Arcade Edition:
Plot: Planetary Ratis (which can also be written as Latis, which will not be explained below) have been circulated since ancient times. "When the legendary dragon that lives in the fire wakes up, the sky and the earth will be shrouded in darkness." After repelling the Bactrian attack that attacked the planet Gradius last time, a Bactrian army named Sharoman Snake attacked the planet Ratis, and the prediction of inflammation came true. In order to defeat the sharoman snake, the prince of Ratis sent a distress signal to Gradius, who had a war with Bacterian last time, and he himself joined the war with the unfinished fighter Lord British.
One year after the success of Gradius, the sequel of Gradius series, Sharoman Snake, was launched on arcade, because it was not Gradius II because of the plot setting and system reasons. Later, the background of the game was modified and renamed Life Force to land in foreign markets. After a certain response, the version was modified to a certain extent and then transplanted back to the Japanese market under the name of Life Force.
Salamander (version j)-orthodox Sharoman snake, Japanese version, without the capability upgrade system of the space cruiser, with weapons and capabilities introduced in the demonstration screen.
Salamander (version d)-the European version of the Sharoman Snake is basically the same as the Japanese version, and even the Japanese of the title screen is completely preserved (there is no Japanese on the arcade poster in the European version).
lifeforce (us), the American version of the Sharoman snake, has changed not only the name of the game, but also the names of the weapons and abilities in the game, as well as the background of the level. The story introduction has also been added to the demonstration screen.
LifeForce (Japan)-an enhanced version of LifeForce, Japanese version, has a space cruiser-style ability upgrade system (1P and 2P are different). The whole game changes, tending to be alien, biological and organic, and some BGM changes. There are no weapons, abilities and story introductions in the demo screen.
FC version:
Synopsis On the beautiful planet of Grandis, there is an ancient prophecy: it is said that there is a sea of fire in the universe of the planet 1 light years away, and a huge fire dragon lives in the sea of fire. When the dragon dances wildly, heaven and earth will be shrouded in darkness, and evil will befall Grandis. As predicted, the Salomon snake army flying from the sea of fire launched a war of aggression against the planet Geattis. In order to destroy the invaders, the spacetime cruise plane on the planet of Grandis has a heavy responsibility to attack the Sharoman snake military base! (American version)
The ancient Radius calendar was 679. Bakutillian sent the Sharoman Snake Corps to launch an attack on the beautiful planet Ladis. In the face of the powerful offensive of the Sharoman Snake Corps, the army of Ladis appeared to have no resistance. The prince of Ladis personally led the army to confront him, but he was defeated. As a last resort, the planet Ladis sent a distress signal to the ancient planet Radius, which had defeated Baku Tilian. The ancient Radius warriors who received the signal, together with the fighter plane driven by Prince Ladis, launched a counterattack against the base in Baku Tilian. (Japanese version)
FC (commonly known as Red and White Machine, an 8-bit game machine developed by Nintendo Company of Japan) is also known as the "Top Four" with Contra, Red Fortress and Green Corps. It is popular throughout the 198s and is talked about by many players before 198s. For beginners, this game is more difficult.
Sharoman snake is a classic in early flying games. In the game, the player controls a plane to fight the enemy, and can change his weapon by getting the energy box. The enemy becomes more and more powerful according to the level upgrade. The last level is a dragon monster guarding the enemy's core system. After defeating it and destroying the enemy's core system, the flight speed will suddenly increase to escape from the exploding planet. On the way, you will encounter a lot of self-expanding defense systems to intercept, which is dazzling. If you avoid this robbery, the game will be cleared.
note: the enemy's attack mode will change in two weeks, and the enemy will be more fierce.
Although the game is called Sharoman Snake, it uses Life Force system and some music. Shield inherits the feature of the FC version of Gradius, that is, it protects the fighter in all directions, but the performance is different from the previous work, which is a layer of "cover" to wrap the fighter. Later, Force Field in Gradius II completed the transformation from function to appearance in this work.
because of the technical progress, especially the special chip VRC developed by Konami, the Gradius before this comparison has made great progress. It can carry more opitons than the previous game, and each fighter can carry 3 opitons in doubles. BOSS is also bigger than the previous one. However, even if there is a technical breakthrough, it is still impossible to fully display the arcade version, so the level has been greatly modified to meet the needs of FC.
In addition, it's no secret that you can continue the game after Game Over. The real secret is that the number of times a player chooses to continue the game in a Zhou Mu will change to some extent. If you can play at the end once, you can see the fighter pilot.
MSX version:
The MSX version of the Sharoman snake has been greatly revised, which is almost another work.
The system follows Life Force, but there are many original parts. The most typical one is the weapon upgrade system of MSX Gradius, but this time it is realized by eliminating fixed targets on the ground and obtaining E-tanks. Each fixed target can get up to 3 E-tanks, and the weapon system will be upgraded once every 15 E-tanks. The prop system has also been adjusted, and many new props have been added. Using the corresponding props can reduce the difficulty of many levels. For example, in the later period of fortress 3B, there will be a wall coming towards the player. Under normal circumstances, it is necessary to shoot through the partition, but it is almost impossible for the player to pass through this area with primary weapons, but if he is equipped with missiles dropped by the enemy in this place, he can destroy the wall with one shot. There are also many special props that can be used by players and even fit together in a two-person game, which is unique in the Gradius series. The biggest feature of the game is that the third level is divided into three parts, and the player has to choose one of them for raiders. At first glance, it seems nothing special. In fact, the difficulty of the same level will change qualitatively according to the difference before and after the selection. The final level is the most difficult, and there will be residual bullets after the death of the enemy, which is quite dangerous for the Gradius series of MSX. Because of this design and the resurrection point system of Gradius, the difficulty of this game is one of the best in the Gradius series of MSX.
