Nintendo made playing cards and Konami fixed jukeboxes, but Shin Nihon Kikaku has the distinction of being a software company right from the start -- a business software company, anyway. But when founder Eikichi Kawazaki realized that Space Invaders was causing a coin shortage throughout Japan, he quickly shifted SNK's focus toward arcades in the hopes of grabbing some of that spare change for himself.
SNK's first videogame was Ozma Wars. While it ran on the same hardware that served as the foundation for so many other arcade games (read: Space Invaders clones) in 1978, it was no mere clone. Ozma Wars was incredibly sophisticated for its time, with the chance to refuel your ship between levels, and featuring more alien types than you can shake a glowing finger at.
It's also one of the most infuriating shooters you'll ever play: Your play time is measured in energy rather than lives, and while you get a generous supply at the start of the game, your ship burns through fuel like an SUV dragging the anchor of the U.S.S. Constitution. Touch an enemy or one of its shots and your ship shakes violently, losing much of its energy in the collision. Not to mention there's no temporary invincibility after you've been hit.
Ozma Wars wasn't a total loss, though. The large variety of enemies forced the player to prepare for the unexpected, and in general, it must have been a welcome break from the relentless monotony of Space Invaders. Many of the concepts first explored in Ozma Wars would later be perfected in Sierra On-Line's Threshold, Sega's Astro Blaster, and Activision's Megamania, so the game certainly has its place in history.
SNK didn't catch the public's eye until it teamed up with infamous ghost developer Tose for its next few releases. Tose made over a thousand games in the last 30 years, but one of their first was Sasuke vs. Commander, a shooter with a surprising twist. Instead of defending the planet from hostile aliens, your mission is to protect a Japanese warlord from assassination. Ninjas drop from the night sky by the dozens, zigzagging downward while flinging razor-sharp shuriken your way. Take down the stealthy soldiers with your throwing knives and you'll meet their commander, a flame-spewing super-shinobi. Beat him and you'll earn bonus points -- fail and his entire army will march out from the sides of the screen to laugh at you. Oh, those little bastards made it personal!
Sasuke vs. Commander was designed for the Japanese, and wasn't released in other territories, but SNK's next game, Vanguard, would earn it worldwide recognition. Another Tose creation, Vanguard brought a truckload of innovations to the tired shooter genre. Scrolling playfields were already rare back in 1981, but Vanguard took it to the next level with both horizontally and vertically scrolling areas, leading to a nail-biting confrontation with a boss. If you ran out of lives in the first level, you could drop in another quarter and continue from the last zone you reached. Four-way firing, with a button for each direction, protected your ship from all angles, an especially handy feature during the game's frantic "Rainbow Zones." Voice synthesis and an onscreen map kept you informed of your progress through each lengthy level.
Vanguard was so far ahead of its competition that playing it must have felt like flying first class after a lifetime of settling for coach. Atari wanted on the flight, too, purchasing the home rights to Vanguard and converting the game for its Atari 2600 and 5200 consoles. Sadly, the success of Vanguard came crashing to Earth when SNK took Tose out of the equation and made a crummy in-house sequel that plunged the company back into obscurity for a couple of years.
space laser was made by taito..........though it was probably taito just getting even with konami.......yet the game plays just like the konami one....??
