Favourite 8-bit vertical shooters?

[Emperor Fossil]

Gun-Nac on NES is pretty cool, if a bit easy at first.

[playgeneration]

Caverns of Mars on the Atari 800

[mikeb]

Cheers for the suggestions guys, keep 'em coming. I'll have to check out the A8 version of Warhawk and the others you mentioned TMR.

Had a lot of time for the C64 version of Slap Fight, it was very well done. Seem to remember the Terra Cresta port being none too shabby too, though I may have been influenced by the music.

SWIV on the 64 was rather impressive technically speaking. Two on-screen players, rock-solid scrolling and load of enemies and bullets with relatively little flicker - must be some serious sprite 'plexing going on.

Firetrack was also a favourite of mine, only played the 64 version though so I'll have to give the Beeb one a go.

[GarryG]

Where do Bue max and Zaxxon fit in then?

They're diagonal. =-)

that's what I mean, sort of half'n-half...

A few more for the list; Warhawk (Firebird) on the C64 specifically but the Atari 8-bit version is good if you like a challenge,

One of my favorate budget shooters on the good old 800XL

I also liked Spy-Hunter on both the Atari 8-bit and Spectrum versions.
... Yes it is a vertical shooter, it's river raid with cars... 'road raid'!

[Emperor Fossil]

Seem to remember the Terra Cresta port being none too shabby too, though I may have been influenced by the music.

I really liked Terra Cresta on the c64, but one major problem it had was that when you collected a few extra ship pieces and then separated them, those extra pieces were vulnerable to enemy fire. And not only that, but I seem to recall that if one was hit, they all exploded, which made separating the pieces too risky to bother with.

I hope that made sense.

[Antiriad2097]

On the Spectrum ...War

Didn't W.A.R. on Speccy have a HUGE (but pretty) border around the game which played in a tiny window? If that's the one you mean I bought that and was gutted with it as I quite liked the C64 version and it just didn't compare.

[mikeb]

I really liked Terra Cresta on the c64, but one major problem it had was that when you collected a few extra ship pieces and then separated them, those extra pieces were vulnerable to enemy fire. And not only that, but I seem to recall that if one was hit, they all exploded, which made separating the pieces too risky to bother with.

I hope that made sense.

With ya - did the arcade version not do that then? If not its a bit of a bummer.

I also liked Spy-Hunter on both the Atari 8-bit and Spectrum versions.
... Yes it is a vertical shooter, it's river raid with cars... 'road raid'!

Ok we'll let it in

Not played th A8 version, but I was very partial to the C64 one - great fun.

[mikeb]

On the Spectrum ...War

Didn't W.A.R. on Speccy have a HUGE (but pretty) border around the game which played in a tiny window? If that's the one you mean I bought that and was gutted with it as I quite liked the C64 version and it just didn't compare.

Tsk... what is that good for?

[GarryG]

Not played th A8 version, but I was very partial to the C64 one - great fun.

Another case of the two being much the same game by all accounts! Although I've never played the 64 version, I have seen it and it looks pretty much the same.

[emalder]

Mega Apocolypse for the C64, supurb fast 'n' furious shooter with great speech.

[jdanddiet]

I always thought Light Force on the Speccy was a tad overrated...great graphics but...

[Emperor Fossil]

-blah blah blah-

With ya - did the arcade version not do that then? If not its a bit of a bummer.

Yeah, in the arcade version your extra ship pieces are invulnerable when separated. Same in the NES version, which is a very solid conversion.

I always thought Light Force on the Speccy was a tad overrated...great graphics but...

...jerky movement and unexciting gameplay?

[sirclive1]

On the Spectrum ...War

Didn't W.A.R. on Speccy have a HUGE (but pretty) border around the game which played in a tiny window? If that's the one you mean I bought that and was gutted with it as I quite liked the C64 version and it just didn't compare.

Tsk... what is that good for?

thats the one , i never had the c64 version so i was pretty happy with war , just thought of UCM as well on the speccy.

Zaxxon , blue max etc id class as isometric shoot em ups (as they have depth)

[thl]

Played on the Master System so often that my favourite vertical scrolling shoot em' ups are:

Action Fighter
Astro Warrior
Line of Fire
Power Strike (aka Aleste)
Power Strike 2
Scramble Spirits
Thunderblade

[TMR]

On the Spectrum ...War

Didn't W.A.R. on Speccy have a HUGE (but pretty) border around the game which played in a tiny window? If that's the one you mean I bought that and was gutted with it as I quite liked the C64 version and it just didn't compare.

Tsk... what is that good for?

Absolutely nothing!

W.A.R. on the C64 is a different game to all of the other versions, the Spectrum, CPC and BBC all have the same game with the huge border and vertical scrolling, the C64 gets a Uridium clone that was modified to avoid legal issues - there's an "escaped" version of the C64 code from before those changes were made (and prior to the awesome Rob Hubbard soundtrack being installed) called Ad Infinitum where the controls are far more like the Braybrook classic.

Oh, and for those who didn't know about the hidden tune; get a high score and enter your name as "GO 159256" (the command used on Compunet to get to Stoat&Tim's area) to get a remix of the Crazy Comets theme. =-)