Warzard (Japan 961121) - MAME machine

Arcade Video game published 28 years ago:

Warzard © 1996 Capcom Company, Limited.

Taking place in the year 1999 of an alternate Earth, follow the adventures of four heroes as they take on an army of mythical monsters unleashed by Valdool to bring about the destruction of the world. Take your pick from Leo the Lion King, Tao the Martial artist, Tabasa the Witch, or Mukuro the Ninja as they fight their way across the globe in order to defeat Valdool the iron giant.

TECHNICAL
Capcom Play System III Hardware (CP-S III)
Game ID: CP-S III No. 01
CD Number: CAP-WZD000
CD Label: CAP-WZD-5

Main CPU: Hitachi SH2 (possibly 2)
Storage: SCSI CD Rom, RAM and Flash ROM.
RAM: SIMMs on the left w/ 16M of data each (each has 8x 16M Flash ROMs, there's 4 SIMMs plugged in on this board). SIMMs on the right w/ 8M each (there's 4 Flash ROMs on each board and there are 2 SIMMs plugged in)
OSC: 60MHz. 42.9545MHz, XTAL 3.6864MHz.

Players: 2
Control: 8-Way Joystick
Buttons: 6

→ [1] LP (Jab), [2] MP (Short), [3] HP (Fierce)
→ [4] LK (Strong), [5] MK (Forward), [6] HK (Roundhouse)

TRIVIA
Warzard was released in October 1996.

This game is known outside Japan as "Red Earth". Despite the common appearance of the game in Japan, it saw a very limited release in the United States.

War-Zard is the first game to run on the Capcom Play System III hardware (CPS III), the first Capcom system that uses a CD-Rom instead of expensive EPROMs to hold the game data (about 50MB). When starting a cabinet with a new CPS-3 game the first time, the hardware needs 25 minutes to initialize the game. In fact it overwrites some flashroms with data from the new CD. This procedure allows the game later to startup as fast as it would normally run from regular EEPROMs.

The character Leo was inspired by Conan the Barbarian.

UPDATES

• 961023
• 961121

TIPS AND TRICKS
During the game's credits (staff roll), press MP (Middle Punch) and UP to make Mobi-chan (the little Capcom robot) appear. Now you can shoot the credits for fun.

STAFF
Planner: Tatsuya Nakae (-Dai-), Musasabi Zirou, Murasaki Umagoyashi, Masahiro Nakano (E-Z!)
Programmer: Tsutomu Urago, Yuzo Tsunazaki, Ariyoshi Kiyoko, Noboru Taniguchi, Toshiyuki Furuko, Masakazu Matsushita
Object Design: Kurisan, Eripyon, Ikusan Z, Shibata, Kimo Kimo, Shisui, M. Nakatani, Kaname, Satoshi, Mizuho, Kitasan, Yorio, Mizupyon, Koichi Kikutani, -GM Clip-Isi-B, Kozuchi, Rassie, Sakuno, Kidai - Shigeyama, Dekao, Jin, Takep, Tomohiko Ohsumi, Mach Windy, Yoshino Hiroaki, Naoki Fukushima, You-Ten Nakano, K. Tokunaga, Magari, Ken Jiman, Naoki Fukuda, Gen Kadoi, Tetsuo
Scroll Designers: Ziggy, Yoko Fukumoto, Taka, Yumiko, Goro Suzuki, Hisashi Sawada, Kisabon, Iwai, Takky, May, Daisuke Nakagawa
Original Art Work: Akira Yasuda (Akiman), Shoei, Monkey-Chop, Daichan, Ikedai, Sakomizu, Edayan
Music Composer: Takayuki Iwai (Anarchy Takapon)
Sound Designers: Ryoji, Hachibee
Sound Engineer: Yoshihiko Ida
Sound Programmers: Yasushi Ikeda, Tomohiro Masuda
CP-System III Programmers: Yoji Mikami, E-Bou, Go! Ozawa

• Voice Actors:

Kenji, Blade: Kosei Kishino
Hydron: Osamu Hosoi
Mai-Ling, Tao, Taru's Mobstar: Megumi Urawa
Leo: Daisuke Gouri
Tessa, Lavia: Tomoko Naka

Producer: Saddy
General Producer: Noritaka Funamizu

Special Thanks: Haruo Murata (Mucchi), Takuya Shiraiwa, Matt Taylor, Erik Suzuki, Magdalena Viloria F., Harumi Yamashita, Alison Stroll, Rita Rokos, Darryl Williams, Takashi Kubozono (Mr. Kubozono), Kazushi Hirao (Mr. Hirao), Team Dirty Belet, Shinichi Yasuki (S-Yasuki), Wataru Kondo

PORTS
This game was never ported to any home consoles available at that time (Sega Saturn and Sony PlayStation). This was most likely due to the lack of RAM these consoles had, which the game needed to store the thousands of sprite animations. Another reason could have been the limited character roster available (only 4 fighters) for 2 player fighting.

CONTRIBUTE
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