THE

DELUKS VERSION

DaddaRuleKonge

VOL.02
 THIS BOOK...

is mostly made out of boredom. After being done

with my last project, the Sega 32X/CD book, I had
to do something else. Not wanting to do another
book in the same vein as the other, I decided to try
something else. So I made this shameless product.
The book includes information on 35 of the North
American releases of NES games. The games
are listed in somewhat of a chronological order,
though, I have not every games in order, there
are holes here. Information are almost exclusively
taken from wikipedia, and the pictures are most-
ly from either mobygames.com or gamefaq.com.
I originally started out with a bigger book includ-
ing information on more games than the mea-
sly 35 games, but my indesign file was acting up,
and I didn’t feel like arguing with it, or reformat my
tired computer. If some people feel like they would
rather read this PDF than reading the wikipedia
like normal people, I may make more volumes.

NoCopyright © 2015 by DaddaRuleKonge

All rights are NOT reserved. EVERY part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocop-
ying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher. I do not own anything in this book. You use
part of this publication on your OWN RISK though. As places in this book may have a copyright by the original owner.
Section Z, a side-view shoot- space station, which consists of
’em-up, was originally released alphabetically ordered corridors
as a coin-operated arcade game known as “sections”, starting
in 1985. A home version was re- from Section A and ending at
leased for the NES in 1987. The the titular Section Z. The game
original coin-op game is includ- is divided into different stages,
ed in Capcom Classics Collec- each consisting of different sec-
tion Vol. 1 for PlayStation 2 and tions. The player will fight an
Developer Capcom
Xbox. enemy boss at the end of each
Publisher Capcom
stage, concluding with the final
Set in an unspecified year during Designer Takashi Nishiyama
battle against the “L Brain” at
the third millennium, the player Composers Kumi Yamaga
Section Z. The game’s stages
takes the role of an astronaut Tamayo Kawamoto
alternates between horizontal-
sent to infiltrate and destroy a Release dates FDS May 25, 1987
scrolling stage (left or right)
space station orbiting near the NA July 1987
and upwards vertical-scrolling
Earth that is actually the secret EU 1987
stages. The player will lose a
base of an alien empire known Genre Shoot-’em-up
life every time they get hit by en-
as the “Balangool”. Modes Single-player,
emy fire. Additional lives can be
2-player alternating
The player maneuvers the space obtained if the player achieves a
ranger throughout the enemy high enough score.
The console version of Section Z has of each stage (Sections 19, 39, and 59
altered gameplay, particularly in its in that order) and face the boss.
level design and game controls.
Instead of using one button to fire and
The NES version features three stag- the other to turn around, the player now
es, each comprising 20 sections (for uses one button to fire at one direction
a total of 60 sections), which are full- and the other to fire at the opposite. The
fledged levels in this version, although player starts with a standard-issue la-
not all sections need to be visited to ser rifle and can upgrade their weapon
complete the game. In contrast to the into a Flash Buster (which fires bullets
alphabetical sections in the arcade ver- at three directions) or a Megasmasher
sion, the sections in the NES version (which fires v-shaped laser beams).
are numbered instead. The first stage
The Famicom version in Japan was
begins at Section 00, which is the outer
released in Disk Card format for the
perimeter of the space station and then
Family Computer Disk System add-
proceeds to enter Section 01, the first
on. In contrast to its NES counterpart,
actual corridor of the base. At the end
which the make player complete the
of most sections, the player will choose
game in one sitting, the Disk System
to enter one of two transporters, each
allowed player to save their progress
taking player to a different section of
in one of three save files. After a game
the base. Some transporters will take
over, the player can quit the game and
the player to a previous section while
resume where they left off by loading
others cannot be opened until the play-
the save file.
er has fulfilled a certain condition and
will kill the player if they try to enter. The English localization of the game’s
The objective of each stage is to de- manual identifies the main character
stroy the two power generators located as “Captain Commando”, a fictional
at different sections of each stage in or- spokesman for Capcom USA who later
der to open the path to the final section starred in his own game.
 Developer SNK
Athena is a platform arcade The game tells the story of Athe- Micronics
game, produced and published na, the young, headstrong prin- Publisher SNK
in 1986 by SNK. It was later cess of the heavenly Kingdom Series Athena series
ported to the NES, developed of Victory. She was bored of Release date NA August 1987
by Micronics. Conversions were the monotonous daily life in the Genre Platformer
done also for the ZX Spectrum, palace and desired exciting ad- Mode Single-player
Commodore 64 and Amstrad ventures. One day, she opened
CPC in 1987 by Ocean Soft- the “Door Which Shouldn’t Be
ware under their Imagine label. Opened” in the basement of
However, only the NES version Castle Victory, said to lead to
was released for North Ameri- a savage and deadly place. As
can homes until the PlaySta- she dared cross the doorway, it
tion Network saw a release of caused her to fall from the skies
the arcade original in 2011. The and to another realm called Fan-
game’s protagonist, Princess tasy World, which was dominat-
Athena, has gone on to appear ed by the evil Emperor Dante.
in later fighting games by SNK After her flowing dress was lost
as a secret character or assist- while catching the wind for her
ant to her descendant Athena fall, the perilous adventures of
Asamiya, a frequent main char- Princess Athena began as she
acter in these games. landed in a wilderness overrun
by beast-like warriors and more dan- also has the chance to find shields,
gers than she could ever wish for. She headgear and armor to cover her body,
readied to fight for her life and arm her- however, these will be lost after with-
self, with no other choice than to face standing some attacks. Her journey
the ruthless Dante and every obstacle requires leaping and climbing as well
on her way, to free this kingdom and as fighting through the land’s eight
make it back alive to her own. hazardous worlds, each leading up to
an oversized enemy that must be dealt
After Athena defeats Dante, it all be-
with before proceeding to the next
gins anew in the sequel, Athena: Full
area. The use of certain weapons such
Throttle, a platform mobile game,
as a hammer allows Athena to break
produced and published in 2006 by
through stone blocks, sometimes re-
SNK Playmore for the i-mode on FO-
vealing not only armor but magic items
MA90x platform, in which the princess,
such as Mercury’s sandals that, when
again bored, opens the “Door Which
worn, allow her to make great leaps.
Shouldn’t Be Opened B”.
The game features certain role-playing
Many of the game’s elements are in-
video game elements to complement
spired by Greek mythology or ancient
the platform action. Princess Athena
Roman culture, such as weapons,
has to defeat enemies such as the fi-
equipment, items and enemy designs.
nal boss by using various mythological
Princess Athena herself is named af-
weapons, items and equipment. With-
ter the Greek goddess Athena, while
out some items, she cannot make it
Dante is based on Cerberus.
through the adventure.
In this game, Athena, upon landing,
Aside from Psycho Soldier introducing
unarmed and mostly nude, has only
her modern-day descendant, Athena
her kicks to fend off the approach-
Asamiya, Princess Athena faded out of
ing monsters, but she may collect the
SNK’s spotlight until KOF 2000.
dead enemies’s various weapons and
 Developer Taito
Publisher Taito
Composer Yoshio Imamura
Release date August 1987
Elevator Action is a 1983 arcade The player assumes the role of
Genre Action,
game by Taito. It debuted dur- Agent 17, codename: “Otto”, a
Side-scrolling,
ing the Golden Age of Arcade secret agent for an unspecified
Platform game
Games. The game was avail- organization or government. As
Modes Up to 2 players
able as a standard upright cabi- Otto, the player enters a 30-story
net. The controls consist of a building from the roof and must
4-way joystick and two buttons, collect a series of secret docu-
one for “shoot” and the other for ments hidden inside. Red doors
jumping and kicking. The maxi- indicate the location of these
mum number of players is two, documents, and Otto must use
alternating turns. The graphics the building’s elevators and es-
are extremely simple, 2D color calators to reach them while
graphics and in-game music avoiding or defeating the enemy
was composed by musician agents trying to stop him. Each
Yoshio Imamura. The game of the red doors has a doormat,
was followed by a sequel, El- which Otto must stand atop in
evator Action II (also known as order to access the room. Once
Elevator Action Returns). accessed, the red door be-
comes a blue door like the rest of the of an elevator car (but not have control
building’s doors, and a short tune plays of it) and, if the car is above him, jump
denoting Otto has acquired the docu- across the empty shaft. He can defeat
ment and is awarded 500 points. En- enemy agents in four ways: shooting
emy agents randomly emerge from them, getting close enough to jump at
blue doors. Once Otto has all the doc- and kick them, shooting out an over-
uments, he must reach the basement head light so that it falls on them (which
and escape in a waiting car to advance. temporarily knocks out the building
Each level contains a section in which lights), or crushing them with a moving
the lights are out, making it difficult to elevator.
see the enemy agents unless they are
On higher levels, the enemy agents
in an elevator. Beyond this section, the
will shoot more frequently and their
player must navigate a complex series
bullets will travel faster. They will drop
of elevators to avoid agents, retrieve
to a knee or assume a prone position
the last documents, and reach the
to avoid Otto’s shots, but cannot jump
basement exit.
over low bullets.
Otto can move left or right and jump;
Like many games of this era, Elevator
when in an elevator or at one end of
Action was ported to some home sys-
an escalator, pushing up or down will
tems in 1985 for personal use. It was
move him one floor in that direction,
ported to the ZX Spectrum, Amstrad
however, pushing down will not cause
CPC, MSX, C64, NES, Game Boy,
Otto to drop to a knee while in an el-
and Sega SG-1000. Sony published a
evator. He can fire his pistol at enemy
mobile version of the game. On March
agents, up to three rounds at a time,
5, 2007, the NES port of Elevator Ac-
and drop to a knee to avoid enemy
tion was released on the Wii’s Virtual
agents’ high shots when not in an el-
Console.
evator. In addition, Otto can ride on top
 Developers Nintendo R&D1
Intelligent Systems
Publisher Nintendo
Metroid is a military science fic- manteau of the words “metro” Director Satoru Okada
tion themed action-adventure and “android”. It was co-devel- Producer Gunpei Yokoi
game origianlly released for oped by Nintendo’s Research Artists Hiroji Kiyotake
the Famicom Disk System. The and Development 1 division and Hirofumi Matsuoka
player controls Samus Aran in Intelligent Systems, and pro- Yoshio Sakamoto
sprite-rendered two-dimension- duced by Gunpei Yokoi. Metroid Writer Makoto Kano
al landscapes. The game takes was directed by Satoru Okada Composer Hirokazu Tanaka
place on the planet Zebes, a and Yoshio Sakamoto (credited Series Metroid
large, open-ended world with as ‘Yamamoto’), and featured Release dates FDS August 6, 1986
areas connected by doors and music written by Hirokazu Tan- NA August 1987
elevators. aka (credited as ‘Hip Tanaka’). EU January 15, 1988
Makoto Kano (credited under Genre Action-adventure
After Nintendo’s release of com-
his last name) was tasked to Mode Single-player
mercially successful platforming
create the scenario, and Hiroji
games in the 1980s, including
Kiyotake (credited under his
Donkey Kong (1981), Ice Climb-
last name), Hirofumi Matsuoka
er (1985), and Super Mario
(credited as ‘New Matsuoka’)
Bros. (1985), as well as the criti-
and Yoshio Sakamoto (credited
cally acclaimed adventure game
as ‘Shikamoto’) designed the
The Legend of Zelda (1986),
game’s characters. The charac-
the company began work on
ter design for Samus Aran was
an action game. The game was
created by Kiyotake.
dubbed Metroid, which is a port-
The production was described as a “very players retrace their steps to progress,
free working environment” by Tanaka, forcing the player to scroll the screen
who stated that, despite being the com- left in addition to moving it right, as was
poser, he also gave input for the game’s the case in most contemporary games.
graphics and helped name the game’s Metroid was also considered one of the
areas. Part way through development, first video games to impress a feeling of
one of the developers asked the oth- desperation and solitude on the player.
ers, “Hey, wouldn’t that be kind of cool Following The Legend of Zelda, Metroid
if it turned out that this person inside the helped pioneer the idea of acquiring
suit was a woman?”. This idea was in- tools to strengthen characters and help
corporated into the game, though the in- progress through the game. Up until that
struction manual for the game uses the point, most ability-enhancing power-ups
pronoun “he” many times in reference to like the Power Shot in Gauntlet (1985)
Samus. Ridley Scott’s 1979 horror film and the Starman in Super Mario Bros.
Alien was described by Sakamoto as offered only temporary boosts to char-
a “huge influence” on Metroid after the acters, and they were not required to
game’s world had been created. The complete the game. In Metroid, however,
development staff was affected by the items were permanent fixtures that last-
work of the film’s creature designer H. R. ed until the end. In particular, missiles
Giger, and found his creations to be fit- and the ice beam were required to finish
ting for the Metroid universe. the game. After defeating Mother Brain,
the player is given an end screen based
Nintendo attempted to set Metroid apart
on the time it took them to get there.
from other games by making it a non-
linear adventure-based game, in which Metroid has shipped 2.73 million units
exploration was a crucial part of the ex- worldwide. In 2008, Nintendo Power named
perience. The game often requires that Metroid the fifth-best game for the NES.
