 | This article needs additional citations for verification .(September 2016) |
| Red Alert | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Irem |
| Publisher(s) | |
| Platform(s) | Arcade |
| Release | July 1981 |
| Genre(s) | Fixed shooter |
| Mode(s) | Up to two players, alternating turns |
| Arcade system | Irem M-27 |
Red Alert, also known as WW III, is a fixed shooter developed by Irem and released in arcades in July 1981. [1]
In Red Alert, the player controls an anti-aircraft turret that can move left and right across the ground, and can only fire straight up. The objective of the game is to keep the turret alive, and to keep the attackers from destroying the city. To do this, the player must maneuver their turret under the attackers, and fire upwards into them, before they drop their bombs.
The game consists of six levels:
At the start of each level, a global map will be displayed, and over a radio a male voice will say "Red Alert! Enemy aircraft approaching [country name]!" Red Alert was one of the first games to have voice in a video game. Levels will be backdropped by famous landmarks specific to each country, such as the Eiffel Tower, the Empire State Building, the Coliseum, and Mount Fuji. Each level consists of three rounds: Fighter planes, helicopters, and nighttime bombers. Before each round, a voice will say the type and number of enemies that are approaching, and to destroy them before a certain time or else an MIRV will be launched.
In the first round, the player is assaulted by a formation of 20 fighter aircraft, which drop small yellow bombs, and also will occasionally dive-bomb the player. These fighters can damage the player, but not the environment. A large, high-level bomber plane will also occasionally cross the screen to release a large red bomb. Shooting the bomb will cause a large explosion that can damage other enemies.
In the second round, a squadron helicopters will appear. These helicopters will fly to various locations above the level, and hover for a moment to drop a bomb on a parachute. These bombs will damage the player and the city, but can be shot in midair, at which point they will fall without detonating.
In the third and final round, night will fall, and the level will become pitch black, except for the player and the areas illuminated by two large spotlights, which slowly move back and forth across the bottom of the map. Planes will fly across the screen from both directions, dropping yellow bombs that can damage the player, and can destroy the spotlights. The planes will only be visible when they are in the beam of a spotlight, but the bombs that they drop are visible even in darkness.
When the third and final round is completed, a short cutscene will be shown. The sun will slowly rise over the level, a rainbow will appear across the screen, and the words "PEACE FOREVER" will appear. This signals the successful completion of the level.
At the top of the screen is a timer, which will count up from zero to a time determined before each round during the briefing. As the timer approaches its end, a warning tone will beep. If the player does not destroy the remaining enemies before the timer finishes, the enemies will leave the level, and the word "CAUTION" will appear on the screen. This means the MIRV has been launched. The MIRV will appear from the top of the screen. As the MIRV descends, it will break up into three clusters, each of which will then break up into three separate bombs. The player must shoot all of the bombs before they reach the ground.
1943: The Battle of Midway is a 1987 vertically scrolling shooter arcade video game developed and published by Capcom.
Kung-Fu Master, known as Spartan X in Japan, is a side-scrolling beat 'em up developed by Irem as an arcade video game in 1984, and distributed by Data East in North America. Designed by Takashi Nishiyama, the game was based on Hong Kong martial arts films. It is a loose adaptation of the Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, and Yuen Biao film Wheels on Meals (1984), called Spartan X in Japan, with the protagonist Thomas named after Jackie Chan's character in the film. The game is also heavily inspired by the Bruce Lee film Game of Death (1972), which was the basis for the game's concept. Nishiyama, who had previously designed the side-scrolling shooter Moon Patrol (1982), combined fighting elements with a shoot 'em up gameplay rhythm. Irem and Data East exported the game to the West without the Spartan X license.
Giga Wing is a 1999 vertically scrolling shooter arcade game developed by Takumi Corporation and published by Capcom on their CPS-2 arcade system board and ported later that year to the Dreamcast console. The arcade version is notable for using a horizontally aligned monitor, something that is considered rare for a vertical shooter. The Dreamcast version had been scheduled to be released in the U.S. in April 2000, before it was delayed to July 18, 2000.
Image Fight is a 1988 vertically scrolling shooter arcade video game developed and published by Irem. It was ported to the Nintendo Entertainment System, PC Engine (Japan-only), Sharp X68000 (Japan-only), and FM Towns (Japan-only) in 1990.
Polaris is a fixed shooter arcade video game released in 1980 by Taito. The player controls a submarine which can shoot missiles upward. The goal is to destroy all of the airplanes in each level while avoiding bombs dropped from the aircraft, as well as mines launched by enemy submarines and depth charges dropped from boats that speed by. Versions for the Atari 2600 and VIC-20 were released by Tigervision in 1983.
1944: The Loop Master is a vertical scrolling shooter scrolling arcade game made by Capcom in 2000 that uses a horizontal 4:3 screen. Unlike previous games, the programming for this arcade was done by a separate company called 8ing/Raizing. The game is the fifth of a series of World War II vertical shooters made by Capcom, the 194X series. The game takes place in the heated battles of 1944 during the Second World War as two super ace pilots, P-38 Lightning and Mitsubishi A6M Zero are attempting to defeat an entire army. It is the sequel to 19XX: The War Against Destiny and uses the arcade cabinet CP System II.
