Heavy Barrel

[celerystalker]

So, my newest pcb arrived yesterday, so I tested it this morning after work. It's a Data East Heavy Barrel. I bought the original version compatible with the LS-30 rotary sticks to run in my Time Soldiers cabinet as opposed to the later revision that removed rotary control in favor of shooting how you're facing. Didn't do much with it yet aside from set up the dip settings and give it a thorough test, though it's a game with which I'm pretty familiar.

Any big Heavy Barrel fans around? I've done the NES game to death, and while the Wii version is dandy, I'm excited to finally own it to play with proper controls!

[Steve W]

I love Heavy Barrel. I didn't like the NES version at all, it was a far cry from the arcade original if I remember correctly. It's just not the same without a rotary joystick.

I've got a cup in my car that I fill with quarters, and when I'm in the area I'll drop by the Quarter Lounge Arcade in Hurst, TX and blow a bunch of change on the Heavy Barrel/Time Soldiers machine. The owner of the place has most of the machines modded with toggle switches so they can play two games that share the same control system. There's plenty of other games there, but I always head straight for Heavy Barrel.



Maybe this is something that should be spun off into its own topic, but I'll ask anyway... how many games utilized the rotary joystick control scheme? Heavy Barrel, Ikari Warriors, and Time Soldiers are the first ones I think of. There's definitely more, I just can't think of them at the moment. Didn't Commando and Gun.Smoke use rotary sticks too? Anybody want to chime in?

[celerystalker]

Commando and Gun.Smoke didn't use the rotary sticks. I'll likely miss a few, but here are some I know for sure:

TNK III (Iron Tank)
Time Soldiers
Ikari Warrirors
Ikari Warriors II (Victory Road)
Ikari Warriors III
Guerrilla War (Guevara)
SAR (Search and Rescue)
Heavy Barrel
Midnight Resistance
Gondomania
Bermuda Triangle
Downtown
World Wars

Edit: As far as I can tell, Bermuda Triangle and SAR are the really hard to find ones, with World Wars close behind. I have Time Soldiers, Guerrilla War, Gondomania, and Heavy Barrel, which are all JAMMA. I know Ikari Warriors and TNK III are non-JAMMA, using the SNK classic pinout, but the same rotary sticks. I think the rest are JAMMA.

Also, Midnight Resistance is the only one to use a horizontal monitor.

[Steve W]

What control scheme did Gun.Smoke use? I could swear it was something odd that made replicating it on the NES difficult. I used to play it at a local convenience store back in ye olden times, a store that was known for years to get in plenty of good arcade games. I recall thinking while playing it that Gun.Smoke would be a difficult game to port because of the controls. Another NES port of an uncommon arcade title that I had high hopes for but let me down.

[celerystalker]

Gun.Smoke used a standard 8-way joystick, but had separate fire buttons for left, right, and center, which was pretty different. Commando was pretty basic. Standard 8-way stick, one button to shoot, one for grenades.

[delafro]

Nintendo's Sheriff also had kind of a rotary controller- the left joystick moves the player, while the right dial rotates to aim, and then you actually push the dial to fire.

It's clunky, but you could get used to it:

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Fixing and replacing those dials must have been a pain, though.