 Developer Nintendo R&D4
Publisher Nintendo
Directors Shigeru Miyamoto
Takashi Tezuka
Producer Shigeru Miyamoto
Programmers Toshihiko Nakago
Yasunari Soejima
I. Marui
The Legend of Zelda, subti- finding secrets along the way.
Writer Takashi Tezuka
tled The Hyrule Fantasy in its
The inaugural game of the Leg- Composer Koji Kondo
original Japanese release, is a
end of Zelda series, it was first Series The Legend of Zelda
1986 action-adventure game
released in Japan as a launch ti- Release dates NA August 22, 1987
designed by Shigeru Miyamoto
tle for the Family Computer Disk EU November 15, 1987
and Takashi Tezuka. Set in the
System peripheral. More than a JP February 19, 1994
fantasy land of Hyrule, the plot
year later, North America and Genre Action-adventure
centers on a boy named Link,
Europe received releases on the Mode Single-player
the playable protagonist, who
Nintendo Entertainment System
aims to collect the eight frag-
in cartridge form, making the
ments of the Triforce of Wisdom
game the first home console ti-
in order to rescue Princess Zel-
tle to include an internal battery
da from the antagonist, Ganon.
for saving data.In 1994, this ver-
During the course of the game,
sion would be released back in
the player sees Link from a top-
Japan, now named The Legend
down perspective and must
of Zelda 1. There were also re-
navigate him through the over-
issued ports for the GameCube,
world and several dungeons,
Game Boy Advance and the Vir-
defeating enemies and
tual Console.
Development for this game was directed and de- This was a game based solely on communication.”
signed by Shigeru Miyamoto (credited as S. Miya-
With The Legend of Zelda, Miyamoto wanted to take
hon) and Takashi Tezuka (credited as Ten Ten). Mi-
the idea of a game “world” even further, giving play-
yamoto produced the game, and Tezuka wrote the
ers a “miniature garden that they can put inside their
story and script. The development team worked on
drawer.” He drew his inspiration from his experiences
The Legend of Zelda and Super Mario Bros. concur-
as a boy around Kyoto, where he explored nearby
rently, and tried to separate their ideas: Super Mario
fields, woods, and caves, and through the Zelda titles
Bros. was to be linear, where the action occurred in a
he always tries to impart to players some of the sense
strict sequence, whereas The Legend of Zelda would
of exploration and limitless wonder he felt. “When
be the opposite.In Mario, Miyamoto downplayed the
I was a child,” he said, “I went hiking and found a
importance of the high score in favor of simply com-
lake. It was quite a surprise for me to stumble upon
pleting the game. This concept was carried over to
it. When I traveled around the country without a map,
The Legend of Zelda. Miyamoto was also in charge of
trying to find my way, stumbling on amazing things
deciding which concepts were “Zelda ideas” or “Mario
as I went, I realized how it felt to go on an adventure
ideas.” Contrasting with Mario, Zelda was made non-
like this.” The memory of being lost amid the maze
linear and forced the players to think about what they
of sliding doors in his family’s home in Sonobe was
should do next. In the initial game designs, the player
recreated in Zelda‍ ‘​s labyrinth dungeons.
would start the game with the sword already in their in-
ventory. According to Miyamoto, those in Japan were The Legend of Zelda was a bestseller for Nintendo,
confused and had trouble finding their way through selling over 6.5 million copies; it was the first NES title
the multiple path dungeons. Rather than listening to sell over 1 million. It was reissued in 1992 as part of
to the complaints, Miyamoto took away the sword, Nintendo’s “Classic Series” and featured a grey car-
forcing players to communicate with each other and tridge. The game placed first in the player’s poll “Top
share their ideas to find the various secrets hidden in 30” in Nintendo Power‍ ‘​s first issue and continued to
the game. This was a new form of game communica- dominate the list into the early 1990s. The Legend of
tion, and in this way, “Zelda became the inspiration Zelda was also voted by Nintendo Power readers as the
for something very different: Animal Crossing. “Best Challenge” in the 88` Nintendo Power Awards.
 Developer Square
player must battle through eight Publisher JP DOG
planets to destroy Grax. For its NA Acclaim
time, the game was technically Designer Hironobu Sakaguchi
advanced; the game’s three- Programmer Nasir Gebelli
The 3-D Battles of WorldRunner
dimensional scrolling effect is Composer Nobuo Uematsu
(shortened to 3-D WorldRun-
very similar to the linescroll ef- Release dates JP March 12, 1987
ner on the North American box
fects used by Pole Position and NA September 1987
art), originally released in Japan
many racing games of the day Genre Third-Person
as Tobidase Daisakusen, is a
as well as the forward-scrolling Rail Shooter,
1987 third-person rail shooter
effect of Sega’s 1985 third- Platformer
platform video game developed
person rail shooter Space Har- Mode Single-player
and published by Square for
rier. 3-D WorldRunner was an
the FamiCom Disk System and
early forward-scrolling pseudo-
published by Acclaim for the
3D third-person platform-action
NES itself.
game where players were free
In the game, the player as- to move in any forward-scrolling
sumes the role of Jack the direction and had to leap over
WorldRunner, a wild “space obstacles and chasms. It was
cowboy” on a mission to save also notable for being one of the
various planets overrun by first stereoscopic 3-D games.
serpent-like beasts. The game
WorldRunner was designed
takes place in Solar System
by Hironobu Sakaguchi and
#517, which is being overrun by
Nasir Gebelli, and composed
a race of aliens known as Ser-
by Nobuo Uematsu, all whom
pentbeasts, who are led by the
would later rise to fame as core
evil Grax. As WorldRunner, the
members of the team behind the popu- the player’s score, the time counter,
lar role-playing video game Final Fan- the world number, the world quadrant,
tasy. the number of bonus stars collected by
the player, and the number of lives, or
WorldRunner features many elements
continues, remaining.
that are typical of a forward-scrolling
rail shooter game, where the player Part of the appeal and selling point of
focuses on destroying or dodging on- WorldRunner was its “3D mode”, and it
screen enemies against a scrolling was the first of three games by Square
background. 3-D WorldRunner incor- to feature such an option. When the 3D
porates a distinct third-person view, mode is selected, the game uses com-
where the camera angle is positioned puter image processing techniques to
behind the main character. combine images from two slightly dif-
ferent viewpoints into a single image,
As Jack, players make their way
known as anaglyph images. The game
through eight worlds, battling hostile
was packaged with cardboard ana-
alien creatures and leaping over bot-
glyph glasses, which use red and cyan
tomless canyons. Each world is di-
color filters to moderate the light reach-
vided into different quadrants, and the
ing each eye to create the illusion of a
player must pass through each quad-
three dimensional image.
rant before the time counter on the bot-
tom of the game screen reaches zero. It is considered difficult to find a com-
In each quadrant, the player can find plete copy of WorldRunner today, pre-
pillar-like columns that house power- sumably because the glasses pack-
ups, objects that are beneficial or add aged with the game ended up getting
extra abilities to the game character. At thrown away by players. Indeed, cop-
the end of each world’s last quadrant ies of the game sold on eBay almost
is a serpent-like creature which must never include the glasses, even if the
be defeated to advance. A status bar game’s box, instruction manual, and
at the bottom of the screen displays dust jacket are all intact.
 Developer Lenar
Publishers JP Irem
game a Nintendo Seal of Quality
NA Brøderbund
unless Brøderbund changed the
Designers Junichi Mizutari
name.
R. Nagasu
Deadly Towers is an action
Brøderbund’s relationship with Composer Yoshinobu Kasukawa
role-playing video game devel-
Lenar was facilitated by Scott Release dates JP December 15, 1986
oped by Lenar and exclusively-
(Kenji) Tsumura, who worked for NA September 1987
licensed by Irem as a software
IREM and eventually worked for Genre Action role-playing
title for the NES. One of the ear-
Brøderbund to form the Kyodai Mode Single-player
liest published role-playing vid-
Software division. Alan Weiss,
eo games for the NES in North
the Nintendo Producer at Brø-
America, Deadly Towers was a
derbund, managed all product
best-selling title in 1987.
development and worked with
In Japan, Deadly Towers was Lenar to translate the text of the
titled Mashō, literally mean- game. Weiss kept the strange
ing “Evil Bell”. It is a pun of the name, Prince Myer, to try and
word mashō, meaning “devil- make faithful conversions and
ishness”, and in keeping with not “Americanize” it. The name,
this theme, the Japanese car- “Deadly Towers,” came from Ed
tridge contained a red LED at Bernstein of Brøderbund. In re-
the top which illuminated when sponse to the difficulty level of
turned on. Irem intended the the game, Weiss stated: “We
game’s English-language title did a lot of testing of the game
to be Hell’s Bells, but Nintendo and we didn’t actually find it
of America refused to issue the that difficult at Brøderbund, and
I think we wanted something more Prince Myer can walk in eight direc-
challenging than previously published tions, and attacks by throwing a sword.
titles to round out our portfolio.” The player earns coins (a currency
called ludder) by killing monsters, and
The story of the game stars Prince
can trade ludder at shops in the dun-
Myer. On the moonlit eve of his coro-
geons for new equipment. The shops
nation ceremony, pensive Prince Myer
are in fixed locations throughout the
sits at the lakeside to ponder the future
dungeons, but their inventories may
of the kingdom. Suddenly, a shadowy
change.
kami called Khan rises from the lake
and coalesces into the form of a man. The palace has ten vast, labyrinthine
Although he doesn’t identify himself, dungeons. The first dungeon-maze
the figure greets Prince Myer by name, has 167 screens, and the tenth has
and informs him that Rubas, the “Devil 235. There are 7 bell towers, at the top
of Darkness”, is preparing to overtake of which are bosses.
Willner Kingdom by using seven magic
Hidden throughout the towers are in-
bells capable of summoning an army
visible portals to a secret area called
of monsters. To ensure peace, Khan
the Parallel Zone, where the player
says, Prince Myer must travel to the
can find equipment superior to that
northern mountain to burn the Seven
available in the shops.
Bells in the sacred flame, burn down
the seven bell towers in Rubas’ magic When released in 1987, the game
palace and, ultimately, defeat Rubas became a best-selling title in North
himself. America. Deadly Towers was particu-
larly notable for its permanent power-
Rubas’ palace is presented in one-
up mechanic, which at the time blurred
point perspective. The screen scrolls
the line between the power-ups used
sideways only, except in bell towers,
in action-adventures and the experi-
where the screen scrolls vertically.
ence points used in RPGs.
Lode Runner is a puzzle video limited to one building on the
game, first published by Brøder- UW campus. Shortly thereafter, Developer Douglas E. Smith
bund in 1983. It is one of the first Kong was ported to VAX mini- Publishers Brøderbund,
games to include a level editor, computers, as there were more Ariolasoft
a feature that allows players to terminals available on campus. Release dates JP July 31, 1984
create their own levels for the The game was programmed in NA September 1987
game. This feature bolstered Fortran and used ASCII charac- Genres Platform,
the game’s popularity, as maga- ter graphics. When Kong was Puzzle
zines such as Computer Gam- ported to the VAX, some Pas- Mode Single-player
ing World held contests to see cal sections were mixed into the
who could build the best level. original Fortran code.
Tozai, Inc. currently holds the
Over one weekend in 1982,
intellectual property and trade-
Smith was able to build a crude,
mark rights of Lode Runner.
playable version in 6502 as-
The prototype of what later be- sembly language on an Apple
came Lode Runner was a game II+ and renamed the game Min-
developed by Douglas E. Smith er. Through the end of the year,
of Renton, Washington, who at he refined that version, which
the time was an architecture stu- was black-and-white with no
dent at the University of Wash- joystick support. He submitted
ington. This prototype, called a rough version to Brøderbund
Kong, was written for a Prime around October 1982 and re-
Computer 550 minicomputer ceived a one-line rejection let-
ter in response to the effect of “Thank The game was released in mid-1983.
you for submitting your game concept. The original microcomputer versions
Unfortunately it does not fit within our included the Apple II series, the Atari
product line.”. 8-bit family, the Commodore VIC-20,
the Commodore 64, and the IBM PC.
Smith then borrowed money to pur-
chase a color monitor and joystick and The NES version was released by
continued to improve the game. Around Hudson Soft in 1984 (North American
Christmas of 1982, he submitted the release 1986) and became one of the
game, now renamed Lode Runner, to earliest third-party games made for
four publishers and quickly received that system. It had 50 levels, scrolling
offers from all four: Sierra, Sirius, Syn- screens, added music, and graphics
ergistic, and Brøderbund. He took the redone in a more cartoon-like style.
deal with Brøderbund. In addition, fruits and vegetables ran-
domly appear which may be grabbed
Miner, like its text-based Kong pred-
for additional points. Although a level
ecessors, had only very simple ani-
editor was included, there is no way to
mation where characters move across
save levels created with it. An arcade
the screen in block increments. It was
game of Lode Runner was produced
too primitive for an acceptable com-
with some added features like the abil-
mercial product as Brøderbund wanted
ity to hang off the ends of ladders and
detailed pixel-level movement. Ac-
an improved enemy AI.
cording to an article, Smith was given
a $10,000 advance by Brøderbund to Lode Runner was very successful. It
develop the inter-square animation, was Broderbund’s second best-selling
and to provide 150 levels of play. For Commodore game as of late 1987.
the latter, he reputedly paid neighbor-
hood children to design levels with the
editor he had coded.
