Sega Taikan cabs were massive
crowd pleasers back in the day, wowing arcade goers with the very latest arcade
tech.Not to be outdone, Taito’s
response to this was the incredible Darius triple-screen cabinet, released in
1987.
WARNING!! A
HUGE PCB IS APPROACHING FAST
Darius was the highlight of
my recent Raid in Weymouth. I must admit I was pretty shocked to see this one
in the crate amongst the PCB’s, although the large triple layer boardset isn’t
exactly hard to miss.Just look at the
size of it, it’s almost as intimidating as those mechanical aquatic
monstrosities which appear at the end of each level!
The PCB is a little dusty,
but is otherwise in very good cosmetic condition.
Aaron, aka GadgetFreak (Ukvac)
very kindly made a custom harness to test my Darius PCB.
Given that the board is
thirty years old, the complexity and the fact it had been stored in a dusty
crate, I didn’t have high hopes.Needless to say I was absolutely amazed to find it’s fully working!
On the first boot up, we did
get a Ram Error, possibly because all the power points weren’t connected.However the board was tested numerous times
afterwards and proved to be fully working.
The game plays surprisingly well
just using the centre monitor.At first
we were a bit concerned sprites were missing, but then remembered it was
designed for triple-screens.Only the
centre monitor was connected and the ships were still off screen!Here is a short video of Darius up and
running.
Here are three shots showing
the left, centre and right monitor.
In order to seamlessly
connect the three-screens together inside the arcade cabinet, the left and
right monitors were placed underneath the playfield, facing upwards, with their
visuals reflected into view via a one-way mirror.The centre monitor was placed behind the
mirror and is the only one actually facing the player.The reflection of the two bottom monitors
partially overlaps the third monitor, giving the illusion of a seamless massive
horizontal playfield.
The placement of the monitors
can be seen in this pic of The Ninja Warriors, taken at Mikado game centre.
The music is absolutely
fantastic and is one of the first great soundtracks to come from Zuntata,
Taito’s in-house band.The PCB has left
and right channel headphone outputs and the cab came equipped with headphone
jacks, another innovative feature.
The Making of Darius
Source: Shmuplations.com
The website shmuplations.com
has a report entitled ‘The Making of Darius’.This is a translation of an article which originally featured in the
4/87 edition of BEEP! magazine.It’s an
excellent read about Darius and its development, and includes an interview with
the team behind the game.There are some
great insights.I found it fascinating
to hear that once they got the three monitors working seamlessly, there was a
lot of debate around what type of game to make and that there was even an idea
to make all three monitors vertical!
Like many Taito arcade titles
released here in the UK, the cab was produced under license by
Electrocoin.I asked Electrocoin’s John
Stergides about how they managed to develop such a strong working relationship
with Taito, and he commented “The founder and owner Mr Kogan, was good friends
with my father when the TAITO UK division was discontinued.HQ in Japan decided to appoint Electrocoin as
their distributer and manufacturer and we still have a close relation with them
however at this time there are currently no new products earmarked for Europe.”
When asked about Darius, John
Stergides noted “The game was built at our factory for the European and Middle
East markets although some units made it to the USA.We built over 100 units and the machine sold
for £6,000.It had a moderate income.”Hopefully there are still a couple of
machines out there, gathering dust, just waiting to be found!
Here is an Electrocoin Darius
cab at ‘Jim’s Arcade’ on Blackpool seafront, by the PleasureBeach,
back in 2009. The picture is used with
kind permission and remains the copyright of Steve Rich.
I don’t recall ever seeing a
Darius cab on these shores, although I did see The Ninja Warriors triple-screen
cab many years ago on a school trip to the zoo.There was a fault, either the controls weren’t working correctly or a
monitor was dead, and the cab had an ‘Out of Order’ sign prominently displayed.I remember removing the obtrusive sign, putting
one or two ten pence pieces in it anyway and having a go.The cab must have made quite an impression on
me as that’s the only thing I can remember about the trip!
I recently visited an arcade
on Fleetwood seafront whilst on holiday.
The arcade had various fruit machine glass and video game marquees
displayed on the walls, and I was particularly intrigued to see this one.
I did ask the owner about it,
but unfortunately he couldn’t tell me much about the machine.
Darius in Japan
Here are some pics of the
awesome Darius games I’ve played in Japanese game centres.
TRY Amusement Tower,
Akihabara, 2004
TRY Amusement Tower, 2011
Taito HEY (Hirose
Entertainment Yard), Akihabara, 2011
The awesome Dariusburst:
Another Chronicle EX.
The game runs on the PC-based Taito Type X² hardware and continues the multi-screen design with two 32” LCD screens.One monitor faces the player, and there is a mirror next to it.The other monitor faces upwards with a flipped image, and angled mirrors are used to create a seamless, double wide screen.The cab also features vibrating body-sonic seats and headphone jacks.
A pretty impressive Darius II
set-up.
Mikado, Takadanobaba, 2011
Both Darius and The Ninja
Warriors were selectable via a switch.The Darius II is a duel-screen cab.Interestingly two different versions of the Darius II PCB were produced,
one for duel-screen and one for triple-screen.
St. Tropez, Ikebukuro, 2011
Taito Station, Hiroshima,
2011
G-Darius and Darius Gaiden
are on the left of the row.
Sega Avion, Osaka, 2011
Darius Gaiden
When I visited Taito Station
in Osaka back in 2011, I loved that there was a book for fans to write comments
and exchange tips about Darius Burst.
I would love one of these in
the games room!
On these shores, Dariusburst:
Another Chronicle EX can now be played at Arcade Club, Europe’s
largest free play video and pinball arcade.
It’s fantastic to see Dariusburst back in the UK
after having an all too brief spell at the now closed Casino arcade in London.
Check out the awesome Dariusburst banners!
Play Continue Game?
Darius is incredible for its
time and its legacy lives on. The game
has a large following and there have been many sequels released over the years
for the arcade as well as home systems.
In fact Taito has recently announced Darius Cozmic Collection for the
Nintendo Switch, a compilation of classic Darius titles, due for release early
next year. Darius is a landmark title
and the legendary series will be enjoyed by gamers for many years to come.
