Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

Original title: "Classic arcade" alloy warhead "data that has been sealed for many years, great revelation in previous lives and in this life"

Q printmaking style, fine 2D pixel picture, hilarious battle scene. Yes, this is the childhood brought to us by the "alloy warhead" series.

There are too many topics about "alloy warheads". This time we will talk about the "previous lives" of the first generation of "alloy warheads".

Where the dream began: IREMIREM for domestic players, the company is not famous, but the game is famous.

"Captain Iron Hook" (Peter Pan), "violent Interpol", "Undersea War" and so on, are all good memories of our childhood.

IREM's real name IPM, in the early days, also started by copying the game of "Space invaders". Its founder was none other than the later founder of CAPCOM-Kenzo Hashimoto.

Born in Nara, Kenzo Hashimoto started his career as a wholesale candy snack, having had his ups and downs for a long time, and finally founded IREM in 1974.

But Mr. Hashimoto chose to run away when IREM was in his heyday, saying that he was ashamed to run away because of leadership mistakes, or because of the suppression of Yoshihiko Kao (who is the archetype of the old man with a black briefcase in "Alloy warhead 2" in the future SNK).

Because IREM worked with picture tube makers Qiwei and Kotohiko in the early days, but Mr. Kumamoto set up a new company called IRM (the predecessor of CAPCOM) in 1979, and maybe he wanted to start his own business, too, and later he teamed up with Qiwei Electric to run it out.

Both statements seem to be reliable and neither seem reliable.

In 1987, IREM became famous in the Japanese arcade world with "R-TYPE", and the game even became the STG game with the highest coin investment rate in Japanese arcade parlors at that time.

Domestic players are not very familiar with "R-TYPE", and the name of the game is generally translated as "Alien Fighter", because the first iconic BOSS is a copycat "Alien".

The reason why we want to say "alien fighter" is to draw out the father of "alloy warhead"-- Nine articles and one horse.

This is all his masterpiece!

Born in Osaka, Jiujiao Yima first played "Space invaders" in an arcade, but there were so many knockoffs on the market that he didn't know if what he was playing was genuine.

He studied math when he was in Kobe, and it happened that he also came into contact with FC red and white machines, but what haunted him in college was playing mahjong.

After graduation, Jiutiaoyi didn't think about the next step seriously (what is interesting is that the same ghost game player Panagaki accompanying letter is also a mahjong enthusiast).

(when I was a student, my biggest hobby was not playing games, but playing mahjong.)

The reason why I chose IREM is that this company is on the first page of the recruitment message I saw in Nine Yima. After entering the work, Jiutiao Yima first participated in the game planning was actually the GAME BOY Lianliankan mahjong game "Sichuan Province", I have to say that Nine Yima and Mahjong really have a fate.

After the aforementioned "R-TYPE" became popular in Japan, the development of a sequel was immediately put on the agenda, and in order to test the game flow, others first recommended nine pieces of one horse-because he was the worst at shooting games.

"Alloy warhead" originated from the release of an arcade game called "Air duel" STG in 1990. This game nine items one horse participated in the development, the team altogether 6 people, belongs to the small production. Despite the mediocre response to the game, "duel in the air" also inspired the future "alloy warhead". The producer of the game BGM is Leng Motian Zhuozhi, who wrote BGM for the future "alloy warhead".

"Air duel"

Speaking of which, God is helping the "alloy warhead" development team, because Leng Motian Zhuozhi resolutely chose IREM, which is close to home, in the face of the invitation of IREM and KONAMI. Since then, he, who has no work experience, began to complete the task within two months.

Perhaps to commemorate his musical debut, Leng Mou Tian Zhuozhi later adapted BGM, the third level of "Air duel," as the opening BGM of "Alloy warhead 3."

Perhaps IREM himself would not have thought that such a humble game would create a new worldview in the future-the DAS universe.

The DAS here is the villain in the Air duel, its full name is "DARK ANARCHY SOCIETY" (Dark chaos Group), but the management of IREM chaos does not write more settings for the DAS universe, so it feels a pity to say that.

To insert a word here, the early IREM management is simply incomprehensible, especially for the preservation of game materials is quite random, which also leads to the loss of a large number of precious game data, code and other information.

There was a legend that when I was driving out, I didn't know what to think, but I even thought what it would be like if I was driving a submarine surrounded by the undersea world. As a result, the "great undersea war" was born.

Poster of "Undersea War"

Later, "Alloy warhead 3" in the Q version of the submarine war is the predecessor of the "undersea War", although the game is a horizontal scroll STG, but creative players are not driving flexible fighters, but chubby, slow submarines.

What is worth mentioning is the American name "IN THE HUNT" of "the Great War under the Sea", which sounds inexplicable, but it is actually a tribute to the movie "hunting Red October" (THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER).

Here, the DAS Group uses high-tech weapons to melt polar glaciers, causing the earth to become a water polo, which is why the game is a submarine melee.

Of course, in the end of the game, the two players will have a showdown, and the winner will become the new head of the DAS Group and continue to endanger one side.

