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Darius (World)

 
Arcade
Arcade
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Darius (World)

| 1986
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Developer: Taito Corporation Japan
Controls/Input Device: Control(joy8way), Buttons(2)
Number of Players: 2
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Mameinfo.dat entry:
0.37b10 [Yochizo]


WIP:

- 0.147u2: hap fixed clone Omega Fighter Special. The game fails to boot or finish post. After showing bad rom errors, the game resets.

- 0.147u1: Fixed maincpu rom loading.

- 0.122u7: Fixed gfx1/2/3/4/5 rom loading.

- 0.89u3: Changed Z80 CPU2 clock speed to 5MHz.

- 0.37b10: Yochizo added 'Omega Fighter' (UPL 1989) and clone Omega Fighter Special.

- 21st November 2000: Yochizo fixed some graphics bugs in the Omega Fighter / Atomic Robo-kid driver.

- 8th November 2000: Yochizo sent in a driver for Omega Fighter and Atomic Robo-kid.

- 25th April 1999: Dumped Omega Fighter Special.


LEVELS: 8 (restarts once)


Other Emulators:

* FB Alpha

* JFF

* Raine


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Romset: 2016 kb / 8 files / 457.8 zip


Credits Mameinfo and Mametesters Project Robert J. Rabgno et al.
History.dat entry:
Darius (c) 1986 Taito Corp.

A horizontally scrolling shoot-em-up that was unique at the time for featuring a game screen that was three times wider than the conventional size, with the arcade cabinet utilizing three CRT screens to accommodate it.

In the game, the player flies an ornate fighter craft called a Silver Hawk. The craft is equipped with two attack weapons : Missile (forward-firing standard gun) and Bomb (drops from the bottom of the ship). The Silver Hawk is also equipped with the 'Arm' (armor); a green energy shield that can absorb enemy attacks without harm to the ship.

During the course of the levels the player must navigate the terrain and battle a variety of fighter craft, ground vehicles, turrets, and other obstacles. At the end of every level, players are greeted with the obligatory end-of-level boss. The bosses in Darius are often in the form of mechanical aquatic animals, such as fish or squid. If the player defeats the boss, the tunnel splits into two and the player must decide whether to take the upper or lower tunnel, both of which lead to a different stage. This allows many different paths to be taken through the game.

Power-ups can be obtained by shooting enemies of a certain color, with the power-ups appearing in the form of colored bubbles. Each color corresponds to one of the ship's three weapons :
* Red - Missile
* Green - Bomb
* Blue - Arm

If the player powers up a weapon more than seven times, the weapon changes to a new, more powerful version. This then becomes the player's default weapon, and can be powered up further. There are also two other colors of power-up bubble, white and orange; which can be obtained by shooting at certain sections of the terrain; unfortunately, there are no visual clues as to where these may be on any given level. These hidden power-ups offer the following :
* White - Gives a score bonus.
* Orange - Smart bomb that kills all on-screen enemies.

- TECHNICAL -

Prom Stickers : A96

Main CPU : (2x) Motorola 68000 (@ 8 Mhz)
Sound CPU : (2x) Zilog Z80 (@ 4 Mhz)
Sound Chips : (2x) Yamaha YM2203 (@ 4 Mhz), OKI MSM5205 (@ 384 Khz), (18x) Volume (@ 384 Khz)

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2

- TRIVIA -

Even if titlescreen says 1986, Darius was released in February 1987 in Japan.

Darius was unique in the fledgling genre for having a game screen three times longer than the usual size, and thus requiring three screens to be arranged side-by-side in order to play.

The player flies a small spacecraft called a Silver Hawk, which is also distinctive in being highly detailed in design - indeed, Taito devised mock blueprints for it. The Silver Hawks are a trademark of the series.

Another trademark of the series is the unique branching level structure. The levels are arranged in a large binary tree, and at the end of each level, the player must choose one of two paths to follow. This means that there are many different paths that can be taken through the game.

The heroes' names in Darius series 'PROCO' and 'TIAT' backwards spell 'TAITO CORP'.

The first stage music is a remix of the "Metal Soldier Isaac II" intro music (1985).

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Darius - PCCB-00093) on August 21, 1992.

