So What the Heck is Silver Ghost

In the latest issue of British mag games(tm) (or at least the latest on US store shelves - it's the one with Rare on the cover) has an interview with Hiroyuki Takahashi, one of the head honchos of Team Sonic (later Camelot), the folks behind the Shining Force series. It's a neat read, if mainly because it shows their strained relationship at the time, and how they jumped ship to work mainly on Nintendo properties (what with Mario Tennis, Mario Golf, and Golden Sun.)



Now, most SRPGers view Shining Force as kind of a Fire Emblem-lite - the base mechanics are similar, but it's a bit simplified, and much more player friendly. Yakahashi claims that he hated Fire Emblem and its turn-based style, and instead pointed to a PC88 strategy game called Silver Ghost, by a now defunct Japanese company called Kure Software. I was curious about the connection so I booted up an emulator and gave it a go.



The main reason Takahashi pointed to liking Silver Ghost was due to its real time action and multi-character system. It's very similar to other Japanese action-RPGs of the time, like Ys and Hydlide, where you scamper around and ram into enemies to attack them. Instead of controlling a single character, though, you control an army of about a dozen people. By default, you control the leader, and the rest of your soldiers haphazardly follow you, engaging in combat with anything that comes close to them. You can switch to any other character at any time to take control of them, although your fellow soldiers usually won't bother following anyone beside the leader.



It's a neat little game, but just what, exactly, was the Shining Force connection? Shining Force was still turn-based and Silver Ghost plays nothing like it. I guess maybe the graphics and general style could've inspired it, but Silver Ghost doesn't really look all that much different from any other similar game of the time. Maybe it's just that Silver Ghost convinced him that strategy RPGs didn't necessarily have to be so boring, but he still want back to the genre standards when making his own console game? Shining Force is, as mentioned before, a lot friendlier, allowing you to talk around towns like standard JRPGs, and you control characters directly rather than pointing and clicking with a cursor, so maybe that mentality spilled over.



This brings up another point though. Shining Force III for the Saturn was the last true Shining Force game, because all of its spin-offs were crap lousy action-RPGs (not counting the GBA remake of the first game, or the recent JP-only DS game, which was outsourced to Flight Plan, which basically does nothing but SRPGs.) I always figured Sega took the series in that direction because the original staff was long gone, but as it turned out, the original staff really wasn't all that enamored with turn-based games anyway. So it's more a typical case of Sega being Sega and doing stupid things with their properties then.



Anyway, you can download the disk image and give the game a shot, if you'd like, or check out this Japanese page for some in-depth info on it.

In the latest issue of British mag games(tm) (or at least the latest on US store shelves - it's the one with Rare on the cover) has an interview with Hiroyuki Takahashi, one of the head honchos of Team Sonic (later Camelot), the folks behind the Shining Force series. It's a neat read, if mainly because it shows their strained relationship at the time, and how they jumped ship to work mainly on Nintendo properties (what with Mario Tennis, Mario Golf, and Golden Sun.) <br /><br /><center><img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/blog/silverghost-1.png"></center><br /><br />Now, most SRPGers view Shining Force as kind of a Fire Emblem-lite - the base mechanics are similar, but it's a bit simplified, and much more player friendly. Yakahashi claims that he hated Fire Emblem and its turn-based style, and instead pointed to a PC88 strategy game called Silver Ghost, by a now defunct Japanese company called <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kure_Software_Koubou">Kure Software</a>. I was curious about the connection so I booted up an emulator and gave it a go.<br /><br /><span class="fullpost"><center><img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/blog/silverghost-2.png"></center><br /><br />The main reason Takahashi pointed to liking Silver Ghost was due to its real time action and multi-character system. It's very similar to other Japanese action-RPGs of the time, like Ys and Hydlide, where you scamper around and ram into enemies to attack them. Instead of controlling a single character, though, you control an army of about a dozen people. By default, you control the leader, and the rest of your soldiers haphazardly follow you, engaging in combat with anything that comes close to them. You can switch to any other character at any time to take control of them, although your fellow soldiers usually won't bother following anyone beside the leader. <br /><br /><center><img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/blog/silverghost-3.png"></center><br /><br />It's a neat little game, but just what, exactly, was the Shining Force connection? Shining Force was still turn-based and Silver Ghost plays nothing like it. I guess maybe the graphics and general style could've inspired it, but Silver Ghost doesn't really look all that much different from any other similar game of the time. Maybe it's just that Silver Ghost convinced him that strategy RPGs didn't necessarily have to be so boring, but he still want back to the genre standards when making his own console game? Shining Force is, as mentioned before, a lot friendlier, allowing you to talk around towns like standard JRPGs, and you control characters directly rather than pointing and clicking with a cursor, so maybe that mentality spilled over.<br /><br /><center><img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/blog/silverghost-4.png"></center><br /><br />This brings up another point though. Shining Force III for the Saturn was the last true Shining Force game, because all of its spin-offs were crap lousy action-RPGs (not counting the GBA remake of the first game, or the recent JP-only DS game, which was outsourced to Flight Plan, which basically does nothing but SRPGs.) I always figured Sega took the series in that direction because the original staff was long gone, but as it turned out, the original staff really wasn't all that enamored with turn-based games anyway. So it's more a typical case of Sega being Sega and doing stupid things with their properties then.<br /><br /><center><img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/blog/silverghost-5.png"></center><br /><br />Anyway, you can <a href="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/blog/silverghost_pc88.zip">download the disk image</a> and give the game a shot, if you'd like, or check out <a href="http://www.geocities.co.jp/SilkRoad-Oasis/1081/sghost.htm">this Japanese page</a> for some in-depth info on it.<br /></span>

