D E A D
N
G
L
E
for the Sega Master System
=================================
FAQ/Walkthrough
By hundley4ever@lycos.com
Version 1.1
Date: 3/21/2002
=================================
What's New?
- Version 1.1, 3/21/2002
> Added contact info. Whoops!
I. GENERAL INFO
A. PLOT
B. GAMEPLAY
C. CORRECTIONS
D. SEIBU KAIHATSU
II. YOUR HEROES
III. ROGUES GALLERY: THE BADDIES
IV. WALKTHROUGH
A. NAPOLI
B NEW YORK
C. CHICAGO
D. HALL
V. ENDING
VI. ARCADE VERSIONS
VII. RELATED MOVIES, BOOKS, ETC.
VIII. CREDITS
I. GENERAL INFO
Dead Angle, the SMS game, was released in the United
States in 1989. It was a shoot'em up that put you in
the role of a detective taking down organized crime families
and rescuing your girlfriend.
The game was based on a game developed by Seibu Kaihatsu
and released by Fabtek in 1988. It is actually the sequel
to the earlier "Empire City: 1931", a similar game developed
by the same company.
Plot
====
Here's the plot description from the box:
"You're George Phenix, one very tough
private eye. You're so tough that you were
the one who was able to put mob kingpin
Robert King behind bars. He vowed re-
venge, but at the time you laughed it off.
However, while you were in Italy with
your girlfriend, Jane, King got his revenge.
His thugs got their ahnds onJane and
disappeared. Now you stalk the streets of
the city of Napoli, your blood boiling, your
gun drawn!
"Dead Angle" takes you back to the
1930's, when the mob did almost anything
they wanted to. Now they've crossed the
line, and you can put an end to the reign of
Robert King. Put your enemies away with
your revolver, or if you're lucky, pick up a
Tommy gun and let 'er rip! Save Jane from
the Big Sleep!
Gameplay
========
In Dead Angle, you control a silhouette (outline)
of the main character, George Phoenix. You manuever
him around the screen, along with a cross-hair. You
use the cross-hair to target and shoot opponents.
You are hurt when an opponent comes in front of your
outline and shoots. The gauge on the bottom represents
your health. You have three segments of life. Getting
shot reduces it by one, and getting hit by a grenade
or knife reduces it by two.
There are two powerups: tommy guns and health. They
are represented by icons that pop onto the screen
time to time. Shoot the icons to get the powerup;
tommy guns give you automatic firing (hold button
1) and health replenished one segment of health.
The numbers at the bottom right of the screen
represent enemies left (top number) and time left,
in minutes and seconds (bottom number).
You lose a life when time is up or when you have
no life left.
Corrections
===========
Here are some corrections to the Dead Angle manual
and packaging.
- The back of the box misspells George Phoenix's last
name as "Phenix".
- The manual switches the names of Vincent and Orazio.
(unconfirmed)
Seibu Kaihatsu
==============
Japanse-based Seibu Kaihatsu has made arcade games for some
time now. Besides creating the Empire City/ Dead Angle games,
they've been most famous for their popular series of 2-D
shoot'em ups: the Raiden series. They were apparently in
some financial trouble in the year 2000, and I'm not sure
if they're still in business.
II. YOUR HEROES
George Phoenix
==============
He's the tough private eye who took down mob kingpin
Robert King. Now he fights King for the last time
to get back his girl.
Jane
====
George's girlfriend; she was kidnapped while the two
were on holiday in Italy.
III. THE ROGUES GALLERY
Mobsters
=======
These are the guys you face in each level.
Grey:
The grey-suited guys are most common. They tend
to run and roll, then fire single shots. They
also fire several shots from standing positions
and jump from windows. Get them while they're
running, rolling or jumping.
Beige,Red, Green:
These guys have different color suits and appear
in different levels, but they all just run and
gun simultaneously. Pick them off quick and
you'll have no problem.
Enrico
======
Enrico is the boss of the big crime family
in Napoli. He likes to carry a tommy gun
around as his choice form of protection.
Salvatore
=========
Salvatore is the head of one of the major
crime families in New York. He seems to run
contraband in from the harbors and shoots
with two pistols.
Orazio
======
Orazio is another of the major crime bosses
in New York. You meet him in the hotel. He
likes to throw knives.
Vincent
=======
Vincent is head of one of the biggest crime
families in Chicago. He likes to come at
enemies with two guns blazing.
?
=
You meet this guy in the hall of big boss Robert's
mansion. His name was in the instruction manual of the
game, but I don't recall it. He shoots one gun and throws
grenades.
Robert King
===========
He's the biggest mafia leader in the country. He's ruthless
and cunning and he's holding George's girlfriend hostage!
You'll need to take this guy down if you want to see your
girlfriend alive.
IV. WALKTHROUGH
NAPOLI:
Enrico Family
Body Count: 47
Time: 4:00
This is where it all begins. You start out on the streets of Napoli,
in the midsts of a huge gunfight. Quickly duck and move George up
to higher ground up the building. Target the mobsters from above
ground. Also look for them firing from windows in the buildings
on the streets and jumping down from these windows. Stay out
of the way of enemy fire and you'll be fine.
Boss: Enrico
Enrico, the zebra-stripe suited mobster is the boss for these
level. Again, don't stand in front of him and pelt him with
five shots to win.
NEW YORK: At the port
Salvatore Family
Body Count: 55
Time: 4:00
Here's the docks. Again, stay off the ground. Mobsters are
on the ship. You can pick some off while they're jumping. They
also hide out on both levels inside the building to the
right.
Boss: Salvatore
Salvatore runs and guns at the same time. Just like with
Enrico, stay out of his way and pelt him with five hits to
take him down.
