Zanac & Lunar Pool retrospective: Greatest hits Compile-ation | NES Works

After a few too many humdrum releases rounding out September 1987, October sees the NES back in proper fighting form with a string of games for the ages. First up, we have the dual debut of legendary developer Compile (under the auspices of FCI) with a pair of lesser-known classics that showcase the unique sensibilities and impressive skills for which the studio would become known.
Video Works is funded through Patreon ( / gamespite ) - support the show and get access to every episode up to two weeks in advance of its KZbin debut! And be sure to check out the Retronauts podcast (www.retronauts.com), where I (and many others!) tackle a much wider array of classic gaming topics each week.

[@Larry]

I'd have thought Lunar Pool would be best known in the West as "that game that's always on every Famiclone multi-cart ever made" that, and Circus Charlie.

[@Rando1975]

That how I was introduced to it. I believe it was a 41 in 1 cart. Loved Lunar Pool.

[@jessragan6714]

Was I the only one who actually rented that game?

[@PrekiFromPoland]

I think you wanted to say "in the East" where Famiclones were prevalent in the nineties.

[@OmegaDez]

@@PrekiFromPoland No, in the west. There was a ton of pirate multicarts available here. And yes, they all had Lunar Pool. Usually called Lunar Ball, though.

[@kosmosyche]

@@OmegaDez Lunar Ball is the Japanese title of the game. In Russia we've also had it on almost every "999 in 1" and "9999 in 1" cartridge, which was often packed in with our famiclones. It was also usually one of the better games there (with Battle City which was cherished for it's multiplayer aspect)

[@jameshakola3603]

Zanac was definitely one of my favorite NES games. I started out absolutely terrible at it, but found the game so fun and fascinating that I became determined to beat it.. Which gave me not only my love for vertical shooters, but the skills to win top prize on a TurboGrafx Blazing Lazers tournament that NEC held a year or so later! It really helped to understand the groove of Compile shooters

[@Kafei2006]

An understated quality of Zanac is its ability to display so much stuff on screen without any horribly noticeable sprite flicker. If you compare this to anything Micronics put on the NES like, say, 1942 which they ported to Famicom/NES for Capcom, and the difference is staggering. I don't know how they did it, but seeing that amount of perfectly readable enemy sprites and bullets is a testament to Compile's prowess.

[@BainesMkII]

My first thought on seeing the video today was "How did they do it?" The fast scrolling ground may give the illusion of speed, but Zanac also simply performs better. It fills the screen with enemies and projectiles without a visible performance hit or sprite flicker, while competing titles struggled in one or both areas even when fielding less. Being a vertical shooter helps; horizontal shooters are hit head on by the hardware limit on how many sprites can be displayed on a single scanline. But the game also seems designed very much aware of the horizontal sprite limit, when competing NES shmups just seemed to hope for the best. The game takes full advantage of its vertical space to fill the screen with enemies and bullets, while simultaneously being very careful about what it ever asks to display on the same horizontal line. Take the horizontal "line" of seven bullets that some enemies fire; it is a curve that quickly staggers the bullets so that no more than four are on the same line. Ships are small and bullets are tiny. It looks like you rarely see more than three enemies on the same horizontal line. Intentional flicker seems very carefully managed, so that you might not even notice when something is flickering due to hardware limits versus just flickering for effect, and you don't just lose something outright. The worst bit in the video is the big enemy around 9:30, which fires a horizontal spray of bullets. If you frame advance through that, it looks terrible. But watching at regular speed it still seems playable.

[@danluke426]

@William Burns what order is he going in?

[@auralunaprettycure]

Me too, I just love Gun Nac. So creative, tons of weapons, and just plain amazing music.

[@DragonGrafx-16]

@@auralunaprettycure Gun-Nac is my favorite NES game... I could not afford the real thing but wanted it as a cartridge so I had a really high-quality repro made....

