Fixed shooters appreciation thread

[WelshMegalodon]

The other day I decided to check out the Game Boy port of Space Invaders, whose reputation precedes it.

It's a somewhat commonly known fact that this version actually contains the Japanese Super Famicom release in its entirety and will allow you to play it when using a Super Game Boy. Lesser known seems to be the fact that the Super Game Boy mode has a hidden border modeled after the cocktail table release, which I thought was a nice treat.

[BrianC]

The other day I decided to check out the Game Boy port of Space Invaders, whose reputation precedes it.

It's a somewhat commonly known fact that this version actually contains the Japanese Super Famicom release in its entirety and will allow you to play it when using a Super Game Boy.

Not quite in its entirety since it's missing the 2p mode from the cart release (which came to the US and is AFAIK near identical to the JP version aside from text language). I heard the 2p mode isn't much of a loss, though.

Edit: tcrf page suggests the vs. mode was blocked out of the sgb SNES version rather than removed.

Also the JP GB Space Invaders is a different port and has no SGB support at all. SGB version only came to the US/EU/AU and has the text in english.

[WelshMegalodon]

After some searching, I see that you're right - websites point to an earlier, barebones Game Boy port released in 1990, four years before the US and Europe received their version. The newer release appears to be based on Space Invaders DX, which was released that same year, while multiple sources claim the older one is actually a port of Space Invaders Part II.

Interestingly enough, the older Game Boy release claims to feature a 2-player mode that uses the link cable.

[scrilla4rella]

I started to get really into Moon Cresta on the mister. Pretty amazing game especially considering when it came out.

[EmperorIng]

The Calice Cup 3 has allowed me (and dozens of other players) to sink some time into Taito's 1981 Frog and Spiders.

Despite being virtually unknown, I think this game adds a lot to the Space Invaders formula. I had always (mistakenly?) thought that Taito played it too safe with the single-screen games, not wanting to 'dilute' their Space Invader brand, but Frog & Spiders does indeed show that Taito was willing to try out new things, at least early on.

The addition of a jump button with random spiders to eat adds a chaotic element to the mix. As you shoot spiders at the top of the web, other spiders will pop out of trees on the sides and you have to jump into them to eat them for a big score bonus. However, they can randomly fire, even as you jump into them. The safest way, you find, is to angle your jump into them so you eat them without being directly under them. Or, you can jump over them and 'eat' them with your frog butt. This is all while you have to contend with spiders at the top of the screen, a snake that patrols the bottom (that you have to jump over, or on), flies that buzz around erratically and can easily collide into you, and squirrels that can suddenly appear and whip an acorn at a frog at 90km/hr - resulting in a dead frog.

The second stage has a 'boss' spider in the middle with a cave-style hitbox (2x2 pixels, hit it or suffer revenge bullets) , butterflies that can get caught in the web and turned into spiders (protect them long enough to earn a 500pt bonus; accidentally kill them and LOSE 200 points!), and the third has lily pads that you have to jump between to kill everything. Good luck with the flies when you have to jump your long-ass Simon Belmont jump to avoid them. Then the game loops, harder, and harder until all your frogs are dead. You get one extend at 10,000 points.

It's a surprisingly chaotic, varied, and fun game! Much more exciting than Space Invaders and gives me some more appreciation of single-screen shooters.

[FRO]

+1 for Gorf. Very fun game.

+1 from me, as well. I feel like Gorf is quite underrated, and underappreciated today, but it was quite the game back in the day.

I almost always throw a credit into a Galaga machine, when I see one in the wild. Always fun. I feel like the fixed screen shooting genre got very little love, once scrolling became a reality on consoles, and scrolling became more common in the arcade. Past about 1982 or '83, and with the demise of the North American console market, and subsequent downfall of the Atari 2600 (and like consoles), this style of game was relegated to also-ran status. After the NES came out, and most shooting games focused on scrolling, with a handful of decent arcade approximations, there was very little interest in the single-screen games again.

[Flobeamer1922]

In my younger years, the fixed single-screen shmup was just about all I knew. I grew up with those Namco Museum games and plug-n-plays, which typically featured at least one or two of Namco's shooting games, so I'll always have a soft spot for those. Galaga is the one that really resonated with me as a child, and I fondly remember playing that with my dad. Getting into competitive gaming over the past couple of years (as well as back into arcade games in general) has reintroduced me to this style of shmup, and playing some of them competitively has gotten me to see them in a new light, and I think I now appreciate it more than I did when I was young. I did 3 million points on Galaga a few months back, but there are other single-screen shmups I'd like to achieve decent scores on as well, like Gyruss and Gaplus.

[MathU]

Galaga is way better than Xevious.