Search String

Run and Gun Computer Games


Run & Gun Computer Games


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 One Man Army.

Run and gun games include Berzerk-likes (maze), Robotron-likes (open-slather) and Commando-likes (scrolling playfields).

Commando-likes include the likes of Contra, Rambo and RoboCop.

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.

Attack Force TRS-80 1980


Bill Hogue & Jeff Konyu of Big Five Software coded Attack Force in 1980 for the TRS-80. Attack Force is a run and gun shoot 'em up based on Exidy's Targ coinop of 1980. Attack Force features 4-way variable-rate movement and firing over block-grid mazes guarded by ramships and flagships.


Robot Attack TRS-80 1981


Bill Hogue & Jeff Konyu of Big Five Software coded Robot Attack in 1981 for the TRS-80. The difference between Robot Attack and Attack Force of 1980 is that in Robot Attack you have 8-way movement and firing (diagonal) instead of just 4-way. A clone of Stern Electronics' Berzerk of 1980, Robot Attack also features over one dozen speech-sounds and a text-scroller intro that evokes Star Wars.


Wizard of Wor Commodore 64 1982


Midway's Wizard of Wor coinop of 1981 was ported to the C64 in 1982 by Jeff Bruette for Commodore. A Berzerk-like (Stern Electronics, 1980), Wizard of Wor is a highly playable fixed-screen run n gun maze-shooter featuring 2-player coop, smooth sprite-shifting and 4-way movement and firing.


cf. Castle Wolfenstein Apple 2.

Berzerk Atari 8 Bit 1983


Berzerk was ported to Atari 8-bit line in 1983 by Carlos Smith & Mike Horowitz of Atari. It employs 8-way movement, 8-way fire and sampled speech aka speech synthesis.


Robotron 2084 IBM PC 1983


The Vids Kidz Robotron coinop of 1982 was ported to i808x by Atarisoft in 1983 in 4-color CGA 320x200. A multi-directional shoot 'em up, Robotron's 60 kbytes executable requires an IBM PC compatible with 128 kbytes RAM.


Robotron features 8-way movement and 8-way firing of the controlled sprite, Robotron Hero. In order to clear a stage players must destroy the Robotrons as they converge on the hero.

Robotron 2084 Commodore 64 1984


Robotron 2084 was ported to Commodore 64 by Tom Griner of Atarisoft in 1984.


Commando Commodore 64 1985


Capcom's Commando coinop of 1985 was ported to C64 in 1985 by Chris Butler of Japan Capsule Computers for Elite UK.


Paradroid Commodore 64 1985


Designed and coded by Andrew Braybrook of Graftfgold in 1985 for the Commodore 64, Paradroid is a multi-directionally scrolling strategy-shoot 'em up presented in top-down perspective. The object of Paradroid is to use an Influence Device to identify, locate and destroy rogue droids that have taken over 20 decks of a galactic space freighter. The droids are destroyed by shooting, ramming or taking control of them and redirecting them to attack each other.

In my estimation Paradroid is the best Commodore 64 game.


When Paradroid came out it took the C64-gaming world by storm. It was one of the coolest and most original C64 games in terms of atmosphere, gameplay, presentation and sound effects.

Via the Console Paradroid allows players to view a map of the deck of the freighter from top-down view as well a full map of the freighter from side elevation. The freighter is constituted by 400 screens of graphics.

The stats of droids can be viewed through the Droid Data Library. There are 24 different droids each of which is assigned a three-digit serial number indicating its capacities.

Paradroid features smooth 8-way movement of the playfield as well as 8-way firing and ramming; it even employs LoS (line of sight). Paradroid's scrolling routine was improved and its gameplay was sped-up in the Competition Edition of 1986 and in Heavy Metal Paradroid of 1987.

Paradroid 90 came out for ST/Amiga in 1990. In 1993 Paradroid 2000 came out for the Archimedes. Thus, for half a decade Paradroid was a C64-exclusive.

Commando IBM PC 1986


David Steffen of Quicksilver Software Inc. ported Capcom's Commando coinop of 1985 to IBM PC Booter in 1986. Commando displays in CGA 320x200 (224x128 playfield).


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.


Ikari Warriors Commodore 64 1986


SNK's Ikari Warriors was ported to the C64 by John Twiddy of Elite Systems Ltd. Ikari Warriors features good presentation and is much harder than the PC-Booter version; it often displays a dozen on-screen soldiers and several bullets simultaneously, clogging the playfield with action.


Ikari Warriors IBM PC 1986: Rambo Run n Gun


SNK's Ikari Warriors run and gun coinop of 1986 was converted to IBM PC Booter by Quicksilver Software. Ikari Warriors runs in 320x200 EGA graphics mode, but its vertically-scrolling playing field is only 208x132px, and its audio consists of naught but bleeps and blurps.

That said, this is a great port of the Ikari Warriors coinop in that it employs screen-draw tricks and compression techniques in order to maintain a colorful scrolling viewport, 8-way firing and two firing modes (gun / grenade) on a mere i808x with 256 kbytes of RAM.


