Space Harrier - MAME software

NEC PC-Engine HuCARD published 32 years ago:

Space Harrier © 1988 NEC Avenue, Limited.

Space Harrier is a 3D/forward shooter developed by Dempa and published by Nec Avenue, and conversion of Sega's popular arcade game. The peaceful world of Dragon Land is under attack by swarms of evil creatures. A fighter with extraordinary powers decides to challenge the invaders, and to save the doomed planet and its inhabitants. Space Harrier features eighteen levels and a fairly simple gameplay mechanics - the players takes control of a warrior armed with a large laser-cannon who can run on the ground or fly across the screen. However, the game is played from a 3D perspective and the player must dodge trees, pillars and enemy bullets while flying at considerable speeds through the strange landscapes of Dragon Land. Space Harrier relies on split second reflexes, and although obstacles can be destroyed in the first stage, most of them can't be later in the game, and the player must constantly move around the screen while shooting at countless enemies in order to stay alive. Two bonus levels are also scattered throughout the game, in which the player rides a large floating dragon and must smash into elements of the background in order to score as many points as possible.

TECHNICAL
HuCARD ID: H67G-1002
HuCARD Size: 4 Mbits.

TRIVIA
Space Harrier For PC-Engine was released on December 9, 1988 in Japan for 6700 Yen.

Known export release:
[US] "Space Harrier [Model TGX040025]"

The arcade game Space Harrier was originally released by Sega in 1985. It should come as no surprise that this PC-Engine conversion of Space Harrier shows various differences with the original and blazing fast arcade game. The most obvious difference is the checkerboard pattern that was replaced here by horizontal lines. Then sprites are far smaller than the arcade, but it was most certainly the optimal trade off to create a game that runs surprisingly close to arcade speed. Finally, Space Harrier was technically the first 4 Mbits Hucard game ever released, and is apparently the only Hucard game not compatible with the SuperGrafx system (there is however a mode switch at the back of the console to turn it back into PC-Engine mode).

STAFF
Main Programmer: T. Kurebayashi
Music Driver: Perfect Senoko
Music Editor: Nazo1 Ken Ken
Sound Effector: Rom Writer Nasu
Graphic Coding: T. Matsushima, T. Kurebayashi
Test Player: K. Tsuchida, A. Yamashita
Special Thanks To: Daddy Naniwa, T. Tabeta

Executive Producer: Shigenobu Nanbu (Nec Avenue)
Producer: Daddy Naniwa (Dempa), Toshio Tabeta (Nec Avenue)

PORTS

• CONSOLES:

[JP] Sony PS2 (oct.27, 2005) "Space Harrier II - Space Harrier Complete Collection [Sega Ages 2500 Vol.20] [Model SLPM-62691]"

CONTRIBUTE
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