dragon breed
Dragon Breed is an epic, horizontally scrolling, fantasy and science fiction shoot-em-up arcade game produced by Irem (creators of R-Type) in 1989.
In the game the player controls young King Kayus, who rides a large flying dragon named Bahamoot and battles against hordes of biomechanical monsters. Bahamoot is immune to enemy attacks, capable of blocking most projectiles and damaging enemies on contact; Kayus, however, is not, but is armed with a forward-firing energy crossbow.
Bahamoot can also spit fireballs. By holding the fire button down, the dragon will build up fire in its mouth; the longer the button is held down, the more powerful the fireball will be. There are four levels of fireball power; at its strongest, the fireball resembles a dragon's head. The game also contains some platforming elements - Kayus is able to dismount on horizontal platforms and fire his weapon from there.
Bahamoot's body is flexible and responds to Kayus' movement, enabling Kayus to use Bahamoot as a mobile shield or as a whip-like weapon. The player can also circle the tail around a group of enemies to kill them. The tail of the yellow or blue dragon can be coiled around the player to offer almost complete invulnerability for a limited time.
The original video game ran on M72 and M81 hardware, and was converted to several home computer platforms (Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, Sinclair ZX Spectrum) by Activision in 1990.