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ID Category [?] Severity [?] Reproducibility Date Submitted Last Update
07652 Documentation Trivial Always May 11, 2020, 09:26 May 11, 2020, 10:09
Tester jkburks View Status Public Platform MAME (Official Binary)
Assigned To jkburks Resolution Fixed OS Windows 10 (64-bit)
Status [?] Resolved Driver
Version 0.220 Fixed in Version 0.222 Build 64-bit
Fixed in Git Commit Github Pull Request #
Summary 07652: andromed: Incorrect release year, company & game title
Description This rom should probably be listed as:
Andromeda SS, Irem 1980
or possibly:
Andoromeda SS, Irem 1980

I understand that this game is missing roms and flagged Not Working, but I see no reason why the documentation can’t be fixed.

Attached to this post is a scan of two 1980 advertisements from Game Machine magazine. The game name is listed in katakana as PT-Andoromeda-SS. PT is the Irem series of “Play Table” cocktail cabinets. I have no idea what the SS stands for. It is part of the game title, not the model. The Japanese advertisements for this game use the phonetic conversion as Andoromeda. I don’t know what the MAME policy is for converting Japanese names to romaji.

The gfxdecode for this rom shows katakana characters in the sprites. I have noticed that Gingateikoku no Gyakushu has sprites for the Kanji title that were replaced for the western release as UniWar S. I don’t know if this guarantees that the Andromeda rom in MAME is the Japanese release, but I feel it is likely, as noted in the description.

The western release of this game was renamed Andromeda, as seen on the English language flyer:
https://www.flyerfever.com/post/97270566038/andromeda

IPM ran their final full-page advertisement (for 4 Play Table games) in Game Machine magazine on June 15, 1979. Opposite this ad was another full-page advertisement from Irem, with a photo of a soaring bird. The following issue of July 1, 1980 had a full-page advertisement explaining that IPM was reorganized under the new company named Irem. (The reason for this change was a contact by IBM lawyers explaining that the name IPM was too similar and thus “confusing”. So IPM changed their name to avoid a lawsuit.)

The first advertisement for Andoromeda SS is dated July, 1 1980. I checked all IPM and Irem ads from 1978-1981 to make sure there was no earlier game named Andromeda.

Ad #1 Game Machine (Issue #145 page 05) Jul. 01, 1980 (& again on Jul. 15)
New Space Romance
Now, It Begins.

A mysterious large formation [of flying craft] that can be seen in outer space!
ANDOROMEDA SS

New Product

A small UFO that changes to 6 colors, attacks your spaceship while escorting the command ship!
Unless you destroy the command ship, the small UFOs are infinitely replenished.

bottom half of the ad is PT-Green Beret so I will not translate the text.

Ad #2 Game Machine (Issue #147 page 06) Aug. 01, 1980 (& again for next 5 issues)

A small UFO that changes to 4 colors attacks the spaceship while escorting the command ship!
Unless you destroy the command ship, small UFOs are infinitely replenished.
PT-Andromeda-SS *95-1655 Table type

I have included the second advertisement because it includes the confirmation screen shot that matches the MAME rom, and also the game name with SS. Also worth noting is that they changed the number of UFO colors in the second ad. I suspect this was a type-o in the original because in MAME the UFOs have 4 colors (red blue white green).
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Affected Sets / Systems andromed
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jpg file icon andromeda_irem_gm_1980.jpg (421,389 bytes) May 11, 2020, 09:26 Uploaded by jkburks
jkburks
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No.17632
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May 11, 2020, 10:08
Ok, "Irem" logo is also visible in the gfx tiles.