Your favorite STG from the 80s

[nesrulz]

Currently - Galaga, (Midway set 1 with fast shoot hack) + cheat Autofire. Pure enjoyment.

[d0s]

Horizontal (early): Cosmic Avenger
Horizontal (late): R-Type
Vertical (early): Star Force
Vertical (late): Hishouzame or Kyukyoku Tiger
Fixed: Galaga '88
Whatever genre of STG this is: Kiki Kaikai

[Mero]

Errr... dunno, probably Exed Exes.

[mice]

Gun.Smoke

[Pedro Lambrini]

For me, there are a lot Fixed shooters that I love. Too many to list and have any real meaning!

As for scrolling shmups, Xevious. No doubt about it. That game is just a Zen experience for me.

[Shepardus]

Gun.Smoke

^This

I do have a soft spot for Gradius III as well.

[Jeneki]

Salamander.

[BIL]

Gun.Smoke is one of my all-time desert island picks. Scoring is busted, but the technical excellence required to best its merciless killing road is immortal - as is its murderous aggression. An exemplar of the genre's elemental kill or be killed purity.

This is the theme song of Grey Zako, to the lamentation of many a scrub who lacked technique and subsequently felt the awful pain & crimson rain. If you're regularly meeting such a fate, give my lil' ol' ST a look pardner.

[copy-paster]

Gradius II: Gofer no Yabou.

[mice]

Gun.Smoke is one of my all-time desert island picks. Scoring is busted, but the technical excellence required to best its merciless killing road is immortal - as is its murderous aggression. An exemplar of the genre's elemental kill or be killed purity.

This is the theme song of Grey Zako, to the lamentation of many a scrub who lacked technique and subsequently felt the awful pain & crimson rain. If you're regularly meeting such a fate, give my lil' ol' ST a look pardner.

You just made my day with that strategy page. Thank you!

[BIL]

My pleasure.

[OmegaFlareX]

Whatever genre of STG this is: Kiki Kaikai

That's a vert run-n-gun. Same as Commando/Ikari/OutZone. They are shooting games, persay, but I don't consider them shmups.

It's hard to choose just one, I like a bunch of them. I guess something from Toaplan, KT or Tatsujin maybe.

e: I really like Nichibutsu's Armed Formation for some reason.

[Metalsludge]

Have always had a thing for R-Type 2. Tough but mostly fair play, and a graphics style I found enticing.

[ReSe2k]

The first shmup i think of from the 80s is R-Type. It's also one, if not the best of that decade imo.

[wasilewski]

Good topic and a hard one to answer for sure.

Maybe R-Type or Sky Adventure.

[Square_Air]

For me it will probably always be Robotron: 2084 (Marathon Settings and Vid Kidz Extreme mainly, I don't enjoy Tournament settings as much as the runs are a bit too RNG dependent for me). There are few games period that really excite me the same way Robotron does. The fantastic enemy design and the viciously expedient pace are what truly make it still stand out 35 years later, but i'm also very partial to the audio/visual extravaganza of the whole ordeal, the split second chaining, and the general design of the waves (brain waves, tank waves, horde waves). I even love the somewhat cruel RNG system that forces you to react and question things like "will this tank shoot in my direction, or will it try to bank a shot off the wall at me?" or "to what degree will this enforcer shot curve?".

Unfortunately, Robotron:2084 has the distinction of being not only a multi-directional shooter, but an ancient one at that (1982). Both things don't exactly bode too well for it on a board that mainly focuses on modern/vertical scrolling shooters, and to a lesser degree classic/horizontal scrolling shooters. Fortunately, Robotron gets by on its good reputation around here, even from the people who don't consider it to be within their more rigid definition of "STG".

Whatever genre of STG this is: Kiki Kaikai

It's a multi-directional push-scrolling shooter, or some variation of that name, and a really fun one at that. While Kiki Kaikai: Nazo No Kuro Manto (Pocky and Rocky) gets all the acclaim, the original is still a nice game. Apparently the scoring is kind of broken and we figure it has something to do with some infinite milking strategy on the final stage, but i've yet to figure out exactly how that would work consistently.

[nesrulz]

And, Darius II (dual/triple screen) (Japan).

WARNING! A HUGE BATTLESHIP IS APPROACHING FAST.

Best boss announcement ever.

Great shmup. Great gameplay.

[dan76]

UN Squadron. First ever 1cc I got in an arcade. Drew a crowd, felt pretty good. I still like it.
Maybe 1942 is a close second.

[gray117]

r-type ... alien meets star wars meets last star fighter... just everything awesome...

Although admittedly at the time I was too young to know exactly what alien was, and I wouldn't swear it wasn't 1990 (just around the megadrive launch?) that I actually knew what r-type was and played the arcade as well as master system ... never really wondered but suppose it was a little too old to see a megadrive version (?) shame...

[LordHypnos]

While I haven't played too many 80s shooters, I have to say that I've been really impressed by R-Type. Juno First also stands out as particularly fun, and of course Galaga, though Gaplus might actually be a bit cooler.

[cain]

Would be different today, but in the actual 80s my favorite shmup was.. Silkworm.

[Stevens]

Juno First is a lot of fun. Good to see back round these parts Hyp'.

[Xyga]

I don't remember which ones I liked or not back in the 80's, don't think I played many and probably only casually just like any little kid with pocket money in the arcades or pubs that would let us in.
Really vague memories of Terra Cresta, R-Type and Saint Dragon, also certainly some Toaplan but I can't remember which one(s)
Didn't like the few computer ones but on the console side I remember playing some Atari stuff, and Life Force on the NES.
Only started playing moar space pew pew when I got a MD and TFIII but it was the 90's already.

Now which one I like the most today? I think it's a tie between Truxton and Image Fight.

Omega Fighter is damn nice too.

[LordHypnos]

^Omega Fighter is surprisingly fun. Hard to say exactly why. Great music, too. For some reason I thought that was early 90s.

Juno First is a lot of fun. Good to see back round these parts Hyp'.

Thanks! We'll see if it sticks this year

[maximo310]

Assault ( even though it can be argued its a more multi-directional game)

[nesrulz]

Scramble (Arcade).

Juno First (Arcade). Really great game! It's never too late for new ones. I've never heard of this game before.

Beamrider from Atari 2600, anyone?

btw, my favorite from A2600 = River Raid and Laser Gates.

[5pectre]

vert: Galaga
hori: Gradius

close contenders:
vert: 1943kai
hori: R-type

[chum]

my top 10
Gun.smoke
Gemini Wing
Night Striker
Hishouzame
Commando
Ordyne
Omega Fighter
Undeadline
Kyukyoku Tiger
Same! Same! Same!

newer shmups are much better though.