is a 1988
arcade
Arcade most often refers to:
* Arcade game, a coin-operated game machine
** Arcade cabinet, housing which holds an arcade game's hardware
** Arcade system board, a standardized printed circuit board
* Amusement arcade, a place with arcade games
* ...
shooter
Shooting is the act or process of discharging a projectile from a ranged weapon (such as a gun, bow, crossbow, slingshot, or blowpipe). Even the acts of launching flame, artillery, darts, harpoons, grenades, rockets, and guided missiles can ...
video game originally developed by
TAD Corporation
was a Japanese manufacturer of video arcade games that was founded and headquartered in Mitaka-shi, Tokyo, Japan. It was founded by former employees of the company Data East and was named after its founder and owner name Tadashi "TAD" Yokoyama. ...
and published in Japan by
Taito
is a Japanese company that specializes in video games, toys, arcade cabinets and game centers, based in Shinjuku, Tokyo. The company was founded by Michael Kogan in 1953 as the importing vodka, vending machines and jukeboxes into Japan. I ...
, in North America by
Fabtek
Fabtek Inc. was a thriving video kit company founded in Bellevue, Washington, United States and started its operations there in 1987. Fabtek's name was derived from the initials of its founder Frank Ballouz (F.A.B.-tek), a former Atari and Nint ...
and in Europe by
Capcom.
In the game, the player controls a commando, viewed from behind, trying to destroy various enemy military bases. The game was innovative for the era, but only a mild success in the arcades, and became better known for its various home conversions.
Gameplay
''Cabal'' has
one-player and
two-player
A multiplayer video game is a video game in which more than one person can play in the same game environment at the same time, either locally on the same computing system ( couch co-op), on different computing systems via a local area network, or ...
-simultaneous modes of gameplay. Each player assumes the role of an unnamed commando trying to destroy several enemy military bases. There are 5 stages with four screens each. The player starts with a stock of three
lives
Lives may refer to:
* The plural form of a '' life''
* Lives, Iran, a village in Khuzestan Province, Iran
* The number of lives in a video game
* '' Parallel Lives'', aka ''Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans'', a series of biographies of famous ...
and uses a gun with limitless ammunition and a fixed number of grenades to fend off enemy troops and attack the base. The commando is seen from behind and starts behind a protective wall which can be damaged and shattered by enemy fire. To stay alive, the player needs to avoid enemy bullets by running left or right, hiding behind
cover
Cover or covers may refer to:
Packaging
* Another name for a lid
* Cover (philately), generic term for envelope or package
* Album cover, the front of the packaging
* Book cover or magazine cover
** Book design
** Back cover copy, part of co ...
, or using a dodge-roll. An enemy gauge at the bottom of the screen depletes as foes are destroyed and certain structures (which collapse rather than shatter) are brought down. When the enemy gauge is emptied, the level is successfully completed, all of the remaining buildings onscreen collapse, and the player progresses to the next stage. If a player is killed, he is immediately revived at the cost of one life or the game ends if they have no lives remaining.
Boss fights
In video games, a boss is a significant computer-controlled opponent. A fight with a boss character is commonly referred to as a boss battle or boss fight. Bosses are generally far stronger than other opponents the player has faced up to that ...
, however, restart from the beginning if the only remaining player dies.
From time to time, power-ups are released from objects destroyed onscreen. Some power-ups give special weapons such as an extremely fast-firing machine gun or an automatic shotgun with a lower firing rate and larger area of effect. Others grant extra grenades or additional points.
The arcade cabinet is a standard
upright cabinet.
Each player uses a trackball to move their character from side to side and move the crosshairs about the screen. On later board revisions, a joystick was installed instead
with an optional
sub-pcb for use with a trackball. With a trackball, dodge-rolling is done by pushing the trackball to maximum speed.
''Cabal'' was somewhat innovative in that it featured a 3D perspective in which the player character was situated in the foreground with an over-the-shoulder camera view, similar to modern
third-person shooters
Third-person shooter (TPS) is a subgenre of 3D shooter games in which the gameplay consists primarily of shooting. It is closely related to first-person shooters, but with the player character visible on-screen during play. While 2D shoot 'em ...
. Players cannot move the character while firing (holding down the fire button gives players control of the aiming cursor), and when moving the character to avoid incoming bullets, the aiming cursor moves along in tandem. This creates the need for a careful balance between offensive and defensive tactics, separating ''Cabal'' from
run-and-gun shooters which relied more on reflexes. Advanced gameplay involves destructible asset management in balancing dodging (which gets riskier as the number of enemy projectiles on screen increases) with the safer alternative of taking cover behind a protective but limited durability wall.
Ports and related releases
''Cabal'' was
ported
In software engineering, porting is the process of adapting software for the purpose of achieving some form of execution in a computing environment that is different from the one that a given program (meant for such execution) was originally desi ...
to several
home computers of the era, including the
DOS
DOS is shorthand for the MS-DOS and IBM PC DOS family of operating systems.
DOS may also refer to:
Computing
* Data over signalling (DoS), multiplexing data onto a signalling channel
* Denial-of-service attack (DoS), an attack on a communicat ...
computers,
Amstrad CPC
The Amstrad CPC (short for ''Colour Personal Computer'') is a series of 8-bit home computers produced by Amstrad between 1984 and 1990. It was designed to compete in the mid-1980s home computer market dominated by the Commodore 64 and the Si ...
