Looking to check out some 1980s shmups, any recommendations?

[dark]

I'm familiar with the classics like Galaga, Xevious, Space Invaders from the early 1980s, and then I've played tons of shmups that came out in the 1990s and 00s. But I can't think of much that I've played that came out between 1984-1989. Anyone have any suggestions of titles that might still be fun today? (preferably arcade titles and vertical titles)

[pieslice]

Truxton - but remember to enable autofire

[OmegaFlareX]

Oh man, there are loads of verts from that era.

Anything by Toaplan, 1942, Star Force, Terra Cresta, Dragon Spirit, Ajax, Image Fight, Omega Fighter, Plus Alpha, Task Force Harrier, Vapor Trail... many many others.

Some more of the obscure ones that I personally enjoy are Scion, S.R.D. Mission, Exed Exes, Gardia, Rafflesia, Armed Formation, Chopper I

[Bassa-Bassa]

Coreland's 4D Warriors is always sadly overlooked, though it's horizontal scrolling. For vertical (albeit non-autoscrolling), Konami's Labyrinth Runner also gets usually overlooked despite being a true gem.

[emphatic]

Outzone
Flying Shark
Twin Cobra
Argus

[DMC]

Williams games are still intense today. Defender and Robotron particularly.

[LordHypnos]

I remember liking Omega Fighter a lot. That's probably my favorite from my limited experience of 1984-1989 shmups.

[Licorice]

Basically Irem:

R-Type 1, 2
Image Fight
X-Multiply

Toaplan:

Hishouzame
Kyukyoku Tiger
Same! Same! Same!
Tatsujin

Konami:

Gradius 1, 2, 3
Thunder Cross
Salamander

Although with Konami's stuff the 90s ports tend to be better than the arcade originals e.g. Salamander on PCE is considered better than the original and some prefer SFC Gradius 3.

[Redfox]

Galaga, Rtype, and Gradius are my fav 80's shooters. Though Rtype edges them as my absolute no. 1 for the 80s. Total package in the arcade, great game, great art, even the cab was a beauty at the time. Made a real impression on me.

[Tarma]

Uridium
I-Ball
Cybernoid

[Leandro]

Truxton is my favorite. I was playing the Android port (which is surprisingly good) the other day and had a blast. Who would know in 1988 we would be playing Truxton on our phones more than 30 years later.

Enviado de meu moto g(6) usando o Tapatalk

[Sima Tuna]

R-Type is pure memorization but still looks, controls and sounds great today.

Gradius and Gradius II hold up surprisingly well for their age.

Thunder Cross is my favorite game from the Konami arcade collection. No matter how much you die, your base shot power always makes the game feel possible. A single power up and you'll be pretty much 100% back in action. Great game and very well made. It came out in 1988 so it technically still counts!

[Sumez]

Omega fighter and Gradius II are probably my top ones.
Though of course, you can't go wrong with most Toaplan shooters.

[Licorice]

Thunder Cross is my favorite game from the Konami arcade collection

Oh wow I forgot Thunder Cross. I guess consensus is the first one is overshadowed by its 1991 sequel?

Come to think of it Space Manbow on the MSX, which some consider to be part of the Thunder Cross series, was also 80s. On the same train of thought some well regarded Compile games were also released in the latter half of the 80s e.g. Zanac and Aleste 2.

[Costra]

The nes version of Zanac is my favourite shmup of all time. You should give it a try

[bcass]

Salamander on PCE is considered better than the original

How so? Does it fix the horribly unfair bouncing balls section in the arcade version?

[Sumez]

Quoting this thread

Overview: I'm not even going to attempt to feign any sort of impartiality here: among a selection of first-rate Konami ports, this is the best one. I'm just going to boldly proclaim that this is indeed the best port on the list. While other ports are faithful or smart in adapting the difficulty one way or another or creative with shaping the available parent substance, PCE Salamander takes all the potential that was squandered in the arcade game and turns it into an accomplished title.

Everyone who has played the arcade Salamander knows just how many oversights, flaws and bugs there are. Shields get destroyed by touching power-ups, the hit detection is all over the place, you sometimes explode for no discernible reason at all, higher loops demand very specific and unintuitive manoeuvres, it's messy. All of that is expertly fixed in the port. It implements checkpoints and extends instead of the instant respawns without any extra lives as present in the original game and also smooths out all the annoying problems that plagued it.

[bcass]

Will have to check it out. I was bitterly disappointed with the arcade version. It seemed to have some of the poor design later echoed in Gradius III, which was surprising considering Gradius II is possibly the greatest 80s-era arcade shmup.

[Marc]

Seconding PCE Salamander. Far, far tighter than the sloppy arcade game.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Capcom's stellar arcade jamma pcb release that goes by the proper name of "Hyper Dyne Sidearms" (circa 1986) is worthy of your time, dark. Or give it a spin via Hu-Card cart or CD-Rom2 disc on the PC Engine console platform.

There's a hidden Konami pcb start-up boot sequence with the PCE stg title of Salamander on the mini PCE/TG-16/CG consoles to gloss over/worth checking out as well. Yep, Konami went all out with it's Hu-Card cart release of Salamander & has it in spades, indeed.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Afterbirth]

Arcade (Off my MAME favourites list)
Terra Force (Nishibutsu)
Ordyne (Namco)
Thunder Cross (Konami)
Hellfire (Toaplan)
Prehistoric Isle in 1930
Vapor Trail (Data East)
Ajax (Konami)
Battle Chopper/Mr Heli (Irem)
Truxton (Toaplan)
Zero Wing (Toaplan) was about 89'
Dangerous Seed (Namco)


C64...
Hades Nebula (Often overlooked and quite rough but plays a mean game IMO)
Delta, then Armalyte
Thrust (early Gravity based shmup)
Katakis
X out

Slayer and Subterranea were good budget games by Hewson (see the Rack it label)
Alleycat were another Hewson games which might be of interest.

Another budget C64 nicety was Zybex


CP Verlag did some great stuff on their Goldern/Magic disk series on the C64 but it was 1990+
Catalypse
Parsec
Enforcer full metal madness

To be honest - with C64 games, like many machines of that era, you really have to appreciate the technology at the time. They were much less powerful then arcades back then.

If you have the arcade versions, the home versions of arcade games were somewhat lesser powered. That often shows a bit and probably just worth a YT watch but the C64 games mostly here and below mentioned are originals.

IBall and IBall 2 were pretty bonkers with some great samples.
Uridium is a classic.

[Despatche]

The 1980s are a very large decade...

I recommend Mad Crusher and Grobda.

[davyK]

Phoenix. Ship has a shield. There's a 5 screen loop with the 5th screen being a boss level. Wonderful game - 1982!! Vertical.

Astro Blaster Early Sega shooter with lots of different enemy waves and a host of secret bonuses to look for. Has you managing fuel and laser temperature. 1981 Vertical.

Gradius 1 and 2 Classic games for a reason. They still have it. Hori obviously!

RType see above.

[John4300]

A bit different picks, not vert or hori, but Space Harrier and After Burner are pretty classic games from SEGA. Definitely worth a try at least, even they're pseudo 3D.

[BrainΦΠΦTemple]

gardia's a cute one if you've never played tHat