A thread for Gradius II on the Famicom with magazine scans, videos & more

[Parallax Scroll]

The Famicom version of Gradius II fascinated me, because we never got it on the NES in the United States. It was even more impressive than Life Force was. The leaps from NES Gradius to LifeForce / Salamander to Gradius II Famicom on the same console was pretty spectacular, though Gradius II on the Famicom had some extra help in the form of a custom Konami chip.

We got Life Force, which itself wasn't quite as good as Salamander on the Famicom.

The Japanese version had a Konami VRC3 memory management controller that Life Force NES did not have.

And yet, Gradius II on the Famicom had an even more powerful Konami chip, the VRC4, allowing for a significant leap in graphics and audio.

Compared to the earliest Famicom games in 1983, Gradius II looks almost 16-bit. Maybe not technically, but relatively speaking.

These are mid 1989 previews from EGM and GamePro for Famicom Gradius II which had already been released overseas in 1988.

Enjoy!

The Konami VRC4 memory management controller (MMC) chip is what they were referring to.

Inside the Famicom Gradius II cartridge:

Gradius NES (1986)

Salamander Famicom (1987)

[video=youtube;tIx0zHhx4oc]

Life Force NES (1987)

[video=youtube;dt-pMJiQTTk]

Gradius II Famicom (1988)

[video=youtube;4KfvX61n9Bk]

Will also be adding things about the PC-Engine CD version (which can still be downloaded on the Wii eShop) in NA, as well as other games in Gradius / Salamander / Life Force series.

Edited February 13, 2017 by Parallax Scroll

[+Charlie Cat]

 

The Famicom version of Gradius II fascinated me, because we never got it on the NES in the United States. It was even more impressive than Life Force was. The leaps from NES Gradius to LifeForce / Salamander to Gradius II Famicom on the same console was pretty spectacular, though Gradius II on the Famicom had some extra help in the form of a custom Konami chip.

Excellent Parallax Scroll. This will be awesome for sure!

 

Anthony...

[Parallax Scroll]

So, I was inspired to make this thread, in part, because of this story that I came across doing research on the Famicom version of Gradius II.

 

https://retrogamesuperhyper.wordpress.com/2016/11/13/my-weird-obsession-with-famicom-gradius-ii/

 

 

 

 

 

It was in EGM issue #3 August/September 1989, which I remember buying at a newsstand at a store in Chicago that August.

I remember reading it on a CTA bus going home!). Full color scan in my OP!

 

 

 

At the dawning of the 16-bit era, import videogames were a practically mythical: previewed and reviewed by videogame mags, but unavailable to the average American gamer unless you actually visited Japan or you had some contacts over there. It wasn’t like today, where you can hop on ebay and spend a few bucks and have a rainbow of multicolored Famicom cassettes delivered to your door before you know it. From what I remember, it wasn’t until Strider (and its surrounding hype — AN 8 MEG CARTRIDGE!!) came out on the Sega Mega Drive that import game purveyors began appearing in the pages of gaming magazines, promising rabid Genesis owners that for a little extra (and the purchase of an adaptor), they could play the Japanese version of this and many other games before they were available in the US. Thus began the practice of import videogame collecting, adaptors (or simple physical console and cartridge modding), and new subculture among videogame enthusiasts. Naturally, it followed that early adopters could also buy the Super Famicom and its paltry offering of launch software before it was released in the US.

Anyway, one day I thought I’d give one of these import game places a call and see if I couldn’t track down a copy of Gradius II. To give an idea of the precise point in time, the Genesis and TurboGrafx were out in the US, and the Super Famicom had just launched in Japan. It wasn’t even yet known what form the console would take in the US: there were rumors of it being an add-on for the NES, or maybe a new console that would play both NES and SNES games, but nobody knew for sure. So I picked a place that had a small ad in EGM called Japan Video, located somewhere in Canada, because I think their ad said they had Famicom games.

My call was answered by a very nice Japanese lady who spoke broken English and at first couldn’t understand what I was asking for. I had asked if they had any Famicom games, because I was looking for a specific game. She said, “Yes, we have nine games for Super Famicom.”

I clarified that no, I was actually looking for a game for the original Famicom, and to this day, I can still hear her hilarious answer:

“What you want that for? That go outta style long time ago.”

