Run & Gun Games: 1980-1996
Run and gun or run n gun computer games are shoot 'em ups in which players control a single unit that can move, aim and fire in four or eight directions on fixed-screen, flip-screen or scrolling playfields.
Most run and gun games revolve around the concept of a One Man Army going against all odds.
Run and gun games include:
- Berzerk-likes (maze-like)
- Robotron-likes (open-slather)
- Commando-likes (scrolling playfields)
This article is only concerned with run and gun games that appeared on Western computer game machines. The run and gun games are presented chronologically.
Wizard of Wor Commodore 64 1982
Paradroid Commodore 64 1985
Gauntlet Commodore 64 1986
Gremlin Graphics ported Atari Games' Gauntlet coinop of 1985 to the Commodore 64 in 1986. Coinop Gauntlet was designed by Ed Logg and programmed by Bob Flanagan whereas C64 Gauntlet was programmed by Bob Armour, drawn by Kevin Bulmer and composed by Ben Daglish.
C64 Gauntlet features 8-way scrolling, movement and firing over 512 dungeon stages. C64 Gauntlet screen-scrolling is smooth. C64 Gauntlet shifts up to 50 simultaneous sprites without dropping a single frame.
In Gauntlet players can assume the role of Thor the Warrior, Thyra the Valkyrie, Merlin the Wizard and Questor the Elf. Each character has pros and cons based on four stats: Armor, Ranged Damage, Melee Damage and Magic Damage. Each character starts with 2,000 points of Health.
C64 Gauntlet playfields are tile-based and presented in top-down plan view. The active drawspace consists of 16x10 tiles. The maze-like playfields of Gauntlet feature destructible wall blocks, doors, gates, trap tiles, transporters and exits.
Gauntlet enemies include ghosts, grunts, demons, lobbers, sorcerers and Death. Minion-monsters infinitely respawn until their generators are destroyed. Monsters and generators come in three strength-tiers.
Gauntlet power-ups include armor, magic power, increased RoF, increased ranged power, increased melee power and increased carrying capacity. Other pick-ups include food, cider, poisoned food, key, treasure and amulet.
C64 Gauntlet supports single-player or 2-player simultaneous play. C64 Gauntlet was published by U.S. Gold in the U.K. and Mindscape in the U.S.A.
Rambo Commodore 64 1986
Ikari Warriors Commodore 64 1986
Ikari Warriors IBM PC 1986
Exolon Commodore 64 1987
Nick Jones ported Exolon to the C64 in 1987 from Raffaele Cecco's original ZX Spectrum version of the same year. Flip-screen run and gun.
Gauntlet Atari ST 1987
Adventure Soft ported Atari Games' 32-color Gauntlet coinop of 1985 to the 16-color Atari ST in 1987. Atari ST Gauntlet was programmed by Graham E. Lilley and drawn by Teoman Irmak with assistance from Angus Irons and Simon Lucy.
Gauntlet sound was converted to the Atari ST by 2 Bit Systems Replay. Note how the Atari ST version of Gauntlet lacks the cool character selection screen that practically every other version of Gauntlet featured. In addition, the scrolling is choppy and the game slows down when the sprite-count increases.
Gauntlet 2 Commodore 64 1987
Gremlin Graphics ported Atari Games' Gauntlet 2 coinop of 1986 to the Commodore 64 in 1987. Coinop Gauntlet 2 was designed and programmed by Ed Logg and Bob Flanagan. C64 Gauntlet 2 was lead-programmed by Stu Gregg, drawn by Kevin Bulmer and composed by Ben Daglish.
In Gauntlet 2 players can assume the role of Thor the Warrior, Thyra the Valkyrie, Merlin the Wizard and Questor the Elf. Each character has pros and cons based on four stats: Armor, Ranged Damage, Melee Damage and Magic Damage.
Gauntlet 2 enemies include ghost, grunt, demon, lobber, sorcerer, super sorcerer, acid puddle, Death, The Dragon, The Thief, The Mugger and the It monster and the That monster. The Dragon, Thief and Mugger do not appear in the C64 version.
