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Commodore Amiga: Way back when the SNES was a mythical console to be lusted after, I sat playing with my 'Meega' religiously every night. Stupidly, I sold it to get a SNES, and now I miss out on those fab Brit and Euro-shooters like Katakis, Hybris, Battle Squadron and Apidya.

Vertical Scrolling

GAME	COMPANY	YEAR	INFORMATION
1943	U.S. Gold	1989	Awfully bad port of Capcom's Arcade original.
Air Supply	Magic Bytes	1990
Apache Flight	Atlantis	1992	Raiden clone.
Apano Sin	VAK Entertainment	1993	Awesome looking vert scroller.
Banshee	Core	1993	Excellent 194X type of game. The graphics are slightly in the Chaos Engine/Steel Empire vein. AGA chipset only.
Battle Squadron	Innerprise	1989	One of the best vert scrollers available. There's also a very good Mega Drive version.
Black Hornet	Hi-Tec	1991
Black Shadow	CRL	1987
Bomber Bob	Idea	1988	Very bad cute-em-up in the vein of Twin Bee.
Challenger	Anco	1987
Chopper X	Mastertronic	1989	Bad Raiden clone.
Dragon Spirit	Domark	1989	Awful port. Much better on PCE.
Flying Shark	Firebird	1989	Ported from the Arcade. The C64 got a much better conversion.
Foundations Waste	Scorpion/Exocet	1989
Frenetic	Core	1991	Very nice graphics. A bit hectic, though.
Gemini Wing	Virgin	1989	So-so version of the arcade game.
Goldrunner	Microdeal	1988
Goldrunner 2	Microdeal	1989
Gunbee F99	Epic Marketing	1998	I haven't played it, but the screenshots suggest that it's a port of Detana!! Twinbee. AGA chipset only.
Hades Nebula	Paranoid	1987
Hell Bent	Novagen	1989
Hybris	Discovery	1988
Intact	Sphinx	1990	Mediocre in every aspect.
Insanity Fight	Linel/Microdeal	1987
Iridon	Kingsoft	1988
Jackal	Konami	1988
Jupiter Probe	Microdeal	1987
Killing Machine	Atlantis	1992
Last Duel	US Gold	1989	Racing/shmup-crossbreed. Ported from the Arcade version.
Lethal Xcess	Eclipse	1992	Technically impressive follow-up to Wings Of Death. Unfortunately, it's not designed as well as its predecessor.
Leathernecks	Microdeal	1988	Awful game by Steve Bak.
Mega Typhoon	Islona	1996
Megablast	LK Avalon	1998
Outlands	Pandora	1989
Plutos	Tynesoft	1987	Slow and unoriginal. Not bad, though.
Raiden	US Gold	1995	Ported from the Arcade version.
Scorpio	Kingsoft	1989	One of the first decent vert scrollers for the Amiga and the only one I know of to feature an R-Type style force device. Dated graphics and sound, but excellent playability.
Scramble Spirits	Grandslam	1990	Port of the Arcade version.
Sidewinder	Arcadia	1988
Sidewinder 2	Mastertronic	1990
Sky Fighter	Rainbow Arts	1987
Sonic Boom	Activision	1990	Bad port of the Arcade original.
SWIV	Storm	1990	There are updated versions for SNES and MD.
Typhoon	Kingsoft	1987	Nice early vert scroller. Has nothing in common with the identically named Arcade game.
Ultra Violent Worlds	CIS/Vorlon	1998	AGA chipset only.
Vader	Anco	1987
Violator	Codemasters	1991
Wanted	Infogrames	1989	Boring shooter with a Wild West theme.
Wings Of Death	Thalion	1991	Excellently designed game with a strange fantasy theme.
Xenon	Bitmap Bros./Melbourne House	1988
Xenon II - Megablast	Bitmap Bros./Image Works	1990	Legendary shooter with incredible stylish graphics.
Zyron	Kingsoft	1987

