Testing Out Old IBM PCs: A Review of Silpheed

When testing out new old IBM PCs in my collection, there are a few games that I always come to for benchmarking purposes. One of them is Silpheed, designed in Japan by Game Arts in 1986 and ported by Sierra Online for Western audiences in 1988. As stated on the relentlessly radical box art, it's from the same designers as the game Thexder, which was the first huge Japanese hit by Game Arts for Sierra in 1987.

Like Thexder, Silpheed is a sci-fi action-shooter that was originally developed on the NEC PC-8801 Japanese home computer and soon made its way into other Japanese home machines like the Fujitsu FM-7. However, after the widespread success of Thexder, Sierra seriously started looking at other games in Game Arts' catalog, and Silpheed was soon ported to the Apple IIGS, TRS-80 Color Computer, and the focus of this review, IBM PC-compatible PCs running MS-DOS.

Besides the fact that the game was actually pretty fun, there were two really big selling points for it. One was the fact that it had nine original musical compositions for a variety of different sound devices. This was one of the earliest PC games to use music as a selling point. Remember, this was 1988 when PCs weren't exactly known for great sound. Sierra was at the top of their game then and it was games like Silpheed which really helped push the PC sound card revolution.

It was so impressive that they even sold cassette tapes featuring the game's music to try and sell the very soundcards the game made use of. The 32-voice synthesizer has 128 preset sounds, ranging from orchestrated strings to hard-driving drums. Listen to the MT-32 as it drives the explosive action of Silpheed. The second big deal was the graphics. They looked great already, but they also used 3D polygons for much of the gameplay. Strangely, this fact is not made a big deal of on the box. In fact, there are only a couple of screenshots of static screens. Just judging by these, you might think it's a space exploration game of some kind, but that is most definitely not the case.

According to the manual, this is one of those games where it is the distant future. Humanity is going to be destroyed unless you, and only you, do something ridiculously awesome and awesomely ridiculous with some unfinished prototype of a new ridicul-awesome spaceship. And the story is riddled with names and designations that are impossible to pronounce because they're ALIEN. Yes, even though the plot may as well be non-existent, you will absolutely still need to look at the manual in order to play the game. That's because it has Sierra's patented manual-lookup copy protection scheme, this time by identifying enemy spaceships whenever you start the game.

There's also lots of information regarding the game's levels, power-ups, and even details on many of the spaceships, so it's still a good thing to have, even if you crack the copy protection. On starting the game, you're greeted by a very bizarre set of introduction text, which just barely qualifies as understandable, and some very impressive arcade-like, animated attract-mode sequences. Yeah, so for the time, this was pretty much awesome, especially if you had a PC that was fast enough to animate this smoothly.

And having a sound card so you could actually hear the music is totally awesome, too, as the game's music is really impressive on everything from the Game Blaster to the AdLib to, of course, the MT-32. I'll be using the AdLib for most of the gameplay in this video, but I'll throw some MT-32 tracks in here as well.

Once you press Enter, you'll immediately start the game, and receive a greeting from Xacalite, Emperor of the Universe. Admittedly not the best digitized speech I've ever heard, especially since it comes through the PC speaker. In fact, an audiophile might be satisfied with the local drive-in movie experience. However, playing Silpheed is still a blast.

The gameplay itself is pretty standard fare. Pound away at the fire button, avoid enemies and collect power-ups to upgrade your weapons, shields, and ship integrity. Thankfully, this isn't one of those games that tries to be too complex or deep for its time. The 3D polygons used in Silpheed add a level of realism to the gameplay that's impressive considering the limitations of PC hardware at the time.

