There’s not much else I can say about Time Gal that hasn’t already been said. Time Gal simply looks and plays better than other FMV games of its vintage. I’m fairly certain this approach kept load times down as well. While the gameplay loses some of the fluidity and detail of the compressed video, it’s far more vibrant and colorful. One need only compare the game’s introduction, which contains compressed footage from the original arcade game – Rather than simply compress the laserdisc video from the original arcade game, the developers opted to re-draw and re-color key frames, in an effort to make the game look as good as possible for the home CD ROM market. While the Sega CD version of Time Gal may seem primitive by today’s standards, it looks quite good for a “full motion video” game from 1993.
TIME GAL ARCADE ROM SERIES
When a game amounts to little more than a series of timed button presses, setting is perhaps more important than ever, and Time Gal knocks it out of the park.
![time gal arcade rom time gal arcade rom](https://cdn02.nintendo-europe.com/media/images/10_share_images/games_15/nintendo_switch_download_software_1/H2x1_NSwitchDS_ArcadeArchivesTyphoonGal_image1600w.jpg)
Historical accuracy (or prognostication) isn’t Time Gal‘ s strong suit, but its levels are varied, colorful, and filled with action and humor. Hell, you’ll even square off against hover bike gangs in the apocalyptic future of 2001! You’ll fight your way through the giant skeleton invasion of 999! You’ll battle both man and beast in the Roman Coliseum! The plot isn’t really important – it’s a convenient excuse to send the player on a tour of recorded (and unrecorded) time’s most adventurous eras.
![time gal arcade rom time gal arcade rom](https://cdromance.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/gal7.jpg)
– who has apparently stolen a time machine in an ill-defined scheme to alter history and seize control of the universe. 99% of your interaction with him will be via this screen. In Time Gal, you control… uh…Time Gal, a time traveler from the 41st century, who is out to save the universe from this guy – His name is Luda. Apparently her real name is “Reika Kirishima,” but you wouldn’t know that from playing the game alone. If this doesn’t make any sense to you, I suggest watching the videos at the end of this post it will all become clear very quickly. That’s it and that’s all – there’s no direct control of your character. Failure to properly respond to said button prompts results in failure. Time Gal is an arcade port of a Japanese laserdisc game from 1985 – think of it as the Japanese equivalent of Dragon’s Lair. For the uninitiated, that means that the game is ostensibly a collection of what we have come to know as “quick time events:” the player watches a series of animated sequences (not unlike a cartoon), directing the protagonist through occasional button prompts. I’m glad I did – this game is worth far more than the $0.83 I paid for it. In an attempt to justify the amount of shelf space dedicated to Sega CD games in my throne room, I randomly chose Time Gal as my test case. Most of those games turned out to be terrible early ’90s FMV games, which sat on my shelf, unplayed, for months.įast forward about a year, and I’m looking for a game to play so I can get some practice slapping our shiny new logo (courtesy of my brother, the very talented Dave White) on some video captures.
![time gal arcade rom time gal arcade rom](https://www.arcade-history.com/images/game/4505_2.png)
The games were in questionable condition, but the price was right ($30 for the whole bunch), and I was eager to put my recently acquired Sega CDX to the test, so I took the plunge. Some time ago, I purchased a box of 25 unidentified Sega CD games from a seller on eBay.