I laughed and told her well no, here in America we didn’t have the Super Famicom yet, and I didn’t have a Genesis or TurboGrafx, so I was still playing the NES, and I was looking for Gradius II. So we had a nice little chat about how the Super Famicom was very cool, and the Super NES might be an adaptor for the NES, but unfortunately no, she did not have any original Famicom games.

And thus, a unicorn was born, and its name was Gradius II for the Famicom.

Over the years, I obtained and played various versions of Gradius II on other formats: PC-Engine, Sega Saturn, PlayStation Portable (PSP’s Gradius Collection was actually the first time Gradius II was officially released in the US), and even finally got to play the Famicom version via emulation on the PC and found out that yes, it was way cooler than a Famicom game should be (although even more technically impressive games came out throughout the Famicom’s life cycle).

 

It still wasn’t enough. Even though the other versions were technically superior, I needed that Famicom cartridge. As time went on, I searched ebay and vendors at game expos for it. It’s not a hard game to find — I came across plenty of loose copies, but I wanted a CIB copy for a fair price. I’m not one to overspend on my collection; I know what things are worth and what I’m willing to pay for them, and most CIB copies I found were overpriced for my wallet.

 

The climax to this story is not particularly dramatic. A couple years ago, I was keeping an eye on an ebay auction for a CIB copy of Gradius II for the Famicom, and my ebay phone app woke me up one morning at about 5:30 with an alert that the auction had only 10 minutes remaining. There were no bids on it, so I groggily clicked on the auction and threw out a maximum bid because screw it, I was half asleep. 10 minutes later, I was the uncontested owner of the game I had wanted for 20 years for the very reasonable sum of 35 bucks. Ta-da!

Still, there was nothing quite like finally opening that box a week later, shipped from Japan, and holding that chrome silver box with the iconic green and orange spaceship graphic. Gradius II. For the Nintendo Family Computer. It was mine at last.

 

Then I plugged it into my old-school Honey Bee Famicom-to-NES adaptor (which I bought in the mid-’90s and is still in mint, working condition), turned it on, and promptly got my ass whooped because Famicom Gradius II is really frickin’ hard. The End.

 

Edited February 13, 2017 by Parallax Scroll

[lazzeri]

Great story!

 

If you need pics of the MSX versions PM me.

[Tanooki]

Ok that first post I swear I saw it elsewhere before and I replied to it, but this, this thread is better if anything because of that quest for Gradius II story on the bottom end of it.

 

I too had heard of the game back in the 90s, probably was EGM as I had a free sub to it (never got into Gamepro but did see some.) I had a circle way around getting it too which was a bit different. I had got a Turbo Duo around 1997-98 and starting digging into the JP library of CD games since I had no HuCard adapter. I bought a lot of games at a local shop (which now still exists but the owner turned mean on anyone who doesn't buy from him, he who asks 2-4x ebay rates) in the HuCard format but also discs as he had both imports and not. I found out about Gradius II on there early as I originally sought and got Dracula X, Macross 2036 and a few others. I think it may have been on tzd.com (turbo zone direct who sold all new duos, tgs, pce, pcecd and games for both) where I finally found it along with other goodies and snapped it up. The CD version was like arcade accurate as I used to poke around with MAME in its early days before it was cool to screw with rom sets by release and force huge re-downloads.

 

Years (many) later I still remembered the FC version and like you, emulated it and it was marvelous, even if a bit flawed in early emulation of the 90s as people still tried to figure stuff out. It wasn't until maybe 7 years ago I got of all things in a trade the retrozone release of the cart in a NES style shell and wow was it fun. As odd as it may be I don't even have it anymore, I got offered a ridiculous amount of cash for it and did it, but what I did for me was best, reinvested like 10% of that money and bought a nice FC copy of the game and it still sits with me today. I too have a honeybee I got around 5-6 years ago through a pair of really poorly done ebay auctions so I had no worries, worked great, and it still also works great direct in a Retron5 too. I know a lot of people ogle Crisis Force as Konamis gift of shooter godliness for the FC but I still think Gradius II has the edge on it in many more subtle ways.

