Salamander (MSX)

Salamander (MSX)

Salamander is a scrolling shooter game developed and published by Konami in 1987 for the MSX home computers. Despite sharing the name and a few key elements with the Arcade game, it is a completely new adventure.

Notable differences

New to this port is a graphical introduction that introduces human pilots for each ship, as well as names for each stage. The levels are notably longer than the arcade original, and the player(s) is(are) forced to start from a pre-defined checkpoint upon death of either pilot, instead of starting where he left off. After level two, the player can choose the order of the next three stages. In addition, the player can collect "E" capsules by destroying certain enemies. Collecting fifteen will permanently upgrade one of the available weapons on the power-up bar. Also, the ships can combine to create a more powerful ship that also uses some of these extra weapons. This port also introduced two entirely new ships. Instead of the Vic Viper and the Lord British Space Destroyer, they were replaced by ships known as the Sabel Tiger and Thrasher; piloted by human characters named Iggy Rock and Zowie Scott. The game also made use of "Konami Combos", where if certain Konami games were inserted into the second slot, extra effects will happen. One needed to have Nemesis 2 in Slot 2 and get all of the Predictions and the item called Crystal Breeze in order to get the true ending.

Story

"I am Van Landroth Frehley, head of the Imperial Space Archaeology Institute on the planet Nemesis. Our home planet, Latis, is in the grip of a terrible danger."

The planet Latis, where life first began 120 million years ago, is located in the middle of the Telsa galaxy. Surrounding Latis are four other planets called Eioneus, Lavina, Kierke and Odysseus. These are called the Latis planets.

These planets are the stars of civilization, and their history has taken shape together with the prosperity of the second or modern Latis civilization. The first civilization was ancient Latis, which flourished around 100 million years ago. The Ancient Latis people who built this civilization were masters of a form of psycho-power known as the 'crush below power', something which was beyond our imagination.

They used this power to prophesize the future. It is said that they could see more than 100 million years into the future, and they what they prophesied was the destruction of their descendants. In other words, us.

They inscribed all that they prophesied on metal and stone tablets, which have become known as 'The Prediction'. So far only the preface and the first chapter have been found. My personal theory is that the other are hidden in underground ruins on the other planets.

In the Prediction Preface they wrote:

Since the time when the red sun sank into oblivion we knew that it was our fate to go into extinction before very long. We make this prophesy of the world to come, as we see it, to save our descendants. We write about the catastrophe to come in these six chapters of the prediction.

Analysis: The red sun refers to the time the Ancient sun of Latis was extinguished.

Chapter One read:

When the giant devil who lives in the sea of flames awakens, an insane force will appear and heaven and earth will be swallowed up in darkness. The devil will be reborn with green skin and five eyes and will bring about two catastrophes.

Analysis: This is considered to be predicting the invasion of Latis by the Salamander forces. At the moment, there is no definitive interpretation for 'the devil with green skin and five eyes'. The time for the prophecy to come true has now come upon us.

This message has reached us on Nemesis:

The four planets around Latis have been attacked by an unknown fighting group called Salamander. They have installed a fortified base on Odysseus and taken control of Latis. The people of Latis who still remain alive are retreating back to the Zot transport relay station. SOS...SOS...

At my request, Lars XVIII, Emperor of Nemesis, has immediately ordered two space fighters to the scene.

Stages

Stage	Name	Boss	Music
1	Top Flight Speed to Latis	Golem	Power of Anger
2	Conduct to Space Station Zot	Cruiser Tetran	Fly High
3A	Set the Crush Blow System - Planet Eioneus	Fortress Valis Dead End	Combat
3B	Set the Crush Blow System - Planet Lavinia	Seducer	Starfield
3C	Set the Crush Blow System - Planet Kierke	Enigma	Burn the Wind
X	Wrath of Venom	Venom True Venom	Last Exit
4	Crush Salamander	Outer Limits Metal Slave	Destroy Them All

Enemies

• Celtic Frost
• Missing Link
• Nuclear Assault
• M.O.D.
• Buster
• Gedee
• Death Hand
• MC5
• Sanovich
• Fang Prominence
• Possessed
• Whiplash
• Vice
• Deadly Death
• Junker
• Leper Messiah
• Spatiotemporal Stone
• Legacy
• Option Eater
• Killer
• Guster
• Artillery
• Gremlin
• Hazard Ball
• Omen
• Gamma
• Gun Ho
• Outfield
• Crusher
• Led Zep
• Heathen
• Rage
• Battle Axe
• Q-Prime
• Poser
• Creeping Death
• Aberrant
• Ozzy
• Running Wild
• Battery
• Exodus
• Sucker

Gallery

Japanese cover