So What the Heck is Alien Earth

During some forum browsing, I stumbled upon to someone mentioning a 1998 PC game called Alien Earth and called it the spiritual successor to the SNES Shadowrun. It was developed by the same guys, Beam Software, so it would certainly make sense. Tracking down was a huge bitch though - outside of a Mobygames entry, one short wiki entry and two Youtube videos, the internet at large seems to have disavowed the game. There's no listings on Amazon in any country I could find, the usual abandonware sites turned up nothing and while I discovered a sole copy on eBay earlier today, I ended up losing the auction despite convincing the UK-based seller to ship to the US. Digging a bit deeper in the shadier corners of the internet (not really) I managed to dig up an ISO and give it a go.


It's actually something a bit like Fallout, although it only came out a few months afterward so it was hardly ripping it off. Taking place in a post-apocalyptic Earth, humanity has divided up into tribes, and what's left of the planet has been overrun by jungle and gigantic insects. Taking on the role of a villager named Finn, you're cast out into the wilderness to fend for yourself, since you're apparently a danger to your friends and family. After fashioning a spear out of a bit of scrap metal and a pole, you need to explore the surrounding area, become acquainted with the few humans, beat up huge bugs and fend off attacks from alien warriors.


It's hardly an overlooked classic though - there's a reason why everyone remembers Fallout and no one knows what the hell Alien Earth is. Your character walks SO SLOWLY, and if there's way to speed him up, I sure as hell haven't found it. The role playing aspects seem to boil down to equipping weapons and beating up enemies, which will increase your maximum health bit by bit. The game defaults to awkward keyboard controls for whatever reason, and while the mouse is more suitable, it's still plenty annoying. Right clicking will move and inspect stuff, while left clicking will attack. However, if you right click on your character, the status menu will pop up. You can't interact with stuff unless you're close to it, which causes all kinds of havoc. Combat is just as funky, with non-existent hit detection and strange

I didn't figure out how to get very far, because while I found a fellow who will clean me of poison obtained from the dark junkyard, the random alien guards that pop up will kill me in two hits, and its lasers clearly overshadow my pointy stick. If there's any worth to it, it must be buried deeper beneath the surface.


But how close is it to Shadowrun? Well, it does utilize an isometric viewpoint, and the RPG-lite gameplay is very similar, but that's about it. Don't go looking to it if you're expecting something of the same level, because the impeccable atmosphere - the storyline, the world, the music - from Shadowrun is nowhere to be seen nor heard. At least it has a vaguely odd sense of humor, as related by the several weirdos that you run into. One madman rambles endlessly in a Scottish accent. Pretty funny. You also run apart bits of the old civilization and your character beholds them with reverence. He remarks how he dare not play on the swingset, or remarks about the skeleton of a gigantic beetle, which is really the rusted frame of a car. The "holy temple" of the tribes appears to consist of a group of dilapidated phone booths (or maybe outhouses? It's hard to tell.)


