Clones & Ports of Konami's Gradius
This article is concerned with clones and ports of Konami's Gradius coinop of 1985 that have appeared on Western home computer game machines.
Gradius-likes are defined by me as shoot 'em ups that feature a weapons system bar from which different weapons may be incrementally selected and enhanced via power-up capsule collection. Gradius-likes can feature horizontal and/or vertical screen-scrolling.
If the shooter in question does not feature a weapons system bar, it isn't a Gradius-like. Instead, it is likely to be a Salamander-like.
The original Gradius coinop was created by Hiroyasu Machiguchi of Konami.
Gradius-likes are some of the most difficult shooters. For example, the three big Gradius-likes on the Amiga are three of the hardest games to beat in the history of computer games (see below).
The origin of Gradius is Konami's Scramble of 1981. The article is only concerned with Gradius clones and ports that appeared on Western home computer game machines. The clones and ports are presented chronologically.
Gradius Clones
Delta Commodore 64 1987
Thalamus of the U.K. released Delta aka Delta Patrol for the Commodore 64 in February of 1987. Delta was programmed by Stavros Fasoulas and composed by Rob Hubbard. Delta features many rotating and spiraling enemies, tanky enemy blobs and spawning minefields. Delta power-ups bestow shields and increase movement speed, number of projectiles and rate of fire.
Sequel to Sanxion of 1986 and predecessor to Armalyte of 1988, Delta is one of the greatest shoot 'em ups of all-time.
Ziriax Amiga 1990
The Whiz Kids released Ziriax exclusively for the Amiga in 1990. Running at 50 FPS, Ziriax features extremely fast-moving sprites and sprite-cloaking. Only veterans with good reflexes need apply because Ziriax is one of the hardest shoot 'em ups out there.
Ziriax consists of four horizontally-scrolling stages that are 194 pixels in height and up to ~10,000 in width.
Ziriax bosses:
Ziriax was programmed by Peter Verswyvelen, drawn by Erlend Robaye and composed by Tomas Dahlgren.
Published by the Software Business, Ziriax was distributed on 1x 3.5" 880kB diskette.
Zynaps Commodore 64 1987
Hewson Consultants of the U.K. released Zynaps for the Commmodore 64 in 1987. Zynaps is a busy, noisy and grueling shooter that consists of 14 horizontally-scrolling stages each of which culminates in a boss battle.
In Zynaps players control the MK1 Scorpion attack fighter. The Scorpion can incrementally upgrade its equipment by collecting fuel capsules that are left behind by destroyed enemies. For example, there are four different power levels for the Scorpion's rate of movement and rate of fire.
Zynaps weapons include pulse laser, plasma bomb, homing missile and seeker missile. The pulse laser and propulsion system can be upgraded three times (RoM and RoF) whereas the plasma bomb, homing missile and seeker missile can only be upgraded twice. In addition, RoM and RoF must be topped up because they deplete over time.
C64 Zynaps was programmed by John Cumming, composed by Nigel Grieve, designed by Dominic Robinson and John Cumming and drawn by Steve Crow and John Cumming.
Zynaps Amiga 1988
Hewson Consultants of the U.K. released Zynaps for the Amiga in 1988. Developed by Microwish, Amiga Zynaps was programmed by Neil Metcalfe, drawn by Pete Lyon and composed by Giulio Zicchi. Amiga Zynaps is a straight port of Atari ST Zynaps by Howard Ball, which is based on the C64 version.
ST/Amiga Zynaps consists of 15 horizontally-scrolling stages 144 pixels in height and up to ~6,000 pixels in width.
ST/Amiga Zynaps is not in the same ballpark as C64 Zynaps. Amiga Zynaps is even worse than ST Zynaps because its controls and collision detection are way off.
Amiga Zynaps was distributed on 1x 3.5" 880kB diskette.
Apidya Amiga 1991
Kaiko International / A.U.D.I.O.S. Entertainment of Germany released Apidya exclusively for the Amiga in 1991. Apidya is one of the best horizontally-scrolling shoot 'em ups on the Amiga. In addition, Apidya's TMFX Pro soundtrack was one of the best that could be heard on any computer game of 1991. Apidya features perfect controls, articulated sprite animations and silky-smooth screen-scrolling.
Apidya runs at 50 FPS and consists of five main scenes broken up into stages that scroll horizontally. There are five end-scene bosses and 10 sub-bosses in Apidya.
Apidya Weapons System:
- Primary: Light-sword (converts enemies to flowers, which upgrades weapon levels)
- Power Blast (charged light-sword)
- Upgradeable: Spread Shot (3x light-swords), Lightning Bolt, Plasma Pulse
- Speed-up, Bomb, Shield, Drone
Apidya was developed entirely on Amigas under the TFDS Development Environment. Apidya was programmed in 68000 assembly language in HiSoft's DevPac2 of 1989.
Published by Blue Byte, Apidya was lead-programmed by Peter Thierolf, lead-drawn by Frank Matzke and composed by Chris Hülsbeck.
In 1991 A.U.D.I.O.S. Entertainment was a subdivision of Kaiko International.
Apidya was distributed on 2x 3.5" 880kB diskettes.
Gradius Ports
Gradius 1987 Commodore 64
Konami's godly 1985 Gradius aka Nemesis coinop was ported to Commodore 64 in 1987 by Simon Pick. This king-tier port is fast, smooth and accurate. Overall, the speed is incredible for 1987.
In Gradius players control the Warp Rattler as it goes up against the Bacterion forces and superfortress of Xaerous.
Gradius power-ups include speed-up, missile, double shot, laser shot, multi-shot and shield.
C64 Gradius consists of eight horizontally-scrolling stages.
C64 Gradius was programmed by Simon Pick and drawn by Stu Jackson and Ashley Routledge.
Gradius Windows PC 1997
In the Gradius Deluxe Pack of 1997 Konami bundled ports of their Gradius of 1985 and Gradius 2 of 1988 coinops to Windows 95 PCs. These belated ports display in 256-color square-pixel SVGA 640x480 via DirectX 3.0 (DirectDraw & DirectSound).
This port came out way too late. Way, way, way too late: Quake had crushed coinops. Gradius should have been ported to PC half a decade earlier.
Gradius Deluxe Pack requires a Pentium 90 MHz CPU, 8 megs of RAM, 1 meg of vRAM and 40 megs of HDD space, but 133 MHz, 16 megs of RAM and 2 megs of vRAM is recommended.
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