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Gyruss

Gyruss - Japanese Title

Gyruss - marquee

Manufacturer: Konami
Year: 1983
Class: Wide Release
Genre: Shooter
Type: Videogame

Monitor:

  • Orientation: Vertical
  • Type: Raster: Standard Resolution
  • CRT: Color
  • 19-inch Electrohome G07
Conversion Class: Konami Classic
Number of Simultaneous Players: 1
Maximum number of Players: 2
Gameplay: Alternating
Control Panel Layout: Single Player
Controls:
  • Joystick: 8-way
  • Buttons: 1 [Fire]

Sound: Amplified Stereo (two channel)

Gyruss


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Gyruss 3-D Model (QuickTime (TM))

Gyruss Control Panel Image
Gyruss Side Art Image


Gyruss Description

A shoot-em-up through the Earth's solar system where the player's ship moves in a circular orbit around the outer edge of the screen while shooting at enemies in the center. Excellent synthesizer music score of Bach's "Tocatta and Fugue in D Minor".

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Cheats, Tricks and Bugs

When one takes over the "High Score" at the top of the screen, the 1 Up score and that score will both coincide until one reaches 999990 or so. At this point, the High Score will freeze at 999990 and 1 Up will go back to 0. The only way to verify a score greater than 1000000 is to note that the high score at the top of the screen does not match the High Score recorded in the registry of top players. Add the 1 Up score to High Score at the top of the screen to get total score - or get a friend to keep track of how many times you flipped the machine to calculate scores greater than 2000000.

You can get double fire if you shoot the sun-like enemy that appears in front of you surrounded by two blue pod-like enemies - try to make this a priority.

To make getting double fire easier, try to stay at the bottom of the screen until the "pod and sun" formation appears as it will appear right in front of wherever your ship is after all enemies have entered and they start attacking. There must be at least three enemies left in the level for the "pod and sun" formation to show. If you lose a life and three enemies are left, the "pod and sun" will show up one more time, but if you lose a life after, they will not show anymore until the next level. After you get double fire, the sun enemy will be replaced on later levels with another pod. Destroy all three for some bonus points.

If you have only one enemy left and cannot seem to destroy it, just leave it alone and eventually it will just leave and the level will end.

Each level begins with four formations entering. If you destroy enough of these, a fifth formation will enter. As you pass each planet, more formations will enter towards the top of the screen. Learn to control your ship at the top as it will come in real handy on those Mars and Earth warps.

When formations enter from the edge of the screen, they will not hit you if you are right where they enter. You can use this to your advantage to take out the formation with little or no trouble - just watch out for asteroids.

Asteroids will always appear in your path - they cannot be destroyed so you must get out of the way.

The bee-like creatures with the force field will always appear from the center and move outward. The force field will destroy your ship if you touch it. Destroy one of the creatures to disable their force field.

Game Introduction

The purpose of this game is to fly through the solar system and reach Earth. The other planets that have you travel to before Earth are Neptune, Uranus, Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars. It only takes two warps to arrive at Neptune, but all others including Earth take three warps to get to. Each time you reach a planet, there is a Challenge Stage where you try to destroy as many enemies as possible. After reaching Earth, there is a Challenge Stage followed by a very fast "three warps to Neptune" stage. After this, the levels and the background music start over.

Gyruss has been described as a cross between Galaga and Tempest.

Miscellaneous

Gyruss is most often remembered for its fine musical score that plays throughout the game.

VAPS Arcade Census

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

Very Common - There are 206 known instances of Gyruss owned by one of our 900 members. Of these, 129 of them are original dedicated machines, 10 of them are conversions in which game circuit boards (and possibly cabinet graphics) have been placed in (and on) another game cabinet, and 67 of them are only circuit boards which a collector could put into a generic case if desired.

Of the 57,098 video games (3,420 unique) tracked by the Video Game Preservation Society, this game ranks a 80 on a scale out of 100 (100 = most commonly seen, 1=least common) in popularity based on ownership records.

Wanted - Very Popular - There are 12 VAPS members currently looking for Gyruss. There are 2 VAPS members looking for Gyruss board sets.

For Sale - There are 4 VAPS members with Gyruss machines for sale. There are 4 VAPS members with extra Gyruss circuit boards for sale. VAPS members are totally independent of VAPS and the International Arcade Museum, and we are unable to recommend, endorce, or guarantee any person or company selling games or game parts.

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 game uses two Z80 microprocessors, one 6809 microprocessor, and one 8039 microprocessor. For sound it uses five AY-3-8910 PSGs and a DAC.

Trivia

Although many players believe it is impossible to actually reach Earth, it is possible. Several people on rec.games.video.arcade.collecting have completed the task. Earth is also seen on the title screen during the demo play.

This game was designed by Yoshiki Okamoto. Okamoto designed only two games while at Konami: Time Pilot and Gyruss. He later went to Capcom where he designed 1942, Final Fight, and the Street Fighter series of games.

eBay Listings

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TODAY'S PICKS FOR:

Gyruss

1. Centuri GYRUSS arcade coin op machine

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2. Original Centuri Gyruss Manual and Schematics

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3. Gyruss PCB " WORLD WIDE SHIPPING"

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4. GYRUSS KONAMI arcade game owners manual

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5. Video Arcade Game Marquee: Gyruss

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6. Gyruss Classic Arcade Game

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7. Centuri GYRUSS Cocktail arcade game manual Original

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8. GYRUSS CLASSIC ARCADE VIDEO GAME "SAVE THE EARTH!!!"

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9. Konami Gyruss Video Arcade Game PCB Board 1983

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10. GYRUSS VIDEO ARCADE GAME ~ FUN CLASSIC & PLAYS GREAT!

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Manuals

  1. Instruction Manual  5 Pages, 2041 KB File.
  2. Service Manual  27 Pages, 1873 KB File.


Gyruss - Title screen image


Gyruss - Title screen image

Gyruss - Title screen image

Gyruss - Title screen image

Gyruss - Title screen image


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Gyruss - Image





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