only be accessed by finding a seal for the constellation in the last room of the group. The other three levels are Page of Time, Page of Space and the Princess Room, which occur only if the player has acquired the hidden Seals of Solomon. Development Solomon's Key was designed by Michitaka Tsuruta, who took inspiration from Lode Runner and added the ability to both destroy and create tiles. The initial game design leaned towards being more of an action title until Tsuruta's boss at Tecmo, Kazutoshi Ueda, suggested it incorporate puzzle elements. Tsuruta took inspiration from Greek mythology as well as the film Jason and the Argonauts for the visual aesthetic of the game. The title of the game itself came from the sales manager, Harano, after one of the developers explained that the star-like symbol throughout the levels was the seal of Solomon and that there was a book called the Key of Solomon. "I like it," Harano stated, at which point it got its title. Ports In 1988, a port of Solomon's Key was released for the Master System in Japan. In 1990, Pack-In-Video converted the game for the PC Engine under the title Zipang. In April 1991, a Game Boy version was released under the title Solomon's Club. It was developed by Graphic Research. In July 2019, the classic NES version was released for the Nintendo Switch as Arcade Archives Solomon's Key, published by Hamster. Reception In Japan, Game Machine listed Solomon's Key on their September 1, 1986 issue as being the eighteenth most-successful table arcade unit of the month. Solomon's Key sold 300,000 copies in Japan. Legacy The NES version of the game was released for the Wii Virtual Console on November 19, 2006 in North America and on December 15, 2006 in the PAL regions. Later, it was also released on the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U Virtual Console. Since then, it has been released as part of the Nintendo Switch Online: Nintendo Entertainment System games. A 'reverse engineered' port from the Atari ST version was released for the Commodore Amiga in 2013. In 1992, a prequel was released for the NES named Solomon's Key 2 (called Fire 'n Ice in North America). Monster Rancher Explorer (Solomon in Japan), also released by Tecmo, features the same gameplay but with Monster Rancher characters. References External links Solomon's Key at Arcade Archives Page 1986 video games