Uploaded June 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Rastan Saga has basically the same origin story as Donkey Kong, just with a sword instead of a barrel. Developed and published by Taito and released in Japanese arcades in March 1987, the game was originally meant to be an officially licensed Conan the Barbarian title built directly around Robert E. Howard's novels. Partway through development, Taito discovered that American publisher DataSoft already held the home conversion rights to Conan, so the team did the only thing they could, kept the exact same spirit and just invented their own barbarian hero instead. Rastan was born, and almost nobody in 1987 seemed to mind how closely he resembled his inspiration.
The game even leans into that resemblance on purpose. The opening narration, present only in the Japanese release, shows an aged King Rastan sitting on his throne reflecting on his violent past as a thief and killer, deliberately echoing the iconic final shot of the 1982 Conan the Barbarian film. You fight through six fantasy stages packed with orcs, skeletal warriors, chimeras and a multi headed hydra, picking up a mace, an axe or a fire sword by striking weapon pickups with whatever you are already holding, before facing down a giant fire breathing dragon at the end.
It did extremely well for Taito too. Game Machine ranked it the second most successful arcade table unit in Japan that May, and the US release alone is estimated to have generated around 100 million dollars from roughly 6,000 cabinets, despite never actually being sold overseas as a dedicated machine, only as conversion kits or smaller cocktail cabinets. It went on to spawn two sequels and an enormous wave of home computer and console ports, and Taito brought it back again in 2024 through the Arcade Archives series.
Let me know in the comments which weapon you always tried to grab first. Subscribe to Game Forest GF for retro gaming content every single day.
#rastansaga #rastan #taito #arcadegames #retrogaming #classicgaming #arcadeclassics #80sgaming #retroarcade #oldschoolgaming #vintagegaming #gaminghistory #80snostalgia #coinop #conanthebarbarian #youtubeshorts #gaming
Rastan Saga has basically the same origin story as Donkey Kong, just with a sword instead of a barrel. Developed and published by Taito and released in Japanese arcades in March 1987, the game was originally meant to be an officially licensed Conan the Barbarian title built directly around Robert E. Howard's novels. Partway through development, Taito discovered that American publisher DataSoft already held the home conversion rights to Conan, so the team did the only thing they could, kept the exact same spirit and just invented their own barbarian hero instead. Rastan was born, and almost nobody in 1987 seemed to mind how closely he resembled his inspiration.
The game even leans into that resemblance on purpose. The opening narration, present only in the Japanese release, shows an aged King Rastan sitting on his throne reflecting on his violent past as a thief and killer, deliberately echoing the iconic final shot of the 1982 Conan the Barbarian film. You fight through six fantasy stages packed with orcs, skeletal warriors, chimeras and a multi headed hydra, picking up a mace, an axe or a fire sword by striking weapon pickups with whatever you are already holding, before facing down a giant fire breathing dragon at the end.
It did extremely well for Taito too. Game Machine ranked it the second most successful arcade table unit in Japan that May, and the US release alone is estimated to have generated around 100 million dollars from roughly 6,000 cabinets, despite never actually being sold overseas as a dedicated machine, only as conversion kits or smaller cocktail cabinets. It went on to spawn two sequels and an enormous wave of home computer and console ports, and Taito brought it back again in 2024 through the Arcade Archives series.
Let me know in the comments which weapon you always tried to grab first. Subscribe to Game Forest GF for retro gaming content every single day.
#rastansaga #rastan #taito #arcadegames #retrogaming #classicgaming #arcadeclassics #80sgaming #retroarcade #oldschoolgaming #vintagegaming #gaminghistory #80snostalgia #coinop #conanthebarbarian #youtubeshorts #gaming
