Horizontally-scrolling Shooters

This article is concerned with shoot 'em ups that feature horizontal screen-scrolling.

Horizontally-scrolling shooters can employ top-down, side-on, isometric, third-person or first-person perspectives. However, they most commonly employ side-on perspective.

The first auto-horizontal-scroller was Konami's Scramble of 1981 whereas Williams' Defender of 1981 was the first horizontal push-scroller and super-scroller.

Horizontally-scrolling shooters include:

Horizontally-scrolling shooters are contrasted with fixed-screen shoot 'em ups & vertically-scrolling shoot 'em ups.

The article is only concerned with horizontally-scrolling shoot 'em ups that appeared on Western computer game machines. The h-shooters are presented chronologically.

Protector Atari 8 bit 1981

Mike Potter coded the Defender-inspired Protector for Atari 8 bit in 1981. Protector features exacting controls and smooth variable-rate bi-directional horizontal scrolling. In terms of gameplay and audio-visuals Protector is the best shooter of 1981.

Choplifter! 1982 Apple II

Dan Gorlin's awesome Choplifter! was initially released on the Apple II in 1982 and ported to the Commodore 64 in 1983. Choplifter! features dual-playfield action and bi-directional parallax scrolling as well as sprite rotation and strafing.

In 1982-83 Choplifter! was one of the most technically advanced shoot 'em ups in terms of controls and graphics. The original Apple II version supports two-button analogue joystick for finer control of the chopper.

This is the Commodore 64 version (one-button digital joystick control):

The scrolling on both versions is not smooth, however.

Sea Dragon TRS-80 1982

Wayne Westmorland & Terry Gilman coded the famous Sea Dragon in 1982 for the TRS-80.

What made Sea Dragon interesting was the submarine's air supply, indicated by an on-screen gauge. The air supply is refilled by moving up to the surface, which sounds easy enough, but the problem is that some of the underwater caverns are quite long indeed, forcing the player to manage their life-support system efficiently (and search for "air pockets").

The sub can move in 8 directions while firing torpedoes horizontally across the screen at rising, tethered and stationary mines. The tethered mines can block off half of the vertical screen-space, which may already be reduced by terrain. Suffice it to say that the original TRS-80 Sea Dragon is extremely, extremely difficult even on Novice setting, let alone Expert.

Sea Dragon is a TRS-80-original shoot 'em up; that is, it was coded originally for the TRS-80 and subsequently ported to various other micros. Some ports were "enhanced" and/or featured decreased difficulty.

Commodore 64 version of 1984:

Defender IBM PC 1983

The legendary Williams Defender coinop of 1981 was ported to i808x by Atarisoft in 1983 in 4-color CGA 320x200. A bi-directional horizontally-scrolling shoot 'em up, Defender's 60 kbytes executable requires an IBM PC compatible with 128 kbytes RAM.

Defender supports 8-way movement and 3-button joystick or keyboard controls. It also supports the holding-down of two joystick buttons to execute the hyperspace jump.

Obvious audio-visual downgrade aside, the port's gameplay differs somewhat from the coinop as well. For example, the port features only one simultaneous abduction, no friendly fire and more generous point-rewards.

The variable-rate line-draw scrolling of the terrain is about as smooth as can be expected on i808x; that is, nowhere near the silky-smooth scrolling of the arcade-machine. That said, you can't ask for much more in 1983 on i808x.

Defender Commodore 64 (1983):

Protector 2 Commodore 64 1983

Ken Rose ported Mike Potter's Atari 8 bit Protector 2 of 1982 to the C64 in 1983. Protector 2 is a great Defender-like.

Scramble 64 Commodore 64 1983

Developed by Interceptor Software for the C64 in 1983, Scramble 64 is a clone of Konami's 1981 coinop, Scramble. And while its horizontal scrolling is not smooth the gameplay of the original has been faithfully replicated, and the sound effects are raw and realistic.

