Lost Taito Arcade Game Discovered? The Game NOBODY Knows About Operation Tiger: Second Mission!
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If you know my channel you know I love obscure games...and it does NOT get much more obscure than Operation Tiger by Taito. It's a classic light gun game (well in reality an X/Y coordinate game but they all fall into the same genre) that runs on CUSTOM Taito 3D silicon. It's the only game released on the board...and its exceedingly rare! But at least I can show it to you via the power of MAME and hope someone watching can help me find an OG board to tear down and capture for the channel! Because the retrogaming addiction for rare 3D arcade boards that need more love in me is STRONG!
But what if I told you I have evidence that a SEQUEL / Upgrade to Operation Tiger existed called Operation Tiger: Second Mission...and what if I showed you evidence that a lost game might be out in the wild! I'd call that a video game preservation win and a retro gaming mystery!
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RayceARoni, Tyler Ohlew, Kuranghi, Jason Hixon, Sam Matthews, Alex Tessler, Jonathan Leung, Martin Donlon, Tom Van Deusen, Bob Maladroit, Steve Randall, shotgunl, Andrew Bunch, K-2, Eric Walklet, J Z, Ivan Wennerholm, Adrien Sebbane, David Rhodus, tobemorecrazy, Mark and
Mike Puelinckx, Shad Uttam, Dan L and James Mann!
Recently I acquired an Operation Tiger flyer as well as the arcade operators manual from Japan...and weirdly the auction came with a secondary manual which when I first looked at it I assumed it was a conversion cabinet manual. Only after I looked closer did I realize I more likely than not accidentally stumbled upon a fifth game in the Operation Wolf franchise! And you know because I love video game prototypes, betas and video game preservation...I now want to find it, acquire it and dump the roms for everyone to enjoy...because then MAME doesn't have a heading / listing for this game!
Taito made AMAZING 2D games, but their transition to 3D was a little big rougher. Operation Tiger is definitely a janky looking game filled with big chunky pixels and blocky polygonal models...but I LOVE that! Because it was still better than what PS1 / Saturn was putting up visual wise at home! It feels very similar to Time Crisis from Namco mixed with a little bit of Total Vice from Konami and it exists in the Operation Wolf / Operation Thunderbolt series of games. It has everything you want in a lightgun game...fast paced action, challenge, multiple targets...the works. It's retro gaming obscurity at its most obscure! Oh and the soundtrack is from Taito's in house band Zuntata...so you KNOW ITS GOOD!
Plus it runs on the same CPU as the Apple Pippin...and that's just weird!
Sure its no The House of the Dead...but what can be really?
Questions? Comments? Just leave them below and I will do my best to answer each and every one of them!
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