Ikari Warriors
Encyclopedia
Ikari Warriors is a 1986 arcade game
by SNK
, published in the United States
and Europe
by Tradewest
. Known simply as in Japan
, this was SNK's first major breakthrough US release and became something of a classic. The game was released at the time when there were many Commando clones
on the market. What distinguished Ikari Warriors were rotary joysticks and the two-player mode.
Ikari Warriors involves Colonel Ralf
and Second Lieutenant Clark of the later the King of Fighters series (known outside Japan as Paul and Vince in the Ikari series) battling through hordes of enemies. According to designer Keiko Iju, the game was inspired by the then-popular Rambo films and takes its name from the Japanese title of Rambo: First Blood Part II
(Rambo: Ikari no Dasshutsu or "The Furious Escape"). Ralf and Clark also make an appearance as playable characters in Metal Slug 6
and Metal Slug 7
.
-like warriors named Ralf
and Clark, who must try to reach the village of Ikari. Enemy units attempting to kill the player include tank
s, enemy soldiers and helicopter
s. A number of power-up
s along the way help the player to achieve victory.
Ikari Warriors was the first popular video game to use rotary joystick
s: those which could be rotated in addition to being pushed in eight directions (TNK III
, released in 1985, also from SNK, was the first to use such joysticks). The game also featured two buttons, one for the standard gun and another for lobbing grenade
s. It allowed two players to play cooperatively, side-by-side — one of the few games to do so at the time — and to use vehicles. The game cabinet was a standard upright.
) or blue (Clark). They must proceed from the bottom of the screen upwards, towards the village of Ikari. Trying to prevent them from reaching the village are enemy soldiers and other units. Along the way, players may commandeer enemy tank
s to help fight their way through the enemy personnel. The tanks are immune to enemy bullets, but have a limited supply of fuel and will sustain damage when it runs out or the tank is caught in an explosion, taking the player with it unless he can exit the tank and get clear before it blows up.
Ikari Warriors was the first 'Commando' style game to give the player a limited amount of ammunition.
Turning the joystick changed the direction the character faced independent of the direction the character was moving, as controlled by pushing the joystick. This gave the player freedom to attack or walk in eight different directions. No shot is fired from directly in front of the player; the warrior uses the machine gun in his right hand, and throws grenades with his left. If a player takes too long moving up screen, the computer starts using "call for fire". A red spot appears below him. This is tracking fire to speed up the game.
s (PCBs) were manufactured in two different versions: SNK pinout and JAMMA pinout. Most SNK-pinout units were put into Ikari Warriors cabinets, while most JAMMA-pinout units were supplied as conversion kits. The SNK-pinout boards have a 22/44-pin edge connectors. The JAMMA-pinout PCBs have a 28/56-pin edge connectors. Both types consist of a stack of three boards, with interconnects.
Ikari used SNK's model LS-30 joysticks, which contain a 12-way rotary switch box. The joysticks are connected to the PCB via auxiliary wiring harnesses.
at the middle of the final room.
#142 by Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser in "The Role of Computers" column. The reviewers gave the game 4 out of 5 stars.
SNK also fielded an Ikari Warriors clone in 1987 called Guerrilla War (Guevara in Japan). The game featured communist fighters Che Guevara
and Fidel Castro
as its heroes.
Ikari Warriors was ported to several home systems of the era including the Nintendo Entertainment System
, Apple II
, DOS
, Atari ST
, Atari 2600
, Atari 7800
, Amiga
, Commodore 64
, ZX Spectrum
and Amstrad CPC
. Many of these were released in 1986, the MSX
port and conversions for 16-bit machines were released in 1987. There are two different Commodore 64 ports, one released by Data East in 1986 and another released by Elite
in 1988. Because all these systems lacked rotary joysticks, however, some felt they were not as compelling as the arcade version. Both the Atari 2600 and Atari 7800 ports were released in 1990. The Atari ST and Amiga versions featured improved graphics and the latter also had improved sound effects. The NES version was developed by Micronics
. Jeff Rovin's classic book, How to Win at Nintendo Games
, opined that precision shooting was difficult in the NES port.
