No. 8: R-Type
Squishy Side Scrolling Shoot-em-up from Irem

R-Type. Irem (1987). Another milestone in the evolution of the shoot-em-up, R-Type oozed class from every pixel. It introduced the long absent elements of strategy and stealth into a video-game genre known previously for fast-paced, button-slapping action. Try those tactics here and you'll wind up dead, and out of money fast.

R-Type featured 3 flavours of main weapon:

Blue (ricochet laser) shot diagonally and rebounded from the walls, floor and ceiling. Did not dissipate on contact with most enemies. Useful in tight corridors for covering your back. Good all-round weapon.

Red (ribbon laser) shot in a dual, sinusoidal wave, the red power-up was for full-on frontal or rear assaults.

Yellow (terrain laser) shot from above and below the player's ship, this weapon followed the shape of the terrain it hit. Priceless against turret-infested mother ships. 

The levels, oh what levels! Massive enemy ships, festooned with bomb-spitting towers, too big to fit on a single screen. Gory rides through alien organisms, lobster-like monstrosities leaping from the organic walls. Manic flights through enemy-ridden bases, all beautifully rendered. Past the initial couple of levels, success ultimately relied on knowing each stage intimately, knowing where to hide when that big ship tries to crush you from above, memorising the patterns of aliens, and importantly, remembering where the next power-up ship was coming from, would all have to be committed to memory.

R-Type's memorable idiosyncrasy was to furnish you with a little pod which acted both as power-up and missile, capable of being jettisoned either forwards or backwards as an extra attack, then recalled like a faithful hound. The robotic companion could also be powered up itself in 3 stages. Other bolt-ons came in the form of homing missiles, speed-ups and a couple of spinning orbs, which were often needed to carve holes not only through the evil Bydo masses, but also through the terrain itself.

I must have played this game hundreds of times "back in the day", but I never completed it, only reaching level 7 of 8 overall on a single credit. The game is of course emulated by MAME these days, but a mention must go to a very ambitious coin-op conversion I played for the ZX Spectrum. The Spectrum was of course, woefully underpowered compared to the emerging consoles of the late 1980s, but here was R-Type, fully resplendent with all levels intact, and smooth gameplay to boot, courtesy mainly of a movement system that meant you could only move your ship in blocks of about 8 pixels, but hey, it worked, somehow.

Featured: Stealth shooting, launch-able bots, massive enemies, beautiful graphics.

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