What is this forum to you?

[gameoverDude]

Exactly what it says on the tin. A place to learn about shmups.

Though they may not be my #1 game genre now as JRPGs, FPS, & some sports games get a share of my attention, I still enjoy them. Some good games like Crimzon Clover, Battle Garegga, Border Down, Psyvariar, Strania etc. I wouldn't have known about if not for this forum.

[austere]

Shnupz farm, what can I say about it?

When I joined, I was really mainly interested in a progression of shooters I hadn't even realized existed. I was always a fan, but I thought the last real shooter ever made was Ikaruga. Boy was I wrong. I logged on here daily and was on IRC a lot. My life and the lives of many people from where my family is originally from was turned upside down on the ides of March, 2011. It's difficult to share specifics but by the time I was through the thick of it, many of the places and people I cherished no longer existed in this world.

So... to me, this forum is a kind of time capsule. I often don't comment on new threads even on subjects I'm highly interested in, though I've jumped in a few times. It's not that I don't care what people have to say... or that I don't want to join the discussion. It's quite the opposite despite that being the outcome... I sparsely come on here and then to live through the short period of time when the world was still an OK place, when I still had simpler things to look forward to. I apologise for this.

This song basically summarizes it better than I can ever put it into words:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1HpdleCgeg

Keep on posting dudes.

[DJ Incompetent]

When I have looked in the past year or so, there isn't any of that [shifting proper gaming consoles] anymore. So why is that? Are we all hoarders? Are we all overly bloated on original hardware or have you just switched to the download/emulation market?

If they were shifting so much back then, I suppose it would also mean this content was unworthy to keep. More people respect its value, so yes to hoarding? The FS stuff seems to have 360s, Dreamcasts, and Gamecube stuff pretty easy. The WTB is being mostly PCB, yeah. I reckon this forum simply isn't an ideal place to obtain old gen console stuff. It's not like any collector on any youtube channel has referenced here for things outside of niche information. The better selling sites were better for selling our type of stuff?

Alot of the people that were members way back when are still here now. What is your feeling about this forum, what does it mean to you? Obviously its a great community of skill, expertise in hardware and its international to boot. Discuss.

The information here is outstanding. Teaching me the one credit clear perspective upended my perceptions of the whole videogame industry and saved me thousands of dollars. Helping me build an arcade machine is awesome. Icarus, Fudoh, PC-Engine Fan X, Ghegs, and system11 are treasures. STGT was a fun memory.

The uncompromising nature of the community's expectations to new titles is commendable. However, we have spent so many years hindering, unpromoting, and turning-down new developers trying to infiltrate the scene, we don't have a sustainable number of creators left to output new titles. We expect Yotsubane quality out of everybody's first attempt at making STGs, and then impose more frivolous hurdles and derail threads on any dev who dares speak to us in English. We lacked and still lack the foresight to support and respect budding developers who could have now been capable of producing the professional STGs we actually wanted to play. This community is a fascinating case-study on why catering to the lowest common denominator is a preferred business strategy.

I visit the forum to find the new hard game accomplishment-challenge quality thing I would actually like to play. I distort-ruin geek-nerd culture items and drop them off here when I get tired of waiting for the new hard game. The forum formatting allows a conversation to be easily followed, spambots are not around, and there are no banner ads or paid sponsor threads. These are nice things and I appreciate them.

You guys are a'ight.

[Bananamatic]

However, we have spent so many years hindering, unpromoting, and turning-down new developers trying to infiltrate the scene, we don't have a sustainable number of creators left to output new titles. We expect Yotsubane quality out of everybody's first attempt at making STGs, and then impose more frivolous hurdles and derail threads on any dev who dares speak to us in English.

no one gives a shit about new games and especially not doujin, that's why you don't hear about new games
the biggest news was something that could have potentially been a new pcb and once it turned out to be a romhack everyone lost interest

We lacked and still lack the foresight to support and respect budding developers who could have now been capable of producing the professional STGs we actually wanted to play. This community is a fascinating case-study on why catering to the lowest common denominator is a preferred business strategy.

because all people want is "arcade" and "pcb"
so yes, lowest common denominator is pretty accurate

[Randorama]

Unfortunately, that one is a package deal with the worst thread in the universe. ;3

Title:
My crimes again humankind, consciousness and rationality (foreword by Brianna Wu, Boris the Toris and Ian Bogost).

I can already see the 7-digit sale numbers.