With music and submarine warfare, what about the play of horizontal scrolls? This is about to mention a series of "Fire of War" (Steel Gun Force) series called "the Spirit of Alloy warheads".

The plot of the Japanese and American versions of "GUNFORCE" (GEO STORM) is completely different: the Japanese version is the R country begins to invade the world with a highly intelligent computer, and the special forces soldier played by the player is about to kill the enemy's lair and destroy the computer.

The American version is much simpler, which is to crack down on aliens.

Friends who have played feel that the original "Steel Gun Force 1" is more likely to be "Contra", on the contrary, the diesel punk-style "Steel Army 2" is closer to the "alloy warhead" that people are used to.

The two heroes in "Steel Gun Force 2" are male lead MAX and female lead Lei (LEI). In fact, there are also two protagonists in the early design of the original "Alloy warhead".

In addition to "Air duel", "Undersea War" and "Steel Gun Force", there is a special work in the DAS universe, which is not shooting but clearing the border, that is, "violent Interpol".

Speaking of the "violent Interpol" and the "undersea War," it turns out that in the "Undersea War," the submarine driver is Takahara Li and Takahara Ren and his wife, of which Takahara Ren's own brother is the bearded plateau chopping in the "violent Interpol."

The 1994 "Steel Gun Force 2" was the last work by Nine and one Horse during the IREM period, when IREM was in economic difficulties and even closed down for a time (IREM was successfully revived in 1996, but don't think about arcade business). At this time, some former IREM employees left (said to have the support of SNK) and set up NAZCA (NASCAR) on their own.

A total of about 20 employees came from IREM to Nazca, including Nine Yima, Leng Motian Zhuozhi, and many other employees, including Kenzhi Oi, who was later in charge of art for the Alloy warhead.

Most of them are members of the production team of the Great undersea War. in the early days, NASCAR had very few personnel, and two planners plus five programmers and several artists were, to some extent, "small and sophisticated."

There are only two games under the name of Nazca, except that the original "alloy warhead" is "NEO Golf Master" (Grand Golf League).

Although this golf game is 2D pixel painting style, but the picture is quite realistic, the character movement is also very smooth, have to lament the development team's attainments in pixel art.

The rise of "alloy warheads" mentioned so many, finally to talk about the "alloy warheads" of the first generation.

In fact, there are many translations of "METAL SLUG", such as "Alloy warhead", "Battle of Vietnam", "Steel Bug Division", "Steel slug" and so on. "METAL SLUG" here is the mascot in the game.

In the original "alloy warhead" idea, the player is to control the small tank rather than the human character to fight, it happens that the NEOGEO mainframe four keys are responsible for adjusting the muzzle direction, now think about it is still a little strange!

The original protagonist is a girl:

In addition, the hostages in the game are not bearded old men, but soldiers like the enemy, but they are all dressed in blue uniforms, and after being rescued, they will even climb to the tank turret to carry bazooka to help fight, but this design later became a small soldier in the fifth level "Tiger King" tank sidecar.

With regard to the various weapon designs in the game, including the protagonist tank, we have to mention the soul of the "alloy warhead" art-AKIO.

At that time, he was also in charge of art design for games such as "R-TYPE" in IREM.

When it comes to the Alloy warhead, AKIO absorbs the quintessence of many literary works, such as the prototype of the protagonist tank comes from the multi-purpose police chariot in Shiro's authentic cartoon "Special search Battle fleet", while the round, chubby enemy and BOSS are full of the style of MiyazakiHayao's works.

In fact, in the early days, AKIO envisioned elements such as biped robots and aliens, but Nine and one Horse believed that the game was based on real weapons, so these settings had to wait until later. (however, after the completion of the first generation, Jiujiao left SNK.)

The first version of the game began to be tested in August 1995, when game media such as "GAMEST" and "FAMI" gave very good comments, but some people thought that the operation of the game was complex and the level flow was too short, anyway, it had to be changed.

Later, Jiujiao was determined to "change it to the end"-if the operation of the tank was too complex, it would be directly changed to a human role, and the checkpoint process would be short, and the worst would be more materials. Nine articles one horse recalls the scene that the company recalls at that time is still fresh, a kind of unprecedented silence, because this is by no means a small errand.

The "Alloy warhead" was originally scheduled to be released in October 1995, but since the change had to be postponed, it was clear that earnings would be affected. However, in view of the feedback from the players at that time, and for the sake of the quality of the game, SNK still agreed to modify the game.

In this way, within six months, all the staff began to work in black and white-everyone was nervous, someone simply didn't go home for work, lived in the company and slept in a sleeping bag, according to Okai.

What is even more exaggerated is that someone actually fell asleep in the elevator and fell sleepy on the toilet floor when he was relieved.

"Alloy warhead" was finally officially released in April 1996. It is hard to imagine how employees feel at the moment, the joy of great disaster, or the excitement of the completion of the work, of course, it may also be other ideas. Anyway, Okai moved directly to Skwell after completing the original "alloy warhead".

This article comes from the official Wechat account: arcade feelings (ID:JJQH66), author: our arcade era

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