Trivia
Commodore 64 Port: Development
The C64 version was coded by
Manfred Trenz, which is ironic as he was behind the infamous
R-Type clone
Katakis. This was in fact Electric Dreams' second attempt at a C64 version of the game - the first (coded by
David Jolliff and
James Smart) was the one featured in a demo given away by Computer and Video Games. This appeared to be shaping up as a good conversion, although a bit slow, but it was taking too long, leading Electric Dreams to replace it with a quicker-to-finish version.
Commodore 64 Port: Limitations
Stage 6, The Transport System, has been dropped completely and every stage after the third one has a very unfinished feel to it.
The final boss (in the stage with the flying green babies) is not finished making it pathetically easy to beat. It fires only one type of energy shot which flies in a horizontal line. The homing balls, energy blobs and flying babies are all missing.
There is no end sequence. The game just ... stops.
PC Engine Releases
The Japanese PC Engine-version of
R-Type was released as two separate games,
R-Type I and
R-Type II, with the former containing the first four stages and the latter the remaining four. This was presumably done because the whole game would not fit on one HuCard. The second of these cards has nothing do to with the real sequel
R-Type II which was never released for the PC Engine/TurboGrafx in any way. For the US TurboGrafx release they managed to fit the whole game on one HuCard so there it was simply called
R-Type.
The game was later re-released (again only in Japan) as a PC Engine CD game called
R-Type Complete CD which contained all of the stages, a new intro movie and improved music.
ZX Spectrum Port
A mastering error on the original release of the ZX Spectrum version meant that level 8 didn't appear on the tape - level 7 was recorded twice, followed by level 9, meaning that players who completed the first 7 levels could get no further.
Awards
- Power Play
- Issue 01/1990 - #2 Best Master System Game in 1989
Information also contributed by Koos King and majutsushi.