[Squire Grooktook]

no one gives a shit about new games and especially not doujin, that's why you don't hear about new games
...
because all people want is "arcade" and "pcb"
so yes, lowest common denominator is pretty accurate

Be the change you want to see!

Me and M.Knight could certainly benefit from someone retweeting our games on Twitter, spreading the word, telling friends. Or hell, just donating 1 or 2 bucks on Ko-Fi could help*. I'd end up not having to skip lunch so often to get sprite art / SFX / music done.



*I don't actually have one set up.

[Sumez]

Damn, I haven't even gotten around to trying out the test build of your game yet, that's how hard it is for me to get into shuppies recently (though to be honest, the main bother for me is setting up a useful environment for using my PC to play games). I'm sorry. I really want it to do well. And I'd retweet if I had any idea what the purpose of Twitter was, and/or actual followers. :3

[Bananamatic]

I'm already shilling rolling gunner
but maybe when a game gets 120 followers on twitter despite 5+ years of effort, tons of public demos and even being in famitsu maybe it's time to realize how dead the whole genre is
that's 100 less than the most hated member on shmupsfarm

[Squire Grooktook]

Damn, I haven't even gotten around to trying out the test build of your game yet, that's how hard it is for me to get into shuppies recently (though to be honest, the main bother for me is setting up a useful environment for using my PC to play games). I'm sorry. I really want it to do well. And I'd retweet if I had any idea what the purpose of Twitter was, and/or actual followers. :3

It's okay, the demo was shit anyway and I got enough feedback to realize what was shit ^_^ Working on second demo now with improved everything. Hopefully won't take toooo long~

Twitter is p.good for networking with other gamedevs, meeting artists and other people with talents, keeping up with fan artists, and generally getting your creations out there. Otherwise it's shit.

Oh yeah it's also good for porn.

I'm already shilling rolling gunner
but maybe when a game gets 120 followers on twitter despite 5+ years of effort, tons of public demos and even being in famitsu maybe it's time to realize how dead the whole genre is

I have...188 right now. I'd probably have more if I had time to do #Screenshotsaturday and #indiedevhour every week (I usually get like 3-4 new followers on average whenever I participate), but I only have the dev time to churn out that much appreciable shit on a weekly basis during winter break.

Anyway link me the rollingunner peeps and I'll follow em! I'm interested in the game, just haven't had time to play any of the new stg I've had my eye on due to life + gamedev + other passions lately.

[M.Knight]

I agree that drumming up interest in new non-arcade/non-PCB games isn't always easy, mostly because even old shmups still have lots of depth and keeping up with all the new indie/doujin releases and filtering the terrible ones before investing time on one of them is a hassle. I also won't really blame the people who never check the dev section to see the newest projects because I myself never check the hardware section for example because it is not my speciality and I can see non-devs doing the same for the dev section.

That's why it is important to try to talk about the games you want others to try, provide scoring strategies and info if you have any, and focus on the positive aspects of trying to get people into the game because you think it's good rather than lamenting the fact that some other people don't want to give it the time of day just because it does not come in a stock cardboard box with a specific logo on it and it's not on their falty PCBs with leaky batteries, no practice mode and hardware sprite limits that make you killed by invisible bullets. The Cambria Sword thread for example managed to attract a few people who tried the game out. Some liked it, some others didn't, but the game was not ignored and there is some discussion about it, so that's cool. This is the kind of things we should see more often I suppose. It's not always going to work but it's still worth trying. I made a Westgunne thread with similar intentions and I know it appeared on some people's radar thanks to it so I contributed a bit.

I don't know how it is for other genres in the indie dev world, but the difference bewteen online promotion and actual physical, real-life events where people can test your game and talk to you is rather big from my (admittedly limited) experience. The most valuable and content-rich feedback I've gotten for my own game was during a meetup with shmup players for example. And there are conventions and events where I tried games I wouldn't have really cared about otherwise. While you ain't gonna break the bank making shmups anymore, the genre must surely have some followers who are curious to try out new games, but they may not be the most vocal people. Or maybe they are not even here, in this forum?

Speaking of the forum (and this thread's actual topic lol), to me it's a place where people have interesting taste in video games and go beyond the surface when discussing games. Plus, they don't just stick to the new boring samey AAA releases but play very varied games so the discussion is often more interesting than in a forum for the mainstream video game players.

