Zaxxon (ザクソン) is a 1982 isometric shooter arcade game developed and released by Sega. Some sources claim that Japanese electronics company Ikegami Tsushinki also worked on the development of Zaxxon. The game gives the player the experience of flying a fighter craft through a fortress while shooting at enemy entities (missiles, enemy gunfire, etc.) The object of the game is to hit as many targets as possible without being shot down or running out of fuel—which can be replenished, paradoxically, by blowing up fuel drums.

At the time of its release, Zaxxon was unique as it was the first game to employ axonometric projection, which lent its name to the game (AXXON from AXONometric projection). The type of axonometric projection is isometric projection: this effect simulated three dimensions from a third-person viewpoint. It was also one of the first video games to display shadows, to indicate the ship's altitude above the surface; the game also employed an altitude meter, allowing the player to control how high or low the ship is above the surface. It was also the first arcade game to be advertised on television, with a commercial produced by Paramount Pictures for $150,000.

The world record on Zaxxon is 4,680,740 points scored by Vernon Kalanikaus of Lā'ie, Hawai'i, on March 15, 1982, according to the Twin Galaxies Intergalactic Scoreboard.

A bootleg of the game was released in the arcades in 1982 called Jackson.

Guardic (ガーディック, Gādikku) is a shoot 'em up video game for the MSX computer. It was created and developed by Satoshi "Pac" Fujishima while working for Compile, the creators of other shoot 'em up games such as Zanac, The Guardian Legend, and Blazing Lazers.

Guardic is unique in that the player can choose stages, which are connected by a maze. Each stage is a non-scrollable single screen and has 1 to 3 groups of different enemies. The player can "buy" ship power-ups like speed, weaponry, and special powers before each stage—a departure from the traditional scrolling-shooter power-up system. In the end of each stage, the ship could safely fly through a scrollable maze to another stage.

Guardic is the second title in a MSX trilogy by Fujishima, which started with Final Justice (1985) and ended with Blaster Burn (1990). In this last installment the player commands Guardic II as its main weapon against Gose, an invasion army from outer space. It also inspired the sequel, and cult classic NES shooter, The Guardian Legend (known as Guardic Gaiden in Japan).

In August 2011 D4 Enterprise released an emulated version for iOS devices.

Formation Z (フォーメーションZ, Fōmēshon Z) is a side-scrolling shoot 'em up video game initially released in arcades in 1984 by Jaleco. The arcade release was distributed by Williams and known as Aeroboto outside Japan. It was later ported to the MSX and to the Famicom, the latter being included as part of Jaleco Collection Vol. 1 for the PlayStation. More recently the Famicom version of the game was made downloadable via the Wii's Virtual Console download service in Japan.