The very first shmup to set your heart on fire

TWITCHDOCTOR · Post by **TWITCHDOCTOR** » Thu Mar 10, 2005 6:33 am

Basically, it was Williams Defender in the early 80's...ThunderForce II and Gradius kept me going on throughout the years after that til this very day.

BrianC · Post by **BrianC** » Thu Mar 10, 2005 7:21 am

The games that got me in to shooters were Galaga and Galaga 3 (Gaplus). Home versions of Defender, Centipede, and Asteroids helped too.

Reiki · Post by **Reiki** » Thu Mar 10, 2005 8:14 am

Fantasy Zone (SMS), it is so full of love.

BUHA · Post by **BUHA** » Thu Mar 10, 2005 11:21 pm

I think Demon Attack for the 2600 was my first favorite shmup. It was followed closely by NES galaga.

Then I played a bunch of stupid games for awhile in my early teens.

Then my friend got Einhander and I was blown away by it. "It was like old games! But new!" Awesome bosses. I didn't even have a playstation, so whenever i went to his house I'd try to get him to play it but he always said it was too hard lol

I seriously had no idea that people still made those kinds of games.

Needless to say, I found out that they still do and now they're all I play (almost).

dave4shmups · Post by **dave4shmups** » Thu Mar 10, 2005 11:42 pm

Flying Shark. 'Nuff said.

SFKhoa · Post by **SFKhoa** » Fri Mar 11, 2005 1:10 am

Don't kill me....

Raiden Trad for the SNES ;x

tehkao · Post by **tehkao** » Fri Mar 11, 2005 1:37 am

Hey FRO,
Looks like we have the same great taste in shmups.

TF4 wasn't my "first love", but it probably represented the peak of my shmup enjoyment, I played that game nonstop for 2 months. I still worship TF4 like no other shmup before or since.

Like you I also gave up on shmups for a while until I discovered Layer Section/Rayforce. Then it became my next shmup obsession.

professor ganson · Post by **professor ganson** » Fri Mar 11, 2005 1:55 am

I played Defender when it came out in the arcades as a teen, and it blew my mind. I completely sucked at it, but that didn't matter one bit.

dboeren · Post by **dboeren** » Fri Mar 11, 2005 5:13 am

I tried Defender, but was hopeless at the arcade version with all those buttons. The Atari 2600 version was a lot easier with a full joystick instead of the thrust & reverse buttons.

I'm hoping later this fall to upgrade my Robotron cabinet to a Williams multi-game, which means it will also run Joust, Defender, Stargate, and some other lesser games. Then I'll get another change to learn to play Defender properly

cigsthecat · Post by **cigsthecat** » Fri Mar 11, 2005 5:24 am

Gunbird 2. First one I actually played was either Stargate or Spider Fighter on the 2600. Star Soldier a little later.

gigadrive32 · Post by **gigadrive32** » Fri Mar 11, 2005 11:48 am

FatalError · Post by **FatalError** » Fri Mar 11, 2005 12:15 pm

I'm gonna have to say Lifeforce on the NES. It was the first shooter that had me glued to the screen when I was a kid.

Stormwatch · Post by **Stormwatch** » Fri Mar 11, 2005 12:19 pm

tehkao wrote:

NOT. A. SHMUP.

Me, I used to play some shmups on the 2600, such as River Raid and Demon Attack... but the first shmup I truly appreciated was Vapor Trail for the Genesis. And a while later, Axelay was another favorite.

llaoyllakcuf · Post by **llaoyllakcuf** » Fri Mar 11, 2005 12:43 pm

Stormwatch wrote:NOT. A. SHMUP.

^perhaps he's referring to the thread title?

For my choice, it'd probably be Dimahoo/Great Mahou Daisakusen..
(at the time I had almost given up on gaming altogether)

1st real 'shmup' I played a lot of was ZANAC on NES

Morden · Post by **Morden** » Fri Mar 11, 2005 12:56 pm

It would have to be Vastar. It's so old, and yet it wasn't like most of the games from that time. The 80's shooters were for the most part black backgrounds with some spaceship and that was pretty much it.

In Vastar you have a dude, the sky is blue, dhe grass is green, the enemies are animated in a fine, 3d kind of way, you can protect yourself with a shield of sorts and you have a huge gun in your hands.

Some music would be nice, but I guess no music is good to, since the hardware could drill your brain with the sounds it was generating. The short jingle played each time you fly out of your spaceship / base, or whatever, gives you a generl idea of what the music could sound like.

I would be lying if I said it set my heart on fire, but it was great. It's not the kind of game that puts all the others to shame, but it's good, and challanging. No continues, just one chance to beat the damn thing.

