DonPachi
Developer(s)	Cave
Publisher(s)	Atlus
Release date(s)	November 1995
Genre(s)	Manic shooter
Mode(s)	Single player, 2 player Co-op
Platform(s)	Arcade, PlayStation, Sega Saturn
Input	8-way Joystick, 3 Buttons
Arcade cabinet	Upright
Arcade system(s)	Cave, 1st generation
Arcade display	Raster, 240 x 320 pixels (Vertical), 2048 colors

DonPachi (首領蜂, DonPachi^?) is a vertically scrolling manic shooter arcade game, developed by Cave and released by Atlus in 1995. Literally the title means "leader bee", but it is also an onomatopoeic expression associated with the sound of firing guns. It is one of the first manic shooters. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... A video game developer is a software developer (a business or an individual) that creates video games. ... Cave is a Japanese video game company, known in the West primarily for its incredibly manic shoot-em-ups. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Atlus is a Japanese computer and video game developer and publisher. ... 1995 1995 in games 1994 in video gaming 1996 in video gaming Notable events of 1995 in video gaming. ... Video games are categorized into genres based on their gameplay. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... In computer games and video games, single-player refers to the variant of a particular game where input from only one player is expected throughout the course of the gaming session. ... Doom popularised co-op on the PC. Cooperative gameplay (often abbreviated as co-op) primarily refers to a feature in video games that allows players to work together as teammates with the absence of player-controlled competitors. ... Centipede by Atari is a typical example of a 1980s era arcade game. ... The Sony PlayStation ) is a video game console of the 32/64-bit era, first produced by Sony Computer Entertainment in the mid-1990s. ... The Sega Saturn ) is a 32-bit video game console, first released on November 22, 1994 in Japan, May 11, 1995 in North America and July 8, 1995 in Europe. ... Joystick elements: 1. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Button (computing). ... This arcade cabinet, containing Centipede, is an upright. ... An arcade system board is a standardized printed circuit board or group of printed circuit boards that are used as the basis for multiple arcade games with very similar hardware requirements. ... A computer display monitor, usually called simply a monitor when the meaning is clear from the context, is a piece of electrical equipment which displays viewable images generated by a computer without producing a permanent record. ... Suppose the smiley face in the top left corner is an RGB bitmap image. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Centipede by Atari is a typical example of a 1980s era arcade game. ... Year 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full 1995 Gregorian calendar). ...

Description

The player flies a ship over various terrains, encountering a number of land and air enemies. The player's ship has two modes of fire: by tapping the fire button, shots are fired; holding it down produces a concentrated vertical beam, but also reduces the ship's speed.

Fighters

The player can choose one of three aircraft at the start of the game, or upon continue: A continue screen for Marvel vs. ...

• A red fighter, which fires a narrow stream of shots
• A green helicopter, which fires its main guns forward, but has side guns that rotate in the direction of movement
• A blue fighter, which fires a wide, three-way spread of shots

A helicopter is an aircraft which is lifted and propelled by one or more horizontal rotors consisting of two or more rotor blades. ...

Weapons

Guns

Each aircraft has a main forward-firing gun, and two small, floating guns, which it deploys at the start of the game. The placement of the guns is different on each craft, which affects their firing style:

• On the red fighter, the guns circle in front of the craft, combining their firepower with the fighter's main guns.
• On the green helicopter, the guns (which, like the helicopter, use blades to hover) keep position directly to the left and right, and can rotate to provide sweeping fire.
• On the blue fighter, the guns are near the rear, and angled outward, providing diagonal fire.

Beam

If the fire button is held down, the floating guns combine in front of the ship to produce a vertical beam. This also makes the ship move more slowly.

Bombs

The ship has a limited number of bombs, which are activated by pressing the bomb button; they produce a large explosion which damages or destroys all enemies on screen, and makes all enemy projectiles disappear for the entire duration of the explosion.

If the player presses the bomb button whilst firing the beam, the ship unleashes a high-powered beam instead, which does more damage to a specific target.

Power-ups

There are three power-up items in the game, identified by different letters: Power Up, the Professional Organization of Women in Entertainment Reaching Up is an organization with the stated mission to promote the visibility and integration of gay women in entertainment, the arts, and all forms of media. Power Up provided funding and assistance to the 2003 short film . ...

• P: Makes the player's guns stronger and beam thicker. Two of these items must be collected for one level of power-up; when the first is collected, the player's shots turn darker in color.

• B: Adds one bomb to the player's supply. The player can hold a maximum of three bombs at start. This number increases as the player loses lives. At the end of a stage, the player's bomb supply is fully restored.

• MP: Appears after the player has lost all their lives; if they continue, then collecting this powers up the player's weapons to full strength.

Trivia

• The name of the game is a pun; the kanji literally means "leader bee", but the word "donpachi" is also a Japanese onomatopoeia for the sound of a gun firing. There are a number of references to bees in the game: the most obvious is the bee icon that can be picked up for high scores. In between levels, there are red hexagons falling down the screen, which resembles a bee hive.
• After finishing Area 5, players will be put through the stages again, in what appears to be a hard mode. With no apparent drop in weapon power, the difficulty of this mode lies in the enemies, which now explode into bullets when destroyed (sometimes called 'suicide bullets' or 'ricochet effect'). If the player gets through the final stage in this mode, he/she will face off the real boss in the game, which is a mecha bee.
• When the player is about to encounter a boss, the "Warning" signal will begin flashing. During this time, there is a panel of Engrish text appearing intermittently. The text reads: "This is not similation. Get ready to destoroy the enemy. Target for the weak points of f**kin' machine. Do your best you have ever done."
• If you read high score table vertically, the initials will read, "TOAPLAN FOR EVER". Cave is one of the four offshoots of Toaplan (along with 8ing/Raizing, Takumi, and Gazelle), which closed its doors in 1994.

A regular hexagon. ... The term Beehive can refer to several different things: Beehive (beekeeping) is a human-provided structure in which bees are induced to live and raise their young. ... For the fictional robot, see Mecha. ... An example of Engrish on clothing. ... Toaplan was a video game developer from Japan. ... 8ing/Raizing (also called Eighting/Raizing, Raizing, Eighting or 8ing) is a Japanese video game company mainly known for its shoot-em-ups, but they have also ventured in the fighting genre with the Bloody Roar (AKA Beastorizer) series, the Bleach: Heat the Soul series (based on the anime and... Takumi is a Japanese video game company that mainly develops arcade shoot em ups. ...

External link

• DonPachi at the Killer List of Videogames