 (the usual villains in Brøderbund
games), while fending off esca- Developer Will Wright
lating counterattacks by gun tur- Publisher Brøderbund
rets, fighter jets, guided missiles, Release date NA 1985
and a battleship. There was also Genres Action,
Raid on Bungeling Bay was the
a hidden island for the player to Strategy
first video game designed by
reload on. Failure meant that Modes Single-player,
Will Wright. It was published by
the Bungeling Empire develops Multiplayer
Brøderbund for the Commodore
64 in 1984 and the NES and a war machine to take over the
MSX computers in 1985. The planet Earth. Players had to at-
Commodore 64 version was tack its infrastructure while de-
published in the UK by Ariola- fending the aircraft carrier which
soft, and the NES version was served as home base.
ported by Hudson Soft. The game offers an interesting
Apart from offering a 2D over- insight into the design style of
head view of terrain which was Wright, who would later go on to
a bit more complex than in other design SimCity. The islands and
games, Raid on Bungeling Bay factories in the game behaved
was basically a simple war zone in a sophisticated manner which
shoot ‘em up. The player con- closely resembled SimCity.
trolled a helicopter that launched Over time, the factories would
from an aircraft carrier to bomb grow and develop new technol-
six factories scattered across ogies to use against the player.
islands on a small planetoid oc- There were also visible signs
cupied by the Bungeling Empire of interdependency among the
islands, such as supply boats moving between them.
In order to win the game, the player must prevent the
escalation by bombing all the factories as quickly as
possible, keeping them from advancing their technol-
ogy. If left alone for too long, the factories would cre-
ate enough new weaponry to overwhelm the player.
Compute! wrote in 1985 that Raid “possesses all the
virtues needed to appease the demanding gamer”,
with “amazingly detailed” graphics. Computer Gam-
ing World in 1988 approved of the Nintendo version’s
graphics, calling it a “high adventure with realistic
overtones” that did not involve dragons or elves. The
magazine named it the Action-Strategy Game of the
Year for Nintendo, writing that Raid had been “res-
cued from Broderbund’s computer software vaults,
updated slightly, and sent out to challenge all the
bright new [Nintendo games and] blew them out of
the water ... a delightful game experience”.
Wright continued to develop the editor for the game
as a personal toy because he enjoyed it so much.
He researched urban planning and realised that
others might enjoy constructing and building cities
themselves. The result was a fancier simulation that
eventually became SimCity.
 these number eight: Violence Developers Woodplace, Inc.,
Jo (ironically, this entry level Namco
fighter is the champion, in the Publisher Data East
NES version), Brown Pants, Release date NA September 1987
Ring King, known in the PAL White Wolf, Bomba Vern, Beat Genre Sports
regions as King of Boxer, and Brown, Blue Warker (reigning Modes Single-player,
known in Japan as Family Box- champion, in the arcade ver- Two players
ing, is an arcade boxing game sion), Green Hante and Onetta
originally developed and pub- Yank. Assuming the player wins
lished by Woodplace, Inc. in the the championship, arcade play
PAL regions in 1985, and later continues cycling through only
published by Data East in North the last of the afore-listed three
America the same year. (Blue Warker, Green Hante,
The game continues the series’ Onetta Yank).
theme of comical sports as the The player can choose from
player takes the role of a boxer several different types of punch-
who makes his way from his es and defensive maneuvers,
debut to become a world cham- along with unique special at-
pion. Ring King, though perhaps tacks. The player revives their
unintentionally, is standard of stamina during the round inter-
the boxing creations of its era, val by pressing the button rap-
via providing quirky monikers idly. The boxer’s abilities are de-
for opponents the player en- termined by three different stats;
counters; in its arcade release, punch, stamina, and speed. The
player can improve these stats using is an uppercut that launches the oppo-
the power points gained after each nent straight into the air. If thrown at
match. Performing well in matches al- the right timing, the uppercut can blast
lows the player to create more powerful the opponent straight out of the ring,
boxers. The player can save their game resulting in a technical knockout.
progress by recording a password, and
The game was later ported to the
two players can face off against each
NES in 1987 by Data East’s arcade-
other in the two-player mode. Though
to-NES converter, Sakata SAS, which
the game is rudimentary, it is possible
was published by Data East in North
to counter-punch, and missing with
America, and by Namco in Japan. The
too many punches causes the boxer’s
FamiCom and MSX2 versions were re-
stamina to decrease.
leased as the third game of the Family
The biggest characteristic of the game sports game series, after Family Stadi-
is the comical set of special attacks. um and Family Jocky for the Famicom
These moves are activated when the in Japan by Namco as Family Boxing.
player presses the attack button at the
The NES version of Ring King created
right timing and at the right distance.
some controversy because the box-
The attacks have the capability to in-
ers’ cornermen appear to be perform-
stantly knock out the opponent, but
ing fellatio on them between rounds.
being countered before a special at-
Though the scene was only intended
tack causes an extraordinary amount
to show the cornermen placing the
of damage as well. The first special
Foul Cup into the boxer’s trunks, the
attack is a powerful hook which the
graphical limitations of the NES made
boxer throws by spinning around like
the scene appear questionable. The
a top. The second is a straight punch
boxers may also appear to be hugging
that propels the opponent into the
as they grapple because of the NES’s
ropes when it connects. The third type
limitations.
 Developers Namco,
Epoch
Publishers JP Epoch
N A Sunsoft
scrolling shooter game. The
Sky Kid is a horizontal scrolling Composer Junko Ozawa
shooter arcade game that was players take control of the Sky Release dates JP August 22, 1986
released by Namco in 1985. Kids, “Red Baron” and “Blue NA September 1987
It runs on Namco Pac-Land Max”, which are references to Genre scrolling shooter
hardware but with a video sys-
Manfred von Richthofen, the Modes Single-player,
tem like that used in Dragon famous World War I flying ace, 2 players simultaneously
and the prestigious order Pour le
Buster. It is also the first game
from Namco to allow two play-Mérite informally known as Blue
ers to play simultaneously. The
Max. The Sky Kids fly around
game was later released on the
in biplanes and are assigned
Famicom (brought to the Ameri-
specific targets during the mis-
can NES by Sunsoft), and bothsions. These missions involve
bombing specific targets. The
this version for the Wii, Nintendo
“A” button is used to control the
3DS and Wii U and the original
plane’s machine gun and the “B”
arcade version for the Wii were
later released on Nintendo’s Vir-
button is used to perform a loop.
tual Console service. A number of obstacles face the
players in each level. First, their
Sky Kid is a two-dimensional
biplane is not equipped with a
bomb to complete their mission and the Galaxian flagship, has appeared in
must be picked up en route to the tar- several other Namco games) or Pooka
get. Second, there are both ground from Dig Dug.
and air units that attempt to keep the
If the player performs a loop in front of
Sky Kids from accomplishing their mis-
the three dancing girls which appear at
sion. Last, the Sky Kids may have to
the end of each mission, the girls will
navigate through some very inhospita-
send out hearts representing kisses.
ble terrain or navigate around cities in
order to get to the target. The targets After Namco ended its partner ships
which the Sky Kids must bomb will ei- with both Midway and Atari, they started
ther be fortress complexes, or ships. to release games in the United States.
As the players advance further up in Releases such as Grobda (1984) and
the 21 missions, multiple targets will Dig Dug II (1985) were some of the
begin to appear in the course of one games that Namco released. Since
mission. Players receive points for de- the Video Game Crash of 1983 had
stroying air and ground targets, and claimed quite a few arcade companies,
receive additional points at the end Namco managed to fill the gap. Sky Kid
of the mission for how many of these was a game that didn’t enjoy great suc-
types of targets are destroyed. In addi- cess in the United States. The game,
tion, players get points based on how however, did show that Namco was on
much of the target is destroyed - but the right track as far as the games they
only total destruction warrants an end- had released went. Featuring cartoon-
of-mission bonus. like graphics and different types of mis-
sions, Sky Kid would form the basis
Occasionally, performing a loop over a
for several other Namco games that
billboard will reveal one of four hidden
are based on the same type of game-
Namco characters: Pac-Man, Inky, the
play, such as Ordyne (1988) and Pistol
Special Flag from Rally-X (which, like
Daimyo no Bōken (1990).
 Developer MicroGraphicImage,
Irem
Publisher MicroGraphicImage,
Brøderbund
Designer Tim Martin
Release date NA September 1987
Genre Platform
Spelunker is a 1983 video game, no on the player; and a ghost
Mode Single player
originally released for the Atari haunting the cave and appear-
8-bit computers, developed by ing randomly, attempting to take
Tim Martin and MicroGraph- the player to the shadow world.
icImage. It is a platform game The player character can send
similar to Pitfall! or Curse of Ra. a blast of air to push the ghost
away. However, this renders the
Spelunker is set in a colossal
player’s character immobile for
cave, with the player starting at
a few seconds, thus vulnerable
the cave’s entrance at the top,
to other dangers and further de-
and the objective is to get to the
pleting their air supply. Objects
fabulous treasure at the bottom.
to collect include sticks of dyna-
To achieve this, the player must
mite, flares, and keys. Precise
walk and jump through increas-
positioning and jumping play
ingly challenging parts of the
key factors in successfully com-
cave, all the while working with
pleting the game.
a finite supply of fresh air, which
could be replenished at various The cave in Spelunker is divid-
points. ed into six levels. Although the
levels connect seamlessly to
The cave’s hazards include
each other, forming one large
bats, which drop deadly gua-
map, the game clearly signals
a level change at certain points by ker II: Yūsha e no Chōsen by Irem, in
showing the name of the next level and Japan only. The game was re-released
giving the player a bonus, consisting for Virtual Console in North America
of an extra life and a varying amount on March 17, 2008 and in Europe on
of points. Also, depending on memory, September 5, 2008 for the Wii, in both
the next level or two were loaded from regions on June 6, 2013 for the Wii U
disk at that point. and in North America on June 27, 2013
for the Nintendo 3DS.
The splash screen of the game on the
original Atari features an excerpt of Sony Computer Entertainment of Ja-
Modest Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an pan has released Spelunker HD, known
Exhibition as background music. All in Japan as Minna de Spelunker, for
other versions of the game, includ- the PlayStation 3 as a downloadable
ing the Atari re-release feature a dif- game through their PlayStation Net-
ferent title theme. The NES and MSX work Store. It received the PlayStation
versions have additional music during Store best sales award in 2009 from
gameplay. Sony Computer Entertainment of Ja-
pan. The game is a remake of the NES
The game was later ported to the Com-
port, with high definition graphics and
modore 64 and re-released by Brøder-
100 levels (10 large caves, with 10 lev-
bund in 1984, with European publish-
els in each).
ing rights licensed to Ariolasoft. An
arcade version followed in 1985, and In 2015, Square Enix released a se-
the game was released for the NES on quel titled Minna de Spelunker Z.
December 6, 1985 in Japan and Sep-
Computer Gaming World of 1985
tember 1987 in North America, and for
called Spelunker “a thoroughly enjoy-
the MSX in 1986. A sequel was also
able game ... a class act”.
released in arcades and for the NES
on September 18, 1987 called Spelun-
Spy Hunter is a 1983 arcade to Peter Gunn plays throughout.
game developed and released
Spy Hunter is a vertical scroll-
by Bally Midway.
ing action/driving game with the
Game designer George Gomez player in the role of a spy driv-
drew inspiration for the game ing an armed sportscar. The ob-
from listening to an audio cas- ject of the game is to travel the
sette tape of music from James freeway destroying as many en-
Bond films. He designed the emy vehicles as possible while
game with Tom Leon, with protecting civilian vehicles. The Developer Bally Midway
whom he had worked on TRON. game uses top-down perspec- Publisher Bally Midway,
Gomez sketched out the in- tive. NES Sunsoft
game road map on a long scroll Designer George Gomez
The game begins with the play-
of drawing paper and also came Release date NA September 1987
er driving the fictitious G-6155
up with the idea of the weapons Genre Vehicular combat
Interceptor. Various enemy ve-
van. Originally the game was Mode Single player
hicles try to destroy the player’s
to be based directly on James
car or to force it off the road, in-
Bond and have the James Bond
cluding a helicopter that drops
theme as in-game music, but the
bombs from overhead. A counter
license could not be acquired.
increments the score while the
Instead, an electronic arrange-
car is moving and on the road.
ment of Henry Mancini’s theme
Additional points are earned de-
stroying enemy vehicles using weap- The game’s dashboard shows which
ons or by forcing them off the road. Af- weapons are available, when lit.
ter an initial lead-in time during which
It is possible for the player to convert
the player has an unlimited supply of
the car into a go-fast boat for brief
cars, the player must earn extra cars
periods by driving through a special
by obtaining high scores. Destroying
boathouse which appears infrequently
non-enemy cars halts the score coun-
at the side of the road after which the
ter for a short while, and no points are
player is attacked by two different en-
scored whenever the player’s car is off
emy boats.
the road. The car can be destroyed by
a hard collision with another vehicle, if Despite rumors to the contrary, the in-
it is hit by an enemy weapon (including game road is endless and the game
the craters blasted into the road by the itself has no ending.
helicopter’s bombs), or by running far
Because of its success, Spy Hunter
enough off the roadway (or waterway).
was ported to several home video
Following periodic forks in the road, game systems and home computers of
players can enter a new ‘territory’ with the early 1980s era. The Nintendo port
different terrain and/or weather condi- of this game has extremely buggy col-
tions. Players can also upgrade the lision detection. If the road turns, the
car’s standard machine guns by add- car will not crash if it remains pointed
ing other weapons by entering the straight. It is possible to drive for hours
Weapons Van, which appears in each over dirt, rocks, river banks, etc. If the
new territory and can be periodically car’s tires are slashed while near the
summoned by pressing the blinking top of the screen, the car will often spin
“Weapons Van” button. Three spe- off the top of the screen and reappear
cial weapons are available: oil slicks, at the bottom. The car becomes inde-
smoke screens, and surface-to-air structible and can drive anywhere on
missiles. Each has limited ammo and the screen without being damaged, but
are lost if the player’s car is destroyed. the car’s weapons no longer function.
