The Bishop of Battle...

[ShotOfSelf]

During my daily run today I thought about an old movie that was one of my favorites growing up, 'Nightmares'. It was released in 1983 and it's a horror anthology with 3 separate stories, one of them being 'The Bishop of Battle' starring Emilio Estevez. It's about a hotshot arcade player who's trying to beat the hardest game ever which is called, 'The Bishop of Battle'. It's sort of like a 3D Berzerk with vector graphics, a crazy control scheme and there are 13 progressively more challenging stages but nobody has ever seen the 13th stage. Stuff gets crazy, he eventually breaks into the arcade after closing and the machine comes to life which forces him to fight the Bishop in reality. For years I thought a normal version of the game existed but was ultimately disappointed once the internet came into existence and its unreality was confirmed.

Then it got me thinking shmup-wise, what is the closest thing to the Bishop of Battle? In the film, Emilio is convinced the 13th stage exists since some kid in Jersey once got to it but everyone else thinks it's fake. If we go back in time to Japan when these wonderful games were only available in the arcade there must have been the same type of doubt, wonder and amazement. Before somebody got to the True Last Boss in any given shooter how would anyone know it existed? The mysteriousness captivates me and it seems to be lost due to easier games and having footage of everything available on the internet. Are there any games where nobody has seen the last level or it has taken years to confirm an ending or TLB?

TL;DR - I think it would be awesome if a shmup existed where nobody has ever seen the last stage/boss due to a practically impossible difficulty level. A kind of difficulty that makes a Gradius III or Mushihimesama-Futari Ultra run look like a reasonable weekend goal to achieve.


Side note: Emilio hustles a kid out of money gambling over a game of Pleiads, eventually I played it and it's still in my Top 10 of golden classics. Anyone else a fan? Also here's a video of the showdown and an old Imockery article if you want to get a vibe for the movie.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqe1yE3ff1Q

http://www.i-mockery.com/minimocks/bishopofbattle/

[BIL]

The nearest I can think of in recent times is the PS2 port of Dai Ou Jou's Death Label mode, which took years for anyone to see the end of. I suppose that's the ideal kind of place to stash some super secret nightmare boss nobody would believe you about, haha. (or dick pics?)

I hope Pleiades appears on Arcade Archives at some point. Tecmo's 80s stuff is brilliant. Incidentally, its cab also appears in the Coen Brothers' debut film Blood Simple. Not exactly a shmupping joint but a great neo-noir regardless.

[ShotOfSelf]

Thank you, this is exactly what I was looking for! MON is a shooting master! What a display of skill! Second loop has all new patterns to learn, laser bombs heal the bosses, you have to do it all with one life and at the end you fight 2 Hibachis. It's so unfair I can't comprehend it. Gonna go buy a copy on ebay right away to own the hardest game mode in existence. Was anybody on this forum giving it a serious attempt or did they give up quickly? Hope insanity like this happens again one day, would have to come from the indie scene which is fine by me.

And it's nice to meet another Pleiads enthusiast, we should have a score battle sometime in the future. Could probably get my brother in on it so that would make three of us. 'Blood Simple' is on my films to watch list along with 'A Simple Plan' which I just saw recently. Decent, strange, Sam Raimi directed film with Bill Paxton and Billy Bob, no shmups present.

[BulletMagnet]

I seem to recall that Inbachi in DFK took a bit for anyone to get to. I'd guess some older titles would have a "how many loops are there?" variation on the theme.