Classic arcade scrolling shoot-em-up's list

[The Eidolon]

I'm making a list of all the arcade scrolling shoot-em-up type games I

can find for a personal project. It's mostly finished, though I need to

fill in a few details on which games were released where and what

console ports exist. Anyway, for those who might be interested, I've

uploaded it to:

 

http://www.geocities.com/kienlung/scroll.htm

 

For the games I haven't seen personally, I often don't know if they

were a US or Japan release or both. Any help sorting these out,

or with games I may have missed, would be greatly appreciated.

 

--The Eidolon

[TheSmirk]

well done list! Maybe you came across this one but theres a horizontal shmup that I played around the early 90's that was very "defender-ish" but the kicker was it was simultaneously two player, where the two ships could act independantly or could join where one player is the pilot and the other is the gunner.....does it ring a bell? I can't remember the name!!!

[Happy_Dude]

Bookmarked Nice list.

I'll be refering to it, when I finish my current project, for somthing else to port

[intvgene]

well done list! Maybe you came across this one but theres a horizontal shmup that I played around the early 90's that was very "defender-ish" but the kicker was it was simultaneously two player, where the two ships could act independantly or could join where one player is the pilot and the other is the gunner.....does it ring a bell? I can't remember the name!!!

 

That game was probably Midway's Strike Force.. awesome game, but needs to go on the list. I'll look over the list later, and try and help you with the ports to Japan a bit.

 

EDIT: Just a quick glance, and I notice these additions:

 

Zaxxon was ported on the Atari 2600, INTV, Coleco, Sega SG, MSX, C64, etc.

Super Cobra came out on the INTV.

 

The Japanese MSX1 also had these ports: Twinbee, Time Pilot, Super Cobra, Star Force, Star Blazer, Sky Jaguar, Salamander, R-Type, Gradius, Gradius 2, Formation Z, Exerion, Choplifter, Bosconian, 1942...

 

The Japanese MSX2 had these ports: Scramble Formation, Fantasy Zone 2, and 1942.

 

The Sega SG-1000 had these: Star Jacker, Star Force, and Choplifter.

 

There are probably tons more that I'm missing, but it's a start.. there are also the DC and PS2 shooters in Japan that aren't on your list.. I just didn't know how recent you wanted to go. Anyway, nice work so far!

[The Eidolon]

Thanks for all the comments and information. I've added Strike Force

to the list and will incorporate Intvgene's new information when I get

the chance. I've also added a column to indicate whether the games

had a horizontal or vertical monitor orientation and a column with my

own personal 1 to 10 scale rating for those games I've actually played.

 

To avoid confusion, I've added a "last updated" label in the top left

corner so it will be clear when I've uploaded a more recent version.

 

Thanks again,

 

--The Eidolon

[TheSmirk]

That game was probably Midway's Strike Force.. awesome game, but needs to go on the list.

 

@IntvGene....Thanks! That is it! I googled around for some screenshots and thats the one....yeah that is a great game

[DeV0]

Awesome list

 

Twinbee & Aerofighter were ported to the NES.

 

Would you consider gunsmoke? its a scrolling shooter that moves ahead by itself. 4 versions, 3 are 1985, Us romset 2 is 1986

[DeV0]

Heres some i have at home.

 

Alpha mission - NES

Atomic Robo-Kid – amiga

Choplifter – sms, 7800, famicom

Cosmic Avenger – colecovision

Cotton Boomerang – Saturn

Darius – snes

Espial – 2600

Fantasy Zone – sms – pc engine.

Flying shark?? - amiga

Forgotten Worlds – amiga

Last Duel – amiga

Star Force – Famicom

R-Type – sms – snes

Raiden – snes

Sidewinder – NES

Silk Worm – amiga

SRD: Super Real Darwin – nes

Star Jacker – sc3000, sc1000

Stargate – 2600

Super Zaxxon – c64

Terra Cresta – c64

Time Pilot – 2600, colecovision? Intellivision?

Truxton – genesis, megadrive

UN Squadron / Area 88, snes , amiga

Xenon 2: Megablast – SMS

Xevious, 7800, NES

Zaxxon, colecovision

[The Eidolon]

Thanks for the updates. I've added them to the list and will upload

it shortly. Can you (DeV0) confirm sidewinder for the NES? I can't

find any other mention of it.

