Blog:13
Hyper Rally (PlayStation)
CRV (talk) 04:48, 12 May 2015 (CEST) [permalink]
The 32-bit generation was one abundant with rally racing games, from Sega Rally to Colin McRae Rally. Then there's Hyper Rally.
I've watched videos on Nico Nico Douga, but I will bite my tongue since I have not played the game. I do like the music; it sounds like '90s-era, T's Music buttrock, as heard in games like Lords of Thunder. Cross-referencing names in the credits with VGMdb, it is T's Music, so kudos for that at least.
Hyper Rally turns up on the website of Triad, a company headed by Minoru Yuasa, who worked as a sound producer and composer on many Telenet games. However, I can't read most of the rest of the names in the credits, so I can't determine their involvement at this time. (I can't figure out kanji.) Satoshi Hatsuya was the game's director and a graphic designer. He also worked on Steel Empire for the Genesis.
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Credit to the creators/uploaders of the above videos
Sega on Nintendo: Sega Arcade Games on the Famicom/NES
CRV (talk) 04:26, 29 January 2015 (CET) [permalink]
After Burner & After Burner II Tengen released After Burner in the US, and Sunsoft released After Burner II in Japan. Neither live up to their arcade counterparts, but they're both arguably better than the Master System game. As for the Nintendo releases, some places suggest one is a modified version of the other, but I'm not so sure.
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Five Westone Games That Aren't Wonder Boy
CRV (talk) 04:21, 7 December 2014 (CET) [permalink]
Westone Bit Entertainment and related company Bit Angel filed for bankruptcy on September 24, 2014. Most know Westone for the Wonder Boy and Monster World series, but they did so much more. Let's take a look back at five of their notable titles:
1) Jaws (NES) The shark that terrorized moviegoers years earlier made its way to the NES, courtesy of American publisher LJN, contractor Atlus, and subcontractor/developer Westone.
According to an interview with Westone president Ryuichi Nishizawa, development took about two months to complete with a crew of three people. The final product is very much an old-school, arcade-style game that's rather easy once you get the hang of it, not to mention incredibly short. If it looped and got more difficult like many old arcade games, that might have been an improvement.
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Abadox (NES)
CRV (talk) 03:33, 1 November 2014 (CET) [permalink]
Parasitis has swallowed the planet Abadox, and Princess Maria. Your task is to make your way through Parasitis' body, save Princess Maria, and keep the rest of the universe from being consumed.
It's clear from looking that this is another shooter, and it's clear to shooter fans that this one's influenced by Konami's Life Force, what with its "organic" theme. The stages even alternate between horizontal and vertical perspectives.
Many people have complained about Abadox's difficulty. I'm reluctant to agree it's as hard as they say, but it can be frustrating. Like some other shooters, one mistake can cost you all your power-ups, and it's a chore to get them back. At that point, you might as well start over. (The game's not that long.)
Most of us can agree, however, that Abadox has a great soundtrack. It was provided by Kiyohiro Sada, who once worked for Konami. The game's director was Atsushi Okazaki, who apparently also had a stint at Konami. Neither appear to have been involved with Life Force.
The game was produced by manga artist Go Nagai's Dynamic Planning, but God only knows what that means.
As far as I can tell, the programming and graphics were done by I.T.L. The only graphic artist credited is Hidenobu Takahashi. It is unconfirmed whether this is the same Hidenobu Takahashi who directed Grandia.
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Stormlord (Genesis/Mega Drive)
CRV (talk) 04:20, 18 June 2014 (CEST) [permalink] [comments]
Scantily-clad fairy princesses have been entombed and strewn about a God-forsaken hellscape. It's up to you to rescue them in the action/puzzle game Stormlord, a conversion of a British computer game.
I own the Japanese Mega Drive version and recently dug it out. While it's not raved about by Sega fans, it's really not that bad, but there's lots of trial and error. You'll have to play it over and over again until you know the levels backwards and forwards. (Which I did. I finally beat it!)
As you progress, you'll find items such as keys, honey, and umbrellas to overcome obstacles. You'll need to figure out how and where to use or swap these items. The game will be an ass at times and, for example, throw in an extra door, thereby giving you an opportunity to waste a key, thereby leaving you unable to complete a level. That said, I don't feel the designers were as obnoxious as they could have been, at least as far as delibrately tricking the player is concerned. There are some tricky jumps and obnoxious enemies, though.
The graphics are pretty good and look pretty close to the Amiga from which they were ported. The music (by Lars Norpchen), while not quite as good as some of the computer versions, fits the game. All sound effects are samples.
As stated earlier, Stormlord originated in the UK and was released on several computer platforms. The Genesis/Mega Drive version was developed in the US by Punk Development, product development arm of publisher RazorSoft.
The fairies in Stormlord were originally naked in the computer versions, but they were covered up in the Genesis/Mega Drive version. Kevin Seghetti, who programmed the game for Punk under contract, has stated RazorSoft censored them voluntarily. However, another source of mine alleged Al Nilsen, Sega of America's Director of Marketing, was the only one who took issue with the nudity, according to a memo. As a result, Sega would not put their name on the game.
Said source also revealed that Genesis Stormlord was one of RazorSoft's worst-selling titles, and about 25,000 units were produced. That didn't stop them from announcing a Genesis version of the sequel, with the name Keeper of the Gates to disassociate it from the original. Development was being handled by 21st Century Entertainment, the successor of Stormlord's original publisher Hewson, but apparently the team wasn't organized enough to bring the game to completion.
Telenet Japan published the Mega Drive version in Japan through their Micro World subsidiary, which specialized in publishing games from the West. According to my source, they did so under the condition that the difficulty was toned down. You can take more hits, and you may have more continues. (I counted about five. The US manual says two.) Maybe that's why I enjoyed it. If you want to play Stormlord and it sounds a little daunting, this may be the version to try.
