Air Raid/Cross Shooter (Seibu Kaihatsu, 1987)

[Arasoi]

I've uploaded the first in a series of videos covering this unemulated/improperly emulated/unencrypted title, one of Seibu's first forays into the shmup genre. Many standbys of later Seibu games like Raiden have their roots in this simple, but fun title.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cf7Uac195eI

To start with here is the Title/Demo (with sound dipswitch on). I will be uploading footage of each stage frequently, so that the game can be fully seen.

The footage is recorded from an actual Air Raid/Cross Shooter PCB.

[Kaiser]

I didn't know Seibu produced something anything before Raiden. I may as well call this a grandfather of Raiden! Keep uploading those videos as i'm very interesed in a lost piece of shmupping history.

[Phoenix]

Many on this board are gonna hate me for saying, but i think this is what a shooter is all about. Aim, shoot and a little dodging.

Bullet hell is just not my type of game. And the new shooters have all sorts of crazy fill the screen weapons, aiming is never a skill anymore.

Phoenix, galaga, 19xx serys, that is what i call a shooter.

Cant wait for rfa pal release.

[Dave_K.]

Thanks for uploading this! I've grown a deeper appreciation for the early Raiden series, so its a real treat to see how it all started. Looking forward to more videos on Air Raid!

[Estebang]

Interesting to see that Seibu, and the vert shmup genre itself, were very much still fixated on the old Xevious/Terra Cresta model of design back then (repetitive scenery, only linear-shot weapons, everything dies in one hit, etc.) I suppose Toaplan was the first studio to really change things up and define the way shmups would end up looking and feeling from the early Cave era on.

[Arasoi]

Here is a video of the first stage, more to come!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBI-OBTwnr0

[Dave_K.]

Interesting powerup system. The first time you grabbed the grey square it gave you a shield, but later on when you grabbed grey it sped up your ship. Is this correct? Do you have a list of the powerup types?

[Arasoi]

Gray = Shield
Blue = Speed Up
Red = Laser
Yellow = Yellow Bolts
Green = Extra Bomb

[Herr Schatten]

I demand this game to be played at STGT11.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

How many stages are there overall for this early Seibu Kaihatsu PCB release of Air Raid?

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Arasoi]

Here is stage 2:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuplrFIICGQ

The green gives you an extra bomb, turns out. I'm not sure how many stages are in the game, but I guess we will find out

[Dave_K.]

Nice, looks like its starting to get a little tough there. More please!

[TrevHead (TVR)]

Many on this board are gonna hate me for saying, but i think this is what a shooter is all about. Aim, shoot and a little dodging.

Bullet hell is just not my type of game. And the new shooters have all sorts of crazy fill the screen weapons, aiming is never a skill anymore.

Phoenix, galaga, 19xx serys, that is what i call a shooter.

Cant wait for rfa pal release.

Well you wouldnt be alone, theres a fair few ppl who dont like bullet hell and many more who know that theres more to shmups then just Cave or Bullet hell.

OT intresting vid. Those graphics, coinsidering theyre circa 1987 are quite unique. It looks more like a modern indie game in a slightly cute-em up style

[nZero]

OT intresting vid. Those graphics, coinsidering theyre circa 1987 are quite unique. It looks more like a modern indie game in a slightly cute-em up style

I was thinking the same, it's almost Twinbee-ish in art style except that it's still somewhat military-themed. Quite the contrast from the gritty warzones and spacelanes of later Seibu shoot'em ups.

[Drum]

Many on this board are gonna hate me for saying, but i think this is what a shooter is all about. Aim, shoot and a little dodging.

Bullet hell is just not my type of game. And the new shooters have all sorts of crazy fill the screen weapons, aiming is never a skill anymore.

Phoenix, galaga, 19xx serys, that is what i call a shooter.

Cant wait for rfa pal release.

Well you wouldnt be alone, theres a fair few ppl who dont like bullet hell and many more who know that theres more to shmups then just Cave or Bullet hell.

OT intresting vid. Those graphics, coinsidering theyre circa 1987 are quite unique. It looks more like a modern indie game in a slightly cute-em up style

There were quite a few cute 'em ups or borderlines released in '87 - Mr Heli, Rabio Lepus, Dr. Toppel's Adventure, Gemini Wing, Galaga 88 (oddly enough) ... Chouji Meikyuu Legion might qualify because of the goofy craft. Yes, I cheated by browsing MAME - I don't know this stuff by heart.

Best thing Seibu did pre-Raiden (and maybe ever!) was Wiz back in '85. Early scrolling platformer/shooter. Game rawks.

