Game: Rastan Saga (Japan) Rastan (other territories)
Manufacturer: Taito
Year: 1987
Genre: Platform
Players: 2 players (alternating)
My Version is: The board and marquee only (Japanese release)

GAMEPLAY The evil wizard, Karg, thwarted by Rastan in his attempts to overthrow the throne has opened the portals of hell and unleashed a variety of beasts and demons upon Maranna. Only one man has proved himelf true enough to confront the hordes; the king himself - Rastan. His task ... to fight his way through the countries of his continent, killing beasts and demons in order to reach the far-off land of the wizard and the final confrontation with Karg himself, in his deadliest guise as the soul-sucking dragon. Will he succeed? ... it's up to you. Proceed through all six levels reducing your enemies to sword fodder, along the way collecting more powerful weapons. Some of your enemies may carry the following useful or dangerous items.

Rastan Saga - Title Screen

Rastan Saga / Rastan?
Rastan Saga was the name of this release in Japan, with the US, UK and other territories getting Rastan. There are actually a few differences between the two versions. The Japanese Rastan Saga gets a short intro before the game starts, and there are a few more bats present on each level. I am unsure at this moment in time exactly why two versions were released.

Rastan - Spectrum version Rastan - Arcade version

Home Versions Released by Imagine software in the summer of 1998, the home computer versions did varying jobs of trying to replicate their arcade counterpart. Imagine churned-out versions for all of the popular 8-bit machines of the time - Sinclair Spectrum, Amstrad and Commodore 64. As a proud Spectrum owner at the time I was a big fan of the Speccy version. Sure, it wasn't as colourful or as smooth as the arcade version, but considering the hardware limitations of the Spectrum it was a good a version as anyone could hope for. The graphics of the main player and enemy sprites, although monochrome, looked great. The music too was also fantastic on a 128K based Spectrum - pure AY soundchip bliss! For £7.95 you couldn't go far wrong with this. For the Your Sinclair review of Rastan from June 1988, pop along to the `Your Sinclair` web site, or click here to go straight to the review. Taito released a version of Rastan for the PC, and this can often be found on many abandonware web sites for easy download. The graphics (although colourful) are very blocky, and the PC speaker version of the soundtrack sounds like it's being played under water!

- SHIELD ----- Reduces damage
- MANTLE ----- Reduces damage by half
- ARMOUR ----- Stops all damage for a limited time
- MEDICINE --- Replenishes energy
- POISON ----- Depletes energy
- GOLD SHEEP - Totally replenishes energy
- JEWELS ----- Bonus points
- RING ------- Weapon speed up
- NECKLACE --- Doubles points
- ROD -------- ??Mystery??

DIP SW1: 001 - 002 - 003 - 004 - 005 - 006 - 007 - 008
------------------------------------------------------
-------- ON ------------------------------------------ UPRIGHT
-------- OFF ----------------------------------------- TABLE
-------------- ON ------------------------------------ VIDEO FLIP
------------------ ON -------------------------------- TEST
------------------------------------------------------ NOT USED
-------------------------------- OFF - OFF - OFF - OFF 1COIN 1CREDIT
---------------------------------ON -- OFF - ON -- OFF 1COIN 2CREDITS
-------------------------------- OFF - ON -- OFF -- ON 2COIN 1CREDITS
-------------------------------- ON -- ON -- ON --- ON 2COIN 3CREDITS


DIP SW1: 001 - 002 - 003 - 004 - 005 - 006 - 007 - 008
-------- ON -- OFF ----------------------------------- EASY
-------- OFF - OFF ----------------------------------- NORMAL
-------- ON -- ON ------------------------------------ HARD
-------- OFF - ON ------------------------------------ VERY HARD
-------------------- OFF - OFF ----------------------- 100K BONUS LIFE
-------------------- ON -- OFF ----------------------- 150K BONUS LIFE
-------------------- OFF - ON ------------------------ 200K BONUS LIFE
-------------------- ON -- ON ------------------------ 250K BONUS LIFE
-------------------------------- OFF - OFF ----------- 3 LIVES
-------------------------------- ON -- OFF ----------- 4 LIVES
-------------------------------- OFF - ON ------------ 5 LIVES
-------------------------------- ON -- ON ------------ 6 LIVES
-------------------------------------------- OFF ----- CONTINUE MODE ON
------------------------------------------------------ NOT USED

Why This is in my Collection I first stumbled across Rastan way back in 1987 during a day-trip to the infamous Grand Pier on Weston-Super-Mare beach, and fell in love with it there and then. As soon as I had the money I rushed off into Bristol to pick up the Spectrum version, which, although was an excellent conversion, didn't do the arcade game justice at all. My addiction for playing the arcade game was initially quenched as the local sports centre installed a Rastan cab on site. The only problem was that to play the game you had to be a paying customer because you needed to get through the turnstile. Being (at the time) crafty little teenagers, we would wait until the reception area was empty and duck underneath the person serving at the paypoint, slide under the turnstile and on to victory. I think we must have spent a small fortune this way. One thing that has amazed me is that an arcade perfect conversion of Rastan never made it onto platforms like the Sega Saturn or the Playstation. Surely Taito could make a small killing releasing a CD containing a few of their old classics (including Rastan of course!).

Rastan Saga - Arcade Flyer

When I bought my Supergun, Rastan was the first board in my collection. It's had absolutely loads of use out of it, and I think I'd have to be given a very good reason to part with it.