Darius Games for Sharp X68000

[devilmanozzy]

Ok I don't own one so like many I emulate games instead. Anyways my odd issue is as follows:
I recently played "Darius Dokomade Tatakaemasuka" which basically is a boss rush game. Anyways....Who is this?

Link to Image of mystery Boss

Second, is this game a official game or fan made, it looks a bit put together on the main screen. That being noted, I couldn't believe Darius+(The Edge) was official.

Third, I can't find a rom that works for Darius and Darius Extra for the Sharp X68000. I'm not asking for a working version, but has anyone found a version that works, and what all is different, is it worth the effort to try to get working?

[Voxbox]

I know that at least the series' other boss rush game, Darius Alpha for the PCE, is an official game - some limited edition thingy though.

[Mortificator]

I'll PM you a link to the X68000 Darius that works for me in XM6. It's labeled as a doujin. The image for Darius Dokomade Tatakaemasuka isn't, yet no official X68000 Darius games are listed on the Japanese Wikipedia. I dunno.

Oh, and I like how the English Wikipedia lists Metal Black as a related game, while the Japanese one list Syvalion.

[lgb]

For a while, Syvalion was also listed in the English template. I put it up there to maintain some sort of consistency... devilmanozzy was the one who removed it. By the way, that IS why I put it up there.

[ave]

There is no official Darius game for the X68000. Fanmade games, however, that's another story.
I think the background in the screenshot you posted above doesn't look very much like an original X68k game either. Leaves an impression of a downscaled highres image, untypical for the late 80's - early 90's.

[devilmanozzy]

For a while, Syvalion was also listed in the English template. I put it up there to maintain some sort of consistency... devilmanozzy was the one who removed it. By the way, that IS why I put it up there.

Yeah I couldn't see why anyone has been labeling Syvalion related. It seems to have nothing in common with the Darius series. However, Metal Black was going to be Darius III in development as noted on the Wikipedia article. It also has the mechanics of later Darius Games. I'm at a loss to understand what consistency has to do with it, if its not true. People copy Wikipedia pages all the time, but the source needs to be right to begin with.

There is no official Darius game for the X68000. Fanmade games, however, that's another story.
I think the background in the screenshot you posted above doesn't look very much like an original X68k game either. Leaves an impression of a downscaled highres image, untypical for the late 80's - early 90's.

Thats what I thought too. But with these old odd computer system games, half the time the officials look bad too. Yeah the background looks scaled, however theres a claim it was made in 1991 according to the rom image things I downloaded. That being said, that could just be a guess by the one uploading.

The following is a bit of research I did (All translated to english with google translate)
This states its a fanmake... Link 1

It was done by Sprite which also did the fangame B-System
Link 2

Here's a article on Darius for Sharp X68000, tho the picture for the boss may have been taken from Darius Extra as thats what chows when its running. Link 3 and yet another, Link 4
which suggests that Darius Extra may be only a battle with a King Fossil.

Same is suggest in this page. Link 5

[Magic Knight]

One version of Darius was written by this guy:
http://homepage2.nifty.com/fluidmechanics/x68.htm

who says he actually sent it to Taito's head of development.
The download doesn't contain a disk image, but the actual files to be run on a real machine.

As for Darius Dokomade Tatakaemasuka, if you look here
http://chinchilla.xsrv.jp/game/old_game.htm
you'll see that the author wrote it while in university, and it spread from there. It came to the attention of Taito, and he says he received an unofficial job offer from them, which didn't materialise in the end.

[lgb]

what

I thought Darius Gaiden was titled Darius III

also hey tinyurl those please, they stretching posts

[devilmanozzy]

what

I thought Darius Gaiden was titled Darius III

also hey tinyurl those please, they stretching posts

That is very much true but that was for Darius Gaiden that was released in 1994. Metal Black predates it by 3 years.

Also, fixed the links.

[Devil REI]

There's a Syvalion link in Darius Burst - the Zone J boss. I believe the music is an arrange of a Syvalion track as well - need to listen to that one again...

[devilmanozzy]

For a while, Syvalion was also listed in the English template. I put it up there to maintain some sort of consistency... devilmanozzy was the one who removed it. By the way, that IS why I put it up there.

Yeah I couldn't see why anyone has been labeling Syvalion related. It seems to have nothing in common with the Darius series. However, Metal Black was going to be Darius III in development as noted on the Wikipedia article. It also has the mechanics of later Darius Games. I'm at a loss to understand what consistency has to do with it, if its not true. People copy Wikipedia pages all the time, but the source needs to be right to begin with.

