Tube Shooters

[mjclark]

Where can I find a definitive list of tube shooters, and does anyone have any recommendations?
Following that thread about Dangerous Seed, I've been getting into N2O on PSx. That lead on to Internal Section and now I'm wondering where to go next
So far the list looks like this:

Tempest, 1981 (Arc, PC, XBox, PS2, XBox360, NDS)
Tempest Tubes, 1981 (Arc,PC)
Gyruss, 1983 (Arc,NES)
Web Wars, 1983 (Vectrex)
S.T.U.N. Runner, 1989 (Arc,Lynx,PS2)
Tempest2000, 1994 (Jaguar,Sat)
Arashi, 1994 (Mac)
TempestX3, 1996 (PSx)
Nanotek Warrior, 1997 (PSx)
N2O:Nitrous Oxide, 1998 (PSx)
iS:Internal Section, 1999 (PSx)
Lattice 200ec7, 1999 (PSx)
Tempest3000, 2000 (Nuon)
Tsunami2010, 2003 (PC)
Torus Trooper, 2004 (PC,Linux)
Typhoon2001, 2006 (PC,Linux)
Space Giraffe, 2008 (PC,Xbox360)
Triphid, 2009 (iPod)
GearToyGear, 2009 (Windows, XBox360)
Wormhole (Vectrex)
Tube Panic (Arc)
Star Goose (DOS, Atari ST)

Anymore for any more? I'll update the list with each new suggestion...

[Mark III]

I hear that Nanotek Warrior is decent if you like N20, although I haven't tried it myself.

[Nate]

Mark III:

I hear that Nanotek Warrior is decent if you like N20, although I haven't tried it myself.

I was just the other day racking my brain trying to remember that title...thanks! Was it Saturn or PS?

...oh, I guess that's what search engines are for.

[gameoverDude]

Tempest X3 (PS1) is not bad either. The Tempest 2000 mode is a bit off from the original Jaguar game, but the X3 mode is good in its own right.

Then there's S.T.U.N. Runner on PS2 in the Midway Arcade Treasures 3 pack.

[kengou]

Torus Trooper by Kenta Cho, for the PC, is a fantastic tube shooter. Freeware, although I don't know if there's a linux version.

[lgb]

http://www.mb.ccnw.ne.jp/hiz/game/tt/index_en.html

[mjclark]

Torus Trooper by Kenta Cho, for the PC, is a fantastic tube shooter. Freeware, although I don't know if there's a linux version.

Torus Trooper is working great with Wine and there's also a linux package for it
Keep 'em coming!
If there isn't already a comprehensive list of tube shooters out there then maybe one could be compiled from this thread...

[Thunder Force]

All the games mentioned in this thread so far are worth playing.

S.T.U.N. Runner on PS2 in the Midway Arcade Treasures 3 pack.

That bad port is not representative of the original arcade experience. In spirit, if not in pixel count, the Atari Lynx conversion remains the best official home version of this classic (outside of MAME).

Space Giraffe also deserves a mention in this thread, and of course, Gyruss.

The most recent new game on the scene, that I can think of, is Triphids on the iPhone/iPodTouch.

[StoofooEsq]

S.T.U.N. Runner on PS2 in the Midway Arcade Treasures 3 pack.

That bad port is not representative of the original arcade experience. In spirit, if not in pixel count, the Atari Lynx conversion remains the best official home version of this classic (outside of MAME).

Yeah, the main problem with the PS2 port was the high frame rate (this might be the only time I'll ever say anything like this). That made it much faster than the arcade original, which actually hurts the gameplay.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Another cool tube shooter for the JPN PSX was Squaresoft's iS: internal section...unfortunately, it never did get a proper U.S. PSX release. There was talk about Squaresoft USA of a possibility of bring it out to the USA in 1999-2000 timeline but never came to be.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Alec]

<3 N2O

[null1024]

Another nod to both S.T.U.N. Runner and Torus Trooper. I love those games too much.