Horizontal Scrolling

GAME TITLE	COMPANY	YEAR	INFORMATION
Agony	Psygnosis	1992	Beautiful graphics, weird theme (you control an owl!). Gameplay not quite as hot.
Aladdin's Magic Lamp	New Line	1989	Nothing special except for the player's ship: you control a lamp.
Alien World	Hi-Tec	1992	Strongly influenced by Mr. Heli, but in no way near as good.
Anarchy	Psyclapse	1991	Substandard Defender clone.
Apache	Team 17	1993
Apidya	Kaiko/Blue Byte	1991	A true masterpiece. Despite having been created in Germany, it looks and plays very Japanese. Top-notch graphics, a weird theme (you control a bee) and awesome music by Chris Hülsbeck. Arguably the best sidescroller for the Amiga.
Apocalypse	Virgin	1993	Similar to Choplifter.
Aquanaut	Addictive	1990	Underwater Defender rip-off.
Armalyte	Thalamus	1992	Average port of the highly overrated C64 original.
Cardiaxx	Electronic Zoo	1992
Carcharodon - White Sharks	Demonware	1991	Very good graphics and sound. Smooth gameplay.
Darius+	Ace	1989	Arcade conversion.
Dark Fusion	Gremlin	1991
Datastorm	Visionary Design Technologies	1989	Excellent Defender clone.
Defender	Wicked Software	1987
Defender 2	Arc	1988
Denaris	Factor 5/Rainbow Arts	1989	Renamed re-release of Katakis.
Disposable Hero	Gremlin Graphics	1993	Very nice gameplay. Excellent graphics.
DNA Warrior	Ace	1989
Dominator	System 3	1989
Dragon Breed	Activision	1991	Lacklustre port of the Arcade original.
Dragon Fighter	Idea	1992
Dyter 07	Reline	1990
Eggminator - It's Jokement Day	MKS	1994
Enigma	Centillian/OTM	1997	AGA chipset only.
Evolution Cryser	Kingsoft	1990
Fantastic Voyage	Centaur	1992
Fire!	New Deal	1990	Probably the worst Defender clone ever.
Forgotten Worlds	US Gold	1989	Port of the Arcade game.
Galactic		1994	Only released as a special edition on a coverdisk, very rare.
Hostile Breed	Palace	1992
Hunt For Red October 2	AVM/Grandslam	1990
Hyperdome	Exocet	1989
Ilyad	Ubi Soft	1989
Inferior	Ego	1996
Insects in Space	Hewson	1990	Defender clone.
Intruder	Ubi Soft	1990
Jetstrike	Rasputin/Alternative	1993
Kamikaze	Code Masters	1989
Katakis	Factor 5/Rainbow Arts	1988	Early R-Type rip-off. One of the first games to feature 50Hz scrolling. Graphics and sound do not have aged well, but the gameplay is still at par with later releases. C64 version is a completely different game.
Legend Of The Lost	Impressions	1990
Menace	DMA/Psyclapse	1988
Mortal Weapon	Mirage	1995
Necronom	Linel	1992
Outzone	Lankhor	1991	Similar to Defender, with some puzzle elements added in.
Overkill	Mindscape	1993	Like Defender.
P-47	Firebird	1990	Average Arcade conversion.
Pegasus	Gremlin	1991
Phalanx II - The Return	Kingsoft	1987
Phantom Fighter	Emerald/Martech	1988
Phobia	Image Works	1989
Plexu	New Line	1990
Powder	Epic Marketing	1989
Project X	Team 17	1992
Project X Special Edition '93	Team 17	1993
Protector	Virgin	1989
R-Type	Factor 5/Rainbow Arts	1988	Featuring a fantastic newly composed title theme by Chris Hülsbeck
R-Type II	Activision	1991	Average port that doesn't do the game justice.
Return To Genesis	Firebird	1988
Revenge Of The Mutant Camels	Mastertronic	1988	Typically weird game by Jeff Minter.
Saint Dragon	Ocean	1990	Conversion of the Arcade original.
Sarcophaser	Rainbow Arts	1988
Silkworm	Random Access/Sales Curve	1989	Fabulous port of the Arcade version.
Slayer	Hewson	1989
Space Assault	Magic	1991
Space Ranger	Mastertronic	1988	Miserable Defender clone.
Starray	Logotron	1988	Superb Defender clone.
Star Breaker	Arc	1989
Starrush	Ubi Soft	1992
Steigar	Screen 7	1989
T-Zero	Clickboom	1998	Awesome and super-detailed shooter. AGA chipset only
The Oath	Attic	1992	Pretty decent game with very good graphics and sound.
Thunderjaws	Domark	1991
U.N. Squadron	US Gold	1991	Arcade conversion.
Uridium 2	Graftgold/Renegade	1993	Excellent sequel to the 8-bit classic.
Wings Of Fury	Broderbund	1990
Wizball	Sensible Software/Ocean	1988	Weird, but cool.
X-Out	Rainbow Arts	1989	Innovative shooter with wonderful graphics and music. Still, the gameplay lacks some finetuning.
XR-35	Anco	1988
Ziriax	Software Business	1989	Nice graphics.
Z-Out	Advantec/Rainbow Arts	1990	Excellently crafted gameplay. One of the best sidescrollers ever released for the Amiga. Second only to Apidya.
Zynaps	Hewson	1988	Okayish Amiga version. Great on Spectrum and Amstrad CPC.

