Multi-directionally-scrolling Shooters

This article is concerned with shoot 'em ups that feature multi-directional screen-scrolling. Multi-directionally-scrolling shooters can employ top-down, side-on, isometric, third-person or first-person perspectives. However, they most commonly employ top-down perspective.

MDS-shooters combine vertical scrolling with horizontal scrolling in order to achieve either rigid 4-way scrolling or diagonal 8-way scrolling; that is, their origin is Konami's Scramble of 1981 and Namco's Xevious of 1982.

As a rule, multi-directional scrollers are not auto-scrollers. Instead, the player trucks or pushes the viewport around in four or eight directions: Defender with 4-way or 8-way scrolling. To be clear, some MDS-shooters do feature auto-MDS.

In this article, neither v-shooters that feature limited h-scrolling nor vice versa are regarded as MDS-shooters. Only shooters that give equal weight to 4- or 8-way scrolling are regarded as MDS-shooters. If you're not often trucking the screen around in four or eight directions, you're not playing an MDS-shooter.

Shoot 'em ups that switch between v-scrolling levels/stages and h-scrolling levels/stages are also not regarded as MDS-shooters.

MDS-shooters that feature smooth and variable-rate scrolling are super-scrollers.

The article is only concerned with MDS-shooters that appeared on Western computer game machines. The MDS-shooters are presented chronologically.

Starship Command BBC Micro 1983

Coded in 1983 for the BBC Micro in Mode 4, Peter Irvin's Starship Command is a top-down trucking Asteroids-like featuring 360° rotation, firing and ramming over a scrolling starfield. Nice.

Paradroid Commodore 64 1985

Thrust BBC Micro 1986

Jeremy C. Smith's Thrust on the BBC Micro was inspired by Atari's Gravitar coinop of 1982. Thrust would spawn two other microcomputer masterpieces: Oids and Zarch.

Commodore 64 version:

Gauntlet Commodore 64 1986

Atari Games' Gauntlet coinop of 1985 was ported to C64 by Bob Armour of Gremlin Graphics for US Gold in 1986. Gauntlet is an 8-way run n gun and hack n slash game that features smooth scrolling and a max of 50 on-screen sprites with no slowdown.

Gauntlet 2 was ported to the C64 by Stuart Gregg in 1987; the isometric Gauntlet 3 was ported to C64 by Martin Howarth in 1991.

Rambo Commodore 64 1986

Platinum Productions' Rambo: First Blood Part II on the Commodore 64 was impressive in 1986. A run and gun game, Rambo featured 8-way scrolling, movement and firing as well as six weapons, good music and 2-stage destructibility of trees and buildings. You can basically just flatten everything. And that's fun.

Hunter's Moon Commodore 64 1987

Martin Walker of Thalamus coded Hunter's Moon in 1987 for the C64. Hunter's Moon is multi-directional shooter perfection.

Garrison Amiga 1987

Digital Dreams released Garrison for the Amiga/C64 in 1987/88. Garrison is a Gauntlet clone that is much better than the Gauntlet ports. The Amiga version was programmed by Andreas C. Hommel whereas Jörn Galka handled the C64 conversion.

Oids Atari ST 1987

FTL's Oids on the Atari ST is a masterpiece. Released in 1987 Oids did not appear on the Amiga or MS-DOS within a relevant time-frame. Thus Oids was essentially an ST-exclusive back in the day, but there was a Mac version released in 1990.

Oids is synonymous with the ST.

Oids designed and programmed by Dan Hewitt.

Oids is a masterpiece in terms of controls, presentation and playability. And it ran on an affordable 8 MHz Atari 520 ST FM with 512 kbytes RAM.

Oids also came out at the perfect time in the ST's life-cycle.

The argument against Oids is that Oids was incremental on Thrust (BBC Micro, 1986), which was incremental on Gravitar (Atari Inc., 1982), which was a revolution on Asteroids (Atari Inc., 1979).

However, it is important to remember that Oids came out only one year after Thrust, yet Oids is exceedingly feature-packed. Thus, Oids was instrumental in showing how 16 bit micro > 8 bit micro.

It is also ironic that one of the worst micros for scrolling hosted one of the very best scrolling shoot 'em ups. No one bought an ST for arcade-action scrollers. Overall, the ST was a technical downgrade even on the C64; the ST even had worse audio than the C64. Oids should have been developed for the C64 and/or the Amiga, not the ST.

I would even go so far as to say that the ST did not deserve Oids; it was not the right micro for Oids.

