R-Type Plus: two players at once, Armour and Boss Rush on the original 1987 arcade R-Type (4K)

R-Type Plus is a free patch for the 1987 arcade R-Type (Irem, M72 board). The original board's own NEC V30 program is patched in place, and adds what the game never had: • Two players at once: a 2P start begins co-op. Player 2 flies a crimson R-9 with its own Force, and the beam gauge splits between the two. • Armour: an enemy's hit with ships to spare costs a ship and a laser level, not the run (walls still destroy the ship). • Stage select: any of the eight stages, from its first checkpoint. • Boss Rush: seven bosses back to back, fully armed, against a run timer, with its own ranking table. • And on the title, a PLUS under the logo, in the logo's own colours. Chapters 0:00 The title and the start screen 0:17 Two players at once 1:04 Armour 1:22 Stage select 1:41 Boss Rush 2:30 Its ranking, and getting the patch How this was recorded: MAME running the patched game, captured at the board's native 384×256 and scaled 7× with no filtering, with the board's own sound. The ship is flown by a script that searched for runs with no ship lost. There's no invulnerability, so it plays like a cautious machine, not a person. The edits are cuts between chapters. Get the patch: https://rtypeplus.com/ Source of the patcher: https://github.com/ppeltriaux/rtype-plus The Neo Geo port it grew from: https://rtypeneo.com/ The patch holds none of the game. You need your own lawfully obtained copy of the arcade R-Type ROMs (MAME's "rtype" set). No ROMs are included, linked or sent: please don't ask. This is an unofficial, non-commercial fan project, not affiliated with or endorsed by Irem or any rights holder. R-Type and its program, graphics and sound are Irem's, and R-Type is their trademark, named here only to say which game the patch is for. Rights holders: dev@rtypeneo.com, and it will be taken down.