Published by CRL Group in 1985, Tau Ceti was programmer Pete Cooke‘s breakthrough game. ‘Breakthrough’ in that it was just completely brilliant and ahead of its time, and ultimately: influential.
Tag Archives: shooting
Golden Hornet, PC
Golden Hornet, by Hijong Park, is an excellent ‘modern retro’-style, ‘twin stick’, helicopter-based shoot ’em up, set in a variety of different scrolling levels.
Choplifter, Apple II
Dan Gorlin‘s classic 2D action game, Choplifter, originated on the Apple II in 1982, courtesy of Brøderbund.
Ai Senshi Nicol, Famicom Disk System
Translating into English as “Love Warrior Nicol“, Ai Senshi Nicol is an obscure Konami shoot ’em up, released for the Famicom Disk System in 1987. It has, to date, never been released outside of Japan.
Otocky, Famicom Disk System
Otocky is a cute and colourful side-scrolling shooter with a unique and interesting take on the subject. It was developed by SEDIC for ASCII Corporation and first published in 1987.
You see, rather than firing bullets, you throw balls at enemies to destroy them. And you can throw the balls in eight directions, so in effect you can shoot at enemies behind you (and above and below you) too.
WorldRunner, Famicom Disk System
Known in its native Japan as Tobidase Daisakusen, in America as 3-D WorldRunner, and other territories as The 3-D Battles of WorldRunner – I’m sticking with the simpler and more familiar WorldRunner for this website.
WorldRunner is a third-person running and jumping game where you’re sprinting into the screen and must avoid hitting oncoming objects or falling into pits. It starts off easy but quickly gets very challenging. By stage two you’ll be tearing your hair out…
Druid, Famicom Disk System
Another weird one: a conversion of a British game to the Japan-only Famicom Disk System…
Druid was originally created by Electralyte Software for Firebird Software on the Commodore 64, and was later converted to the FDS by Jaleco in 1988.
The Mysterious Murasame Castle, Famicom Disk System
Known in its native Japan as Nazo no Murasame Jō, The Mysterious Murasame Castle is an action adventure released by Nintendo for the FDS in 1986.
It came not long after the first Zelda (also released on the Famicom Disk System) and uses many Zelda gameplay elements in its design, except with a ‘Feudal Japan’ style setting.
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Esper Dream, Famicom Disk System
Esper Dream is a superb real-time, combat-based Role-Playing Game for the Famicom Disk System. It was developed by Konami and released in Japan in 1987.
TwinBee, Arcade
Released into arcades in 1985, TwinBee is a cute, vertically-scrolling shooter that is much more challenging than it looks.
The King of Grabs 