List of the 100+ most influential arcade shmups

[The Eidolon]

#22 Sinistar (1982)
Maker: Williams

Tags: Radar, Boss, Voice, Persistent World, Stereo
Scrolling: 4-way free-scrolling

Sinistar--it's two games in one! For the player, it's a shooter, and for the AI, it's a
real time strategy game. It has: 1) a key resource to be mined and exploited (crystals)
2) a persistent world map 3) various specialized units that can be assigned to mining,
defense and offense 4) a high-cost super-unit to mop things up. OK, maybe Sinistar is
not exactly an RTS game, but it has a very sophisticated division of labor among the
enemy ships, which was groundbreaking for 1982. There are workers who can transport
crystals to build the Sinistar, and try to steal them as you mine them from planetoids.
They also use suicide tactics to ram your sinibombs and protect the Sinistar. The warriors
will harass you with fire if close, but otherwise will mine planetoids for crystals. And the
Sinistar is there to scare the hell out of you.

Sinistar has a number of elements which have evolved from Williams earlier shooter hit,
Defender. It has a large, persistent map with a radar to track enemies who can act even
when off screen. Like Defender, there's more to do than just shoot things up, in Defender,
the "resource" to defend is humans, while in Sinistar it is crystals. Sinistar adds a dimension
by having full 2D free-scrolling, instead of a linear band. Like many early Williams games,
Sinistar has an idiosyncratic control scheme: a 49-position joystick which enables fine control
of acceleration on two axes. Sinistar had a much lower production run than Defender, but has
spawned a cult following. It had few contemporary ports--an Atari 2600 translation was
scrapped (probably mercifully, given the 2600's limited hardware), so the first real home ports
were in Williams arcade collections of the 90's. Reportedly, the sit-down version of Sinistar
was the first arcade game to feature stereo sound.

Useful links: KLOV, FLyer, Strategywiki, Coffee with Sinistar

[toaplan_shmupfan]

There will always be hard cases, such as why Zaxxon is on the list, with a 3-D isometric perspective, but would not be if the same game had a behind-the-ship
perspective.

However, the Coleco version of Zaxxon for the Atari 2600 was a behind the ship perpective. The game had a persistent buzzing sound, and in two player mode at the hardest level, had a bug where the ship moved too fast to avoid certain electronic barriers above the wall so loss of a single turn at that point was essentially game over.

The warriors will harass you with fire if close, but otherwise will mine planetoids for crystals.

The warriors will also persistently circle the player's ship and even follow it while circling once the warriors have decided to attack the player's ship. A well timed/well placed shot from the player's ship can actually take out a single warrior shot.

It has a large, persistent map with a radar to track enemies who can act even when off screen.

It also has a message area. The game will provide message updates in certain points of the game such as "Entering swarm of Planetoids", "Crystal saved for Warp Engines" (means that all 20 crystals have been mined, and no extra crystals can be obtained even if they continue to award points for being collected), "Sinistar is now in scanner range" (important because the Sinistar cannot be attacked by Sinibombs when off the scanner), "Sinibomb Attack Damaged Target", "Sinibomb Intercepted"... plus a couple of other messages I can't recall at the moment.

[Drum]

Nice to see Omega Fighter on there, love that game.

Might I suggest:

Red Clash (1981). Early vertical scrolling shmup.

Also: Chouji Meikyuu Legion (1987). Not fully emulated on MAME yet, but still very playable. Great graphics for the time, and lots of clever gimmicks - the most astonishing of which is the ability to rewind time with your 'time bomb' weapon. That probably didn't influence many shmups, and it was only picked up later as a mechanic in other genres (who almost certainly weren't influenced by it) but it's so cool that it deserves a mention anyway.

[The Eidolon]

#23 Time Pilot (1982)
Maker: Konami

Tags: Boss, Time Travel, Formation Bonus
Scrolling: 4-way free-scrolling

Time Pilot is a game which never should have existed. Hired by Konami as an illustrator,
creator Yoshiki Okamoto was assigned to create a driving game. He grew bored with the
task and created Time Pilot on the side instead, without telling his boss. Time Pilot was a
huge hit for Konami, so he got away with this gamble (apparently his boss claimed credit
for the idea). He went on to create Gyruss for Konami, then jumped ship to Capcom where
he made a little game called 1942...

Technically, Time Pilot wasn't particularly groundbreaking. Bosconian had introduced 4-way
free-scrolling (with bosses) to shmups a year earlier. Likewise, the formation bonus you get
from shooting down a complete set of ships had been around since at least Galaxian. But
somehow, with its colorful graphics, satisfying explosion sounds, varied enemy ships and
bosses, and creative time travel theme, Time Pilot puts everything together into a fun,
addictive package.

Gameplay involves shooting 56 ordinary enemy ships in each time period, enabling a larger boss
ship to appear. Several hits to the boss (or one unfortunate collision) will take it out and warp the
player to the next era. Levels include 1910 (biplanes, zeppelin boss), 1940 (monoplanes, bomber
sub-boss, large bomber boss), 1970 (helicopters, large helicopter boss) 1982 or 1983 (year depends
on Konami or Centuri version, jet plane enemies, bomber boss) and the distant future of 2001 (UFO's,
large UFO boss). In each era, downed allied pilots can be flown over for a linearly increasing score
bonus. Enemy ships start out slow and unmaneuverable, with limited firepower, but grow more
challenging with each era, particularly after they acquire guided missiles (which can be shot down)
in 1970. Enemies come on screen as individuals or in wing-shaped formations, which score a
special bonus if completely destroyed. The player ship can fly freely in any direction, but it cannot
stop or reverse direction, and it has a limited turning speed. The screen border acts as an "out of
sight, out of mind" demarcation, so one can scroll inconvenient enemies (or guided missiles)
off screen and then curve back and they will not reappear. If the boss scrolls off screen, he will
reappear shortly somewhere else, undamaged.