,
Commodore 64,
ZX Spectrum
The ZX Spectrum () is an 8-bit home computer that was developed by Sinclair Research. It was released in the United Kingdom on 23 April 1982, and became Britain's best-selling microcomputer.
Referred to during development as the ''ZX81 Colou ...
,
Atari ST and
Amiga. It was also ported to the
Nintendo Entertainment System console
Console may refer to:
Computing and video games
* System console, a physical device to operate a computer
** Virtual console, a user interface for multiple computer consoles on one device
** Command-line interface, a method of interacting with ...
by
Rare. A version for the
Atari Lynx
The Atari Lynx is a hybrid 8/16-bit fourth generation handheld game console released by Atari Corporation in September 1989 in North America and 1990 in Europe and Japan. It was the first handheld game console with a color liquid-crystal disp ...
was previewed and even slated to be published in April 1992, but it was never released by Fabtek.
When converting the game to the Nintendo Entertainment System, Rare were given a ''Cabal'' cabinet but did not have access to the game's source code, so they had to play the game over and over and redraw the graphics from memory.
To accommodate the many layers and
sprites of the arcade game, programmer Anthony Ball used a common coding trick: swapping sprites from left to right every other frame. This has the negative side effect of causing the sprites to
flicker when they reach the console's limit of eight per line, but Ball, like many programmers of the era, found this an acceptable trade-off for including all the game's content, and in a 2016 interview he said he is happy with the quality of the conversion.
''Cabal'' was followed in 1990 by ''
Blood Bros.
is a 1990 arcade game developed and published by TAD Corporation in Japan and Europe, and later published in North America by Fabtek. It is a spiritual sequel to the 1988 game ''Cabal'', with almost identical mechanics. A bootleg of ''Blood B ...
'', though the sequel had a
western
Western may refer to:
Places
*Western, Nebraska, a village in the US
*Western, New York, a town in the US
*Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western world, countries that id ...
theme as opposed to ''Cabal''
's
Vietnam
Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...
-era theme.
Reception and legacy
In Japan, ''Game Machine'' listed ''Cabal'' on their November 1, 1988, issue as being the eighth most-successful table arcade unit of the month.
The arcade version was reviewed by Clare Edgeley in ''
Computer and Video Games'' magazine. She gave it a positive review, while comparing it favorably with ''
Operation Wolf'' (1987) and ''
Combat School
released as ''Boot Camp'' in North America, is a 1987 arcade video game produced by Konami. The player takes control of a military recruit who is undergoing basic training at a United States Marine Corps Recruit Training camp, also known as a ...
'' (1987).
Nick Kelly of ''
Commodore User
''Commodore User'', known to the readers as the abbreviated ''CU'', was one of the oldest British Commodore magazines. With a publishing history spanning over 15 years, it mixed content with technical and video game features. Incorporating ''Vic ...
'' rated ''Cabal'' seven out of ten, comparing it favorably with ''
Gryzor
is a run-and-gun shooter video game developed and published by Konami, originally developed as a coin-operated arcade game in 1986 and released on February 20, 1987. A home version was released for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1988, alon ...
'' (1987) and ''
Devastators'' (1988).
The ZX Spectrum version won the award for best advert of the year according to the readers of ''
Crash
Crash or CRASH may refer to:
Common meanings
* Collision, an impact between two or more objects
* Crash (computing), a condition where a program ceases to respond
* Cardiac arrest, a medical condition in which the heart stops beating
* Couch su ...
''.
The game's success inspired many "''Cabal'' clones," such as ''
NAM-1975
is a war shooting gallery arcade video game developed and originally published by SNK on April 26, 1990. It was one of the launch titles for both the Neo Geo MVS (arcade) and Neo Geo AES (home) platforms, in addition to being the only tit ...
'' (1990) and ''
Wild Guns
''Wild Guns'' is a 1994 space Western shooting gallery video game developed by Natsume for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Set in the Wild West with steampunk and sci-fi influences, the story follows Annie and her bounty hunter Cli ...
'' (1994).
See also
*''
Shootout
A shootout, also called a firefight or gunfight, is a fight between armed combatants using firearms. The term can be used to describe any such fight, though it is typically used to describe those that do not involve military forces or only invo ...
'', developed by TAD Corporation's related company
Data East
, also abbreviated as DECO, was a Japanese video game, pinball and electronic engineering company. The company was in operation from 1976 to 2003, and released 150 video game titles. Its main headquarters were located in Suginami, Tokyo. The A ...
three years before ''Cabal''.
References
External links
Rareware page*
*
*
arcade history pageCabal compared to its 2002 spiritual successor, Gamshara
{{Rare
1988 video games
Amiga games
Amstrad CPC games
Arcade video games
Atari ST games
Cabal shooters
Cancelled Atari Lynx games
Commodore 64 games
DOS games
Fabtek games
Nintendo Entertainment System games
Ocean Software games
TAD Corporation games
Trackball video games
Video games scored by David Wise
ZX Spectrum games
Cooperative video games
Taito arcade games
Video games developed in Japan