Timeline | 1986: 1942

1942 was a hit in the Arcades but less than perfect on the NES

1942 was an arcade hit for Capcom released initially in 1984. The game is a vertically scrolling shoot 'em up set in the Pacific in World War II. You pilot a plane called 'Super Ace' (a P-38) and you shoot down enemy planes, attempt to avoid their fire and collect power-ups, etc. The game was fun because of the great graphics (for the time), smooth gameplay and the different enemies and power-up.

Unfortunately the NES version (and most of the console ports of the time) were pretty bad. Micronics has a reputation of porting Arcade games poorly and this is definitely one of them. Terrible framerate, sluggish controls and horrible music make it less than a true conversion of the arcade game (although to be fair there wasn't much better for any home console at the time).

Despite its failings, the NES version of 1942 is still quite fun.

1942 was important for several reasons. First it was possibly the best game you could get for the NES in 1986 if you already played the initial released games if only because it was one of the few NEW games to come out on the NES in 1986. Many of the other titles released that year were simply conversions of older games (Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr., Donkey Kong 3, Mario Bros., Popeye, Gumshoe, etc. all released in 1986 were all games that had releases on previous consoles). Not to say there weren't any others (Balloon Fight and Ghosts 'n Goblins were released that year as I will detail in my next few posts) but the picking were slim when compared to the onslaught of amazing games that came later in the NES's lifetime.

The second reason that 1942 was so important was because it was the game that basically established Capcom's popularity. Later series (like Mega Man, Street Fighter, etc.) would grow that popularity by leaps and bounds but 1942 (in 1984 :) ) is where it began.

Further Reading:

Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1942_(video_game)