PCEFX's review PhilKo Corporation's 1989 Dyger arcade shmup

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Was browsing around on arcadeflyers.com today and came across an old USA arcade flyer for the South Korean produced Dyger PCB from PhilKo Corporation...is an arcade shmup title. Is it any good (considering that it was released back in 1989)? Sounds like that it was a pretty obscure and rare arcade PCB title. My local arcades never got a Dyger PCB in but it seems to have gotten an official USA release anyways considering the discovery of the all-English worded Dyger arcade flyer. This definitely piques my interest in it. ^_~

Interesting to learn that an earlier South Korean PCB developer made arcade shmups (PhilKo Corporation) back in the late 1980s besides arcade developer Dooyong with it's R-Shark PCB arcade shmup title back in the mid-1990s. Yeah, one of my local arcades had gotten in an R-Shark PCB so I was familiar with it despite it's unknown origins -- this was back in 1997-1998. Is regarded as an odd-ball arcade shmup PCB title anyways.

http://www.arcadeflyers.com/?page=flyer ... 52&image=1

Thanks for any helpful insights into it in advance...

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[undamned]

Marketed like Final Fantasy (all cut-scene screen-shots) Maybe I'll fire this up at home and check it out...
-ud

[PC Engine Fan X!]

I fired up Dyger on Mame32 and it seems to me that PhilKo Corporation at the time (or perhaps somebody on the development staff) liked Capcom's Hyper Dyne Sidearms (circa 1986) so much that they blantantly ripped off the stylized Sidearms fonts and music as well to make their own "original" arcade shmup title. The attract screen is interesting...it does make you want to insert a credit and see how it plays...succeeds in doing so. ^_~

Considering that Dyger is presented in tate and blessed with a huge hitbox -- rather the entire fightercraft is the entire hitbox area (considered the norm back in the 1980s for arcade shmup titles of that era). You can insert up to 99 credits and the CPU will still keep track of them all (just like you can do the same with a real Sidearms PCB and credit it up to 99 just as well).

A power gauge to presented to the lower righthand corner and can be increased up to level 8. Both the primary and bomb shots can be upgraded or downgraded depending on the powerup picked up.

Upon crediting a game and starting it, you are asking to enter three intials then the game will begin as usual (again, this same high score intial entry is featured in Sidearms).

If you die, the CPU will place you back at a pre-determined checkpoint and you have to start all over again from that spot. So say if you reach an end-stage boss (which has a countdown gauge to determine how much power remaining before it goes kaboom) and it takes a potshot at you, you'll be forced back a bit to confront it all over again (with the end-stage boss' power gauge reset back at full power). Sounds like someone's demented idea of fun (or torture).

One of the really nasty enemies are the swarms of missile barrages featured in Dyger. Once they launch, they'll continue to home in on you until you're either destroyed or they are taken out of comission. (The same missile barrages featured in Sidearms were relentless but had better movement -- autofire weapon easily took 'em out without any problems.) ^_~

I'd honestly have to say that Dyger is utter shit as it is. The arcade flyer looks better than the actual game is really saying something. All about ripped off style and no filler substance. Perhaps, Dyger is best left in the ol' arcade PCB graveyard never to be resurrected again. Might as well drive a stake into it's heart for good measure just to be sure. ^_~

Yeah, Dyger did get a proper USA arcade release as shown with pics on this link: http://caesar.logiqx.com/php/game_group ... yger#dyger

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Dragon1952]

I visited Philko when they were making that game (way back a long time ago) as I was helping SunA at that time. Philko was a large copy board maker trying to go legit. This game like their other shooter "Turtle Shit" were utter crap (PC E put it best earlier). They failed to be clever and creative enough to make it at that earliest of frontier days of Korean coin-op games development. Too bad as they tried real hard and were essentially following the earlier trend of similar Japanese companies also trying to evolve away from copying others' successful games. Nichibutsu, Taito, earliest Konami and many others were all makers of copy games and eventually made the jump to their own original titles.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

For Dragon1952,

That's cool to hear that you paid a visit to Philko developer. Were they a small or large company to begin with and roughly how many people were onboard as employees?

And did SunA release any arcade shmup PCBs as well?

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Smraedis]

The game is just like a hacked up Sidearms, and then they tried to make it look a little different.

I knew you would have mentioned it in your review

[Ed Oscuro]

I visited Philko when they were making that game (way back a long time ago) as I was helping SunA at that time. Philko was a large copy board maker trying to go legit. This game like their other shooter "Turtle Shit" were utter crap (PC E put it best earlier). They failed to be clever and creative enough to make it at that earliest of frontier days of Korean coin-op games development. Too bad as they tried real hard and were essentially following the earlier trend of similar Japanese companies also trying to evolve away from copying others' successful games. Nichibutsu, Taito, earliest Konami and many others were all makers of copy games and eventually made the jump to their own original titles.

Dang. So you met the people behind Ikki (aka Farmer's Rebellion)? That would've been an interesting story.

On Dyger - it sucks, EOL.