Scrolling shooter recommendations on Atari 2600?

[dark]

There are tons of space invader clones on 2600 where your ship can only move left to right, but I want to learn more about "scrolling" games such as River Raid and Laser Gates (two of my favorites) where you can go in four directions while traveling over/in front of a background to imply movement. AKA I'm looking for something that is a little closer to the xevious concept that is something of the ancestor of modern day shmups and a step more evolved toward the modern day shmup concept than space invaders type games.

I guess there's River Raid 2, and Defender, but are there any other scrolling shmups that might have something closer to the feel of a modern day shmup albeit much more rudimentary due to the era and hardware limitations?

"Vanguard" seems promising, only recently heard about it and have no experience with it myself.

[Obiwanshinobi]

I remember certain (I think) vertical scroller that looked pretty Star Wars* to me (the fanservice was very in-your-face). Saw it on a b&w telly, mind. Could well be the first upwards auto(?)-scroller I saw.

*) Death Star to be precise.

[BrianC]

I remember certain (I think) vertical scroller that looked pretty Star Wars* to me (the fanservice was very in-your-face). Saw it on a b&w telly, mind. Could well be the first upwards auto(?)-scroller I saw.

*) Death Star to be precise.

It doesn't scroll, but there is an actual licensed Star Wars game for the 2600 named Death Star Battle that is shmuppy. There's also the Defender like Empire Strikes Back.

It wasn't released, but there is a prototype of Xevious that is fully playable. As far as other scrolling games, there's a very nice port of Star Gate/Defender II (though it needs two controllers to play. Oddly enough, it was released under both names), a well done port of Spy Hunter (also needs two controllers), Subterranea (another Defender-ish game), a homebrew port of Juno First, and a homebrew port of Caverns of Mars (Conquest of Mars), and a game I haven't played much of named Fantastic Voyage. There's also an impressive unofficial port of Scramble in the works (there is an official port of Super Cobra, but it's not very fun to play).

Edit: Forgot about Vangaurd. Very impressive port for the system.

[The Coop]

Some of these don't have forced scrolling, but they're pretty shmupish nonetheless. Off the top of my head...

-Chopper Command (Hori)
-Stargate (Hori)
-Firefly (Hori - sucks harder than a black hole)
-Zaxxon (Iso)
-Solaris (3D)
-Vanguard (Multi)
-Gyruss (3D-ish Single screen)
-Buck Rogers:Planet Of Zoom (3D)

A few extras...

-Galaxian (Single screen)
-Megamania (Single screen)
-Phoenix (Single screen)
-Gorf (Single screen)

[PC Engine Fan X!]

One of Spectravision's 2600 releases was none other than Planet Patrol (a hori) that scrolls from left to right that's situated out in a sparse desert landscape setting (and has some nifty real-time heat warping/distortion effects added in for good measure/completeness). You have an always draining fuel tank that constantly needs refueling, otherwise, your fightercraft will crash 'n' burn big time. The only nitpick of this particular 2600 yoko shmup is, if you don't destroy all the missle silos in time before crossing the dotted line barrier, it's truly game over (even if you have any remaining lives left in stock). So thus in the higher stages where the scrolling speed of the enemies and bullets are sped up, it gets crucial/imperative that all the missle silos are wiped out just in the nick of time, otherwise, it's "sudden death" time -- it really does increase the tension factor greatly. Not to mention that your fightercraft has a whopping big hit box area to contend with as well.

Imagic's Demon Attack circa 1982 (single screen) - a classic twist on the ol' Space Invaders formula (Game #7 is a personal favorite of mine).

Imagic's Moonsweeper - a 3D type of clone of Buck Rogers in the Planet Zoom but with some slick spins & twists of it's own (the 3D scrolling effects of a moon's landscape are quite impressive & super silky-smooth for it's time when it was released at retail back in 1983). Bought it blind (and never having played it before) one day back in 1984 and found out that it was quite the keeper to play/enjoy.

