How do you explain our SHMUPS hobby to your loved ones?

[StoofooEsq]

It's easy for me to explain these games to my family.
"Don't play these, you'd just die in seconds."

[Kollision]

I usually buy her a new ironing board or some make up and washing up liquid though just to keep her happy.

Gosh, if it were that easy for everybody!

[hermosaguy]

No matter how I explain it, the family always thinks I am playing 'the Nintendo'.

[Ed Oscuro]

Rock in a chair on my front porch and say

"And the things that are in a man's heart--it don't do him much good to talk about those things, does it? . . . No, . . . It don't. . . . They are secret things. Women are supposed to be the ones good at keeping secrets, and I guess they do keep a few, but any woman who knows anything at all would tell you she's never really seen into a man's heart. The soil of a man's heart is stonier, Louis--like the soil up there in the old Micmac burying ground. Bedrock's close. A man grows what he can . . . and he tends it."

[PC Engine Fan X!]

No matter how I explain it, the family always thinks I am playing 'the Nintendo'.

Or if you go back a bit futher into the early 1980s, then "the Atari" (aka the Atari 2600) would be more appropiate. I recall some folks referring the Atari VCS/2600 cartridges as "tapes" instead back in the day. ^_~

---------------------------------
An inpromptu phone chat would go like this (circa 1983):

Kid #1: Hey man, score any new Atari tapes?

Kid #2: Yeah, scored a new one. Went down to The Wherehouse & bought the Atari tape of Ms. Pac-Man. It was $39.99 + tax. C'mon over and check it out. It's a lot better than that crappy Pac-Man tape that I got earlier last year for my birthday. Or we could hang out at 7-Eleven & see what new arcade games they got.

Kid #1: Nah, I don't got any money on me, man. I could ask my mom if she'd be willing to give me a buck or two...then it'd be possible. I'll be right over really quick.

Kid #2: Yeah, we can go hang at 7-11 after you check out my new game. Hey, y'know that older dude with all those cool Atari tapes? We should ask him if we could borrow a few.

Kid #1: Yeah, that'd be awesome to go to his place after hanging at 7-Eleven and see what he's got. That dude's always buying the latest Atari games...so yeah, he's got quite an collection already. I'll be at your rents place in a bit. (The term "rents" in this phone conversation was slang for "parents" back in the early 1980s.)

Kid #2: See ya, dude.

Kid #1: Yeah, you too.

**Click***
----------------------------------

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Skykid]

I can tolerate some of her more extravagant purchases (like that £480 Louis Vuitton bag... （￣へ￣） )

You so have an Asian girlfriend.

[Specineff]

You can always explain to the waifu that arcades and systems are excellent means to keep the kids busy when she needs time for a quick bath or talk to her friends on the phone.

[HenshinStorm2001]

I can tolerate some of her more extravagant purchases (like that £480 Louis Vuitton bag... （￣へ￣） )

You so have an Asian girlfriend.

Mine is .............................. damn should of been more of a man whore b4 I got with her.
She is trying to play Super Puzzle Fighter 2 Turbo and she is liking that. Also giving her my Pink Mini
cute. So I am hoping this will help before I find a Ketsui in the future.

[Skykid]

I can tolerate some of her more extravagant purchases (like that £480 Louis Vuitton bag... （￣へ￣） )

You so have an Asian girlfriend.

Mine is .............................. damn should of been more of a man whore b4 I got with her.
She is trying to play Super Puzzle Fighter 2 Turbo and she is liking that. Also giving her my Pink Mini
cute. So I am hoping this will help before I find a Ketsui in the future.

She sounds perfectly tolerant to me - you should be posting in a thread for "chicks who dig my gaming hobby"!

[spadgy]

I go with "You know R-Ty... actually. Don't worry. I can't face explaining it again."

In terms of partners and shmups and gaming, my wife loves it. She's even got into setting up the Supergun and MVS recently. She's into a couple of shmups, especially strikers and 1943, but we play run 'n' guns together. The other night she came back drunk from a pub and was really proud as she had a picture on her camera of the hi-score board of the 1943 cocktail cab they had at the place, with her name at the top! I think I made her feel bad by looking up the records here.

In fact, she's on the Raiden DX hi-score thread on this very forum.

However, she prefers Guitar Hero. What a dick!

[Obiwanshinobi]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iweoFVeQ3HY
Just give her an arcade-style Galaga machine, like Peter Griffin did. Be a man.

[Devil Soundwave]

Surely its better that you're in the house playing games rather than in the pub drinking beer?

[HenshinStorm2001]

Surely its better that you're in the house playing games rather than in the pub drinking beer?

EXACTLY!!! Thats what I have always been saying!!
But also add in strip bar instead of pub sometimes

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Surely its better that you're in the house playing games rather than in the pub drinking beer?

EXACTLY!!! Thats what I have always been saying!!
But also add in strip bar instead of pub sometimes

Fellow shmupper Dave K. has been saying someone should open up an arcade that serves alcohol + strippers . Plently of "eye candy" either way, however you go about it. Would be one super sexy arcade that bound to get the customers' blood running a bit quicker. Or how about wet T-Shirt night in da arcade? Gather up some smokin' hot busty babes...anything's possible. ^_~

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Devil Soundwave]

Surely its better that you're in the house playing games rather than in the pub drinking beer?

EXACTLY!!! Thats what I have always been saying!!
But also add in strip bar instead of pub sometimes

Fellow shmupper Dave K. has been saying someone should open up an arcade that serves alcohol + strippers . Plently of "eye candy" either way, however you go about it. Would be one super sexy arcade that bound to get the customers' blood running a bit quicker. Or how about wet T-Shirt night in da arcade? Gather up some smokin' hot busty babes...anything's possible. ^_~

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

That's a fantastic idea!

