Category:Xevious

Xevious is a series of five shooter arcade games that were released by Namco between 1982 and 1995. They all focus on the fight between humankind and the supercomputer "GAMP", which controls the alien forces of the planet Xevious (after which the series is named). The first two titles in the series were both vertical scrolling shooters and also both ran on Namco's Galaga hardware (but slowed the speed of the three Zilog Z80 microprocessors down from 3.125 MHz to 3.072 MHz), the third title was a first-person shooter and ran on Namco System 21 hardware, the fourth title was a three-dimensional shooter and ran on Namco's System 11 hardware, and the fifth and final title was released as part of the compilation arcade game Namco Classics Collection Vol. 1. The spin-off game, however, ran on Namco's Super Pac-Man hardware, but with a video system like the one used in Mappy and The Tower of Druaga.


 * Xevious (1982): The original title in the series was licensed to Atari Games for US manufacture and distribution, and featured a kind of artificial intelligence that adapted the challenge of the game to the player's performance. It also featured several secrets hidden in its coding that kept players coming back to it, along with giant mother-ships that served as bosses.


 * Super Xevious (1984): The second title in the series was released directly by Namco and was the third of only five games from the company to display its year in Roman Numerals on the title screen. It played similarly to the original, but introduced several new enemies including a silver Galaxian flagship (and some of them would reset the player's score back to 0).


 * Solvalou (1991): The third title in the series was named after the player's ship and released exclusively in Japan. Due to the fact that it ran on Namco System 21 hardware, it was also the only title in the series to use a Yamaha YM-2151 FM sound chip for its songs and a C140 custom sound chip for its effects. The Solvalou was capable of taking 6 hits before dying.


 * Xevious 3D/G (1995): The fourth title in the series was also released exclusively in Japan and allowed a second player to join in as a red-lined version of the Solvalou (the first player's version was obviously blue-lined). It also introduced three different types of powerups, which were not present in any of the three previous titles and upgraded the Solvalou's firepower.


 * Xevious Arrangement (1995): The fifth and final title in the series was released as part of the compilation arcade game Namco Classics Collection Vol. 1, along with carbon copies of the first two titles, and carbon copies and "Arrangement" versions of Galaga (1981) and Mappy (1983). A second player could also join in as a golden, red-lined version of the Solvalou.


 * Grobda (1984): The spin-off game was the second game from the company to display its year in Roman Numerals on the title screen, and featured an enemy character in its title role - Grobda, the tank with corkscrew treads, in its only appearance as a heroic character. It also introduced six new enemies, that never reappeared once Grobda rejoined the side of evil.