1942 is a vertically scrolling shoot 'em up made by Capcom that was originally produced for arcades in 1984. It was later ported to the NES, MSX, Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum, NEC PC-8801, Commodore 64 and Game Boy Color. It was included as part of Capcom Classics Collection for the Xbox and PlayStation 2 in 2005. 1942 is the first game in the 194X series, followed by 1943: The Battle of Midway. The NES Version was developed by Micronics.
Gameplay[]
Art by Akiman.
1942 is set in the Asian theater of World War II. The goal is to reach Tokyo and destroy the entire Japanese air fleet. The player, a character dubbed "Super Ace", pilots a plane (resembling a Lockheed P-38 Lightning), and has to shoot down enemy planes. Besides shooting, the player can also perform a "loop-the-loop" to avoid enemy fire.
Destroying a formation of red enemy planes will result in a power-up. There are different types, as follows:
- Two Machine Guns
- Destroy all planes in the screen
- Two Side Planes
- Bonus Points
- Extra Loops
- (Rare) One extra P-38
There are 32 levels, the ending of each finishes with the plane landing upon an aircraft carrier, receiving a debriefing and a briefing for the next mission. Players have to travel through Midway, Marshall, Attu, Rabaul, Leyte, Saipan, Iwo Jima, and finally Okinawa before reaching the ultimate goal, Tokyo.
On the Famicom (NES) version, all enemies still displayed when it lands on the carrier will explode and earn the player points. This is not so in the Arcade version, which makes it very hard to attain 100% rating on level completion. Some stages mark the appearance of the Japanese Mother Bomber Ayako (named after Ayako Mori[1] and based on an actual Japanese bomber, Nakajima G8N), which must be shot down to complete the stage. Each level increases the difficulty and planes become more aggressive as the player move throughout the 32 levels.
Credits[]
GBC Version[]
- Capcom
Producer: David Siller
Testers: Gene Sprague, Russell Young
Very Special Thanks: The 1942 Arcade Team, The 1942 NES Team
Special Thanks: Mr. Tsujimoto, Yoshiki Okamoto, Bill Gardner, Tim Harada, Melinda Mongelluzzo, Robert Lindsey, Todd Thorson, Robert Johnson, Sean Mylett, Mark Rogers, Bert Schroeder, Jim Wallace
- Digital Eclipse Software Inc™
Executive Producer: Andrew Ayre
Producer: Robert Daly
Lead Programmer: Robert Baffy
Artwork: Robert Baffy
Music: Robert Baffy
Testing: Bill Baffy
Special Thanks: Jeremy Mika, Jeff Frohwein, Mike Mika, Troy Sheets, Lou Dog, The Aquabats, Jennifer Baffy
Trivia[]
- The Yashichi item makes an appearance in this game as a life restorer. POW also makes an appearance as an item.
- This was the first game released by Capcom for the NES.
- Having two ships assisting the main ship was based on the ally ships from the game Galaga.[1]
See also[]
Gallery[]
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 GameCenter CX Season 2 Episode 1 (Atlantis no Nazo), "I’d Like to Meet This Man" segment (Yoshiki Okamoto)