 Developer Bandai
Publisher Bandai America
Series Family Trainer
Release dates JP December 23, 1986
NA September 1987
Stadium Events, known in Ja- badge. This numbering system EU 1988
pan as Running Stadium, is an was abandoned when Nintendo Genres Sports simulation,
exergaming video game devel- took over further Bandai releas- Exergaming
oped by Bandai for the NES. es for use with its Power Pad Modes Single-player,
The game was released in Ja- instead. There were a total of Multiplayer
pan, North America, and West 10 games in the Family Trainer
Germany and Sweden. It is part series.
of the Family Trainer series in
The game featured an Olympic-
Japan, and one of two games
style Track and Field competi-
released in North America un-
tion, with events such as the
der the Family Fun Fitness se-
100m dash, 110m hurdles, long
ries banner, the other being
jump, and triple jump. Modes
Athletic World. The games were
of play include “Tournament”
designed and branded for the
and “The Olympics”. Players
Family Fun Fitness mat, a short-
utilized the Family Fun Fitness
lived running pad accessory for
mat (Side B) instead of a stand-
the NES.
ard controller in order to run and
Athletic World’s label is marked jump. A controller, connected to
with a green “Series 1”; Stadium Port A, is used to navigate the
Events has an orange “Series 2” game’s menu.
The North American, or NTSC, version of Stadium North Carolina and eventually listed it for an online
Events is universally accepted as the rarest licensed auction. An eBay Auction in January 2015 sold a
NES game available for purchase in North America. factory-sealed Stadium Events for $35,100.00. This
The reason for its rarity and subsequent high market copy of Stadium Events game was given a grade
price is its limited production and sales. At the time of of 85 the highest known grade for this game by the
its launch during the holiday season of 1987, Stadi- VGA. It was sold by a previous Nintendo employee
um Events was only available from limited stores. In who received it while working at Nintendo for over 22
1988, Nintendo purchased the North American rights years and held on to it for decades then decided to
to the FFF mat technology and re-released it as the sell after he left Nintendo.
Power Pad.
The European, or PAL, version of Stadium Events is
The two Family Fun Fitness-branded games that had not as rare as its American counterpart, but is still
already been released, as well as Bandai’s version of an expensive NES game. The PAL version was re-
the running pad accessory, were pulled from shelves leased in West Germany and Sweden. The value of
and presumed destroyed. Because of this odd se- this game varies depending on the condition of the
quence of events, only 2000 copies are believed to game, and supply and demand. Prices have been
have been produced, of which it is estimated that 200 anywhere from $200 to $1,000.
copies reached consumers before being recalled. To-
The re-released World Class Track Meet was pro-
day, collectors who follow the online sale of rare vid-
duced and sold in large numbers, as it was a pack-
eo games believe that fewer than 20 complete copies
in game for Nintendo’s Power Set bundle, which in-
of the game exist, only three of which are known to be
cluded (among other items) the NES console, Power
factory sealed. The game is worth up to $38,000 ac-
Pad, and World Class Track Meet. The Family Com-
cording to the NES Rarity Guide. An eBay auction of
puter version of Running Stadium was not recalled
a new, factory-sealed version of the game was sold
or otherwise limited, and survives in greater numbers
on January 22, 2011. The copy sold for $22,800.00,
than the North American version.
the highest confirmed price paid for the game at that
time. In 2013, it is reported that a woman purchased a
rare copy of the game for $7.99 at a Goodwill store in
Star Voyager, released in Japan ship. Players may also seek re-
as Cosmo Genesis, is an out- pairs at up to five space stations
er space shooter for the NES. in addition to CosmoStation
The gameplay is a first-person Noah. The player may also visit
shooter from inside the cockpit an asteroid field, and a black
of a spaceship. The player navi- hole from which escape is im-
gates “sub spaces” of a larger possible. The game is won if the
“world map.” Gameplay takes player defeats the enemy arma-
place between different sub- da and safely returns to base.
spaces. However, the game is lost if the
enemy fleet reaches the Cos-
The plot centers around a lone
moStation Noah, the player en- Developer ASCII Entertainment
pilot in a spacecraft attempt-
ters the black hole, the player’s Publisher Acclaim
ing to protect a transport ship,
ship runs out of fuel crystals, or Designer ASCII Entertainment
the CosmoStation Noah, full of
if life support fails. Release dates JP December 23, 1986
planetary refugees from a fleet
NA September, 1987
of intergalactic terrorists known Gameplay occurs on a 10x10
Genre Action
as the Molok Wardrivers. The grid that is randomized at the
Mode Single-player
player’s primary goal is to elimi- start of each game with the ex-
nate all enemy fleets before ceptions of the player and Cos-
they can surround the stationary moStation Noah will always be-
CosmoStation Noah. The player gin in the top left, and the five
may also visit up to eight differ- initial Molok Wardriver fleets
ent planets in search of engine will begin in the bottom right. To
and weapon upgrades for their progress through the grid, the
player must select their destination coordinates ei-
ther through the HUD or the select menu grid, and
hold down the B button to charge enough power to
travel as many sectors as required to reach their des-
tination, as identified by the number on the bottom-
center of the HUD. The number of leaps charged is
indicated by icons in the upper-left gauge.
As gameplay progresses, additional fleets may join
the Molok Wardriver armada. Any planets or space
stations they encounter during their trek to the Cos-
moStation Noah will be destroyed, limiting the re-
sources the player will have to mount an attack. In
order to destroy the enemy fleets, the player must
warp to their coordinates and destroy the fleet’s
spacecraft and mothership, which will endlessly de-
ploy enemy spacecraft as long as it remains opera-
tional. The player must raise their shields in the se-
lect menu in order to minimize damage taken to the
ship.
The player’s fuel crystals will deplete normally over
time, and faster during warping or sustaining dam-
age. Therefore it is necessary to visit space stations
to refuel to prolong gameplay. They can also repair
damaged systems which include radar, engines,
and weapons, but a malfunctioning life support sys-
tem can be repaired only at the CosmoStation Noah.
 Developer Konami
Publisher Konami
Designer Kazuhiro Aoyama
Composer Kiyohiro Sada NES,
Shinya Sakamoto, FC
Moero TwinBee: Cinnamon- by up to three player simultane-
Release dates FDS November 21, 1986
hakase wo Sukue! (“Burn Twin- ously: the first two players control
NA September 1987
Bee: Rescue Dr. Cinnamon!”) is TwinBee and WinBee (the ships
JP March 26, 1993
a vertical/side-scrolling shoot- from the previous game) using
Genre Shoot ‘em up
’em-up game released by Kon- the standard FamiCom control-
Mode Single-player,
ami for the FamiCom Disk Sys- lers, whereas the third player
2-player cooperative
tem in Japan in 1986. It was controls GwinBee (a green ship)
(3-player in the Japanese version)
later re-released as a standard by connecting an additional
FamiCom cartridge in 1993. controller into the console’s ex-
Moero TwinBee was the second pansion port. Unlike the original
game in the TwinBee series, as TwinBee, which only featured
well as the first of two TwinBee vertical-scrolling stages, Stinger
sequels released for the Fami- adds side-scrolling stages to the
Com, followed by TwinBee 3: mix as well. There are seven
Poko Poko Daimaō in 1989. stages in the game. Stage 1, 3,
and 7 are side-scrolling stag-
A North American version for
es, while the rest are vertical-
the NES was released in 1987
scrolling stages. The controls
titled Stinger, making it one of
remain the same between the
the few games in the series to
two styles of gameplay, with the
have an overseas release.
only difference being that in the
Moero TwinBee can be played side-scrolling segments, the A
button shoots hearts over the ship instead of drop-
ping bombs into the ground like the vertical-scrolling
segments, which helps the player keep the power-
up bells afloat in the side-scrolling stages.
The player’s primary power-up items are once again
bells that uncovered by shooting floating clouds
throughout the stages. There are six types of bells
in this installment: the regular yellow bells give the
player bonus points as usual, the blue bells increas-
es the ship’s speed; the white bell upgrades the
player’s gun into a twin cannon; the pink bell gives
the player a laser beam cannon; the flashing pink/
white bell gives the player’s ship mirror options for
added firepower; and the flashing blue/white bell
will surround the player’s ship with a barrier for ex-
tra protection from enemy fire. Some power-ups are
mutually exclusive, such as the white and pink bells.
Stinger, the NES version, only allows up to two play-
ers simultaneously, as it predated the release of mul-
tiplayer adapters such as the Four Score and Satel-
lite. The second player controls GwinBee instead of
WinBee, who is absent from this version. The NES
version also lacks the opening and ending screen
showing the three grandchildren of Dr. Cinnamon,
as well as the selectable difficulty settings at the title
menu.
 Developer Epyx,
Winter Games is a sports video ing in various events to try for a NES Atelier Double
game developed by Epyx (and medal. Publisher Acclaim
released in Europe by U.S. Series Epyx Games
The events available vary slight- Release dates NA September 1987
Gold), based on sports featured
ly depending on the platform, Modes Single-player
in the Winter Olympic Games.
but include some or all of the
A snow-and-ice themed follow- following:
up to the highly successful Sum-
• Alpine skiing
mer Games, Winter Games was
• Ski jumping
released in 1985 for the Com-
• Biathlon
modore 64 and later ported to
• Bobsled
several popular home comput-
• Figure skating
ers and video game consoles of
• Speed skating
the 1980s.
• Luge
The game was presented as a • Freestyle skiing; more precise-
virtual multi-sport carnival called ly, the aerial skiing discipline,
the “Epyx Winter Games” (there called “Hot Dog Aerials” in the
was no official IOC licensing in game
place) with up to 8 players each
The game allowed you to com-
choosing a country to represent,
pete in all of the events sequen-
and then taking turns compet-
tially, choose a few events, choose just one event, or
practice an event.
Winter Games was ported to the Amiga, Apple II,
Atari ST, Apple Macintosh, Apple IIGS, Amstrad
CPC, ZX Spectrum, and DOS computer platforms,
and to the Atari 2600, Atari 7800, NES, and the Fam-
iCom Disk System video game consoles. In 2004, it
was featured as one of the games on the C64 Direct-
to-TV.
Winter Games was Epyx’s best-selling Commodore
game as of late 1987. In 1985 Zzap!64 gave 94%
for the game calling it “another classic sport simula-
tion from Epyx”. Lemon64 website users have given
average vote of 8.6 which places the game on top
20 list on the site. The game was reviewed in 1988
in Dragon #132 by Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser
in “The Role of Computers” column. The reviewers
gave the game 3½ out of 5 stars. The Spectrum ver-
sion topped the charts for the month of April. The
NES and Famicom Disk System versions were criti-
cally panned for unresponsive controls, abysmal
music and poor graphics.
Rad Racer, originally released to Sega’s Out Run. In Japan,
in Japan as Highway Star, is it is one of the few titles for the
a racing game developed and system designed for use with
published by Square for the Nintendo’s Famicom 3D System
FamiCom in 1987. In this game, peripheral for 3D experience.
players drive a Ferrari 328 or The main reason for the devel-
an F1 racing machine through opment of the game was that Developer Square
a race course. The game was Square owner Masafumi Miya- Publisher JP Square
released for the NES in North moto wanted to demonstrate NA Nintendo
America and Europe months af- Gebelli’s 3D programming tech- EU Mattel
ter its debut on FamiCom. niques. Designer Hironobu Sakaguchi
It was programmed by Nasir Ge- The idea of Rad Racer is to rally Programmer Nasir Gebelli
belli, designed and supervised through a course, and make it Composer Nobuo Uematsu
by Hironobu Sakaguchi, and fea- to check points before the timer Release dates JP August 7, 1987
tured music by Nobuo Uematsu, runs out. If a player hits a road NA October 1, 1987
all of whom later contributed to sign or tree at any speed the car EU January 15, 1988
Final Fantasy in similar roles. In crashes. Hitting another car di- Genre Arcade style racing
1987, few racing games existed rectly from behind will severely Mode Single-player
for the NES, and Rad Racer slow the car down. If another
was seen as Square’s answer car side swipes your car you will
be pushed quickly to the side. At higher the F1 racing machine over the Fer-
levels you can crash by hitting another rari 328, this is debated by race fans.
car. Crashes take time and make it Both cars have a maximum speed of
more difficult for the player to reach the 255 km/h (255 is the highest integer
check point. There are eight different representable within 8 bits). In-game,
levels of increasing skill. Even if time “turbo” can be activated by pressing
runs out, the vehicle can continue to the up button to boost the car’s speed,
coast for a while; if the vehicle reaches and disengaged at any time by releas-
a checkpoint before running out of mo- ing the button.
mentum, the game continues. If time
As one of the NES’s premier rac-
runs out before the goal is reached,
ers, Rad Racer was met with favora-
the game is over. Rad Racer players
ble reviews and enjoyed commercial
can activate a 3D mode during play by
success; it ranked 8th on Nintendo
pressing the “Select” button and wear-
Powers player’s poll Top 30. It was
ing 3D glasses. The game came pack-
condemned, however, for its extreme
aged with 3D glasses which could be
similarity to Sega’s Out Run, released
worn to give the player the illusion of
the previous year.
three dimensions (Square had previ-
ously incorporated the usage of 3D Despite the efforts of Square Co. to
glasses in 3-D WorldRunner). make unique games with 3D features
such as Rad Racer and 3-D Worldrun-
At the car selection screen, the play-
ner, and high sales, the company was
er can pick one of two cars: a Ferrari
in financial trouble. These events are
328 or an F1 racing machine, similar in
what led to a final attempt at a brea-
appearance to the 1987 Camel-spon-
kout hit, Final Fantasy. Reaction be-
sored Honda/Lotus 99T Formula One
came more positive over time, and
car. Although officially there is suppos-
Rad Racer was ranked number 57 on
edly no performance gain by choosing
IGNs Top 100 NES games.