Arcade game
An arcade game is a coin-operated entertainment machine, usually installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars, and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games, and merchandisers...
by SNK
SNK Playmore
SNK Playmore Corporation is a Japanese video game hardware and software company. SNK is an acronym of , which was SNK's original name. The company's legal and trading name became SNK in 1986....
, published in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
by Tradewest
Tradewest
Tradewest is a now-defunct American video game company based in Corsicana, Texas that produced numerous games in the 1980s and early 1990s. The company is best known as the publisher of the Battletoads and Double Dragon series in North America and the PAL region.The Tradewest name was revived in...
. Known simply as in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, this was SNK's first major breakthrough US release and became something of a classic. The game was released at the time when there were many Commando clones
Clone (computer and video games)
A video game clone is a video game or game series which is very similar to or heavily inspired by a previous popular game or game series. Some video game genres are founded by such archetypal games that all subsequent similar games are thought of as derivatives.The term is sometimes derogatory,...
on the market. What distinguished Ikari Warriors were rotary joysticks and the two-player mode.
Ikari Warriors involves Colonel Ralf
Ralf Jones
is a video game character created by SNK Playmore . Ralf has made appearance in several games from the company, premiering in TNK III as a military tank driver. The Ikari Warriors series also emphasized Ralf's role as a soldier with him becoming the partner of Clark Still...
and Second Lieutenant Clark of the later the King of Fighters series (known outside Japan as Paul and Vince in the Ikari series) battling through hordes of enemies. According to designer Keiko Iju, the game was inspired by the then-popular Rambo films and takes its name from the Japanese title of Rambo: First Blood Part II
Rambo: First Blood Part II
Rambo: First Blood Part II is a 1985 action film. A sequel to 1982's First Blood, it is the second installment in the Rambo series starring Sylvester Stallone, who reprises his role as Vietnam veteran John Rambo...
(Rambo: Ikari no Dasshutsu or "The Furious Escape"). Ralf and Clark also make an appearance as playable characters in Metal Slug 6
Metal Slug 6
is a run and gun video game for the Sammy Atomiswave arcade platform in the Metal Slug series. It was released in 2006. There was a PS2 port on September 14, 2006...
and Metal Slug 7
Metal Slug 7
is a run and gun video game developed by SNK Playmore for the Nintendo DS. It is the eighth title in the main Metal Slug series. It was announced in the September 2007 issue of Famitsu and marks the first game in the main series that will be released without an arcade version...
.
Overview
The player takes the role of commandoCommando
In English, the term commando means a specific kind of individual soldier or military unit. In contemporary usage, commando usually means elite light infantry and/or special operations forces units, specializing in amphibious landings, parachuting, rappelling and similar techniques, to conduct and...
-like warriors named Ralf
Ralf Jones
is a video game character created by SNK Playmore . Ralf has made appearance in several games from the company, premiering in TNK III as a military tank driver. The Ikari Warriors series also emphasized Ralf's role as a soldier with him becoming the partner of Clark Still...
and Clark, who must try to reach the village of Ikari. Enemy units attempting to kill the player include tank
Tank
A tank is a tracked, armoured fighting vehicle designed for front-line combat which combines operational mobility, tactical offensive, and defensive capabilities...
s, enemy soldiers and helicopter
Helicopter
A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by one or more engine-driven rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forwards, backwards, and laterally...
s. A number of power-up
Power-up
In computer and video games, power-ups are objects that instantly benefit or add extra abilities to the game character as a game mechanic. This is in contrast to an item, which may or may not have a benefit and can be used at a time chosen by the player...
s along the way help the player to achieve victory.
Ikari Warriors was the first popular video game to use rotary joystick
Joystick
A joystick is an input device consisting of a stick that pivots on a base and reports its angle or direction to the device it is controlling. Joysticks, also known as 'control columns', are the principal control in the cockpit of many civilian and military aircraft, either as a center stick or...
s: those which could be rotated in addition to being pushed in eight directions (TNK III
TNK III
TNK III is a 1985 top-view shoot-'em-up arcade game by SNK. Versions for home computers were released by Ocean Software for the ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, and Amstrad CPC in 1987. A sequel was also released for the Nintendo Entertainment System titled Iron Tank...
