So, you want to be an ARCADE champion?

Playing rules: Difficulty: Normal. Start: 3 lives. Timer: 150 seconds. Continues: Not allowed. Scores accepted for single-player only.
Dip Switch Bank A: 1-8 = OFF
Dip Switch Bank B: 1 = Unused; 2 = ON (Demo sounds); 3-8=OFF

Current Record holders:
1st: 2,268,200 - Donn Nauert - 1988
....
6th: 121,800 - Kristian Mroczko - 2001


Ahhhhh, Alien Syndrome! I’ve never seen one of these arcade machines in the flesh but I do remember playing the game fondly on my Atari ST (which apparently was a pretty decent port) and while it didn’t usurp the mightiness of Gauntlet 2 in the multiplayer stakes, it was a favorite also-ran certainly. Question is, that was exclusively multiplayer japery (is that even a word?), what about the single player game? Well, that’s more of a mystery to me so colour me interested. I didn’t even really notice that the game *had* a score so the record of 2 million plus doesn’t mean a great deal to me at this stage. The next best score is just under 500,000 though, so there is a nice big gap suggesting that it is a goodun – that and the fact that its from nigh on 20 years ago.

So, what’s the game about? Well, it’s quite a simple game really; you control a little mister (or miss if you like that sort of thing) whose task is to rescue the remaining crew members from the level while avoiding and shooting the beasties that get in your way. The setting of the game is Alien-esque, especially the second level, so you will mainly be wandering about spaceships and various other classic sci-fi  settings. You start off with a piddly little gun, but there are panels in the wall along the way with various power-ups and bonuses and rather handy they are too. Once you have rescued 10 of your crew, you are prompted to exit the level and face the guardian who just happens to be patiently waiting behind the EXIT door for you - that’s guardians for you, nothing if not considerate. Piece of piss then, no? Woah there Nelly, did I tell you that you have a strict time limit? As the settings say up there you have 150 seconds to complete each level which can sometimes be quite tight considering how well some of the crew are hidden – even with the help of the maps knocking about the level.

So let’s get going! First off you’re asked to choose your character, of which I choose the bloke. Now, I don’t want to dwell on this too much but i’ve always cast a wary eye on men that choose female characters in video games. Before you get on the phone to the pink police, I don’t mean that in a gay way at all (ok, maybe a little bit) – it’s just something I find a little odd. I know for a fact, in my childhood arcade in Edmonton I wouldn’t be caught dead playing a single player game and *choosing* a front-bottomed girl as my character - in a two player game perhaps, as you have no choice but even then it would be the weedier or smellier of the two players that had to be the girlie. So I choose the bloke alright? (never confused). Anyway – the Irony is, it doesn’t make any bloody difference who you choose. The female character plays exactly the same – she just looks different, looking suspiciously Ripley-esque from the film Alien as a matter of fact (naughty SEGA).

Ignoring the fact that the first level looks like a silver cock and balls on the mission screen (I said leave it!), the game is exactly as I remember it. Level one has you wandering about amidst a load of slowish moving blobs, nothing too taxing – and the crew are pretty easy to find as the layout isn’t too complicated either.

It’s when I start to find the crew that I get a bit annoyed. On the first level at least there are only 2 different types of crew member to find:

First type I have upmost sympathy for; some poor girl has got herself trapped in alien goo, at the mercy of the blobs. Despite this, and perhaps with the very last of her strength, she holds a single hand up, desperate for help – “please save me” she silently cries, “you are my only hope”.

Second type; what a bell-end. Some lad in green overalls stands there, not moving an inch or even maybe HELPING YOU fight the aliens that swarm absolutely everywhere. There are weapons in the panels of the walls, he knows that – but does he get off his fat arse and chip in? Does he bollocks. He just stands there waving at you like a plum. “excuse me kind sir, I happen to have got somewhat lost on the way back from the gym – could you please collect me and carry me to the exit? That’s it, a little closer. No – I can’t walk even a single step towards you to make it easier, bit of a dicky ankle you see playing polo with Tabatha”. FUCK OFF.

Ahem. So, two types of crew to save then – and although i’m thoroughly upset each and every time I save one of the Pimms loving gits I don’t argue and get on with the hero lark. Hang on though, what’s this? I’ve collected 10 crew members and the screen is telling me to exit, yet the map says that there are many people left to save. Do I just leave them? That’s a bit harsh isn’t it? “Sorry luv, met me quota – good luck with that Alien infestation thing, ta ta!”. So of course I wander about collecting the extra people, after all points mean prizes and all that.

With barely 20 seconds left I get to the exit with loads of extra crew on board ready for the guardian. Hold on! The timer doesn’t reset – it only adds on a paltry 20 seconds – shit! The panic is short lived though, turns out the guardian is a bit of a puff and I manage to kill him with a few seconds to spare. Thanks Mr Flame thrower!

Second Level is quite similar but with Aliens instead of blobs and it all goes a bit wrong. They shoot a lot on this level see and to be honest I didn’t expect it. TWICE. (yeah alright, leave it)

Score: 107,900

Well, the 2 million is definitely a cracking score then. Killing deadly aliens is only worth a few hundred points in this game, thats a rubbish amount and saving the “extra” crew over and above the needed amount is worth 100 points each as well. Sod ‘em. Tell you what though, I’ve had a cracking thought. Seeing as there are loads of extra crew about, i’m actually going to ONLY save the trapped girls in pink and leave the others to their fate. Ha! That’ll learn ‘em. 

