How do you shmup?

[DazTM]

The rising prices of retro are making a lot of shmups very expensive and it means certain systems like the PC Engine and Mega Cd are beyond me now.
With that in mind does everyone stick to physical releases where possible, arcade boards, ports or are they happy to embrace ODEs (something I'm considering with my Dreamcast collection).

[EmperorIng]

It's kind of a mix for me to be honest.

In most cases I prefer the convenience of MAME, Steam and/or digital PC ports (e.g. DLsite, etc.), or for the odd arcade release I wanna play on TV, an ACA release that can be had for 10% of the price of an earlier port. Like, what does Image Fight on the PC Engine (or sega saturn!) give me that the ACA release doesn't give me, for $8.00? (or mame for that matter?) Other than a downgraded, somewhat janky port?

Other releases, like the upcoming Cotton2/Boomerang/Guardian Force pack, have already prompted me to sell off my Saturn titles with the promise of extra welcome features (like online, save states, etc.) without spending an extra $200 for them.

I have a few things of course that my sentimental value is still currently too strong: e.g. the ps1 ports of RayStorm/RayCrisis, Shikigami 2 on the ps2 (at this point, owning solely for the legendary dub), or the ps1 namco museums

I am in the process of downsizing my collection, getting rid of games I truly love, but just have realistically not played in some time. Some of these are hard to part with for sure.

All in all, I am content with most emulation or modern/pc releases these days, so the physical aspect is not as important for me - especially if better options exist. It's tough to be sure, so it's all about finding the balance between your money, your desire, and how much you'll realistically play!

[Gamer707b]

Well. I'm not a tech savvy person, so I don't know how to emulate even if I wanted to. Good thing is that I'm older and have a decent job. so I can generally afford an expensive game if I feel I'll get a lot of fun and play out of it. Don't buy triple A games anymore, other than the occasional Nintendo release, so I don't mind splurging on retro once in a while. Like I did with R-type Delta recently. I don't do PCBs though because of the space it takes and again, being a non techy guy, i wouldn't know how to fix any of this stuff. Lots of fiddling and fixing with arcade stuff. Don't like things that require high maintainence.

Console games are simple and the most fun/least hassle. Cool thing is with groups like M2, home ports are sometime better than the arcade originals. Case in point. Got the Limited Run PS4 ver. of Battle Garegga. It puts any previous ver. including the pcb to shame at a fraction of the price. So yea. Love me some good quality physical ports when possible. Anyway, I gave you a story. but there you go.

[el_rika]

Emulation mostly.

360/ps4 ocasionally.

[MintyTheCat]

My first response was to reply with a 'when' - it is getting harder to find the time to play.

However, as I have always found since I began playing games in my youth: once I start playing, I enjoy myself.
I grew up with these games and they continue to entertain me.
In some ways I managed to get my hands on games that I could not play when I was much younger but in time they came into my possession.

I have no need to sell them for $ - it is not an issue, nor is space.

I do tend to find that I keep most games boxed away and I simply use a Flashcart. I quite like the PCE device made by Terra Onion for my PCE gaming. Still looking to get an ODE for the Saturn - I have many working and a few non-working Saturn machines so I doubt that I will ever be without a working one, but it is simply the convenience in having all the games in one place and not needing to go and get the disc in order to play. I essentially never swap out a cart for the NES/MD and I wish to get my hands on a SNES Flashcart at some point.

I have still physical carts, discs and PCBs. I keep the number of PCBs to a maximum count though as it would take up too much space to store and they can be a hassle to maintain which can be both time-consuming and expensive.

I was fortunate to be in the right place at the right time price wise and managed to buy pretty much all that I wanted in the late 90s to early 2000s, as such 'high prices' hardly affect me now. If you just wish to play a PCE game then it is very, very easy to do so, and you do not need to drop lots of cash on a physical copy unless it has some meaning to you personally - collectors and for nostalgia reasons, etc.

