Top 50 Horizontal Shmups for your MAME Cabinet

Note: Horizontal in this instance merely refers to the aspect ratio,and not necessarily the direction of movement in the game.
This list is merely my opinion. There are many games out there,and we all have our personal preferences. This is mine.
In order to make this list,the games must follow two simple rules...
1#They must be fully playable on your average MAME cabinet,and must not require any special controls or extra equipment.
2#They must closely resemble the arcade game style as much as possible,therefore RPG's (Chrono Trigger,Final Fantasy,etc.) and some Action Adventure games with higher RPG aspects (Zelda,Actraiser,etc.) do not qualify.
I do not own the rights to the characters, music, or footage used in this video,nor do I claim to.They belong to their respective owners.
That's it folks...hope you enjoy. Leave a comment and subscribe for more content in the future!
50.Air Buster
49.E.D.F. - Earth Defense Force
48.Mega Blast
47.Hyper Duel
46.Alpha Mission 2
45.Metal Black
44.Cosmic Cop
43.Mystic Riders
42.Airwolf
41.Bio-Ship Paladin
40.Twinkle Star Sprites
39.Rezon
38.Zero Wing
37.Spacefortress Macross II
36.Ghost Pilots
35.Atomic Robo Kid
34.Carrier Airwing
33.Raystorm
32.Viewpoint
31.Terra Force
30.Blazstar
29.Prehistoric Isle
28.Side Arms - Hyper Dyne
27.Eco Fighters
26.Hacha Mecha Fighter
25.Blazing Lazers
24.Black Heart
23.Zed Blade
22.Fantasy Zone
21.4-D Warriors
20.Last Resort
19.U.N. Squadron
18.Sol Divide
17.Bosconian
16.Baraduke
15.Captain Tomaday
14.G-Darius
13.Xevious 3/DG
12.R-Type 2
11.Pulstar
10.Battle Chopper
09.Gradius 3
08.Breakthru
07.Moon Patrol
06.Salamander
05.R-Type Leo
04.Gigawing
03.Darius-G
02.Asteroids Deluxe
01.Defender

[@davidsapir3764]

Ahhhh, it's the day after Thanksgiving don't have to work today so I'm watching this awesome video while playing Blazing Star on a GPD XD. My favorite retro games are side scroll and vertical shooters like the R Type games, and this video was a real eye opener. I was surprised how many of these games I was seeing for the first time. This video gave me some good ones to download. Great compilation RetroHumanoid!

[@BigBobster86]

Earth Defense Force. I remember this game's great first level music but couldn't remember the name of it. Thanks for this vid.

[@MrJcgriego]

Sidearms Hyperdyne I've been looking for this game for a long time. I finally found it Thanks RetroHumanoid

[@pretty_hell]

Finally found the underwater shooter. Mega Blast

[@10tonhamster]

Good list. A few I would have considered instead. Parodius Deathsmiles In The Hunt And, arguably as there was an amiga arcade cabinet, Xenon. (Edit: Sorry I forgot Hyperspin is more than just MAME)

[@ef1265]

Parodius I hate but *In the Hunt* is one of the best, should be included here

[@collinzo]

Thinks I'm your 1000th sub! :) oh and.. a fair number of vertical shmups in this list!

[@RetroHumanoid]

+Andrew Collins thanks for the sub! yeah...it was more or less aspect ratio...not so much direction....just worded it wrong

[@pauleliczaradraneda3796]

I'm looking for an arcade game I played back in the 90s.. its a vertical shooter game, the setting was in space where you can choose between a male and female pilot. the distinguishing feature of this game probably is the weapon system. from what i remember, it is like an option that follows the ship. one type is red. it fires different burst shots depending on how long you charge it. at mid charge it fires fire dragon-like shots. at max it unleashes a huge fire bird flapping and killing all enemies in the screen. the other type is blue, and more like the laser type. This, I don't remember this on as much as the red one, but I think it fires different sizes of laser pillars.

[@JohnDRobinsonelectronicdrums]

sounds like lightning fighters to me :) archive.org/details/arcade_lgtnfght

[@Scorpion_Matero_1978]

That game is Nostradamus.

