the player's team fights Apocalypse himself! In the end, the character who defeated Apocalypse remains under player control and the other one is the ultimate opponent for the one-on-one final battle. 

Blanka (of "Street Fighter II - The World Warrior" fame) can be seen hanging out within the background in the 'Death Valley' stage. 

Clarence E. Leung holds the official record for this game, on level 5-expert setting, with 2098100 points on March 16, 1999. 

Soundtrack releases : 
X-Men vs. Street Fighter [Victor Entertainment - VICL-2176 - November 21, 1996]

- UPDATES -

Capcom released 3 different revisions of this game in the arcades, and they all have differences: 

Version 1 : 
* Ryu and Akuma can recover from their hop kick in mid-air. 
* Ryu's "Hurricane Super" can push the opposing player down, allowing the player to recover. 

Version 2 : 
* Ryu and Akuma can not recover from their hop kick 
* Sabretooth's jumping Infinite is a little more difficult to time. 
* Dhalsim is no longer able to do a "Yoga Drill" the instant he leaves the floor. He actually has to jump a small distance before the Drill will come out. 
* Ryu's "Hurricane Super" pushes the opposing player up rather than down. 

Version 3 : 
* In this version, Capcom removed all of the Infinites they knew of. And some combos have also been removed. 

Green Board releases : 

REVISION 1:
* Build date: 960909
* Version 1

REVISION 2:
* Build date: 960910
* Version 1

REVISION 3:
* Build date: 961004
* Version 2

REVISION 4:
* Build date: 961023
* Version 3

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Play as Akuma : At the character select screen, highlight Magneto or Juggernaut or Dhalsim or Bison and press Up.

* Play as Alpha Chun Li : At the character select screen, highlight Chun Li, hold the Start button and press any action button.

* Play as the Same Character : Enter the random selection code and if you can make it stop on the highlighted character, the highlight will remain there, enabling you to select the same character twice. This does some strange things to the life bars, so be careful. It may also screw up the palette for one of the characters on the selection grid, but this will not effect game play.

* Alternate Costume Colors : Highlight a character at the character selection screen then press a Punch button for a darker costume or Kick for a lighter costume.

* Random Fighter : At the character select screen, press and hold left or right for 3 seconds. Note : You can also fight against the same character by getting the random selection to stop on the originally highlighted fighter.

* Continue Attacking : Press Start immediately after winning the match to continue hitting the defeated character.

* Rogue's Additional Winning Pose : After you beat an opponent with Rogue, hold all three punches or kicks before she does her normal win pose (If done correctly, Rogue will turn around and say 'TA-DA!').

* In-game tip messages (These are all the tip messages that randomly appear when the player loses) :

1) HP+HK simultaneously for the Cross-over Attack! You can switch your character at any time!

2) Push LP+MP+HP while guarding for the Advancing Guard. Push the opponent back!

3) When Air Combo starts to move hits the opponent, put the lever Up to chase him and execute a combo!

4) Create a quick combo when fighting in the air! Switch your character when vitality is low!

5) Back, Back/Down, Down, P before landing for the safe fall! Outsmart your opponent!

6) By charging the gauge past level one, you can do a Hyper Combo! Make a comeback!

7) Enter Down, Up or LK+MK+HK for a Super Jump! You can attack indefinitely while doing a Super Jump!

8) Back, Back/Down, Down, HP+HK while guarding for the Counter! Your partner will assist you.

9) When Level 2 or higher, enter Down, Forward/Down, Forward, HP+HK for the cross-over Combination move!

10) Vitality recovers slowly while you're resting. When grabbed, enter Forward MP(HP) immediately!

11) You'll escape from the throw move! Forward, Forward or LP+MP+HP for the forward dash!

12) Get into the striking distance at once! X-MEN VS STREET FIGHTER COMING SOON

- SERIES -

Note: also called the 'Capcom vs.' series.