I dislike digital only solutions and shall resist for as long as possible.

I don't play often though and I realise that each gamer has their own needs and requirements: I don't need quantity due to having little time to play as it is.

I would not part with the physical media - they are documents that capture the time that they were created in. To me, digital files are fine for looking at and research but they have no actual value apart from that - I like the real article.

The last few years we've been blessed with some good releases through M2 and I hope that this will continue.

[kayakoyaka]

I don't like to keep multiple consoles around, so my entire gaming library is on the PS4 90% digital now. I did setup a PS Classic in order to play Japanese PS1 and Mega Drive shmups, but eh I find retroarch a clusterfuck mess that makes me spend more time managing files and settings than actually playing games.

[DazTM]

Really interesting replies so far. Surprised so many are happy with digital etc.
I'm downsizing as well because I have too much stuff and I'll never play it all.
I'll keep my saturn collection (I have a satiator to decide if some of the pricier games are worth it) and I'm also grabbing shooters like the incoming cotton collection as they're cheaper.
Will most likely sell off all my DC stuff and go with ODE. May do the same for the PC Engine as well as shmups for that are silly money now.

[Obiwanshinobi]

I do so little gaming anymore that those few shmups I own, realistically, are going to service my shmupping needs for a little while. That being said, there are things I've only ever pirated that I don't feel I'm done playing yet, such as Zanac X Zanac, oh yeah.

[DMC]

I'm also fed up with the console prices, so I started embracing "mini" consoles.
Really enjoying the PC Engine Mini as well as the C64 Maxi--hoping for an Amiga 500 mini soon.

Pcbs are generally too expensive as well so I have settled with the handful of pcbs I already have and a bunch of STVs.
Feels wrong though to have anything else than pcb hardware in the cabinet.

When I get an urge to buy some physical game I look for cheap Sega Master System games or some new Switch games. Master system games are still quite cheap.

Other than that, mame.

[schleichfahrt]

MAME. The cause and the solution to all your life's problems for like 20 years now.

[Jeneki]

If I'm not going with a physical cart/cd/pcb/etc, my first choice would be fpga (if available) as I've been pleasantly surprised with the results so far.

Modern ports with online leaderboards always get my attention, as the leaderboards are a great motivator for me to improve at the game.

[blazinglazers69]

Emulation. Have a couple physicals for 360.

[Starfighter]

What's ODE?

[MintyTheCat]

What's ODE?

ODE: Optical Disc Emulator.

It replaces the optical drive and allows you to use a memory card to store your ROMs and ISO images on instead of having to use the original media.

[Marc]

I'm happy to be mostly digital now. Especially on Switch, as I love nothing more than spending a couple of hours on my own in a quiet pub, listening to others go about their business, and playing video games. Not that I've done that in a while, this Saturday will be my first outing since all this crap started. I've picked up some physical where it's not been to costly - R-Type Final 2, Raiden IV, Cotton all came in at £30.00 so had no issues with that, but I'm not one for all this Limited Run malarkey, or paying £50+ for imports just to have a cart.

Now that I've got something approaching disposable income for the first time in 15 years, I've found the Evercade (and upcoming VS) a nice way to build up a small, neat physical collection featuring a bunch of stuff I might never have played before, but I'm in no hurry to go down the retro rabbit-hole. I got myself into enough crap last time!

[DazTM]

I'm also fed up with the console prices, so I started embracing "mini" consoles.
Really enjoying the PC Engine Mini as well as the C64 Maxi--hoping for an Amiga 500 mini soon.

I take it you've seen the Amiga Mini news now

[DMC]

Thanks, saw it now, how timely.

(The 25 games are on the light side but I'm positive it will be easy to sideload. Great news!)

[heli]

I dont like playing on PC,
i like the M2 releases for PS4.
I had raspberry pi with retro-pie, to complicated for me, to find out what MAME version works with what game with what settings.

Best is a saturn that plays copys, only it dont have HDMI output.

