RASTAN ARCADE GAME RENTAL

Planning an event with arcade games?

Here’s your chance to rent a real Rastan arcade machine for your next party.

Whether it’s a birthday party, corporate event, or a tradeshow, you can rent your favorite retro arcade machine for your upcoming social function. Rent your favorite retro 1980’s (eighties) classic arcade game rental for your next event in Florida.

Rastan Saga, known as Rastan in North America, is a side-scrolling hack and slash arcade video game released by Taito in 1987. It was a critical and commercial success and was ported to home platforms.

Taking place in a fantasy setting, the story is about Rastan who is presently a ruler of his kingdom narrating his past full of dangerous adventures and his eventual ascension to a kingship. Rastan, who back then was a barbaric knave resorted to banditry and murders to survive through hard times, came upon a chance to slay monsters and save a kingdom of Ceim from the said monsters in exchange for rich rewards. Accepting the deal, Rastan fought hordes of enemy monsters based on mythical creatures such as chimeras and harpies. Rastan’s quest to liberate Ceim from monsters eventually leads to a confrontation against a large fire-breathing red dragon with magical powers enabling it to control other monsters. Rastan was able to destroy this red dragon after a duel and after receiving rich rewards as promised, Rastan sets out to find a new region to establish his own kingdom and to rule it.

At the end of the game, the king Rastan reveals that there are many more stories to tell in his ascension to kingship and the whole game was just a small part of his many adventures to come.

Gameplay

The controls of Rastan consists of an eight-way joystick, a button for attacking, and a button for jumping. By using the joystick in combination with either button, the player can determine the height of Rastan’s jumps, as well as the direction he swings his weapon (including downwards while jumping). The game uses a health gauge system along with limited lives to determine when his character dies. Enemy strikes slowly lower his health gauge, but certain obstacles can instantly kill him such as falling into a body of water or being crushed by a spiked ceiling regardless of how much health he has left.

There are a total of six rounds, each consisting of three areas: an outdoor scene, a castle scene and a throne room where the player must confront the stage’s boss. The backgrounds of the outdoor areas feature broad landscapes with changing sunlight effects with detail.

The bosses are, in order of appearance:

King Graton, a halberd-wielding skeletal warrior;
King Slay, a demonic winged sword-master;
Symplegades, the wizard-king;
Laios, the dragon-king;
The Hydra, a five-headed snake-like monster;
The Dragon

The player can pick up any item by touching it, as well as new weapons by striking them with his current one. All the weapons and power-ups picked by Rastan will be equipped only for a limited time, except for the Ring power up. The Ring will remain equipped on Rastan for the entirety of his current life, even carrying over to the next stage. When Rastan picks up any equipable item, an icon will appear on the lower right corner of the screen as an indicator of the item’s effect until it wears out. Rastan can only wield one weapon at a time (a mace, an axe, a fireball-shooting sword, or his standard sword), as well as only one type of protector (a shield, a mantle, or a body armor), but other items, such as the necklace and ring, can be worn at the same time. There are also jewels that gives out bonus points, as well potion bottles that restore or deplete the player’s health depending on the color. The rare golden sheep’s head restores Rastan’s health completely.

Regional differences

Rastan Saga (the Japanese version) features an opening sequence, when the player starts the game, which explains the purpose of Rastan’s journey. It is not included in the versions released in other countries (which are simply titled Rastan). Also, in the Japanese version when the player completes a stage (“Round”) the “victory” screen has text pertaining to the storyline. In the international versions, there is a “generic” victory screen with generic text (“You are a brave fighter to have cleared such a difficult stage”). However, the international versions feature a different attract sequence which shows all the items that can be obtained by the player along with their effect.

In the Japanese version there are far fewer bats during the bat swarm sequences in the castle of level 1 than in other versions.

In Europe, the arcade game was originally released with its Japanese title Rastan Saga.

