Shmups, and the PSP.......

-Bridget- · Post by **-Bridget-** » Tue Aug 26, 2008 10:04 am

Ok.

So, over this last week I went and bought myself a PSP.

Blasted thing finally has a game selection that is interesting me..... quite alot lately.

So what I wanna know..... is what shmups might be available (and GOOD) for this system?

Also: I've heard about the possibility of running Mame on one of these..... some info on how exactly this might be accomplished would be GREAT. Progear on the go would be so awesome I might just explode.

Suggestions on imports are welcome as well of course, I dont mind paying for a good import shmup.

Right now,

I have Every Extend Extra to start (which is SUPERB).

But Im not aware of many others, since this is basically the system Im LEAST familiar with.

The other one I can think of right now is Space Invaders Extreme, but I already have the DS version of that, and I've a hard time imagining playing that WITHOUT the dual screen aspect.

Im sure there's more out there, I just dunno what they might be.

Suggestions appreciated!

Motorherp · Post by **Motorherp** » Tue Aug 26, 2008 10:12 am

The PSP has a lot of shmup games, the only problem is getting them since they tend to be JP only. Here's the list of what I'm aware of:

Gradius Portable
Parodius Portable
Salamander Portable
Twinbee Portable
Star Soldier
Sengoku Ace III
Metal Slug (if you count that)

All the 'Portable' ones are collections which include 4-5 games in the series on the one UMD. The quality seems pretty good also, I've not experienced any problem with the ports I own anyway. The only real issue is that you're playing them on the PSP so you cant play for long times without getting crab hands, and also it can get pretty crowded on the small screen.

eretsua · Post by **eretsua** » Tue Aug 26, 2008 10:48 am

the psp version star soldier is a really good. it's in tate and quite glorious to behold!

Post by **spadgy** » Tue Aug 26, 2008 12:43 pm

The Capcom Classics compilations exist (Remix and Reloaded), but they have a horrible Tate mode in terms of button layout. I had a fair bit of fun with Eco Fighters on Reloaded.

Of the top of my head Remixed has, in terms of shmups: 1941, Varth, Three Wonders (1/3 a shmup!), Section Z, Forgotten Worlds, Legendary Wings, Last Dual, Side Arms and I think that's it...

Reloaded Has Eco Fighters, 1942, 1943, 1943 Kai, and Mercs and Commando if those interest you.

Then in terms of other games there's Space Invaders Extreme which is superb. (EDIT: Me an idiot - you mentioned that in your first post!)

Finally, there was a PSP shmup that was not very well received that had a kind of 'plastercine theme' to it's visuals. What was that?

subcons · Post by **subcons** » Tue Aug 26, 2008 1:58 pm

Pretty much everything has been listed off already, but here's another thread from a while back that's pretty much definitive: PSP Shmups. Covers all PSP games, PS1 games (which work on the PSP), as well as touching on emulation and homebrew.

If you really want to get the most out of it, modding your PSP with a custom firmware is necessary. MAME isn't really working all that well on PSP and probably never will. However, there are great emus for CPS1, CPS2, and Neo Geo, which run everything pretty much flawlessly. There are also emus that run smoothly for most all consoles you can think of up through to Sega CD. Then there are homebrew greats like NOIZ2SA and rRootage.

The PSP is a great little system just with the library it has to be sure, but once you add in emulation and homebrews, it's really one of the best systems ever, especially considering it's portable.

Post by **BulletMagnet** » Tue Aug 26, 2008 5:13 pm

spadgy wrote:Finally, there was a PSP shmup that was not very well received that had a kind of 'plastercine theme' to it's visuals. What was that?

I believe that's Platypus.

Aside from what's already been mentioned, the Yuna Collection (which has Sapphire on it) came out a few weeks ago, and the Soldier Collection is coming a few weeks from now.

E. Randy Dupre · Post by **E. Randy Dupre** » Tue Aug 26, 2008 5:43 pm

There's that Japan-only Space Invaders collection. Can't remember what it's called. Space Invaders Collection, probably.

