What game sparked your interest in shooters?

[Zeron]

For me its TOAPLAN's Batsugun back in 2007 I had just discovered the Saturn swap trick, and I was just randomly downloading games and burning to disc, I just happened to have stumbled upon Batsugun, I fell instantly in love with it, not to mention that badass Iceman. GOOOD LUCKKK.

Oh and still to this day its one of my favorite shooters and the best TOAPLAN game in my opinion.

[ncp]

Super R-Type. In more recent years, Ikaruga.

[emphatic]

Flying Shark back in 1987.

[the2bears]

The original R-Type in the arcade. I think it was a combination of the game play (I liked the memorization aspect, having to "learn" the levels) as well as the bio-mechanical design.

Bill

[RNGmaster]

toohoo

[szycag]

A guy who went by the name DeadScreenSky posted a thread on Rotten Tomatoes with his favorite shmups and how to get them working if you'd never messed with MAME. Tried DoDonPachi and I was hooked forever.

[Drachenherz]

Honestly?

Espgaluda II on the iPad.

Actually, it woke my interest in playing these games "properly", e.g.: for score and for the 1cc...

[Anesthetize]

Gradius V is what actually got me interested again.

I played some of the early NES shmups back in the day, but it wasn't until very recently that I really became a fan of the genre.

Mushihimesama Futari is what really got me hooked.

[Matsunaga]

1943.. then Dodonpachi

[TrevHead (TVR)]

Great idea for a topic I love hearing about ppls shmup history

Heres mine allthough I have already posted most of it in another thread

(Copy&pasted from the niche thread)
And like others recent shmuppers here, I too got into the genre though Touhou. One day I was browsing through some you tube vids and came across some touhou playthroughs which along with Ites 20 best doujins vid totally bowled me over seeing ppl dodging all those complex looking bullet patterns and made me think "wow I wanna do that" DLed BWR and soon after I found myself here where I embraced the concept of 1CC / score

Although been someone who grew up in the 8/16bit eras that was the first place I encountered shmups. I remember playing the odd game of 1941, xevious, defender and commando in the arcades or a local cafe and although I enjoyed playing them I rarely did as I sucked too much and it eat my credits too quickly, I think the only shmup i had any major intrest was R-type in my local arcade where I could get to stage 2 or 3 in a credit or 2, unfortunatly it didnt stay in my arcade too long before it was replaced (the 2 local arcades very rarely had shmups in if any)

Fast forward to the mega drive years and I bought xenon 2 which been a kid in a family where at that time money was tight, we couldnt afford that many console games especially as they we so expensive (kids today dont know theyre born with games been so cheap) Unfortunatly Xenon 2 was a slow piece of euroshmup shite which pratically put me off shooters for good. (although i did rent Gynoug a hori which i enjoyed) But the damage was done I would quickly dismiss shmups for genres I already liked and through all these years I missed some great shmups untill I caught the shmup bug last year, (why couldnt I bought a decent shmup like Musha)

[Tigershark]

I've always liked them. I remember playing Space Invaders in the 70's at a caravan site on holiday in Devon. The ones the really got my attention after that were Scramble and Defender.

In the 80's I played a number of Mega Drive shooters but then left the genre for years following the advent of 3D and the PS1.

It was the Dreamcast that got me into shooters again after I bought Gunbird 2. The rest is history, large shelfs with lots of expensive games and all sorts of imported consoles.

[`Throwdown]

Tiger Heli ftw.

[Exarion]

Ikaruga for playing at all, Touhou Imperishable Night for 1cc, ESPGaluda II for scoring.

[mesh control]

Xevious and Dreamcast shmups in the spring of '09 (noob)

[God]

Ikaruga

(With Contra 3 as a gateway drug.)

[Ebbo]

I do remember playing few shooters with my friend's pirate Famicom console (he had one of those "bazillion games in 1" cartridges), such as Gradius, Macross and Star Force - although I didn't remember those names until many years later when I actually started to play shmups more frequently.
Then there was this little shooter which came with my first cellphone, Nokia 3310... Space Impact.


Oh the horror!

It might have been the very first shmup which I actually played for score with my friends. Scoring system? I don't think it even had one but it was still suprisingly engaging.

Seriously though I'm one of those Aguraki noobs.

[Phoenix]

space invaders!

[dannnnn]

Dragon Blaze was the first game I played on MAME and subsequently the game which got me hooked on the genre.

[gs68]

Gradius III (SNES) in 2003 was what got me into playing shmups regularly. Which is ironic because I hate that game now.

[drunkninja24]

Super R-Type. In more recent years, Ikaruga.

Pretty much the same for me.

[t0yrobo]

I started on the pc with games like Major Stryker, Raptor, and dos clones of arcade games like Space Invaders and Defender. I got back into them on Dreamcast mainly because of Mars Matrix.

[joeboto]

raiden on genesis back in '98.
then on 08', discovered mushihimesama, first danmaku i've tried.

[AKRATEN]

Zanac for the Nes back in the day.

[evil_ash_xero]

I played some really old ones when I was a kid, like 1943 and Gradius, but I really started to love them around 90, when I got MUSHA and Thunderforce III.

[drauch]

DO DO DO DO DO DON PACHI!

That's what really kick started me into the love relationship. Always have enjoyed Galaga lots as well.

[Thjodbjorn]

Mushihimesama Futari and Espgaluda II on the 360. I wish I could pretend to be more OG.

[Drum]

Salamander on C64 and Prehistoric Isle in 1930 were the first ones that really tickled my brain. I played the hell out of Major Stryker, Blood Money and Silpheed on the PC. It was a pretty gradual process though, with interest rising and dipping with time.

[Kollision]

Back in 2005 I was in LA for a month, and right there and then I wanted to buy some "spaceship games" to play on the PS2 I got on a child's day promotion on an online local store. I didn't know anything about the shmup culture.

The games I got home with me were R-Type Final and Gradius V. Never having played any Gradius, I immediately fell in love with Gradius V. I played it to no end and even made it to stage 7 on 1 credit once. R-Type Final was duly neglected because it was too hard. And slow. And not fun with that burial music.

Later on I sold my PS2 and bought a PS3 in the hopes of playing Gradius VI. Then mid-2007 it all came to me as I finally got Darius II for the good old Mega Drive. Once again I would plunge into the world of video games, after a long college/work hiatus.

So I guess the game that sparked my definitive interest was Gradius V, even though I always had a soft spot for "spaceship games" since my teens.

[Damocles]

Dangun Feveron

[ebarrett]

Galaga, Twinbee and Knightmare (Majou Densetsu) back when I was a kid; then I went into a loooooong wilderness period until finding out about Touhou and wondering why the hell did I stop playing shooters for so long.