Guardian Commodore 64 1984

Steve Evan's Guardian was the first fast and busy Defender clone on the C64. Most impressive.

Hi-Tec's Guardian 2: Revenge of the Mutants of 1990 was solid as well, but it came out too late in the C64's life-cycle:

Dropzone Commodore 64 1984

Archer Maclean's Dropzone on 8-bit Atari and Commodore 64 left most early Defender ports and clones in the dust. Indeed, Dropzone is the one of the best Defender clones and one of the best super-scrollers in shoot 'em up history.

Moon Patrol Commodore 64 1984

Meh, Moon Patrol. Jump over a crater and land square on a tank round. Ho-hum.

Airwolf Commodore 64 1985

Airwolf is based on the TV series of 1984-87. Neil A. Bate's Commodore 64 multi-directional shooter of 1985 is more entertaining, though.

Sanxion Commodore 64 1986

Here we have Sanxion coded by Stavros Fasoulas of Thalamus. Sanxion is a variable-rate horizontal super-scroller with dual-scrolling viewports (side-on and overhead) and parallax scrolling. David Whittaker's sound effects and Rob Hubbard's music are also excellent.

Uridium Commodore 64 1986

Iridis Alpha Commodore 64 1986

Jeff Minter of Llamasoft coded the psychedelic Defender-like and super-scroller, Iridis Alpha, for the Commodore 64 in 1986. As with all Minter's games the playability is 10/10.

Delta Commodore 64 1987

Next we have the follow-up to Sanxion, Delta. Also coded by Stavros Fasoulas of Thalamus for the Commodore 64, Delta features many rotating and spiraling enemies, tanky enemy blobs and spawning minefields. King-tier.

Audio by Rob Hubbard.

Gradius 1987 Commodore 64

Konami's Gradius coinop of 1985 was ported to Commodore 64 in 1987 by Simon Pick. This king-tier port is fast, smooth and accurate. Overall, the speed is incredible for the C64.

Zynaps Commodore 64 1987

Zynaps is a busy, noisy and grueling horizontally-scrolling shooter designed and coded by Dominic Robinson and John Cumming for the Speccy and C64. There are also CPC and 16 bit versions. In Zynaps you can increase the thrust and rate-of-fire of your Scorpion. The Zynaps Weapons System includes Pulse Laser, Plasma Bombs, Homing Missiles and Seeker Missiles. Zynaps is one of the best side-on shooters on the C64.

Thunderbolt Commodore 64 1987

Thunderbolt of 1987 is a bi-directional horizontally-scrolling super-scroller coded by Gavin Raeburn for the C64. Solid.

Tiger Mission Commodore 64 1987

Coded by Thomas Larsen of Kele Line in 1987 for the C64, Tiger Mission is vertical-scroller with good controls, pacing and music. It takes a while for the gameplay to warm up -- be patient.

Wizball IBM PC 1987

Sensible Software ported their Commodore 64-original Wizball of 1987 to IBM PC in the same year. Wizball is a horizontally-scrolling shooter with an innovative ball-bounce mechanic: the Wizball bounces off the ground and off objects while shooting and collecting.

The 75 kbyte executable taps into about 200 kbytes of data.

However, the original C64 version is superior in terms of scrolling, graphics and audio.

Airwolf 2 Commodore 64 1987

The C64 version of Airwolf 2 was coded by Stuart A. Cook in 1987. Average.

Zamzara Commodore 64 1988

Released in 1988, Jukka Tapanimaki's Zamzara is one of the best run and gun games on the Commodore 64. Zamzara features precise controls, silky-smooth parallax scrolling and H.R Giger-like sprites and backdrops. In addition, the soundscape is solid.

StarRay Amiga 1988

Coded by Erik von Hesse & Logotron in 1988, StarRay was the first good Defender-like on the Amiga.

