Black Tiger (video game)

Black Tiger, known in Japan as Black Dragon (ブラックドラゴン), is a platform game released for arcade by Capcom.

Description
A barbarian hero jumps and fights his way through a variety of colourful, enemy-packed levels. The sprawling, eight-way scrolling, two-dimensional levels are packed with hidden bonuses to encourage and reward exploration, and "wise men" who give rewards when rescued. Though the wise man rewards often consist of self-evident "advice", most come in the form of "Zenny coins", currency that allows the player to buy various items, such as an upgrade to their weapons and armour, keys for treasure chests, and anti-poisoning potions. Hidden special items that reveal coins, grant upgraded armour, full vitality, extra lives, extra time, or simply bonus points may be found by attacking certain walls. The player's vitality bar will also increase up to four times as a reward for reaching score benchmarks.

The Japanese version has a few changes that makes it more challenging than its American counterpart. Several of the "falling rock" obstacles were added in this version. Additionally, the prices of many items are higher and more points are needed to increase maximum vitality. But perhaps the biggest difference is related to fighting the later bosses (the three dragons and the dual sword-wielding foes at the end of stages 5 and 7). In the American version, it is possible to duck and avoid taking damage when the bosses touch the player's character as long as one of their projectiles does not hit him. In the Japanese version, the player is not able to do this.

Ports

 * Europe-based U.S. Gold released versions of Black Tiger for Amstrad CPC, Commodore Amiga, Atari ST and ZX Spectrum in 1989. A version for the Commodore 64 was released in 1990, developed by Softworx.
 * An emulation of the arcade game is included in the compilations Capcom Classics Collection: Remixed for PlayStation Portable and Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 2 for PlayStation 2 and Xbox.
 * The arcade version of Black Tiger was released on the Wii's Virtual Console in Japan on December 7, 2010, the PAL region on January 21, 2011 and in North America on January 24, 2011.
 * Included as the initial game in Capcom Arcade Cabinet for PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade on February 19, 2013.

In popular culture

 * In Ernest Cline's Ready Player One, the protagonist has to complete a 3D simulation of Black Tiger as part of the Hunt.
 * A boss in Resident Evil, also by Capcom, is named Black Tiger.

Zenny
The game introduced the Zenny fictional currency, which was later used in many Capcom games, such as Breath of Fire, Dead Rising, Forgotten Worlds, Mega Man Legends,  Mega Man: Battle Network, Monster Hunter and Strider 2.