TRS-80 Shoot 'em up Catalogue

Posted for quick reference purposes, this is a chronological list of Tandy TRS-80 shoot 'em ups that are being covered in History of Shoot 'em ups, which is part of History of Computer Games 1976-2024.

This document was last updated on the 20th of May, 2024.

Below is exhibited some green-screen goodness on Tandy's TRS-80 of 1977. The following TRS-80 shoot 'em ups ran on 16K Zilog Z80s clocked at 1.77 MHz. Written in 4-16K of fast and robust machine code language, they display at 127x192 resolution in a single kbyte of vRAM, yet feature good (but tough) gameplay, responsive controls, tidy presentation as well as fancy screen-draws, strobe-effects and screen-scrolling (in the Scramble-likes).

Some TRS-80 shoot 'em ups even employ sampled speech aka voice synthesis.

TRS-80 shoot 'em ups were keyboard or joystick controlled. Needless to say, playing shoot 'em ups via TRS-80 keyboard was insanely difficult, but good joysticks could easily be purchased for the TRS-80 in 1980. And while it was easier said than done, you could optionally modify an old Atari joystick to work on the TRS-80.

In the early 80s TRS-80 games were distributed on 16K cassette tape or 32K floppy disk.

To save me repeating myself, each and every TRS-80 shoot 'em up in this list stands as a good game that is worth playing. Remember: gameplay is King, not graphics.

Most of these TRS-80 shoot 'em ups are coinop clones; that is, the game-concept is of coinop origin. However, the clones differ enough to be of interest even if one has played the coinops. For example, some clones combine aspects of one or more coinop into a single shoot 'em up. And of course, the most interesting thing is that they are running on a "mere" TRS-80, not on dedicated arcade-machine hardware.

TRS-80 shooter-clones were often released not long after the coinop itself (in the same year or one year after). Air Raid is one exception: it was based on Sol-20 Target (see below). And both TRS-80 Air Raid and Sol-20 Target predate Atari's famous Missile Command coinop (all three being artillery shooters).

Air Raid TRS-80 1978

Small System Software's Air Raid predates Atari's Missile Command coinop by two years. Air Raid features 5-step missile launcher rotation, rapid-fire missile-launching and waves of enemy planes that move horizontally on the playfield in both directions. When hit by missiles the planes explode and plummet to the ground, possibly taking out other planes as they fall from the sky.

The planes are represented by cycling ASCII characters that give a more plane-like appearance in motion. Consider also the "clarity" of the typical screen in 1978 that would help disguise the cycling and give the "sprites" shape.

In Air Raid, points are awarded for destroying enemy units, but points are deducted if enemy units escape off-screen.

Air Raid is based on Steve Dompier's Target aka TARG of 1976/77 on the Sol-20 micro.

Alien Invasion TRS-80 1979

Roy Niederhoffer coded Alien Invasion in 1979 for the TRS-80. Alien Invasion is a clone of Taito's Space Invaders coinop of 1978.

Alien Invasion features fancy screen-wipes and even an animated introduction, which furnishes an early example of computer-game cinematization.

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 "run and gun" shoot 'em up based on Exidy's Targ coinop of 1980 (not to be confused with the above Targ). Attack Force features 4-way variable-rate movement and firing over block-grid mazes guarded by ramships and flagships.

Cosmic Fighter TRS-80 1980

Bill Hogue & Jeff Konyu of Big Five Software coded Cosmic Fighter in 1980 for the TRS-80. Cosmic Fighter is a responsive, playable and well-presented fixed-viewport shooter that evokes Gremlin's Astro Blaster coinop of the same year via its docking sequence.

Galaxy Invasion TRS-80 1980

Bill Hogue & Jeff Konyu of Big Five Software coded Galaxy Invasion in 1980 for the TRS-80. Galaxy Invasion came out one year after Namco's Galaxian coinop of 1979.

Super Nova TRS-80 1980

Bill Hogue & Jeff Konyu of Big Five Software coded Super Nova in 1980 for the TRS-80. Super Nova came out one year after Atari's Asteroids coinop of 1979, from which it draws.

Space Intruders TRS-80 1980

Doug Kennedy of Adventure International coded Space Intruders for the TRS-80 in 1980. Space Intruders is a clone of Taito's Space Invader's Part II of 1979, aka Deluxe Space Invaders aka Space Invaders Deluxe.

Super Vaders TRS-80 1981

Larry Ashmun of Soft Sector Marketing Inc. coded Super Vaders for the TRS-80 in 1981. Super Vaders is a clone of Taito's Space Invaders of 1978, but Super Vaders gives you a stat-breakdown post-game (shots fired, missed shots).