Uridium IBM PC 1988

Salamander Commodore 64 1988

Here we have Imagine Software's incredible 1988 Commodore 64 port of Konami's god-tier 1986 Salamander coinop.

Coded by Peter Baron, what we have here is smooth horizontal and vertical scrolling, high sprite-count (33 on-screen objects), super-fast sprite-shifting and slick sprite-scaling powered by a 6510 clocked at about 1 MHz, with 64 kbytes of RAM. And while there is some slowdown when the screen gets busy Salamander on the C64 was nevertheless one of the most impressive shooters of the 80s. The main thing is: I never lost a life due to slowdown.

The only problem is that C64 Salamander is too short and too easy.

The ZX Spectrum version coded by Andrew Glaister in 1988 is harder:

It is a pity, perhaps even a tragedy, that Salamander was not ported to IBM PC, ST, Amiga or Archimedes. Assuming they were coded correctly, Amiga and Archimedes versions of Salamander would not have suffered from slowdown.

IO: Into Oblivion Commodore 64 1988

Coded by Doug Hare of Kinetic Design in 1988 for the C64, IO: Into Oblivion is a difficult side-scrolling shooter that features some of the best graphics on the C64.

IO's graphics were drawn by Bob Stevenson, and its audio was composed by David Whittaker. IO's weapons system consits of smart bombs that can be shot for weapon upgrades and orbs that increase the ship's defense. IO Bosses:

Armalyte Commodore 64 1988

Cyberdyne's Armalyte of 1988 on the Commodore 64 is much better than the 16 bit versions. Indeed, in regards to gameplay, graphics and technics C64 Armalyte is one of the best shooters in this entire treatment range. Don't pass over this one.

Designed and coded by Dan Phillips, Armalyte is the sequel to C64 Delta.

Armalyte bosses:

Menace Amiga 1988: Destroy Planet Draconia

Developed by DMA Design in 1988, Menace (along with Xenon) was one of the first shoot 'em ups to clearly distinguish ST/Amiga graphics from C64 graphics. But just like Xenon Menace did not push the Amiga's chipset much at all.

Menace programmed by Dave Jones; audio by David Whittaker.

Menace Weapons Systems: Cannon, Laser, Outrider Droid (max 2), Speed Up, Force Field, Shield Recovery.

Menace was ported to the Commodore 64 in 1989 by Psyclapse:

Blood Money Amiga 1989: A Maelstrom of Sheer Destruction

Also developed by DMA Design, Bloody Money disappointed me in 1989 because it looked and played like an ST game. While Bloody Money features both horizontal and vertical scrolling, it is in the main a h-scroller.

Follow-up to Menace, Blood Money was programmed by Dave Jones; audio by David Whittaker (includes 250 kbytes of sound-sampling).

The C64 version of 1990 coded by Mike Dailly is solid.

Tim Ansell of Creative Assembly ported Blood Money to IBM PC in 1990, but neither scrolling nor sprite-shifting are smooth. Still, it's a solid conversion.

DMA Design would later develop Lemmings and found the Grand Theft Auto franchise.

Operation Wolf & Thunderbolt Amiga 1988-89: Green Berets

Taito's Operation Wolf light-gun coinop of 1987 was ported to ST and Amiga by Ocean France in 1988. Its 1988 sequel Operation Thunderbolt was subsequently ported to ST/Amiga by Ocean Software Ltd. in 1989. Both ports of the sprite-scaling scrollers are mouse or joystick controlled but only Thunderbolt allows for 2-player simultaneous action.

Phobia Commodore 64 1989

Programmed by Antony Crowther ("Ratt"), Phobia was released for Commodore 64 and ST/Amiga in 1989. However, I prefer the C64 version.

Retrograde Commodore 64 1989

Coded by John Rowlands and Rob Ellis of Thalamus for the C64 in 1989, Retrograde is an innovative combo of Defender-like and run and gun. Indeed, Retrograde is one of the best shoot 'em ups to appear on 8 bit micros. Beating every 16 bit shooter of 1989 except Battle Squadron, Retrograde is also a C64-exclusive.

