X-Out

Z-Out is a 1990 side-scrolling shoot 'em up and a sequel to X-Out. Unlike its predecessor, the game features a co-operative two-player component.

X-Out is a horizontally scrolling shoot-em-up with eight levels and an underwater setting. Between levels, the player visits a shop and use their game score to purchase new submarines and equipment. The submarines come in four different variants, and additional purchases act as additional "lives". Each can be equipped with a one-way, two-way or three-way fire weapon of increasing power (and thus cost). Secondary weapons include sonic waves, powershots and target-seeking missiles. The player can also purchase auxiliary satellites and specify their movement pattern, which can be circular orbits, vertical and horizontal movements, or an intercepting action.

Hold it right there. Are you really ready for this one? Have you got the courage to load up the experience that makes all other games you've played seem prehistoric? Because Blood Money is simply the best arcade game you've ever seen. It has staggering graphics, amazing sound effects and music and the most gripping gameplay you've ever tackled in your life. Blood Money just leaves the competition for dead and takes you into new realms of arcade action. But it's going to be tough. From the instant you hear that driving soundtrack you'll be plunged into a maelstrom of sheer destruction, as you plunder the four Outer Planets in a kamikaze quest for gold and glory. The aliens in Blood Money set some vicious traps, and it will tale all your skills just to survive. Use your awesome firepower wisely and you'll turn those aliens into blood money that can earn you extra weapons and equipment. And you're going to need them, because there are no easy screens in Blood Money. It's a life and death struggle that demands all your tactical genius and shoot-em-up know-how before you battle through to confront the four planetary Guardians. With its vast bit-mapped graphics, superb animation, blistering sound, devilish obstacles, awesome firepower and 1 or 2 player options, Blood Money is the greatest challenge yet faced by any games player with a passport to outer space. Blood Money, It's here. It's in your trembling, sweaty hands. It's ready and waiting for you. But are you sure you're ready for Blood Money?

The aim of Armalyte is to progress to the end of a long, horizontally-scrolling level where the screen will cease scrolling and battle will commence with a Boss. Beating the Boss allows the player to progress to the next level. There are eight levels in all. Smaller Bosses are encountered midway through each level and these also have to be beaten to progress further. During each level the player encounters numerous small enemy ships, many of which fly in fixed formation. Levels also feature scenery which can destroy the player's ship if touched. Weapons can be upgraded through an upgrade system.

Join Section 9 in a first person shooter experience. Become a member of an elite force of cybernetically enhanced combat operatives dedicated to the defense of society, and use your advanced firepower, Tachikoma Tanks and unique cyber skills to bring down cyber terrorists in a connected world.

The game is the sequel to R-Type, which was first released as an arcade game in 1987 and profoundly influenced later shooting games with its charge shots, unique weaponry, and grotesque enemies. Hudson Soft ported the later 4 levels of the original R-Type to the PC Engine with the title R-Type II, but the Hudson release is unrelated to the game described in this article. The player controls a ship called the R-9C (or R-9 Custom), which is an improved version of its predecessor game's ship; the R-9. The ship's design was changed slightly, and the wave cannon was given homing capabilities. Two new types of weapons (the Search Laser and Shotgun Laser) were added, bringing the total number of weapon types up to five. A new anti-ground unit bomb was also added to the missile inventory. Though the number of levels was decreased from the prequel, the number of enemies, their durability, and the number of bullets they shoot were greatly increased. Enemy movements and terrain were also made trickier, bringing the game's difficulty up considerably. The same revival system is used as in the prequel, where the player is brought back to a checkpoint whenever their ship is destroyed. The controls are mostly unchanged from R-Type, where the 8-way joystick controls the ship's movement, and the shot button fires the ship's main beam. The other button is used to equip or unequip Force; the series' most unusual innovation. Pressing down the shot button causes the blue beam gauge to fill up, and releasing the button causes a wave beam to travel a certain distance depending on the length of time the button was pressed down. If the button is pressed down until the blue gauge is fully charged, a red gauge appears and fills up quickly. Filling up the red gauge causes it to flash blue and red, releasing the shot button at this point shoots an even more powerful beam. Unlike the normal beam that only travels in a straight line, the newly added Shotgun Laser beam explodes in multiple directions after traveling a short distance. This shot causes heavy damage if the player can target a single enemy with it. However, holding the button down after the gauge is flashing causes the beam to return to the normal transverse beam (the gauge alternates between flashing and returning to the normal state while the button is held down), so the player must release the button at the right timing in order to successfully target enemies. The other newly added beam, the Search Laser, is semi-homing, and can bend at angles up to 45°.

Gaiares is a horizontal-scrolling shoot em' up released for the Sega Megadrive/Genesis in 1990. The game bears a striking mechanic similarity to that of the R-Type series, alongside those of other well-known Shoot Em' Ups such as Gradius and Thunder Force, all of which it was trying to compete against.

Turrican II: The Final Fight is a platformer/shooter as typically seen on consoles, but designed for home computers from the ground up. Its plot is - naturally - very simple: an evil mega-robot called The Machine attacks the United Planets Ship Avalon 1, slaughtering all who resist. All - except Bren McGuire, who manages to escape and slips into the experimental Turrican bionic armor. As Turrican, he strives to show The Machine who's the boss. Unlike other games of its type, this game contains three levels of horizontal shooter action in the spirit of R-Type or the developers' own Katakis. Six large worlds are to be explored, where you are basically free to go everywhere you want, since there is no automatic scrolling and the levels are packed with hidden extra lives and weapons. All those levels are very different: the first one in the rock desert is pretty colorful with parallaxing rainbow background and happy music, while the following worlds get darker and darker.

The 4th generation is a side ways scrolling shooter from d'india Software and Webfoot. The game contains a wide variety of weapons to blast your enemies with and many power-ups that you can upgrade your ship with. Armour, missiles, auto repair, shield generators, lasers etc

In this classic sideways scrolling shooter you have to defend your colonies from attacking aliens. The game was released as StarRay in most of Europe.

"Whether you liked or loathed Defender, you'll love Anarchy. The speed at which the screen scrolls is frightening, the number of aliens, bullets and other miscellaneous objects that are animated simultaneously is absolutely remarkable. Anarchy is the best version of Defender ever." Full screen horizontal, 4 level parallax scrolling. Arcade running speed (50 frames per second) on Amiga and Atari ST. 48 Colors on screen at once. Up to 80 aliens attacking simultaneously. Full screen animation sequences totalling over 450 screens. 4 Channel sampled soundtrack. Saveable top 50, Hi-Score table. Fast, frantic, furious gameplay.