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Amiga Shoot 'em ups Listed in Chronological Order

Amiga Games Reviews (Index to Amiga game reviews).

Chronological List of Amiga Shoot 'em ups


Posted for quick reference purposes, this is a chronological list of Amiga shoot 'em ups that have so far been covered in my History of Shoot 'em ups.

This list thus far contains 88 original infographics that can be mouse-wheeled through in order to get an idea of the Amiga shoot 'em up catalogue with no non-Amiga admixture. You can also right-click the images and open them in a new tab at full resolution (2k-5k px).

If a shooter entry has "Amiga original" appended, that means the shooter was originally coded for the Amiga; that is, it is not a coinop or other-micro port, but rather a Amiga-native game.

I also append "Amiga exclusive" to the relevant entries. Amiga-exclusive shooters are those that were only released for the Amiga. I do not care if some Amiga shooters were ported to "current gen platforms" decades later; that is utterly irrelevant to my authentic commentary. If you're playing 2020s ports of 1990s Amiga shooters on your cellphone, I don't care, they don't count, the shooters are still Amiga-exclusives.

I also append "Best on Amiga" to the relevant entries.

This document was last updated on the 30th of September, 2024.

1987


Starglider Amiga 1987


Developed by Jez San of Argonaut Software for Amiga, Starglider and Starglider 2 are vector-based shooters notable for their fast and smooth rendering engines. Starglider of 1987 employs flicker-free wireframe graphics whereas Starglider 2 of 1988 solidly flat-shades its geometry.


Plutos Amiga 1987: Space War Arcade Simulation


Coded by Derek Johnston in 1987 Plutos features smooth scrolling at 50 FPS and 2-player coop mode. However, in order to achieve that framerate the playfield is not full-screen but metal-bordered. Terrain in Plutos is height-mapped; that is, your spaceship can collide with buildings. In Plutos one must also access fuel dumps that are dotted about the terrain in order to maintain control of the craft.


Amiga original.

Typhoon Amiga 1987


Coded by C. Sing and R. Wagner, Kingsoft's Typhoon of 1987 features smooth vertical scrolling, very fast sprite-shifting, digitized sound effects and 50 screens to blast through.


Amiga original.

Insanity Fight Amiga 1987


LINEL Switzerland released Insanity Fight for Amiga in 1987. A push-scroller and super-scroller, Insanity Fight was programmed by Christian Haller.


Garrison Amiga 1987


Digital Dreams released Garrison for the Amiga in 1987, and Garrison 2 for the Amiga in 1988. Gauntlet clones, Garrison and Garrison 2 were designed and programmed by Andreas C. Hommel.


Amiga original. Garrison 2 is an Amiga exclusive.

1988


Virus Amiga 1988



The Pursuit to Earth Amiga 1988


The Pursuit to Earth aka Gyrex is a 1988 clone of Konami's Gyruss (1983) developed by PowerHouse Software Ltd. for ST/Amiga. You can see from the infographic that PtE shifts around many sprites layered over a swirling starfield. Note also the power-ups that can be collected and activated. For 1988, PtE is technically ambitious.


Amiga original.

Phantom Fighter Amiga 1988


Emerald Software released Phantom Fighter for the Amiga in 1988. Phantom Fighter levels alternate between horizontally and vertically-scrolling.


Phantom Fighter was programmed by Billy Newport, and its graphics were drawn by Paul McLaughlin.

Flying Shark Amiga 1988


Flying Shark on the Amiga and Atari ST (1988) are better than Sky Shark MS-DOS, but still pale in comparison to Toaplan's 1987 arcade original. Put it this way: you'd rather be playing 1942 or 1943 on the C64.


The Amiga version was ported by Bob Hylands and Rob Brooks from the ST port coded by Henry Clark and Karl Jeffery.

StarRay Amiga 1988


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


Amiga original.

Eliminator Amiga 1988


Linel Switzerland's Eliminator on ST/Amiga was technically impressive for 1988. The player controls a vehicle from 3rd person perspective on 13 winding roadways with bends, crests, tunnels, jump-ramps and water canals. There are also barriers and alien-waves to blast through.