1. X-Men vs. Street Fighter [Green Board] (1996)
2. Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter [Green Board] (1997)
3. Marvel vs. Capcom - Clash of Super Heroes [Green Board] (1998)
4. Marvel vs. Capcom 2 - New Age of Heroes (2000)
5. Marvel vs. Capcom 3 (2011)

- STAFF -

Planner : Atsushi Tomita
Assistants : Takayoshi Terada, Moriyoshi Teruya
Programmers : Aoi, Motsu, Giu, Eternal Sailor, Tora&Yume&?&Hide
Character Designer : Akira Yasuda (Akiman)
Title Designer : Shoei
Object Designers : Minobe Hiroaki!, Rie Satou, Masanori Kondo, Kanako Takami, Miwaringo, Yosinori Yamamoto, Tateishi Masayo, Toshihiro Suzuki, Sagata, Satoru Yamashita, Ino, R. Naoi, Kako, Narancha, Shin, Ikusan Z (Ikusan), Kurose, G. Kamina, Kohichi Kikutani, Tomohiko Ohsumi
Scroll Designers : Chika Iwai (Iwai), Taka, Kisabon, May, Hisashi Sawada, Inoyan, Shinnosuke, Yoichi Tanoue, Hooly (Fukahori), Naobei, Yoko Fukumoto, Ziggy, Konomi, Isukesani ('Isukesani20%'), Manga-Chop
Music Composer & Arranges : Yuki Iwai, Yuko K. Takehara (Yuko Kadota)
Sound & Voice Designers : Hiroaki Kondo (X68K), Takeshi Kitamura (Moe. T)
Producer : Tetsuya Iijima
General Producer : Noritaka Funamizu (Poo)

* Voice Actors :
Cyclops : Norman Spencer
Wolverine : Cathal J. Dodd
Storm : Catherine Disher
Rogue : Lenore Zann
Gambit : Tony Daniels
Sabretooth : Don Francks
Juggernaut : Rick Bennett
Magneto, Apocalypse, Announcer : Lorne Kennedy
Ryu : Katashi Ishizuka
Cammy : Susan Hart
Ken Masters : Tetsuya Iwanaga
Chun-Li : Yuko Miyamura
Charlie : Toshiyuki Morikawa
Dhalsim : Yoshiharu Yamada
Zangief : Wataru Takagi
M. Bison, Akuma : Tomomichi Nishimura

Special Thanks To : Sakomizu, Adviser Akitomo, Takuya Shiraiwa, Erik Suzuki, Kinu Nishimura, Jesus Rodriguez Bueno, Harumi Yamashita, Dana Moreshead, Alison Stroll, Rita Rokos, Darryl Williams, Marcello Fortino, David Alex Stinson, Joseph Calamari, Satoshi Ise

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES: 
[JP] Sega Saturn (nov.27, 1997) "X-Men vs. Street Fighter [Model T-1226G]" 
[JP] Sony PlayStation (feb.26, 1998) "X-Men vs. Street Fighter EX Edition [Model SLPS-01284]" 
[JP] Sega Saturn (apr.16, 1998) "X-Men vs. Street Fighter [Model T-1227G]"

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=xmvsfa,xmvsfar1,xmvsfar2,xmvsfar3
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 27 years ago:

X-Men vs. Street Fighter (c) 1996 Capcom Company, Limited.

Asian release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese version entry; "X-Men vs. Street Fighter [Green Board]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Grey Board [Asia]

- UPDATES -

Grey Board revisions : 

REVISION 1:
* Build date: 960910
* Version 1

REVISION 2:
* Build date: 960919
* Version 1

REVISION 3:
* Build date: 961004
* Version 2

REVISION 4:
* Build date: 961023
* Version 3

- PORTS -

* COMPUTERS: 
PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] [KO] (2002)

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$end

$info=xmvsfh
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 27 years ago:

X-Men vs. Street Fighter (c) 1996 Capcom Company, Limited.

South American release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese version entry; "X-Men vs. Street Fighter [Green Board]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Orange Board [South America]

- UPDATES -

Orange Board release:

REVISION 1:
* Build date: 961004
* Version 2

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=xmvsfb
Capcom CPS-II cart. published 27 years ago:

X-Men vs. Street Fighter (c) 1996 Capcom Company, Limited.