 Developer Nintendo R&D3
Publisher Nintendo
Designers Genyo Takeda
Makoto Wada
Composers Yukio Kaneoka
Akito Nakatsuka
Punch-Out!!, originally released the NES port to faithfully emulate Kenji Yamamoto
in North America as Mike Ty- the arcade graphics. Instead of Series Punch-Out!!
son’s Punch-Out!!, is a boxing making the playable boxer wire- Release dates
sports fighting game for the framed or transparent to see an Gold Version
NES. Part of the Punch-Out!! opponent, they decided to short- September 1987
series, it is a port of both the en the playable boxer, so that Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!!
Punch-Out!! and Super Punch- players could easily see oppo- NA October 1987
Out!! arcade games (particularly nents over the large head room JP November 21, 1987
the latter) with some variations. of the playable boxer. Other EU December 15, 1987
things added to the NES version Punch-Out!!
Genyo Takeda, who produced NA August 1990
that the arcade versions lacked
the Punch-Out!! arcade games, EU August 1990
were a rough plot, a background
directed the NES versions. Be- Genres Sports,
music track played during fights,
cause the NES was not as pow- Fighting
animated cutscenes and a pass-
erful as the arcade hardware, Mode Single-player
word system.
Takeda and his crew realized
that it would be impossible for
Nintendo released a game in a gold-colored Fami- cided against renewing it due
com cartridge simply titled Punch-Out!! in Japan, as a to his recent defeat by James
prize for the Golf U.S. Course Famicom Tournament “Buster” Douglas), Nintendo
in September 1987. The final opponent in this version replaced Tyson with a fic-
was Super Macho Man, who was also the final oppo- tional character called Mr.
nent in the Super Punch-Out!! arcade game. Dream and re-released the
game as simply Punch-Out!!
Around the time the Gold Version was released,
in limited quantities in North
Nintendo of America’s founder and former president
America in August 1990.
Minoru Arakawa attended a boxing match featuring
future heavyweight champion Mike Tyson. While This is the version used in all
watching the boxer fight, Arakawa became so aston- Virtual Console releases.
ished with the athlete’s “power and skill”, he was in-
Punch-Out!! has been well
spired to use the athlete’s name and likeness in the
received by critics. A Game-
upcoming port of the Punch-Out!! series to help the
Spot reader poll ranked it as
game sell well. Tyson was rumoured to have been
the 6th greatest NES game.
paid $50,000 for a three-year period for his likeness.
It was rated the 17th best
This was something of a chance for Nintendo, as it
occurred before Tyson won the World Boxing Council game made on a Nintendo System in Nintendo Pow-
(WBC) heavyweight championship from Trevor Ber- er’s Top 200 Games list. In August 2008, Nintendo
bick on November 22, 1986. Power listed it as the sixth best Nintendo Entertain-
ment System video game, praising it for putting ar-
When Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!! sold well in North cade-style fun over realism. Author Steve L. Kent
America, Nintendo later released the Mike Tyson ver- called it the second major game of 1987. Author
sion in Japan. Nathan Lockard cited the graphics, violence, con-
After Nintendo’s license to use Mike Tyson as a spe- trols, and the variety for it being a “true classic” and
cial Punch-Out!! character expired (Nintendo de- one of the best NES games.
 Developer Konami
Publisher Konami
Composer Satoe Terashima
Release dates JP March 18, 1987
The Goonies II (“The Goonies have been kidnapped by the Fr- NA November 1987
II: The Fratellis’ Last Stand”) is atellis, an Italian family of small- EU December 19, 1988
an adventure game developed time crooks and counterfeiters. Genre Platform game
and published by Konami for the Mikey must rescue all six of his Mode Single player
NES. It was released on March friends and free a captured mer-
18, 1987 in Japan, November maid named Annie.
1987 in North America, and on
The Goonies II features two
December 19, 1988 in Europe.
modes of play: platform and
It is a sequel to the first Fami-
first-person. Most of the game
Com Goonies game, which was
is played as the former as the
only available in North America
player works through a non-
on Nintendo Vs. System and
linear map. The player moves
PlayChoice-10 arcade units.
Mikey to new areas of the map
This led many people to assume
by ladders or doors that may act
that it was based on a sequel to
as warp zones. Several differ-
the original film, which, as of yet,
ent types of zones are found in
has not been produced.
the game, each with distinct en-
The game’s story centers on emies, graphics and music.
Mikey. His friends, the Goonies,
When the player exits the plat-
have been kidnapped by the Fr-
form screen by entering a door, the additional cases of them. These are
game shifts to a first-person mode. Us- explosive weapons that have a small
ing a command menu similar to Shad- blast radius and can damage Mikey if
owgate (released around the same he is in range; the bomb can also re-
time), the player explores the area by veal hidden doors.
navigating through rooms, searching
There are also two performance boost-
for hidden items and interacting with
ing shoes in the game. The spring
non-player characters. The items the
shoes increase Mikey’s jumping ability
player finds may be useful on the over-
and are required to reach certain areas
world (such as weapons or transceiv-
of the map. The hyper shoes increase
ers) or within the rooms themselves
Mikey’s speed and make some areas
(such as the candle, key and ladder).
more easily accessible.
The player will find the six Goonies in
cells in this mode. Each rescued Goo- What the player has to do in order to
nie increases Mikey’s health. obtain certain vital items is sometimes
obscure. For example, the candle (an
There are a number of weapons the
item necessary to finish the game) is
player can use, and the player can
obtained when Mikey hits a specific old
equip both a primary and secondary
woman five times in a row for no appar-
weapon. Mikey can use three prima-
ent reason.
ry weapons: the yo-yo, a short-range
weapon with limited power; the sling- The Goonies II has developed a cult
shot, a ranged, ammunition-based following among classic gamers.
weapon; and the boomerang, a slower Though the game was received with
ranged weapon with unlimited use. mildly positive reviews and is typically
The bomb and molotov cocktail are given average or slightly positive rat-
the two secondary weapons the player ings, it is still well known among gam-
can use, and the player can increase ers for several reasons.
Mikey’s carrying capacity by finding
 Developer Westone Bit Entertainment
(uncredited)
Publisher LJN
Composer Shinichi Sakamoto
Release date NA November 1987
Jaws is a video game for the ter Game, released in 1989 by Genre Action
NES that is loosely based on Screen 7 for the Commodore Mode Single-player
the film franchise of the same Amiga and for the C 64 as sim-
name, specifically Jaws: The ply Jaws by Box Office Software.
Revenge, the fourth and final
In this game, the player pilots a
film in the series. The box art is
boat across the sea, randomly
modeled heavily after the the-
encountering groups of hostile
atrical poster, and the back of
sea creatures. When the boat
the box mentions “...like it’s per-
hits something in the overhead
sonal”, perhaps as a reference
map, the perspective changes
to said movie’s tagline. How-
to a side-view. The player’s boat
ever, it does take elements from
releases a diver who battles
the first. It is also one of the few
various undersea threats such
LJN-published titles developed
as jellyfish, rays, and smaller
by a Japanese company.
sharks. Occasionally, Jaws will
There was a separate computer appear on the map in the form
adaptation of the original Jaws of its familiar dorsal fin breaking
movie called Jaws: The Compu- the water’s surface. If players
collide with Jaws’ dorsal fin, they
can momentarily control their
boat in the side-view encounter in loss of the tracking device, the loss of
an attempt to attack Jaws with depth half of the conch shells accumulated to
charges. Jaws will always collide with that point, and complete health replen-
the boat and release the diver into the ishment for Jaws.
water. Jaws will also appear after a
The player can also find a submarine
brief moment if the player snags some-
which appears at random places in
thing in the overhead map with Jaws
the game map. The submarine is an
nearby.
upgrade with two weapons (torpedoes
Items encountered include crabs (in- and depth charges) and much less in-
creases movement speed of the div- ertia than the diver.
er), stars (bonus points), and conch
Once Jaws’ health has been reduced
shells which are used as currency in
in the side view encounter, the game
this game. Equipment and upgrades
changes to a “first person” view of the
are purchased by alternating between
player’s boat. Players are given three
two ports on the map. The first port
charges for their strobe device to force
visit gives the player a receiver, which
Jaws to breach the water’s surface.
tracks the location of Jaws relative to
Timing is essential in order to force
the boat on the overhead map; the
Jaws to breach at the proper distance
faster it beeps, the closer Jaws is to the
from the bow of the boat. In order to
player. Future visits to ports afterwards
fully defeat Jaws, the player must jab
increases overall attack power against
it with the boat’s bow at the proper dis-
Jaws. Touching a hostile sea creature
tance when it breaches from the strobe
during the side view undersea encoun-
device.
ters will kill players and penalize them
with a power level drop by one (if they Computer Gaming World praised the
had upgraded their attack power), the game in its review, saying, “The graph-
ics, animations and game play in Jaws
are all first rate.”
 Developer Atlus
Publisher LJN
Composers Tsukasa Masuko
Hirohiko Takayama
Release date NA November 1987
Genre Action
The Karate Kid is a game pub- cation for the first Karate Kid Modes Single-player,
lished by LJN and developed film’s climax). He will have to go Multiplayer
by the Japanese company Atlus through four fighters in order to
Co., Ltd for the NES. The game- advance to the next stage. The
play loosely follows plot ele- opponent’s energy bar increas-
ments from the first and second es as the player progresses
Karate Kid movies. through them. The final fight is
presumably with Johnny Law-
There are four levels in the
rence from the movie.
game, and they play out as the
movie goes. It ends with Pat Level 2
Morita winking at the player Daniel then starts the second
from the screen. level which is set in Okinawa
(the primary setting for The Ka-
Level 1
rate Kid, Part II). There, he must
The game begins with Daniel
dispatch random thugs who die
LaRusso fighting in the All Val-
in one hit while progressing to
ley Karate Tournament (the lo-
Chozen at the end of the stage.
For every few enemies dispatched, Level 4
Daniel can collect small “C” and “D” The final stage is the festival after the
symbols that allow him to use Crane typhoon. Daniel wears a new outfit for
Kicks and Drum Punches, respective- this stage and the random enemies
ly. They also replenish a small amount are now tougher, requiring two hits
of Daniel’s energy meter. There are to be felled. There are also enemies
also a few obvious and not-so-obvi- with spears who take even more hits
ous entrances where Daniel can earn to defeat. The final boss, once again
Drum Punches and Crane Kicks by ei- Chozen, has a new twist. Now he has
ther breaking ice-blocks, catching flies Kumiko down on the ground beside
with chopsticks, or dodging a swinging him and if Daniel does not occasionally
hammer. come into contact with her, she will slip
off the platform and drown. This will re-
Level 3
sult in a lost life. If Daniel can success-
In the third stage of play, Daniel is in a
fully defeat the boss without Kumiko
stage that is nearly identical to the sec-
drowning the player will be treated to a
ond (with some tricky jumps) during a
rather short ending. Mr. Miyagi’s head
typhoon. The typhoon causes a strong
appears and is animated to look as if
wind to interfere with the player’s jumps
he’s talking and saying “You have suc-
and various objects (sticks, birds) to fly
cessfully guided Daniel-san through
through the air and threaten the play-
all the challenges and have become a
er’s energy. They can be hit for extra
martial arts master!”
points, however. The boss is Chozen
again and this time, there is a girl up on The game also features a One on One
a pole that Daniel must save. It is not mode where two players can fight a
necessary to beat Chozen, only rescue single one on one battle to determine
the girl. a winner.
 Developer Capcom
Publisher Capcom
Director Akira Kitamura
Producer Takashi Nishiyama
Programmer Nobuyuki Matsushima
Artist Yasuaki Kishimoto
Naoya Tomita
Keiji Inafune
Before Mega Man, Capcom sought perfection in every pos-
Akira Kitamura
primarily made arcade games, sible aspect of the game.
