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Can you identify this game? This is a scanned picture from Top Secret games magazine from 1991. It was used as an illustration for the game "Purple Saturn Day," but nothing in this game looks like this.

Here you can see what "Purple Saturn Day" looks like.

I used Google image search and TinEye, but no luck.

enter image description here

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  • 8
    A little reminiscent of R-Type
    – LAK
    Commented Jun 11, 2021 at 0:32
  • 2
    This question has already been answered and upvoted, however, it would probably have been better to ask it on Arqade.
    – CJ Dennis
    Commented Jun 13, 2021 at 0:18

1 Answer 1

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This is "X Multiply," a side-scrolling shoot-em-up released by Irem (perhaps best known from another stylistically similar shooter series, "R-Type") in 1989. The characteristic "tentacles" extending from the ship are quite distinctive. I saw the tentacles and knew that I had played this game; however, I have played a lot of old video games, and it took me a little while to track down the name of the game and additional details about it.

Arcade Flyer

X Multiply

You can see a complete playthrough of the Playstation re-release on YouTube. The magazine image is from level 6.

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  • 10
    That bottom screenshot definitely reminded me of R-Type, though I couldn't remember the name either.
    – Clockwork
    Commented Jun 11, 2021 at 7:47
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    Game play is extremely R-Type, possibly slightly faster.
    – Binary Worrier
    Commented Jun 11, 2021 at 16:40
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    @Clockwork Yes, the game really is quite similar to R-Type. The visual esthetics are very close (including the lettering styles); presumably this was by design. Moreover, watching the gameplay video, some of the enemies' moved in ways that made me think they might just have been reskinned R-Type enemies. Given that I was a big fan of the arcade R-Type games, I am actually surprised that I didn't play this game more when it became available.
    – Buzz
    Commented Jun 11, 2021 at 23:56
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    @BinaryWorrier It does look fast.
    – Buzz
    Commented Jun 11, 2021 at 23:56

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