Baraduke

Arcade Video game published 40 years ago:

Baraduke (c) 1985 Namco, Limited.

Baraduke is a side/vertical scrolling shooter in which the player walks and flies Kissy through an alien base blasting baddies on the way. The scrolling isn't forced, but players aren't able to go back once they've passed into a new area. Rescuing little rabbit-eared blobby cyclopes will give you a chance at extra hit points. It's not a brilliant game, but there's something oddly compelling about it. The little aliens saying "I'm your friend!" when you save them is much appreciated, as is their willingness to sacrifice themselves by suiciding against the boss monster at the end of every level.

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU : Motorola M6809 (@ 1.536 Mhz), Hitachi HD63701 (@ 1.536 Mhz)
Sound Chips : Namco 8-channel WSG
RAM : (8x) 6116, (4x) 2148

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 1

- TRIVIA -

Baraduke was released in July 1985 in Japan. The game did well, but not much more.

In the game's logo, all consonants are uppercase and all vowels are lowercase.

Namco had the reputation of making cute games but Takahashi, the game planner, was tired of making cute games. So the developers tried to make the most disgusting graphics possible. The game was inspired by movies such as Alien and Nausicaa (both for the heroine seen in the ending but also for one of the bosses, inspired by Ohmu). One of the monsters is inspired by Pac-Man (roughly speaking, it was a “bad version of Pac-Man”).

The names Kissy and Takky (for Takahashi and Kishimoto), used for players 1 and 2, were not meant to remain in the game. The developers used them during the development and thought that they should replace them with “1P” and “2P”, as it was customary at Namco. But when Kishimoto’s superior saw the game with the names Takky and Kissy, he didn’t ask to remove them.

Kissy is the original Japanese space heroine pre-dating Metroid by a year. She's also the mother of Susmo Hori (a.k.a. Mr. Driller) and ex-wife of Taizoo Hori, the original Dig Dug!

Export releases:
The game is known outside Japan as "Alien Sector".

Soundtrack releases:
Namco Video Game Graffiti [CD] [VDR-1165] - Victor (March 21, 1986)
Namco Video Game Graffiti [Tape] [VCH-10334] - Victor (March 21, 1986)
Namco Video Game Graffiti [Vinyl] [SJX-30291] - Victor (March 21, 1986)
Namco Game Music Volume 2 [CD] [28XA-171] - Alfa Records (August 25, 1987)
Namco Game Music Volume 2 [Tape] [ALC-22914] - Alfa Records (August 25, 1987)
Namco Game Music Volume 2 [Vinyl] [ALR-22914] - Alfa Records (August 25, 1987)
Namco Game Music Volume 2 [CD] [SCDC-00234] - Scitron Digital Content Inc. (April 23, 2003)

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Easter Egg: Enter Service Mode, then press Right to change the sound effect to 01. Press the service button to display the screen calibration test grid, then press Left (x4), Right, Left (x2), Right (x5), Fire.

* Easter Egg: If you enter your name as one of the developers nicknames on the high-score list, you'll get a multicolored rainbow flashing effect for 8.5 seconds (See STAFF section for nicknames).

* Another item that can be found inside the capsules is the ray gun, which will upgrade Kissy's ray gun to a higher power level, allowing him to kill the enemies quicker. But when he is hit, his ray gun power level will decrease by one.

* The bonus game can be very tricky. If you save a Paccet on a regular floor, you will have any amount of Paccets from 1 to 8 (depending on how many you have saved) in the bonus game. This will increase your chances of getting an extra shield. If you have 8 Paccets, you'll definitely get an extra shield in the bonus game. Every time you get a Paccet in the bonus game, you'll get an extra shield but lose all your Paccets and you'll have to start saving them again.

* If you have Paccets on a boss floor, they will sacrifice themselves to help Kissy by throwing themselves at the boss for him. The boss will be stunned for a few seconds, which allows you to get in some free shots.

* On some floors, the ground and walls have invisible holes in them. These can help Kissy get away from the enemies. And if a projectile fired by an enemy hits a wall or the ground, it will dissipate.

- SERIES -

1. BaRaDuKe (1985)
2. Bakutotsu Kijuutei - Baraduke II (1988)

- STAFF -

Programmer: Yoshihiro Kishimoto (KISSY)
Designer: Yukio Takahashi (TAKKY)
Sound composer: Junko Ozawa (JUNKO), Yuriko Keino (YURI.), Norio Nakagata (NKGT.)

Other: Satou Makotoshi (MAKO.), FIGER, WATAB

- PORTS -

NOTE: These are Japanese ports only. See the "Alien Sector" entry for ports released outside Japan.

* CONSOLES:
[JP] Sony PlayStation (feb.28, 1997) "Namco Museum Vol.5 [Model SLPS-00705]"
[JP] Nintendo Wii [Virtual Console Arcade] (oct.13, 2009)
[JP] Microsoft XBOX 360 (nov.5, 2009) "Namco Museum - Virtual Arcade [Model 2RD-00001]"

* COMPUTERS:
[JP] Sharp X68000 (may.26, 1995) by Dempa

- CONTRIBUTE -

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