Time Pilot was ported to several contemporary systems, including the Atari 2600, ColecoVision, and
MSX, as well as several modern compilations. It had a less successful sequel, Time Pilot '84.
Time Pilot probably inspired a number of other time travel-themed arcade shmups, such as
Sky Soldiers and Sky Adventure. Time Pilot established the template that no matter what kind of
WW2 (or WW1) era planes you start out fighting, you are likely to be up against aliens in the end...

Useful links: StrategyWiki, Flyer, KLOV, Okamoto Interview

[The Eidolon]

#24 Xevious (1982)
Maker: Namco

Tags: Bombing Reticle, Secrets, Rank, Boss, Setback
Scrolling: Vertical

Xevious is arguably the first modern shmup. Though not the first shooter to have
a vertical orientation, Xevious seems to be the first one to have two separate planes
of game play, with both ground and air targets. Your ship (called "Solvalou") has
a forward shooting "zapper" for aerial enemies, and a "blaster" bomb to target
ground-based enemies at a point in front of your ship marked with a reticle. The
ground enemies are predetermined based on each level, but the airborne enemies
are variable, based on a sophisticated rank system. Depending on how quickly and
thoroughly one defeats enemy ships, the AI assigns harder and harder enemy types
in response. One ground target, the glowing "Zolbak" is itself defenseless, but acts
as a radar station directing the attack of aerial foes. One can bomb it to decrease
one's rank temporarily. Game creator Endo Masanobu says he strove for a more
realistic approach for enemy behavior than other shmups. Enemies avoid suicide
attacks, but instead come onscreen in waves, rush up to get a clear shot at the
player's ship, and then attempt to escape off-screen.

Xevious is also one of the earliest Shmups to include secret bonuses. Scattered across
the map are invisible targets which can be bombed to become visible and then bombed
again for bonus points. Some secret targets, the obelisks called "Sol Citadels" are at
a fixed spot, and their locations are hinted at by a change in the color of the bombing
reticle as one flies over. More valuably, hidden flags give an extra life, but they are
not signaled by the bombing reticle, and occur at a random horizontal position at certain
points on the map, making them harder to find. Raiden DX appears to have been strongly
influenced by Xevious with its hidden bonus point obelisks. In fact, the Raiden series in
general seems influenced in style and tone by Xevious' lonely, desolate, arboreal world
overrun by mysterious aliens. Xevious' influence can also be seen in other reticle shooters,
such Dragon Spirit, Fighter & Attacker and many others. More sophisticated versions of the
targeting reticle, such as in the Rayforce series and Soukyugurentai, also harken back to Xevious.

Xevious also has a boss, the alien mother ship known as Andor Genesis. It can be attacked by
bombing its gun ports or taken down with a single hit to the central core (or one can just hang
back and outwait it). The Boss occurs 4 times over Xevious' 16 areas. Area demarkations are
not stated, but always occur over a band of dense forest. Loss of a life will set one back (or
forward) to the beginning of a level, depending on whether or not one had passed 70% of the
current area before losing a ship. The 16 levels are actually partially overlapping long thin
vertical bands taken out of one large map, with the ground terrain pattern determining the
ground targets encountered. On the far left of the map is the famous Nazca-styled line drawing
of a giant bird for which the Xevious series is known.

Xevious was much more successful in Japan than in the West. Its creator apparently wasn't
interested in a sequel, and eventually left Namco to form his own company. Namco made its
own series of sequels, including Super Xevious, Grobda, Solvalou, Xevious 3D/G, as well as
many home ports and compilations. Xevious may have also started the (unfortunate?) tradition
of having a needlessly complicated backstory in shmups. Endo actually wrote a novelization of
the Xevious story in 1991, which is thankfully not necessary to one's enjoyment of the game.
There's even a Xevian language and alphabet invented for the series.

Useful links: Flyer, Hardcore Gaming 101, KLOV, Strategywiki

[EinhanderZwei]

Enemies avoid suicide
attacks, but instead come onscreen in waves, rush up to get a clear shot at the
player's ship, and then attempt to escape off-screen.

Funnily enough, that's the reason I don't like this game

Xevious may have also started the (unfortunate?) tradition
of having a needlessly complicated backstory in shmups.

Hey hey... There are people who do care about the shmup storylines, so as long as they exist, this tradition is not unfortunate

[The Eidolon]

Enemies avoid suicide
attacks, but instead come onscreen in waves, rush up to get a clear shot at the
player's ship, and then attempt to escape off-screen.

Funnily enough, that's the reason I don't like this game

Ha! Actually, I feel about the same. I have a lot of respect for Xevious as a
groundbreaking game, but I was never really able to get into it. Maybe with a
bit of a spread shot power-up like from Xevious 3D/G one could chase down
enemies more easily without them running away. I can't even make it past the
first Andor Genesis, anyway...

Xevious may have also started the (unfortunate?) tradition
of having a needlessly complicated backstory in shmups.

Hey hey... There are people who do care about the shmup storylines, so as long as they exist, this tradition is not unfortunate

Sorry, I was trying to be tongue-in-cheek! Nothing wrong with a backstory, so long as it's optional
to enjoying the game. My favorite backstories are the Saikyo games, which make no sense whatsoever.

[toaplan_shmupfan]

I think Xevious is good until just after the second mothership, then the playability goes way downhill (in my opinion). I can tolerate the smaller black ball enemies that explode into single shots per ball, but those larger black ball enemies that flicker red for a moment and then explode into a large spread of shots, some of which appear to even have homing characteristics, that is not my idea of a fair challenge.

The other enemies don't bother me, even with the rank increase, it just means more enemy formations to shoot down which means more points.