 

Truth be told I've never finished it, it's freaking hard, but I don't hate it for that matter though. I've taken down 1 and 3, but 2 eludes me on Famicom. Fairly certain I did it on the TG CD back in the day but that was in the 90s and I forget.

[Parallax Scroll]

Ok that first post I swear I saw it elsewhere before and I replied to it, but this, this thread is better if anything because of that quest for Gradius II story on the bottom end of it.

 

 

 

Yeah that was my thread over on digitpress / classic gaming. I didn't include that story over there yet.

[Tanooki]

Ahh don't bother it's mostly a dead board. Other than celery over there almost no one contributes to new topics as it is really.

 

It's a fantastic post about a really great game. It's got me right on the edge of maybe pondering getting another couple Famicom games to dink around with a bit as it has been well over a year since I bought my last legit cartridge and some of them have some real class and style. I'm contemplating making a Famicom thread on here just to see what suggestions may shake out. Maybe I'll do it in 5min, 5 hours, tomorrow or not but I've been thinking more about it between this post of yours and that other one with the 300+ games picked up as I even learned about one I didn't know of with that Valkyrie in it that looks cool.

[0078265317]

It was a great. Me and my friends loved it back in the day. Also that gameboy on the first magazine left does not have purple buttons. Weird.

[Parallax Scroll]

Another Gradius II story:

 

 

 

https://forum.digitpress.com/forum/showthread.php?104561-Gradius-II-And-Me

 

 

Gradius II And Me

by Rob "Dire 51" Strangman

1994. The beginning of the closing days of the 16-bit wars. The next generation of gaming was almost upon us. And here I was, playing my SNES, Genesis and TG16, not caring at all about the fantastic gaming promises that the future held. In fact, I was going backwards. I had a nice collection of SMS games that I would play on a regular basis, and I was still playing and loving my NES games. My Atari 2600 and 7800 games were getting a serious workout every so often as well.

At the time, I wasn't working. Rather, I was living expenses-free at my parent's house in Central Florida and using the money I still had in savings from my last job to buy the un-necessities I "needed", such as videogames and CDs. Most of my friends had left the area, due to their new naval careers, and I had no real desire to get off my butt and find work or go back to school, nor would I for at least another year. I was enjoying a fairly responsibility-free existence.

My best friend Chris came back on leave at this time. One night he and I were driving around Orange City when we spotted a new videogame store that had apparently just opened, called the Video Game Warehouse. I had never seen it before that day, despite traveling through that part of Orange City quite a bit. It was closed at the time, but we vowed to come back the next morning and check it out.

The next afternoon - I was a late sleeper; after all, I didn't need to be anywhere - Chris, our friend Steve (who was about to go into the Navy) and I arrived at the Warehouse. We walked inside, and we could see that for such a small store, it had a huge selection of games going from the current stuff back to the NES. There were also several arcade cabinets, including a Neo Geo.

Steve and Chris were astonished to find that the Street Fighter II machine there allowed you to switch characters in mid-game by pressing a button, and as such were glued to it. I, on the other hand, had no interest in SF2, bizarre gameplay alteration or not. So after watching them play for a minute, I decided to browse the selection of games for sale (and rent, as it turned out).

There was nothing there that I was extremely interested in, so my attention started to wander. It was then that I noticed several small boxes hanging from the ceiling. I'm a tall guy, so I was able to get a good look at the boxes. They were in Japanese, and I noticed that several of them had a logo that read "FF: Famicom Family". At the time, I didn't know much about the Famicom, but I did know that it was the Japanese version of the NES. My interest in these boxes was suddenly piqued.

It was then the owner of the store came out from the back room. He greeted us, and went about whatever it was that he was doing at the time. I continued to look at the Famicom boxes, and the last one I looked at was hanging in a corner of the store. It was silver, and I noticed the Konami logo on the side.

More importantly, I then saw the Vic Viper on the front of the box. My jaw dropped as I realized I was looking at the box for Gradius II, the fabled Gradius sequel that had never been released in the U.S. Chris and I had read (and drooled over) the previews of the game we'd seen in EGM and Gamepro a couple of years earlier, and we were both extremely disappointed when this incredible game never surfaced in stores. Immediately I went over to where Chris was still playing SF2 and excitedly told him what I had discovered. He was enthused, but wanted to finish the game he was playing before he checked it out.