[mjclark]

Cool! A list is taking shape here so I'll put it at the top of this thread

[Zeether]

Tempest 3000 on the ill-fated Nuon.

[mjclark]

Tempest 3000 on the ill-fated Nuon.

Good call! That then leads on to :Tsunami 2010 and Typhoon 2001 so they're on the list too now

[Guardians Knight]

define 'Tube Shooter' please

[mjclark]

define 'Tube Shooter' please

How about "Any rail shooter or fixed shooter with a radial axis of motion"?
I'm sure someone with a better geometrical vocabulary can come up with something more precise, but basically the viewpoint is from behind the shooter, forward motion is into the screen and lateral motion is circular.
I'm regarding Tempest and Space Giraffe as fixed shooters here since there's no forward motion.

[Guardians Knight]

hmm so id say rail shooter. in that case you cud add microcosm on the cd32

[mjclark]

hmm so id say rail shooter. in that case you cud add microcosm on the cd32

As far as the YouTube footage goes,this looks like just a rail shooter-the X,Y and Z axes are all perpendicular. there's no radial axis.
Have a look at N2O or Internal Section and you'll see what I mean. In tube shooters the ships lateral motion is circular

[LSU]

Whilst it's not a new game, I'd just like to add that I think the Saturn port of Tempest 2000 is absolutely awesome. The frame rate is far better than the Jaguar game (Jag ver runs at ~30fps vs Saturn ver at ~60fps, NTSC) whilst otherwise being quite faithful to the original and thus it feels a lot more responsive and 'arcadey'. Didn't think the extra bells and whistles in X3 added that much. Would dearly love to try 3000 some day but don't have a Nuon.

[BrianC]

Whilst it's not a new game, I'd just like to add that I think the Saturn port of Tempest 2000 is absolutely awesome. The frame rate is far better than the Jaguar game (Jag ver runs at ~30fps vs Saturn ver at ~60fps, NTSC) whilst otherwise being quite faithful to the original and thus it feels a lot more responsive and 'arcadey'. Didn't think the extra bells and whistles in X3 added that much. Would dearly love to try 3000 some day but don't have a Nuon.

I read that the Saturn port was done by the same developer (High Voltage) that did X3 and had the same issues as the 2000 port in that (spikes that are harder to destroy), as well as missing one of the bonus rounds.

[mjclark]

Oh yeah, I overlooked the Saturn port of Tempest2000.
I'm also starting to realise that I severely misjudged Space Giraffe

[Thunder Force]

Whilst it's not a new game, I'd just like to add that I think the Saturn port of Tempest 2000 is absolutely awesome. The frame rate is far better than the Jaguar game (Jag ver runs at ~30fps vs Saturn ver at ~60fps, NTSC) whilst otherwise being quite faithful to the original and thus it feels a lot more responsive and 'arcadey'. Didn't think the extra bells and whistles in X3 added that much. Would dearly love to try 3000 some day but don't have a Nuon.

I read that the Saturn port was done by the same developer (High Voltage) that did X3 and had the same issues as the 2000 port in that (spikes that are harder to destroy), as well as missing one of the bonus rounds.

Never got to try the Saturn port, but it sounds like it might be similar to the first PC DOS CDROM version of T2K which I played tons of - that PC version controlled and sounded great (although missing some visual pizzaz, it definitely didn't have the TX3 spikes bug).

Note: There was also a subsequent PC CDROM re-release of T2K that I believe was more Windows-compatible (?) but I don't know if that port had any actual gameplay changes.

[Ed Oscuro]

It's not really a Tube Shooter, but it has Tubes and Shooting, and it's not too far off from STUN Runner - Extreme G (the series, though II on the N64 is the last one I played, pretty decent game for the time).

