Your first shooter?

[Krooze L-Roy]

My first was either Space Invaders or Masters of the Universe for Intellivision (man, writing this makes me sound old). MOTU isn't a pure shooter, but as a kid I couldn't play well enough to get to the on-foot sections, so for me it was.

It took a long time for the genre to really get it's hooks in me though. My parents weren't very liberal with doling out the quarters, so, save for Galaga, playing shmups in the arcade was a fools bet. And, for whatever reason, console shmups were mostly relegated to "rental" status.

[X36]

Gina on NES

[TWITCHDOCTOR]

Wow...this question really takes me WAY back!

It was back in the early 80's, and there was Asteriods,Defender,Missile Command.
Centipede was great as well, but my preference was always either Defender or Vanguard.
Star Castle was always cool as well, but rare to find in the arcade.

Now...lets not forget Phoenix and GORF!!! (Gorf featured a "flight-stick" style controller)
These were the "shooties" that captivated my video gaming adolescent years.

How have they evolved?
I pretty much feel that games like Phoenix evolved into stuff like the Star Soldier series, as well as 1943. Then "bullet hell" verticals. DoDonPachi, Gigawing,etc,etc.

While, Defender/Vanguard evolved into the likes of ThunderForce III and R-Type/Pulstar.

Bottom line early 80's style? I'd have to say that I pretty much inserted more quarters into Defender.
While Phoenix was my vert of choice.

Home versions from Atari VCS/2600? All of the above ports of course!

First 8 bit? Gradius and LifeForce. Soon to be followed by ThunderForce II Genesis, and Forgotten Worlds. Which both were launch titles for the Genesis in 1989.
The rest is history my friends!!!

Tempest was/is cool as anything, although I was a little bit of a "late bloomer" on this one.

I do have to include the Mattel Electronics "BattleStar Galactica" LED red blips handheld!!!
Also the tabletop Galaxy Force? Is that correct? It was a silver and black base, and kinda played like Phoenix.

There you have it...the evolution of "Shmupadge" from a true Shmup-o!!!
Yep, I invented the term "Shmup-o" as well.
Its ok...you can use it too, as I don't have a patent on it yet...

[brianon]

We'll it was mid to late 80's at a seaside arcade in Wexford (Ireland). Probably space invaders or asteroids but of the 18 summers I spent there I put most of my parents hard earned cash into Twin Cobra.

[Furry Fox Jet Pilot]

If I remember correctly, my first shooter was either playing Galaga through a floppy disk on my dad's old Windows 95 or 98 computer, or Raiden II/DX on one of the various arcade cabs that could be found virtually everywhere in Los Angeles during the 90s. And I mean everywhere. Supermarkets, little video rental stores, laundromats, pizza places, Mexican food places, Chinese food places, and my biggest memory: the arcade inside the now defunct Robinsons-May shopping mall/department store that is soon to be demolished. Although I was a very young kid who could barely read at the time, I clearly remember the abundance of Raiden II/DX cabs everywhere. I couldn't read the title of the game, but I clearly remember the bright purple glow of the toothpaste laser, the fighter jet's vertical takeoff sequence, those giant tanks in the attract mode, and all of those colorful power up cubes and bomb icons. The nostalgic memories almost overwhelm me

[TransatlanticFoe]

1942 or Star Force in the arcades.

Oldies FTW!

[Nwodatek]

Touhou.

I first played a shmup on 2012 I think, it was MoF, but I credit fed thru it and never touched any other shmup again. It wasn't until this year, exactly in April, when I was looking for some challenging games that I remembered about Touhou, so I went and got myself the last one (DDC - my first clear BTW) and gave it another try... And I loved it this time. So yeah, I really new to the genre .

[Blinge]

I had Afterburner on the Sega Master System as a kid if that counts, I remember a friend left a load of carts at my house once which included Fantasy Zone so that was probably my first shooter. There was also a sci-fi themed hori, on the moon and mars or something, i seem to remember it being quite fast paced but no idea of the name.

Tried out Raptor: Call of the Shadows on a shareware disc at some point in my youth also, only found out what that was recently.

Shmup rebirth came at the end of 2012 when I saw Deathsmiles in a London arcade and thought it looked cool but didn't try it ( ). Came back a month later and put a coin into Progear thinking it was the same game, haha. Got me hooked, though.

[BIL]

There was also a sci-fi themed hori, on the moon and mars or something, i seem to remember it being quite fast paced but no idea of the name.

Sounds a bit like Sagaia, as Darius II was known on the Master System in Europe and South America.

[Blinge]

ahh that's not it, unfortunately.

[FerociousSwan]

R-Type or SlapFight on the ZX Spectrum, unsure which was first ...

Could also have been Chronos!

[ACSeraph]

Sounds a bit like Sagaia, as Darius II was known on the Master System in Europe and South America.

That's actually the first time I've watched any footage of SMS Sagaia. It's a lot more similar to the original arcade game than I expected. Whats the deal with SMS Darius II though, did it ever get a Japanese release? Was it developed by Taito or reprogrammed by a western developer? How similar is it to the MD version?

[BIL]

Apparently Natsume handled it. Interesting if true, I've never seen games of theirs from back then on non-Nintendo systems. I don't think it was released in Japan, like the SMS versions of a few other prominent native titles (Rastan, Ninja Gaiden, the original Aleste/Power Strike sequel). Annoying, that - it's hard enough finding great Mark III games as it is.

[mamboFoxtrot]

I played a lot of Asteroids via Web-based clones back in elementary school (and sometimes while actually at school -- we have high educational standards here), but Super R-Type was my first traditional STG. As a kid, I was really fascinated by the cool ships and enemies, and I loved the charge beam, but having to start the whole stage over again due to one lousy hit was more than I could bear. Hell, I can't even put up with that shit nowadays!

In middle school a friend of mine had G-Darius and we played some of that, though I think it might have been just off a demo disc. I don't remember anything beyond the first stage!

After that I didn't play any other STGs until the Wii port of Castle of Shikigami III. However, getting Akai Katana last year is what really got me into the genre, so I'm technically something of a newcomer.

[TransatlanticFoe]

There was also a sci-fi themed hori, on the moon and mars or something, i seem to remember it being quite fast paced but no idea of the name.

There aren't many horis on the SMS so if it's not Sagaia, then it's probably Transbot - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pq0x_e9LKeY

[Blinge]

Transbot! It could very well be.. I want to say it looks familiar but it seems my memory of the game has nearly gone completely.

(also fuck yeah ATDI)

[1983parrothead]

Perhaps this was my first. I remember my sister buying this at a pawn shop. However, this was technically my first video game for the Atari 2600, but I couldn't play it, because the console was broken. (Is that Beavis saying 'yeah' at the end?)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvG5yPub_Vc

[SparroHawc]

i think the first real shooter i really got into would have been river raid for my atari 400/800/800xl..

A kindred spirit!

If you count gallery shooters though, at the same time there was Carnival and Demon Attack. I didn't play Space Invaders until later, and it felt painfully slow and dull in comparison. River Raid was definitely better than all those though.

[Strikers1945guy]

First arcade shooter I can remember I really loved and stuck with was Strikers 1945, the original first one in the series. The cab was all beat up at my local arcade but I loved it, was so much fun collecting my spare quarters and saving them for the weekend.

Probably my all time favourite shmup. I still consider Strikers 1945 II to technically be the best in the series but the original will always be my favourite.

[Milspex]

"1943" and "Commando on" C64 and later on Amiga

"Break Thru" in the arcades.