The game is quite good fun that’s for sure – only my second go in and i’m starting to get a feel for the levels and the weapons already. The two favorites are the laser and the flamethrower, especially for the guardians where the extra power really helps. However - for fucks sake, WHY do people make grenade style weapons so bloody damn RUBBISH?? I struggle to name a game where a grenade style looping weapon is a good idea. Ghosts and Goblins had an awful throwing torch weapon for example and this has an absolutely horrible “ball” style projectile weapon that is not only useless but stupid. GAH! Whatever you do, don’t pick up the weapon upgrade that has a “B” on the panel. Trust me.

Anyway, I do better this time and I get to the second level guardian before it goes wrong. Loads of spinning blobs roll about the screen firing barrel loads of blobs your way every few seconds. Frankly it’s all a bit too much and the laser doesn’t seem to be making much impact at all. Arsebiscuits. dead.

Score: 160,500

Last go and i’m quickly back to the second level guardian, avoiding the green crew members on the way of course. This time I decide to try the short range flamethrower (there are two types, one that fires bursts of flame across the screen and one that is the more traditional stream of flame that is only about an inch long) and it’s a revelation. The concentrated flame makes quick work of the blobs and BOOM that’s me on the third level. Woo!

Third level then, and pretty much same again – this time with little jellyfish style enemies that shoot a hell of a lot. See, that’s a bit of a problem – the controls are actually quite good but you just cant shoot where you want to as you can only shoot in the direction that you are running. This makes for many a death, especially when enemies come at you diagonally. Even so, the third level has an even crueler twist to it.

We’re spoilt these days I tell you. Name me a modern game that lets you walk off of the edge of levels to your death? Not many I wager, certainly not this style of game anyway. Usually you reach the end of a cliff or something and the game stops you walking any further – not so here. The third level contains quite a few narrow ledges that link the level together, and me being a spoilt modern gamer I didn’t really pay them much attention and just bundled across the first one I saw. Fell to my death. Bastards, thought I.

Fair enough though and I manage to not only reach the guardian but kill the funny looking jellyfish with googly eyes and stumpy legs. Again it was down to choice of weapon I reckon, the laser made quick work of quite a tricky looking boss – I reckon any other weapon and he would have been a lot harder.

4th level then and I’m on a roll! No i’m not – bloody diagonals. Dead. cock.

Score: 232,700   

wahey! That score is enough to get above the lowest record of 121,000. Harshly however, that’s all it gets me as 4th and 5th are about the 250,000 range – which is pretty close but not close enough. Still, the game is pretty good fun and the second place of 500,000 looks very possible. I have my doubts about the top score mind you. With only 7 levels I can’t see how a score like that is possible, unless of course the game starts again or something as you clock it. I suspect that the game will just end though – in which case there would have to be a severe case of score leeching or somesuch going on. I might be wrong though – all I DO know is that I won’t be getting anywhere near it…and I don’t mind so much really. If getting the record means saving those guys in green you can keep it!

Ok look. “Alien Attackers (Tele Tronic, 1980)” is next.

And yes it doesn’t even exist under MAME. Why? Just look at the fucking thing.

According to Klov.com the machine is an Italian clone of Space Invaders and they seem to think that there is ONE machine in known existence. ONE. So no great loss this one i say..

Next game is “Alcon (Taito, 1986)”.

First I couldn’t even find the bugger, but after a bit of searching it transpires that this is a version of the infamous “Slapfight”. And indeed there she was, as a clone under Slapfight. Doesn’t work though – it gets stuck on the bios style screen. Don’t panic though, Slapfight itself is in the book – albeit at the other end of the alphabet so don’t hold your breath for that one just yet..

Next game is “Air Combat 22 (Namco, 1996)”.

Unfortunately, although MAME has an admirable stab at it, this game doesn’t work – so alas I can’t play this one (thank goodness - don’t push it flying games, I’ve only just forgiven Afterburner..)

Playing rules: Difficulty: Normal. Start: 3 lives. Continues: Not allowed
Dip Switch Bank A: 1-8 = OFF
Dip Switch Bank B: 1-2 = Depends on if Upright or moving; 3 = ON; 4 = OFF; 5=ON; 6-8=OFF

Current Record holders:
1st: 68,588,000 - November Kelly - 1988
....
2nd: 505,050 - Jimmy Cardenas - 1997


Woah there cowboy. Afterburner 2? What happened to Afterburner 1?
Well, it would seem that there are no records in the book for the original game, just the sequel – No idea why but I can’t say i’m that upset because i’ve always disliked the bloody game. I remember seeing the first one in the arcade and remembering how damn good it looked for the time. I mean, there’s no denying the game is smooth and frantic and the crashes i remember being the most spectacular – especially the ones where you dont blow up immediately and instead plow into the ground digging a ditch into the earth as you crash. The game though; it was fun to a point but for me all it boiled down to was wiggling the (admitedly fine looking) joystick about and hoping that luck would prevent you from being shot down. It just seemed so random to me and of course i was rubbish at it (you might be able to spot a theme there)

Not so for the marvelously named “November Kelly”. That’s a score right there - I don’t even need to know the scoring system to see that. Add to that the frankly gargantuan gap between the top score and the 2nd place. You know what? If i was the chap who posted that 2nd place score 9 years after the 68 million effort then I would do everything to make sure my score wasn’t listed. Even if it meant kicking the plug socket of the machine as the referee was noting it down in his book. Ok, the guy can say he is 2nd at the world at Afterburner 2, and he can reap all of the groupies and live the rock and roll lifestyle that this undoubtably brings – but surely he can’t sleep at night with it being written in a record book that his score is more than a 100 times less than the 1st place?

