Sega's Alien Syndrome brought frantic alien blasting to arcades the year after Aliens brought it to theaters, and though the game's sensibility is decidedly less dark, it manages to squeeze a fair amount of tension out of its gameplay. The game's two protagonists, the strangely child-like Ricky and Mary, venture into a series of alien-infested ships to rescue their kidnapped comrades and escape before the ship self-destructs, fighting a boss alien once they reach the end of each level. Maps located around the levels help you locate your friends, and weapon power-ups help you mop up increasingly aggressive aliens, but really the timer is your most dastardly foe as you navigate the game's corridors. The game's cabinet was known for its plastic three-eyed alien topper, which didn't fit in our overlay, but you can imagine it there staring down at you menacingly.

Four years after the movie brought Ripley, Newt, Hicks and "Game over, man! Game over!" to theaters, Aliens the game brought the franchise to arcades in an action-packed run-and-gun format. The game does a nice job of translating concepts such as the xenomorphs, smart guns, motion sensors and the famous exoskeleton cargo loader into relatively straightforward gameplay, though it takes significant liberties with the formula to provide enough easily-identifiable enemy types to keep the game interesting (including spider-like aliens, an armor-plated boss that rolls into a ball and bounces around, winged aliens and more). Aliens planted an excellent gameplay egg in arcades, which would burst forth four years later with Capcom's Alien vs. Predator.

Unrelated to the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie released the same year and with a not-entirely-dissimilar plot, Commando follows the incursion of soldier Super Joe (just don't call him G.I.) into battle against an entire enemy army. Developed by Capcom but released in some markets by Data East, Commando essentially defined the vertically-scrolling run-and-gun concept and inspired the entire genre. The game is synonymous with the standard "shoot in the direction you're facing" run-and-gun control scheme used in numerous other games, as differentiated from the rotating joystick aiming of Ikari Warriors and its descendants. It was followed by sequel Mercs in 1989.

Contra is perhaps best known for its NES port, one of the first games to include the famous “Konami code,” but the arcade version was a groundbreaking game in its own right. A two-player run-and-gun game that combined exciting shooting action with multiple perspectives and platform-based levels, Contra brought an action movie sensibility to the genre – the heroes somersault when jumping, the explosions are plentiful, even the game art has gleaming photos of the Stallone-esque protagonists. If you’re more familiar with the home ports, you should definitely spend some time with the more sophisticated arcade version. The MAME version includes two screen sizes if you want to get even closer to the action.

Gain Ground combines action and real time strategy in a way few arcade games did, with a huge set of playable characters and levels that require both reflexes and planning. It most resembles Gauntlet, one of its key inspirations, but each level is a single screen and requires you to figure out the best combination of warriors and tactics to defeat all the enemies and/or get all your warriors to the exit. The strategy aspect is not deep, it’s almost more of a puzzle game, but it does require more thinking as the levels progress. Our version reimagines the original wide cabinet in a more standard cabinet format, but retains all of the art and character information. The MAME version includes two screen sizes and light and dark versions.

Following in the boot tracks of the successful Ikari Warriors, SNK released Guerrilla War to further capitalize on its rotary joystick-powered run-and-gun formula. Unlike the fanciful Rambo-style storyline of the Ikari series, Guerrilla War's story is actually a gamified take on the Cuban Revolution, with its two gun-toting heroes being none other than Ché Guevara and Fidel Castro fighting the Batista regime. Don't expect a history lesson, as the concept and gameplay are similar to the Ikari series, including its rotary joystick aiming controls, but the graphics are improved and overall the game has a level of polish that the original didn't always achieve. As with the Ikari games, you will need a method of emulating the rotary aiming, but a version is available that combines movement and aiming in one joystick.

The final game released by the short-lived TAD Corporation, Heated Barrel is a frenetic Western shooter (sheer chaos with four players) that feels like a bit of a hybrid between a typical run-and-gun game and a side-scrolling shooter. Players have more vertical freedom of movement than in some similar games (such as Sunset Riders), which opens up considerably more tactical depth as enemies appear fast and furiously from all directions. The visuals are simpler and more cartoony than in many run-and-gun games, with an emphasis more on action and movement than on pretty stages, which gives Heated Barrel its own niche that's worth a few runs.

"These two men were born to fight!" proclaims the title screen of Ikari III: The Rescue, and it's hard to argue with that premise as we follow Paul and Vince once again unto the breach. Sent to rescue "the Presidential candidate's child" from "an enemy terrorist party," Ikari III has the Rambo-like heroes fighting hand-to-hand through much of the game, combining Bad Dudes-like melee combat with the series' run-and-gun formula. It's clear a few years have passed, as the graphics, enemies and gameplay are notably more advanced than the series' earlier games, but it still features the team-up action and jungle setting the series is known for. Ikari III still uses a rotary joystick, but a version is available that combines movement and aiming, making it much easier to control.

