A vertical shoot-'em-up by Tehkan (later Tecmo), developed in response to the unpopularity of Senjyo at arcades and even using the same board to recoup costs.
The first of the Star Force series, not to be confused with a certain other series by Hudson Soft.
Hidden Credits#
Two developer names are in the sub CPU, starting at 0x06EA:
Cheabow & MatsuShinichi "Cheabow" Sakamoto is a composer who hid his name in several arcade titles, while "Matsu" is Seiji Matsunaga, who programmed the game.
However, the actual composer of the game is Tsukasa Masuko, as confirmed in the box set Tecmo Arcade Game Chronicle (SRIN-1104).
(Source: Original TCRF research)
(Source: VGMdb)
Regional Differences#
Title Screen#
The US version of the game was renamed "Mega Force" and has a rather different logo, with thinner outlines and stars added inside the logo. There's also a European version (known in MAME as World), which uses the "Mega Force" title, but uses the standard copyright from Star Force.
Title Screen#
Japan |
US |
Europe (World) |
|---|---|---|
 |
 |
 |
The US version removes the Tehkan logo and adds more text to credit Video Ware, being the North American publisher of the game. Also it recolors the TEHKAN text from green to white, for some reason.
Unused Music#
Hidden in the game's data are 2 jingles and 5 tracks that go unused in the game itself. However, one track would subsequently be used for the Game Over theme in Tecmo's NES port.
Track titles are taken from Tecmo Arcade Game Chronicle (SRIN-1104, Disc 1, Tracks 37-42).
ID |
Title |
Track |
Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
16 |
Unused Jingle 1 |
This would later be used in the Tecmo-developed NES port as the Game Over theme. |
|
01 |
Unused Jingle 2 |
||
1A |
Unused Music 1 |
||
19 |
Unused Music 2 |
||
1C |
Unused Music 3 |
||
1D |
Unused Music 4 |
||
1E |
Unused Music 5 |