Pesadelo (English: Nightmare) is an arcade shoot 'em up made game, developed and released by a company named "Fort II" or "Forte II" (sources disagree on the name) in 1989.
Overview[]
Pesadelo is a ROM hack of Knightmare, a 1986 MSX1 shoot 'em up game made by Konami. As such, the game's hardware is a simple MSX1 clone. While all references to Konami and the original title was removed (the word SOFTWARE at the bottom of what was the Konami logo was replaced by "FORT II", a reference to the company releasing it - sources disagree if the company is named "Fort II" or "Forte II"); however, the Japanese name of the game, Majou Densetsu, still appears in the title screen.
In keeping with the game being translation to Brazilian Portuguese, the title screen copyright has been altered as BRASIL 1989 and BOA SORTE! (English: BRAZIL 1989 and GOOD LUCK!, respectively) replaced the original game's KONAMI 1986 and PUSH SPACE KEY, respectively. The Game Over screen was also replaced, now reading TCHAU! (English: CIAO!).
Coin input support is provided by repurposing pinouts originally reserved for the cassette tape input. After inserting a coin, the following screen appears:
| Original Brazilian Portuguese text | English translation text |
|---|---|
ATENÇÃO! PESADELO DIFICULDADE 2 NÃO ACUMULA CRÉDITOS , SOMENTE COLOQUE NOVA FICHA APÓS O FIM DO JOGO PARA DAR INÍCIO AO JOGO PRESSIONE O BOTÃO DO TIRO. BOA SORTE! |
WARNING! PESADELO'S DIFFICULTY 2 DOESN'T STACK UP CREDITS. ONLY DEPOSIT COINS AFTER THE END OF THE GAME. TO START THE GAME PRESS THE FIRE BUTTON. GOOD LUCK! |
Gameplay[]
You are Popolon, a knight which must rescue Princess Aphrodite from the hands of Hudnos. Armed with arrows, Popolon can shoot two of them at the same time. By collecting spheres, Popolon can either power up his arrows or can give temporary protection for himself. Several ? boxes are spread in the stages. By destroying them, they can reveal chess pieces that can make the player to get points and extra lives. Some other chess pieces can also have secondary effects in the gameplay, such as being an smart bomb that kills all enemies in the screen, but not their shots.
Gameplay-wise, the game starts in the Knightmare's Stage 2, skipping the original game's first stage.
Trivia[]
- It is possible to break the Warning screen after inserting a coin; if too many coins are inserted on the real machine (or in an emulator), it can give a FICHA PRESA (English: COIN STUCK) error. To get out of this screen, the operator needs to turn off and turn on the power again.
- Little is known about the company publishing it, other than their Brazilian origins. Several sources also disagree on the name of the company, whether it is "Fort II" or "Forte II".
- This is one of the two known MSX1 games that was actually converted into an arcade machine. Penguin Adventure, another MSX1 game from Konami, was also converted without authorization of either Konami or ASCII Corporation (now MSX Licensing Corporation), although it was sold in South Korea.
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