Brazilian release. Game developed in Japan. For more information about the game itself, please see the original Japanese version entry; "X-Men vs. Street Fighter [Green Board]".

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "CP System II" hardware.
Pink Board [Brazil]

- UPDATES -

Pink Board revision:

REVISION 1:
* Build date: 961023
* Version 3

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=yuyugogo
Arcade Video game published 32 years ago:

Yuuyu no Quiz de Go! Go! (c) 1991 Taito.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the "Taito F2 System" hardware.

Prom Stickers : C83

Players : 2
Buttons : 5

- TRIVIA -

Released in March 1991.

The title of this game translates from Japanese as 'Leisure Quiz de Go! Go!'.

Zuntata Records released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Zuntata History L'ab-normal 1st - ZTTL-0038) on 01/04/1999.

- STAFF -

Music composed by : Tamayo Kawamoto (Ray)

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
Super NES (1992)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=zerowing,zerowing1
Arcade Video game published 34 years ago:

Zero Wing (c) 1989 Toaplan.

- TECHNICAL -

Game ID : TP-015

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 10 Mhz), Zilog Z80 (@ 3.5 Mhz)
Sound Chips : YM3812 (@ 3.5 Mhz)

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2

- TRIVIA -

Released in September 1989 in Japan.

Zero Wing was created by most of the same team that previously worked on several projects at Toaplan, with members of the development staff recounting its history through various Japanese publications.

Uemura stated that Zero Wing originally started as a project not intended for commercial launch to train new recruits at Toaplan, handling training for new hires while using his work and engine from Hellfire before ultimately deciding with releasing the game to the market, which made it a more practical learning experience for the new developers. However, Uemura felt that both stage design and characters were cobbled together, leading the game's world being kind of a mess and he also stated the project turned into a battle royale, as staff from both Hellfire and Truxton were mixed with the new recruits.

Sound also proved to be very divisive as Uemura, Yuge and Tomizawa wrote several songs for the game with their own individual styles, though Uemura claimed this was due to dividing the work, while Yuge stated he would go to rest and drink after being stuck when composing for the title during work hours.

Due to being a training project, Uemura stated the team had freedom to just fool around and several features were integrated into the title such as warps, which was taken from Slap Fight. Uemura also revealed that the reason for enemies spawning suicide bullets during loops of higher difficulty was in response to hardware limitations regarding sprites.

Both the single-player and co-op versions were also planned from the beginning of development due to pressure to make two-player games at the time.

The alien Pipiru was designed by Ogiwara, though Uemura claimed such character was not planned.

Zero Wing was the last horizontal shoot'em up title to be developed by Toaplan.

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Zero King - PCCB-00001) on 21/09/1989.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Hidden Functions: If the 'Invulnerability dip switch' is enabled, you are invulnerable but you may also 'Pause' the game with P2 Start and restart with P1 Start.

- STAFF -

Producer: Toshiaki Ota
Designers: Sanae Nito, Yuko Tataka
Programmer: Hiroaki Furukawa
Artists: Miho Hayashi, Naoki Ogiwara, Shintaro Nakaoka
Musics & sounds: Tatsuya Uemura, Toshiaki Tomisawa, Masahiro Yuge

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
Sega Mega Drive (1991, "Zero Wing [Model T-40023]")
NEC PC-Engine CD (1992, "Zero Wing [Model NXCD1003]")

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=zerozone
Arcade Video game published 30 years ago:

Zero Zone (c) 1993 Comad Industry Company, Limited.

A risque version of "Columns".

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 10 Mhz)
Sound CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 1 Mhz)
Sound Chips : OKI6295 (@ 8 Khz)

Players : 2
Control : 4-way joystick
Buttons : 3

- TRIVIA -

This game shares the music with "Las Vegas Girl - Girl '94", another Comad game.

