is an arcade video game released 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. It b ...

in 1992. The game takes place on September 5, 1953 "in a big city somewhere". It features a group of detectives who set out to fight a crime family. The game has a strong

film noir Film noir (; ) is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and motivations. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of American ' ...

vibe, shown through the appearance of the detectives and the featuring of a female protagonist. Each stage is preceded by a short cinematic interlude that explains the transition between the game's different locales.

Summary

The in-game maneuvers were unusually diverse for a sprite-based

shoot 'em up Shoot 'em ups (also known as shmups or STGs ) are a sub-genre of action games. There is no consensus as to which design elements compose a shoot 'em up; some restrict the definition to games featuring spacecraft and certain types of chara ...

game of the era. When the player moves his character to within arm's length of an enemy, the shoot button triggers a

melee A melee ( or , French: mêlée ) or pell-mell is disorganized hand-to-hand combat in battles fought at abnormally close range with little central control once it starts. In military aviation, a melee has been defined as " air battle in which ...

attack. The player can also lie prone to evade gunfire, and perform a diving somersault in order to quickly take cover behind tables, plants, pillars, statues, and other fixtures. Instead of using

scrolling In computer displays, filmmaking, television production, and other kinetic displays, scrolling is sliding text, images or video across a monitor or display, vertically or horizontally. "Scrolling," as such, does not change the layout of the text ...

each stage takes place against a non-moving but richly detailed backdrop—beginning with the lavish interior of a posh hotel. Most of the environment is destructible and the scenery becomes visibly degraded by bullet holes throughout the prolonged firefights. The game seems to take specific inspiration from the 1987 mobster film ''

The Untouchables Untouchables or The Untouchables may refer to: American history * Untouchables (law enforcement), a 1930s American law enforcement unit led by Eliot Ness * ''The Untouchables'' (book), an autobiography by Eliot Ness and Oscar Fraley * ''The Un ...

''. Two of the main characters bear an unmistakable resemblance to

Andy Garcia Andy may refer to: People * Andy (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters * Horace Andy (born 1951), Jamaican roots reggae songwriter and singer born Horace Hinds * Katja Andy (1907–2013), German-American pianist and pi ...

and

Kevin Costner Kevin Michael Costner (born January 18, 1955) is an American actor, producer, film director and musician. He has received various accolades, including two Academy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, and two Screen Actor ...

who both starred in that film as George Stone/Giuseppe Petri and

Eliot Ness Eliot Ness (April 19, 1903 – May 16, 1957) was an American Prohibition agent known for his efforts to bring down Al Capone and enforce Prohibition in Chicago. He was the leader of a team of law enforcement agents, nicknamed The Untouchables. H ...

, respectively.

Reception

In Japan, ''Game Machine'' listed ''Dead Connection'' on their October 1, 1992 issue as being the seventeenth most-successful table arcade unit of the month.

Notes

References

External links

*
''Dead Connection''
at

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1992 video games Arcade video games Arcade-only video games Shoot 'em ups Video games about police officers Video games set in 1953 Taito arcade games Video games developed in Japan {{arcade-stub