Battlezone is a first-person shooter tank combat game released for arcades in November 1980 by Atari, Inc. The player controls a tank which is attacked by other tanks and missiles, using a small radar scanner to locate enemies around them in the barren landscape. Its innovative use of 3D graphics made it a huge hit, with approximately 15,000 cabinets sold.
Shooter video games or shooters are a subgenre of action video games where the focus is almost entirely on the defeat of the character's enemies using the weapons given to the player. Usually these weapons are firearms or some other long-range weapons, and can be used in combination with other tools such as grenades for indirect offense, armor for additional defense, or accessories such as telescopic sights to modify the behavior of the weapons. A common resource found in many shooter games is ammunition, armor or health, or upgrades which augment the player character's weapons.
Choplifter is military themed scrolling shooter developed by Dan Gorlin for the Apple II and published by Broderbund in 1982. It was ported to the Atari 8-bit family the same year and also to the VIC-20, Commodore 64, Atari 5200, ColecoVision, MSX, and Thomson computers.
1943: The Battle of Midway is a 1987 vertically scrolling shooter arcade video game developed and published by Capcom.
Michael Jackson's Moonwalker is the name of several video games based on the 1988 Michael Jackson film Moonwalker. Sega developed two beat 'em ups, released in 1990; one released in arcades and another released for the Sega Genesis and Master System consoles. U.S. Gold also published various games for home computers the same year. Each of the games' plots loosely follows the "Smooth Criminal" segment of the film, in which Jackson rescues kidnapped children from the evil Mr. Big, and incorporates synthesized versions of some of the musician's songs. Following Moonwalker, Jackson collaborated with Sega on several other video games.
Dragon Breed is a horizontally scrolling shooter video game produced by Irem and released in arcades in 1989. It runs on M72 and M81 hardware. Activision released home computer conversions in 1990.
Twinkle Star Sprites is a 1996 competitive scrolling shooter arcade game originally created by ADK. It was ADK's last production for the Neo Geo platform. The gameplay, which can be characterized as a combination of a fixed shooter and a versus puzzle game, uses combinations of shots, as well as timed power-ups to attempt to damage the opponent. These attacks also serve as counters to the opponent's attack.
Blasteroids is the third official sequel to the 1979 multidirectional shooter video game, Asteroids. It was developed by Atari Games and released in arcades in 1987. Unlike the previous games, Blasteroids uses raster graphics instead of vector graphics, and has power-ups and a boss.
Mega Man 2: The Power Fighters is an arcade video game, released in Japan in 1996 as a fighting game in the Mega Man series of games. It is the direct sequel to Mega Man: The Power Battle released the previous year. Both games were ported to home consoles in North America in 2004 as part of the Mega Man Anniversary Collection for PlayStation 2, Xbox, and GameCube and in Japan during the same year as part of two game compilation titled Rockman: Power Battle Fighters, also for the PlayStation 2. An adaptation of both games for the Neo Geo Pocket Color, titled Rockman Battle & Fighters, was also made. Both games were later re-released as part of the Capcom Arcade 2nd Stadium compilation in 2022.
Curse is a 1989 video game developed by Micronet for the Mega Drive video game console. It is a horizontally scrolling shooter with five levels. Although an American release was planned, it was never officially released outside Japan.
Forgotten Worlds, titled Lost Worlds in Japan, is a side-scrolling shooter video game by Capcom, originally released as a coin-operated arcade game in 1988. It is notable for being the first title released by Capcom for their CP System arcade game hardware.
Armor Attack is multidirectional shooter designed by Tim Skelly and released in arcades by Cinematronics in 1980. It was licensed to Sega in Japan. The vector graphics of Armor Attack present combat between the player's jeep and enemy vehicles in an overhead, maze-like view of a town. The buildings are not drawn in the game, but are an overlay that sits on top of the monitor. The overlay also tints the vectors green.
B-Wings is a vertically scrolling shooter first released as an arcade video game by Data East in 1984. A version was released in 1986 for the Family Computer. It was Data East's very first home release for the console.
Monster Maulers, known in Japan as Kyukyoku Sentai Dadandarn, is a 1993 fighting arcade game developed and published by Konami.
Hyper Duel is a Japanese video game developed by Technosoft and released in 1993. It is a horizontally scrolling shooter which takes inspiration from the Thunder Force series. The game has the player take control of a ship that can transform between a humanoid mecha and a space ship. The game was released in arcades in 1993, running on the TEC442-A hardware, then was ported to the Sega Saturn in 1996. It has never been released outside of Japan.
Rohga: Armor Force, released in Japan as Wolf Fang: Kuuga 2001, is a 1991 run and gun/platform hybrid arcade game developed and published by Data East. It is related to Vapor Trail and was itself followed by Skull Fang.
A cover system is a video game gameplay mechanic that allows a virtual avatar to hide from and avoid dangers, usually in a three-dimensional world. This method is a digital adaptation of the real-life military tactic of taking cover behind obstacles, for purposes of attaining protection from enemy ranged or area effect attacks, such as gunfire or explosions.
Clockwork Aquario is a platform game developed by Westone and published by ININ Games for the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4. The gameplay involves defeating waves of enemies, picking up power-ups and items, and destroying bosses across multiple levels to stop Dr. Hangyo from taking over the world.
Cotton 2: Magical Night Dreams is a 1997 scrolling shooter arcade video game developed by Success and published by Tecmo. The fourth installment in the Cotton franchise, it is the arcade sequel to Cotton: Fantastic Night Dreams. In the game, players assume the role of either the titular young witch or her rival Appli who, alongside their companions Silk and Needle, sets out on a quest to defeat several monsters and retrieve the missing "Bluewater Willow" candy to Pumpkin Kingdom. Its gameplay is similar to the first game, consisting of shooting mixed with fighting and role-playing game-esque elements using a main three-button configuration. It ran on the ST-V hardware.
