Dangun Feveron (Japan, 98/09/17 VER.)

Arcade Video game published 27 years ago:

Dangun Feveron (c) 1998 Cave.

A vertically scrolling shoot-em-up from the undisputed masters of the genre, 'Cave', Dangun Feveron features the usual Cave trademarks of intuitive, power-up driven gameplay backed-up with superb graphics and sound.

Dangun Feveron features a very high level of player customisation. At the start of a new game, players are prompted to select 3 different ship attributes; the speed of ship they wish to pilot (from a choice of four), which of the 3 rapid-fire weapons they prefer, and their preferred choice of sustained-fire weapons (activated by holding down the FIRE button). This allows players to tailor the ship to suit their individual needs and gameplay styles, be it a fast-flying speeder with widespread shots to handle enemy squadrons, or a ship with a lower speed that makes it easier to negotiate the swathes of enemy bullets that often fill the screen.

Another of the game's selling points is the capture-and-score system. Initially, every enemy destroyed is worth only one point. However, whenever an enemy is destroyed, coloured spheres appear in its wake, each containing a trapped, human prisoner. The spheres can then be collected by the player to earn additional points. For each prisoner saved, the total points gained from each enemy killed increases by one. For example, saving 56 prisoners means every subsequent defeated enemy is worth fifty-seven points. When the spheres appear, they drift slowly towards the bottom of the screen, before moving back up towards the top where, if they are not collected in time, they drift out of the screen and beyond the player's reach. This resets enemy-destroyed score back to a single point per enemy. If the player loses all of their lives and chooses to 'Continue' the game, the rescue count is reset to zero.

Dangun Feveron's final distinction was in its use of music and sound effects, with the game's creators drawing heavily on the disco sound of the 1970s.

- TECHNICAL -

Game ID : CV01

Cave 1st Generation Hardware

Main CPU : MC68000 (@ 16 Mhz)
Sound CPU : Zilog Z80 [Optional]
Sound Chips : Yamaha YMZ280B (@ 16.9344 Mhz) or OKIM6295 x (1 or 2) + YM2203 / YM2151 [Optional]
Other : 93C46 EEPROM

Screen orientation : Vertical
Video resolution : 240 x 320 pixels
Screen refresh : 57.55 Hz
Palette colors : 2048

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 3

- TRIVIA -

Released in September 1998.

The title of this game translates from Japanese as 'Bullet Gun Feveron'.

Licensed to Nihon System for distribution.

This game is known outside Japan as "Fever SOS".

Dangun Feveron / Cave [Scitron / Gamest - SGCD-0004 - Dec 4, 1998]

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Secret Guest Character (from "Uo Poko") : insert a coin and press quickly Down, Up, Right, Left, Up, Down, Left, Right, Start. 1P cat's name is Uotaro and 2P cat's is Poko (81). Note : At the continue (when you loose), you need to enter this code a second time, just after inserting a new credit, to continue to play with this guest character.

* Time Attack Mode : insert a coin, hold A+B and press Start simultaneously.

* You can kill enemies offscreen to the left and right, but not the top and bottom. This can be very useful for getting to later patterns. DM will still appear.

* If you have your side-guns powered up, a quick change in direction can be used to 'whip' their spread to kill popcorn enemies. Useful for killing offscreen enemies as well.

* There are specific triggers, sometimes apart from killing things fast that cause new formations to appear. Many yet to be deciphered.

* At ~2200 DM a 1UP will appear at the center of the screen. Usually triggered late in stage 3 or early in stage 4.

* Seems it is best to use Ship B with bomb or roll. Bomb appears to be higher scoring (due to chaining explosions) and require more planning, while roll is more frantic but kills many large enemies quickly.

* There is a maximum saturation of DM that can be onscreen at one time ~80. After which no DM will spawn, this can be detrimental to score especially in Stage 3.

* If the sphere boss at the end of stage 5 is beaten having not died, you will get a level bonus, then face the true boss. You will be invincible unless you use bombs and will get another level bonus when you kill it.

* Bonus for clearing the game is 100,000 per bomb and 500,000 per life left. These are doubled if you finish by defeating the true last boss.

- STAFF -

Music composed by : Ryuichi Yabuki, Nanpei Misawa

- CONTRIBUTE -

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