StarBlade (スターブレード, sutā burēdo) is a 3D space shoot 'em up arcade game that was released by Namco in 1991. It was later ported to the Mega-CD and 3DO in 1994. It was also released on the PlayStation as StarBlade Alpha in 1996.
The appearance of a "pod" in which the "gunner" controlled a double barrel laser cannon, was not a totally new concept in the arcades, but what was new was the method of how the image was "projected". The arcade version of StarBlade used a concave mirror (molded of black, reflective, and flexible plexi) to reflect the image of a 26" standard resolution monitor at the top of the simulator housing. This gave the player an experience of a deeper space environment which, with its lens like effect had never been seen in any video game at the time.
Source: Wikipedia, "StarBlade", available under the CC-BY-SA License.
