The origin of "Warning" alerts before boss?

[davyK]

Not officially a warning but you were well aware of the approaching boss in Xevious. You had the shots from concealed enemies for a few seconds before its appearance, and the sound effects.

[BPzeBanshee]

The original Thunder Force for Sharp X1 had a warning noise and the notice "DYRADEIZER!" on the side of the screen when you got to the game's "boss fight".

Other than that, I think Darius actually has the confirmed Guinness record for first arcade game with a boss intro as well as widest arcade format.

[BrianC]

I was curious if Vanguard had a warning voice, but nope. Voice just says "Last Zone" when you reach the Gond and "Congratulations" when you beat him.

[Licorice]

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

Great digging in this thread.

I was going to ask when was the first example of the "shoot the core!" voice over.

[Jeneki]

I still smile every time I read HERE COMES THE JUDGE! (Judgement Silversword)

Salamander has "an intruder has penatrated our forcefield!".

Also the end boss death cry, I always say it along with him OOH-AAA-AAa-Aaa-aah-hhh before busting out laughing. Glad they followed that up with the Gradius 2 death cry, mumble mumble mumble mumble GRRRAAAAAAaaaaaaa.

[guigui]

I was kind of disappointed by the boss Warning in Radiant Silvergun. But the best one is still in here : Kotetsu karate move when he enters the battlefield : wa-chi ! :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqUWiBGZz9c&t=60s

[heli]

Radiant warning is very inspiring, dont settle for less.

[MathU]

I first encountered this in the Playstation Mega Man games (probably one of its worst implementations) and it always rubbed me the wrong way as a totally pretentious, annoying time waster. Thankfully most scrolling shooters that do it don't freeze your ship in place and make you sit on your hands while the boss screws around.

[Mortificator]

I first encountered this in the Playstation Mega Man games (probably one of its worst implementations) and it always rubbed me the wrong way as a totally pretentious, annoying time waster. Thankfully most scrolling shooters that do it don't freeze your ship in place and make you sit on your hands while the boss screws around.

I've been replaying Darius Force and it's definitely a game where they should have rethought how this works. Since it uses checkpoints instead of the instant respawn common from Darius II onward, losing a life to a boss means sitting through the whole 'WARNING' production again a minute later, instead of just once per run.

[pieslice]

Doesn`t Xevious give out a low droning sound quite a moment before Andor Genesis appears.