The Outfoxies, revisited

Mar 29

Category: Game titles,Gaming,Linux — Published by tengo on March 29, 2008 at 7:14 am

Have you played The Outfoxies lately? It's a true gem and worth another play. In fact, this clever arcade platform game from 1994 is on my list of all-time-favorite arcade titles.

The story itself is quickly told: A group of hitmen, quite unique characters like a mad scientist in a wheelchair, a chimp in tuxedo, a hero type or a business-type woman, were contracted by ueber-evil Mr. Acme to engage in a challenge where the goal is to find out which one of the killers is the best of all.

Based on this setting, the player has to go through a series of 2D platform levels fighting one-on-one duels. The idea of a platform shooter is further enhanced by a great zooming and tilting effect, similar to the effect first seen in Art of Fighting and later Samurai Shodown (note the little typo in the official title...). This effect is actually what makes the game unique and fun. Cameltry from 1989 had the rotating screen, Outfoxies has the zoom. In combination with a well done level design, with all the cross sections that remind me of the Dorling-Kindersley Star Wars cross-section books, the game can be quite captivating.

For those of you who own the cartridge and are playing the game on MAME, note that on dated MAME revisions the sound isn't working. A little helper in this case might be the limited edition soundtrack that Victor Entertainment released for this game (The Outfoxies : Namco Game Sound Express Vol.20 - VICL-15042) back in 1995. Maybe there's a chance of getting one on eBay. For all others: happy hunting!

Credits

The Outfoxies runs on Namco System NB-1 hardware
Game ID : OU
Main CPU : 68EC020 (@ 24.192 Mhz), M37702 (@ 16.128 Mhz)
Sound Chips : C352 (@ 16.128 Mhz)
Screen orientation : Horizontal
Video resolution : 288 x 224 pixels
Screen refresh : 59.70 Hz
Palette colors : 8192
Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 3

Developers were:
Concept and design : Masateru Umeda
Main programmer : Yoshiyuki Honda
System programmer : Toshiharu Hijita
Game programmer : Koichi Motokoide
Character designer : Miki Maemori
Field designer : Taro Okamoto
Music and sound effects : Masahiro Fukuzawa
Graphic designer : Akira Usukura
Logo designer : Hideaki Ito
Chief directorer : Masuya Ohishi
Product manager : Shinichiro Okamoto, Hajime Nakatani
Producer : Akihiko Tokue, Shukuo Ishikawa
Visual works provided by: Yukiko Kaneko, Nobuko Endo, Muneyuki Tejima, Mitsuru Fukuoka, Tomoe Yamashita, Hisaharu Takahashi, Takashi Imaizumi, Hitomi Kusano, Kazuaki Fujimoto, Kanako Doi, Daisuke Tsushima, Kyoko Endo, Tomosuke Kashiwabara

Gaming goesZen