Silpheed

Trivia

Silpheed supports a variety of video hardware, and there are quite a few differences (especially in the colors used, even between different 16 color modes). Here are some of the major changes between video modes:

- EGA is in 640x200 resolution, all other modes are in 320x200.

- During the opening sequence: In EGA, the opening titles fade in and out against a background of yellow stars. In MCGA/Tandy/PCjr, the opening titles do not fade in/out, and are against a background of cyan stars.

- During the opening sequence: In EGA, the wireframe for both the Silpheed and space station are green. In MCGA/Tandy/PCjr, the Silpheed wireframe is green while the space station wireframe is blue. (This may be the only point in the game where the EGA version is more difficult to see clearly.)

- On an above planet level or a fortress level: In EGA and MCGA all objects retain their normal colors. In Tandy/PCjr/CGA modes all objects become a solid shade of red. (When pixels overlap a non black pixel in these modes on any level, the color changes. So it looks as if the sprites may have been XOR'd against the background in order to speed up the game with these video cards.)

- On an above planet level: In MCGA every other vertical column of pixels in the planet background is missing when compared with the other video modes.

- In EGA, each fortress level is a different color. In MCGA/Tandy/PCjr modes, each fortress level is green.

- In EGA, the closing credits scroll vertically. In all other video modes, the closing credits are static.

Silpheed includes separate drivers for Tandy 1000 and PCjr graphics modes (which do indeed work only on their respective hardware.) This seems a bit unusual since the Tandy was a clone of the PCjr. I'm not sure what differences led to this.

Silpheed supports a variety of sound hardware, but this is for music only. Sound effects are always played through the internal speaker.

This game came free with the CMS Game Blaster sound card.

A SegaCD version of Silpheed was published in 1993, with true realtime 3D rendered polygons and shading. It was arguabily the best looking game of this year, all gaming platforms considered. Besides the title, the game hadn't many things in common with the PC version. The levels and storyline were different, only the ship design and the wing based weapons remained the same.

Contributed by Cochonou (1021) on Apr 29, 2000.

A second version of Silpheed was released shortly after the initial release that has the following fixes and enhancements:

• Text is printed out when Xacalite "speaks" at the beginning of the game so you can finally decipher what he's saying.
  
  
• The joystick routines were tweaked to make them more compatible with faster machines.
  
  
• CMS ("Game Blaster") sound board support was added.
  
  
• The music volume could be controlled through a key combination.
  
  
• PCjr support added.