Space Harrier

1001 Video Games

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

Missing ports

Space Harrier was advertised for the Commodore 16/Plus 4 computer, and the (multi-platform) manual also had loading instructions for BBC and Electron computers. For reasons unknown, those ports never did appear.

Setting

Space Harrier originally mentioned that it took place in the Fantasy Zone just as the game of the same name, (remember the "Welcome to the Fantasy Zone! Get Ready!" intro?) and many have claimed that the games take place in the same universe considering the similarity in graphic design. While SEGA never made any official statement they did try to capitalize on the similarities with Space Fantasy Zone. An unreleased Fantasy Zone sequel for the PC Engine CD was developed that used the pseudo 3D gameplay of the Space Harrier series but used Opa-Opa and his gang of cute characters and levels.

It is unsure why the game never got released, but several beta copies have been leaked and you can easily find them around the net and run them with an emulator.

Super Scaler technology

First Sega game to come out that used "Super Scaler" technology.

Game Art Beyond

In 2018, Space Harrier was selected as one of the biggest classics on the Commodore 64 by the creators of the C64 graphics collection Game Art Beyond. Space Harrier was honoured with a high resolution title picture in a special C64 graphics format called NUFLI, along with a new C64 SID interpretation of the Space Harrier (arcade level 1) theme, which is much longer than the conversion originally done for the C64 port in 1986.

Information also contributed by Zovni