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.
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, not the C64. And Dropzone is better on the Atari 8-bits.
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
Protector 2 Commodore 64 1983
Dropzone Commodore 64 1984
Sanxion Commodore 64 1986
Alleycat Commodore 64 1986
Uridium Commodore 64 1986
Task 3 Commodore 64 1987
Retrograde Commodore 64 1989
Turrican Commodore 64 1990
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.
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.
IBM PC MS-DOS Super-scrollers
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
- Invader-likes: clones and ports of Taito's Space Invaders 1978
- Galaxian-likes: clones and ports of Namco's Galaxian 1979
- Asteroids-likes: clones and ports of Atari's Asteroids 1979
- Berzerk-likes: clones and ports of Stern Electronics' Berzerk 1980
- Defender-likes: clones and ports of Williams' Defender 1981
- Scramble-likes: clones and ports of Konami's Scramble 1981
- Galaga-likes: clones and ports of Namco's Galaga 1981
- Robotron-likes: clones and ports of Vid Kidz's Robotron 1982
- Xevious-likes: clones and ports of Namco's Xevious 1982
- Gravitar-likes: clones and ports of Atari's Gravitar 1982
- Gyruss-likes: clones and ports of Konami's Gyruss 1983
- Gradius-likes: clones and ports of Konami's Gradius 1985
- R-Type-likes: clones and ports of Irem's R-Type 1987
- Western Computer-game Machines
- History of Computer Games 1976-2024
- History of 1990s Computer Games
- cRPG Blog (Master Index)
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