Raiden

1993-1994 Imagitec Design

Platforms: Commodore Amiga, Atari Falcon

Few arcade shoot-em-ups made as much of an impact in the early 1990s as Seibu Kaihatsu’s Raiden. First released into arcades in 1990, the vertically scrolling shooter quickly became a huge hit thanks to its fast action, varied weaponry and relentless challenge. Players took control of the Raiden Supersonic Attack Fighter in a desperate battle against an invading alien force, blasting through waves of enemies whilst collecting weapon upgrades and avoiding an overwhelming barrage of bullets.

The success of the arcade game saw Raiden converted to a wide range of platforms over the following years, including the PC Engine, Mega Drive, SNES, FM Towns, DOS, Atari Jaguar and many others. However, two planned computer conversions would ultimately fail to make it onto shop shelves.

During the mid-1990s, Imagitec Design began work on versions for both the Commodore Amiga and Atari Falcon. The Amiga edition was intended for AGA machines and appeared to have been based largely upon Imagitec’s DOS conversion (not quite the case – see below) which did see release. Development progressed well and the game was reportedly completed, even receiving coverage and reviews in several Amiga magazines of the time.

Yet despite apparently reaching such an advanced stage, the Amiga version was never released. According to information shared over the years by one of the developers, the arrival of newer systems and changing market conditions ultimately led to the project being shelved. A one-level demo would eventually surface online, allowing players to experience a glimpse of what might have been and it seems it was going straight to the KIXX budget label too.

The Amiga version is a relatively decent effort, capturing much of the feel of the arcade original whilst maintaining smooth gameplay and the trademark Raiden action. Although some visual effects and features appear to be missing compared to other versions, it remains a great curiosity to check out.

It’s suggested that the Amiga version is complete too, and developer Adrian Hirst may have remains of everything on a DAT tape. It’s been many years now, but its hoped that some day Adrian will be able to dig out something of the game to be saved by the community.

Work was also carried out on an Atari Falcon conversion, though this version appears to have progressed less far. Reports suggest that only the first three levels were completed before development ceased. Thankfully surviving builds have since circulated, ensuring that at least part of the Falcon version has been preserved.

Thanks to Andrew Seed, we learn that the Amiga and DOS versions were actually both ported from the Atari version. It was started off on the Falcon, but halted when the programmer was moved to the Jaguar version as a launch title. The Falcon edition would end up being released in its final state as shareware when it was decided not to go back to the game.

Today we are adding both surviving versions to the archive, though it is hoped that more can be found of at least the Amiga edition and something with more levels. If you know anything more about the conversion, please do get in touch.

Just a day or so after our post, Amiga legend dlfrsilver got in touch to say they had an Imagitec image which contained source code for Raiden for Amiga and Atari Falcon (possibly PC too?), containing what seems to be 8 levels overall and could well be most of the game (if not everything) for the Amiga edition at least. We’re not sure how this compares to the data that Adrian may have on the DAT tape. The Falcon edition has less levels, but there are 2 extra levels that might be present, which don’t feature in the Shareware release of 3 levels (they may or may not be in a complete state).

There seems to be about 2-3 different source states of Raiden (one folder might be completely identical), nothing compiled and ready to run like Space Junk. We assume that the code may have to be compiled up in an Atari Falcon environment and might need some work to get compiling elsewhere. It is hoped that all includes and binaries are present. NOTE: This is from a quick scan through the files and isn’t by any means a proper deep dive evaluation.

If anyone is able to take a look and see if they can get anything going, please do let us know – it would be amazing if this is essentially most of the game.

So, where did it all come from? From “tomseddon” via https://atari-forum.com/viewtopic.php?p=488647 and missed by many of us, as it was posted back in November 2025. It was our Raiden post that prompted taking a look. One of their ex-colleagues picked up some old junk from an Infogrames / Gremlin store room in the late 1990s, and the folders for Raiden (and Space Junk) were found on the hard disk of a Falcon that was saved.

For now, we’ve extracted all the graphical assets out and added to the gallery below, showcasing content not seen before until now and have added the source code here for you to download. A great end to the week and hopefully more to come.

With thanks to H0ffman and Karl Kuras for suggesting that we cover the game (sorry for the delay!) and helping bring these versions to our attention, dlfrsilver for sending over the archive and especially to tomseddon via Atari Forum for sharing the source archive, Rygar and Andrew Seed for further information about the game, Abandonware Magazines France, Ross Sillifant and Archive.org for scans and AtariMania for the Falcon download.

Downloads

• Preview_Raiden(Amiga)
• Preview_Raiden(AtariFalcon)
• Source_Raiden

Video

Gallery (screenshots + press)

Gallery (Assets)