Need help remembering a shmup (that might not be a shmup)

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komatik
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Need help remembering a shmup (that might not be a shmup)

Post by komatik »

Disclaimer: I'm not going to make this easy for you because I don't remember shit.


So, way back in the day, there was a game I played. I only just thought of it now for the first time in probably two decades after trying to hunt down something else. I only played this exactly once and very very briefly so my memory is super vague and spotty. I think it was an older shmup but I could be totally wrong and blending this with a memory of something else.

Here's what little I can tell you:
  • I really don't remember when this happened but I feel like it was probably somewhere in the 90's. At the very least, it was during or after Rampage came out.
  • I'm pretty sure it was a standup arcade game because I have a memory of being annoyed at wasting my last quarter.
  • Whatever the hardware was, this definitely happened in the US.
  • I'm pretty sure it was a top-scrolling game, but don't remember the CRT orientation.
  • I'm near certain it was airplane-based and either WWI or WWII themed, but it's almost certainly NOT from the Capcom 1942 or Strikers 1945 franchises because I just looked at all those.
  • Looking back, I feel like the graphics were on the older/simpler side, maybe.
  • The big thing I remember is that one of the missions the main goal was you had to bomb a large something. I'm pretty sure it was a factory but it might've been a battleship. Whatever it was I remember there being like three large round things (I think they were cooling towers or smokestacks, but they might've been turrets). I was confused because I was expecting it to scroll into view like normal but the game put it way off-screen to the side. I failed the first time because I just went straight up and never saw it. On my second try I just flew around randomly and eventually found it but by the time I did I was too high and couldn't hit it, failing again. (This is where my memory of the last quarter comes in).
  • The situation with the factory/battleship was fairly early in the game; I didn't get vary far.
Anyone have any ideas?

edit: Although the game I'm thinking of was a standup arcade, my memory of the mechanics and feel of the game is that it was closer to the SNES games "Air Strike Patrol" and "Desert Strike" than a traditional shmup like say Capcom's 194X series.
Last edited by komatik on Fri Mar 22, 2019 8:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.
mainpatr5
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Re: Need help remembering a shmup (that might not be a shmup

Post by mainpatr5 »

Two Tigers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTdGAyo6TI0

It came out the same year as Rampage and probably one of my favorite obscure arcade games. No home ports either.
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komatik
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Re: Need help remembering a shmup (that might not be a shmup

Post by komatik »

Thanks, but that's not it unfortunately. The game I'm thinking of I'm pretty sure was more top-scrolly, whereas Two Tigers seems to be more of a freeform sidescroll situation. Also, I think the graphics were older style but not THAT old- probably late 80's or early 90's. I only mentioned Rampage as an extreme lower bound (I'm 99% sure Rampage was already out at that point but I don't remember how long it was out.... it may have been a couple years or it could have been a decade).

As for the factory (or battleship), you were definitely looking downish onto the top area rather than at its side. I don't remember if was a pure top-down map view or if it was one of those pseudo-3d-sorta-not-really-isometric styles like Strikers 1945, but you definitely weren't looking across at anything, if that helps. The only other thing I vaguely remember is there was some kind of mission briefing with like a drawing or fake black and white photo of the factory, and one of the cooling towers was circled, but circled in kind of a general way so it wasn't clear to me if they just circled the whole factory or if I was supposed to hit that one tower specifically. (Not that I got to answer that question).
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parodius
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Re: Need help remembering a shmup (that might not be a shmup

Post by parodius »

You said not part of Capcom 1942 franchise, but some parts of what you said definitely remind me of 1941. Or it could even be UN Squadron, if scrolling was horizontal ?
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komatik
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Re: Need help remembering a shmup (that might not be a shmup

Post by komatik »

Naw, it's not 1941. Actually I was just playing the first couple levels of that the other day. Whatever I'm thinking of there was very much a defined mission you were supposed to carry out with like a mini briefing thing where they circled the factory. I have a feeling this probably wasn't a true shmup and was more of a generic plane fighting game or something.

Definitely wasn't UN Squadron either, although that looks like a cute game I should probably check out.
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Re: Need help remembering a shmup (that might not be a shmup

Post by Kollision »

bosses drifting off screen kinda remind me of Skull Fang, but this one came out much later than Rampage
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Re: Need help remembering a shmup (that might not be a shmup

Post by emphatic »

Sonic Boom by SEGA?
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Re: Need help remembering a shmup (that might not be a shmup

Post by FRO »

Flying Shark? It was known as Sky Shark in the US.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80R0eyAiJZY
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komatik
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Re: Need help remembering a shmup (that might not be a shmup

Post by komatik »

Kollision wrote:bosses drifting off screen
The factory thing wasn't a boss by any classical definition- it didn't move or shoot back (that I remember). It was just planted waaaaay off to the right and I wasn't expecting that.

