Cliff Hanger (Arcade)

Cliff Hanger
Developer: Stern Electronics Publisher: Stern Electronics Platform: Arcade (Stern Cliff Hanger Laserdisc hardware) Released in US: September 1983 This game has hidden developer credits. This game has unused cinematics. This game has debugging material.

Cliff Hanger, the game that keeps you on the edge of your toes.

By controlling the joystick and the action button, you determine the fate of Cliff, a lovable outcast and his quest to rescue one beautiful breathtaking lady. But one mistake, and you've blown it.

— The first few lines in the game's attract mode, explaining the game.

One of the earliest attempts to localize Lupin III to North America, Cliff Hanger (a name shared with the Brazillian dub of the original TV anime) is a Laserdisc interactive film that uses footage from the first two Lupin III films, The Mystery of Mamo (originally titled as Lupin III before re-titled to Lupin III: Lupin vs. Clone in Japan) and The Castle of Cagliostro, amalgamating the two into a game. This game is infamous among Lupin III fans for its rather... interesting English dub with some undubbed Japanese dialogue left in for some reason.

Also notable for being briefly featured in The Goonies of all things.

Unused Cinematic

To do: Many of the death clips for level 3 on the disc I have never seen in-game, most notably the one at 10:33. Verify if any of these are actually unused.

At the end of most of the sets of wrong move clips on the Laserdisc, there is a unused clip of Cliff sourced from The Mystery of Mamo holding a rose.

It's unknown where this could have possibly been used, especially when the promotional video makes special mention of it, stating how "the game talks to the player". There is no instance of this in the game.

Unused Frames at the End of the Laserdisc

At the end of the disc are 13 frames that aren't shown in-game. The first 12 are error messages and the final is a credit to the game's designer. In-game, all errors and credits are shown via PCB generated on-screen text and not from video frames.