Forgotten Worlds Amiga 1989

The 1989 ST and Amiga versions of Capcom's Forgotten Worlds coinop of 1988 should be forgotten; they are terrible ports by Arc Developments. Imagine wasting your pocket money on this garbage back in the day.

Displayed in EGA graphics mode, the 1991 IBM PC version by Arc Developments is just as forgettable:

Katakis Amiga 1990

Katakis / Denaris by Factor 5 is a solid R-Type clone converted in 1990 to Amiga from the C64 original of 1988. This is the kind of shoot 'em up where you wipe out hard-as-hell waves, yet get no power-up. And that is not a criticism. Just don't expect power-ups to get thrown about like confetti.

Katakis programmed by Holger Schmidt; audio by Chris Hülsbeck.

Katakis Commodore 64 original:

While they are both R-Type clones Katakis Amiga and Katakis C64 are very different; they are nothing alike in terms of waves, bosses and level layouts. In fact, the C64 version destroys the Amiga version in terms of gameplay, bang-for-buck and graphician-work.

Katakis bosses C64:

Silkworm Amiga 1989: Better than the Arcade Version

Silkworm scrolls horizontally and SWIV scrolls vertically, but both shoot 'em ups are raw and gritty, and both run at full frames (50 FPS).

Coded by Random Access in 1989, Silkworm on the Amiga is better than the Tecmo arcade version of 1988. Much better. What an awesome shooter.

Silkworm Commodore 64 version is also excellent:

SWIV Amiga 1991: Arcade-quality Amiga shoot 'em up

Sequel to Silkworm, SWIV is one of my fave shoot 'em ups. And when I replayed SWIV in 2024 it still amazed me. SWIV was coded for the Amiga by Random Access in 1991, but it was also ported to the C64, Atari ST and Acorn Archimedes. And while the ST port is no slouch the original Amiga version and Archimedes version are superior.

Silkworm and SWIV programmed by Ronald Pieket Weeserik and John Croudy of Random Access / The Sales Curve Ltd.

Commodore 64 SWIV:

Datastorm Amiga 1989: Blow 'em to Bits!

Shifting around 128 simultaneous objects while maintaining super-smooth scrolling, Datastorm is a king-tier Defender clone that came out on the Amiga in 1989. Datastorm is really well presented: it tells you everything you need to know about the game -- in-game.

Datastorm programmed by Søren Grønbech.

R-Type Amiga 1989: R-9 Fighter vs. Bydo Empire

Factor 5 did a good job of converting Irem's R-Type coinop of 1987 to the Amiga in 1989 (25 FPS). Note that Factor 5 also coded the three Amiga Turrican games (see next entry).

The R-Type soundtrack was converted by Chris Hülsbeck; R-Type coded by Holger Schmidt.

R-Type arcade version:

R-Type Commodore 64 version:

Bob Pape's R-Type conversion on the ZX Spectrum is technically notable. And that is quite an understatement. First of all, know one thought the Speccy could host R-Type. Most would have said that it was impossible. And second of all, this R-Type port is the greatest port of all-time.

R-Type Weapons System:

Beam-wave cannon (charges up)
Reflection Laser, Anti-aircraft Laser, Ground Laser, Homing Missiles
Extra Speed, Shield Orbs

Darius Amiga 1989

Softek's 1989 Amiga port of Taito's Darius coinop of 1987 is a joke: poor scrolling, poor sprite-shifting, poor collision detection and poor audio. It's called Darius+ but should be called Darius-1000.

X-Out Amiga 1990

Rainbow Arts' X-Out (1990) is a port of the Commodore 64 original of 1989 by Arc Developments. X-Out features customizable armadas and ships. It also runs at 50 FPS while shifting 50 objects and displaying 48 on-screen colors over 160 screens of graphics.

