Shmup Glossary Discussion Thread (UPDATED 3-15-09)

[Iaspis]

Tracer Bullets, at least in use outside of shmups, are the last few bullets in a machine gun cartridge, if I recall correctly. The fire they produce can be seen as it leaves the gun compared to other bullets, hence the term "tracer". If you want an example of this, recall Metal Gear Solid's FAMAS.

They do produce a "line-of-fire" effect (I think it's phosphorus) but they are also put between normal projectiles in the cartridge (in a ratio of 3 normal to 1 tracer I think) so that you can see where your shots are going from the start, not just before the cartridge goes empty.

[J-Manic]

Tracer Bullets, at least in use outside of shmups, are the last few bullets in a machine gun cartridge, if I recall correctly. The fire they produce can be seen as it leaves the gun compared to other bullets, hence the term "tracer".

My bad. You're right. The term "tracer" wouldn't make any sense since tracer bullets are just bullets with lines of fire following them. I guess "homing bullets" would be a more accurate term for those bullets that follow your ship around for a few seconds. I'm still at a loss with those bullets that change direction all over the screen (like most of the Darius Gaiden bosses spit out).

[Iaspis]

I'm still at a loss with those bullets that change direction all over the screen (like most of the Darius Gaiden bosses spit out).

I like to call those "confusion bullets"

[nZero]

Is there any entry for something like when an enemy has a laser beam that maybe is stationary or maybe moved around, and when your ship crosses it you're fired upon? Maybe the tripwire grids in TFV level 4 and the spotlight on Under Defeat's 4th boss are also relevant to this sort of thing?

[BulletMagnet]

Is there any entry for something like when an enemy has a laser beam that maybe is stationary or maybe moved around, and when your ship crosses it you're fired upon? Maybe the tripwire grids in TFV level 4 and the spotlight on Under Defeat's 4th boss are also relevant to this sort of thing?

None that I can think of...stuff like that is a pretty rare shmup occurrence if memory serves, and also present in other genres, but I'll keep a mental note of it if others think it's worth adding.

[Blade]

I've heard the term "Trip Wire Laser" somewhere, but I forget where, I think it has something akin to that in Radiant Silvergun, one of the Silvergun's subweapons has it where the lasers move back and forth ala a radar, and then the laser activates when it lines up with an enemy.

[BulletMagnet]

I know the weapon you're talking about, though ostensibly that could be classified as a type of Lock-On.

[Thinimus]

Now that I think of it, the 3rd level walker/boss in R-type Delta featured a scanning laser on both the anti-ground laser turret and the main core lense on top. (Also, the main core used it in tandem with that reflective device that you had to destroy).

I can't of a single definate term for that kind of thing though.

Scanning beam, spotting beam, "Being Tagged" etc. It falls under Lock-on, but the actual weapons in these cases don't home or follow your ship while being utilized. I suppose Lock-on Beam work wells enough.

Oh yeah, Gradius 4 had that "Searchlight" Core that used spotlights in a similiar manner.

[Ed Oscuro]

Requesting (again) that somebody add an entry for "throw" (as in a joystick).

[BulletMagnet]

Requesting (again) that somebody add an entry for "throw" (as in a joystick).

Has that one been suggested before? I honestly don't remember it, and am not familiar with the term...could you explain what it means?

Also, aside from the stuff that others have been sprinkling on here, I was wondering if the term "Euroshmup" warranted an entry, or if it was too self-explanatory or otherwise unqualified.

[Ed Oscuro]

Requesting (again) that somebody add an entry for "throw" (as in a joystick).

Has that one been suggested before? I honestly don't remember it, and am not familiar with the term...could you explain what it means?

Well, I feel a little better now at not knowing it...but I think it would be a great addition because it's relevant to discussions of hardware. I had to get the joystick people to explain it.

It has to do something with how far the stick moves, or whatever. About the time I asked for it there was a discussion of joysticks and this term was used a few times. I think mills and co. (whoever was talking about it) can explain it.

[BulletMagnet]

I think mills and co. (whoever was talking about it) can explain it.

Hopefully one of 'em will post here and do so.

Anyways, I'm going to try to update the ol' glossary sometime this week, as it's been several months since the last one. Any further discussion anyone wants to get in, now's the time to post it.

[BulletMagnet]

Updated the discussion list with some of the more recent possibilities: will try to add to/edit the actual glossary before too much longer. In the meantime, keep the discussion going here.

[it290]

Throw, to me at least, is the distance the stick must be moved from the neutral position in order to activate the switch. I have also heard it used in reference to the amount of play in the joystick (regardless of switch position).

[Winane]

For what it's worth, "bullet hell" is the primary term used on Wikipedia, and (ergo, I suppose) the term I was most familiar with before finding the shmups.com forum. It's definitely worth a mention in the glossary, even if that mention comes with a disclaimer that you're not 100% sure about the term's exact "proper" usage.

No mention of auto-targeting/tracking player weapons? E.g., Chain and Nail in Progear, or the TH19 Thor auto-track mini-gun in Raptor.

Where the hell did the term "no miss" come from? Why isn't it called "no hit", "no death", or "no damage", or something?
The unintuitive term "counter stop" sucks too. Why not just say "maxed out score" instead?
Are these both originally examples of wasei-eigo, by any chance?

Wouldn't "Alternate View" be better renamed "Alternating View"? Without having seen this glossary, I would have assumed "alternate view" just referred to unusual (as in "alternative") views, such as Viewpoint and other oddballs. Or perhaps to games that use one viewing angle by default, but let you shift the camera angle if you want to.
If the term "alternate view" is (mis)used commonly enough to warrant inclusion, then how about changing the primary entry to "alternating view", and putting "alternate view" as an alternate term in parentheses?

Might it be worth adding "attract mode" to the glossary? The term isn't specific to shmups, but I didn't know what it meant until I encountered it in this thread and looked it up elsewhere. I would've assumed it meant a gameplay mode in which the player attracts more enemies, shots, power-ups, or whatever. Or perhaps to a mode in which point medals are automatically vacuumed up.

Isn't "gunpod" often used to refer to floating firing pods, such as the ones that accompany your ship in Progear (among many other games)? (Please note that, being someone who's never really discussed or read much about shmups before, I don't really have much basis for making this comment. It's just that it would surprise me if I were the only one to refer to those things as such. =P )
Also, the existing gunpod definition you've got would be brought more in line with the real world definitions on Wikipedia, if you were to add something like "large boss enemies" as something they can be attached to too, rather than just ground and ceilings.

Minor point, but I'd replace the word "hoarding" within the Jerk definition with the more intuitively understandable "herding", since "Herd" is the leftmost & primary synonym in that term's definition.

For Kamikaze definition 3, would it be correct to add ", especially when done by crashing one's own ship into enemy craft"?

In the definition for "Credit Feed", perhaps you could add a link explaining the mindset behind

A practice which is frowned upon by many shmuppers; some purists, in fact, dislike the practice of ever continuing at all, even for practice.

?
'Cause reading that just makes me think "WTF!? Why??"

Missing space in Manic Shmup definition: "Dodge-em-Up)A type"

BB code error in Needle definition: "spread, homing"

Parentheses mistake in Old-School definition: ")also Raiden-Style)"

Have any attempts been made to replace the terms "option" and "multiple" with something more intuitive and less ambiguous?

In Point Blank definition 1, might be worth mentioning that when using spread shot weapons, it also serves to make the entire spread hit the targeted enemy.

