When did you finally know you liked shmups?

Aquas · Post by **Aquas** » Thu Sep 11, 2008 7:00 pm

U.N. Squadron on the SNES was the first shmup I really enjoyed. I also played Gradius 3 on the SNES and really liked it, but never thought to myself, 'I should seek out more of these games,' I kind of thought the good ones were few inbetween or something. Years later, I start playing Raiden Fighters Jet at the arcade. A year passes playing this game and I discover it's scoring system, and in the process of learning and seeking out more information about the game, I found my way here. Since then... I've played many cool shmups including Gradius V, Gradius PSP collection, The Twinbee games, Salamander, Mushihimesama, R-Type Final, Space Megaforce among others.

I think it was the method of scoring in RFJ that really turned my head, though.

PC Engine Fan X! · Post by **PC Engine Fan X!** » Thu Sep 11, 2008 9:52 pm

Having lived through awesome experience of the famous Golden era of arcade games 1980-1990, all the games that came out from that period was seeing a kid grow up and mature. My first 2CC experience was with Capcom's 1986 Hyper Dyne Sidearms back in mid-1988. It was one of those "in the zone" moments of playing through it on my first life only to face the dreaded last "worm" end-boss and start losing lives like no tommorrow. Had to insert a second quarter to finally finish it off. ^_~

Having extensively played through the USA region version PCB of Sidearms in my youth, I've had a JPN PCB region to play with for while now and it still hasn't lost it's shmup charm. ^_~

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

RGC · Post by **RGC** » Thu Sep 11, 2008 10:48 pm

Lordstar · Post by **Lordstar** » Thu Sep 11, 2008 10:52 pm

Aquas wrote:U.N. Squadron on the SNES

this and Hellfire on the MD were big ones for me. My very first one i ever played (if i recall properly) was R type on the arcade. I only played galaga and space invaders the this decade

KindGrind · Post by **KindGrind** » Fri Sep 12, 2008 12:49 am

Shmups never appealed to me before 2000 or so. I played Lifeforce on the NES a bit, but always thought the game was too hard. I got into shmups through Treasure, but mostly because I was playing too much run and guns like Gunstar Heroes/Contra on the MD. Had always known RSG so I got it (I didn't fall in love with it, to be honest), then Iky (now we're talking), then the whole Saturn library starting with DDP and Batsugun.

SockPuppetHyren · Post by **SockPuppetHyren** » Fri Sep 12, 2008 11:20 am

When I played Donpachi.

PC Engine Fan X! · Post by **PC Engine Fan X!** » Fri Sep 12, 2008 5:35 pm

The Silver Age of arcade games (circa 1991-2000) brought about some cool arcade shmups that some of my local arcades managed to get in:

Regency Game Palace (circa 1989 to 1994): Superspace Fortress Macross, Vapor Trail, Raiden II, Galaga, etc.

Cal's-R-Cade (back in the mid-to-late 1980's): A-Jax, Twin Cobra, UFO Dangar Ace, Time Pilot, etc.

Chuckie E. Cheese's (back in the early 1980's): Funai's 1983 Interstellar laserdisc arcade shmup, Tempest, Centipede, Millipede, etc.

Electric Playground/Nickel Play(circa 1994 to 1998): Strikers 1945, Donpachi, Raiden II, Outzone, Viper Phase 1 U.S.A., R-Shark, Raiden Fighters, Blazing Star, etc. (The owner of Electric Playground/Nickel Play seemed to favor such arcade shmup titles, hence the wide assortment listed above.)

Tilt (circa 1978 to 2007): Space Invaders, Xevious, Time Pilot '84, Time Soldiers, Raiden II, etc.

Game Station Arcade #1 and #2 (circa 1982 to 1992): Sinistar, Silkworm, rare Turbografx-16 upright cabinet with Blazing Lasers PCB, etc.

Camelot Park/Boomer's (circa 1993 to present day): Galaga, Raiden II, Air Buster, CPS2 powered 19XX: War Against Destiny, Twin Eagle 2, etc.

Funworks (circa 1994 to present): CPS2 powered Dimahoo, Centipede, etc.

John's Incredible Pizza (circa 2002 to present): Ultracade cabinet running Varth emulation which sucks big time.

All the above arcades that have come and gone and a few are still around in the Modesto, CA area have had some arcade shmup titles to play with at one time or another. I was very fortunate enough to play Donpachi that was distributed by Atlus USA at the Electric Playground arcade back in 1995. At the time, it seemed that this so-called "new kid on the block", Cave Co. Ltd., seemed like any other arcade shmup developer with it's first arcade release of Donpachi.

