List of the 100+ most influential arcade shmups

[toaplan_shmupfan]

Moon Cresta is definitely missing and introduced powering up the ship with an incredible risk of getting hit in later stages, since the slow moving ship got larger and taller as parts I, II, and III were docked.

[BrianC]

Moon Cresta is definitely missing and introduced powering up the ship with an incredible risk of getting hit in later stages, since the slow moving ship got larger and taller as parts I, II, and III were docked.

Terra Cresta is missing as well. That one introduced a unique power up system that seems to have influenced later power up systems.

[The Eidolon]

Edited the list to add Moon Cresta, Terra Cresta and Jet Fighter.
I can't believe I forgot about Moon Cresta, since I used to play
it in the arcade and have its descendant UFO Robo Dangar on the list.

Getting pretty close to 100 games! By my estimate there were well
over 500 arcade shmups released, excluding bootlegs, minor revisions
and alternate region releases. So even this list excludes about
80% of all shmups. (A good chunk of which were crappy Space
Invaders clones it seems...)

[Gespenst]

You forgot XII-Stag, G-Stream G2020, and Trizeal

and Einhander

[The Eidolon]

Einhander was console only, so wouldn't apply to this list. I think the others
were originally arcade releases, so I'll look into them for the next list update.

[The Eidolon]

#2 Jet Fighter (1975)
Maker: Atari

Tags: Black & White, 2P competitive, Overlay
Scrolling: None (Fixed playfield, wraparound)

Jet Fighter is a direct descendant of Kee Games' 1974 release, Tank. Kee was
just a secret subsidiary of Atari to get around distributors' exclusivity requirements,
so it wasn't actually a rip-off. By replacing the ground-based tanks with jet fighters
possessing momentum (they keep flying in a fixed direction when not steered) it
significantly changed the gameplay to make it more of a true shmup. The screen
was black and white, but the cabinet had a blue colored overlay with clouds on it
to create the illusion of color. Space Invaders would use the same technique to
good effect a few years later. Jet Fighter had both 1P and 2P competitive modes,
with 2P requiring two coins. Tank was a hit in the arcade (it saved Atari from near
bankruptcy in 1974) and Jet Fighter was also reasonably successful. But both of those
games will be more familiar as the inspiration for modes in the Atari 2600 game
Combat, which helped kick off the home video game craze of 1977-1983

Useful links: Armchair Arcade, Arcade Flyer Archive, Wikipedia

[ROBOTRON]

Compile's Zanac practically invented the numbered power-up system.

- pfft!

[TrevHead (TVR)]

@TrevHead: Were Tohou, Recca, Geometry Wars ever arcade releases? I can't find any
reference, but sometimes I miss things. I'm arbitrarily limiting the list to arcade releases
to try and keep things manageable. Likewise, Qix was influential but is probably a
borderliner at best. It's impossible to get consensus on exactly what is and is not a
shmup, so one has to go by gut and make a judgment call. Quantum feels more shmup-like
than Qix to me, but probably still isn't a proper shmup.

Likewise, I feel that Robotron 2084 (for example) is a great and very influential game, and
one can see its influence in shmups (including Geometry Wars) even though it isn't a shmup
itself. If one replaced the guy icon in Robotron with a plane, or a spaceship, or a mech, would
that make it a shmup? I have no idea... I like making needlessly elaborate lists more than
making fine judgment calls, so I'll try just to yield to majority opinion on most of this stuff.

whoops i hadnt released its arcade only

[BrianC]

Compile's Zanac practically invented the numbered power-up system.

- pfft!

I think Terra Cresta did it first, though it had numbers that you shot at to open the gates you enter to power up rather than numbered power ups.

[Plasmo]

I can't see how Metal Black and Battle Bakraid were influential...?

[Gespenst]

I can't see how Metal Black and Battle Bakraid were influential...?

Metal Black: That Newalone beam & beam duel system.
Bakraid: The scoring & multiplier system, perhaps?

[BIL]

Metal Black's influence on G-Darius and Border Down is rather insular to Taito/G-Rev, though.

Like undamned said, Cave's Ikeda has cited Garegga's high onscreen bullet count as a direct inspiration for DoDonPachi's, so that's certainly one to consider.

