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Post by Discoalucard on May 5, 2013 11:18:57 GMT -5
 www.hardcoregaming101.net/cabal/cabal.htmAs far as I'm aware, Cabal started a small subgenre of action-shooters, though arguably they were all based on the "3D" sections of Contra anyway. This article also includes the arcade-only followup Blood Bros. |
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Post by Weasel on May 5, 2013 12:29:54 GMT -5
There are some pretty interesting takes on this sort of over-shoulder gallery shooter...
- Pirates (not Sid Meier's!) seems to be a Blood Bros. hack, and isn't bad, though it's better known on Youtube for the fact that the announcer loudly declares the game's name to be "PIE ASS" every time you insert a coin.
- Konami's GI Joe arcade game is like this except in motion.
- Same with the arcade Rambo III (Sega?).
The thing I always liked about Cabal and its sequel, though, is the ridiculous dance your character does when you finish a level.
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Post by vnisanian2001 on May 5, 2013 12:48:10 GMT -5
The Happy Video Game Nerd reviewed Wild Guns, Zombie Panic in Wonderland, where he mentions Cabal and Blood Bros., and seems to have his own name for these kinds of shooters:
Fixed-Third-Person-Shooter.
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Post by nickz on May 6, 2013 20:11:13 GMT -5
The Happy Video Game Nerd reviewed Wild Guns, Zombie Panic in Wonderland, where he mentions Cabal and Blood Bros., and seems to have his own name for these kinds of shooters: Fixed-Third-Person-Shooter. I think I like the "Fixed Third Person Shooter" name. Before I just called them rail shooters, but really, they play a lot different from stuff like Space Harrier. Either way, I really like the genre and am glad to see some more coverage on it. Also, I had no idea Blood Bros. was a sequel. All this time I thought it was its own game. |
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Post by vnisanian2001 on May 6, 2013 21:04:11 GMT -5
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 7, 2013 1:30:20 GMT -5
Also, I had no idea Blood Bros. was a sequel. All this time I thought it was its own game. It may not be a direct sequel, but it is a spiritual successor at the very least. I just called it a sequel applying the same logic Konami gave to Lethal Enforcers, whose sequel to their digitized modern crime shooter was plunked into the Old West. I also favor the name "Fixed Third Person Shooter," though if you ever wanted a shortened version, I've occasionally seen them referred to as "Cabal clones." I prefer "Cabal-likes," as "clones" sounds somewhat derogatory. Also, glad to see this article finally up! I see much of my contribution backlog is being knocked away.  |
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Post by Gendo Ikari on May 7, 2013 5:16:21 GMT -5
Were these games really so "unpopular"? Beside them spawning a small subgenre, I recall seeing them in many places in Italy during the 1990s (before videopokers practically obliterated arcade games here). Maybe I'm a bit biased because I really like them and the games they inspired - Wild Guns is one of my favourite SNES game and NAM 1975, for being such an early Neo Geo game, is a little gem.
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Post by Discoalucard on May 29, 2013 9:28:50 GMT -5
Finally got this posted officially, and added brief reviews of Pirates and Hard Times at the bottom.
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CRV
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Post by CRV on May 30, 2013 8:17:55 GMT -5
Were these games really so "unpopular"? According to this Brazilian article on Toki, Cabal was popular enough that Williams offered to buy TAD. "It's also unfortunate that, for such a neat duo of games, TAD Corporation didn't last very long. Their only other contributions to the arcade scene are the action-platformer Toki (which received modest fame and even got several home ports), the obscure beat-em-up Legionnaire, and the also relatively unknown overhead shooter Heated Barrel. They folded in 1993, a fate too soon for a pretty darned cool company which kickstarted a specific sub-genre of shooters." TAD closed in 1992. They also developed Sky Smasher. And NES Cabal was done by Zippo Games for Rare. |
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BdR
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Post by BdR on Jun 1, 2013 10:38:24 GMT -5
Great article. Blood Bros was my favourite arcade game back in the day. If you tap the shoot button real quick it would fire faster, compared to just holding the shoot button down (not sure if this also works in Cabal). This was especially usefull for getting all the bonus items from the tin can. A long time ago, I wrote a FAQ about Blood Bros which is still on gamefaqs.com, which also lists all the tin can bonus items. And I also created (or rather, requested) the game group Cabal variants on mobygames, which lists all(?) "Fixed-Third-Person-Shooters" for homecomputers and consoles. Also, the International Arcade Museum mentions that Cabal originally used a trackball, although I've never seen the trackball-version in arcades myself. |
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Post by mancer on Jun 17, 2013 22:00:04 GMT -5
I can confirm the trackball controller. In fact, I thought it was standard since every cabinet I remember seeing had one.
Made the dodge roll more fun, since you spun the trackball like mad to the side.
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izenger
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Post by izenger on Dec 13, 2014 23:51:31 GMT -5
I like to add that: - In Blood bros, you can get extra dynamite stick by shooting enemy's ones. While Cabal can't
- In Pirates, player dodge by sliding instead of rolling. So it has less invulnerability time than Cabal or Blood Bros
- In Blood bros and Cabal, bosses restart their health if player uses continue. While bosses in pirates, don't.
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Post by Weasel on Dec 15, 2014 14:09:37 GMT -5
I am noticing no mention of a control-related factoid about the original Cabal: there was a version of the game that was controlled by a Missile Command-style trackball. Instead of there being a dodge button, dodging with the trackball involved flinging the ball in any diagonal direction, and there's two dodges for up and down motions (up-dodges have a longer animation but send you further, while down-dodges are quicker and shorter). Also, thanks to the trackball's inherently analog nature, it is possible to vary the speed at which your character moves; you can run quite fast if you are spinning the trackball fast enough, or you can move in tiny increments so that your crosshair moves while your character stays put, without shooting.
For the longest time, the trackball version of Cabal was MAME's parent ROM set.
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Post by Elvin Atombender on Dec 15, 2014 14:53:24 GMT -5
Were these games really so "unpopular"? Beside them spawning a small subgenre, I recall seeing them in many places in Italy during the 1990s (before videopokers practically obliterated arcade games here). I am Italian too and I second that: Toki, Cabal and Blood Bros. weren't just very common...they were ubiquitous! Back in the early/mid 90s you would have been hardly pressed to find an arcade without at least one of them. |
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BdR
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Post by BdR on Feb 9, 2016 14:01:19 GMT -5
Here's an interesting tid-bit of info; according to BackintoysTV there was a Super Famicom port of Blood Bros in the making at one point. Unfortunately the main game designer fell ill and had to leave the company, and eventually the project was canceled.
Source of info: BackintoysTV - Toki arcade "making of" (english subtitles available) @39:15
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