History Main / OneBulletAtATime

Outside of {{retraux}} games, it's subjectively [[DiscreditedTrope discredited]] at this point; the replacement is a firing rate, which prevents this from becoming an issue beyond a limited scope. The [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools upside]] to this trope is that it can encourage players to get closer to enemies to do more damage, creating a risk\reward balance, or to prevent a certain tactic from being used exclusively.

* Ports of ''VideoGame/{{Phoenix}}'' on graphing calculators had an arbitrary limit on how many of ''your'' bullets could be on screen, stopping you from firing more. In most versions an in-game "shop" allowed buying "extra bullets" until the actual maximum is reached.

Contrast BulletHell, where hundreds, possibly thousands of bullets can be on screen at once.

** Also true for [[VideoGame/TeamFortress2 the sequel]]. The Sticky Launcher can still only place 8 bombs. If you shoot any more, the first ones placed start detonating in sequence. The second launcher available, The Scottish Resistance, can have 14 bombs out at once, but will only detonate the ones you are actually aiming at when pulling the trigger. Other projectiles in the game (such as rockets, arrows, flares and ''syringes'') are only limited by their firing and reload rates. This provides an interesting inversion where single shot weapons such as the Crusaders Crossbow fire as fast as they reload, meaning there was no point to giving it any fire rate. [[BulletHell Cue bottomless magazine]] cheats...

* ''Starevil'', the second game on ''VideoGame/Action52'', is a particularly ill-programmed example of this: the limit of shots onscreen is the same as the game's sprite limit. This means that if you keep shooting, you can actually prevent enemies from spawning, including bosses, which [[UnwinnableByMistake causes the game to lock up]].

* ''Star Evil'', the second game on ''VideoGame/Action52'', is a particularly ill-programmed example of this: the limit of shots onscreen is the same as the game's sprite limit. This means that if you keep shooting, you can actually prevent enemies from spawning, including bosses, which [[UnwinnableByMistake causes the game to lock up]].

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* ''VideoGame/SpaceInvaders'' may be the TropeMaker. This makes comebacks possible, as you can shoot more rapidly as the Invaders get closer... provided you don't miss, that is. The UsefulNotes/{{Atari 2600}} version had a trick to get double shots: Hold the RESET switch and turn on the game, then let it go. Cheat or glitch? Nobody may ever know.
** ''VideoGame/SpaceInvadersInfinityGene'' has [[spoiler: the Classic weapon as an unlockable. While it still adheres to this trope, that one bullet is a OneHitKill on anything, including bosses.]]
* ''VideoGame/{{Gorf}}'': Also applies to some enemy attacks. Unusually, you can fire again while one of your shots is still on screen, but your ''original'' shot disappears.
* ''VideoGame/{{Galaga}}'' only lets you shoot two bullets at a time.
** It lets the enemies shoot eight bullets combined at a time. There is a GoodBadBug that exploits this fact by [[http://computerarcheology.com/Arcade/Galaga/ making the enemies fire shots that get "stuck" so eventually they cannot fire anymore shots at all]].
** ''VideoGame/{{Galaxian}}'' only lets you shoot one.
* ''Satans Hollow'' only allows one, but a weapon upgrade gives an additional shot and a second upgrade shoots a double/single alternating shot.
* ''Asterax'', a somewhat ''VideoGame/{{Asteroids}}''-like old UsefulNotes/AppleMacintosh shareware game, makes this the explicit benefit of buying better guns, with 4-12 shots from each player allowed on screen.
* ''VideoGame/{{Asteroids}}'' had a maximum of 4. In the Atari 2600 port, your limit is only ''two''.
* The ''VideoGame/{{Gradius}}'' series limits your ship you to two on-screen shots at a time, and the same goes for your AttackDrones. In ''Gradius V'', however, this limit is extended to four shots.
** The NES SpinOff ''Life Force'' only allows one bullet on screen at a time, but your ship will immediately fire a new bullet when the old one is gone as long as the fire button is held. This means that your fire rate is inversely proportional to your distance from the enemy, making it a viable boss tactic to get within six inches of them and maul them in three seconds with your inexplicable machine gun of doom.
* ''VideoGame/{{Berzerk}}'' does this too. You can fire rapidly as long as it's point blank. (Do it against a wall up close for THE single most irritating sound you will ever hear in life.)
* ''VideoGame/CrystalQuest'' allows up to five onscreen player shots and unlimited enemy shots.
--> What do you mean that isn't very fair? It's extremely fair. For them.
* The ''Series/{{Airwolf}}'' LicensedGame on UsefulNotes/AmstradCPC had this limitation, particularly grating when some targets required pixel-perfect aiming (and the gravity kept changing it).
* Alive and well in all its FakeDifficulty in the Website/FunOrb game ''Star Cannon''; in the second level, your bullets are the last priority for the game, after floating space debris and (sometimes undodgeable) enemy swarms. Your firepower is reduced to about 1/3 of normal...if you're lucky.
* ''VideoGame/{{Genetos}}'' gives you two bullets at a time with the first ship (taken almost directly from ''VideoGame/SpaceInvaders''), and five with the second (modeled after ships in late-eighties games), then abandons the trope as you move closer to the modern day.

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* In ''[[Videogame/Battlezone1998 Battlezone II: Combat Commander]]'', the TAG missile fires a homing dart, which has a particularly bizarre bullet code. Under normal use, it will only fire one dart at a time, and will let you fire again once the dart flies past its 100 meter range. But if you fire off into the sky and hold down the trigger, you'll suddenly spray out a dozen darts if you aim downward once the airborne dart expires.