Project Deep Star: The Ultimate Underwater War-Machine:

The ST/Amiga versions of X-Out were coded by Heiko Schröder; audio by Chris Hülsbeck.

X-Out Weapons System:

Three types of Missile & Jumpbomb
Electric Claw, Claw-arm, Flame-thrower
Drone, Drone-collector, Teuton Laser, Shield
Up to three Satellites (moving or stationary)

The original Commodore 64 X-Out, coded by Jörg Prenzing:

Z-Out Amiga 1990: Destroy Alpha Centauri

Z-Out (1990) is an ST/Amiga-only sequel to X-Out. Z-Out only runs at 25 FPS but its vertical and horizontal parallax scrolling is still smooth. Supports 2-player coop and features 12 bosses.

Z-Out coded by Tobias Binsack and Uwe Bauer; audio by Chris Hülsbeck.

Z-Out Weapons System:

Beam Shot, Drones, Satellites
Bouncing Flames, Double-shot, Triple-shot
Fusion Bomb / Centrifugal Supercharger
Flame-thrower, Streaker
Blue-Scythe Satellite Rotation, Creep Bomb

Ziriax Amiga 1990

An Amiga-exclusive developed by The Whiz Kids in 1990, the Gradius-like Ziriax runs at 50 FPS. Ziriax features extremely fast-moving sprites and sprite-cloaking. Only veterans with good reflexes need apply because Ziriax is the second-hardest shoot 'em up in this history's treatment range.

Ziriax bosses:

Ziriax coded by Peter Verswyvelen.

Anarchy Amiga 1990: Fast, Frantic & Furious

Coded by Wayne Smithson in 1990 for ST/Amiga, Anarchy is a slick Defender clone with four-layer parallax scrolling, 80 on-screen objects, 48 on-screen colors and 450 separate screens of graphics.

Refresh rate can be toggled in-game between 50 and 60 Hz. On Amigas 60 Hz results in approximately 20% faster gameplay than 50 Hz ( = more difficult).

Note that Anarchy's Top-50 High-score table is saveable.

Anarchy Weapons System:

Blue L: Laser: Double laser-fire, Gold B: Boost: Automatic fire-power
Green C: Cannon, Gold S: Streaker, Blue D: Devastator
Gold T: Top-up Energy Shield, Green F: Force-field. Blue N: Nuke 'em Power

U.N. Squadron Amiga 1990

Tiertex's 1990 port of Capcom's U.N. Squadron coinop shows that you can faithfully translate original arcade assets and presentation to ST/Amiga, but then fail to faithfully replicate the arcade's controls, collision detection, scrolling and sprite-shifting, which are much more important.

Saint Dragon Amiga 1990

Saint Dragon of 1990 runs at 25 FPS, but plays smoothly. Ported from the Jaleco coinop of 1989 by Random Access / Sales Curve Ltd., this is one of the easier shoot 'em ups to play.

Part-dragon, Part-machine Cyborg Dragon:

Saint Dragon coded by John Croudy.

Dragon Breed Amiga 1990: King of Agamen vs. King of Darkness

Another easy "DragonLance"-type shoot 'em up, Irem's Dragon Breed coinop of 1989 was ported to ST/Amiga in 1990 by Arc Developments.

Dragon Breed coded by Tim Round.

P-47: Thunderbolt Commodore 64 1990

NMK's P-47: The Phantom Fighter coinop of 1988 was ported to the C64 by Michael Chilton of Source in 1990. The European home-computer versions are known as P-47: The Freedom Fighter and P-47: Thunderbolt. P-47 features good playability, parallax scrolling and raw and gritty visuals, but Silkworm of 1989 is better. Still, there are not many solid and semi-realistic Second World War shooters.

Defender 2 Amiga 1990

Llamasoft released Defender 2 for the Amiga in 1990. Coded by Jeff Minter aka Yak, Defender 2 includes Defender, Defender 2 and Stargate. A great release for the Amiga in 1990.

