Legendary Warrior Rygar was an arcade platform game wrote by Tecmo in 1986. You played the part of a barbarian warrior trying to reclaim the land from an evil Dominator and his legions of mutated minions. You had to fight your way through 27 rounds with a unique weapon which was a lethal razor sharp disk that Rygar would hurl at his enemies!

It was one of the first games I ever played in an arcade in the early part of 1987. In my local arcade at the time it had gained a reputation as being the "toughest" game to play, partially because the owner had the difficulty on maximum and also it was the one game in there that wasn't energy based. But that was what I loved about it - it's frantic pace, fast and furious action and the fact that it WAS a tough game - it was no walkover. It was packed full of secret bonuses, had many mysterious rumours, a few wacky unintentional glitches ;) but best of all could only be mastered with skill and dedication. Rygar was a highly competitive game and I can still remember all the time I spent competing against friends to be the first to get a 5,000,000+ pts score or find out some new secret or trick. It was one of the only games I played (and watched others) where you could witness a feat of pure skill but then a sheer fluke all in the space of about a minute!

When the local arcade went under a few years later I had no more involvement with arcades and thought that I would never play the game again, until I found out about emulation back in 1998. As luck would have it Rygar is supported by the excellent MAME and even has it's own emulators - REM and the more obscure Rishgar. After a quick search of the Net I didn't find much else about Rygar. There was a few sites about the emulators but sadly they're no longer being continued. So instead of letting it fall into obscurity I decided to write my own page which has been running for almost 4 years at various locations and for now has settled at www.rygar.info !

Many people often ask me what other similar games I thought matched Rygar. The only other platform games to match Rygar in terms of atmosphere and gameplay (that I played around the same time) where Tiger Road and Magic Sword a year or two later. In my opinion, these games were spoilt a bit because of the level selector they had. This meant someone with no skill could start on the last level and finish the game just by slapping in enough continues. Not much of an achivement so some players refused to play on games like this and so the arcade owners didn't leave them in for long. Rygar never had a level selector and continues where limited so it was only ever finished by the best players. The one thing I could never stand was someone who would finish a game first because he'd slapped in £100 worth of continues (each one lasting about 10 seconds) and then act as if he'd achieved something! Being able to finish the game on a single credit took longer, but the feeling of success was just so much greater!

Rygar never had a sequel in the arcades in the 80's, although it had several computer conversions of varying quality. The NES version that appeared soon afterwards was new and different but at the time I never really considered it a true sequel more an adaptation. It was totally different from the arcade game and was more akin to Black Tiger - still, it was a great game.

Now, almost 16 years on the new Rygar - "The Legendary Adventure" is finally in the pipeline and the adventures will continue once more. And I can't wait for it to be released.....

I suppose you'll be wanting to know more of what the game was all about. Gary Jennings sent me this which he says is the story from the booklet that came with the Lynx version of Rygar. As you can see from the screenshots of the arcade version above it was a bit more concise back in 1986.

Listen, Rygar, as I tell the tale of your becoming.

Millions of years ago, a benevolent wizard banished the minions of darkness to the underworld, freeing the land of evil and ushering in a long era of peace and prosperity for our people. Unfortunately, the wizard had not yet learned the Eternal Spells. Before he died, however, he prophesied that, someday, a great hero would be born. The hero would be known by a mysterious birthmark - the Mark of the Wizard. This mark would allow the hero to open the magic chests strewn throughout the land and use the magic weapons hidden within.

10,000 years have passed since the dark forces resurfaced and claimed the land for their own. The people of Good fled the land. They were forced to hide in the unfruitful regions at the edge of the world, across the great sea.

But they never lost their love for their original home. For ten millennia they selected the best of their people, creating a race of heroes. You, Rygar, are the greatest of the great. When you were born you were named Rygar the Reclaimer, because you bore the Mark of the Wizard.

If we are ever to reclaim the land that is ours by birth, you will have to return to our homeland and fight the minions of evil. No one can help you on this quest. You must go alone. If you fail, the evil ones will know of our existence and destroy us completely. If, however, you remain true to the Mark which you bear, you will vanquish those evil forces forever and we can return to the rich lands we were forced to leave so many ages ago.

And now, Rygar, you know who and what you are. Go now. Claim your birthright. Do not fail your fathers!