A vertically scrolling video game or vertical scroller is a video game in which the player views the field of play principally from a top-down perspective , while the background scrolls from the top of the screen to the bottom (or, less often, from the bottom to the top) to create the illusion that the player character is moving in the game world.
43-456: DonPachi is a 1995 vertical-scrolling shooter arcade game developed by Cave and published by Atlus in Japan. Players assume the role of a recruit selected to take part in a secret military program by assaulting enemy strongholds in order to become a member of the "DonPachi Squadron". DonPachi was conceived as a project that evoked the same spirit from shoot 'em ups created by Toaplan ,
86-415: A 'ricochet effect'). However, if enemies are destroyed with the player's ship nearby, such bullets disappear. Destroying the final boss in the second loop unlocks a secret area where the player fights the trademark boss of the series, the giant mechanical bee Hachi (蜂; 'bee'). After completing the first loop, the storyline reveals that the commander tells the pilot to continue the missions of fighting against
129-451: A different slalom game, also called Skiing , for their Intellivision console. In 1981 Taito published Alpine Ski , an arcade video game with three modes of play. The 1980 Nichibutsu arcade game Crazy Climber has the player scaling a vertically scrolling skyscraper. Data East 's 1981 arcade Flash Boy was released in two versions: a side-scrolling version and a vertical scrolling version. 1979's Galaxian from Namco
172-430: A few small games. As games have grown larger and more expensive, line producers have become part of some teams. Based on filmmaking traditions, line producers focus on project scheduling and costing to ensure titles are completed on time and on budget. An internal producer is heavily involved in the development of, usually, a single game. Responsibilities for this position vary from company to company, but in general,
215-449: A fighter and gain entry to the future elite "DonPachi Squadron". The twist lies in the fact that the enemies are, in truth, the players' very own comrades posing as enemies and sacrificing their lives for the sake of allowing only the most skilled pilots to pass the test and survive. After completing the first loop, it is revealed that the commander tells the pilot to continue the missions of fighting against fellow troop members until one side
258-410: A number of developers. While keeping updated on the progress of the games being developed externally, they inform the upper management of the publisher of the status of the pending projects and any problems they may be experiencing. If a publisher's producer is overseeing a game being developed internally, their role is more akin to that of an internal producer and will generally only work on one game or
301-427: A producer has to have gone through the development cycle several times to really understand how unpredictable the business is. The most common path to becoming a video game producer begins by first working as a game tester, then moving up the quality assurance ladder, and then eventually on to production. This is easier to accomplish if one stays with the same studio, reaping the benefits of having built relationships with
344-402: A request Atlus wanted as publisher though conflict emerged as to how close the game should be to Toaplan shooters while members at Cave pointed out elements uncharacteristic from Toaplan during development. Although first launched for arcades on Cave's first-generation hardware, the title was later ported to Sega Saturn and PlayStation , each featuring several changes and additions compared to
387-400: A scoring system known as the "Get Point System" (GPS). By destroying large groups or chains of enemies in a short period of time, the player can build up a number called a combo , similar to the kind found in fighting games . They receive an increasing number of points with every enemy they shoot down; the more enemies the player hits in one chain, the more points they receive. They can break
430-543: Is a fixed shooter played over a starfield background which gives the impression of vertical movement. The same is true of Ozma Wars from later the same year. The 1981 arcade game Pleiads is a fixed-shooter that vertically scrolls as a transition between stages and then continuously scrolls during a docking sequence. In 1981, Sega 's arcade scrolling shooters Borderline and Space Odyssey , as well as TOSE 's Vanguard , have both horizontally and vertically scrolling segments—even diagonal scrolling in
473-452: Is a more faithful recreation of the arcade original, featuring the same display options as the Saturn release, the ability to adjust the default number of lives and faster loading times. However, both releases have audio quality issues. In Japan, Game Machine listed DonPachi on their 15 July 1995 issue as being the twelfth most-popular arcade game at the time. However, Tsuneki Ikeda deemed
