The Atari 2600 version of Commando was programmed by Mike Reidel and first published by Activision in 1985. Considering the console’s limitations this is a surprisingly good conversion of the vertically-scrolling shooter.
Tag Archives: vertical scrolling
Commando, Atari ST
The Atari ST and Amiga conversions of Commando are more or less identical and play pretty much the same, because they were both developed by the same group of people, for publisher Elite Systems, and released in 1989.
Commando, Amiga
The 1989 Amiga version of Capcom‘s classic Commando was ported and published by Elite Systems, and it’s not too bad, although it’s definitely not perfect.
Raiden, Atari Jaguar
Possibly the only good vertically-scrolling shooter on the Atari Jaguar, Raiden is a conversion of the 1990 Tecmo arcade game, but with a horizontal screen instead of a vertical one. The game was ported to the Jaguar by British company Imagitech Design and published by Atari Corporation in 1994.
Commando, Atari 7800
Capcom‘s classic scrolling shoot ’em up, Commando, was converted to the Atari 7800 by Dwain Skinner of Sculptured Software and first published by Atari Corporation in 1989.
Commando, ZX Spectrum
The ZX Spectrum version of Capcom‘s Commando was programmed by Keith Burkhill and Nigel Alderton, with graphics by Karen Trueman and Rory Green. It was first published by Elite Systems in 1985.
Canyon Warrior, ZX Spectrum
Canyon Warrior is a vertically-scrolling shoot ’em up written by Ste Cork and published by Mastertronic in 1989. The game came out very late in the ZX Spectrum‘s life, which is probably why it’s technically quite impressive (for the Spectrum).
Ikari Warriors, MSX
The 1987 MSX2 version of the classic coin-op, Ikari Warriors, is arguably the best 8-bit conversion of this scrolling shooter around. It was converted by SNK themselves, so is about as authentic as an MSX fan could hope for. In fact: the producer of this port was Koji Obada, who designed the original arcade game.
RayForce, Arcade
Also known as Gunlock and Galactic Attack in some territories, and Layer Section in Japan, RayForce is a vertical screen bullet hell shooter released into arcades by Taito in 1994. And it is quite impressive, as arcade shooters go.
Light Force, ZX Spectrum
Light Force is one of the best vertically-scrolling shoot ’em ups on the ZX Spectrum and it was published by Faster Than Light in 1986. It was written by Greg Follis and Roy Carter – the same guys who wrote the classic Spectrum games Tir Na Nog, Dun Darach and Marsport for Gargoyle Games.
The game is a fairly straightforward – if very playable – shooter, with smooth-scrolling backgrounds that have destructible elements, but it is so well presented that it’s hard not to be impressed.
The King of Grabs 