[The Eidolon]

#3 Space Invaders (1978)
Maker: Taito

Tags: Black & White, Overlay, Destructible Shields, Shot Cancellation, 1-Axis Motion, Shot Limit
Scrolling: None (Fixed playfield)

Space Invaders can be said to have truly kicked off the arcade craze, even more than Atari's Pong
a few years earlier. It was also the first Japanese arcade game to become widely popular in the
West. Strange as it seems now when the arcade is virtually extinct outside of Japan, in the early
years Western companies like Atari, Williams, Bally/Midway, Centuri, Stern and Gottlieb were all
significant players. Space Invaders was so popular in Japan that it reportedly caused shortages of
100 yen coins when it was released. (Claims that the Japanese mint had to triple production appear
to be exaggerated; 1978 was actually a relatively low mintage year for 100 yen coins.)

Space Invaders made careful use of its limited hardware. The player could only have one shot on
screen at a time, so the game was as much about careful aiming as dodging. With so many enemies
on screen, the game progressed slowly at first. As they were gradually eliminated, the hardware was
able to produce faster motion, producing an auto-scaling difficulty to counteract the fewer enemies on
screen to make a balanced yet nerve-wracking difficulty curve. The black and white screen was
enhanced with a banded color overlay to produce different colors for the ground and top layers.

Other innovative features included the mysterious bonus point UFOs floating overhead, ground-level
shields destructible by both the player and the invaders, and player/enemy shot cancellation. Multiple
waves or levels of enemies are a shmup standby now, but were also a Space Invaders innovation.
Aesthetically, the enemy sprites are crude but evocative, and appear to be inspired by squid (top row),
octopus (bottom rows), and crabs (middle rows). Maybe Darius wasn't the first sea-creature themed shmup...

Space Invaders' phenomenal success is demonstrated by the horde of bootlegs and clones other companies
released to try to get a share of the action. Taito has repeatedly gone back to the series with re-releases,
sequels and tributes to this day. (Look for the invaders in the harder levels of Bubble Bobble, for example.)
The home release of Space Invaders for the Atari 2600 was a turnaround for that system, making up for
slowish sales from 1977-1979 and putting that console in an industry-dominant position.

Useful links: Wikipedia, Brentradio.com

[The Eidolon]

#4 Galaxian (1979)
Maker: Namco

Tags: 1-Axis Motion, Shot Limit, Technique Bonus, Color
Scrolling: Background only (Fixed playfield)

Galaxian is at heart a Space Invaders clone, but unlike so many other imitators
of Taito's hit, it added enough twists to become a success in its own right. So
the next generation of knock-offs could be called Galaxian clones instead of
Space Invaders clones. Thanks to rapid advances in arcade hardware capability,
Galaxian is visually much evolved over Space Invaders, particularly in its bold use of
color. Color monitors had been in use in the arcade since 1975, but Galaxian seems
to be the first to introduce multicolored sprites for the player and enemy ships. The
background starfield creates a (purely decorative) illusion of motion as bright
twinkling stars flow by.

The enemies have an insect-like appearance as opposed to the aquatic theme of
Space Invaders. They still move in a formation, but rather than progressing down
the screen en masse, individuals and small groups will break off to dive bomb the
player. One major innovation of Galaxian is a technique bonus for scoring. Enemies
are worth much more when picked off while diving than if shot in formation. The
yellow flagships score additional bonuses depending on if they are accompanied by
the red wingmen and whether the wingmen were shot first. This creates a risk/reward
tradeoff in scoring that has much influenced modern shmups. Working through the
formation allows one to finish levels more quickly and safely, but waiting for
dive bombers (a form of score-milking, really) is much more rewarding.

Though the playfield is a single fixed screen, enemies move freely off the bottom or
sides before settling back into formation at the top. Shots are fired in dense clusters
by the strafing Galaxians, and can come down at a variety of angles. The Galaxians
seem perversely fond of kamikaze-style attacks, and will deliberately try to ram into
the player's ship. Space Invaders feels like a race against time, while Galaxian is
more focused on dodging and scoring. Galaxian spawned several sequels, most notably
Galaga, as well as numerous home console ports.

