Discord friend trying to name a shmup

[KennyMan666]

I was almost certain we had a specific thread for this, but going back a year in this subforum I couldn't find it, so probably I was just confusing it with the Name That Game thread on SomethingAwful. So yeah a friend on Discord is trying to put a name to an old game that very much sounds like it's a mid-90's euroshmup.

Vertical shmup running on a PC, back when only half the computers were on 3.1.1 or 95, so it could be DOS

Space ship with a rounded, cartoony aesthetic, mostly dark or black bg but the level I remember had brown or red possibly organic walls

There was a shop system, possibly between levels, and one of the upgrades was a backwards shooting gun that was like, a can mounted on a bunch of cantilevered arms

Like imagine those internal arms, but you've got two sets mounted back to back and they spring in and out so the gun can move up and down for recoil


Yeah this is around when doom was a thing. This is less somethingi want to play but like, I have that memory and I really want to put a name to it.

Nothing comes to mind for me personally, at most I get some vague flashes of something I think I might have played? So I figured y'all would be the best bet to find it.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

I can't think of too many MS-DOS shmups with shop systems, and all the ones I can are hori aside from Tyrian. The description is distinct enough that finding the game should be all it'd take, as long as your friend's not misremembering and it's actually something like Overkill, Stargunner, etc. Will see if I can scrounge up a game with a weapon like this...

Alternatively, tell em to search here under the Shooter category to see if any games pop out at them. https://www.dosgamesarchive.com

[pieslice]

Possibly the DOS port of Xenon 2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbzS7z7aX5M (.. turn down volume before opening the link)

[BareKnuckleRoo]

This seems like it's highly likely the game. The BG is dark, the walls look kinda organic at times, it's a vert, there's a shop, and some of the subweapons definitely animate the way it's been described.

[KennyMan666]

Xenon that's the fucking one that backwards blaster is the fucking thing

Yeah the backwards shot, the shop interface that's the one

Case closed!

[BareKnuckleRoo]

gg pieslice with the 1 life clear