Salamander Deluxe Pack Plus
From Sega Retro
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Salamander Deluxe Pack Plus | ||||||||||
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System(s): Sega Saturn | ||||||||||
Publisher: Konami | ||||||||||
Developer: Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo | ||||||||||
Original system(s): Arcade boards | ||||||||||
Game total: 3 | ||||||||||
Sound driver: SCSP/CD-DA (2 tracks) | ||||||||||
Genre: Compilation, Shooting[1][2] | ||||||||||
Number of players: 1-2 | ||||||||||
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Salamander Deluxe Pack Plus (沙羅曼蛇 DELUXE PACK PLUS) is a compilation of the three Salamander games, all developed and published by Konami as spin-offs in the Gradius franchise. The compilation never left Japan.
The games are identical to their arcade counterparts, bar a few touch-ups.
Contents
Games included
- Salamander
- Life Force
- Salamander 2
Story
Salamander
Latis is a planet covered by water. A prophecy tells of a giant dragon that will travel from thousands of light years away and swallow the heavens and the earth.
The Salamander Army of the Bacterian Cluster has invaded the planet, and the Latis army is helpless to resist. The Prince of Latis has entered the battle in his starfighter, Lord British, but he was overwhelmed and asked from help from the planet Gradius, which is said to have defeated forces from the Bacterian Cluster before.
Life Force
Salamander 2
Gameplay
Salamander
Salamander is the 1986 sequel to the 1985 game, Gradius (before Konami produced a more direct sequel, Gradius II in 1988, with Salamander being relegated to spin-off). It is a one or two player cooperative spaceship shooter, in which player one controls the Vic Viper from Gradius, and player two controls (the debuting) Lord British. Two-player games can be started from the main menu or by pressing START on a second control pad at any point during gameplay. While gameplay is broadly similar to Gradius, Salamander has a different and more traditional power-up system, in which players simply pick up upgrades left behind by destroyed enemies, rather than collecting glowing orbs to increment through a pre-determined list. It also differs from Gradius by swapping between horizontal and vertical scrolling stages.
The ship can be moved in any direction using the D-Pad. It shoots with (or for rapid-fire). The main weapon can be upgraded to the Laser, which shoots long lasers that pierce through multiple targets, or the Ripple Laser, which shoots ring-shaped projectiles that expand as they travel to cover a large area. Players can obtain an upgrade that augments its main weapon with missiles that are fired in volleys above and below the ship. The ship can also collect up to four options that follow it and duplicate its fire. Options spread out when the ship moves away from them, allowing them to cover a wide area.
The ship is destroyed if it takes a single hit from an enemy or collides with terrain. All power-ups are lost when the ship is destroyed, but options can be collected again. It respawns instantly if the player has extra lives remaining; otherwise, the game ends. There are no continues and no extends, but players can set the number of starting lives from the options (between 2 and 7) before starting the game. After finishing the game, it loops from the beginning at a higher difficulty. There are six difficulty levels (Saturn Easy, Easy, Normal, Difficult, Very Difficult, and Saturn Difficult). There are also options to toggle the slowdown from the arcade original ("Wait Control") or to stretch the image to fit the width of the screen.
Items
Items are dropped by reddish-colored enemies when they are destroyed or when an entire wave of enemies is destroyed.
Speed Up | |
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Increases the movement speed of the ship, up to 5 levels. | |
Missile | |
Allows the ship to fire volleys of missiles concurrently with its main weapon. | |
Multiple | |
Creates an option that follows the ship and duplicates its fire. The ship can have up to 4 options following it. If the ship is destroyed, the options float in place and can be collected again. | |
Laser | |
Changes the main weapon to long, piercing lasers. | |
Ripple Laser | |
Changes the main weapon to ring-shaped projectiles that expand as they travel. | |
Force Field | |
Creates a force field at the nose of the ship that protects it. |
Stages
Bionic Germ | |
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Meteorite Space | |
Burning Chaos | |
Volcano | |
Asteroid Hell | |
Fortress Zone | |
Life Force
Life Force is an altered version of Salamander released in the following year. While the 1986 Salamanader was released under this name in North America, this 1987 Japanese version adds to the changes and re-introduces the Gradius-style power-up system. Much of the visuals and audio was been replaced, although level layouts are broadly identical.
Stages
The Stomach Muscle Zone | |
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The Kidney Zone | |
The Stomach Inner Chamber | |
The Liver Zone | |
The Lung Zone | |
The Brain Area | |
Salamander 2
At the time the latest entry in the Gradius franchise, 1996's Salamander 2 is a true sequel to Salamander, sharing similar gameplay but with more elaborate graphics and stages.
