Gaplus (rev. B)
The third game in Namco's classic "Galaxian" series, Gaplus picks up where 1981's "Galaga" left off. While maintaining the same classic 'look' of its predecessor, Gaplus's graphics are a definite improvement over those of "Galaga"; the game's increased color palette and subtle use of shading making the attacking aliens look rather more solid.
Another enhancement over its prequel is in the addition of a player-acquired 'Tractor Beam'. In "Galaga", only the enemies had access to the beam; enabling them to capture one of the player's 'Fighter' ships (the player then had to shoot the captor to release the Fighter). For the sequel, however, the player can now acquire the Tractor Beam. This is achieved by shooting one of the alien formation's 'generals' - a visibly more colourful alien than its comrades. The Tractor Beam will then activate for a limited time and any aliens the players captures (up to a maximum of six) will dock alongside the player's ship for enhanced firepower.
One final yet important addition is in the movement of the player's ship. In previous installments, the ship could only move left and right along the bottom of the screen; in Gaplus, however, the ship can now move UP the screen - although only to the halfway point. This is important as the alien's aggressive attack patterns will often see enemy craft swirling around the bottom of the play area.
As with "Galaga", Gaplus features regular 'Challenging Stages', with benign aliens swooping across the screen for the player to shoot as many times as possible, in order to try and spell out a word and earn extra bonus points.
Another enhancement over its prequel is in the addition of a player-acquired 'Tractor Beam'. In "Galaga", only the enemies had access to the beam; enabling them to capture one of the player's 'Fighter' ships (the player then had to shoot the captor to release the Fighter). For the sequel, however, the player can now acquire the Tractor Beam. This is achieved by shooting one of the alien formation's 'generals' - a visibly more colourful alien than its comrades. The Tractor Beam will then activate for a limited time and any aliens the players captures (up to a maximum of six) will dock alongside the player's ship for enhanced firepower.
One final yet important addition is in the movement of the player's ship. In previous installments, the ship could only move left and right along the bottom of the screen; in Gaplus, however, the ship can now move UP the screen - although only to the halfway point. This is important as the alien's aggressive attack patterns will often see enemy craft swirling around the bottom of the play area.
As with "Galaga", Gaplus features regular 'Challenging Stages', with benign aliens swooping across the screen for the player to shoot as many times as possible, in order to try and spell out a word and earn extra bonus points.
Gaplus (rev. B)
Télécharger Gaplus (rev. B)
Contents of the ROM :
Technical
CPU
- maincpu M6809 (@ 1 Mhz)
- sub M6809 (@ 1 Mhz)
- sub2 M6809 (@ 1 Mhz)
- 62xx:mcu MB8843 (@ 2 Mhz)
Chipset
- Namco 15XX (@ 0 Mhz)
Display
- Orientation Tate
- Resolution 255 x 224
- Frequency 60.60606 Hz
Controlers
- Number of players 2
- Number of buttons 1
- Kind of controler joy (8 ways)
Gaplus (rev. B) Screenshots
Clones of Gaplus (rev. B)
If you liked Gaplus (rev. B)
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Tips on Gaplus (rev. B)
* Easter Egg :
1) Enter service mode.
2) Keep Start and Button 1 pressed, move joystick Left until sound reaches 19. '(c) 1984 NAMCO' will appear on the screen.
* These tips are all variations on the same theme :
1) On Parsec 1, allow all of the enemies to appear and fly into formation without shooting any of them. After the boss alien appears (the one that carries the tractor beam attachment), you'll see a pulsar similar to the ones the aliens appear from fly from just above the boss alien to the middle-right of the screen. Once it's gone by, shoot only the second alien from the left in the bottom row of the formation. A 'Special' flag will appear just below where it was; pick it up and you'll get a bonus ship.
2) In Parsec 1, go up to the very front and wait for all the bugs to come out. Then kill the 2nd bug from the left in the bottom row to make the special flag appear. Now, when the boss is coming down, move your ship and kill yourself by touching it. Don't touch the blaster head, just the boss. Your ship is turned into the blue one, and go get the special flag.
* Another Approach To The Same Situation : At the start of the Parsec 1, push straight up until you stop. DON'T shoot! Just sit there and let all the bugs form. Right after the last row of bugs get into formation, a star will shoot from the top left side of the screen to the bottom right. If you time this right you can get up to five shots on it. After about ten hits on the star (it will come out at random times during the game) it will transform your ship into a new ship that can shoot three shots on the screen (three shots vertically in a row) instead of just two.
1) Enter service mode.
2) Keep Start and Button 1 pressed, move joystick Left until sound reaches 19. '(c) 1984 NAMCO' will appear on the screen.