Arcade Bomber Scramble TRS-80 1981

Mike Chalk & Chris Smyth's Arcade Bomber Scramble of 1981 is one of the earliest Western micro clones of Konami's god-tier coinop of the same year, Scramble. The scrolling and sprite-shifting is great for the TRS-80 in 1981.

Armored Patrol TRS-80 1981

Wayne Westmorland & Terry Gilman coded Armored Patrol for the TRS-80 in 1981. Armored Patrol is a clone of Atari's Battlezone coinop of 1980, which employed vector graphics viewed from a first-person perspective. In Armored Patrol, the scene-objects (houses, tanks, robots) scale in steps as the tank rolls towards them. The viewpoint is also rotated 360° in steps. By steps, I mean in perceivable increments as opposed to the seamless, smoothly-updating vector-viewport of the coinop. However, Armored Patrol was nevertheless an advanced game for the TRS-80 in 1981.

Mutant Attack TRS-80 1981

Tandy Corporation's Mutant Attack of 1981 is a tough-as-nails variation on the Space Invaders concept, complete with bullet-hell.

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.

Stellar Escort TRS-80 1981

Jeff Zinn of Big Five Software coded Stellar Escort in 1981 for the TRS-80. Stellar Escort employs trucking controls and sprite-scaling, which is both innovative and impressive for 1981. What you are basically doing is trucking the screen to get your targets lined up (there are no always-on targeting sights).

Arcade Galactic Firebird TRS-80 1982

Mike Chalk's Arcade Galactic Firebird of 1982 on the TRS-80 shifts around a number of sprites in smooth arcs and circles, à la Namco's Galaga coinop of 1981. Mesmerizing.

Defense Command TRS-80 1982

Bill Hogue & Jeff Konyu of Big Five Software coded Defense Command in 1982 for the TRS-80. Defense Command is highly playable Defender-like that came out a year after Williams' Defender coinop of 1981. Defense Command's machine code language seems to bang the TRS-80 harder than other shooters.

Demon Seed TRS-80 1982

Jeff Sorensen and Philip Mackenzie coded Demon Seed for the TRS-80 in 1982. Demon Seed is a clone of Taito's Phoenix coinop of 1980. Note the size of the demon-objects.

Galaxy Invasion Plus TRS-80 1982

Bill Hogue & Jeff Konyu of Big Five Software coded Galaxy Invasion Plus in 1982 for the TRS-80. As its name suggests GI+ is an incremental update on the original of 1980.

Sea Dragon TRS-80 1982

Wayne Westmorland & Terry Gilman's Sea Dragon of 1982 is probably the best Scramble-like of the very early 80s. Sea Dragon was one of the most famous TRS-80 games.

Green-screen suits the cavernous underwater environments to a T:

What made Sea Dragon interesting was the submarine's air supply, indicated by an on-screen gauge. The air supply is refilled by moving up to the surface, which sounds easy enough, but the problem is that some of the underwater caverns are quite long indeed, forcing the player to manage their life-support system efficiently (and search for "air pockets").

The sub can move in 8 directions while firing torpedoes horizontally across the screen at rising, tethered and stationary mines. The tethered mines can block off half of the vertical screen-space, which may already be reduced by terrain. Suffice it to say that the original TRS-80 Sea Dragon is extremely difficult even on the Novice setting, let alone Expert.

Sea Dragon is a TRS-80-original shoot 'em up; that is, it was coded originally for the TRS-80 and subsequently ported to various other micros. Some ports were "enhanced" and/or featured decreased difficulty.

Commodore 64 version of 1984:

Penetrator TRS-80 1982

Philip Mitchell's Penetrator of 1982 is one of the hardest Scramble-likes on the TRS-80 due to its aggro-packed caverns. Again, the horizontal scrolling is fine and the rate of fire ensures that one survives a few seconds at least.

TRS-80 Penetrator is a port of Philip Mitchell's ZX Spectrum original of 1982.

Weerd TRS-80 1982

Arthur A. Gleckler of Big Five Software coded Weerd in 1982 for the TRS-80. An exceedingly difficult Galaxian-like shoot 'em up, Weerd features several weird object designs and sound effects.

Assault TRS-80 1983

Bill Dunlevy & Douglas Frayer of Computer Shack coded Assault for the TRS-80 in 1983. Assault is notable for employing screen-scrolling on the TRS-80. And while the likes of Protector Atari 8 Bit 1981 featured much smoother scrolling two years before, that was because the Atari 400/800 had hardware-scrolling built in.

cf.

Lilura1 cRPG

Search String

TRS-80 Shoot 'em ups Listed in Chronological Order