Composer Manami Matsumae
and their console releases were
The development team for Series Mega Man
mostly ports of these titles. In
Mega Man consisted of only Release dates JP December 17, 1987
the mid-1980s, Capcom made
six people. Inafune (credited as NA December 17, 1987
plans to develop Mega Man
“Inafuking”) designed and illus- EU May 1990
specifically for the Japanese
trated nearly all of the game’s Genres Action, platform
home console market. They de-
characters and enemies, as well Mode Single-player
cided to bring in fresh, young
as the Japanese Rockman logo,
talent for the small team, includ-
box art, and instruction manual.
ing artist Keiji Inafune, a recent
He was also responsible for ren-
college graduate who started
dering these designs into graph-
on the Street Fighter team. In-
ical sprite form. “We didn’t have
afune recalled that the Mega
[a lot of] people, so after drawing
Man development team worked
character designs, I was actual-
extremely hard to complete the
ly doing the dotting for the Nin-
final product, with a project su-
tendo,” Inafune stated. “Back
pervisor and lead designer who
then, people weren’t specialized
“Back then, people weren’t specialized and we had to The gameplay for Mega Man was inspired by the
do a lot of different things because there was so few game rock-paper-scissors. The project supervisor
people, so I really ended up doing all the characters.” wanted a simple system that offered “deep game-
play”. Each weapon deals a large amount of damage
Inafune was influenced by the eponymous protago-
to one specific Robot Master, others have little to no
nist of Osamu Tezuka’s manga Astro Boy in his Mega
effect against them, and there is no single weapon
Man designs. Mega Man is colored blue due to the
that dominates all the others. Mega Man was origi-
NES console’s technical limitations: the color has the
nally able to crouch, but the team decided against it
most shades in the console’s limited 56-color palette,
since it made players’ ability to determine the height
and the expanded selection was used to enhance
of onscreen projectiles more difficult.
Mega Man’s detail. Although he is often credited for
designing the character, Inafune insists that he “only Critics received Mega Man warmly, though the game
did half of the job in creating him”, as his mentor de- sold poorly. AllGame described the game as a “near-
veloped the basic character concept before Inafune’s perfect blend of action, challenge and audio-visual
arrival. The basic sprites for Roll and Dr. Light were excellence” and awarded it the highest rating.
created before Inafune joined the project, and the
designs for Cut Man, Ice Man, Fire Man, and Guts
Man were in process. Aside from normal enemies,
Inafune’s first character was Elec Man, inspired by
American comic book characters. The artist has com-
mented that Elec Man has always been his favorite
design. The designs for Dr. Light and Dr. Wily were
based on Santa Claus and Albert Einstein, respec-
tively; the latter character was
meant to represent an archetyp-
al “mad scientist”.
 Developer Rare
Publishers Acclaim Entertainment
JP Jaleco
Composer David Wise
Series Wizards & Warriors
Wizards & Warriors is a plat- After starting the game, the map
Release dates NA December 1987
forming video game developed is briefly shown for players to
EU January 7, 1990
by Rare Ltd. for the NES. In the look at; afterwards, gameplay
Genre 2D action platformer
game, players control Kuros, starts. Starting in the Elrond for-
Mode Single-player
the “Knight Warrior of the Books est, players must explore the
of Excalibur”, as he sets out in trees – both on top and inside –
the Kingdom of Elrond to defeat to find items and to make it into
the evil wizard Malkil, who holds the caves and tunnels. There,
the princess captive in Castle players start collecting the vari-
IronSpire, located deep within ous magical items and treas-
Elrond’s forests. ure; they must make their way
through caves filled with ice as
Wizards & Warriors was devel-
well as lava. Afterwards, play-
oped by UK-based video game
ers fight through a second set of
company Rare. The game’s
forests before arriving at Castle
soundtrack was composed by
IronSpire, in which the player
video game composer David
must go over the castle in order
Wise. It was Rare’s second
to enter it. The castle consists of
game released for the NES, af-
a series of mazes in which play-
ter Slalom.
ers must use keys to open doors
and possibly find other damsels which creases as time passes and when he
can be rescued. At the end lies the final sustains damage from enemies. Play-
confrontation with the wizard Malkil. ers loses a life when Kuros’ life meter
runs out, but upon restarting they keep
Players use the control pad to move
all the items they have obtained up to
horizontally and to crouch. Kuros can
that point. The game ends when all
attack enemies by using his Brights-
three lives have been lost, but players
word or with other weapons and mag-
have the choice to continue and restart
ic. He can also attack enemies while
at the level in which they lost their last
in the air or while standing by simply
life; upon continuing, players keep all
holding the sword in position. The ob-
their items obtained up to that point,
jective of the game is to collect the
but their score goes back to zero.
various weapons and magic as well as
Along the way, players can replenish
the gems and treasure along the way;
Kuros’ life meter by collecting pieces of
players use these items to make it past
meat scattered throughout the levels.
the enemies and other obstacles and
hazards. Players collect gems in or- Wizards & Warriors was reviewed in
der to “bribe” the creature who guards Nintendo Fun Club News – the precur-
the entrance to the next level; if play- sor to Nintendo Power – in which a brief
ers do not have enough gems, they overview of the gameplay was given.
cannot progress to the next level. At
Wizards & Warriors has received scant
the end of each level is a boss crea-
coverage from modern video gaming
ture which has been empowered by
websites. Though, Retro Gamer called
Malkil’s black magic. Bosses have an
Wizards & Warriors “a unique experi-
“Enemy’s Black Magic Power” meter
ence for NES gamers in 1987, and
which shows how difficult the boss is,
technically well ahead of other games
how many hits are required to defeat it,
for the console at the time”.
and what type of weaponry needs to be
used. Kuros has a life meter which de-
 Developer Namco
Publisher Namco,
Tengen
Designer Peter Lipson
Composers Junko Ozawa,
Brad Fuller,
Don Diekneite,
R.B.I. Baseball, known as Pro Games, the American arcade John Paul,
Yakyuu Family Stadium in Ja- division and Tengen’s parent Kent Carmical
pan, is a baseball video game company, released a Nintendo Series R.B.I. Baseball
for the NES. R.B.I. spawned Vs. Series version of Family Sta- Release dates JP December 1986
two sequels on the NES as well dium named Vs. RBI Baseball in NA 1988
as versions for the Mega Drive/ 1987. It was also successful, so Genre Sports
Genesis, TurboGrafx-16 (PC its programmer, Peter Lipson, Modes Single-player,
Engine), Sega 32X, Commo- developed a console version for Multiplayer
dore Amiga, Super NES, Sega the NES.
Game Gear, and Atari ST. R.B.I.
RBI Baseball was the first con-
is an initialism for “run batted in”.
sole game of its kind to be li-
Tengen’s controlling com- censed by the MLBPA and used
pany, Namco, developed and actual MLB player names, un-
released Pro Yakyuu Family like other baseball video games
Stadium (also known as Fam- of the late 1980s. It was not li-
ily Stadium) for the FamiCom in censed by MLB itself, however,
December 1986. Family Stadi- and thus did not use team nick-
um was a success and spawned names or logos. Instead, the
numerous sequels across a va- game contained 8 teams listed
riety of platforms in Japan. Atari only by city name: Boston, Cali-
fornia, Detroit, Houston, Minnesota, to steer. Nolan Ryan and Roger Clem-
New York, St. Louis, and San Fran- ens are two pitchers in the game with
cisco; their real-life, MLB counterparts the fastest pitches. Fernando Valen-
were the first place teams in each divi- zuela, without a hard fastball, has
sion in 1986 (Boston, California, Hou- tremendous movement in both direc-
ston, New York) and 1987 (Detroit, tions with his pitches. Mike Scott has a
Minnesota, St. Louis, San Francisco) sharp and deceptive breaking ball. The
MLB seasons. The game also boasted best pitcher is debatable, depending
two All-Star teams, American League on how they are used by the players.
and National League; the two featured
The abilities of each player do not nec-
established veterans such as George
essary correspond with the statistics
Brett, Dale Murphy and Andre Dawson
shown on the screen when the play-
— none of whom appeared on the other
er comes to bat or takes the mound.
eight teams — and up-and-coming play-
These statistics are generally accu-
ers like Mark McGwire, Andrés Galar-
rate, with many exceptions. They do
raga, Kevin Seitzer and José Canseco.
not change during the course of the
Each player has different capabilities game or sequence of games.
in the game; hitters vary in ability to
The rosters for the eight teams are fair-
make solid contact, to hit the ball with
ly accurate if simplified representations
power, and their base running speed.
of the playoff rosters from their respec-
Vince Coleman is the fastest player in
tive years. Each team has 8 starting
the game; it is very difficult to catch him
batters, four bench players, two start-
stealing second base. Pitchers vary
ing pitchers and two relievers.
in pitching speed, and the amount by
which the player can steer the ball left In Vs. RBI Baseball, the teams are
and right during its flight. Pitchers also made up of legends from 10 different
have varying stamina; as a pitcher gets franchises.
tired, the ball slows down and is harder
 and ostrich-riding skeleton war-
Developer SAS Sakata,
riors.
Data East
Players can make Karnov walk, Publisher Data East
jump and shoot his way through (Japan) Namco
these levels and find special Release dates JP December 18, 1987
Karnov is a 1987 platform ar-
items that will help him on his NA January 1988
cade game. It is the debut of
way. He also can collect red Genre Platform
Data East’s mascot of the same
orbs with which he can upgrade Mode Single-player,
name. After Data East became
up to three fireballs at a time. 2 players alternating
defunct due to bankruptcy in
Each level contains a variety of
2003, Paon, a company com-
strange enemies, such as gar-
prising former Data East staff,
goyles, tree monsters, will-o-
acquired the rights to Karnov,
wisps rock creatures, centipede
along with multiple other Data
women, and hopping warriors,
East games.
which Karnov must destroy or
The game puts the bulging- avoid. When he reaches the
muscled, fire-breathing, ex- end of a level he usually has to
circus strongman east-Russian face one or more bosses which
hero on a quest through nine dif- he must defeat to beat the lev-
ferent levels to search for treas- el and receive a new piece of
ures. However, between him a treasure map. In each level
and the treasures were several Karnov can collect a variety of
horrendous monsters, including items along the way, which can
sword-wielding monks, dino- be chosen right away or only at
saurs, djinn, hopping fish men certain times. At the end of the
game he must face a powerful boss of- replaced with the Shield which is used
ten called “The Wizard” and collect the to reflect an enemy’s fireballs.
treasure. • Levels 4 and 8 are completely differ-
This game was later ported to numer- ent from the arcade levels.
ous home consoles, such as the NES, • The final boss is no longer the Wiz-
Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, Tiger ard, but a giant three-headed dragon
Electronics handheld and others. The by the name of Ryu. Both fights, how-
PC port was developed by Quicksilver ever, take place in similar rooms.
Software and distributing on a self- There are also non-game play differ-
booting disk; they were among the last ences between the Famicom and NES
developers for the PC to still release versions. The Famicom provides a
games in this format. story throughout the entire game, com-
The FamiCom version was released plete with images. The NES game does
on December 18, 1987 in Japan, and not have such a feature. The Famicom
a year later on its North American game is also noticeably more difficult
equivalent, the NES, in 1988. Although since the continue option is not present
it plays very similarly to the original ar- after all lives are lost (though the play-
cade game there are some noticeable er can press select and start to do so).
differences: The NES game, however, provides un-
limited continues. The NES game also
• Karnov takes two hits to die instead allowed Karnov to be killed when both
of just one. After being hit once he will the A and B buttons were pressed on
turn a blue color in which he has one the second controller.
hit left or can gain an extra hit back by
grabbing a blue fireball orb. The title character was reintroduced in
many other Data East games, including
• The Super Fireball is replaced with
Bad Dudes Vs. DragonNinja in which
the Spike Bomb which destroys every
he played a boss in the first level.
enemy on screen. The Trolley item is
 Developer Technos Japan
Publisher (JP) Technos Japan
(US, EU) Taito
Designer Yoshihisa Kishimoto
Renegade is a video game re- action, and enemies which can Composer Kazuo Sawa
leased in American and Europe- sustain multiple hits. It is con- Series Kunio-kun
an arcades in 1986 by Taito. It is sidered to be one of the most in- Release date NA January 1988
a westernized conversion of the fluential titles of the video game Genre Beat ‘em up
Japanese arcade game Nekket- industry. Mode Single player,
su Kōha Kunio-kun (which Multiplayer
Renegade is a localization of the
roughly translates to “Hot-
Japanese Nekketsu Kōha Kun-
Blooded Tough Guy Kunio”),
io-kun for the North American
released earlier the same year
and Worldwide markets, with
by Technos. It is an immediate
the game’s graphics changed in
technological predecessor to
an attempt to adapt the game’s
Double Dragon, and Nekketsu
setting to a more western style
Kōha Kunio-kun is the inaugural
(with what can be seen as thin-
game in the Kunio-kun series
ly veiled ‘inspiration’ from the
(which includes Super Dodge
film The Warriors). The gangs
Ball and River City Ransom).