Ports

Rastan was initially ported to various 8-bit home computers in Europe (the Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC) by Imagine Software in 1987. Taito imported Imagine’s C64 version to the United States in 1988 and also released in 1990 two additional ports for the IBM PC and Apple IIGS, both of which were developed by Novalogic.

An unreleased version for the Atari ST was discovered in demo form only.

In 1988, Taito developed its own conversions for the MSX2 in Japan, and the Master System in North America and Europe. Both ports featured redesigned level layouts, with the Master System version replacing some of the boss characters as well. The latter was itself ported to the Game Gear and released exclusively in Japan on August 9, 1991.

Reception

[edit]

In Japan, Game Machine listed Rastan on their May 1, 1987 issue as being the second most successful table arcade unit of the month.^[8]

Clare Edgeley of Computer and Video Games reviewed the arcade game upon release, stating the “coin-op of the month has GOT to be Taito’s superb Rastan Saga” with praise for the “beautifully drawn and very realistic” graphics, fast-paced action and addictive gameplay.^[2] Tim Rolf of Sinclair User called it a “hacking and a-slaying” game that is “very, VERY good.”^[9] Peter Shaw of Your Sinclair also gave it a positive review in 1987,^[10] with the magazine later calling it the “best ever slash ‘n’ slice ’em up” in 1988.^[11] The game drew comparisons to the character Conan the Barbarian,^[2]^[9] Capcom‘s Ghosts ‘n Goblins (1985),^[9] and Konami‘s Green Beret (1985).^[10]

Console XS reviewed the Master System version of Rastan Saga, giving it an 88% score.^[12] Your Sinclair reviewed the ZX Spectrum version, rating it 9 out of 10.^[13] The ZX Spectrum version was awarded 9/10 in the July 1988 issue of Your Sinclair,^[14] and was placed at number 54 in the Your Sinclair Top 100 list.

Legacy

An emulation of the Rastan arcade game is included in the compilations Taito Memories Jōkan only in Japan for the PlayStation 2 and Taito Legends for PlayStation 2 and Xbox in 2005, Taito Memories Pocket, and Taito Legends Power-Up for the PlayStation Portable in 2006. On March 17, 2020, it was included as part of Antstream Arcade for the Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S, and then on the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 on September 6, 2024. In 2022, it was also made available on the Taito Egret II Mini dedicated arcade cabinet. On May 2, 2024, it was eventually re-released as part of the Arcade Archives series for the PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch courtesy of Hamster Corporation.

Rastan was followed by two sequels: Rastan Saga II (released as Nastar in Europe and Nastar Warrior in North America) and Warrior Blade: Rastan Saga Episode III. Rastan appears in another Taito game, Champion Wrestler, as “Miracle Rastan”.

The Saffire developed game Barbarian for PlayStation 2 and GameCube was published in Japan by Taito as Warrior Blade: Rastan vs. Barbarian. The game has nothing to do with Rastan despite the title.

PACMAN [Pac-Man] GAME PLAY

Pac-Man is an action maze chase arcade video game; the player controls pie shaped main character through an enclosed maze.

The objective of the game is to eat all of the dots in the maze while avoiding four colored ghosts—Blinky (red), Pinky (pink), Inky (cyan), and Clyde (orange)—who pursue Pac-Man.

When Pac-Man eats all of the dots, the player advances to the next level. Levels are indicated by fruit icons at the bottom of the screen.

In between levels are short cutscenes featuring Pac-Man and Blinky in humorous, comical skits.

If Pac-Man is caught by a ghost, he loses a life; the game ends when all lives are lost.

Each of the four ghosts has its own unique artificial intelligence (A.I.), or “personality”: Blinky gives direct chase to Pac-Man; Pinky and Inky try to position themselves in front of Pac-Man, usually by cornering him; and Clyde switches between chasing Pac-Man and fleeing from him.

Placed near the four corners of the maze are large flashing “energizers” or “power pellets”. When Pac-Man eats one, the ghosts turn blue with a dizzied expression and reverse direction. Pac-Man can eat blue ghosts for bonus points; when a ghost is eaten, its eyes make their way back to the center box in the maze, where the ghost “regenerates” and resumes its normal activity.