C64 Gauntlet 2 power-ups include armor, magic power, increased RoF, increased ranged power, increased melee power and increased carrying capacity. Other pick-ups include food, cider, poison cider, poison potion, key, treasure, amulet, invisibility, invulnerability, repulsiveness, transportability, 10x super shots and reflective shots.
C64 Gauntlet 2 features 8-way scrolling, movement and firing. The maze-like playfields of Gauntlet 2 feature destructible blocks, moveable blocks, magic walls, stun tiles, trap tiles, moving exits and force fields.
C64 Gauntlet 2 supports single-player or 2-player simultaneous play. C64 Gauntlet 2 was published by Mindscape in the U.S.A. and U.S. Gold in the U.K. and Europe.
Garrison Amiga 1987
Digital Dreams released Garrison for the Amiga 1987. Garrison is a Gauntlet clone that is much better than the Amiga Gauntlet ports. Amiga Garrison was programmed by Andreas Hommel, composed by Andreas Hommel and Pascal De Sapio, and drawn by Andreas Hommel, Ulrich Weltner and Orlando Petermann.
In Garrison players can assume the role of Agor Warrior, Merlin the Wizard, Valeria the Valkyrie, Golwyn the Elf and Thorin the Dwarf. Each character can increase six SHMAPF stats: Speed (rate of movement), Hand-2-hand (melee combat), magic power, armor (damage reduction), projectile-speed (rate of fire) and firepower (ranged combat).
Amiga Garrison enemies include guard, sorcerer, demon, Death, conjurer, ghost and amorph. Amiga Garrison pick-ups and power-ups include food, destroyable food, key, scroll, treasure, cross, magic shot, medicine, freeze and stat-boosting potion (SHMAPF).
Amiga Garrison features 8-way scrolling, movement and firing. Amiga Garrison features 128 time-limited stages each of which is 512 pixels in width and height. The stages are randomly drawn after the fourth stage. The maze-like playfields of Garrison feature destructible blocks, moving blocks, glue and traps.
Amiga Garrison supports single-player or 2-player simultaneous play. Published by Rainbow Arts, Amiga Garrison was distributed on 2x 3.5" 880K diskettes. Garrison 2: The Legend Continues was released in 1988. Garrison 2 features another 128 stages.
Garrison Commodore 64 1988
Digital Dreams released Garrison for the Commodore 64 in 1988. C64 Garrison was programmed by Jörn Galka, drawn by Markus Drechsel and composed by Ramiro Vaca.
C64 Garrison features 132 stages. The stages are randomly drawn after the fourth stage. C64 Garrison supports single-player or 2- or 3-player simultaneous play.
Ikari Warriors Commodore 64 1988
Hawkeye Commodore 64 1988
Alien Syndrome Commodore 64 1988
Gryzor Commodore 64 1988
Ocean Software ported Konami's Gryzor aka Contra coinop of 1988 to Commodore 64 in 1988. Gryzor weapons include Rapid-fire Rifle, Scatter Gun and Laser Gun. The Barrier confers invincibility. C64 Gryzor consists of six stages of run and gun action.
C64 Gryzor was programmed by Colin Porch and David Blake, drawn by Steve Wahid and Andrew Sleigh and composed by Jas C. Brooke.
RoboCop Commodore 64 1988
Data East's RoboCop coinop of 1988 was ported to Commodore 64 by Ocean Software in 1988. C64 RoboCop was one of the biggest computer games of the late 80s. C64 RoboCop is based on Paul Verhoeven's RoboCop movie of 1987.
Serve the public trust. Protect the innocent. Uphold the law. Yep, it's RoboCop. The biggest blockbuster computer game of the late 80s and early 90s; a game practically every gamer had played by 1989; a game that would rank in the U.K. charts for at least three years.