Namco Museum Battle Collection has the usual suspects - Galaga, Galaxian and Xevious - as well as an exclusive Galaga variant called Galaga Arrangement. It's a long time since I played it, but I remember it being pretty good. Better than I expected, anyway.

There's also Taito Legends Power-Up, but it's shit and you'd already have most of its shooter component covered by getting the SI compilation instead.

Post by **spadgy** » Tue Aug 26, 2008 6:10 pm

BulletMagnet wrote: Aside from what's already been mentioned, the Yuna Collection (which has Sapphire on it) came out a few weeks ago, and the Soldier Collection is coming a few weeks from now.

Ah yes! Bloody Play-Asia won't import those to Europe though...

subcons · Post by **subcons** » Tue Aug 26, 2008 7:48 pm

spadgy wrote:
BulletMagnet wrote: Aside from what's already been mentioned, the Yuna Collection (which has Sapphire on it) came out a few weeks ago, and the Soldier Collection is coming a few weeks from now.
Ah yes! Bloody Play-Asia won't import those to Europe though...

You're really not missing much. It may fetch a high price for a real PC-E copy, but it's really not all that great of a shooter.

Necronopticous · Post by **Necronopticous** » Tue Aug 26, 2008 8:16 pm

eretsua wrote:the psp version star soldier is a really good. it's in tate and quite glorious to behold!

Seconded. Very awkward to control, though.

Andi · Post by **Andi** » Tue Aug 26, 2008 11:56 pm

E. Randy Dupre wrote:There's also Taito Legends Power-Up, but it's shit and you'd already have most of its shooter component covered by getting the SI compilation instead.

Taito Legends has Phoenix on it, which E. Randy entirely discounts but is actually totally awesome. Also, Pocky and Rocky are on it plus a handful of other shooter-like oddities. All in all, it's pretty cool.

Does anyone else find that instead of Tate-ing their PSP they just play the games sideways?

seiatsu · Post by **seiatsu** » Wed Aug 27, 2008 12:08 am

I like tate on the psp...i think it works well actually (as weird as it may seem initially). I tate almost all the PS1 game if possible (Raiden, DDP, etc).

OP: I have to agree with those that say Custom Firmware is a must. Gives you so many great games to choose from. CPS2 emu gives you your progear (arcade perfect to boot). You also can play other great STG's like Dimahoo, Mars Matrix, Giga Wing....PS1 has a lot of great stg's too. Those alone should be reason enough to flash.

subcons · Post by **subcons** » Wed Aug 27, 2008 1:34 am

Andi wrote:Does anyone else find that instead of Tate-ing their PSP they just play the games sideways?

I really have no issue with holding it to play TATE. It's seems weird at first, but as long as you remap the buttons so your thumb can reach them comfortably and put auto fire on R, it's perfect to me. And Star Soldier has an auto fire option which I always use when I play it.

E. Randy Dupre · Post by **E. Randy Dupre** » Wed Aug 27, 2008 5:22 pm

Andi wrote:Taito Legends has Phoenix on it, which E. Randy entirely discounts but is actually totally awesome. Also, Pocky and Rocky are on it plus a handful of other shooter-like oddities. All in all, it's pretty cool.

Sorry, I should have expanded on that a bit. It's a really poor collection of games in comparison to the Legends releases on PS2 and Xbox, and felt, at the time of release, like Xplosive were trying to milk the license by holding back a lot of the better games for future releases. Sticking Elevator Action on there instead of Elevator Action Returns, that kind of thing. I think it's telling that the comp doesn't even manage to include Rainbow Islands or Bubble Bobble, although that might have been due to Taito wanting to push the (apparently) crappy remakes of both.

Phoenix suffers pretty badly from the poor response time on the PSP's screen - the starfield only becomes visible when you die and the thing stops scrolling. I find the blurriness caused by the screen really offputting.

If you've got the console Legends comps, it's not really worth the bother. The PSP one has four remakes on it, but they're nothing to write home about.

