The
earliest shoot 'em up games were incredibly simplistic when it comes to design,
gameplay, graphics and general on-screen action. But then the computers they
were designed for were very straightforward machines, compared to modern
computers at least. The universally recognised first ever shoot 'em up game was
'Space Invaders', the arcade classic which was first released in 1978 and still
attracts players to its many online game versions and modern arcade versions
nowadays. Shoot 'em ups are technically a sub-genre of shooter games, a
category of action games. Many types of action games are available as free
online games today, but very few, even those marketed as shoot 'em ups, are
much like the original 2D bonanzas of the 1980's.
