The Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), nicknamed the "Star Wars program", was a proposed missile defense system intended to protect the United States from attack by ballistic strategic nuclear weapons. The concept was announced on March 23, 1983, by President Ronald Reagan, a vocal critic of the doctrine of mutually assured destruction (MAD), which he described as a "suicide pact". Reagan called upon American scientists and engineers to develop a system that would render nuclear weapons obsolete. Elements of the program reemerged in 2019 with the Space Development Agency (SDA).
Missile Command is a 1980 shoot 'em up arcade video game developed and published by Atari, Inc. and licensed to Sega for Japanese and European releases. It was designed by Dave Theurer, who also designed Atari's vector graphics game Tempest from the same year. The game was released during the Cold War, and the player uses a trackball to defend six cities from intercontinental ballistic missiles by launching anti-ballistic missiles from three bases.
Contra is a run and gun video game developed and published by Konami, originally developed as a coin-operated arcade video game in 1986 and released on February 20, 1987. A home version was released for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1988, along with ports for various home computer formats, including the MSX2. The arcade and computer versions were localized as Gryzor in Europe, and the NES version as Probotector in PAL regions.
Ikari Warriors, known as Ikari in Japan, is a vertically scrolling run and gun video game released for arcades by SNK in 1986. It was published in North America by Tradewest. At the time there were many Commando clones on the market. What distinguished Ikari Warriors were rotary joysticks and a two-player cooperative mode. The rotary joystick controls were in turn based on SNK's earlier TNK III (1985). Ikari was originally intended to be an official licensed adaptation of the film Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985), but SNK were initially unable to acquire the rights to the film.
Cabal is a 1988 arcade shooter video game originally developed by TAD Corporation and published in Japan by Taito, in North America by Fabtek and in Europe by Capcom. In the game, the player controls a commando, viewed from behind, trying to destroy various enemy military bases. The game was innovative for the era, but only a mild success in the arcades, and became better known for its various home conversions.
1943: The Battle of Midway is a 1987 vertically scrolling shooter arcade video game developed and published by Capcom.
Theatre Europe is a turn-based strategy video game developed and published by Personal Software Services (PSS). It was first released in the United Kingdom for the Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC and Atari 8-bit family home computers in 1985. It was later released in France by ERE Informatique in 1986, and was released in the United States by Datasoft later that year. A port for the Tatung Einstein was released in 1989, in the UK. It is the fifth installment of the Strategic Wargames series.
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.
S.D.I. is a 1986 Action-adventure game developed and published by Cinemaware. The game is set during the Cold War.
Midnight Resistance is a side-scrolling run and gun game produced by Data East and released in arcades in 1989. Midnight Resistance is set in a dystopian future where the player controls a member of a resistance movement who goes on a mission to rescue his kidnapped family from a drug kingpin.
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.
NAM-1975 is a war shooting gallery arcade video game developed and originally published by SNK on April 26, 1990. It was one of the launch titles for both the Neo Geo MVS (arcade) and Neo Geo AES (home) platforms, in addition to being the only title in the system that does not feature the Neo Geo boot screen in its attract mode, as well as one of the pack-in games for the AES.
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.
Slap Fight is a 1986 vertically scrolling shooter arcade video game developed by Toaplan and published by Taito. Set on the colonized fictional planet of Theron in the future, where an alien race led by Gaudy have invaded the human-controlled location, players assume the role of an Allied League of Cosmic Nations (ALCON) fighter pilot taking control of the SW475 space fighter craft in an effort to counterattack the invaders. Initially launched for the arcades, the game was later ported to other microcomputer and console platforms by various third-party developers, with each one featuring several changes or additions compared to the original release.
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 Lords is a video game released in arcades by Atari Games in 1992. It is a first-person perspective space combat video game.
The Seiddab Trilogy is a series of video games designed by Steve Turner for the ZX Spectrum and published by Hewson Consultants. It consists of 3D Space-Wars (1983), 3D Seiddab Attack (1984), and 3D Lunattack. All three games were later published together as The Seiddab Trilogy by Hewson for the Rotronics Wafadrive. The series name is derived from the word "baddies" being spelt in reverse.
Line of Fire is a first-person light gun shooter game developed by Sega and released for arcades in 1989. It was released with two arcade cabinet versions, a standard upright and a sit-down cockpit, both featuring two positional guns. The cockpit design allows the player(s) to sit down while playing the game, while having two-handed machine guns, controlled by a potentiometer-controlled gun alignment software system. The game follows a two-man commando unit as they try to escape from a terrorist facility after seizing a prototype weapon.
Resident Evil Survivor 2 – Code: Veronica is a light gun shooter video game developed and published by Capcom as part of the Resident Evil series. The arcade version was developed in conjunction with Namco for the arcade machines. The game was released for Sega NAOMI and PlayStation 2. It was released on the PlayStation 2 on November 8, 2001 in Japan and in Europe on March 22, 2002. Whilst the Playstation 2 release is a light gun shooter, the NAOMI arcade release features no lightgun technology whatsoever, instead deferring control of each player entirely to a three-axis joystick in the shape of a gun. The game is the second instalment in the Gun Survivor series and the sequel to Resident Evil Survivor. The game is adapted from Resident Evil – Code: Veronica and features enemies and characters from that game, and enemies from Resident Evil 2 and 3. It was followed by Dino Stalker which is a spin-off of Dino Crisis, and has no ties to Resident Evil.
Attack at EP-CYG-4 is a shoot 'em up video game created by Mike Edwards for the Atari 8-bit family and published by his company BRAM, Inc. in 1982. It allows two players to cooperatively control the action against a computer enemy, in a fashion similar to Synapse Software's Survivor, also released in 1982. EP-CYG-4 was the first of Edwards' game efforts, and its success led to the creation of Zombies, which was published by Electronic Arts as Realm of Impossibility.