Your physical copys will not lose worth in this genre,
i dont know about the M2 releases how much they pressed, maybe they will be cheap some day who knows.
If you have all the releases on disc or PCB, you best sell it before it rots away.
Pass the hot potato, in holland we call it chair dance.

M2 have the best because you can download replays from other players,
maybe practice mode added, to bad not for garegga.

[Sengoku Strider]

Oddly enough, the rising prices have made me go just about exclusively physical unless it's prohibitively expensive (one day, Blazing Star) or there isn't another option (Sega AGES on Switch more than deserves a physical compilation).

Name any console you can think of from 8-bit forward, and you'll consistently find shmups at the top of the price chart. Giving someone's digital shop money for something that could well be in the hundreds of dollars in 20 years in physical form just seems like a formula for massive regret. Like trading in my Dreamcast collection was.

Especially considering:

1. Physical print runs are smaller than ever (1000-2500 copies for many games), while console user bases are larger than ever (Switch is nearly at 90 million WW just a few months into its 5th year, pacing ahead of the all time leader PS2). Leading to many more potential nostalgia collectors fighting over a very small pool of games.

2. We've lit the planet on fire, meaning:

i) Many physical copies will be abandoned or destroyed in the water wars of the 2030s.

ii) The only people left with a bougie enough lifestyle to be a video game collector will be the ultra-wealthy Lunarchs, who will rule us from their safe haven on the Moon, but not have much to do up there. Radiant Silvergun will be their conch.

[Redfox]

ii) The only people left with a bougie enough lifestyle to be a video game collector will be the ultra-wealthy Lunarchs, who will rule us from their safe haven on the Moon, but not have much to do up there. Radiant Silvergun will be their conch.

Until a cold solder joint makes the Saturn console a brick and that lunarch won’t have any available soldering iron or skill to fix it and so the pricey console setup becomes a doorstop to his sleeping pod

For my part, I don’t see games as investments, they’re toys to have fun with. I emulate where I can, I console where I have to. I love eshop and digital cause it’s easy. It’s about the fun for me. That whole argument when they say “well, what happens when Nintendo goes away or Psn goes away...blah blah I still got physical.” I tell people, any system 360/ps3 onward has suicide batteries in it and probably won’t run in 20 years since said coin battery will be dead unless they log into a server for authentication to function at that time and if those companies are gone you’re still fucked. So I’ll gladly take my cheaper digital now under the same limitation and be happy.

Yes I do own lots of console ports but those were for games I couldn’t play otherwise at the time or emulate well (My 360 copy of Saidaioujou is starting at me lol). If that would get emulated I could probably pack away my xbox finally, ah well.

[Samuray]

Oh boy, seems I'm in the minority here. I just can't enjoy digital games. Like…at all. There's such an important part missing for me….can't help it really, I tried. Spent an unhealthy amount of cash on the Virtual Console on Wii back then, got an arcade stick even, but no dice.
Since I don't want to dabble in PCBs I'll have to make peace with MAME sooner or later, probably in the form of Raspberry Pi or something. Most of those arcade exclusive shmups I have ever played to this day. But I'm slowly warming up to the notion of emulation for those.

Meanwhile I still have lots and lots of physical STGs to enjoy; it helps I haven't really sold any games since starting collecting in 1988, when I was nine years old.

There are some notable titles I'm still missing to this day (Phalanx, BioMetal, Thunder Force VI, Ibara, ESPGaluda, Zanac x Zanac, 3 Wonders for Saturn, some others) but maybe they'll find their way to me one day. Aside from those I'm pretty happy with my STG library, despite some of my Mega Drive games being not too pretty. But I'm all set with Neo Geo and PC Engine aside from Burning Angels (why would someone burn an angel anyway?), and whenever something comes out on disc or cartridge for PS4 and Switch I'm usually all over it. :

So yeah, I'm a bit behind the times maybe, but I'm enjoying it greatly!

