The Gradius (グラディウス, Guradiusu, pronounced: Gra-dee-us) games, first introduced in 1985, make up a series of scrolling shooter video games published by Konami for a variety of portable, console and arcade platforms. In many games in the series, the player controls a ship known as the Vic Viper. In other games of the series, ships the player controls include the Lord British Space Destroyer, Metalion, Sabel Tiger, Thrasher, Vixen, Alpinia, Super Cobra, Jade Knight, and the Falchion β.