Space Invaders is a 1978 shoot 'em up arcade video game developed and released by Taito in Japan, and licensed to Midway Manufacturing for overseas distribution. Space Invaders was the first fixed shooter and set the template for the genre. The goal is to defeat wave after wave of descending aliens with a horizontally moving laser to earn as many points as possible.
The BallyAstrocade is a second-generation home video game console and simple computer system designed by a team at Midway, at that time the videogame division of Bally. It was originally announced as the "Bally Home Library Computer" in October 1977 and initially made available for mail order in December 1977. But due to production delays, the units were first released to stores in April 1978 and its branding changed to "Bally Professional Arcade". It was marketed only for a limited time before Bally decided to exit the market. The rights were later picked up by a third-party company, who re-released it and sold it until around 1984. The Astrocade is particularly notable for its very powerful graphics capabilities for the time of release, and for the difficulty in accessing those capabilities.
BurgerTime, originally released as Hamburger in Japan, is a 1982 arcade video game developed by Data East, initially for its DECO Cassette System. The player is chef Peter Pepper, who must walk over hamburger ingredients in a maze of platforms and ladders while avoiding anthropomorphic hot dogs, fried eggs, and pickles which are in pursuit.
Spy Hunter is a vehicular combat action game developed by Bally Midway and released for arcades in 1983. The game draws inspiration from the James Bond films and was originally supposed to carry the James Bond brand. The object of the game is to drive down roads in the technologically advanced "Interceptor" car and destroy various enemy vehicles with a variety of onboard weapons. Spy Hunter was produced in both sit-down and standard upright versions with the latter being more common. The game's controls consist of a steering wheel in the form of a futuristic aircraft-style yoke with several special-purpose buttons, a two-position stick shift, and a pedal used for acceleration.
Stargate is a side-scrolling shooter game released for arcades in 1981 by Williams Electronics. Created by Eugene Jarvis and Larry DeMar, it is a sequel to Defender which was released earlier in the year. It was the first of only three productions from Vid Kidz, an independent development house formed by Jarvis and DeMar. Some home ports of Stargate were renamed to Defender II for legal reasons.
Phoenix is a fixed shooter arcade video game released in December 1980 by Taito. It was then released in Europe, and then in the Americas by Centuri and Amstar Electronics in January 1981.
Hyper Dyne Side Arms (サイドアーム) is a horizontally scrolling shooter developed and released by Capcom as an arcade video game in 1986. The player takes control of a flying mecha fighter who must battle an alien army. Side Arms uses a two-directional attacking system similar to Capcom's previous shoot-'em-up Section Z.
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.
Gun Fight, known as Western Gun in Japan and Europe, is a 1975 multidirectional shooter arcade game designed by Tomohiro Nishikado, and released by Taito in Japan and Europe and by Midway in North America. Based around two Old West cowboys armed with revolvers and squaring off in a duel, it was the first video game to depict human-to-human combat. The Midway version was also the first video game to use a microprocessor instead of TTL. The game's concept was adapted from Sega's 1969 arcade electro-mechanical game Gun Fight.
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.
Journey is an arcade video game released by Bally Midway in 1983. Rock band Journey had enjoyed major success in the early 1980s, and Bally/Midway decided to ride this wave of popularity by creating an arcade game based on the group. Its release was intended to coincide with a US tour by the band.
Space Invaders Part II is a 1979 fixed shooter arcade game developed and published by Taito. In North America, it was distributed by Midway Games as Space Invaders Deluxe. It is the sequel to Space Invaders (1978). The player controls a laser base that must destroy formations of descending aliens, while avoiding their projectiles. New features have been added, such as aliens that split into two when shot, an increased high score limit with the player able to save their name as initials, and short cutscenes in-between stages. It runs on the Taito 8080 arcade system.
Star Trek: Strategic Operations Simulator is a space combat simulation arcade video game based on the original Star Trek television program and movie series, and released by Sega in 1983. Star Trek uses color vector graphics for both a 2D display and a 3D first-person perspective. The player controls the Starship Enterprise and must defend sectors from invading Klingon ships. The game includes synthesized speech
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.
Blockade is a monochrome arcade video game developed by Gremlin and released in November 1976. It was the first of what became known as "snake games". It was designed by Lane Hauck, Ago Kiss, and Bob Pecarero. In Japan, it was distributed by Taito in 1977 as "Barricade II".
Starship 1 is a first-person shooter space combat game developed and manufactured for arcades in 1977 by Atari, Inc. The game, which takes great inspiration from the then very popular television series Star Trek, contains the first known Easter egg in any arcade game. The arcade game was distributed in Japan by Namco in 1978, and it was ported to the Atari 2600 as Star Ship.
Car Wars is a video game for the TI-99/4A programmed by Jim Dramis and published by TI in 1981. Car Wars is a clone of the 1979 Sega/Gremlin arcade game Head On.
Space Lords is a video game released in arcades by Atari Games in 1992. It is a first-person perspective space combat video game.
Cosmic Avenger is a horizontally scrolling shooter developed by Universal Entertainment Corporation and released in arcades by Universal in July 1981. It is one of the first shooters with forced horizontal scrolling along with Konami's Scramble released earlier in the year. The final installment in Universal's Cosmic series, players take control of the Avenger space fighter and use bullets and bombs against enemy forces.
Cosmic Guerilla is a fixed shooter arcade video game developed by Universal and released 1979. A ZX Spectrum port was published by Crystal Computing in 1983.
