Poster - R-Type

Here is the original Japanese arcade poster Irem's R-Type.  R-Type is unquestionably the most influential side-scrolling shoot-em-up ever made (Gradius would be number two).  Every arcade and console shooter for the next decade looted and pillaged freely.  Some stole a little.  Some stole a lot.  But in the minds of hardcore shooter fans, Irem's original remains the king.

The best games managed to build upon Irem's original ideas and move the genre forward.  The best example would probably be the TOZ unit in Telenet's Gaiares on Sega Genesis.  The TOZ unit could be fired on enemy ships, where it would steal its weapons like a virus.  Your own ship was barely armed with a pea shooter, so strategically stealing the correct weapon for each scenario was key.

This is a terrific poster for a classic videogame.  The H.R. Giger designs continue to stand out, and the art direction is superb.  And R-Type is a tough game, damned hard.  Games in the '80s were really hard, weren't they?