Useful links: Wikipedia, Scoring Guide, Arcade Flyer

[The Eidolon]

#5 Asteroids (1979)
Maker: Atari

Tags: Black & White, Vector, Teleport
Scrolling: None (Fixed playfield, wraparound)

Asteroids was Atari's best selling arcade cabinet of all time, moving over 56,000
units. Because of its phenomenal sales, hundreds of Lunar Lander cabinets were
requisitioned for use in Asteroids instead (some of which still had "Lunar Lander"
on the cabinet). The first vector graphics arcade game seems to have been
Cinematronics' Space Wars (1977), which was itself an adaptation of the
1962 PDP-1 mainframe game Spacewar. Atari introduced it's first vector graphics
games two years later, with Lunar Lander and then Asteroids.

Asteroids featured full two-axis motion with a complicated mix of thrust and rotation
buttons (no joystick!) to maintain control. The player ship had momentum and only
very slowly coasted to a halt after finishing a thruster burn. Both the player and
asteroids could wrap freely from one edge of the playfield to the other. Asteroids also
gave the player a risky "hyperspace" button to teleport to a random location on screen,
unlimited in use but potentially instantly fatal. This "panic button" feature can be seen
as the ancestor of bombs in modern shmups, giving an overwhelmed player a chance
to survive a tight situation, though hyperspace was purely defensive in nature.

Because asteroids divide when shot, one can easily get overwhelmed by firing blindly.
Careful strategic play is rewarded. To keep the game from getting too easy when the
field is mostly clear, one of two types of UFOs will show up from time to time to snipe
at the player (small) or at random (large). UFO hunting was a popular form of score
milking. By leaving only one small asteroid left one could hunt the high-point UFOs
indefinitely. Perhaps this is a reason why later shmups have learned to be wary of
offering unlimited bonus lives or levels without a boss timer before it will flee or
self-destruct to limit such milking...

Useful links: Wikipedia, Arcade-history.com, Vector Graphics

[The Eidolon]

Well, the list is up to 100 now. I had forgotten Centipede, among a few others.
Still working on researching the mini summaries. Are any people finding those
entertaining/informative? It would take quite a while to get through all 100,
but it's been interesting to research. A lot of games that I had thought were
the first to have a feature turn out not to be...

For example, I had thought Gorf might be the first multi-stage shooter with
distinct stages, but it's preceded by obscure games like Astro Fighter and
Gingateokoku no Gyakushuu. 1980 had an amazing variety of poor-quality
knock-off shmups. Everybody seems to have been copying everyone else's
ideas in search of a hit. A lot of novel ideas that caught on, but few
memorable games.

By the way, for games earlier than those listed in the "Chronology of Shooting",
I'm looking for good references for the release month of games. Most sources
only give the year, but there are several cases where I'd like to know which
game came first within a year to know which was first to introduce a feature.
Any (helpful) suggestions would be appreciated!

[The Eidolon]

#6 Centipede (1980)
Maker: Atari

Tags: Trackball, Technique bonus, 2-D control, Analog motion, Color
Scrolling: None (Fixed playfield)

Centipede was one of the earliest shmups to give the player full two-axis
control. You are still limited to the bottom fifth of the screen, but within that
range the player can move freely. The trackball provides variable-speed
movement and allows finesse of control, although for a beginning player it
causes one to careen off into the spider as often as not.

Structurally, the influence of Space Invaders is clear. A massed formation
of enemies moves down the screen in a regular pattern, and when it gets
to the bottom, the player is in deep trouble. Unlike Space Invaders, a
bottom-dwelling foe is not game over--the player can dodge above it
vertically and try to stay alive, but things get much trickier. The mushroom
field gives the game most of its distinctive character. Both the player and
all the enemies interact with the mushrooms to change the game's dynamic
from round to round. By shooting mushrooms to eliminate them and shooting
centipede segments to produce them in a controlled manner, the player can
try to shepherd the centipede onto useful paths where it can be killed quickly and
safely. Or one can maximize scoring by shooting the head repeatedly (which
produces a new head in the next segment), which is worth more than shooting
the trailing segments. The spider, fleas and scorpion all interact with the
mushroom field in different ways, and struggle with the player over control of
the playfield. Obstacle-based control of the enemy movement was a novel
feature which has rarely been incorporated in other shmups.