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* In ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquer'', as long as the engine pioneered by ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerTiberianDawn'' was in use (although it was gradually expanded as the series progressed), units armed with railguns (which were first and only introduced in ''Tiberian Sun'' and of which the unmodified game featured a grand total of two - Ghost Stalker and the Mammoth Mk.II mech) could have a maximum of one active railgun "line", even if the shot had already dealt all its damage. A railgun could not be fired again until the particle system of the last beam had entirely faded out, and in fact if one was to mod a railgun with a lower firing delay than the fade-out timer of the particle system into ''Tiberian Sun'', the railgun would "jam" ''permanently'' after firing once and could never be fired again, even if the particle system had faded. Railguns didn't appear in the series again until after the switch to the SAGE engine, in ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerTiberiumWars'', but the code remained and they can be re-created in ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert2'' and its expansion through modifications of the game files. It is uncertain why this limitation exists, but as it never becomes apparent in the unmodified game and is mostly a footnote to creating modifications that contain railgun weapons, it is most likely an engine limitation, rather than a conscious nerf in the interest of game balance.

* All Shoot'em ups only allow one super-attack (smart bomb, nuke, etc.) at a time, either waiting until it finishes or after a fixed delay; in two player games, there might only be one on-screen bomb among the two players. Spamming bombs tends to be counter-productive depending on how the game works, either because the bomb blocks bullets, a short invulnerability is conferred, etc.
* It's also present in many of VideoGame/{{Action 52}}'s games. Some of them still avert it, allowing to spray numerous bullets, but this often causes the enemies or bosses [[{{Unwinnable}} to not spawn]].

* Some games allow you to raise the bar with an in-game powerup:
** ''Jewel Master'' for example allowed you to raise different aspects of your spells (such as how many projectiles could be on-screen at once) by varying the levels of the rings that created them.
** ''VideoGame/LaMulana'' has a ring that gives an additional projectile on the screen.
* In ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime'', you can only have 3 missiles active at once. Normally their fire rate is so slow that this is completely irrelevant, but a an unintentional method of shooting them [[http://www.metroid2002.com/techniques_rapid_fire_missiles.php very quickly]] allows the limit to be reached.
* In ''VideoGame/MetroidFusion'', you can only have three beam attacks, two missiles, and three bombs active on screen at once. The beam limit usually can't be noticed unless you are falling and firing down, so it rarely interferes with gameplay. The missile limit is also hardly noticeable in that, early on, you won't have many missiles, so you'll be firing each one carefully, rather than firing them rapidly and potentially wasting them. By the time you have more missiles to work with, your upgrades will have reduced the rate of fire of your missiles, making the limit much less noticeable.
* ''VideoGame/MetroidIIReturnOfSamus'' had a limit of three beams, one missile, and three bombs on the screen at once. The beam limit is most noticeable when firing the Spazer or Plasma beams, since those actually consist of three beams fired at once (the Spazer fires them in a spread pattern, while the Plasma beam fires them in one line). If part of the Spazer hits an enemy but another part does not, often two of the beams will be out of sync with the third.

* ''VideoGame/{{Genetos}}'' gives you two bullets at a time with the first ship (taken almost directly from ''VideoGame/SpaceInvaders''), and five with the second (modeled after ships in late-eighties games), then abandons the trope as you move closer to the modern day.

** ''Space Invaders: Infinity Gene'' has the classic ship as an unlockable. While it still adheres to this trope, that one bullet is a OneHitKill on anything, including bosses.

* A sprite-limit example: ''VideoGame/MilonsSecretCastle'' has keys which appear as sprites. If too many sprites (such as enemies) as already on the screen, the key won't be drawn; you have to clear out some of the enemies, leave the screen, and come back for the key to appear.

* ''VideoGame/Stinkoman20X6'' includes a limit of three KiAttacks at a time. However, even if there are that many still on screen, the punching action that you perform to do so still counts as an attack, and will damage enemies.

* ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'' had an upper limit to the amount of {{Sword Beam}}s and arrows the player could unleash at a time.
** And the N64 games both allow only one magical arrow to be shot at a time (including the massive cooldown after each magic arrow.)

Outside of {{retraux}} games, it's subjectively [[DiscreditedTrope discredited]] at this point; the replacement is a firing rate, which prevents this from becoming an issue beyond a limited scope. The [[TropesAreNotBad upside]] to this trope is that it can encourage players to get closer to enemies to do more damage, creating a risk\reward balance, or to prevent a certain tactic from being used exclusively.

* ''VideoGame/{{Secret Agent|VideoGame}}'' also uses this. In fact, one of the power-ups is an upgrade which allows you to have ''two'' bullets at the screen at once.

** It lets the enemies shoot eight bullets combined at a time. There is a GoodBadBug that exploits this fact.

** It lets the enemies shoot eight bullets combined at a time. This can be exploited to make enemies not fire at all.

** It lets the enemies shoot eight bullets combined at a time. This can be exploited.

* ''Videogame/SecretAgent'' also uses this. In fact, one of the power-ups is an upgrade which allows you to have ''two'' bullets at the screen at once.

* ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros1'' allows you to have two fireballs on the screen as Fire Mario. Later games such as ''VideoGame/SuperMarioWorld'' and the ''VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBros'' series kept this.

->''This is your XQJ-37 plasma cannon. The only trouble is that since the old model XQJ was cobbled together from junked UsefulNotes/{{Amiga}} motherboards, you can only have one shot on the screen at a time.''

* A variant was used in ''VideoGame/DwarfFortress'' to solve the problem of ridiculously high rates of fire; any number of individual crossbow-wielders can fire at once, but they don't finish reloading until their last shot has landed.

* ''Asterax'', a somewhat ''VideoGame/{{Asteroids}}''-like old AppleMacintosh shareware game, makes this the explicit benefit of buying better guns, with 4-12 shots from each player allowed on screen.