Post by **spadgy** » Wed Aug 27, 2008 5:31 pm

E. Randy Dupre wrote:(apparently)

Definately

Andi · Post by **Andi** » Wed Aug 27, 2008 11:43 pm

E. Randy Dupre wrote:
Andi wrote:Taito Legends has Phoenix on it, which E. Randy entirely discounts but is actually totally awesome. Also, Pocky and Rocky are on it plus a handful of other shooter-like oddities. All in all, it's pretty cool.
Sorry, I should have expanded on that a bit. It's a really poor collection of games in comparison to the Legends releases on PS2 and Xbox, and felt, at the time of release, like Xplosive were trying to milk the license by holding back a lot of the better games for future releases. Sticking Elevator Action on there instead of Elevator Action Returns, that kind of thing. I think it's telling that the comp doesn't even manage to include Rainbow Islands or Bubble Bobble, although that might have been due to Taito wanting to push the (apparently) crappy remakes of both.

Phoenix suffers pretty badly from the poor response time on the PSP's screen - the starfield only becomes visible when you die and the thing stops scrolling. I find the blurriness caused by the screen really offputting.

If you've got the console Legends comps, it's not really worth the bother. The PSP one has four remakes on it, but they're nothing to write home about.

That's alright, those are all pretty fair criticisms of the PSP version. Although, let me tell you, Bubble Bobble and Rainbow Islands have been released in enough different editions that I was thankful that they weren't on the PSP compilation. Now if only they would have gotten rid of the Space Invaders games too...

adrenalinq · Post by **adrenalinq** » Fri Aug 29, 2008 8:56 am

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wywi0Ii94OE

subcons · Post by **subcons** » Fri Aug 29, 2008 1:23 pm

adrenalinq wrote:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wywi0Ii94OE

Hmm... that's interesting. I just did a search and I don't see any updates for that emulator past the first 0.1 release. I didn't think there was any sound coming out of that so I'm confused as to how this guy got that working.

BrianC · Post by **BrianC** » Fri Aug 29, 2008 4:46 pm

E. Randy Dupre wrote: I think it's telling that the comp doesn't even manage to include Rainbow Islands or Bubble Bobble, although that might have been due to Taito wanting to push the (apparently) crappy remakes of both.

I'm not sure of the reasons behind it, but the JP version of Taito Legends Power Up, Taito Memories Pocket, had Rainbow Islands Extra, which was removed from the US/EU version of the collection and not replaced with anything.

dave4shmups · Post by **dave4shmups** » Sat Sep 06, 2008 8:25 pm

Does anyone know if the Star Soldier collection will have Tate? Yoko-only for vertical shmups like those would stink.

Post by **Ghegs** » Sat Sep 06, 2008 9:11 pm

dave4shmups wrote:Does anyone know if the Star Soldier collection will have Tate? Yoko-only for vertical shmups like those would stink.

They are not tate-games to begin with.

Post by **BulletMagnet** » Sat Sep 06, 2008 11:05 pm

Yeah, these were originally made for the PC Engine, back before home console games ever got tate options. As for whatever other aspects of it you might be interested in, I've got it pre-ordered so if you want to wait for impressions I can give you some in a few weeks.

dave4shmups · Post by **dave4shmups** » Sun Sep 07, 2008 12:29 am

BulletMagnet wrote:Yeah, these were originally made for the PC Engine, back before home console games ever got tate options. As for whatever other aspects of it you might be interested in, I've got it pre-ordered so if you want to wait for impressions I can give you some in a few weeks.

Yeah, that would be great; thanks!

I just hope it the games aren't squished; that's the impression of Sapphire that I got from you-or maybe it was someone else? Otherwise I'd love to pick that one up.

Post by **BulletMagnet** » Sun Sep 07, 2008 12:42 am

That was 8.5 here, I think - if memory serves the main thing he mentioned was that it didn't seem to be running at full speed, nothing about a "squished" image (unless I'm forgetting). I'll keep an eye out for stuff like that, to the best of my limited ability anyways.