The Return of Ishtar/Genpei

GENPEI TOMA DEN

History

The motif of this Namco action game is based on a joruri work about the Genpei wars of the Kamakura period (1185-1333), but even if you don't know this background, there are plenty of elements to enjoy in this game.

Firstly, there are three game modes: horizontal, flat and BIG. The impact of the BIG mode is enormous, and even though it is about 40 years old, it does not feel old-fashioned at all. The BIG mode shows several scroll layers moving at different rates, making full use of the system capabilities. In horizontal mode, the timing of the jump is difficult and if you fail, you fall into a hole and go to Hades. The Land of Hades unfolds in flat mode, and the player chooses one of the small boxes around King Enma. If you choose “Life”, you can revive from the previous stage, but if you choose “Death”, the game is over immediately. If you have money, you can pay in the pool of blood to go back to the previous stage.

The main character first crawls up from hell, then travels eastwards from the Kyushu area of the old map of Japan, fighting in various countries and collecting all Three Sacred Treasures, aiming for Kamakura, where the capital was located at the time, and defeating the avenging enemy boss.

The main character's attack power, money and life force are displayed at the bottom left of the screen. To increase attack power, get purple balls and sword items. Note that it decreases when you cut small birds, capstones, mid-boss weapons and lion-dogs. To earn money, get green balls. To increase life force, get blue balls, brown balls and candles.

The three sacred treasures are mirrors, swords and jewels, hidden in the following countries

• Mirrors: Echizen and Ecchu

• Swords: Harima

• Jewels: Settsu and Ise

The team that worked on this game later created "Chōzetsurin Jin Bravoman", playable on the JTSHOUSE core (Splatter House, etc.)

THE RETURN OF ISHTAR

History

This RPG game released in 1986 as a sequel to "The Tower of Druaga" released in 1984. The action starts right at the end of the previous game. You start at the top of the tower and have to make your way down. You can control Gilgamesh, the character from Druaga, and Ki, who has just been rescued.

There are some unique features not found in other games, the first being that it is only for two-player simultaneous play. Of course, it can be played by one person, but the second character can always be controlled. Another unusual feature for an arcade game was the password system, which allowed players to save the game and continue playing at a later date. As long as you remembered the password, you could continue playing on any arcade cabinet in any game center across Japan, which was a groundbreaking development at that time.

Ki, the rescued character, has 64 spells she can use, and 65 types of enemy monsters, so players had to change the spells they used depending on the enemy, making it impossible to play without prior knowledge. Even though it was an arcade game, it was not designed to be cleared with one coin, so players were required to invest a considerable amount of money and play for a long time. Sadly, it was a failure in terms of sales income. However, for core players who were able to understand this complex game, it became a great game, and it is a masterpiece that has left its mark in arcade history.

Controls

Ishtar had two joysticks on the original cabinet. In order to recreate the experience on MiSTer, it is possible to control each character using the analog sticks of a modern game pad. The left stick controls Ki, and the right one controls Gilgamesh.

If you do not have a dual-stick gamepad, you can still control both characters by alternatively selecting them using the swap button.

Other Updates

• NGPC Fixed brown line appearing at the bottom of the screen

• Fixed static noise in JTTHUNDR beta

• Fixed misplaced sprites in Sky Kid Deluxe

• Fixed regression error introduced last week in Double Dragon 1/2 and WWF Super Stars