There are two endings in this book, the ordinary Bad End and the true ending. To see the true ending, it is necessary to collect the prophecy of inflammation. He put it in three special locations of the third level that was demolished. After all the collections are complete, he can get crystal crystals in a special location. After obtaining this prop, he will find the real mastermind-the Winom warship that stays in space and prepares to ambush the player, so that there will be a third level between the third level and the fourth level. If you don't get the crystal, you can't find the Winom warship. At Bad End of the story, the mission failed because of an ambush from space.
other platforms:
X68 version
released in p>1988
like the previous one, SPS Company is responsible for the migration. However, compared with Gradius, the road of transplanting Salomon snake was not smooth sailing, and the news of the postponement cast a shadow over the game. Because the mainstream CPU MC68 used by X68 at that time was mostly 1MHz, it could not afford the huge operation of Salomon snake, and the slowness began to appear in the game, especially the third level problem was particularly serious. (In fact, the arcade version is also slow, but it is not serious. )
The reason for this problem was later suspected to be caused by the sound card. After analyzing the data, some people found that there was another set of unfinished music in the game, and the music played in the game directly used the sound data of the arcade version, which was played by the sound card in real time. The resulting problem was that it became very strange to run the game concert in high-speed mode on the later X68 model with higher configuration.
PCE version
released on December 6th, 1991
PCE version continues the Gradius style of PCE version, that is to say, the screen still doesn't display all the pictures, and the music is naturally recreated according to the sound source of PCE. Although the weapon system maintains the prop style, the resurrection point system of Gradius is adopted, which makes it more difficult.
There is no new level in this transplant, instead, a new difficulty selection is added. Under the expert difficulty, the first level is extremely difficult to play "ゴーレム" because of the slow speed, and the resurrection point system is adopted. Once you hang up, you can play the game again. In the end, the weakness of the boss will change, and all Option attached to the player will disappear. Only by destroying it can we move forward.
SS version and PS version were released on June 19th, 1997 and July 6th, 1997.
They were bundled with Life Force and Salomon Snake II, which are also simulators. Compared with the previous Gradius collection, it is an improvement to add music appreciation function.
PSP version
released on January 25th, 27
It's the same as SS version and PS version, except that two more games are added.
Salomon Snake 2
After 1 years from the previous work, Salomon Snake 2, a sequel to the Salomon Snake series, landed on the arcade, based on the same criss-crossing layout (1, 3, 4, 5 horizontal, 2, 6 vertical), two-player game, in-situ resurrection game at any time, and prop upgrade system as the previous work. Added a powerful but time-limited weapon, 2-stage evolution, and an Option shoot that can shoot the option to attack the enemy. Although the game system has evolved in an all-round way on the basis of maintaining the previous game, this game has not won the same praise as the previous game.
In addition to the environmental impact of the decline of the shooting game, the game itself also has many design defects, such as the level structure is not as impressive as the previous game, the problem of Option Shoot chicken ribs, and many bugs found during the initial demonstration in arcade game were reported by the media, which had a serious negative impact on the coin rate of the game. Eventually, the Salomon snake series fell into silence after Salomon snake 2, and no new works have been published until now.
Sharoman Snake and Space Cruiser
The Space Cruiser (GRADIUS) was first introduced by KONAMI on the arcade (ARC) in May 1985. The game is famous for its diversified upgrade system and "Option" to assist the attack. In July of the following year, KONAMI launched Salamander, the first work in the "branch series" of Space Cruiser on AC (the work launched on FC in 1987 can be said to be a classic shooting game that many China players who have experienced the "FC (Red and White Machine)" era are very familiar with).
Before the latest work of GRADIUS series, Space Cruiser V, was officially introduced, many game media and players "mistakenly" thought that Space Cruiser was Salamander, thinking that the two were just different translations. Therefore, it is very necessary to explain the differences between the two, so as not to continue the misunderstanding.
The Space Cruiser series has a weapon selection system; Only horizontal reels; Only singles can be played (doubles can only be played at the same time until "Space Cruiser V"); GAME OVER can only be restarted from a specific place (to "Space Cruiser V" can be resurrected on the spot to continue the game); The scene is GRADIUS's confused star, and the difference of the scene is also the most obvious difference between the two.
Salamander series weapon-free selection system (only available in AC Lifeforce Japanese edition and FC MSX edition); There are longitudinal and transverse reels; Can play doubles at the same time; GAME OVER can be resurrected in situ and continue the game; The scene is Salamander's confused star.
Some friends often think of Space Cruiser and Sharoman Snake as a game series. In fact, it seems that the difference between the two is not far, but it is far away. In fact, the Salomon Snake has only been published for two generations. The most common ones on FC are the improved version of LIFE FORCE transplanted from Salomon snake arcade and the first generation of GRADIUS of space cruiser. After that, let's briefly list the main ones:
There are still GRADIUS 2 on FC
There are Gradius 3 on SFC
There are Gradius rumor and GRADIUS 1+2 replica on PS
There are Gradius 4 on p>ARC and PS2
In theory (KONAMI's development plan shows), GRADIUS 6 is a PS3 work.
The first generation of Salomon Snake has arcade version and the later transplanted FC version. The second generation of Salomon Snake has arcade version and PS/SS transplanted version. The arcade version and console version have been reproduced on PS and SS, and there has been no news since then.