Irem’s legendary shmup R-Type has been shown running on the Atari 7800.
According to @atariio, this is work-in-progress footage, but it nonetheless shows how capable Atari’s system is in the right hands.
“Beautiful side-scrolling with parallax background begins to demonstrate what the 7800 has always been capable of,” says the account on social media.
Released in 1986, just as the NES was taking over the market, the Atari 7800 failed to recapture the commercial success of the Atari VCS / 2600 and would be discontinued in 1992. A new variant, the 7800+, is being released at the end of this year.
R-Type is one of the most influential shooters of all time and has spawned a number of sequels, as well as imitators. The most recent entry, R-Type Final 3 Evolved, launched in 2023.