Salamander (沙羅曼蛇, Saramanda), retitled Life Force in North America and in the Japanese arcade re-release (see development), is a scrolling shooter arcade game by Konami. Released in 1986 as a spin-off to Gradius, Salamander introduced a simplified power-up system, two-player cooperative gameplay and both horizontally and vertically scrolling stages. Some of these later became the norm for future Gradius games.

Salamander was followed with an official sequel in 1996 entitled Salamander 2.

The first player controls Vic Viper and the second player takes the reins of debuting spacecraft Lord British, which is sometimes referred as "Road British" due to the ambiguity of Japanese-to-English romanization. The game features six stages which alter between horizontal and vertical scrolling.

Lives and continues

Players are allowed to continue from where they leave upon death instead of being returned to a predefined checkpoint per Gradius tradition. There are no continues in Salamander's single player mode, however, in the two-player mode, players are given two continues. The number of continues can be changed through DIP switches.

Power-ups

The player gains power-ups by picking up capsules left behind by certain enemies, as opposed to the selection bar used in other Gradius titles.

Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum Ports

Ocean Software on their Imagine label, released licensed versions of Salamander for computer systems by Spectrum, Commodore and Amstrad in 1988. Whilst the Spectrum and Amstrad versions were generally criticised, the Commodore 64 version was highly praised by the critics of the day, particularly Zzap!64. Despite missing two of the six stages, the simultaneous two player mode and gameplay being much easier than its arcade counterpart, the Commodore port is generally considered to be one of the best arcade conversions on this system.

Nintendo Famicom/Nintendo Entertainment System Port

Salamander was ported to the Family Computer in Japan in 1987. Instead of being a direct port of Salamander, elements were taken from the original Salamander and the Japanese Life Force re-release, and some elements, such as levels and bosses, were removed to make way for new content. Most of the background graphics and enemy sprites from Salamander, however, are used in favor of those used in Life Force, though the Gradius-style power bar is used in place of the original instant pick-up system. The same year, North America received a port as well for the Nintendo Entertainment System. The NES version is practically identical to its Famicom equivalent, other than not having the multiple endings, having two option power ups instead of three, and being titled Life Force. The North America version was later re-released for the Wii's Virtual Console on February 16, 2009 at a cost of 500 Wii Points.

The European PAL version is called Life Force Salamander and was released for the NES on November 22, 1989.

All Famicom and NES versions (including the Virtual Console version) make use of the Konami Code, which in this instance increases the number of lives from three to 30.

MSX Port

The MSX port of Salamander is significantly different than the original and any other ports. 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/she 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. Some weapons allow the player ships to merge, one player controlling movements and the second player controlling weapons. Instead of the Vic Viper and the Lord British Space Destroyer, the ships are known as the Sabel Tiger and the Thrasher; piloted by human characters named Iggy Rock and Zowie Scott. The story takes place in the year 6709 A.D and has 2 different endings.

The MSX version was re-released for the Wii's Virtual Console in Japan on January 12, 2010.

PC Engine Port

A version for the PC Engine was released on December 12, 1991. Changes include starting from a pre-defined checkpoint upon death (1 Player mode), faster enemy animations, and music being somewhat improved from the arcade version.

The Pc Engine version was re-released for the Wii's Virtual Console in Japan on September 11, 2007. and was released in Japan for PlayStation Network in July 21, 2010.

PlayStation and Sega Saturn Ports

A compilation titled Salamander Deluxe Pack Plus was released in Japan for the Sega Saturn on June 19, 1997, and for the PlayStation on July 6 of the same year. The compilation includes both, the Japanese versions of Salamander and Life Force, as well as Salamander 2.

Mobile Phones Port

Salamander was released for mobile phones in 2003.

PlayStation Portable Port

Another compilation of the Salamander series, titled Salamander Portable, was released for the PlayStation Portable on January 24, 2007 in Japan. The PSP compilation features all three games previously included in the Salamander Deluxe Pack Plus, as well as Xexex and the MSX version of Gradius 2 (aka Nemesis II, which is unrelated to the arcade game Gradius II).

Both the original Japanese version and the enhanced Life Force release are included in the compilation Salamander Deluxe Pack for the PlayStation and Saturn, as well as in Salamander Portable for the PlayStation Portable.

iPhone/iPod Port

On December 20, 2010 it was published in the App Store an application called PC Engine Game Box which served as a portal to download classic PC Engine video games. Among the downloadable titles for a fee there is the PC Engine version of Salamander.