Revolution X
From Sega Retro
Revolution X (レボリューションX) is a light-gun arcade game developed by Midway Manufacturing featuring the rock band Aerosmith. It was brought to the Sega Mega Drive and Sega Saturn in 1995 and 1996 respectively, with the Mega Drive version not released in Japan. A Sega 32X version was planned[9], but cancelled.
Contents
Story
In a dystopian version of 1996, an alliance of corrupt government and corporate military forces have taken control of the world in the guise of the "New Order Nation" (NON). The NON, with their vampish commander Head Mistress Helga, have declared war on youth culture and banned all forms of music, television, magazines, and video games.
The player travels to "Club X" in Los Angeles to see Aerosmith perform live, but the band is captured by NON troops and hustled off the stage in the middle of their show. After escaping from the club, the player steals a helicopter and flies across the city to find the band's car. From here, the player must destroy three NON installations in the Middle East, Amazon Jungle, and Pacific Rim, then travel to London to defeat Helga and her remaining forces at Wembley Stadium.
Gameplay
The game is a rail shooter in which the players must shoot targets including NON soldiers and vehicles, with the ultimate goal of rescuing the band. The game supports two-players, and the second player can join the game at any point by pressing START .
Throughout the game, objects can be shot that may reveal power-ups like health-replenishing shakes, bombs, and shields. Players can also find hostages and free them throughout the game for extra points. Levels occasionally have branching paths. At the end of each level, players receive bonus points based on the number of enemies killed and hostages rescued, as well as the amount of damage done. The five members of Aerosmith are hidden in secret locations throughout the game. When found, each member presents the player with a set of Aerosmith wings that increase the end-of-level bonus. All members must be found in order to unlock the best ending and bonus level.
Using a control pad, the player moves the crosshair with the D-Pad and fires the machine gun with in the Saturn version or in the Mega Drive version (which can be held for continuous fire). Machine guns have unlimited ammunition and do not need to be reloaded. Players can throw CDs like buzzsaws, which are more powerful and do damage in a larger area. CDs can destroy objects such as windows, doors, and signs to find hidden areas and secret items. CDs are thrown with in the Saturn version or in the Mega Drive version. They are limited in supply. The game does not support any light guns (such as the Menacer for the Mega Drive or the Virtua Gun for the Saturn), but it supports the Shuttle Mouse for the Saturn.
Players have energy meters that go down when they take damage. The game ends for the player when energy runs out but can be continued as long as the player has credits remaining.
There are three difficulty levels (Easy, Medium, and Hard in the Saturn version and Super-Cool!, Practically Impossible!, and Outrageous! in the Mega Drive version). The Saturn version allows the player to adjust the crosshair movement speed between five levels. On the Mega Drive version, holding increases the movement speed of the crosshair.
Items
Silver CD | |
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Increases the player's CD count by 3. | |
Gold CD | |
Increases the player's CD count by 10. | |
Super Gun | |
Temporary upgrades the player's machine gun to a Super Gun, which does five times as much damage as the regular gun. | |
Flaming Lazerdisc | |
Temporarily upgrades the player's CDs to Flaming Lazerdiscs, which do more damage than CDs. | |
Shield | |
Protects the player for 35 hits. | |
Skull Bomb | |
Detonates a Super Bomb, which destroys all on-screen enemies. | |
Wheat Grass Shake | |
Restores part of the player's energy. | |
Wings | |
Wings are rewarded for finding a member of the band. Collect all five to get the good ending. |
Levels
Players start the game at Club X in Los Angeles, first fighting the NON troops inside and then stealing a helicopter to fly across the city and find Aerosmith's car.
They must then destroy three NON facilities in the Amazon jungle, the Middle East and the Pacific Rim. These levels may be played in any order.
Finally, the players advance to Wembley Stadium for the final battle with the surviving NON forces and Head Mistress Helga.
Los Angeles, Club X | |
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Two band members are hidden in this level: lead singer Steven Tyler is hidden in a secret room inside Club X, and bassist Tom Hamilton is hidden in a bathroom stall. | |
Helicopter Joyride | |
Amazon Jungle | |
Lead guitarist Joe Perry is hidden in this level. | |
Middle East | |
Drummer Joey Kramer is hidden in this level. Failing to destroy the bus before it arrives at its destination sends the players back to the start of the level for another attempt. | |
Pacific Rim | |
Rhythm guitarist Brad Whitford is hidden in this level. | |
Wembley Stadium | |
Music and sound
The soundtrack consists of several Aerosmith songs continuously looped, including "Eat the Rich," "Sweet Emotion," "Toys in the Attic," and "Walk This Way." A Muzak version of "Love in an Elevator" plays in the elevator part of the Amazon Jungle level. The console versions include loops of "Rag Doll" for the attract screen, main menu, and score, "Fever" for the Middle East level, and "Dude (Looks Like a Lady)" for the ending.
