Stargate (Game Gear)

For the Sega Mega Drive game, see Stargate (Mega Drive).

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Stargate
System(s): Sega Game Gear
Publisher: Acclaim Entertainment
Developer: Grey Team, Probe Software
Distributor: Sega OziSoft (Australia) Buena Vista Home Entertainment, S.A. (Spain)
Licensor: Le Studio Canal+
Peripherals supported: Gear-to-Gear Cable
Genre: Puzzle
Release Date RRP Code JP 1995-05-26 ¥4,5004,500 T-81157 US 1994 T-81298 EU 1995-03 T-81298-50 PT 1995 UK 1995-03 £29.9929.99 T-81298-50
Non-Sega versions Game Boy

Stargate (スターゲイト) is a 1994 Sega Game Gear puzzle game based on the Stargate film (and series) by Probe Software and Acclaim.

Story

The vicious alien ruler Ra seeks to conquer and enslave the universe using Stargates, ring-shaped wormholes that enable travel across the universe. Professor Daniel Jackson is trying to stop Ra by closing the existing Stargates, which is done by matching hieroglyphs to addresses.

Gameplay

Gameplay

The game is a tile-matching puzzle game using a 3D perspective of a well. Tiles marked with hieroglyphs fall into the well one at a time. The tiles are positioned around the edge of the well and can be moved clockwise with or counterclockwise with . The player can drop the tile more quickly by holding or . Each tile has two sides, with a different hieroglyph on each side, and can be flipped with . Once a tile lands at the bottom of the well or onto another tile, it is fixed in place until eliminated and another tile appears. The well has seven positions horizontally around its radius and can stack tiles up to eight high vertically. If the well overflows because it cannot fit any more tiles vertically, the player loses, so it is necessary to eliminate tiles to continue playing.

The player is given a seven-symbol "address" (at the top of the screen) to complete. If the player makes a stack of three tiles with the same hieroglyph on top, the tiles "fall through" the Stargate and are removed from the well. If the hieroglyph appears in the address, it is marked as eliminated. There are twelve different hieroglyphs to match (and two special tiles). There are three ways to complete an address. The first is eliminating each symbol one at a time by matching three tiles for each of them. The second is arranging the symbols of the address (in order, either clockwise or counterclockwise) in the seven horizontal positions to form a circle. The third is stacking the address symbols (in order) in a single column.

Skill Mode is an endless mode where the goal is to complete as many addresses as possible. Matching tiles increases the level, which increases the speed at which tiles fall and the difficulty of the game. Completing addresses holds or decreases the speed, depending on the method used, so the player is incentivized to complete addresses to manage the difficulty. Completing an address by matching three tiles at a time holds the speed. Completing an address clockwise horizontally decreases the speed, counterclockwise horizontally decreases the speed more, and vertically decreases the speed the most.

1-Player Battle Mode is a story mode where the player competes against Ra and his minions in multiple rounds. There is a map screen in between rounds where the winning player selects the next Stargate. The player cannot see the opponent's well, but a bar on the right of the screen indicates the height of the opponent's stacks. When either player matches three tiles, the tiles are sent to the opponent's well. When either player can no longer place new tiles in the well, the player loses and the other player gains control of the Stargate and all adjacent Stargates on the map screen. The goal is to gain control of all of the Stargates.

2-Player Battle Mode is a competitive mode between two human players over a Gear-to-Gear Cable. It plays the same as the 1-Player Battle Mode, with player one playing as Daniel and player two playing as Ra.

Special Tiles

	Wild Card Tile
	A Wild Card Tile is blank on both sides. It adopts the hieroglyph of the tile it is placed on. If there is no tile beneath it, it adopts the hieroglyph of the tile placed on top of it. In Battle Mode, Wild Card Tiles are not sent to the opponent's well when cleared.
	Digger/Smart Bomb Tile
	The Digger Tile eliminates the entire column of tiles it is placed on. It can be flipped to the Smart Bomb Tile, which eliminates all tiles in the well with the same hieroglyph as the tile it is placed on.

Production credits

A Mind Bending Game from the Acclaim Grey Team

• Producer: Rob Leingang
• Associate Producers: Bill Pidgeon, Stacy Hendrickson
• Analysts: Mark Mermelstein, Joe Libertella, Steffan Levine
• Original Concept: Rob Leingang
• Design: Rob Leingang, Bill Pidgeon, James Johnson
• Quality Assurance: Carol Caracciolo, Adam F. Ingberman, Eric Weiner
• Special Thanks: Rand and Ruth at CLC, Dean Devlin
• Probe Producer: Tim May
• Programmers: Brian Post, David Theodore
• Artist: Darren Hanna, Simon Hart

Source:

In-game credits

Magazine articles

Main article: Stargate (Game Gear)/Magazine articles.

Promotional material

Print advert in Electronic Gaming Monthly (US) #65: "December 1994" (1994-xx-xx)
also published in:

• GamePro (US) #66: "January 1995" (199x-xx-xx)
• Game Players (US) #0802: "Vol. 8 No. 2 February 1995" (1995-0x-xx)
• Electronic Gaming Monthly (US) #70: "May 1995" (1995-0x-xx)

Print advert in Next Generation (US) #4: "April 1995" (1995-03-21)
also published in:

• GamePro (US) #69: "April 1995" (1995-xx-xx)

Print advert in Computer & Video Games (UK) #161: "April 1995" (1995-03-15)

Print advert in GamePro (DE) #1995-03: "März 1995" (1995-02-24)
also published in:

• MAN!AC (DE) #1995-04: "04/95" (1995-03-08)

File:Stargate MD-GG US VHSAdvert.mp4

US VHS advert

File:Stargate MD-GG US VHSAdvert.mp4

Physical scans

Sega Retro Average
Publication Score Source

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Based on 0 review

Sega Retro Average

Publication Version Score Computer & Video Games (UK) 72 Electronic Games (1992-1995) (US) NTSC-U 100 Electronic Gaming Monthly (US) NTSC-U 46 Famitsu (JP) NTSC-J 43 GamePro (US) NTSC-U 43 Mega Fun (DE) PAL 62 Mean Machines Sega (UK) PAL 66 Play Time (DE) 71 Sega Pro (UK) PAL 84 Sega Saturn Magazine (JP) NTSC-J 48 Todo Sega (ES) 83 Top Consoles (FR) 50 Video Games (DE) PAL 74 VideoGames (US) NTSC-U 60

	64
Based on 14 reviews

Stargate (Game Gear)

Game Gear, JP
Cover
Cart

Game Gear, US
Cover
Cart Manual

Game Gear, EU
Cover
Cart Manual

Game Gear, PT

Technical information

ROM dump status

System	Hash	Size	Build Date	Source	Comments
?	CRC32 fc7c64e4 MD5 b24361360667c2730ae9cbe9004b54d0 SHA-1 011fd49600eaef8be7cbe35ab6eeb4e1554d836c	256kB		Cartridge