Phoenix is another great vertical shoot ’em up from the golden age of video gaming. It was developed by Amstar Electronics of Arizona and manufactured by Centuri in 1980, and featured even more progressive gameplay than Space Invaders and Galaxian.
Tag Archives: 2D graphics
Flat, two-dimensional graphics, usually constructed of pixels. Not three-dimensional.
Galaxian, Arcade
Galaxian is an iconic video game from the golden age of gaming history.
In fact, Galaxian was Namco‘s response to Space Invaders. It came out in 1979 and enthralled gamers with its hypnotic but brutal gameplay. Which it still does, to this day.
Berzerk, Arcade
Released into arcades in 1980, Stern Electronics‘ Berzerk is a simple multi-directional shooter where the aim is to rack up as many points as possible by shooting robots in a maze.
Space Invaders, Arcade
Space Invaders, owned and manufactured by Taito, is the best-selling video game and highest-grossing entertainment product of all time.
Old Arcade Shooters Special
I have a fondness for old arcade shoot ’em ups. Particularly the first colour arcade shooters of the early Eighties. Just hearing the sound effects takes me back to my childhood… Playing Space Invaders at the local leisure centre. Galaxian at the video lending library. Phoenix at the seaside…
I’ve covered a few old arcade shooters already on here, but this ‘special’ is meant to fill in a few gaps. Particularly with regards to pioneering video games of the early ‘colour era’ of arcade machines.
Doom, PC
id Software‘s hit shooter, Doom, blew the roof off the gaming world when it was first released in 1993.
It was the first First-Person Shooter that moved really fast and smoothly, and gave you a real sense of ‘being there’ when you played it.
Bubble Bobble, Arcade
Taito‘s Bubble Bobble first came out in arcades in 1986. Its colourful, jolly, platform action proved a sensation among gamers, and it has since gone on to earn “legendary” status in the retro gaming community.
SimCity 2000, PC
The very first version of SimCity 2000 was released for Apple Macintosh by Maxis in 1993, followed soon after by a PC MS-DOS version.
Frogger Arcade, Commodore 64
This superb homebrew (unofficial) Frogger, by Hokuto Force, was published (for free of course) around Christmas 2015 for the Commodore 64.
Gods and Heroes, Commodore 64
Steve’s Bak‘s 1987 sequel to the hilarious Hercules, God and Heroes is just as difficult and frustrating as its predecessor. But just as much fun!
The King of Grabs 