The origin of "Warning" alerts before boss?

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DMC
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The origin of "Warning" alerts before boss?

Post by DMC »

I love the fact that STG developers are considerate enough to warn us when bosses are approaching.

1) Who did it first? Or who popularized it?
2) Which one is your favorite?

Regarding the first, I know Taito used a warning sequence in Darius in 1986, but do not know if this was the starting point?
Regarding the second, I am playing a bit of Dimahoo and smile a bit when the voiceover states "be careful" right before the boss.
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Re: The origin of "Warning" alerts before boss?

Post by Eaglet »

DMC wrote: Regarding the first, I know Taito used a warning sequence in Darius in 1986, but do not know if this was the starting point?
Regarding the second, I am playing a bit of Dimahoo and smile a bit when the voiceover states "be careful" right before the boss.
Pretty much exactly what I was going to write, with the addendum that the voice over is one of the major reasons for GMD's amazing Warning screen.
WURRNING. WURRNING. Be Carefuuuuul
moozooh wrote:I think that approach won't get you far in Garegga.
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Re: The origin of "Warning" alerts before boss?

Post by BIL »

DOJ's announcer always makes me laugh. Polar opposite of DP's smooth operator. He sounds so flustered as the klaxon blares and the BGM fires up. :mrgreen: "Watch out, watch out!"

Darius-adjacent Metal Black has a good one. No onscreen text, just a fuck-ugly blaring klaxon - you can practically see it vibrating and flaking paint with every blast. Goes great with the scrappily utilitarian, gunmetal "space sub" design. Under Defeat does very similar, again germane to the Neo WWII concept.

Dangun's is classic, much like everything else about that game's Disco Toaplan aesthetic.

HEAVEN IS HERE INSIDE MY SOUL

(also an authentically shaken, DOJ-prefiguring "WATCH OUT!" when you're at JUST A COUPLE MORE SHOTS)
Last edited by BIL on Mon Mar 29, 2021 1:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: The origin of "Warning" alerts before boss?

Post by Sumez »

It's pretty safe to say it was popularized by Darius.

I kind of assumed they were the first, too. It's hard to imagine any games doing that before 1987
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Re: The origin of "Warning" alerts before boss?

Post by BIL »

Darius is the earliest I know of too (1987). And still one of the most arresting, certainly in person at the cab. Quoth Bruce Dickinson, it makes yer arsehole vibrate. Image

Aphoristic:

KILL IT. ~ Cambria Sword

TARGET FOR THE WEAK POINT OF FUCKIN MACHINE
DO YOUR BEST YOU HAVE EVER DONE
~ DoDonPachi

And a favourite subtype, Last Boss Warnings:

>ENE.MY APP-ROAC HIN.proGpr proaching

FEAR THE REAPER ~ Thunder Force V
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Re: The origin of "Warning" alerts before boss?

Post by Mero »

Not quite what OP is asking for but in Exed Exes and Gun.Smoke (both '85) the boss music kicks in quite a bit before the bosses appear. Exzisus has a warning ('87).
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Re: The origin of "Warning" alerts before boss?

Post by DMC »

Mero wrote:Not quite what OP is asking for but in Exed Exes and Gun.Smoke (both '85) the boss music kicks in quite a bit before the bosses appear. Exzisus has a warning ('87).
Thanks, yes, I guess that's the predecessor. difficult to find earlier than that I presume.

I got curious of when this became a thing.

NMK seemed to have started doing Warning sequences in 1992 with Chou-Jikuu Yousai Macross and after that almost all their shooters had Warnings prior to bosses. Thunder Dragon 2 had a nice "alert". The first Thunder dragon had something similar (warning of certain locations) but I don't think it is the same thing.

Toaplan after a quick look seemed to have done it only for the last one, Batsugun, a rather generic warning text.

Cave had right away with Donpachi in 1993 clarifiying to you that "this is not a simulation" and encouraging you to "do the best you have ever done".

Raizing also did it right away with Mahou Daisakusen in 1993, adding scary-looking death skulls next to the warning text.

Psikyo never used them it seems. Rather preferred cut scenes and dialogue before the bosses, or just change of music.
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Re: The origin of "Warning" alerts before boss?

Post by DMC »

BIL wrote:DOJ's announcer always makes me laugh. Polar opposite of DP's smooth operator. He sounds so flustered as the klaxon blares and the BGM fires up. :mrgreen: "Watch out, watch out!"
Haha, nice catch! I love it. The same reaction to every boss too. :D
Eaglet wrote: Pretty much exactly what I was going to write, with the addendum that the voice over is one of the major reasons for GMD's amazing Warning screen.
WURRNING. WURRNING. Be Carefuuuuul
Yes, perfect voice delivery!

