Forum - View topic[Video Games] A Little-Known Video Game That You Should Know About
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Snomaster1
 SubscriberPosts: 2796 |
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The 1980's were a time when video games were first starting to become popular. Stuff like "Pac-Man,""Galaga,"and others like them were being played and people enjoyed them. If you look at those games today,the graphics and music would seem a bit crude. But,back then,they were great to look at. There weren't a lot of story-based games in those days. Again,it wasn't just the crude graphics and music. Just getting from point A to point B was more than enough.
But,that didn't mean there wasn't some experimentation. One of those had been laserdisc games which added a cinematic quality to video games. One of the first of these games was "Dragon's Lair,"which had a pretty simple plot if you thought about it. A knight named Dirk the Daring had to rescue a princess named Daphne from an evil dragon called Singe. It was a huge success and other laserdisc games followed in it's wake. A surprising game called "Cliff Hanger" appeared but that's not the reason I'm surprised about this game. Recently,I saw this game on an episode of "Starcade" and I thought you guys should now about it. I'll bet you're thinking "Why on earth is Snomaster1 talking about this old game?" Patience,my friends. Patience. I'm getting to that. Well,"Cliff Hanger" is an interesting game for reasons you're about to find out. That's because this game used footage from two anime films to make a video game. And,not just any anime films but one of the films was directed by Hayao Miyazaki. This game came out in 1983,the same year that "Dragon's Lair" also premiered. The plot of the game is simplicity itself. A lovable thief named Cliff (Lupin III) has to rescue a girl named Clarissa from the evil Count Draco who wants to marry her. He's assisted in this quest by his two friends Jeff (Jigen) and Samurai (Goemon). Not only that,but they used footage from 1979's "The Count of Cagliostro" and "The Mystery of Mamo" from 1978. This game was made at a time when things like Miyazaki,"Lupin III,"and anime in general were barely known in America. Also,the game used segments from "Mamo" from an English dub commissioned by Toho while the footage from "Cagliostro" was given a dub specifically for the game. All in all,It's quite an introduction for America for things that would soon become pretty familiar here. I don't know how you're going to feel about it but at least think about it. Imagine playing this game back then. How would you feel about it? In a way,"Cliff Hanger" helped make games that are pretty similar to it today. Me,it'd probably be a game that I'd repeatedly lose at and end up without a lot of quarters to show for it. Last edited by Snomaster1 on Tue Aug 02, 2022 5:25 am; edited 2 times in total |
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Beltane70
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That’s not the only 1980s LD game that was adapted from an anime film. Two others that I remember from back then are Freedom Fighter which was made using footage from one of the Galaxy Express 999 films and Bega’s Battle which used footage from the movie Harmageddon. In the case of [i]Bega’s Battle [/i, the footage was only used for backgrounds, unlike the other two games which the anime footage is interacted with.
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Snomaster1
Subscriber Posts: 2796 |
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Well,thanks a lot for your contribution,Beltane70. Although I haven't heard of "Freedom Fighter" before,I did hear about "Bega's Battle" when I looked it up for "Harmageddon." I'll look up "Freedom Fighter." Thanks again for telling us this. It's appreciated.
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Beltane70
Posts: 3887 |
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There was also a laserdisc game by Data East called Cobra Command that used anime footage that was made exclusively for the game itself instead of adapting an already existing anime film. The animation for the game was made by Toei Animation. Another game by the same company, Road Blaster also used animation from Toei with the helicopter from Cobra Command making an appearance as an enemy.
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Snomaster1
Subscriber Posts: 2796 |
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Well,thanks again,Beltane70. I'll look it up and find out a little more about this. Thanks a lot.
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IchigoSS4
Posts: 9 |
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Great thread, thanks for the informative and neat post OP!
I'm gonna use this opportunity to ask if anyone is familiar with the game Crown Trick (2020), since hidden gems do exist even amidst today's level of video game coverage? |
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Snomaster1
Subscriber Posts: 2796 |
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Thanks for the enthusiastic comment,IchigoSS4! Thing is no,I have heard of "Crown Trick." I'll look it up and get back to you when I know more about it,OK?