of thugs and bikers featured in
Renegade first introduced sev- Renegade were originally high
eral trademarks of the beat ‘em school delinquents, bōsōzoku
up genre, including 4-directional members, a sukeban along with
control, punch-jump-kick play her minions, and finally Yakuza
members in Kunio-kun. The subway students of Nekketsu High School
level in the first stage was originally a greeting Kunio outside Sabu’s hideout,
Japanese train station, whereas most with Hiroshi giving Kunio a firm hand-
of the signs and billboards in the last shake.
two stages were also written in Japa-
The NES version, developed in-house
nese. The title of the Japanese ver-
by Technos and released in 1987 by
sion was influenced by Konami’s ar-
Taito in North America, is a strong de-
cade game, Shinnyuushain Tooru-Kun
parture from the original arcade game;
(known outside of Japan as Mikie).
the first three stages each consist of
Instead of the damsel-in-distress plot a series of two-screens wide levels
of Renegade, Kunio-kun instead fea- against a group of three enemies at a
tured the titular high school student, time, culminating in a one-on-one fight
Kunio, standing up for his bullied with the boss. The second stage also
friend Hiroshi. Each stage begins with contains a side-scrolling motorcycle
the stage’s gang beating up Hiroshi chase, in which the player tries to kick
in front of Nekketsu High School and opponents off their motorcycles, prior
Kunio chasing after his attackers. Un- to the boss fight. In the third stage,
like Renegade, Kunio and the game’s the player can choose from one of two
bosses are identified by name in- paths after clearing the first level of
game, whereas the characters in Ren- enemies: one leads to a confrontation
egade are simply identified by the ge- against the stage boss, while the other
neric identifier “1P” or “2P” (depending is a second level filled with small fry
on who is playing) and “BOSS” (it was enemies. The fourth and final stage is
not until the NES version that bosses a maze of numerous rooms, filled with
in Renegade were given names). The enemies and previous bosses, inside a
bosses of Kunio-kun are as followed: building which the player must proceed
Riki, Shinji, Misuzu and Sabu. The in order to reach the final boss.
game ends with Hiroshi and several
 Developer Konami
Publisher Konami
Designer Shigeharu Umezaki
Shinji Kitamoto
Composers Hidenori Maezawa
Contra, distributed as Gryzor in ganization have set a base on Kiyohiro Sada
Europe and Oceania, is a 1987 the Galuga archipelago near Series Contra
run and gun action game devel- New Zealand in a plot to con- Release dates NA February 2, 1988
oped and published by Konami quer the world. Two comman- JP February 9, 1988
originally released as a coin- dos, Pfc. Bill Rizer and Pfc. EU December 28, 1990
operated arcade game on Feb- Lance Bean of the Contra unit Genre Run and gun
ruary 20, 1987. A home version (an elite group of soldiers spe- Modes Single-player,
was released for the NES in cializing in guerrilla warfare), Cooperative
1988, along with ports for vari- are sent to the island to destroy
ous computer formats, including the enemy forces and uncover
the MSX2. The home versions the true nature of the alien entity
were localized in the PAL region controlling them.
as Gryzor on the various com-
The Contra arcade game was
puter formats and as Probotec-
released in three versions. The
tor on the NES, released later.
Japanese and American ver-
Several Contra sequels were
sions are virtually identical,
produced following the original
aside from the title logo. Howev-
game.
er, the European version, titled
The plot of the game is set in Gryzor, only allows two players
2633, the evil Red Falcon Or- to play the game alternating.
The NES version was produced in-house by Konami Probotector is a modified version of the NES Contra
and features several differences from the arcade re- that was released for the PAL region. This version
lease in order to better suit the NES’s hardware. The redesigns the human protagonists and some of the
game can be played by up to two players, but due to enemy characters to give them a robotic appearance.
the graphical limitations of the NES, Bill and Lance This was done to circumvent the BPjM’s censorship
lost their individualized character designs. Instead, laws in Germany, which prohibits the sales of violent
they are both depicted as shirtless commandos dis- video games to minors. Subsequent Contra games
tinguished by the colors of their pants. When one for home consoles followed suit, all being released in
player loses all of his lives, he is given the option to the PAL region under the Probotector title and featur-
use the other player’s stock to keep fighting. ing similar modifications. Beginning with Contra: Leg-
acy of War, Konami abandoned the Probotector title
The NES version introduces a seventh item not seen
and localized most of the further games with minimal
in the arcades, that clears the screen of all on-screen
changes.
enemies when obtained, although it only appears in
one area throughout the entire game. Much of the game’s popularity came from its two-
player simultaneous gameplay, which was an uncom-
The NES version consists of eight stages, which are
mon feature in video games at the time of Contra’s
structured a bit differently from the arcade game.
release. While successful in the arcades, the game
Each of these stages end with a showdown against
became and remained widely popular and remem-
an enemy boss.
bered when it was ported to the NES in 1988.
Contra was also released for the FamiCom. While
Contra was followed by Super Contra a year later.
the gameplay remains identical to the NES version
It was the only Contra sequel for the arcades devel-
released around the same month, the FamiCom ver-
oped in-house by Konami. Following the success of
sion utilized a custom-made Multi-Memory Controller
the NES adaptations of both, the original and its se-
that Konami produced called the VRC2 (in contrast
quel (retitled Super C in its American release), sub-
to the UNROM board used by its NES counterpart).
sequent sequels would be produced specifically for
This allowed for the inclusion of cut-scenes and a few
the home console market such as Contra III for the
graphical effects that were not possible in the NES
Super NES and Contra: Hard Corps for the Genesis.
version.
R.C. Pro-Am is a racing game R.C. Pro-Am was subject to pre-
presented in an overhead iso- view coverage in the Fall 1987
metric perspective. The player issue of Nintendo Fun Club
races a radio-controlled car News – the company’s predeces-
around a series of tracks. sor to its house organ Nintendo
Developer Rare
Power. It received a more in-
R.C. Pro-Am was developed Publisher Nintendo,
depth look into the game in the
by UK-based company Rare. In Rare
proceeding Winter 1987 issue,
1987, the game was originally Composer David Wise
saying that “this game is a must
titled Pro-Am Racing but was Release dates NA 1987
for RC Car owners”. It was fea-
later renamed. It would later EU 1988
tured on the cover of the maga-
be ported to the Sega Genesis Genres Racing,
zine’s February–March 1988 is-
under the name Championship Vehicular combat
sue, which also included a full
Pro-Am and was released by Mode Single-player
walkthrough. Later, in Nintendo
Tradewest in 1992. Its music
Power‍ ‘​ premiere issue in July
was composed by David Wise,
1988, R.C. Pro-Am was listed
known for his work on Cobra
6th on its “Top 30” NES games
Triangle as well as the Donkey
list, and it was the top “Dealer’s
Kong Country series.
R.C. Pro-Am was subject to preview Consisting of 24 tracks total, the goal
coverage in the Fall 1987 issue of Nin- for each racer is to qualify for the next
tendo Fun Club News – the company’s race by finishing in the top three in
predecessor to its house organ Ninten- the four-car field. The game ends if
do Power. It received a more in-depth players finish in fourth; however, they
look into the game in the proceeding have two continues in which they can
Winter 1987 issue, saying that “this restart the previous race, but they will
game is a must for RC Car owners”. It lose all points accumulated up to that
was featured on the cover of the mag- point. For each successful completion
azine’s February–March 1988 issue, of a race, the player receives a trophy;
which also included a full walkthrough. larger “High Score Trophies”, leading
Later, in Nintendo Power‍ ‘​ premiere up to the “Super Trophy”, can also be
issue in July 1988, R.C. Pro-Am was obtained for achieving high scores.
listed 6th on its “Top 30” NES games
Listed by video game reviewers as
list, and it was the top “Dealer’s Pick”.
one of Rare’s first successful NES ti-
It went down to the 8th position in Sep-
tles, R.C. Pro-Am was well-received
tember 1988, and 12th in November.
for its visuals, sound, gameplay, and
R.C. Pro-Am is a racing video game enjoyability. The game distanced it-
in which a player controls a radio- self from earlier racing titles by using
controlled car against three opponents an overhead, instead of a first-person,
around a track from an overhead iso- perspective. Reviews have cited it as
metric perspective. Players use the inspiration for future games such as
horizontal buttons on the control pad Super Off Road, Rock n’ Roll Racing, and
to steer their car left or right, and they the Mario Kart series. It has appeared in
use the other buttons to accelerate, many “top games of all time” lists and is
fire weapons, and pause the game. regarded as one of the best NES games.
 Developer Technōs Japan
Publisher Technōs Japan,
NES Tradewest
Designer Yoshihisa Kishimoto
Series Double Dragon
Double Dragon is a 1987 beat Originally an arcade game, a Release dates NA June 1988
‘em up video game developed home versions were released EU November 24, 1994
by Technōs Japan and distribut- for the Nintendo Famicom by Genre Beat ‘em up
ed in North America and Europe Technōs Japan in 1988. The Mode Single-player
by Taito. The game is a spiritual game was published for the NES 2 players simultaneous
and technological successor to in North America by Tradewest
Technos’ earlier beat ‘em up, (founded by Leland Cook and
Nekketsu Kōha Kunio-kun (re- Byron Cook), who was given the
leased outside of Japan by Tai- license to produce other home
to as Renegade), but introduced versions of the game as
several additions such as two-
The most notable difference the
player cooperative gameplay
NES version has from the ar-
and the ability to arm oneself
cade game is the omission of
with an enemy’s weapon after
the arcade’s two players coop-
disarming them. Double Dragon
erative game mode. Instead, the
is considered to be one of the
two-players mode in the main
first successful examples of the
game (“Mode A”) is done by al-
genre, resulting in the creation
ternating, although both players
of two arcade sequels and sev-
take control of Billy. In this ver-
eral spinoffs, as well as inspir-
sion, Jimmy Lee (the Player 2
ing other companies in creating
character in the arcade version)
their own beat ‘em ups.
serves as the main antagonist. After ception of Jeff and the mohawk version
defeating Willy, the original final boss of Abobo, the two head swap charac-
from the arcade game, Jimmy will ap- ters from the arcade game. Jeff is re-
pear before the player for the true final placed with a new enemy called Chin-
battle. tai, who appears as the boss of the
second stage. (In a famous glitch, the
Due to technical limitations of the NES
stage can be completed without fight-
that were not worked around, the game
ing him by simply climbing back down
can only generate two enemies on-
two ladders)
screen to confront the player and both
enemies are the same character. Ad- The NES version features a bonus
ditionally, weapons cannot be brought game mode (dubbed “Mode B”) where
to the next fight if the original enemy the player can choose between Billy
carrying it is defeated. A level-up sys- or one of five enemy characters from
tem was also implemented. The player the main game and compete against a
begins the game with only the basic double of their character controlled by
punches and kicks available to their the computer or a second player in a
character, gaining the more powerful one-on-one match.
ones after acquiring the experience
Double Dragon was only the second
points needed to use them. The play-
game that Technōs developed for
er has a total of seven skill levels that
the NES, and the two-player mode
they can achieve throughout the game.
was reputedly omitted because of the
The level designs are very different, programmers’ inexperience with the
with some stages featuring new areas hardware. This also accounts for the
(notably the cavern section in Mis- game’s large number of bugs and
sion 3) that feature greater emphasis glitches. Also, the “Mode B” was said
on jumping over platforms or evading to be a prototype originally planned for
traps. All of the enemies from the ar- the main game.
cade game also appear, with the ex-
 Developer Konami
Publishers JP/EU Konami
NA Ultra Games
Metal Gear (commonly abbrevi- process, resulting in a severely Designer Hideo Kojima
ated as MG or MG1) is an over- different product. According to Programmers Hiroyuki Fukui
head military action-adventure Masahiro Uedo, who worked Tomonori Otsuka
stealth video game originally on the NES version as a sub- Koji Toyohara
released in 1987 by Konami for programmer, there were two pri- Artists Masami Tabata
the MSX2 computer in Japan mary reasons for the changes: Azusa Fujimoto
and parts of Europe. Consid- the first one was because of the Composers Kazuki Muraoka
higher ups at Konami ordered
ered to be the progenitor of the Series Metal Gear
stealth game genre, it was alsothe developers to make the Release dates JP December 22, 1987
NES version as different from
the first video game designed by NA June 1988
Hideo Kojima, who also direct- the MSX2 version as possible; EU 1988
ed many of the later Metal Gearand the second was hardware Genres Action-adventure,
sequels. The NES version of limitations (since the team was Stealth
not given an advanced map-
Metal Gear is an altered port of Mode Single-player
the original MSX2 game. It was per chip, unlike the team who
worked on the NES version of
first released in Japan only five
months after the MSX2 version. Contra, which had the VRC2 at
their disposal) which led to the
The NES version was devel-
replacement of the TX-55 Metal
oped by a separate team with-
Gear fight with an immobile Su-
out Hideo Kojima’s involvement
percomputer.
and many changes to the game
“metalgear.wikia.com”
were made during the porting
The biggest change to the game was on the rooftop of Building 1 was also
in the level designs. Instead of the replaced by a pair of armed turret gun-
underwater infiltration from the origi- ners called “Twin Shot”. The NES ver-
nal version, there is instead a differ- sion also lacks the higher alert phase
ent opening sequence showing Solid from the MSX2 version and the jet
Snake and three other soldiers (who pack-wearing soldiers on the rooftops
are never seen nor mentioned after the of Building 1 and 2 lost their ability to
opening) parachuting into the middle of fly (making them act more like regular
a jungle that serves as the new starting guards). On the other hand, enemies
point. After landing in the jungle, the no longer drop ammo nor rations when
player must reach a transport truck at punched to death. Much like the MSX2
the end that will take Snake to the en- version, the English localization of the
trance of the first building. The player NES versions contains numerous in-
can also use other transport trucks to stances of erroneous grammar, such
reach the entrances of the other build- as “Contact missing our Grey Fox”,
ings quicker, since they travel in a cy- “Uh-Oh! The truck have started to
clical pattern. The basement floors of move!”, and “I feel asleep!!”