[MintyTheCat]

Oh boy, seems I'm in the minority here. I just can't enjoy digital games. Like…at all. So yeah, I'm a bit behind the times maybe, but I'm enjoying it greatly!

A man after my own heart: they will roll us into the same old folk's home If you enjoy it and have the games it is fine.

I work with digital files all day. I don't value digital things - I like real books, real media and real women - nothing online, virtual or 'digital' thank you

[blazinglazers69]

I suppose if I was filthy rich I would totally do physical everything, but I'm just not. A tiny bit of input lag doesn't bother me and I can live with a decent CRT shader. Of course pure original physical fidelity is always the best, but I'm not gonna lose sleep over emulating.

[Creamy Goodness]

Where commercially available I buy. Everything else is emulation.

[Starfighter]

I only emulate games I already own (for convenience). If I open the door to "emulate everything, download everything" then I wouldn't get any gaming done. Too many choices. So I focus on the games I've bought - and as far as digital vs physical goes I'm definitely team physical. If the game is only available digitally or it's a free giveaway then fine, otherwise it's physical all the way.

ODE: Optical Disc Emulator.

Oh, I see, thanks!

[PerishedFraud ឵឵]

Emulation. I've bought my share of shmups but it was opportune at best, when they were affordable and available. Safe to say t's impossible to enjoy the hundreds of great shmups out there without emulation unless you're extremely rich. I'm not.

Wall of text on emulation:

Spoiler

These days, when it comes to legal stuff, it's becoming more and more apparent what a joke emulation is. Anti-emulation supporters will say that the developers/companies need or deserve your money, but there are two issues. Firstly, you can play a ton of arcade/console games online completely free, in which case you aren't doing the emulating or any piracy, yet you're playing the games as much as you want. So we shouldn't download games even though we can play them for free on a site? At that point the logistics and morality of the whole thing becomes moot. A company won't care if you play their game on a site or on your machine, they'll only care about the money they receive, and neither option gets them any, yet only the second gets scrutiny. Secondly is the age-old "you wouldn't pirate a car" counterpoint, ie that you can pirate games all you want without making any impact on company finances, because it doesn't affect the stock. They only lose the potential customer that you were to begin with, but if you never could've bought their games (for any reason, location, finances, compatibility, no releases), you were never a customer to begin with.

Ultimately it all comes down to money, and if we put aside all the nonsense both pro and anti emulation people spew, I think the proper course comes down to "don't mass-distribute roms" and "support companies if it's possible and reasonable".

[blazinglazers69]

Ultimately it all comes down to money, and if we put aside all the nonsense both pro and anti emulation people spew, I think the proper course comes down to "don't mass-distribute roms" and "support companies if it's possible and reasonable".

100% agree. I've purchased games like Eschatos, Crisis Wing, Crimzon Clover, etc. and am more than happy to support these guys. But I'm emulating Soldier Blade and Lords of Thunder, etc. because those go for 90-300 bucks online and that money isn't going to original developers from the early 90s anyway. This is commonsense stuff.

[Samuray]

I don't value digital things - I like real books, real media and real women - nothing online, virtual or 'digital' thank you

Real women??!! That's crazy talk!!!!

Nah, I'm with you on everything, of course, and would like to add "real cats"! That Nintendo DS games were cute n all but nothing beats the real furry thing.

I suppose if I was filthy rich I would totally do physical everything, but I'm just not.

I'm not either….hence me not owning "Thunder Force VI", "Homura", "Ibara" and the others I mentioned. Don't want to pay eBay prices and they don't show up anywhere else. The gaming money I do have goes into current gen stuff. (I like other genres as well, so yeah…)

100% agree. I've purchased games like Eschatos, Crisis Wing, Crimzon Clover, etc. and am more than happy to support these guys. But I'm emulating Soldier Blade and Lords of Thunder, etc. because those go for 90-300 bucks online and that money isn't going to original developers from the early 90s anyway. This is commonsense stuff.

