Polymega Collection Vol. 23 Puts Seven Jaleco Games on One Disc, Including Scud Hammer and Game Tengoku

Polymega has opened preorders for Polymega Collection Vol. 23, a disc of seven Jaleco games named after the company's 1985 arcade game City Connection. It costs $39.99, and Polymega's store page says it ships in November 2026. Time Extension dates Polymega's preorder post to 28 October.

What is on the disc

Polymega's product page lists the games with the platforms each version comes from. Where the store does not give a year, the year here comes from Time Extension's report or from each game's own history.

• - City Connection (arcade, NES / Famicom), 1985
• - Game Tengoku / Game Paradise: Master of Shooting (arcade, Saturn), 1995
• - Plus Alpha (arcade), 1989
• - Chameleon (arcade), 1983
• - Rod Land (arcade, NES / Famicom), 1990
• - Scud Hammer (arcade), 1994
• - Ignition Factor / Fire Fighting (SNES / Super Famicom), 1994

Three of the seven come in more than one version. City Connection and Rod Land include both the arcade original and the NES or Famicom conversion, and Game Tengoku includes both the arcade game and the Saturn port.

The physical package is a Polymega Game DVD with a Visual Companion booklet, a Controller Reference, a Polymega Collection sticker and, while supplies last, a City Connection pin. The product code is PMCD-CC-07. The store describes it as a "Genuine disc, playable and installable to your library", and adds that "Polymega Collection game discs play on any Polymega system."

The games

City Connection reached Japanese arcades in July 1985 and came to North America as Cruisin'. The player drives Clarice's orange Honda City hatchback across twelve side-scrolling stages set in cities such as New York, London and Tokyo. Clarice paints the elevated roads by driving over them and can stun pursuing police cars with oil cans. The cats waving flags cannot be harmed. Clarice is regarded as one of the first female protagonists in a console game, though the NES version swapped her for a male driver. Much of the music arranges Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1. City Connection, the company that now owns Jaleco's games, takes its name from this one.

Rod Land came out in Japanese arcades in April 1990. Two fairies, Tam and Rit, cannot jump; they climb ladders, including one they can conjure, and use a magic rod that immobilises monsters so they can be slammed against the ground. The Sales Curve's London office made the home computer versions, and Amiga Power ranked the Amiga version 16th in its list of the best games of all time. The arcade game hides a separate sequel, reached by pressing down on the joystick three times after inserting a coin.

Game Tengoku, from 1995, is a vertically scrolling shooter that parodies the genre in the way Konami's Parodius does. A mad scientist takes over a games arcade, and the player fights back with characters from five Jaleco games of the 1980s across six stages. It was directed by Masahiro Arai with music by Kazuo Sawa.

Plus Alpha (May 1989) is a multidirectional shooter that was only released in Japanese arcades. Its two pilots, Selia and Rumy, set out to free seven countries; it is known for being easier than most shooters of its time and for a look close to Konami's TwinBee.

The Ignition Factor, called Fire Fighting in Japan, came out for the Super Famicom on 11 November 1994 and in North America in January 1995. The player is a firefighter rescuing people from burning buildings, mines and industrial accidents against a time limit, with extinguishers for three types of fire, an oxygen mask, an axe, rope, explosives and CO2 bombs.

Scud Hammer is a 1994 arcade game that stayed in Japan. Time Extension describes it as essentially rock, paper, scissors, played out with chaotic cartoon imagery. Chameleon is a 1983 single-screen arcade platformer; Wikipedia's list of Jaleco games credits its development to Donga-Seiko and Tose, so it is a Jaleco release rather than a game Jaleco made in-house.

Jaleco, City Connection and Polymega

Jaleco was founded by Yoshiaki Kanazawa on 3 October 1974 as Japan Leisure, and took the name Jaleco in March 1983 from the first two letters of each word. Its parent company, Game Yarou, was declared bankrupt by the Tokyo District Court on 21 May 2014, and the game rights passed to City Connection, a Japanese studio. Wikipedia's article gives the year of that transfer inconsistently, as both 2013 and 2014.

This is not the first Jaleco disc in the Polymega Collection. The series runs from Vol. 1, Asteroids, to this one, and earlier volumes include Vol. 10, Bases Loaded, Vol. 14, Astyanax, and Vol. 18, Rival Turf!. Polymega's store calls Vol. 14 "this special Jaleco & Psikyo collection for Polymega". Every volume currently listed costs $39.99 except Vol. 5, Bad Dudes, and Vol. 6, Heavy Barrel, at $34.99.

The discs are made for Polymega's own console, built by Playmaji. It launched on 12 September 2021 at $450, runs on Linux and plays games through emulation software, including modified versions of MAME, Mednafen, Mesen and Kega Fusion. Disc games go in its built-in drive, cartridge games need Element Modules, and the console can copy a game to internal storage so the original does not have to stay in the machine. That copy feature is the library the store page refers to.

Other ways to play these games

Several of the seven are already available elsewhere. Hamster's Arcade Archives series released Plus Alpha on Switch and PS4 in April 2020 and the arcade Rod Land on the same two consoles in January 2021. Game Tengoku had a remake, Game Tengoku CruisnMix, released in Japan on PS4 and Windows on 29 November 2017 and on Switch in North America and Europe on 28 May 2020. The Ignition Factor was on the Wii and Wii U Virtual Consoles and was added to Nintendo Classics on 18 December 2020.

A larger Jaleco set is also on the way. Gravity Game Arise announced Jaleco Arcade Collection Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 for PS5, Switch and PC in July, each with 16 arcade games, due "this winter". Vol. 1 includes City Connection and Chameleon, and Vol. 2 includes Plus Alpha and Rod Land. Neither lineup includes Scud Hammer or Game Tengoku, and neither covers console versions, so those two arcade games and the NES, Saturn and Super Famicom versions are what the Polymega disc offers that the two collections do not.

What is not known yet

Polymega's store gives November 2026 and no exact day; Time Extension reported that shipping was expected to begin in early November. The store does not say which regions it ships the disc to, which regional versions of each game are included, or whether there will be a digital release. It also does not name City Connection as licensor, although the page title for Vol. 14 reads "Astyanax | Polymega Collection (City Connection)". Polymega posted a separate cryptic teaser on 27 October, and nothing yet confirms whether it referred to this disc or to something else.