Back in the early Nineties, Atlus had grown from a publisher of console games into an ambitious outfit with designs on the arcade market. While the company would spend most of the decade in the coin-op game, its own developments were quickly sidelined in favour of publishing games from external developers, most notably Cave. However, a remnant of the company’s early attempts to break into the market has recently been found and preserved via emulation.

Wing Force was set to hit the market in 1993 before being cancelled for unknown reasons. A prototype PCB appeared on Yahoo Auctions Japan late last year and ended up selling for a whopping ¥301,000 (£1744.41 at today’s exchange rate). Luckily the buyer was Shmups forum member Shou, who promised to preserve the game and did exactly that. The game will be on its way to MAME shortly, but if you can’t wait there’s a video above.