The heading of this article may seems a little “nah” or “outdated” notion with it to the most of the new generation gamers with overwhelmingly pixel-perfect graphics and advance gameplay but hang tight and let’s look at some games in retrospect which set the blueprint for the kind of games you are able to play in these modern times.
Defender
This magnificent game is a combination of legendary Space Invaders and Asteroids. This game was released and developed by Williams Electronics in February, 1981. Unlike, Space Invaders, this is a horizontal or side scrolling shoot’em up video game. This game was quite unique and a way ahead of its time. People who was engaged into playing the classic Space Invaders and Asteroids, getting their hands on this game was like finding a treasure that had been never seen before. All the games that came subsequently with the same side scrolling shoot’em up were based on this game. This can give you a taste of early gaming history.
Commando
Commando was a vertical scrolling run-and-gun shooter game released in 1985 by the top-notch game developer of the time, Capcom. This game was released on the platforms like Commodore 64, Arcade game, Arcade Video Game and others from that time. This is a marvellous game with fantastic old-school graphics that will somehow give you nostalgia of the time even though you were not born back then.
In case you were, you know totally of what I am talking about. This game set the blueprint for a lot top-down vertical scrolling run-and-gun shooting games. This game was released the same year the Hollywood hit “Commando” movie was released. Although there is no evidence if this game was based on the movie but seems like a weird coincident.
Mercs
This was a pretty neat game of the time with very advanced graphics and a mixture of top-down and 2d then again it was not them. Despite the confusion this game brought, a new kind of experience of these kind of run-and-gun shooting games was evolved. Mercs could be considered as one of the optimal experience of playing a run-and-gun game on arcade. This game was released in 1990 and it was developed by Capcom and Sega.
Cadillac and Dinosaurs
This game was released in 1993 by legendary Capcom based on the comic book series of the time Xenozoic tales. This game was one of the most played games in the world and top-selling arcade games that dominated the world of gaming like no others. This still brings the nostalgia of the early gaming days. This game was pretty challenging to go through alone.