Section Z (US) - MAME machine

Arcade Video game published 39 years ago:

Section Z © 1985 Capcom Company, Limited.

As a sole astronaut, you must penetrate the alien Balangool space craft and destroy the evil 'L-Brain'. Make your way through 27 alphabet-labeled levels to find his lair.

The player maneuvers the space ranger throughout the enemy space station, which consists of 26 alphabetically ordered corridors known as "sections", starting from Section A and ending at the titular Section Z. The game is divided into five stages, each consisting of five sections (with the final stage having six sections to accommodate the spare letter). The player will fight an enemy boss at the end of each stage, concluding with the final battle against the "L Brain" at Section Z. The game's stages alternates between horizontal-scrolling stage (left or right) and upwards vertical-scrolling stages. The player will lose a life every time they get hit by enemy fire. Additional lives can be obtained if the player achieves a high enough score. The game will be over if the player loses all of their lives, although a chance to continue will be provided.

The controls consists of an eight-way joystick and two buttons, one for shooting and the other for changing the character's aim to the left or right. This allows the player to shoot at one direction while moving away towards the opposite. The player will shoot their rifle towards the left or the right with the fire button, while dropping bombs at the same time to the ground. By destroying certain dome-shaped containers, the player can obtain one of three power-up items represented by letters: S, P, and B. S increases the player's mobility speed, while P increases their firing power; each can improved for up to three increments. However, these power-ups will be lost whenever the player loses a life. The B item will simply give the player bonus points

TECHNICAL
Main CPU: Zilog Z80 (@ 6 Mhz)
Sound CPU: Zilog Z80 (@ 4 Mhz)
Sound Chips: (2x) Yamaha YM2203 (@ 1.5 Mhz)

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

TRIVIA
Section Z was released in December 1985.

The first of Capcom's 'Jet-Pack Hero' shooters! Your hero is officially called "Captain Commando".:)

Section Z has a couple of bugs, sprites don't clip properly when scrolling on or off the left side of the screen or the top of the screen.

Every few sections (stages), the direction of the game's scrolling changes, from left-to-right, to bottom-to-top, to right-to-left, etc.

One section features a pinball machine in which you must avoid the multiple flying pinballs.

Alfa Records released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Capcom Game Music - 28XA-94) on August 25, 1986.

SERIES

• Section Z (1985)
• Side Arms - Hyper Dyne (1986)

STAFF
Programmed by: Toshio Arima
Music by: Tamayo Kawamoto

PORTS

• CONSOLES:

[JP] Nintendo Famicom Disk System (may.25, 1987) "Section Z [Model CAP-SCZ]"
[US] Nintendo NES (jul.1987) "Section Z [Model NES-SZ-USA]"
[EU] Nintendo NES (sept.27, 1989) "Section Z [Model NES-SZ-EEC]"
[US] Microsoft XBOX (sept.27, 2005) "Capcom Classics Collection"
[US] Sony PS2 (sept.27, 2005) "Capcom Classics Collection [Model SLUS-21316]"
[EU] Microsoft XBOX (nov.18, 2005) "Capcom Classics Collection"
[EU] Sony PS2 (nov.18, 2005) "Capcom Classics Collection [Model SLES-53661]"
[JP] Sony PS2 (mar.2, 2006) "Capcom Classics Collection [Model SLPM-66317]"
[JP] Sony PlayStation 3 [PSN] (feb.19, 2013) "Capcom Arcade Cabinet [Model NPJB-00210]"
[EU] Sony PlayStation 3 [PSN] (feb.20, 2013) "Capcom Arcade Cabinet"
[JP] Microsoft XBOX 360 [XBLA] (feb.20, 2013) "Capcom Arcade Cabinet"
[EU] Microsoft XBOX 360 [XBLA] (feb.20, 2013) "Capcom Arcade Cabinet"
[AU] Microsoft XBOX 360 [XBLA] (feb.21, 2013) "Capcom Arcade Cabinet"
[US] Sony PlayStation 3 [PSN] (mar.4, 2013) "Capcom Arcade Cabinet: Game Pack 2 [DLC]"
[US] Microsoft XBOX 360 [XBLA] (mar.5, 2013) "Capcom Arcade Cabinet: Game Pack 2 [DLC]"
[US] Sony PlayStation 3 [PSN] (may.21, 2013) "Capcom Arcade Cabinet: All-In-One Pack [DLC]"
[US] Microsoft XBOX 360 [XBLA] (may.22, 2013) "Capcom Arcade Cabinet: All-In-One Pack [DLC]"

• HANDHELDS:

[US] Sony PSP (mar.22, 2006) "Capcom Classics Collection Remixed [Model ULUS-10097]"
[EU] Sony PSP (jul.21, 2006) "Capcom Classics Collection Remixed [Model ULES-00347]"

CONTRIBUTE
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