| Silpheed |
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| | Developer(s) | Game Arts | | Publisher(s) | Game Arts, Sierra, Sega | | Platform(s) | PC-8801, FM-7, MS-DOS, TRS-80 CoCo, Apple IIGS, Mega-CD | | Release date | 1986, 1993 | | Genre(s) | Shoot 'em up | | Mode(s) | Single player |
This article is about Silpheed for personal computers and Mega-CD. For the sequel on PlayStation 2, see Silpheed: The Lost Planet. For the Xbox 360 game, see Project Sylpheed. Silpheed is a video game series developed by Game Arts. It made its debut on the Japanese PC-8801 in 1986. It was later remade for the Mega-CD and has a sequel called Silpheed: The Lost Planet for the PlayStation 2. Silpheed is the name of the spacecraft that the player controls. Like many shooter games, the story involves using the Silpheed as Earth's last effort to save itself from destruction by a powerful enemy invasion.
Computer versionsThe original Silpheed game was created for the PC-8801 in 1986. Another version for the FM-7 was released in 1988. In the same year, the game was brought to the United States for the first time by Sierra On-Line who ported the game to PCs and other platforms. Despite the rather limited hardware used, the game featured realtime 3D graphics.
Mega-CD versionThe Mega-CD port of Silpheed features polygon ships over a pre-rendered video background; this method is also seen in other Mega-CD titles, such as Sony Imagesoft's (now SCEA) Bram Stoker's Dracula, Namco's StarBlade, and Micronet's AX-101. Because of its polygon graphics and advertising based on it, the game is often compared to Nintendo's Star Fox for the Super NES, which came about the same time, and both games were perceived as competitors. However, Silpheed made less of an impact than 'Star Fox'. Even when Silpheed had better polygon rendering compared to the crude polygons that the Super NES's Super FX handled, it was its gameplay which hurt it in the end. Many gamers felt unimpressed of Silpheed's "traditional" vertical shooter, against Star Fox's more involved arcade sim shooter, which was uncommon for the time in a console. The game's story concerns a space war campaign when terrorists hack into the mother computer of Earth. As they become capable to control all the weaponry of the solar system, the only hope is a small fleet outside the computers control reach, provided with a squadron of SA-77 Silpheed dogfighters (referred to as "prototypes" in the manual for the PC version). In the ending credits sequence of this version there are cinematic animations of scenes depicting the fighters flying through stages in the game.
TriviaSeveral voice samples occur throughout the game. In the game's sound and voice test mode, the same voice samples contain cursing that is cut out in the game (For example, the exclamation "They got the carrier!" in stage 8 is preceded by a "Shit!" in the voice test).
Other references- Silpheed is the name of a monster in the Yu-Gi-Oh! trading card game and anime.
- Silpheed is a remote summonable jet pack used by the combat android Mahoro in the anime series Mahoromatic.
External links- Silpheed (computer version) at MobyGames
- Silpheed (Mega-CD version) at MobyGames
- Silpheed at MusicBrainz
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