, released in 1985, also from SNK, was the first to use such joysticks). The game also featured two buttons, one for the standard gun and another for lobbing grenade
Hand grenade
A hand grenade is any small bomb that can be thrown by hand. Hand grenades are classified into three categories, explosive grenades, chemical and gas grenades. Explosive grenades are the most commonly used in modern warfare, and are designed to detonate after impact or after a set amount of time...
s. It allowed two players to play cooperatively, side-by-side — one of the few games to do so at the time — and to use vehicles. The game cabinet was a standard upright.
Description
The player begins as one of two commando-type warriors, garbed in red (RalfRalf Jones
is a video game character created by SNK Playmore . Ralf has made appearance in several games from the company, premiering in TNK III as a military tank driver. The Ikari Warriors series also emphasized Ralf's role as a soldier with him becoming the partner of Clark Still...
) or blue (Clark). They must proceed from the bottom of the screen upwards, towards the village of Ikari. Trying to prevent them from reaching the village are enemy soldiers and other units. Along the way, players may commandeer enemy tank
Tank
A tank is a tracked, armoured fighting vehicle designed for front-line combat which combines operational mobility, tactical offensive, and defensive capabilities...
s to help fight their way through the enemy personnel. The tanks are immune to enemy bullets, but have a limited supply of fuel and will sustain damage when it runs out or the tank is caught in an explosion, taking the player with it unless he can exit the tank and get clear before it blows up.
Ikari Warriors was the first 'Commando' style game to give the player a limited amount of ammunition.
Turning the joystick changed the direction the character faced independent of the direction the character was moving, as controlled by pushing the joystick. This gave the player freedom to attack or walk in eight different directions. No shot is fired from directly in front of the player; the warrior uses the machine gun in his right hand, and throws grenades with his left. If a player takes too long moving up screen, the computer starts using "call for fire". A red spot appears below him. This is tracking fire to speed up the game.
Hardware
Ikari Warriors printed circuit boardPrinted circuit board
A printed circuit board, or PCB, is used to mechanically support and electrically connect electronic components using conductive pathways, tracks or signal traces etched from copper sheets laminated onto a non-conductive substrate. It is also referred to as printed wiring board or etched wiring...
s (PCBs) were manufactured in two different versions: SNK pinout and JAMMA pinout. Most SNK-pinout units were put into Ikari Warriors cabinets, while most JAMMA-pinout units were supplied as conversion kits. The SNK-pinout boards have a 22/44-pin edge connectors. The JAMMA-pinout PCBs have a 28/56-pin edge connectors. Both types consist of a stack of three boards, with interconnects.
Ikari used SNK's model LS-30 joysticks, which contain a 12-way rotary switch box. The joysticks are connected to the PCB via auxiliary wiring harnesses.
Regional differences
The game is known simply as Ikari in Japan and Ikari Warriors in the United States and Europe. In addition to changing the names of the main characters from Ralf and Clark to Paul and Vince, the military commander the player rescues at the end of the game is named General Kawasaki in the Japanese version (named after SNKs former president Eikichi Kawasaki) and Colonel Cook in the US/Euro version (named after Tradewests founder Leland Cook). General Kawasakis name was unchanged in the NES version. The enemies in the game were actually Neo-Nazis, as evident by the presence of a SwastikaSwastika
The swastika is an equilateral cross with its arms bent at right angles, in either right-facing form in counter clock motion or its mirrored left-facing form in clock motion. Earliest archaeological evidence of swastika-shaped ornaments dates back to the Indus Valley Civilization of Ancient...
at the middle of the final room.
Reception
The MS-DOS version of the game was reviewed in 1989 in DragonDragon (magazine)
Dragon is one of the two official magazines for source material for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game and associated products, the other being Dungeon. TSR, Inc. originally launched the monthly printed magazine in 1976 to succeed the company's earlier publication, The Strategic Review. The...
#142 by Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser in "The Role of Computers" column. The reviewers gave the game 4 out of 5 stars.
Legacy
This game spawned several similar games as well as several direct sequels. The game's sequels are:- Victory Road (1986)
- Ikari III: The Rescue (1989)
SNK also fielded an Ikari Warriors clone in 1987 called Guerrilla War (Guevara in Japan). The game featured communist fighters Che Guevara
Che Guevara
Ernesto "Che" Guevara , commonly known as el Che or simply Che, was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, intellectual, guerrilla leader, diplomat and military theorist...
and Fidel Castro
Fidel Castro
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz is a Cuban revolutionary and politician, having held the position of Prime Minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976, and then President from 1976 to 2008. He also served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from the party's foundation in 1961 until 2011...
as its heroes.