Centipede was one of the first arcade games with a woman designer (Donna
Bailey, along with Ed Logg). Anecdotally, it was also one of the more popular
games with female players, at least until Ms. Pac-Man came along. Centipede's
direct descends include Millipede as wall as countless home ports, from the
Atari 2600 (which came with a comic book explaining the "story") to various
crappy cell phone versions in the present day.

Useful links: Wikipedia, StrategyWiki, Flyer

[The Eidolon]

#7 Defender (1980)
Maker: Williams

Tags: Map, Bombs, Teleport, Resource Management, Branching Levels, Color, Radar
Scrolling: Horizontal 2-Way Free-Scrolling

Now this is a scrolling shooter. As far as I can find, Defender was the first
scrolling shmup ever, and thus is the ancestor of nearly everything we play today.
Being a Williams game, it featured needlessly complicated controls and frenetic
gameplay. The plot, such as it is, involved defending the Earth's few remaining
human survivors from aliens who try and abduct them and convert them into
hostile hybrid mutants. If all the humans are wiped out, the game does not
end, but switches to a harder punishment mode for a number of levels, so
Defender is also one of the earliest games to feature branching level paths. The
humans are surprisingly vulnerable to long vertical drops and stray laser cannon
shots, so care must taken to avoid "friendly fire" incidents.

Defender seems to have taken some inspiration from Battlezone, for the persistent
world and scanner view of events happening off-screen, and Asteroids for part of
the control scheme (hyperspace, thrust with inertia). Defender adds a now industry
standard screen-clearing smart bomb (given as a fixed number and replenished with
score rather than lives, though) as well as a strange thrust/reverse system of
horizontal control and a one-axis joystick for vertical movement. Defender has a
very high initial degree of difficulty, compounded by the non-intuitive controls, but in
spite of that it was an unexpected hit for Williams.

In spite of kicking off the horizontal scrolling shooter genre, Defender's idiosyncratic
style spawned relatively few imitators compared to other games on this list. It had
a (less) successful sequel, Stargate, which was even more complicated, and a number of
console ports. But the archetype for the scrolling shooter more closely resembles the
following year's Scramble than Defender, in spite of all the latter's innovations.

Useful links: Wikipedia, The Dot Eaters, Gamasutra

[The Eidolon]

#8 Moon Cresta (1980)
Maker: Nichibutsu

Tags: Power Ups, Docking, Multi-Component Ship, Lives Different
Scrolling: Background Only (Fixed Playfield)

Moon Cresta feels like some sort of an illegitimate sibling stuck between Galaxian
and Galaga, with Nichibutsu as the parent instead of Namco. The scrolling starfield
in the background and colorful, kamikaze diving aliens seem borrowed from Galaxian.
Returning the favor, Galaga swipes the multi-life/ship docking mechanic for power ups
from Moon Cresta. It's a novel way to increase firepower, but at great risk to your
reserve lives. In Moon Cresta, you have no choice, but Galaga makes it an optional,
"secret" technique.

Oddly, the aliens in Moon Cresta never fire. Their only method of attack is suicide
collision with the player ship. But their irregular movement and much faster speed
than the player make the game surprisingly difficult. Only a single shot is allowed on
screen as a time, so precise aim is crucial to pick off the aliens before they can ram
you. The first "life" is much more difficult than the others, as the ship fires only a
single narrow shot. Lives II and III have a double shot, but are wider ships and thus
harder to dodge with. Combing ships by docking adds both the advantages and
disadvantages by increasing one's firepower while becoming a fatter target.

Moon Cresta's unique power up system was not much copied, outside of Galaga and its
own direct offspring, Terra Cresta and UFO Robo Dangar. But the idea of power ups is
almost fundamental to shmups these days (with a few exceptions, like Ikaruga), and Moon
Cresta seems to have done it first, so its influence was tremendous, if indirect. Each of the
three lives having a different player size and thus difficulty shows up in the console game
"Kaboom!", of all places, although it may be a case of independent development.

Useful links: Wikipedia, KLOV, Flyers

[lgb]

This list is "terrible". There are too many games that simply continue old concepts, and it's restricted to arcade-only shmups (at the least, mention that in the topic). And somewhat beside the point, but you mention the names assigned to various console ports while choosing not to mention alternate titles for various releases of the arcade game itself, to which I can only say "huh?"

Just a thought: if your knowledge of shmups ends at 1996, it is highly recommended you stop right there and publish a list of what you know before you begin asking any communities. Right now, that list seems full of fanboy remarks which is something I'm sure you want to avoid, other than your own.

