what was the golden era of shmupping?

AGC · Post by **AGC** » Sun Mar 26, 2006 2:23 pm

In terms of popularity the golden age for shmups was the '80s and early '90s. But with recent innovations in gameplay of modern shmups, games today are as interesting to play as they have ever been.

dmauro · Post by **dmauro** » Mon Mar 27, 2006 10:09 pm

Thunder Force wrote:Ironically enough, manic shmups have now become such a cult phenomenon, thanks in part to the global reach of the Internet, that they are attacting new fans.

I can attest to this. Noiz2sa on the PSP pretty much single-handedly got me interested in a genre that frankly, I had been bored with. I played plenty of Gradius and 1943 when I was a kid, but they never really grabbed me. Nullsleep got me to try out Noiz2sa, and when I took to that, he introduced me to Mushihimesama, which I quickly fell in love with. I still get pretty bored if I don't have at least a few dozen bullets headed directly at me, but these manic shooters have really pulled me into the genre and have me trying out some of the not-so-manic shmups as well.

kennyrh · Post by **kennyrh** » Tue Mar 28, 2006 8:16 pm

I just realised what a tough question this is because, like racing games and beat-em-ups, shmups have never really lost their popularity and - more significantly - they have continued to evolve and refine to the point where the hard core audience has never wavered and the new audience has plenty to keep them intrigued.

Golden Age, for me, would start around 1984 with Starforce then Gradius, R-Type etc right through to the Megadrive/SNES/PC Engine era of the early to mid 90s.

But if I had to pin it down to a couple of years that put shmups firmly on the radar for me, it would be the PC Engine years of the early 90s. Gunhed remains a fave of mine to this day. Sadly that great shmup-friendly console never reached the mass audience that it deserved but certainly lives long in MY memory.

I suppose that the mid-80s was the TRUE golden age for the simple reason that, when you walked into an arcade, every other machine was a shooter. . . . .

. . .glorious times when you consider that you've got to travel to London now to even find ONE !!!!