Vindicators

The game begins by asking the player(s) to choose a difficulty level, not only making the enemies more difficult and the players weaker, but higher difficulties start the players in a later set of levels (called "galaxies") and with some powerups. The easiest difficulty level starts the player(s) in the first level with no bonuses. The player controls a tank with constantly draining fuel, and must navigate through multiple levels (14 stations in the arcade version) from bottom to top, encountering obstacles and enemies. Along the way, a player may find powerups including tank fuel, stars (currency), shields, and two types of sub-weapons: smart shots (homing missiles) and bombs (powerful rockets). Each level has a key that will open a door at the top of the level, which will either take the player to the next level or to a special hub with multiple powerups that must be escaped in 10 seconds or less. If the player is unable to escape, the tank will lose half its fuel. After escaping the hub, the player(s) then proceeds to the next station. Occasionally, the player(s) will face a boss that must be defeated to advance. Normal shots are ineffective however, and the player must decide/guess the appropriate time to buy sub-weapons to greatly raise the chance of victory. After destroying a boss, the player(s) can continue to the end of the level. Between levels, the player is taken to a shop where items and upgrades to tank speed, power, etc. may be purchased with stars. Any damage caused to the player's tank will decrease the shield level. Purchasing a shield drastically reduces damage down to a mere pixel worth of the fuel gauge per hit. When the fuel depletes, the speed of the tank is reduced to a crawl and a countdown begins from 10. If no fuel is gained before the timer reaches zero, or if the player is shot during the countdown, the tank explodes and a life is lost. The arcade version, in addition to having special two-joystick controls for each player, contained three special contest levels, with one contest star in each. With three contest stars and nine normal stars, the player(s) could compete in a special time-limited contest level in which the player could win a T-shirt. A later version of the game was released which eliminated the contest levels and stars.

Vindicators Part II is a sequel to the arcade version of Vindicators, it was released as a conversion kit for Gauntlet. There are only a few minor differences as the gameplay is nearly identical to the first, even keeping 10 of the 14 original stations of the first Vindicators. It even keeps the old graphics, music and sound. Though the in-game voice was changed to a less robotic sounding male, and several tank upgrades were added that are picked up as powerups and expire after a level is finished. Only approximately 400 units were made.

Front Line is a vertically scrolling action game. Your mission is to infiltrate enemy territory and destroy their fortress. To reach the fortress, you will have to make your way through varied and dangerous terrain. Jungles, deserts, brush, and rocks all slow your progress, plus each area has numerous enemy fighters and tanks trying to stop you. To help get past these obstacles, you are armed with a machine gun and grenades; at some points in the game you may even come across an abandoned tank which you can control to increase your odds of survival. When you reach the end of the level and successfully destroy the fortress, the game will repeat at a higher level of difficulty. Gameplay is for one or two players, and four different skill levels are available.

The capitalist nation of Randa has long had a history of excellence in the creation of aircraft, attracting the best of engineers in aerodynamics, artillery, and structuring from the world over. Once, even this interest had waned, until the creation of the air show Bakraid, in which the capabilities of the fighters could be demonstrated outside of simulations for all to see. Around the time of the seventh Bakraid, a nearby nation, Deneb, had attained an expansionist attitude, forcibly subjugating and annexing several of its neighbors with the assistance of the Shtarterra Security Council. Recently, Deneb has asked to participate in Bakraid. Randa's defense council, perfectly aware that this is just a pretext for Deneb to get its and the SSC's engines of war into Randan borders and more easily prosecute their war from there, give their blessing. However, the council secretly contacts the other Bakraid participants, offering even more prize money than normal if they will perform in a special version of Bakraid--genuine war conditions. In other words, use their own top-of-the-line planes to shatter Deneb's schemes. In all, nine pilots accept this plan, and begin Bakraid two weeks early to catch Deneb unaware...

Battlezone is an arcade game from Atari released in November 1980. It displays a wireframe view (using vector graphics rather than raster graphics) on a horizontal black and white (with green and red sectioned color overlay) vector monitor. Due to its novel gameplay and look, this game was very popular for many years. Throughout the 1980s, Battlezone was ported to several home computer systems (usually on the Atarisoft label), including the Apple II, the Commodore 64, the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, and the Atari XEGS. The Atari ST port contains large parts of the original 6502 code which is emulated in real time. An Atari 2600 port was also released, but has colored raster graphics due to limitations and the view is behind the tank rather than inside it.

Ketsui: Kizuna Jigoku-tachi is a vertical bullet hell shoot 'em up developed by Cave and released in 2003.

Tyrian is a scrolling shooter computer game developed by World Tree Games Productions and published in 1995 by Epic MegaGames. The game was officially released as freeware in 2004, and the graphics were made available under an open license in April 2007. Tyrian was programmed by Jason Emery, illustrated by Daniel Cook, and its music composed by Alexander Brandon and Andras Molnar.

Kickin' cyborg butt... That's what it's all about, dude. Jack into this game of genetic engineering gone bad. Real bad. It's five years after the mother of all wars ended - and things still aren't right. Your job is to fix it. The ever-popular Contra series makes its Sega Genesis debut with a pulse-pounding new storyline. At 16 megs, HARD CORPS pushes the technology to bring you over ten gut-wrenching levels with huge boss characters, great graphics and dynamic sound. Find high powered weapons such as the homing gun, crush gun, needle laser or mine setter. Do you think you can handle it? Trust me, you can't. You still here? Okay, then get ready for the fight of your life. Pick one of the four heroes and begin your search across many dark levels of doom. The ending changes, depending on the paths you choose - but every pass crosses boss characters that will blow you away. Literally!

The names of the two player characters are Captain Carnage and Major Mayhem. Blast your way through the Baby Milk Factory and fight Orcus, the Mother of All Bosses. Collect keys to enter the Pleasure Domes. Many special weapons and secret areas.

When enemy forces wipe out the jets of the Aero Fighters, they must scramble using heavily-modified World War II warplanes in the third installment of the comical Aero Fighters series.

Silkworm is a classic horizontally-scrolling shoot-em-up. The main difference between this game and many other side-scrolling shoot-em-ups is that you will be on land as well as in the air. The first player would play as a helicopter, but if a second player joins the game, they would play as a jeep. Both players would have to protect each other as well as themselves. After a certain number of kills, a "goose" helicopter would form on the screen. If the players managed to destroy it they would get a weapon's powerup. This would go on throughout the entire game, and a "goose" could appear even during the fight with the end-of-level baddie.

Borderline is a VIC Dual arcade game developed in 1980 by Sega. It is a shoot-'em-up in which the player controls a red jeep who must destroy the enemy refineries. Borderline was ported to the SG-1000 in 1983, and has also been released as part of the Sega Ages 2500 series in Japan. The second gameplay section was also recycled for the Atari 2600 release of Thunderground, though instead of driving a jeep the player controls a tank.