Other Shmups

GAME TITLE	COMPANY	YEAR	INFORMATION
Amnios	Psygnosis	1991
Atomic Robo Kid	Activision	1990
Battlestorm	Titus	1991
Better Dead Than Alien	Electra	1988	Nice little Space Invaders sort of game.
Blastar	Core	1993	Strange and confusing.
Blasteroids	Image Works	1989	Good port.
Blood Money	DMA/Psygnosis	1989	Overrated game. And very frustrating, too. Much better on C64.
Cabaret Asteroids	Vertical Development	1991	Perfect conversion of the original Asteroids.
Custodian	Hewson	1989
Cybernoid	Hewson	1988	Strange shooter without any scrolling. Improved version of the C64 original.
Cybernoid II - The Revenge	Hewson	1989	Even better than the first one.
Dragonscape	Wicked	1989
Emetic Skimmer	Kingsoft	1987	Badly programmed clone of Survivor.
Firehawk	Codemasters	1993
Fortress Underground	Kingsoft	1987	Similar to Fort Apocalypse.
Fusion	Bullfrog/Electronic Arts	1988
Future Tank	Time Warp	1988
Galaxy '89	Kingsoft	1989	Clone of Galaga '88.
Galaxy '93	Kingsoft	1993	Remake of Galaxy '89.
H.A.T.E.	Gremlin	1989	Isometric shooter reminiscent of Zaxxon.
Jug	Microdeal	1989
Leviathan	English	1987	Horrible Zaxxon clone.
Mega Phoenix	Dinamic	1991
Mr. Heli	Firebird	1989	Poor conversion of Irem's semi-cute Arcade classic. Better get the excellent PCE version.
Netherworld	Hewson	1988
Nightdawn	Magic Bytes	1987
Phalanx	Kingsoft	1987	Awfully bad game.
Photon Storm	Arc	1990
Quartz	Firebird	1988
Renaissance	Impressions	1990	Four-in-one collection containing exceptionally bad ports of Asteroids, Centipede, Galaxians and Space Invaders.
Return Of The Jedi	Domark/Tengen	1988
Rotor	Arcana	1990
Seek And Destroy	Mindscape	1993
Sidearms	US Gold	1989	Ported from the Arcade version.
Space Battle	Anco	1987
Space Pilot '89	Kingsoft	1989
Super Space Invaders	Domark	1991
Super Stardust
Venom Wing	Thalamus	1990	Levels scroll vertically and horizontally, just like in Salamander.
Vortex	Visionary Design	1988
Warp	Thalion	1990	Similar to the overhead levels of Thunder Force II.
XP-8	Weathermine	1996

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