Saying that of course I am in no doubt whatsoever that I will stink the place up at this game.

For those of you that haven’t played either game, it’s pretty simple. You fly a F14 plane thingie towards the screen in a 3d affair with the obviously layered but good-for-the-time floor zooming past you. You’re clearly rather cheesed off with all of the other planes knocking about and have decided that they need a good shooting.  Control wise you have a shoot button and a missile button that occasionally locks on to enemy planes and is rather handy indeed. Doing a bit of research apparently one of the very few changes between Afterburner 1 and 2 is that you now also have a throttle control which can vary your speed to a limited extent – although I can’t see how that will make much difference to be honest. That’s pretty much it, so lets go.

Ah bless – that’s a trip down memory lane. Only those of you old enough will remember this, but in the late 80′s where the AtariST and Amiga home computers were just coming out, there was a craze for 3d pictures made out of balls. Nothing rude or anything so take your hands away from the kiddie’s eyes (I said *eyes*) – literally 3D moving animations made from plenty of shaded balls. *Loads* of public domain demos had a 3d ball section somewhere in there and I remember being wowed by some of the more complicated ones. What’s that? Get to the point grandad? Well I say all of this because the Afterburner games have one of these ball beauties as their title screens and very pretty they are too.

Ahem, so the game.

As I say, I’ve never liked this game – it all feels so bloody random and I have to say within 20 seconds of my first go it all comes flooding back. I just can’t seem to find a technique that manages to beat the flapping around like a special needs fish method (patent pending). I can’t really put my finger on it but it might be due to the fact that it’s hard to judge just whats going on and picking out what you should be shooting and what you should be dodging is tricky at best. So, I flap about a bit, shoot some things and the 3 lives are over pretty quickly. One thing that I hadn’t noticed before was the way the score is calculated. The score actually acts like a counter that increases at a suprisingly fast rate, seemingly arbitrarily. Shooting things doesn’t seem to directly add any score at all so maybe I have it all wrong, maybe survival is the key and i should focus more on the fish flap that the shooting (not that I can really focus on the shooting any less).

Hang on though, look at that score. That’s almost the 2nd place score and I had an absolute shocker.

Score: 406,930

Controversially I decide to actually try and play the game rather than flap about. One of the things that I did notice playing the game at home rather than the arcade is that you can actually see the game a bit better. Maybe the arcade machine, with it’s fancy-dan control stick in the shape of a proper plane one or indeed the full hydraulic jobby, was simply too distracting. With a score as low as that in 2nd place I think the game deserves to be taken a little bit more seriously, so I shall attempt to try and play the game properly.

My theory is this. The game can be boiled down to a series of enemy “waves”. Usually a couple of planes appear as dots in the distance and then scream toward you. Once that’s done, same happens again. Sometimes the planes appear from behind you and then stream away, but the theory is the same. Tactic therefore is to try and get as many of the planes locked with missiles heading their way before they get close enough to start shooting. Then, when the ones that are left do get some missiles away, forget shooting and flap about a bit.

Ok, that’s the plan – and fuck me backwards if it doesn’t actually make some sense when I start playing. In a proper Scrooge moment I start to rather enjoy the game – a game that I have pretty much hated for 20 years ( although not to exaggerate, I didnt spend *ALL* 20 years hating the game, I didn’t wake up in cold sweats cursing it’s very name or send it daily hatemail or anything - but I would have avoided it if I saw it passing me by in the street, I may have even crossed to the other side). The tactic bloody works as well, locking on to the planes and trimming their numbers down really helps see the missiles when they come towards you and before I know it I’m at a “refueling stage” – oooooooh.

Something I do notice while daddy plane is hooking me up and trying to persuade me to have a Wether’s original; I have LOADS of missiles left over. There was me thinking that I only had a few missiles when actually each of the missile icons at the bottom right actually split out into half a dozen missiles each! That’s handy. Also, I was wrong, it IS good to shoot things as it is here that you get a nice little bonus for doing so. Woo!

Next level and it’s night time – makes the buggers a little harder to see but the tactic still works. The missile revelation has fudged me up though as i go a little “trigger happy” and run out of the buggers pretty early on. Cocks. Dead. The score is enough for 2nd place in the record books mind you.

Score: 670,080

Ok, last time lucky. This time is MUCH better and i’m really quite getting the hang of it. Mind you, I have a question for you budding fighter pilots out there. My only experience of this stuff is the film Topgun, and even then I’ve never made it through the whole film as it’s more than a bit too homo-erotic for me. However, I would image that a valid fighter pilot technique would not normarily be the “fly straight into you and we both die” technique. Even if there were such a thing as a kamikaze brigade in this game, I doubt every single bugger would be a member. It really does happen quite often though, especially from the chaps that approach you from behind (back to Top Gun there, ooof!).

Nevertheless my third and final game goes very well, suprisingly so in fact. The tactic really works and I am getting a lot better at the dodging part also. I really actually quite like the game now, especially the nice touches such as when you are only clipped by a shot and crash into the ground instead of exploding. (Comically your score contines to count up as you smash along the ground only stopping when you eventually explode – nice touch that).

The score as well is a goodun - that’s better. That’s second place truly cemented then, which was nice.

Score: 1,451,720

So – my hate affair with the game is finally at an end after 20 long years. Come back into the fold Afterburner, all is forgiven. Is there a place for the old girl in your heart as well I wonder? Go on, stick Topgun on the telly and get in the mood. Go on. She’ll wait.

