Botss Wiki
Register
Advertisement

Note: featured articles from previous years can still be viewed. Just click on the appropriate tabber below this year's current previous featured articles table in order to view.

Article Platform Description Featured Photo
.--._.-_-._--.._._.-. Vectrex Warfare-themed game where the player controls a tank at the bottom of the screen trapped in between two gun turrets while enemy helicopters and planes fly overhead and drop bombs in the tank's direction. 1-2/2016 Panzer
Imagic Various Article about the former publisher that created multiple bottom of the screen shooters for the Atari 2600, Atari 8-bit line, the Commodore 64, Intellivision and more. 3-4/2016 Imagic
New York! New York! Arcade Players must defend the city of New York over two stages of gameplay; the first stage involves several alien ships swarming in various attack patterns while firing down at the player’s laser base. Then in the second stage, the player is pitted against one lone Leader Ship. 5-6/2016 Newyork
Mars Encounter Internet/PC A net flash game having the basics of Space Invaders, although with several changes. The player controls a ship at the bottom of the screen that must shoot overhead enemy Martians that move in formation that fire at the player. Bonus saucers fly at the top of the screen that are worth much more than the Martians. Many differences when compared to most Invaders-type games include the player’s ship being able to shoot many shots at once, rather than only one at a time. They can also withstand a mild hit without being destroyed and their ships consume energy with every time the player fires. 7-8/2016 Marsencounter
Communist Mutants from Space Atari 2600 A bit of a Galaxian clone where Communist Mutants appear over the player's cannon and charges downwards at them when they leave their formation. However, a Mother Creature constantly lays eggs that will turn into new Mutants until destroyed, as well as the game has an onscreen menu to choose from multiple defense and other features, such as supporting up to four player games. 9-10/2016 Commiemutants
War of the Worlds Time Rift Vectrex War of the Worlds was initially an arcade game. The Vectrex version is a port of the arcade original, although with several added features, such as two skill levels, an added pause/status screen and a mothership to contend with in addition to its use of a joystick rather than buttons to control movement. The game, in turn, had this special limited edition release which gave players an invisibility feature along with a limited edition watch being included with the game. 11-12/2016 TimeRift-box and watch
PICO-8 Various Fantasy video game console used for making, sharing, and playing small computer games and programs. Many bottom of the screen shooters are available for it. 1-2/2017 Pico8
Bailey's Video Arcade Film Joysticks was a 1983 American comedy about a game room in a town called River City. The movie covered the activities of several of the game room's regulars and a local businessman who is intent on shutting the place down. The fictional game room in the movie was called Bailey's Video Arcade, which had several bottom of the screen shooters, several of which are seen onscreen during the film. 3-4/2017 Baileyssignentrance
Mega Mania Raid Atari 2600 At the time of its release, Megamania was one of the very few bottom of the screen shooters for the Atari 2600 where objects that the player(s) had to shoot down had their attack patterns change with every new enemy that was introduced. And rather than using the common sci-fi theme where players faced aliens and/or spaceships, a more whimsical route was taken this time around, as players faced the everyday items of Hamburgers, Bow Ties, Steam Irons, etc. instead. In River Raid, players controlled a series of jets flying over a scrolling "River of No Return", destroying multiple types of targets of various sizes and attack patterns. Mega Mania Raid is a hack of Megamania, changing most of the graphics with elements from River Raid. 5-6/2017 Megamaniaraid
Video Mode Various Attack from Mars is a solid state pinball machine that was released in 1995 by Midway (although under the Bally label). Players had to utilize the ball to hit various targets in certain orders to strike back at attacking Martians in order to defend planet Earth. Video Mode is the mini-game that, when unlocked, was a simple bottom of the screen shooter that would appear on the video display on Attack from Mars's backboard. 7-8/2017 Saucerattack
Astro Fighter Arcade Players faced a multitude of enemies that all behaved differently, making the game fairly unique when it was released, as games with only one type of enemy/behavior was still common back then. Enemy warships would start out at the top of the screen and make their way downwards; if a player allowed one or more ships to slip past them, they would have to start the wave over, but with their ship bumped up a notch on the screen, having less time to react to enemies’ attacks, as well as wasting fuel in the process. 9-10/2017 Astrofighter
Vectrex Home console The Vectrex is a vector display-based video game console that was developed by Smith Engineering/Western Technologies. It was licensed and distributed first by GCE, and then by Milton Bradley after their purchase of GCE. It was released in November, 1982 at a retail price of $199; as Milton Bradley took over international marketing, the price dropped to $150 and then $100 shortly before the Video Game Crash of 1983. The Vectrex exited the market in early 1984. 11-12/2017 Vectrex
Galaxian (Minion Software) PC Galaxian was an arcade game where players faced a horde of aliens in a formation above their Galaxip, which would leave their formation and attack the player’s ship. It would later be ported to many home game consoles over the years. Galaxian (Minion Software) from Minion Software is a remake of the original Galaxian. 1-2/2018 Galaxianminionsoft
Commando Raid Atari 2600 In Commando Raid, the player controls a gun at the bottom center of the screen that fires upwards at "enemy android commando raiders". The majority of the raiders consists of helicopters that drop down commando paratroopers. The player has two buildings on each side of their gun (making four total) that they must protect from the paratroopers, along with shooting helicopters, planes, and bombs that are also appear during a game. 3-4/2018 Commandoraid


