Arkanoid - Revenge of DOH (US) - MAME machine

Arcade Video game published 37 years ago:

Arkanoid - Revenge of DOH © 1987 Taito Corp.

The mysterious enemy known as 'DOH' has returned to seek vengeance on the 'Vaus' space vessel. The player must once again take control of the Vaus and overcome many challenges in order to destroy DOH once and for all.

An update of the popular 1986 original, Revenge of DOH sees the player battle through 34 rounds, taken from a grand total of 64. Revenge of DOH differs from its predecessor with the introduction of "Warp Gates". Upon completion of a round or when the Break ('B') pill is caught, two gates appear at the bottom left and bottom right of the play area respectively, the Vaus is then taken through one of the gates - the choice will affect which version of the next round is provided.

The game also features two new features for bricks. Notched silver bricks, like normal silver bricks, take several hits to destroy. However, after a short period of time after destruction, they regenerate at full strength. Fortunately, clearing a level does not require that any notched bricks to be destroyed. Also, some bricks move from side to side as long as their left and/or right sides are not obstructed by other bricks.

The game features a mini-boss in the form of a giant brain, which will help you practice for DOH. You must aim for the brain's mouth to defeat it.

TECHNICAL
Board Number: K1100250A
Prom Stickers: B08

Main CPU: Zilog Z80 (@ 8 Mhz), Zilog Z80 (@ 6 Mhz)
Sound Chips: YM2203 (@ 3 Mhz)

Players: 2
Control: spinner
Buttons: 1
→ FIRE - Used to launch the energy ball at the start of each new round and each new life, to relaunch the energy ball after it is caught by the Vaus when the Catch ('C') pill is in effect, and to fire laser beams when the Laser ('L') pill is in effect.

TRIVIA
Arkanoid - Revenge of DOH was released in June 1987.

Depending on the path, you will see a different name for the round.
Rounds 1 and 18 are always 'Iomanoid', and always provide the same level set.
Rounds 2-16 can either be 'Baltnoid' (left) or 'Saterranoid' (right).
Rounds 19-33 can either be 'Xeufnoid' (left) or 'Gakanoid' (right).
Rounds 17 and 34 are the boss battles, and are called 'Vetranoid'.

Zachary Hample holds the official record for this game with 3,120,570 points on December 31, 2002.

SCORING
Points are scored for destroying bricks and killings aliens.

TIPS AND TRICKS

• Pill descriptions:

S - Slow: Temporarily slows down the speed of the energy ball. The energy ball will speed up upon hitting the ceiling of the chamber, making this pill unhelpful in some levels. On the other hand, the energy ball speeds up much more quickly and rapidly in this game, making it helpful to extend a normal playing speed.
L - Laser: Enables the Vaus to fire laser beams that destroy most bricks.
C - Catch: Enables the Vaus to catch the energy ball, move to another position, and relaunch it by pressing the fire button. If you hesitate too long, the Vaus will release the ball on its own.
B - Break: Opens the Warp Gates, allowing you to bypass the level even when it is unfinished.
E - Expansion: Expands the Vaus to double its size.
P - Player: Gives you an additional Vaus.
D - Disruption: Splits the energy ball into eight particles (unlike in the original game, where this pill split the energy ball into three particles).

• Revenge of DOH also features these additional pills:

M - Mega: Turns a normal energy ball into a red "mega energy ball", which can destroy even indestructible bricks and will only bounce back after hitting the sides or ceiling of the chamber.
R - Reduce: Shrinks the Vaus to half its width, but every block you destroy doubles in point value. Unless you're really a good player, this makes it very difficult to play.
T - Twin: Gives you two Vauses instead of one. Not a particularly helpful one, as it limits your maneuverability and the energy ball tends to fall between the Vauses.
I - Illusion: Creates a transparent grey shadow at the bottom of the screen that follows the Vaus around. It will deflect energy balls (though with no control of the rebound direction), greatly expanding the functional area of the Vaus.
N - New: Continually splits the energy ball into three particles until the Vaus catches another pill. This is very helpful on some levels.
Flashing pill: This special pill will reward you randomly with one of the following four powers: 1. 40 energy balls; 2. 25 mega energy balls; 3. 8 regenerating energy balls; 4. Continuous laser fire. On most levels, the first three powers are enough to clear the entire board. The fourth, however, can make it extremely difficult to see what's going on and won't help on levels with lots of indestructible blocks. Finally, instead of yielding one of the aforementioned powers, a flashing capsule will occasionally result in a regenerating swarm of 15 floating enemies passing through the portals in the ceiling and flooding the screen. While these enemies are worth 100 points apiece if destroyed by the energy ball, having to battle so many at once is usually more of survival challenge than a scoring opportunity.

SERIES

• Arkanoid (1986, Arcade)
• Arkanoid - Revenge of DOH (1987, Arcade)
• Arkanoid - Doh It Again [Model SHVC-A6] (1997, Super Famicom)
• Arkanoid Returns (1997, Arcade)
• Arkanoid DS (2007, Nintendo DS)

STAFF
Directed & Programmed by: Yasumasa Sasabe
Assistant programmers: Toshiaki Tsukano, Hideki Hashimoto
Graphic designers: Tetsuro Kitagawa, Kohzoh Igarashi, Genya Kuriki
Sound designer: Hisayoshi Ogura
Publicity supervisor: Hisayasu Nakane
Mechanical engineer: Yasunori Hatsuda
Game designed by: Kei. S

PORTS
NOTE: Home versions of Revenge of DOH also featured a level editor, where players could create their own levels or edit and replace existing levels, with the exception of two levels: the mini-boss and DOH.

• CONSOLES:

[JP] Nintendo Famicom (mar.8, 1988) "Arkanoid II [Model TFC-ANII-5900]"

• COMPUTERS:

[JP] Sharp X68000 (feb.1988)
[EU] Commodore C64 (1988)
[EU] Atari ST (1988)
[EU] Amstrad CPC (1987) by Imagine
[EU] Amstrad CPC (1988) by Hit Squad
[EU] Amstrad CPC (1988) "Les Défis de Taito"
[EU] Amstrad CPC (1988) "Taito Coin-Op Hits"
[EU] Commodore Amiga (1988)
[JP] MSX (1988)
[EU] Sinclair ZX Spectrum (1988) by Imagine
[EU] Sinclair ZX Spectrum (1989) by Hit Squad: Budget Edition
[EU] Sinclair ZX Spectrum (1989) by Erbe Software: Budget Edition
[EU] Sinclair ZX Spectrum (1988)
MSX2 (1987)
[EU] Acorn Archimedes

CONTRIBUTE
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