Defender is a horizontally scrolling shooter video game developed by Williams Electronics in 1980 and released for arcades in 1981. A side-scrolling shooter, the game is set on either an unnamed planet or city where the player must defeat waves of invading aliens while protecting astronauts. Development was led by Eugene Jarvis, a pinball programmer at Williams; Defender was Jarvis' first video game project and drew inspiration from Space Invaders and Asteroids. Defender was demonstrated in late 1980, before entering production in early 1981. It was distributed in Japan by Taito.
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 of home ports of Stargate were renamed to Defender II for legal reasons.
1943: The Battle of Midway is a 1987 vertically scrolling shooter arcade video game developed and published by Capcom.
Star Wars is a first-person rail shooter designed by Mike Hally and released as an arcade video game in 1983 by Atari, Inc. It uses 3D color vector graphics to simulate the assault on the Death Star from the 1977 film Star Wars. There are three connected gameplay sequences: combat against TIE fighters in space, flying across the surface of the Death Star, and the final trench run. The sequence repeats with added complications and the Death Star regenerating for each. The player's X-Wing fighter has a shield which only protects against damage a certain number of times, then the next hit ends the game. Speech synthesis emulates actors from the film.
Kabuki: Quantum Fighter is a 2D platform game developed by Human Entertainment and published by HAL Laboratory for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It was originally released on December 21, 1990, in Japan and was released in January 1991 for the North American market before being released in Europe on February 20, 1992.
Area 51 is a science fiction first-person shooter video game that was released in 2005. It was developed by Midway Studios Austin and published by Midway for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, and Microsoft Windows. A Nintendo GameCube version was also in development but was silently canceled. It is a loose remake of the 1995 light gun video game of the same name, and was followed in 2007 by the loosely related BlackSite: Area 51. The player controls Ethan Cole, a HAZMAT operative sent to the Area 51 base to assist in the cleanup of a mutagenic virus.
Legendary Wings is a fantasy-themed shoot-'em-up / platformer arcade video game released by Capcom in 1986. The player takes control of a young soldier equipped with magical wings who must save the world from a malfunctioning supercomputer. A home version for the Nintendo Entertainment System was released exclusively in North America in 1988. The original coin-op version is included in Capcom Classics Collection for PlayStation 2 and Xbox and in Capcom Classics Collection Remixed for PlayStation Portable.
Contra is a video game series produced by Konami composed primarily of run and gun-style shooting games. The series debuted in February 1987 with the Japanese coin-operated arcade game of the same name, which was has since spawned several sequels produced for various platforms.
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.
NebulasRay is a vertical-scrolling shooter arcade game developed and released by Namco in 1994. Players take control of a starship named the Fighting Ray through a series of levels in its mission to eradicate the universe of an intergalactic organization named the Master Force. It is noteworthy for its usage of pre-rendering, where 3D models are converted into 2D sprites, creating the illusion of a 3D world.
Defender 2000 is a side-scrolling shoot 'em up video game developed by Llamasoft and published by Atari Corporation for the Atari Jaguar on December 1995. Part of Atari Corp.'s 2000 series, it is a remake by Jeff Minter of Eugene Jarvis and Larry DeMar's 1981 arcade game Defender, which drew inspiration from Space Invaders and Asteroids.
Shienryū (紫炎龍) is a vertical scrolling shooter created by Warashi for the arcade which was released in 1997, later followed by a Sega Saturn console release in 1997 and PlayStation release in 1999 (JP) and 2002 (US).
Strike Gunner S.T.G (エス・ティー・ジー) is a vertically scrolling shooter video game released for arcades in 1991 by Tecmo. It was ported for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. The Super NES version was released in Europe under the title Super Strike Gunner and was published by Activision.
Strato Fighter, otherwise known as Raiga: Strato Fighter, is a 1991 video arcade game developed by Tecmo. It is a horizontally scrolling shooter in which two players may play simultaneously. The game sets players in the year 2135 on a mission to save the Earth from colony-based, militant alien invaders using the MB-OG Raiga.
Agent Orange is an action video game released by A&F Software in January 1987 for the Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, and ZX Spectrum.
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.
Scramble Spirits is a vertically scrolling shooter game released for the arcades by Sega in 1988. It was ported to the Master System the same year, then to other home consoles and computers in 1990.
Shadow World is a shoot 'em up for the Atari 8-bit family written by Mike Potter and published by Synapse Software in 1983. The players are in charge of defending their planet from an alien invasion. The game supports two players at once, splitting the screen vertically into two halves, and merging them on the fly when both players are in the same location.
Xenocide is a scrolling shooter for the Apple IIGS written by Pangea Software and published by Micro Revelations in 1989. An IBM PC compatible port using VGA graphics was developed by Manley & Associates and published in 1990. The box cover credits Brian Greenstone as the game's creator on both versions. Xenocide was the first commercially published game from Greenstone's company, Panega Software.