Playing rules: Difficulty: Normal. Start: 3 lives. Bonus: Extended play at 200,000; Continues: Not allowed
Player options: Scores accepted for single player only
Special Rules: You may freely select your fighter pilot
Dip Switch Bank #1: 1-8 = OFF
Dip Switch Bank #2: 1 = OFF; 2 = ON; 3-8 = OFF.

Current Record holders:
1st: 224,500 - Mr Kelly R. Flewin - 2006
that's it!

Ok. Have you read my previous post? The one just down there about shoot ‘em ups and Twin Galaxies? Marvellous.

You see, Aero Fighters (or Sonic Wings in Japan) is a great example of the issue described in that last post. Firstly there is only one score recorded (from last year no less) and secondly the record holder is one of the main Twin Galaxies referees and organisers – suggesting that it may just be some sort of a “placeholder”. Also, the score itself doesn’t look right.  I know my crazy Japanese shooters reasonably well and even before playing this game I can see that 224,500 points will not be a massive score. Just take a look at some of the Japanese scores for this sort of game and you will see that they usually LOVE a big number – it’s not unusual for a modern Japanese shooter to have score counters into the trillions. A bit of investigation later reveals that the high score is actually only in the millions, so not as bad as I thought but still i fancy my chances of beating it.

Righto, enough of all that business, let’s concentrate on the game. It’s a pretty straightforward vertically scrolling shooter, in the same vein as 1943, where the aim is to fly upwards and shoot *everything* you see. Absolutely everything. If it looks like it can be shot, shoot it. If it doesn’t look like it can be shot, shoot it anyway. It’s by no means easy mind you, if you haven’t really played a Japanese shooting game before you may find yourself a little overwhelmed. Although admitedly this is a rather early and tame example – welcome to “bullet hell”.

As soon as you start the game you get to choose from 4 different ships, each with their own nationality; you have US, Japan, Sweden(!?) and the UK as your options. Each of these ships have slightly different firing modes, although they are all roughly the same at first glance. Regardless of which ship you choose the controls and stuff are the same. You have 2 buttons, one for shooting and one for the smart bomb. (Incidentally the shoot button does not allow autofiring if held down, so get those tappy fingers warmed up). Along the way, as well as thousands of baddies you will see “P’s” and “B’s” flying about, the P powers up your weapon while the B gives you an extra bomb. That’s it. Nice and simple.

First go then. Seeing as there are four different ships I think i’ll actually have four goes of this one, once with each type. That logic dictates I choose the American chap first. Yup, he looks American alright – with a haircut you could land a helicoper on. A small cutscene later and i’m off to the world map to commence the duffing, and it doesn’t waste any time at all let me tell you. Before you get your bearings there are things exploding all over the place, looks like the first level is some sort of city and believe me when i say you can blow up everything, the buildings, the cars on the floor, everything takes a pounding. What does immediately strike as harsh is that you actually get points for shooting the cars on the floor when they are clearly not involved in the fuss - it’s only 100 points each, is that all a innocent life is worth these days? Nevermind they explode nicely and don’t shoot back so fair game!

In what seems like literally 2 minutes of frantic blasting we look like we’re up against our first guardian. It’s some sort of large glowing building by the looks of it. Oh, that’s me dead then. Naturally I was sitting in the middle of the screen waiting for the end of level boss to start, not really paying attention to the small glow inside the building directly in front of me. Nothing gets your attention like a big fuck-off laserbeam and this one was particularly attention seeking as it burst out from the building and engulfed me. As is the norm with this type of game, there is no ceremony, straight back in – just in time to greet the Green ship thing that emerged from the hole. Being reasonable at these games he wasn’t much trouble even despite the fact that he killed me again with his suprise laser attack. Bastard.

Back off to the map and we go to another country. This level is based in a forest, and although there are loads of ships flying about firing with gay abandon, i manage to keep my last life going without too much trouble. Pretty solid game this, although the power up P’s are a pain in the arse as they never keep still, always floating up towards the top of the screen trying to tempt you into an early death. Not on my shift. Again a big guardian is on me in no time and again i manage to survive with a few timely smart bombs. I last about halfway through the level until I lose 2 lives in quick succession, mainly due to chasing those pesky P’s!
Tell you what though, I was right – the record wasn’t very good.

Score: 232,600

That’s the book’s world record beaten! On my first go as well. Ok, I know it wasn’t a great score but already we have reached a milestone. Game 9 and I have a game that I could beat the book’s world record at. Nice!

The show goes on mind, and buoyed by that victory I want more – this time with the Japanese guy. Hang on, this first level is different! I’ve gone straight into the forest level? That’s weird. Oh, and the Japanese guy’s ship is rubbish, firing what look like small blue twisty marshmellow flumps instead of manly lasers! What’s that all about? I don’t really get on with this throughout the whole game and despite the fact that when powered up you have a nice amount of homing missiles helping you out i find it hard to sustain any sort of attack. Not so good.

 Score: 150,400

That was harsh – surely the Swedish entry won’t let me down – and my god he doesn’t. I haven’t even made it to the world map and already I have upmost confidence in him. Here’s why.

Brilliant. Just brilliant.