Part man. Part machine. All cop. RoboCop is set in a dystopian crime-ridden Detroit. In RoboCop players control a cop named Murphy after he has undergone his transformation into a cyborg. RoboCop is armed with a police-issued Auto-9 machine pistol, a modified Beretta 93R. In the time-limited run and gun stages the pistol can be powered-up to armor-piercing rounds and three-way fire by collecting power-up capsules.
RoboCop can move sideways, jump, crouch, punch in close-quarters and fire sideways, straight upward and diagonally upward and downward, but not directly downward. In addition, RoboCop can walk up and down staircases and ride in elevators. RoboCop can replenish health and time via capsule-collection.
- Stage 1 of C64 RoboCop consists of two run and gun levels separated by one first-person hostage-style level.
- Stage 2 of C64 RoboCop consists of a face-matching photofit level and two run and gun levels separated by the battle against ED-209.
- Stage 3 of C64 RoboCop consists of a run and gun level and a first-person level.
Two of the run and gun levels feature horizontal and vertical scrolling. C64 RoboCop features super-smooth scrolling. In the first-person levels crosshairs are moved across the playfield in eight directions for targeting purposes.
The C64 RoboCop sprite is well-animated in side-on, three-quarter and front/back angles. All in all, the sprite is animated in nine different angles. The pistol fires in seven different directions and features a rapid rate of fire, too.
Sound-wise, C64 RoboCop is toggleable between atmospheric audio (sound effects) and aural ambience (music).
C64 RoboCop stands as a god-tier port. If C64 RoboCop eschewed the photofit level and two hostage levels in favor of more detail and content in the run and gun levels, it would have been one of the best side-on run and gun games on the C64 (the coinop should not have featured first-person "shooting practice" levels either).
C64 RoboCop was produced by D.C. Ward, programmed by John Meegan, drawn by Steve Thomson and composed by Jonathan Dunn.
Data East's RoboCop coinop was lead-designed by Yoshiyuki Urushibara, programmed by Ryōji Minagawa and lead-drawn by Tomo Adachi.
RoboCop ZX Spectrum 1988
Ocean Software of the U.K. released RoboCop for ZX Spectrum in 1988. ZX Spectrum RoboCop was produced by Don Woods, programmed by Mike Lamb, drawn by Dawn Drake and composed by Jonathan Dunn.
ZX Spectrum RoboCop is an extremely high quality port; one of the best ports of all-time relative to hardware limitations. In ZX Spectrum RoboCop Ocean Software demonstrated a deep understanding of Speccy hardware capacities; this port oozes class.
ZX Spectrum RoboCop consists of nine independent levels. Stage drawspace dimensions are given in pixels:
- 3x horizontally-scrolling side-on stages (2x 2310x128 and 1x 540x128)
- 3x multidirectionally-scrolling side-on stages (786x362, 1282x202 and 506x284)
- 2x fixed-screen first-person stages and 1x mini-game stage (216x128)
- Face-matching photofit level
ZX Spectrum RoboCop displays in 8-color 256x192, but its total drawspace is 230x192 and its active drawspace is 216x130.
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.
Hard n Heavy Amiga 1989
Gauntlet 2 Amiga 1989
"Dementia" (Golden Axe) ported Atari Games' Gauntlet 2 coinop of 1986 to the Amiga in 1989. ST/Amiga Gauntlet 2 were programmed by Richard Costello and drawn by Kevin Bulmer.
In Gauntlet 2 players can assume the role of Thor the Warrior, Thyra the Valkyrie, Merlin the Wizard and Questor the Elf. Each character has pros and cons based on four stats: Armor, Ranged Damage, Melee Damage and Magic Damage.
Amiga Gauntlet 2 enemies include ghost, grunt, demon, lobber, sorcerer, super sorcerer, acid puddle, Death, The Dragon, The Thief, The Mugger and the It monster and the That monster. The Dragon, Thief and Mugger do not appear in the C64 version.
