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Game Info

Cover art of Dark Adventure

3.7 / 5

9 votes

Platform
Arcade
Genres
Adventure
Developers
Konami
Publishers
Konami
Release date
May 22, 1987

Summary

Dark Adventure, also known as Devil World outside North America, was Konami’s first arcade that let three players team up at once. You can pick from Labryna in a pink dress wielding a sword, Zorlock in a white suit with a spear, or the Indiana‑Jones‑style Condor who swings a whip. Each character roams a dimetric world of 40 distinct areas, hunting for the hidden key that unlocks the next stage.

The game rewards you with a quirky arsenal: Magic Power boosts your weapon, laser guns vaporise foes, flamethrowers scorch, shields block attacks, dynamite blows up enemies, and speed‑ups crank your pace. Food scattered around the maps refills your rapidly draining health, making resource management a constant concern.

A map button appears in certain zones, offering cryptic clues to the key’s location, but it’s not always reliable. The frantic pace, steep difficulty, and the need to juggle three players meant the cabinet never thrived in arcades, though its chaotic co‑op feels like a perfect fit for a home console.

Under the hood, Dark Adventure runs on twin 68000 CPUs with a Z80 handling sound, backed by Yamaha and Konami custom chips, delivering a surprisingly rich audio‑visual experience for its time.

Storyline

In Dark Adventure on Arcade – often just called Dark Adventure – the story kicks off when archaeologist Dr. Condor uncovers a demon’s coffin deep within ancient ruins. During a televised press conference he decides to open the sealed sarcophagus, and the act instantly whisks him away to a nightmarish realm.

He isn’t alone: reporter Labryna and fellow archaeologist Zorlock are pulled through the portal with him, and the trio must navigate the hostile Devil World together. Their mission is to battle through a series of varied areas, confronting the forces of a sprawling Demon empire.

The ultimate objective is to locate and defeat the Demon King, the empire’s leader, thereby breaking the spell that traps them in the other dimension. By destroying the Demon King they can finally escape back to their own world.

The game’s ending shows the three heroes standing triumphantly atop the Statue of Liberty, a symbolic return to the human world after their harrowing adventure.

Edited by Maya Carter

Game Screenshots

  • Screenshot 1 of Dark Adventure
  • Screenshot 2 of Dark Adventure

Arcade Machine

Developers
Konami
Machine Style
Upright
Control Panel
Multi-player
Input Devices
Joystick · Buttons
Screen Orientation
Landscape
Sound
Mono · Stereo

Multiplayer

Game modes
Cooperative