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Post by Discoalucard on Oct 2, 2015 21:38:04 GMT -5
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Post by Neo Rasa on Oct 2, 2015 23:41:13 GMT -5
I love this game so much. SNK always brings the heat even right out the gate. Vanguard 2 is pretty cool honestly too if not as interesting. I don't know if Time Pilot '84 or Vanguard II came out first but Vanguard II is waaaaaay better than Time Pilot '84 too.
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Post by Joseph Joestar on Oct 3, 2015 8:27:24 GMT -5
I love this game so much. SNK always brings the heat even right out the gate. Vanguard 2 is pretty cool honestly too if not as interesting. I don't know if Time Pilot '84 or Vanguard II came out first but Vanguard II is waaaaaay better than Time Pilot '84 too. It was (and still is) one of my favorite 2600 games too. It looks like shit, but it still plays well considering.
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Post by Leona Phoenix on Oct 3, 2015 10:19:34 GMT -5
Oh, SNK. Even from the beginning, you were ripping your music off. At least they generally had good taste in what to rip off.
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Post by Elvin Atombender on Oct 4, 2015 5:14:43 GMT -5
Never played the sequel, but I remember Vanguard being a pretty solid game on the 2600, and as far as 2600 shooters go I'd say that it's second only to Imagic's Laser Gates. At any rate, it was worth a play just to hear that jingle from Flash Gordon. Oh, SNK. Even from the beginning, you were ripping your music off. At least they generally had good taste in what to rip off. That reminds me that Robert Miles' Children is almost 20 years old - its official release at least!
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Post by Neo Rasa on Oct 4, 2015 10:51:07 GMT -5
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Post by Don Rumata on Oct 4, 2015 20:31:38 GMT -5
Surprisingly good article. The first game reflects well on early TOSE output!
FWIW the X1 tape version of Thunder Force came out in December of 1983, something that was never addressed in the HG101 article.
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Post by derboo on Oct 4, 2015 23:10:21 GMT -5
FWIW the X1 tape version of Thunder Force came out in December of 1983, something that was never addressed in the HG101 article. That's because we never knew! Is there any database with precise release dates of early X1 games? The only extensive site I know starts sometime in 1985.
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Post by Neo Rasa on Oct 4, 2015 23:51:12 GMT -5
This seems like the kind of information that's scattered across some random mid 90s issues of Gamest Mook or maybe in Super-Arcade. I find the influence of the two series interesting. I feel like Thunder Force II borrows more from Vanguard II than Vanguard II borrows from Thunder Force I. Data East's Last Mission is more of a shameless wannabe to me. It would be really nice to know of more precise listing for these games though. With Thunder Force 1 as an example depending on what X1 copy you have the copyright date can be 1984. www.gamefaqs.com/x1/706663-thunder-force/datawww.uvlist.net/game-154576-Thunder+ForceStill it seems unusual for that to change even if the release was on the cusp in December. Even in the case of a hugely popular game with tons of merchandise like Legend of Zelda, when the Famicom version was held up and not released until 1994 they still kept the 1992 year on the title screen.
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Post by derboo on Oct 5, 2015 4:46:08 GMT -5
Thunder Force was definitely before Vanguard II, the other versions were really early in 1984. I've made a timeline for this type of Japanese 8-way shooter:
Bosconian (1981/11/07) Time Pilot (1982/11/11) Star Stream (1983/??) Thunder Force (1983/12) Time Pilot '84 (1984/04/09) Vanguard II (1984/??) Last Mission (1986/10/26)
The exact dates for the arcade games are all from US copyright records, which usually contain a field for the original publishing date. Of course, we cannot be sure these are always correct, but it might be the best we're gonna get. Unfortunately, that entry is missing for Vanguard II, so I cannot tell whether it was before or after Time Pilot '84. Arcade-history.com claims it was released November 1984, but the US copyright records were registered in May, and it would be highly unusual to have an US copyright record of a Japanese game half a year before it came out. Usually the records are filed well after the games are published even in the US.
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Post by Neo Rasa on Oct 5, 2015 11:11:41 GMT -5
Unfortunately after I made that post I even checked a couple of SNK books I have, and all of them are missing a month for Vanguard II, only a year is present.
I think May is accurate too however, as while SNK first appeared in the US in 1981, mid-1984 is when SNK actually entered the US market proper and was fully manufacturing and distributing its own cabinets. Vanguard II also still has the older SNK logo from right before this happened.
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Post by derboo on Oct 30, 2015 6:28:31 GMT -5
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