Dragon Spirit

Dragon Spirit began life as a 1987 Namco arcade game, a vertically scrolling shoot-'em-up with a fantasy twist: instead of a spaceship you pilot a dragon, breathing fire on ground targets and firing at aerial foes as you fly over prehistoric, monster-filled landscapes. This MS-DOS listing represents a later home conversion of that arcade original.

The hook was its dual-fire system — air shots and ground bombs — and the way it dressed the familiar shmup formula in swords-and-sorcery clothing, with towering bosses and layered stages. It was successful enough to earn a sequel and remains a recognisable name among Namco's late-1980s output.

Home ports of arcade shooters from this period rarely matched the coin-op's sprite work and speed, so how well this particular DOS version holds up depends heavily on the conversion. As a design, though, Dragon Spirit is a solid, atmospheric vertical shooter and a nice change of pace from the endless spaceships of the genre.