Dead or Alive (arcade game)

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Dead or Alive

Developer(s)	Team Ninja
Publisher(s)	Tecmo
Designer(s)	Tomonobu Itagaki
Release date(s)	Arcade 1996 Sega Saturn ^NA July, 1997 ^JPN October 9, 1997 PlayStation ^JPN March 12, 1998 ^NA March 31, 1998 ^EUR July, 1998
Genre(s)	Versus fighting
Mode(s)	Up to 2 players simultaneously
Platform(s)	Arcade, PlayStation, Sega Saturn, Xbox
Input	8-way Joystick, 4 Buttons
Arcade cabinet	Upright
Arcade system(s)	Sega Model 2
Arcade display	Raster, 496 x 384 pixels (Horizontal), 8192 colors

Dead or Alive is a fighting game in the Dead or Alive series.

1 Overview
2 Gameplay
3 Versions
4 Trivia
5 Character roster

[edit] Overview

Tomonobu Itagaki has stated that he was dissatisfied with the way modern fighting games were presented, he missed the old arcade style of play and had another vision for the fighting game genre. Having worked for Tecmo for a long time, Itagaki was eventually given the opportunity to develop a fighting game. The game, the first Dead or Alive, was released in 1996 as an arcade game for the Japanese market. It had been a success in Japan, but not in the West. This was possibly because of the competing game Tekken, which was already a popular fighting game series for the PlayStation.

[edit] Gameplay

Dead or Alive was unique in its debut that featured fairly different choices in gameplay than other 3D fighting games. It's most defining features were its speed and countering system. Unlike Tekken, Dead or Alive put an emphasis on speed, and relied more on simplistic commands and reaction time rather than long strings of combos. Furthermore, its countering system was the first in the fighting genre to utilize different commands that corresponded to each type of attack. There are two kinds of holds, an offensive hold (OH) and a defensive hold (DH), furthermore, these commands are executed by holding back or forward on the directional pad along with the guard input to either force away or counter-damage an opponent. Finally, the game used an environmental addition called the danger zone, which surrounded the outer edges of the fighting arena (depending on the options, it could also completely consume it), and when a character came in contact with it, sent them in the air so the opposing player can execute a juggling air combo. However, this can be avoided with a Ukemi (defensive roll).

[edit] Versions

There are three different versions of the original Dead or Alive.

The original version of Dead or Alive was released in arcades in 1996, utilizing Sega's Model 2 arcade board (it was also the first time Sega licensed their hardware to a third-party company; in this case, Tecmo). It was later ported to the Sega Saturn in Japan on October 9, 1997. The game was never released for the North American Saturn. It was released in the United States for the Xbox on October 26, 2004, as part of Dead or Alive Ultimate (see below).

On March 12, 1998 in Japan, Tecmo released Dead or Alive for the PlayStation. This version included numerous differences compared to the arcade and Saturn versions, which included 2 new characters (Bass & Ayane), a different graphics engine, a slightly revamped fighting engine and new background music (BGM). The PlayStation version was released in North America on March 31, 1998, and later in Europe on July 1998.

In 2004, Tecmo released a revamped version of the Saturn version made to run on the Xbox along with an updated version of Dead or Alive 2, both in the same package. It was basically the original game ported to the Xbox, making graphics more colorful and smoother, sound from stereo to surround, and adding one key element that boosts the game replay value in a huge amount, Xbox Live Online Gaming. This game along with Dead or Alive 2, Ultimate became the second fighting game with online play.

It is important to note, that original game, which ran on the Model 2 arcade board, had fully 3D modeled backgrounds. The Sega Saturn conversion used bitmap tricks and overlapping layers in the same fashion, as the console version of Virtua Fighter 2 did. The original arcade used pure 3D on all the arenas. Much like in Virtua Fighter 2 case, it was impossible to achieve this kind of graphics on Saturn hardware and both games were scaled down. The Xbox version was an ported version of what Sega Saturn owners experienced. (Arcade backgrounds not present)

[edit] Trivia

The name Dead or Alive stems from the fact that the game was seen as a "sink or swim" title for Itagaki as his beginning project for Tecmo, as the company was badly in need of a hit game at the time.
An Arcade version of the Playstation game titled Dead or Alive ++ was released on the same Playstation based Sony ZN Arcade Hardware as Street Fighter EX.
Dead or Alive ++ featured costumes which would later appear in versions of Dead or alive 2.