Author: God Mode

Hellfire (ヘルファイアー) is a SEGA Mega Drive/Genesis horizontal shoot-’em-up developed by NCS. It is a port of the titular 1989 Toaplan arcade game Hellfire, originally published by Taito. The Mega Drive version was first published in Japan by Masaya in September 1990, was brought to the United States the following November by Seismic software, and eventually published in Europe by SEGA in May 1992. Sometime later, Hellfire made its way to Brazil, South Korea, and Australia.

One of the first Toaplan games to grace the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis, Hellfire has been seen as typifying the style and design of the system’s early library of shoot-’em-ups, and is one of the more fondly remembered examples of the genre on Sega’s 16-bit hardware.

Story

In the year 2998, a space matter known as Black Nebula, created by the robot dictator Super Mech, spreads and threatens to engulf the human-controlled galaxies. Space Federation member Captain Lancer takes control of the CNCS1 space fighter craft in a surprise attack to overthrow the enemies with the fighter craft’s “Hellfire” weapon.

Gameplay

The game is a horizontally scrolling shoot-’em-up with a science fiction theme. Players assume the role of Captain Lancer taking control of the CNCS1 space fighter craft.

The CNCS1 moves in any direction with the D-Pad and shoots with . Rapid-fire can be enabled in the options before starting the game. The ship can fire in multiple different directions, switching between each modes with , and the colour of the ship and the bullets changes to indicate the firing direction. Enemies and bosses are designed to encourage switching between the directions frequently.

NEW CHANGES IN THIS VERSION:

• Invincibility.
• Infinite lives.
• Infinite Missiles.
• First item maximum ammo.
• New updated ROM header.
• ROM is now a (World) ROM.

INSTRUCTIONS: 

Inside the ZIP file you’ll find the IPS patch, it is in Lunar IPS format and simply needs to be patched to the (USA) version of Hellfire.

NOTES:

1. Hellfire has multiple different endings when reaching the finish each time much like Truxton. It helps to entice the player to continue onwards to see all there is to see.

2. The music in the game runs too slow on Mega Drive/Genesis model 2 consoles with the VA4 motherboard. These models integrate the sound chip (YM3438) with other system components (including the CPUs and VDP) onto a custom ASIC. Earlier board revisions with a discrete Yamaha YM2612 sound chip are unaffected. This is caused by differences in timing between the discrete and the integrated versions of the chip. ”Earthworm Jim” is similarly affected.

3. If playing on an Analogue Mega SG, in the system settings, be sure to turn off the YM3438 behaviour option to avoid the slow music.

4. Many will see this ROM patch as not challenging as you can’t get hurt at all, if that’s how you feel stick to the original, but some gamers love sitting back just blasting everything to smithereens without a care in the world and not having to worry about avoiding everything on screen.

Invincible 16-bit shooters are always welcomed!

Enjoy!