Moon Patrol is an early colour arcade shooter, released by Irem in 1982.
It was distinctive because you drove a vehicle, at the bottom of the screen, and had to jump over craters and obstacles, as well as shoot aliens in the sky. So you are keeping an eye on the road, while at the same time shooting enemies flying above you. This was a neat innovation at the time and earned Irem some respect.
Sega‘s Zaxxon is an early arcade shooter that broke the mould. It was first released in 1982.
Namco‘s Galaga – the sequel to Galaxian – came out in 1981 and was an immediate hit with gamers.
Gone were the days of Space Invaders and rigid attack patterns – the baddies in Galaga danced around the screen; made circles, and flew around in distinct and fluid attack patterns. It was new and it was revolutionary!
Moon Cresta was released by Nichibutsu in 1980 and was extremely popular in arcades.
It is another colourful, fixed-screen shooter, this time with a scrolling starfield to give the impression of movement.
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.
Space Invaders, owned and manufactured by Taito, is the best-selling video game and highest-grossing entertainment product of all time.
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.
Released into video game arcades in 1987, Irem‘s side-scrolling shoot ’em up, R-Type, is considered by many to be the best of its type (pun intended).
Known as “Be Ball” in its native Japan, Chew Man Fu is an excellent arcade-style puzzle game where the gameplay involves pushing and pulling coloured balls around a maze.
Namco‘s Mr. Driller first appeared in arcades in 1999, and this PlayStation version (pretty much the arcade version, plus a bunch of extras) came out in 2000.
The King of Grabs 