Konami's
Sky Jaguar was released on MSX computers in 1984, an astounding 14 years
ago! A 1941-type shooter, Sky Jaguar fits into 16kB ROM cartridge, a
miniscule amount by today's standards. Back then the programmers had
to snugly fit the music, sound, code and graphics into this tiny package.
As a result of not having much space to play with, older games had to
concentrate on playability rather than graphics, a great contrast to
today's games!
Here's
a few pictures of the whole game: all of the backgrounds and enemies
are shown. Mostly they are basic and repeat a lot, with smallish but
fierce enemies (unavoidable due to the memory constraints), but there
are two fortresses in game to break the levels up a bit.
Looking
back today, were we really so naive to enjoy such a basic gamestyle
and graphics? Not really, although the 'twitch' style of games have
lost popularity in the face of 3D polygons, there are many people who
appreciate a fun game no matter how old it is.. Look to Dave's Classics
20million+ hits for proof that classic and older games are still in
demand.
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Start
of the game, and approaching a city from the sea. |
Looks
like the inhabitants don't like use flying over their airspace!
Attacking diagonally, these first craft are easy to destroy. |
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Into
scene two, and if you use your imagination a bit, it's the lava
and earthquake area! |
Next
in scene three, it's hundreds of attacking seagulls! Actually, it's
not, it's just the sea. Sorry. |
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Aha!
The first Fortress appears, and throws what looks like spiralling
spanners at you. |
Next
the tiny spiky things, with really fast bullets. Keep your eyes
peeled (what a stupid saying that is!) |
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The
stealth fighters can't be hit while they are shooting, so get in
there quick and let rip. |
Must
be the Egyptian level then. These planes amusingly flap their wings
as they fly. |
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Be
quick and get a 1,000 bonus by destroying them all. |
Last
boss is the big Spanner Fortness, shooting lots of tiny spanners
and bullets at once. Destroy it and... |
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...End
of game? No way! Lots of older games insisted you go back and try
harder, and Sky Jaguar is no exception! Go again, and again, and
again, and again with ever increasing difficulty. I got a score
bigger than 999999 and scene bigger than 99, and still the END didn't
come. It looks like some sort of "Neverending story"... |
*
GUIDE TO SKY JAGUAR FLYING OBJECTS * |
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What
can this be? Yes, this is our hero's aircraft. Light, fast, newest
technology fighter, which is going to save humanity or something
like that! |
ENEMIES
In the
first areas they appear alone, but later they come in many combinations. |
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First
enemy aircrafts quickly appear diagonally. In later scenes they
begin to shoot small bullets around them. Nip under them and shoot
them - easy! |
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These
small ones come down very slow. What is fast though, are the bullets
from them. Quickly flying from left to right and back again and
again (and shooting, of course), will get 'em! |
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Rotating
"dumbbells" fly in spirals. After they near the centre
of the screen, they fall down. They also shoot. The 'Left - Right'
method will help here too! |
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Rotating
aircrafts slowly appear... When your plane is directly under them,
they zoom in trying to hit you. Use left - right method and shoot
them before they crash. |
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These
enemies basically are playing ping-pong in the middle of a shootemup.
Kill both sides to stop this un-shmup-like behaviour! |
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Aircraft
in chains, that's what attacking you here. Shoot quickly, and if
you destroy the whole chain, you get bonus of 1000 points! |
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Indestructable
balls. But, they stop, open, and begin shooting... and if you are
quick, get a shot in then and kill em! |
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Rotating
aircrafts in chains. If five crafts coem in fast, you need only
to do one thing: shoot them as fast as you can. There's a bonus
here too! |
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Indestructable
stealth fighters make an impregnable wall with their bullets. Watch
out for the cannons having a rest, and quickly blast them out of
the sky. |
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Aircrafts
waving with their wings?! Hmmm. |
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These
rockets are hard nuts. They travel down slowly, then shoot bullets
and divide, which zoom in to destroy you. You must employ som clever
manoeuvering and quick shooting to get past them. |
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"Cat
heads" fly half way down the screen, then disappear for a moment
and suddenly re-appear. But watch out, they are always there! try
not to crash into them! |
OTHER POWERUPS
Being such
an early title, the concept of powerups was just a little twinkle
in the game designers eyes... |
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If
this image appears on screen, get it! It will double and then speed
up your shot! |
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If
you save this little parachutist, you will get bonus of 1000 points. |
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What
can this mean ...? Yes, you got 1000 points bonus. If you get a
score 10000, 50000, 110000 and so on, you will get a new life. |
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