[@OmegaDez]

@William Burns in 10 years

[@FloatingSunfish]

Lunar Pool was my childhood. I always found the "twang!" sound the cue ball made when it fell down a hole hilarious as a kid, and still do to this day. 😂

[@SeekerLancer]

Zanac was such a masterpiece of its time. It blew away other early NES shmups and was still better than most later ones.

[@lucianonicolasgarcia7311]

Lunar ball was great, I played the hell out of it as a kid.

[@safetinspector2]

Zanac, a game I shoplifted from Sears, was epiphanous. So many secrets! Hit the Nintendo’s reset button fifteen times and you get a secret menu letting you choose stage or rock out to the background music .So many weird secrets did I learn just from playing. Shoot the first enemy you see in any stage with your secondary weapon and get a smiley face which will super power your both your primary and secondary weapon. Crash into a box containing a yellow circle without shooting it first and get auto fire. Shoot the office building looking towers enough times and get a screen clearing item that will float along until you use it. Shoot the towers that look like the have a face on them and get a stage warp. Power ups for secondary weapons are carried in by carrier dudes sequentially and regularly and in numeric order... oh man, such a good game that it was proof that crime DID pay

[@photoc]

Anyone catch Jeremy saying "Compile-ation" at the beginning in reference to Compile games? Nice and subtle yet effective :)

[@rubberwoody]

it's in the title bro

[@stoozdee]

AGW I mean, fr

[@LorenHelgeson]

Zanac is a clear example of not judging a game solely by its graphics. The speed of gameplay and the dynamic difficulty made this a lot more enjoyable than I expected. Also, the relative lack of slowdown is likewise impressive.

[@RyanMan767]

"mom, can we get Zanac?" - "no, we have Zanac at home." at home: *Xanax* - (*nodds tf out*)

[@Hatchet2k4]

Lunar Pool is a nostalgic pleasure for me! I never finished it, but it was so catchy and had such a unique style!

[@mothersbasement]

The creators of puyo puyo came to both Nintendo and Sega offering to make a mascot game. Nintendo thought carefully about the puyo puyo brand and determined it made the most sense to crossover with their most Kawaii character, Kirby. Sega took the gross old man from their anarchist furry game and made a game about his machine with beans in it, that is mean. Or possibly the beans are mean. It's not entirely clear. It's not surprising that Sega doesn't have a console anymore.

[@random-artifacts]

Lunar Pool is easily one of my most played games ever. Absolutely loved this video!

[@thefrozengoat]

I look forward to the next installment in this series on an almost constant basis! Your narration and research ensure that this series will remain the premiere historical account of the NES library. I hope you can continue.

[@markofcaine]

Omg taking me back to being 4 years old hearing those old Lunar Pool table songs.

[@rootbeer_666]

Gotta say, that little bit of footage from Phantom Fighter looked like some remarkably fluid animation, especially for the NES.

[@Varis78]

My first thought upon seeing some of the Zanac footage here was, "wait, I recognize some of those objects from The Guardian Legend." Didn't take long after that for you to mention that game and explain the connection, lol. Pretty cool. TGL has always been one of my favorite NES games.

[@jasongarrett768]

I never got to play Zanac, but the machine-headed figure on the cover was always a subject of curiosity for me. After learning about the reactive AI system I finally get it. It’s funny how something that would become synonymous and celebrated with Resident Evil 4 decades later had a rudimentary forefather way back here.

[@MadeByJoey]

Jeremy, your voice is a place of comfort for me. Thanks for being you!

[@eareboucas]

My brother and I played the crap out of Lunar Pool as kids! It was part of a pirate multi-game cart we used to own. =)

[@7thangelad586]

I’ve been on an FCI kick lately; there’s something cathartic about building the party from the ground up and crushing baddies.

[@VahanNisanian]

Apparently, Compile was also the studio who ported Makaijima (Capcom's Famicom sequel to Pirate Ship Higemaru) to the MSX. Kenji Shintani (Lunarian) worked on many Compile games.

