Midnight Resistance

From Sega Retro

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MidnightResistance title.png

Midnight Resistance
System(s): Sega Mega Drive
Publisher: Data East
Developer:
Original system(s): Arcade boards
Developer(s) of original games: Data East
Genre: Action

















Number of players: 1
Release Date RRP Code
Sega Mega Drive
JP
¥7,8007,800 T-13043
Sega Mega Drive
US
$49.9549.95[2] T-13016
Sega Mega Drive
DE
6363

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Midnight Resistance (ミッドナイトレジスタンス) is a run and gun action game developed and published by Data East for the arcade and later published by Sega for the Mega Drive. The Sega conversion was given a new soundtrack composed by Hitoshi Sakimoto.

The player assumes the role of Johnny Ford (Daichi Madoka in the Japanese version), a member of a resistance force whose family has been kidnapped by the evil King Crimson. The original arcade version allowed up to two players simultaneously, but the Mega Drive version is strictly single player.

Gameplay

As is usual for a run and gun game, the player controls a commando armed with an automatic weapon which can shoot in eight directions. There are two primary control schemes to choose from (the second scheme has three variants). "Control A" is a basic method of shooting the direction of the D-pad. "Control B" allows the player to continually shoot in a particular direction no matter what the D-pad is doing. This enables more efficient use of your weapon (e.g. shooting backwards while running forwards), however it is considerably trickier to control and requires more practice. The arcade game had a special rotating joystick for independent control of movement and firing, which the Mega Drive lacks. A switches between shooting and not shooting and C jumps.

There is a variety of extra weapons and power-ups which can be purchased at the end of each level with keys picked up from killed enemies. These weapons have limited ammo, though the default gun is unlimited.

Versions

The Mega Drive version of Midnight Resistance is a relaively close conversion of the arcade game, albeit one that lacks any two-player options. Backgrounds are less detailed on the Mega Drive, animations are sometimes simplified and much of the game adopts an entirely different (and much darker) colour palette for unknown reasons. Digitised speech is absent from the Sega version (although very little of it is heard in the arcade original), and while the level design is more-or-less the same, there are often fewer enemies on-screen presumably to help manage the frame rate. Special effects are also often simplified for similar reasons.

Despite this, both the arcade and Mega Drive versions exhibit slowdown in busy scenes, although unusually for the era, the Sega conversion often performs better than its arcade counterpart.

Production credits

Staff
  • Design: Koji Akibayashi
  • Software: Yuichi Nishimura, Naoya Hanada, Yuji Ohtomo, Tac.H
  • Hardware: Keiichi Yoshida, Hiroyuki Iwabe, Shingo Mitsui
  • Graphic: Tomoo Adachi, Kazumi Minagawa, Fujimi Oonishi, Yoshinari Kaihoh
  • Sound: Azusa Hara (Ahsa), Hiroaki Yoshida (Maro), Fuse, Tatsuya Kiuchi (Kiwchi), Hitomi Komatsu (Hitomi)
  • Thanks to: Shinji Noda, Masahiko Ujita, Nobuyuki Kawaguchi, Shinya Doi, Yoshiaki Honda, Shunichi E
Mega Drive Staff
  • Producer: Mizuho Yosida
  • Director: Yukihiro Kawai, Shigeki Saka
  • Planner: Takashi Matsumoto, Hiroyuki Fujiwara, Satoru Miki
  • Sub Planner: Takehiko Ishiro
  • PR: Satoshi Takeuchi, Kouichi Saitoh
  • Sales: Kazushi Takekoshi
  • Sound: Hitoshi Sakimoto (YmoH.S), Shougo Sakai (Shyougo Sakai)
  • Thanks to: Makoto Watanabe, Mitsuo Iwao, Masahiko Nakamura


Magazine articles

Main article: Midnight Resistance/Magazine articles.

Physical scans

Sega Retro Average 
Publication Score Source
68 [3]
78 [4]
74 №, p83[5]
84 №0, p22/23/24
86 [6]
80
58 №129, [1]
92 [7]
96 №4
30 №1991-04, p42
92 №16, p138/139
60 №5, p93
85 [8]
84 [9]
63
80 [10]
60 [11]
47 №18, p66
Sega Mega Drive
73
Based on
18 reviews
Sega Retro Average 
Publication Version Score
1700 igr dlya Sega (RU)
50
[12]
ACE (UK)
68
[3]
Beep! MegaDrive (JP) NTSC-J
78
[13]
Cool Gamer (RU)
60
[14]
Computer & Video Games (UK)
86
[15]
Electronic Gaming Monthly (US) NTSC-U
80
[1]
Mean Machines: The Essential Sega Guide (UK)
79
[16]
Famitsu (JP) NTSC-J
58
[17]
GameFan (US) NTSC-U
83
[18]
GamePro (US) NTSC-U
88
[2]
Games-X (UK)
96
[19]
Game Informer (US) NTSC-U
58
[20]
Hippon Super (JP) NTSC-J
30
[21]
Joystick (FR) NTSC-J
92
[22]
Sega Mega Drive Advanced Gaming (UK) NTSC
60
[23]
Mega Drive Fan (JP) NTSC-J
68
[24]
Mega Play (US) NTSC-U
80
[25]
MegaTech (UK) NTSC
85
[8]
Mean Machines (UK) NTSC
84
[26]
Mean Machines Sega (UK)
85
[27]
Power Play (DE)
63
[28]
Raze (UK) NTSC
80
[29]
Sega Power (UK) NTSC
50
[11]
Sega Pro (UK) NTSC
47
[30]
Sega Saturn Magazine (JP) NTSC-J
74
[31]
Tilt (FR)
70
[32]
Tricks 16 bit (RU)
66
[33]
User (GR) NTSC
75
[34]
Video Games (DE)
68
[35]
Sega Mega Drive
71
Based on
29 reviews