As an aside, is #screenshotSaturday that useful ? I never participate in it because it fucking bothers me to have to wait until saturday before posting something when I have something ready right now and don't want to be posting stuff that's a week-old when good progress has been made in the meanwhile, but oh well, maybe that could come in handy. Does #indiedevhour have the same asinine constraints?

[Bananamatic]

That's why it is important to try to talk about the games you want others to try, provide scoring strategies and info if you have any, and focus on the positive aspects of trying to get people into the game because you think it's good rather than lamenting the fact that some other people don't want to give it the time of day just because it does not come in a stock cardboard box with a specific logo on it and it's not on their falty PCBs with leaky batteries, no practice mode and hardware sprite limits that make you killed by invisible bullets.

did that since late february, absolutely no one showed interest in playing it because the few people who still play doujin avoid horizontal shooters like the plague and no one is going to score a game with 0 players
in fact I found an exploit that allowed you to practice any stage you wanted in the demo because they didn't remove the rest of the game from it, didn't even get a single reply

[M.Knight]

Actually, I did try the demo and the exploit at the time, but wasn't excited enough by the game to talk about it on the forums.
Not that it is a bad game, it's just that it's not really the type of game I could see myself looking forward to. I liked the multidirectionnal option shot mechanic and how it gives the game a good reason to be 16:9 with enemies coming from all directions but the general feel of the game's patterns is rather CAVE-ish and while I liked what I played of Battle Traverse, I haven't enjoyed the CAVE horis themselves that much. On the other hand, I guess it's a good match for those who actually liked them.

Anyway, all that to say that even though nobody may immediatly answer, there are still chances that somebody will try the game based on your posts, without necessarily telling you he did. This is not a failure-free solution and sometimes, yes, games with great potential get ignored, but what else can you do?

[Shelcoof]

Probably the best community on the web. I learned soo much because of the members here.
Unlike other communities on the web... a lot of the members here are pretty respectable and nice.

I always feel welcomed here. Never ever felt I might get flamed if I posted something stupid. And if did the community would probably joke about it.

My taste in games have been heavily influenced by members here as well.

With people now moving on to social media and discord for conversations. I love how shmups is still going strong.

[Stevens]

I like to think of this place as the Library of Congress for Shumps/Retro games.

The depth of knowledge here is unrivaled -

Running an obscure console through a 30 year old T.V. and want the best picture? Hardware's got you covered.

Looking for manly shit to play to break the cycle of AAA bullshit? Got an amazing thread over in off topic.

Hard as fuck part in a shooter (ANY shooter) raping you to no end? We can help with that.

This place is far greater than the sum of its parts. And to top it all off there are some interesting cats here - that's what keeps me coming back.

[Squire Grooktook]

I can't speak for every dev in the world, but if you really want to help them out Bannana (and you don't want to donate or RT a few twitter posts or whatever) you might try

*gasp* directly encouraging them.

It might seem small but I cannot tell you how happy and uplifted it makes me feel whenever someone says "this looks really fun!" or "the heroine is cute!" or "the music is great! 90's as fuck!". Much like playing a shmup, dev'ing is a solitary experience that relies almost entirely on personal determination and satisfaction, often for a reward that is intangible at best. So whenever someone shows that what I've made might resonate with them in one way or another, it certainly adds to the energy I use to keep pushing myself forward. It reminds me that perhaps I might succeed in sharing something within my heart with someone else in the world.

I dunno for sure, but I wouldn't be surprised if Japanese devs are the same. Just seeing an english speaker comment on their work would likely make them excited that their niche game has been noticed by western players (it certainly makes me excited whenever a jp shmup player follows me or likes one of my dev posts).

I assure you, a kind word here and there or a shared link is more helpful to the genre in this way than all your forum "reeeee"-ing combined. Although, I must admit, there's a part of me that quietly wonders if your forum discontent is connected to a personal burnout with the genre rather than a true concern for it.

As an aside, is #screenshotSaturday that useful ?

Yeah, it's pretty huge. I once posted my title screen without it and got 10 likes.

Later, I posted it again for #screenshotSaturday and got 70 likes/retweets and like 10-20 followers.

Usually it's not that dramatic, but in general I get several new followers every time I use it. I'd say it's worth it.

[M.Knight]

I agree, direct feedback and support is never a bad thing. Plus, given your experience and scores, you could potentially provide some in-depth analysis, though I guess there's the language barrier issue with JP devs.

Usually it's not that dramatic, but in general I get several new followers every time I use it. I'd say it's worth it.