Article Platform Description Featured Photo
Cosmic Monsters Arcade Space Invaders clone, but the bonus U. F. O. can add an entire row of invaders to formation. 9/2012 - 5/2013 Cosmicmonsters
I, Cyborg Vectrex Player controls a cyborg that must battle or avoid dangers as it tries to escape from being wrongfully imprisoned. 6-7/2013 Icyborgpackaging
Super Space K'Noidtrix Sega CD A cross between Space Invaders and Tetris where the player must shoot blocks before they stack to the top of the screen. 8-9/2013 Willybeamish
Bubble Shooter HD Free iOS Bubble shooter game where the player must shoot bubbles before they reach the bottom. 10-12/2013 Bubbleshooterhdfree
How to Master the Video Games Book Help guide to popular 1970s/early 80s arcade games. The entire first chapter was in regards to bottom of the screen shooters. 1-2/2014 Howtomasterbook
Flying Bees Handheld The player shoots at bees that fly down towards their cannon. 3-4/2014 Pro200
M. A. D. Atari 2600 Players must keep a fleet of enemy missiles at bay by shooting them with their lone cannon. 5-6/2014 Mad
Challenger Arcade A cross between Space Invaders and Asteroids where players destroy floating rings. 7-8/2014 Challenger
Joysticks Film Movie about a small town game room that a local businessman wants to close down. Several bottom of the screen shooters were present. 9-10/2014 Joystickstitle
Notepad Invaders PC Online Space Invaders clone where the invaders look hand-drawn, plus they spew an obscenity while moving. 11-12/2014 Notepadinvaders
Paratroopers Vectrex Clone of the Apple II game Sabotage where the player must shoot down planes and paratroopers that parachute out of them. 1-2/2015 Gravitrexplus
Video Mode Various Simple bottom of the screen shooter mini-game found on the Attack from Mars pinball game originally, along with appearing on The Pinball Arcade on various platforms upon re-release years later. 3-4/2015 Saucerattack
Pheenix ZX Sprectrum Clone of the arcade game Phoenix where players face enemy birds over five different stages. 5-6/2015 Pheenix
Pro 200 Gaming System Handheld This was a handheld system that had several games included with it, along with a calculator. Two of its games were bottom of the screen shooters. 7-8/2015 Pro200
C.I.F.S. Atari 2600 This is a hacked version of the Atari 2600 port of Space Invaders, having graphics from the 2600 game Communist Mutants from Space. 9-10/2015 Cifs
UniWar S Arcade Early arcade game that had several different stages/enemies (like the later Gorf). It starts out as a Galaxian ripoff, but then later employs Spies that attempt to spear the player's Space Ship, among other things. 11-12/2015 Uniwars

Advertisement