GamesNostalgia

Retro games, abandonware, freeware and classic games for PC and Mac

iten

Best shooter games on GamesNostalgia

Shooter games have been a popular form of entertainment for decades, captivating gamers across the globe with their intense action and immersive gameplay. In these games, sometimes called "shoot 'em up" games, the player shoots bullets or other projectiles at the enemies.

One of the first, and probably the most famous, arcade games, Space Invaders, was a shooter in which you have to destroy hordes of aliens. Shooter games are addictive because they tap into our innate desire for competition and accomplishment. They give players a sense of control and power that is difficult to find in real life. In shooter games, players are given a clear objective, and their success is determined by their ability to complete it. Speed and adrenaline are part of the deal: if games are not fast, they are not shooters. Robotron: 2084, released in 1984, is a perfect example.

In the early days of gaming, we had primarily 2D games, like Uridium for the Commodore 64 or the arcades Gradius and Xevious. There was a specific trend for space shooters with vertical or horizontal scrolling. Vertical scrolling shoot 'em up include Xenon, Hybris, and the legendary Xenon 2: Megablast for the Amiga, released in 1989. Horizontal scrolling shooters include R-Type, Factor 5's Katakis, or Armalyte for the Commodore 64. The arcade Star Wars is an excellent example of a space shooter with a first-person point of view.

But it's not just about space shooters. There is a particular sub-genre of run and gun games, or platform-shooters, like Konami's Contra or the famous Turrican developed for C64 and Amiga, or Gunstar Heroes for the Mega Drive/Genesis. Anyway, not all platform shooters can be considered shoot 'em ups. It depends if shooting is part of the core mechanics or not.

To mention top-down view shooters, we should remember the Alien Breed series by Team17.

Finally, we must close this overview by mentioning the genre that revolutionized PC gaming and made PC games a multi-million business: 3D first-person shooters. Everything changed when id Software launched Wolfenstein 3D in 1992, and one year later, Doom. After that, every studio tried to launch a 3D FPS. Duke Nukem 3D, Blood, and of course, Quake are just a few examples.

Shooters is a very generic group that includes a lot of games. You can find a lot of titles here. You can browse and see what you like most.

No One Lives Forever 2: A Spy in H.A.R.M.'s Way windows

No One Lives Forever 2 is a first-person shooter with stealth elements created by Monolith and published by Sierra in 2002 for PC and Macintosh. As you may imagine, NOLF2 is the se...

Year: 2002 Genre: Action

3d action-adventure cold war espionage first-person fps humour shooter spy stealth

Halo: Combat Evolved windowsmac-osx

Halo: Combat Evolved is a sci-fi first-person shooter created by Bungie Studios for Microsoft and released for the Xbox in 2001, then ported to Windows and Macintosh by GearBox in 2003.

Year: 2003 Genre: Shooter

aliens aviation first-person multiplayer science fiction shooter war

Quake dos

Quake is a first-person shooter developed by id Software and published by GT Interactive in 1996. With the success it had with Doom in 1993, id Software decided to capitalize its ...

Year: 1996 Genre: Shooter

3d 3d acceleration fps multiplayer quake engine science fiction shooter texture map

Quake II windows

Quake II doesn't need any introduction. The first-person shooter created by id Software was released in December 1997. The legendary John Carmack worked personally on coding this gem, that was not planned to be a sequel to Quake.

Year: 1997 Genre: Shooter

3d first-person fps multiplayer science fiction shooter texture map

Contra nesmsx

Contra is a run-and-gun style platformer developed by Konami and published by Erbe Software in 1987. It was released in arcades and on ZX Spectrum and Amstrad PC to start with. The...

Year: 1988 Genre: Shooter

2 players coin-op conversion platform-shooter run and gun science fiction shooter south america

Duke Nukem 3D dos

Duke Nukem 3D is a sci-fi first-person shooter created by 3D Realms and published by GT Interactive Software for PC in 1996. The game is the sequel of Duke Nukem and Duke Nukem I...

Year: 1996 Genre: Shooter

2.5d adult comedy first-person fps north america science fiction shooter texture map

No One Lives Forever windows

The Operative: No One Lives Forever, also known as NOLF, is a first-person shooter/stealth game created by Monolith Productions and published by Fox Interactive for PC in 2000. If ...

Year: 2000 Genre: Shooter

3d action-adventure cold war espionage first-person humour shooter spy stealth

Heretic dos

Heretic is a first-person shooter developed by Raven Software and published by id Software in 1994 for the PC and Mac. The game was published by the prestigious American company i...

Year: 1994 Genre: Shooter

2.5d dark fantasy doom engine fantasy first-person fps medieval shooter texture map

Hexen: Beyond Heretic dos

Hexen: Beyond Heretic is a fantasy first-person shooter developed by Raven Software and released in 1995 as a sequel to Heretic, published one year before. It is the second chapter of the Serpent Riders series.

Year: 1995 Genre: Shooter

2.5d dark fantasy doom engine fantasy fps shooter texture map

Contra Force nes

Contra Force is a run-and-gun platformer created by Konami and released exclusively for the NES in 1992 in North America only. This is the fifth game in the Contra series and the...

Year: 1992 Genre: Shooter

2 players nes original game platform-shooter shooter

Doom 2 TNT: Evilution dos

TNT: Evilution adds 32 new levels to Doom 2. The mod was created by TeamTNT and was supposed to be released as freeware. Instead, it was included in FinalDOOM, released in 1996..

Year: 1996 Genre: Shooter

2.5d doom engine first-person fps horror mod science fiction shooter

Doom dos

Doom is the legendary first-person shooter created by Id Software and released for DOS in 1993. It was Id Software’s follow-up to their genre-defining Wolfenstein 3D. This was ...

Year: 1993 Genre: Shooter

2.5d doom engine fps horror science fiction shooter texture map

Quake Mission Pack 2: Dissolution of Eternity dos

Dissolution of Eternity is the second expansion (or mission pack) for Quake. Developed by Rogue Entertainment, it was released on March 1997 for PC only. It includes 2 new episodes...

Year: 1997 Genre: Shooter

fps mission multiplayer science fiction shooter

Quake Mission Pack 1: Scourge of Armagon dos

Scourge of Armagon is the first official mission pack for Quake. It was developed by Developed by Hipnotic Interactive and released in 1997. It contains 17 new single-player leve...

Year: 1997 Genre: Shooter

mission science fiction shooter