Gun Frontier PCB

I just received a new (well its actually used) PCB this week. The game is called "Gun Frontier" made by Taito in 1990. The story line is pretty strange: space cowboys and mechanical tanks on a distant settlement planet like the old west. There is a nice writeup by Mike Bevan here for the sega saturn version.

Anyway, this is the grandfather of all that is Yagawa/Raizing!



I read how this inspired Yagawa to create Garegga, but after finally playing it in person, I can see Yagawa took MANY things from this game and continues to pay homage in all his Raizing/Crazing games since! You've got the bomb rack, cartridge bullets and casings, flock of flamingos, enemy shrapnel, enemy explosions curling off, enemy/boss point-blanking, swiveling girder arm, destructible scenery, destructible boss parts for extra points, a shimmering cloud background exactly like Ibara & Pink Sweets, ... probably much more since I've only made it to the start of level 4 on a few credits so far. Playing this is almost like digging into the roots of modern music.

The only thing that sucks about it, is the huge hitboxes and rank increase autofire deterant.