Please help me find this Stealth Bomber shmup?

EdS25 · Post by **EdS25** » Fri Jun 03, 2005 4:05 pm

Looking for a shmup I used to play back in the day (late 80's or very early 90's). The main ship type was a Stealth Bomber. The only other detail I have is that the game would occasionally speed up and some heavy cheesemetal would play. I'm sure that narrows it down to 40 or so shmups. Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

FatCobra · Post by **FatCobra** » Fri Jun 03, 2005 4:33 pm

I think maybe you are talking about Grid Seeker...it had a stealth bomber as a playable ship, and I do think the soundtrack had a cheesemetal thing going for it.

Metal Gear Okt · Post by **Metal Gear Okt** » Fri Jun 03, 2005 5:35 pm

Didn't the Aerofighters games have a stealth-ish craft too?

alpha5099 · Post by **alpha5099** » Fri Jun 03, 2005 5:56 pm

It'd help if you said if it was side-scrolling or vertical, and if vertical, horizontally or vertically oriented. And was it an arcade game or on a console or computer?

EdS25 · Post by **EdS25** » Fri Jun 03, 2005 6:44 pm

Sorry for the missing info : it was an Arcade Vertical shmup.

Thanks for the other suggestions - unfortunately it's not Grid Seeker or Aerofighters.

Post by **BulletMagnet** » Fri Jun 03, 2005 6:54 pm

I vaguely remember trying a certain vertical shmup in MAME which had a stealth bomber as a selectable ship...it had 2 others, as I recall, namely a jet and a helicopter, and the stats for each were different...I forget its name though.

Acid King · Post by **Acid King** » Fri Jun 03, 2005 8:21 pm

Is there a single shmup or shmup developer somewhere out there that someone else likes, but you don't, and for rational reasons? Guess what? You're not hardcore!

That's a great sig.

Post by **BulletMagnet** » Fri Jun 03, 2005 9:37 pm

Heh heh, thank you.

alpha5099 · Post by **alpha5099** » Fri Jun 03, 2005 10:22 pm

BulletMagnet wrote:I vaguely remember trying a certain vertical shmup in MAME which had a stealth bomber as a selectable ship...it had 2 others, as I recall, namely a jet and a helicopter, and the stats for each were different...I forget its name though.

Sounds like Vapor Trail, although I've only played the Genny version.

FRO · Post by **FRO** » Fri Jun 03, 2005 10:34 pm

alpha5099 wrote:Sounds like Vapor Trail, although I've only played the Genny version.

I didn't think Vapor Trail had a stealth bomber as a selectable ship...I'll have to pop that in my Genny and have a go later to confirm.

Post by **BulletMagnet** » Fri Jun 03, 2005 11:25 pm

I don't think it was Vapor Trail...it was one of those you've-never-heard of-it shmups, IIRC.

postman · Post by **postman** » Sat Jun 04, 2005 12:02 am

My guess is possibly Change Air Blade. I'm pretty sure there was a stealth in that one.

FatCobra · Post by **FatCobra** » Sat Jun 04, 2005 2:33 am

BulletMagnet wrote:I vaguely remember trying a certain vertical shmup in MAME which had a stealth bomber as a selectable ship...it had 2 others, as I recall, namely a jet and a helicopter, and the stats for each were different...I forget its name though.

It's Grid Seeker I believe.

EdS25 · Post by **EdS25** » Sat Jun 04, 2005 4:53 pm

Darn. Thanks for all the replies but I still haven't found it. The strange thing is checking all the games of the era, it doesn't seem like the graphics are on par with what I remember of this one. It was really fast, really smooth and sort of Genesis/SNES style graphics.

The main ships looked like stealth bombers, only a little wider and a little more smoothed out. When playing 2 players, one would be black and the other silver. Your bomb-type attack was a gigantic 4 laser effect that covered the whole screen, iirc.

This might be stretching it, but I almost seem to remember a futuristic date in the title. Like it was blah blah blac 2046 or something like that.

I am 75% sure I'm not just imagining this. Me and the guy that first asked me about it (sending me on this wild goose chase) remember it fairly well (except the title of course.)

Any other ideas?

EdS25 · Post by **EdS25** » Mon Jun 06, 2005 4:00 pm

Well, I'm giving up for now. The only thing I know for sure is that it's not emulated on MAME. After trying many, many games and looking through the entire 134 MB Snapshot directory, I can safely say it's not in there.
I wonder if it was actually a console running in an arcade cabinet, or something nobody ever dumped, or (and fairly likely at this point) . .. just all in my head?

EdS25 · Post by **EdS25** » Tue Jun 07, 2005 3:44 pm

MYSTERY SOLVED (sort of!)

Turns out me and my buddy where thinking of different shmups. Still haven't found the one I thought I remembered, but that's probably because it doesn't exist. Only in my head.

However, the one we were looking for was Twin Eagle - Rescue Joe's Brother. I think in our heads we had replaced the main helicopter player vehicle with the much cooler looking refueling craft. (Hence the misleading topic.)

I was certainly right about one thing tho - the cheesemetal. This game defines it! During the "fast" sequences, if you haven't played this, do yourself a favor and check it out. WAH WAH WAH GONNA BREAK IT DOWN!!!

The other interesting thing about this shooter is that I find it extremely difficult. Frustratingly difficult. I can hold my own in the Cave shooters, the Psikyo games, Raiden, etc. This game just kicks my ass every minute. Sloppy control, huge hitbox, hard to see flashing bullets. Couple that with a brutal checkpoint system (i.e. upon continue being so far back you don't even remember the area anymore) and it's a recipe for disaster.

I guess I've always preferred manic shooters with straight-shot bullets. My other pet peeve is bullets coming from behind, which Twin Eagle seems to specialize in. Reminds me of the NES version of Star Force. My god that game was cheap. To this day I believe it was purely a marketing ploy to sell NES Advantage controllers. (The music and sound even continued when you paused so that the "slow motion" would work right.)

To sum it up, check out Twin Eagle for 10 minutes to hear the cock rock anthem, but then avoid it like the plague.