Game:

Space Harrier (1985)

Duration: 3:18

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On this week’s One Quarter One Play I take on the iconic Space Harrier from Sega.

In December of 1985 Sega released the marvel known as Space Harrier. From a technological stand point Space Harrier did a lot of firsts. It’s one of the first arcade games to use 16-bit graphics, and scaled sprite technology, or more commonly known as Super Scaler technology. The game could also display a staggering 32,000 colors on screen, but I’m getting ahead of myself. More on the hardware in a bit.

In The Beginning
Space Harrier wasn’t originally going to be Space harrier. A designer at Sega named Ida originally wanted to create a realistic military game with the word “Harrier” in its title. The arcade hardware at the time didn’t have enough RAM to render the 3rd person view of the player’s controlled aircraft, so the game was retooled by Yu Suzuki.

Mr. Suzuki change the jet fighter in the game to a human. He did this because it required less RAM, to render on screen. The human character was easier to render on screen than a jet. (The jet would be seen from far more angles than the back of a human on screen.) Mr. Suzuki then rewrote the entire design document. He changed the setting of the game from a jet simulator to a science fiction setting. From there he rewrote the entire design document. Mr. Suzuki says he took inspiration from the 1984 movie The Neverending Story, the anime series Space Cobra, and artist Roger Dean. He did leave the “Harrier” name in the title, and named one of the enemies “Ida” (a nice little nod to the original designer of the game.)

Yu Suzuki is a name I’m sure many Sega fanboys know. He is both a programmer, and hardware engineer. He headed Sega’s AM2 team for 18 years, and is credited on a number of arcade hits including Hang-On, Out Run, After Burner, Virtua Racing, and Virtua Fighter to name a few.

Mr. Suzuki also had a hand in designing the Sega Space Harrier, Model 1, Model 2, Model 3, Dreamcast, and NAMOMI hardware/system boards.

The music was composed by Hiroshi Kawaguchi. Mr. Kawaguchi has done a lot of music for Sega over the years including Out Run, After Burner 1 and 2, and Sword of Vermilion.

Gameplay
Space Harrier is an on rails shooter that is very fast paced. Played in the 3rd person perspective, you control a character named Harrier. The game starts with a voice saying “Welcome to the Fantasy Zone”. It is believed that Space Harrier is unofficially connected to Sega’s 1986 arcade game Fantasy Zone. Many believe that both games take place in the same universe.

In the arcade version of the game you control the character using a self centering analog stick. Using the stick you can move the protagonist around the entire screen to both target, and dodge foes/environmental obstacles. The game is comprised of 18 stages, 15 of which have end bosses that you must beat to move on to the next stage. The game world is very colorful, and the sprite scaling is wonderful with sprites becoming very large.

Hardware
Space Harrier came in three different cabinets. The deluxe model was Sega’s first electro-mechanical motion cabinet. The cockpit of the cabinet tilted and rolled during play. Sega advertised it as a ("body sensation") arcade game. However, the deluxe model of the cabinet almost didn’t happen because Sega was concerned about the cost of producing it. Yu Suzuki, offered his salary as compensation if the game failed. Sega took his bet, and green lit the deluxe model (which did very well in the arcades).

The second model of the game was like the deluxe model, but had a simple chair. The third version was a stand up style, and the lowest cost version an arcade could buy.

The system board was known as the Space Harrier Hardware, and powered other games such as Enduro Racer, Hang-On, and Super Hang-on.

CPU:

Primary: 2 MC68000 @ 10 MHz
Secondary: Z80 @ 4 MHz (used to control the sound chips)

Sound chips:

Yamaha YM2151 @ 4 MHz & SegaPCM @ 15.625 kHz

Display:

Raster, standard resolution 320 x 224, horizontal orientation
128 Sprites on screen at a time
2 tile layers
1 text layer
1 sprite layer with hardware sprite zooming
1 road layer
Translucent shadows

Overall
Space Harrier is as fun to play today as it was in 1985. The graphics hold up surprisingly well, and I still think the audio is great. I love that Sega continues to publish this classic to current hardware, and the version I’ve been playing on the Nintendo Switch is fantastic! Developer M2 has done a great job of porting this game, and adding wide screen support. The sound and visuals are spot on! My only complaint (and this might be me just being dumb) is I can’t change the axis of the flight stick.

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