* These tips are all variations on the same theme :
1) On Parsec 1, allow all of the enemies to appear and fly into formation without shooting any of them. After the boss alien appears (the one that carries the tractor beam attachment), you'll see a pulsar similar to the ones the aliens appear from fly from just above the boss alien to the middle-right of the screen. Once it's gone by, shoot only the second alien from the left in the bottom row of the formation. A 'Special' flag will appear just below where it was; pick it up and you'll get a bonus ship.
2) In Parsec 1, go up to the very front and wait for all the bugs to come out. Then kill the 2nd bug from the left in the bottom row to make the special flag appear. Now, when the boss is coming down, move your ship and kill yourself by touching it. Don't touch the blaster head, just the boss. Your ship is turned into the blue one, and go get the special flag.
* Another Approach To The Same Situation : At the start of the Parsec 1, push straight up until you stop. DON'T shoot! Just sit there and let all the bugs form. Right after the last row of bugs get into formation, a star will shoot from the top left side of the screen to the bottom right. If you time this right you can get up to five shots on it. After about ten hits on the star (it will come out at random times during the game) it will transform your ship into a new ship that can shoot three shots on the screen (three shots vertically in a row) instead of just two.
Gaplus (rev. B) and M.A.M.E.
0.62 [Stephane Humbert]
0.35b9 [Manuel Abadia, Ernesto Corvi]
Artwork available
Samples required
Bugs:
- In reverse scrolling stages after challenging stages, the background should scroll quickly. Fujix (ID 00434)
WIP:
- 0.141u1: New NAMCO 62xx device with internal ROM (I/O and explosion generator) [Dr. Decapitator, Phil Bennett, Andrew Gardner]. Added MB8843 (2048000 Hz) CPU4 and MCU rom 62xx.bin.
- 0.139u1: Atari Ace removed global variables from NAMCO sound core.
- 0.136: Fabio Priuli converted Namco IO chips 56xx, 58xx and 59xx to be devices and converted Gaplus to use the new code.
- 0.133u1: Brian Troha added DIP locations to Gaplus and clones.
- 0.131u1: MooglyGuy merged memory maps in Gaplus.
- 0.118u5: Changed palettesize to 768 colors.
- 0.106u12: MASH added pld ($0 - pal10l8.8n) to Gaplus and clones (alternate hardware) and (rev. B).
- 0.106u2: Fixed rom names in clone Gaplus (alternate hardware).
- 0.93: Added clock parameter to Namco 15XX sound (24000 Hz).
- 0.90: Brian Troha fixed Gaplus driver to use its samples (bang.wav).
- 0.79u1: Replaced Namco sound with Namco 15XX.
- 0.78u4: Nicola Salmoria added non-hack cocktail mode implementation to Gaplus and working 'Round Advance' dipswitch. Changed description of clones 'Galaga 3 (Midway)' to 'Galaga 3 (set 3)' and 'Galaga 3 (alternate set)' to 'Galaga 3 (set 2)'. Added dipswitches 'Round Advance', 'Demo Sounds' and 'Unused'.
- 0.62: Added Gaplus (rev. D). Changed 'Gaplus (set 1)' to clone 'Gaplus (alternate hardware)' and clones 'Gaplus (set 2)' to 'Gaplus (rev. B)', 'Galaga 3 (set 1)' to 'Galaga 3 (rev. C)', 'Galaga 3 (set 2)' to 'Galaga 3 (Midway)' and 'Galaga 3 (set 3)' to 'Galaga 3 (alternate set)'. Renamed (gaplusa) to (gapluso), (gaplus) to (gaplusa), (galaga3a) to (galaga3m) and (galaga3b) to (galaga3a).
- 2nd September 2002: Stephane Humbert added a new version to the Gaplus driver.
- 0.37b14: Added clone Galaga 3 (set 1). Renamed (galaga3) to (galaga3b).
- 27th March 2001: Guru added new ROM sets for The Final Round, Galaga 3 and Tecmo World Cup '90.
- 0.37b12: Changed VSync to 60.606060Hz.
- 10th April 2000: Guru - Dumped Galaga 3 (Namco, alt set 3).
- 28th March 2000: Manuel Abadia added cocktail support to Baraduke, Metro-Cross, Gaplus and Pandora's Palace.
- 12th April 1999: Ernesto Corvi sent in a newer Gaplus driver with custom IO chips fully emulated (all 4 sets work now) and some other changes like correct starfield speed.
- 0.35b9: Manuel Abadia and Ernesto Corvi added Gaplus (set 1) (Namco 1984) and clones (set 2) and Galaga 3 (set 1) and (set 2).
- 29th March 1999: Nicola fixed the screeching sounds of Gaplus.
