Darius

Description

One or two players control a spaceship as the background scrolls away to the left. The game features bosses patterned after marine critters, a terrific stereo soundtrack, and three monitors aligned left-to-right.

Darius was produced by Taito in 1986.

Taito released 486 machines in our database under this trade name, starting in 1967. Taito was based in Japan.

Other machines made by Taito during the time period Darius was produced include: Lady Master of Kung Fu, Typhoon Gal, Super Dead Heat, Onna Sanshirou, Metal Soldier Isaac 2, Alcon, Arkanoid, Battle Lane Vol. 5, Big Event Golf, and Bobble Bobble

Specs

Name	Darius
Developer	Taito (Japan)
Year	1986
Type	Videogame
KLOV/MOG #	7514
Class	Wide Release
Genre	Shooter
Monitor	Orientation: Horizontal Type: Raster: Standard Resolution Color: Color
Conversion Class	unique
# Simultaneous Players	2
# Maximum Players	2
Game Play	Joint
Control Panel Layout	Multiple Player
Controls	Joystick: 8-way Buttons: 2 - Fire\|Bomb
Sound	Amplified Stereo (two channel)
Cabinet Styles	Upright/Standard

Game Play

For the most part, playing this game is simple enough: shoot enemies, collect power-ups (in this case, missile, bomb, and armor) and beat the bosses. What makes it interesting is what happens when you defeat the bosses. You will be given a choice of two paths to take and your choice will depend on which half of the screen you position yourself after beating the boss. As a result, Darius actually possesses 28 stages, but you can only traverse at most seven at a time, making it a huge incentive to try the game again. This and its marine themed enemies became a tradition of the Darius series.

Darius KLOV/IAM 5 Point User Score: 0.00 (0 votes)

Images

Cabinet Information

The game is played on three horizontally-oriented, 13-inch diagonal color monitors aligned across (so it is quite wide and heavy). The monitors mounted two-face-up, one face forward, and a half reflecting mirror is used to align them with an inch or two of overlap.

VAPS Arcade/Coin-Op Darius Census

There are 15,264 members of the Video Arcade Preservation Society / Vintage Arcade Preservation Society, 9,669 whom participate in our arcade census project of games owned, wanted, or for sale. Census data currently includes 166,973 machines (7,000 unique titles).

Uncommon - There are 15 known instances of this machine owned by Darius collectors who are active members. Of these, 10 of them are original dedicated machines. One is a conversion in which game circuit boards (and possibly cabinet graphics) have been placed in (and on) another game cabinet. 4 of them are only circuit boards which a collector could put into a generic case if desired.

For Sale - There is one active VAPS member with an extra Darius circuit board for sale.

Wanted - There are 4 active VAPS members currently looking for Darius.

This game ranks a 4 on a scale out of 100 (100 = most often seen, 1=least common) in popularity based on census ownership records.

This game ranks a 5 on a scale out of 100 (100 = most often seen, 1=least common) in popularity based on census want list records.

Rarity and Popularity independently are not necessarily indications of value. [More Information]

Flyers

Technical

The Taito triple-screen system uses two M68000s at 8MHz. The stereo sound is driven by two Z80's at 4MHz, which powers two YM-2203 chips (also at 4MHz) and a MSM5205 ADPCM chip.

Future games (Darius II/Sagaia, The Ninja Warriors, and the two-screen Warrior Blade) all eschew the YM/MSM combination in favor of the YM-2610.

Legacy

Additional References (logged in members often see more)

3D Model (External): Dedicated (5a2740e4074bdd5bbaf441433a518a3d)

eBay Listings

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