[The Eidolon]

@lgb It says arcade only in the very first post. I've added that to the topic line
as well so as to avoid any misunderstandings. Arcade only is a more manageable
scope than including consoles, since hardly anyone has owned enough consoles
over this period to get a feel for everything that might be out there. I couldn't
even begin to estimate the best shmups for the Spectrum of the MSX or whatnot,
since I've never seen or played on them. I feel I have a pretty good grasp on
the arcade scene from 1978 to 1996 or so, but I certainly haven't played everything.

The later part of the list is more vague and may either be revised, dropped or if
someone who knows some of the titles better than I wants to give his take, that
would certainly be welcome. If the choices for the later third of the list offend
you, feel free do disregard them. If you feel that I need to become an expert on
all shmups from all time periods before I earn the right to consult the "community"
on a public forum, I will have to respectfully disagree.

[lgb]

I noticed that, and based my post around that. I have a problem with it because "just arcade games", like "just console games", seems awfully limiting to me. To each his own, obviously.

Actually, I was saying that you should proceed in the direction you have outlined just there. Remove the latter list if you so choose, because it's not helping and it's not accurate. "Learning more about every shmups to consult with the community" isn't a bit more helpful than the support-the-genre arguments that I've heard everywhere; play the games you enjoy, of course.

[toaplan_shmupfan]

I'm not at all bothered by the fact the earlier shmups are considered to be the most influential, because they introduced a lot of concepts that made it into console versions of the game or console games inspired by the original arcade game.

The Atari 2600 Space Invaders cartridge is a good example of this. The basic game was good enough (not arcade perfect, but then again invader laser bombs did not cancel player base laser beams, and the difficulty A setting made the player base a HUGE target for invader laser bombs). But then they added variations not yet seen in the arcade space invaders such as moving shields, zigzagging laser bombs (not the same as the straight dropping squiggly laser bombs in the arcade version), fast laser bombs (also fast + zigzagging), invisible invaders, two player simultaneous play, two player partnership variations... they really outdid the original arcade version with that cartridge, IMHO.

Another console game from the same system that comes to mind is Activitions Megamania. The game was clearly inspired by Sega/Gremlin's Astro Blaster but missing the following elements from Astro Blaster:

No Warp (however, the later stages stop or slow down and then speed up on their own).
No Laser Overheat.
No Game-ending fuel drain (losing all the energy only loses a ship, not the entire game).

By the way, where would Astro Blaster fit in as influential? First game to introduce a player initiated slowdown (Warp button)? First game to punish a player for firing too quickly/too much (laser overheated)? First game to have a mid-game buy-in to extend play (note: NOT to continue, when player was low on fuel they could add a coin for extra fuel for the current game)? Definitely, had to be one of the first games to have secret bonuses awarded to the player only when certain criteria was awarded. Probably not the first game to have several distinct stages of enemy attacks, and definitely not the first game to have docking.

[The Eidolon]

@Toaplan_shmupfam:
Wow, you weren't kidding about Astro Blaster being the inspiration for Megamania!
The resemblance is striking. I'm not sure if Sega could have won a lawsuit against
Activision, but they cut it pretty fine. Many licensed 2600 arcade ports don't bear
as close a resemblance to the game they are supposed to be as Megamania does
to Astroblaster. Anyway, I'll add it to the next revision of the list. It has a lot going
on that was pretty novel for 1981. I must have never seen it in the arcade in my
youth, because I think I would have remembered it...

[The Eidolon]

#9 Phoenix (1980)
Maker: Amstar

Tags: Variable Shot Limit, Stages, Boss, Technique Bonus, Shield
Scrolling: Background Only (Fixed Playfield)

One of the few Shmups named after a city in Arizona, Amstar's Phoenix was more
significantly one of the earliest games with multiple distinct stages. Data East's Astro
Fighter, Irem's 銀河帝国の逆襲 (Gingateikoku no Gyakushuu aka UniWarS) and Nichibutsu's
Moon Cresta all came out in 1980 with multiple stages of distinct enemies, so it's unclear
which implemented the idea first. Phoenix went beyond mere sprite swaps and minor enemy
movement variations to make three completely different types of stages.

