Dyna Gear

[Macaw]

Developed by Scarab (A short lived internal development studio of Sammy). This game sums up everything that make platformers awesome: huge sprites, and tons of bosses. Also (very lightly) incorporates towns and talking to other characters, which helps make the action far more interesting despite the serious Engrish.

Code: Select all

     Player     Character     Area     Score
--------------------------------------------------
1.    Macaw       Wolf         ALL    1,671,001
2.    Ruldra      Wolf         ALL    1,474,061
3.    zinger      Wolf         ALL    1,392,661
4.    JoshF       Wolf         3        215,150
5.    Imhotep     Roger        3        181,160
6.     --          --          --       --
7.     --          --          --       --
8.     --          --          --       --
9.     --          --          --       --
10.    --          --          --       --


[Gaijin Punch]

Never heard of it. System?

[Macaw]

Arcade

[JoshF]

Got a score of 159,290 with Wolf didn't keep track of anything else. It was the village after the second level.

[Macaw]

Damn there is some really bizarre secrets in this game. In the first 'Wolf Village' there is a hidden spot in the air that if you keep shooting some kind of weird logo comes out and doesn't seem to do anything.

Theres also a spot in the air in stage 2 just before you jump down the cliffs to fight the stegosauruses, where if you keep shooting eventually a tiny pterodactyl comes out and Japanese text pointing to it saying 'tori'

I'm also certain there must be something more to that 'empty' chest in stage 2...

[JoshF]

169,060 - Wolf - Area 3

I still have no idea what I'm doing.

[Macaw]

I'm still pretty shit at the game too (only started playing a few days ago, can get to stage 4, will post my score soon) but here is some stuff I have figured out so far:

- Somersault (jump button twice) allows you to bounce on enemies without taking damage.

- Ground roll (Down + Jump) is very useful for dashing low in areas. Essential for the stage 2 mid-boss that jumps around the screen.

- Axe seems to be by far the best weapon (High damage and long range)

- When stage 2 starts go back and shoot directly upwards for secret coins (getting all the coins you can is highly important because of the 1-ups)

[zinger]

What an awesome game! Good job finding this gem.

[JoshF]

Got a better (200k) score but there's no point in posting it. I still can't get past area 3.

In case you haven't noticed, after a roll you automatically run at full speed. It's a lot easier to get all the coins by rolling after certain enemies are destroyed.

[Macaw]

In case you haven't noticed, after a roll you automatically run at full speed. It's a lot easier to get all the coins by rolling after certain enemies are destroyed.

Awesome, I never knew about that.

Also I discovered a FUCKING ENORMOUS CRAZY SECRET in stage 4. When entering the Bone Dinosaurs mid-boss room be careful not to scroll too much to the right. Go to the far left and climb up the wall and shoot the corner. Gold coins flow out for so long you have time to go take a piss.

And I discovered another one of the ultra weird secrets that don't seem to do anything. Shoot along the ground near the end of the 2nd wolf village (which is directly after stage 3)

[Macaw]

Updated with my current score. Lost a life in stage 5 due to finding more bizarre shit. There are these little beetle carvings in the ground, and its possible to actually shoot them (when there is a hill going upwards). I sat there shooting one for ages seeing if something would happen until I ran out of time and died. Then I ran off a bit more and lost my last life on some kind of mini-boss.

The way Roger runs is just too funny.

[zinger]

204,540 - Roger - Area 3

Extends?

[Macaw]

Yep, you see at the bottom of the screen how it has 'Coins /200', that means you get an extend once you get 200 coins. After the first one the next extend comes at 300 coins, then 400 coins and so on. Your coin counter goes back to 0 every time you get an extend.

Theres also a special collectible 1-up in a bonus stage directly after stage 4. Its very difficult to get though.

*EDIT: Just found out this game was apparently developed by a team called 'Scarab', their only other game is 'Sokonuke Taisen Game' which came a year after Dyna Gear. Scarab was likely just made from Sammy developers that made stuff like the horrifically bad Survival Arts, a Mortal Kombat rip-off. Japanese developers that were fans of Mortal Kombat!? Yeah its weird alright. Just look at the coins in Dyna Gear - they are a rip-off of the Mortal Kombat logo (just with a dinosaur head instead of a dragon)

[zinger]

Thanks Macaw.

The background used for the title screen is the Area 4 background.

There are background characters from "Survival Arts" scattered throughout the game :

* In the cliff near the end of Stage 3, strike the wall in the cavity until a monk pops up.
* Other monks rise up from the lava pits in the final stage.
* During the final boss, there is a female monk in the background.

