| Nemesis |
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Nemesis (known as Gradius in Japan) is a horizontal shoot-'em-up developed by Konami and released in 1985. Like many other games in the genre, the story is confined to supplementary material: all that's evident within the game itself is that the player must pilot a ship (the Vic Viper) and destroy aliens (the Bacterians) throughout a variety of locales.
The standout feature of Nemesis is its approach to power-ups. A bar with six segments permanently sits at the bottom of the screen, and certain enemies drop capsules that highlight a specific segment. The player can then press a button to receive the highlighted power-up whenever they'd like. Some of the more useful ones (like "options" that add to your firepower and a shield that protects from attacks to the front) are placed at the end, requiring several capsules to achieve. Since you lose everything upon death, this adds a risk-reward system that incentivizes skilled play.
The game proved popular enough to be ported to several other platforms, soon inspiring a sequel and an entire series (also called Gradius).
Screenshots
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The title screen.
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"Dogfight" segments between each stage let you get power-ups.
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The start of the first stage.
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These volcanoes erratically shoot out rocks.
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The first of many fights against the Big Core.
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The second stage.
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Music
The game's music was composed entirely by Miki Higashino, who had just been hired by Konami the year before. In an interview, she explained that some of her more offbeat musical choices (including unusual meters and the Lydian mode) were inspired by her vision of "outer space" and all the imagery associated with it (the future, robots, and so on). She also mentions that her work on the game was influenced by Kraftwerk, "[her] introduction to the synthesizer sound."
Several of the songs in this soundtrack would go on to be arranged in several future games in the series. In particular, "Aircraft Carrier" appears in nearly every subsequent installment, often paired with a call-back to one of the game's bosses.
Recording
Credits
- Ripper: N/A
- Recorder: Theand
- Game Credits:
(Game lacks credits.)
Miki Higashino has been identified as the game's composer in many different sources, such as this interview. While no official sources have explicitly said whether she arranged her own compositions for the hardware, it can be assumed that she did - she discusses the general challenges of "trying to overcome the limitations of the sound systems [Konami's sound staff] worked with" in the aforementioned interview. (While she does mention at one point that she prefers having others arrange her work, in context she appears to be discussing arrangement-focused albums rather than games.)
Albums
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1986-07-25
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1987-05-05
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1987-11-21
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1988-08-25
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1988-11-21
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1989-12-21
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1999-03-05
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2002-04-24
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2003-12-17
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2004-10-01
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2005-03-24
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2011-01-13
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2017-11-17
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2021-01-21
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2023-10-??
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Game Rip
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Format
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Download
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N/A
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There is currently no rip available for Nemesis. The VGM format supports the AY-3-8910 chip, hence why it is listed here.
Audio Devices
While the game was released on both Konami's Bubble System (in Japan) and a standard arcade board, the audio hardware remained the same: two AY-3-8910s and a K005289 SCC.
Releases
Links
| Gradius
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| Gradius / Nemesis
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 •  •  •  •  •  •  •  •  • 
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| Salamander / Life Force
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• • • • • •
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| Nemesis 2
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•
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| Gradius II / Vulcan Venture
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•  • • 
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| Nemesis 3: The Eve of Destruction
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| Cosmic Wars
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| Gradius III
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• 
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| Nemesis
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| Gradius: The Interstellar Assault
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| Salamander 2
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| Solar Assault
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| Gradius Gaiden
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| Gradius IV
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| Gradius Galaxies
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| Gradius V
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| Gradius ReBirth
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