Internet Shmupping

[finisherr]

Sorry if this is a repeat post. But, are there services/software out there that allows folks to play shmups with other players online via mame or something similar? I know there is GGPO (I think that's what it's called) but I also think that is restricted to fighters. If so, do people actually use it? I'm interested.

[moccha]

MAMEHub does that. I wouldn't recommend it though, except both players have an exceptionally good internet connection - well, maybe it's just a bad program to begin with (I guess so). Once tried it to play Metal Slug, which isn't really enjoyable when you have a ping of 150ms.
Having a low lag netplay MAME would be awesome, but I don't think there's something like this

[Zaarock]

Supercade had similar netcode to GGPO and supported a bunch of shmups on capcom hardware. Worked very well for me with other european players. Servers have been taken down recently due to lack of funding though.

Looks like FightCade has support for a few more shmups than Supercade (DDP and ESP Ra.De. are listed among others). Haven't tried it yet but it's based on GGPO.

[Keade]

Supercade is based on nFBA, and afaik it is mostly a (very nice) frontend/GUI on top of it.
All you need if Supercade is down is download nFBA, it will work just the same
PS. I can't find any link for nFBA, 'though :/ The original website is dead, but I'm sure there are mirrors...

150ms ping will hardly give good results even with GGOP/Supercade, which are optimised on a per-driver basis, contrary to MAMEHub.

[MathU]

Really nice to know there are still other people interested in this sort of thing. No-continue clearing a shooter online with a pal is a ton of fun.

http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=37887

[hanasu]

As mentioned above there's a new program called Fightcade (http://www.fightcade.com) that is a Supercade/GGPO replacement and supports all of the Final Burn games. It also doesn't require you to open ports and allows you save replays. I beta tested it and help out with some of the other aspects of the project. Try it out and let me know how it works for you. Plenty of shmups on the game list.

[Captain]

Nemesis online is a prototype that is being (extremely slowly) worked on by the creator.
As the name suggests, it is a gradius/nemesis clone with online multiplayer and custom stages, which you download from the website. It also requires you to register, but there is no email confirmation (if the website shows in another language, click the flag).
It is somewhat buggy and there are limited enemies and bosses (still, alot of them are made), Tetran is also horribly bugged. The game has a ridiculous size for what it is, if you count all the stages.

However, some stages/bosses are extremely well done, some are just extremely hard, so I'd say it can be worth the effort. The multiplayer is also nice. While players do not really affect each other, you can steal their options if they die, you can see them with slight lag, and any damage done is shared (again, with slight lag). There is also a scrolling speed up/slow down function, meaning you can race ahead of other players and speedrun a stage, if you dare.

http://remakesonline.com/nemesis/

There used to be other online shmups, such as Valkyrie Sky, but right now, all that remains is Nemesis.
I've also heard about an eastern shmup/mmo hybrid, Mirror War, but good luck playing that with all the fuss they make about creating an account, as well as lag.