Building 1 and 2 in the MSX2 version
Despite this, the NES version sold sur-
were made into separate buildings,
prisingly well, especially in the West-
Building 4 and 5 respectively, which
ern market, with a million copies sold in
are only reachable by going through
North America. This, in turn, resulted in
one of two jungle mazes located in the
the creation of Snake’s Revenge with-
outdoor areas between the other three
out Kojima’s involvement, which in turn
buildings. The correct path to take in
became the inspiration for Kojima’s ac-
the jungle maze is never revealed in
tual MSX2 sequel, Metal Gear 2: Solid
the game. In addition to the removal of
Snake (which in turn, became the ba-
the Metal Gear tank, the Hind D boss
sis for Metal Gear Solid).
 was also a Game Boy version of
Bases Loaded. The series con- Developer Jaleco
tinued onto the SNES platform NES TOSE
with Super Bases Loaded, Su- Publisher Jaleco
per Bases Loaded 2, and Super Designer Nobukazu Ota
Bases Loaded 3. The final entry Programmer Tetsuji Tanaka
to the series was Bases Loaded Composers Kouji Murata,
Bases Loaded, known in Japan ‘96: Double Header, released Akihito Hayashi
as Moero!! Pro Yakyuu (“Burn!! for the Sega Saturn and Play- Release dates JP June 26, 1987
Pro Baseball”), is a baseball Station. NA July 1988
video game by Jaleco that was Genre Sports: Baseball
originally released in Japan Bases Loaded is also the first Modes Single-player,
for the arcades. A version for in a series of eight sports Fami- Multiplayer
the NES was released in 1987 Com games known in Japan
in Japan and in 1988 in North as “Moero!!”. This series is all
America. generic sports games. Three
of the games were localized in
The game is the first installment the Western Markets as Bases
of the Bases Loaded series, fol- Loaded, Bases Loaded II: Sec-
lowed by seven sequels across ond Season and Bases Loaded
three generations of consoles. 3, while the basketball game
There are three more video was localized as Hoops, the ten-
games in the Bases Loaded nis game as Racket Attack and
NES series, Bases Loaded II: the soccer game as Goal!. Two
Second Season, Bases Loaded titles went unreleased in North
3 and Bases Loaded 4. There America and in the PAL regions.
The game allows the player to control version, they are as follows:
one of 12 teams in either a single game
PL: Yuk
or a full season. For single games,
1B: Dum
there is also a two-player option.
2B: Boo
Bases Loaded featured a unique tel- 3B: Bum
evision-style depiction of the pitcher-
In the Japanese version, the names
batter matchup, as well as strong play
shown are the last names of the devel-
control and a relatively high degree of
opers.
realism, which made it one of the most
popular baseball games of the early Computer Gaming World compared
NES. the game disfavorably to Accolade’s
Hardball, both focusing primarily on
One unique feature of the game is
the confrontation of pitcher and batter.
that the pitcher can provoke a batter
The review described Bases Loaded’s
to charge the mound. Each team has
viewpoint behind the pitcher as making
only one batter (usually the team’s
it far too difficult to discern the position
best hitter) who can be provoked in this
of, and subsequently hit, the ball.
manner, however; it is up to the player
to discover who it is. One of the trademark images of the
Bases Loaded franchise was the dis-
At the time Bases Loaded was re-
embodied catcher’s mitt, also referred
leased, few video games were licensed
to as the “phantom paw”, that would
by North American major league
catch pitches that were thrown ex-
sports. Therefore, the league depicted
tremely outside. Developer Heep Sop
in Bases Loaded is a fictitious league
Choi claims it was programmed to
of twelve teams.
show the catcher making some terrif-
Also noteworthy is the fact that the um- ic snatches without any bodily move-
pires’ names are given. In the Western ment.
 Developer Vid Kidz
Publisher Williams Electronics,
NES HAL America
Stargate is an arcade game has been used on all of its home Designers Eugene Jarvis,
released in 1981 by Williams ports, and game compilation ap- Larry DeMar
Electronics. Created by Eugene pearances; however, there were Release dates NA July 1988
Jarvis, it is a sequel to the 1980 never any Defender II arcade Genre Scrolling shooter
game Defender, and was the units. To complicate matters, Modes Single-player,
first of only three productions the Atari 2600 port was originally 2 players alternating
from Vid Kidz, an independent sold under the Stargate moniker
development house formed by but was renamed to Defender II
Jarvis and Larry DeMar. This for a later re-release.
video game has no connection
This sequel adds new enemy
to the subsequent Stargate fran-
ships to the alien fleet such as
chise that began 13 years later.
firebombers, Yllabian Space
The game is also known as De- Guppies (note that Yllabian
fender Stargate and Defender is based on “Yllab”, the word
II. The latter name was used in “Bally” spelled backwards, a
home video game releases, due friendly poke at Williams’ then-
to legal issues (according to the competitor, Bally Midway), Dy-
bonus material for Midway Ar- namos and Space Hums. The
cade Treasures, Williams want- Defender ship is now equipped
ed to “make sure they could own with an Inviso cloaking device,
the trademark” on the Defender which renders the ship invulner-
name). The name Defender II able when activated, but has a
limited charge. A Stargate will trans- The player is armed with a beam-like
port the ship to any humanoid in trou- weapon which can be fired rapidly
ble. There are now two special stages, in a long horizontal line ahead of the
the Yllabian Dogfight, first appearing at spaceship, and also has a limited sup-
wave 5 and recurring every 10 waves ply of smart bombs, which can destroy
thereafter, and the Firebomber Show- every enemy on the screen. The play-
down, first appearing at wave 10 and er also has a limited supply of “Inviso”
also recurring every 10 waves thereaf- cloaking energy, which makes the ship
ter. As in the first game, if all the hu- invisible, and able to destroy any ships
mans are captured the planet explodes it comes in contact with.
and turns all the landers into mutants.
At the top of the screen is a radar-like
The game is much harder than its pred- scanner, which displays the positions
ecessor. of all aliens and humans on the land-
scape.
The player flies a small spaceship
above a long, mountainous land- The FamiCom port developed by HAL (re-
scape. The land is inhabited by a small named Star Gate, later named Defender
number of humanoids. The landscape II for US release) seems to be related to
wraps around, so flying constantly in their Millipede and Joust ports, as well as
one direction will eventually bring the Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!!, all of which
player back to their starting point. The were released around the same time. In
players ship can fly through the land- particular; the title jingle for Milli-Pede/
scape without being destroyed. Star Gate/Joust are almost identical, the
music played when Star Gate begins is a
A number of enemy ships fly over the
longer version of the opponent entrance
landscape. The player’s responsibili-
music within Punch-Out!!, and the music
ties are twofold:
played during Star Gate’s intermission
1 Destroy all Landers
screen between waves is the same as
2 Protect the humans from being cap-
the screen after a loss in Punch-Out!!.
tured
 Developer Capcom
Publisher Capcom
Director Takashi Nishiyama
Designers Hiroyuki Kawano
Legendary Wings (“The Wings game consists of five areas with
Hiroshi Matsumoto
of Ares”) is a fantasy-themed two different playing styles: the
Akira Kitamura
shoot-’em-up game released first segment in each stage is a
Composers Tamayo Kawamoto
by Capcom originally as a coin- top-view vertical scrolling seg-
Manami Matsumae
operated video game in 1986. ment in which the player flies
Release dates NA July 1988
The player takes control of a across the sky, shooting at air-
Genres Scrolling shooter,
young soldier equipped with borne enemies with their gun
Platform
magical wings who must save while dropping bombs at ground
Modes Single-player,
the world from a malfunctioning enemies, in order to reach the
2 players simultaneous
supercomputer. A home version palace at the end of segment.
for the NES was released exclu- When the player defeats the
sively in North America in 1988. guardian and gains entrance to
the palace, the game switches
The coin-op version of Legen-
to a side-scrolling perspec-
dary Wings can be played by
tive, in which the player moves
up to two players simultane-
towards their goal on foot (by
ously, with a second player be-
walking, crouching, and climb-
ing allowed to join the game at
ing ladders, as well jumping) un-
anytime or even continue after a
til reaching the boss at the end,
game over. The game’s controls
in which the player character
consists of an eight-way joystick
will begin to fly with their wings
and two buttons which changes
again. In addition to the regu-
depending on the context. The
lar levels there are two optional levels can shoot wide shots that four times
that are accessible from the vertical- as powerful as the default gun. If the
scrolling segment: a trap level in which player is shot during a power-up state,
the player is forced to escape from if it will simply revert the player to their
they’re sucked by the giant mechanical previous power level. If the player is in
face on each area; and a hidden bonus Turtle Dove mode, they can withstand
level where the player can obtain vari- up to two direct hits from enemies be-
ous treasure chests to increase their fore getting the downgrade. To contin-
score. ue after a game over, the player must
retrieve heart icons hidden within the
The NES version of Legendary Wings
game’s bonus levels to gain continues
features several significant differences
(up to nine continues can be stocked).
from its coin-op counterpart. While the
basic premise and formula remains es- Michelle Heart makes appearance in
sentially the same, several changes the fighting game Marvel vs. Capcom:
were made to the gameplay, particu- Clash of Super Heroes as one of sev-
larly in how the player’s power-ups eral support characters who assist the
work in this version. Like in the arcade main fighters in combat. She also ap-
game, the player can upgrade their pears as a trading card in SNK’s Card
firepower-up by picking up “P” icons Fighters series. In the tactical role-
hidden inside certain containers. The playing game Namco x Capcom, the
player can improve their character’s character of Sylphie (the shopkeeper
firepower to four levels: starting with from Forgotten Worlds) dresses up as
the normal gun, the player can improve Michelle Heart when she performs one
it to a twin laser, a penetration beam, of her special attacks.
and a three-way flame shot. Picking up
the fourth power-up will turn the player
character into a Turtle Dove, which
 Developer Konami,
SPS
Publisher Konami
Designer Hiroyasu Machiguchi
Composers Miki Higashino
Hidenori Maezawa
Shinya Sakamoto
Satoe Terashima
Atsushi Fujio
Life Force, also released as Sal- Japanese and European ver-
Series Gradius
amander, is a scrolling shooter sions are nearly identical, but
Release dates JP September 25, 1987
arcade game by Konami. Re- the American version changes
NA August 1988
leased in 1986 as a spin-off the game’s plot by adding an
EU November 22, 1989
to Gradius, Salamander intro- opening text that establishes the
Genre Multi-scrolling shooter
duced a simplified power-up game to be set inside a giant al-
Modes Single-player,
system, two-player cooperative ien life-form which is infected by
Cooperative
gameplay and both horizontally a strain of bacteria. Stages that
and vertically scrolling stages. featured starfield backgrounds
Some of these later became the had them changed with the web
norm for future Gradius games. background from Stage 1 to
maintain consistency with the
The arcade version of the game
organic setting of the plot. The
was released under its original
power-ups are also given dif-
title in Japan (version J) and
ferent names, with the “Speed-
Europe (version D) and as Life
Up” becoming “Hyper Speed”,
Force in North America. The
the “Missile” becoming the “De-
struct Missile”, the “Ripple Laser” be- a direct port of Salamander, elements
coming the “Pulse Laser” and “Force were taken from the original Sala-
Field” becoming the “Shield”. Voiceo- mander and the Japanese Life Force
vers are added to the beginning of re-release, and some elements, such
each stage, detailing the area of the al- as levels and bosses, were removed
ien’s body which the player is currently to make way for new content. Most of
inhabiting (i.e. “Enter stomach muscle the background graphics and enemy
zone”, “Bio-mechanical brain attack”, sprites from Salamander, however,
and so on). are used in favor of those used in Life
Force, though the Gradius-style power
Konami later released an enhanced
bar is used in place of the original in-
version of Salamander in Japan bear-
stant pick-up system. The same year,
ing the American title of Life Force
North America received a port as well
which further fleshes out the organic
for the NES. The NES version is practi-
motif. All of the backgrounds and me-
cally identical to its Famicom equiva-
chanical enemies are completely re-
lent, other than not having the multiple
drawn and given organic appearances.
endings, having two option power ups
The power-up system was also modi-
instead of three, and being titled Life
fied, with the Japanese Life Force us-
Force.
ing the same power-up gauge as the
original Gradius. Some music tracks The European version was entitled Life
have been completely changed for this Force: Salamander on its cover and
release. The power-up gauge is ar- was released on November 22, 1989.
ranged differently for both players as
The NES version makes use of the
well.
Konami Code, which increases the
Salamander was ported to the Fami- number of lives from three to 30.
Com in Japan in 1987. Instead of being