Question about Romstar Time Soldiers

dougmanct

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I have a question about the Romstar licensed game Time Soldiers.

I have looked at multiple videos on youtube of this PCB playing as well as my own play of the game ROMS in MAME.

It seems that in all of my research, playing this game, the first level you play is the "prehistoric era" level.

I have a Time Soldiers PCB that appears to be completely legit (Romstar markings on the PCB, looks identical to pics of boards on the internet) that for some reason, plays with the first level being the "roman" level. The "prehistoric" level is the second level on this PCB.

I can't find any source for information as to whether there were multiple versions of this game, or any logical explanation for this anomaly on my PCB.

Anyone who knows the internals of this game and can explain why mine plays different from any other one I've seen who can offer insight would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!
 
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hi Doug, I was the one who gave the game its name from the previous of Battlefield.

far as I remember, there were no eprom revisions to the game. Perhaps a difficulty setting?
 
I own this game as well and mine starts on the roman era, from there it depends on which "portal" you pass or enter.
 
I own 2 PCB/copies of this game and both start at the roman era.


I really wish their were written guides for the rotary games. I am not very good at this game and I really would like to read about Gondomania too.

Tony, did you work on any other rotary games?
 
Interesting! So there does appear to be two different "versions" of the game. I went back and double-checked in MAME and lo and behold there, it starts at the prehistoric era. (this is regardless of difficulty level)

I just wish I could figure out , besides firing up a game and playing, how to tell the "versions" of the game apart. Interesting mystery!
 
I own a Romstar Time Soldiers pcb and a bootleg Time Soldiers pcb and both of them start on the Roman era.

IMO, this is the biggest "quarter eater" out of all the rotary games. It's very difficult to stay alive for long!
 
It is hard, and it cheats to kill you... Helicopters appear out of nowhere if you manage to stay alive too long. :) I will have to check to see which level mine starts on.
 
I own a Time Soldiers (conversion kit) and it has always started in Roman times first. I guess someone should dump this version to mame as well.

It certainly is a hard game! The only way I was able to kill the 'Gylend' was to put it on the easiest settings and then die and start a new credit just before the last stage (that way I had the max # of lives). What the heck does the 'Gylend' say, anyway?

Tony, you worked on this game? I think it's a darn good one. Can you talk a bit about the work you did?
 
To Tony,
Wow, Cal 50 is my favorite game. I own multiple copies and a conversion but not original as I have been unable to find one the last 10 years. Could you talk about any info on this game? I would love to hear it.

Feel free to PM me directly.

Thanks,
Nate
 
I did beta testing and later location testing. The conversation with me and Darryl was kind of fun.

"Check it out. They go back in time, and they're soldiers. time soldiers. Get it?"
"aaaaahhhhhh"

And at the newxt meeting, Mr. Yasuki announced that the name would be changed to Time Soldiers.

We sold about 7,000. It was a pretty large hit.


Had 6 grand years at romstar then 5 years at SNK.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cowboy_Kid
my name in the credits though technically, it was for programming and music rather than graphics.

http://www.nightmarepark.com/6502.php?dir=Romstar SNK/
Various pictures at romstar and SNK. Includes pictures of my steering wheel design for the Neo Geo, my welcome letter to Romstar and design notes for the unreleased system Tera.

Sadly, both jobs are long gone. Those were truly a ton of fun. Some highlights include:

voice in Ninja Warriors and cabinet design to fit my Toyota 88 shortbed hilux perfectly. Still got the truck, too with half a million miles.

Running the home division. Got over 2,000 phone calls due to a programming precept on Twin Eagle. NEVER EVER do a bullet hell in 8 bits!!!!! I explained the power of the nintendo and how pushing 300 bullets, scrolling full screen and music would slow things down bigtime. they understood.

SNK, got in trouble for putting a sex move in a fighting game. (rated pg) Loads of laughs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiB9_FZ-6-s


At present, fighting cancer and designing a new pinball machine computer. Main job involves medical and military computer systems. I can't say anymore about it.
http://www.nightmarepark.com/Pinball Mind.html

When finished, it will sell exclusively through Eldorado Games.



But yup, other than amusement park design, doing movie soundtracks and being wild onstage for Halloween, tis been a pretty good life.
 
To Tony,
Wow, Cal 50 is my favorite game. I own multiple copies and a conversion but not original as I have been unable to find one the last 10 years. Could you talk about any info on this game? I would love to hear it.

