Darius (Arcade / M.A.M.E.) [922,090]

Arcade Video game published 36 years ago:
Darius © 1987 Taito Corp.
A horizontally scrolling shoot-em-up that was unique at the time for featuring a game screen that was three times wider than the conventional size, with the arcade cabinet utilizing three CRT screens to accommodate it.
In the game, the player flies an ornate fighter craft called a Silver Hawk. The craft is equipped with two attack weapons: Missile (forward-firing standard gun) and Bomb (drops from the bottom of the ship). The Silver Hawk is also equipped with the 'Arm' (armor); a green energy shield that can absorb enemy attacks without harm to the ship.
During the course of the levels the player must navigate the terrain and battle a variety of fighter craft, ground vehicles, turrets, and other obstacles. At the end of every level, players are greeted with the obligatory end-of-level boss. The bosses in Darius are often in the form of mechanical aquatic animals, such as fish or squid. If the player defeats the boss, the tunnel splits into two and the player must decide whether to take the upper or lower tunnel, both of which lead to a different stage. This allows many different paths to be taken through the game.
Power-ups can be obtained by shooting enemies of a certain colour, with the power-ups appearing in the form of coloured bubbles. Each colour corresponds to one of the ship's three weapons:
Red - Missile
Green - Bomb
Blue - Arm
If the player powers up a weapon more than seven times, the weapon changes to a new, more powerful version. This then becomes the player's default weapon, and can be powered up further. There are also two other colours of power-up bubble, white and orange; which can be obtained by shooting at certain sections of the terrain; unfortunately, there are no visual clues as to where these may be on any given level. These hidden power-ups offer the following:
White - Gives a score bonus.
Orange - Smart bomb that kills all on-screen enemies.
Darius was unique in the shoot 'em up genre for having a game screen three times longer than the usual size, and thus required a huge mirror to align the three screens in order to play.
The player flies a small spacecraft called a Silver Hawk, which is also distinctive in being highly detailed in design - indeed, Taito devised mock blueprints for it. The Silver Hawks are a trademark of the series.
Another trademark of the series is the unique branching level structure. The levels are arranged in a large binary tree, and at the end of each level, the player must choose one of two paths to follow. This means that there are many different paths that can be taken through the game.
The heroes' names in Darius series, 'PROCO' and 'TIAT', spell 'TAITO CORP' backwards.