[The Eidolon]

#25 Zaxxon (1982)
Maker: Sega

Tags: Boss, Fuel, Isometric, Setback
Scrolling: Isometric diagonal

The development of shmups has not been a uniform progression. Somewhere along the
path from Space Invaders to the archetypal 90's shmup (upgradable pea-shooter gun,
three bombs, three lives, two player co-op, vertical scrolling, big boss at the level's end,
etc.), a number of innovations have been tried and then largely abandoned. It may not be
immediately obvious why separate lives is superior to a health bar, to pick one example,
but years of trial-and-error have settled on one option instead of the other because, in
most cases, it just works better. In that spirit, allow me to offer a hypothesis: The
essence of a shoot-em-up is in precision dodging, which only really works properly in a
pure 2D setting. Even though Zaxxon was a very popular and successful game, it serves
partly as a cautionary example of why an isometric perspective (or 3D in general) isn't
particularly well-suited to shmups.

In terms of gameplay, Zaxxon has you piloting a single ship through a series of space
fortresses and deep space along a forced-scrolling diagonal axis. You have freedom of
movement along the two axes perpendicular to the ships forward motion, but no control
at all over forward speed. Along with dodging enemy ships and gun emplacements,
much of the challenge comes from navigating the narrow gaps in the walls of the fortresses
without crashing your ship. To compensate for the inherent ambiguity of projecting a
3D space onto a 2D plane, Zaxxon uses various visual cues to signal your position: an
altitude gauge, your ship's shadow, a crosshairs, and the contact point of your ship's fire
against barriers. In spite of all this, especially in the deep space segments, it can be very
difficult to tell if you and enemy ships are on the same plane, or if your shots (and theirs)
will pass harmlessly over or under each other. As in Scramble, your ship has a fuel gauge,
which is inexplicably refilled by blowing up enemy fuel tanks. At the end of the second
fortress, one faces a giant robot boss, who must be shot on his missile arm six times before
he fires on you to finish the level and start the next loop. (The missile can also be blown
up after it is launched for fewer points.)

Zaxxon was the first arcade game to use an isometric perspective, which made it visually
quite striking for 1982. It was quite popular, and had a large number of home conversions
and unofficial clones. Only a few later games would implement Zaxxon's perspective,
including Sega's own Super Zaxxon and Future Spy, as well as Sammy's 1992 game Viewpoint.
The Star Wars arcade game (1983) also seems influenced by Zaxxon's 3D gameplay and
dodge-though-gaps-in-the-walls mechanic, but substitutes a first-person cockpit view.

Useful links: Flyer, KLOV, StrategyWiki, Wikipedia

[toaplan_shmupfan]

In spite of all this, especially in the deep space segments, it can be very difficult to tell if you and enemy ships are on the same plane, or if your shots (and theirs) will pass harmlessly over or under each other.

One other visual clue is the size/scaling of the ship at different altitudes. This is very useful in the deep space segments (compare the player's scale with the enemy plane scale), because there is also a short lock-on beep that occurs when the player has a direct hit possibe on an enemy plane.

[The Eidolon]

#26 Gyruss (1983)
Maker: Konami

Tags: Stereo, Power-Up, Music, Bonus Stage
Scrolling: None (Fixed screen, wraparound tube layout)

Okamoto Yoshiki's follow up to Time Pilot, Gyruss, wears its influences on its sleeve.
With the bonus stages, enemies flying on screen in formations, and double shot
power up, Gyruss appears clearly influenced by Namco's Galaga. (Fortunately,
Gyruss does not force you to sacrifice a reserve ship to earn a power-up. Shooting
the spherical satellite enemy causes one's ship to earn a double cannon automatically.)
The other dominant influence on Gyruss appears to be Atari's Tempest. Gyruss adopts
the tube-shaped screen layout and applies it to a more traditional space-themed shmup.

The wraparound gameplay and tube perspective are mostly an aesthetic design choice.
Gyruss could have been turned inside-out to make more of a straight Galaga knockoff
with very little change to the gameplay. But the tube layout does create a sense of
forward motion, and enhances the theme of a lone ship making the long and dangerous
journey back to Earth. In terms of controls, Gyruss is similar to Okamoto's own Time
Pilot in that moving towards a cardinal direction moves the ship towards that side of
the screen. This can be counterintuitive compared to Tempest's spinner (and also much
slower!), as the ship will stop moving once it settles on that side. But with a little practice
the controls become intuitive, like almost all well-designed shooters.

One notable feature of Gyruss is the soundtrack. It features an adaptation of Bach's
Toccata and Fugue in D minor. The music is unusually well done for a shmup of that
era, and using a classical piece for inspiration is also a novel choice. Sinistar introduced
stereo sound a bit earlier than Gyruss (at least for the sit-down version), but Gyruss
was still one of the earliest shmups to use two channel sound.

Gyruss was a successful arcade release, and was ported to several contemporary home
systems, including the Atari 2600, 5200, and 8-Bit computers, as well as the ColecoVision
and Commodore 64. Gyruss would be Okamoto's last game for Konami, after which he
left (or was fired, by some accounts) to join Capcom. His next game, the notoriously
long 1942, took Gyruss' "long journey" theme applied it to a WW2 setting.

Useful links: Flyer, KLOV, Wikipedia, StrategyWiki

[The Eidolon]

#27 Gaplus [Galaga 3] (1984)
Maker: Namco

Tags: Power-Up, Bonus Stage, Enemy Capture, Technique Bonus, Extra Life Pieces, Setback
Scrolling: None (Fixed screen)

Gaplus is Namco's confusingly-named sequel to Galaxian and Galaga. Presumably, "Gaplus"
is short for Galaga Plus, or perhaps Galaxian Plus. Being released in the teeth of the 1983-4
video game crash, Gaplus was not nearly as successful as its two predecessors. (Fixed-screen
shooters had also fallen somewhat out of fashion in the post-Scramble era...) In an attempt to
increase the game's visibility and build on the popularity of the Galaga name, Namco released
a retitled version as "Galaga 3." Enigmatically, there is no game named Galaga 2, unless Galaga
itself is meant to be Galaga 2 as the second game in the series, after Galaxian.

