An early ZX Spectrum classic, Deathchase was first released by Micromega in 1983.
Although it doesn’t look like much (especially in stills), Deathchase was (and still is) an exhilarating game, and is something of a tribute to the speeder bike scenes in Return of the Jedi (which was released the same year as this, in 1983).
Sega‘s tremendous 1987 arcade hit, After Burner, used powerful sprite scaling technology in its cabinets back in the day, to create the mind-bogglingly fast on-screen visuals.
Atari‘s classic Star Wars arcade game took the gaming world by storm back in 1983.
It gave games-players a chance to pilot an X-Wing for the first time and wowed audiences with its superfast vector graphics and amazing digitised sound.
Developed by a team led by Yu Suzuki at Sega in 1985, Space Harrier is a super-fast third-person, flying-into-the-screen fantasy blasting game, originally housed inside a hydraulic cabinet in arcades. This would jerk around as you moved the control stick, giving you a feeling of movement as you played the game.
Jeff Minter‘s classic Iridis Alpha is a weird horizontal shoot ’em up first released in 1986 through Llamasoft and Hewson Consultants.
Archer MacLean‘s seminal Commodore 64 shooter, Dropzone is like a cross between Defender and, erm, Defender, but with more realistic graphics. And slightly different gameplay. But the principles are pretty much the same: super-fast, super-smooth, side-scrolling shooting. Avoid touching anything – or it’s instant death.
Jeff Minter’s 1994 remix of the classic arcade game Tempest is quite exciting on the Atari Jaguar. It features four different play modes, including Traditional, Plus, 2000, and Duel.
Dark Star, released in 1984 by Design Design, is a very underrated game, in my opinion.
Taito‘s Chase HQ is an intense arcade driving game where you chase down criminals and have to bash them into submission with your vehicle.
