Gradius

Gradius is the game that invented the modern horizontal shooter. Konami's 1985 coin-op introduced the power meter - a menu of upgrades you unlock in a fixed order by collecting capsules - and almost every shooter that followed borrowed the idea.

The meter is the design. Killing a certain enemy drops a capsule, and collecting one lights up the next slot: Speed Up, Missile, Double, Laser, Option, then Shield. You can cash in at any point or keep saving toward the Option - the floating drone that follows you and fires in parallel - which is the upgrade everyone wants and the reason every run is a decision about patience. The stages follow a biological-then-mechanical route through a Bacterion invasion, with the famous Moai heads spitting rings at you in the Easter Island stage. This is the arcade original; the Famicom conversion (also on this site) arrived a year later and became the version most people in the West played. Note the slug: this page covers the 1985 coin-op.

• ▸The power meter - the upgrade menu that defined the genre
• ▸Options: drones that follow you and fire in parallel
• ▸The Moai stage, one of the most quoted shooter moments ever
• ▸A difficulty curve built around shield management