The samples 'Welcome' and 'You suck!' (originally 'You die!') were ripped from Data East's "Sly Spy".

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=zingzip,zingzipbl
Arcade Video game published 31 years ago:

Zing Zing Zip - The Shooting (c) 1992 Allumer, Limited.

A vertically scrolling shooter where you control a plane to shoot larger planes, tanks and trains.

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the Seta 1st Generation System Hardware.

Game ID : UY

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 16 Mhz)
Sound Chips : X1-010 (@ 16 Mhz)

Screen Orientation : Vertical
Video Resolution : 384 x 240 Pixels.
Screen Refresh : 60.00 Hz
Palette Colors : 5120

Players : 2
Control : 8-Way Joystick
Buttons : 2
=> Shoot, Bomb

- TRIVIA -

Zing Zing Zip was released in September 1992.

Licensed to Tecmo.

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=zombraid,zombraidp,zombraidpj
Arcade Video game published 28 years ago:

Zombie Raid (c) 1995 American Sammy.

Welcome to the extraordinary world of Zombie Raid. Players use specially designed sawed-off shotguns with pump action reload to fight their way through the graveyard, through castles and dungeons and even through the mad scientist's laboratory. Battle all kinds of ghastly creatures, like zombies and other frightful beings. You may feel like you're lost in a horror movie!

A myriad of secrets have been programmed into the game for added dimension. Can you discover how to get extra life? Can you find a way to escape the forces? Can you defeat the evil? The challenges are endless!

- TECHNICAL -

Cabinet dimensions : 76'' High x 41'' Deep x 31'' Wide.
Cabinet weight : 400 lbs.
Monitor : 25''.

Game ID : P0-122A (SZR-001)

Main CPU : Motorola 68000 (@ 16 Mhz)
Sound Chips : X1-010 (@ 16 Mhz)

Players : 2
Control : lightgun
Buttons : 2 (SHOOT, RELOAD)

- TRIVIA -

Zombie Raid was released in September 1995 in USA and Japan.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Crystal Codes:
Level 2: The Crystal Code is posted at the end of the level, on the 2 pillars framing the wrought iron gate (below the head with the horns).
Level 3: At end of level is elevator with zombies, after kill ALL elevator's zombies Red Crystal appear on screen.
Level 4: The Blue Crystal is hidden in a statuette on a pillar (the statuette resembles the level 2 famous head with the horns).
Level 5: The Green Crystal is obtained at the end of the level by killing the 2-heads monster.

To fight the final boss, the Crystal Codes seen on level 2 should be inserted : Red, Green, Blue - if not it is assured death.

In game are secret entrances where you will find special items:
1. At end of first graveyard is grave with your initials, behind this grave is tree and 'man with gun'. Shoot to this tree over 'man with gun' when screen move up. If you shot in right place on tree secret entrance will appear. In this secret entrance are items :
- LIGHTNING: lightning weapon.
- CRUCIFIX: restore full energy when you lost all energy. Item can be used once (automatic).

2. In mission 3 when you enter to area after door opened by hidden lever, screen will move first to left, next to right. On left side one pillar is fault. Shot to this place where pillar should be - secret entrance will open. In this secret entrance are:
- SCOPE: crosshair.
- BOMB: bomb icon will appear in left-upper corner. Shot it and whole screen explode. Item can be used once.

3. Again in mission 3, immediately after elevator shot to the wall right to the pillar. Secret entrance will open. In this secret entrance are items:
- AMMOx2: auto-reload. Now you can use fire button only, gun will reload automatically.
- BLUE POTION: extra life

In game are more secret entrances but where ?

Some extra shots:
1. Shot to the second well on mission 3 using shotgun weapon - ghostbusters ghost will appear in the well.
2. When you shot to the ground using right weapon (not lightning) flowers will appear. When you shot 3 flowers then a butterfly will appear on screen, shoot the butterfly, it gives extra items.
3. On first graveyard are black cats, when you kill cat he give extra energy.
4. In mission 3 when sewers end and screen move up and stop then shot to the center in middle wall - secret lever will appear. When you trigger this lever on screen will appear clown on cycle - no idea for what.