Feel free to PM me directly.

Thanks,
Nate


Nate: Cal 50 was never dedicated. We sold as kit only. It is one of my favorite games.

As a goofy aside, every american pilot is actually a cool Japanese businessman named Jun Aida.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqHbQdxnrck&playnext=1&list=PL6755D3174C5A89F0&feature=results_main

Here is the entire soundtrack. It does have a 60s Vietnam feel to it.
 
Thank you so much for sharing.

I have been searching for a cal 50 dedicated for a long time so I guess i will never find it now.

Thank you for the links to the pictures. I did not know Romstar made pinball machines.

Time soldiers sold about 7000 units? This is great as I have always wondered how many of these were made. We have so few actual production numbers especially with late 1980's machines.

Any idea on actual production numbers on cal 50 or any other game you worked on?

Thanks again,

nate
 
Also Tony,

I don't mean to derail this tread but I always wondered.

Did anyone complain or bring up the fact that Cal 50 is too short of a game? You can beat the game in 5 minutes or so. Did they do this for a reason?

This game had such potential so why did they only have conversions? No demand at the time?
 
Not derailing at all, I personally am really enjoying the insights Tony has chosen to share on this stuff. As a software developer myself (not for games, though) I totally get how the products you work on are sort of "your kids" and how you tend to collect and store all kinds of cool little details and stuff about their development.

Thank you, Tony for sharing this stuff! I know I can't be the only one that agrees we can't get enough of it, the inside stories from SNK!

Personal SNK trivia: I was first introduced to "World Heroes 2" playing a Neo Geo demo unit at a local independent video game store way, way, way back when. No idea if I'm the only one, but "Mudman" gave me nightmares, his wacky animations and sound effects tormenting me at night. To this day, for no apparent reason, he occasionally pops into my head, f'ing with me.
 
Thank you so much for sharing.

I have been searching for a cal 50 dedicated for a long time so I guess i will never find it now.

Thank you for the links to the pictures. I did not know Romstar made pinball machines.

Time soldiers sold about 7000 units? This is great as I have always wondered how many of these were made. We have so few actual production numbers especially with late 1980's machines.

Any idea on actual production numbers on cal 50 or any other game you worked on?

Thanks again,

nate



Romstar made 5 pinballs total under the name of Capcom Pinball before folding.
Was in development before the company left.


The biggest run would be the Arkanoid and Revenge of Doh which sold about 13,000 units. The worst would be Super Qix and Castle of Dragon which sold about 50 each and all got returned, they didn't have the legs to stand on.


And yup Nate, Cal 50 is way too short. Was fun but it goes by so fast.
 
Tony, I really wish you would write a book or part of book about your time in the industry.

Do you know of any books about the arcade industry 1985-1990? It seems that games from this era have very little information on them. I have been told that games from 85-90 are actually much more rare than the classics and modern games for most of the production runs were low, just conversions, and/or cabs got trashed or converted into SF2 or mortal kombat by now. Also demand for this era of games seems lower to me for some reason. I have had a really hard time even getting my time soldiers and cal 50 cabinets and they are both terrible conversion that I had to completely redo. For instance, Gondomania I was not able to find for about 5 years at all. Seems to be more rare than Time soldiers. Some of the other rotary games also appear to be quite rare too.

also, you didn't happen to work or see Darius back in the day did you? This is one game I have to own one day but I have never seen one or even played it.
 
Tony, I really wish you would write a book or part of book about your time in the industry.

Do you know of any books about the arcade industry 1985-1990? It seems that games from this era have very little information on them. I have been told that games from 85-90 are actually much more rare than the classics and modern games for most of the production runs were low, just conversions, and/or cabs got trashed or converted into SF2 or mortal kombat by now. Also demand for this era of games seems lower to me for some reason. I have had a really hard time even getting my time soldiers and cal 50 cabinets and they are both terrible conversion that I had to completely redo. For instance, Gondomania I was not able to find for about 5 years at all. Seems to be more rare than Time soldiers. Some of the other rotary games also appear to be quite rare too.

also, you didn't happen to work or see Darius back in the day did you? This is one game I have to own one day but I have never seen one or even played it.

I didn't work on Darius but we got one to test out Ninja Warriors since the wiring harness is identical. Tis a basic SCHMUP but I dug the music.

will think on a boom, others have asked me. Many projects on the table, the biggest being pinball mind. This would be the first game I design from start to finish as in hardware and software. Others I have done only partials.
 
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