[@HeadmasterAutobot]

I've only ever had a passing interest in space shooters, but videos like this are invaluable for enlightening me on what I've missed. Zanac seems fantastic.

[@philmason9653]

Zanac has always been relatively under the radar, but it probably gets my vote for best 8-bit shooter.

[@Levitz9]

>puyo puyo mention Aaaand now we gotta put this day on pause while we cue up the Puyo Puyo theme for half an hour. Sorry, it's the law.

[@Septer_Sever]

Golvellius was one of the only smooth scrolling games on the MSX...Compile for the win!

[@Leikjarinn]

I adore this channel

[@JeremyParish]

This channel says it thinks you're pretty charming yourself

[@error4159]

Every copy of Zanac is personalized

[@andrewkaye2108]

I used to play Lunar pool a lot. Fun game. A very different kind of pool play, with adjustable features.

[@willmistretta]

The scariest thing about Zanac is the conditional continues in the late game. If you game over in stages eleven or twelve, you start back at the beginning of ten. Coming back from that is a mighty feat indeed.

[@HybridAngelZero]

Huh, I never knew Compile Heart was actually decended from the original Compile, that's a really neat bit of history

[@djsquarewave]

Indeed! It's a loose connection, but definitely there. Compile head Masamitsu Niitani made a deal with Idea Factory a while after Compile closed down where he'd design games for them and they'd use the Compile name. Apparently he backed out of the deal after about six months, and AFAIK the only game he was involved with was the puzzle game Octomania on the Wii, but Idea Factory continued to use the name.

[@HybridAngelZero]

@@djsquarewave That is absolutely fascinating

[@num488]

@@djsquarewave There's also Compile-o or COMPILE〇 that he would later make after leaving Compile Heart. They made Nyoki Nyoki: Tabidachi Hen and currently(?) in the works for an unnamed sequel for the Switch. (Though that was 2017 so...)

[@names-are-for-friends]

@@djsquarewave that's legit interesting, thanks!

[@thestripedmenace]

Oh man!!! Compile!!! One of my favorite obscure retro devs ever, alongside Treasure - which I hope you'll someday touch upon if you ever make a Genesis Works series!!! These folks deserve more respect and recognition, as IMO they've perfected the home-console shoot-em-up genre with some truly unique and astounding titles, all while still having the time and resources to make some weird kickass games along the way! I'm excited to hear you talk more about their NES/FC output in the future, and wouldn't mind seeing a mini Works series dedicated entirely to their catalogue!

[@FredPilarczyk]

I remember renting Lunar Pool at my local video store (B&C Video in Marlton, NJ, RIP) multiple times with my brothers because it was so much fun. $3.25 a week for an NES rental. So much better than Blockbuster.

[@Tempora158]

8:18 In the info bar, you credit China Warrior to Hudson and NES. It's suppose to be Hudson and NEC.

[@deathtone1614]

Didn’t have these two games but I did have Dr. Chaos. I did have a billiards game. I think it was called Side Pocket. Which I quite enjoyed.

[@nepetaclose1338]

while im not super familiar with their earlier works, i love a lot of their output as compile heart, especially the vita stuff, sorcery saga and trillion are both two of the best roguelikes ever made, and a lot of their rpgs and dungeon crawlers are great fun too.

[@goldenphonautogram6141]

Lunar Pool looks fun. Reminds me of Miniature Golf on 2600.

[@Pichuscute]

Ooooh, Rad Racer is next? That's easily one of the best NES games I've ever played. Such a fantastic game.

[@Bloxed]

I have to say that I have never played either of these games but they do look quality enough to give a try. In fact, I have not played many FCI games. I don't know why I haven't played many of them but as for Compile, I have played Puyo Puyo and the bastardizations across the Western World and a few other games and so I need to try NES Zanac AS WELL as Lunar Pool to see where they began. Great video and looking forward to the last Silver Box NES game... Rad Racer itself!!