Use FIRE weapon and you will easy finish game.

- STAFF -

Producer : Onijust (ONJ)
Programmers : Tomohiro Takahashi (TOM), Hiroaki Murase (MRS)
Graphic design : Isao Suwa (SUW), Ujita in U.S.A. (UJI), Noriyo Antako
Sound designer : Brian Schmidt
Game designer : George Matono
Executive producer : Yoshi Suzuki
Supervisors : Jim Miskell, Rick Rochetti
Technical supervisor : Kiyo Nishimura
Technical assistance : Gen Ozeki
Production coordinaor : Brad Faris
Cabinet coordinator : Pat O'Brien
Cabient designer : Tom Lenick
Artwork designer : Paul Faris
Electrical supervisor : John Jaron
Supervising engineer : Dave Pallotto
Mechanic coordinator : James Perales
Mechanic engineer : Bob Paneck
Game adviser : Dave Cane
Creature sound effects : Fred Young

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

$info=zupapa

Zupapa! (c) 2001 SNK [Shin Nihon Kikaku].

In this whimsical action game, you take control of an uber cute, long-eared, boxing-gloves wearing hero and his 4 little sidekicks (called 'Zooks' by the way!) in order to tackle colorful yet dangerous enemies in fun looking worlds such as Nightmare Land, Circus Land, Toy Land, Jungle Land, Dino Land, Japan Land, Sci-fi Land, Dragon Land & Virtual Land! Features very colorful graphics, nicely animated characters, fun bonus stages to mix things up and a simple yet really catchy soundtrack! Grab a friend for some truly awesome platforming fun!

- TECHNICAL -

Runs on the SNK "Neo-Geo MVS" hardware.
Game ID : NGM-070

Players : 2
Control : 8-Way Joystick
Buttons : 2
=> [A] Punch/Toss Zooks, [B] Jump

- TRIVIA -

This game runs on the SNK Neo-Geo MVS hardware and was not released on the Neo-Geo AES home console.

On February 22, 1994, SNK third party developer Face debuted Zupapa at the AOU Show in Japan, however the game was released by SNK for its MVS system in 2001. That is the reason the game was long thought to be a prototype-only title! So far, this is the only NeoGeo un-released prototype game that finally saw an actual official release.

The game was finally released a few months after the 'success' of "Nightmare in the Dark" (because they are very similar, only graphics and levels change). They are so close that some players consider that Nightmare in the Dark is the adult version of the game (with dark graphics) and Zupapa the children version (with its cute animations).

This is one of the very few Neo Geo games that does not show the names of its developers at the ending, it also deems this title as Episode 1 but chances of a sequel are next to none! Too bad... :(

Default highscore table (RANKING) :
RANK NAME SCORE
1st KAT 100000
2nd GON 80000
3rd OKI 60000
4th SET 40000
5th HAR 20000

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* You can find a few power-ups in the different levels :
S : Increase Zupapa's speed.
P : Increase Zupapa's power.
J : Add points whenever Zupapa jumps.
A : Add points whenever Zupapa punches.
X2 : Double the score of all score items.

* Destroy all enemies in any stage with a single Zook Bomb in order to be rewarded with a golden Zupapa trophy!

* Do not throw the Zooks if you do not need to, otherwise they will run away from you making the current stage more tricky to clear!

* After clearing the first world, when you start playing in the second world, at the end of each round when you've killed all the enemies, you are given a few seconds before being warped to the next stage. During this time you can keep jumping or pushing the punch button. Every time you push any of the buttons, you are awarded 100 points. Quite good for making high-score rewards.

* When you throw those small kids at the enemies and they are out cold for a few seconds, try to kill them by touching them when several other enemies are in the needed radius, this will of course kill that enemy but also kill the others in the certain radius and you'll get extra fruits hence bonus.

* Beat the game without continuing to see an extra congratulatory image in the ending.

- CONTRIBUTE -

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$end