One of the most iconic run-and-gun games of the 80s, Ikari Warriors sends commandos Paul and Vince into enemy territory to battle hordes of enemies with bullets, grenades and tanks. Inspired by the Rambo movies and taking its Ikari ("fury" in Japanese) from the Japanese title of Rambo: First Blood Part II, the game's key distinction was the use of a rotary joystick that allowed players to move and aim independently. Emulating the game's proper controls on MAME is a well-known challenge – though it is ideally controlled with a dedicated rotary joystick, you can also use a spinner combined with a two-button flight stick, or map buttons to the left and right rotation of the character (a modified version that combines movement and aiming direction is also available). Whatever your setup, Ikari Warriors is worth another rampage through the jungle.

Known for 80s arcade hits like Defender and Robotron: 2084, Williams also released a few odd titles that didn't generate quite so much buzz, and Inferno definitely falls into the latter category. Sort of a mashup of Crystal Castles and Robotron but with dual joysticks that only move diagonally, and a strangely creepy vibe, the game sends one or two heroes into a series of maze-like caverns to battle cyclopes, tanks, nymphs and "boom boom birds" sent by the Grand Lizard. The mazes have multiple height levels and their narrow corridors can be a challenge to navigate without properly configured controls (ideally you need a flight stick and another joystick, but you can make it work with two normal sticks and a nearby button). If you're looking for a weird 80s game you may not have played that's unmistakably Williams, delve into the depths of Inferno.

‍

Something of a hybrid between Heavy Barrel (with the same rotating joystick, similar power-up system and relatively slow framerate) and Contra, Midnight Resistance puts players in the combat boots of a heavily armed commando as he tries to rescue his family from the clutches of an evil organization. Infiltrating its dystopian future lair involves dispatching numerous bad guys and their vehicles (including trucks, helicopters, planes and eventually an entire battleship) while dealing with many environmental hazards across the game's heavily platform-centric levels. The game includes fairly clever use of its rotating joystick controls and platforming environments, requiring you to constantly change your targets to deal with bosses and other enemies within constantly changing levels. You can emulate the controls on MAME several different ways (a rotating joystick if you can get one, a spinner/flight stick combo, or mapping buttons to the rotation), though it may involve a learning curve to deal with everything this game throws at you.

Before Eugene Jarvis brought us his classic Smash TV and Total Carnage, he designed the first big game of the newly reformed Williams Electronics, the controversial NARC. Picking up on the drug hysteria and pop culture excesses of the 80s, NARC sends two heavily-armed officers (wearing brightly-colored motorcycle outfits, for some reason) to take down Mr. Big and his K.R.A.K. drug syndicate. You can arrest the hordes of pushers and thugs the game sends at you, but why bother when you have a rocket launcher? Known for its high-res digitized graphics (and flying body parts), NARC updated the run-and-gun formula with a style and flair that helped define the arcades of the late 80s and beyond.

Developed by Toaplan and released in North America by Romstar and Toaplan/Tecmo globally, Out Zone combines the vertically scrolling run-and-gun mechanics of games like Ikari Warriors with many of the conventions of shoot-em-ups like Truxton: weapon power-ups add more powerful shots and 3-way shooting, and you face waves of similar enemies in formations as well as a variety of mini-bosses and stage bosses. However, the conventions of run-and-gun games such as directional aiming and ground-based obstacles make Out Zone a very different experience, with a faster pace and more intense encounters than most of its run-and-gun contemporaries.

Movie tie-in games were relatively rare in 80s arcades, and RoboCop is one of the few of those that's still worth talking about decades later. The game loosely follows the plot of the movie, though without much context, deploying our cyborg hero first in the streets of Detroit and then in a series of gritty industrial environments to take out waves of bad guys and ultimately rescue "the President" (of the country, presumedly, it is never really spelled out). Bosses come in the form of trucks, construction equipment and, most importantly, several different flavors of ED-209 robots, which feature increasingly dangerous weapons. Like other Data East run-and-gun and beat-em-up games of the time, such as Bad Dudes and Sly Spy, the pace is relatively slow and success is more about timing than reflexes. The visuals, soundtrack and samples from the movie ("Your move, creep!") give the game an enjoyably 80s feel that will make you say "I'll buy that for a quarter!" (sorry, we had to say it).

Sly Spy is one of a surprisingly few James Bond-inspired arcade games, and it translates its secret agent theme to Data East's run-and-gun formula mostly successfully. Sly Spy sends its unnamed agent in pursuit of terrorists from the Council for World Domination across a variety of action set pieces, including falling from a plane, riding a motorcycle, fighting underwater in scuba gear and ultimately across a range of enemy fortresses, all while shooting waves of enemy henchmen. The game's bosses are appropriately Bond-like, including a shark, tigers, a snappily-dressed dude with a lethal hat and a Jaws-like enemy with metal arms instead of teeth. It even includes a final scene with the evil mastermind threatening to kill the agent in a mechanical contraption, though it could have been much more. Though not as well-known as Bad Dudes or RoboCop, Sly Spy captures the thrill of being a secret agent in a satisfying run-and-gun package.