BIL wrote:KILL IT. ~ Cambria Sword
Nice.
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Re: The origin of "Warning" alerts before boss?

Post by Buffi »

Favorite is obviously
https://i.imgur.com/KCvDlVJ.png
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Re: The origin of "Warning" alerts before boss?

Post by Sumez »

I was expecting that game 8)
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Re: The origin of "Warning" alerts before boss?

Post by DMC »

Nice one, Buffi!

I think Konami's Twinbee (1985) can be seen as a predecessor/inspiration to the Warning element. Right before one of the bosses there is an alarm sound that warns you about the approaching boss. There is also a voiceover announcing the onset of each boss, but I find it hard to hear what it says. So the only thing missing is the text itself.
https://youtu.be/HsoZAau1gi0?t=800

In 1986 Konami had a voiceover announcing the bosses in Salamander: "an intruder has penetrated our force field" https://youtu.be/ig8MJnt4G0c?t=114
And before the last boss, the voiceover repeats "Danger, Danger" while fighting the last boss https://youtu.be/ig8MJnt4G0c?t=659

In Ajax, in 1987, Konami used a similar danger alarm sound as in Twinbee prior to each boss. https://youtu.be/HRaW57eaBoI?t=161
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Re: The origin of "Warning" alerts before boss?

Post by BIL »

Totally forgot A-Jax - Contra fans will note a lot of aesthetic connections, there, boss klaxons and all. This little guy Image has quite a hardcore 2D action legacy of his own:

Spoiler
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Spoiler
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On the subject of Konami, I know for sure Jackal's NES version has a boss alarm. Haven't played the AC one in forever though.
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Re: The origin of "Warning" alerts before boss?

Post by BareKnuckleRoo »

My fave is probably Solid State Survivor, which floods the screen with Warnings for the final boss just to make it extra serious.

Shoutout to Donpachi for using swear words during its warning.

Also, thank you BIL for going to the effort of producing this gloriously colourful text that makes it fully possible to appreciate the greatest line of shmup dialogue ever:

HEAVEN IS HERE INSIDE MY SOUL
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Re: The origin of "Warning" alerts before boss?

Post by BIL »

You're most welcome! It's a snap :mrgreen:

DESTROY THE CORE
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Re: The origin of "Warning" alerts before boss?

Post by pegboy »

Salamander has "an intruder has penatrated our forcefield!".
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Re: The origin of "Warning" alerts before boss?

Post by Sly Cherry Chunks »

Shout out to Menace's (1988) Danger! Danger! Probably the earliest example of a voice sample like this on a home system, the impact of hearing something like this cannot be understated. I remember thinking the future had finally arrived upon viewing the Insanity Fight (1987) intro.

It took me 20 years to get there but the final crawl in Salamander is pure hype, even today. Although I got to play most of the classics in the arcade as a kid, I unfortunately could never appreciate their sound because wherever you went, everything was drowned out by the Hang On attract.

EDIT: thanks BIL, I will be posting exclusively in Celestia's Mane from now on.
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Re: The origin of "Warning" alerts before boss?

Post by BIL »

:lol:

I can't believe I forgot Salamander. For voice-only warnings, does Sinistar's iconic warning count?

BEWARE. I LIVE.
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Re: The origin of "Warning" alerts before boss?

Post by DMC »

Sly Cherry Chunks wrote:Shout out to Menace's (1988) Danger! Danger! Probably the earliest example of a voice sample like this in on a home system, the impact of hearing something like this cannot be understated.
Nice catch.

I sampled a bunch of clips of popular games between 1985-1988 and did not find so many beyond Konami and Darius using warning sounds/texts before bosses. One exception was Thunder Force 2 in 1988 using an alarm sound. And for Thunder Force 3, 1990, Tecnosoft added a fast scrolling Emergency text to the sound effect:
https://youtu.be/Irez54My43Q?t=257. And in Thunder Force V (1997) they went full "Darius" with the "approaching fast message": https://youtu.be/-N8v4VajlzE?t=432

SNK's Prehistoric Isle in 1930 (1989) cautions us before each dinosaur (looks inspired by Darius): https://youtu.be/TAF3j-643N8?t=455
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Re: The origin of "Warning" alerts before boss?

Post by Lord British »

Astro Warrior on the SMS does it, 1986 same year as Darius
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Re: The origin of "Warning" alerts before boss?

Post by DMC »

Lord British wrote:Astro Warrior on the SMS does it, 1986 same year as Darius
Thanks for that. The earliest text warning besides Darius, so far.

