Hello all, as you might notice, I'm new here and I registered on this forum to solve a a childhood mystery. Back in grade school, I remember that I used to play this shmup with my best friend, unfortunately I never was able to figure what that game was. I was hoping somebody could loan me their expertise. Here's what I know:
It was on the Sega Genesis. The console had some attachment from Hong Kong that allowed it to play (presumably pirated) games from floppy disks. This game was played from a floppy disk.
It was a vertical shmup, the title was in Japanese, I have no clue what regions it may have been released in. It had a coop mode as that is what I played with my friend all the time. I played it about 12-13 years ago.
You had a choice of 3 planes that you picked from the very beginning. A slow plane that shoot 4 streams of bullets forward, a medium speed plane that shot 3 streams of bullets forward in a spreadfire pattern and a fast plane that shot 2 streams forward and 2 streams backwards.
There were various collectable weapons upgrades, but what stood out was this weird "S" upgrade that would make your plane look extra fancy and high-tech and modify your plane's weapons in a fancier fashion (slow plane would have mega flame throwers, fast plane would shoot weird energy shoots in all directions). If you died, the "S" upgrade would be released and float around so that you could potentially recollect it after respawning.
The first level took place in a nighttime city setting, the boss was some weird helicopter/airship thing. The second level took place in the desert, the boss was the core of some huge land roaming carrier. The third level took place along some train tracks in a forest where you chased these military trains into some rocket base. The boss was in space, it was a satellite that shot a lot of lasers in many directions. The fourth level took place over water, we never got to the boss.
I remember there was some mechanic that allowed you to spin your plain for a period of time which I think made you temporarily invincible (you would lose the "S" upgrade when you did this). At first I thought this might have been the 19xx series but none of the games that I have found match up. If anybody could help me identify this game, my inner child would be greatly thankful.
Help my identify this childhood shmup
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PC Engine Fan X!
- Posts: 9232
- Joined: Wed Jan 26, 2005 10:32 pm
For Klam,
Welcome to the shmups forum and glad to have you onboard with us. It sounds like the shmup title in question would be Data East's Vapor Trail. Some concessions were taken on the Mega Drive/Sega Genesis version of Vapor Trail but the arcade PCB is the original source that it borrows from. ^_~
Your descriptions exactly describe the enemy end-stage bosses and some of the power-ups featured in Vapor Trail. I do own both the original arcade PCB version and Genesis version of Vapor Trail...a fine shmup game for it's time. ^_~
If you do reach the end of Stage 4 of Vapor Trail, you'll come across an aircraft carrier that does become the end-stage boss.
PC Engine Fan X! ^_~
Welcome to the shmups forum and glad to have you onboard with us. It sounds like the shmup title in question would be Data East's Vapor Trail. Some concessions were taken on the Mega Drive/Sega Genesis version of Vapor Trail but the arcade PCB is the original source that it borrows from. ^_~
Your descriptions exactly describe the enemy end-stage bosses and some of the power-ups featured in Vapor Trail. I do own both the original arcade PCB version and Genesis version of Vapor Trail...a fine shmup game for it's time. ^_~
If you do reach the end of Stage 4 of Vapor Trail, you'll come across an aircraft carrier that does become the end-stage boss.
PC Engine Fan X! ^_~
