80s Video Game Heroines

[fledge]

Would "Below the Root" for the IBM/Commodore 64 count? I realize that for this list adaptations and spinoffs are off the table, and the game itself is technically derived from the "Green-Skye" series of books by Zilpha Keatley Snyder. However, it's not exactly an adaptation as it wasn't reworking any specific book from the series and not quite a spinoff because it wasn't a sidestory or alternate universe type game, but rather was developed intentionally to be the canonical conclusion to the book series in a video game format. The original author Mrs. Snyder was dissatisfied with the melancholy ending she had written for the final book in her trilogy (as were a number of her fans), and was later approached by a programmer at Windham Classics about potentially creating a game to properly conclude the story. She worked directly with their team to produce the game.

The object of the game is to find Raamo, a gifted spirit child and unifying hero from the book series, who has vanished somewhere in the world of Green Skye. You can play a number of characters from the trilogy, most saliently two female leads Genaa (Raamo's friend) and Pomma (his little sister).

[strizzuth]

Oh! Oh! Oh!  Dark Adventure/Majuu no Ookoku!

I know the rule is "no sidekicks" but it's not like this game has a main character.  It's a bit of a copy of Gauntlet which did get mentioned.

[Brand]

Sept 7, 2014 0:54:35 GMT -5 derboo said:

Such a list for the 90s could only be meaningful when it's limited to characters who are the central star of their game. Otherwise it'd just be flooded by hundreds of fighting game characters and JRPG party members.

That would be cool. I understand it is a huge under taking. Though I guess that sucks there are a lot of interesting female character in Street Fighter, KOF, and Rival School. But just thinking about those games I can already thing of like 30 female characters so I understand. Though I would hope something like Star Ocean 2 where a female can be the "main" character (but I would understand if it was excluded).

[bout]

I dunno if Princess Sakura from Jajamaru Ninpō Chō count? I only readed the article didn't play that game,dunno if she is just a sidekick or more important.

And Linda from nes version's Double Dragon? She is playable in vs model,and somehow a little bit playable in normal model

[sogetsu]

If you ever make another part of this article, consider including entire Empire of the Angel cast. EotA is an obscure series of turn based strategy games where you lead a tribe of amazons or something. Somehow, a short review of the first part appeared in early 90s in a gaming magazine over here.

[ommadawnyawn2]

'Apple is faster than the other characters, though physical weaker, falling into that usual video game stereotype. The English manual was unable to determine her gender, and instead to referred to her as "he". It's not a "closet woman" case, as there's an illustration right next to her, so it was probably a mistake.'

I think it depends how you interpret the stats, which also aren't static. She's got 100 less HP (~15%) than JJ, but 1 (out of 3 I think it was) more in default Jump power. If a player chooses to, he/she can have better stats in everything (except movement speed) with either character by focusing on upgrading that character. The manual, although it's not correct to gameplay, describes her as having better defence in close combat, being more agile as well as more endurant. I think they could be forgiven for mistaking the sex based on the manual picture, I remember doing the same thing before seeing the character portrait in-game. I also think the dialogue, what little there is of it is worth considering since it says something definite about her personality. She is humble and worried about Champ when rescued, while Champ is initially cocky.

www.smspower.org/seganotebook/zillion/manual/zillionm.html

[dfh89]

Hi everyone!
I found some evidence that the cover of the game Turbo Girl has nothing to do with the actress Brigitte Nielsen.
Here are the links to a picture of the same name by Luis Royo and article with photographs of the origial model

, the appearance of which the artist used for his painting ^^
Thank you all for your attention! I will try to participate more frequently in the life of your charming site))

[BulletMagnet]

Phew, been awhile since I stopped in...

Neat article featuring lots of stuff I've never heard of; on that note, some time back I did a blog post about female characters featured in scrolling shooters, and while a handful were mentioned either in the write-up or by previous posters in this thread, I happened across a few I didn't see here. I don't know how many you'd see fit to include since the games tend to feature the airplanes/spaceships more than the characters piloting them, but here's a quick list of era-appropriate ones from the blog post that you might consider:

Tiat Young - Darius
? - Heavy Unit
Selia and Rumy - Plus Alpha
Ruika - Undeadline (MSX)
Zowie Scott - Salamander (MSX)
Cotton - Cotton

Hope that helps a bit!

[Magma MK-II]

The original Darius has Tiat, not Tiat Young, who only appears in Darius II.

[BulletMagnet]

Hmm, if this is technically the case then the Darius article needs an edit, since it uses the two-part names for her and Proco right from the start.

[Magma MK-II]

Yes it does. The original pilots Proco and Tiat appear in the first Darius and Darius Gaiden, while Darius II features their descendants Proco Jr. and Tiat Young.

[retrokun]

Dirty pair project eden for Famicom disk System

[Jungyin]

Nov 15, 2014 4:00:24 GMT -5 retrokun said:

Dirty pair project eden for Famicom disk System

The third point at the top of the article:

Games that are adaptions or spin-offs of pre-existing works in other media are not eligible, either. This cuts out the very first example of a female player character in a video game ever, namely Little Red Riding Hood in 1980's Kid Venture. Other popular examples are Ripley in many Alien games and Nausicaä. This does not prevent games that use fictional versions of real life persons showing up in the list, be it officially endorsed or "stolen".

In case you didn't know, Dirty Pair was a novel/anime/manga franchise first.

[Deleted]

So I got curious about Universal's gameography and found this:

Mrs. Dynamite (1982). I unfortunately cannot find any actual footage or cabinet artwork, but I thinks it's clear that she fits the bill.

A little less clear is Ladybug, which features a humanoid woman in its art but doesn't resemble such in game.

flyers.arcade-museum.com/?page=flyer&db=videodb&id=3318&image=1

[Deleted]

Sinclair of Horror City

retrovania-vgjunk.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/horror-city-c64.html

Originally a Judge Dredd game before Novotrade lost the license.