Missing space in Speed Up definition: "(these,however,"

Misplaced punctuation marks: "Subweapon) (Also Secondary Weapon:)"

How about hyperlinking "cannot be safely used on most televisions" to http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?t=885 ?

Couldn't the terms "Yo-Yo" and "Boomerang" also apply to enemy shots with the same return-to-sender property? No idea how common that is, but I know various stages in rRootage include them.

Also "Tracer"

No. Wherever possible, please don't redefine terms that already have conflictingly different and well-established preexisting definitions.


Seems this was forgotten:

Time Attack: In some games, the goal is instead to reach a preset score as quickly as possible.

Hmm, okay, I'll make sure to mention that in the next update.

Just out of curiosity, does anyone happen to know whether the term "kusoplay" is primarily derived from the replay being regarded as crappy, or whether it's primarily derived from the frustrated interjection typically uttered by the player at the end of his play? Or perhaps a combination of both?

[JoshF]

Kusoplay sounds like it was invented by someone who doesn't know Japanese but found out about Kusogee on Wikipedia.

[Winane]

"Kusogee" returns 0 search results on the English Wikipedia. =P

[JoshF]

Acronym for Kuso Game.

[BulletMagnet]

Quite the comprehensive review of the glossary so far you've got here. Only reinforces how long it's been since I've updated the thing. I'll definitely attempt to do this ASAP: for now, I'll address the items in your post.

For what it's worth, "bullet hell" is the primary term used on Wikipedia, and (ergo, I suppose) the term I was most familiar with before finding the shmups.com forum. It's definitely worth a mention in the glossary, even if that mention comes with a disclaimer that you're not 100% sure about the term's exact "proper" usage.

Most indications I've seen do appear to pretty much make it a synonym for "curtain fire" and the like, though I recall a bit of dissent from some time back...

No mention of auto-targeting/tracking player weapons? E.g., Chain and Nail in Progear, or the TH19 Thor auto-track mini-gun in Raptor.

Is there anything about these weapons that would differentiate them from what's already covered under "Homing?"

Where the hell did the term "no miss" come from? Why isn't it called "no hit", "no death", or "no damage", or something?

There was a thread about this awhile ago, actually...if memory serves the term originated quite a ways back in video gamedom. Does anyone remember/have a link to the thread I'm thinking of? Obviously "no death," etc. make sense too, but for some reason "no miss" has become more or less the standard.

The unintuitive term "counter stop" sucks too. Why not just say "maxed out score" instead?

I'd guess it'd be because when you reach that point, the score "counter" stops counting any higher, no matter what you do. Again, though, not sure how it gained prominence over other terms.

Are these both originally examples of wasei-eigo, by any chance?

I had to look up that term, heh heh...in any case, I honestly have no idea offhand where either term originated.

Wouldn't "Alternate View" be better renamed "Alternating View"?

I'm honestly considering just removing that one altogether...

Might it be worth adding "attract mode" to the glossary?

Yeah, it's not shmup specific, and isn't really any more important in a shmup than in any other genre, so I don't think it'd belong here.

Isn't "gunpod" often used to refer to floating firing pods, such as the ones that accompany your ship in Progear (among many other games)?

This is true, I ought to amend that.

Also, the existing gunpod definition you've got would be brought more in line with the real world definitions on Wikipedia, if you were to add something like "large boss enemies" as something they can be attached to too, rather than just ground and ceilings.

That's also good, I think: I'll probably add that in there too.

Minor point, but I'd replace the word "hoarding" within the Jerk definition with the more intuitively understandable "herding", since "Herd" is the leftmost & primary synonym in that term's definition.

Yeah, guess I overlooked that: in the past "hoard" was the primary term, but it was eventually changed to "herd," but I neglected to update the references in other definitions. If you catch anything else like this let me know.

For Kamikaze definition 3, would it be correct to add ", especially when done by crashing one's own ship into enemy craft"?

Yeah, that probably makes sense.

In the definition for "Credit Feed", perhaps you could add a link explaining the mindset behind

A practice which is frowned upon by many shmuppers; some purists, in fact, dislike the practice of ever continuing at all, even for practice.

?
'Cause reading that just makes me think "WTF!? Why??"

I couldn't tell you, as I'm not one of those people. However, they are out there.

Missing space in Manic Shmup definition: "Dodge-em-Up)A type"

BB code error in Needle definition: "spread, homing"

Parentheses mistake in Old-School definition: ")also Raiden-Style)"

Missing space in Speed Up definition: "(these,however,"

Misplaced punctuation marks: "Subweapon) (Also Secondary Weapon:)"

Seems this was forgotten:

Time Attack: In some games, the goal is instead to reach a preset score as quickly as possible.

Hmm, okay, I'll make sure to mention that in the next update.

All noted.

Have any attempts been made to replace the terms "option" and "multiple" with something more intuitive and less ambiguous?

There was talk of making "option" and "multiple" separate terms, since "multiples" are technically a specific type of option which fires the same type of weaponry as your craft. Not sure what else could be done with that.

In Point Blank definition 1, might be worth mentioning that when using spread shot weapons, it also serves to make the entire spread hit the targeted enemy.

Probably not a bad idea.

How about hyperlinking "cannot be safely used on most televisions" to http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?t=885 ?

I've considered using hyperlinks in the glossary in the past, but there would probably be some disagreements about which places are "worthy" of being linked to. Maybe sometime I'll add a few in, though honestly I'm most concerned with getting the definitions and such right, as best I can.

Couldn't the terms "Yo-Yo" and "Boomerang" also apply to enemy shots with the same return-to-sender property? No idea how common that is, but I know various stages in rRootage include them.

Yeah, that probably ought to be mentioned too.

Also "Tracer"

No. Wherever possible, please don't redefine terms that already have conflictingly different and well-established preexisting definitions.

That one probably is more trouble than it's worth, I ought to just nix it.

Just out of curiosity, does anyone happen to know whether the term "kusoplay" is primarily derived from the replay being regarded as crappy, or whether it's primarily derived from the frustrated interjection typically uttered by the player at the end of his play? Or perhaps a combination of both?

I would assume the former, though that's just a guess with nothing to back it up.

Thanks much for your contributions.

On a final note, I'm going to try to work in at least a bit of Turrican's semi-definitive characteristics of a "shmup" into the appropriate definition. While I'm at it, does anyone know of/have a link to the article from ZZap!64 (or whatever mag it was) that supposedly coined the term? I feel that ought to be included in there someplace.

Update hopefully coming soon!

[Twiddle]

Quite the comprehensive review of the glossary so far you've got here. Only reinforces how long it's been since I've updated the thing. I'll definitely attempt to do this ASAP: for now, I'll address the items in your post.

For what it's worth, "bullet hell" is the primary term used on Wikipedia, and (ergo, I suppose) the term I was most familiar with before finding the shmups.com forum. It's definitely worth a mention in the glossary, even if that mention comes with a disclaimer that you're not 100% sure about the term's exact "proper" usage.

Most indications I've seen do appear to pretty much make it a synonym for "curtain fire" and the like, though I recall a bit of dissent from some time back...

No mention of auto-targeting/tracking player weapons? E.g., Chain and Nail in Progear, or the TH19 Thor auto-track mini-gun in Raptor.

Is there anything about these weapons that would differentiate them from what's already covered under "Homing?"

Where the hell did the term "no miss" come from? Why isn't it called "no hit", "no death", or "no damage", or something?

