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Capcom Arcade Chronology 1984-1997

Legendary Japanese developers responsible for many, many classic arcade games of the 80's and 90's, as well as numerous console and computer translations and original titles. Although probably most famous these days for their 2D-fighters such as Street Fighter & Marvel Super Heroes, and the Resident Evil series, for me the golden years of the 80's and early 90's arcade titles is the period which I remember most fondly (take a look at the above chronology). These guys were responsible for sucking up vast quantities of pocket money with the likes of Commando, Ghosts and Goblins, the 1942 series, Strider, Bionic Commando and many more. Here I present a few of my all-time favourites for you, along with the original in-house artwork... Enjoy!!
1985
	On this page: Vulgus / Exed Exes

1988 The famous logo has seen many changes since 1984 when Capcom first entered the arcade industry. Capcom stands for 'Japan Capsule Computers' by the way, in case you never knew..

	The very first Capcom arcade shooter! I remember first seeing this in arcades around the time that Xevious came out, the two are quite similar in style though I think I actually spent more money on this game! A solid and playable shooter, and featuring some great graphics for its time, Vulgus plays like 1942 in space (replace the swirling spaceships with planes and you would get that famous aeroplane shoot-em-up. In fact I think that's what Capcom probably did, as 1942 came out almost a year later!). One little graphical feature I remember liking about this game was the animation of the explosions which whirl around in a circular vortex kind of way, very pretty. Vulgus is emulated nicely in MAME.
1984


	Original Capcom artwork for the arcade game


Vulgus bosses were basically just slightly bigger aliens which popped up from time to time in-level. Your little ship was an unusual and neat design though.	Look Familiar? This is the game in which these two Capcom trademark powerups first appeared. The four pointed star was actually an alien ship rather than a power-up in this game..but Capcom must have liked the graphic enough to continue using them in the 1942 series! Capcom released a similar arcade shooter called 'Exed Exes' a year later. It featured bizarre insectoid baddies and bonus pickups in the shape of assorted fruit.. It was one of the first arcade shooters to incorporate parallax scrolling backgrounds. Exed Exes was renamed 'Savage Bees' in the US, which it has to be said is a bit of a dopey title for a shooter in anyone's book.. Like Vulgus it can be played under emulation in MAME.
1985




Next page A look at Capcom's famous 1942 shooter series!