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Code Name: Viper (NES)
CRV (talk) 00:03, 13 May 2014 (CEST) [permalink] [comments]
It's a story ripped straight from today's headlines. The War on Drugs is underway, and you, special agent "Viper," must take on a powerful drug syndicate in South America. But all is not what it seems...
Capcom's Code Name: Viper (Ningen Heiki: Dead Fox [人間兵器デッドフォックス] in Japan) is probably most notable for being a big ol' Rolling Thunder ripoff, except now you get to shoot and jump at the same time. You also get to rescue hostages, but you don't have to if you don't want to.
As Capcom NES games go, Viper is better than Little Mermaid or TaleSpin. Objectively speaking, it's probably in the middle of the pack, but I'm more likely to pick it up than a Mega Man game. The graphics are nice, that trademark Capcom sound is there, and the game handles fairly well.
Arc System Works is confirmed to have worked on this. I assume they at least programmed it. (Do these look like Capcom graphics to you? The sound is Capcom, of course.) And because of that confirmation and other evidence, I think Arc probably also worked on the NES version of Rolling Thunder, which probably led to the Viper gig.
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Tube Panic (Arcade)
CRV (talk) 15:15, 29 March 2014 (CET) [permalink] [comments]
Imagine if in Tempest, the tubes moved instead of the ship. Then you'd have Tube Panic from Nichibutsu from 1984. While Tube Panic is arguably more graphically impressive, you might see why they ditched the moving tubes in the classic Atari game.
In the future envisioned by the creators of Tube Panic, all wars will be waged in trippy, intergalactic tubes. For those of you not susceptible to motion sickness, the object of the game is to fight your way through said tubes while watching your power supply. Along the way, you can duck into warp holes, in which you'll be given a temporary shield. Periodically, you'll have to dock with a mothership for bonus points and power.
Tube Panic is copyrighted to Fujitek, so it is presumed they developed it. Several other Nichibutsu games from this era have an Alice copyright. Little, if anything, is known about these firms.
The music, powered by the AY-3-8910A, is as dazzling as the graphics, and you can listen to it in the second video below. While the game does have credits, Ryoichi Yamada (the sole sound credit) confirmed on YouTube that he was the sound engineer and that (I.) Takagi was the composer. Yamada also composed MagMax.
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Xyzolog (MSX)
CRV (talk) 15:58, 30 May 2013 (CEST) [permalink] [comments]
1984 gave us Marble Madness and this fun little game from Taito called Xyzolog...or is that Xyxolog? Anyway, just roll your ball over red blinking things while avoiding the green spinning things. It's that simple.
You can destroy the green things by making yourself explode. Unfortunately, this uses up lives. But if you hit enough enemies in one shot, you can rack up a big bonus. You gain a life each stage.
Hiroshi Tsujino (aka "Onijust;" The Fairyland Story, The Ninja Warriors) designed the game, his debut work at Taito. He and his friend Akira ("AKR") were originally assigned to the MSX development department, where they converted arcade games and made other original games like Sweet Acorn. Taito eventually decided to commit to the Famicom and withdrew from the MSX. Tsujino and Akira were moved to the arcade development department at Taito's Yokohama Institute. (Source: A post written by Tsujino for retro game shop Beep's site)
Tsujino designed Xyzolog, but he did not develop it. Development duties were for some reason handed off to Compile, according to former employee Satoshi Fujishima. It was not listed on Compile's website, though.
Despite the fact Compile did not design the game from scratch, it does have the look and feel of their later billiards games, Lunar Pool and Champion Billiards. Was the development of those games informed by Xyzolog?
- Fun Fact: Xyzolog is a boss in Taito's arcade game Syvalion.
- Fun Fact 2: Xyzolog was included on Compile's Disc Station 06 disc magazine for the MSX2.
- Fun Fact 3: Xyzolog was converted to the ZX Spectrum in 2010.
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Post updated May 16, 2020
Starblade (Mega CD/Sega CD)
CRV (talk) 16:10, 12 May 2013 (CEST) [permalink] [comments]
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How did they get Namco's Starblade onto the Sega CD? Some folks on the Sega-16 forums tried figuring out how it worked here.
But the big question for me is, who developed the Sega CD version? According to Japanese sites, Technosoft did it and some Super Famicom pachinko games for Telenet Japan. I guess this would be the start of Namco and Telenet's relationship. The earliest mention of the Starblade/Technosoft thing I can find is a 2001 2ch post.
Mountain King
CRV (talk) 15:44, 27 April 2013 (CEST) [permalink] [comments]
Despite being ported to numerous platforms, Mountain King isn't considered the classic I think it perhaps should be. A lot of people don't seem to remember it. But rather than try to write about it myself, I'll let others do it and do it better. Please read this and this, then come back.
I will say the animation makes a difference in gameplay. The original Atari 8-bit and 5200 versions are much smoother than the 2600 and ColecoVision conversions done by VSS.
The 2600 version contains something referred to as "Glitch Heaven," a glitchy "hidden level" up in the sky. Ed Salvo of VSS: "The secret level in Mountain King was a feature of the 800 game and I duplicated it." However, the 8-bit/5200 versions do not have a "Glitch Heaven;" they have a "Glitch Hell" (see video below).
Mountain King was originally written by Bob Matson. Jess Ragan (author of one of the posts above) e-mailed him and managed to get a response, which you can read here. Matson now works at Michigan State University.
Available for Atari 8-bit computers, Atari 5200, Atari 2600, ColecoVision, Commodore 64, and VIC-20
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