The Starblade rail-shooter series, by Namco

Thunder Force · Post by **Thunder Force** » Sat Feb 12, 2005 11:22 am

This is a topic for fans to discuss Namco's Starblade series, the underknown but much loved arcade rail-shooter series.

An interesting note is the first game in this Namco series inspiring Nintendo's Starfox franchise (some would go so far as to claim some plagarism on Nintendo/Argonaut's part when it comes to the first Starfox game and Starblade...)

Starblade itself was likely influenced in its atmosphere by the cult film "The Last Starfighter", and of all the videogames made it perhaps best captures TLS's tone. As the franchise progresses the games got more and more elaborate.

Below I will attempt to list the games in the Starblade series, since they are rarely grouped together coherently due to their disparate naming conventions

Starblade - Original
Starblade - Alpha
Galaxian 3 - Project Dragoon
Galaxian 3 - The Rising Of Gourb
Galaxian 3 - Attack of the Zolgear
Starblade 2 - Operation Blue Planet

Alpha is just a textured version of the original Starblade for the home market. Sadly I've never had a chance to see the newest game, Operation Blue Planet, since it's a 2002 release which means many struggling western arcades are unlikely to import the elaborate O.R.B.S. spherical immersion system needed to play this game. Has anyone played Operation Blue Planet?

TWITCHDOCTOR · Post by **TWITCHDOCTOR** » Sat Feb 12, 2005 5:26 pm

I think I remember playing StarBlade on the 3DO. I'd like to play this again, but for some reason, it wasen't as "memorable" as some other rail shmups.
It was a "cursor control" only, correct? StarFox,Panzer Dragoon, and Space Harrier you can move around the screen, but in StarBlade you only could move the target reticle

AntiPasta · Post by **AntiPasta** » Sat Feb 12, 2005 6:02 pm

TWITCHDOCTOR wrote:I think I remember playing StarBlade on the 3DO. I'd like to play this again, but for some reason, it wasen't as "memorable" as some other rail shmups.
It was a "cursor control" only, correct? StarFox,Panzer Dragoon, and Space Harrier you can move around the screen, but in StarBlade you only could move the target reticle

Indeed. Hence I thought it rather boring, to be honest.

Brian · Post by **Brian** » Sat Feb 12, 2005 7:11 pm

I have Starblade for the 3do and Galaxian 3 for the PSX. I played Galaxian 3 in the arcades and it lost a lot in translation. Without the wall of sound and the huge ass screen it just is not much of a game. In the arcade it was an event to play it, at home it's just a 5 minute blast fest and why bother playing again?

Vexorg · Post by **Vexorg** » Sat Feb 12, 2005 8:05 pm

Starblade is MAMEd (and reasonably playable with a mouse), but it does lose a lot without the cabinet. One of the bowling alleys in the area has (had?) one, and the screen onto which the image gets projected tends to distort things to some extent though.

Acid King · Post by **Acid King** » Sun Feb 13, 2005 7:52 pm

I had Starblade for the 3DO and thought it was good, but Burning Soldier was much better.

Post by **Dave_K.** » Mon Feb 14, 2005 12:56 am

Does anyone else remember playing one of the Starblade games in a real arcade (outside of Japan?) I'm not sure but I think I might have played it in this setting like a booth with 4-5 other people all had their own individual targeting reticles. It was almost like a mini-movie theatre. Anyone else remember this? Maybe this was operation blue planet?

BTW: was the Namco O.R.B.S. cabinet ever released? Or strictly used as a prototype for tradeshows?

BrianC · Post by **BrianC** » Mon Feb 14, 2005 1:03 am

I played Starblade a few times in the arcade and enjoyed it. It was in a single sit down cabinet, not a special setup like Galaxian 3 (which I have never seen in arcades), though.

Brian · Post by **Brian** » Mon Feb 14, 2005 1:43 am

When I played Galaxian 3 in the arcades it was actually in a very odd arcade in Redmond, WA several years ago.

Vexorg · Post by **Vexorg** » Mon Feb 14, 2005 1:58 am

I live in Redmond, and I don't know of any very odd arcades around here (the only two I can think of that were in town within the past ten years were a small one in the back of a little game store that disappeared some time ago, and another little hole-in-the-wall amusement center place called Zones that also went the way of the dodo years ago, but got replaced by an indoor go-kart track.) With the exception of a Gameworks and a couple of other places in Seattle, arcades are pretty much extinct around here. The starblade I played was at the bowling alley in Bellevue. I'm not sure if they still have it or not. One of these days I need to head out and look. I also need to go take some pictures of the Solar Assault at the Seattle Gameworks, since a lot of people here haven't seen one.