The port features keyboard control or 2-button joystick input.

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.


Into the Eagle's Nest 1987 ZX Spectrum


Kevin Parker's 1987 ZX Spectrum version is shown because it has the best viewport of the 8 bit versions.


Alien Syndrome Commodore 64 1988


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


Rambo 3 Commodore 64 1988


Ocean ported Taito's Rambo 3 coinop to most 8 and 16 bit micros, but I prefer the C64 version. Rambo 3 is a three-stage top-down flip-screen run and gun game that features a separate inventory screen and one dozen items and four different weapons. Movement and firing is 8-way. There is also a sprite-scaling, OpWolf-style level.


Robocop Commodore 64 1988


Data East's RoboCop coinop of 1988 was ported to C64 by John Meegan in 1988. The RoboCop movie came out in 1987.


Robocop ZX Spectrum 1988


The ZX Spectrum port of RoboCop was handled by Mike Lamb. RoboCop sold like hotcakes.


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.


C64 original.

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.


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: Commandos


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.


Commando Amiga 1989


Capcom's Commando coinop of 1985 was ported to 8 and 16 bit micros from 1985 to 1989 by Elite. This is the 1989 Amiga version whose graphics are bland, washed-out and lack the basic details of the original coinop. The Amiga is capable of so much more than this:


Rambo 3 IBM PC 1989


John Siegesmund of Banana Development ported Taito's Rambo 3 coinop of 1989 to IBM PC in 1989.  Rambo 3 is a three-stage top-down flip-screen run and gun game that features a separate inventory screen and one dozen items and four different weapons. Movement and firing is 8-way. There is also a sprite-scaling, OpWolf-style level.


Rambo 3 runs in 16-color VGA 320x200 (not 256-color), 16-color 320x200 EGA, 16-color 320x200 TGA or monochrome Hercules 720x350. It supports IBM, Adlib, CMS and Tandy 3-channel audio.

Robocop IBM PC 1989


Data East's RoboCop coinop of 1988 was ported to IBM PC by FACS Entertainment Software Inc. in 1989. The RoboCop movie came out in 1987.


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.


Robocop Atari ST 1989


Peter Johnson's 1989 Atari ST and Amiga ports of Data East's Robocop coinop of 1988 constitute an early run and gun blockbuster.


Smash T.V. Amiga 1989


The 1989 Amiga port by Probe of the Smash T.V. coinop are passable. Indeed, playable. Especially with a friend in 2-player coop mode.


Midnight Resistance Commodore 64 1990


Robbie Tinman of 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.


Graphics by Ivan Davies. Sound & music by Keith Tinman.

Navy SEALS Commodore 64 1990


Navy SEALS was coded for the C64 by John Meegan of Ocean Software in 1990.


Turrican & Turrican 2 Commodore 64 1990-91


Manfred Trenz of Rainbow Arts coded Turrican for the C64 in 1990. Turrican 2 of 1991 was also coded by Trenz (of Factor 5). Graphics by Andreas Escher.


Turrican is a C64 original game. Turrican 2 is an Amiga original.

Turrican Games Amiga 1990-93


In terms of taking advantage of the Amiga's custom chipset, Factor 5's Turrican run and gun games are first-class. The Turrican games were designed by Manfred Trenz, coded by Holger Schmidt and composed by Chris Hülsbeck.


Turrican and Turrican 2 also came out on the Atari ST. And while weaker than the Amiga versions in terms of audio-visuals, they were still great.

  • Turrican (1990, Manfred Trenz, Holger Schmidt): Ported from the C64 original by Factor 5.
  • Turrican 2 (1991, Holger Schmidt, Factor 5): An Amiga-first & an Amiga-best.
  • Turrican 3 (1993, Peter Thierolf, Factor 5): Ported from the Sega Genesis original by Kaiko.
 
Trenz also coded Katakis / Enforcer for the C64 and ported the R-Type arcade to the C64. Search article for strings: R-Type, Katakis, Enforcer.

Playing Turrican 2 in 1990 on an Amiga was like playing an arcade game: fast and smooth multi-directional parallax hardware scrolling at 50 FPS; big 360° rotating gun; epic arsenal; horizontally-scrolling shoot 'em up segments; better music than most coinops.

Turrican 3 was good when it came out three years later, but it did not have anywhere near the impact on Amigans that Turrican and its sequel had. In fact, I can safely say that Tarzan-Turrican was a downgrade.

Paradroid 90 Amiga 1990


Andrew Braybrook's Paradroid of 1985 was finally remade on the Amiga and Atari ST in 1990 by Graftgold. Thus was it renamed to Paradroid 90. Consult the C64 entry for more info on this strategy-shooter.
 

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 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.

Robotz Atari ST 1990


Scott Williams of Project X coded Robotz for the Atari ST in 1990.


RoboCop 2 Commodore 64 1991


Ocean Software developed RoboCop 2 for the C64 in 1991.


War Zone Amiga 1991


Better than Commando and Mercs, War Zone is a fairly good ST/Amiga run and gun game developed by Core Design in 1991.