It's notable how much more impressive the Darius warning message was compared to the other 80s ones (that typically just did one or two of these:
*stage music fading out
*stage visuals fading out (and turning completely black. You can see nothing but your ship for a moment.)
* loud alarm sound
* text including a formal warning/emergency/alert/danger.
* text building up expectations for the boss (by describing it as a huge and fast approaching battleship)
* the boss having a unique name painted in red to symbolize danger.
Makes me wish I was an 8-year old playing Darius in the arcades for the first time.
https://youtu.be/WVxDWeJUlwc?t=174
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Re: The origin of "Warning" alerts before boss?

Post by Searchlike »

Probably off-topic, but I've always loved catching a glimpse of a boss during gameplay before you actually fight it. I bet that's a shmups first too.
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Re: The origin of "Warning" alerts before boss?

Post by Voxbox »

Even Zaxxon from '82 starts blaring some horrible bitcrushed sirens as the boss enters the stage, but that's just how boss music sounded during that era I think.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ul2vX8-dmTA&t=16m20s
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Re: The origin of "Warning" alerts before boss?

Post by BIL »

Searchlike wrote:Probably off-topic, but I've always loved catching a glimpse of a boss during gameplay before you actually fight it. I bet that's a shmups first too.
Always a classy touch, my favourite being Thunder Force IV's Stranger announcing himself by massacring your guys and his alike in a murderously indiscriminate hail of lasers, before resurfacing several stages later as the final boss's bodyguard. All to Tecno Soft's kickin' YM2612 metal, ofc.
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Re: The origin of "Warning" alerts before boss?

Post by SuperDeadite »

Borderline, but Wizard of Wor was all about the taunt speech, and it's damn old, like 78 or 79...
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Re: The origin of "Warning" alerts before boss?

Post by Sly Cherry Chunks »

Searchlike wrote:Probably off-topic, but I've always loved catching a glimpse of a boss during gameplay before you actually fight it. I bet that's a shmups first too.
GDarius' Omicron being the moodiest. You also get a glimpse of Great Thing right at the end of Kyokkuho.
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Re: The origin of "Warning" alerts before boss?

Post by Lord British »

Maybe this counts, Parsec for TI99/4A (1982)

I played the hell out of this game

https://youtu.be/uCSQd0eJKQQ
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Re: The origin of "Warning" alerts before boss?

Post by Searchlike »

Sly Cherry Chunks wrote:GDarius' Omicron being the moodiest. You also get a glimpse of Great Thing right at the end of Kyokkuho.
BIL wrote: Always a classy touch, my favourite being Thunder Force IV's Stranger announcing himself by massacring your guys and his alike in a murderously indiscriminate hail of lasers, before resurfacing several stages later as the final boss's bodyguard. All to Tecno Soft's kickin' YM2612 metal, ofc.
Badass choices. I find it hard, for some reason, to think of a cooler example right now, but that mechanical arachnid wreaking havoc in the distance gives that stage of RKA a good sense of scope. See that castle? You can go there! See, I don't need your open world nonsense! I know it's not a STG, but it has some Gradius nods so it's cool, right?

Image
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Re: The origin of "Warning" alerts before boss?

Post by Rastan78 »

I had never really thought about how common it is to see WARNING! before a boss battle in shmups often with a siren. I guess Darius is to thank for that. It's actually surprising how many examples there are. This vid shows quite a few:

https://youtu.be/yr-OLZmKZ_I
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Re: The origin of "Warning" alerts before boss?

Post by KAI »

Astro Ninja Man has the best warning alerts ever made
Spoiler
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Image
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Re: The origin of "Warning" alerts before boss?

Post by BIL »

^^^ READY TO DIE is AUTHENTIC NINJA VERBAGE (`ω´メ)

I like TRY DEATH too :lol:
Sly Cherry Chunks wrote:
Searchlike wrote:Probably off-topic, but I've always loved catching a glimpse of a boss during gameplay before you actually fight it. I bet that's a shmups first too.
GDarius' Omicron being the moodiest. You also get a glimpse of Great Thing right at the end of Kyokkuho.
As an aside, what a show G-Darius puts on. Spectacular direction and sound. Image

RIP SPACE DUDES THAT WAS ONE FUCKIN BIG FISH ;-;7
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Speaking of Taito, it just occurred to me that Metal Black's blaring klaxon is conspicuously absent for st5/Ghost... presumably because of his eponymous cloaking technology? Or maybe YACK wanted you to savour the reveal of Jupiter's surface, as PHANTASM ♫ ramps up in sync with the asteroid belt, from skittery arpeggio to chest-pounding tattoo. "Who'd be crazy enough to follow me in here? Oh fuck me." MB, the game of BIG QUESTIONSImage
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