Vector Vaders

Zaxxon is a 1982 isometric shooter arcade game developed and released by Sega. The game gives the player the experience of flying a fighter craft through a fortress while shooting at enemy entities (missiles, enemy gunfire, etc.) The object of the game is to hit as many targets as possible without being shot down or running out of fuel, which can be replenished paradoxically, by blowing up fuel drums.

Asteroids is an arcade space shooter released in November 1979. The player controls a spaceship in an asteroid field which is periodically traversed by flying saucers. The objective of the game is to destroy both, asteroids and saucers. The triangular ship can rotate left and right, fire shots straight forward, and thrust forward. Once the ship begins moving in a direction, it will continue in that direction for a time without player intervention unless the player applies thrust in a different direction. The ship eventually comes to a stop when not thrusting. The player can also send the ship into hyperspace, causing it to disappear and reappear in a random location on the screen, at the risk of self-destructing or appearing on top of an asteroid.

During the first half of the 21st century, the war on terror became a global phenomenon, as more blatant and frenzied attacks struck deeper into the lives of common people. Inevitably, the public outcry to stop the madness grew to an irresistible level; the military forces of the world slowly but steadily retooled their approach, weapons, and tactics to combat people who were willing to die for their cause. One of the consequences was the harassment of civilians on an unprecedented scale, leaving destruction and misery in its wake. The world was soon rebuilt and a new age of prosperity and technological progress began. Science focused on creating a viable fusion power source and new technologies which would exploit this new power. A group of corporations was granted almost total freedom in order to pursue these goals. This may have seemed dangerous a hundred years ago, but in 2112 it was considered appropriate and was supposed to foster creativity and growth on an unprecedented scale. It didn't.

Star Castle is a 1980 vector arcade game by Cinematronics. The game involves obliterating a series of defenses orbiting a stationary turret in the center of the screen. The game was designed by Tim Skelly and programmed by Scott Boden. Tim Skelly also created a number of other Cinematronics titles, including Starhawk, Armor Attack and Rip-Off. As with many other titles by the company, Star Castle was ported to the Vectrex video game console in 1983.

Neybers is an interior design game where players decorate rooms using real products from real brands and designers.

A horizontal scrolling shoot'em up written by Philip Price and published by Datamost for the Atari 8-bit home computers.

You are Frald Rancer and control a space ship which must journey from your home planet to outer space to defeat enemy invaders. Once all the enemies are defeated then return home. The game moves in a forward direction where the screen objects move towards and down to the player. Approaching enemy ships are small, in the distance, and become larger and move faster as they approach the player. The player controls a fighter at the bottom of the screen, which can only move from side to side. Shots can be fired at a diagonal, as well as straight, by twisting the joystick from side to side. At certain stages, ground targets will appear and can be destroyed by using the "Burn" button. The laser disc generated backgrounds are largely non-interactive during game play. They form the backgrounds on which the game is played on. Scenes do work in with the backgrounds, however that is the extent. Some backgrounds appear as they should have elements of interactively, however, were not used in the release of the game. These include scenes where the player is going through an asteroid field and asteroids fly towards the player. Another scene is in the crystal caverns, where there are many obstacles which could have been made to be avoided. These are only two of many scenes which could have had interactive elements. The game may have been decided to have been too hard to play with these background obstacles and computer fighters to play. Hence removing the background interactively to make the game more playable. The game starts with the player in Frald Rancer's home city, then taking off into outer space via a fly-by of the city. The backgrounds are very Sci-Fi and are fantasy themed. They are very interesting, more so than the game. The music from the laser disc also complements the laser disc video very well and makes up for the sometimes annoying, computer generated sounds.

It's you versus the robotic armada of the Merciless Monstroth, a one-eyed tentacled entity bent on conquest. Use your laser base to take out the enemy cannons and the robots, being careful that you shoot them when their barriers don't block you and when they're not shooting at you! Get shot and you lose your laser base, but as long as you have barriers, you can run under one of them and convert it into another laser base to continue the fight. Run out of them and it's only a matter of time before you become a victim of the Merciless Monstroth. The unusual part of this game is its scoring: if you destroy the robotic armada plus Merciless Monstroth, you earn a point; but if the armada destroys you and all your bases, Merciless wins a point. The game ends when either you or Merciless wins ten points.

A shoot'em up developed by Richard Brisbourne and published by CRL Group PLC for ZX Spectrum.

Space Invaders Anniversary celebrates the 25th anniversary of the oldest Taito franchise.