Rygar - Legend Warrior (c) 1986 Tecmo.
Armed with a deadly mace-like weapon tipped with a spinning razor disc, Rygar the warrior must fight through twenty-seven sideways scrolling levels, killing the vast swathes of enemy monsters that attack him.
Bonus items and weapon power-ups can be found, sometimes dropped by felled monsters but more commonly hidden in the stone carvings that litter the levels. Weapon power-ups include an increased range on the mace and a shield that render Rygar temporarily invincible to the enemies.

>>> TECHNICAL DETAILS
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Game ID : 6002
Main CPU : Z80 (@ 4 Mhz)
Sound CPU : Z80 (@ 4 Mhz)
Sound Chips : YM3812 (@ 4 Mhz), MSM5205 (@ 384 Khz)
Screen orientation : Horizontal
Video resolution : 256 x 224 pixels
Screen refresh : 60.00 Hz
Palette colors : 1024
Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2
=> [A] Attack, [B] Jump

>>> TRIVIA
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This game is known in Japan as 'Argus no Senshi - Legendary Warrior'.

>>> GAME UPDATES
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The differences between the US (set 1) and US (set 2) are :
* 'Set 2' has a bug in the code which lets p2 start a game when p1 is already playing. You need to set a dip-switch to enable this behavior (it is usually on by default). If you press '2' while p1 is playing a single player game, 'Set 2' will check that you have 1 or more credit before it registers that you're now in a 2 player game, but it won't deduct the credit. That's a bad bug and probably accounts for why a bug-fix version was released.
* In 'Set 2', if p2 starts while p1 is already playing, it says 'playre2' instead of 'player2' at the top right.
* The first screen of 'Set 2' says 'ALL RIGHT RESERVED' - missing an 'S' - that's fixed in 'Set 1'
The differences between the US and Japanese (Argus no Senshi) are :
* The demo sequences are different.
* The Japanese version seems to have more hidden powers, stars and an extra free life.
* The US version is more biased towards stars and explosions.
- SCORING -
* Enemies :
1) Ape : 350 points
2) Blue Monkey : 150 points
3) Cave Bat : 330 points
4) Crab : 200 points
5) Cave Lizard : 100 points
6) Death : Invulnerable.
7) Dragon : 1250 points (with or without rider).
8) Dragon Rider : 0/230 points
9) Drone : 100 points
10) Giant Flying Fish : 150 points
11) Giant Demon : 2000 points (killed normally)
12) Giant Worm : 100 points
13) Griffin : 230 points
14) Mutant Tribesman : 230 points
15) Mutant Frog : 200 points
16) Mutant Villager : 200 points
17) Mutant With Tentacles : 220 points
18) Lava Man : 230 points
19) Rhino (small) : 150 points
20) Rhino (large) : 760 points (1000 points with rider).
21) Snake: 500 points
22) Swooping Bat : 250 points

* Artifacts :
Coin : 200 points bonus. The ones that shoot out of fire pits on some levels can be shot instead of collected but doing this gets you only 100 points.
Blue item : 500 points bonus.
Round blue item : 1000 points bonus.
* Temple bonuses :
1) Repulse Bonus : you get 200 points for each enemy destroyed. Up to a maximum of 12.800 points.
2) Rank Bonus : you get the points for whatever rank you're currently on.
3) Timer Bonus : you get 100 points for each remaining second.
* Rank bonus : it's based purely on the number of kills you've made in total per rank, regardless of dying. After you get promotion count the number of kills from zero again. As you can see the stripes start off pretty inconsistent but end up just being another stripe per 50 kills. If you kill an enemy with the Cross power's force field (i.e. you run into it, not shoot it) you get the points but nothing counts towards your rank. If you die and continue you keep your rank, but not your score. However, I have just found out that if you set the bonus lifes to any other values other than the default 50k/200k/500k the amount of baddies you need to kill is effectively doubled.
1) 1st rank :
Score awarded in temple : 0 points, plus 1000 points for each stripe. The minimum score for this rank is 1000 points.
Number of kills for stripe : II = 20 Kills, III = 50 Kills, IIII = 90 Kills (promotion to second rank on 130 kills. Count kills from 0 again)

2) 2nd rank :
Score awarded in temple : 5000 points, plus 1000 points for each stripe.
Number of kills for stripe : I = 40 Kills, II = 90 Kills, III = 140 Kills, IIII = 190 Kills (promotion to third rank on 240 kills)
3) 3rd rank : :
Score awarded in temple : 10.000 points, plus 1000 points for each stripe.
Number of kills for stripe : I = 50 Kills, II = 100 Kills, III = 150 Kills, IIII = 200 Kills (promotion to forth rank on 250 kills)

