You need to play more shmups to understand why autofire (or the lack thereof) is a major issue.Calamity wrote:I've no objections against autofire on a separate build, I just don't get why that's required... is it just to keep the button pressed all the time? isn't that lazy? Am I missing something?
Basically, there are a lot of older games where you either get only 1 bullet per button tap, so it's extremely aggravating to get a decent damage rate going without mashing frantically, or there is little-to-no scoring incentive not to be firing constantly throughout the game. Worse, are games which combine the two, or which don't have a cap on the autofire rate, meaning someone who is able to hammer the shot button rapidly or use an autofire circuit has a massive advantage over someone who does not (Darius Gaiden and Sine Mora are examples of this bad design where the autofire rate for holding shot is relatively low, and the game rewards mashing or an autofire button with a ridiculously fast shot speed that affects game balance).
Manual fire in shmups sucks. It's unnecessary wear on the buttons, as well as on your hands and fingers, and is especially stupid when the game is about piloting a modern or futuristic vehicle that has machine guns or lasers, etc.
You do not want to be playing 30-60 minute runs of games where you have to consistently hammer one button constantly. This is different from fighting games or beat em ups where timing attacks, joystick motions + button inputs matter for attacks, etc. In a shmup, you are often hammering the shot button as rapidly and consistently as possible.
Every competent modern shmup has built-in autofire, and for good reason. Home and console ports of games that did not have autofire regularly add autofire for convenience:
* Basically every CAVE game ever has autofire built in. Some of the older ones do not have it enabled by default, but can be enabled on button 3 in the BIOS (and every single serious player or competent arcade will have button 3 autofire enabled).
* Batsugun's revamped Special Version includes a dedicated autofire button. The port also has autofire for both regular and special version as far as I am aware.
* The Giga Wing series does not have autofire on the PCB versions, but requires unusually low, comfortable tap speeds to max out shot rate, so it is a rare exception of a shmup that isn't all that bad to play without autofire. Even still, all the ports added autofire buttons for convenience, which is appreciated.
* Deathsmiles does not have an autofire rapid button for Shot, but that's because it would have greatly increased the number of buttons needed to play the game (it uses a Left / Right / Bomb system). Even then, you spend most of the time in boss fights holding the shot button for Laser, and the home ports allow you to set up extra buttons for Rapid Shot, so it is very comfortable to play on both PCB and home ports.
* Later Raizing shmups all had autofire built in the PCB versions (except for Brave Blade, which did reward mashing the shot button with faster speeds).
* Pretty much every home port of Parodius as far as I know has autofire buttons, as with many Gradius home ports aside from the NES ones.
If you want to experience terrible game design and why button mashing as a mechanic is awful design, please play:
* Blazing Star - A good game with autofire setup, but annoying as hell to play without, since you get a more damaging shot when you tap fast enough. Slow tapping produces a weaker version of main shot, so it is a pain to be able to play for an extended period on a PCB where the cabinet does not have a third button set as an autofire for button 1.
* Eight Forces - Same as Blazing Star, each character has a weak shot by holding shot button (literally so weak as to be useless), and a slightly less crappy strong shot by mashing the button (where you fire only one "strong" shot per press). Generally an awful game, but it's barely playable with autofire in MAME and essentially unplayable garbage without.
* Thunder Blaster - Literally, Autofire: The Shmup. The central mechanic involves mashing the button as fast as possible, with the faster you mash, the stronger and wider your shot. Mashing also charges up your reusable "bomb". It's amusing, but frankly gimmicky and probably not well regarded. Would have been better if the bomb had become more of the focus of the game (rechargeable over time similar to Giga Wing perhaps).
Basically, nobody who plays shmups seriously or even semi-seriously would want to play an older shmup with a MAME build that doesn't include convenient autofire options. It just isn't fun to hammer the same button all game long. For reference, the autofire options found in Shmupmame and the MAME 0.197 build Shepardus built are essentially the gold standards for autofire/custom button options.
This info could also apply to run 'n guns where button mashing is expected of players all game long (although I wouldn't play with autofire on a game like Sunset Riders or Moo Mesa where there is specifically a rapid fire powerup you can get).