- 28th March 1999: Ernesto Corvi sent in a new Gaplus driver with preliminary Galaga 3 support added (not working because of a different custom I/O chip).
- 27th March 1999: Ernesto Corvi sent in a much better Gaplus driver which is now fully playable and has also sound support.
- 26th March 1999: Nicola fixed Gaplus colors.
- 24th March 1999: Ernesto Corvi has sent in a preliminary driver for Gaplus (happy now QuarterGuy?), made by Manuel Abadia and him. There are still many things to figure out, first being controls and colors.
LEVELS: 40 (endless)
Other Emulators:
* HiVE
Romset: 99 kb / 20 files / 53.0 zip
0.35b9 [Manuel Abadia, Ernesto Corvi]
Artwork available
Samples required
Bugs:
- In reverse scrolling stages after challenging stages, the background should scroll quickly. Fujix (ID 00434)
WIP:
- 0.141u1: New NAMCO 62xx device with internal ROM (I/O and explosion generator) [Dr. Decapitator, Phil Bennett, Andrew Gardner]. Added MB8843 (2048000 Hz) CPU4 and MCU rom 62xx.bin.
- 0.139u1: Atari Ace removed global variables from NAMCO sound core.
- 0.136: Fabio Priuli converted Namco IO chips 56xx, 58xx and 59xx to be devices and converted Gaplus to use the new code.
- 0.133u1: Brian Troha added DIP locations to Gaplus and clones.
- 0.131u1: MooglyGuy merged memory maps in Gaplus.
- 0.118u5: Changed palettesize to 768 colors.
- 0.106u12: MASH added pld ($0 - pal10l8.8n) to Gaplus and clones (alternate hardware) and (rev. B).
- 0.106u2: Fixed rom names in clone Gaplus (alternate hardware).
- 0.93: Added clock parameter to Namco 15XX sound (24000 Hz).
- 0.90: Brian Troha fixed Gaplus driver to use its samples (bang.wav).
- 0.79u1: Replaced Namco sound with Namco 15XX.
- 0.78u4: Nicola Salmoria added non-hack cocktail mode implementation to Gaplus and working 'Round Advance' dipswitch. Changed description of clones 'Galaga 3 (Midway)' to 'Galaga 3 (set 3)' and 'Galaga 3 (alternate set)' to 'Galaga 3 (set 2)'. Added dipswitches 'Round Advance', 'Demo Sounds' and 'Unused'.
- 0.62: Added Gaplus (rev. D). Changed 'Gaplus (set 1)' to clone 'Gaplus (alternate hardware)' and clones 'Gaplus (set 2)' to 'Gaplus (rev. B)', 'Galaga 3 (set 1)' to 'Galaga 3 (rev. C)', 'Galaga 3 (set 2)' to 'Galaga 3 (Midway)' and 'Galaga 3 (set 3)' to 'Galaga 3 (alternate set)'. Renamed (gaplusa) to (gapluso), (gaplus) to (gaplusa), (galaga3a) to (galaga3m) and (galaga3b) to (galaga3a).
- 2nd September 2002: Stephane Humbert added a new version to the Gaplus driver.
- 0.37b14: Added clone Galaga 3 (set 1). Renamed (galaga3) to (galaga3b).
- 27th March 2001: Guru added new ROM sets for The Final Round, Galaga 3 and Tecmo World Cup '90.
- 0.37b12: Changed VSync to 60.606060Hz.
- 10th April 2000: Guru - Dumped Galaga 3 (Namco, alt set 3).
- 28th March 2000: Manuel Abadia added cocktail support to Baraduke, Metro-Cross, Gaplus and Pandora's Palace.
- 12th April 1999: Ernesto Corvi sent in a newer Gaplus driver with custom IO chips fully emulated (all 4 sets work now) and some other changes like correct starfield speed.
- 0.35b9: Manuel Abadia and Ernesto Corvi added Gaplus (set 1) (Namco 1984) and clones (set 2) and Galaga 3 (set 1) and (set 2).
- 29th March 1999: Nicola fixed the screeching sounds of Gaplus.
- 28th March 1999: Ernesto Corvi sent in a new Gaplus driver with preliminary Galaga 3 support added (not working because of a different custom I/O chip).
- 27th March 1999: Ernesto Corvi sent in a much better Gaplus driver which is now fully playable and has also sound support.
- 26th March 1999: Nicola fixed Gaplus colors.
- 24th March 1999: Ernesto Corvi has sent in a preliminary driver for Gaplus (happy now QuarterGuy?), made by Manuel Abadia and him. There are still many things to figure out, first being controls and colors.
LEVELS: 40 (endless)
Other Emulators:
* HiVE
Romset: 99 kb / 20 files / 53.0 zip