1.79 mil replay: http://www.soundshock.se/dump/dynagear.rar
Mamep 0.90: http://afterburners.fc2web.com/replay/mameplus/

Pulls of some crazy stunts!

[Macaw]

Ugh, damn the game was badly emulated back in MAME 0.9.

Good replay, though I did not watch past stage 6 (want to discover that on my own)

Learnt a lot of tricks from it (being able to duck and not get hit by the stage 4 mini-boss) as well as a couple of coin locations I didn't know about. Strangely though, the player misses out on a lot of coins and points in areas.

[zinger]

334,931 - Roger - Area 4

A little progress... How does that stage 4 mini boss trick work? I remember something from the replay where he just ducks to avoid the roll attack, but I got damaged when I tried it (simply pressed down). Easy one anyway though.

[Macaw]

How does that stage 4 mini boss trick work? I remember something from the replay where he just ducks to avoid the roll attack, but I got damaged when I tried it (simply pressed down). Easy one anyway though.

Yeah I tried it too and it damaged me. Either it only works with Wolf (haven't tried it with him yet though) or maybe the early version of MAME that replay was done on had glitches caused from the very early SSV emulation.

Updated my own score as well. I thought stage 7 would be the final, but on the map screen there was another stage after it... Quite a long game.

Another interesting point: The version dumped in MAME seems to be some kind of world release. I always thought the game was never distributed outside Japan and therefore the version in MAME was Japanese. However if you look at the back of the games flyer (http://www.arcadeflyers.com/?page=flyer ... 05&image=2) you can see in the screenshots that there is Japanese text for the story bits, not English.

Hopefully the Japanese version is found and dumped for MAME soon (although I doubt any of the mamedevs even know it exists considering the current version in MAME isn't tagged as being any region) Seems like this is one of the more obscure and less documented arcade games around.

Theres also a bootleg of the game (also supported in MAME) called 'King of Dynast Gear' which is likely of Taiwanese origin.

[zinger]

Nice progress Macaw!

I did some googling before and had a hell finding any info at all. Do you know the japanese character spelling?

EDIT: a lot of sites (including japanese ones) have labeled it Dyna Gears.

[Imhotep]

181,160 (Stage 3, human)

first try after a long absence

[Macaw]

I did some googling before and had a hell finding any info at all. Do you know the japanese character spelling?

EDIT: a lot of sites (including japanese ones) have labeled it Dyna Gears.

The Japanese character spelling is 繝

[Gaijin Punch]

In a case like this though (gigantic URL) the guy has just incorrectly named it.

He's not even Japanese.

[zinger]

There's still some japanese text in this version though (the names of some small dinosaurs). How can that logo be found, BTW?

Having some trouble with stage 4, but I'm starting to figure out the first three...

[Macaw]

There's still some Japanese text in this version though (the names of some small dinosaurs). How can that logo be found, BTW?

Those are only found as secrets though, and seem to be just random stuff the devs put in for humor rather than anything impacting the game mechanics (I could be wrong though)

As for the weird logo thing, its in the first Wolf Village. Jump on the branch above the 3 chests and then shoot at a certain spot in the air on the right. This is what the hidden message looks like:



It kinda look like it says 'Kinya Aoyama Presents'

There is no one in the games credits with that name though. I googled the name and discovered that Kinya Aoyama was a graphic designer for Data East and also UPL (an example: http://www.mameworld.net/maws/romset/actfanc1)

So if the message in Dyna Gear is referring to this same person, what on earth is his relation to Sammy and the development of Dyna Gear?

Perhaps Kinya Aoyama was a tv personality or something in Japan back in the mid 90's. Anythings possible for an obscure joke like this.

I think this thread has just about completed its metamorphosis into being a full fledged Dyna Gear research project rather than a high score board

[zinger]

Is that a problem? It might be clue for secret scoring strategies.
Sorry though, it's just that obscure games like these packed with tons of little details with hints about japanese arcade craftmanship gives me goosebumps. Makes me wonder if there's a more detailed, japanese alternative to the some what dissappointing arcade-history.com. The science and history of the industry / culture / art form needs to be mapped out before it's too late.

[JoshF]

I was going to say it reminded me of Data East-style graphics. Here's some more stuff he was involved in, according to [url=http://www11.ocn.ne.jp/‾zaru/zaru/etc/staff.html]this[/url] page.

Kuuga (Data East) - Graphic Designer
Strahl (UPL) - Game Designer, Object Designer
Uchuu Senkan Gomora - Character Design