Tecmo Hit Parade is an homage to Tecmo's early years between 1981 and 1986, Tecmo Hit Parade is the company's first compilation set created for the PlayStation 2. Developed internally by the team at Tecmo Japan, this anthology set includes seven classic arcade games from the publisher's past -- including Star Force, Bomb Jack, Solomon's Key, Tecmo Cup, Pinball Action, Senjyo and Pleiads. Additionally, each coin-op conversion comes available with Dip Switch settings; debug modes, reproductions of printed materials and instruction manuals, and several other bonus goodies.
Tecmo Hit Parade is available exclusively in Japan. The set was later radically overhauled and reprogrammed for the 2005 Xbox version by Tomonobu Itagaki and Team Ninja.
BOMB JACK:
Bomb Jack is an arcade platform game that was released in 1984 by Tehkan (known today as Tecmo). It was followed by two official sequels, the console and computer title Mighty Bomb Jack, and the arcade game Bomb Jack Twin.
The player controls Jack, a superhero who can leap and glide. Someone has planted 24 bombs at famous tourist sites (the Sphinx and Great Pyramids, the Acropolis, Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria, and two cityscapes resembling Miami Beach and Hollywood, which appear only as screen backgrounds rather than unique game locations). Jack must fly around the screen to collect the bombs. Each screen uses a different configuration of platforms upon which Jack may run and jump. Eventually, the levels reoccur a number of times with increasing difficulty.
PINBALL ACTION:
Pinball Action is an video arcade game, a simulator of a pinball machine, released in 1985 by Tehkan (now Tecmo). Pinball Action features three separate pinball areas in addition to the starting area. Each of the additional 'faces' has a challenge which, when completed, allows a player access to a special three extra credits. The three faces feature challenges modelled on ten-pin bowling, poker, and slot machines.
The game has a shake feature which mimics the effect possible on a non-video pinball machine. While multiball is not possible in Pinball Action, there are a number of ways to earn extra balls.
PLEIADS:
Pleiads is an arcade game from 1981 produced by Tehkan (now Tecmo) and Centuri, loosely based on an earlier game called Phoenix which was produced by Amstar in 1980. Pleiads is a multi-stage space shoot 'em up in which enemy ships fly at the player in waves in a similar fashion to games like Galaxian and Phoenix. Ships emerge from a mothership at the top of the screen and swoop downwards in a series of patterns which players must anticipate as they shoot the ships and avoid being obliterated by the Martian onslaught. There are four stages in the game. In the first stage the Earth space ship must defend the space station from Martian invaders who have the ability to transform from flying invaders, to walking invaders who build walls across the Earth city; these barriers must be destroyed.
SENJYO:
Senjyo is an arcade game developed in 1983 by Tehkan (now known as Tecmo). The title of this game translates from Japanese as 'Battlefield'. The simple gameplay involves the player controlling a fixed turret on a tank shooting oncoming alien enemies through a cross-hair target. A certain number of enemies must be destroyed to progress to the next stage. The original arcade cabinet was a cocktail table.
SOLOMON'S KEY:
Solomon's Key is a puzzle game developed by Tecmo in 1986 for arcade release on custom hardware based on the Z80 chipset. It is better known as a 1987 port to the Commodore 64 and the Nintendo Entertainment System, although it also appeared on many other game systems of the time, like the Sega Master System in 1988 and the Famicom Disk System, released in Japan on January 25, 1991.
The main character, named Dana, is sent to retrieve "Solomon's Key" to restore the world to light from demons that were accidentally released. The object of the game is to advance through the 50 rooms of "Constellation Space" by acquiring a key to the door that leads to the next room before a timer runs out.
STAR FORCE:
Star Force (released in North America by Video Ware in the arcades as Mega Force) is a vertical shoot 'em up arcade video game made in 1984 by Tehkan (now known as Tecmo). In Japan, it is considered to be a monumental work among shooting games.[citation needed] There have also been caravan tournaments for the game in Japan.
In the game, the player pilots a starship called the Final Star, while shooting various enemies and destroying enemy structures for points. Unlike later vertical scrolling shooters, like Toaplan's Twin Cobra, the Final Star had only two levels of weapon power, and no secondary weapons like missiles and/or bombs.
TECMO CUP:
Tehkan World Cup, aka. Tecmo Cup, is the first multi-player soccer game featuring a trackball controller. Programmed by Michishito Ishizuka it was released to arcades in 1985 by Tehkan, Ltd., the former name of Tecmo, Inc. Its arrival coincided with the buildup to the 1986 FIFA World Cup. It featured the then colors of several of the world's top teams such as West Germany, Argentina and Brazil, although it did not mention any team by name. It was most commonly released in a cocktail cabinet form factor, while graphically it offered a two-dimensional birds-eye view of the field that was unique for its time. Its trackball control system contributed significantly to its gameplay which was relatively speedy and exhibited a fluidity something akin to ice hockey, with as little as 3 seconds required to score from kick-off. Two-player action could be highly competitive, with players facing each other across the game space while using sweeping arm movements reminiscent of table tennis. Mechanical reliability proved to be the game's Achilles' heel, as the physical nature of play necessitated regular maintenance on high-wear components.
MANUFACTURER'S DESCRIPTION:
Arcade game our profound is back in the PS2 simple but in the 1980s! I record seven title "Star Force," "Bomb Jack", "The Key of Solomon," "Tecmo Cup," "Pinball Action," "SENJO" and "Pleiades". You can do freely various configuration settings and the number of 1UP difficulty adjustment, such as the aircraft remaining number change.
FEATURES:
- Third person perspective.
- 2D graphics
- Cartoon graphics
- SCIFI, Fantasy, Adventure, Soccer & Anime themes.
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