I think System 11 is an important forum...

[heli]

There is also a nice development corner here,
better then the entire http://www.gamedev.net website
hostiles and money wolfs there telling : You want is impossible, bad atmosphere.
Just a bit dead here, need more developers.

[subcons]

A wiki might be a good way of making the info that is scattered through the threads more accessible but it would need to be curated by folk here. Would require a great deal of energy and organisation - and again - wouldn't replace the forum itself.

I’m pretty sure some people from here are involved in the Shmups Wiki, but it definitely needs more people contributing.

Well, if this is the sentiment, now's as good a time as any isn't it? It's not like shmups.wiki is closed to contributions. Even if you don't have anything original to add you could hash out basic game info or add easily verifiable stuff from the old STs here.

Only problem is, I’m honestly not that knowledgeable, which is why I lurk here mostly—to look for info on a particular game I’m currently playing. AKAIK, the info on the wiki is usually provided by those with pretty deep knowledge about a specific game. Sure, you could just siphon some of the info here and post it over to there, but you’d need to verify it’s accurate somehow.

To be clear, I’m not complaining there’s a lack of help with the wiki, just pointing out that it is a thing that exists and seems like it’ll be a great repository for a lot of the same information already found around here if those who have the knowledge can find the time to contribute to it. I’m definitely not that person for a number of reasons.

[davyK]

The strategy guide section here is brilliant. It's such a valuable resource.

[MJR]

Shmups forum is the only place where I go to hang out with people who have similar taste to me, and who can give me new, insightful information. I don't contribute often to the discussions, but when I do, I try to give something useful or interesting.

I also love keeping scores for my favourite games (R-type, Salamander, Star Force, etc) and welcome everyone to contribute to the highscore boards. I consider shmups forum to be the only place of interest for highscores on classic arcade shooters.

There used to be some trolls here few years back, who disrupted the forum for lolz, but seems like they have largely migrated to discord or such.

Some of my favourite posters are PC-Engine Fan IX (did I get that right), who writes about his favourite games and hardware on astonishing detail and child like glee, and BIL, whose rants are hilarious.

I have also been a game developer since 1994, and one of my longest-standing goals in life has been to make my own shmup some day, as a personal project, and let the people at shmups forum tear it to pieces.. but now we are working on a scrolling beat em with my friend for C64 so that has to wait.

[XoPachi]

I like this place because theres a lot of skilled and richly cultured people here. I can ask a lot of questions beyond STG's and get stunningly eye opening answers for a lot of the niche sub cultures from bygone eras. I frequently ask about certain sounds and genres and design because I trust someone will actually give me a direct and thorough response.

[OmegaFlareX]

Q1 '05 Crew checking in. Kinda hard to believe I've been reading these forums for over 20 years. I joined sometime in the year 2000, don't remember exactly when. Although there was a sizeable gap, like '07 through '15 where I didn't care about shmups much at all so I rarely logged in during that time. I missed the entire CV1K/X360 generation.

I will echo the assertation that Discord is a poor substitute for forums and archiving info, but Reddit can be pretty valuable since its search results are more relevant than Google's most of the time.

[pulsemod]

I will echo the assertation that Discord is a poor substitute for forums and archiving info, but Reddit can be pretty valuable since its search results are more relevant than Google's most of the time.

I feel like that's only the case because the rest of the search results have gotten that much worse. it's like a last bastion of actual discussion, but not a great one at that. this is pretty much the only public online community I browse or participate in anymore, mostly because I have an interest in these games, but I don't think there's any way I'd browse a shmups reddit even if that was the only option.

[Sima Tuna]

A shmups reddit could work if the mod team were dedicated players who were interested in fostering a knowledgeable community. Unfortunately, the current state of shmups reddits is a big pile of wank. Every shmups subreddit is a ghost town except the shit one run by a massive prick who bans people for even mentioning the existence of emulation.

[kid aphex]

These old school forums are a very efficient way of learning, researching and sharing information.
AND — they’re much easier on the brain/nervous system than trawling through something like Twitter.

At one time I would’ve suggested Reddit was superior, but it’s moderation community are all autistic incels with political agendas.
On top of that, it’s got too many corporate fingers in it’s ownership pie.

Forums have their downsides, though: Insular, walled-off, etc.


…
A part of me has always felt that forums like this would one day have a resurgence.
If that ever were to happen, my guess is that it would occur as a response to an even more intense censorship of the internet.

[NAVVARR]

I just posted to see when I joined to be honest.
I enjoy Forums, but then I'm definitely old skool. I used to love the old Nokia Users Forum, keeping abreast of new Nokia Phones, back when phones were interesting.
Nowadays they'll all just black generic screens with little to differentiate one from another.
I'd love to be able to use my old slider again but sadly nothing works any more.

[subcons]

A shmups reddit could work if the mod team were dedicated players who were interested in fostering a knowledgeable community. Unfortunately, the current state of shmups reddits is a big pile of wank. Every shmups subreddit is a ghost town except the shit one run by a massive prick who bans people for even mentioning the existence of emulation.

Yeah I try and help people with answering questions on r/shmups, even discussing emulation, but luckily the sole mod doesn’t seem to pay attention too closely to posts there, so I haven’t had a problem with him. And r/shmupchumps has a better community, but no one really posts there.

[StarLightMoonLight]

I know it's a bit early for me to say this but the community here has been vastly more helpful and engaging than the lunatics on 4chan, first you have the /shmupg/ freaks that plague /vg/ and /vr/ that constantly whine about e-celebs and "jarpigs" at any given moment, usually vomiting the type of inane rubbish you expect to see from a stereotypical /v/ poster. Besides these nutjobs are the Touhou fans who usually just gush over their favorite cartoon girl (It's weird how this series is a behemoth in the genre now, it's like if Cave Story was a massive franchise with shit like Mario being mainly dormant). Another thing about the 4chan shmup community is that it's really niche if you're not a Touhou fan, meaning most threads are often short lived, even /shmupg/ usually hits the archive before reaching bump limit. This is why I'm enjoying this forum so far, since I can actually discuss something and get a response that isn't covered in 5 layers of irony, or not worry about a thread not being able to compete with the 20 different Twitter screencap threads being made 24/7.

[bcass]

It's neat how you can bump a thread from 15+ years ago with a question and get a bunch of answers within the hour.

[PerishedFraud ឵឵]

It's neat how you can bump a thread from 15+ years ago with a question and get a bunch of answers within the hour.

Do it. Who's gonna stop you, the police?

[BIL]

It's neat how you can bump a thread from 15+ years ago with a question and get a bunch of answers within the hour.

Do it. Who's gonna stop you, the police?

Bit of a howler right there, YACK and OGR are in the credits but the OST is Hidetoshi Fukumori's.

(I thought it was YACK's until like two years ago too )

I wonder if they contracted out MegaBlast's, too. It does sound quite Gun Frontier-esque. Stage 2 BGM compared to Frontier's HS Entry theme has a very distinct Morriconesque melancholy. Though, YACK channels a bit of that too in RunArk.

Maybe these fuckers were all jamming in the woodshed laughing at the VGM nerds and whoever paid the tab that night got the writer's nod - an autist's nightmare!