Obviously the Swedish version of the villiage people are pilots in their spare time, but let me tell you this – that’s some pilot right there. Gloriously his weapon is the best in the game as well, he has a very nicely spread set of lasers that I find very much to my liking. Again I start off on a different level though which is rather odd. Obviously the game has a different starting level for each player or something, either way it doesn’t really matter. I do much better with my viking friend by my side and clear about 4 levels, improving my score along the way

Score: 311,700

I’m happy with that, although I know I could do better with a bit off practice. What it does tell me is that I can pretty much beat the “record” at will would the opportunity ever arise. For the sake of completeness it’s the turn of the Brit now and again our racial stereotypes are well served as a very British man greets me on the screen looking like he’s in the middle of a performance with his brass band. Marvellous. My only suprise is that he doesn’t have a cup of tea in his hand, although that would be stupid in a airplane wouldn’t it, like wearing a horned helmet or something ridiculous like that. hang on – wait.

Score: 236,300

Again a record breaking score. Just touching on the controversy again for a second, I know this isn’t an impressive score in the big scheme of things and I personally wouldn’t be happy posting my score as a record as it stands, maybe if i doubled it or something. BUT within the scope of this quest I now have a game which I can challenge the published record with and i’m delighted.

As for Aero Fighters itself, it’s a great shooter – quick to play and a lovely introduction to this sort of game. I know I used the term earlier but this game is a simple and easy example of a “Bullet Hell” game (the genre is notoriously difficult to the extreme) that I would definitely recommend all of you try before considering going onto the “hard stuff” – Just make sure you say “hi!” to Kohful The Viking (for that is our hero’s name) on your way.

My next game is Aero Fighters and hoooooo, this is a game that signifies plenty of discussion. Thing is, since i started this quest i have learned a bit of history regarding Twin Galaxies and indeed the book itself. It would appear that the Twin Galaxies organisation have very few links with the Asian gaming scene, mostly the Japanese apparently and therefore games such as Aero Fighters (or Sonic Wings in Japan) don’t get the attention they deserve within the record books. This actually extends to pretty much all of the more modern “shooter” games and has caused quite a lot of people in the respective scene to become disillusioned with the whole Twin Galaxies thing. You may have noticed some of the more negative comments on the 1943 page (the game, not the year you silly goose). They were from some of these guys at the shmups forums and if you fancy reading some of the discussions we had on the subject, pop along to their forum and have a lookie see.

It all started off a bit messy but in the end they’re just a bunch of guys extremely passionate about their favorite game genre who felt that the insignificant scores that Twin Galaxies had for their games were an insult to the true champions who have vastly superior scores elsewhere. I refused to believe that Twin Galaxies purposely neglect these games, so i set out to see what the President of Twin Galaxies had to say on the subject. I emailed Walter Day, who is an absolute top bloke – and he replied shortly afterwards:

Twin Galaxies verifies and reports scores on gameplay that it receives in hand via videotape or referees in person at an event. It’s absolutely certain that many players throughout the world can challenge the USA and British scores. The players who support Arcadia are definitely correct that there are scores ion the far east that are the world records, far superior to scores in the USA.

Interestingly, games that have a big following in America are commonly held by Americans. And games that are big in the Far East are commonly held by the players fromthat region. There are very few instances of the same game being equally as popular both in Japan and the USA. If that happens more and more, we might have the opportunity to see which region is more dominant on those games played in common.

As for our scorekeeping activities, however, difficulty settings and ROM sets differ widely, making it almost impossible to compare scores. Also, many titles in the far east are not distributed in the West. But, mainly, the language difference and the vast distance of miles between the two cultures make it presently impossible to bring the two groups (Japan and USA) together.

When that happens someday, then the confusion will be cleared up and the world will know who the true champions are. Because, at that time, they will be playing on the same hardware and the same software.

You can publish this message as you see fit.

Respectfully,

–
Walter Day
President Twin Galaxies

While this is shame, I don’t think that it’s the disaster that some people make out and certainly not a reason to lose respect for Twin Galaxies and what they do, they are a voluntary organisation after all. I would suggest that the people that are unhappy with what they consider to be “pathetic” scores on Twin Galaxies actually use their energies usually reserved for complaining about them to help them; by submitting true scores of their own.

Or don’t. I don’t really mind to be fair – I’m happy going through the book and dealing with it all game by game, hopefully finding some unknown gems on the way (I’m only 8 games in and i’ve found several already!). Hopefully, we can keep the “true” score arguement to a minimum in the future of this blog and as i say, if any of you want to read more or discuss further, pop along to the shmups forum linked above.

Anyway, the game that caused all of this is next, Aero Fighters and you’ll see why in a bit.

Playing rules: Difficulty: Medium. Start: 3 lives. Continues: Not allowed
Dip Switch Bank A: 1-2 = ON; 3-4 = OFF; 5 = OFF/UNUSED; 6-7 = OFF
Dip Switch Bank B: 1-4 = ON; 5 = OFF

Current Record holders:
1st: 3,272,900 - Charles Dahling - 1985
that's it!

Ok, this is an odd one. A lot of you may be familiar with Williams games; Robotron, Joust and Defender especially. All of those games have a very distinctive style so i was suprised when i saw that this game looks completely different. A little bit of investigation yields the answer, the game is also known as Formation Z © 1984 Jaleco and was actually licenced to Williams for distribution in the West.

Righto, I feel better now that’s sorted out – for Williams to pick it up, this must be a decent game! I wonder why there is only a single record though? Perhaps the Williams distribution wasn’t as widespread as you would expect – maybe the game isn’t that good after all?

Enough of all that guesswork, let’s have a look!

Well again, i know nothing about this game – so we’re all in the mystery boat together. First thing that grabs you about the game is that the designers LOVE a bit of “cyan”, LOVE IT. This may as well be a screenshot:

All of the menu’s are cyan, the main backdrop is cyan, everything is cyan! Not the friendliest of colours perhaps, but aside from that the graphics are actually quite good for that time – and there are no flying pigs, so i’m happy.