Eliminator employs vector graphics for its roadways, but its objects and aliens are sprite-scaled. Unlike the ports of railshooters such as Space Harrier (1989), Eliminator is playable and its framerate is smooth.


Eliminator weapons system: single, dual, side, double and triple cannons as well as bouncing bombs.

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.


Sidewinder Amiga 1988-89


Sidewinder of 1988 was developed by Synergistic; Sidewinder 2 of 1989 by PAL. And since they were coded by different developers these are very different shoot 'em ups in terms of controls and graphics. 

Sidewinder is especially difficult on Expert mode. Be prepared to get shot down on a regular basis.  Sidewinder 2 is also no cakewalk due to its emphasis on destructible obstructions.


Amiga original.

Thunder Blade Amiga 1988


Sega's Thunder Blade coinop of 1987 was ported to ST/Amiga in 1988 by Tiertex. As with most of Tiertex's ports the 16 bit Thunder Blade ports are absolute garbage.


Xenon Amiga 1988



Best on Amiga.

Hybris Amiga 1988



Hybris of 1988 was coded by Martin Pederson. As the First REAL Amiga game Hybris runs at 50 FPS and features super-smooth scrolling and sprite-shifting.

Hybris action is staged on a proper arcade-style playfield with overlaid score panel.

A difficult shoot 'em up with tight controls, Hybris is one of best blasters on the Amiga. Unusually, the armor-like power-ups get bolted onto the shuttle when collected, changing not only its appearance but also its movement rate, rate of fire and weapon-type.


Amiga exclusive.

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.

1989


Blood Money Amiga 1989



Gravity Force Amiga 1989


Stephan Wenzler of Kingsoft released Gravity Force for the Amiga in 1989. Gravity Force is a 50-level Gravitar-like that features two-player races, two-player dogfighting and silky-smooth scrolling and sprite-shifting.


Amiga exclusive.

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.


R-Type Amiga 1989



Shoot 'Em Up Construction Kit Amiga 1989


Sensible Software's C64 Shoot 'Em Up Construction Kit of 1987 was ported to ST/Amiga in 1989 by Richard Leinfellner for IDS. Via a series of menus and icons, the SEUCK utility allows users to design and test their own vertically-scrolling shoot 'em ups.


Goldrunner 2 Amiga 1989


Microdeal's Goldrunner of 1987 on the Atari ST never appeared on the Amiga.

However, its sequel Goldrunner 2 did. Amusingly, Goldrunner 2 has a Top-99 High Score table.


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.

Space Harrier Amiga 1989


Elite's Amiga port of Sega's 1987 super-scaling railshooter coinop, Space Harrier, was fairly playable in 1989, but Eliminator of 1988 was far superior.


Battle Squadron Amiga 1989


Coded by an 18 year old Pedersen in 8 months Battle Squadron of 1989 thoroughly taps the Amiga chipset via sprite "predator cloaking", viewport tints and other uncommon graphics coding routines.

Hybris and Battle Squadron's graphics were drawn and animated by Torben Larsen.


Battle Squadron's non-standard 256 vertical-pixels display simultaneously shifts over one dozen projectiles, air units and ground units, for a sum-total of almost 50 on-screen objects. In addition, the objects are sizeable. And that is why Battle Squadron runs at 25 not 50 FPS. However, its display nevertheless smoothly updates.

The sound effects are loud, raw and gritty. Best of all, its controls are pretty much perfect. Thus, it is eminently playable and replayable. An amazing shoot 'em up across the board, just like Hybris.

Battle Squadron Weapons System (Pick-ups & Power-ups): Nova Smart Bombs (AoE), Magnetic Torps (Red), Anti-matter Particle Beam (Blue), Magma Wave (Orange), Emerald Laser (Green)

Amiga exclusive.

Smash T.V. Amiga 1989


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


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:


The Arnold Schwarzenegger Commando movie came out in 1985.

Forgotten Worlds Amiga 1989


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


Some computer game journalism said this Forgotten Worlds port was one of the best, if not the best shoot 'em up when it came out. Laughable.

