The Self-Introduction Thread

[RetroGameShowcase]

Hi!, I'm an old gamer, fan of shmups and retro games in general, recently I decided to put together a youtube channel showcasing the games I feel are most representative of the retro genre, starting with Shoot em ups; giving an overview of the games, strategies and levels and also comparing their arcades version with the most important home ports. Link to the channel in the signature and I promise I won't spam it in other threads . Sadly I'm out of touch with shmups nowadays, so anything released after Gradius V is kinda unknown for me.

[Norway]

Hi!! Welcome! I’m glad that you’re here!! What games are you playing currently? I’m playing Gradius

[RiMaDe]

Hi all. I've been reading the forum for quite some time, so I decided to register.

[R8Spike]

Hello, I'm a beginner at Shmuppin (Mostly plays len'en atm) who wants to participate in forum culture more and social media less, and this place seems to be a good place to do it as It looks active enough

[Whisker]

Hi, everyone.

I've been lurking the forum on and off since circa 2010. Decided to join today after I got a half-decent score at DDP. I used to play a lot of shmups. Unfortunately, I don't have much time to play games any more these days.

[BIL]

Unfortunately, I don't have much time to play games any more these days.

Same same, life innit 3; So many goddamn games lately as well! Welcome aboard all

[Whisker]

Same same, life innit 3; So many goddamn games lately as well! Welcome aboard all

Ah, good ol' BIL. Nice to see you're still here, mate.

[Wiggly]

Hi shmup enjoyers
Got into shmups almost a year ago with touhou 6 because I felt like I needed to beat it to be a true fan or whatever. Ended up beating all of them around September and I delved into other shmups too, mostly cave stuff tho. I dunno if I'm necessarily good at them or not but I can beat a couple touhou games on lunatic but I have yet to 1cc a cave shmup. Got close with mushihimesama and deathsmiles.

[Whisker]

Hi shmup enjoyers
Got into shmups almost a year ago with touhou 6 because I felt like I needed to beat it to be a true fan or whatever. Ended up beating all of them around September and I delved into other shmups too, mostly cave stuff tho. I dunno if I'm necessarily good at them or not but I can beat a couple touhou games on lunatic but I have yet to 1cc a cave shmup. Got close with mushihimesama and deathsmiles.

Congrats on clearing Lunatic modes. Back when I was a 2hu fan (gasp!), I remember EoSD beating the crap out of me. As I recall, the game was so bare bones, with annoying RNG making attack patterns rather difficult to learn.

Happy New Year, all!

[locoBro1196]

greetings - been playing shmups for nearly 20 years (I'm into my 40s now). What got me started was a Japanese copy of Einhander back in the day, but what really drew me into the genre was DDP DOJ for the PS2. I love Cave bullet hell games and only recently seriously attempted original mode 1CCs on a variety of names. I found out about this board a little over a year ago but decided to join only just now looking forward to reading, learning and contributing as much as I can.

[oversoul17]

Hello all!

I have been an avid player of shmups (especially Cave-like bullet hells) for the better part of five years now, and have been lurking on these forums for about as long. I don't know if you'll hear much from me still or not, but I decided that today was the day I'd at least formally join. So, hello!

[RetroDaz]

My old account was DazTM but it’s linked to an email address I don’t use anymore.
I’ve been playing shmups forever, and am really into the Switch at the moment. I bought a lot of shmups on PS1 recently as I was more into my Saturn shooters. I edit a gaming magazine and try and stick as many shmups as I can get away with each month.

[Wools]

Hi all!

I've just signed up after hearing about this place on a Forum I've posted on for decades, after getting into SHUMP's and discovering Dodonpachi DaiOuJou Blissful Death Re:Incarnation.

I'm based in the UK have adored games all my life, eventually going into the industry and making them for over 2 decades now, with slight deviations into software too! Adore games of all types, having a long standing love of Sega, Nintendo, racing games and adventure games.

I was never the biggest fan of SHUMP's but enjoyed R-Type back on the PS1 and imported Ikaruga on the DC back when they were released. But I recently sold my old Switch, purchased the new OLED Model and then discovered one of my favourite developers, M2, had a Shot Triggers department who've ported loads of SHUMP's. After playing M2's port of Virtua Racing for the 1000th time, I thought I'll see what's all the fuss about? After researching loads, I played G-Darius HD here in the UK and loved it but wanted to play a Cave game and experience one of their works. I imported Dodonpachi DaiOuJou Blissful Death Re:Incarnation from Amazon Japan last week and adored it; It looks beautiful and the 2D Artwork was like a Neo Geo AES game on steroids, the music is exceptional, the artwork is beautiful, the story is simple but haunting and the gameplay... It was so difficult, even on Super Easy Mode but after 2 deaths, I slowly got the feel of the game and before I knew it, I was moving and doing well and then was completing Level 1, 2 and 3 without a single life lost. After 4+ hours over several days, I finally completed it!

Now I'm in love, considering importing the LE of Dodonpachi DaiOuJou, watching reviews of other SHUMP's and to top it off, I've signed up here! I've got a feeling ESP Ra.De. Psi is next!

Pleasure to see such a fine community and looking forward to chatting to all of you here!

[alt-plight]

Longtime lurker, first time poster.