There was a thread about this awhile ago, actually...if memory serves the term originated quite a ways back in video gamedom. Does anyone remember/have a link to the thread I'm thinking of? Obviously "no death," etc. make sense too, but for some reason "no miss" has become more or less the standard.

The unintuitive term "counter stop" sucks too. Why not just say "maxed out score" instead?

I'd guess it'd be because when you reach that point, the score "counter" stops counting any higher, no matter what you do. Again, though, not sure how it gained prominence over other terms.

Are these both originally examples of wasei-eigo, by any chance?

I had to look up that term, heh heh...in any case, I honestly have no idea offhand where either term originated.

Wouldn't "Alternate View" be better renamed "Alternating View"?

I'm honestly considering just removing that one altogether...

Might it be worth adding "attract mode" to the glossary?

Yeah, it's not shmup specific, and isn't really any more important in a shmup than in any other genre, so I don't think it'd belong here.

Isn't "gunpod" often used to refer to floating firing pods, such as the ones that accompany your ship in Progear (among many other games)?

This is true, I ought to amend that.

Also, the existing gunpod definition you've got would be brought more in line with the real world definitions on Wikipedia, if you were to add something like "large boss enemies" as something they can be attached to too, rather than just ground and ceilings.

That's also good, I think: I'll probably add that in there too.

Minor point, but I'd replace the word "hoarding" within the Jerk definition with the more intuitively understandable "herding", since "Herd" is the leftmost & primary synonym in that term's definition.

Yeah, guess I overlooked that: in the past "hoard" was the primary term, but it was eventually changed to "herd," but I neglected to update the references in other definitions. If you catch anything else like this let me know.

For Kamikaze definition 3, would it be correct to add ", especially when done by crashing one's own ship into enemy craft"?

Yeah, that probably makes sense.

In the definition for "Credit Feed", perhaps you could add a link explaining the mindset behind

A practice which is frowned upon by many shmuppers; some purists, in fact, dislike the practice of ever continuing at all, even for practice.

?
'Cause reading that just makes me think "WTF!? Why??"

I couldn't tell you, as I'm not one of those people. However, they are out there.

Missing space in Manic Shmup definition: "Dodge-em-Up)A type"

BB code error in Needle definition: "spread, homing"

Parentheses mistake in Old-School definition: ")also Raiden-Style)"

Missing space in Speed Up definition: "(these,however,"

Misplaced punctuation marks: "Subweapon) (Also Secondary Weapon:)"

Seems this was forgotten:

Hmm, okay, I'll make sure to mention that in the next update.

All noted.

Have any attempts been made to replace the terms "option" and "multiple" with something more intuitive and less ambiguous?

There was talk of making "option" and "multiple" separate terms, since "multiples" are technically a specific type of option which fires the same type of weaponry as your craft. Not sure what else could be done with that.

In Point Blank definition 1, might be worth mentioning that when using spread shot weapons, it also serves to make the entire spread hit the targeted enemy.

Probably not a bad idea.

How about hyperlinking "cannot be safely used on most televisions" to http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?t=885 ?

I've considered using hyperlinks in the glossary in the past, but there would probably be some disagreements about which places are "worthy" of being linked to. Maybe sometime I'll add a few in, though honestly I'm most concerned with getting the definitions and such right, as best I can.

Couldn't the terms "Yo-Yo" and "Boomerang" also apply to enemy shots with the same return-to-sender property? No idea how common that is, but I know various stages in rRootage include them.

Yeah, that probably ought to be mentioned too.

Also "Tracer"

No. Wherever possible, please don't redefine terms that already have conflictingly different and well-established preexisting definitions.

That one probably is more trouble than it's worth, I ought to just nix it.

Just out of curiosity, does anyone happen to know whether the term "kusoplay" is primarily derived from the replay being regarded as crappy, or whether it's primarily derived from the frustrated interjection typically uttered by the player at the end of his play? Or perhaps a combination of both?

I would assume the former, though that's just a guess with nothing to back it up.

Thanks much for your contributions.

On a final note, I'm going to try to work in at least a bit of Turrican's semi-definitive characteristics of a "shmup" into the appropriate definition. While I'm at it, does anyone know of/have a link to the article from ZZap!64 (or whatever mag it was) that supposedly coined the term? I feel that ought to be included in there someplace.

Update hopefully coming soon!

post number 100000 grats dude

[Winane]

No mention of auto-targeting/tracking player weapons? E.g., Chain and Nail in Progear, or the TH19 Thor auto-track mini-gun in Raptor.

Is there anything about these weapons that would differentiate them from what's already covered under "Homing?"

The shots from homing weapons are capable of changing their direction after being fired, and use that ability to continue following their targets after launch.
Tracking weapons are merely aimed, and the shot continues in a straight line after being fired even if the target moves out of the way.
(I guess Progear's Rivet sorta qualifies as both, since she fires homing missiles, but can aim the missile's initial launch towards enemies to reduce how long it takes the missile to reach its target.)

I'd guess it'd be because when you reach that point, the score "counter" stops counting any higher, no matter what you do.

Yes, the derivation is obvious, once you know the definition. It's just that the term isn't nearly as self-explanatory as "maxed out score", since it doesn't specify which counter was stopped, nor why or how it was stopped.

[BulletMagnet]

The shots from homing weapons are capable of changing their direction after being fired, and use that ability to continue following their targets after launch.
Tracking weapons are merely aimed, and the shot continues in a straight line after being fired even if the target moves out of the way.

Hmm...I see what you're saying, though I'm not sure about giving it its own separate item...I'm probably going to wait for others to weigh in on this.

Yes, the derivation is obvious, once you know the definition.

Well, that's what the glossary is for, after all.

post number 100000 grats dude

I do my best, I really do.

Btw, pointlessly long post quote number 87463529007, salud!

[Shatterhand]

Quote:
In the definition for "Credit Feed", perhaps you could add a link explaining the mindset behind
Quote:

A practice which is frowned upon by many shmuppers; some purists, in fact, dislike the practice of ever continuing at all, even for practice.

?
'Cause reading that just makes me think "WTF!? Why??"

I couldn't tell you, as I'm not one of those people. However, they are out there.

Yes! I'm here!

[BulletMagnet]

Oh lordy lord! Yes indeed, the glossary has been updated (and it only took me nearly a year! ), and so has the list of possible discussion points in this thread. It's a pretty sizeable update too, especially compared to the last few revisions, so hopefully it'll inspire a bit of discussion. Look forward to hearing from you all.

[Turrican]

Shmup: Short for “shoot-‘em-up.” Semi-official classification for video games in which a large amount of shooting is involved, and the gameplay is executed in a 2-dimensional style (though the graphical objects onscreen can be 3-D), and controlled strictly from a third-person perspective. Most shmups automatically scroll the background in a certain direction to create the impression of movement as the player progresses, and involve taking control of a plane or spacecraft (as such they are sometimes called “Space Shooters”), as well as collecting various power-ups,, but there are many, many exceptions to and variation on this. Though some use the term “shooter” by itself to refer to shmups (in Japan, in fact, shmups are usually called “Shooting Games,” or “STG’s” for short), this sometimes gets them confused with first-person shooters or light gun shooters.

Different gamers have vastly different hard-and-fast definitions of what a “shmup” technically is (or even whether the term “shmup” should be used at all), but the above covers most of the essentials. Players and/or fans of the genre are often called “shmuppers” or “shmup-o’s,” and gatherings of said aficionados together to compete or otherwise engage in “shmuppery” are sometimes called “shmupmeets,” or “shmeets” for short.

