story identification - Searching for video game like Xevious but with more interesting bosses

I am trying to find an arcade game that I saw in the 1980s that made a strong impression on my with the innovative appearance of its bosses. It was a top-scrolling shoot-'em-up,

I saw it somewhere in the range of 1985 to 1989 (most likely in 1986), at Skate Palace in Salem, Oregon. Seen from a distance, at first I thought it was Xevious, as I remember it having a similar color scheme (with lots of greens and earth tones), and I saw a player defeat a boss that looked a lot like the Andor Genesis mother ship bosses from Xevious.

As I remember it, the boss had a similar shape, square but with cut corners to make it an octogon. However, it may also have had an extended arm attached, unlike the Xevious boss shown above. It also shot more interesting looking missles, shaped like boomerangs, unlike the small and large spheres in Xevious.

The first boss down, the player I was watching made it through another stage, to face off against another monster alien craft, which was the one that really caught my attention. It was like a gigantic silver or gray metal insect. I remember it as being closest to a grasshopper or locust, but it might have a different bug. Moreover, it shot interesting missiles as well, little metal fists (extending back a bit past the wrist) that shot forward, propelled by rocket flames. I think the player died against his enemy, and I did not see any more.

Later, as I got to know Xevious better (and had multiple friends who actually made it all the way through that game), I recognized that this had not, in fact been the same game. Over the years, I have actually played quite a few (mostly emulated, through the MAME library—which I have looked over, albeit nonsystematically) Xevious-style arcade games in an effort to find this one again. However, thinking about it now, this was probably not the right approach. There are plenty of "Xevious clones" out there, but what distinguished them from other vertical shoot-'em-ups was that they had both turrets for firing at enemies in the air and bombs for hitting the ground. In fact, there is no reason to believe that the game I saw had Xevious's innovative bombing feature; I probably just associated what I was seeing with Xevious because of its similar graphics style and color palette.

Comments

Did the gatekeeper and the keymaster get intimate in Ghostbusters?

According to TVTropes ( usual warning, don't follow the link or you'll waste half your life in a twisty maze of content ): In Ghostbusters, it's strongly implied that Dana Barret, while possessed by Zuul the Gatekeeper, had sex with Louis Tully, who was possessed by Vinz Clortho the Keymaster (key, gate, get it?), in order to free Big Bad Gozer. In fact, a deleted scene from the movie has Venkman explicitly asking Dana if she and Louis "did it". I turned the quote into a spoiler since it contains really poor-taste joke, but the gist of it is that it's implied that as part of freeing Gozer , the two characters possessed by the Keymaster and the Gatekeeper had sex. Is there any canon confirmation or denial of this theory (canon meaning something from creators' interviews, DVD commentary, script, delete scenes etc...)? Answer The Richard Mueller novelisation and both versions of the script strongly suggest that they didn't have sex (or at the very l...

Why didn't The Doctor or Clara recognize Missy right away?

So after it was established that Missy is actually both the Master, and the "woman in the shop" who gave Clara the TARDIS number... ...why didn't The Doctor or Clara recognize her right away? I remember the Tenth Doctor in The Sound of Drums stating that Timelords had a way of recognizing other Timelords no matter if they had regenerated. And Clara should have recognized her as well... I'm hoping for a better explanation than "Moffat screwed up", and that I actually missed something after two watchthroughs of the episode. Answer There seems to be a lot of in-canon uncertainty as to the extent to which Time Lords can recognise one another which far pre-dates Moffat's tenure. From the Time Lords page on Wikipedia : Whether or not Time Lords can recognise each other across regenerations is not made entirely clear: In The War Games, the War Chief recognises the Second Doctor despite his regeneration and it is implied that the Doctor knows him when they fir...

story identification - Animation: floating island, flying pests

At least 20 years ago I watched a short animated film which stuck in my mind. The whole thing was wordless, possibly European, and I'm pretty sure I didn't imagine it... It featured a flying island which was inhabited by some creatures who (in my memory) reminded me of the Moomins. The island was frequently bothered by large winged animals who swooped around, although I don't think they did any actual damage. At the end one of the moomin creatures suddenly gets a weird feeling, feels forced to climb to the top of the island and then plunges down a shaft right through the centre - only to emerge at the bottom as one of the flyers. Answer Skywhales from 1983. The story begins with a man warning the tribe of approaching skywhales. The drummers then warn everybody of the hunt as everyone get prepared to set "sail". Except one man is found in his home sleeping as the noise wake him up. He then gets ready and is about to take his weapon as he hesitates then decides ...

warhammer40k - What evidence supposedly supports Tau as related to the Necrontyr?

I've heard of rumours saying that the Tau from Warhammer 40K are in fact the Necrontyr. Is there anything that supports this statement, in WH40K canon? I just found this, on 1d4 chan 1 : Helping Necrons? Or are they Necrontyr descendants? An often overlooked issue is that Tau have no warp signatures, just like Necrons, hate Warpspawns and Warp in general, just like Necrons, have the exact same skull shape,stature and short lives, and the overwhelming need for Technology and beam weapons, JUST LIKE NECRONS. GW may have planned a race that simply prepares a pacified, multiracial galaxy for Necrons to feast upon, supported by Ethereals that have a C'tan phase blade. Then there is a reference of "dark seed in east" by the Deceiver, so the tricky C'tan might give Tzeentch the finger in the JUST AS PLANNED competition. Or maybe GW just has so little creativity that they simply made a new civ conforming to an Old One's standards without knowing it. Is this the connec...

Blog

Search This Blog