Versions
The arcade version of the game used three machine guns mounted to the cabinet, similar to the earlier Midway release T2: The Arcade Game (and the company provided conversion kits for arcade cabinets of that game[10]). Like that release, the game determines the position of the on-screen crosshairs from the movement of each gun in its mount rather than using conventional light guns as with contemporary arcade games such as Virtua Cop or Area 51.
The console versions were very poorly received, mostly because no light guns were supported in any of the home ports. While the arcade version supported up to three players, all console versions supported only two players. The Mega Drive version redraws the digitized actors of the arcade game as pixel art (as was done previously with the aforementioned T2: The Arcade Game) and reinterprets the band's music using the console's sound hardware.
Production credits
Mega Drive version
- Directed and Produced by: George N. Petro, Jack E. Haeger
- Design and Software: George N. Petro, Bill Dabelstein, Warren Davis, Jake Simpson, Mike Lynch
- Design and Graphics: Jack Haeger, Steve Beran, Martin Martinez, John Vogel, John Newcomer, Eric Kinkead
- Music and Sounds: Chris Granner
- Guitar Solos: Vincent Pontarelli
- Executive Producers: Neil Nicastro, Ken Fedesna
- From the album "Permanent Vacation"
- ℗© 1987 The David Geffen Company
- Rag Doll: (Tyler, Perry, Vallance, Knight)
- © 1987 Aero Dynamics Music Publishing, Inc./EMI April Music Inc./Testatyme Music/Almo Music Corp./The Makiki Publishing Co. Ltd./Knighty Knight Music admin. by Arista Music, Inc. ASCAP
- Dude (Looks Like A Lady): (Tyler, Perry, Child)
- © 1987 Aero Dynamics Music Publishing, Inc./EMI April Music Inc./Desmobile Music Co., Inc. ASCAP
- From the album "Pump"
- ℗© 1989 The David Geffen Company
- Love in an Elevator: (Tyler, Perry)
- © 1989 Swag Song Music, Inc./EMI April Music Inc. ASCAP
- From the album "Get A Grip"
- ℗© 1993 Geffen Records, Inc.
- Eat The Rich: (Tyler, Perry, Vallance)
- © 1989 Swag Song Music, Inc./EMI April Music Inc./Testatyme Music/Almo Music Corp. ASCAP
- Fever: (Tyler, Perry)
- © 1989 Swag Song Music, Inc./EMI April Music Inc. ASCAP
- Aerosmith: Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, Brad Whitford, Tom Hamilton, Joey Kramer
- Management by Collins Management, Inc.: Tim Collins, Wendy Laister
- Project Coordination: Rob Falk
- Producer: Billy Pidgeon
- Associate Producer: Jay Luss
- Production Assistants: Martin De Riso, Eric Weiner
- Senior Manager: Michael Weiner
- Supervisors: Adam Ingberman, Esq., Carol Caracciolo
- Lead Analyst: Steve Bremer
- Game Analyst: Jeff Rosa
- Technical Support Supervisor: Harry Reimer
- Technical Support: John F. Gonzales
- QA Testers: Polam Wong, Andre Abramowitz, Robert Asche, Mike Patterson, Michael Simmons
- Special Thanks To: Kelly Coleman, Alex DeLucia, James Herzner, Eric Kuby, Jason Schreiber, Eric Samulski
- Rage Software Management: Paul Finnegan, Keith Robinson
- Producer: Peter Johnson
- Lead Programmer: Mick Hedley
- Artwork: Phil Nixon, John Boundy
- Additional Programming: Dave Mann
- Music and Sound: Steve Lord
- Additional Sound: Gordon Hall
- Special Thanks: Nicola Stevens
Saturn version
- Directed and Produced by: George N. Petro, Jack E. Haeger
- Design and Software: George N. Petro, Bill Dabelstein, Warren Davis, Jake Simpson, Mike Lynch
- Design and Graphics: Jack Haeger, Steve Beran, Martin Martinez, John Vogel, John Newcomer, Eric Kinkead
- Music and Sounds: Chris Granner
- Guitar Solos: Vincent Pontarelli
- Executive Producers: Neil Nicastro, Ken Fedesna
- Aerosmith: Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, Brad Whitford, Tom Hamilton, Joey Kramer
- From the album "Permanent Vacation"
- ℗© 1987 The David Geffen Company
- Rag Doll: (Tyler, Perry, Vallance, Knight)
- © 1987 Aero Dynamics Music Publishing, Inc./EMI April Music Inc./Testatyme Music/Almo Music Corp./The Makiki Publishing Co. Ltd./Knighty Knight Music admin. by Arista Music, Inc. ASCAP
- Dude (Looks Like A Lady): (Tyler, Perry, Child)
- © 1987 Aero Dynamics Music Publishing, Inc./EMI April Music Inc./Desmobile Music Co., Inc. ASCAP
- From the album "Pump"
- ℗© 1989 The David Geffen Company
- Love in an Elevator: (Tyler, Perry)
- © 1989 Swag Song Music, Inc./EMI April Music Inc. ASCAP
- From the album "Get A Grip"
- ℗© 1993 Geffen Records, Inc.
