How many American made shoot em ups are there?

[KimagureMachibuse]

Nearly every shoot em up ever created are made in a japan and there are a couple made in europe but these are not held as in high regard. but the question I'd like to ask is how many are made in the USA not sure if this is gets discussed very often but it has been on my mind for a while.

[Koa Zo]

I'd wager not many after the golden age.
Defender and Centipede of course. Not sure beyond that.

[Steven]

I guess there's always Astrosmash on the Intellivision.

[BrianC]

I'd wager not many after the golden age.
Defender and Centipede of course. Not sure beyond that.

Stargate and Millipede

Phoenix was made in the US. Not sure if it counts, but the original Tempest was also made in the US.

[Jeneki]

Back in the day it was so hard to tell, since the copyright screens were often changed to only show the distributor. "Moon Patrol arcade is a Williams game right?" lol

How about ports made by not-the-original devs, such as several Atari 2600 games?

[pieslice]

DOS era:

Major Stryker
Overkill
Tyrian
Raptor

Early Windows 9x

DemonStar series

[dark]

The stuff on the Atari Lynx was American as well - Gates of Zendocon and Zarlor Mercenary

Trevor McFur on the Atari Jaguar was American.

Armada on Sega Dreamcast comes to mind. There was also a PC sequel to it, I think it was called Armada Online.

Adding to the Dos list:
-Traffic Department 2192 (the devs might have been Canadian actually)
-I think Zone 66 had American devs in the team that made it
-little known game Xyphr (very crude game reminiscent of Sega's Galaxy Force 2 but subject to the limitations of circa 1992 IBM PCs) was made by an American
-Solar Winds and the Star Control series of games have some shmup gameplay in them, even if they are kind of focused on RPG or strategy game elements otherwise


Going back to the early 1980s, probably most shmups on Atari 2600, 5200 and Intellivision that weren't "ports" of the 80s taito namco or sega arcade games like Galaxian or Zaxxon were original American creations. I can't remember all shmups on the platforms but here's a few:
-Pepsi Invaders
-Laser Gates
-Cosmic Ark (does this game count as a shmup?)
-Megamania
-Desert Falcon
-Dreadnaught Factor

[Leander]

Jamestown (I think?)
Assault Shell

[Turrican]

Interesting question.

I'm sure there's plenty more at least through the 7800 age. Planet Smashers?

Of course not forgetting the Zendocon / Zarlor duo on Lynx.

it's with NES / MD that someone in the US decided to drop the ball, ie to not trying to beat Japanese at their own game.

[BrianC]

Pepsi Invaders

This was just a hack of the 2600 Space Invaders that wasn't released to the general public.

[Creamy Goodness]

Back in the day it was so hard to tell, since the copyright screens were often changed to only show the distributor. "Moon Patrol arcade is a Williams game right?" lol

How about ports made by not-the-original devs, such as several Atari 2600 games?

There is a game on the Genesis from EA. But as you mentioned not sure if they developed it or simply published it.

[Atariboy]

River Raid is an obvious one. Created by Carol Shaw on the Atari 2600 for Activision (ports were done by other programmers).

It was one of the earliest vertically scrolling shooters (versus base shooters that were well established and commonplace before River Raid, thanks to Space Invaders being a massive hit in the late 70's). Along with Xevious that saw release to Japanese arcades within a day or two of River Raid's release on the 2600 in the United States, I believe both are in contention for being the first vertically scrolling shmup (I sure can't think of earlier examples).

Some had scrolling starfields and such in the background like Galaxian before this that suggest forward movement through space by your ship at the bottom of the screen. But they were still obviously still base shooters with the graphical effect having no influence on gameplay, enemy movement, etc.

[Untitled1]

a better question would be, how many good ones are there?

[m.sniffles.esq]

Armada on Sega Dreamcast comes to mind. There was also a PC sequel to it, I think it was called Armada Online.

Did that ever get released? I remember an alpha pre-release, but that's it.

Interesting factoid, the Dreamcast Armada had online capabilities, but Sega didn't want a third-party title being able to go online before a Sega developed title. So they made Metro3D yank out all the online options at the last second (which is why the game doesn't have an ending).

I liked the game anyway, but it would have been incredible with online capabilities. Diablo+Asteroids!

[pulsemod]

no mention of williams' other games? even if you don't count robotron 2084, you can't forget sinistar.

lilo & stitch gba has run and gun and space shooting parts, if it counts.

if you get in the territory of shareware and flash games, there's bound to be way more, but that's straying closer and closer to self-published titles.

[davyK]

Asteroids is Western.

Very western in fact. I couldn't imagine a game like that coming from the East. Very rust belt, industrial. I can envisage the cast of The Deer Hunter playing Asteroids in their bar.

[Fingolfin]

IIRC BITD (c. “roughly” 1978-1985ish) there wasn’t (as) much distinction between what would later be called run and gun, twin stick, multidirectional, maze, vector/vector 3D, isometric, tube, rail, first person/third person and side scrolling horizontal and vertical arcade shooting games: they were all “shooters”

Williams

Sinistar “I Hunger!”
Defender
Defender II/Stargate
Robotron 2084
Blaster
Smash TV


Bally/Midway (which links w/ Williams after acquiring rights)

Gorf
Satan’s Hollow
Omega Race
Xenophobe


Stern

Berzerk “Chicken fight like a robot”


Atari

Asteroids (et al re: other later Asteroids games by Atari)
Missile Command
Battlezone
Tempest
Centipede
Millipede
Major Havoc
Star Wars
Xybots
S.T.U.N. Runner
Escape from the Planet of the Monsters


Taito

Space Dungeon
(other Taito games developed in US Qix & Zoo Keeper)



edit to add Taito

[cj iwakura]

Does Sigma Star Saga count? (WayForward)

[BrianC]

Midway also had another arcade sequel to Defender named Strikeforce.

[To Far Away Times]

Robotron is a very good game considering its age. It's not something I'd really recommend today, but it's noticeably better than it's contemporaries, for sure.

[Sima Tuna]

Robotron and Berserk are both way better than they have any right to be, considering their age.

[bottino]

Does Sigma Star Saga count? (WayForward)

Short STG stages doubling as random battles, what a concept! Too bad they're awful though.