Thundercade1987

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.

It's a nightmare, but it's true! Research shows that we are the actual aliens on Earth, and the ruthless Xevions are the original inhabitants. Now the Xevions want Earth back -- minus humans! Their invasion forces are fierce -- the land is crawling with deadly Domogram Rovers; the sky is black with Toroid Patrol Fleets and Zoshi Death Squads. Our puny weapons offer no defense. Earth's only hope is our powerful new Solvalou Fighter Plane. Its pilot will have a single mission: Penetrate the enemy ranks and destroy the Xevious Mother Ship. The mission is dangerous. We can't guarantee success. But at this point, it's do or die! One small problem. We still need a pilot. Any volunteers?

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.

Armed Police Batrider is a vertically scrolling manic shooter arcade game developed and published by Raizing/Eighting in 1998. The player controls teams of flying jet bikes (Batriders) each with their own pilot; players can choose up to three of nine standard characters plus another nine unlockable characters from the previous Raizing games Mahou Daisakusen and Battle Garegga. Batrider contains up to seven stages along with a large number of secrets, which are either unlockable with codes or DIP switch settings, or hidden within the game itself.

The player takes on the role of Golgo 13 (also known as Duke Togo), an assassin whose objective is to destroy the leader of the Drek group. On the way, Golgo 13 must pass through several areas, including East Berlin, Athens, and Alexander Island, which is located off the coast of Antarctica. It is necessary to navigate several mazes in order to win, but one maze is a fake base with no way out. The mazes account for a large amount of the frustration players encounter with this game. The instruction manual contains maps for the mazes.

Mission Critical! You control Ray, the only surviving member of the elite Contra Force. Blast your way through 10 levels to stop the alien hordes from infesting the jungles of South America. Although equipped with a huge arsenal of weapons of destruction, including a shatter gun, grenades, rockets, super bombs, and an ever-present machine gun, Ray will have his hands full combating hoards of enemies such as snipers, alien soldiers, tanks, UFOs, and spiked slugs in 9 levels of running, jumping, climbing, and shooting 2D and 3D action.

When we last saw Paul and Vince, they had saved the Colonel and were about to head for home in a special plane given to them by the General. But then, while in flight over the ocean, the sky suddenly blackens - the ocean begins to churn - and the plane goes spinning! A booming voice fills the cockpit: "Hear me, Warriors! Zang Zip, the War Dog, has enslaved the people of Earth. Only you can save us from his grip of evil!" Caught in a time warp, hurled thousands of years into the future, Paul and Vince know they have no choice but to meet this impossible challenge head-on. After all, they are professionals... they are the Ikari Warriors!

Sega's take on the 1943 style of vertically scrolling shoot 'em ups was set in the future. Your fighter plane is aged and under-powered, yet you must face down large planes, tanks and ground targets to achieve victory. Each level ends with a close-viewed section of particular intensity before finally facing a boss. Smart bombs are occasionally found lying around, and can destroy everything on the screen, although you can't use them on the bosses. A simultaneous 2-player mode is provided.