After Burner Amiga 1989


The Sega AM2 coinop versions of After Burner and After Burner 2 were released in 1987. After Burner 2 is just an updated After Burner, not a sequel per se. Two years later the Amiga received two ports of After Burner 2, one developed by Argonaut for Activision, the other by Weebee for Sega Enterprises Ltd.



In terms of controls, sprite-scaling and audio, both ports are poor renditions of the arcade machine that I did not enjoy at all, even back in the day when Tom Cruise's Top Gun was all the rage (1986).

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.

Amiga original (in that it's not a direct arcade port). Best on Amiga.

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.

Amiga exclusive.

Xenon 2: Megablast Amiga 1989



Best on Amiga.

Super Gridrunner Amiga 1989


Jeff Minter of Llamasoft coded Super Gridrunner for ST/Amiga in 1989. Super Gridrunner is a fixed-viewport shoot 'em up that allows players to position their ship anywhere on-screen via mouse control. This is the 1989 16 bit version of the original VIC-20 / C64 version of Gridrunner from 1982.


Best on Amiga.

1990


Turrican Games Amiga 1990



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.

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.


Amiga original. Best on Amiga.

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)

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

Amiga original. Best on Amiga.

Paradroid 90 Amiga 1990



Best on Amiga.

Blasteroids Amiga 1990


The 1990 ST/Amiga Teque Software Development ports of the 1987 Tengen Blasteroids coinop are king-tier across the board. You can transform between three different spacehips on the fly (Speeder, Fighter and Warrior).

As in Atari's Asteroids coinop of 1979, control in Blasteroids consists of rotate, thrust and fire (at asteroids and enemies). As one can glean from the below infographic Blasteroids is a full-featured and well-presented shoot 'em up.


Blasteroids Equipment: Shield, Blaster, Extra Shot Power, Ripstar, Extra Fuel Capacity, Booster, Crystal Magnet, Cloak.

Best on Amiga.

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.

Amiga exclusive.

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.


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

Best on Amiga.

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.


Wings of Death Amiga 1990: Five Different Weapons Systems


Coded by Marc Rosocha of Eclipse, Wings of Death of 1990 brings a high-fantasy theme to ST/Amiga shoot 'em ups. Its palette peaking at 512 on-screen colors, Wings of Death moves about up to 90 on-screen objects at 50 FPS.


Wings of Death audio by Jochen Hippel includes speech synthesis, digitized sound effects and digital music effects totalling one megabyte as well as support for external Centronics D/A converters on the ST/STE.

Saveable High-score table.

Wings of Death Weapons System (transformation):

  • The Insect: Spread-fire
  • The Bat: Circleblast
  • The Eagle: Powerbeam
  • The Dragon: Dragonfire
  • The Gryphon: Thunderballs

Amiga original. Best on Amiga.

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.

Sonic Boom Amiga 1990: The World's Strongest Jetfighter


Sonic Boom was converted to the Amiga by Activision in 1990 from Sega's arcade-original. The Amiga version suffers from non-smooth scrolling, non-smooth sprite-shifting, poor collision detection and annoying music.
 

Atomic Robo-Kid Amiga 1990


Software Studios ported UPL's Atomic Robo-Kid coinop of 1988 to ST/Amiga in 1990. Atomic Robo-Kid shifts around a lot of big and colorful sprites, but its multi-directional scrolling is sluggish and its framerate is inconsistent.


Pang 1990 Amiga


Pierre Adane of Ocean France converted Mitchell Corporation's Buster Bros. coinop of 1989 to the Amiga in 1990. Renamed Pang on microcomputers, the Amiga version is superior to the arcade original.


Best on Amiga.

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.

1991


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.

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.

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.

Amiga original. Best on Amiga.

R-Type 2 Amiga 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.


Alien Breed Amiga 1991



Amiga original. Best on Amiga.

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.

Lethal Xcess Amiga 1991: Sequel to Wings of Death


Developed by Eclipse in 1991 Lethal Xcess Wings of Death II was not available on MS-DOS: only ST/Amiga. This is a proper 16 bit micro shoot 'em up.


Lethal Xcess coded by Claus Frein and Heinz Rudolf; audio by Jochen Hippel.

