Captain Silver (キャプテンシルバー) is an arcade action game developed by Data East in 1987, which was ported to the Sega Master System by Sega the following year.
A young sailor and former first mate named Jim goes on a journey to seek the lost treasure of Captain Silver, facing various perils along the way.
Gameplay
Shop
The game is a platformer played as the swashbuckler Jim. He moves with and and crouches with . He can move while crouched with and . He jumps with . He climbs ropes and ladders with and .
Jim is armed with a cutlass, which he uses to attack enemies with . His sword can be upgraded, up to three times, by finding pixies in the rounds. The first upgrade enhances his sword to shoot stars when he swings it, the second upgrade increases it to a conical spread of three stars per swing, and the third upgrade increases it to a conical spread of five stars per swing. The ranged attack can be aimed with the D-Pad. Jim can swing his sword while jumping, crouching, or climbing.
Rounds contain shops where Jim can exchange gold for power-ups. Gold is acquired by picking up items. Rounds are timed, and the player is given 100 gold for every second remaining on the timer when the round is finished. The player can also earn extra lives by collecting the letters in "CAPTAIN SILVER."
Jim loses a life if he takes a hit from an enemy, falls down a bottomless pit or into water, or runs out of time. He restarts the round from a predetermined checkpoint if he has extra lives remaining, keeping acquired letters but losing sword upgrades. The game ends if the player runs out of lives. The player can continue the game up to three times by pressing + at the Game Over screen[7].
Items
Power-Up Pixie
Upgrades Jim's cutlass, up to 3 times.
Key
Holding a key allows Jim to enter a shop when he encounters one in a round.
Boot
Temporarily gives Jim a larger jump.
Clock Freeze
Temporarily freezes the timer.
Protection Potion
Temporarily renders Jim impervious to enemy attacks (but does not protect against bottomless pits).
Gold Coin
Awards 300 gold.
Small Gold Coin
Awards 300 gold.
Large Gold Coin
Awards 500 gold.
Ring
Awards 2,000 gold.
Crown
Awards 3,000 gold.
Treasure Chest
Contains items or sometimes an entrance to the shop. Open by attacking with +.
CAPTAIN SILVER
Dropped by defeated foes. Collect every letter to earn an extra life. The letters A and I appear twice. Space characters do not count toward a letter but give 100 gold. Letters are worth 300 gold.
While the Japanese and European versions of the game consist of six rounds, the US version has been cut down to only four. It is also missing various enemies and bosses, and the ending has been replaced with some scrolling text. The reason for these cuts was likely to fit the game on a 1-Megabit cartridge instead of a 2-Megabit, in order to reduce costs, similar to the Master System version of Enduro Racer.