NEW YORK: At the hotel
Orazio Family
Body Count: 57
Time: 4:00
This is probably the hardest level in the game, because
you can't freely move up and down. Duck a lot and take
cover behind open doors to stay alive. Mobsters will
come out of doors in hallways, so be careful!
Boss: Orazio
Orazio moves slowly, but throws knives. Shoot the knives
he throws and hit him five times to take him down. If
you can't hit the knives, then duck, because they
deal two points of damage.
Chicago: Vincent Family
Vincent Family
Body Count: 65
Time: 4:00
This is an easy level. Mobsters are high up on the building and
on the street. Stay between the two levels of attack and pelt
mobsters from there. Some mobsters will emerge from the building,
so be careful.
Boss: Vincent
Vincent fires two guns right after each other while running
around, similar to Salvatore. However, Vincent can shoot you
two times in succession more easily than Salvatore. Again,
stay off the ground and hit him 6 times to beat him.
The Hall
Body Count: 67
Time: 4:00
There's plenty of mobsters here. There's mobsters on the
top floor, mobsters on the ground and mobsters that take
cover from behind the stairs. Again, keep off the ground
and below the second floor and keep picking off the mobsters.
Keep out of the way of the mobsters that peek out from
behind the stairs.
Boss: ?
This guy runs around and shoots one shot at a time from his
gun. He's slower than the other bosses, but his grenade toss
can deal twice the damage of his single shots. Stay out of
the way of his grenades and shots, and hit him 7 times
for the win.
The Boss
Body Count: 50
Time: 4:00
Here's the big boss himself. Like in the hotel, you can't
really move up or down so keep ducking to avoid the enemy's
shots. You'll face all the bosses you've faced so far except
Enrico, so just duck from their attacks and keep shooting
them like before.
Boss: Robert
If you tried to shoot Robert before, you'll find he was
hiding behind glass and he'll take your Jane and put a
gun to her head.
After you've defeated all the enemies, shatter the glass
he's hiding behind and he'll start shooting at you.
Duck, because he shoots face and can deplete your life bar
pretty quickly, then when he stops shooting for a millisecond
try shooting him. He only takes one hit. Just be careful
not to hit Jane or you'll have to start the level over!
V. ENDING
After you shoot Robert, he'll go sailing out the window
behind him to the ground below. Some pseudo-mafia music
plays and you'll see George with his sweetheart. With the
following text:
You defeated the crime boss and saved Jane from the big
sleep.
You then see a cool screen with George and Jane embracing
in the moonlight in the room (with Robert's desk mysteriously
gone) with the words "The End" showing up while the screen
becomes a photographic-style beige.
VI. ARCADE VERSIONS
| What is Empire City 1931? |
Empire City 1931 is the precursor to Dead Angle. It was
released in 1986 by Romstar (the same company that would
later handle the US release of Double Dragon II in 1989)
and developed by Seibu Kaibatsu.
The music was great big band stuff that suited the
setting, which was 1931 New York. Some of the tunes
seem to be versions of tunes that would be reused in
Dead Angle, the sequel.
|Gameplay|
The gameplay was much different from Dead Angle. Instead
of controlling a silhouette of the main character, you had
a cross-hair and you had to hunt down mobsters one in local
environments. If you didn't find them in time, you got
shot. As different and slower-paced as the gameplay was,
you could still duck. Limited ammo and limited time made
this game quite difficult to win at.
The last boss was quite hard - you
only got one chance to shoot him as he moved through a
building or you had to beat the level before him again.
|What about the arcade version of Dead Angle? |
The arcade version of Dead Angle isn't known too well,
despite the fact that Sega marketed Dead Angle for the
SMS as an arcade conversion (as mentioned on the box.).
Apparently the arcade version was released in 1988
in the US by Fabtek (with worse marquee art than the
Empire City cabinet, which featured some nice classic
Romstar artwork).
The game was supposedly about the same as the SMS
version, but I suppose that it was much harder than the
SMS version, which was a pushover. You
could use grenades in this version.
The graphics looked WAY better than the SMS version
of course, although I've only seen one screenshot -
the difference is obvious. It probably doesn't
suffer from the choppiness in animation that the
SMS version has.
|Is the arcade version of Dead Angle emulated?|
Nope. According to unmamed.unemulated.com, the MAME driver
is almost complete, and the game is playable, but some of the
backgrounds don't work and the sound cpu from the original
arcade board is also encrypted.
VII. RELATED BOOKS, MOVIES, GAMES ETC.
Games
=====
Empire City: 1931
-----------------
The game that started it all. It's slower paced than Dead Angle,
but the gangster theme and big band soundtrack make it well
worth playing.
Dead Connection
---------------
A Taito game where you take down the mafia in some intense
shoot'em ups to get revenge for a friend.
Mafia
-----
Upcoming PC game to be released in 2002 which puts you in place
as a mobster in the 1930's.
Dynamite Duke
-------------
Not really a mafia game, the gameplay of this Genesis/arcade game
is similar to that of Dead Angle. It was developed by Seibu
Kaihatsu and released to the arcades by Fabtek, the two companies
that brought Dead Angle to the arcades.
Books/Movies
============
-------------------
The Big Sleep
by Raymond Chandler
-------------------
This is the definitive detective novel that effectively deals
with the seedy underworld of LA in the 1940's.
Humprey Bogart stars as hard-boiled detective and protagonist
Phillip Marlowe in the movie version.
-------------------
The Maltese Falcon
by Dashiell Hammett
-------------------
This is the famous book and movie that has detective Sam Spade
(Humprey Bogart in the movie) looking for a lost artifact
and dealing with some seedy characters on the way.
VIII. CREDITS
Thanks to...
Sega - for continually making great games and releasing great systems.
Seibu Kaihatsu - for developing such a different kind of game with
such an original theme.