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#1732802288809516-400: Is completely destroyed, with the second loop taking place seven years later. After defeating Hachi, the story reveals the commander's "mission" was to turn the existing army into a race of super soldiers. However, since the missions are aerial attacks, many soldiers have taken battles into air and performed sacrifices, with the many lives lost in the process turning the mission into a success and
559-565: Is designed to suggest the appearance of constant forward motion, such as driving. The game sets a pace for play, and the player must react quickly to the changing environment. In the 1970s, most vertically scrolling games involved driving. The first vertically scrolling video game was Taito 's Speed Race , released in November 1974. Atari 's Hi-way was released eleven months later in 1975. Rapidly there were driving games that combined vertical, horizontal, and even diagonal scrolling, making
602-510: Is skiing. Street Racer (1977), one of the launch titles for the Atari VCS , includes a slalom game in which the gates move down an otherwise empty playfield to give the impression of vertical scrolling. Magnavox published Alpine Skiing! in 1979 for their Odyssey² game console. In 1980, the same year Activision published Bob Whitehead 's Skiing for the Atari 2600, Mattel published
645-439: Is the top person in charge of overseeing development of a video game . The earliest documented use of the term producer in games was by Trip Hawkins , who established the position when he founded Electronic Arts in 1982: Producers basically manage the relationship with the artist. They find the talent, work out product deals, get contracts signed, manage them, and bring them to their conclusion. The producers do most of
688-426: Is usually the project manager and is in charge of delivering the product to the publisher on time and on budget. An executive producer will be managing all of the products in the company and making sure that the games are on track to meet their goals and stay within the company's goals and direction. For an external producer, their job responsibilities may focus mainly on overseeing several projects being worked on by
731-476: The 1966 film ) was also published for the 2600 in 1982. A similar concept was used in Taito's 1983 Bio Attack arcade game. Xevious -esque vertically scrolling shooters rapidly appeared in the following years: Konami's Mega Zone (1983), Capcom's Vulgus (1984), Exed Exes (1985), Terra Cresta (1985), and TwinBee (1985). Capcom's 1942 (1984) added floating power-ups and end-of-level bosses to
774-516: The pixel art . Ikeda and his team recounted DonPachi ' s development process and history through various publications. The concept for their fledgling project was to create a Toaplan-style shoot 'em up game that evoked the same spirit, which was also a request from publisher Atlus, while introducing a new ship system Ikeda had thought at the time. The staff was inexperienced and members pointed several elements that were not similar to Toaplan shooters during development, with Ikeda stating that there
817-602: The "DonPachi Squadron" is formed as a result. DonPachi was the first project to be developed by Cave, a Japanese video game developer founded by former Toaplan staff who previously worked on multiple projects before the company declared bankruptcy and wanted to keep creating shoot 'em up games, with producer Kenichi Takano helming its development. Tsuneki Ikeda, Toshiaki Tomizawa, Hiroyuki Uchida and Ryūichi Yabuki acted as programmers , while Yabuki also acted as composer . Artists Atsunori Aburatani, Kazuhiro Asaba, Jun Fujisaku, Riichiro Nitta and Naoki Ogiwara were responsible for
860-524: The Hong Kong version rank starts at 10 and increases by 4 per stage in addition to rank collected through play. Depending on the region released the game will have minor differences from the original Japanese version. The USA release has lesser rank and bombs are refilled after every stage, making the experience slightly easier. The Hong Kong version removes all story and is much more difficult, mainly through higher rank by default meaning faster bullets, and
903-423: The Saturn port a 7.1047 out of 10 score, ranking at the number 625 spot. MAN!AC ' s Christian Blendl gave the Saturn release a mixed outlook. Mega Fun ' s Björn Souleiman noted its varied but confusing display of colors, stating that the game could have been made on 16-bit hardware, recommending it solely for shoot 'em up fans. neXt Level ' s K. Koch compared it with Gunbird , another shooter for
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#1732802288809946-436: The Saturn. Video Games ' s Ralph Karels felt mixed in regards to the audiovisual presentation and criticized its short length. However, Karels noted the number of bullets on-screen without slowdown, recommending it to fans of the shoot 'em up genre. Time Extension noted the game as historically significant to the evolution of the bullet hell format. Vertically scrolling video game Continuous vertical scrolling
989-508: The case of the latter. Three purely vertical scrolling shooters were released that year: the ground vehicle based Strategy X ( Konami , arcade), Red Clash ( Tehkan , arcade), and Atari 8-bit computer game Caverns of Mars . Caverns of Mars follows the visual style and some of the gameplay of the horizontally-scrolling Scramble arcade game released earlier in the year. The Atari 8-bit computers have hardware support for vertical, as well as horizontal, smooth scrolling. Caverns of Mars
