Originally conceived as a realistic military-themed game played in the third-person and featuring a player-controlled fighter jet, technical and memory restrictions resulted in Sega developer Suzuki redesigning it around a jet-propelled human character in a fantasy setting. The arcade game is controlled by an analog flight stick while the deluxe arcade cabinet is a cockpit-style hydraulic motion simulator cabinet that tilts and rolls during play, for which it is referred to 体感 or "body sensation" arcade game in Japan.
It was a commercial success in arcades, becoming one of Japan's top two highest-grossing upright/cockpit arcade games of 1986 (along with Sega's Hang-On).[7] Critically praised for its innovative graphics, gameplay, and motion cabinet, Space Harrier is often ranked among Suzuki's best works. It has made several crossover appearances in other Sega titles, and inspired a number of clones and imitators, while the director cited it as an inspiration for his entering the video game industry.
Space Harrier has been ported to over twenty different home computer and gaming platforms, either by Sega or outside such in Japan and Elite Systems in North America and Europe. Two home-system sequels followed in Space Harrier 3-D and Space Harrier II (both released in 1988), and the arcade spin-off Planet Harriers (2000). A polygon-based remake of the original game was released by Sega for the PlayStation 2 as part of their Sega Ages series in 2003.
Development:-
The game was first conceived by a Sega designer named Ida18 who wrote a 100-page document proposing the idea of a three-dimensional shooter that contained the word "Harrier" in the title18 The game would feature a player-controlled fighter jet that shot missiles into realistic foregrounds, a concept that was soon rejected due to the extensive work required to project the aircraft realistically from varying angles as it moved around the screen18 coupled with arcade machines' memory limitations.[19] Sega developer Suzuki, therefore, simplified the title character to a human, which required less memory and realism to depict onscreen.[19] He then rewrote the entire original proposal, changing the style of the game to a science-fiction setting while keeping only the "Harrier" name.[18] His inspirations for the game's new design were the 1984 film The Never Story, the 1982 anime series Space Cobra, and the work of artist Roger Dean.[19] Certain enemies were modeled on characters from the anime series.[20] Suzuki included a nod to the original designer in the finished product with an enemy character called Ida, a large floating stone head because the designer "had a really big head".[18] Three different arcade cabinets were produced: an upright cabinet, a sit-down version with a fixed seat, and its best known[12][21][22] incarnation: a deluxe cockpit-style rolling cabinet that was mounted on a motorized base and moved depending on the direction in which players pushed the joystick. Sega was hesitant to have the cabinets built due to high construction costs; Suzuki, who had proposed the cabinet designs, offered his salary as compensation if the game failed, but it would instead become a major hit in arcades.[23]
Suzuki had little involvement with the game after its initial release: the Master System port was developed by they added a final boss and an ending sequence which were included in subsequent ports. The game was too successful for Sega to abandon the series, and other Sega staff, such as (character designer for Sonic the Hedgehog), (planner of Alex Kidd in Miracle World), and (director of Super Monkey Ball) have had involvement in various sequels. In a 2015 interview, Suzuki said that he would have liked to create a new Space Harrier by himself, and was pleased to see it ported to the Nintendo 3DS
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