Amiga original. Best on Amiga.

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

Amiga exclusive.

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.

Amiga exclusive.

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.

Best on Amiga.

RoboCop 3 Amiga 1991



Amiga original. Best on Amiga.

1992


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.


Best on Amiga.

Agony Amiga 1992 Art and Magic



Amiga exclusive.

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.

Amiga original. Best on Amiga.

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.

Amiga exclusive.

Stardust Amiga 1993-94


Bloodhouse's Stardust and Super Stardust AGA of 1993-94 are king-tier asteroids-style games with sprite-scaling tunnel segments that update smoothly without overt pixelation. The pre-rendered, light-sourced asteroid sprites rotate as they move about the viewport, which is impressive.


Stardust Weapons System (Pick-ups & Power-ups):

  • Mega Bomb, Gun Power Up, Smart Bomb
  • Control Improvement, Shields, Points, Extra Life, Full Energy

Super Stardust Weapons System:

  • Mega Bomb, Gun Power Up, Flame Burst, Smart Bomb
  • Engine Power, Shield Energy, Points, Extra Life, Extra Energy

Amiga original. Best on Amiga.

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.

Amiga exclusive.

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.

Amiga exclusive.

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.

Amiga original. Best on Amiga.

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).


Amiga exclusive.

1994


Banshee Amiga 1994: A1200 & Amiga CD32


Banshee is an Amiga 256-color AGA-exclusive developed by Core Design in 1994. Most people played Banshee on an Amiga 1200 with 2 megs of chip RAM. While Banshee features prerendered rotating objects (ray-traced), its controls and collision detection are somewhat off, and it only runs at half-frames (25 FPS).

In fact, Banshee was one of the biggest disappointments on the ailing Amiga platform of 1994.


Banshee Weapons System (Pick-ups & Power-ups):

  • Double Shot, Triple Shot, 45° Shot, Side Shot, Heavy Missile, Homing Missiles
  • Bombs, Smart Bomb
  • Points, Fire Power, Build Up, Speed Up, Loop, Extra Life, Extra Shield

Banshee programmed by Søren Hannibal.

Amiga exclusive.

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.



Raiden Amiga 1994


While Raiden on the Amiga was not shaping up to be an accurate port of Seibu Kaihatsu's 1990 coinop, it was shaping up to be a decent shoot 'em up even though it employs a sidepanel that reduces the size of the playfield. In addition, the Amiga port does not feature the original arcade music. However, there was a possibility that Amiga Raiden would come complete with a level editor, which would have been cool, but the game was never released.


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.


Amiga exclusive.

Zeewolf Amiga 1994: High-tech Gunship Action in 3D


In 1994 Binary Asylum released Zeewolf, an Amiga-exclusive 3D shooter. Influenced by Zarch-Virus of 1987-88, Zeewolf is notable for its realistic controls (mouse or joystick) and real-time 3D rendering engine viewed from a fixed perspective. Zeewolf was programmed by Andy Wilton.


Amiga exclusive.

Defender Amiga 1994


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


1995


Deluxe Galaga Amiga 1995


Coded by Edgar M. Vigdal in 1995, Deluxe Galaga features smooth sprite-shifting and 2-player coop. It also runs at 50 FPS.


Amiga exclusive.

Zeewolf 2 Amiga 1995


Binary Asylum released Zeewolf 2: Wild Justice in 1995 for the Amiga. Zeewolf 2 was programmed by Nick Vincent based on Andy Wilton's original Zeewolf code.


Amiga exclusive.

1996


1997


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.

Amiga exclusive.

1999


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

Amiga exclusive.

2000


Apano Sin Amiga 2000


Developed by Level One Entertainment in 2000, Apano Sin is a bi-directional vertically-scrolling shoot 'em up that runs on Amiga 500s with 1 meg of RAM. Apano Sin is another technically impressive shoot 'em up that came out post-prime Amiga.


Apano Sin programmed by Alex Piko and Alexander Eberl.

Apano Sin Weapons System: Blue Blizzard, Bomber, Green Flash, Power Cannon.

Amiga exclusive.

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