"Voltige" Definition: Voltige is a French word that translates to acrobatics, trick riding, or aerial acrobatics. It can also refer to an equestrian act where a rider vaults onto and off a horse.
"Aerienne" Definition: Aerienne is French and the feminine inflection of aerien (or aérien), which translates to air, open-air, feather-light, aerial and overhead.
Ergo, "Voltige Aerienne" translates from French to English somewhere in the realm of "Aerial Acrobatics"... but what does it mean in Japanese? Well, it must mean something along the lines of "Obscure Doujin Parody Fantasy Cute-em-up" because it is one of the unofficial holy grails of a "specific" line of NEC's PC-8800 series. More specifically, we're talking about the "PC-88 VA" line (Voltige Aerienne... VA... ahhhhhh) released in the late 80s, which were the most powerful of their lineage with a CPU upgrade from 8-bit to 16-bit capabilities... few games officially took advantage of the PC-88 VA, but four wacky enthusiasts going by the names of Shinra, Achika (aka "chemicalgirl"), K-zeal and Sugama wanted to change that and "Voltige Aerienne" was born to commemorate 20 years of the PC-88 VA (from 1988-2008, although the PC-88 VA was launched in 1987, the devs prioritize the VA2 and VA3). While the game continued development from 2008 up until the end of 2011 and was dubbed "The Legendary PC-88 VA Masterpiece" that pushed the hardware to its limits, it was so niche that it did not get any significant attention until the team collaborated with "Gumroad" in 2017 for digital distribution, where it now enjoys a healthy cult status. It's worth noting that the main character, VA-tan, made appearances well before the game saw fruition, going back to at least Comiket 70 (2006).
Voltige Aerienne is a horizontal scrolling shooter that features six stages of shooting action. The story is about VA-tan, a mascot for the PC-88 VA brand that deals with both the rise and fall of the PC-88 while dealing with numerous competitors in a humorous (yet also sad) way. While it may not seem like much by today's standards, the game pulls off some wizardry by PC-88 (VA) standards and the manual actually goes into a lot of detail on the development process, using R-Type and Olteus as a frame of reference on how to leverage the additional power of the VA system. PC-88 is traditionally known for not having particularly good (or smooth) scrolling and was not the preferred platform of the era for shooting games, but you couldn't tell from this game. Not only does it have your staples like power-ups and secrets stashed away in levels, it even features one or two more "unique" gimmicks in terms of how scoring and bosses are handled. We'll go into more details on that in the inevitable video to follow, but Voltige Aerienne is a wonderful little game praised by fans of the hardware.
While a few different physical versions of the game were distributed between Comiket 79 to Comiket 83 between low quality DVD cases to high quality hard plastic shells, the plastic clamshell case is the most coveted and of those, one in particular goes for fairly obscene prices: The Hard Clamshell that includes 2 5.25" FDs, the 40 page manual, a special CD distributable AND a special 12 page "Complete Strategy Guide". The physical versions at launch were very modest in price, ranging from 1000 yen to 2300 yen but have since gone to exceed 50,000 yen as Voltige Aerienne is one of the few games made exclusively for the PC-88 VA as well as it being exceedingly rare and a good game (and the build quality of the package is actually very nice). There's also a few codes for the game that were only made available in the complete guide and from the Comiket events themselves... after 12-13 years since physical distribution ended, you'd think those codes would've been made available. While I still think some of them are still missing, I do have a few of them... :)
Vysethedetermined2
Game Highlights 51:
Voltige Aerienne [ヴォルチゲ・アエリエンネ] - Hmmmmm...
"Voltige" Definition: Voltige is a French word that translates to acrobatics, trick riding, or aerial acrobatics. It can also refer to an equestrian act where a rider vaults onto and off a horse.
"Aerienne" Definition: Aerienne is French and the feminine inflection of aerien (or aérien), which translates to air, open-air, feather-light, aerial and overhead.
Ergo, "Voltige Aerienne" translates from French to English somewhere in the realm of "Aerial Acrobatics"... but what does it mean in Japanese? Well, it must mean something along the lines of "Obscure Doujin Parody Fantasy Cute-em-up" because it is one of the unofficial holy grails of a "specific" line of NEC's PC-8800 series. More specifically, we're talking about the "PC-88 VA" line (Voltige Aerienne... VA... ahhhhhh) released in the late 80s, which were the most powerful of their lineage with a CPU upgrade from 8-bit to 16-bit capabilities... few games officially took advantage of the PC-88 VA, but four wacky enthusiasts going by the names of Shinra, Achika (aka "chemicalgirl"), K-zeal and Sugama wanted to change that and "Voltige Aerienne" was born to commemorate 20 years of the PC-88 VA (from 1988-2008, although the PC-88 VA was launched in 1987, the devs prioritize the VA2 and VA3). While the game continued development from 2008 up until the end of 2011 and was dubbed "The Legendary PC-88 VA Masterpiece" that pushed the hardware to its limits, it was so niche that it did not get any significant attention until the team collaborated with "Gumroad" in 2017 for digital distribution, where it now enjoys a healthy cult status. It's worth noting that the main character, VA-tan, made appearances well before the game saw fruition, going back to at least Comiket 70 (2006).
Voltige Aerienne is a horizontal scrolling shooter that features six stages of shooting action. The story is about VA-tan, a mascot for the PC-88 VA brand that deals with both the rise and fall of the PC-88 while dealing with numerous competitors in a humorous (yet also sad) way. While it may not seem like much by today's standards, the game pulls off some wizardry by PC-88 (VA) standards and the manual actually goes into a lot of detail on the development process, using R-Type and Olteus as a frame of reference on how to leverage the additional power of the VA system. PC-88 is traditionally known for not having particularly good (or smooth) scrolling and was not the preferred platform of the era for shooting games, but you couldn't tell from this game. Not only does it have your staples like power-ups and secrets stashed away in levels, it even features one or two more "unique" gimmicks in terms of how scoring and bosses are handled. We'll go into more details on that in the inevitable video to follow, but Voltige Aerienne is a wonderful little game praised by fans of the hardware.
While a few different physical versions of the game were distributed between Comiket 79 to Comiket 83 between low quality DVD cases to high quality hard plastic shells, the plastic clamshell case is the most coveted and of those, one in particular goes for fairly obscene prices: The Hard Clamshell that includes 2 5.25" FDs, the 40 page manual, a special CD distributable AND a special 12 page "Complete Strategy Guide". The physical versions at launch were very modest in price, ranging from 1000 yen to 2300 yen but have since gone to exceed 50,000 yen as Voltige Aerienne is one of the few games made exclusively for the PC-88 VA as well as it being exceedingly rare and a good game (and the build quality of the package is actually very nice). There's also a few codes for the game that were only made available in the complete guide and from the Comiket events themselves... after 12-13 years since physical distribution ended, you'd think those codes would've been made available. While I still think some of them are still missing, I do have a few of them... :)
You can get the digital version of the game at:
xmaz.gumroad.com/l/RRLdr
-GS
6 months ago (edited) | [YT] | 85