Darius

Manufacturer: Taito
Year: 1986
Class: Wide Release
Genre: Shooter
Type: Videogame

Monitor:

Orientation: Horizontal
Type: Raster: Standard Resolution
CRT: Color

Conversion Class: unique
Number of Simultaneous Players: 2
Maximum number of Players: 2
Gameplay: Joint
Control Panel Layout: Multiple Player
Controls:

Joystick: 8-way
Buttons: 2 [Fire|Bomb]

Sound: Amplified Stereo (two channel)

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Darius Description

One or two players control a spaceship as the background scrolls away to the left. The game features bosses patterned after marine critters, a terrific stereo soundtrack, and three monitors aligned left-to-right.

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Cabinet Information

The game is played on three horizontally-oriented, 13-inch diagonal color monitors aligned across (so it is quite wide and heavy). The monitors mounted two-face-up, one face forward, and a half reflecting mirror is used to align them with an inch or two of overlap.

Game Play

For the most part, playing this game is simple enough: shoot enemies, collect power-ups (in this case, missile, bomb, and armor) and beat the bosses. What makes it interesting is what happens when you defeat the bosses. You will be given a choice of two paths to take and your choice will depend on which half of the screen you position yourself after beating the boss. As a result, Darius actually possesses 28 stages, but you can only traverse at most seven at a time, making it a huge incentive to try the game again. This and its marine themed enemies became a tradition of the Darius series.

VAPS Arcade Census

GAMES OWNED, WANTED, or FOR SALE BY MEMBERS OF THE VIDEO ARCADE PRESERVATION SOCIETY

Uncommon - There are 7 known instances of Darius owned by one of our 900 members. Of these, 5 of them are original dedicated machines, it is a conversion in which game circuit boards (and possibly cabinet graphics) have been placed in (and on) another game cabinet, and it is a set of circuit boards which a collector could put into a generic case if desired.

Of the 57,113 video games (3,420 unique) tracked by the Video Game Preservation Society, this game ranks a 5 on a scale out of 100 (100 = most commonly seen, 1=least common) in popularity based on ownership records.

Wanted - There are 2 VAPS members currently looking for Darius.

Rarity is NOT necessarily an indication of value. Some common games show up as very rare here because collectors don't want them (they are common because arcade operators might be sitting on tons of them in warehouses), while some fairly scarce games are grabbed by collectors every time they show up. Additionally, some games made in the last 5 years are still making money for operators and are thus not yet affordable to the typical collector. For a clue to value, compare how many people have this game vs. how many people want this game and then click on the eBay links to help determine an accurate price range.

Technical

The Taito triple-screen system uses two M68000s at 8MHz. The stereo sound is driven by two Z80's at 4MHz, which powers two YM-2203 chips (also at 4MHz) and a MSM5205 ADPCM chip.

Future games (Darius II/Sagaia, The Ninja Warriors, and the two-screen Warrior Blade) all eschew the YM/MSM combination in favor of the YM-2610.

eBay Listings

Click here to automatically search eBay's Arcade, Jukebox, and Pinball categories for the Darius Videogame machine and items related to it.

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TODAY'S PICKS FOR:
Darius

1. Arcade pcb board TAITO " G-DARIUS "
Auction ends in: 4 days, 23 hours
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$100.00

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