Hello I would like to Introduce myself

[Oldskool]

Hello everyone!

First off I am so extremely excited and happy to see that there is a Shmup forum! How did this escape me?

I just wanted to introduce myself. I am Oldskool, I am 44, Live in Las Vegas, and I am addicted to shmups.

I am on various forums around the net but mainly frequent Digital Press and Sega-16 (but haven't been much lately). I have been a shooter fan since the 80's. I was born in 77' and started to really get into video games by 81, maybe 82. The first shmups I recall playing were Asteroids, Defender, Galaga, Galaxian, and Missile Command of course because back in those days they were mandatory. Can't forget Centipede. In fact now that I think about it I suppose just about every arcade game back then other than Pacman was a shmup?

Once the NES came out I really started to gain some experience playing Gradius, Alpha Mission, Life Force, etc. Then Genesis came out and I was hooked on Truxton (drools), Thunder Force II, III, IV, M.U.S.H.A, etc. The Genesis/Mega Drive is by far my favourite console of all time and the selection of Shmups are quite amazing for it!

Some areas that I'd like to explore are the Euro shmups and Amiga shmups. If anyone can recommend me some please let me know. I have noticed that the Euro shmups have a certain flair to them that makes them just.. different.

I currently do not own many physical games but I do have some STV carts and a few NES carts remaining. My physical collection is quite lacking these days (Thanks Steam, XBL, PSN, EA, ETC ETC)

I could go on and on.. and I am sure that none of this is new to you all either. I'm almost certain that my story is many of yours.

Lately my "console" of choice is Steam. In my opinion it is the best platform by far at the moment for Shmup fans. I have hundreds of games and several dozen Shmups.. if anyone would like to remote play let me know (Kind of need someone to test it with) --- I drool excessively over the Steam Deck. I will own. Yes.

My current go to Shmup is Beat Hazard!

Pew Pew!

Oldskool

[drauch]

Hey dood, welcome to the forum. Most shmuppers don't journey to this netherworld of off topic. Lucky for you, there's a self-introduction thread in the Shmups sub-forum at the top.

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=3568

[Herr Schatten]

Some areas that I'd like to explore are the Euro shmups and Amiga shmups. If anyone can recommend me some please let me know. I have noticed that the Euro shmups have a certain flair to them that makes them just.. different.

Welcome aboard! You won't find a lot of talk about Euro, or specifically Amiga, shmups around here, because, frankly, most of them are not very good. That's mostly because a lot of them were made by demo scene coders whose chief interest was showcasing their skills and who knew nothing about game design or at least showed little interest in it.

However, there are a few noteworthy exceptions from the rule. Some teams obviously studied the products of their more professional Japanese peers closely and managed to create games of their own that are very much worth your while.

Apidya is quite possibly the cream of the crop and would stand among the 16-bit classics if it had ever seen a Mega Drive or SNES port. Uridium 2 is very unique and pretty much unlike anything else. A true masterpiece. Z-Out isn't very original, but a competent R-Type clone. If you're in the mood for some vertical action, Battle Squadron delivers and is especially fun in 2P mode. It also sports a killer soundtrack. Just avoid the inferior Mega Drive port.

That's about it. You can safely skip the rest without missing out on anything essential.

[Oldskool]

I don't know if it is the euro style music or the fat sprites and in many cases unusual choice in colors but I can somewhat agree with you on this. Is Iridium on the GameBoy Advance? I do recall playing that possibly years ago and thought it was quite good. I will check out your recommendations. And excuse me if I posted in the wrong spot on the forum. If moderator would like to move this it doesn't matter much to me.

Some areas that I'd like to explore are the Euro shmups and Amiga shmups. If anyone can recommend me some please let me know. I have noticed that the Euro shmups have a certain flair to them that makes them just.. different.

Welcome aboard! You won't find a lot of talk about Euro, or specifically Amiga, shmups around here, because, frankly, most of them are not very good. That's mostly because a lot of them were made by demo scene coders whose chief interest was showcasing their skills and who knew nothing about game design or at least showed little interest in it.

However, there are a few noteworthy exceptions from the rule. Some teams obviously studied the products of their more professional Japanese peers closely and managed to create games of their own that are very much worth your while.

Apidya is quite possibly the cream of the crop and would stand among the 16-bit classics if it had ever seen a Mega Drive or SNES port. Uridium 2 is very unique and pretty much unlike anything else. A true masterpiece. Z-Out isn't very original, but a competent R-Type clone. If you're in the mood for some vertical action, Battle Squadron delivers and is especially fun in 2P mode. It also sports a killer soundtrack. Just avoid the inferior Mega Drive port.

That's about it. You can safely skip the rest without missing out on anything essential.

[Oldskool]

Thank you for the link. I will copy and paste my original post into that thread. Thanks!

Hey dood, welcome to the forum. Most shmuppers don't journey to this netherworld of off topic. Lucky for you, there's a self-introduction thread in the Shmups sub-forum at the top.

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=3568

[Herr Schatten]

Is Iridium on the GameBoy Advance?

If you mean Iridion 3D by Shin'en, then yes, that's on GBA, but it's really more of a rail shooter than a traditional shmup. It's sequel Iridion II (also on GBA), however, passes as one. It's more or less a traditional vertical scroller, albeit presented with an unusual shifted perspective. If you enjoy this, Nanostray on Nintendo DS from the same developer is more of the same, while its sequel Nanostray 2 (also on NDS) is even more traditional in that it does away with that perspective gimmick and goes for regular vertically and horizontally scrolling stages.

If your question regards my recommendation of Uridium 2, then no, that's on Amiga, as are all the other ones in my previous post.