[TLB]

No matter how I explain it, the family always thinks I am playing 'the Nintendo'.

For me it's "DA GAEM BOIZ" "HEZ UP IN HIZ RUME PLEYING HIZ GAEM BOIZ"

[Elixir]

My mother has to deal with this shit since I was 4 (1990). So much so that she owns a Master System and actively plays Super Granny In Paradise 3 (some PC game).

Yesterday I was telling her about Sega's 3D Sonics, and how everyone hates them, and that a lot of people have lost faith in Sega after them pulling the Dreamcast. She said "Yeah, they fucked that up, didn't they?". Haha, oh man. Maybe I should buy her a Wii.

[ASK]

My girlfriend refers to them as the 'pew-pew-pew' games, and hates them. I practically can't touch them when she's home She'll sit and watch any other game I play though

[Fudoh]

She'll sit and watch any other game I play though

you're playing other games than shoot'em ups ? Would you kindly leave this board then please!








(just kiddin'....)

[ROBOTRON]

Hmmmm.....They either think I'm eccentric or crazy. Everybody has a hobby they enjoy, this is mine.

[spadgy]

Everybody has a hobby they enjoy, this is mine.

If any of my relations understand it best, it's actually my father-in-law. He understands nothing about the genre or technology, but has a burning passion to collect and restore ancient model trains, so while our interests are technically pretty different, it's the understanding of having a enthusiasm for a reasonably obscure hobby that means we can chat about these two 'at-odds' interests for hours.

I still don't understand 'gauges', and he doesn't understand 'JAMMA', but boy, do we love to talk about it!

[BIL]

Heh, I'm the same with my dad, spadgy. He's a vintage car nut, so we've a similar appreciation of the obscure there, particularly on the hardware side. The custom stick scene really impressed him, since there's a fair bit of crossover with finishing, electrics, etc.

[SFKhoa]

For my family, I have to refer to them as "airplane games".
For my male friends, I have to refer to them as "STGs" (Just like me, they despise using the term shmups).
For my female friends, I have to refer to them as "Yeah, it's like Touhou."

In either situation, they all think I'm a masochist for playing them.

[captpain]

No matter how I explain it, the family always thinks I am playing 'the Nintendo'.

Or if you go back a bit futher into the early 1980s, then "the Atari" (aka the Atari 2600) would be more appropiate. I recall some folks referring the Atari VCS/2600 cartridges as "tapes" instead back in the day. ^_~

---------------------------------
An inpromptu phone chat would go like this (circa 1983):

Kid #1: Hey man, score any new Atari tapes?

Kid #2: Yeah, scored a new one. Went down to The Wherehouse & bought the Atari tape of Ms. Pac-Man. It was $39.99 + tax. C'mon over and check it out. It's a lot better than that crappy Pac-Man tape that I got earlier last year for my birthday. Or we could hang out at 7-Eleven & see what new arcade games they got.

Kid #1: Nah, I don't got any money on me, man. I could ask my mom if she'd be willing to give me a buck or two...then it'd be possible. I'll be right over really quick.

Kid #2: Yeah, we can go hang at 7-11 after you check out my new game. Hey, y'know that older dude with all those cool Atari tapes? We should ask him if we could borrow a few.

Kid #1: Yeah, that'd be awesome to go to his place after hanging at 7-Eleven and see what he's got. That dude's always buying the latest Atari games...so yeah, he's got quite an collection already. I'll be at your rents place in a bit. (The term "rents" in this phone conversation was slang for "parents" back in the early 1980s.)

Kid #2: See ya, dude.

Kid #1: Yeah, you too.

**Click***
----------------------------------

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

So people used to talk like malfunctioning robots back in '83?

[PC Engine Fan X!]

The slang terms from the early 1980s is spot-on accurate. If you've lived through that particular time period of the Atari 2600/5200 gaming era, then you'd know the lingo. ^_~

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[nZero]

For my family, I have to refer to them as "airplane games".
For my male friends, I have to refer to them as "STGs" (Just like me, they despise using the term shmups).
For my female friends, I have to refer to them as "Yeah, it's like Touhou."

In either situation, they all think I'm a masochist for playing them.

Shoot'em ups? That's badass, dawg. Y'know I was all about some Halo 2 back in the day. Good times, bro, good times.

[evil_ash_xero]

Honestly it's a little annoying. My mom knows what's up, since she has seen me play them quite a bit, but no one else in my family knows what i'm talking about.

The most annoying thing is trying to describe the genre to friends. Some I can get the point across by saying "you know, like Gradius or R-Type". But some people(girls) have no idea what i'm talking about, and I have to say "kinda like Space Invaders". Then they chuckle, and then I have to go "well, they've advanced a lot since then". It's a pain.

[Danbo]

For my female friends, I have to refer to them as "Yeah, it's like Touhou."

what if they don't know what touhou is? i never want to have to explain what touhou is to anyone.

[SFKhoa]

For my female friends, I have to refer to them as "Yeah, it's like Touhou."

what if they don't know what touhou is? i never want to have to explain what touhou is to anyone.

That situation never came up; they all know what Touhou is.

[TLB]

For my family, I have to refer to them as "airplane games".
For my male friends, I have to refer to them as "STGs" (Just like me, they despise using the term shmups).
For my female friends, I have to refer to them as "Yeah, it's like Touhou."

In either situation, they all think I'm a masochist for playing them.

Shoot'em ups? That's badass, dawg. Y'know I was all about some Halo 2 back in the day. Good times, bro, good times.

Yeah, dawg, I used to own dat Halo. The sniper was such a revolution in shooting game technology. And the recharging shields! Just think where da FUCK we'd be in shoot 'em ups if we's didn't has RE CHARGING SHIELDS!