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rtype: MAME ROM Information.

History:

R-Type (c) 1987 Irem.

R-Type is a sideways-scrolling shoot-em-up in which the evil Bydo Empire rules the galaxy through fear and intimidation and it's up to the player - piloting their heavily-armed R-9 space ship - to battle through eight tough levels to the heart of the Bydo stronghold and defeat them.

The game's revolutionary weapons system is its real stroke of genius. The first of numerous innovations that R-Type bought to the genre is the beam weapon: when the fire button is held down, a 'power meter' starts to charge up; once the meter is full, releasing the fire button unleashes a very powerful plasma burst capable of inflicting much greater damage to enemy ships or even destroying numerous enemies simultaneously. The trade-off is that charging the weapon takes up valuable seconds, giving the Bydo ships time to attack.

The most significant addition to R-type's arsenal is the now-legendary 'Force Pod'. This takes the form of an invincible, detachable laser-firing pod that can be attached to either the front or rear of the player's ship, or can be detached completely, after which the pod sits some distance either ahead or behind the player's ship, tracking its movements and providing additional fire power. When attached to the R9 ship, the pod acts as a shield. This forms a crucial part of R-Type's gameplay and has to be fully utilised to navigate certain sections of the game, such as the huge mothership that comprises the game's 3rd stage.

R-Type's levels are designed to make full use of its unique weapons system, making for very linear and demanding gameplay in which losing or picking up the wrong weapon at the wrong time often leads to an instant death. Its intelligent, precise and demanding level design, gave the world its first truly 'strategic' shoot-em-up.

- TECHNICAL -

Irem M-72 system hardware

Main CPU : V30 (@ 8 Mhz)

Sound CPU : Z80 (@ 3.579545 Mhz)

Sound Chips : YM2151 (@ 3.579545 Mhz)

Players : 2

Control : 8-way joystick

Buttons : 4

- TRIVIA -

Released in July 1987.

Licensed to Nintendo of America for US manufacture and distribution.

R-Type is one of the most famous of all scrolling shooters. Its impressive graphics, detailed animation, inventive features and simple yet surprisingly involved gameplay made it a huge success for Irem.

The first boss, as well as some of the stages, seem inspired by the artistic works of H. R. Giger (of 'Aliens' fame). He makes a brief cameo in the TV sets in "Undercover Cops".

Alfa Records released a limited-edition soundtrack cassette for this game (R-Type : Irem Game Music - 28XA-199) on 25/01/1988.

- UPDATES -

At the title screen, the prototype version says 'Play and enjoy the game' instead of 'Blast off and strike the evil Bydo empire!', as it does in the final version.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Force Pod levels:

1) Level 1: Fires single bullet when separated.

2) Level 2: Fires twin shots when separated.

3) Level 3: Fires four shots up, down and forwards when separated.

* Weapons:

1) Speed Up: Alters your ship's speed.

2) Missile: Fires two rather nice homing missiles.

3) Bouncy: Blue lasers bounce around the screen. Very nice.

4) Curly-Wurly: Wide red laser beam, similar to the chocolate snack of that name.

5) Squirly: Yellow things that track along the floor and ceiling. Limited use.

6) Bit: Blob that acts as a shield. You can have two of these.

- SERIES -

1. R-Type (1987)

2. R-Type II (1989)

3. R-Type Leo (1992)

4. R-Type III - The 3rd Lightning (1994, Nintendo Super Famicom)

5. R-Type Delta [Model SLPS-01688] (1999, Sony PlayStation)

6. R-Type Final (2003, Sony PlayStation 2)

7. R-Type Tactics (2007, Sony PSP)

- PORTS -

* Consoles :

NEC PC-Engine (March 1988, "R-Type I [Model HC63007]" (contains stages 1 to 4)

NEC PC-Engine (June 1988, "R-Type II [Model HC63009]") (contains stages 5 to 8)

Sega Mark III (October 1988, "R-Type [Model G-1364]")

Nintendo Game Boy (March 1991, "R-Type [Model DMG-REA]")

NEC PC-Engine Super CD-ROM² (December 1991, "R-Type Complete CD [Model ICCD1001]")

Sony PlayStation (February 1998, "R-Types [Model SLPS-01236]")