1032-402: The chain by waiting to shoot an enemy; the combo number will turn blue when the player's chain is broken. This system brings a new challenge after the player has cleared the game; plot out the stages to achieve a high score. The player flies their selected fighter over 5 areas of various terrain, encountering a number of land, sea and air enemies. The player's ship has two modes of fire: by tapping
1075-513: The development of the video game design . While not a game designer, the producer has to weave the wishes of the publisher or upper management into the design. They usually seek the assistance of the game designer in this effort. So the final game design is a result the effort of the designer and some influence of the producer. In general, video game producers earn the third most out of game development positions, behind business (management) and programmers. According to an annual survey of salaries in
1118-522: The fellow troop members until one side is completely destroyed, with the game's second loop beginning 7 years later. Introduced in this game and subsequently carried over to other CAVE games is the ranking system. Through skillful play (conserving lives and bombs, powering up your ship, obtaining bee medals, obtaining large combos, etc.), bullets fired by enemies will get subtly faster. In the original version rank starts at 0 and increases by 1 per stage in addition to rank collected through skillful play, but in
1161-420: The fire button, shots are fired; holding it down produces a concentrated vertical beam, but also reduces the ship's speed. The game has 5 areas, which can be "looped" if the player succeeds in completing them. The second loop has the same areas, enemy patterns, and bosses as the first loop, but enemies fire denser bullet patterns as well as explode into bullets when destroyed (sometimes called 'suicide bullets' or
1204-525: The game's publisher . Internal producers work for the developer itself and have more of a hands-on role. Some game developers may have no internal producers, however, and may rely solely on the publisher's producer. For an internal producer, associate producers tend to specialize in an area of expertise depending on the team they are producing for and what skills they have a background in. These specializations include but are not limited to: programming, design, art, sound, and quality assurance. A normal producer
1247-450: The hitbox is enlarged to fill up much more of the ships sprite. The Hong Kong version was considered near-impossible to complete until a 2-ALL playthrough (a completion of the game going through both loops) was uploaded to Youtube on December 29, 2021. The premise of DonPachi differs from most of its brethren: the players assume the role of a pilot whose mission is to survive an eight-year-long training mission, where he proves his worth as
1290-762: The industry, producers earn an average of USD $ 75,000 annually. A video game producer with less than 3 years of experience makes, on average, around $ 55,000 annually. A video game producer with more than 6 years of experience makes, on average, over $ 125,000 annually. The salaries of a video game producer will vary depending on the region and the studio. Most video game producers complete a bachelor's degree program in game design, computer science, digital media or business. Popular computer programming languages for video game development include C, C++, Assembly, C# and Java. Some common courses are communications, mathematics, accounting, art, digital modeling and animation. Employers typically require three plus years of experience, since
1333-642: The original version. The PlayStation version has since been re-released through the PlayStation Network download service. DonPachi proved to be popular among Japanese arcade players but was later deemed by Cave to be a "creative failure", while the Saturn version was met with mixed reception from critics. It was followed by six sequels : DoDonPachi in 1997 , DoDonPachi II in 2001 , DoDonPachi DaiOuJou in 2002 , DoDonPachi Resurrection in 2008 , as well as DoDonPachi Maximum and DoDonPachi SaiDaiOuJou in 2012 . DonPachi features
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1376-413: The person in this position has the following duties: In short, the internal producer is ultimately responsible for timely delivery and final quality of the game. For small games, the producer may interact directly with the programming and creative staff. For larger games, the producer will seek the assistance of the lead programmer , art lead, game designer and testing lead. While it is customary for
1419-427: The producer to meet with the entire development staff from time to time, for larger games, they will only meet with the leads on a regular basis to keep updated on the development status. In smaller studios, a producer may fill any slack in the production team by doing the odd job of writing the game manual or producing game assets. For most games, the producer does not have a large role but does have some influence on
