The MSX port of Konami‘s classic arcade shooter, Salamander, was first released in Japan – on cartridge – in 1987. And although it shares the name and certain elements from the arcade game, this is a completely new version of Salamander, with a new storyline, new characters, ships and levels. It is sometimes referred to as “Salamander: Operation X“.

A graphical intro sequence shows the game’s two pilots: Iggy Rock, and Zowie Scott – and their respective ships – and from the main menu you can choose between three play modes: single player; “exchange” play (meaning: players take it in turns to play on their own), and “dual play” (two players playing cooperatively, simultaneously).

The gameplay itself remains relatively close to the original arcade version: you shoot enemies; pick up dropped capsules, and use these to activate ship enhancements along a seven-segment option bar (shown in blue at the bottom of the screen). The bar lights up to show you where the selector is. Pressing the ‘action’ key activates the selected segment, and collecting more capsules moves it further on down the bar. Some power-ups, such the ‘speed up’, can be activated numerous times, while others can only be activated once. When a power-up is maxed-out, a cross will appear on that segment of the option bar. This is all typical “progressive weapon shooter” stuff, pioneered by Konami themselves in the Nemesis/Gradius series.

New to this version of Salamander are ‘E’ capsules, that are dropped by defeated enemies. Collecting fifteen of these will permanently upgrade one of the weapons on the option bar. Another new feature is that the two ships – when playing cooperatively – can combine to create a single, more powerful craft that can utilize extra weaponry. Useful for difficult boss fights (of which there are a number). The levels in this version of Salamander are also considerably longer than those in the arcade version.

Salamander on the MSX also has a number of hidden features that can only be activated by plugging a second Konami game cartridge into port two on the computer. These unlockables are called “Konami Combos“. For example, if you plug Konami‘s Nemesis/Gradius 2 into port two, with Salamander in port one, it will unlock an item called “Crystal Breeze” that is required to get the ‘true ending’ in Salamander.

Overall, this enhanced version of Salamander is a great game and is definitely one of the best ‘bullet hell’ shooters available for the MSX. It’s still worth playing nowadays, and is also worth messing around with in an emulator, by combining multiple Konami cartridge ROMs to see what features you can unlock.

More: Salamander on Wikipedia
More: Salamander on gradius.fandom.com
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