Ports
Nintendo Entertainment System
The Nintendo Entertainment System is an 8-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America during 1985, in Europe during 1986 and Australia in 1987...
, Apple II
Apple II
The Apple II is an 8-bit home computer, one of the first highly successful mass-produced microcomputer products, designed primarily by Steve Wozniak, manufactured by Apple Computer and introduced in 1977...
, DOS
DOS
DOS, short for "Disk Operating System", is an acronym for several closely related operating systems that dominated the IBM PC compatible market between 1981 and 1995, or until about 2000 if one includes the partially DOS-based Microsoft Windows versions 95, 98, and Millennium Edition.Related...
, Atari ST
Atari ST
The Atari ST is a home/personal computer that was released by Atari Corporation in 1985 and commercially available from that summer into the early 1990s. The "ST" officially stands for "Sixteen/Thirty-two", which referred to the Motorola 68000's 16-bit external bus and 32-bit internals...
, Atari 2600
Atari 2600
The Atari 2600 is a video game console released in October 1977 by Atari, Inc. It is credited with popularizing the use of microprocessor-based hardware and cartridges containing game code, instead of having non-microprocessor dedicated hardware with all games built in...
, Atari 7800
Atari 7800
The Atari 7800 ProSystem, or simply the Atari 7800, is a video game console re-released by Atari Corporation in January 1986. The original release had occurred two years earlier under Atari Inc. The 7800 had originally been designed to replace Atari Inc.'s Atari 5200 in 1984, but was temporarily...
, Amiga
Amiga
The Amiga is a family of personal computers that was sold by Commodore in the 1980s and 1990s. The first model was launched in 1985 as a high-end home computer and became popular for its graphical, audio and multi-tasking abilities...
, Commodore 64
Commodore 64
The Commodore 64 is an 8-bit home computer introduced by Commodore International in January 1982.Volume production started in the spring of 1982, with machines being released on to the market in August at a price of US$595...
, ZX Spectrum
ZX Spectrum
The ZX Spectrum is an 8-bit personal home computer released in the United Kingdom in 1982 by Sinclair Research Ltd...
and Amstrad CPC
Amstrad CPC
The Amstrad CPC is a series of 8-bit home computers produced by Amstrad between 1984 and 1990. It was designed to compete in the mid-1980s home computer market dominated by the Commodore 64 and the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, where it successfully established itself primarily in the United Kingdom,...
. Many of these were released in 1986, the MSX
MSX
MSX was the name of a standardized home computer architecture in the 1980s conceived by Kazuhiko Nishi, then Vice-president at Microsoft Japan and Director at ASCII Corporation...
port and conversions for 16-bit machines were released in 1987. There are two different Commodore 64 ports, one released by Data East in 1986 and another released by Elite
Elite Systems
Elite Systems is a UK video game developer and publisher established in 1984 as Richard Wilcox Software. They are best known for producing home computer conversions of popular arcade games...
in 1988. Because all these systems lacked rotary joysticks, however, some felt they were not as compelling as the arcade version. Both the Atari 2600 and Atari 7800 ports were released in 1990. The Atari ST and Amiga versions featured improved graphics and the latter also had improved sound effects. The NES version was developed by Micronics
Micronics
Micronics is a Japanese video game developing company which developed the NES versions of 1942, Athena, Ghosts 'n Goblins, Ikari Warriors, Ikari Warriors II: Victory Road, and Tiger Heli. Although uncredited in almost all their games, their work can often be identified by a distinct Pause sound...
. Jeff Rovin's classic book, How to Win at Nintendo Games
How to Win at Nintendo Games
Jeff Rovin is an author, magazine editor, freelance writer and columnist. Former editor-in-chief of Weekly World News, he has also been assistant editor and writer for DC Comics, editor for Warren Publishing and Seaboard Periodicals publications, as well as science and media columnist in such...
, opined that precision shooting was difficult in the NES port.