Cool. I very much appreciated how you decided to include the "impression of movement" bit. Good work. You might actually add a line about the UK origins of the term in the Zzap! mag.
It'd be heaven if you could stress so far as saying that shmups are a particularly nurtured subgenre of the broader shooting game family.

Oh, and it was clever of you not to mess with x axis, y plane, and the rest of geometrical stuff

[Icarus]

WARNING! THE ENEMY "INEXPLICABLY HUGE POST" IS APPROACHING FAST!

“Boss Warning” – Worth mentioning, or too self-explanatory/inconsequential?

Kinda self-explanatory, so don't bother.

“Command Motion” – “Street Fighter” type motions for special attacks…too infrequently used in shmups to be listed here? Too general a term?

Yeah, as we discussed a while back, it is infrequently used. However, remember that it is used in a couple of popular shooters (Batsugun, Cotton 2, Cotton Boomerang), so players who get directed to them on recommendation will experience them at some point.

“Corridor” – A “path” formed of bullets. Maybe a sub-term…?

Isn't the "Corridor" attack eerily similar to the Enclosure/Net/Trap Attack?

“Cruise Shmup” – A shmup in which you’re all but invincible once powered up…”official” enough?

First time I've heard of that. It sounds more like a personal term for a game rather than something that's widely accepted.

“Dead Space” – Spots where nothing much happens onscreen…worth a mention?

Nah, quite self explanatory, unlike the term "Dead Zone" (which refers to the space around an enemy where you can stop them from shooting - see Raiden/Garegga as an example of nulling enemy fire).

“Flash Clear (Bullet Clear, Bullet Wipe, Screen Wipe)” – Were debating this near the end of the last topic…any consensus?

Depends on context. Bomb usage? Screen clear on death? Aren't screenwipes used as a period of invincibility?

“Gimmick” – Heavily-debated term…too general, negative-sounding?

Up to you. If I remember correctly, gimmicks are used to describe particular features of a game that stand out as quirky or different, such as rank systems or scoring systems that aren't heavily used (Cotton 2/Boomerang command motion attacks spring to mind).

“Gravity/Cave/Thrust Shooters” a la Solar Jetman, maybe Asteroids…worth an item?

That's more a subcategory of "shmups" in my view.

“Item Spawn” – Items appearing after dying, etc…worth a mention?

Don't a lot of 'respawning death' shooters feature this? Sounds quite self-explanatory as well, so I personally don't think it's worth a mention.

An item spawner however is something that rarely appears, but can be used to generate a mass of items quickly. V-V has them in stage3 (Medal carriers), Espgaluda 2 does it as well with the Gold/Seireiseki generators in stage2. Perhaps some others.

“Kai/Quad” – Most famous in Giga Wing…exactly how much is a “Kai,” exactly? Moreover, is it worth listing?

Only applicable to Takumi shooters to be honest, and infrequently used outside of Takumi's particular fanbase (which in itself is centered around our highscore topics for GW, GW2 etc).

“Monkey” – Psikyo term for easiest difficulty, sometimes generally used for toning down a shmup’s difficulty…Glossary-worthy?

Nope, leave it out. I find Monkey to be more of a derogatory term anyway. Most people use "lowest difficulty" etc for this.

“One-Hit Wonder” – Shmups in which you die after one hit…worth an entry?

That kinda describes every single shooter that doesn't have a lifebar (about 99% of them). ^_-
Again, self-explanatory, and I don't see it often even on this forum.

“Popcorn Spam” – A horde of popcorn enemies meant to overwhelm you…worth entering?

A term maybe used in strategic discussion (and can be used in place of "drone flood", but again, I don't personally see it used a lot around here, even in the Strat forum. It is used frequently in shooters, but even then it's pretty self-explanatory.

“Power-Up Bar” – a la Gradius…very famous, but rather series-specific…

Yeah, series-specific and infrequently used outside of Gradii, Parodii, V-V and a number of doujin soft. Self explanatory anyway (for people who've played at least one Gradii).

“Powerup Carrier” – Listed separately from “Pod?”

Hmmm... let me think...
...
"Pod" is a term for something that releases a burst of items when destroyed, right? Not necessarily powerups, but occasionally point items etc? This is more of a judgment call than anything else, but in my view they could be separate terms.

“Radial Pulse” – Complete circular formation of bullets…worth a listing?

Once again, a judgment call, and on a term used mainly in strategy discussion. IMO "radial" refers to anything that moves in a circle - "radial patterns" for turrets that spin round while firing bullets etc, "radial formations" for drones that are circular in formation pattern or move in circles etc.

Don't take my word for it though.

“Rush” – Moving quickly towards a target, either the player or an enemy…worth a mention?

Self-explanatory term I reckon, and therefore not really needed to be explained in any real depth.

“Russian Doll”— A la Psikyo bosses…is listed on shmup.com, worth putting here?

We don't use that around here, do we? At least, I've never heard of it. Two-part bosses are pretty common though, for example Glow Squid, Gigamanta, Border Down stage4 boss...

“Safe Spot” – Too self-explanitory/general?

Similar to "Dead Zone" like I explained earlier. It is quite self-explanatory however (even if the actual techniques need about ten paragraphs to be explained). ^_-

“Semi-Auto” – Autofire which only lasts a short time when the button is held…worth listing? Also a second definition, a la Parodius?

Now this one is a weird one. Auto is quite easy to work out. Semi-auto only occurs in a small portion of games, and is quite easily worked around by manual rhythmic tapping of the fire button. The Parodii "Semi-Auto" is a very odd feature which someone had already explained earlier, that it automatically buys powerups (and uses Bells in some cases) while giving you enough control over manual power purchases/Bell usage.

If you are going to explain the Parodii version of the definition, then you'd have to cover the actual technical semi-autofire term as well.

”Semi-Homing” – Also “Tracer”…weapons/bullets that sort of home in, but not as reliably as “normal” homing weapons. Worth an item?

You don't see semi-homing often outside of enemy attack patterns, if I remember correctly (most notable for me is Discharge's big green homing lasers in Batrider). Well, if you aren't counting XEXEX's Homing Laser (which works more like a partially lock-on-enabled Shadow Laser). Could be worth a mention if you can find more examples.

“Session” – Single “sit-down” with one or more shmups made up of various “runs”…too general?

Too general, and once again, self-explanatory. Virtually anyone who plays or does anything regularly (art, music, even work) knows what a "session' is. And if not, then gb2/englishclass/.

“Shotgun” – A slow-firing spread weapon with bullet-eating abilities…only heard of the term used in old Capcom shooters, worth mentioning?

Personally, a "shotgun" is a kind of bullet formation which is like a big cluster of bullets sprayed in your direction. Not many shmups have short-range projectile weapons, and even then they are centered around swords/lasers. You see "shotgun" attacks more often on bosses and larger enemies.

“Slalom” – Navigating down a corridor of bullets and dodging single shots in your way along it, in similar fashion to a ski course. Nifty term: “official” enough?

Again, isn't this a derivative of the Enclosure/Net etc?

“Sweep Attack” – Bullet pattern a la rotating turret fire…worth a mention?

... that sounds better than the term "radial" I mentioned earlier. Also, sweeping attacks are also a feature of particular Net-style patterns.

“Throw” – Some term in relation to joystick operation that has been suggested once or twice before…still not sure exactly what it means. Also, not shmup-specific?

