Tag Archives: shooting

Platoon, Commodore 64

Developed and published by Ocean Software and licensed from the 1986 Oliver Stone film of the same name, Platoon on the Commodore 64 managed to win over gamers and critics, back in 1987 when it was first released, with its atmospheric and varied gameplay.

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Rex, ZX Spectrum

Rex is a very enjoyable platform shooter, created by Neil Harris, John Anderson, and Richard Allen and published by Martech in 1988. Some describe it as a ‘Metroidvania‘ type game, although it reminds me more of another Spectrum classic – Starquake. Or maybe a Monty Mole game, crossed with Cybernoid.

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Harrier Attack, ZX Spectrum

Written by Mike Richardson and released by Durell Software in 1983, Harrier Attack is a side-scrolling Scramble ‘tribute’, but with VTOL (Vertical Take-Off & Landing) military Harrier ‘jump jet’ aircraft instead of spaceships.

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Halls of the Things, Commodore 64

The Commodore 64 has a version of Design Design‘s classic Halls of the Things and it looks and plays very similarly to the original Spectrum version. Which is no bad thing, because this is a challenging and fun little action game.

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Descent, PC

Descent is a famous PC DOS shoot ’em up developed by Parallax Software and published by Interplay in 1995.

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Sunset Riders, Arcade

This 1991 arcade classic from Konami is a simultaneous four-player, horizontally-scrolling run-and-gun game with a colourful, cartoony, wild western theme.

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Yars’ Revenge, Atari 2600

Written by Howard Scott Warshaw and published by Atari, Inc. in 1982, Yars’ Revenge is one of those old video games that plays a lot better than it looks, and is much more subtle that you might think upon first inspection.

In fact, it took me decades to actually ‘click’ with the game and finally be bothered to learn how to play it properly.

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Colony 7, Arcade

Taito‘s American division developed this vertical screen base defence game in 1981. Colony 7 owes quite a bit to Missile Command, if the truth be known, and was also probably the very first video game to feature “rip-off” micro-transactions too…

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River Raid, Atari 2600

Written by Carol Shaw for Activision and published initially for the Atari 2600 in 1982, River Raid is an early vertically-scrolling shoot ’em up with simple graphics, challenging gameplay, and its own unique set of rules.

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