Midnight Resistance

Mega Drive, US
Midnightresistance md us cover.jpg
Cover
Midnightresistance MD US Cart.jpg
Cart
Midnight Resistance MD US Manual.pdf
Manual
Mega Drive, JP
MidnightResistance JP cover.jpg
Cover
MidnightResistance MD JP CartTop.jpg
MidnightResistance MD JP Cart.jpg
Cart
MidnightResistance MD jp manual.pdf
Manual

Technical information

ROM dump status

System Hash Size Build Date Source Comments
Sega Mega Drive
CRC32 187c6af6
MD5 809534b635e726f57bf1d95f3e6d7468
SHA-1 6cdd9083e2ff72cfb0099fd57a7f9eade9a74dda
1MB 1990-01 Cartridge (US)
Sega Mega Drive
CRC32 8f3f6e4d
MD5 f02a5c603dd2f07864d5c85d21268d74
SHA-1 b11db9fde0955c8aa0ae2d1a234d3295eda75d12
1MB 1990-01 Cartridge (JP)

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 Electronic Gaming Monthly, "June 1991" (US; 1991-xx-xx), page 22
  2. 2.0 2.1 GamePro, "November 1991" (US; 1991-xx-xx), page 55
  3. 3.0 3.1 ACE, "June 1991" (UK; 1991-05-08), page 73
  4. Beep! MegaDrive, "April 1991" (JP; 1991-03-08), page 29 (31)
  5. File:SSM_JP_19950901_1995-09.pdf, page 85
  6. Computer & Video Games, "June 1991" (UK; 1991-05-11), page 44-46 (44)
  7. GamePro, "November 1991" (US; 1991-xx-xx), page 51 (55)
  8. 8.0 8.1 MegaTech, "Xmas 1991" (UK; 1991-12-06), page 79
  9. Mean Machines, "May 1991" (UK; 1991-05-01), page 82-84 (82)
  10. Raze, "September 1991" (UK; 1991-07-25), page 30/31 (30)
  11. 11.0 11.1 Sega Power, "October 1991" (UK; 1991-09-05), page 54
  12. 1700 igr dlya Sega, "" (RU; 2001-xx-xx), page 129
  13. Beep! MegaDrive, "April 1991" (JP; 1991-03-08), page 29
  14. Cool Gamer, "9" (RU; 2002-10-13), page 125
  15. Computer & Video Games, "June 1991" (UK; 1991-05-11), page 44
  16. Mean Machines: The Essential Sega Guide, "" (UK; 1993-11-18), page 71
  17. Famitsu, "" (JP; 1991-0x-xx), page 1
  18. GameFan, "Volume 1, Issue 7: June 1993" (US; 1993-xx-xx), page 17
  19. Games-X, "24th May 1991" (UK; 1991-05-17), page 36
  20. Game Informer, "September 2001" (US; 2001-0x-xx), page 114
  21. Hippon Super, "April 1991" (JP; 1991-03-04), page 42
  22. Joystick, "Mai 1991" (FR; 1991-0x-xx), page 138
  23. Sega Mega Drive Advanced Gaming, "January 1993" (UK; 199x-xx-xx), page 93
  24. Mega Drive Fan, "June 1991" (JP; 1991-05-08), page 91
  25. Mega Play, "May/June 1991" (US; 1991-0x-xx), page 43
  26. Mean Machines, "May 1991" (UK; 1991-05-01), page 22
  27. Mean Machines Sega, "October 1992" (UK; 1992-09-xx), page 140
  28. Power Play, "7/91" (DE; 1991-06-12), page 124
  29. Raze, "September 1991" (UK; 1991-07-25), page 30
  30. Sega Pro, "April 1993" (UK; 1993-03-11), page 66
  31. Sega Saturn Magazine, "September 1995" (JP; 1995-08-08), page 85
  32. Tilt, "Juin 1991" (FR; 1991-0x-xx), page 75
  33. Tricks 16 bit, "Tricks Sega Gold 800 igr" (RU; 1998-03-20), page 19
  34. User, "Noémvrios 1991" (GR; 1991-1x-xx), page 92
  35. Video Games, "2/91" (DE; 1991-06-07), page 89