The first two stages involve fighting waves of diving small phoenix creatures. Oddly, the second
stage allows two shots on screen at a time, a privilege not allowed on any of the other stages.
The third and forth stages are rows of eggs which can be shot while small (for less points)
or as giant phoenix birds. The birds must be struck in the center to be killed. The wings can
be shot individually, making Phoenix also one of the first games to introduce enemies with
multiple distinct destructible pieces. Shooting both wings causes them to regenerate from the
center. Like Galaxian, Phoenix has a complicated technique-based scoring system when destroying
the large and small enemies with variable score based on altitude, whether they are in formation, etc.

Phoenix is also one of the earliest games to have a boss, which takes up the entire fifth stage. The
Alien at the center of a large ship must be defeated by penetrating its thick armor (some of which
rotates) with a carefully timed shot. Meanwhile the ship shoots as it descends towards the player,
and is protected by a squadron of the small phoenix ships from stages 1-2. The player has a shield
button with unlimited uses but a several second recharge time. It fixes the player ship in place when
used, making it a matter of luck whether it shuts off just when a shot is coming in.

Amstar only made handful of games before fading from the scene, of which Phoenix was by far the most
successful. It had many imitators, from home ports (Atari had the license, and sued Imagic for making
Demon Attack too similar) to clones and bootlegs in the arcade. For a sequel, the distributor, Centuri,
collaborated with Tekhan (now Tecmo) to make the game Pleaids/Pleaides.

Useful links: Wikipedia, Flyer, StrategyWiki

[martyg]

Even Ketsui is a cult classic and fantastic game at best (or so I hear).

That's another one where you might consider going back farther...Omega Fighter (afaik) is the one that pioneered the "closer to enemies = more points" scoring system.

Actually that would be Centipede. The closer you are to the spider when you shoot it the more points you're awarded.

[martyg]

@Toaplan_shmupfam:
Wow, you weren't kidding about Astro Blaster being the inspiration for Megamania!
The resemblance is striking. I'm not sure if Sega could have won a lawsuit against
Activision, but they cut it pretty fine. Many licensed 2600 arcade ports don't bear
as close a resemblance to the game they are supposed to be as Megamania does
to Astroblaster. Anyway, I'll add it to the next revision of the list. It has a lot going
on that was pretty novel for 1981. I must have never seen it in the arcade in my
youth, because I think I would have remembered it...

Most of the Activision games of that time were copied from earlier arcade games (more from Atari's than anything).

[martyg]

#5 Asteroids (1979)
Maker: Atari

Tags: Black & White, Vector, Teleport
Scrolling: None (Fixed playfield, wraparound)

Asteroids was Atari's best selling arcade cabinet of all time, moving over 56,000
units. Because of its phenomenal sales, many a Lunar Lander cabinet never
came to be, its parts cannibalized to meet the demand for its more popular
vector graphics cousin.

The cabinets were simply converted, conversions were common in this pre-JAMMA period. Only about 200 Lunar Landers were done in to Asteroids cabs.

Here's an example of a Red Baron in to Battlezone conversion:

The first vector graphics arcade game seems to have
been Cinematronics' Space Wars (1979),

That was released in 1977.

Asteroids featured full two-axis motion with a complicated mix of thrust and rotation
buttons (no joystick!) to maintain control. The player ship had momentum and only
very slowly coasted to a halt after finishing a thruster burn. Both the player and
asteroids could wrap freely from one edge of the playfield to the other. Asteroids also
gave the player a risky "hyperspace" button to teleport to a random location on screen,
unlimited in use but potentially instantly fatal. This "panic button" feature can be seen
as the ancestor of bombs in modern shmups, giving an overwhelmed player a chance
to survive a tight situation, though hyperspace was purely defensive in nature.

For future reference for your writeups, the proper tense is current. I.E. the game features, the player ship has, both the player and the asteroids can, etc. Events and things no longer in existence are done in past tense.

field is mostly clear, a UFO will show up from time to time to snipe at the player.

Only the small UFO shoots at the player, the large one shoots randomly and towards a bounding box when it does shoot at the player.

[The Eidolon]

Thanks for the corrections on Asteroids, I didn't know about the two different
types of UFO behavior. Date on Space Wars has been fixed.

[captpain]

Keep 'em coming... these are fun to read.