Blog: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