[@MaxW-er1hm]

Those carrots 🥕 🐰 and rabbits tho! // I always wish Lunar Pool just had a game mode where you can play the first level against an opponent and not the other weird tables

[@Tubewings]

Are you going to use the Power Glove at all next episode, or would that be an anachronism?

[@kevin12567]

I LOVED this game back in the day and still love playing it today! Wish this would get added to NES Nintendo Switch Online! You didn't mention the many secrets this and other Compile shooters tended to have, like the Icon midway through Area 3 that instantly maxes out your weapons. Yes, it makes the enemy pull out all the stops, but it's so SATISFYING mowing them all down with maxed out firepower, or being completely invulnerable if you had the Shield at the time!

[@Korstre]

I haven't played Zanac in a long time, and didn't know it had a form of dynamic difficulty that responded to the player's actions. Unless there were others before it, I suppose this is what influenced arcade STGs that followed, with Gradius III being an early example. Needless to say, Zanac is very much on par with the PC Engine's extensive STG library.

[@thestripedmenace]

As Jeremy stated in the video, STGs have had dynamic difficulty scaling ever since the rampant success of Xevious in the early 80s, but Compile's - and eventually Raizing/8ing's - games took that to the next level and made it an essential part of their gameplay :)

[@SatoshiMatrix1]

Hey Jeremy, just what IS the connection between Compile and Compile Heart? I assumed they were totally separate developers given that their games are so drastically different in genre. I am a fan of both Compile and Compile Heart but would NEVER think of them as connected. What's the history here?

[@names-are-for-friends]

I'm with you on this so let me quote Wikipedia, noted bastion of truth: "Compile Co., Ltd. (株式会社コンパイル, Kabushikigaisha Konpairu) was a Japanese video game developer, most notable for having developed the Puyo Puyo series, a franchise derived from the Madō Monogatari series. On 6 November 2003, the company suffered from bankruptcy. As a result, key staff moved to Compile Heart, the company's spiritual successor, whereas shoot-'em-up staff moved to MileStone Inc.[1] " As far as I can tell, the entirely deranged staff moved to Compile Heart, whereas the shoot-em-up made some other company that nobody has ever heard of. It turns out that neps are entirely more marketable than space shooters.

[@parimabartender]

Zanacs is my favlrite

[@mendez704]

I loved Ultima III FCI conversion for the NES

[@Funkopedia]

I wonder how long it will take him to finish this series. The work of a lifetime.

[@BillyTBum]

TGL looks a lot more like it could have been a sequel to Zanac, honestly.

[@parimabartender]

I love zanacs

[@Seafoamgaming]

I managed to buy the ZANACXZanac compilation a while ago for my PSP. Enjoyed the original Zanac quite a bit, though I can't tell the differences between the disk system version and the cart...

[@JeremyParish]

I looked at grabbing ZanacXZanac while was I in Japan last week but they're asking $150 for it now, so....

[@Seafoamgaming]

@@JeremyParish good thing I snagged it on US PSN then, wow. Surprised it lives since the publisher is MIA and won't give me the Tomba plush I won in a giveaway from them five years ago. I have no idea what happened to Monkeypaw

[@thestripedmenace]

@@Seafoamgaming Aww, really? They were doing such an awesome job bringing over awesome, obscure Japanese games to Western digital storefronts :( By the way, the only difference between the FC cart, FDS and NES versions of Zanac is how the dynamic difficulty AI reacts to certain actions and strategies, nothing else.

[@thestripedmenace]

@@Seafoamgaming Aww, really? They were doing such an awesome job bringing over awesome, obscure Japanese games to Western digital storefronts :( By the way, the only difference between the FC cart, FDS and NES versions of Zanac is how the dynamic difficulty AI reacts to certain actions and strategies, nothing else.