Alien Syndrome Commodore 64 1988

Tim Rogers of SEGA Enterprises Ltd. ported Sega's Alien Syndrome coinop of 1987 to C64 in 1988.

Thrust Atari ST 1988

In 1988 Thrust was ported to the Atari ST by Silverbird Software from the 1986 BBC Micro original. It is notable that neither Thrust nor Oids were ported to the Amiga or IBM PC.

Alien Syndrome IBM PC 1989

HSP of SEGA Enterprises Ltd. ported Sega's Alien Syndrome coinop of 1987 to IBM PC MS-DOS in 1989. The port is coded well and displayed in EGA graphics mode. Audio-visuals by Tahir Rashid.

Midnight Resistance Amiga 1990

Special FX Ltd. ported Data East's Midnight Resistance run and gun coinop of 1989 to ST/Amiga in 1990. Midnight Resistance turned out to be one of the few decent ports of shooter coinops to 16 bit micros. However, the ST version was much brighter and clearer than the dimmed Amiga version. But the ST version employed awful "catch-up" scrolling and lacked in-game music. Here is the Amiga version with the WHDLoad brightness fix:

While the (fixed) Amiga version is a solid port of the original, Midnight Resistance on the Amiga could have been much, much better. And the WHDLoad fix basically saves the port's legacy because no one is going to play a 34 year-old dimly-lit computer game in 2024.

Commodore 64 version (1990):

The Killing Game Show Amiga 1990

Coded by Martyn Chudley of Raising Hell Software in 1990, The Killing Game Show is a slick multi-directional run and gun shooter that features climbing, jumping and rising water levels. The rising water even reflects the action. The Killing Game Show has good controls, presentation and audio-visuals on both ST and Amiga platforms. The Killing Game Show was drawn on the ST and coded on DevPac 68k assembler on the ST.

Amnios Amiga 1991

Psygnosis and Flying Chicken Software released Amnios as an Amiga-exclusive in 1991. Amnios is a multi-directionally-scrolling shooter that employs the Amiga extra halfbrite graphics mode for 64 on-screen colors (EHB mode). Amnios features some of the best audio on the Amiga.

The object of Amnios is to destroy a certain percentage of planet organs followed by a boss. Or rescue a certain number of humanoids. There are 10 surfaces to blast across.

Amnios was programmed by Paul Frewin, drawn and animated by Pete Lyon and composed by Tim Wright and Lee Wright.

Turrican Games Amiga 1990

Alien Breed Amiga 1991

Duke Nukem IBM PC 1991

Apogee Software's Duke Nukem was coded by Todd Replogle for IBM PC in 1991. Duke Nukem is a side-on run and gun game that scrolls both hoziontally and vertically in 8x8 blocks (as opposed to smooth per-pixel scrolling). Suffice it to say that the scrolling was awful, even in 1991 (the Amiga was hosting shooters with 50 FPS per-pixel scrolling in 1987; the C64 in 1985).

However, Duke Nukem was excellently presented and pretty playable in 1991. Movement modes include firing, jumping and swinging from platforms. There are also teleporters, a grappling hook and conveyor belts.

Duke Nukem's 1 meg of graphics displays in 16-color EGA 320x200. Duke Nukem also features a dual-scrolling playfield and 360° sprite rotation.

Duke Nukem was originally spelled Duke Nukum.

Duke Nukem 2 IBM PC 1993

Two years later, and now even when coding to the VGA chipset, the scrolling and sprite-shifting of Duke Nukem 2 is still not smooth, yet super-smooth 2D VGA games existed in 1991. That said, Duke Nukem 2 is still a well-presented arcade-action game like its predecessor, but more playable as well due to Duke's increased manoeuvrability.

Zone 66 IBM PC 1993: The 32-bit Arcade Game

Zone 66 and Major Stryker of 1993 feature scrolling that is passable but not ultra-smooth.

A labor of love, Zone 66 by Renaissance is a multi-directional scroller that displays in VGA 320x200 and requires a 386, 2 megs of RAM and MS-DOS 3.0. In terms of features and design Zone 66 was impressive for its time.

The objective of each of the eight campaigns is to destroy all air, ground and naval enemy targets using a fighter jet equipped with gatling gun, missiles, lasers and bombs. There are also two tactical maneuvers to employ: shadow mode (cloak) and escape mode (extra speed).

Zone 66 programmed by Thomas Pytel.

Desert Strike IBM PC 1994: Apache AH-64 Gunship

Electronic Arts' Desert Strike: Return to the Gulf (1994) features multi-directional scrolling of an isometric playing field. In addition to its momentum mechanic (toggleable with F4), Desert Strike features sprite rotation, strafing, and sprite drop-shadows. Its sequel 1995 Jungle Strike was more of the same.

