MAME: Last Survivor emulated, coming in 146u5

[gameoverDude]

Video here, thanks to Haze.

The last Sega X Board game is emulated now- Last Survivor, thanks to Aaron Giles.
I've played the FM Towns version and it's a good game (I love the arranged soundtrack in this port BTW), but the Sega X Board arcade version has a higher framerate and some extra detail.

Quite an impressive game, giving Wolfenstein 3D a run for its money. Not only do you fight monsters, but you're killing off other characters to take their keys (it takes 4 to open the exit).

[BPzeBanshee]

I've been keeping an eye on this since I saw the first post about the 'secret rare Sega game' on MAMEWorld. Very interesting stuff.

I guess this is a prime example of those games with a 'suicide battery' of sorts. Definitely a neat bit of history here - never even heard of it prior to seeing it on Haze's page, which makes for an interesting read.

[GaijinPunch]

You should thank Shou, who is a member, although not particularly active. He's the one that shelled out for & dumped the board. Original thread.

[BIL]

Haha, is that Betty the commando girl from Gain Ground in the top-left of the character select lineup?

[Ed Oscuro]

Oh fuck yes. GP has a flyer of this game and I wanted to play it badly ever since seeing it.

Don't see myself looking for the FM Towns version...bleh, that system.

[gameoverDude]

Last Survivor works nicely in 146u5. Thanks, Shou. Good to see this game saved from the FD1094 curse, even if these games can be Phoenixed similarly to Capcom CPS titles (which involves replacing the FD1094 with a plain 68000 and swapping out encrypted roms for decrypted).

I did notice the wall sprites on the FM Towns version are not quite as high. EGM said something about a Mega Drive port being planned at one time. Either that was a rumor, or Sega may have found it too tough to port to the MD.

There were two different games planned for Mega Drive by this name that had never showed. One was the arcade port, and the other was some Amiga strategy game (turn-based?) aka Battle Isle.

[Ed Oscuro]

This game is really pretty slick, and if the FM Towns port has a better control scheme (the slow side-step in this game drives me nuts!) then I might go ahead and give it a look.

Interesting game, but I'll have to fool around with my mouse a bit to get it working to my liking. Pretty interesting stuff though, and definitely worth the MAME upgrade.

[dukenukems]

Wow never knew about this game,it's pretty awesome.

[Drum]

Wow, this looks brilliant. I had no idea this game existed. I always wanted to see a 3d game use a rotary input for direction control, turns out Sega already did it - in 1989.

[Ed Oscuro]

Wow, this looks brilliant. I had no idea this game existed. I always wanted to see a 3d game use a rotary input for direction control, turns out Sega already did it - in 1989.

And it's flawed, too, unless I'm doing something wrong. Just a little adjustment and this would be very playable. I'm not sure what the purpose of the halting shuffle step is, but at the same time I recognize that this was way before one-button strafe movement was happening in FPSes - actually, way before Wolf 3D, even.

Just another example of Sega being so far ahead of the times that they didn't really even know what they had! They were ahead of even themselves. Still it looks grate, such a shame it's damn rare. Wonder how much Shou would part with his board for?

[Op Intensify]

You'd need a Xybots-style dial joystick to play the arcade board, methinks. Or maybe one of those SNK Ikari Warriors sticks would cut it.

[GaijinPunch]

You'd need a Xybots-style analog dial joystick to play the arcade board, methinks. Or maybe one of those SNK Ikari Warriors sticks would cut it.

It won't. You'll be hard pressed to find the sticks for this.

[Drum]

You'd need a Xybots-style dial joystick to play the arcade board, methinks. Or maybe one of those SNK Ikari Warriors sticks would cut it.

Ohhhh .... Xybots did that first. I knew there was something unusual about that game but I didn't know what it was. I just had a go now an it's pretty fun.

[gameoverDude]

Mouse turning sensitivity is quite high, even on the 1 setting - just don't get overzealous with it.

If this is ported to XBLA/PSN (hopefully by M2), they should offer both the original and FM Towns remixed BGM.

[louisg]

You'd need a Xybots-style dial joystick to play the arcade board, methinks. Or maybe one of those SNK Ikari Warriors sticks would cut it.

Ohhhh .... Xybots did that first. I knew there was something unusual about that game but I didn't know what it was. I just had a go now an it's pretty fun.

Xybots always gets overlooked in FPS/corridor shooter history. It really was a groundbreaker though. It's not so fun now, but when it came out, there was nothing like it.

[Drum]

Thinking about it, the Wii really needed a rotary stick or mousewheel-style shoulder button to replicate what Xybots did. The bounding box solution shooters used wasn't good enough.