Nintendo Game Boy Color (November 1999, "R-type DX [Model DMG-ARUJ-JPN]")

Sony PlayStation (October 2001, "R-Types I-II [R's Best] [Model SLPS-03310]")

Nintendo Wii [Virtual Console] (December 2006, R-Type)

* Computers :

Amstrad CPC (1988, R-Type)

Atari ST (1988, R-Type)

Commodore C64 (1988, R-Type)

Commodore Amiga (1988, R-Type)

MSX (December 1988, "R-Type [Model IM-04]")

Sharp X68000 (June 1989, "R-Type [Model IX68-01]")

Sinclair ZX Spectrum (1988): a mastering error on this port meant that level 8 didn't appear on the tape - level 7 was recorded twice, followed by level 9, meaning that players who completed the first 7 levels could get no further.

- SOURCES -

Game's rom.

Machine's picture.

MAME Info:

0.111u1 [Stefan Lindberg]

0.37b1 [Nicola Salmoria]

0.36b9 [Nicola Salmoria]

0.36b6 [Nicola Salmoria]

WIP:

- 0.129: MAMEitalia added clone R-Type (World bootleg).

- 0.127u1: Fabio Priuli fixed 'Demo Sounds' dipswitch in clone R-Type (Japan).

- 0.118: Brian Troha fixed issues with recent R-Type ROMset. Fixed gfx1 roms length and prom loading in clone (US).

- 0.117u3: Added new gfx1 roms ($10000, 30000, 50000, 70000) and 2x TBP24S10 proms located on M72-A-C CPU/Sound board to clone R-Type (US).

- 19th February 2007: f205v dumped R-Type (world, bootleg).

- 0.111u1: Stefan Lindberg added R-Type (World). Renamed (rtype) to (rtypej) and (rtypepj) to (rtypejp).

- 11th March 2006: Guru - I just picked up lots of juicy stuff from my local post office like some unwanted 'junk' like R Type (bootleg).

- 0.54: Fixed "GAME OVER" text disappears instantly in R-Type.

- 12th August 2001: Nicola Salmoria fixed the sprites in M-72 games fixing for example the Game Over text in R-Type.

- 13th May 2001: Bryan McPhail finally fixed the V20 / V30 cycle count bug which affected the speed in Raiden, R-Type and more.

- 0.37b1: Nicola Salmoria added R-Type (Japan). Changed 'R-Type (Japan)' to clone '(Japan prototype)'. Removed clone R-Type (bootleg). Renamed (rtype) to (rtypepj). Changed Z80 CPU2 clock speed to 3579545 Hz. Added dipswitches 'Bonus Life', 'Difficulty' and 'Stop Mode'.

- 30th March 2000: Nicola Salmoria added a correct R-Type romset.

- 0.36b9: Renamed (rtype) to (rtypeu) and (rtypej) to (rtype).

- 0.36b6: Nicola Salmoria added R-Type (US) (Irem 1987) and clones R-Type (Japan) and R-Type (bootleg).

- 21st September 1999: Nicola sent in an M72 driver supporting R-Type, R-Type II and Hammerin' Harry.

- 22nd December 1997: Virtu-Al dumped R-Type (US) (c) 1987.

LEVELS: 8 (restarts once)

Other Emulators:

* FB Alpha

* M72

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Gradius / Nemesis

Gradius (PlayChoice-10)

Vs. Gradius

Gradius II / Vulcan Venture

Gradius III

Gradius 4: Fukkatsu

Salamander

Salamander 2

R-Type

R-Type II

R-Type Leo

Heavy Unit

Turtle Ship

Hellfire

X Multiply

Zero Wing

Raiga - Strato Fighter

Rezon

Blaze On

Hyper Duel

Super Spacefortress Macross II

Romset: 896 kb / 20 files / 365.1 zip

MAME XML Output:

<description>R-Type (World)</description>

</input>

</dipswitch>

</dipswitch>

</dipswitch>

</dipswitch>

</dipswitch>

</dipswitch>

</dipswitch>

</dipswitch>

</dipswitch>

</dipswitch>

</dipswitch>

</dipswitch>

</dipswitch>

</dipswitch>

</game>

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