Zuntata Records released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Zuntata History L'ab-normal 1st - ZTTL-0038) on April 1, 1999.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Progression of the bubbles :
Weapons (red) : Bullets --> Lasers --> Wave
Shields (blue) : Green --> Silver --> Gold
Bombs (green) : Single --> Dual --> Quad

* Miscellaneous bubbles :
Points (grey): Points
Extra-ship : Bomb certain key spots on the terrain.

* Power levels : There are eight power levels (0-7) within each armament category. Your weapons, shields, and bombs improve as you go from 0-7 :
Weapons : The shots move faster and therefore recharge more quickly.
Bullets increase in number and waves increase in height, thus destroying more enemies at once. Waves, once fired, will go through anything until leaving the screen to the right.
Shields : They just recharge, but the better classes of shields absorb more hits. Gold shields will also protect your ship from collisions with objects as well as shots, but on certain screens that have lots of little squeezeways, gold shields can actually kill you by ricocheting your ship back and forth until you die.
Bombs : They get 'smarter' in seeking out targets.

* How to complete the game : Completing the game is easiest with triple bullets.
Explore the different paths this way, and when you're ready for a challenge, try to get wave.
Lasers are not weapons so much as a handicap you have to endure while building to wave.

* Recommended paths (easiest) : A-C-E-H-M-R-X

- SERIES -

1. Darius (1987, Arcade)
2. Darius II (1989, Arcade)
3. Darius Twin [Model SHVC-DT] (1991, Super Famicom)
4. Darius Force [Model SHVC-DH] (1993, Super Famicom)
5. Darius Gaiden - Silver Hawk (1994, Arcade)
6. G-Darius (1997, Arcade)
7. G-Darius ver.2 (1997, Arcade)
8. Darius Burst (2009, Sony PSP)
9. Darius Burst - Another Chronicle (2010, Arcade)
10. Darius Burst - Another Chronicle EX (2011, Arcade)

- STAFF -

Directed and produced by : Toshio Kohno
Game designers : Toshio Konho, Akira Fujita, Kazuya Mikata
Programmers : Ken Hasegama, Takashi Kuriyama, Hideaki Tomioka, Tohru Sugawara, Hidenori Sasatani, Hideki Hashimoto
Art designers : Tetsuroh Kitagawa, Yoshihiro Wakita, Junji Yarita, Yukio Ishikawa, Kohzoh Igarashi, Genya Kuriki, Taira Sanuki, Masami Kikuchi, Mitsuru Ogama
Mechanical engineers : Takeki Nakamura, Eiji Kubota
Cabinet designers : Takeo Shiraishi, Hisayoshi Nakane, Natuki Hirosawa
Hardware designers : Takashi Ohhada, Syuji Kubota, Seigo Sakamoto
Music composers : Yasuhiko Tanaka, Hisayoshi Ogura, Naoto Yagishita, Tsukasa Nakamura, Eikichi Takahashi, Masahiko Takaki

- PORTS -

* Consoles :
NEC PC-Engine [JP] (1990, "Darius Alpha")
NEC PC-Engine [JP] (September 21, 1990; "Darius Plus [Model NAPH-1009]")
NEC PC-Engine CD [JP] (March 16, 1990; "Super Darius [Model HACD0003]")
Nintendo Game Boy [AS] (1991, "Sagaia [Model DMG-116 CHN]")
Nintendo Game Boy [JP] (December 13, 1991; "Sagaia [DMG-S8A]")
Nintendo Game Boy Advance [JP] (December 13, 2002; "Darius R [Model AGB-P-A2DJ]")
Nintendo Wii [Virtual Console] [JP] (October 7, 2008) PC-Engine CD version

* Computers :
Atari ST [EU] (1989, "Darius Plus")
Commodore Amiga [EU] (1989, "Darius Plus")
Sinclair ZX Spectrum [EU] (1990, "Darius Plus")