I've had a long love for the arcades but the reason why I got into shmups a couple years ago is sort of backwards. A friend of mine wanted to play multiplayer on Steam and had found this little indie twin-stick shooter called Devader. While playing I noticed I had a knack for dodging bullets, which led me to start playing Cave-shmups on XBOX 360.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Nice to see so many new faces!

[Whisker]

I'm just glad people are still playing shmups.

[mastermx]

I'm just glad people are still playing shmups.

I've been playing sooooo many shumps recently. But playing shmups is different to the fgc, i'm not forced to interact with anyone, I think many shmuppers go into this hibernation mode sometimes lol. I feel I do sometimes, I forced myself back on this forum today because this place has always been and will always be special to me. I love the fact we make an effort to talk with others who share this hobby.

I've really been enjoying the PS5 port of DOJ. I love the arcade challenge, it's all split up into nice wonderful little chunks of adrenaline and heart ache.

And I've really been going through different rom sets. I've been exploring roms on mame for decades and I still feel like I'm not anywhere close to running out of new things to discover.

[Shrinkfinger]

Hi all

I'm about to enter into my fifties and remember my dad sitting me on a barstool to play a game on Galaxian with him, it's my first gaming memory and my love shmups has never left me. The reactions have dulled over the years but I still look to get a decent online ranking into any shooter I play on the consoles/PC.
Currently playing Raiden IV on series s which is one of my favourites on the newer machines but at heart I'm a Gradius fan through and through.

[froebom]

Hello! I'm new around these parts, but have been in the various shmup discords for a couple years now. The Insert Credit podcast mentioned GG Aleste 3 as a game of the year contender for 2020, which is what sparked my interest in STGs, and here we are.

I've gotten a decent number of clears so far, highlights of which include Espgaluda II with Ageha, Thunder Dragon, and DDPII Bee Storm TLB with a score a bit above 2 billion. I'm workin on a decent scoring run of Ibara Kuro and a 1-ALL of Shienryu at the moment.

Nice to be here and hope to continue being active as I play and learn more.

[quandary]

Hi all!
I've been lurking for a bit, exploring the hardware forum, and the various guides there.
Decided to join up and join in the conversations. Thanks for having me!

[Neogeo1982]

Hi, in my 40s, play mostly DC, Game Gear, and Neo Geo. Shooters and fighters. But will relax with anything fun in between. Most active on Atari Age but thought I'd check this out for awhile too.

[RetroZ]

Hi all,

I am a gamer in my 50's and have been occasionally following ShMUPS site since in started, but never registered until now.
I have been a shoot-em-up player since the early 80's and my favourite shmups are mainly Vertical-scrolling-shoot-em-ups, although I do like many horizontal shooters too.
Really got into shmups in the mid-eighties with games such as Starforce, Terra Cresta and Gradius/Nemesis.

Game design is my thing, but I've never designed a shmup before, so this is something I have been working on with a programming colleague.

Influences are a few of my favourite shooters such as Toaplan games - Truxton/Tatsujin and Twin Cobra.
Starforce, Dragon Spirit, Image Fight, Galaga 88 and Salamander/Life-Force are other favourites.

Looking forward to browsing through the site and forums to see what is going on.

[Him]

What's good everyone. I was looking for a Shmup Forum and this was the first and most popular result that popped up on Google. Nice job with the SEO

I am new to the Shmup community so far as taking it seriously, I played some games here and there but I would just credit feed my way through them. I didn't know any terminology, techniques, etc. I just played for fun.

As of recently I have been practicing for my first normal mode 1CC, being Arcade Original Crimzon Clover. It's been a lot of fun putting in the effort and shooting for an attainable goal. This is my most played Shmup next to Touhou.

My first experience with the genre was on a Raiden cabinet in a Papa Gino's that has long since closed (RIP). I was hooked and it feels good to be reconnecting with that same feeling I had as a kid playing Raiden.

Looking forward to discussing more topics in the future with you all.

[nogden]

Hey guys, I'm nogden. 25 years old and a lifetime gamer. I started on a hand me down snes and n64 as a kid and have a deep appreciation for retro games. My first shmup was space invaders on the n64. Not a shmup, but I really enjoyed the snes light gun as you can tell from my pfp

Anyways I didn't really discover this genre as it is or give it much thought until covid timeframe. I was quarantined in my barracks room for 2 weeks before deploying to Afghanistan. All I had was my switch and a need for something to get my mind off of reality. I think I started with Rolling Gunner, then Devil Engine, then.. you know how it is with these games. After getting a taste I was enamored and made my rounds through many of the great recommendations on this site. That's actually how I found this site was the top 25 list. Then I realized that there's something special here.

I've never been part of a forum. I think I was a little too young and missed the boat but I remember being little watching my dad scroll through sites like this with the starry background and all the quirks Y2K websites had. It's super nostalgic for me but more importantly the community here is awesome. I spend a lot of nights reading through old threads on here and its always a good time. Dick Stock is a classic. But since I love these games and find myself playing them everyday, I thought I should join the gang. Good to be here

[BIL]

Dick Stock is a classic.

Thank you sir! We rededicate ourselves to documenting the strange phenomenon (■｀w´■)

[nogden]

Strange indeed.. I think it's about time I pull my weight and make some contributions of my own. I will be on the lookout for anything suspicious sir (´ー`)y-~~ this isn't a mystery I'll allow go unsolved.