Amiga Gauntlet 2 power-ups include armor, magic power, increased RoF, increased ranged power, increased melee power and increased carrying capacity. Other pick-ups include food, cider, poison cider, poison potion, key, treasure, amulet, invisibility, invulnerability, repulsiveness, transportability, 10x super shots and reflective shots.
Amiga Gauntlet 2 features 8-way scrolling, movement and firing.
The maze-like playfields of Gauntlet 2 feature destructible blocks, moveable blocks, magic walls, stun tiles, trap tiles, moving exits and forcefields.
ST/Amiga Gauntlet 2 supports single-player or 2-player, 3-player or 4-player simultaneous play (via parallel port).
Amiga Gauntlet 2 was distributed on 1x 3.5" 880K diskette. ST/Amiga Gauntlet 2 were published by Mindscape in the U.S.A. and U.S. Gold in the U.K. and Europe.
Contra IBM PC 1988
John Siegesmund of Banana Development ported Konami's Contra coinop of 1986 to IBM PC in 1988. Contra is displayed in 4-color CGA or 16-color CGA+ 320x200. Choppy scrolling. The in-game setup menu is displayed in 640x400. 9 levels of action.
Cabal IBM PC 1989
Wesley Hildebrandt of Interactive Designs ported TAD Corporation's Cabal coinop of 1988 to IBM PC in 1989. Cabal is a 3rd-person, fixed-screen run and gun game that displays in 16-color EGA. Graphics by Jennie Lee, music by Scott Etherton.
Cabal Amiga 1989
TAD Corporation's Cabal coinop of 1988 was ported to ST/Amiga by Ocean Software Ltd. in 1989. Offering 2-player simulatenous action Cabal is basically a third-person Operation Wolf. And just like Operation Wolf and Thunderbolt, Cabal is nowhere near as fun to play as the coinop.
Cabal and the Op. Wolf ports were overrated back in the day. Put it this way: even if you bought all three you would still go to the arcades to play the real deal.
Cabal Commodore 64 1989
Robbie Tinman of Ocean Software ported TAD Corporation's Cabal coinop of 1988 to C64 in 1989.
Rambo 3 IBM PC 1989
Robocop IBM PC 1989
Data East's RoboCop coinop of 1988 was ported to IBM PC by FACS Entertainment Software Inc. in 1989.
Robocop Atari ST 1989
Ocean Software ported Data East's RoboCop coinop of 1988 to Atari ST and Amiga in 1989. ST/Amiga RoboCop was programmed, drawn and composed by Peter Johnson. ST/Amiga RoboCop consists of six stages.
The 16-bit (ST/Amiga) versions RoboCop of 1989 are not as impressive as the 8-bit versions (C64, CPC, Speccy) of RoboCop of 1988.
RoboCop 2 Amiga 1990
Special FX and Ocean Software released RoboCop 2 for the Amiga in December of 1990. Amiga RoboCop 2 consists of three main stages.
Amiga RoboCop was programmed by Ian Moran, composed by Keith Tinman and drawn by Colin Rushby and Karen Davies.
Deadlock Commodore 64 1990
Cyberdyne Systems of Armalyte fame were developing Deadlock for the Commodore 64 from 1988-1990, but Deadlock was never officially released in the end.
Deadlock would have been a 50 FPS run and gun game that featured super-smooth scrolling, articulated sprite animations and Impossible Mission-like mechanics.
Deadlock switchable weapons include smg, combat shotgun, laser and minigun. Deadlock was programmed by Dan Phillips, drawn by Robin Levy and composed by Martin Walker and Reyn Ouwehand.
Midnight Resistance Commodore 64 1990
Special FX / Ocean Software ported Data East's Midnight Resistance coinop of 1989 to C64 in 1990. This is another solid port with good gameplay, audio-visuals and presentation. Midnight Resistance is a run and gun game that scrolls both horizontally and vertically. It features 8-way movement and 8-way firing as well as climbing, crawling and jumping. You collect keys to unlock different weapons and specials.
