Dragon Saber/Walkthrough

Namco's 1990 vertical scrolling shooter arcade game Dragon Saber (full title: Dragon Saber - After Story of Dragon Spirit) is divided into nine stages; one player can play alone as Huey the Blue Dragon, or a second player can join in as Siria the Red Dragon (however, Amul, who was the protagonist of the original game, is nowhere to be seen here). As mentioned on the Getting Started page, the amount of hits that Huey and Siria can take before dying depends on what the arcade operator has set the "LIFE" setting in the game's options menu to - 1, 2, 3, or 4. This means that if the arcade operator has set the "LIFE" option to 1, Huey and Siria will die immediately when hit; but if you are using MAME to play the game, it is advisable to set it to 4, in order to increase your chances of survival. Also as mentioned on Getting Started, the only way to refill your lost life rectangles is to collect an Extend powerup.

If a death ever occurs in a one-player game, Huey (or Siria if you chose to play on 2UP side) will be sent back to a preset point in the stage; however, if a death ever occurs in a two-player game, the dragon who was unfortunate enough to be killed will be resurrected immediately (unless: it was either his last life, or both of the dragons had died simultaneously). In a case of the latter, both dragons will be sent back to a preset point in the stage - and if you are playing the U.S. version of the game and the arcade operator has set the "LEFT" setting in its options menu to "S", the game will display the caption "PLEASE INSERT COIN" below its title instead of the text "AFTER STORY OF DRAGON SPIRIT": "1 CREDIT FOR 1 LIFE, 2 CREDITS FOR 3 LIVES". This means that you will have to insert a total of four coins into the cabinet in order to make sure that both of the dragons start the game with three lives.