Nomenclature aside, Gaplus is a fine late example of the fixed screen shooter. It ups the difficulty
considerably compared to Galaga, making it less approachable to a beginner. The regular stages,
numbered by "Parsecs," proceed similarly to Galaga, with waves of insect-themed enemies swarming
on screen and assembling in formation at the top of the screen. After the formation has been assembled,
a queen-type enemy appears, with a power-up in tow. When the queen is shot twice it is destroyed, and
the power up drops down to dock with the player's ship. Unless the queen is shot while still in formation,
in which case the power up is destroyed. The power-ups include a double shot upgrade, a tractor beam,
and reportedly several other types of shot upgrades which your author sadly has not been skilled enough
to verify (so far). Bonus stages let one "juggle" enemy ships with one's cannon(s) to earn points by
spelling out bonus words. Some very difficult stages have the star field scroll backward, and the enemies
do not swarm into a formation, but instead loop around near the bottom of the screen, often trying to
ram the player's ship in a kamikaze attack. Memorization is very helpful on these "reverse" stages. Losing
a life on any stage stats one back at the beginning of the stage if the enemies have not finished swarming
on-screen. After the queen appears, loss of a life causes one to continue in mid-stage.

The tractor beam is a variant of Galaga's ship capture/double ship power-up. Instead of giving up a reserve
life to a tractor beam, you are the one with the beam. You can capture up to six enemy craft to stick along
side your main ship and increase your firepower proportionately. (If you have a double shot, the captured
enemies do, too.) These wingmen can make quick work of enemy formations, but are hard to keep alive
as your effective hit box becomes very large. Only a direct hit on your actual ship loses a life, though. The
enemy capture mechanic s Gaplus' most distinctive feature, and has been adapted by other shmups,
particularly G-Darius.

Extra lives can be earned by points or in pieces in a mechanic reminiscent of spelling out "EXTRA" in Mr. Do
(or, later, "EXTEND" in Bubble Bobble). In Galaga, you can assemble three ship pieces by rescuing them
from enemy queen ships. The pieces are stored on the lower right corner of the screen, and when all
three are collected, form into a single extra life in a method reminiscent of Moon Cresta. (Unlike Moon
Cresta, this is purely a visual effect, partial ship have no effect on gameplay until completed.)

As a late-period fixed screen shooter in a year when scrolling shooters were becoming predominant,
Gaplus didn't have quite the level of influence of its two predecessors. Partly due to the video game
crash, Gaplus doesn't seem to have been ported to any contemporary home systems (though heaven
knows Namco has not been shy about releasing its arcade back catalog in modern compilations). Gaplus
did free the fixed-screen shooter from the player's ship being stuck on a line at the bottom of the screen.
(Actually, Centipede did it first, come to think of it.) And the enemy capture gimmick was fun and
influential for later shmups. Most importantly, Gaplus (and later Galaga '88) helped keep the fixed-screen
shooter format alive, through the long dry spell until modern games like Space Invaders Extreme would
revisit the genre.

Useful links: Flyers (Galaga 3, Gaplus), KLOV, Wikipedia, Some very extensive Japanese guide I am too lazy to read through

[The Eidolon]

#28 Two Tigers (1984)
Maker: Bally Midway

Tags: 2P co-op, 2P versus, Unlimited Lives, Time Limit
Scrolling: None (Fixed screen)

In the beginning, all shmups (and all arcade games) were two player. Thanks to primitive
technology and the lack of meaningful opponent AI, early games like Computer Space, Pong
and Tank were all simple player versus player tests of skill. As technology and programming
skill improved, games were able to offer a more meaningful single player experience, and two
player alternating play became the norm for shooters. And finally, in "modern" shmups, (Twin
Cobra and after, I suppose) two player simultaneous coop play took over. Two Tigers is a
unique hybrid, with selectable two player versus or coop modes, (as well as single player).

The game is set in World War 2, with each player piloting a tiger moth biplane to attack or
defend a battleship at the bottom of the screen. The game's flyer proudly proclaims it to
have been based off the novel "Gus is my Co-pilot," for whatever difference that makes.
Graphically, the game looks fairly primitive for 1984, though the cabinet looks impressive
with its dual flight yoke controllers. (A Tron conversion was also made, with spinners instead
of flight yokes, and a different ROM set with a large number of subtle changes to game play.)
Two Tigers is unusual in that you have an unlimited number of lives. Being shot down merely
causes a moment's delay until a new plane flies in. The real enemy is time. Each battleship
only lingers for a short time before retreating off screen. To sink it, one must hole it through
to the waterline in three (more in later levels) places. The ships are three layers thick, and
a bomb will only puncture one layer, so it takes a good bit of skill to learn to target the same
spot with multiple bombs. Only one bomb (per player) is allowed at a time, and the bombs
follow widely varying trajectories depending on the plane's angle when it is released. After the
battle ship is sunk or escapes, one advances to a harder level. The game ends when you twice fail
to sink a battleship before it escapes.

In single player mode, the only enemies are the battleship, which has deck guns, and a squadron
of AI controlled aircraft. You have a machine gun button for direct fire at the aircraft (it has
no effect on the battleship) and a bomb button to target the battleship with wildly arcing bombs.
The enemy planes are mostly an annoyance, but can be used to your advantage if shot down over
the battleship as they will damage the deck, comparably to a bomb. In two player versus mode,
the players dogfight for "home field" advantage. The first to shoot down the other gets to play the
attacker, while the loser is stuck defending the battleship. The players take turns in each role, and
a winner is determined by how many times the battleship escapes or sinks. Two player coop mode
has both planes targeting the battleship, but a larger number of hull punctures is required on the
battleship to compensate for your combined firepower.

Two Tigers was only modestly successful, and had no contemporary home conversions (that I know
of). It is significant particularly for its unique gameplay and early implementation of 2P cooperative play.