[Herr Schatten]

OT intresting vid. Those graphics, coinsidering theyre circa 1987 are quite unique. It looks more like a modern indie game in a slightly cute-em up style

I was thinking the same, it's almost Twinbee-ish in art style except that it's still somewhat military-themed. Quite the contrast from the gritty warzones and spacelanes of later Seibu shoot'em ups.

It's also unique in the way it uses a kind of 'tilted' perspective (not unlike most of Cave's verts), while usually Seibu are the ones who use the strictest top-down perspective there is.

[grobda]

I just dug out my Air Raid PCB. Its really easy with autofire and very repetetive. I think I got to stage 6 or 7 when it starts repeating bosses. Not everything dies in one hit there are a few that take more like the red planes that tend to fly up the screen and the airships in later levels. Its more like 1943 in that respect.

Out of interest does your PCB need the 5v rail boosting? Mine needs about 5.6 to run stably.

[grobda]

weird thing happened with the PCB; fired it up with less that 5.6v and this screen came up, which ive never seen in game or in demo mode -



no idea what thats about. Game was frozen and I had to reboot it but couldn't replicate it. with less than 5.6v it tends to freeze but with 5.6 it runs stably for hours and nothing seems to get to hot.

Also theres a strange foible of the game's 5 character hiscore - when you're putting your name in and you select 'end' rather than ending your name it puts 'end' on your name;



bit pointless but I thought it was quite funny. guess it might just be a bug on my PCB.

[Dave_K.]

Wow, that first screen shot is very interesting indeed. Looks like some kind of in-between level powerup shopping system. The +5 problem sounds strange, are you playing on a supergun or in a real cab?

[antron]

grobda, is it possible that you were holding down a particular button when it came up? that's wild if that screen is nowhere to be found in a normal game.

[Arasoi]

Interesting stuff Grobda, I've never seen that screen at all on mine. My pcb runs fine on 5v, I have a few that dont like straight 5v though, like my Black Tiger pcb that needs 5.7 for some reason. Maybe I could get the same screen if I turned the voltage down on my PSU, but I'd rather not try it.

Near as I can tell the single layer smaller boards are original, or at least as original as the dual layer cross shooter board posted here a while back by womble. The MAWS database shows the exact same board as mine.

I will post more stages soon, though keep in mind I'm far from fantastic at the game and will be dying more (I hate those blimp enemies)

[Arasoi]

Here is stage 3:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2DzTCy9Zyw

This is where things start getting hairy for me in this title, like a lot of older shooters you can get raped pretty quick if you foul up and go back to default ship speed, which happens often to me here.

[Domino]

The looks pretty average.

[Arasoi]

Stage 4:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATNyvNYyi1s

[Ed Oscuro]

lol at hacktro

Good work Arasoi!

Also theres a strange foible of the game's 5 character hiscore - when you're putting your name in and you select 'end' rather than ending your name it puts 'end' on your name;.

It's good for those times when you need to type out a name like "Endymio(n)"

I was thinking the same, it's almost Twinbee-ish in art style except that it's still somewhat military-themed. Quite the contrast from the gritty warzones and spacelanes of later Seibu shoot'em ups.

I think it's a surprising contrast with the very Toaplan look of Raiden (1), where you not only have bullet spinnaz but also little guys marching around the place and other semi-cinematic moments. Even Viper Phase 1 has groundmen, for that matter. Straight out of Fire Shark.

But I agree, it's a nice minimalist / cartoonish look for sure. As I wrote in the demo vid YT comment system...the bomb looks fugly but that's about it. Cutesy little A-10 like planes to shoot down for instance. Love the battleship and the mesas that show up, for instance, just great.

Somebody should make a more modern game in this artstyle. Imagine that battleship expanding and breaking apart Sengoku Blade style...

[Arasoi]

lol at hacktro

Good work Arasoi![

Thanks!

Here are stages 5 6 and 7.

5: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jdze3vy6ZIk

6: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sfqe_WR8bTM

7: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rw0LBhHetA

[Dave_K.]

Wow there are more than 7 stages, or does it loop?

[Arasoi]

The game appears to just loop, I played it for a few hours when I recorded all these stages (I kind of blew through the game, not a very skillful run to say the least) and it seems to drop you back into the first stage with just a higher difficulty and loop indefinitely. Perhaps after a certain number of loops it gives you an end screen, but with how limited the content is in the game that may be unlikely.

[Arasoi]

Here are stages 8, 9 and 10. 10 was a real bear, essentially a boss rush type of stage.

8: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYD6CvyQAPs

9: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbBGCwzHils

10: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iq7puX3E8oc

[burgerkingdiamond]

the game reminds me a lot of TwinBee. The art almost looks like something from a flash game. And the animations are really simple. When an enemy ship turns around you can see it do like 4 point turn. Were there any more intermediate Seibu shooters between this and the first Raiden?