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2600 Moonsweeper Extra Lives Easter Egg/Trick: Upon landing on a red moon and succesfully returning back to outer space, shoot directly into the sun and score 70 points for each comet or asteroid destroyed. Upon reaching your first 10,000 point milestone, you'll be awarded an extra life. Use your shield to subtract your overall score to 9,900 or less than that. Shoot some more into the sun and boost your score back up to 10,000 points again to earn your next free 1up. Rinse and repeat until you've earned six lives maximum in reserve. Easy as pie.

FYI: The CPU does keep track of how many extra lives you've earned and after the very last one is earned, you can't earn any more after that (regardless of how high you try to boost your score).

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PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Stevens]

Coop mentioned it, but the port of Gyruss is pretty good.

At least that is what my 10 year old self remembers.

[dark]

Hey, great recommendations guys. Fantastic Voyage looks really intriguing. I also just remembered Desert Falcon, which I know better on the 7800, but it looks like there is a cruder 2600 port. That was kind of a weird isometric zaxxon esc kind of game.

Btw, in case anyone wants to casually explore some 2600 games in your web browser, I recommend the following online emulator:
http://www.virtualatari.org/

[antron]

Lead is 2600 homebrew that is like a cross between a shmup and kaboom

[BrianC]

Lead is 2600 homebrew that is like a cross between a shmup and kaboom

I can't believe I forgot about that one. It's good stuff. Good music too, if I remember correctly.

Speaking of Zaxxon, there's a pretty good isometric homebrew version of it named Space Raid. I like the official port, as well, though it swaps the isometric view for a third person view.

Even though it's single screen, I can't recommend Millipede enough. It gets my vote for most frenzied shmup on the 2600. Very nice port.

[harveybirdman]

no love for Demon Attack? That game is Suhweet!


EDIT, nevermind see it was already mentioned

[evil_ash_xero]

I'm only going by memory, since I haven't played a 2600, since the early 90s.

But I remember really liking Vanguard.

[FRO]

I can't recommend Vanguard enough. It's a great game, and really showed what the 2600 was capable of for scrolling games. Also, it's not as good or complex, but the Empire Strikes Back game is fun for a while.

[davyK]

Another vote for Vanguard - though remember the longer you last on the boss screen without firing the more you score...

Fantastic Voyage too - excellent little shooter.

Chopper Command is nice , as is Defender II (avoid the first one) - though these aren't forced scrollers.

Single screen-wise I love Megamania. Looks great and has genuine loops with new enemy patterns etc. I rolled the score on this back in the day (the game actually stops when you do that at 1m). Demon Attack is a splendid game too.

Also....the 2600 got an astounding homebrew port of Thrust (8bit gravity shooter inspired by Gravitar but in my opinion Thrust is the better game).

AND.....fancy a shmup with paddle control? Check out Solar Storm from Imagic - criminally underrated in my opinion. At first you think it is really unfair as the enemy fire can't be dodged (though it can be avoided due to the pin point accuracy of the control - you will need to play it for that to make sense!) , but then you realise that enemies only have one shot to take each so it becomes a high speed risk management exercise. Lovely looking game too.

[BrianC]

Chopper Command is nice , as is Defender II (avoid the first one) - though these aren't forced scrollers.

I recommend giving the first Defender a try. It's not true to the arcade, but keeps much of the elements intact. I found it to be decent, though Defender II is definitely the much better port. There's also a nice hack of Defender II/Stargate into Defender 1.

[dark]

Solar storm looks awesome. Love imagic games.

[Herr Schatten]

It doesn't scroll, but Beamrider on the 2600 is great, even though some elements in later levels are missing.

[Jeneki]

Another vote for Vanguard - though remember the longer you last on the boss screen without firing the more you score...

Oh seriously? I always thought they forgot to program that boss or ran out of space on the cart or something, with the way it insta-dies.

To be honest when I plug in the 2600 for a shooter I go for Megamania, Spider Fighter, or Solaris.

[Frenetic]

I know this isn't scrolling but I played Spider Fighter quite a bit.

--F