Nebulas Ray (Japan, NR1)

NebulasRay is a vertically scrolling shoot'em up for one or two players. Civil war has broken out in the Austral star system, with the militaristic 'Master Forces' ousting the ruling government and looking to seize control of the entire system.

Taking on the role of resistance fighters, players must battle through waves of enemy ships across 6 levels, before finally reaching and destroying the 'Master Fortress'. As well as forward-firing weapons, each player ship also carries a limited number of powerful bombs that inflict much greater damage on the enemy than the standard weapons. Initially, each player ship is armed with only 3 bombs.

Numerous weapons and power-ups can be picked up during play, each of which can itself be powered-up:

WIDE SHOT - Increases shot width. 5 levels available.

GAIN POWER - Increases destructive power. 5 levels available.

SPEED UP - Increases player ship speed. 5 levels available.

BOMB - Extra bomb. Maximum of 7 can be carried.

FOUR-BARREL PHOTON - Powerful Photon torpedoes. Time-based.

HOMING LASER - Powerful lasers that automatically target enemies. Time-based.

LIGHTING BURST - Powerful short-range lightning burst. Time-based.

DEFLECTOR - Shield to protect player ships. Time-based.

EXTRA POINTS - Pick up for 3000 points.

Visually, NebulasRay employs complex sprite rotation and scaling techniques - as well as multi-layered parallax scrolling - to create impressive and highly detailed graphics with a true sense of depth.