Jackal, also distributed under the title of Top Gunner, is an overhead run and gun video game by Konami released for arcades in 1986. The player must maneuver an armed jeep in order to rescue prisoners of war (POWs) trapped in enemy territory.
Bank Panic is an arcade shooter game developed by Sanritsu Denki and released by Sega in 1984. Bally-Midway manufactured the game in the US. The player assumes the part of an Old West sheriff who must protect a bank and its customers from masked robbers.
Metal Slug is a Japanese multimedia franchise and run and gun video game series originally created by Nazca Corporation before merging with SNK in 1996 after the completion of the first game in the series. Spin-off games include a third-person shooter to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the series and a tower defense game for the mobile platform. Originally created for Neo-Geo arcade machines hardware (MVS) and the Neo-Geo home game consoles (AES) hardware, the original games have also been ported to other consoles and mobile platforms throughout the years, with several later games created for various other platforms. The games focus on the Peregrine Falcon Squad, a small group of soldiers who fight against a rebel army, aliens, zombies, mummies and various other forces intent on world domination.
Strikers 1945 III also known as Strikers 1999 (ストライカーズ1999), is a vertically scrolling shoot 'em up game developed and originally released by Psikyo in 1999 for the arcades. The game is a sequel to Strikers 1945 II, chronologically taking place 54 years after the first two games in the series.
Mars Matrix: Hyper Solid Shooting, or simply Mars Matrix, is a vertically scrolling shooter arcade game developed by Takumi and released in 2000. The game was published by Capcom and run on their CPS-2 arcade system board. Mars Matrix was later ported to the Dreamcast video game console in 2001. The arcade version uses a horizontally aligned monitor, despite being a vertically scrolling game.
Blue Max is a scrolling shooter written by Bob Polin for the Atari 8-bit family and published by Synapse Software in 1983. It was released for the Commodore 64 the same year. U.S. Gold published the Commodore 64 version in the UK in 1984 and ported the game to the ZX Spectrum. In 1987, Atari Corporation published Blue Max as a cartridge styled for the then-new Atari XEGS. The player controls a Sopwith Camel biplane during World War I, attempting to shoot down enemy planes and bomb targets on diagonally scrolling terrain. The game is named after the medal Pour le Mérite, informally known as Blue Max. Its theme song is "Rule, Britannia!".
Aero Fighters 3, known as Sonic Wings 3 in Japan and Europe, is a vertical-scrolling shoot 'em up arcade game released in 1995 by Video System. The Neo Geo AES version was not released in North America, but the Neo Geo MVS and Neo Geo CD versions were released in North America. The game was later released for Nintendo Switch in 2018 by the eventual copyright holder for the game, Hamster Corporation.
Air Duel is a vertically scrolling shooter game released for arcades by Irem in 1990. It is the first installment of the D.A.S Tetralogy.
Battle Bakraid is a vertical scrolling shoot 'em up arcade game by Eighting released in 1999. It is the spiritual successor to the 1996 arcade game Battle Garegga. Players control one of nine fighter jets and shoot enemies, collect power-ups, and defeat bosses to advance through the game.
Ketsui: Kizuna Jigoku Tachi is a vertical shoot 'em up arcade game by Cave. It was released in Japanese arcades in 2003. A Nintendo DS boss rush version was released on October 23, 2008 in Japan. It included a Superplay DVD featuring a world record scoring run by a top ranked player. The arcade game was ported to the Xbox 360 and released in 2010. A special version of Dodonpachi Daifukkatsu Black Label was released on the Xbox 360 in 2011, which is a crossover with Ketsui, featuring the ship, re-arranged music and scoring system from Ketsui on top of the Dodonpachi Daifukkatsu Black Label scoring system.
Triplane Turmoil is a sidescrolling dogfighting flying game for MS-DOS by Finnish developer Dodekaedron Software. The game is based on the 1984 MS-DOS game by David Clark, Sopwith. Originally released as shareware, in 2009 Dodekaedron placed the source code, documentation, images and sounds under the GPLv3 on SourceForge, hosted later on github.com. The community continued the support and ported the game via SDL to other platforms including Linux and Windows.
Action Force: International Heroes is a video game released by Virgin Games in 1987 for the ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64, and in 1988 for the Amstrad CPC. The game is set in the world of the Action Force toys by Hasbro. The ZX Spectrum version of the game differs notably from the Commodore and Amstrad versions.
Star Strike is a single-player video game, released by Mattel for its Intellivision video game system in 1981. The Intellivision's best-selling game in 1982, with over 800,000 copies sold, Star Strike was inspired by the attack on the Death Star in the 1977 film Star Wars. The player must drop bombs on alien weapons silos before Earth moves into range.
Gunblade NY is a light gun rail shooter developed by Sega for the Model 2 arcade machine and was released in 1995 in North America and 1996 in Japan. The game was re-released alongside its sequel, L.A. Machineguns: Rage of the Machines for the Wii in 2010 as part of the Sega Arcade Hits Pack.
Released in July 1981 by GDI, Inc. under license from Irem Corp.