R-Type 2 Amiga 1991

Arc Developments faithfully ported Irem's R-Type 2 of 1989 to the Amiga in 1991.

R-Type 2 Weapons System:

Beam-wave cannon (charges up)
Air-to-ground Laser, Air-to-air Laser, Reflective Laser, Search Laser, Shot-gun Laser
Heat-seeking Missile, Air-to-ground Missile

Armalyte Amiga 1991: The Final Run (Delta 2)

A remake of the awesome C64 Armalyte, 1991's Armalyte: The Final Run by Arc Developments is notable for its extreme trial-and-error difficulty. You will be doing well to survive the first horizontal wave let alone the first vertical wave. In addition, collision detection is off. The music is good but the sound effects are awful. Overall, this is a 5/10 shooter at best.

Armalyte coded by Derrick Owens.

Apidya Amiga 1991

Developed by Kaiko / A.U.D.I.O.S. Apidya of 1991 is one of the best horizontally-scrolling shoot 'em ups on the Amiga. Perfect controls, the music is absolutely awesome and the graphics aren't too shabby either.

Apidya music composed by Chris Hülsbeck.

Apidya Weapons System:

Primary: Light-sword (converts enemies to flowers, which upgrades weapon levels)
Power Blast (charged light-sword)
Upgradeable: Spread Shot (3x light-swords), Lightning Bolt, Plasma Pulse
Speed-up, Bomb, Shield, Drone

The Oath Amiga 1991

From Attic Entertainment Software Ltd., The Oath of 1991 is another stylish scrolling shooter with parallax scrolling, 32 on-screen colors and digitized speech. 2-player simultaneous.

The Oath coded by Jonathan Small.

The Oath Weapons System (Pick-ups & Power-ups): Rocket Launcher, Grenade Thrower, Sonic Beam, Laser Beam, Plasma Beam, Rear Attack, A-Mace, Power Beam, Smart Bomb, Power-up, Speed-up, Shield, Shield Increase, 1-up.

Revenge of the Mutant Camels Amiga 1992

Revenge of the Mutant Camels was designed and coded by Jeff Minter of LlamaSoft in 1992. RotMC is a psychedelic side-scroller that shifts around a ton of sprites.

Catalypse Commodore 64 1992

As we enter 1992 it is important to note that the Commodore 64 shoot 'em up is still contending with 16 bit shoot 'em ups; not so much in audio-visuals, but certainly in the gameplay department (which is the most important thing).

Catalypse furnishes one example: it is a high-quality horizontally-scrolling shooter coded by Andrea Pompili of Genias. In the infographic below, the top-left image shows max firepower and the other images show the Catalypse bosses.

Catalypse was coded in CHAMP assembly language. Its backgrounds were drawn in the character set editor of the Shoot 'Em Up Construction Kit developed by Sensible Software in 1987. Music composed by Michael Tschögl.

Enforcer Commodore 64 1992

Enforcer: Fullmetal Megablaster is an exceedingly slick horizontally-scrolling shooter coded by Manfred Trenz aka The Master in 1992 for the Commodore 64. And Trenz is indeed a master of shoot 'em ups. Enforcer pushes the C64 sprite-count to the limit; its music is also king-tier. What an awesome shooter.

Enforcer bosses:

Agony Amiga 1992: Seeing is Believing

Developed by Art & Magic in 1992, Agony made IBM PC and Atari ST owners green with envy due to its haunting visuals and instrumentals. Agony is stamped with an Amiga seal: one could never mistake Agony for an ST or MS-DOS game. It is impossible.

Rather than just scrolling in unchanging parallax, Agony's battlefields feature backdrops of raging seas, cascading waterfalls and blazing bushfires.

Truth be told, if computer games can be said to have "a soul" this is one of them. This game is audio-visually supreme, practically artwork.