- CONTRIBUTE -

Edit this entry: http://www.arcade-history.com/?&page=detail&id=585&o=2


Licensed from Alexis Bousiges under a CC Attribution 3.0 License
cheat.dat entry:
00000000 82BF7 0000000A FFFFFFFF Infinite Lives PL1
00000000 82B7D 00000002 FFFFFFFF Invincibility PL1
00000000 82B9B 00000007 FFFFFFFF Always have Max Missile PL1
00000000 82B9F 00000007 FFFFFFFF Always have Max Bomb PL1
00000000 82BA3 00000007 FFFFFFFF Always have Max Arm PL1
00000000 82B99 00000000 FFFFFFFF Always have Shot Missile PL1
00000000 82B99 00000001 FFFFFFFF Always have Laser Missile PL1
00000000 82B99 00000002 FFFFFFFF Always have Beam Missile PL1
00000000 82B9D 00000000 FFFFFFFF Always have Single Bomb PL1
00000000 82B9D 00000001 FFFFFFFF Always have Double Bomb PL1
00000000 82B9D 00000002 FFFFFFFF Always have 4-way Bomb PL1
00000000 82BA1 00000000 FFFFFFFF Always have Green Arm PL1
00000000 82BA1 00000001 FFFFFFFF Always have Silver Arm PL1
00000000 82BA1 00000002 FFFFFFFF Always have Gold Arm PL1
00000001 82B9B 00000007 FFFFFFFF Get Max Missile Now! PL1
00000001 82B9F 00000007 FFFFFFFF Get Max Bomb Now! PL1
00000001 82BA3 00000007 FFFFFFFF Get Max Arm Now! PL1
00000001 82B99 00000000 FFFFFFFF Get Shot Missile Now! PL1
00000001 82B99 00000001 FFFFFFFF Get Laser Missile Now! PL1
00000001 82B99 00000002 FFFFFFFF Get Beam Missile Now! PL1
00000001 82B9D 00000000 FFFFFFFF Get Single Bomb Now! PL1
00000001 82B9D 00000001 FFFFFFFF Get Double Bomb Now! PL1
00000001 82B9D 00000002 FFFFFFFF Get 4-way Bomb Now! PL1
00000001 82BA1 00000000 FFFFFFFF Get Green Arm Now! PL1
00000001 82BA1 00000001 FFFFFFFF Get Silver Arm Now! PL1
00000001 82BA1 00000002 FFFFFFFF Get Gold Arm Now! PL1
60000000 00000 00000000 00000000
00000000 82C0D 0000000A FFFFFFFF Infinite Lives PL2
00000000 82BB1 00000002 FFFFFFFF Invincibility PL2
00000000 82BCF 00000007 FFFFFFFF Always have Max Missile PL2
00000000 82BD3 00000007 FFFFFFFF Always have Max Bomb PL2
00000000 82BD7 00000007 FFFFFFFF Always have Max Arm PL2
00000000 82BCD 00000000 FFFFFFFF Always have Shot Missile PL2
00000000 82BCD 00000001 FFFFFFFF Always have Laser Missile PL2
00000000 82BCD 00000002 FFFFFFFF Always have Beam Missile PL2
00000000 82BD1 00000000 FFFFFFFF Always have Single Bomb PL2
00000000 82BD1 00000001 FFFFFFFF Always have Double Bomb PL2
00000000 82BD1 00000002 FFFFFFFF Always have 4-way Bomb PL2
00000000 82BD5 00000000 FFFFFFFF Always have Green Arm PL2
00000000 82BD5 00000001 FFFFFFFF Always have Silver Arm PL2
00000000 82BD5 00000002 FFFFFFFF Always have Gold Arm PL2
00000001 82BCF 00000007 FFFFFFFF Get Max Missile Now! PL2
00000001 82BD3 00000007 FFFFFFFF Get Max Bomb Now! PL2
00000001 82BD7 00000007 FFFFFFFF Get Max Arm Now! PL2
00000001 82BCD 00000000 FFFFFFFF Get Shot Missile Now! PL2
00000001 82BCD 00000001 FFFFFFFF Get Laser Missile Now! PL2
00000001 82BCD 00000002 FFFFFFFF Get Beam Missile Now! PL2
00000001 82BD1 00000000 FFFFFFFF Get Single Bomb Now! PL2
00000001 82BD1 00000001 FFFFFFFF Get Double Bomb Now! PL2
00000001 82BD1 00000002 FFFFFFFF Get 4-way Bomb Now! PL2
00000001 82BD5 00000000 FFFFFFFF Get Green Arm Now! PL2
00000001 82BD5 00000001 FFFFFFFF Get Silver Arm Now! PL2
00000001 82BD5 00000002 FFFFFFFF Get Gold Arm Now! PL2

Credit Pugsy's MAME Cheat file
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