History
Thexder is the classic action-arcade game from
GameArts. You play as a fighter
robot able to morph into a jet. Originally released in 1985 for the NEC PC8801 platform
in Japan, the game quickly became a huge hit selling over 500,000 copies. Later
that same year, GameArts licensed Thexder to
Square in order to develop a conversion
for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) game console. In 1987, GameArts also
developed a Thexder conversion for the MSX platform.
The NEC PC8801 and MSX platforms were only popular in Japan and Thexder garnered
little attention abroad. That all changed, however, when
Sierra licensed Thexder
for release in the United States. In 1987, Sierra ported the game to multiple platforms
including the IBM PC, Apple II, Commodore Amiga, and Tandy TRS-80 Color Computer
(CoCo3). Thexder continued its track record of success and became a best-seller
for Sierra.
The two GameArts developers responsible for creating Thexder were
Hibiki Godai
and Satoshi Uesaka. In 1986, they developed another action-arcade game called Silpheed
and in 1989 they wrote a Thexder sequel named "FireHawk: Thexder". As with the original,
FireHawk sold extremely well in Japan and the United States. Today, Thexder is still
remembered by many as a classic action-arcade game.
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History