Gyruss

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Gyruss

Developer(s)	Konami
Publisher(s)	Centuri/Konami
Designer(s)	Yoshiki Okamoto
Release date(s)	1983
Genre(s)	Shoot 'em up
Mode(s)	Up to 2 players, alternating turns
Platform(s)	Arcade, Atari 2600, Atari 5200, Commodore 64, Colecovision, NES
Input	8-way joystick 1 button
Arcade cabinet	Upright
Arcade system(s)	2x Zilog Z80, Motorola 6809, 8039, 5x AY-3-8910, DAC
Arcade display	Raster, 224 x 256 resolution

Gyruss is a shoot-em-up video arcade game developed by Konami, and released in 1983. Yoshiki Okamoto was the designer of the game. The game was licensed to Centuri in the United States. It follows in the tradition of space war games such as Space Invaders and Galaga.

The game's background music consists of portions of J. S. Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, in a modern rock style. Gyruss was the first arcade game to use stereo sound.

1 Gameplay
2 Ports
3 Trivia
4 Screenshots
5 See also
6 External links

[edit] Gameplay

The gameplay is very similar to that of Galaga but with an added twist: the game is presented in a forced 3D perspective, with the player's ship facing 'into' the screen and able to move around the perimeter of an implicit circle—essentially, Galaga mapped onto a Tempest-like cylinder. This gameplay style is called a tube shooter, and Gyruss is one of the very few examples that exist. The familiar scrolling starfield of earlier space shooter games was arranged to fit the 3D perspective, with the stars coming into view at the centre of the screen and flying outward, giving the impression of the player's ship moving very fast through space.

The majority of enemies are other spaceships, all of which must be destroyed before a level is completed. They appear either from the centre of the screen or from one of the edges, and move in swirling patterns. They can shoot the player's ship or destroy it by contact. They hover near the centre of the screen after completing their deployment pattern, and occasionally fly outwards and shoot at the player. If they are not destroyed by the player, the enemy ships gradually fly away one by one.

There are also several other types of enemies: satellites, asteroids and laser beam generators. These appear intermittently and soon disappear of their own accord if not destroyed by the player.

Satellites materialise in a group of three just in front of the player after the ordinary enemy ships have finished deployment. They gyrate in small circles and shoot at the player. The player's ship gets a better weapon if the player can destroy the middle satellite. This is not always easy, as the satellites' shots do not need to travel far to hit the player's ship, and the player only has a few seconds to destroy them before they fly away.

Asteroids fly straight outwards from the centre of the screen at regular intervals. They always fly just to the left or right of the player's ship, so unless the ship moves it will be never be hit by an asteroid. They cannot be destroyed but a small points bonus is given for shooting at them.

Laser beam generators occasionally fly straight outwards from the centre of the screen. They consist of two generator segments with a laser beam between them; destroying either generator deactivates the beam. The player's ship is destroyed by contact with either the generators or the beam.

The player begins the game "two warps to Neptune". After completing each level, the player is one warp closer to a planet. Each time a planet is reached, the player's ship is seen flying towards it and then a short bonus round is played, where the player can shoot enemy ships for bonus points without worrying about being destroyed by them. After reaching Neptune, the player is then three warps from Uranus, and progresses through Saturn, Jupiter, Mars and finally Earth, taking three warps to reach each planet.

After completing Earth's bonus stage, the player must travel through the very fast "three warps to Neptune" level before returning to the start of the game. Thus, the game runs in a circle, just like the player's ship.

[edit] Ports

Gyruss was ported to numerous operating systems and consoles.

[edit] Early Ports

Gyruss was ported to many early systems, including the Atari 5200, Commodore 64 and Colecovision. There was also fairly poor Atari 2600 port.

[edit] NES and Famicom

NES Title Screen (Left) and FDS Title Screen (Right)

Gyruss was also slighty remade for the Famicom Disk System in Japan, and later the NES in North America, released by Konami's subsidiary Ultra Games. In these versions of the game, the gameplay is still largely the same, but there are several revisions. These include:

Updated graphics
The music from the arcade version of the game was slightly remixed, and several additional tracks were added.
The player starts off at "Three Warps To Neptune" instead of "Two Warps"
The player can use a super phaser attack in addition to the normal guns
There are additional enemies, including boss fights when the player reaches each planet
Bonus stages after each planet's boss is defeated, for a chance to gain additional powerups
There is a definite "ending" to the game. In the NES version, it's a brief text about the Universe being at peace. In the FDS version, there is a full ending sequence with credits.
In addition to the satellites providing the usual double guns and bonus points, they can also provide extra phasers, a smart bomb, and even an extra life
Instead of the arcade's looping 24 stages, there are 39 looping. In the arcade, the player starts from Neptune and proceeds to Earth. On the NES version, the player travels through the entire solar system, including the Sun and Pluto, which is no longer considered an official planet of the solar system.

[edit] Modern ports

The GBA port, in Konami Collector's Series: Arcade Advanced

Faithful versions of Gyruss can be played in modern compilations. Gyruss has a perfect emulation in Konami Arcade Classics for the PlayStation. There is also a very faithful implementation in Konami Collector's Series: Arcade Advanced for the Game Boy Advance, and the possibility of a perfect emulation in the recently announced Konami Classics Series: Arcade Hits for the Nintendo DS. In addition, there is the Konami Live! Plug and Play PC controller that includes Gyruss with an online scoreboard, as well as five other Konami titles. The game has also been announced as a future addition to XBox Live Arcade with enhanced graphics.

[edit] Trivia

Gyruss is one of the first non-vector games with pseudo-3D graphics.
Gyruss was the 2nd (and last) game Yoshiki Okamoto designed for Konami. Due to pay disputes, he was fired after the release of this game, and soon joined Capcom.
The modern videogame, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, contains a playable homage to Gyruss, called They Crawled from Uranus! It is much simpler than the game it is based upon, featuring a static background and only one kind of enemy.
Dance Dance Revolution ULTRAMIX 2 contains a remix of the Gyruss music as a playable song.
Neptune is visited in the NES Gyruss prior to Pluto (which was commonly known to be the furthest planet in the solar system), as between 1979 and 1999, Neptune was in fact the most distant planet, since its orbital path is intersected by the highly elliptical orbit of Pluto. Ironically, the arcade version of Gyruss features Neptune as the furthest planet, and the player never reaches Pluto, making it scientifically accurate by the current definition of the solar system.

[edit] Screenshots

Arcade ©1983 Konami	PlayStation as part of Konami Arcade Classics ©1983 Konami	Game Boy Advance as part of Konami Collector's Series: Arcade Advanced ©1983, 2002 Konami	NES and FDS ©1988 Konami
Colecovision ©1984 Konami/Parker Bros.	Commodore 64 ©1984 Konami/Parker Bros.	Atari 5200 and Atari 800 ©1984 Konami/Parker Bros.	Atari 2600 ©1984 Konami/Parker Bros.