Cosmo Police Galivan (12/26/1985) - MAME machine

Arcade Video game published 37 years ago:

Galivan - Cosmo Police © 1985 Nichibutsu.

Galivan is a single player platform shoot-em-up in which the player takes on the roll of a 'Cosmo Police' officer who runs and jumps around a multi-directional scrolling cave system, destroying or avoiding waves of constantly attacking robots, aliens and alien ships.

The player starts the game as an unarmed human, whose only attacking options are kicking and punching, but picking up a POW item encases the human in a robotic suit and arms the player with a laser gun.

Collecting the blue POW items while in the suit awards the player with a powerful beam weapon for a limited time, while the red POW item gives the player a three-shot cannon. POW items are dotted throughout the levels and can also be gained by shooting the blue robot aliens.

The player's character has an energy bar that decreases whenever the player is hit. Should this fall below the halfway point, the robot suit will be lost and the player will once again be an unarmed human.

Collecting a POW item while in human form will restore the player's energy. If a POW is collected while wearing the suit, however, the player's energy will NOT be increased but their weapon will receive a power-up.

The game's platforms are littered with springboards that fire the player high into the air when stepped on. Some platforms - often containing POW items - can only be reached via a springboard.

TECHNICAL
Main CPU: Zilog Z80 (@ 6 Mhz)
Sound CPU: Zilog Z80 (@ 4 Mhz)
Sound Chips: Yamaha YM3526 (@ 4 Mhz), (2x) DAC

Players: 2
Control: 8-way joystick
Buttons: 3

TRIVIA
Galivan Cosmo Police was released in December 1985.

The game is inspired by the Japanese telefilm 'SPACE SHERIFF GAVAN'.

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (G.S.M. Nichibutsu 1 - D28B0004) on 21/09/1988.

UPDATES
REVISION 1:

• Build date: DEC 11 1986

REVISION 2:

• Build date: DEC 16 1986

SERIES

• Galivan - Cosmo Police (1985, Arcade)
• Cosmo Police Galivan II - Arrow of Justice [Model SHVC-GI] (1993, Super Famicom)

STAFF
Directed by: Shigeki Fujiwara
Software by: T. Tsuchie
Hardware by: Isao Shiki
Designer by: K. Nakagawa
Music & Sound by: Kenji Yoshida

PORTS

• CONSOLES:

[US] [EU] Nintendo NES (1986)
[JP] Sony PS4 [PSN] (apr.9, 2015) "Arcade Archives - Cosmo Police Galivan [Model CUSA-01876]"
Sony PlayStation 4 [PSN] [AS] (aug.6, 2015) "Arcade Archives - Cosmo Police Galivan"
Sony PlayStation 4 [PSN] [US] (oct.20, 2015) "Arcade Archives - Cosmo Police Galivan [Model CUSA-03373]"
Sony PlayStation 4 [PSN] [EU] [AU] (feb.9, 2016) "Arcade Archives - Cosmo Police Galivan [Model CUSA-03383]"

• COMPUTERS:

[EU] Amstrad CPC (1986)
[US] Commodore C64 [EU] (1986)
ZX Spectrum [EU] (1986)

Note: For the home computer releases, this game was persistently incorrectly named 'Galvan' on the inlay spine, instructions and magazine reviews.

CONTRIBUTE
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