Silpheed: Super Dogfighter

Silpheed: Super Dogfighter

MS-DOS - USA - 1st edition.

Developer Game Arts Publisher Game Arts, Sierra On-Line Published 1986-12-05 Platforms Apple IIgs, DOS, Fujitsu FM-7, NEC PC-8800, IBM PCjr, TRS-80 Color Computer, TRS-80 Color Computer 3 Genres Scrolling shooter, Shooter Themes Action Distribution Commercial

Silpheed: Super Dogfighter is a scrolling shooter developed and published by Game Arts and first released in Japan on 1986-12-05 for the NEC PC-8800, then later the Fujitsu FM-7. It was ported, translated, and published in the US by Sierra On-Line for Apple IIgs, CoCo, and MS-DOS.

In the game, you pilot the SA-08 Silpheed prototype space fighter in an attempt to stop Xacalite from taking over the Milky Way. The game uses a pseudo 3-D perspective with dithered graphics which looks really impressive for the time.

Personal

Own?	No.
Won?	No.

My cousin Brian had this game for his Tandy 1000 around 1990. I remember being very impressed with the game because it looked much more advance than the scrolling shooters I had seen before it. I particularly liked the music. We weren't very good at it at first, but, as we honed our action game skills, we got better. Learning that there were keys which would warp you directly to the furthest level you made was especially helpful at getting us further into the game. Later, as an adult, I tried to play the game again and got even further, about halfway through the game. I also finally got to hear the game with MT-32 music, which is fantastic. However, I'm not that great at shooters which require twitchy reflexes, so I haven't tried in earnest to beat it, and probably never will.

Review

5	5	6	7	5

Best Version: DOS

— This section contains spoilers! —

Good

• The pseudo-3D look is very effective; the ships rotate and zoom neatly. This was very impressive for 1986.
• The red-gray palette was a good artistic choice, and the use of dithering on the graphics really helps the illusion of 3D.
• The game has really nice music. It's even more impressive on the MS-DOS port with Roland MT-32.
• I really like the HUD which shows your shields, power-ups, and ship damage.
• I love how, as you become more damaged, you lose functionality in your ship. It not only adds to the realism, but also creates a lot of tension as you cling to life.
• For a home computer game released in 1986, this was technologically ahead of its time.
• I like how you slowly build up a collection of more powerful weaponry and how each of the weapons has their own pros and cons to better balance them. For example, the laser is very powerful, but it will reflect back at you when it hits certain enemies, so you have to reconsider its use on certain stages.
• The game has some nice cut scenes. The intro is nice, the scrolling planet effect in the "above planet" levels are really cool, the base stages are interesting, the animated scenes throughout the game are fun, and the ending looks great.

Bad

• Even if you're not trying for a high score, you will see your last weapon upgrade around stage 10. After that, you're stuck with the same weapon options for the rest of the game and won't get anything better. This makes the second half of the game less interesting.
• Despite a fair amount of variety, the game is still pretty monotonous. The ending aside, you will exhaust the bulk of the game's media about a third of the way in. After that, you're just playing more difficult versions of the previous levels, but without getting weapon upgrades.

Ugly

• The game is too hard. I'm a decent action game player, but I still can't get much further than half-way through the game, and, from the longplay's I've watched, it gets a lot tougher. The final stage is a boss rush followed by a massive final boss which will annihilate all but the best players in short order.
• Part of what makes the game so difficult is how it saves your game. While I appreciate that the designers using a save feature, they unfortunately chose to use a mandatory auto-save which maintains your ship's state. This means, if you do a poor job on the boss and lose your power-ups, each time you load your game, you'll start under-powered and probably be unable to recoup your losses by the end of that stage. So, if you're not doing well, you have to be very careful to reset the game before killing the boss or you'll get stuck and have to restart from the very beginning! If you don't have a fully decked-out ship for the final level, you're screwed. Had they let you decide when to save, this wouldn't have been a problem.
• The TRS-80 CoCo ports were severely limited for the weaker hardware. Lots of concessions were made in the graphics, enemy placement, power-ups, etc. The CoCo 3 port looks decent, but doesn't play well, and the port for the original CoCo looks and plays terribly.

Media

Box Art

• 

  PC-88 - Japan - The original box shows the Silpheed docked and being fitted with new weapons. It's gorgeously painted, and I like the Silpheed logo. This is my favorite box.

• 

  DOS - USA - The US box shows a less well-armed Silpheed fighter in space escaping from laser-shooting enemy ships outside a base. The art better depicts the action of the game, but putting the ship in a fleeing position doesn't look very heroic.

• 

  TRS-80 CoCo 3 - USA - Takes the US art and adds an advertisement and a screenshot. Ugly.

Documentation

• 

  Manual - DOS - USA.

• 

  Installation Guide - Apple IIgs.

• 

  Hidden developer message.

Fonts

The fonts from the TRS-80 Color Computer and TRS-80 Color Computer 3 ports are in the video game font collection.

Videos

Longplay - Apple IIgs.

Longplay - DOS.

Game play - Fujitsu FM-7.

Game play - NEC PC-8800.

Game play - TRS-80 Color Computer.

Game play - TRS-80 Color Computer 3.

Play Online

MS-DOS, TRS-80 Color Computer, TRS-80 Color Computer 3

Representation

Strong female character?	Fail	There are no clear characters.
Bechdel test?	Fail	There are no clear characters.
Strong person of color character?	Fail	There are no clear characters.
Queer character?	Fail	There are no clear characters.

Titles

Language	Native	Transliteration	Translation
English	Silpheed: Super Dogfighter
Japanese	シルフィード Super Dogfighter	Shirufido: Super Dogfighter	Silpheed: Super Dogfighter

Links