To explain: A joystick's "throw" is the distance between it's neutral position and the shortest amount of tilt needed to activate a direction microswitch. When discussing joystick throw, it is commonly agreed that a stick with a shorter throw is better than a stick with a longer throw, because with a shorter throw you do not have to move the stick for longer in order to get some kind of response from your player avatar, which also leads into quicker reactive tapping techniques. Long joystick throws = very bad.

“True/Fake Lo-Res” – Not a shmup-exclusive term, but mentioned often enough around here…

If it isn't shmup-exclusive then don't add it. ^_-
Anyone who wants to know about it can dig up the countless threads on it, or ask in Hardware anyway.

“The Zone” – Dunno whether a consensus will ever be reached on this one, considering its notoriously fickle nature…

Ugh, no comment...
... oh what the hell...
"The Zone" isn't even a technical term anyway, as it refers to some kind of effect on player concentration, and even then, opinion is divided on whether or not there is such thing as a "zone". In personal experience I don't ever recall being in any kind of heightened sense of concentration. If anything, quicker memory recall and "muscle memory movements" have more effect on my play than any kind of increased sensory activity.

“Homebrew” to “Doujin” -- Is either term more widely-used than the other?

I think we use both around here to describe non-commercial (games not released by official companies)? In gaming sense they both mean the same thing.

Caravan (origin) -- Was this term coined by the Hudson “Caravan Shooting Collection?”

Yes, probably. I think people use "Carnival Mode" more often than "Caravan Mode" however, since "Caravan Mode" sounds like you're getting ready to go on holiday.

Original, Original 2 -- I’ve heard these Psikyo-centric terms sometimes used as alternates for “Letterbox” and “Wobble” modes…too company-specific to list here?

Yes, too company-specific. Letterbox, Wobble, Yoko, TATE...
I was going to mention TATE-Hosei, but I've only ever seen that used in Dodonpachi Daioujou and Espgaluda, so exclude this comment. ^_-

Twitch Shmups -- I’ve heard this term applied to both Manic and Old-School shmups…which is it?

I think using "Twitch Shmups" complicates an already complicated definition, right? Besides, whether or not a game is "twitchy" by definition is up to the player and the way they play - even R-Type could be a twitch shooter if a player is particularly lacking in memory ability or just playing for fun.

“People Shooter?” -- Alternate term/extra notation under “Character Shooter?”

See above comment regarding "Twich Shmups". In this case, however, it's just a shmup with people in it.

“Schtick ‘em up?” -- Alternate term/extra notation under “Cute-‘em-Up?”

I first read that as "schlick-em-up"... and no, I'm not going to explain what "schlick" means. -_-;;

“Cockpit?” -- Alternate term for “Hitbox?”

Just use "Hitbox" in this case. Very few shooters, if any, actually have the hitbox centered on the cockpit area of the ship )and if they do, they're retarded).

“Trip Wire” – a la RSG’s Homing Plasma, et al: a weapon which sends out a “scanning beam” and attacks when anything crosses it. Possible sub-entry under “Lock-On,” or…?

When in doubt, look at the primary function of the weapon. In this case, it's a Lock-On weapon. No need to overcomplicate matters. ^_-
(And if you want to really overcomplicate things, you could say the toothpaste laser in Raiden 2/DX is in itself a large tripwire... ^_-)

Term for enemies which appear with no warning (i.e. from the back)? “Stealth?” “Ninja,” maybe?

Butt Rapist. ^_-

Seriously, most no-warning enemies appear in older games to throw people off, but once they are learned, they lose their stealthy abilities. The true ninjas of shmups are the ones that can continually kill you with no warning even if you know they are there. See "Sniper" tanks in the Raiden series. ^_-

Finally...

Where the hell did the term "no miss" come from? Why isn't it called "no hit", "no death", or "no damage", or something?
The unintuitive term "counter stop" sucks too. Why not just say "maxed out score" instead?
Are these both originally examples of wasei-eigo, by any chance?

Just to expand, BM: "No Miss" is used by the Japanese to denote "no mistakes" (an altered form of the short "no mis-"). Perhaps GP or someone with more knowledge of Japanese can explain better. As for "Counter Stop", again, used by Japanese since day one to denote "score counter stopped" (score counter no longer able to increase).

Both terms have been in circulation long before we picked up on it, and are both valid definitions.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Here endeth post.
Keep up the good work, BM.

[BulletMagnet]

You might actually add a line about the UK origins of the term in the Zzap! mag.

If I didn't add that to the list of things for discussion, I should have...I'd like as many specifics on that one as possible, and even a scan or two might be nice.

It'd be heaven if you could stress so far as saying that shmups are a particularly nurtured subgenre of the broader shooting game family.

You know what, I saw this in that thread, liked it, promised to myself that I'd add it, and what do I do? Argh, definitely next time round.

Oh, and it was clever of you not to mess with x axis, y plane, and the rest of geometrical stuff

Not to mention the periodic table. Sorry, till someone makes a Mendeleev shooter he stays out of this.

Slow start to the weekend, eh Icky? Seriously though, thanks much for the input. I'll respond to a few of the "highlights" -

Isn't the "Corridor" attack eerily similar to the Enclosure/Net/Trap Attack?

Second cousin twice removed, I might say...a "net" generally surrounds you from all sides (a la Blacky), while a "corridor" tends to cover mainly the left and right (if we're talking vertical shmup here), while still giving you relative freedom of movement on the two remaining sides.

(Cruise Shmup) First time I've heard of that. It sounds more like a personal term for a game rather than something that's widely accepted.

Heh, I probably did hear it from Rob or the like...it is a "phenomenon" (lacking a better term) that is pretty widely acknowledged though, I still wonder if it's worth an entry someplace.

(Flash Clear) Depends on context. Bomb usage? Screen clear on death? Aren't screenwipes used as a period of invincibility?

My understanding was that the term would mainly apply mostly to situations like the second you mentioned (death), though I don't think a screen wipe is the same thing as an invincibility window, since running into an enemy, even when all the bullets are gone, could still kill you. Though it might be noted that many bombs activate a screen wipe.

Up to you. If I remember correctly, gimmicks are used to describe particular features of a game that stand out as quirky or different, such as rank systems or scoring systems that aren't heavily used (Cotton 2/Boomerang command motion attacks spring to mind).

My main concern is that it's not shmup-specific enough, among a few other more minor things.

(Gravity Shooter) That's more a subcategory of "shmups" in my view.

There's been some debate about whether these sorts of games are shmups or not (I won't bother getting into that here) - my main dilemma is what sort of split, if any, ought to be between "gravity" stuff like Solar Jetman and "thrust" stuff like Asteroids, or if they're considered part of the same category.

(Item Spawn) Don't a lot of 'respawning death' shooters feature this? Sounds quite self-explanatory as well, so I personally don't think it's worth a mention.

A decent chunk of them do (at least under certain circumstances) but it's hardly a constant feature, so I'm sort of unsure on this...

An item spawner however is something that rarely appears, but can be used to generate a mass of items quickly. V-V has them in stage3 (Medal carriers), Espgaluda 2 does it as well with the Gold/Seireiseki generators in stage2. Perhaps some others.

This probably does deserve a mention someplace, though I'm not sure where...

(Kai) Only applicable to Takumi shooters to be honest, and infrequently used outside of Takumi's particular fanbase (which in itself is centered around our highscore topics for GW, GW2 etc).

This is more of a "personal vendetta," but I'd still like to see this one included, just for the heck of it.

(One Hit Wonder) That kinda describes every single shooter that doesn't have a lifebar (about 99% of them). ^_-
Again, self-explanatory, and I don't see it often even on this forum.

