I've only ever played the version that's available on Steam, so when I stumbled on to this video I learned a lot about its original incarnation. Surprisingly advanced, for its day!

From the video description:

In this episode of PC-88 Paradise I play Silpheed! This classic shooter by Game Arts was later ported to DOS and the Apple IIGS in North America by Sierra On-Line, and had a few sequels also released later on various platforms. In this video I'm going to look at ALL of these versions and sequels, so buckle up for a wild ride through space and time as we look at how this whole series started, and where it has gone since then!