 

Just for kicks, I've sorted the list by date and found the candades

for the original "scrolling shooter":

 

1980

Defender

 

1981

800 Fathoms

Battle of Atlantis

Bosconian

Cosmic Avenger

Cosmos

Dambusters

Funky Fish

Mars

Mayday!!

Mirage

Moon Shuttle

Scramble

Snap Jack

Space Odyssey

Stargate

Super Cobra

The Percussor

 

Defender seems to be the oldest, but doesn't have quite typical gameplay

since it plays on a 2-way scrolling map. Of the 1981 games Scramble is

the oldest I know of...

 

--The Eidolon

[DeV0]

Thanks for the updates.  I've added them to the list and will upload  

it shortly.  Can you (DeV0) confirm sidewinder for the NES?  I can't

find any other mention of it.  ..

 

--The Eidolon

 

 

Yeah, i have 2 copies, 1 a standalone cart and the other on a multicart. Maybe theres a rom on the net? I'll scan the carts and get some screenies if i can find the rom. These i have on NES, havent found a famicom version yet. In fact i'll send you one for a trade or otherwise

[The Eidolon]

Well, my mania for cataloging aerial shoot-'em'ups continues. I've

made a few changes to the list. There is now a Playstation 1 section

with a list of all 62 scrolling shooters I could find for that system. The

arcade section now has 385 unique entries, but I'm still working on

finding which are Japanese or US releases. I'm up to the letter "G"

 

Next up will be SNES and GameCube, probably. (GameCube will

be a very short list!)

 

--The Eidolon

[ubersaurus]

Soukyugurentai I can personally confirm is on PS1, and is probably the best damn vertical shooter I've ever played. And that's including Zanac.

[video game addict]

Looks like a cool undertaking! Just a little note, while looking over the arcade list, the H/V is off on a few. If you're using KLOV, they reference the monitor's orientation, not the game itself. Most the time a vertically positioned monitor will have a vertical scrolling shooter, but with horizontal positioned monitors, they are not always hort shooters.

 

With SNK Neo Geo games, they Always used hort monitors, but games like ASO II & Ghost Pilots were still vertical scrolling shooters, just in Hort monitors.

 

Also 1944: The Loop Master was a vertically scrolling shooter, in a hort monitor.

 

I'm assuming at least that your H/V is referencing which way the game itself scrolls and not the position of the monitor. If you are going for the monitor orientation, games like Aero Fighters 2/3 & Strikers 1945 Plus would be in horizontal monitors.

 

But those should be the games orientation not the monitor, IMO that's what I thought you were going for, it just needs a little looking over, cuz right now it's confusing me.

[The Eidolon]

Actually I was referring to the monitor orientation, not the direction

of scrolling. Just in case anyone with an arcade cabinet ever wonders

which type of monitor a game requires. But, as you can see, my list

probably has a few errors yet. I use KLOV, screen shots, my own

memory and a few other sources to try and fill in the details, but I

may have a few oversights. Thanks for the tip on the NEO Geo's all

having horizontal monitors. (makes sense, I guess) I'll have to scan

through and check for errors.

 

--The Eidolon

 

PS GameCube section is added, but I only have about 5 entries!

[The Eidolon]

New sections have been added for:

 

Playstation 2

XBox

Dreamcast

 

Also I have included on the main page a list of various

links to shooter related sites which I found useful while

creating this list. As always, comments, suggestions and

info of games I have missed are welcome.

 

--The Eidolon

[ubersaurus]

You listed Rez for DC, but it isn't on your PS2 list (it came out in both US and Japan on PS2, but only in japan for DC), nor is panzer Dragoon Orta for Xbox(which is the same style of game as Rez).

 

In addition, R-type Final for PS2 came out in 2004 for the US, and I'm pretty sure the PS2 Anthology collection was a 2003 release(by activision, not konami).

 

Xyanide is a shooter announced for Xbox, no idea if it's a corridor shooter like Rez and Panzer Dragoon, or a 2d scroller, though.

[jpmaverick]

Nice list, a page which fits into this topic still exists (but needs an update ):

 

www.barrax-empire.de

 

Cheers

mav.