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mdo7
 Posts: 6255 Location: Katy, Texas, USA |
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Didn't Mike Toole talked about this on his article back in 2017? Anyway, I have known about Cliff Hanger for a while even before you created this thread Snomaster1, that laserdisc game pre-dated US release of Lupin the Third, and/or any of Hayao Miyazaki's works.
I'll break this down in timeline 1983: Cliff Hanger released in the US 1985: Miyazaki's Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (released in the US under the name "Warriors of the Wind) came out in the US albeit in severely edited form (which Disney would later released in it's faithful uncut release in 2005) 1991: Streamline Pictures released The Castle of Cagliostro (although it was reported that film was shown in film festivals in the 1980 like World Science Fiction Convention, and particularly FILMEX 82 in the US prior to Cliff Hanger and it's 1991 home video release). 1995: Streamline Pictures released Mystery of Mamo (although we have known that the Toho/Frontier English dub were shown on Japan Airlines flight back in 1979-early 80's, and that was how I don't know how many Americans were exposed to Lupin the third that way if they were flying on JAL flights). Anyway, I like to add something into this too. I think many of you who grew up playing 2 games on Sega Master System (aka Sega Mark III/3 in Japan). How many of you played this game: 
I think maybe some of you may have known about Zillion, the first anime done by Production IG. I'm kind of happy to see the anime, all 31 episodes + Burning Night OVA were able to get released in the US thanks to Funimation. GTV Japan did a lengthy documentary on the Zillion franchise, it's worth a watch. Zillion (both video game and anime) had a spiritual successor, anybody know this game: 
What a lot of people didn't know is that one was also based on a anime that came out a year ago, here's the Japanese version of that game: 
Yep Cyborg Hunter video game and the anime the game was based on is Sonic Soldier Borgman. Again, GTV Japan has also done a lengthy documentary on the show and the video game too (and again, it's worth your time to watch). Unlike Zillion, Sonic Soldier Borgman hasn't been licensed in the US, I hope Funimation, Sentai Films, or Discotek could pick up the US license for the anime, only the 2 film sequel, Last Battle, and Lover's Rain were licensed in the US by ADV Films. I got chance to watch the fansub of this show on Youtube (it's still there for now), I'm surprised that back in the 90's that no US licensors not even Saban, or Graz Entertainment (the latter that handled Samurai Troopers/Ronin Warriors in the US) didn't even get Borgman for US broadcast. I mean when I watched the fansub version of this on Youtube (I finished watching 11 out of 35 episodes so far), there was nothing in the show that I find objectionable or inappropriate for young kids to watch that I could find. From my POV, it looks like this could have been suitable for broadcast in the US alongside Ronin Warriors back in the 90's if any US licensors pick this up back then!!! Could you imagine had this show been shown on Sci-Fi Channel, and Cartoon Network in the mid-late 90's, it probably would've been a hit back then like Ronin Warriors got. Man, what a missed opportunity for the US to not license and broadcast Borgman. I hope this get license for US release in the near future one day though. I think this anime would even in uncut subtitled form would appeal to 8-10 years old kids. |
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Snomaster1
Subscriber Posts: 2796 |
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It's nice to see that this thing has got some great responses. I'll respond to the latest ones. I'll start with mdo7. I didn't really know about Mike Toole's article on this beforehand,sir or ma'am. I'd watched an old episode of "Starcade" on the now-defunct G4 that had this game and wanted to let people know about this. Thanks a lot for your exhaustive post here. I'm grateful for it and it's a worthy addition for this thread. You did a great job here,sir or ma'am.
As for you EveChamps,I really haven't heard of "Crown Trick." I'll get back to you when I find out more about it,OK? Thanks a lot for that. I appreciate it. Last edited by Snomaster1 on Sat May 20, 2023 6:50 am; edited 1 time in total |
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marshray
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Thanks for such an important post. It truly highlights the importance of video games. I'm just glad that they have released Dragon Ball Z Kakarot APK video games for dragon ball lovers.
Hope to see more soon. Regards, Marsh |
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Snomaster1
Subscriber Posts: 2796 |
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Well,thanks for your message,marshray. I appreciate it. If there are more comments here,I'll try to reply as much as I can. Thanks again and I'll see you soon.
Signed, Snomaster1 |
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