While this COVID 19 bollocks was kicking off and I was furloughed, I decided to build an arcade cabinet with my Raspberry Pi. I would show you pictures of it but it's not quite finished yet although it is playable. As I was scrolling through the games , the name of a game came up which I haven't seen for a while. That game was Cadash! Naturally, I fired it up and had a playthrough as I remember playing it and enjoying it, so I wondered if I still would.
I remember walking into Cascade Arcade in Nottingham one Saturday morning back in 1989 to discover 2 people playing a new game that arrived. The volume was quite loud in comparison to the other games and I eventually manage to get a viewing angle through the crowd surrounding it where I could see what everyone else was watching, the game was Cadash.
Set in a medieval fantasy world, some evil cunt has kidnapped the beautiful Princess (Insert Name) in order to do some despicable shit, so that they can take over the kingdom of Cadash. The king who loves his daughter more than his kingdom, asks for the help and the player can choose a character from either a Warrior, Mage, Priestess, or a Ninja to rescue his daughter, each character as different strengths and weaknesses. So off you go, putting your life in danger because the King is too much of a pussy to do it himself.
As you see, I can't really remember the story or even bother to research it but it's something along those lines and as you can imagine back in 1989, stories weren't that important in an arcade game. You didn't play games in the '80s for their storylines...unless it was an adventure game. I'm not really keen on swords and sorcery, it's just never been my thing, Gauntlet was alright but only cause it was 4 player, it was shit playing it on your own. I enjoyed playing Zelda on the SNES and then Nintendo 64 which I hadn't played by this point. I would have usually given any game with a medieval setting with swords and sorcery a wide berth, they are not usually my cup of tea. A little later, after my mate had arrived at the arcade and the crowd had died down a bit, we decided to give it a go. To my surprise, I really enjoyed it and ended up playing it quite a few more times.
Your characters can do what you normally do in RPGs, speak to NPCs and get hints about what you have to do and where to find things, upgrade weapons, magic and armour. This was one of the first times that an arcade company (Taito) had a go at making an RPG arcade game at that point, which is odd, considering that arcade games are supposed to take your money off you, while RPGs are supposed to be played slowly. It was a strange mix but it worked out very well.
Each character had different attacks and skills and as the player proceeds through the level, killing monsters and bosses, your character started powering up. Money and gold would be dropped by from the enemies you had killed, so when the player reached a town, they could visit the shop and get better equipment like medical herbs to restore your health or antidotes to poisons. You could also stay in the inn for a night and get a full recovery of health. The game had a time limit which was quite generous but you could also buy an hourglass to increase your playing time. The game ended when you ran out of health or the timer ran out. Me and another mate really got into playing it, to the point we could complete the game with one credit. There were a few grinding tricks to powering up a character quickly like moving backwards and forwards to spawn enemies and get loads of money and experience.
The levels are quite distinct and there are a few cases where you have to double back on yourself when you have gained a new ability. Speaking to the NPC in the game will usually hint at what you to do next if you ever get stuck.
It was a fantastic game which was eventually ported to the PC Engine (TurboGrafix-16 to those in the US and a fantastic console that was never officially released in the UK) and I purchased it. It was a fantastic port and very close the arcade game but with some differences which made it more playable like removing the timer and adding a bit more adventure to the mix. Then the same mate who I completed it in the arcades bought the Megadrive version when it came out, now the Megadrive was technically a better console but unfortunately, the game wasn't. It was rubbish in comparison, you could only play as 2 characters, so I couldn't play as the mage which was my favourite character, it was just fucking horrible that my mate traded it in the week after he had bought it.
So after many years, I decided to play it on the cabinet and see if it plays well. And to my surprise, yes it does. The game still has a certain charm while the graphics, characters and sound were good for an arcade game of that era. The game is much harder than I remember though and I had to keep topping up credits. I manage to find one of the games secrets which I had completely forgotten about and it certainly gave me the nostalgia feels. The game is much shorter than I remember but arcade games aren't supposed to be that long but I did have fun playing it.
Cadash is a game well worth a visit if you are into retro games. There is no way on this god's green earth that I could complete it on a single credit but thankfully, it's not costing me 20p any more either.
Comments