Side-scrolling space/vehicle games (1977–1985) Sega's
Bomber was a side-scrolling
shooter video game released for arcades in April 1977. Side-scrolling was later popularized by side-scrolling
shoot 'em ups in the early 1980s.
Defender, demonstrated by
Williams Electronics in late 1980 and entering production in early 1981, allowed side-scrolling in both directions with wrap-around, extending the boundaries of the game world, while also including a
mini-map radar.
Scramble, released by
Konami in early 1981, had continuous scrolling in a single direction and was the first side-scroller with multiple distinct
levels. The first scrolling
platform game was
Jump Bug, a platform-shooter released in 1981. Players controlled a bouncing car and navigated it to jump on various platforms like buildings, clouds, and hills. While it primarily scrolls horizontally, one section includes coarse vertical scrolling.
Taito's first attempt at a side-scrolling
platformer was the arcade game
Jungle King (1982), later altered and renamed to
Jungle Hunt due to legal controversy over similarities to
Tarzan. The side-scrolling format was enhanced by
parallax scrolling, which gives an illusion of depth. The background images are presented in multiple layers that scroll at different rates, so objects closer to the horizon scroll slower than objects closer to the viewer. Some parallax scrolling was used in
Jump Bug. It used a limited form of parallax scrolling with the main scene scrolling while the starry night sky is fixed and clouds move slowly, adding depth to the scenery. The following year,
Irem's
Moon Patrol (1982) implemented a full form of parallax scrolling, with three separate background layers scrolling at different speeds, simulating the distance between them.
Moon Patrol is often credited with popularizing parallax scrolling. and was released the same month as
Moon Patrol in June 1982.
Activision published two side-scrolling
racing games for the
Atari VCS in 1982: the biplane-based
Barnstorming and the top-view
Grand Prix. By 1984, there were other racing games played from a side-scrolling view, including
Nintendo's
Excitebike SNK's
Jumping Cross. and
Mystic Marathon from
Williams Electronics, a footrace between fantasy creatures. In 1985, Konami's side-scrolling shooter:
Gradius gave the player greater control over the choice of weaponry, thus introducing another element of strategy.
Gradius, with its iconic protagonist, defined the side-scrolling
shoot 'em up and spawned a series spanning several sequels.
Side-scrolling character action games (1984–1995) In the mid-1980s, side-scrolling character
action games (also called "side-scrolling action games" or side-scrolling "character-driven" games) emerged, combining elements from earlier side-view, single-screen character action games, such as single-screen
platform games, with the side-scrolling of space/vehicle games, such as scrolling space
shoot 'em ups. These new side-scrolling character-driven action games featured large characters
sprites in colorful, side-scrolling environments, with the core gameplay consisting of fighting large groups of weaker enemies, using attacks/weapons such as punches, kicks, guns, swords,
ninjutsu or magic. The most notable early example was
Irem's
Kung-Fu Master (1984), It adapted combat mechanics similar to single-screen
fighting game Karate Champ (1984) for a side-scrolling format, and had elements such as end-of-level
boss battles as well as
health meters for the
player character and bosses.
Legend of Kage notably had levels that extend in all directions, while maintained a side-view format. On
home computers, such as the martial arts game
Karateka (1984) successfully experimented with adding plot to its
fighting game action, and was also the first side-scroller to include
cutscenes. Character action games also include scrolling platform games like
Super Mario Bros. (1985),
Sonic the Hedgehog (1991) and
Bubsy (1993).
Super Mario Bros. in particular, released for the
Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) console, had a significant impact on the game industry, establishing the conventions of the scrolling platform genre and helping to reinvigorate the North American home
video game market (which had
crashed in 1983). In 1986,
Technōs Japan's
Nekketsu Kōha Kunio-kun introduced street brawling to the genre. The Western adaptation
Renegade (released the same year) added an underworld revenge plot that proved more popular with gamers than the principled combat sport of other games.
Renegade set the standard for future beat 'em up games as it introduced the ability to move both
horizontally and vertically. In 1987, the release of
Double Dragon ushered in a "Golden Age" for the beat 'em up a genre that lasted nearly 5 years. The game was designed as
Technos Japan's spiritual successor to
Renegade,
Double Dragons success largely resulted in a flood of beat 'em ups that came in the late 1980s, but the company ultimately gave it a new title.
Final Fight spawned two sequels and was later ported to other systems.
Golden Axe was acclaimed for its visceral
hack and slash action and cooperative mode and was influential through its selection of multiple protagonists with distinct fighting styles. It is considered one of the strongest beat 'em up titles for its fantasy elements, distinguishing it from the urban settings seen in other beat 'em ups.
Scrolling platform games In 1984,
Pac-Land took the scrolling platform game a step further. It was not only a successful title, but it more closely resembled later scrolling platformers like
Wonder Boy and
Super Mario Bros. It also has multi-layered
parallax scrolling. The same year,
Sega released
Flicky, a simple platformer with horizontally scrolling levels and first mascot character.
Namco followed up
Pac-Land with the fantasy-themed
Dragon Buster the following year. Nintendo's platform game
Super Mario Bros., designed by
Shigeru Miyamoto and released for the
Nintendo Entertainment System in 1985, became the archetype for many scrolling platformers to follow. It established many of the conventions of the side-scrolling platform genre and struck a balance between
arcade-like action and longer play sessions suited for home systems, helping to reinvigorate the North American home video game market. It used the same game engine as
Excitebike, which allowed Mario to
accelerate from a walk to a run, rather than move at a constant speed like earlier platformers.
Run and gun In 1984,
Hover Attack for the
Sharp X1 was an early
run & gun shooter that freely scrolled in all directions and allowed the player to shoot diagonally as well as straight ahead. 1985 saw the release of
Thexder, a breakthrough title for platform shooters. and
Namco's
Rolling Thunder (1986). However, by the early 1990s and with the
popularity of 16-bit consoles, the scrolling shooter genre was overcrowded, with developers struggling to make their games stand out.
IBM PC compatibles Side-scrolling was a well-known phenomenon in arcades, and
home computer and
console games of the 1980s, as they often possessed hardware optimized for the task like the
Atari 8-bit computers and
Famicom, but
IBM compatibles did not. Smooth scrolling on IBM PCs using the
Color Graphics Adapter was a challenge for developers. There were a small number of IBM PC compatible ports of smooth scrolling arcade games in the early 1980s, including
Moon Patrol and
Defender. The second version of
Sopwith, released in 1986, also had smooth scrolling. In 1990
John Carmack, then working for
Softdisk, combined horizontal smooth scrolling feature of the
Enhanced Graphics Adapter with a software technique he called
adaptive tile refresh. It was demonstrated in the
proof-of-concept game
Dangerous Dave in Copyright Infringement, which was a clone of the first level of
Super Mario Bros. 3, but with Mario replaced by the character
Dangerous Dave of earlier Softdisk games. This led Carmack and others at Softdisk to resign and form their own company,
id Software. Id Software released
Commander Keen the same year, which was the first publicly available MS-DOS
platform game with smoothly-scrolling graphics. ==See also==