The more I think about this the more I think that it wasn't a shmup- I recall it was an otherwise mostly empty level dedicated to a bombing target, and I feel like maybe you could fly diagonally? Shmups don't really do that. At the very least it would've had to have been a vertical shmup that let you hit the edge and side-scroll over one whole screens worth or more, and that would be super uncommon.
Kollision wrote: kinda remind me of Skull Fang, but this one came out much later than Rampage
Yeah Skull Fang has way better graphics than what I'm remembering.
emphatic wrote:Sonic Boom by SEGA?
(This has to be the most unfortunate game name. It was so hard to search for this).
FRO wrote:Flying Shark?
It's not either of those, but it was definitely from around that era since that's about the graphics level I'm thinking of. This was just like a big grass field you were flying over and all the sprites were an older simpler style just like that with the same limited color palettes and such. Both of these games came out in '87 and Rampage came out in '86 so whatever I'm thinking of must have been from the late 80s or very early 90s.

Re: Sonic Boom- this game has a sort of mini 'briefing' at the beginning of each stage with a primitive map and cockpit HUD. This definitely isn't what I saw but it's kinda the same overall idea in the sense that I wasn't just dropped into the level cold. There was a whole separate screen where I was shown some kind of picture or drawing of the factory with a circle on it (maybe it was an X but I'm 85% certain it was a circle). It was clear I was supposed to go out and bomb this thing.

Again though, the more I think about it the more I feel like this game probably wasn't actually a shmup and this whole thread is off topic.
gray117
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Re: Need help remembering a shmup (that might not be a shmup

Post by gray117 »

...Probably a touch too late (92) but thematically it got me stuck on Varth?
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komatik
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Re: Need help remembering a shmup (that might not be a shmup

Post by komatik »

Not Varth either unfortunately. The game I remember was pretty "normal": no outer space, no aliens, no steampunk, no cyber, etc. I'm pretty sure it was a traditionally-themed war game set in WW1 or WWII, possibly Korean or Vietnam wars, or some generic nameless war styled in those eras. The factory was a very normal looking thing like you might have seen in England or Germany, and it was in a grassy field on Earth. The plane you were flying was I think a biplane or maybe a B-25/B-29 bomber or something, definitely not anything modern like an F-14/F-15/F-18. In other words, a similar time period as portrayed in Flying Shark, earlier than the time period portrayed in Sonic Boom.

... At least, the part I played was like this. For all I know later sections could have involved space lasers on the moon, I only got like 5 minutes into it.
MameHaze
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Re: Need help remembering a shmup (that might not be a shmup

Post by MameHaze »

Sega's "Scramble Spirits" would have been around that time, and does give you a specific 'Objective' but most of the other gameplay specifics you've given don't match.

Seta's "Arbalester" gives you a briefing map, but otherwise doesn't really fit.
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komatik
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Re: Need help remembering a shmup (that might not be a shmup

Post by komatik »

Yeah wasn't those two either. They both have a very interesting art style though. Scramble Spirits in particular has a surprising amount of variation in its stage designs for such an early game. (An interesting contrast to Arbalester which has hardly any variation at all).

Question: does this forum have a way to upload pictures directly (ie; without having to screw around with imgur or photobucket or some other crappy image hosting site)? It might be worth it to try and throw together some ms-paint mockups of the scattered memories I have.

... Although again, more and more I'm feeling like this wasn't actually a shmup and was probably one of those other types of shooting-based-action-games more like "Air Strike Patrol" or "Desert Strike" (both for the SNES).
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Re: Need help remembering a shmup (that might not be a shmup

Post by __SKYe »

komatik wrote:Question: does this forum have a way to upload pictures directly (ie; without having to screw around with imgur or photobucket or some other crappy image hosting site)? It might be worth it to try and throw together some ms-paint mockups of the scattered memories I have.
I don't think it does; you need to host them somewhere else.
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Re: Need help remembering a shmup (that might not be a shmup

Post by Despatche »

Sounds a bit like Captain Skyhawk. It was an NES title, but one released for the PlayChoice-10. Probably not it, though.
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