Besides that you're heading in the right direction with the DC - but you may also want to check out the Saturn as it has great versions of Darius Gaiden, Rayforce, Thunder Force V, etc...
Most consider the PS2, Saturn, and TG16/PCE as the "top tier" shmupping systems due to the variety of stuff available for them: the NES, Dreamcast, and Genesis/Mega Drive are oftentimes regarded as the "next best," though individual opinions on this vary widely.
And I might as well mention MAME before someone else does.
BulletMagnet wrote:Most consider the PS2, Saturn, and TG16/PCE as the "top tier" shmupping systems due to the variety of stuff available for them: the NES, Dreamcast, and Genesis/Mega Drive are oftentimes regarded as the "next best," though individual opinions on this vary widely.
And I might as well mention MAME before someone else does.
I love MAME but its not really easy playing shooters with a keyboard
Is there any place that tells you what shooters are available for
mame and are current and working? I always can never figure out
when anything is current let alone working when it comes to MAME :/
I am glad i have a PS2, can you give me a little more info on TG16/PCE
any place i can go check out some screenshots of the better shooters for that system?
Which shooters should i be looking for?
Thanks for the help
Cheers
Harlequin
Last edited by Harlequin on Sat Jul 22, 2006 4:06 pm, edited 6 times in total.
Harlequin wrote:I love MAME but its not really easy playing shooters with a keyboard
Easily remedied with a joystick/controller or adapter.
Is there any place that tells you what shooters are available for
mame and are current and working?
There was a site I used to go to which had some data on which games were currently working, but I think it's gone now...Google around, I'd say, there must be SOMEthing like that out there, though I don't know if it'll give you the option of looking at shooters only.
...can you give me a little more info on TG16/PCE any place i can go check out some screenshots of the better
shooters for that system?
Someone just asked that on a recent topic here someplace...a forum search could probably turn it up. I don't own a PCE myself, so I can't say much from experience.
Enter the games name there and you get a page that has "driver status" written somewhere. It also tells you what rom files you need, additional NeoGeo drivers for instance. There are recommendations, and you can search the database for genre, year, company and whatnot.
Oh, and try picking up a USB gamepad, or play with a converted. My choice is a SNES original pad plugged into a smartjoy. A Saturn USB pad is also a very good choice but they are quite hard to get at the moment; hard to get at an importer, that is.
best way to go is to get a decent MAME setup w/ HRAP arcade stick, i recommend hooking up your computer to an RGB TV or monitor using a special cable, this is as close to arcade perfection you can get, this will let you play loads of old stuff and most of the Saturn/PS1 stuff (except Radiant Silvergun, Batsugun (for now), and the console only stuff like Thunderforce V), also you will be able to run all the PC Engine/MD emulators for your 16-bit console shmupping.
Also, PS2 complements MAME with the later shmupping releases available, like Ibara etc
Harlequin wrote:I love MAME but its not really easy playing shooters with a keyboard
Easily remedied with a joystick/controller or adapter.
Yes, I own a Super Dual Box Pro & have an original PSX controller hooked up to it - works like a charm! Granted, most here prefer a joystick, but that was an inexpensive solution for me. Check play-asia.com for that item.
segasonicfan wrote:Saturn. Tons of amazing ports...
Battle Bakraid
Hyper rare 4 realz.
I don't even have that game.
At any rate, I would say the Saturn/PC-Engine Duo are the best shmupping consoles. Saturn has a lot of great exclusive classics (Batsugun, Radiant Silvergun, Hyper Duel, etc.) and the PC-Engine Duo just has a staggering amount of shmups, a lot of which are definitely top tier old school goodness.
I disagree slightly with BulletMagnet's division of tiers. I think the following better captures popular opinion here, though there are plenty of old-school fans who will disagree with this ranking:
While the PCE and GEN libraries are solid in their own rights, personally I am less than pleased with the ports of vertically-oriented games; the aspect ratios got completely screwed and it makes me sick. The horizontal shooters are quite well done though.
iatneH wrote:While the PCE and GEN libraries are solid in their own rights, personally I am less than pleased with the ports of vertically-oriented games; the aspect ratios got completely screwed and it makes me sick. The horizontal shooters are quite well done though.
Couldn't agree more. Playing proper verts on these systems is a waste of my time, so I don't.
If I had to spend the rest of my life on an island, with only one console to shmup on for rest of my life, it would be the Sega Saturn. There's just too many Grade A shmups. I hope this answers your question.
For me, the best system is a Japanese PS2, easily. Second best is a Japanese Dreamcast, third is a Japanese Saturn. At least that's judging from how often I play my shmups for each system.
I'd actually suggest Dreamcast, as long as you don't only want 2d games (because there are only a couple of those). It's got a lot of really original shooters on it like the 3 bullet-reflect ones from Takumi, Ikaruga, Rajirugi, Zero Gunner 2, and then a pretty big share of flawless ports of 3d shooters. It's also very easy to get imports running on it (all you need is a CD-R boot disc), and every 3d game on it afaik supports progressive scan via a VGA box (which is native output on the system). Additionally, pretty much all of the shooters made before 2001 actually had domestic releases so it's really easy to get up and running with a handful of legit shmups.
HOWEVER... if you are mostly into the Psikyo, Cave or Gradius/Salamander style, you will probably be disappointed since the only Psikyo games on it which are not on other systems aren't the traditional 2d ones, but Zero Gunner 2 and Cannon Spike-- and there is nothing by Cave or Konami on it. In that case you'd be better off going for Saturn which has quite a bit of both of those. That system is also pretty easy to run imports on-- you just need a cartridge.
