Time Soldiers

n/a

Time Soldiers
System(s): Sega Master System
Publisher: Sega
Developer: Alpha Denshi
Distributor: Tonka (US), Hent Gruppen (SE rental), Tec Toy (BR)
Original system(s): Arcade
Peripherals supported: FM Sound Unit
Genre: Arcade
Number of players: 1-2
Release Date RRP Code US 1989-05 $39.9539.95 7024 EU 1989-08 MK-7024-50 UK 1989-08 £24.9524.95 MK-7024-50 SE (Rental) 19xx AU 199x BR 199x
Non-Sega versions Amiga Arcade Atari ST Commodore 64

Time Soldiers is a Sega Master System run-and-gun game developed by Alpha Denshi and published by Sega. A port of the developer's 1987 arcade game of the same name, it was first released in the United States and Europe in May 1989, and was later brought to both Australia and Brazil.

Story

Introduction

The galactic conqueror Gylend has captured five troopers of Earth's defense forces and sent them back through time. Their comrades Yohan and Ben must travel through time with the aid of a device called the "D-Scanner" and face the dangers of each period in order to rescue their compatriots.

Gameplay

The game is an overhead run-and-gun game. It can be played by a single-player (as Yohan) or by two players simultaneously (joined by Ben). The second player can join at any time by pressing  START . Stages are set in one of five time periods: the Primitive Age, the Age of Rome, the World Wars, the Age of War, and Future World. Each time period has three different stages. Before each stage, the player is shown the name of one of the comrades and the period in which that comrade is held captive. The player is then placed into a stage from a random time period. After defeating the mid-boss at the end of the stage, the player is presented with a Time Tunnel, which can be entered to warp to the next time period. When the player reaches the time period in which the captive soldier is located, the player battles an additional main boss for the time period. After defeating this boss, the soldier is rescued. After rescuing all five troopers, players play a final stage and face Gylend.

The characters move in any direction with the D-Pad. Stages scroll in one of three directions (up, left, or right), depending on the segment. The screen follows the characters as they move but does not allow backtracking. The characters can shoot normal shots with , which are unlimited. Regular enemies are defeated with a single shot. They can pick up special weapons that are fired with . These weapons are more powerful but deplete an energy bar when they are fired.

Characters lose a life when they take a hit from an enemy. They respawn after a brief period of invulnerability if the player has lives remaining. If the player runs out of lives, the character does not respawn. When this happens, players have a brief period in which they can press to continue before the score screen appears and the game ends. Each player can only continue twice.

Items

Items are sometimes dropped by enemies after they are defeated.

Picking up a special weapon replenishes the energy bar. The strength of a special weapon depends on the stage of the current era.

	Tri-Shot
	A spreadshot. In the second stage, the distance covered doubles; in the third stage, the shots fly throughout the screen.
	Missile
	A missile that can fly over obstacles. In the second stage, the missile flies farther and penetrates through targets; in the third stage, it flies faster and becomes more powerful.
	Energy Gun
	A powerful energy bullet. In the second stage, it is twice as powerful; in the third stage, it is three times as powerful.
	Speed-Up
	Increases the character's movement speed for a duration.
	Power-Up
	Increases the character's weapon power for a duration.
	Warp
	Warps the characters directly to the main boss of the era.
	Time Tunnel
	After defeating a mid-boss, the characters can enter the Time Tunnel to travel to the next time period or ignore it and progress past it to the next stage of the current era. However, the main boss of an era only appears if the soldier that the characters are trying to find is in the current era. Otherwise, the third stage continues into the first and the stage loops infinitely until the player chooses to enter the Time Tunnel.

Stages

The first three soldiers are located in the Primitive Age, Age of Rome, and World Wars eras. To rescue each soldier, the players play through three random stages from these time periods and then defeat the main boss of one of the eras.

The last two soldiers are located in the Age of Wars and Future World eras. To rescue each soldier, the players play through all six stages from these time periods in a random order and then defeat the main boss of one of the eras.

After rescuing all five soldiers, the player plays the Last Battle stage.

	The Primitive Age
	Map: 1️⃣
	The Age of Rome
	Map: 1️⃣
	The World Wars
	Map: 1️⃣
	The Age of Wars
	Map: 1️⃣
	The Future World
	Map: 1️⃣
	Last Battle
	Map: 1️⃣

Production credits

• Programer: Shinichi Tamura, Eiji Fukatsu, Yuji Noguchi, Osamu Iijima
• Designer: Shinji Moriyama, Tomoharu Takahashi, Takashi Egashira
• Music: Yuka Watanabe
• Sound Effect: Hiroaki Shimizu
• Special Adviser: Kenichi Sakanishi
• Producer Directer: Tomoharu Takahashi

Source:

In-game credits

Hints

• 

  US hints

Magazine articles

Main article: Time Soldiers/Magazine articles.

Promotional material

Print advert in Computer & Video Games (UK) #94: "September 1989" (1989-08-16)
also published in:

• ACE (UK) #24: "September 1989" (1989-08-03)

Print advert in Computer & Video Games (UK) #95: "October 1989" (1989-09-16)

Print advert in Excalibur (CZ) #12 (1992-09-01)

Physical scans

Sega Retro Average
Publication Score Source

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Based on 0 review

Sega Retro Average

Publication Version Score ACE (UK) 51 Ação Games (BR) 75 Aktueller Software Markt (DE) 63 Complete Guide to Consoles (UK) 79 Complete Guide to Consoles (UK) 73 The Complete Guide to Sega (UK) PAL 73 Console XS (UK) PAL 36 Computer & Video Games (UK) 73 Electronic Gaming Monthly (US) 33 The Games Machine (UK) 78 Mean Machines Sega (UK) 73 Popular Computing Weekly (UK) 445 Power Play (DE) PAL 75 S: The Sega Magazine (UK) PAL 45 Sega Power (UK) PAL 50 Sega Pro (UK) 37 Sega Pro (UK) PAL 36

	82
Based on 17 reviews

Time Soldiers

Master System, US
Cover
Cart Manual

Master System, EU
Cover
Manual

Master System, EU (Sega®); no barcode
Cover
Cart

Master System, SE (rental; Hent)
Cover

Master System, AU (NIAL sticker)
Cover

Master System, AU (Barcode sticker)
Cover

Master System, BR
Cover
Cart File:TimeSoldiers-SMS-BR-Manual.pdf Manual

Technical information

ROM dump status

System	Hash	Size	Build Date	Source	Comments
?	CRC32 51bd14be MD5 dbc9260009dd0838d0e31de51d57d078 SHA-1 89842cb30cc3ba626901a5da41481f6d157ebd15	256kB		Cartridge (EU/US)