C64 Midnight Resistance was programmed by Robbie Tinman, drawn by Ivan Davies and composed by Keith Tinman.
Navy SEALs Commodore 64 1990
Ocean Software released Navy SEALs for the Commodore 64 in 1990. C64 Navy SEALs was produced by D.C. Ward, programmed by John Meegan, drawn by Stephen Thomson and composed by Matthew Cannon. The Navy SEALs game is based on Lewis Teague's 1990 film of the same name.
In Navy SEALs players control Lieutenant Dale Hawkins as he goes up against Arab terrorists.
Hawkins can run sideways, fire his weapon sideways, jump, crouch, climb up and down chains/ladders, jump to and from chains/ladders, drop down from chains/ladders, grip the undersides of plaforms and move hand-over-hand across their undersides. Hawkins cannot jump-shoot, crouch-shoot or drop down through platforms to grip their undersides.
The Arab terrorists can fire their weapons sideways, directly upwards and downwards as well as diagonally upwards and downwards. Hawkins has more mobility but the terrorists can fire in more directions from superior vantage points.
The five scrolling, time-limited stages of Navy SEALs are are: Raid Habor, Obtain Vantage Point (Communications Tower), Storm Barracks, Free Hostages, Escape Complex and Withdrawal (from the streets of Beirut).
Navy SEALs weapons include Beretta sidearm, H&K submachine gun, rocket launcher and flamethrower. Hawkins can only fire upward when armed with the submachine gun (and only diagonally upward and only while running).
75 points are awarded for shooting a terrorist, 50 points for acquiring a weapon and 250 points for detonating a bomb or stinger missile. Bonus points are awarded at the end of each stage based on time remaining.
Turrican Commodore 64 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.
Super Contra IBM PC 1990
Eric Freytag of Distinctive Software Inc. ported Konami's Super Contra coinop of 1988 to IBM PC in 1990. Super Contra is displayed in 16-color EGA 320x200. Choppy scrolling. Graphics by DSI Art Team.
Midnight Resistance Amiga 1990
Special FX / Ocean Software 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 an old, dimly-lit computer game.
Robotz Atari ST 1990
Scott Williams of Project X coded Robotz for the Atari ST in 1990.
1991 Run and Gun Games
Alien Breed Amiga 1991
Gauntlet 3 Commodore 64 1991
U.S. Gold / Tengen released Gauntlet 3: The Final Quest for the Commodore 64 in 1991. Developed by Software Creations, C64 Gauntlet 3 was lead-programmed by Martin Howarth, drawn by Martin Holland and composed by Tim Follin and Geoff Follin.
Most notably, Gauntlet 3 eschews top-down perspective in favor of isometric perspective. However, C64 Gauntlet only scrolls in four directions. For example, when moving diagonally the screen steps up/down and left/right instead of scrolling diagonally.
In Gauntlet 3 players can assume the role of Thor the Warrior, Thyra the Valkyrie, Merlin the Wizard, Questor the Elf, Petras the Rockman, Dracolis the Lizardman, Blizzard the Iceman and Neptune the Merman. Each character has pros and cons based on four stats: Armor, Ranged Damage, Melee Damage and Magic Damage. Each character starts with 5,000 points of Health.
The Gauntlet 3 world consists of eight kingdoms: tree, mountain, swamp, volcanic, sea, magic, ice and the Lost City.
Gauntlet 3 enemies include ghost, poltergeist, emerald crawler, mud monster, dragon, worm, pixie, sharkman, sorcerer, killer plant, zombie, mummy, barbarian, crab, jellyfish, plague dog and Death.
Gauntlet 3 Amiga 1991
U.S. Gold / Tengen released Gauntlet 3: The Final Quest for the Amiga in 1991. Developed by Software Creations, Amiga Gauntlet 3 was lead-programmed by Mike Delves, composed by Tim Follin and drawn by Chris Collins and Haydn Dalton.