Ok, what’s the game about? Well you control a transformer style ship, starting off as a robot with the ability to change into a plane and back again at will. You have two buttons, shoot and jump (hold jump to change between forms) which is simple enough. This adds an interesting dimension to the game but it’s not immediately obvious why you would need to change between either. Also, its really quite tricky to shoot where you want as there are only a few options as to where you can aim. As both the ship and the robot, you can shoot forwards, 45 degrees up and 45 degrees down – that’s it. Not so much of a problem with the ship, but the poxy robot could do with a few more options and as it stands he’s a little bit shit.

Right, let’s jump in and play. Straight into the Cyan opening screen and we’re away! You start off running as the robot fella, and already the choice of shooting at either 45 degress or straight ahead is annoying me, especially as the game keeps throwing enemies in at knee level. Bloody useless robot, crouch a little will you! Anyway, most of the action is going on in the sky where there are loads of laughably small spaceships flying about in little formations – TRANSFORM!

Ah, the transformation takes AGES, which gives the little ships ample time to blow me up. Think you need to be more considerate when transforming. Back to cyan, and then onto the 2nd life. The game remembers that i was a ship so thats how i start off and the controls are much nicer. It’s now that i notice the fuel counter at the bottom right ticking down, that wasn’t moving when i was a robot (what does he use as fuel then?) so i need to be a bit careful. Turns out there are little refuelling pods occasionally along the ground to help with that - also turns out that you can crash into the ground and die. No prizes if you guessed that i found out about both of those things at the same time.

Last life then and I realise that life is simply easier as a robot, as rubbish as the shooting is, the ol’ 45 degree shot does make quite a mess of the small planes without much danger. Ah, the game doesnt like me doing that as it has decided to put a tank in front of me, convieniently at fucking KNEE LEVEL. Very scary, but the tank knows he doesn’t have to waste ammo or anything as i can’t hit him properly. No problem, i’ll just jump over the bugger then, that’ll learn him. He didn’t like that either, as soon as you jump over him he reverses and you land on top of him – boom.

Score: 8,100

The thing is, being a robot is that much easier especially when the enemies turn into flying saucer things and start firing slow red circles at you – pretty tricky to avoid them in the faster moving ship. I plan a tactic of only going in the air when absolutely necessary and it works a treat. Whenever a little tank appears i just turn into a ship and then back to robot behind him, job done – record here i come. Of course things are never that easy and within no time the sea fast approaches. You cunning buggers, that’ll stop me being a robot – or will it? I’ve seen your Japanese anime films, these big robots can walk across water just as easily as ground, ha!

Ok, next life then – ship it is. It’s actually a good game this, I could never really get on with defender as it was bit fiddly for me, but this is much simpler. I would prefer it if the ship has just horizontal firing though, as this whole 45 degree business is just messy. Soon the sea is over and i get to a desert, and back into my robot tactic no less. The enemies are getting smarter and more aggressive now though and i lose two lives quite quickly to some homing red ball things. I did have a fantastic moment where i tried to turn back into the robot with the aim of avoiding a shot but I was obviously too high in the sky so a message flashed up saying “NO CHENGE”. There is a lesson in that for all of us I think you’ll agree.

Score: 15,700

Last go and the usual tactic works well again and i’m back at the desert level within the first life. There are some really weird things with this game that i find quite charming. Not weird in the same way as the last crazy game (honestly no pigs this time) but weird in the way that the enemies are quite unpredictable and it’s actually quite a good thing. There are plenty of times where the enemy will try and get to you, but just miss and crash into the ground, or land based probes that follow you about a bit – it all leads to the game feeling less scripted and I think that’s a good thing for over 20 years ago. Also, there are things in the game that don’t actually seem to *do* anything. In the desert level you soon come across some shit-yer-pants-scary looking massive green robots at ground level, but rather than offer a decent fight, they just sit there doing nothing as you walk between their legs. You can shoot them too if you want but while there are small explosions, you get no score or any response at all. What’s that all about? It’s certainly enough to confuse me as i soon lose all of my lives in the desert, although my score is better this time

Score: 25,800

I know i’ve joked about the robot not being able to shoot anything at ground level because he obviously has arthritis of the knees, but it does make the game a bit silly. The placing of tanks is quite obviously an afterthought to stop you staying on the ground too much and there really isn’t much reason to change between the two so it can’t help but feel a bit gimmicky.

That being said, it’s a good game that i expect is very hard to find these days hence the single record, which is massive. God knows how far into the game you would have to get to get 3 million plus and although it certainly seems like a game that isn’t *that* difficult once you get a good idea of how best to deal with the different enemies, i still don’t fancy my chances to be honest. Spare any chenge guv?

Playing rules: Difficulty: 5 (Normal). Start: 3 lives
Dip Switch Bank #1: 1-4 = OFF; 5-6 = OFF/UNUSED; 7-8 = ON [Upright, 1 player]; 7 = ON; 8 = OFF [Upright, 2 players]; 7-8 = OFF [Cocktail].
Dip Switch Bank #2: 1-4 = OFF; 5-8 = OFF/UNUSED

Current Record holders:
1st: 1,445.050 - Antonio Colangelo - 1985
erm...that's it

Only one record holder? From the 80′s? Crazy! Wonder what the story is there? I would imagine that this machine is REALLY hard to find these days, because it’s unusual that a machine only has a single record.

Quick check on www.klov.com tells me that i may be right:

“Very Rare – According to a survey conducted by Video Arcade Preservation Society of approximately 910 collectors and their 20,000+ games, there are no known instances of this game owned by a known collector”

I getcha.