I stand corrected. Well sort of. The Arcade version of Syvalion has a snail. The Darius II artwork has the Grand Octopus, but he looks more like a snail than a Octopus in the promo art. Further more the snail isn't in the Super Famicom version of the game at all. Another interesting thing that looks to be Darius related is a ship that tags along with the Fire Dragon in level 5. It looks just like the silver-hawk. Oddly this is in the Super Famicom version, but not the Arcade version. This is all that I could find from the 2 versions I've tried. Sharp X68000 has it too, but not sure if its even official. It was also released on the ps2 on Taito Legends 2 but thats the Arcade version. Thats still not a lot at all.

There's a Syvalion link in Darius Burst - the Zone J boss. I believe the music is an arrange of a Syvalion track as well - need to listen to that one again...

Not sure about the music but the boss design is it appears to be segmented. But segmented bosses in the darius series have happened before, such as Driosawm. You could argue that Syvalion may have played a part in the design of that boss.

[FER]

Well the Darius II artwork looks like a mess since it show Iron hammer which isnt even in the game, so maybe that snail in there is actually Mystic Power from Super Darius.

[Magic Knight]

Sharp X68000 has it too, but not sure if its even official.

Syvalion was indeed an official release on X68000, I have a copy here. According to the manual, the snail creature (actually an amonite) is called "Glodloid". The guy on the right of the flyer is called "Gattnoizer", apparently. Don't know if that helps you in any way.

[Klatrymadon]

Not to be a stickler, but although it seems fairly logical, Metal Black was most likely never billed as a Darius game. This was a common misconception proliferated by Christ knows who, and I don't think the information was ever corroborated by any official source. The fact that the game bears the working title of "Project Gun Frontier 2" should give you a clue as to its real provenance.

Darius Gaiden, however, was called Darius III for most of its development, and was advertised under that name for a while.

Edit: by the way, this is the Darius II promo art. The SMS Sagaia box uses artwork for the original game.

[lgb]

two particular songs are labelled as arranges of Syvalion on the Dariusburst OST. haven't really listened to the Syvalion music enough to tell but hey

[CIT]

Not sure about the music but the boss design is it appears to be segmented. But segmented bosses in the darius series have happened before, such as Driosawm. You could argue that Syvalion may have played a part in the design of that boss.

In its second form the Zone J boss in Darius Burst turns into Syvalion. In mission mode you hear Syvalion's stage 5 boss theme when fighting him with Silverhawk Origin.

Not to be a stickler, but although it seems fairly logical, Metal Black was most likely never billed as a Darius game. This was a common misconception proliferated by Christ knows who, and I don't think the information was ever corroborated by any official source. The fact that the game bears the working title of "Project Gun Frontier 2" should give you a clue as to its real provenance.

Darius Gaiden, however, was called Darius III for most of its development, and was advertised under that name for a while.

Yes, I have never seen any remotely official sources indicating that Metal Black was meant to be Darius III either. I believe its a claim Randorama made in one of his articles that he never backed up, and it just got passed on from there.

[devilmanozzy]

Not sure about the music but the boss design is it appears to be segmented. But segmented bosses in the darius series have happened before, such as Driosawm. You could argue that Syvalion may have played a part in the design of that boss.

In its second form the Zone J boss in Darius Burst turns into Syvalion. In mission mode you hear Syvalion's stage 5 boss theme when fighting him with Silverhawk Origin.

Yeah I found that out some weeks ago, and screencapped it off youtube.
http://darius.wikia.com/wiki/Syvalion

Syvalion could possible be more related to the Darius series than I first thought.

Not to be a stickler, but although it seems fairly logical, Metal Black was most likely never billed as a Darius game. This was a common misconception proliferated by Christ knows who, and I don't think the information was ever corroborated by any official source. The fact that the game bears the working title of "Project Gun Frontier 2" should give you a clue as to its real provenance.

Darius Gaiden, however, was called Darius III for most of its development, and was advertised under that name for a while.

Yes, I have never seen any remotely official sources indicating that Metal Black was meant to be Darius III either. I believe its a claim Randorama made in one of his articles that he never backed up, and it just got passed on from there.

Never heard of him, however it looks very similar to Darius Gaiden and to a degree other darius games. Look, theres shrimp, and some fish, it has the alpha beam and a few other things. You can't tell me you don't see that. Thats why everyone thinks its darius related. It's simple. Yes it is the Project Gun Frontier 2 as stated in the credits of the game, however you'd not know that based on the design and gameplay of the game. The first game was more of a raiden look to it than the darius/r-type look in the second. As far as being billed a Darius III when started or not, its very debatable on either side of the argument on that one. Best one could do to resolve this is ask people who worked on it, which is highly unlikely anyone will.