Note that Sly Spy was released as Secret Agent in Japan, and some versions show up in MAME under that name (secretag). Our MAME overlay download includes two Zip files, one named slyspy.zip and one named secretag.zip, so you will need to unzip the downloaded file and then use whichever Zip file matches the name of your game.

Smash TV reimagines the dual-stick chaos of Robotron: 2084 as a hyperviolent, tongue-in-cheek dystopian future game show reminiscent of The Running Man, with a dash of the R-rated humor of RoboCop. Though it wears its many reference on its, um, sleeveless protagonists, Smash TV adds a lot of new elements to the mix, including numerous weapon powerups, boss fights and two-player cooperative play. Designed by Robotron designer Eugene Jarvis, Smash TV is still considered a classic of "Big money! Big prizes!" and "Total Carnage!"

Smash TV requires two 8-way joysticks (the left for movement, the right for shooting) – if you happen to have a cabinet with 4 joysticks, you're in for some amazing co-op action! If not, you can make your friends watch until it's their turn.

Action heroes Bill and Lance returned after Contra for another assault on the alien menace in Super Contra — with upgraded graphics and some new mechanics, including new weapons and top-down even-numbered levels rather than the quasi-3D perspective of the original. Super Contra amps up the visual style and the challenge of the original, requiring fast reflexes as the levels and the boss fights get more and more complex. The cabinet art also doubles down on the original, with our glistening photographic heroes appearing on the bezel in addition to the marquee. Both MAME and RetroArch versions include two screen sizes, so you can really savor the pixels as you bring the fight to the aliens.

Smash TV creators Eugene Jarvis and Mark Turmell returned with this spinoff, bringing the gameplay elements of their previous hit into a 1990s political quasi-satire. Total Carnage sends its two shirtless heroes into the fictional Kookistan to defeat dictator General Achboob (we didn't say it was highbrow satire) and his mutant army, with even more over-the-top enemies and level design more akin to run-and-gun games like Ikari Warriors and Heavy Barrel. In addition to a wide range of enemies, weapon power-ups and even more ridiculous bosses (including a bizarre Hitleresque final boss), the game also features shortcuts, including both portals and the ability to type in a code to access later sections of the game. Can you make it to the Pleasure Domes (without cheating)?

Like Smash TV, Total Carnage requires two 8-way joysticks (one for running, one for gunning) and uses a single Start/Bomb button. Now go make your country proud (or ashamed, depending on your country).

Victory Road is the first sequel to Ikari Warriors, and features the same rotary joystick run-and-gun gameplay as its predecessor. Picking up at the end of the first game's story, Victory Road finds victorious heroes Paul and Vince suddenly thrown thousands of years into the future by a mysterious storm, where an alien named Zang Zip has taken over. Unlike the first game's relatively straightforward premise and style, Victory Road features a somewhat oddball sci-fi aesthetic, with hordes of tiny grunts, jumping spider-like aliens, flying insectoid enemies and more. The game also includes quirky sample-based sound effects, starting with a hilariously weird sampled taunt from the villain that sounds more like a pro wrestler than an alien overlord. Like Ikari Warriors, the game can be a challenge to emulate properly, requiring some method of rotating your aiming direction.

Wacko was wacky in a variety of ways, most noticeably with its oddball cabinet design, which tilted at an extreme angle (yes, this is what the cabinet looked like). The game itself puts you in control of alien Kapt. Krooz'r, previously the star of 1982's Kozmik Krooz'r, and tasks you with eliminating monsters in a sort of matching game variation of Robotron: 2084. You must shoot the monsters in pairs, and as the levels progress, shooting non-matching creatures creates even weirder mutants. The control scheme uses a trackball for movement and a joystick for firing, but it plays acceptably with two 8-way joysticks.

The TV cartoon series Wild West C.O.W.-Boys of Moo Mesa lasted for only two seasons on Saturday mornings in the early '90s, but it was around long enough to spawn an arcade adaptation that's still worth playing. As is usually the case, dastardly villains have kidnapped the game's love interest, and mutated bovine heroes Moo Montana, Cowlorado Kid and friends must battle their way through a herd of ornery, gun-toting steers to rescue her. The game features nicely realized art by and inspired by creator Ryan Brown, and we added a bit more art to the cabinet to better reflect the spirit of the game.

Xenophobe innovated on several fronts, with a unique cabinet design and a game concept that puts three players in the same game but allows them to move around independently thanks to a three-way split screen. The game sends a crew of space officers into a series of alien-infested ships to take out the space vermin (or Xenos), gather whatever valuables are left behind and then (optionally) destroy the ship before moving on to the next one. Xenophobe borrows cheekily from Alien and various other sci-fi properties, creating a universe that is both challenging and a lot of fun to play. The arcade game used flight sticks with two buttons whose functions constantly changed – watch the bottom of your section of the screen to determine what they do as you go.