Got it! Oh damn, next one's tommorow lol. Gotta prepare something.

[Square_Air]

I came here initially out of a desire to learn more about shmups after being dissatisfied with Super R-Type, and what was meant to just be a quick learning experience quickly expanded into a passion for the genre. I just wanted to understand shmups from a critical perspective at first, but I soon realized that the best way to learn about shmups was to play them with a certain level of proficiency. I don't really have anything against people being here for collecting and hardware stuff, but to me the core of this forum will always be skilled play.

The High Score Board Index is probably the main reason why I'm here. Everyone here could die overnight and I would still post scores/clears here for years to come. Being able to also share information/opinions and possibly converse with others keeps things interesting. The Strategy board is also good collection of information dumps & discussion with some of the STs being immaculately crafted. The STG Hall Of Records and the Highest Scoring Replays Available threads are top notch, and the people that have put work into creating/maintaining these topics have my respect. Despite some bizzare placements in the former and having some disagreements with the latter, I thoroughly enjoy reading The Japanese STG Difficulty Wiki translation and Perikles' Classic Arcade Shooter Difficulty Ranking thread. STGT was really fun to participate in, and the yearly Top 25 is an interesting barometer of what the community currently thinks is quality (and those individual lists may even be better).

Shmups Chat and Off Topic are mixed bags of goodies & garbage, but still fun to browse through. I don't visit Development very often, but there's some neat stuff going on in there as well. I think this board is small but fine as it is. Nothing has changed at all since I joined, so I don't even remotely relate to the people screaming about the forum going to shit. While the community here is definitely not perfect, I think it's pretty good overall and have enjoyed talking amongst (most of) the other members here.

[Bananamatic]

Although, I must admit, there's a part of me that quietly wonders if your forum discontent is connected to a personal burnout with the genre rather than a true concern for it.

the only thing i'm burned out on is pretending how everything is cool and active and arcades are going to come back when it's actually dead as fuck

and you don't want to donate or RT a few twitter posts or whatever

nuked twitter because it's a waste of time
it's just 50 or so hardcore dick riders who have a severely distorted view of how good you actually are liking everything you post about a game because no one plays the damn games so the bar for being "good" is super low
except no one really cares about the game
same on shmupg, except replace dick riding with gaymers vs bananafaggot and waiting until one beats the other so you can post "X btfo" with a crying wojak getting dabbed on
sure, it's funny but at the end of the day no one cares about the games, it's just e-celeb worship on a smaller scale because those games are "impossibly hard" when it's really just no one being mentally ill enough to play a single dead game for that long

I agree, direct feedback and support is never a bad thing. Plus, given your experience and scores, you could potentially provide some in-depth analysis, though I guess there's the language barrier issue with JP devs.

the players on their team are good enough and there is no real issue with the game design (unlike every late cave game)
posted a ton of in depth analysis in the secret superplayer discord and no one seemed to care so I don't expect anyone to care here either

[Blinge]

sure, it's funny but at the end of the day no one cares about the games, it's just e-celeb worship on a smaller scale because those games are "impossibly hard" when it's really just no one being mentally ill enough to play a single dead game for that long

[qmish]

posted a ton of in depth analysis in the secret superplayer discord and no one seemed to care so I don't expect anyone to care here either

Do you repost here?

I say not only due to "private discord", but cause discord is horrible for putting such data overall regarding if it's secret or all-welcomed; because it's a damn chat so all you say just goes buried... discord didn't even have a search for a long time, so.. most people on discord never bother to read messages before "current moment". And if channel is closed everything is lost (with skype you could have your own copy of chat eh). That's why forum's strategy dubforum with topics for each game or thing is much more accessible and staying afloat, in comparison - though I don't see much activity there for latest year yeah, but as format for information it's definitely less horrible than those chat-based places or imageboards

[Squire Grooktook]

Although, I must admit, there's a part of me that quietly wonders if your forum discontent is connected to a personal burnout with the genre rather than a true concern for it.

the only thing i'm burned out on is pretending how everything is cool and active and arcades are going to come back when it's actually dead as fuck

Honestly? Doesn't sound like it to me.

Whether developing or playing them, shmups are a solitary experience. It's not like fighting games where if you don't have anyone to play against, you literally cannot play them. You could take your favorite STG to a desert island and it'd be more or less the same experience. With that in mind, I don't see a lack of discussion as that big a deal.

