1980s Shooter games

49 Shooter classics first released 1980 to 1989, in release order, and 55 games looking back to them.

Games looking back to them

• Missile Command (Minionsoft remake): PC remake of the Atari arcade game.
• Death Came from Verminest: Free follow-up to They Came from Verminest.
• They Came from Verminest: Free fixed-screen arcade shooter.
• Verminian Trap: Free retro arcade game.
• Defender (Minionsoft remake): PC remake of the Williams arcade shooter.
• Gaurodan: Free arcade game about a giant bird attacking cities, in early-1980s style.
• Scramble 500: Amiga port of the arcade Scramble.
• ET: Legacy: Open-source update of Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory.
• Moon Patrol: New Path: Moon Patrol remake.
• Cecconoid: Retro twin-stick shooter for the Amiga.
• Dr. Lunatic: Self-published top-down shooter from one of the earliest home-website indies.
• Dr. Lunatic Supreme With Cheese: Expanded Dr. Lunatic with many user levels.
• Robotron 2084 (An Ly remake): Robotron remake.
• Solar Gladiators: Free retro arcade game.
• Ultratron: Robotron-style arena shooter.
• Time Pilot (HMM remake): Time Pilot remake.
• Zaxxon Remake: Zaxxon remake.
• The New Gyruss: Updated Gyruss remake.
• Jetpac (Mick Farrow remake): Remake of Ultimate's first Spectrum hit.
• Lunar Jetman (Andy Noble remake): Remake of Ultimate's Lunar Jetman.
• Star Wars (Minionsoft remake): Vector Star Wars arcade remake.
• Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (Minionsoft remake): Remake of the Atari vector arcade sequel.
• Devil Engine: Horizontal shmup made in tribute to Thunder Force IV.
• IRENA: Genesis Metal Fury: Heavy-metal shmup made for the Mega Drive.
• Xevious1200: Amiga 1200 port of arcade Xevious.
• Sgt. Helmet: Free Amstrad CPC run-and-gun homebrew.
• Hydorah: Free horizontal shooter in the style of 1980s arcade shmups.
• Mutants from the Deep: Free retro arcade game.
• Nemesis Online: Remake of Konami's Nemesis (Gradius).
• Razion: Horizontal shmup made for the Neo Geo, later released as Razion EX on Switch.
• Super Hydorah: Commercial expanded remake of Hydorah.
• ZeroRanger: Two-tone vertical shmup with a hidden-depth story, acclaimed by shmup fans.
• Droid Assault: Robot-capturing shooter in the spirit of Paradroid.
• Freedroid Classic: Open-source remake of Andrew Braybrook's Paradroid.
• Project Paradroid: Ovine's Paradroid remake.
• Quazatron (Retrospec remake): Remake of Steve Turner's isometric Paradroid variant.
• Space Harrier VGL: Space Harrier remake.
• Toxic Tomb: Recent free retro arcade game from the author's site.
• Thrust Xtreme: Updated Thrust remake.
• Uridium (Minionsoft remake): Uridium remake.
• Afterburner 3D: Freeware remake of the Sega arcade jet shooter.
• Axiom Verge: Solo-made Metroid-style game cited as its spiritual successor.
• Blazing Chrome: 16-bit style run-and-gun modeled on Contra III.
• Contra: Heart of Galuga (Contra ROM hack): Expanded stages, reworked sprites and weapons, ranks, selectable difficulty and secret modes for NES Contra.
• Contra: Red Falcon War (Contra ROM hack): Builds on Revenge of the Red Falcon with several full campaign versions of rebuilt NES Contra stages.
• Contra: Revenge of the Red Falcon (Contra ROM hack): All eight stages of NES Contra reworked and expanded with a new story and much more aggressive enemies, hard but without cheap deaths.
• Huntdown: 16-bit style co-op run-and-gun with an 80s action movie look.
• Iron Meat: Body-horror run-and-gun styled after 16-bit Contra.
• Neon Inferno: Run-and-gun and gallery shooter mix set in a cyberpunk New York.
• Valfaris: Heavy-metal 16-bit style action platformer.
• Last Hope: Horizontal shooter made for the Dreamcast and Neo Geo well after both consoles were discontinued.
• Zap Fight Trilogy: Three horizontal shoot-em-ups for the Commodore 64.
• Wizball (Retrospec remake): Retrospec's Wizball remake.
• Wizball remake: PC remake of Wizball from the author's own site.
• Xenon 2000: Project PCF: Free PC remake of Xenon 2 by its original creators.

The classics

• Battlezone (1980)
• Berzerk (1980)
• Missile Command (1980)
• Phoenix (1980)
• Wizard of Wor (1980)
• Bosconian (1981)
• Centipede (1981)
• Defender (1981)
• Scramble (1981)
• Tempest (1981)
• Wolfenstein (1981)
• Demon Attack (1982)
• Moon Patrol (1982)
• River Raid (1982)
• Robotron: 2084 (1982)
• Sinistar (1982)
• Time Pilot (1982)
• Yars' Revenge (1982)
• Zaxxon (1982)
• Gyruss (1983)
• Jetpac (1983)
• Star Wars (arcade) (1983)
• Thunder Force (1983)
• Xevious (1983)
• 1942 (1984)
• Duck Hunt (1984)
• Raid on Bungeling Bay (1984)
• Rescue on Fractalus! (1984)
• Commando (1985)
• Gradius (1985)
• Paradroid (1985)
• Space Harrier (1985)
• Thexder (1985)
• TwinBee (1985)
• Darius (1986)
• Fantasy Zone (1986)
• Ikari Warriors (1986)
• Starglider (1986)
• Thrust (1986)
• Uridium (1986)
• After Burner (1987)
• Contra (1987)
• MIDI Maze (1987)
• Operation Wolf (1987)
• R-Type (1987)
• Wizball (1987)
• Aleste (1988)
• Truxton (1988)
• Xenon (1988)