Classic of the Month - Saint Dragon

Manufacturer:	Jaleco
Genre:	Shoot 'em up
Board:	Jaleco Mega System 1-A
Year:	1989

In 1989 Irem released Dragon Breed, a horizontally scrolling shmup where the player controlled a huge dragon, whose tail could be used to shield basic attacks.  Also in 1989 Jaleco released Saint Dragon, which was a horizontally scrolling shmup featuring a dragon, whose tail could be used to shield basic attacks.  Whether this was a coincidence or someone plaguerised the other, I do not know; what I do know is that Saint Dragon is argueably the better game.  The main reason I say this is that unlike Dragon Breed, in Saint Dragon you had complete control over the position of the tail. You could wrap it around your head, put it below you, above you, in front of you, whatever.  This added a defininate layer of strategy to what is otherwise a twitch genre.

Saint Dragon also had a gorgeous art style, with lot shiny, metallic sprites and lots of layers of parallax scrolling.  And what's a shoot 'em up without rousing music?  St Dragon's opening ditty is as bombastic as the best of them.

If I had one criticism of this game it's the weapons.  They are not very imaginative nor do they give you the sense of power that some shmups can muster.  It's not a fatal flaw - otherwise it wouldn't be a Classic of the Month - but it is a bit of a let down.

MTW

Is Game Room Pack 13 the last?

In the lead up to its launch, Microsoft made a lot of fuss about Game Room, but almost immediately after it went live it started to run into troubles.  Developer Krome were in financial difficulty and although they had the rights to emulate and distribute Atari, Konami and Intellivision games, the actual releases were all over the place.  Once Krome closed its doors rumours were rife that this spelt the end for Game Room.  Microsoft themselves have said very little about it either way but what is clear is Game Pack 13 will be the last one for the foreseeable future.

It's a shame, because this was the first really serious effort anyone has made to not only provide a legal emulation service, but one with unique and well thought out features that go above and beyond the remit of emulating old games machines.  While I will admit it was never the best interface for actually browsing and launching games, having that little virtual arcade ka-powing and zapping away on my TV brought back loads of happy memories.

So for reference, here are all the Atari and Konami arcade games that are available in Game Room, along with their Game Pack number:

Name	Manuf.	Pack #		Name	Manuf.	Pack #
Amidar	Konami	Game Pack 12		M.I.A.	Konami	Game Pack 12
Asteroids	Atari	Game Pack 4		Major Havoc	Atari	Game Pack 6
Asteroids Deluxe	Atari	Game Pack 1		Mega Zone	Konami	Game Pack 3
Battlantis	Konami	Game Pack 1		Millipede	Atari	Game Pack 4
Battlezone	Atari	Game Pack 3		Missile Command	Atari	Game Pack 5
Black Widow	Atari	Game Pack 6		Mr. Goemon	Konami	Game Pack 5
Blades of Steel	Konami	Game Pack 12		Ping Pong	Konami	Game Pack 5
Centipede	Atari	Game Pack 2		Pooyan	Konami	Game Pack 12
City Bomber	Konami	Game Pack 9		Rack 'Em Up	Konami	Game Pack 3
Crystal Castles	Atari	Game Pack 1		Red Baron	Atari	Game Pack 1
Detana!! TwinBee	Konami	Game Pack 12		Road Fighter	Konami	Game Pack 2
Devastators	Konami	Game Pack 13		Scooter Shooter	Konami	Game Pack 6
Finalizer	Konami	Game Pack 1		Scramble	Konami	Game Pack 1
Flak Attack	Konami	Game Pack 9		Shao-Lin's Road	Konami	Game Pack 2
Food Fight	Atari	Game Pack 12		Space Duel	Atari	Game Pack 4
Galactic Warriors	Konami	Game Pack 10		Strategy X	Konami	Game Pack 4
Gravitar	Atari	Game Pack 2		Super Basketball	Konami	Game Pack 9
Gyruss	Konami	Game Pack 7		Super Breakout	Atari	Game Pack 3
Hyper Crash	Konami	Game Pack 10		Super Cobra	Konami	Game Pack 2
Iron Horse	Konami	Game Pack 13		Tempest	Atari	Game Pack 2
Jackal	Konami	Game Pack 11		The Main Event	Konami	Game Pack 13
Jail Break	Konami	Game Pack 7		Time Pilot	Konami	Game Pack 4
Jungler	Konami	Game Pack 2		Trick Trap	Konami	Game Pack 12
Juno First	Konami	Game Pack 6		Tutankham	Konami	Game Pack 1
Kitten Kaboodle	Konami	Game Pack 9		TwinBee	Konami	Game Pack 12
Konami GT	Konami	Game Pack 10		Video Hustler	Konami	Game Pack 5
Liberator	Atari	Game Pack 5		Warlords	Atari	Game Pack 6
Lunar Lander	Atari	Game Pack 1		Yie Ar Kung-Fu	Konami	Game Pack 7

UPDMTWE (20/02/2011): On the 17th February, after four months of silence, a new message appeared on the Game Room Facebook page talking about technical problems people are having with the service.  This was followed on the 18th with two posts, one saying they can't recreate the technical problem and another saying this:

"..re GR plan. We are wholly focused on the mobile extension right now. We r also sorting through the bigger plan for GR, but expect us to be dark on that topic for a while because we have a lot to work through. I wish there was more to say at this time, but this is the situation as it stands for now. I cannot emphasize enough how much we appreciate your support. Thank you."

While that doesn't answer any questions, it is evidence that Game Room may not be dead after all. 

MTW

What is JAMMA?

Short for apan Japanese Amusement Machinery Manufacturers Association, JAMMA is an association of arcade manufacturers Atlus, Capcom, Konami, Namco, Sega, Taito and Tecmo.  They started out as a rights movement in 1981, but by 1989 it turned into an organisation that established a set of standards for arcade cabinets, which included standard connectors and video displays.  Chances are, when you've played an arcade machine you have played one built to JAMMA standards, as it allowed distributors and operators to swap out boards without lugging around entire cabinets.

MTW