Defender

Defender is an arcade video game developed released by Williams Electronics in 1980. A shooting game featuring two-dimensional (2D) graphics, the game is set on a fictional planet where the player must defeat waves of invading aliens while protecting astronauts. Development was led by Eugene Jarvis, a pinball programmer at Williams; Defender was Jarvis's first video game project, and drew inspiration from Space Invaders and Asteroids. Williams planned to display the game at the Amusement & Music Operators Association (AMOA) trade show, though development delays resulted in the team working on the game up until the show started. Defender was commercially successful, selling over 55,000 units to become the company's best selling arcade game. Praise among critics focused on the game's audio-visuals and gameplay. It is frequently listed as one of Jarvis's best contributions to the video game industry, as well as one of the most difficult video games. Defender was ported to numerous platforms, inspired the development of other games, and was followed by sequels and many imitations.

Defender put players in charge of a ship sent to protect mankind from wave after wave of attacking alien forces. Armed with smart bombs and the ability to use hyperspace to move quickly around the planet, the player ship must fight against Bombers, Pods, Swarmers, Baiters, and Landers - that can capture the humanoids and transform them into deadly and relentless Mutants. Fail to save the humanoids from freefall or Mutant transformation, and the planet is destroyed. Defender is a port with modern enhancements of the original 1981 arcade title released on Xbox Live Arcade on November 15th, 2006. On February 17th, 2010 Larry “Major Nelson” Hryb announced on Twitter that nine Midway Games had been removed from Xbox Live “due to publisher evolving rights and permissions”.

Released in conjunction with a 3D update of the classic arcade game on consoles, the Game Boy Advance version is also an update of the original, but retains its side-scrolling gameplay. The cartridge includes several variants of the game. The main mode is called "XGP". Its basics are the same as in the original: The player's spaceship flies left or right over a scrolling landscape that wraps around after a few screens. The goal is to destroy all invading aliens before they can capture the humans sitting on the ground. Besides updated graphics with various backgrounds and sprites for the enemies and humans, there are other differences as well: players can select from different ships, all with slightly different weapons and ratings for shields and speed. The XGP mode offers six different levels to complete. It can also be played by two players over the System Link. The cartridge also includes "Classic" mode, which is a port of the original arcade game. Finally, "XG" mode is the same gameplay-wise as Classic, but has been updated with graphics similar to the XGP mode.

The game of Astro Fighter consists of 4 waves and a refueling stage, which are then repeated with increasingly higher difficulty. The player's task is to eliminate the four successive waves of different types of attacking craft, while avoiding being hit by missiles and bombs, and then refuel by shooting the 'GS' ship before repeating the process. The player starts with 3 lives and receives a bonus life on reaching a score of 5000. 300 bonus points are received for shooting each 6 falling bombs and for 950 for hitting the GS ship accurately on the first shot. A very large bonus of 10,000 is given for getting through 4 waves and refueling by using exactly 2 shots more than the minimum needed. As the higher levels of Astro Fighter are difficult to survive consistently, even for the best players, the highest scores have been achieved by the achieving the 10,000 bonus deliberately.

Truxton is a 1988 vertically scrolling, shoot 'em up arcade game developed by Toaplan, later ported to the Mega Drive (worldwide) and the PC Engine (Japan-only). Like many other scrolling shooters, the game is set in outer space, where the player takes control of a small spaceship across several planets. The game is played with an eight-way joystick and two buttons (a shot and a bomb button) through five large levels and their bosses (which then loop forever, at higher difficulties).

One of the defining characteristics of the Gradius series is the use of a "power meter." The power meter is powered by a power-up item, whose purpose, when collected, is to move a highlight to the next power-up on the power meter. When a power-up that the player wants becomes highlighted, he or she may activate it, also causing the highlight to reset.

There are many scrolling shooters but none of them is like "Sky Force". This stunning shoot ‘em up game combines the classic arcade elements with the new possibilities offered by current technology. The new installment in the series just came out in a spectacular style. "Sky Force 2014" was a huge success, acclaimed by gamers and critics. "Reloaded" gives players more of what they loved in the previous "Sky Force". Get ready for your device getting hot and your finger getting sore. Prepare yourself for exciting new missions, more powerful enemies and breathtaking boss battles! "Sky Force Reloaded" offers gorgeous 3D graphics, intense gameplay and a lot of new features. The options to boost up your planes are incredible. Yes, that’s right, PLANES! There’s a satisfying number of planes to choose from. Each with different strengths and weaknesses. Cater to your inner collector by hunting in-game buff cards and unlocking a number of achievements.

R-Type Final 3 Evolved serves simultaneously as a sequel to R-Type Final 2, offering a whole new 7-stage campaign made in the engine of Final 2, whilst also serving as a compilation of most of content released for R-Type Final 2. Additional features such as R-Park, an online area where one can interact with other players.

Take to the skies once again as the last defender of humanity against overwhelming odds! Lovingly built to be enjoyed by newcomers and genre veterans alike, Danmaku Unlimited 3 is a perfect medley of the best aspects of classic bullet hell shooters wrapped up in a modern and approachable package.

Fast Striker is a Shoot-'Em-Up game, developed and published by NG:DEV.TEAM, which was released in Japan in 2012D arcade shooting game with emphasis on scoring originally developed for NEO·GEO. The game lets the player choose between 3 game modes with different scoring systems. Novice Mode for beginners, Original Mode for classic Shoot’ em Up players and Maniac for very experienced players. It features six stages of excellent 2D arcade game play with over 40 unique enemy types, super smooth 3D scrolling backgrounds, huge CGI bosses and it features the biggest megabit count ever since the beginning of NEO·GEO games0.

Be the new saviour as the Iridion force strikes back! A century has passed since the Iridion Empire was defeated. Humans have populated the old Iridion galaxy giving mankind freedom and peace. Suddenly, all communications with the human outposts are lost. The Iridions are back! Planet Earth is too far away to offer help. The only chance? A lone powerful spaceship...Yours!

Demon Attack is an arcade action game with gameplay similar to Space Invaders. You control a laser cannon at the bottom of the screen, and need to destroy wave after wave of brightly colored demons. The demons bounce around the screen in bizarre patterns, and try to destroy your cannon with bombs or lasers. When you shoot a demon, it will be replaced with another or will split into two smaller demons depending on which wave you are playing. When the required number of demons for the current round is finally destroyed, you can move on to the next, more difficult round.

Akka Arrh is a previously unreleased prototype game created 1982 for the arcade. It saw it's first release in 2022 as part of the the Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration.