This game is so darn old! And holds up surprisingly well! This game is fun!
You can shoot and drop bombs below. Sounds familiar? Yes, this is Gradius' predecessor. The missile don't linger through the floor, so you need more accuracy in using it. It has the 1981s arcade game shenanigans like fuel, but the fact that it features fixed stages is interesting enough. My knowledge of the history is limited, but looks like this is one of the earliest examples of a shmup with handcrafted stages! It's also interesting that it's a horizontal game yet the screen is vertical.
And as expected from a game of its era, a single loop is quite short: 4 minutes! If you want to have a taste of 1cc, this game is probably ideal for that.
This is the Arcade Archives version on Nintendo Switch.