Still a foreign concept to most any non-shmupper who might happen upon the list though.

(Popcorn Spam) A term maybe used in strategic discussion (and can be used in place of "drone flood", but again, I don't personally see it used a lot around here, even in the Strat forum. It is used frequently in shooters, but even then it's pretty self-explanatory.

"Drone Flood," eh? *scribbles down* Maybe it could just be a passing mention under "popcorn," instead of its own entry.

“Powerup Carrier” – Listed separately from “Pod?”

You know what, I already listed "powerup carrier" separately, but forgot to delete this. *smacks self* What you say about "item carrier" versus "powerup carrier" is noteworthy though, I'll definitely edit that.

(Radial Pulse) Once again, a judgment call, and on a term used mainly in strategy discussion. IMO "radial" refers to anything that moves in a circle - "radial patterns" for turrets that spin round while firing bullets etc, "radial formations" for drones that are circular in formation pattern or move in circles etc.

Something wrong with strategy-heavy terms on this list? I'm mainly concerned with how "official" terms like this are...

(Russian Doll) We don't use that around here, do we? At least, I've never heard of it. Two-part bosses are pretty common though, for example Glow Squid, Gigamanta, Border Down stage4 boss...

I saw this one over at the French shmup.com site, and kind of liked it, even though it's not a common term...maybe just worth a passing mention under "phase?"

(Semi-Auto)Now this one is a weird one. Auto is quite easy to work out. Semi-auto only occurs in a small portion of games, and is quite easily worked around by manual rhythmic tapping of the fire button. The Parodii "Semi-Auto" is a very odd feature which someone had already explained earlier, that it automatically buys powerups (and uses Bells in some cases) while giving you enough control over manual power purchases/Bell usage.

If you are going to explain the Parodii version of the definition, then you'd have to cover the actual technical semi-autofire term as well.

I'm very hesitant to get into the "Parodius version" of this term, since it's as series-specific as it gets, but despite its rare occurrences I'm still somehow itching to include the "broader" definition.

You don't see semi-homing often outside of enemy attack patterns, if I remember correctly (most notable for me is Discharge's big green homing lasers in Batrider). Well, if you aren't counting XEXEX's Homing Laser (which works more like a partially lock-on-enabled Shadow Laser). Could be worth a mention if you can find more examples.

Offhand the stage 2 boss of Rayforce comes to mind...and maybe the stage 2 Cotton 2/Boomerang boss too. I vaguely recall some player craft or other from Batrider having a weapon like this (Tag-T, was it?).

Personally, a "shotgun" is a kind of bullet formation which is like a big cluster of bullets sprayed in your direction. Not many shmups have short-range projectile weapons, and even then they are centered around swords/lasers. You see "shotgun" attacks more often on bosses and larger enemies.

I'm personally a bit iffy on this one too (what you describe is closest to the already-existing "spray," I'd wager), but a few others suggested this, so I've been trying to get some wider consensus on it.

(Slalom) Again, isn't this a derivative of the Enclosure/Net etc?

More a variation on the "corridor," which I already went into above.

... that sounds better than the term "radial" I mentioned earlier. Also, sweeping attacks are also a feature of particular Net-style patterns.

Hmm, you have an example or two of the latter-mentioned there?

To explain: A joystick's "throw" is the distance between it's neutral position and the shortest amount of tilt needed to activate a direction microswitch. When discussing joystick throw, it is commonly agreed that a stick with a shorter throw is better than a stick with a longer throw, because with a shorter throw you do not have to move the stick for longer in order to get some kind of response from your player avatar, which also leads into quicker reactive tapping techniques. Long joystick throws = very bad.

Hmm, I'm leaning towards listing this...anyone else want to weigh in?

Ugh, no comment...
... oh what the hell...
"The Zone" isn't even a technical term anyway, as it refers to some kind of effect on player concentration, and even then, opinion is divided on whether or not there is such thing as a "zone". In personal experience I don't ever recall being in any kind of heightened sense of concentration. If anything, quicker memory recall and "muscle memory movements" have more effect on my play than any kind of increased sensory activity.

Heh, my instincts tell me that no matter how much evidence is offered against it, those who swear by it will never be silenced.

(Homebrew/Doujin) I think we use both around here to describe non-commercial (games not released by official companies)? In gaming sense they both mean the same thing.

This is a pretty minor point, I'm mainly concerned with which is more "worthy" of the "primary term" status, but it's not that big of a deal.

Yes, probably. I think people use "Carnival Mode" more often than "Caravan Mode" however, since "Caravan Mode" sounds like you're getting ready to go on holiday.

Hmm, Carnival mode might be worthy of at least an alternate term, though I've not heard it used much here...

I was going to mention TATE-Hosei, but I've only ever seen that used in Dodonpachi Daioujou and Espgaluda, so exclude this comment. ^_-

I am at least semi-curious what the differences are between Tate and Tatehosei though, if anyone would care to explain it or point me to a pre-existing explanation.

I think using "Twitch Shmups" complicates an already complicated definition, right? Besides, whether or not a game is "twitchy" by definition is up to the player and the way they play - even R-Type could be a twitch shooter if a player is particularly lacking in memory ability or just playing for fun.

Yeah, it is tricky, but so widely-used I can't help but want to somehow address it.

(People Shooter) See above comment regarding "Twich Shmups". In this case, however, it's just a shmup with people in it.

Again, another relatively minor point, just wondering if this is widely-used enough to mention.

I first read that as "schlick-em-up"... and no, I'm not going to explain what "schlick" means. -_-;;

Way to dodge the issue at hand.

When in doubt, look at the primary function of the weapon. In this case, it's a Lock-On weapon. No need to overcomplicate matters. ^_-
(And if you want to really overcomplicate things, you could say the toothpaste laser in Raiden 2/DX is in itself a large tripwire... ^_-)

Probably just ought to give it a quick mention under the existing term.

Butt Rapist. ^_-

I was wondering how quickly someone would get around to suggesting that. Though I was sort of expecting Twiddle to be the one to do it.

Seriously, most no-warning enemies appear in older games to throw people off, but once they are learned, they lose their stealthy abilities.

Doesn't make them any less of a bad design choice. And I do wonder if anyone's ever come up with a semi-definitive term for the little buggers.

Just to expand, BM: "No Miss" is used by the Japanese to denote "no mistakes" (an altered form of the short "no mis-").

I'll add that, though I recall a more in-depth discussion of it from a ways back, which went into some really early games that used it and so forth...I wonder if anyone knows where that thread went. "Counter stop" I'm not as concerned with.

Thanks again for the input.

[Icarus]

Slow start to the weekend, eh Icky? Seriously though, thanks much for the input. I'll respond to a few of the "highlights"

Yes. -_-;;

Isn't the "Corridor" attack eerily similar to the Enclosure/Net/Trap Attack?

Second cousin twice removed, I might say...a "net" generally surrounds you from all sides (a la Blacky), while a "corridor" tends to cover mainly the left and right (if we're talking vertical shmup here), while still giving you relative freedom of movement on the two remaining sides.

