Armed Police Batrider

Arcade flyer

**Armed Police Batrider** is a shoot 'em up game developed by Raizing and originally released in 1998 for arcades. It never received any console ports.

## Gameplay

Upon beginning the game the player can select between four courses: Training (only 3 stages, auto-bomb activated), Normal (5 stages), Advance (plays through all 7 stages) and Special (a Boss Rush mode). Unique to Batrider is that instead of choosing only one ship, the player can pick a team of three ships, with each of them acting as one of its lives. After choosing the course the player can choose between playing with one of three fixed teams (upon beating the game the player watches the team's ending), pick each individual ship of the team (upon beating the game the player watches each of the chosen ships individual endings), pick the ships randomly or picking only a single ship.

Armed Police Batrider plays much like Battle Garegga, with a few changes and additions. It uses the same power up system, but ditches the option formations of Garegga for a simpler option system, with each ship getting equipped with two options which power up when picking additional option items. In addition to the regular shot the ships now have a charged shot: when not shooting the ship will charge power, creating a energy beam in front of the ship which can hit enemies upon contact, and when the player presses the fire button after fully charging power the options will lock in place, launching a continuous stream of fire. The rank system also returns, though instead of starting at the lowest level it starts at the highest. In addition to dying, rank can now be lowered by grazing enemy bullets (the player has to touch enemy bullets with the ship's sprite without hitting the ship's hitbox).

Initially the player has the choice between nine ships divided into one of the three teams (Police, Psychic and Criminal), but by inputting a code at the title screen or activating a DIP Switch in the machine the player can enable the guest ships from Battle Garegga and Sorcer Striker. The four Garegga ships play much like they did before, even having access to the option formations by pressing the third button. The Sorcer Striker ships, on the other hand, come equipped with one of the option types from their game.

## Story

The year 2019 AD. An artificial island floating 2 km south of Manhattan island called "Zenovia".

Fifteen years ago, the island was built as a hardship measure by the Government, as a response to the increase in the crime rate due to artificial denseness. GiganTech Cybertron (GC company), which had been rapidly growing then,
started building a large-scale facility in the city. People fleeing from Manhattan Island moved one after another. It brought about a "New New York" boom.

However, as time goes by, the problems of location conditions and the ownership of the islands surfaced. Contrary to the original speculation, the crime rate skyrocketed. Furthermore, the island's body started expanding into the main island, and in time the whole island became a massive slum. And in a few years the island, with GC's building standing in it's center, continued to rapidly grow into a distorted vision. It was like a nightmare. The island started housing many wanted criminals and cyborg surgery was done in secrecy. The change was not limited to the inside of the island, and more violent crimes than ever happened to "old" New York.

Frustrated, the Government decided on a drastic measure, to create an external organization to the police force comprised of convicted criminals, in exchange for their freedom. "Police officers supposed to not exist". Zero Cops. It was decided to let them crack down on violent crime and illegal activities at the Government's behest. They're controlled by a "chip" embedded on their temples, breaking free after reaching a degree of contribution. However, in the case of non-compliance, a current will flow directly into their brain, causing immediate death.

Their mission is to invade Zenovia as teams of three. While suppressing violent crimes, they must both collect evidence that GC has full control of the island, is performing cybernetic surgery experiments and practical testing of newly developed weapons, and destroy GC for good.

### Timeline

* 1992: “Sai Electronics” is established in California. The company president is Gus Elron (28).
* 1994: Congress discusses the increasing crime rate among younger people and the increase in the brutality of the crimes.
* 1996: Smith Brollen, professor at MIT, presents his thesis “Artificial Skeletons and Their Useful Applications.”
* 1998: At the University of Tsukuba, a highly stable bipedal robot is successfully constructed.
	+ That same year: The United States government launches “Project Salinger” in order to combat the increase in slums due to overpopulation and the rise in unemployment. As a first measure, construction begins of an artificial island between Manhattan and Staten Island.
* 1999: England’s nuclear power plant “Mancrise” suffers a meltdown. Large amounts of radioactive ash falls over Europe. Ash caught up in the jet stream rains down on regions stretching from the continent of North America to Mongolia. 8000 die in the worst tragedy since WWII.
* 2002: Japan’s Gigayama Industries absorbs Sai Electronics. The head office moves to Tokyo and changes its name to Gigantech Cybertron.
* 2003: In order to get out of a 5-year-long, world-wide economic depression, the “Industrial Preferential Treatment Plan” is established in Japan. The capital moves to the city of Umatsuki in Shizuoka prefecture. The surrounding 8 cities become New Tokyo. Old Tokyo-to (currently Tokyo-fu) is protected under business law because it belongs to a region with a group of corporations.
	+ That same year: The Arab Nations announce completion and official adoption of the “Sura Azubia”, the world’s first functional bipedal weapon.
* 2004: Two kilometers south of New York, the artificial island of “Zenovia” is completed.
* 2006: Gigantech Cybertron successfully creates cyborg technology for special purposes and announced that it is ready to serve an endless range of capabilities. These experiments where the human body is altered are met with strong protests from religious groups.
	+ That same year: Corporate law is enacted in the states of Michigan, New York, and New Jersey.
* 2009: GC Co. moves its head offices to Zenovia Island, purchasing 40% of it, and leading to a temporary boom in people moving to the island (known as the New New York Boom).
* 2010: 70% of the clean-up following the Mancrise power plant disaster (known as the Mancrise Crash) is completed. Census reports announce that deaths due to the disaster reached 20,000 with estimates of those affected by the disaster at 160,000,000.
	+ That same year: The world’ first high altitude platform “Columbia” has a successful maiden launch.
* 2015: A large-scale revolt breaks out in Manhattan’s Battery Park. 40 people are killed.
* 2016: A decentralized police force is established in Los Angeles, Detroit, and New York as part of a private trust (called Lorentz’ Law). Each area has 3-5 medium-sized police forces established.
* 2017: 25% of Zenovia is now a ghetto. Less than 1/3rd of the population is officially registered.
* That same year: GC Co. owns 80% of the island of Zenovia. There are no visible plans towards tackling illegal aliens or criminals.
	+ That same year: The United States government, concerned over the large increase in criminal activity, forms a special task force of criminals from the Helter Special Penitentiary (also known as Death Wish Penitentiary). The selected criminals are offered a reduced sentence in exchange for combating crime. An experimental group of 9 are chosen.
* 2018: Repeated, small scale-scale terrorist activity in Manhattan. At the same time, GC Co. claims complete ownership of Zenovia, which the government publically recognizes.
* 2019: The United States government finds evidence that GC Co. created weapons and cyborgs for illegal immigrants and criminals.
	+ That same year: The government decides in secret to destroy GC Co. The “Zero Cop” is called into action.

## External Links

* Official Site

**♪ ZERO COP**