Identifying a lost game

[Laythe]

There is an arcade game I played as a kid in my neighborhood pizza place.  I liked it, I played a bunch of it, and it eventually vanished when replaced with another machine.  I never ran into it again.  Decades later, I have yet to figure out what it actually was that I played so much of.

Usually, these threads are pretty easy, and the game turns out to be something that isn't terribly obscure.

It was a dungeon crawl type game, similar to Gauntlet, but with larger tiles, and from a somewhat isometric rather than pure top down view.  Single player, I think.  The camera angle was more like Dark Adventure, but the sprites weren't as large as Dark Adventure, and were MUCH smaller than Dungeon Magic / Lightbringer.  I want to say that it used color swap enemy sprites, where different colors meant different difficulties, and I maybe remember it having a punch and a kick button.

The closest match I've come up with is Kyros - the camera angle is about right, the sprite size is about right, and the purple pants powerup sparked a sharp jolt of familiarity - but the levels, enemies and environment did not.  And, is it even remotely possible that my local, three-videogames-as-an-afterthought, american franchise pizza place would have had a Kyros?

Was Kyros a knockoff of anything?  Or, did anything else copy the Kyros player character art?


If this rings any bells for anybody, any tips would be appreciated.  It is if course also possible that it's all in my head, and that I'm remembering it wrong.

I figure it's a long shot but worth a try asking, because this is a rugged group who have walked the lesser boulevards of weird stuff in Mame.   

[harveybirdman]

Wizard Fire?



or perhaps it's predecessor Gate of Doom?

[Haze]

there was also 'Shackled' which isn't isometric, but isn't 100% top-down either.

[harveybirdman]

there was also 'Shackled' which isn't isometric, but isn't 100% top-down either.

That was my next guess, there is also a Japanese only game that plays similarly to Shackled and Kyros but I can't remember the name off hand.  I doubt that would be it though because I assume Laythe is in the states and I can't imagine a pizza joint having a Japanese only game.

[harveybirdman]

Did you find the game you were looking for?  The suspense is killing me.

[Laythe]

I have not, but I've found this to be really encouraging anyway. 

I had tried Wizard Fire and Gate of Doom, and they were not it.  However, I'd never run across Shackled during my search at all, and while I don't think it was it, it is very much in the right ballpark.  That proves there's stuff I've yet to see in the genre, and that gives me hope that I just haven't found it yet.

So, thanks for the guesses - you don't disappoint in coming up with good ideas I hadn't checked yet.     Thanks!

[harveybirdman]

I tough of another possible candidate,  let me try to find the name.

[harveybirdman]

Is it Gain Ground?




Also if we're sure it's top down, it could be Avengers but that's not a dungeon crawl game

[Laythe]

Is it Gain Ground?

I don't think that it was - but, wow, how have I never heard of Gain Ground before?  It looks fascinating.  This thread has been a win even if I don't find it, for discoveries like that.

I think that the playfield scrolled, and I don't think it was a big 3p cabinet; I think it was 1p only.

Avengers looks really close, like Kyros did.  If Avengers was in a cave with treasure chests in it, instead of in a city, I'd say that must be it.  But instead, I'm thinking maybe that I'm crazy.   

Still, thanks for the candidates.  I'm impressed!

[yamatetsu]

Probably not the one you're looking for, but a similar one : Alien Syndrome.

[Haze]

Valkyrie No Densetsu ?

that's a Japanese game tho, and while it could have been imported, it's one of the less likely ones

oddly the Playstaiton did get an english version in a port, but as far as we know there was never an English arcade version.

Konami's Gaiapolis, but the characters are too big.. Vandyke, but it's not really free directional scrolling..

there are lots of possibilities

[harveybirdman]

I was also going to say Gaiapolis, but yeah sprites too big. The Japanese game I was thinking of before was Garyu  Retsuden more of a shooter but fits well with some of your details. Kiki KaiKai sort of fits too but also Japanese and also more of a shooter. Also in this vein Ninja Emaki.

My best current guess is Asylum, that fits almost every detail but I thought that was just a prototype.

Equites, but robots not goblins. Along those lines it can't be Escape from the planet of the robot monsters either.  Gangbusters, but that's not fantasy either.

Extermination?
Mister Viking?
Rock'n  Rage?

Just guessing at this point.

[harveybirdman]

By the way if Haze is right with Vandyke, I still have the world record Vandyke what was that game solve.

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,130397.msg1334295.html#msg1334295

[Laythe]

Vandyke:  Nope, but that other thread is hilarious.   

Extermination I had tried;  it and Mister Viking both feel more like shooters as well, and what I thought I remembered was not at all a shooter.

Escape from the Planet of the Robot Masters, I had run into.  Fun, but not it.  I was imprecisely using isometric in a sort of an Ultima 6 way, to mean the camera is not really perfectly vertical - Warrior, for instance, is absolutely top down.  I didn't mean isometric in the strict sense like EPROM, Q-Bert, Dungeon Magic or Marble Madness - sorry for the red herring there.

Asylum is pretty interesting.  Looks like about the right level of zoom and sprite size.  Wasn't it, of course - it's more sci-fi than medieval, is 3P, and - I agree, it seems even less likely than a japan-only release to have been at a unremarkable neighborhood pizza joint.


I've looked up everything mentioned thus far, and very much appreciate the tips.  Kyros still seems the most almost-familiar to me - it might be that I'm just misremembering details from long ago, and that that was actually it.

I'm totally adding Gain Ground to my cabinet, though, so I'm glad I asked!

[HanoiBoi]

I've got no guesses on this, but wanted to suggest that you add a year or range.  I think my pizza place had Missile Command, but your game may sound 'newer'.  ; )

[Haze]

there are things like Dark Mist too
http://www.progettoemma.net/index.php?gioco=darkmist&lang=en

but at that point we're moving further away from a gauntlet style game, and more into a forced scrolling weapon based slash 'em up / shooter.

[Laythe]

I've got no guesses on this, but wanted to suggest that you add a year or range.  I think my pizza place had Missile Command, but your game may sound 'newer'.  ; )

Good idea - but I don't know that I can narrow it down very far, unfortunately.  There was a 720' to the left of it, and a Championship Sprint to the right, so this recollection can't be any earlier than 1986 - by life events and dead reckoning I'm going to guess it was most likely 1988-1989 - but there's no telling how long the machines had been installed there, so that doesn't offer much useful info about the manufacture date of whatever game this was.

I've tried Dark Mist, but as you say, that's more of a forced scroll shooter.  Thanks, though!