As to why Atlus USA didn't release Dodonpachi PCB in the USA is beyond me (when such an International Version with all-English language was made for worldwide distribution back in 1997), they could've done so quite easily.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

PinkSweets · Post by **PinkSweets** » Fri Sep 12, 2008 7:10 pm

I guess you can say I'm another late bloomer especially since I'm younger than most people on this site

I've always played Galaga, Xevious, etc. but never looked at them as anything special although I did like them.

It was about 2 years ago when I discovered the beauty of Cave shmups

I started off playing DDP DOJ several months ago and fell in love with the over whelming bullet patterns and colors. Only then did I start to research games like Mushi, ESP, Ibara, Death Smiles etc. on Youtube and some shmup dedicated sites.

The bullet patterns, colors, music, and characters of games like Mushihimesama are just incredible and very rewarding to me

chempop · Post by **chempop** » Fri Sep 12, 2008 11:48 pm

Early childhood memories include playing the classics on my cousins Atari, some C64 titles although Pitfall got most of my attention. Later on playing tons of Life Force on NES with my older bro. !942 at local Pizza Hut and later on scoring Lightening Force on Genny, whoa big influence... still at this point I was more into Hori-land than Vert (that would change however), Musha and Robo Alesta were some of my most played for a while, but still one Hori still kept my interest: Gates of Thunder. A friend tried to ween me back on Hori's with R-Type but I wasn't anymore interested in slow paced shmups.

Than Saturn Hit and I was blown away with Panzer Dragoon, which to me was a shmup evolving to 3D... USA was shmup barren and the Genre started to fade for me, plus with Guardian Heroes, NiGHTS, Virtua Fighter 1+2 and Panzer Series I was pretty much set and completely turned away from the PS1 and N64, as the Saturn dies so did my gaming for many years well into the DC life-span (with the exception of SF2/alpha machine at the local comic store where I spent much of my free time. It wasn't until around when the PS2 came out I was at a friends house and he showed me Shenmue, Powerstone, Jet Grind Radio, and Marvel vs Capcom 2 and I decided to give games another shot.

When Mars Matrix came out was like what the heck its only $20 maybe it will be fun... at first I thought, man these are some ugly graphics, then it clicked and I remembered how much I loved playing them as a kid and that it was always my favorite genre. I told a friend about my new-old interest in shmups and he mentioned that our buddy might have a good game I should check out "rotting away in his basement"...

..you guessed it that game was Radiant Silvergun and he sold it to me for $20 (yes I told him it was worth tons more, he didn't care plus it was really scratched up). After that it was pretty much clear that something was wrong with me... err, I mean that I really like shmups!

I really have Capcom to thank for publishing a few really great Shmups in USA, I quickly started importing but I decided to go to Japan and Yen-feed Ikaruga as soon as I got off the plain.... good times!

Super Laydock · Post by **Super Laydock** » Sat Sep 13, 2008 12:20 am

When I got a mate with a c64 to buy R-type (his first bought game ever!) by continuing to express my love for Salamander!

I couldn't purchase that game for my MSX at the time and wanted to play it anyway.
C64 R-Type pwnz the MSX version for sure in retrospect, and he LOVED the game in any case. So I made him AND me happy with my recommendation.

At that time I realized I loved horizontal scrolling shooters more than any other game style.

RackGaki · Post by **RackGaki** » Tue Sep 16, 2008 3:12 am

Played Space Invaders at the age of five, was addicted for a while.

Gradius, 1942, and R-type kept me occupied for a while after.

Then, like most of the video game populace, I abandoned shoot 'em ups in the mid 1990s and fragged with FPS's on the PC. No more shoot 'em ups until I found Ikaruga in 2005 on the Gamecube. Since then, I've dabbled with most of the United States releases, and I now appreciate a good scoring system.

Since then, my only goal has been to 1cc Ikaruga. To do so on Dot Eater would be swell, too (I know, that's throwing the entire chaining system out the window, but I haven't seen too many attempts on this).

Aru-san · Post by **Aru-san** » Tue Sep 16, 2008 4:44 am

When I ran into a video of a video came called ESP Ra.De. and found out that such a simplistic genre of video games got a HELL OF A LOT harder. I decided to be adventurous and play ESP Ra.De., which got me introduced to games like DoDonPachi and DonPachi...which got me introduced to Cave, which got me re-hooked in Star Soldier: Vanishing Earth, which got me hooked into this genre like a pack of cigars I can't stop taking.

On the other hand, it made me a retro gamer. I discovered more videos of games I was familiar with, but didn't play because I was 'too scared to' back in the days. Now I'm like "CRAP, WHY THE HELL DIDN'T I PLAY THIS!?"

BTW, I don't smoke.

