Zanac AI - AI

We need to define 'real AI.' I'd consider 'real AI' to be something like a convolutional neural network applied to vision recognition, aka machine learning, which isn't what they are describing. My japanese is rusty, but from what I read, it sounds more like they're describing hierarchical behavior trees, controlled by a state machine with a seeding value that acts as a "director" ala games like Left 4 Dead.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_artificial_neural_n... :P

Anyway, I guess the A.I. is about the Automatic Level Control, which I understood means that the game will be more difficult if you shoot more. (And/or have more misses?)
EDIT: see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zanac

Indeed.

Zanac predated many modern and well known and appreciated shmups by being the first to implement a rank system.

It's not just how much you shoot, but the better you play, the more difficult the game becomes, in very broad terms.

Try getting the "2" power-up at the beginning and start point blanking enemies and your rank will go wild in a very short time, making the game unbelievably hard.

Nowadays Battle Garegga from 8-ing/Raizing is one of the most appreciated shmups among fans due to its very complex and interesting rank system.

The first? What about Xevious (1983 AC/1984 FC)? The article text event mention Xevious as the inspiration for the "AI".

I admit I have little in-depth experience with Xevious, but IIRC the rank system was actually just enemies moving and shooting faster, which is a bit limited compared to Zanac where it even starts spawning more and harder enemy ships, setting the standard for shmups to come.

Although, yeah, in very broad terms you might think that of a rank system, although not a completely and well fleshed out ones (again, if my memory doesn't fail me).