[@GavalasShootingKing]

Had no idea about macross 2 awesome game

[@epicon6]

Best genre in arcade games

[@yeltsakcir5398]

Bro, i'm looking for Horizontal Shmups where you destroy a big Spaceship with an small small Spaceship. The graphic looks so badass.

[@GavalasShootingKing]

Can you be a little more specific?

[@nawafaleid196]

missing Parodius games (konami) , great list

[@armandoibrahim7786]

@Tadeo Karsyn definitely, I have been using flixzone for years myself =)

[@ShinJudo]

Don't let the name fool you, my bois. A game of Twinkle Star Sprites between two folks who know what they are doing gets mad vicious /in a hurry/.

[@ef1265]

In the Hunt should be there, one of the best ever

[@Sam-Lawry]

Where can I have a mame/hyperspin box in 15khz ready to jamma with a j.pac or jamma asd? I'm a noob with these stuff..I m more ok with old real pcb,but now..it's better to have a box with all ly favotites games ready to play on my blast city. Thanks,with you I discovered somes great old games...

[@RetroHumanoid]

You can look into a Pandoras box...im not too sure about 15khz,and it doesnt have hyperspin,but,it IS jamma and it has alot of the best mame titles included.

[@Sam-Lawry]

@@RetroHumanoid Thanks. But I already have a pandora,the real last one with the usb key and 15/31khz. It's fine,but not very close to nice pc hyperspin or pi2jamma. My blast city is a childhood dream,so I'm looking for a nice stuff to play and I cant always buy originals pcb jamma..too expensive.

[@Sam-Lawry]

Ho..Pandora box is not real jamma (need a chamma jamma adaptor with kick harness like the jnx or others). kzbin.info/www/bejne/fZfUpXeMfJudoLs

[@willowsprings1634]

mame4all-4.9r version is the arcade emulator which I have installed in psp-3000 and then stored so many mame roms in its rom folder but it does not play any rom ...can somebody being informed in gaming answer me that what's the issue here...??

[@pokonebaka]

please help me, I'm looking for a game, I played the computer in the years 2008-2011, the genre of shoot em up, the horizontal shooter graphics was good, in 3d there was pro helicopters, their models were very many, also the first boss was a yellow slow tank with a lot of guns , I just can not find, that's all I remember, help!

[@hammondd1970]

Call me crazy, but 3 games in the first 14 games on the list being vertical shooters makes me wonder about your editing process.

[@RetroHumanoid]

The first line in the description explains why...my editing process is just fine.

[@inceptional]

Eh, some of these are literally vertical shooters. :-o

[@tog2842]

Do you understand any of the words in the description?

[@inceptional]

​@@tog2842 When someone uses the term "horizontal shmups" it means ones that [predominantly] scroll horizontally (that's how the term has been used since the first days of shmups), not the aspect ratio of the game. Anyone claiming anything else is either ignorant or duping morons. If they meant the aspect ratio of the game then that's what they should have said.

[@tog2842]

@@inceptional This video is about the games monitor orientation, NOT the direction of the scrolling.

[@inceptional]

@@tog2842 And, like I said, the description is wrong in that case. The description referrers to "Horizontal Shmups", which means horizontally scrolling shmups, not the ratio of the game. Everyone that knows anything about gaming knows this.

[@tog2842]

@@inceptional You really are super special, keep it up.

[@Velky_khar]

like for MOON PATROL :-) 18:38

[@GavalasShootingKing]

Loved Moon Patrol had it for my Atari 2600 was my favorite video game on that system

[@brantnuttall]

too many verticals and where's Gradius 1 or Nemesis? This was a breakthrough game!

[@RetroHumanoid]

When I make that list of the top 50 breakthrough games,i'll be sure to add gradius. Meanwhile,Gradius III (which imo is a better game) is on this list already...as well as R-Type 2 and Salamander (both having way better gameplay than Gradius)...and the list is Horizontal aspect,not movement

[@brantnuttall]

Gradius III a better game? Possibly, but without the amazing first instalment, it wouldn't even have happened!

[@toonses4300]

I dIdn't Blazing Lazers was in the arcades.

[@RetroHumanoid]

I believe you are correct that it wasn't an actual cabinet...but the mame rom exists for some reason

[@jackbiuller7486]

gosht pilots lo odio 😅