Fortress on the BBC Micro is a bland and overly-difficult Zaxxon clone written by Matthew Newman and first published by Pace in 1983.
Tag Archives: shoot em up
Deathchase XE, Atari 8-bit
Based on the classic 1983 ZX Spectrum game by Mervyn Escourt, Deathchase XE is an Atari 8-bit remake first released in 2013. It is a first-person bike shooting game where the aim is to speed through a forest full of trees, shooting enemy bikers, helicopters and tanks, while at the same time avoiding collisions with arboreal obstacles that come zooming towards you.
Demon Front, Arcade
Demon Front is a 2002 arcade game developed and manufactured by Taiwanese company International Games System. It is a scrolling run-and-gun shooter that is basically a shameless clone of Metal Slug, but with a few unique ideas of its own.
You can play either single player or two player simultaneous and can choose between four different characters at the start of the game. There are three different buttons on the arcade cabinet – shoot, jump, and shield – and the basic idea is to run left to right, blasting everything that gets in your way.
Microcosm, Amiga CD32
Microcosm was much-hyped upon release in 1993, but in essence is a very limited ‘rail shooter’ set inside a human body – with pre-rendered video sequences used to depict the third-person viewpoint.
The game was originally developed by Psygnosis for the FM Towns, with some investment from Fujitsu, and was later ported to MS-DOS, the Sega Mega-CD, the 3DO, and the Amiga CD32.
Dark Chambers, Atari 7800
Dark Chambers is a one or two-player maze/action game that was directly influenced by Dandy, in that it was originally written by John Howard Palevich – the creator Dandy – to further expand (or in this case: simplify) the concept of a multiplayer fantasy action game.
Carnival, Arcade
The classic 1980 arcade game, Carnival, was developed by Gremlin Industries (not to be confused with Gremlin Graphics) – an American company – and manufactured by Sega in 1980. It’s a funfair-themed game where the aim is to shoot moving targets while conserving your limited supply of ammunition for as long as possible.
Amid Evil, PC
Amid Evil is a first-person, single-player fantasy shooter/action game developed by Indefatigable and published by New Blood Interactive in 2019. The game started life as an unfinished Doom mod in 1997 and later grew into Amid Evil when co-creators and childhood friends Leon Zawada and Simon Rance formed their own company, with Amid Evil being their first project.
Cybernoid II: The Revenge, ZX Spectrum
The sequel to Raffaele Cecco‘s 1987 Spectrum hit Cybernoid is more of the same devilishly difficult flick-screen shooting fun.
Hexen II, PC
Hexen: Beyond Heretic, PC
Hexen is the 1995 MS-DOS-based sequel to Heretic and is another fantasy-themed first-person shooter utilising the Doom engine. Or at least: a modified version of the Doom engine. It was again developed by Raven Software and published by id Software, and John Romero once again acted as producer of the game.
The King of Grabs 