shmupology

[Berty]

Hi,

as some of you know i am doing a Ph.D centered around game development. I am really interetsed in shmups and their development, especially when looking at their consumption by a western audience. I have been hard at work designing my own shmup as the creative part of my Ph.D.

I am currently looking into patterns of gaming consumption regarding shmup players. I conducted a survey on this as well as many other forums looking at the ages of the shmup demographic compared to the ages of the retro gaming community as a whole mainly a test for further, more organized sampling. In essence i am looking at Nostalgia.

My shmups will be given freely back to the community and i want my work be available freely to anyone who is interested. that is why i am asking people here what they would most like to see researched about shmups?

Personally, i am really interested in looking at the art/music of shmups and how western artistic elements were interpreted by eastern developers and then released back into the market.

[Herr Schatten]

Personally, i am really interested in looking at the art/music of shmups and how western artistic elements were interpreted by eastern developers and then released back into the market.

And vice versa. Just look at Apidya.

[Berty]

I have already looked at something similar. For my Honours year, I wrote a thesis about Japanese Epic Form, which was a study of Japanese Video Game Music from the early nineties. I looked at interpretation of western musical alements by japanese composers.

However this time around i am the one doing the interpretation as my creative product will be also an *inverse* interpretation of Japanese shmups.

This is problematic though because i have to deal with issues of Hermaneutics. ie, Interpretation is influenced by the time and place in which it was interpreted.

E.g. if i were to analyse space invaders from todays perspective then would i be making accurate judgements as the time place and culture in which it was created is different to my own?

[postman]

Hello Berty -

Your PHD project sounds fascinating. Is it possible to forward me a copy (if the work is done electronically, which I assume it is) when finished? That would make some very interesting reading. I could even post it on the articles section of my website (www.shootthecore.com).

Thanks!

[Randorama]

If you want to get a good grasp on how the "influences streams" worked and work now, you can get a few games from Taito,Konami or Capcom, or in general companies that made "wide releases" (i.e. games for all markets). The '90s were the turning point in this phenomen, if you think of it: for instance, the huge change in design between Street fighter 2X and the first Alpha game. Shmups-wise, the change is surely more drastic: at some point, the few shmups with a wide release came from Taito and Konami, or were based on more popular franchises like Raiden. Most of the games that ventured outside Japan hadn't strong cultural elements that could might be an hindrance, more or less.

One point for your hermeneutical interpretation may be this: once the japanese style started being popular, the shmups companies also started to publish their titles in Japan only. If not, they used the new popularity of the "new japanese style" (i.e. '90s are already pretty hybrid in style, i wouldn't compare stuff like Matsumoto to more modern authors) to be successful.

About Soundtracks...uhm, this seems to be a complex issue, but well: since most of modern shmups have dancey soundtracks, there is surely a strong european influence. One example: i exposed a few friends of mine to the Psyvariar sountrack, they didn't realized it was game music, but found it somewhat too refined to be european Eurobeat material. A similar process usually occurs with Zuntata/Kukeiha club material (i.e. Taito/Konami internal labels): the "slightly alien" effect seems to be a constant in japanese soundtracks, like a sort of unrecognizable "foreign accent".

Hope it helps.

[Berty]

Hello Berty -

Your PHD project sounds fascinating. Is it possible to forward me a copy (if the work is done electronically, which I assume it is) when finished? That would make some very interesting reading. I could even post it on the articles section of my website (www.shootthecore.com).

Thanks!

I would be glad to send you a copy. I have to submit a paper in April for my confirmation speach. It will be 5000 words summary on the genre as a whole mainly looking at the genre's development and consumption of the years from a westerners point of view.

You could host my paper on Japanese Epic Form if you want, i have been meaning to send it over to www.vgmusic.com but have been a bit afraid too as i haven't had it peer reviewed yet.

and Randorama, i got the Psyvariar soundtrack from click-stick a while ago and it kinda reminds me of robert miles (the guy who rote that song "children" a few years back).

I have also been using mame and info from Alex Bousiges (history.dat) to compile year by year release numbers for the genre. You can see a definite lull in shmup releases during the mid nineties. At this point i attribute this to the intro of the 3d market. After this point you do indeed see a more Japan only orientated market, as before the mid nineties.you had a lot of wide releases. But today things have picked up steam quite a bit especially with the Type-X and abundance of cheap Naomi based games. You could also see the eastern inspired movement of shmups in games like the great Guwange and the yin-yang priciples of Ikaruga.

Not only that, but there is the Japanese fascination with Honorable death and death and re-birth that can be seen again in Ikaruga and Radiant Silverun.

[Randorama]

Ok, but don't forget that Guwange and Ikaruga were never officially been released outside japan.Beside that, "pre-crisis" games usually were more subtle in their eastern elements.For instance, metal Black (1991) is about death and rebirth (after defeating the final boss, which is supposed to be the angry spirit of Earth or something like that), the planet is regenerated anew. I was thinking that, for instance, Dimahoo was also a recent (2000) game with a wide release, and in fact its style was not too "eastern", even if a strong anime-like design is clearly recognizable.

About music: yes, Psyvariar actually has a few homages to Robert Miles (a perfect example of "progressive techno" aka techno with someone playing the piano ), other shmups also feature OSTs with a strongly dance-oriented style. The Zanac Neo OST has one song ( "Some Bizarre" Area 9, by Katsumi Tanaka) which sounds exactly like a Photek song (Photek is a pioneer of drum'n bass and other electronic genres). Well, If you actually check the works of Hitoshi Sakimoto and Manabu Namiki/Santaruru, it's easy to analyze how western genres can be reinterpreted by eastern authors (Sakimoto is excellent for an analisys of classical scores, like SokyuGurentai and Radiant Silvergun: Namiki for electronic music, like Battle Garegga and DDP:DOJ). The sheep has a link on Manabu Namiki's page .

[Ghegs]

Ok, but don't forget that ... and Ikaruga were never officially been released outside japan.

Man, Rando must've been asleep or something.

[Randorama]

Ok, but don't forget that ... and Ikaruga were never officially been released outside japan.

Man, Rando must've been asleep or something.

Duh, i mentally removed the ports. Uhm, isn't the PAL cover a typical example of "westernization", btw?

[Berty]

The PAL cover of Ikaruga is the same as the JAP cover. I actually think the DC cover looks the best becuase of its use of watercolours that match up with the promo artwork.