Starglider 2 was met with pretty much universal acclaim when it was first released in 1988. And – as a 3D shooter – it broke new ground in a number of different areas.
Tag Archives: shoot em up
Armalyte, Atari ST
Armalyte is a 1991 conversion of the classic Commodore 64 shooter by Cyberdyne Systems. Actually, it’s not really a conversion – more of a ‘re-imagining‘. More accurately: a ruining…
Highway Encounter, Atari ST
This 1990 Atari ST conversion of the ZX Spectrum classic Highway Encounter I don’t think was ever commercially released, even though it was co-created by Costa Panayi, the guy who made the original.
Costa created some wonderful games for the Spectrum, and Highway Encounter was one of them. And it has been brilliantly converted to the ST (by Mark Haigh-Hutchinson, with graphics by Costa). This is no farmed-out-to-a-third-party hack job. This is the real thing.
Thrust, Atari ST
Thrust is a conversion of the late Jeremy Smith‘s classic BBC/Commodore 64 gravity game, and it is a very good one.
Wizball, Atari ST
Wizball is a really easy game to play. You just have to know how to play it…
Simulcra, Atari ST
Simulcra is a cool third-person 3D shooter set on a complex series of colourful courses. The game was developed by legendary coding team Graftgold and is one of their least well-known releases, but also one of their best.
Gyruss, Arcade
Sinistar, Arcade
People forget how early Sinistar was – 1983. Which was a hell of a year for old arcade shooters!
Of the first colour arcade shooters, the class of 1983 were definitely second or third generation – in terms of ideas, patterns, movement, challenge, and sophistication. Graphically they were becoming a great improvement over early shoot ’em ups.
Sinistar is a good example of this. The graphics are much more detailed and colourful than the old arcade shooters of 1980/81.
Tron, Arcade
The 1982 arcade version of Tron is well-remembered by many gamers. It was developed by ENCOM International and manufactured and distributed by Bally Midway.
It features a four-stage video-gaming challenge via some of the scenes from the famous film (ironically, about video games).
Xevious, Arcade
Namco‘s groundbreaking Xevious gave you a ship (the Solvalou) that could fire both a laser at flying targets and drop bombs on ground targets. Two fire buttons… Innovative in arcades in 1982.
The King of Grabs 