User Interface
The first screen seen when starting Gunbird displays, blinking, the messages "GAME OVER" and "INSERT COIN". Behind these, the company's (Psikyo) logo, the credits of the game, a cutscene featuring the game's characters and the name of the game, and a demo using Marion and Ash in cooperative mode, is played. Finally, it shows the score screen. This screen is replaced by the Start Menu when a coin is inserted in the machine, returning to the Looping Cutscene if the player does not press start for some seconds, and until "START" button is pressed. During this second display of this screen, a "START" text will be shown instead of "INSERT COIN", and it will also show the current amount of coins in the machine, and will return to the Start Menu if any button is pressed.
The main purpose of this screen is to attract players to play the game. As all cabinets in arcade centers, the machine was always turned on, so that people could just put in the money and start playing up right away, so the looping cutscene was being played in order to draw customers' attention by the looks of the characters, and the visual demo's utility is to show exactly how the game is, for the players to know what is the game about without need to explain it in text.
This menu is just a stationary screen with the title of the game, the words "START" in the middle of the screen and the current credit on the bottom. When the player presses the "START" button, the Character Selection menu appears.
In this screen, the five characters of the game are shown on the bottom of the screen, and hovering the cursor over each of them shows a mugshot, a full-body sprite, and the name of said character. In the bottom of the screen there is a countdown ninonino from 9 to 0, and if the time expires, the game will automatically select the character where the cursor is at the moment.
The game HUD displays the data of Player 1 in the left of the screen and the one of Player 2 in the right. Each player's data consists of the score, shown on the top of the screen. Under the score is the current amount of lives the player has left. Upon dying, the player will lose a life. On the bottom of the screen there is the amount of bombs each player currently has. If only one person is playing, on the top-right corner it will appear "INSERT COIN" if there isn't credit available, or "START" if there is, and on the bottom-right corner the Credit that is available is displayed.
When the player hasn't got any extra lives left, it will be a Game Over and this screen will show up. It will endarken the scenario and characters and show a "GAME OVER" message, and below it "CONTINUE?" and a counter. Also on the bottom of the screen the current credit will be shown. If the timer expires and the player hasn't hit START, the game will return to the looping cutscene.
All sprites of the game's UI are stored here.