Based on the popular flying space rock!
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To do:
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Hidden Messages#
There are 10 hidden messages in the game, all sharing the same base trigger.
The first one, "DO NOT ERASE !", is the default message for erasing the text at the start of each round.
The other nine messages can only be triggered by holding P2 Fire while erasing text, and the messages displayed depend on the current area:
Area |
Message |
Details |
|---|---|---|
Venus |
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Taito Kumagaya Laboratory was an offshoot of Taito that designed games like KiKi KaiKai, The NewZealand Story, and this. |
Mecury |
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"NAGATA" is Yoshihisa Nagata, a programmer at Taito. "OGATA" is Masaki Ogata, another Taito programmer. They ended up working together on another Taito game, Plump Pop. |
Sun |
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"OGURA" is Hisayoshi Ogura, a composer who founded Taito's in-house band Zuntata. "TAKAHASHI" is Eikichi Takahashi, who would later work with Ogura on Darius. |
Pluto |
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"IWAI" is Akira Iwai, who previously worked on Super Speed Race Jr. before going on to Arkanoid. "IWASAKI" is Nobuyuki Iwasaki, and this seems to be his first credited game. He went on to work on the mechanical designs for Chase H.Q. and Night Striker. |
Neptune |
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"SASAKI" is Daisuke Sasaki, another Taito programmer. "ISHIDA" is Kazutomo Ishida, and guess what? Programmer. Imagine that. They're the sole people credited for programming KiKi KaiKai. |
Uranus |
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"WATABE" is Yoshiyuki Watabe, whose only other credited work is The Ninja Warriors. "IIJIMA" could be Tadashi Kimijima, who also worked on Arkanoid and Bubble Bobble. |
Saturn |
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The closest match for "TANNO" is Mikio Hatano, director of KiKi KaiKai. "SAKO" might be Hiroyuki Sakou, who designed several Taito games in the 80s. |
Jupiter |
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"NISHIKADO" is Tomohiro Nishikado, creator of Space Invaders. This is a pretty unusual credit, as his last directed game was in 1980 and his first producer credit wouldn't be until 1991. "KOMA" could be Youzou Koma, whose only other credit was for Operation Thunderbolt. |
Mars |
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Now this is just gibberish. |
(Source: Original TCRF research)
Regional Differences#
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Japan |
US |
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Since Coin-It published the game in the US (in a similar fashion as Romstar does), All Rights Reserved was changed with Licensed to Coin-It Co. for U.S.A..
For some inconceivable reason, Taito's logo was completely removed in the US title screen.
Revisional Differences#
There're two Japanese sets in MAME (excluding the prototype): the original Japanese version (halleyscja in MAME) and the revised Japanese version (halleyscj (Rev 1) in MAME). The latter served as basis for the US version.
Scoring Glitches#
The original Japanese version has scoring glitches:
- Using a bomb (button 2) just as the final panel is destroyed causes enemies to keep spawning during the explosion. This breaks the stage transition and awards roughly 30000 points every 10–12 frames while enemies remain on screen. The total points gained are sorted by luck, ranging from 0 to 900000.
- With precise timing, dying at the moment the stage transition begins causes the stage to end with a glitched sprite. This also breaks the game: the stage clear screen does not appear, preventing progression to the next stage. However, the score continues to increase, eventually leading to a counter-stop. Once the global timer reaches zero, the game results in a game over.
These scoring glitches are fixed in the revised Japanese version, the US version and the Arcade Archives release (probably because it uses the revised Japanese version).