You spend a lot of time spreading doom and gloom around here these days, and I can't help but think you might just have misdirected the source of your discontent. Maybe you're the one who's feeling empty with the genre lately?

-

Anyway, for my part, shmups are dead, but I don't see it as a problem. As I said, it's a solitary genre anyway. And there will always be new games popping up here and there because there will always be crazy bastards like me willing to sit in a basement and develop them on weekends.

Not worth getting depressed about.

[qmish]

I literally play vs CPU like I always was since childhood

Of course I m casual though

(This comment about fighting games)

[MintyTheCat]

Although, I must admit, there's a part of me that quietly wonders if your forum discontent is connected to a personal burnout with the genre rather than a true concern for it.

the only thing i'm burned out on is pretending how everything is cool and active and arcades are going to come back when it's actually dead as fuck

Honestly? Doesn't sound like it to me.

You spend a lot of time spreading doom and gloom around here these days, and I can't help but think you might just have misdirected the source of your discontent. Maybe you're the one who's feeling empty with the genre lately?

Not worth getting depressed about.

I agree: it's very, very easy to spread doom and gloom, paint in black, write songs about how shit everything is. There are people on here who seem to regard themselves as being absolute authorities and who only criticse and never support or do anything. You guys are 'ten a penny' and to my mind you are lacking somewhere. It may be that you are in your 30s or 40s and still live with your parents, it may be that you're crap with women/guys - it doesn't matter. What does matter is that people support, work on things and develop a more healthy perspective, but I dare say that it's just far too easy to wade in the trash, get depressed and angry whilst the rest of us just get on with it. Have a balanced gaming lifestlye; get out, meet people instead of bitching all day long about how crap everything is - you'll be fuller, more content and not so negative as a result.

[null1024]

This place has been a great way to talk about older and/or not as popular games for me.
it's also the only traditional phpbb-style board I go to and actually post on anymore
kinda helps that the rules and attitude here are pretty relaxed and people here are pretty chill

used to go to Development a bunch, but I'm lazy, too lazy to work on anything
haven't posted in Shmups Chat in forever, but it's not like I've totally stopped playing, I just haven't really had much to say since I'm not terribly good
I spent too much time here in Off Topic. 'S probably bad for me, but I love you lot.

never went in Hardware for anything AFAIK, and I've never had any reason to go to Reviews
I've popped into Strategy, but I don't know jack enough to actually post.

[Necronopticous]

I don't play shooting games much anymore, but I still have a strong connection to & passion for the underlying tenets that the genre was built upon. The community here represents a fairly small and unique demographic in the larger sea of game enthusiasts that I tend to find a lot of commonality with. It's the best (only?) place I know of to talk about games in a way that makes sense to me.

Political divisiveness sure has thrown a wrench into the works, though.

[Ruldra]

I came across this forum when I saw a video of Triple Lei beating DOJ and posted a link to a thread here. At first I thought it was a nice place with lots of interesting gaming discussions, until I saw there was a subforum dedicated to hi-scores. I had to join and compete too.

What happened next changed my life as a gamer. The whole 1cc mentality made me change how I play and made me realize arcade games were actually beatable and not just unfair coin dumps. For the next several years I went on to play and beat dozens of not only shmups but arcade titles as well. Also made me go back and replay a lot of console games I only played casually before. These days I hardly play anymore due to real life stuff so I kind of disappeared from here, but I still keep tabs every once in a while.

The community here is the best one I've come across on the internet. I'm eternally grateful for everything I learned here and also happy to have contributed a little back. Hope this place stay strong for many years.

Love you guys!

[BIL]

You became one of our best contributors, too! That Ninja Gaiden 1CC report was one of my main inspirations for getting back into non-STG hardcore, and enjoying a lot of good stuff I'd drifted away from. Ta bud.

[KindGrind]

This forum is full of talented people in fields loosely related to gaming/collecting/politics/gardening. Feels like an old mistress to me: familiar, quite right. Never quite reached the toxicity of other places I hung out on, very civil people on here in general. All very positive.

Ruldra and BIL - in my quest to catch ´em all (collect the full NES library...[done!] but also play most semi-competently [not done... lifetime of butthurtedness sitting on the shelves), I came across many videos of you guys.... Your skill/muscle memory humbles me.

[BIL]

Thanks bud! In the words of one of my oldschool shumps farm heroes Rob, competence is what I aim for. Even in console gaming (aka EZ STREET ) it tends to produce some entertaining results and discussions.

[moh]

I come here because it's all I know.