Eating multiple blue ghosts in succession increases their point value. After a certain amount of time, blue-colored ghosts flash white before turning back into their normal forms.

Eating a certain number of dots in a level causes a bonus item—usually a fruit—to appear underneath the center box; the item can be eaten for bonus points.

To the sides of the maze are two “warp tunnels”, which allow Pac-Man and the ghosts to travel to the opposite side of the screen. Ghosts become slower when entering and exiting these tunnels.

The game increases in difficulty as the player progresses: the ghosts become faster, and the energizers’ effect decreases in duration, eventually disappearing entirely.

An integer overflow causes the 256th level to load improperly, rendering it impossible to complete. This is known as a kill screen.

PACMAN [Pac-Man] Game Release

Location testing for Puck Man began on May 22, 1980, in Shibuya, Tokyo. Non-gamers responded well to it, finding it easy to learn, while arcade regulars were not impressed. A private showing for the game was done in June, followed by a nationwide release in July.

Eyeing the game’s success in Japan, Namco initialized plans to bring the game to the international market, particularly the United States. Before showing the game to distributors, Namco America made a number of changes, such as altering the names of the ghosts.

Another was the game’s title, as executives at Namco were worried that vandals would change the “P” in Puck Man to an “F”.

Masaya Nakamura chose to rename it to Pac-Man, as he felt it was closer to the game’s original Japanese title of Pakkuman. In Europe, the game was released under both titles. After Puck Man was ruled out but before Pac-Man was decided upon, early American promotional material used the name Snapper.

When Namco presented Pac-Man and Rally-X to potential distributors at the 1980 AMOA tradeshow in November, executives believed that Rally-X would be the best-selling game of that year.

According to Play Meter magazine, both Pac-Man and Rally-X received mild attention at the show. Namco had initially approached Atari to distribute Pac-Man, but Atari refused the offer.

Midway Manufacturing subsequently agreed to distribute both Pac-Man and Rally-X in North America, announcing their acquisition of the manufacturing rights on November 22 and releasing them in December.

Pacman [Pac-Man] Game Ports

Pac-Man was ported to several home video game systems and personal computers; the most infamous of these is the 1982 Atari 2600 conversion, designed by Tod Frye and published by Atari, Inc.This version of the game was widely criticized for its inaccurate portrayal of the arcade version and for its peculiar design choices, most notably the flickering effect of the ghosts. However, it was a commercial success, selling over seven million copies.

Atari released versions for the Intellivision, VIC-20, Commodore 64, Apple II, IBM PC compatibles, TI-99/4A, ZX Spectrum, and the Atari 8-bit computers. A port for the Atari 5200 was released in 1983, a version that is considered as a significant improvement over the Atari 2600 version.

Namco released a version for the Nintendo Famicom in 1984 as one of the console’s first third-party titles,^[46] as well as a port for the MSX computer.

The Famicom version was later released in North America for the Nintendo Entertainment System by Tengen, a subsidiary of Atari Games.

Tengen produced an unlicensed version of the game in a black cartridge shell, released during a time when Tengen and Nintendo were in disagreements over the latter’s stance on quality control for its consoles; this version was re-released by Namco as an official title in 1993, featuring a new cartridge label and box.

The Famicom version was released for the Famicom Disk System in 1990 as a budget title for the Disk Writer kiosks in retail stores. The same year, Namco released a port of Pac-Man for the Game Boy, which allowed for two-player co-operative play via the Game Link Cable peripheral. A version for the Game Gear was released a year later, which likewise enabled support for multiplayer.

In celebration of the game’s 20th anniversary in 1999, Namco re-released the Game Boy version for the Game Boy Color, bundled with Pac-Attack and titled Pac-Man: Special Color Edition. The same year, Namco and SNK co-published a port for the Neo Geo Pocket Color, which came with a circular “Cross Ring” that attached to the d-pad to restrict it to four-directional movement.

