Silpheed

aka: Silpheed: Super Dogfighter
Moby ID: 167
Included in See Also

Description official descriptions

In Silpheed, the player pilots a spaceship through levels of increasing difficulty, in a pseudo-3D vertically scrolling field, shooting everything in his path. New weapons will become available as he gathers points, and power-ups are sprinkled throughout the levels.

The game is one of the first-ever that used music as a selling point.

Spellings

  • シルフィード - Japanese spelling

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Screenshots

Promos

Credits (PC-88 version)

33 People (25 developers, 8 thanks) · View all

Game design team (Chief designer)
Game design team (Assistant)
Graphics
Sub programer (Demonstration)
Sub programer (Music and opening)
Music composer (Music #1~#4)
Music composer (Music #5~#12)
Voice convert
D.O.S.
Mechanical design
Package illust
Manual illust
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 77% (based on 4 ratings)

Players

Average score: 4.0 out of 5 (based on 47 ratings with 4 reviews)

A very good shooter that has excellent music and challenging gameplay.

The Good
First, for those who don't know who Game Arts is, they are a Japanese company that made the excellent Thexder, a horizontal shooter where you have to zoom across a number of levels playing as either a robot or a jet while battling enemies of increased difficulty. It was released in 1987 and used PC Speaker for sound output. A year later, they produced Silpheed, which uses a variety of sound and graphic cards, and is a big step away from their first game.

The introduction to the game is just amazing. The "super dogfighter" and the space station in which it is housed in are displayed as vector graphics. How the intro is presented to you depends on the type of graphics card you're using. For instance, text that fades in and out are available to EGA owners, while the same text remains static on other cards, and everything is colored differently. You also see glimpses of the enemy ships you have to bring down, and these look good against the green grid.

Then there is the music, which sounds superb if you are playing through the MT-32. I can always remember how the music for the first level goes. There are nice pieces of music, with the same one being used for the boss ships, except the final one. The s

The game is presented in a pseudo-3D viewpoint, and there are twenty levels of the game. It gets easy for the first few levels, but the gameplay gets more frantic as you progress through the levels. Every enemy ship follows you if you try to avoid their gunfire and in the end, you must know how to avoid them or end up dead.

You are equipped with a shield, which depletes as you get hit. If you have no shield left, the way your ship erratically moves in the end is a stroke of genius. You can also get power-ups by shooting asteroids that appear once in a while, and you have the chance to upgrade your weapons in between the twenty levels the game has to offer.

Graphic-wise, you are treated to a sequence in which your ship zooms across spectacular backdrops (after every fifth level). All the enemy ships look good in the game, as they do in the intro. Finally, I like the way the final boss ship is drawn piece-by-piece.

The Bad
The game is so difficult that I only managed to complete up to level three, and having said that, it could have been good to implement a save feature that gets activated in between the levels.

The Bottom Line
As I said much earlier, Silpheed is so much better than Game Arts' previous game, Thexder, due to the use of sound cards and some great features, particularly the number of ways the introduction is presented. The game gets frantic as you progress, but there are plenty of power-ups that are available to you to make things easier. Both the graphics and music are excellent, and there is a nice animation of your ship moving erratically when your shield is empty. if you are looking for an excellent shooter for your old DOS machine, then Silpheed is for you.

DOS · by Katakis | カタキス (43092) · 2013

Addictive.

The Good
Great music (for the time it was released)! Gameplay is fairly straightforward (shooter), but the variety of locations, weapons, and enemies keep it from getting dull.

The Bad
Would have been nice to have some sort of "code" so that if you get rather far but then have to go eat dinner, you can restart the game and start back on the level you reached. Having to play it out in one sitting can be a bit of a time sponge.

The Bottom Line
A nice mindless diversion.

DOS · by Mirrorshades2k (274) · 2000

A good vertically scrolling shooter with a twist.

The Good
Silpheed is a fun shootie, the gameplay is nice and the 3d'ish view is a nice touch. And the intro is terrific (and unusual).

The japanese always did the finest games. :)

The Bad
Well the sounds are a bit drab, and so are some of the graphics too.

The Bottom Line
An interesting Japanese shootie.

DOS · by RmM (68) · 1999

[ View all 4 player reviews ]

Trivia

OEM release

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

Second release

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.

Sound and Music

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

There was a later version (3.2) released that specifically supported the IBM PS/1 Audio Card, and is the only DOS version of the game to have support for sampled sound effects and speech. The card supports 3-voice Tandy sound style music, but can work with another music device like the Roland MT-32 with the PS/1 Audio Card being used for sound effects and speech. This version may have been bundled with the PS/1 Audio Card or could be sent away for.

Video modes

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. It is not clear what differences led to this.

Information also contributed by Great Hierophant, Mirrorshades2k and Servo.

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  • MobyGames ID: 167
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Eurythmic.

TRS-80 CoCo added by Corn Popper. Apple IIgs added by Eli Tomlinson. PC-88, FM-7 added by Terok Nor.

Additional contributors: Игги Друге, Steven Don, formercontrib, Patrick Bregger.

Game added July 18, 1999. Last modified January 29, 2024.