Elite is a space trading video game. It was written and developed by David Braben and Ian Bell and was originally published by Acornsoft for the BBC Micro and Acorn Electron computers in September 1984. Elite's open-ended game model, and revolutionary 3D graphics led to it being ported to virtually every contemporary home computer system and earned it a place as a classic and a genre maker in gaming history. The game's title derives from one of the player's goals of raising their combat rating to the exalted heights of "Elite".
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.
Datastorm is a horizontally scrolling shooter for the Amiga published by Visionary Design in 1989. Written by Søren Grønbech, it was inspired by the Defender arcade video game and the Defender-like Dropzone originally released for Atari 8-bit computers.
Captain Skyhawk is a scrolling shooter video game developed by Rare for the Nintendo Entertainment System. The game was released in North America by Milton Bradley in June 1990 and in Europe by Nintendo in 1991. It was also released for arcades by Nintendo in 1990. It was based on a concept from Milton Bradley, with Rare being contracted to develop the game.
Paradroid is a Commodore 64 computer game written by Andrew Braybrook and published by Hewson Consultants in 1985. It is a shoot 'em up with puzzle elements and was critically praised at release. The objective is to clear a fleet of spaceships of hostile robots by destroying them or taking them over via a mini-game. It was later remade as Paradroid 90 for the Commodore Amiga and Atari ST home computers and as Paradroid 2000 for the Acorn Archimedes. There exist several fan-made remakes for modern PCs. In 2004 the Commodore 64 version was re-released as a built-in game on the C64 Direct-to-TV, and in 2008 for the Wii Virtual Console in Europe.
S.D.I. is a 1986 action-adventure game developed and published by Cinemaware. The game is set in a fictional version of the year 2017, but in a scenario where the Cold War did not end in 1991. In this timeline, both sides have somehow managed to construct space-based anti-missile defense systems. Compared with actual historical events, the scenario falls in the category of alternate history.
X3: Reunion is a single-player space trading and combat video game developed by Egosoft and published by Deep Silver. It is the third installment in the X series and the sequel to X2: The Threat (2003), which in turn followed X: Beyond the Frontier (1999). X3: Reunion was released originally for Windows in 2005. The game was later ported to Mac OS X and Linux.
Xenon 2: Megablast is a 1989 shoot 'em up video game developed by The Bitmap Brothers and published by Image Works for the Amiga and Atari ST. It was later converted to the Master System, PC-98, X68000, Mega Drive, Commodore CDTV, Game Boy, Acorn Archimedes and Atari Jaguar platforms. The game is a sequel to Xenon and takes place a millennium after the previous title. The goal of the game is to destroy a series of bombs planted throughout history by the Xenites, the vengeful antagonists of the first game.
R-Type II is a horizontally scrolling shooter developed and published by Irem. It was released in arcades in 1989. It is the sequel to R-Type, and the second game in the R-Type series.
Dangerous Seed is a 1989 vertically scrolling shooter arcade game developed and published by Namco. Controlling one of three different starships, the player is tasked with destroying an alien race known as the Danger Seed before they wipe out all of mankind. Each ship has their own set of weapons and abilities, such as shots that dissolve enemies and target-seeking projectiles, and can sustain multiple hits before being destroyed. The player's ships can also combine into a new ship, the Moon Diver, featuring a stronger shield and additional weapons. It ran on the Namco System 1 hardware.
Sky Fox is a 1987 arcade video game developed by Jaleco and licensed to Nichibutsu. It was originally released in Japan and Europe as Exerizer (エクセライザー) as an indirect follow-up to Jaleco's 1983's Exerion and 1984's Exerion II: Zorni. It is a fixed shooter, setting the player in the role of a space pilot fighting against female alien invaders and space monsters under their control. The game was mostly well-received by Western game critics, albeit some criticized it for its depiction of women.
Zarlor Mercenary is a vertically scrolling shooter for the Atari Lynx handheld console, developed by Epyx and published by Atari Corporation.
Network 23 was a British video game developer founded by teenagers Chris Lloyd and Russell Hughes in 1990. Located on the Isle of Wight, they produced games exclusively for the Acorn Archimedes range of computers from 1990 to 1996.
Xexex, released as Orius in North America, is a 1991 side-scrolling shoot 'em up arcade game by Konami. It draws on Irem's R-Type and Konami's other shoot 'em up Gradius, while adding the tentacle mechanics of Irem's other shoot 'em up XMultiply. In the game, players take control of the Flintlock space fighter in a mission to rescue Princess Irene La Tias of Planet E-Square, who has been captured by the evil galactic warlord Klaus Pachelbel.
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.
Galaxian 2 is a handheld electronic game that was released in 1981 in the US by Entex Industries. It was also released the same year in Japan under the name Astro Galaxy and in Europe under the name Astro Invader. The game was also released under the Futuretronics brand in Australia.
Conqueror is a video game released as the follow-up to Zarch, using the same landscape engine. It is a third-person shooter with strategy elements in which the player controls a fleet of tanks. It was originally developed and released on the Acorn Archimedes by Superior Software in 1988 and ported to other home computers in 1990 by Rainbow Arts. The game was well received, particularly for its blend of strategy and arcade action.
Parallax is a shoot 'em up video game developed by British company Sensible Software for the Commodore 64. It was released in 1986 by Ocean Software in Europe and Mindscape in North America. The game was named after its primary graphical feature, parallax scrolling, which gives the illusion of depth to side-scrolling video games. On release, reviews praised the game's mix of traditional side-scrolling action and adventure game-inspired puzzles.
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.
