Games

Arcade アーケード

Gradius II ~GOFER no Yabou~ - グラディウスＩＩ ～ＧＯＦＥＲの野望～

Main

I first played this at Southend-on-sea, Essex in 1988 when it first came out, what can I say, this made Salamander look quite rubbish. You had huge levels, Power Meter Select weapon choices, huge flaming suns.

I next played it at the PCW (Personnel Computer World at Earls Court, London) show in 1988 where my brother was in a C64 contest with Zzap!64 magazine, while my brother was doing that I walked around the show and found Operation Wolf (4 machines side by side!!! with huge cues for each, just a few feet away they had Vulcan Venture and the game (like all the arcade games at the show) was on freeplay, there were huge crowds of people surrounding the machine.

When it was my turn to play I could not make it past the Crystal stage 3, it wasn't until 1991 when me and my brother bought an arcade machine (Powarcade made by Silverline for £310) and Vulcan Venture (£210), both were bought from from Arcade Gamer in Trading World, Bexleyheath (now closed and converted to three or four large shops), Trading World had maybe 30 small shop and Arcade Gamer was one of them selling import selling Mega Drive, Super Famicom, PC Engine and of course arcade boards. We also bought Thunder Cross (£190), Wardner and a few others.

Japanese flyer advertising the game

Different Versions

There are three different versions of Arcade Gradius II GOFER no Yabou and three for Vulcan Venture.

This is because some people can do infinite play with the old version by getting more than 70,000 PTS by each life. In the old version, players ranks up the Points at the Jumping Moai (before the Big Moai boss) and at the Big Moai boss.

The main changes in the different versions are the extend bonus setting.

Gradius II GOFER no Yabou

• 1st version - gradius2b (Japan Older Ver): 1st 20,000 PTS Every 70,000 PTS
• 2nd version - gradius2a (Japan Old Ver): 1st 20,000 PTS Every 70,000 PTS
• 3rd version - gradius2 (Japan New Ver): 1st 20,000 PTS Every 150,000 PTS

Vulcan Venture

• 1st version: vulcanb (Oldest)
• 2nd version: vulcana (Old)
• 3rd version: vulcan (New)

I'm not to sure about Vulcan Venture, as the title screen looks the same on all three versions.

The original Arcade Gradius II GOFER no Yabou provide no Continue but rumours are someone hacked the Continue feature from Vulcan Venture.

Thanks to Seahawk

Next Page: - Operator's Manual And Dip Switch Settings

Section Index

Page 1 - Main

Page 2 - Operator's Manual And Dip Switch Settings

Page 3 - Controls

Page 4 - Flyers

Page 5 - Western Release Version Vulcan Venture

Page 6 - Game Ending