Arcade Video game published 40 years ago:

Hyper Dyne SIDE ARMS (c) 1986 Capcom.

An evil alien race called the 'Bozon' are trying to wipe out Mankind, and Lieutenant Henry and Sergent Sanders are given the responsibility of saving the Human Race. They each climb into a Mobilsuit - a jet-powered, heavily armoured combat suit - and set out on their mission.

Side Arms is a horizontally - and occasionally vertically - scrolling shoot-em-up for one or two players. Each player has two fire buttons, one for shooting ahead and one for shooting behind; crucial for a game in which enemies attack from all directions. Shooting certain enemies will reveal power-ups - displayed as 'POW' icons - and shooting the icons will either change their type, or reveal a special weapon.

Finally, Side Arms features a unique power-up. These power-ups are hidden in the level and can be collected by shooting at their location with any weapon. By collecting a circle icon that flashed between the Greek 'Beta' and ok, both players can join together to become a single, highly powerful combat unit capable of firing in eight different directions. When a two-player unit is joined, BOTH players' controllers can control the unit's movement, which can cause the unit to not move if players decide to go in different directions to each other. The player who picks up this power-up will control the main weapon from his current list only and the other player will be able to fire the secondary eight-direction weapon. The eight-direction weapon can be fired by single presses or automatically by holding either fire button.

Player layout in our catalog: 2P sim.

If you are exploring by feel rather than by title, jump from the tags above into the matching genre rooms, or return to the Arcade hall for the full wall.

Open Play on this page to start Side Arms - Hyper Dyne. Keyboard, USB/Bluetooth pads, and the on-screen touch gamepad all work inside the emulator bar. Save states and fullscreen live on that same bar so you can pause mid-session and resume later.

Player layout on this cabinet: 2P sim.

Genre tags on Classic Arcade Games: Shooter, Arcade.