Stages
Stage 1 | |
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Stage 2 | |
Stage 3 | |
Stage 4 | |
Stage 5 | |
Stage 6 | |
Production credits
Salamander and Life Force
- Programmer: H.' Deluxe'ueda, H.Sato -Aki-, Akind.Takaki, Shutaro
- Designer: T.Sagawa, Mariko
- Sound: Yamane(Kai), AKT, Akira Yamaoka, Midnight Zombie
- Movie Sound: Miki-up, Suzuki Kyouta, Akira Yamaoka
- CGI Designer: Makoto Toyama
- Movie Converter: Kenichiro Imaizumi
- Logotype & Product Design: Yumiko Nozawa
- Special Thanks: Original AC Staff
- Supervisor: Halky
- Producer: Kazumi Kitaue
- Development by: KCET
Salamander 2
- Programmer: Akind.Takaki, Shutaro, H.'Deluxe'ueda, H.Sato -Aki-
- Designer: T.Sagawa, Mariko
- Sound: Yamane(Kai), AKT, Akira Yamaoka, Midnight Zombie
- Movie Sound: Miki-up, Suzuki Kyouta, Akira Yamaoka
- CGI Designer: Takahide Murakami
- Movie Converter: Kenichiro Imaizumi
- Logotype & Product Design: Yumiko Nozawa
- Original AC Staff: Tango, Qchan, Satonyan, Masato Hijima, Sonshi Sdr, Kaori Nishimura, Yas, Motohisa Ando, You Takamine, Naoki Maeda, V Kobe Yzz, Takaaki "Q" Kumemura, K.Iwashita, Yamamoso Type2, Takeaki Hasegawa
- Supervisor: Halky
- Producer: Kazumi Kitaue
- Development by: KCET
Magazine articles
- Main article: Salamander Deluxe Pack Plus/Magazine articles.
Physical scans
Sega Retro Average | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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73 | |
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Based on 8 reviews |
Saturn, JP |
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Technical information
- Main article: Salamander Deluxe Pack Plus/Technical information.
ROM dump status
System | Hash | Size | Build Date | Source | Comments | |||||||||
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✔ |
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518,413,728 | 1997-03-25 | CD-ROM (JP) | T-9520G V1.010 |
Extra content
This game has extra content which can be viewed when accessing the disc on a PC.
Folder / File | Type | Size | description |
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\OMAKE\24BIT | Folder | 51,931,704 | It contains 11 wallpaper images of truecolor. 3 sizes each. |
\OMAKE\8BIT | Folder | 17,345,592 | It contains 11 wallpaper images of 256 colors. 3 sizes each. |
ABS.TXT | TXT (Abstract) | 150 | About this game. |
BIB.TXT | TXT (Bibliographiced) | 85 | About original game |
CPY.TXT | TXT (Copyright) | 47 | Copyright |
KAIHATSU.DOC | TXT | 30,553 | Messages from the developers. |
References
- ↑ File:SalamanderDeluxePackPlus Saturn JP Box Back.jpg
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 https://sega.jp/fb/segahard/ss/soft_licensee3.html (Wayback Machine: 2020-03-20 23:05)
- ↑ File:Salamander Saturn credits.pdf
- ↑ File:Salamander 2 Saturn credits.pdf
- ↑ Edge, "September 1997" (UK; 1997-08-18), page 88
- ↑ Famitsu, "1997-06-27" (JP; 1997-06-13), page 1
- ↑ GameFan, "Volume 5, Issue 8: August 1997" (US; 1997-xx-xx), page 20
- ↑ MAN!AC, "08/97" (DE; 1997-07-09), page 66
- ↑ neXt Level, "September 1997" (DE; 1997-08-22), page 74
- ↑ Saturn Fan, "1997 No. 12" (JP; 1997-06-xx), page 182
- ↑ Sega Saturn Magazine, "1997-21 (1997-06-27)" (JP; 1997-06-13), page 155
- ↑ Sega Saturn Magazine, "Readers rating final data" (JP; 2000-03), page 11
NEC Retro has more information related to Salamander
|
Salamander Deluxe Pack Plus | |
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Main page | Comparisons | Hidden content | Magazine articles | Reception |
Gradius / Parodius games for Sega systems | |
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Nemesis (1987) | Nemesis 2 (1987) | |
Gradius Deluxe Pack (1996) | Salamander Deluxe Pack Plus (1997) | Konami Antiques MSX Collection Ultra Pack (1998) | |
Parodius (1995) | Sexy Parodius (1996) | Jikkyou Oshaberi Parodius: Forever With Me (1996) |