Arabian Fight

[Discoalucard]

hg101.classicgaming.gamespy.com/arabianfight/arabianfight.htm

A bit over a month ago, I was at the Level Up store down in South Jersey, and they had a collection of figurines called "Sega Gals Collection". I'd seen these online before, so I decided to pick up Nei from Phantasy Star II because she is awesome. I recognized most of the other characters in this set - Ulala from Space Channel 5, Red Ring Rico from Phantasy Star Online, Aryle from Puyo Puyo, and Sarah Bryant from Virtua Fighter. But what I didn't recognize was a character named Ramaya, which seemed to be some Arabian chick. Being the Sega fan that I am, I was totally embarrassed, so I looked it up and did a small write-up on it. Visually, it might be the most technically impressive 2D beat-em-up ever made. Gameplay wise? Not so much.

[ReyVGM]

Yeah, I've played it a few times. Graphically it's great, but the gameplay is really lacking. It's pretty cool anyways.
I wonder if the latest MAME versions have the graphic bugs fixed.

[Discoalucard]

I was playing on .122 and there are still some bugs in a few levels, although nothing too huge, usually just missing background layers. Sometimes the artwork broke up during magic spells, but it only happened once or twice to me.

[Shellshock]

Was this a rare cabinet here in the U.S.? I remember seeing a couple of them around down in Argentina back in the days.

[Discoalucard]

I've never seen it at all in any arcade ever. Then again, back when I was a kid, I was surprised to learn that Strider had been an arcade game. Maybe the arcades by me growing up were just lousy.

[Neo Rasa]

There was an arcade in Brooklyn that had this...but I never played it. Never saw it anywhere else. What are the odds of a Sega Ages release?

[aganar]

Some people might take issue with the use of the word "Persian" in the article. The game is called "Arabian Fight," and, as any Persian will vociferously tell you, the Persians are not Arabs.

[zzz]

Jun 12, 2008 9:46:52 GMT -5 aganar said:

Some people might take issue with the use of the word "Persian" in the article. The game is called "Arabian Fight," and, as any Persian will vociferously tell you, the Persians are not Arabs.

He refers to the setting as Persian, not the characters. If it's set in Persia then that's not inacurate.

MOD: Sinbat is obviously a reference to Sinbad the Sailor (a story-cycle from Persia), but not everything in the game is as easy to identify. Is it ever explicitly stated whether the game is set in Arabia or Persia, or is it more like an amalgamation of the two settings?

[Discoalucard]

Like a lot of Japanese games, it's not really specified, just kinda a general "ye olde Middle East" type of place.