RoboCop 2 Commodore 64 1991
Ocean Software and Painting by Numbers released RoboCop 2 for the C64 in 1991. C64 RoboCop 2 was programmed by Mark Rogers and Chris Kerry, composed by Jonathan Dunn and drawn by Steven Kerry, Jon Beard and Dawn Drake.
Total Recall Commodore 64 1991
Ocean Software of the U.K. released Total Recall for the Commodore 64 in 1991. C64 Total Recall was produced by D.C. Ward, programmed by John Meegan, drawn by Stephen Thomson and composed by Jonathan Dunn.
Total Recall is based on Paul Verhoeven's 1990 film of the same name. In Total Recall players control Quaid.
Quaid can run sideways, jump sideways, crouch, fire his weapon sideways and punch open boxes to reveal power-ups. Quaid cannot jump straight upwards.
Hazards include spikes, forcefields and moving platforms. C64 Total Recall is marred by silly top-down driving segments.
Total Recall is toggleable between music or sound effects. The best part of C64 Total Recall is the music, which is excellent.
Alien 3 Commodore 64 1992
Probe Software released Alien 3 for the Commodore 64 in 1992. Alien 3 is a polished four-way scrolling run and gun game. C64 Alien 3 was programmed by Michael J. Archer, produced by Joe Bonar, drawn by Lee Ames and Lloyd Baker and composed by Andy Rodger.
In Alien 3 players assume the role of Ripley as she goes up against the xenomorphs. Alien 3 consists of 15 time-limited stages that include rescue, mayhem and guardian missions. Naturally, Ripley must blast her way through xenomorphs, destroy alien pods and save the captives. Ripley has access to a battery-powered radar screen that helps her track down the captives in the mining planet and penal colony, FIORINA 161.
Ripley can run sideways, jump, crouch, fire in six directions, slide down slopes, crawl through tunnels, climb up and down ladders, and fire upward and downward when positioned on ladders. She can jump up to ladders but she cannot drop off ladders midway.
Alien 3 weapons can be cycled through via space bar. Alien 3 weapons include pulse rifle, flame thrower, hand grenade and grenade launcher.
At the end of each stage bonus points are awarded based on captives rescued, time remaining and ammo remaining.
Revenge of the Mutant Camels Amiga 1992
Walker Amiga 1993
After the likes of 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.
Ruff n Tumble Amiga 1994
Wunderkind of the U.K. released Ruff n Tumble for the Amiga in 1994. Ruff n Tumble consists of four stages consisting of four rounds each. A boss must be bested at the end of each stage. Most of the rounds are 2560x1280/96 pixels in size.
In Ruff n Tumble players control Ruff Rodgers. Ruff can run left and right, jump, duck and fire his weapon, which can overheat. Ruff must collect a certain number of marbles in each round in order to open the exit door to the next round. Collectables include marble, magic marble, gold coin, time-limited special, weapon power-up, speed-up, heart, esther, extra ruff, smart bomb, party power, shield and key. Objects of interest include tinhead generator, switch, key switch, jump pad, turbo lifter, beam gate, restart point and exit door.
Ruff n Tumble Stages:
- The Fantasy Forest
- The Underground Mine
- The Tinhead Factory
- Doctor Destiny's Castle
Ruff n Tumble controls are good, the pixel art is excellent and the music is great, but its scrolling is sluggish or motion-blurred and there are no sound effects for jumping and landing or firing the standard weapon. In addition, there are no footstep sounds. However, each projectile hit can be discretely heard.
Published by Renegade, Ruff n Tumble was conceived and programmed by Jason Perkins, designed by Robin Levy and Jason Perkins, drawn by Robin Levy and composed by Jason Page.
cf.
- History of Shoot 'em Ups 1976-2000
- TRS-80 Shoot 'em ups Listed in Chronological Order
- Amiga Shoot 'em ups Listed in Chronological Order
- Commodore 64 Shoot 'em ups Listed in Chronological Order
- IBM PC Shoot 'em ups Listed in Chronological Order
- History of Home Computer Games
- History of 1990s Computer Games
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