Anyway, I would upload the ISO to spread it around a bit and maybe someone else can find something more worthwhile in it, but Megaupload's not working at the moment. Maybe later! Here's the gameplay video, anyway.



<center><img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/blog/alienearth.jpg"></center><br />During some forum browsing, I stumbled upon to someone mentioning a 1998 PC game called Alien Earth and called it the spiritual successor to the SNES <a href="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/shadowrun/shadowrun.htm">Shadowrun</a>. It was developed by the same guys, Beam Software, so it would certainly make sense. Tracking down was a huge bitch though - outside of a <a href="http://www.mobygames.com/game/alien-earth">Mobygames entry</a>, one short <a href="http://www.answers.com/topic/alien-earth">wiki entry</a> and two Youtube videos, the internet at large seems to have disavowed the game. There's no listings on Amazon in any country I could find, the usual abandonware sites turned up nothing and while I discovered a sole copy on eBay earlier today, I ended up losing the auction despite convincing the UK-based seller to ship to the US. Digging a bit deeper in the shadier corners of the internet (not really) I managed to dig up an ISO and give it a go.<br /><br /><center><a href="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/blog/alienearth-1.jpg"><img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/blog/alienearth-1a.jpg"></a></center><br />It's actually something a bit like Fallout, although it only came out a few months afterward so it was hardly ripping it off. Taking place in a post-apocalyptic Earth, humanity has divided up into tribes, and what's left of the planet has been overrun by jungle and gigantic insects. Taking on the role of a villager named Finn, you're cast out into the wilderness to fend for yourself, since you're apparently a danger to your friends and family. After fashioning a spear out of a bit of scrap metal and a pole, you need to explore the surrounding area, become acquainted with the few humans, beat up huge bugs and fend off attacks from alien warriors.<br /><span class="fullpost"><br /><center><a href="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/blog/alienearth-1.jpg"><img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/blog/alienearth-2a.jpg"></a></center><br />It's hardly an overlooked classic though - there's a reason why everyone remembers Fallout and no one knows what the hell Alien Earth is. Your character walks SO SLOWLY, and if there's way to speed him up, I sure as hell haven't found it. The role playing aspects seem to boil down to equipping weapons and beating up enemies, which will increase your maximum health bit by bit. The game defaults to awkward keyboard controls for whatever reason, and while the mouse is more suitable, it's still plenty annoying. Right clicking will move and inspect stuff, while left clicking will attack. However, if you right click on your character, the status menu will pop up. You can't interact with stuff unless you're close to it, which causes all kinds of havoc. Combat is just as funky, with non-existent hit detection and strange <br /><br />I didn't figure out how to get very far, because while I found a fellow who will clean me of poison obtained from the dark junkyard, the random alien guards that pop up will kill me in two hits, and its lasers clearly overshadow my pointy stick. If there's any worth to it, it must be buried deeper beneath the surface.<br /><br /><center><a href="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/blog/alienearth-3.jpg"><img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/blog/alienearth-3a.jpg"></a></center><br />But how close is it to Shadowrun? Well, it does utilize an isometric viewpoint, and the RPG-lite gameplay is very similar, but that's about it. Don't go looking to it if you're expecting something of the same level, because the impeccable atmosphere - the storyline, the world, the music - from Shadowrun is nowhere to be seen nor heard. At least it has a vaguely odd sense of humor, as related by the several weirdos that you run into. One madman rambles endlessly in a Scottish accent. Pretty funny. You also run apart bits of the old civilization and your character beholds them with reverence. He remarks how he dare not play on the swingset, or remarks about the skeleton of a gigantic beetle, which is really the rusted frame of a car. The "holy temple" of the tribes appears to consist of a group of dilapidated phone booths (or maybe outhouses? It's hard to tell.)<br /><br /><center><a href="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/blog/alienearth-4.jpg"><img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/blog/alienearth-4a.jpg"></a></center><br />Anyway, I would upload the ISO to spread it around a bit and maybe someone else can find something more worthwhile in it, but Megaupload's not working at the moment. Maybe later! Here's the gameplay video, anyway.<br /><br /><object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/H6BcewxpSk0&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/H6BcewxpSk0&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /></span>