Square King · Post by **Square King** » Wed Sep 17, 2008 5:53 am

Definitely started with Galaga in a local arcade. I was probably 8 at the time and I absolutely loved it. Even better was the fact that my mom and uncle showed me how to get a double ship...that game just begged for quarters. Growing up, I was lucky to have an NES...I was big on the Mario games and a few select others. I saw NES Gradius for 95 cents at a thrift store one day and decided to take it home based on the cover art alone. From there, I really searched around for more shooters. There were a few good arcades in Denver at the time (Celebrities and Boardwalk USA, woo) so I had some good exposure, but never anything from Raizing, Cave, etc. Eventually I got an SNES and continued with Gradius 3 and R-Type, but when I got the RPG bug, I put shmups on the back burner. Then maybe 6-7 years ago, I got a Dreamcast and a bootleg copy of Mars Matrix. Changed my life. After I found other killer DC shooters and MAME, I was beyond hooked. Now that I've done more research and built a modest but capable joystick, I'm almost ready to invest in a cab and my first PCB.

Stormwatch · Post by **Stormwatch** » Wed Sep 17, 2008 6:27 am

I was not much into shmups back in the 16-bit days; they didn't have the right pacing, the right balance to entice me. Most were too sluggish and frustrating. Only with Mars Matrix and GigaWing 2 on the Dreamcast, I realized what a shmup could and should be.

chempop · Post by **chempop** » Wed Sep 17, 2008 6:55 am

i think Mars Matrix really brought a lot of people back into the genre (even more than ikaruga and gradius v)! thanks takumi and capcom

treasure, where the hell is RSG3???

Impervious · Post by **Impervious** » Wed Sep 17, 2008 7:04 am

as with half the people's posts, i wasn't so big back then. i did like the gradius/r-type series early in the nes/snes days, but not too superultramegaexcited over them.

it was when i looked up on youtube: "impossible boss battles" out of boredom over a year ago, and i found Touhou 6 EOSD Extra boss battle. the bullet patterns, music, and just plain length of that one battle made me crap myself. so overtime, i did research, and caught up with the times.

now i'm on a mission to get the jap imports of cave cames for PS2. oh, what a mission.

neritai · Post by **neritai** » Wed Sep 17, 2008 2:19 pm

I play NES and SNES ports when those systems were current, but never really got into them. I threw myself against Super Nova and a few others, but the pain of playing through the first stage or two every single time just to get to whichever later stage was giving me problems got old very fast. After those, I sort of forgot about the genre.

Towards the twilight of the Saturn, I picked one up while the local EB was clearancing all their Saturn games for $1-2, and I eventually burned a copy of a friend of mine's Radiant Silvergun, which I played until the Saturn died shortly afterwards =(

Then, around a year ago, I was poking around gaming forums and someone linked some videos of Mushihimesama Futari as a "haha, these games are crazy, who the hell would play these games?" kind of thing.

So of course, I decided right then that I simply had to 1cc one of these "impossible" games - I hadn't ever heard the term "1cc" or "shmup" before I started researching Mushihimesama. It's mostly due to this board and to super-play.co.uk that I've gotten into it - to the point that I don't play much of any other games anymore.

I was sad to find out that there was no port of Futari - I don't have the money for PCB collecting. So for now I'm working on Mushihimesama and ESPGaluda on my ps2. I can only make it to stage 4 in each on my first credit, but one day...

Elixir · Post by **Elixir** » Wed Sep 17, 2008 5:13 pm

Somewhere in 2004 I started "soul searching" for games I enjoy. I noticed I hopped from genre to genre, music to RPG, to fighting, to adventure, to visual novel, but always ended up playing shmups in the process of doing so. Something that I did when I wasn't trying to find something else to play.

It was only then that I realized the genre is the base element of gaming for me, and I enjoyed it to the point where it was so mutual, I didn't even realize what I was doing. Then I went heavily into the Touhou scene, getting quite good at the games, but mostly playing for survival. I've always been more of a fan of dodging over scoring or second loops. I'm also the type to mess around with pacifism/no bomb runs.

Mid 2006 was when I 1cc'd Mushi, and that's when I decided it'd be no time like the present to get into PCB collecting. I was 20. After searching for a supergun for a long ass time, in 2007, someone popped up with a Sigma on SomethingAwful. It was a pretty good deal, too.

Then I was reinvited back here in 2008. Since there isn't any other reputable shmup forum, I'll take what I can get. And here I am now.

Matsunaga · Post by **Matsunaga** » Wed Sep 17, 2008 10:34 pm

At first, it was 1943 on NES. I played that game all the time, and never got anywhere. Then there were years of Street Fighter, Tekken, Ridge Racer, and Final Fantasy... One day I said to my brother, "I wonder if there's any games like 1943 these days?". So I searched the internet, and found Dodonpachi on MAME. Since then I've spent thousands on shmups and related hardware. My girlfriend dosen't understand why I have an LCD on its side in the bedroom, neither does anyone else, and I'm sick of explaining what "vertical" means. It's a lonely existance, being a shmupper, but I wouldn't want to be anything else.