[Thunder Force]

At the terrible risk of falling into the mayhem of shmups categorization (oh noes), I don't think Extreme G counts, because if you include Extreme G then you have to include other similar titles like F-Zero X, F-Zero GX, Tube Slider, etc

Categorizing S.T.U.N. Runner as a tube shmup is problematic on its own, despite it being an awesome game; since it's clearly just a revamped Road Blasters. And Wipeout in particular owes an awful lot to S.T.U.N. Runner too... Road Blasters and Wipeout aren't tube shmups, so S.T.U.N. Runner is probably a "borderline tube shmup" (!).

[mjclark]

Hmmm...as with Microcosm, in Extreme-G the motion is only in straight lines so it's a rail shooter.
In S.T.U.N. Runner however, the lateral motion has a radial axis when your going through the tubes where all the action happens so it's mostly a tube shooter.
A tube shooter has circular lateral motion, though someone may have a better definition

[Erik]

Would Omega Boost on PS1 apply as a "tube shooter"?

[mjclark]

Would Omega Boost on PS1 apply as a "tube shooter"?

Never played it but it looks awesome
However it also looks like it's straight line motion. In other words, if you move your directional input left (for example) then you move in a straight line whereas in a tube shooter if you move your directional input left you would move in a circular path clockwise.
Maybe someone with some applied maths could help us out here

[A Black Falcon]

For some reason I really didn't like N2O at all... I love Tempest 2000 and think X3 is a solid version, if not as good as the Jaguar original, and love other tube shooters like Torus Trooper for example, but N2O... I got it hoping that it'd be a good game, but I just didn't feel that way at all. It somehow just didn't click. It feels like it should be faster (like Torus Trooper... ), but on the other hand when you're going fast dodging is hard... I think the style works better static, like Tempest, than moving, like here. Torus Trooper works because it's not as serious and you get a lot of leeway with when you get hit (tiny little hitbox). This isn't like that. I'm not sure what all my problems with it were, I'd need to go back and play it. I just didn't have much fun and quit after a few levels. Too bad... it does have a nice graphical presentation. I just didn't like the gameplay that much...

Anyway though, tube shooters can be great. As I said, I love the Tempest games, and like Torus Trooper and Gyruss as well.

Categorizing S.T.U.N. Runner as a tube shmup is problematic on its own, despite it being an awesome game; since it's clearly just a revamped Road Blasters. And Wipeout in particular owes an awful lot to S.T.U.N. Runner too... Road Blasters and Wipeout aren't tube shmups, so S.T.U.N. Runner is probably a "borderline tube shmup" (!).

Yeah, I'd consider S.T.U.N. Runner an action/racing game as well, but it is true that those futuristic racing games there (all four Extreme-G series games, F-Zero X and GX, Tube Slider, Ballistic, probably a few more) do have tube sections where you can drive on all sides of the tube... but as you're in a racing situation, it does feel different from a shooter, even if it's an action racing game. S.T.U.N. Runner is the one of those that's closest to being a shooter, though, so if one's going to be on that list, that's the one -- that game doesn't have laps or anything for example, or people to race against, so it feels a bit less like a racing game... but yeah, I would agree that it's more racing than shooter.

Pure tube-only racing games like Tube Slider and Ballistic are pretty interesting, though. If you haven't tried Ballistic and like futuristic racing, go get the demo! It's a PC (and later arcade) game, and is pretty cool... though I have played the arcade version too a few times, and it was even more awesome there of course.

[dave4shmups]

Tempest X3 is the most addictive PS1 shooting game that I've ever played, and I've played some great import PS1 shooters. It's just awesome! And, you can use the Puchi Carat dial controller with it, although that controller is pretty hard to find.

Also, if you get Atari Anthology, which came out for PC, PS2 and XBOX (and is backwards compatible with the 360) you can play Tempest Tubes, which has different stages from the arcade original, also contained in Atari Anthology.

Regarding S.T.U.N. Runner, I've read that the Lynx port does not allow the player to loop, or go upside down, so I don't know if that would be the best home port.