Now, for any of you that have used MAME or indeed any sort of arcade emulator, you’ll know that having too much choice can actually be quite a bad thing. MAME itself has 5000+ games available, which is a really bewildering list whichever way you look at it. As a result you tend to stick to the good ol’ familiars, rarely dipping your toes into the thousands of unknowns.

So, chances are you have NEVER played Acrobatic Dogfight – i certainly have never heard of it. Being able to play it now is truly one of the bonuses with a quest such as this.

As with all of the games i’m unfamiliar with, i can only explain the rules and what have you from what i see when i give them a go and let me tell you, this baby is a treat. As soon as the game loads up you know that it’s going to be mental. You control a hillariously massive guy in a little Bi-plane thing, off on what appears to be a mission to get to the goal, waaaaay over to the right and fly over to the right is indeed what you do. It’s not all one direction mind you, moving about will allow you to loop back on yourself as well as change the height in which you fly. As well as this you have two buttons, shoot and speed up. Finally you notice the fuel guage to the left, suggesting that using the speed up button too much may not be the best idea. And that’s pretty much it from what i can see.

So, without any further ado, let’s give this little fella a fly! Pretty much as soon as you take off you are attacked by slightly smaller planes, although their attempts at shooting you down are pretty laughable. It’s bloody tricky to aim properly though due to the plane always facing in the direction you are moving; so if you move up, the plane also tips upward, as if it were beginning a loop, so shooting down the planes certainly isn’t as easy as you would like. So like any sensible person would do, i press the speed up button, only stopping when i see how fast the fuel guage is decreasing. Think i better lay off that button until i can work out how to refuel. Didn’t have to wait too long for that discovery though, as i manage to shoot down a plane and the fuel guage bumps up to nearly maximum. Right, so there is some sort of economy in force here where you have to juggle speed with shooting the odd thing, no problem.

It’s at that point that I’m killed by a giant pig hanging on to a propellor on a stick.

As you do. To be fair it wasn’t really a 1 shot kill, you see on my travels i had been hit already and the plane has been billowing smoke whilst making the plane wobble so much that shooting straight is quite a challenge, this pig had simply been the final nail in my coffin. A flying pig – not even in a bloody plane - It’s fair to say that all historical respect i had for this game was now out the window.

More worrying than all of that madness however, i had barely even begun to get near my goal, and my score after 1 life was only a thousand or so – not really challenging the 1 and a half million record then, looks like the 1985 record will be safe.

As with every other massively headed man in a plane out there, it takes more than that to stop me playing on – those pig bastards will feel my wrath!

Apart from the fact that they’re tricky little beggars, they really enjoy a-shooting that lot. They manage to almost kill me again before i bottle it and speed past them, fuel be buggered.

Ah, real planes again. Nicely done – ah but these are even trickier! They buzz about all over the place and it’s actually really hard to hit them. Bugger, out of fuel, damn you pigs for making me speed up!

Ok, last life and i do much better, hang on, fuck me – the pigs are back. At least this time they are in planes.

The joy is short lived when a pig jumps out of his plane, lands on my plane and blows us all up.

Ha! mental.

Score: 10,750

On my second go I notice that your large headed guy not only looks rather silly in his small plane, but he’s absolutely LOVING it. The little fella is pumping his fist and literally dancing with determined joy as he goes. Maybe if he took it a little more seriously we could get nearer the record.

Again i get to the pigs, and again they shoot me the buggers, so i zoom past them as i did last time. I find it a bit easier to shoot the planes now so fuel isn’t a problem this time, but the bloody jumping pigs get me again! I’m only about a quarter through the level if the progress meter is anything to go by and i just can’t get past the pigs! The difficulty is made all the harder by the fact that they sometimes leap out of their plane off screen and just suddenly appear above you, dragging you to your death. bastards!

Score: 13,650

Third go and i have to say, the death animation is really unnecessary. If your plane blowing up isn’t enough, you also slowly plummet to the ground where you splat in the road. I think what makes it that much more shocking is again the fact that the big headed lad is having SUCH a great time up until the point he finds himself falling to his death. Would it hurt to just let him fly about a bit? Damn you pigs!

New tactic this time, and it immediately makes a difference. Sod all that saving fuel business, live life to the max! The new plan is to speed as much as i can, til there is about half fuel left, and then shoot a few things to replenish, rinse and repeat – and it works a treat. I get past the first set of pigs and before i know it i’m at the jumping buggers. Ah! i see, the pigs are holding bombs, that’s why it kills you when they land on you. A bit harsh on the pigs though, as they die as well – in fact a few times i see the pigs miss me and then die as they hit the ground anyway. Loonies.

And then another big revelation! At the bottom left of the screen there are two indicators, one is obviously your life counter, but the other puzzled me. It’s pretty much a big “P” with a parachute attached to it and apparently i have two of them. Pressing the space bar provides the answer! When you use one of your “P’s” your mister leaps out of the plane, parachutes down to safety and then runs along the road a bit where he finds a new plane parked up and he sets off again. I assume this is some sort of avoid manoeuvre and it proves immediately useful.

I get past the pigs with only 1 life gone, and my technique is working well, even despite the next enemies being mine laying UFO’s (probably piloted by pigs no doubt). Eventually, i fall foul of some faster deadlier planes and it’s game over again. Much better score mind you.