So I went to talk to the owner, Shaun. I asked him if the games that he had hanging from the ceiling were for sale. His response was a look of surprise. "You mean you actually want to buy one?" he asked. I assured him that I did, and he said to wait here, that he'd be right back. He then disappeared into the back room.

Several minutes later, he came out with a small plastic tote loaded with Famicom games. My jaw dropped for the second time in ten minutes. At this point, Chris and Steve had finished their game, and had come up to the counter. The look on Chris' face when he saw the tote matched the one on mine, I'm positive of that.

"So which one are you interested in?" Shaun asked. I picked out Gradius II, and he nodded. "That's a great one," he said. "Never could finish it myself." He then asked if I had a Famicom or a way to play it on my NES. I said I didn't have either, and he fished three Honeybee converters out of the tote. I picked the gold one (the other two were grey), and he asked if I was interested in anything else. I saw another game called Holy Diver, the box for which I had noticed earlier. It had piqued my curiosity due to its surface resemblance to Castlevania, so I picked it out and put it on top of Gradius II.

Then came the big question: the price. Shaun thought for a few moments, then said "Twenty dollars for both games and the converter." Having expected to hear a price much higher than that, I covered my surprise and immediately said "Sold." Shaun took both boxes down from the ceiling, put the games in them and rung me up, and then it was Chris' turn.

By the time we walked out of the store, Chris had bought the Famicom version of Dragon Spirit and a converter, Steve had bought nothing (since he wasn't really into videogames I honestly didn't expect him to buy anything), and Shaun had gained a customer for life. I frequented the store for the next two years, until a robbery forced Shaun out of business (at least, that was the story I got). Gradius II worked beautifully on my NES (Holy Diver had some odd glitches), and I was incredibly happy, as it was probably the most incredible 8 bit game I had ever seen, and a stellar entry in the Gradius series. As far as I knew, I now had all of the console Gradius releases, and I couldn't be happier; plus I had gotten my first taste of importing.

Little did I know that my first taste wouldn't be my last.

[mikey.shake]

The material in this thread is FANTASTIC! Thank you for sharing!

 

I'd always been attracted to the "exotic" aspect of the Famicom library growing up, but it wasn't until I grew up that I was able to get my hands on a converter of some kind and start picking up a few. I limited myself to "Japan-only" games (with a few exceptions), and as my wife had then-recently shared her childhood love of Life Force with me, I realized I was smitten with Konami shooters. So Gradius II was up near the top of the list. (Okay, TwinBee was first.)

 

I was so impressed by it in just about every way. The graphics were a leap above Life Force and even those are pretty damn good. The music was cool, the weapon system was impressive in context -- it just popped right off the screen. I even remember being so anxious for the couple weeks it took to ship from Japan. I loved, loved, loved it, but was inexplicably still gaming on a cheap-ass plasma screen with notable lag at the time. I made it to the boss rush, but was no match for it. I still want to go back and try again on the CRT I've since acquired, but I'm afraid of getting spanked again.

 

Anyway, I adore this game, glad to see I'm not the only one. Thanks again for taking the time to post all this!

[0078265317]

By the way speaking of gradius. Part 1 nes just found the coolest game genie code.

 

POVLUN All the enemies disappear. Super easy now. So much fun now. Got to try it.

 

http://nintendocodes.blogspot.com/

[Parallax Scroll]

Mikey, thanks for the great post and your own story -- Glad you're enjoying this thread.

 

And now some coverage of the PC-Engine Super CD version of Gradius II.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

-I'm really enjoying the NA Wii Virtual Console version. It's kicking my ass though.

 

Also, I found a pretty sweet HD Remake of the PCE CD intro:

 

Edited February 15, 2017 by Parallax Scroll

[Parallax Scroll]

This post isn't well organized, it's mainly coverage of the arcade version of Gradius III (1989) the first Game Boy Gradius (aka Nemesis) and the Super Famicom / SNES version of Gradius III.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Tanooki]

Gradius III was really the pinnacle of the franchise.