Agony features six worlds presented in full-screen 3-layer animated parallax scrolling, 3½ mbytes of graphics and up to 144 simultaneous on-screen colors. Audio-wise, Agony features 1½ mbytes of music and sound effects, and 17 different music tracks.

In addition, Agony features 50 different enemies and six end-level guardians.

However, Agony's gameplay does not match its audio-visuals. Thus, what Shadow of the Beast is to Amiga platformers Agony is to Amiga shoot 'em ups.

Project X Amiga 1992: Pulsating Blaster

Team 17's Project X of 1992 was also ported to MS-DOS. This is the original Amiga version. Project X is notable for its fast sprite-shifting, no. of sprites, smooth and fast parallax scrolling, digitized speech and hard-as-nails difficulty.

Coded in ASM-One assembler, Project X runs at 50 FPS in 32-color full PAL overscan display mode, which in 1992 was awesome.

Project X also features a saveable High-score table. In addition, every single aspect of Project X was developed on Amigas.

Project X Weapons System (Pick-ups & Power-ups):

Guns, Sideshot, Plasma, Homing Missile, Laser, Magma
Speed Up, Build Up, Stealth

Project X Special Edition 93 is a much easier version of Project X that was released for the whining plebs.

Walker Amiga 1993

After the likes of Menace, Blood Money and Lemmings, DMA Design would develop Walker in 1993. Walker is a side-scrolling mech shooter with simple left-right keyboard-controlled movement and on-screen mouse-controlled targeting via crosshairs that can also lock-on to targets.

As in FASA's BattleTech the Walker AG-9's cannon can overheat and its shield can be depleted.

Walker is notable for its innovative kb/m controls, gritty graphics and sampled sound effects and speech. However, its scrolling is "interval-based", horizontal-only and non-parallax. In addition, its weapons system is cannon-only. Like most of DMA Design's games, Walker is overrated. The Amiga was capable of so much more.

Disposable Hero Amiga 1993

Developed by Euphoria in 1993, Disposable Hero is an Amiga-exclusive horizontally-scrolling shoot 'em up notable for its extreme difficulty. Disposable Hero will humble most shoot 'em up veterans. And back in the day 90% of players would have been shot down by the very first projectile.

Awesome shoot 'em up.

Disposable Hero programmed by Mario van Zeist and Harald Holt.

Disposable Hero Weapons System: When collected, blueprints are added to the factory. In the factory, three spaceships can be upgraded based on the equipment assembled from the blueprints.

Uridium 2 Amiga 1993

Overkill Amiga 1993

Vision Software Inc.'s Overkill AGA of 1993 is another Defender clone. Overkill features silky-smooth 50 FPS screen-scrolling and sprite-shifting. The way one enters the next level is also inventive (via rotating galaxy-map).

Defender Amiga 1994

Giles F. McArdell of Ratsoft cloned Williams' Defender coinop of 1981 to Amiga in 1994.

Tubular Worlds IBM PC 1994

Developed by Creative Game Design in 1994 for MS-DOS and Amiga, Tubular Worlds is a slick multi-directional auto-scroller (primarily scrolls horizontally). Tubular Worlds features super-smooth screen-scrolling and sprite-shifting as well as big, multi-screen bosses.

Tubular Worlds programmed by Andreas Scholl.

Tubular Worlds Amiga 1994: Battle 16 Warlords

Neither the OCS/ECS or AGA versions of Tubular Worlds on the Amiga (1994) are as good as the MS-DOS version, but they are still excellent. Oddly, TW Amiga noticeably reduces vertical pixels by 30-odd during boss battles. In fact, the AGA version reduces them on some normal levels as well.

Stargunner IBM PC 1996

Stargunner by WizardWorks was impressive in 1996. Stargunner displays in 256-color VGA square-pixel 320x240 and requires an i80486, 2 megs of RAM and 256 KB vRAM. However, it is recommended to run Stargunner on Pentium 90 MHz, 16 megs of RAM and VESA 2.0 video card with 2 megs of vRAM.