Super Laydock · Post by **Super Laydock** » Wed Sep 17, 2008 10:57 pm

Matsunaga wrote:It's a lonely existance, being a shmupper, but I wouldn't want to be anything else.

Get other people in the know and the loneliness should fade soon enough.
People disliking the genre is mostly due to ignorance. People really interested in gaming tend to pick this up quite fast.

Oh, and try some horis too!
Gradius and Salamander over any vertical (even Laydock) any day!

*wonders why this is off topic*

Observer · Post by **Observer** » Thu Sep 18, 2008 3:50 am

Space Invaders, Galaga, Twin Bee, Raiden, Xevious and the Macross NES shooter come to my mind as some of the first stgs I played. Then the SNES version of Darius and the arcade cabs of Raiden (which were almost the all-time favourites next to that silly Simpsons game everyone played back then) and an odd game called Mad Shark. (I even have a note from a magazine that talked about the game)

There is a particular thing that happened at school back in 1995 during an art class where they asked us to draw a game screen. People drew Mario and Donkey Kong-like stuff, Zelda and other rpgish things, Tetris, Pac Man, racing and sport games.

Guess what did yours truly draw... Yes, you guessed: SHOOTAN GAEM SCREEN. I still have that old drawing in one of my drawers and always smile when I remember it.

This is the old drawing (please bear with my super-drawing kid skills, this was a bit before I turned 10):

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v365/Wyrm/scan12.jpg

Yes, yes, super silly, ridiculous now. But think that, as a kid, I was totally blown away by the arcade games and how damn imposing and great everything looked in those huge CRT screens.

I decided my Raiden-like ship was too cool to be owned and since the boss destroyed it, the escape pod also shoots! (there is a second player in there because, well, I use to play with my bro and loved playing in co-op and blow up shit non stop) I also remembered the teacher asked me why the enemy was so big or why there were so many explosions...

That's when I realised I totally loved the pew pew.

twalden · Post by **twalden** » Thu Sep 18, 2008 8:26 am

Probably around the mid to late 80s. I played Xevious, Galaga, etc. a few years before, but playing games like Alcon, Sky Shark, 1943, and Twin Cobra in the arcades really got the ball rolling.

Josh · Post by **Josh** » Fri Sep 19, 2008 5:27 am

It was a while ago it had to of been sometime in '03. I never really thought about shmups all that much since I was more of a Metal Slug fan. Anyways threw this neogeo meetup in SanDeigo and this dude, Chai ended up giving me a burnt copy of Psyvariar 2. I played the shit out of that game and have been hooked ever since. Damn now I have all the burnt DC shmups and that's just to hold me over while I collect all the official ones. I don't have any PCB's, probably won't, but who the hell knows.. I do have a nice PS2 filled with some shmups but I'm mostly focusing on the DC so I think my $$$$ spending will be going toward that. Anyways awesome thread!

chempop · Post by **chempop** » Fri Sep 19, 2008 10:26 pm

Observer, that drawing is too cool for school. seriously, I teach elementary school kids and that is quite skillful for a <10 year old. Thanks for sharing!

Hmmm, so are Caves PS2 titles responsible for so many shmups being out of my price range?? Damn you youngsters, go play some 16bit shmups and learn the ropes.

Great threads like this are rare on this forum.

Matsunaga · Post by **Matsunaga** » Fri Sep 19, 2008 10:58 pm

Super Laydock wrote:
Matsunaga wrote:It's a lonely existance, being a shmupper, but I wouldn't want to be anything else.
Get other people in the know and the loneliness should fade soon enough.
People disliking the genre is mostly due to ignorance. People really interested in gaming tend to pick this up quite fast.

Oh, and try some horis too!
Gradius and Salamander over any vertical (even Laydock) any day!

*wonders why this is off topic*

I use the 50" for horis, but verts are my thing. I don't get that special feeling for the horis..

Andi · Post by **Andi** » Fri Sep 19, 2008 11:58 pm

I bought a Genesis back in 2003 and the 5th game I got for it was Biohazard Battle. I loved it, 1CC'ed it on every difficulty single and 2 player then I was like, "Shit, what am I do now?". After that I bought Darius Gaiden and got all the endings and 1CC'ed it. And since then, I really haven't found any shooters that I really care about.

Damn shame that the first 2 shooters I really played were the best in the whole genre.

captpain · Post by **captpain** » Sat Sep 20, 2008 3:42 am

Andi wrote: Damn shame that the first 2 shooters I really played were the best in the whole genre.

WTF?