In 2001, Namco released a port of Pac-Man for various Japanese mobile phones, being one of the company’s first mobile game releases. The Famicom version of the game was re-released for the Game Boy Advance in 2004 as part of the Famicom Mini series, released to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Famicom; this version was released in North America and Europe under the Classic NES Series label. Namco Networks released Pac-Man for BREW mobile devices in 2005. The arcade original was released for the Xbox Live Arcade service in 2006, featuring achievements and online leaderboards.

In 2009 a version for iOS devices was published; this release was rebranded as Pac-Man + Tournaments in 2013, featuring new mazes and leaderboards. The NES version was released for the Wii Virtual Console in 2007. A Roku version was released in 2011, alongside a port of the Game Boy release for the 3DS Virtual Console.

Pac-Man was one of four titles released under the Arcade Game Series brand, which was published for the Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC in 2016.

In 2021, according to Nintendo Direct, it was announced that Hamster Corporation would release Pac-Man, along with Xevious, for the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 as part of its Arcade Archives series, marking the first two Namco games to be included as part of the series.

Pac-Man is included in many Namco compilations, including Namco Museum Vol. 1 (1995), Namco Museum 64 (1999), Namco Museum Battle Collection (2005),^[57] Namco Museum DS (2007), Namco Museum Essentials (2009),^[58] and Namco Museum Megamix (2010).

In 1996, it was re-released for arcades as part of Namco Classic Collection Vol. 2, alongside Dig Dug, Rally-X and special “Arrangement” remakes of all three titles. Microsoft included Pac-Man in Microsoft Return of Arcade (1995) as a way to help attract video game companies to its Windows 95 operating system. Namco released the game in the third volume of Namco History in Japan in 1998.

The 2001 Game Boy Advance compilation Pac-Man Collection compiles Pac-Man, Pac-Mania, Pac-Attack and Pac-Man Arrangement onto one cartridge. Pac-Man is a hidden extra in the arcade game Ms. Pac-Man/Galaga – Class of 1981 (2001).

A similar cabinet was released in 2005 that featured Pac-Man as the centerpiece. Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures (1993) and Pac-Man World 2 (2002) have Pac-Man as an unlockable extra. Alongside the Xbox 360 remake Pac-Man Championship Edition, it was ported to the Nintendo 3DS in 2012 as part of Pac-Man & Galaga Dimensions. The 2010 Wii game Pac-Man Party and its 2011 3DS remake include Pac-Man as a bonus game, alongside the arcade versions of Dig Dug and Galaga.

In 2014, Pac-Man was included in the compilation title Pac-Man Museum for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC, alongside several other Pac-Man games.^[71] The NES version is one of 30 games included in the NES Classic Edition.

*Some of the content information above was provided by Wikipedia and KLOV (Killer List of Video Games).

*Visit our main website https://cocktailhourentertainment.com

For More Information fill out our Contact Form

WHY RENT FROM US?

If you’re planning an event in Florida we’re your one-stop-shop for “extra” entertainment.

PACKAGE DISCOUNTS

Rent 3 or more games and get a special discount.

BIGGEST SELECTION

Florida’s largest selection of games for rent.

COMPETITIVE PRICING

The best pricing in Florida for game rentals.

REAL ARCADE MACHINES

We rent real arcade machines, not Arcade1Up toys from walmart.

WE ARE A FLORIDA BASED RENTAL COMPANY

Always hire a local event company, not a company located out of state! Why? The further a company has to travel the more likely something could go wrong. Most out of state event companies work from a rolodex. They put adds in every state and make a nice website creating the illusion they are local, but they’re based in another state such as New York or New Jersey. This is why their price is higher. Did you know they usually subcontract a local company like us because it’s easier and cheaper for them. We love being trusted to do this and we will only give out their business cards so you’d never know. Hire us directly for less!

Smart Recommendations

Trust the company hired by the Ritz Carlton, Four Season, The Breakers, Miami Heat, Orlando Magic, and so many others for their corporate events.

RASTAN ARCADE GAME RENTAL