Stargunner's graphics are prerendered; that is, models were constructed in a 3D program, rendered out as raw 2D images and then modified for game-engine employment. In Stargunner, this allows for smooth sprite rotations. Stargunner also features parallax scrolling at 60 FPS.

Stargunner programmed by Craig Allsop (Lead) and David Pevreal (Hardware).

Gradius Windows PC 1997

In the Gradius Deluxe Pack of 1997 Konami bundled ports of their Gradius (1985) and Gradius 2 (1988) coinops to Windows 95 PCs. These belated ports display in 256-color square-pixel SVGA 640x480 via DirectX 3.0 (DirectDraw & DirectSound).

Gradius Deluxe Pack requires a Pentium 90 MHz CPU, 8 megs of RAM, 1 meg of vRAM and 40 megs of HDD space, but 133 MHz, 16 megs of RAM and 2 megs of vRAM is recommended.

Nebula Fighter IBM PC 1997

Developed by Holodream Software and released as shareware in 1997, Nebula Fighter is a horizontally-scrolling shoot 'em up that displays in VGA square-pixel 320x240. Nebula Fighter features pre-rendered graphics, digitized sound effects and parallax scrolling.

Nebula Fighter requires a Cyrix 686 P150 or Pentium 90 MHz CPU and 8 megs of RAM at minimum, but it is recommended to run Nebula Fighter on Pentium 150 MHz with 16 megs of RAM and 1 meg of vRAM. Nebula Fighter supports joystick, mouse or keyboard controls.

Tiger's Bane Amiga 1997

Coded in AMOS by Seumas McNally of Longbow Digital Arts (LDA), the shareware Tiger's Bane is a bi-directional, horizontally-scrolling shoot 'em up inspired by the likes of Gunship 2000 and Desert Strike via its combo of multi-helicopter combat and combined-arms tactics.

Controls are accurate, the parallax scrolling and sprite-shifting is smooth, and the sprites are well-drawn and -animated. Presentation-wise, the drop-shadows, fancy screenwipes and effects evoke the Amiga's multi-media programs. In addition, an extensive Help system is included, and there are even mouse-over image-based pop-ups (e.g., mousing over text that describes an enemy unit causes an image of an enemy unit to pop up over the text).

Tiger's Bane supports keyboard, joystick and even twin-joystick control. Tiger's Bane Weapons System: Chaingun, Hydra Rocket, Hellfire, SideWinder, SideArms.

The only "problem" with Tiger's Bane is that it came out in 1997, post-prime Amiga.

T-Zer0 Amiga 1999

T-Zer0 AGA was developed by TraumaZero Team and released by ClickBOOM / PXL Computers Inc. in 1999. T-Zer0 features 50 FPS per-pixel multi-directional screen-scrolling and sprite-shifting.

Three primary weapons and six secondary weapons are available, along with three spaceships. There are several in-game bonuses. T-Zer0 also comes with a map editor and CD-quality trance tracks.

T-Zer0 requires an A1200 030 with 2 megs of Chip RAM and 8 megs of Fast RAM, but 060 Blizzard or Cyberstorm acceleration is recommended. T-Zer0 has an install size of 250 MB, 190 MB of which is given over to FMV-based cinematization -- what a waste of time and resources: who the hell gives a damn about FMVs in shoot 'em ups? Why not just make, I don't know, an even better shoot 'em up?

T-Zer0 Weapons System:

Primary Weapons: Laser, Front Plasma, Guns
Secondary Weapons: Homing Missile, Side Beam, Plama, Rear Plasma, Missiles, K-Missiles
Specials: Nuclear Blast, Stealth, Extra Life, Special Weapon, Hyperdrive, Inversion (of direction-input controls), Short Circuit
Bonuses: Shapes, Star, Gold Star, Gems

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Horizontally Scrolling Shoot 'em ups