R-Type

aka: R-Type Complete CD
Moby ID: 5960

Trivia

1001 Video Games

The Arcade version of R-Type appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

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 instead, meaning players who completed the first seven levels didn't get to see the last one. This was corrected in the budget reissue.

Awards

  • Commodore Force
    • December 1993 (Issue 13) – #74 “Readers' Top 100”* Computer and Video Games
    • Issue 06/1989 - Runner-up Golden Joystick Award 1989 for Best Console Game (reader's vote for the PC Engine/TurboGrafx version)
    • Issue 06/1989 - Runner-up Golden Joystick Award 1989 for Best 8-Bit Coin-op conversion (reader's vote)* Game Art Beyond
    • In 2018, R-Type was selected as one of the biggest classics on the Commodore 64 by the creators of the C64 graphics collection Game Art Beyond. R-Type was honoured with a high resolution title picture in a special C64 graphics format called NUFLI, along with a C64 version of the Amiga R-Type theme.
  • Power Play
    • Issue 01/1990 - #2 Best Master System Game in 1989
  • Retro Gamer
    • October 2004 (Issue #9) – #32 Best Game Of All Time (Readers' Vote)
  • ST Format
    • January 1990 (issue #06) - Included in the list 50 Games of the Year
    • January 1991 - #3 Best Atari ST shoot-'em-up in 1990
    • January 1993 (issue #42) - #14 in '50 finest Atari ST games of all time' list

Information also contributed by Koos King and majutsushi.

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Trivia contributed by Martin Smith, Cantillon, Patrick Bregger, Malte Mundt, Jo ST, FatherJack.