Stormwatch · Post by **Stormwatch** » Fri Mar 11, 2005 1:09 pm

Oh yeah... missed the reference.

shmup-o · Post by **shmup-o** » Fri Mar 11, 2005 7:50 pm

Gate of Thunder!!!

captain ahar · Post by **captain ahar** » Fri Mar 11, 2005 7:52 pm

llaoyllakcuf wrote:For my choice, it'd probably be Dimahoo/Great Mahou Daisakusen..
(at the time I had almost given up on gaming altogether)

exciting news. this was my first arcade purchase. if only i had all my arcade stuff together to play it... (clearly i am impulsive when buying games

)

chtimi-CLA · Post by **chtimi-CLA** » Fri Mar 11, 2005 8:13 pm

bloodflowers wrote:Nice post. I was expecting Yet Another Mindless Semipoll topic, so it's good to see some content again.

exactly what i thought.
the first would be galaga,not in an arcade but in a run-down cafe, there were cabs in all cafes at the time (instead of the shit touch-screens we have now), some of them were almost arcades. i was 6 so i had to sit on one of those tall chairs we have in cafes (cafes are french bars, not something like starbucks).
it was also my first video game since i didn't even know home consoles existed. anyway i was immediately hooked and spent all my pocket money at this place until they removed the cab for some other game.

theevilfunkster · Post by **theevilfunkster** » Fri Mar 11, 2005 8:24 pm

lifeforce on the nes.

TVG · Post by **TVG** » Fri Mar 11, 2005 10:47 pm

err...i was obviously reffering to the topic title, read some before making this kind of comments.

jpolz · Post by **jpolz** » Sat Mar 12, 2005 2:52 am

Blazing Lazers

deadninja · Post by **deadninja** » Sat Mar 12, 2005 3:24 am

When I got my NES for Chistmas, my grandma (God bless her soul) gave me Life Force.

Reading the instruction manual that Christmas morning literally terrified me...the story about a giant alien guy gobbling up planets. Eventually me and my Dad, playing 2P, kicked ol' Zelos in the ass. I'll never forget that moment.

Dylan1CC · Post by **Dylan1CC** » Sat Mar 12, 2005 4:41 am

Tie between when I played Super R-TYPE on a SNES demo at a store way back in '91 and Gate of Thunder for the Duo cemented my fanaticism.

FatCobra · Post by **FatCobra** » Sat Mar 12, 2005 8:55 pm

Raiden II blew me away when I first saw it in the arcades, the sight of the purple laser when I'm playing the Raiden Project on my PSTwo still brings back memories of that arcade in the Hickem Air Force base in Hawaii.

Solar Striker for the Game Boy was my first console/handheld shmup, though it isn't the best shmup, it was enough to suck me into the genre.

However, during the N64/PS1 era, I lost touch with the genre and it didn't start up again until I discovered MAME, and this site.

brokendivide · Post by **brokendivide** » Sat Mar 12, 2005 9:07 pm

Major Stryker. In retrospect, I have a feeling it's incredibly poor, but I played it a lot when younger. Haven't played it for years, as I imagine it'll just confirm that yes, it is poor. Dragon Spirit on the speccy is close 2nd, though I was absolutely terrible at it.

King Slime · Post by **King Slime** » Sat Mar 12, 2005 11:03 pm

In the Hunt, R-Type2, Super R-Type and Gradius5 are definitely the ones to hook me to the screen.

FRO · Post by **FRO** » Sun Mar 13, 2005 5:42 am

tehkao wrote:Hey FRO,
Looks like we have the same great taste in shmups.

TF4 wasn't my "first love", but it probably represented the peak of my shmup enjoyment, I played that game nonstop for 2 months. I still worship TF4 like no other shmup before or since.

Like you I also gave up on shmups for a while until I discovered Layer Section/Rayforce. Then it became my next shmup obsession.

I pulled out my Lightening Force game box the other day and was looking through the manual. There's a section in the back for high scores - I only wrote high scores down when I completed the game, and only a 1CC. Granted, this was in Jr High and I was playing on easy, but as evidence of how much time I spent on this game, I listed 24 high scores in the manual. That means I 1CC'd the game on Easy at least 24 times.

visuatrox · Post by **visuatrox** » Sun Mar 13, 2005 9:12 am

Sanxion on the Commodore 64, that game is a true masterpiece

. Pretty cool idea dividing the screen into two different views.

CecilMcW00t · Post by **CecilMcW00t** » Sun Mar 13, 2005 11:03 am

For me it would have to be Galaga. From the first time I actually figured out how to get dual ships I was in love! After that point any game similar to Galaga (as in shmup-style games) I would seek out and play.