Score: 39,500

All in all, what a great little gem! Not only is it absolutely mental, there are some suprisingly polished details that really add to the game. They may not be major, but things like planes accidentally crashing into the ground on their own and some of the more detailed animations really set this game apart from others from the same time period. The gameplay itself isn’t too exciting, but if you don’t at least giggle at some of the enemies and animations then you’re dead inside.

As for the record,  that will really take some getting - the score really does rack up slowly – but if i ever find one of these machines on my travels i will definitely get a 2nd place effort recognised if i can.

Absolutely mental, but fun – i recommend you have a go!

Playing rules: Ticket Level: [Medium] 5,000 points for your first ticket. Timer for street: Medium. Add-A-Coin Control: Maximum of 2 Coins (2 continues).
Special Rules: You may freely choose to buy-in up to 2 times or none at all. You are not permitted to jump over a fence to the outer areas for any reason. If you do, your score will be disqualified. (This is due to a bug where the bees can no longer get you, despite the timer running out of time.)

Current Record holders:
1st: 527,100 - Ron Perelman - 1987
....
5th: 41,440 - Ken Sweet - 2002

Oh dear, i’ve been dreading this one. There are only a few arcade machines that can claim to have scared me as a kid but this is one such game. Bugger used to put me under all kind of pressure, which resulted in me rarely playing it. What was so scary i hear you ask? The bloody bees that’s what – I still wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat hearing “SKATE OR DIEEEEEEeeeeee” waiting for the swarm of bees to arrive. Twin this fear with the fact that i was never any good at the game, and all in all you get a machine that i used to actively avoid wherever possible. But for sake of the greater good, i’m going back to that dark place – please don’t hurt me.

What on earth am i going on about? bees? Surely this is a nice little skateboard game? Let me explain. The game is actually very simple, you control a young lad on his skateboard, rolling about the various ramps dotted about in your oddly futuristic landscape. The idea of the game is to build up points, and this is mainly achieved by mastering the 4 skate parks dotted about the place. You have Jump park, Ramp park, Slalom park and downhill park - all of which are pretty similar in that you have to complete small events within a time limit and get graded with a medal if you do well. Problem is, each park visit requires a ticket, and you can only get those by getting points. So if you’re rubbish at the game you’ll quickly find the timer running out where the machine will scream “SKATE OR DIE”, which in turns releases the aforementioned bees. ARGHHHH the bees! the bees!….ahem, sorry. These bee’s will chase you about, increasing speed as they go until they catch up with you and that’s it – game over.

So. Let’s do it.

Hold on though, a problem already. I don’t really understand the settings and rules. In the MAME tab menu i have set the game to Medium, but what does all the rest mean? specifically – “You may freely choose to buy-in up to 2 times or none at all”. Does that mean that i can continue two times? Why would you have a rule like that? How odd.

To save any confusion, i think i will just use the single credit as usual – to be honest i doubt very much that i will get anywhere near the big scores due to my general shit-ness even with 10 continues.

Ok, another hitch. The original arcade machine has a rather large trackball as its controls, which is actually rather handy for all the little spinnies and tricks. My PC doesn’t, and the keys dont really cut it. I’m convinced that you should be able to use the mouse instead, but after various attempts i couldn’t get it to work properly, so sod it – keys it is.

And off we go. Beginner level please game, you silly goose. Ok, i have a free ticket to start off with, so lets meander towards one of the parks. Blimey, this time limit bar is going rather quickly and my attempts to boost my score on the way are failing miserably as i rubbishly topple over the small ramps. Slalom park it is then. oooookay, fucked that up pretty good, 3000 points to the next ticket you say? no chance. SKATE OR DIE!
shitshitshitshitshitshit-getoutofthewaymanonbike!!!-arghhhhh-dead. Blimey.

Score: 4,050

This time i think i’ll choose a different park, and to great success. The downhill park is MUCH easier and i get a silver medal enough for the next ticket. marvelous! Sod that slalom park, so off to the other corner of the park to try one of the others. Handily there are map squares dotted about, that not only give you relief from the time limit for a second, but tell you where everything else can be found, including little shops that sell you things that i have never really noticed the difference from, like new skateboards and jump higher boots. Nothing useful mind, like perhaps a mosquito net for goodness sakes? It certainly wont effect my grace on the skateboard let me tell you, hardly leaping over the ramps like a young gazelle if i’m fair. Ok, Ramp park it is – and i reach there just before the bees get me, helpfully falling in the water on the way in a panic. Hmmm, the ramp park is pretty tricky for a no trick pony like myself, and i only just scrape a bronze medal. 8,000 points til next ticket. FUCK. SKATE OR DIE. arghhh. dead.

Score: 11,300 (not so bad!)

Third go and I stick to the downhill park, where i get a silver medal again. I really notice the problem I have with this game though. To be able to successfully sustain yourself in this game, you need to be able to pick up a couple of thousand points from just fannying about between the parks to earn your tickets and i simply can’t. Best i can manage is a pathetic “barely get over the small ramp” 100 pointer every now and then and that doesn’t help anybody. Again i fail the second park, and have 5,000 points until next ticket. If there was a “lay in a ball crying waiting for the bees” button i would have pressed it. SKATE OR DIE. whatever.

Score: 7,140

Overall, to be fair i think the lack of trackball didn’t help me at all – and with a bit of practice i reckon that 5th place is definitely within reach. Thing is, i don’t want to play the game anymore, please don’t make me.

Actually, the disallowed cheat mentioned in the rules sounds like fun, if only i can find a way to leap over the outer fence (or find a part of the fence that is about 1 inch tall), i might finally be able to get over the fear of the bees as they buzz about unable to get me. Nah, i think i’ll leave it actually.