If you want to get really technical, Black Heart's vulcan attack doesn't actually surround you on all sides.
If anything, everything above is a subdefinition of a Trap and shouldn't (in my view) be listed seperately. To explain:

Trap: A kind of attack that is continuously fired, and keeps you fixed within a position in the attack:
- Corridor: a sort of tunnel style bullet pattern that stops you from moving laterally, but gives you freedom to move forward and backward. Occasionally moves side to side to keep you on your toes. Examples include: most of Sobut's attacks (Batrider), Muchi Muchi Pork's st4 boss vertical cannon.
- Net: an attack that keeps you pinned in position on all sides, not allowing you to move in any direction save for a few sporadic adjustment taps. Examples include: Gigamanta's trapspread (Bakraid), Infernon's trapnet (Great Mahou), Raycrisis hovercraft boss lasernet, Ikaruga's st5 boss Grid.
- Enclosure: an attack that allows you some freedom to move, but keeps you pinned within a specific area of the attack pattern depending on where you end up. Occasionally moves about to keep players active. Examples include: Yukari Horiguchi's cardnet attack (Shikigami 2), Black Heart's vulcan attack (Garegga), Mushi's st2 boss final pattern, RF1 helicopter boss' final patterns.

(Cruise Shmup) First time I've heard of that. It sounds more like a personal term for a game rather than something that's widely accepted.

Heh, I probably did hear it from Rob or the like...it is a "phenomenon" (lacking a better term) that is pretty widely acknowledged though, I still wonder if it's worth an entry someplace.

I dunno. If a game is that easy by definition then it's more of a fact of poor balance in gameplay than being a primary feature of the game itself.

(Flash Clear) Depends on context. Bomb usage? Screen clear on death? Aren't screenwipes used as a period of invincibility?

My understanding was that the term would mainly apply mostly to situations like the second you mentioned (death), though I don't think a screen wipe is the same thing as an invincibility window, since running into an enemy, even when all the bullets are gone, could still kill you. Though it might be noted that many bombs activate a screen wipe.

Well, technically, when you screen wipe you are pretty much momentarily invincible, since the main dangers to the player (bullets) are gone. True that enemies can still kill you, but in many situations a screen wipe goes hand-in-hand with a death or a bomb of some kind.

Up to you. If I remember correctly, gimmicks are used to describe particular features of a game that stand out as quirky or different, such as rank systems or scoring systems that aren't heavily used (Cotton 2/Boomerang command motion attacks spring to mind).

My main concern is that it's not shmup-specific enough, among a few other more minor things.

If you have reservations then don't list it. Gimmicks aren't necessarily shmup-centric as you say, they can be applied to every genre.

(Item Spawn) Don't a lot of 'respawning death' shooters feature this? Sounds quite self-explanatory as well, so I personally don't think it's worth a mention.

A decent chunk of them do (at least under certain circumstances) but it's hardly a constant feature, so I'm sort of unsure on this...

I think it is. Virtually every respawn-based shooter features the item spray on death, even lifebar-based ones like Guwange and Shikigami. Even Gradius 5 spews your Options when you die if respawn is switched on (usually by default).

(One Hit Wonder) That kinda describes every single shooter that doesn't have a lifebar (about 99% of them). ^_-
Again, self-explanatory, and I don't see it often even on this forum.

Still a foreign concept to most any non-shmupper who might happen upon the list though.

I think one-hit kills are widespread enough outside of lifebar shooters to disqualify this definition, to be honest. Even if a player is new to the genre, they'll pretty quickly identify when a shooter is death in one, or death in several.

(Popcorn Spam) A term maybe used in strategic discussion (and can be used in place of "drone flood", but again, I don't personally see it used a lot around here, even in the Strat forum. It is used frequently in shooters, but even then it's pretty self-explanatory.

"Drone Flood," eh? *scribbles down* Maybe it could just be a passing mention under "popcorn," instead of its own entry.

I vote for passing mention.

(Radial Pulse) Once again, a judgment call, and on a term used mainly in strategy discussion. IMO "radial" refers to anything that moves in a circle - "radial patterns" for turrets that spin round while firing bullets etc, "radial formations" for drones that are circular in formation pattern or move in circles etc.

Something wrong with strategy-heavy terms on this list? I'm mainly concerned with how "official" terms like this are...

Nothing really wrong with strat-heavy terms, but you don't see them mentioned outside of actual strat discussion. Just a thought.

(Russian Doll) We don't use that around here, do we? At least, I've never heard of it. Two-part bosses are pretty common though, for example Glow Squid, Gigamanta, Border Down stage4 boss...

I saw this one over at the French shmup.com site, and kind of liked it, even though it's not a common term...maybe just worth a passing mention under "phase?"

I agree on the passing mention thing. Boss phases are pretty common of course. Some operate the smaller-boss-in-bigger-boss thing as mentioned, but are easily identified as extra phases of a boss.

You don't see semi-homing often outside of enemy attack patterns, if I remember correctly (most notable for me is Discharge's big green homing lasers in Batrider). Well, if you aren't counting XEXEX's Homing Laser (which works more like a partially lock-on-enabled Shadow Laser). Could be worth a mention if you can find more examples.

Offhand the stage 2 boss of Rayforce comes to mind...and maybe the stage 2 Cotton 2/Boomerang boss too. I vaguely recall some player craft or other from Batrider having a weapon like this (Tag-T, was it?).

Oh yeah, forgot about Tag-T. -_-;;
(Like I ever use him.)
Yeah, there are some semi-homing weapons out there. Probably more examples, but I can't think of any at this moment in time.

Personally, a "shotgun" is a kind of bullet formation which is like a big cluster of bullets sprayed in your direction. Not many shmups have short-range projectile weapons, and even then they are centered around swords/lasers. You see "shotgun" attacks more often on bosses and larger enemies.

I'm personally a bit iffy on this one too (what you describe is closest to the already-existing "spray," I'd wager), but a few others suggested this, so I've been trying to get some wider consensus on it.

Depends on what angle you want to approach this. I think a "shotgun" is a cluster of bullets with completely random order and number, while a "spray" is an actual pattern fired at speed. Just my thoughts, though. Both can probably be classed as subterms, however, of some broader category.

(Slalom) Again, isn't this a derivative of the Enclosure/Net etc?

More a variation on the "corridor," which I already went into above.

Most "corridors" tend to move in shootemups, so I don't think "slalom" really warrants a seperate definition.

... that sounds better than the term "radial" I mentioned earlier. Also, sweeping attacks are also a feature of particular Net-style patterns.

Hmm, you have an example or two of the latter-mentioned there?

See Black Heart.

To explain: A joystick's "throw" is the distance between it's neutral position and the shortest amount of tilt needed to activate a direction microswitch. When discussing joystick throw, it is commonly agreed that a stick with a shorter throw is better than a stick with a longer throw, because with a shorter throw you do not have to move the stick for longer in order to get some kind of response from your player avatar, which also leads into quicker reactive tapping techniques. Long joystick throws = very bad.

Hmm, I'm leaning towards listing this...anyone else want to weigh in?

You could probably dig up a ton of discussion in Hardware.
(Take a look at the Hori RAP 1/2 Questions thread, for example.)

Yes, probably. I think people use "Carnival Mode" more often than "Caravan Mode" however, since "Caravan Mode" sounds like you're getting ready to go on holiday.

Hmm, Carnival mode might be worthy of at least an alternate term, though I've not heard it used much here...

If I remember correctly, "Caravan" is only used by one game, while "Carnival" was used by an actual tournament.

I first read that as "schlick-em-up"... and no, I'm not going to explain what "schlick" means. -_-;;

Way to dodge the issue at hand.

No comment.

Butt Rapist. ^_-

I was wondering how quickly someone would get around to suggesting that. Though I was sort of expecting Twiddle to be the one to do it.