Overall, Silpheed is an excellent example of how well Sierra could port their Japanese titles to Western audiences with a little bit of tweaking and polishing. It's also a great demonstration of what 3D graphics were capable of in the late 80s. If you're a fan of retro shooters or just looking for something new to try, Silpheed is definitely worth checking out.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enAahhh...When testing out new old IBM PCs in my collection,there are a few games that I alwayscome to for benchmarking purposes.One of them is Silpheed,designed in Japan by Game Arts in 1986and ported by Sierra Onlinefor Western audiences in 1988.As stated on the relentlessly radical box art,it's from the same designers as the game Thexder,which was the first huge Japanese hit by Game Artsfor Sierra in 1987.Like Thexder, Silpheed is a sci-fi action-shooterthat was originally developed on theNEC PC-8801 Japanese home computer,and soon made its way intoother Japanese home machineslike the Fujitsu FM-7.But after the widespread success of Thexder,Sierra seriously started looking atother games in Game Arts' catalogand Silpheed was soon ported to the Apple IIGS,TRS-80 Color Computer,and the focus of this review,IBM PC-compatible PCs running MS-DOS.Besides the fact that the game was actually pretty fun,there were two really big selling points for it.One was the fact that it had nineoriginal musical compositionsfor a variety of different sound devices.This was one of the earliest PC gamesto use music as a selling point.Now remember, this was 1988 when PCsweren't exactly known for great sound.Sierra was at the top of their game thenand it was games like Silpheed which really helpedpush the PC sound card revolution.It was so impressive that they even sold cassette tapesfeaturing the game's musicto try and sell the very soundcards the game made use of.ANNOUNCER:This 32-voice synthesiserhas 128 preset sounds,ranging from orchestrated stringsto hard-driving drums.Listen to the MT-32 as it drivesthe explosive action of Silpheed.LGR:The second big deal was the graphics.They looked great already,but they also used 3D polygonsfor much of the gameplay.Strangely, this fact is not made a big deal of on the box.In fact, there are only a couple ofscreenshots of static screens.Just judging by these, you might thinkit's a space exploration game of some kind,but that is most definitely not the case.Nope! According to the manual,this is one of those games where it is the distant future.Humanity is going to be destroyedunless you, and only you,do something ridiculously awesomeand awesomely ridiculouswith some unfinished prototypeof a new ridicul-awesome spaceship.And the story is riddled with names and designationsthat are impossible to pronouncebecause they're ALIEN.Yes, even though the plot may as well be non-existent,you will absolutely still need to look at the manualin order to play the game.That's because it has Sierra's patentedmanual-lookup copy protection scheme,this time by identifying enemyspacecraft whenever you start the game.There's also lots of informationregarding the game's levels, power-upsand even details on many of the spaceships,so it's still a good thing to have,even if you crack the copy protection.On starting the game, you're greeted bya very bizarre set of introduction text,which just barely qualifies as understandable,and some very impressive arcade-like,animated attract-mode sequences.Yeah, so for the time,this was pretty much awesome,especially if you had a PC that wasfast enough to animate this smoothly.And having a sound cardso you could actually hear themusic is totally awesome, too,as the game's music is really impressive on everythingfrom the Game Blaster to the AdLibto, of course, the MT-32.I'll be using the AdLib for mostof the gameplay in this video,but I'll throw some MT-32 tracks in here as well.Once you press Enter,you'll immediately start the game,and receive a greeting from Xacalite,Emperor of the Universe.Admittedly not the best digitized speech I've ever heard,especially since it comes through the PC speaker.In fact, an audiophile might be satisfiedwith the local drive-thru in comparison to this,but maybe it's supposed to sound alien and garbled.Then the gameplay starts andyou're dropped right into the action,shooting away at anything that moves.It still uses PC speaker noise for sound effects,but you can turn that off if you like.And if you have a sound card,you can enjoy the game's epic soundtrack.Naturally, you use the arrow keys or numpad to move,and the spacebar shoots.There's also joystick supportin case you don't like keyboards.The controls themselves are,well, solid as they can be,and the perspective really gives it a unique feel.It's uncommon to see some sortof depth in an overhead shooter,so instead of like other ones, this almosthas a kind of over-the-shoulder feel,so enemies fall in from the distanceand get larger as they come closer.This really makes for some tight situationswhen enemies are both close and far away,and it's a really impressive effect for PCs at the time,especially since it uses 3D polygons for the objects.Otherwise, it's pretty standard fare.Pound away at the fire button,avoid enemies and collect power-upsto upgrade your weapons, shields and ship integrity.Thankfully, this isn't one of those\"one hit and you're dead\" games.You have a life bar, which youcan replenish during gameplay.Otherwise, it would be rather impossible.In fact, it's still rather impossible forsomeone of my skill level, but that's okay.That's better than it being too easy.Once you pass the first level,you'll be taken to an upgrade screen,which is another rather unique feature of the time.You can choose from severaldifferent types of weaponsfor both left and right sides of your ship.Then it's on to the next level to do it all over again.The levels do follow a sequential order,so you'll be able to memorize thingsin order to advance your game.And there are four different level types:space, above planets,in-fortress,and cartoon cutscenes followed by asteroids,each with different scenery,hazards and power-up options.There are 20 levels in alland you'll be hard-pressed to actually see them all,just because of its ever-increasing difficulty.After about Level 5,there is a mad difficulty level spike,and it just gets harder from there.Thankfully, you can start backwhere you died if your game ends,so it's not as absurd as many shooters I've played.And that's also good because once youget the hang of the first several levels,you'll probably get sick of them afterplaying them for the millionth time.On the whole, it really is just a solidarcade shoot-em-up experience,and I'd really recommend it toanyone with a vintage PC of the era.Although, I feel it's worthmentioning that I got the best resultson an AT-range PC with 8 MHz or faster.Now really, you can run it on any PCas long as it has CGA graphicsand 512K of RAM at least.But on the original PC and XT-range of computers,you're gonna run into some slowdown.Now how it compares to theoriginal NEC version, I don't know.I've never played that one, but judgingby the screenshots and YouTube videos,it seems to be pretty close.I do know that the DOS and IIGS versions are awesome,and even the CoCo port seems to be pretty decent,although with the expected limitations due to hardware.There was also a Sega CD game underthe same name of Silpheed in 1993which, despite having the exact same titleand sharing much of the gameplay,is an entirely different game.So for your experience of the original Silpheed,I'd definitely recommend the MS-DOS or IIGS versions.Because they are friggin' rad.And if you have the original game and a PC-8801,I hate you because that is totally awesome.So whether you're into really old 3D graphics,awesome game music,arcade-style home video games,shoot-em-ups,games that I think are awesome,or all of the above,Silpheed is a must-play.\n"