4) 4th rank :
Score awarded in temple : 15.000 points, plus 1000 points for each stripe.
Number of kills for stripe : I = 50 Kills, II = 100 Kills, III = 150 Kills, IIII= 200 Kills (promotion to fifth rank on 250 kills)
5) 5th rank :
Score awarded in temple : 20.000 points, plus 1000 points for each stripe.
Number of kills for stripe : I = 50 Kills, II = 100 Kills, III = 150 Kills, IIII = 200 Kills (promotion to sixth rank on 250 kills)
6) 6th rank :
Score awarded in temple : 25.000 points, plus 1000 points for each stripe.
Number of kills for stripe : I = 50 Kills, II = 100 Kills, III = 150 Kills, IIII = 200 Kills (promotion to 'BEST' rank on 250 kills)
7) BEST rank :
Score awarded in temple : 30.000 points
Once you get the 'BEST' rank, your rank is actually still increasing by 1 stripe/1000 points for every 50 kills. For some reason the programmers decided to continue the ranking system but not to include any more graphics. But, if you get it to 64,000 the next bonus goes back to 1000 points!!! On the high score table the rank badge loops around and displays the first rank onwards. I would have thought that they'd have changed the colour of the wings or something. It looks very strange to finish the game with 4.000.000 points and have the first rank!

>>> TRICKS AND TIPS
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* 10,000 Points Bonus : At the end of each level, at THE VERY INSTANT the game takes control and guides you into the temple, pull diagonally Left-down on the joystick. Do it right and you'll get 10,000 points.
Note : The hundred number of your points must be the same as the units of your time, for example, 33,330 points and 13.30 seconds, or 100.000 points and 00.00 seconds.
* 2nd 10,000 Bonus : there's a 10k bonus available from the 4 creatures that stand on each others shoulders. You must kill all 4 of them before they touch the ground. There's several ways to do this but the easiest way is with the Crown and Sun powers. Simply stand at the bottom of the stack and shoot straight up! On round 17 these creatures are unlimited and form a new stack every few seconds. Staying back on that round after a time-out might even net you as much as an extra 100k if you can dodge Death for long enough! I have seen players use this trick to get over half a million on that round alone simply by staying back for long periods of time and using up their lives.
* 50,000 Bonus : this one is scored from any of the large blue demons that appear at the end of every 4th round and also there's two on the final round. You need the Tiger power for this, just jump on his head and kill him for an easy 50k! There's eight in the game so that's a luscious 400,000 points for the lot! Mmmmmm!
* 1st 70.000 Bonus : you can get 70.000 points for collecting the stars hidden in the stones. For each 7 you collect, you get 70k regardless of how many times you died.
* 2nd 70.000 Bonus : the Star Tree. In the middle of round 13 there is a tree where if you shoot at it in various places stars will appear. Every star you reveal counts as one collected. So in other words you can reveal all the stars and get 70k and then collect them to get a total of 140,000 points. Some of the stars are in bad positions so you'll have to bounce off a falling warrior to collect them or wait for Death and bounce off him. This part of the round is also where the parchment is (see below).
* 100.000 Bonus : if you finish the game you only receive a 100.000 points bonus. This is strange as it is only the third highest bonus in the game.
* 160.000 Bonus : this is received by collecting all 5 of the special powers. The bad thing is it can only be gained once per life.
* 1.000.000 Bonus : on round 13 there's a hidden parchment which is worth 1.000.000 points! It's located in-between the same area as the famous Star Tree and the next house. The place to shoot at is at the left side of the house just below the title Time. When you shoot nothing will happen except make a sound like you're hitting something. After about 12 hits (about 4 or 5 with the Crown and Sun powers) a red parchment will fall down which is worth 1.000.000 points when collected. Grab it quick because it vanishes after only a few seconds!

>>> GAME SERIES
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1. Rygar - Legend Warrior (1986)
2. Rygar (1987, Nintendo NES)
3. Rygar - The Legendary Adventure (2002, Sony PlayStation 2)
3. Rygar - The Battle of Argus (2009, Nintendo Wii)

>>> GAME PORTS TO OTHER SYSTEMS
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* Consoles :
Sega Master System (1988)
Atari Lynx (1990)
Microsoft XBOX (2005, 'Tecmo Classic Arcade')
* Computers :
Commodore C64 (1987)
Amstrad CPC (1987, 'Rygar let's fight!!!')
Sinclair ZX Spectrum (1988)
Sharp X68000 (1994, 'Video Game Anthology Vol.9')

>>> OTHER GAME RESOURCES
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Game's rom.
Machine's picture.