Your first shooter?

[stuminator]

Galaga.

[nosorrow]

I borrowed Gun.Smoke (NES) from a schoolmate in the Fall of 1988. I was initially put off and preferred the other game he lent me (T&C Surf Designs!!!), but common sense prevailed and in a short few days I was only playing Gun.Smoke and loving it (and still do to this day). I also remember renting Life Force and 1943 (also NES) in the Winter/Spring of 1989. I didn't care much for Life Force (it was okay, mind you), but I remember enjoying 1943. These games are all part of my collection now - yes, even T&C.

[Lord Satori]

Mine was Tyrian. Though I didn't play the full version until it was made available for free (my dad was a nub and didn't know the difference between shareware and full version. he'd always go, "its free")

After that I played a little bit of obscure indie type western shmups for awhile. I didn't discover Danmaku shmups until I found the first version of XOP some time when I was ten or eleven. Though I didn't find out about the actual genre until much later.

[LordHypnos]

When I was very little, I had two classic 80s arcade game compilations for GBA. Atari, and Namco. They included a few super old-school shooters including Tempest, Galaga, Galaxian, and probably a few others. Stylistically, I thought tempest was really cool, but the one that really entertained me was, of course, Galaga. I also played Galaga on arcade machines a few times when I was younger because the Ms. Pacman / Galaga combo machine is probably the single most common arcade machine ever. I guess that was my first shooter.

Later on, I remember playing Giga Wing 2 with my brother on the Dreamcast. I really don't think we got it, and the fact that I haven't seen it since suggests that it was either a rental, or my bro returned it. This is unfortunate, because the (english language version of) the game goes for a pretty high price these days.

The shooter that ultimately drew me into shmups, though, was fairly recent, and it was Sturmwind on Dreamcast. I stopped playing video games for a long time, but getting back into Dreamcast stuff, Sturmwind was the first shooter to interest me enough to buy it. Almost never play it, anymore, now.

[coffeyrt]

Mine would have been 1943 on NES and arcade at the local pizza places. Then gunsmoke on NES and Super R-Type on SNES. Just getting back into it now with Ikaruga (on Gamecube) and Strikers 1945 II (on PS1). Both of which kick my ass but are fun.

[President_Obama]

Xevious, but Slap Fight was the first one I took seriously.

[soprano1]

Does the shooting level in Super Mario Land for GB count?

[Lord Satori]

lol, I doubt it.

[mehguy]

I actually don't know, I've played shmups for as long as i can remember but never really looked into them until now.

[soprano1]

lol, I doubt it.

Heh, then i guess Dodonpachi.

[President_Obama]

I forgot about Tiger Heli.

[sojtrash]

I think Space Invaders? Might've been Galaga. :\

well, whatever shooter they had at chucky cheese in the 90's

[amdiggywhut]

I know I owned Gradius III for SNES way back when. There was a Pizza Hut near my house that somehow had Shienryu, which was my favorite. I also remember playing Aero Fighters in the arcade pretty often.

[Squire Grooktook]

Really hard to say, since I've had my game collection for way longer than I can remember. It's probably either G-Darius, Einhander, or Guardian Legend. I remember my brother was playing those when I was like 5-7, so I probably played those when he did (possible I played GL sooner though, since Nes games were the first games I was allowed to play, and that was part of the collection from the beginning). The first shmup I actually bought was a pre-owned version of Super R-Type, followed shortly after by Gradius III and than R-Type III.

[To Far Away Times]

My first shmup was Solar Striker on the Gameboy, then I boarded the Ikaruga hype train, then 10 years or so of no shmups, and finally Imperishable Night and Perfect Cherry Blossom were the games that got me playing shmups regularly.

[ACSeraph]

The very very first shooting "game" I ever played was the helicopter stage in Golgo 13 Top Secret Mission for NES. It was one of two games my father bought the day he bought our NES (the other being Donkey Kong/Donkey Kong Junior). I particularly loved the helicopter stages when I played it, so I guess I must have been wired for STGs from the very beginning. I still love that game, but the shooting stages are honestly pretty bad when viewed from my cynical adult eyes.

The first proper STG I played/owned was Captain Skyhawk, another game that was amazing at the time but less so now. As it turns out, Captain Skyhawk was also the very first video game I ever completed (at around 6 years old) though I'm fairly certain I used continues. The continues are limited though, so it was still a pretty big feat for a 6 year old. One of these days I want to get the proper 1cc, but my copy of it is in my attic back in the USA, and I'm not sure if the game was ever released here in Japan.

[Domino]

Super R-Type for SNES and Twin Cobra for Genesis at the same time. Can't remember which one was first.

[PedroMD]

Truxton on my Mega Drive when I was 6 or 7. I wouldn't really get into shmups until much, much later, but playing this and Contra: Hard Corps when I was a kid helped shape all of my tastes.

One decade and a half later, I'm still terrible at Truxton, though.

[Doctor Butler]

I had a pirate-cart from a seedy electronics store in Chinatown that had Gradius and Macross on it. Never cared for Macross, but Gradius...

Fucking Gradius, bro.

[Jonst]

My first proper taste of the genre was tiger heli.I loved it then and still love it today,it was the first pcb I bought when I got my supergun...the memories!...I'll have to work on a 1cc of it one of these days.

[Muchi Muchi Spork]

For arcade, Space Invaders but my best memories of that era were of Galaga, Gyruss, 1942, Omega Race and Tac/Scan.

[Jaimers]

TOUHOU

[SuperSoaker360]

Thunder Spirits for the SNES

First bullet-hell was Triggerheart Exelica

[pegboy]

The first ones I remember are Life Force and Magmax for the NES.

[Patashu]

Tyrian~

[Lord Satori]

TOUHOU

So you've never played or seen a single shmup before Touhou came out?

[Squire Grooktook]

My first bullet hell was Esp Ra.De in MAME. But Perfect Cherry Blossom was the first bullet hell I actually saw.

[Zapperkhan]

Sky Shark on NES. That Tim Follin soundtrack gives me a big nostalgia rush.

[Pteriforever]

I think it was Warblade.

[Captain]

Arrow flash.

:/

My second was X Dazedly ray.

It was only 3 years later that I got into the GOOD stuff.

(Arrow flash is decent tho. dat stage 2/4 music )