Hahaha. Yeah. ^_-

Seriously, most no-warning enemies appear in older games to throw people off, but once they are learned, they lose their stealthy abilities.

Doesn't make them any less of a bad design choice. And I do wonder if anyone's ever come up with a semi-definitive term for the little buggers.

"Bad design choice" is subjective and shouldn't really be used to qualify something. They pop up in R-Type and are considered part of the stage design. Same for Batsugun. Donpachi. 19XX.

The only truly "bad design choices" are attacks that are virtually unavoidable even if you have prior knowledge of them coming, or poor stage/boss design that makes doing something impossible without death.

Just to expand, BM: "No Miss" is used by the Japanese to denote "no mistakes" (an altered form of the short "no mis-").

I'll add that, though I recall a more in-depth discussion of it from a ways back, which went into some really early games that used it and so forth...I wonder if anyone knows where that thread went. "Counter stop" I'm not as concerned with.

Can't remember the name of the thread, but typing in "no miss" into Shmups Chat search brings up a ton of threads, so I'll have to leave actual definition hunting until later in the week. -_-;;

Thanks again for the input.

No problem.
Last reply tonight, I have work in the morning. ^_-

[BulletMagnet]

Trap: A kind of attack that is continuously fired, and keeps you fixed within a position in the attack:
- Corridor: a sort of tunnel style bullet pattern that stops you from moving laterally, but gives you freedom to move forward and backward. Occasionally moves side to side to keep you on your toes. Examples include: most of Sobut's attacks (Batrider), Muchi Muchi Pork's st4 boss vertical cannon.
- Net: an attack that keeps you pinned in position on all sides, not allowing you to move in any direction save for a few sporadic adjustment taps. Examples include: Gigamanta's trapspread (Bakraid), Infernon's trapnet (Great Mahou), Raycrisis hovercraft boss lasernet, Ikaruga's st5 boss Grid.
- Enclosure: an attack that allows you some freedom to move, but keeps you pinned within a specific area of the attack pattern depending on where you end up. Occasionally moves about to keep players active. Examples include: Yukari Horiguchi's cardnet attack (Shikigami 2), Black Heart's vulcan attack (Garegga), Mushi's st2 boss final pattern, RF1 helicopter boss' final patterns.

I kind of dig the idea of using (it's a) trap(!) as an over-arching term for patterns like these, though I'm finding the difference between "net" and "enclosure" a bit blurry...I might be missing something, but the latter sounds, from here, like "Net 2.0," and perhaps not worth its own term. Perhaps I just need a bit of further enlightenment...

I dunno. If a game is that easy by definition then it's more of a fact of poor balance in gameplay than being a primary feature of the game itself.

True, but the same sort of thing could be said of invisi-bullets, and no one's argued over their spot in the glossary.

Well, technically, when you screen wipe you are pretty much momentarily invincible, since the main dangers to the player (bullets) are gone. True that enemies can still kill you, but in many situations a screen wipe goes hand-in-hand with a death or a bomb of some kind.

That would definitely be worth a mention, but there are a number of exceptions to this, so I'm still in favor of some sort of entry for this, though some of the details still need work.

I think it is. Virtually every respawn-based shooter features the item spray on death, even lifebar-based ones like Guwange and Shikigami. Even Gradius 5 spews your Options when you die if respawn is switched on (usually by default).

Perhaps a mention of it under "respawn" or the like would be best, then.

Nothing really wrong with strat-heavy terms, but you don't see them mentioned outside of actual strat discussion. Just a thought.

I figure that if anyone would be in favor of wider strategic-style discussion around here, it'd be you.

Depends on what angle you want to approach this. I think a "shotgun" is a cluster of bullets with completely random order and number, while a "spray" is an actual pattern fired at speed. Just my thoughts, though. Both can probably be classed as subterms, however, of some broader category.

Definitely going to wait for some more input on this one.

Most "corridors" tend to move in shootemups, so I don't think "slalom" really warrants a seperate definition.

I was under the impression that a "slalom" referred to a corridor that sent extra bullets or the like down the middle of it which you had to dodge (whether the corridor moves itself didn't really matter). Though I suppose it could be argued that most corridors qualify as slaloms even under the definition.

See Black Heart.

Hmm...I must be thinking of a different type of "sweep" than you are. I was more inclined towards, as I said earlier, more of a rapidly-rotating turret kind of attack. Guess some clarification is needed here as well.

If I remember correctly, "Caravan" is only used by one game, while "Carnival" was used by an actual tournament.

Any oldschoolers want to offer a bit of help here?

"Bad design choice" is subjective and shouldn't really be used to qualify something.

Yeah, I wouldn't have included any of that in the glossary, that was just me editorializing.

[Winane]

IMO "radial" refers to anything that moves in a circle - ... "radial formations" for drones that are circular in formation pattern or move in circles etc.

Well, that's not how the word "radial" is normally used. =P

“Kai/Quad” – Most famous in Giga Wing…exactly how much is a “Kai,” exactly?

So, uh, what does this one mean, anyway?

“Semi-Auto” – Autofire which only lasts a short time when the button is held…worth listing?

Argh, again, I wish you people would stop redefining terms such that they conflict with their real-world definitions!
Why not let "semi-automatic" continue to retain its most prominent preexisting definition, and just use the term "burst fire" instead?


You've got a stray opening bold tag in the gunpod definition.

Also, an unpaired bracket before "Glossary Statistics".


A "hitbox" or "collision box" is an entity. "Collision detection" or "hit detection" is a process. But the definition for these terms implies that the terms are interchangeable.


I would vote against the inclusion of the "shotgun" entry (not so much based on whether or not it's commonly used, but more based on not wanting to see its usage increased ).


Whether being "in the zone" actually significantly improves performance or not, I can attest to occasionally being in an unusually focused, aware, and coordinated state of mind, which sometimes occurs while gaming, and which I assume qualifies as being "in the zone".
But the term is not at all specific to shmups, so no reason to include it in this glossary.

I think people use "Carnival Mode" more often than "Caravan Mode" however, since "Caravan Mode" sounds like you're getting ready to go on holiday.

I associate the word "carnival" with holidays much more than I do the word "caravan". ???

Yes, the derivation is obvious, once you know the definition.

Well, that's what the glossary is for, after all.

Indeed. To be clear, I wasn't at all asking for the term to be removed from the glossary, I was just taking the opportunity to complain about the necessity of its inclusion, and kinda hoping I might perhaps influence people here to adopt less ambiguous terminology in their own writings.
Same goes for:

"No Miss" is used by the Japanese to denote "no mistakes" (an altered form of the short "no mis-").

Yep. My Japanese dictionary doesn't explicitly provide derivations of loanwords, but last week I happened to notice that the book defines "ミス" ("misu") as "mistake" (seems odd that they'd bother adopting a Western term for such a basic concept ???), and so figured the shmup term "ノミス" was presumably adopted and abbreviated from "no mistake" rather than from "no miss". I just wish it had been converted back to "no mistake" when the term was returned to the West, or at least converted as "no mis" without the extra "s". Though even "no mistake" is still a bit of a misnomer, as it's quite possible (almost inevitable) to make various mistakes even while not dying/sustaining damage.

Now, if the Japs had adopted "no damage" as their term, then I guess they would have abbreviated that too, and it would've been sent back to us as "no damn", which actually would've been somewhat appropriate and understandable. =)

(By the way, I noticed last week that Blazing Star calls each death a "miss", too. )

Yes! I'm here!

So explain yourself! (But not here.)