Both Desert Strike and Jungle Strike display in VGA 320x200 and require i808386 and 4 megs of RAM (544 kbytes base memory).

The Chaos Engine Amiga 1993

Cannon Fodder Amiga 1993

Sensible Software's Cannon Fodder is a mouse-driven point-and-click run and gun game originally coded for the Amiga. Cannon Fodder employs a modified engine of Sensible Software's English Football Computer Games.

As one the highlights of the Amiga-games catalogue Cannon Fodder features smooth scrolling, precise controls, great graphics and excellent music and sound effects.

Cannon Fodder was designed by Jonathan "Jops" Hare and coded by Jools Jameson. Its graphics were drawn by Stoo Cambridge and its audio was assembled by Richard Joseph and Allister Brimble.

Cannon Fodder was ported to ST, MS-DOS and Archimedes. Offering more of the same, Cannon Fodder 2 was released in 1994 on Amiga and MS-DOS only.

Blastar Amiga 1993: Sheer Exhilaration & Firepower

Core Design coded the multi-directional Blastar in 1993 for the Amiga. Blastar features smooth 8-way scrolling and sprite rotation, big bosses and an upgradeable weapons system. The player's spaceship is rotatated à la Stardust (see above), but Blastar also scrolls the playfield in the direction the spaceship is heading.

Blastar coded by Tim Swann.

Ruff n Tumble Amiga 1994

Wunderkind's Ruff n Tumble of 1994 is a prime example of a poorly designed and coded run n gun game on the Amiga. Yes, the pixel art is excellent but who cares when the scrolling and controls are sluggish? Even the sound is poorly employed: there are no gunfire sound effects for the standard weapon and no footstep, jumping or landing sound effects. Moreover, the music is annoying. And when you disable the music the lifeless soundscape is laid bare. Overall, Ruff n Tumble would be a terrible Amiga game if it came out in 1990, let alone 1994; it shows no mastery of Amiga hardware; such a waste of good graphics.

Abuse IBM PC 1996

Seek and Destroy IBM PC 1996

Developed by Vision Software, Seek and Destroy (1996) is a multi-directionally trucking pseudo-3D shoot 'em up displayed in VGA square-pixel 320x240. Coded for MS-DOS 5.0 Seek and Destroy features 360 degree screen rotation of a 3D playing field; its sprites rotate independently (as in Doom). Seek and Destroy also features helicopter strafing and tank turret rotation.

Involving the loading of seven on-board vehicle banks/bays, Seek & Destroy has one of the best weapons systems in shoot 'em up history:

Chain gun: Single stream, Dual stream, Dual stream swinging-arc.
Rockets (Chopper only): Dual rockets, Triple-fire rocket spread, Four Side rockets.
Air-to-Ground Ballistic (Chopper only): Non-locking rocket, Lock-on single rocket, Lock-on twin rockets.
Air-to-Air Missiles (Chopper only)
Napalm (Chopper only): Single stream, triple stream, multi-stream star-shaped napalm bomb
Air Strike: Low, mid and high impact air strike.
Shells (Tank only): Single shell, Rapid-fire, Dual shells.
Flame Thrower (Tank only): Single stream of napalm, long-range stream of napalm, Dual-stream long-range napalm.
Special Weapons: Mega Missile (Chopper only), Super Napalm (Chopper only), Bomb (Chopper only), Mine (Tank only), Power Shell (Tank only), Ground to Air (Tank only).

It is recommended to run Seek & Destroy on i80486/DX2-66 MHz CPUs with 8 megs of RAM and 1 meg vRAM. Seek and Destroy requires 550 kbytes conventional RAM and 2½ megs other RAM at minimum.

Explosion, terrain and overlay graphics detail is configurable.

Programmed by Aaron Koolen, Seek and Destroy came out on the Amiga in 1993, three years before the MS-DOS version. However, the MS-DOS version is far superior (as it should be, coming out three years later).

Axia IBM PC 1998

Dungeon Dwellers Design released Axia for IBM PC MS-DOS in 1998. An Asteroids-like, Axia was designed and coded by Jason Pimble. Cash is accumulated and a store can be accessed per five levels completed. Weapons include Cannon, Laser, Missile, Drone and Booster. Displays in 256-color VGA 640x400. Supports keyboard control or 4-button analogue/digital joystick.

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Multi directionally scrolling Shoot 'em ups (MDS Shooters)