Zanac

About Zanac

Zanac (1986) is Compile's fast vertical shoot 'em up for the MSX and Famicom Disk System, famous for an adaptive AI that raises or lowers the attack according to how well the player is doing.

Zanac in Depth

The player flies the starfighter AFX-6502 Zanac over planets, space stations and open space through twelve levels of the System's defences, shooting enemies and bullets for points. Players start with three lives and lose all their power-ups when hit, reappearing briefly invincible, and can continue from the level where they ran out of lives. The rapid-fire main cannon is upgraded by power-ups in blue boxes that drift down the screen, adding more and faster shots, and a separate special weapon comes in eight numbered types, from directional shots to shields and indestructible projectiles; collecting a different number switches it and a matching one upgrades it. Enemies include meteors, aircraft, bullet-resistant disks, ground turrets and reconnaissance planes. Bosses are stationary fortresses of ground turrets that must be destroyed within a time limit for a bonus, and tough mini-boss ships change colour as they take damage.

Its defining feature is the "Automatic Level of Difficulty Control", or ALC, which adjusts the System's aggression to the player. Firing the cannon a lot, collecting power-ups and failing to destroy bosses in time raise it, bringing more and tougher enemies, while losing lives, starting a new level or destroying reconnaissance planes lower it. The System itself, an alien device like Pandora's box, holds boundless knowledge but unleashed destruction when mankind opened it wrongly.

Making Zanac

Compile first released Zanac for the MSX in 1986, published in Japan by Pony Canyon, and reworked it as Zanac EX for the MSX2 the same year. A heavily reworked version reached the Famicom Disk System on 11 November 1986, and FCI published it on the NES in North America in October 1987; the NES version came to the Wii Virtual Console in 2007 and the Switch in 2021. In retrospect it has been seen as a unique shoot 'em up, combining Xevious-style air and ground targets with an extensive power-up system. GameSpot's Frank Provo praised its difficulty, its handling of many sprites without slowdown or glitches, and its adaptive AI, which he felt placed it in a subgenre of its own, and Allgame's Brett Alan Weiss called it extremely fast-paced, with the player almost surrounded by ships and bullets, though he felt the enemies did not "have much personality". Other criticisms included primitive sound, a steep learning curve and poor translation in the game and manual.