Llamatron 2112 Amiga 1991


Llamatron 2112 was designed and coded by Jeff Minter of LlamaSoft in 1991 for ST/Amiga. Llamatron is a king-tier Robotron-like with psychedelic graphics. While its audio-visuals and presentation are unconventional, its gameplay is as classic as it gets.

Best played with 2x micro-switch joysticks suction-capped to the desk: mad.


Twin-joystick control aka two-joystick control aka dual-joystick control is when you use one joystick to move and another joystick to control the direction of fire. Thus, one can move in one direction while firing in another, aka strafing. Twin-joystick originated in Taito's Gun Fight coinop of 1975. It was also famously employed in Vid Kidz's Robotron 2084 coinop of 1982, of which Llamatron is a psychedelic clone.

Dual-stick is a god-tier shoot 'em up control system that could easily have been employed in more 8 and 16 bit micro shooters, but wasn't.

Llamatron 2112 IBM PC 1991


Llamatron 2112 was ported to IBM PC 808x in 1992 from the original ST/Amiga versions of 1991. Supporting 2 joysticks for Robotron-style action, Llamatron is one of the best fixed-screen shoot 'em ups ever coded.


Alien Breed Amiga 1991: Welcome to Intex Systems...


Inspired by the Alien film franchise of 1979-1992, Alien Breed is a top-down run and gun game developed by Team 17 for the Amiga in 1991.


Alien Breed is notable for its accurate controls, 2-player coop, responsive menu systems, 1½ megs of well-drawn graphics and difficult gameplay. Alien Breed also features digitized speech and dozens of sampled sounds (210 kbytes in total) as well as one of the best soundtracks on the Amiga (composed by Allister Brimble).

Coded by Andreas Tadic and Peter Tuleby in ASM-One assembler on an Amiga 3000, Alien Breed runs at 50 FPS in 32-color full PAL display mode.

Alien Breed is without a doubt the best top-down run and gun game on the Amiga. The IBM PC MS-DOS port of 1993 is inferior to the Amiga original.

Offering more of the same, Team 17 would later develop Alien Breed Special Edition (1992) and Alien Breed 2: The Horror Continues (1993).

Mercs Amiga 1991


Then, in 1990-91, Tiertex ported Capcom's sequel to Commando, Mercs, to 8 and 16 bit micros. Again, here is the 1991 Amiga version which lacks the smooth scrolling and responsive controls of the original coinop, as well as many of its details:


Both Commando and Mercs are top-down run and gun games that failed to impress me back in the day, let alone in 2024.

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.

IBM PC original.
 

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.


Duke Nukem 2 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.


IBM PC original.

RoboCop 3 Commodore 64 1993


Neil Coxhead of Probe Software ported Digital Image Design's 1991 Amiga version of RoboCop 3 to the C64 in 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.

Chaos Engine Amiga 1993: NODE ACTIVATED


Developed by the Bitmap Brothers in 1993 for ST/Amiga, The Chaos Engine is a top-down run and gun game that features 2-player coop and 8-way scrolling and firing. In one-player mode the AI controls the other soldier.

And while its audio-visuals are top-tier its scrolling is not silky-smooth and its collision detection is off, just like Xenon 2. And I considered TCE overrated, even back in the day. Just like Xenon 2.


I believe that such assets and "character builds" would have been better employed in a tactical turn-based game.

TCE coded by Steve Cargill. Graphician was Dan Malone. Audio by Richard Joseph.

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.

That said, the little-man sprites in Walker would lead to DMA Design's best game, Lemmings 1991.

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.


Chaos Engine IBM PC 1994


Scott Walsh of Wave Software converted the 16-bit Chaos Engine of 1993 to IBM PC MS-DOS in 1994. The 256-color VGA 320x200 is superior to the Amiga version in terms of framerate. The IBM PC version of Chaos Engine requires 590K of base RAM (604064 bytes).


Abuse IBM PC 1996


Abuse is a stylish run and gun game developed by Crack Dot Com in 1996 for MS-DOS 5.0. Running in VGA 320x200 256-color graphics mode, Abuse features multi-directional scrolling and firing, seven different weapons, jumping, climbing, teleporters, and destructibility of walls, floors and ceilings. 


Targeting is conducted via on-screen mouse-controlled crosshairs. The controlled character can fire in one direction while moving in another (strafing). The character battles mutants, robots, turrets, fliers, mines and forcefields.

Abuse requires an i80486/DX2-50 MHz CPU, 8 megs of RAM, 400 kbytes conventional memory, 1 megs vRAM and 13 megs of storage space. Abuse also supports networking. And it can run under Windows 95 to Windows XP, not just MS-DOS.

It would have been awesome if Abuse was coded in and drawn for square-pixel SVGA 640x480.

Abuse Weapons System: Laser, Incendiary Grenade Launcher, Heat-seeking Rocket Launcher, Napalm, Energy Rifle, Novaspheres, Death Sabre.

Abuse coded by Jonathan Clark.

IBM PC original.

cf.


Labels: , ,

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)