Brian · Post by **Brian** » Mon Feb 14, 2005 3:18 am

The one I was in was in an entertainment complex. It had a Tower over there, I think. At the time, it had some cool machines.

Vexorg · Post by **Vexorg** » Mon Feb 14, 2005 11:34 pm

You could be referring to The Garage in Bellevue, a relatively short-lived place that popped up and lasted about eighteen months in 2000 or so. I don't recall there ever being a Galaxian 3 there (they did have a Raiden Fighters Jet though, and for a short time had both Pinball 2000 machines also.)

Post by **system11** » Tue Feb 15, 2005 4:59 am

Last time I was there (about a year ago now), the Namco station in London still had a Galaxian 3!

Great game, unfortunately when I visited screen 2 was out, so it was pointless to try and play it. Probably the largest videogame ever made - even takes up more floorspace than an R360.

For those who have never seen one (which will be quite a few!):

http://www.arcadeflyers.com/flyers/namco/21464103.jpg

Post by **Dave_K.** » Tue Feb 15, 2005 7:44 am

bloodflowers wrote:
For those who have never seen one (which will be quite a few!):

http://www.arcadeflyers.com/flyers/namco/21464103.jpg

Ahhh..ok, thats what I was talking about in my previous post. I guess it was a galaxian 3. Now if I could only remember where it was I played it...

fev · Post by **fev** » Thu Feb 17, 2005 12:07 am

they had one of the Project Dragoon models at a Dave & busters (i think) in GA a LONG time back.. played aone once.. never again lol

as for Starblade, the pick-em off-before-they-fire with no way of manuvering out of fire bothered me a lot (tis why i don't like games like area 51 or CarnEVIL.. i never continued, and never got very far..

that intro was sweet though!.. tis why i used to still plop 2 quarters into that thing.. I SOOO agree with the comparison the The last starfighter.. I never made that connection between the two and i loved the movie..

but the arcade that had Starblade (namco owned Cyberstation) also had Solvalou, so i always opted for that.. could intercept or outmanuver the enemy fire...

Thunder Force · Post by **Thunder Force** » Thu Feb 17, 2005 12:25 am

In a funny piece of news, check this out - posted today at MagicBox

Namco revealed new details on the PS2 version of Tekken 5. The game will include arcade port of Tekken 1, 2 and 3, however no extra content from the PS version will be included. In addition, StarBlade will be playable while the game is loading.

Lol... Tekken 5's loading time is long enough to fit a game of StarBlade into?? Um, this should be interesting.

gameoverDude · Post by **gameoverDude** » Thu Feb 17, 2005 3:13 am

Thunder Force wrote: Lol... Tekken 5's loading time is long enough to fit a game of StarBlade into?? Um, this should be interesting.

It's probably a mini-Starblade game like the Galaga Challenge Stages in the original PS Tekken. I'm guessing it may be something like a "kill all enemies to unlock Heihachi" type deal.

Thunder Force · Post by **Thunder Force** » Fri Feb 18, 2005 8:59 am

Thanks to www.game-science.com I came across a Famitsu scan that includes the first small screenshot of Tekken 5's version of StarBlade.

(See the added "Now Loading" displayed on the HUD... otherwise looks identical to Stage One of the original StarBlade coin-op.)

Thunder Force · Post by **Thunder Force** » Sat Feb 19, 2005 2:23 pm

Some nice big screenshots of the Tekken 5 version of StarBlade now available here, here, and here.

Notice some of the pics say "Press Start Button" on the HUD... maybe once Tekken 5 finishes loading you can keep playing StarBlade if you want to, and maybe it's not just a mini-game but the whole arcade game...

roushimsx · Post by **roushimsx** » Sat Feb 19, 2005 3:28 pm

TWITCHDOCTOR wrote:It was a "cursor control" only, correct? StarFox,Panzer Dragoon, and Space Harrier you can move around the screen, but in StarBlade you only could move the target reticle

The space sequences were cursor control style

Thunder Force · Post by **Thunder Force** » Sun Feb 27, 2005 6:11 am

OK - in Tekken 5 on PS2 you can play the opening part of Starblade during the "Now Loading" screen, then it cuts to Tekken 5 after you warp to the Asteroid Belt.

However the entire Starblade arcade game is unlockable in Tekken 5's "Arcade History" section. The method to unlock it is not fully confirmed yet but some people have done it already.

What I'd like to know is, is it just a port of the grainy version already available on the PS1 "Starblade Alpha" disc, or have they re-done it to better quality using the FMV capabilities of the PS2?