Zaxxon

Zaxxon (ザクソン) is an arcade shoot 'em up video game released by Sega. Some sources claim that Japanese electronics company Ikegami Tsushinki also worked on its development. It is named after its groundbreaking use of axonometric projection (though more specifically, it uses isometric projection) and was released for bespoke arcade hardware. It had a limited Japanese arcade release in December 1981, before receiving a wide release in January 1982.

Zaxxon was the first video game to use an isometric perspective, a graphical style which would see widespread use in the years which followed. It was an early attempt at adding three-dimensional depth to the shoot 'em up genre.

The game gives the player the experience of flying a fighter craft through a fortress while shooting at enemy entities (missiles, enemy gunfire, etc.) The object of the game is to hit as many targets as possible without being shot down or running out of fuel—which can be replenished, paradoxically, by blowing up fuel drums.