Super-scroller Computer Games

I define super-scrollers as computer games that employ smooth, fast and/or variable-rate screen-scrolling; sometimes in parallax.

Super-scrollers originated in the shoot 'em up genre via the legendary Williams Defender and Konami Scramble coinops of 1981.

Super-scrollers can scroll vertically, horizontally or multi-directionally.

Commodore 64 Super-scrollers

The Commodore 64 was famous for its smooth hardware screen-scrolling. Naturally, the C64 also hosted the best 8 bit super-scrollers.

The first great C64 super-scroller was Archer Maclean's Dropzone of 1984. However, Dropzone was originally coded by Maclean for the Atari 8 bits in 1984.

The first C64-original super-scrollers were Stavros Fasoulas' Sanxion and Andrew Braybrook's Alleykat of 1986. And the ultimate super-scrollers on 8 bit computer-game machines are Andrew Braybrook's Uridium of 1986 and Manfred Trenz' Turrican of 1990.

This is a chronological listing of Commodore 64 super-scrollers.

Defender Commodore 64 1983

The legendary Williams Defender coinop of 1981 was ported to C64 by Joseph Simko of Atarisoft in 1983.

Protector 2 Commodore 64 1983

Ken Rose ported Mike Potter's Atari 8 bit Protector 2 of 1982 to the C64 in 1983. Protector 2 is a great Defender-like. There is no original Protector 1981 on the C64; Vic 20 only.

Guardian Commodore 64 1984

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

Dropzone Commodore 64 1984

Archer MacLean's Dropzone on C64 left most early Defender ports and clones in the dust. Indeed, Dropzone is the one of the best Defender clones and one of the best super-scrollers in shoot 'em up history.

Sanxion Commodore 64 1986

Sanxion was coded for the C64 by Stavros Fasoulas of Thalamus in 1986. Sanxion is a variable-rate horizontal super-scroller with dual-scrolling viewports (side-on and overhead) and parallax scrolling. David Whittaker's sound effects and Rob Hubbard's music are also excellent.

Alleycat Commodore 64 1986

Designed and coded by Andrew Braybrook of Graftgold pre-Uridium, Alleykat is a C64-exclusive shooter-racer hybrid and seminal super-scroller. Alleykat features gameplay verticality, extremely fast and smooth variable-rate scrolling, destructible landscapes, six rival craft and eight types of races, with each race-track varying in obstruction density, lap requirements and prize money.

Alleykat tech-specs are as follows:

Virtual Sprite System (VSS)
Flicker-free hardware & software sprites
Auto-detects & Enhances for C=128
50 FPS Super-scroller
Color-cycling "rainbow text"
3-voice audio
32 race-tracks
Playfields 20-screens in length
1-player or 2-player non-simultaneous coop

Uridium Commodore 64 1986

Iridis Alpha Commodore 64 1986

Jeff Minter of Llamasoft coded the psychedelic Defender-like and super-scroller, Iridis Alpha, for the C64 in 1986. As with all Minter's games the playability is 10/10.

Thunderbolt Commodore 64 1987

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

Task 3 Commodore 64 1987

Cybernetic Arts coded Task 3 for the C64 in 1987. Task 3 is a vertically-scrolling super-scroller.

Retrograde Commodore 64 1989

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

Guardian 2 Commodore 64 1990

Steve Evans of Hi-Tec coded Guardian 2: Revenge of the Mutants for the C64 in 1990. Guardian 2 is a solid shooter, but it came out too late in the C64's life-cycle.

Turrican Commodore 64 1990

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.

Amiga Super-scrollers

Like the C64 before it, the Amiga was also notable for its super-smooth hardware screen-scrolling, but the Amiga took super-scrolling to the next level via Holger Schmidt's Turrican 2 of 1991 and Andrew Braybrook's Uridium 2 of 1993 as well as via Bernhard Braun's Mega Typoon of 1996 and Level One Entertainment's Apano Sin of 2000.

It goes without saying that the Amiga hosted the best Western 16 bit micro super-scrollers.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Uridium 2 Amiga 1993

Overkill Amiga 1993

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

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.

Defender Amiga 1994

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

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.

Mega Typhoon Amiga 1996

Mega Typhoon was coded by Bernhard Braun of Nordlicht for ECS/OCS Amigas in 1996. Mega Typhoon is one of the most advanced Amiga shoot 'em ups in terms of 2D graphics coding; and its audio-visuals are raw and gritty.

Mega Typhoon shifts around up to one hundred 16-color objects (bobs and sprites) simultaneously while maintaining 50 FPS -- and yet it runs on an Amiga 500 with 1 meg RAM.

Mega Typoon is a super-scroller.

If Mega Typhoon came out just a few years earlier, it would have taken the Amiga gaming world by storm.

Mega Typhoon Weapons System (Pick-ups & Power-ups):

Spread Shot (S), Sinus Laser (L), Homing Missiles (H), Power Missiles (M)
Smart Bomb (B), Get Full Weapon (P), Extra Life

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.

Atari ST Super-scrollers

Being basically a 16 bit ZX Spectrum the Atari ST did not host many ST-original super-scrollers. However, Goldrunner was a surprise and there were good ports of the Turrican games.

Goldrunner Atari ST 1987

Microdeal's Goldrunner of 1987 is another great shooter to grace the Atari ST.

Running on an 8 MHz Atari ST with as little as 256 kbytes RAM, Goldrunner features:

Super-smooth, super-fast vertical scrolling
2-way variable-rate vertical scrolling
Destructible terrain / Proper tiled playing field
Tight controls / Mouse or joystick control
Well-chosen color palette
Sampled speech / Good chip-tune music

What more could Atari ST owners ask for in 1987?

IBM PC MS-DOS Super-scrollers

Defender IBM PC 1983

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

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

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

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

Uridium IBM PC 1988

Converted by John Friedman & Joe Hellesen in 1988 to i808x CGA/EGA from Andrew Braybrook of Graftgold's 1987 Commodore 64 original, the Defender-like Uridium was the first super-scroller on IBM PC.

Requiring 384 kbytes RAM, Uridium runs from a 126 kbyte executable. See that Uridium logo below? It's a full-screen scroller. :)

Tubular Worlds IBM PC 1994

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

Tubular Worlds programmed by Andreas Scholl.

Abuse IBM PC 1996

cf.

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