Absolutely. I wouldn't have any qualms about emulation from a legal perspective, so far it's just not been fun for me. But as I said, I'm working on that because those unconverted arcade games are just too tempting.

[Terramax]

As a buyer and seller of shmups about 5 years back, when games were affordable, I'm kicking myself now that games are beyond my price range. Mamorukun for PS3 has hit 60,000 f-ing yen! Dreamcast games and the like have skyrocketed, as have Cave shmups on 360.

Now married and looking to start a family, I don't have the money to splurge the ridiculous prices for video games. My only hope is praying that they end up on the Nintendo Switch now. Thankfully, a fair few of my favourites have already ended up on there (GigaWing, Mushihimesama). However, I still have to emulate Keio Flying Squadron, and probably always will have to as I doubt anyone is racing to convert that to a console.

I'm with people about paying if you can, emulating if it's silly money, and the money isn't going to the original devs and publishers.

[MintyTheCat]

I don't value digital things - I like real books, real media and real women - nothing online, virtual or 'digital' thank you

Real women??!! That's crazy talk!!!!

Nah, I'm with you on everything, of course, and would like to add "real cats"! That Nintendo DS games were cute n all but nothing beats the real furry thing.

I suppose if I was filthy rich I would totally do physical everything, but I'm just not.

I'm not either….hence me not owning "Thunder Force VI", "Homura", "Ibara" and the others I mentioned. Don't want to pay eBay prices and they don't show up anywhere else. The gaming money I do have goes into current gen stuff. (I like other genres as well, so yeah…)

Hehe : I didn't even know that non-real cats existed I agree entirely: real cats all the way.

I suppose a lot of this boils down to cost of acquisition. Many of us now are in our late 30s and 40s. We have been playing the same games now for years and many have collections that go back to the 1980s and 1990s. As such, it's a different notion of 'cost'. I haven't bought many games the last few years other than a few Gameboy games and M2 releases. I actually don't own a PS4 and I gave my digital copies of the M2 releases away as I was more interested in the goodies that came with the releases such as the Battle Garegga book and such like.

As such, I bought most of my Megadrive, SFC, FC, PCE and Neogeo titles a long time ago and the 'price' is not the same for me as it would be someone who is attempting to play/acquire the games these days. However, we've had emulation now in one good form or another for close to 20+ years; I remember playing ZSnes in the late 90s on a DOS PC whilst at University and even by that stage the emulation was not bad at all. It's now very, very easy to play these older games and a easier than perhaps at any time in history. I make a distinction between people that just wish to play the games and people who are involved to varying degrees in collecting games.

I never had any interest in collecting everything. This notion of being a completist, having to have a complete collection of say PAL Megadrive games was completely lost on me. There will never be a collection of titles for any platform that is just so perfect that I would feel compelled to own all of them. It is essentially a waste of money in my case, a total waste of space, I cannot play them all due to time and in part it demonstrates to me that the person attempting to collect all games values quantity over quality.

I made a point of collecting Shmups as it was the genre that I preferred since I was a kid. I play other genres though but I am not so interested in being collector of other genres - merely playing other genres is 'enough for me'.

Luckily, we get to play Soldier-Blade (very good and nicely polished Shmup on the PCE well worth playing) and many other PCE Shmups easily now due to all the different ways that we can emulate. As such, 'cost' is no longer a barrier to actually playing the games, it's only an issue if you feel compelled to own the game. Sometimes it is well worth it, other times it is not.

A good example: I personally love RECCA, I have books about it, the odd article about it, I do not own the CD as yet but wish to get my hands on it, I own a repro made by Battlesmurf from a few years ago but I decided that the price of the original, physical game is just too high to purchase. I still play RECCA though and it's value to me as a game is not detracted from it being an expensive game.

Personally, I feel that when something is very expensive then it takes the fun out of things and instead of enjoying the experience itself I tend to have to justify it to myself in other ways. I only play games for fun in any case. I don't collect games for monetary value reasons. There are better things to invest in