- Eat The Rich: (Tyler, Perry, Vallance)
- © 1989 Swag Song Music, Inc./EMI April Music Inc./Testatyme Music/Almo Music Corp. ASCAP
- Fever: (Tyler, Perry)
- © 1989 Swag Song Music, Inc./EMI April Music Inc. ASCAP
- Game conversion by: Rage Software
- Programming: Alan Webb, Jim Bagley, Tony Pomfret, John McMurray
- Graphics: Andy Johnson
- Additional Graphics: Pablo Broadbent, Karen Davies Downey
- Music Conversion: Peter Johnson, Wilf Turnbull, Gordon Hall, Kevin Bruce, Steve Lord
- Producer: Billy Pidgeon
- Associate Producer: Jay Luss
- Production Assistants: Martin De Riso, Eric Weiner
- Senior Manager: Michael Weiner
- Supervisors: Adam Ingberman, Esq., Carol Caracciolo
- Lead Analyst: Steve Bremer
- Game Analyst: Jeff Rosa
- Technical Support Supervisor: Harry Reimer
- Technical Support: John F. Gonzales
- QA Testers: Polam Wong, Peter Sanfilippo, Chris Shanley, Hal Turkiewicz, Michael Simmons
- Special Thanks: Kelly Coleman, Alex DeLucia, Jim Herzner, Eric Kuby, David Minogue, Jason Schreiber, Eric Samulski
Magazine articles
- Main article: Revolution X/Magazine articles.
Promotional material
- Main article: Revolution X/Promotional material.
Physical scans
Mega Drive version
Sega Retro Average | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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|
46 | |
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Based on 9 reviews |
Saturn version
Sega Retro Average | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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|
44 | |
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Based on 14 reviews |
Saturn, PT |
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|
Technical information
- Main article: Revolution X/Technical information.
References
- ↑ File:RevolutionX Saturn JP Box Back.jpg
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 https://sega.jp/fb/segahard/ss/soft_licensee2.html (Wayback Machine: 2020-03-20 23:05)
- ↑ GamePro, "January 1996" (US; 199x-xx-xx), page 57
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 GamePro, "February 1996" (US; 199x-xx-xx), page 72
- ↑ Computer Trade Weekly, "" (UK; 1996-01-22), page 21
- ↑ https://groups.google.com/g/rec.games.video.sega/c/KEXMy3i4BW0/m/PiBJ2gxpe0IJ
- ↑ Computer & Video Games, "May 1996" (UK; 1996-04-12), page 64
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Mean Machines Sega, "August 1996" (UK; 1996-07-05), page 75
- ↑ GamePro, "August 1995" (US; 1995-xx-xx), page 40
- ↑ [ ]
- ↑ File:Revolution X Saturn credits.pdf
- ↑ 1700 igr dlya Sega, "" (RU; 2001-xx-xx), page 188
- ↑ Freak, "3/96" (IL; 1996-xx-xx), page 1
- ↑ Game Players, "Vol. 9 No. 2 February 1996" (US; 1996-0x-xx), page 62
- ↑ Next Generation, "February 1996" (US; 1996-01-16), page 177
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 Secret Service, "Wrzesień 1996" (PL; 1996-09-01), page 37
- ↑ Tricks, "Vypusk 7" (RU; 1996-xx-xx), page 27
- ↑ Tricks 16 bit, "Tricks Sega Gold 800 igr" (RU; 1998-03-20), page 143
- ↑ VideoGames, "February 1996" (US; 1996-01-xx), page 81
- ↑ Famitsu, "1996-05-03" (JP; 1996-04-19), page 33
- ↑ GamePro, "April 1996" (US; 1996-xx-xx), page 83
- ↑ GamePro, "May 1996" (UK; 1996-04-xx), page 44
- ↑ Hacker, "07-08/1997" (HR; 1997-xx-xx), page 69
- ↑ LeveL, "Květen 1996" (CZ; 1996-05-06), page 36
- ↑ Mega Fun, "06/96" (DE; 1996-05-15), page 74
- ↑ Mean Machines Sega, "June 1996" (UK; 1996-05-03), page 86
- ↑ Saturn Fan, "1996 No. 14" (JP; 1996-06-21), page 80
- ↑ Sega Saturn Magazine, "May 1996" (UK; 1996-04-24), page 78
- ↑ Sega Saturn Magazine, "1996-06 (1996-04-12)" (JP; 1996-03-22), page 235
- ↑ Sega Saturn Magazine, "Readers rating final data" (JP; 2000-03), page 17
- ↑ Video Games, "6/96" (DE; 1996-05-29), page 93
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