Useful links: KLOV, Flyer, [url=p://www.arcade-history.com/?n=two-tigers&pa ... il&id=3009]Arcade-History.com[/url], Review in "Computer+Vide Games" magazine (1984)

[The Eidolon]

#29 Star Force [Mega Force] (1984)
Maker: Tehkan

Tags: Secrets, Technique Bonus, Boss, Parallax, Performance Evaluation Screen
Scrolling: Vertical, wobble

Star Force appears to be Tehkan's answer to Xevious. They both share vertical scrolling with ground
and air targets over a scenic background, lots of hidden targets and bonuses, mutiiple stages with
bosses, and a colorful yet enigmatic style. Like Xevious, Star Force was very popular in Japan, but
had far less of an impact in the West. Star Force has two layers of background scenery to overfly,
with parallax scrolling. One is a deep space star field and above that are a series of floating mechanical
islands covered with ground targets (which shoot back) as well as buildings and bonus "letter" tiles for
extra points. The aerial enemies come in large formations and swoop about erratically, and fire
frequently enough to keep things busy. There is only one power up available, available by shooting
a special enemy, which grants rapid fire capability. Levels typically have a midboss which assembles
from various pieces before attacking. After defeating enough enemy formations or ground targets, an
end level boss is triggered, appearing as a letter of the Greek alphabet flanked by two gun turrets.
Failing to defeat it in time before it scrolls off screen forces one to repeat the level, while destroying
it brings up a performance evaluation screen before advancing to the next level (named after the next
Greek letter, naturally).

Star Force received a large number of home ports, mostly in Japan, including to the NES/Famicom,
MSX, Sega SG-1000, X6800, and SNES, as part of the "Caravan Shooting Collection." It is loosely
affiliated with Hudson's Star Soldier series, and has a couple of true sequels by Tehkan/Tecmo:
Super Star Force: Jikuureki no Himitsu and Final Star Force. Star Force's influence can be felt in a
large number of vertical shmups, whether directly or indirectly. Truxton/Tatsujin in particular seems
to have taken Star Force's setting, art style and game play as a major influence. The Raiden Series
also borrows stylistically from Star Force (as well as from Twin Cobra, of course).

Useful links: KLOV, Arcade-History.com, Wikipedia, StrategyWiki, Hardcore Gaming 101, Flyers 1, 2, Star Force のお部屋

[grobda]

like the list but it starts off wide spec and gets narrowed down to obscure niche/cult 2d scrollers.

id put a few rail shooters in, eg star wars starblade, galaxian 3, and space harrier.

for 2d i'd include flying shark/sky shark. well crafed, many ported, still a quality shmup.

[The Eidolon]

like the list but it starts off wide spec and gets narrowed down to obscure niche/cult 2d scrollers.

id put a few rail shooters in, eg star wars starblade, galaxian 3, and space harrier.

for 2d i'd include flying shark/sky shark. well crafed, many ported, still a quality shmup.

You've read my mind: I'd actually put Flying Shark to my "to add" list already, but I haven't edited the
order yet. I've been going through my list year by year to look for what I might have forgotten,
missed or never played. I hadn't realized Flying Shark came out before Twin Cobra, and I think it's
a significant evolution from Tiger Heli, so it will be on the list. I think I had confused it with Fire Shark
when I first made up the list. Toaplan games were very influential, so I think they should be
disproportionately represented.

I think I will create a separate "borderliners" list for games like Afterburner, Star Wars, Spy Hunter,
Space Harrier, etc., which were influential and shmup-like but don't quite fit the definition I've been
using for this particular list. I'm not sure how to best handle later shmups because: 1) I've played
far fewer of them 2) It's too early to really say what they have influenced, because they are still
fairly new. I'm pretty comfortable with the composition of the list from 1974-1996 or so (with a few
omissions, I'm sure. I haven't played everything). After that, I would need to do a lot of research or
ask for help, or just cap it at an arbitrary year.

[grobda]

oh i remembered another; st. dragon

[grobda]

oh and silkworm

[Drum]

Was Saint Dragon influential? Pretty sure Dragon Breed came out first (note: this may be a dirty, filthy lie), and I wouldn't put Dragon Breed on the list either (though I love both games). Silkworm ... I dunno. Nice, asymetrical co-op but not influential because, well, there aren't many shmups of that type at all (SWIV is the only other one I know).

[The Eidolon]

oh i remembered another; st. dragon

Thanks for the suggestions. I've played both games a bit, especially
Saint Dragon (though i can't get very far). Did you have any games
you thought they influenced or reasons you thought they might be
influential? I'm happy to add games to the list, but I wouldn't know
enough about their role in shmup history to include them without a
little more to go on.

By the way, I hadn't realized Dragon Breed and Saint Dragon came
out so close together in time. Arcade-history has them at June 1989
for Dragon Breed and March 1989 for Saint Dragon. Given likely
development times, I'm guessing they were developed independently
and any similarities are coincidental. I feel like Saint Dragon was
clearly influenced by R-Type (1987), and maybe a bit by Dragon
Spirit (1987) in theme but not so much in play style. The whole dragon
riding shmup theme with partial invulnerability from your tail never
really caught on...

[The Eidolon]

#30 1942 (1984)
Maker: Capcom

Tags: Boss, Power Up, Bonus Stage, Invulnerability, Performance Evaluation Screen, Formation Bonus, Setback, Wingmen
Scrolling: Vertical

Recently departed from Konami, Okamoto Yoshiki gave Capcom its first arcade hit with his next game, 1942
(sorry, Vulgus). 1942 signals that it is going to be epic in scale from the very first moment, with the challenge
to "Last 32 Stage" as your plane takes off from a carrier for the Battle of Midway. Though it can't exactly be
called realistic, 1942 is unusual for a shooter in how closely tied it is to real battles, places and plane types.
The earliest shmups were usually space-themed, or given a generic modern military theme. 1942 was not the
first WW2-themed shooter (Spitfire in 1976 was much earlier), but it did popularize that era as a setting, and
was imitated by many other shooters (Strikers 1945, Battle Garegga, and many others). Unlike its successors,
1942 largely plays it straight--you won't see enemy planes transforming into mechs or sporting ahistorical lasers
or jet engines. Even Capcom's own sequels in the 19XX series are much less restrained.