[Dire 51]

Another Gradius II story:

 

 

 

https://forum.digitpress.com/forum/showthread.php?104561-Gradius-II-And-Me

 

Sorry for the necro-bump, but I just stumbled across this thread. Odd to see this one turn up elsewhere. Just a heads-up: this story was edited and published in my 2014 book Memoirs of a Virtual Caveman, which can still be found on my publisher's website and on Amazon. I also sell autographed copies, PM me for more info.

 

Gotta say, it's been a treat seeing these old scans again after all these years.

[Parallax Scroll]

Bumpin' this thread because I wanted to post this video I came across last night.

 

 

I think it's really cool they mention the Gradius II articles from EGM.

[DragonGrafx-16]

So, I was inspired to make this thread, in part, because of this story that I came across doing research on the Famicom version of Gradius II.

 

https://retrogamesuperhyper.wordpress.com/2016/11/13/my-weird-obsession-with-famicom-gradius-ii/

 

 

 

 

 

It was in EGM issue #3 August/September 1989, which I remember buying at a newsstand at a store in Chicago that August.

I remember reading it on a CTA bus going home!). Full color scan in my OP!

 

 

 

 

 

Wait, I thought VRC4 games did not work in NES.... they actually do?

[Tanooki]

Wait, I thought VRC4 games did not work in NES.... they actually do?

Yeah, they do, where'd you get that idea? Was it maybe the fact the VRC6 and 7, and various other third party boards have their own added sound channels that the stock NES/top loader can't handle because of removed things from it? If you do a simple mod to a US system, or go nuts and have a hidefnes kit installed, full audio is restored.

[DragonGrafx-16]

Yeah, they do, where'd you get that idea? Was it maybe the fact the VRC6 and 7, and various other third party boards have their own added sound channels that the stock NES/top loader can't handle because of removed things from it? If you do a simple mod to a US system, or go nuts and have a hidefnes kit installed, full audio is restored.

I canceled an order of TwinBee 3 because I found out it was a VRC4 game and didn't know it would work. Good to know that it will. Just ordered it again. As far as I can tell TwinBee 3 only uses the VRC4 and not additional sound channels.

Edited November 26, 2018 by TravisHuckins

[Tanooki]

The VRC2 and 4 are fine, no added audio until you're up to the 6 and 7. I own the game, have for awhile and it never sounded any different on a stock system, emulator, retron 5, or the hi def nes kit either in my top loader. Now Castlevania 3J i had to re-buy that one as I dumped it after the crappy R5 was tossed, but after getting the hi def kit, I did get it and it's fantastic once more.

[RetroGameSuperHyper]

Hey, my blog stats told me that this thread pointed someone in the direction of my "My Weird Obsession with Famicom Gradius II" article. Thanks for including it in your discussion! Glad you liked it! I remember seeing that GamePro article on it too, but I never really cared for that magazine so I never bought it, just flipped through it at the bookstore. Nice to see the original color scan of the EGM article in the OP as well, and the rest of the Gradius coverage from all the US magazines. Those were great days!

 

TJ

retrogamesuperhyper.com

[Tanooki]

Hey, my blog stats told me that this thread pointed someone in the direction of my "My Weird Obsession with Famicom Gradius II" article. Thanks for including it in your discussion! Glad you liked it! I remember seeing that GamePro article on it too, but I never really cared for that magazine so I never bought it, just flipped through it at the bookstore. Nice to see the original color scan of the EGM article in the OP as well, and the rest of the Gradius coverage from all the US magazines. Those were great days!

 

TJ

retrogamesuperhyper.com

Well it's a well read piece, and good on you for keeping up on the stats. Stick around, despite the atari name there's a lot of stuff covered here as all sorts of interests are covered which seem to include things on your site.

[RetroGameSuperHyper]

Well it's a well read piece, and good on you for keeping up on the stats. Stick around, despite the atari name there's a lot of stuff covered here as all sorts of interests are covered which seem to include things on your site.

[RetroGameSuperHyper]

 

Well it's a well read piece, and good on you for keeping up on the stats. Stick around, despite the atari name there's a lot of stuff covered here as all sorts of interests are covered which seem to include things on your site.

Oh yeah, I've been visiting AtariAge for many many years, I think I used to be registered for the forums but I just created a new login -- figured I might as well align it with my blog. Anyway, not to derail the topic, yay Gradius! ?

Edited January 13, 2019 by RetroGameSuperHyper