[@MiriOhki]

Never got to play the two, but as an rpg addict I’m very familiar with FCI/Pony Canyon

[@CrimsonDX]

I love Compile Heart and Idea Factory games though.

[@PKMNwww411_MkII]

Before we had Puyo Puyo, we had these great classics.

[@RonnieBarzel]

It's not really music, but damn is Xevious's "musical" background great!

[@rabiroden]

I never bothered looking at Lunar Pool since... well, it's a pool game, how interesting could it be. Turns out, kinda interesting?

[@ValkyrieTiara]

I love Compile Heart =(

[@jessragan6714]

"They also gave us Compile Heart, but... we don't talk about Compile Heart." Good policy there. So, regarding Programmers-3. I'd heard elsewhere (the GDRI, I think) that Programmers-3 was a precursor to Master of Monsters creators System Soft, not Compile as is often believed. Is there any solid evidence about Programmers-3's relationship to either of these companies?

[@DragonGrafx-16]

I once had a playthrough of Zanac where I did not die once and when I got to Area 4 the game became impossible for me... lol

[@ExcitingOnion]

yes there's no weapon drops for most of area 4. I discovered that if you just camp under the first fortress and keep shooting up, it will eat the swirlies and you can run out the timer. Otherwise I always die.

[@nickmalcom6360]

programmers3 mostly imported ammerican games and ported them to Japanese computers before becoming compile. U.S. gold would employ a similar tactic for the UK market.

[@JoeBushOnline]

Really wish we'd seen a few Zanac sequels. I would have taken a lot of Zanacs. Would've been a total knockout for the shoot-em-up scene in that era

[@JeremyParish]

I consider Gun*Nac a sequel in spirit, and The Guardian Legend is 100% cut from the same cloth (in its shooter portions). And there was Zanac Neo for PS1, although that was only in Japan...

[@thestripedmenace]

All Aleste/Power Strike titles can be considered sequels to Zanac, since Compile, much like Treasure (another legendary cult Japanese developer), liked to carry over their unique game design quirks and principles from one title to another, even between seemingly-unrelated ones! However, the last game Compile ever developed before breaking up, Zanac NEO (included in the Zanac X Zanac bundle for PS1, alongside all versions and variations of the original game), is the one "true" sequel to Zanac, dynamic difficulty system included :)

[@cj694x2]

I see what you did there

[@willmistretta]

Blazing Lazers, too. It's Aleste in all but name.

[@nickmalcom6360]

jeremy: "we don't talk about compile heart". I don't see what's wrong with them, asside from their biggest series (neptunia, an rpg about a litteral console war) still being unknown in the west, even after that crossover game with sega consoles.

[@DrTedNelson]

I remember renting Zanac and Lunar Pool as a kid and not being impressed. Of course, Compile ended up doing two of my favorite games, The Guardian Legend on NES and MUSHA on the Genesis, and looking at this now I can definitely see the resemblance in them with Zanac that I missed back then. My friends and I used to rent Dr. Chaos and Ultima 3 constantly. We never made it very far in either. I've since gone back and played most of the early Ultima games on PC and I can appreciate what they were going for. I remember Goonies 2 being a much sillier (and more accessible-feeling) version of Dr. Chaos, although Dr. Chaos has that awesome title screen music and animation.

[@BubblegumSempai]

Mentions Pony Canyon, shows an anime that was not made or published by Canyon. (Rama 1/2 was Studio Deen, but did air on FujiTV)

[@JeremyParish]

The soundtracks were published by Pony Canyon, which is indicated (in katakana) in the clip I used.

[@BubblegumSempai]

@@JeremyParish Thanks for clarification. Also, since you took the time to reply, I just want to say I'm loving the NESWorks series!

[@DrewberTravels]

Does playing Zanac put you to sleep and make you forget what happened yesterday?

[@TheSmart-CasualGamer]

I first played Lunar Pool pretty recently, and dear GOD is it hard. I probably only got one shot per table, as the computer would just get pocket after pocket. IS the game meant to be that difficult, or do I just suck?

