Museum of the Game ®

International Arcade Museum® — Killer List of Videogames®

Gradius

Description

This is a horizontally scrolling shoot-em-up where the player destroys waves of oncoming enemies.

Gradius was produced by Konami in 1985.

Konami released 434 machines in our database under this trade name, starting in 1978. Konami was based in Japan.

Other machines made by Konami during the time period Gradius was produced include: Bubble System, Time Pilot '84, Super Basketball, Sky Jaguar, Shinnyuushain Tooru-kun, Finalizer - Super Transformation, Galactic Warriors, Green Beret, Jail Break, and Kicker

Specs

Name	Gradius
Developer	Konami (Japan)
Year	1985
Type	Videogame
KLOV/MOG #	7987
Class	Wide Release
Genre	Shooter
Monitor	Orientation: Horizontal Type: Raster: Standard Resolution Color: Color
Conversion Class	JAMMA
Dipswitch Settings	Gradius Dipswitch Settings (user contributed)
# Simultaneous Players	1
# Maximum Players	2
Game Play	Alternating
Control Panel Layout	Single Player Ambidextrous
Controls	Joystick: 8-way Buttons: 3 - FireBombSelect Power-Up
Sound	Amplified Mono (one channel)
Cabinet Styles	Upright/Standard

Video Clips

Gradius/Nemesis Final Stage (Arcade)

Game Introduction

This was one of the first games that allowed the player to choose what weapon power-ups were added to the ship.

Game Play

Waves of enemies are destroyed and levels are completed by destroying a guardian. If a whole wave of enemies is destroyed a power orb is released that, when collected, increases an indicator at the bottom of the screen enabling the player to select various power-ups such as bombs, speedup, lasers, and orbitals that mirror the players movements. Game difficulty increases depending on how many power-ups the player has, so sometimes it is advantageous to not power-up your ship too much.

Gradius KLOV/IAM 5 Point User Score: 5.00 (1 vote)

Fun Factor: 5.00

Overall Like	5.00
Fun (Social)	5.00
Fun (Solo)	5.00
Collector Desire	5.00

Technical Rating: 5.00

Gameplay	5.00
Graphics	5.00
Originality	5.00
Sound/Music	5.00

Personal Impressions and Technical Impressions each account for half of the total score. Within the Personal Impressions category, Like carries a little more weight than the other factors.

Images

Trivia

In Japan, the game spawned a couple of spoofs called Parodius Da! and its sequel Gokujyo Parodius. The games' graphics were made to be "cute" and the enemies were changed to cats, penguins, etc.

Cabinet Information

The cabinet art has a picture of the Vic Viper flying towards a large enemy structure while dodging laser fire.

Miscellaneous

This game is known in Europe as Nemesis.

VAPS Arcade/Coin-Op Gradius 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 20 known instances of this machine owned by Gradius collectors who are active members. Of these, 3 of them are original dedicated machines. 2 of them are conversions in which game circuit boards (and possibly cabinet graphics) have been placed in (and on) another game cabinet. 15 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 a Gradius machine for sale. There are 3 active VAPS members with a Gradius circuit boards for sale.

Wanted - There are 2 active VAPS members currently looking for Gradius. There is one active VAPS member looking for a Gradius circuit board set.

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

This game ranks a 3 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

PlayChoice-10: 10 Top Games In One Goliath Cabinet

1987

eBay Listings

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