Your ship is called the "Super Ace", but is clearly modeled on the Lockheed P-38 Lightning, with its distinctive
twin-boom design. The politics of a Japanese developer releasing a game where you play as an American
pilot shooting down wave after wave of Japanese aircraft is curious, to say the least. Part of this may have
been based on practical considerations--if the game had been set from the Japanese perspective, it would
have severely limited its prospects for commercial success in the West. Whatever his motivations, Okamoto
did not appear to have picked the setting out of an excess of pro-American sentiment. ("I hate Americans,
I hate America, and I hate English. I also hate American food. That's how I feel about it. [E3]")

Structurally, 1942 is from an intermediate phase in shooter development. Unlike many early shmups, (but
like Time Pilot), 1942 lets you have shoot many bullets on screen at a time, allowing one to strafe enemy
ships in a satisfying manner. It has a wide variety of power-ups, but you are limited to one of each type.
They include a double power shot, destructible wingmen, an extra roll allowed, an extra life, bonus points,
temporary suppression of enemy fire, and a destroy-all-enemies-on-screen pulse. The type of power up
granted is determined by the stage number. They can be acquired in combination, if one can stay alive
long enough. Particularly useful are the two wingman planes, but they are vulnerable to enemy fire and
hard to keep alive for long (possibly inspired by Galaga). You have a "roll" maneuver that can be used
a limited number of times per stage to fly above the plane of action briefly and avoid enemy fire. This
is one of the precursors of the "defensive bomb" type in most modern shmups, but has no offensive
power. (You can't even shoot while rolling). The originator of the "offensive bomb" type is probably the
smart bomb in Williams' game Defender.

Every 4 stages, one encounters a "% and point up stage" which is a sort of bonus stage, in which the small
enemy planes do not fire. (Bombers still do, though!) This allows one to play much more aggressively
without risk of being shot down at point blank range, and gives one a chance at a higher enemy shot down
percentage at the end of the stage. As in Star Force, 1942 gives you a performance evaluation at the end
of each stage, with bonus points based on your skill. A large bonus is available for a high shot down percentage,
as well as a small bonus for unused roll maneuvers. Bosses are infrequent (there are only 4 in the game), but
get quite hard by the end. 1942 is a "setback" type game, in which you must replay a significant portion of the
level upon losing a life, though at least you are always given another chance at a power up.

It is fair to call 1942 one of the most influential shooters of all time, and it established Capcom as a major
company in the arcade and shoot-em-up scene. 1942 had a number of direct sequels, with significantly
varying play style, which are collectively called the "19XX" series. They series goes (chronologically by release,
not setting date) 1942, 1943, 1943-kai, 1941: Counter Attack, 19XX: The War Against Destiny, and 1944: The
Loop Master. 1942 had several home ports, including a very successful Famicom/NES version which actually
made it back to the arcades in the PlayChoice-10 series. Until the advent of Street Fighter, 1942 was probably
Capcom's most recognizable brand.

Useful links: KLOV, Arcade-history.com, Strategywiki, Flyer, Wikipedia

[The Eidolon]

#31 Twinbee (1985)
Maker: Konami

Tags: Cute-em-up, Ground Targets, Boss, Grazing, 2P Coop, Power-ups
Scrolling: Vertical

Twinbee appears to be the first entry in the bizarre but entertaining sub-genre of shooters
known as "cute-em-ups." Since I'm inordinately fond of lists and definitions, I will state
that cute-em-ups are characterized by:
1) Non-traditional player or enemy types (bugs, fairies, penguins etc.)
2) Humor or parody
3) A cute, whimsical graphical style
The 4 big early cute-em-ups and the "straight" games they most closely parody would be:

Twinbee (Konami) --> Xevious (Namco)
Fantasy Zone (Sega) --> Defender (Williams)
Star Parodier (Hudson, not arcade) --> Star Soldier (Hudson, not arcade)
Parodius (Konami) --> Gradius (Konami)

Hints at cute-em-up elements can be seen in earlier games, like the seafood-like aliens
of Space Invaders or the insects aliens of Galaxian. Centipede was one of the first shmups
take an entirely non-traditional setting, but all of these early shmups do not focus on humor,
and the graphics of that era were too primitive to allow much room for cuteness. Pooyan
is probably the closest to a cute-em-up prototype, with its humor and three little pigs theme,
but the gameplay is not exactly that of a traditional shooter.

Back to Twinbee, it is a more or less traditional vertical shooter with air and ground targets.
Waves of air enemies glide on screen and then evade in a very Xevious-like fashion. Unlike
in Xevious, you actually have power-ups available to make up for the limited spread of your
pea shooter initial gun. The bell based power-up system involves shooting certain clouds,
releasing a yellow bell. The bell bounces away when shot and occasionally changes color.
Depending on its color when caught by your ship, it can provide bonus points, a double shot,
speed up, ghost ships (increasing firepower), or a temporary shield.

Ground targets can be hit by throwing bombs at them, which explode a short distance in front
of your ship. When hit, ground enemies leave fruit bonus items for points or a star to
destroy on screen enemies, a different bell that gives 3-way shots, or a baseball which can
strike and destroy enemies. Your ship is one hit to kill from the front, but a grazing shot
contact on the side will knock off your arm. This halves your rate of bomb throwing, or
removes it completely if both arms are lost. A cute "ambulance" will come (once per life)
to restore your arms after both are lost if you can catch up to it.

The game has ten stages, with the second set of five using the same bosses as the first five
but different, harder levels. After all ten stages, the game loops back to stage one. Unusually
for such an early game, Twinbee allows two player simultaneous coop play, predating even
Twin Cobra with this feature. (Twin Cobra even has a similar stage structure, with the second
5 stages similar to but not a loop of the first five...) When using two players, you can "bump"
the other player from behind to trigger a five way-spread shot, or dock with the player from
the side to allow a powerful combined fireball shot. The spread shot is similar to the scatter
fire in the Raiden series, and may have influenced Raiden, though it is triggered by bumping
rather than shooting the second player. Shooting the second player won't harm her, but will
nudge her forward a bit, with possibly unfortunate results.