[@chaseman94]

Compile the 2nd most prolific developer next to Konami. Imagine if they collaborated together on a game.

[@rodneylives]

I just watched this one again to bask in all the ZANAC. I love the Gradius series, but I think ZANAC may actually be better.

[@alvfaria]

I love lunar pool!

[@xcar0982]

We'll need 3d glasses for next episode

[@MissAshley42]

The better you play, the harder it gets? Oh no, I'm getting Gods flashbacks.

[@DanielMonteiroNit]

10:47 Tyrian

[@danielespeziari5545]

After watching your video, I immediately ordered a copy of Lunar Pool I've found on e-bay for cheap. It looks a really cool game. Zanac too, of course. I'm a fan of The Guardian Legend and of Super Aleste (SNES), so I'll need to play Zanac as well

[@jessragan6714]

Try Power Strike for the Master System as well. Extremely good stuff.

[@danielespeziari5545]

@@jessragan6714 Thanks for the advice. I've recently found a new interest in Master System, so I'll check this out

[@masterrserch3971]

I don't know, LUNAR POOL always reminded me of pool meets ARKANOID

[@nickmalcom6360]

I always thought TGL was a very ambisious game. I told my brother, in describing the game: "take 1942 and zelda and put them in a blender".

[@iangrunke616]

This game is the Shit! You need a turbo button though. NES Max

[@JomasterTheSecond]

Please use the Powerglove for the Rad Racer video. _It's so _*_bad._*

[@katt-the-pig]

I know someone who tried playing Zanac. Could never beat the game.

[@idunno3302]

Really com-pile-ation?

[@rubberwoody]

how much do i have to pay you to do a retrospective on B wings?

[@JeremyParish]

There's a Patreon tier for that.

[@jamesmoss3424]

I will play lunar pool because I like pool. 😀👍🎮🎱

[@robertagans8083]

I really liked Zanac but I sucked at it....

[@JeremyParish]

Yeah, same here, as you can see in the video

[@Mariobro4]

6:15 or what? or what?!

[@roguerifter9724]

What's so bad about Compile Hearts? Sure their games aren't brilliant masterpeices but most of them aren't nearly horrible enough that the company should be shunned either. And a lot of their turnbased JRPGs make character positioning, and maneuvering the characters around the battlefield much more relevant to the combat then most of their non-SRPG turn-based JRPG kin.

[@PrekiFromPoland]

Never played their games, but yeah, what's the deal?

[@duhmez]

Not many good shmups for NES. Zanac and Gun nac are excellent. Star force SUCKS btw. But if you are gonna play Star Force u MUST use rapid fire controller or it sucks even worse. Another random hot NES tip, if u play Fester's Quest with rapid fire contorller, the game is amazing. And unplayable without it.

[@PrekiFromPoland]

Get good kiddo, the lack of rapid fire in Star Force (the power-up doesn't count, it's still slow) is a part of the challenge. Ever heard of Takahashi Meijin and his legendary 16 shots per second? I've scored 1,889,400 points on my best playthrough, using a standard Famicom controller. Star Force is not the best shooter, it's very rudimentary, but certainly doesn't suck. I love the simplicity of this game - it's just you, a simple power-up and your pure skill against hordes of enemies which can take you down in one hit.

[@duhmez]

@@PrekiFromPoland Hey there! I can actually do 12 shots per second! I posted a video of me doing it too. Che k it out. I actually did pretty good with shoting fast in stare force using my technique. But I did not enjoy it much. But now with rapid fire it was just so much eazsier. Sure, it is cheating but I don't care ^^ kzbin.info/www/bejne/oYrcgWd5n8-pjq8

[@evilmidget]

Anyone that ever owned a Super Joy/Power Player/that bootleg system with a bunch of NES games on it that looked like an N64 controller has played Lunar Pool.

[@seansullivan7928]

Zanac rules