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.
Tag Archives: vertical scrolling
Bedlam, ZX Spectrum
Another classic ZX Spectrum game from Beam Software, Bedlam is a straightforward vertical-scroller, but done in an incredibly finessed manner.
Twinkle Star Sprites, Neo Geo
SNK‘s Twinkle Star Sprites was released for the Neo Geo in 1996 and is an interesting mix of vertically-scrolling shoot ’em up and head-to-head puzzle game. Yes, I know that sounds weird, and this game IS weird, but weird in all the right ways…
ESP Ra.De., Arcade
Japanese developer Cave made a name for itself in the mid 1990s with a series of manic vertically scrolling shooters, including ESP Ra.De. from 1998.
Paradroid ’90, Amiga
Mmmm. Paradroid ’90 is one of those “classic” games that should have been great, but unfortunately was a big, fat missed opportunity.
Its parent – the Commodore 64 classic Paradroid, by Andrew Braybrook – is a perfect example of simple-but-amazingly-compelling gameplay.
This remake pretty much loses everything that made the original great, in spite of original author Braybrook‘s involvement.
Commando, Arcade
Commando is a classic vertically-scrolling run-and-gun game, first released by Capcom into arcades in 1985.
Pastfinder, Commodore 64
David Lubar‘s relatively obscure 1984 classic, Pastfinder, is a weird vertically-scrolling shooter in which you control a spider-like craft that can crawl, shoot and jump, and you must explore a radioactive landscape picking up artefacts from a mysterious planet.
Alleykat, Commodore 64
Alleykat is a strange-but-enjoyable mix of vertical shooter and race game. Although – in this case – you ARE taking part in races, but not actually racing anyone.
APB, Arcade
Atari Games‘ 1987 arcade hit APB (All Points Bulletin) is a humorous, fun, overhead driving game where the object is to chase down and ‘catch’ perpetrators in the act of breaking the law, and eventually pulling over targets who have had APBs called on them.
Banshee, Amiga
Banshee, a vertically-scrolling shoot ’em up released by Core Design in 1994, is a great example of beautiful 2D graphics on the early 16-bit machines.
The King of Grabs 