Twinbee was much more popular in Japan than in the West, and only a few of the series' entries
were released in the West, more often in Europe than in the US. It spawned a large number of
sequels and spin-offs, including puzzle, platform and RPG entries. It also inspired a radio drama
and a three episode OAV series (in Japan, of course). Twinbee ships and pilots appear in Konami's
better-known Parodius series, and Parodius appropriates the bell power up system (which I hate!)
wholesale from Twinbee, as well as including a separate Gradius-like selectable power-up bar.

Useful links: StrategyWiki, Twinbee Land, Flyer, Hardcore Gaming 101, Wikipedia, Twinbee World (Japanese)

[The Eidolon]

#32 Gradius [Nemesis] (1985)
Maker: Konami

Tags: Formation Bonus, Power-ups, Weapon Select, Boss, Power-up Bar, Checkpoint
Scrolling: Horizontal

Two games from the mid-80's really defined the characteristics of a horizontal shoot-em-up:
Gradius and R-Type. Horizontal shmups have a reputation for a slower, more methodical
play style, in which knowledge of the upcoming terrain and enemy patterns can be as important
as quick dodging reflexes. Both Gradius and R-Type are infamous for their "checkpoint" systems,
in which a lost life will restart you with no powerups at an inconvenient point in the level. On
later levels, loss of one's first life is almost the same as ending the game, due to the inordinate
difficulty of regaining enough power-ups quickly enough to survive the rest of the level. Gradius
is sporting enough to leave you with one power up left on your bar if you lose a life with the bar
not empty; enough to buy a single speed-up to compensate for the Vic Viper's glacial base
flying speed.

The power-up bar is probably the single most recognizable feature of the Gradius series. When
orange enemies or certain formations are shot, they leave behind a glowing orange capsule.
Picking it up does not power up your ship directly, but fills up the power-up bar by one increment.
Pressing the power-up button will drain the bar completely and "purchase" whatever power-up
was indicated. Generally, the more useful power-ups cost more, so the bar can be thought of
as a primitive in-game shop system, in which items can be purchased on the fly. This allows a
large degree of customization, as one can choose whether to focus first on speed, forward firepower,
shot pattern, or even defense with the shield option (marked by a "?" on the bar). If you overshoot
the desired power-up, there's no way to go back and purchase a lesser power-up than the one currently
indicated, though one can wrap the bar all the way around past "?" with enough orange capsules.

At the end of the first several stages is the "Big Core" boss, a large space ship with a glowing core
offset through a narrow horizontal tube and shielded by several small barriers. Enough direct hits
will remove the barriers and allow one to "shoot the core" to finish off the ship. (Though that
catch phrase didn't show up in the series until Gradius II.) The Big Core is often preceded by a
sub boss or special section, such as the exploding volcanos on stage one. One quirk of the Gradius
series is that the ultimate boss is usually a complete anticlimax, typically a huge brain-like enemy
with no offensive capability which takes almost nothing to kill. Of course, getting through the last
level to reach that point is no trivial matter...

Gradius started a huge, confusing array of spin-off, ports and sequels. Three different games are
numbered II in the series: Gradius 2 on the MSX, Gradius II in the arcade (subtitle: Gofer no Yabou),
and a MSX sequel to the second arcade game, Gofer no Yabou, Episode II. To add to the confusion,
many of the games have different names in different regions. Gradius was released as Nemesis
outside of Japan, and Gofer no Yabou: Episode II was called Vulcan Venture. The spin-off series
Salamander is also known as the (somewhat revised) Life Force series. Gradius made it to the NES,
and back to the arcade with both a vs. Gradius and Playchoice 10 version. Gradius, along with Twinbee,
serves as the basis for the long-running Parodius series as well. Hardcore Gaming 101 has a good
summary of all the different permutations and the regional differences in naming and gameplay. The
home versions also introduced the (in)famous Konami Code, which gave the ship full power-ups if
entered on the NES/Famicom version. Also notable, the preset high score of of 57,300 spells out
a secret message (Go-Nana-Mi = Konami) when spelled out in Japanese.

Useful links: StrategyWiki, Nemesis Flyer, Hardcore Gaming 101, KLOV, Wikipedia

[The Eidolon]

#33 Terra Cresta (1985)
Maker: Nichibutsu

Tags: Power-ups, Boss, Invulnerability, Power-down hit, Setback, Transform
Scrolling: Vertical

Terra Cresta is ostensibly a sequel to Nichibutsu's 1980 game, Moon Cresta, but it
clearly owes a much greater debt of inspiration to Xevious. Moon Cresta invented
the numbered docking ships for power-ups gimmick, with each ship adding a
different type of shot, combining to make a more powerful but inconveniently
larger ship. Each ship was really one of your "lives" so a power-down by losing
one component was a significant setback, comparable to losing your doubled
ship in Galaga. Terra Cresta simplifies this by always starting you as a single,
one-hit-to-kill ship, which can find other components as power-ups along the way.
Taking a hit removes all your docked power-ups (or two of them at full power),
but won't kill you as long as you aren't at base power. At full power, one is
rewarded by a one-time transformation to an invulnerable phoenix ship for a bit.
The power-up slightly increase one's hit box, but not so dramatically as in Moon
Cresta or Galaga.

As for the influence of Xevious, well, take a look at the first boss and Xevious'
Andro Dunos side by side and decide for yourself... The jerkily evasive aerial
enemies (their motions, not their disposition, that is) coupled with stationary
ground targets is also very Xevious-like. As is the seamless level design, where
one scrolls from one section to the next without any obvious level breaks, though
the bosses and setback points give some hint to where the section divisions lie.
One welcome evolution from Xevious' formula is that ground targets can be taken
out with your main cannon, removing the need to futz about with bombing
reticles. This revision was adopted by almost all future vertically scrolling shmups
with ground targets, allowing one to focus primarily on dodging enemy fire and
less on positioning one's ship in the precise position needed to attack ground
targets. None of this is to say that being based off Xevious is a bad thing--just
as in 1981-2 every shmup seemed to be a thinly-disguised Scramble clone, in
1983-1985 or so almost every vertical shmup was a thinly-disguised Xevious
clone. That's just the way the industry evolved in the early days, with a few
widely-copied groundbreaking games followed by many imitators offering
minor evolutionary improvements.

