Qix is a 1981 puzzle video game developed by husband and wife team Randy and Sandy Pfeiffer and published in arcades by Taito America. Qix is one of a handful of games made by Taito's American division. At the start of each level, the playing field is a large, empty rectangle, containing the Qix, an abstract stick-like entity that performs graceful but unpredictable motions within the confines of the rectangle. The objective is to draw lines that close off parts of the rectangle to fill in a set amount of the playfield.
Bio-ship Paladin, known in Japan as Space Battleship Gomora, is a 1990 horizontally scrolling shoot 'em up arcade game released by UPL and distributed by Sammy Corporation for North American manufacture. It was later ported to the Sega Mega Drive. While the game is essentially a standard horizontally scrolling shoot 'em up, it has an innovation that makes it unique in the genre. The player flies a spaceship which has the standard forward guns to be found in all horizontal scrollers, but it also possesses a weapon that can be manually targeted with a crosshair, in the same manner as in the game Missile Command. This allows the player to fire in any direction with pinpoint accuracy, and adds an extra level of strategy to the game. The game saw an almost arcade perfect port on the Mega Drive, albeit with a few changes that actually enhanced the look of the game such as added parallax scrolling backgrounds in the second level. It would eventually see a worldwide re-release as part of the Arcade Archives series for Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 on August 5, 2021.
2.5D perspective refers to gameplay or movement in a video game or virtual reality environment that is restricted to a two-dimensional (2D) plane with little or no access to a third dimension in a space that otherwise appears to be three-dimensional and is often simulated and rendered in a 3D digital environment.
Star Castle is a vector graphics multidirectional shooter released in arcades by Cinematronics in 1980. The game involves obliterating a series of defenses orbiting a stationary turret in the center of the screen. The display is black and white with the colors of the rings and screen provided by a transparent plastic screen overlay.
Tempest is a 1981 arcade video game by Atari, Inc., designed and programmed by Dave Theurer. It takes place on a three-dimensional surface divided into lanes, sometimes as a closed tube, and viewed from one end. The player controls a claw-shaped "blaster" that sits on the edge of the surface, snapping from segment to segment as a rotary knob is turned, and can fire blaster shots to destroy enemies and obstacles by pressing a button.
The golden age of arcade video games was the period of rapid growth, technological development, and cultural influence of arcade video games from the late 1970s to the early 1980s. The release of Space Invaders in 1978 led to a wave of shoot-'em-up games such as Galaxian and the vector graphics-based Asteroids in 1979, made possible by new computing technology that had greater power and lower costs. Arcade video games switched from black-and-white to color, with titles such as Frogger and Centipede taking advantage of the visual opportunities of bright palettes.
Starhawk is a 1979 vector arcade game designed and programmed by Tim Skelly and manufactured by Cinematronics. Starhawk is a shoot 'em up unofficially based on the Star Wars: Episode IV trench run, one of the first arcade games to blatantly use concepts from Star Wars. The game was unique at the time for its pseudo-3D graphics. It was distributed in Japan by Sega, and was later ported for the Vectrex home system in 1982.
Cinematronics Incorporated was an arcade game developer that primarily released vector graphics games in the late 1970s and early 1980s. While other companies released games based on raster displays, early in their history, Cinematronics and Atari, Inc. released vector-display games, which offered a distinctive look and a greater graphic capability, at the cost of being only black and white (initially). Cinematronics also published Dragon's Lair in 1983, the first major LaserDisc video game.
Tomohiro Nishikado is a Japanese video game developer and engineer. He is the creator of the arcade shoot 'em up game Space Invaders, released to the public in 1978 by the Taito Corporation of Japan, often credited as the first shoot 'em up and for beginning the golden age of arcade video games. Prior to Space Invaders, he also designed other earlier Taito arcade games, including the shooting electro-mechanical games Sky Fighter (1971) and Sky Fighter II, the sports video game TV Basketball in 1974, the vertical scrolling racing video game Speed Race in 1974, the multi-directional shooter Western Gun in 1975, and the first-person combat flight simulator Interceptor (1975).
The following article is a broad timeline of arcade video games.
Bosconian is a scrolling multidirectional shooter arcade video game developed and released by Namco in Japan in 1981. In North America, it was manufactured and distributed by Midway Games. The goal is to earn as many points as possible by destroying enemy missiles and bases using a ship which shoots simultaneously both the front and back.
Spider-Man: The Video Game, also known as Spider-Man, is a 1991 arcade video game developed by Sega based on the Marvel Comics character Spider-Man.
Astro Blaster is a space-themed fixed shooter released in arcades by Sega in 1981. It was designed and programmed by Gary Shannon and Barbara Michalec. The game uses speech synthesis and during attract mode a voice says "Fighter pilots needed in sector wars...play Astro Blaster!" It is the first video game to have a copyright registered in Japan.
Space Fury is a 1981 multidirectional shooter arcade game developed by Gremlin. Sega/Gremlin released the game in North America in June 1981, and then Sega released it in Japan in July 1981. It is the first game with color vector graphics, and it was Sega's second game to use speech synthesis. Coleco published a ColecoVision version with raster graphics in 1983.
Tac/Scan (夕ック/スキャン) is a space combat shooter released as an arcade video game in 1982. It was developed by Sega Electronics and published by Sega. An Atari 2600 version was released in 1983.
Air Buster is a 1990 horizontally scrolling shooter arcade video game developed by Kaneko. It was published by Namco in Japan and Sharp Image Electronics in North America. Two players control the "Blaster Fighter" star ships in their efforts to destroy a mysterious mechanical fortress orbiting Earth, with plans to take control of the planet. The Blaster Fighters can equip one of seven available weapons, which will change the ship's firepower and abilities, such as diagonal shots, homing missiles and small drones that follow the player's ship.
Omega Race is a shoot 'em up arcade video game designed by Ron Haliburton and released in 1981 by Midway. It is the only arcade game with vector graphics that Midway created.
Moon Cresta is a fixed shooter video game released by Nichibutsu for arcades in 1980. In North America, it was licensed to Sega/Gremlin and Centuri, the latter releasing it in arcades as Eagle. Incentive Software published ports of Moon Cresta for the Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, Dragon 32 and ZX Spectrum home computers. In 2022, the original arcade version will be included as part of the Sega Astro City Mini V, a vertically-oriented variant of the Sega Astro City mini console.
Space Zap is a space-themed fixed shooter arcade video game developed by Game-A-Tron and licensed to Midway Manufacturing in 1980. The player controls the defenses of an immobile base in the center of the screen which is attacked from the top, bottom, left, and right. Pressing one of four oversized buttons moves the gun in the corresponding direction. A fifth button fires. Space Zap shipped in three form factors: standard upright, cocktail, and Bally's Mini-Myte reduced size cabinet.
Threshold is a space-themed fixed shooter written by Warren Schwader and Ken Williams for the Apple II and published by On-Line Systems in 1981. Inspired by Sega's Astro Blaster arcade video game, Threshold introduces many enemy ship types and wave formations as the game progresses. Reviewers found the variety distinguished the game from the many similar shoot 'em ups.
