Zanac (history and reception)

Zanac was published in Japan for the Famicom Disk System by Pony, copyright 1986. Its manual's first printing is dated November 1986; no source read gives the disk's release date. zanac-history/release-fds

The first-edition line dates the manual's printing, not the disk's release.

Cited by: Zanac

The Famicom Disk System manual credits planning to A.I. and the computer design to Compile, and names Pony Inc. as producer and seller. zanac-history/makers

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The NES version came out in North America in October 1987, published by FCI (Fujisankei Communications International). Computer Entertainer's October 1987 issue, which played a preview sample, called it the second release from FCI, then a new Nintendo licensee. zanac-history/release-nes

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The NES manual carries FCI's name and Nintendo's license, and its warranty is FCI's. zanac-history/nes-publisher

The scout found no Compile or Pony credit in the NES manual.

Pony advertised an MSX2 version of Zanac in MSX FAN's April 1987 issue, as fun and as exhilarating as the Famicom version, and the same issue lists separate MSX and MSX2 versions. zanac-history/msx

The scout read on the ad's page image the prices, ¥4,900 for MSX and ¥5,800 for MSX2, and the credits コンピュータデザイン/コンパイル, プロデュース/A.I.I., 製作/ポニー. No source read dates an MSX release in 1986.

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In the NES manual's story, a system made long ago punishes with ruin those who open it improperly. Because the system is built to fight a multitude, humans send a single fighter against it, the AFX-6502 Zanac. zanac-history/premise

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The player flies Zanac to destroy the enemy's central base. At some fortresses the scrolling stops and the fortress has to be destroyed within a time limit shown on screen. The game has twelve areas, and clearing the twelfth shows the ending. zanac-history/structure

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Zanac has eight special weapons, numbered from FIRE 0, which it starts with. Catching one of the numbered power chips changes the weapon, and only one works at a time. zanac-history/weapons

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Both manuals describe ALC, an automatic difficulty control they credit to AI: the strength and number of enemies change with the player's attack and skill, and where enemies appear differs from game to game. Their examples: a high rate of fire raises the difficulty; each aerial object that appears raises the enemy's strength, by small steps in the Japanese manual; destroying a fortress lowers it, and missing one raises it. zanac-history/alc

The Japanese manual names ALC as 自動難易度調整機能 (automatic difficulty adjustment function) by AI (人工知能), and adds that some enemies appear whatever the level; the scout read both on the page image, where the OCR garbles them. The US manual prints "Automativ Level of Difficulty Control function".

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Both manuals present ALC as Zanac's own: the US manual calls it unique to Zanac and says each game is like a new one, and the Japanese manual calls it a feature earlier shooting games didn't have, giving Zanac an endless story. zanac-history/alc-claim

These are the publishers' claims about their game, not a finding that no earlier shooter adjusted its difficulty.

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Pony's April 1987 advertisement said AI had changed the shooting game: Zanac's AI changes where enemies appear and how they attack with the player's level of technique, so its stories are countless. zanac-history/msx-ad-ai

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Computer Entertainer's October 1987 preview, unsigned, described the NES version as a vertically scrolling shoot-'em-up set in space, and recommended it. Its writers enjoyed the speed, called the weapons lavish and imaginative, the music good and the sound effects outstanding, and praised the exceptionally smooth control. They noted that the ship can fire from nose and tail at once, and that the game has a continue feature. zanac-history/ce-review

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Computer Entertainer's October 1987 preview gave the NES version three and a half stars for graphics and three and a half for game play, out of four. zanac-history/ce-score

{
 "review": "Computer Entertainer",
 "of": 4,
 "scores": {
  "graphics": 3.5,
  "game play": 3.5
 }
}

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The NES version's suggested retail price was $34.95 in October 1987. zanac-history/price-nes

Famicom Tsushin's issue of 25 December 1987 placed Zanac eighth, a new entry at $29.99, in its U.S.A. Top 10 as of 11 December, supplied by the Nintendo Entertainment Center's Seattle store. zanac-history/us-chart

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