Terra Cresta's most notable gimmick is the "formation" button, which releases
one's docked components to attack independently in front of your ship (in
which form they are invulnerable). In some sense, this is a distant precursor
to R-Type's force release system. The formation attack is only available when
one has docked components, and has a limited number of charges marked by
circles at the bottom of the screen, similar to 1942's "roll" feature. Charges
are replenished whenever one docks with a new component. Though formation
attacks temporarily greatly increase one's shot spread, they have a large
drawback: taking a hit when powered up normally just loses components, but
the main ship reverts to one-hit-to-kill if it is unfortunate enough to be hit by
something during a formation attack.

Terra Cresta most clearly influenced its pseudo-sequel, UFO Robo Dangar.
Several other shmups have evolutions of its numbered power-up system,
including the console-based Zanac series. As mentioned, the detachable
power-up system may have even been an influence on R-Type's force pod.
The ground-based dinosaur enemies and hit to power down system can
also be found in Dragon Spirit. (In fact, I wonder if Psikyo games' collide
with enemies to power down mechanic is indirectly evolved from Terra
Cresta....) Terra Cresta was successful enough to have several home ports,
including the C64, Famicom/NES, ZX Spectrum and X68000.

Useful links: StrategyWiki, Japanese Flyer, Malc's Review, KLOV

[Mills]

Don't think 100 most influential arcade titles is realistic. 50 over the past 20yrs yes, but not 100. i and i mean shumps titles that really stood out on their own merit.

[The Eidolon]

Don't think 100 most influential arcade titles is realistic. 50 over the past 20yrs yes, but not 100. i and i mean shumps titles that really stood out on their own merit.

It's a fair critique, but it really depends on what you are trying to accomplish. I estimate that there are about
500~1000 shmups made in the arcade from Computer Space down to the present. Plus a bunch of
bootlegs and clones not worth counting. So 100 eliminates about 80~90% of all shmups. You could say that
only 10 or 20 of those are truly "important", but where one draws that cutoff is arbitrary. Even relatively
obscure shmups can be important for introducing an important feature (such as Space Fury introducing the
weapon select power-up option). My goal is mostly to provide a sort of record of how the shmup industry
has evolved over time, with most of the influential games and games that introduced important features
included. After that it's easy enough to pare it down to a top 25 or top 10 based on one's own personal
preferences. I think I listed my own 10 most influential earlier in this thread...

[The Eidolon]

#34 Tiger Heli (1985)
Maker: Toaplan

Tags: Wingmen, Bombs, Auto-Bomb, Secrets, Boss, Weapon Select, Drifting Power-Ups
Scrolling: Vertical

Welcome to the Toaplan era. Arguably, no company did more than Toaplan to drive
the shoot-em-up genre forward into its modern form. As Toaplan's first shooter,
Tiger Heli is still primitive in many respects, but one can still see its influences,
especially on Toaplan's landmark game, Twin Cobra.

Tiger Heli gives you a single helicopter to take out waves of ground and sea targets.
(Oddly, there are no aerial enemies in the game. The closest one gets to them is
shooting down enemy planes on the ground.) You have two wide area bombs available,
which are replenished after each level. The bombs can actually be seen hanging from
the sides of your copter, and they vanish realistically when used. Tiger Heli has the
first instance I have ever seen of auto-bombing in a shmup, albeit in a very limited
form. Normally a single shot will kill your ship, but if the enemy shot precisely collides
with one of your bombs on either side before reaching you, the bomb will deploy on the
spot and save your life.

You can power up your plane by shooting a glowing cross on the ground. The color
alternates over short intervals, between red (side-shooting wingmen), white (forward-
shooting wingmen) and blue (extra bomb, max two). The power-ups released float in
from the top of the screen and drift about, requiring you to fly and pick one up before
it slides off-screen. As far as I can tell, Tiger Heli was the very first game to introduce
the "drifting power-up" mechanic, which has been widely copied in many shmups thereafter.
Loss of a life removes all power-ups and replenishes the bomb stock. On losing a life,
one can respawn slightly ahead or behind the crash point, in a curious variant of the
setback/checkpoint system used in many early shmups. (Xevious had a similar system,
which would more you forward if you had passed the 70% line of an area before dying.)

Tiger Heli has a number of ground targets with no offensive significance, which can be
shot purely for bonus points (roofs of buildings, civilian cars, fixed structures etc.) Some
of these have secrets, such as the red roof near the beginning which if shot enough times
flips over to reveal a large bonus. The secrets-based ground target theme is lineally
descended from games like Xevious and Star Force. Bonus point diamonds on the ground
pop up and disappear intermittently, and give an extra life if one destroys 10 of them.
At the end of each level one lands on a helipad to receive a performance evaluation in the
style of 1942 or Star Force. In this case, one receives bonus points for any remaining
bomb stock and surviving wingmen. (The wingmen are destructible.)

Tiger Heli had home ports to the Famicom/NES and the X68000, and much later to the PS1
as part of the "Toaplan Shooting Collection." It has a pseudo-sequel in Kyukyoku Tiger/
Twin Cobra.

Useful links: KLOV, StrategyWiki, Wikipedia

[doctorx0079]

Maybe Konami's lawyers were lazier, or exhausted from dealing with so many Space Invaders
clones to have little time for small fry...

Actually it was Taito.

[Ed Oscuro]

How the hell is Sinistar 10 places more influential than Gradius? Gradius?

[doctorx0079]

Well, aren't they supposed to be in chronological order?