1462-451: The standard formula. Taito's mostly vertical Front Line (1982) focuses on on-foot combat, where the player can shoot, throw grenades, and climb in and out of tanks while moving deeper into enemy territory. The game seemingly had little influence until three years later when Commando (1985) implemented a similar formula, followed by the even more comparable Ikari Warriors in 1986. Video game producer A video game producer
1505-718: The things that a product manager does. They don't do the marketing, which in some cases product managers do. They don't make decisions about packaging and merchandising, but they do get involved ... they're a little like book editors, a little bit like film producers, and a lot like product managers. Sierra On-Line 's 1982 computer game Time Zone may be the first to list credits for "Producer" and "Executive Producer". As of late 1983 Electronic Arts had five producers: A product marketer and two others from Hawkins' former employer Apple ("good at working with engineering people"), one former IBM salesman and executive recruiter, and one product marketer from Automated Simulations ; it popularized
1548-519: The title to be a "creative failure" in a 2011 interview with website SPOnG , stating that Cave was criticized "from all sides that our game was nothing like Toaplan!" as well as claiming he and his team did not accomplish what they were going for. The Sega Saturn version was met with mixed reception from critics. However, fan reception of the Saturn port was positive; readers of the Japanese Sega Saturn Magazine voted to give
1591-477: The use of the title in the industry. Hawkins' vision—influenced by his relationship with Jerry Moss —was that producers would manage artists and repertoire in the same way as in the music business, and Hawkins brought in record producers from A&M Records to help train those first producers. Activision made Brad Fregger their first producer in April 1983. Although the term is an industry standard today, it
1634-466: The vertical-only distinction less important. Both Atari's Super Bug (1977) and Fire Truck (1978) feature driving with multidirectional scrolling. Sega 's Monaco GP (1979) is a vertical-only scrolling racing game, but in color. One of the first non-driving vertically scrolling games was Atari Football (1978). Scrolling prevents the entire field from having to fit on the screen at once. Another early concept that leaned on vertical scrolling
1677-479: Was cloned for the Apple II as Cavern Creatures (1983). In 1982, Namco 's Xevious established the template for many vertically scrolling shooters to come: a ship flying over a landscape with both air and ground targets. That same year, Carol Shaw 's River Raid was published, a highly rated vertically scrolling shooter for the Atari 2600. The less successful vertical scroller Fantastic Voyage (based on
1720-433: Was conflict as to "Toaplan-ish" their game should be. However, Ikeda also stated he only worked on V・V and Batsugun prior to DonPachi , deeming the two titles as "very un-Toaplan games" and claimed he may not have understood the "soul" of the company well. The voice work was done by a man called "Bob". A programmer claimed the title "DonPachi" was given by Ikeda during a walk from Kagurazaka to Ichigaya . DonPachi
1763-854: Was dismissed as "imitation Hollywood" by many game executives and press members at the time. Over its entire history, the role of the video game producer has been defined in a wide range of ways by different companies and different teams, and there are a variety of positions within the industry referred to as producer . There are relatively few superstars of game production that parallel those in film, in part because top producers are usually employed by publishers who choose to play down publicizing their contributions. Unlike many of their counterparts in film or music, these producers do not run their own independent companies. Most video and computer games are developed by third-party developers . In these cases, there may be external and internal producers. External producers may act as "executive producers" and are employed by
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1806-702: Was first released in Japanese arcades by Atlus in May 1995, using the CAVE 68000 board. On 21 June 1995, an album containing music from the title was co-published exclusively in Japan by Scitron and Pony Canyon . On 26 April 1996, a conversion for the Sega Saturn was published by Atlus in Japan. On 18 October of the same year, the game was later ported and published by SPS for the PlayStation. The PlayStation version
1849-649: Was re-released for the PlayStation Network by Hamster Corporation in Japan on 9 June 2010. The Saturn version introduces features and extras not seen on PlayStation such as the "Score Attack" mode that acts as a training mode, the addition of the "Little Easy" difficulty level that plays a critical role during gameplay, among other gameplay and display options. The Saturn conversion suffers from loading times between stages and modes, slowdown during gameplay as well as certain special effects being altered due to hardware issues with transparency. The PlayStation port
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