Midnight Resistance (Japan) - MAME machine

Arcade Video game published 35 years ago:

Midnight Resistance © 1989 Data East.

Midnight Resistance is a scrolling platform shoot-em-up for one or two players, taking on the role of two commando brothers whose entire family has been kidnapped and must be rescued. The game consists of nine large, eight-way scrolling levels made up of platforms, ledges and ladders. Each is populated with enemy soldiers and gun emplacements, as well as occasional armoured vehicles. At the end of each stage players must defeat a large, powerful enemy boss.

Players can rotate their guns through 360 degrees, allowing them to fire in all directions. Some enemies, when killed, will drop a red key; collecting these keys allows players to upgrade their weapons at the shop that awaits at the end of each level. A maximum of six keys can be carried at any one time and when the player loses a life, all weapons and keys in their possession are dropped. These can be recovered at the start of the next life providing they haven't fallen off-screen.

In addition to main weapon upgrades, secondary weapons can also be bought. These appear as backpacks attached to the player characters and fire when the player pushes up on the joystick while firing their main weapon. Both the main and secondary weapons have only a limited amount of ammo but more can be bought from the end-of-level shops.

Main weapon upgrades:

Full Auto - Rapid-fire machine gun
Fire - Flamethrower
3-Way - Fires orbs in three directions at once
Shotgun - Fires powerful shells

Backpack weapon upgrades:

H.M - Homing missiles that automatically target enemies
Nitro - An eight-way laser energy burst
Shower - Eight projectiles drop from the top of the screen

Other power-ups includes a 'Supercharge' upgrade that improves the firepower of the player's current weapon (this upgrade is lost when the player loses a life), a 'Barrier' that provides temporary protection and extra lives.

Before the final stage, the keys collected during the penultimate eighth stage can be used to free the player's relatives before the final battle with Crimson King. The ending varies depending on how many family members the player has rescued.

TECHNICAL
Main CPU: Motorola 68000 (@ 12 Mhz)
Sound CPU: Hudson Soft HuC6280 (@ 3 Mhz)
Sound Chips: YM2203 (@ 1.5 Mhz), YM3812 (@ 3 Mhz), OKI6295 (@ 7.757 Khz)

Players: 2
Control: 8-way joystick (rotary).
Buttons: 2 per player.

TRIVIA
Midnight Resistance was released in October 1989.

The game's ending changes slightly depending how many family members are rescued before the final battle! Save them all!

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Crude Buster, Midnight Resistance - PCCB-00039) on August 21, 1990.

A Midnight Resistance unit appears in the 1990 movie 'Robocop 2'.

UPDATES
The US version has the "Winners Don't Use Drugs" screen.

TIPS AND TRICKS
The game's ending changes slightly depending how many family members are rescued before the final battle. For the ''proper'' ending, all family members must be saved. The players must have the full count of six red keys in order to release all of the prisoners.

SERIES

• Heavy Barrel (1987)
• Midnight Resistance (1989)

STAFF
Designer: Koji Akibayashi
Software: Yuichi Nishimura, Naoya Hanada, Yuji Ohtomo, Tac. H
Hardware: Keiichi Yoshida, Hiroyuki Iwabe, Shingo Mitsui
Graphic designers: Tomoo Adachi, Kazumi Minagawa, Fujimi Ohnishi, Yoshinari Kaihoh
Sound: Ahsa, Mard, Fuse, Kiwchi, Hitomi Komatsu

PORTS

• CONSOLES:

[JP] Sega Mega Drive (mar.29, 1990) "Midnight Resistance [Model T-13043]"
[US] Sega Genesis (1991)

• COMPUTERS:

[EU] Sinclair ZX Spectrum (1990)
[EU] Commodore C64 (1990)
[EU] Amstrad CPC (1990)
[SP] Amstrad CPC (1990) "Midnight Resistance [Model AM 614]"
[EU] Commodore Amiga (1990)
[EU] Sinclair ZX Spectrum (1991) "Midnight Resistance [Model AC42]"
[SP] Sinclair ZX Spectrum (1991) "Midnight Resistance [Model SE614]"
[EU] Atari ST (1992)
[EU] Atari ST (1993) Budget edition

CONTRIBUTE
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