Arcade games with legends in attract mode

[DoomsDave]

So this is a weird question but I’m looking for games that have a legend of their elements either in attract mode or somewhere else in game. Pac Man is the most obvious example I can think of -



If you know of any more I’d really appreciate it.

[BIL]

Interesting topic! I bet there's a ton of other early Namco stuff, though the only thing coming to mind straight away is a console title - Mappy Land for FC. Off-topic but pretty amusing... here it's helpfully letting you know what stages various enemies appear in (ta kitten for pic):

Spoiler

Do rolling demos with captions count? Gauntlet and Gauntlet II both do this.

[BrianC]

Interesting topic! I bet there's a ton of other early Namco stuff, though the only thing coming to mind straight away is a console title - Mappy Land for FC. Off-topic but pretty amusing... here it's helpfully letting you know what stages various enemies appear in (ta kitten for pic):

Spoiler

Funny you mention Mappy Land since the original AC Mappy has a similar enemy introduction. Galaxian and Galaga also have a similar thing.

[BIL]

Haha, I was thinking they would. It's been ages since I actually played Namco's arcade games... been spending a lot of time on their FC ports incidentally.

[BrianC]

Haha, I was thinking they would. It's been ages since I actually played Namco's arcade games... been spending a lot of time on their FC ports incidentally.

I should go and play a few of them. I have the Tengen NES Pac-Man (which is pretty much identical to the JP FC game, AFAIK), Dig Dug FC, Galaxian FC, Bandai Xevious, Dragon Spirit, and Galaga NES, Sunsoft Skykid NES (which is actually inferior to the FC version due to using an inferior mapper that doesn't allow as many enemies on screen without slowdown), Rolling Thunder FC and Tengen NES, and Mappy FC. I know Xevious NES has the neat dipswitch settings thing disabled, but the game seems otherwise identical (tried to compare rapid fire, which seems a bit faster on NES, but not completely sure on this). I also unofficially have a bunch of them (including JP versions of ones I have the NES cart of) on Everdrive.

[DoomsDave]

Good suggestion BIL, Namco is probably the best place to start looking. Can't believe I forgot Galaga!

Do rolling demos with captions count? Gauntlet and Gauntlet II both do this.

Yep, I'm basically looking for anything that communicates it's elements/enemies etc without actually playing the game or referring to external sources like cabinet art.

[BrianC]

Some early Konami games also have one. I know for sure Tutankham does.

[BIL]

Ah, another Atari one with a rolling manual - Marble Madness.

[BrianC]

Crystal Castles from Atari and Q*Bert from Gottlieb also have attract manuals.

[mamboFoxtrot]

Yep, I'm basically looking for anything that communicates it's elements/enemies etc without actually playing the game or referring to external sources like cabinet art.

Butasan / Pigs and Bombers gives personality descriptions of its enemies on the stage title cards. I don't recall the descriptions being too helpful, but they did communicate something, I guess

[LEGENOARYNINLIA]

Flicky and Pooyan.

[Sumez]

Dig Dug introduces enemy names in the attract mode too.

I never thought of this, but it's very obviously a Namco staple.

[eckart]

scramble, robotron, phoenix, defender comes to mind.

[Bloodreign]

Space Invaders also did the same thing, as well as Qix (Qix would explain what things did).


Note it's from the PC Engine version, but the arcade did the same thing, complete with the enemy fixing the typo by shooting the extra letter, or flipping the upside down Y.

[LEGENOARYNINLIA]

Another Namco classic: Bosconian.

[DoomsDave]

Thanks for all the posts so far, very helpful! I should add, it doesn't matter if it's arcade or console or anything really, just looking for examples in general.

[BIL]

Always thought the original Zelda's was cute. Even if it's kinda bending the topic rules at the end, with stubby little Link holding up a note asking the player to RTFM for further details. :3

ALL OF TREASURES

[emphatic]

Rastan?

[Sumez]

Always thought the original Zelda's was cute. Even if it's kinda bending the topic rules at the end, with stubby little Link holding up a note asking the player to RTFM for further details. :3

ALL OF TREASURES

Wow! That's an absurd waste of ROM space on such an old NES cartridge.

[BrianC]

Robotron, Joust, and Defender also have attract mode things.

[dan76]

Mr. Do! Has a little intro that shows you how to kill enemies, get points, an extra life and diamond.

[BryanM]

Wow! That's an absurd waste of ROM space on such an old NES cartridge.

Nah, it should be rather tiny.

It's the only exposition in the entire game, so it's well worth it. Explaining the story about how you want to become The Guy.

[Sumez]

Nah, it should be rather tiny.

It's the only exposition in the entire game, so it's well worth it. Explaining the story about how you want to become The Guy.

I was referring specifically to the superflous image of Link holding the "RTFM" sign. There's a lot of text on it in a font that's slimmer than the standard 8x8 ttiles, so that entire graphic is obviously created entirely for that single image. The rest of the text scroll uses characters and sprites that already exist in the actual game and don't take up any additional CHR ROM.

[Mortificator]

I somehow was expecting this thread to be about attract modes that tell us long long ago, there were a man who try to make his skill ultimate.

[Specineff]

Triple Punch.

Not sure if Escape From The Planet Of the Robot Monsters counts, since it explains the gameplay in the demo.