"Shmups 101" Racketboy Article - IT'S UP!!!

[BulletMagnet]

Yup, here we go again: if you visit Racketboy frequently, you might have noticed a relatively new series of "Genre 101" articles, such as these for Survival Horror, Beat-em-ups, Tourney Fighters, and Platformers. As you can see, they're pretty expansive histories/analyses/tutorials for their respective genres: as you might expect, RB also wants one for shmups.

Guess who got the assignment, and guess who's about to be asked for help in making it as comprehensive as possible!

As most of you know, I've done write-ups for Racketboy and other sites before (and requested assistance from you guys in the process), but most of those were relatively "focused" on a single system or series: now that we're moving into "entire genre" territory, things get trickier, since it's no longer about gathering up pretty much everything you can find about the subject and putting it together, but prioritizing what to include versus what to cut. The following is what I've managed to come up with myself, using the previous "101" articles on the site as guidelines: having pretty much reached my limit, I now must tap the knowledge and opinions of the community to supplement my own before submitting the final copy. If you can give the text a read (or at least a skim) and let me know what you think needs changing, it would do a lot to keep the quality high and give readers a from-the-horse's-mouth view of the genre.

Here are a few things to keep in mind, if you'd like to contribute:

1) Obviously this thing isn't going to be completely objective, but it should be as close to it as possible: please make recommendations with the "big picture" in mind.

2) I've tried my best to at least mention the most "important" events and releases the genre has seen over the years, but I'm sure I've missed some: if you spot any blanks (or less-important stuff that ought to be expelled), please let me know.

3) The list of features I have so far has taken a good deal of work to compile as it is, but I'm wondering if there should be others: a section or two devoted to common/uncommon scoring systems, maybe? A rundown of certain individual programmers and other people? Or, on the other hand, are there sections currently on here that should be edited out?

4) Bold and italic text, along with other such stuff, hasn't been coded in yet, so please bear with that for the time being.

5) As always, I'm willing to give written credit to any and all who lend me a hand.

That's all I can think to mention at the moment...I'll add more as it comes to me. In the meantime, here's the article as it stands, feel free to peruse and critique.

And, as always, thanks a million.

EDIT: Revised version posted 6-2-11: please offer final comments and suggestions before it's submitted for publication!

[BulletMagnet]

EDIT: Submitted!

[linko9]

Wow, this is great. I think you could stand to make a little bit of a bigger deal about the doujin scene; perhaps just try to give some sense of the enormous number of doujin shmups and fan projects released every year, especially in comparison to other genres; I don't think the ridiculous scale of the doujin shmup scene comes across in your one short paragraph about it.

Overall very solid, I always enjoy reading your stuff.

[Rob]

Just looking at the developers section for now.

Developers of note: Sega in, Warashi out. There must be dozens of developers of Warashi caliber while Sega's got at least Fantasy Zone, Zaxxon and borderliners/oddities like Gain Ground, Crying (and their legendary contribution to on-rails shooters).

The company descriptions covering the style and place of the developers are mostly spot on, but Irem's says too little (when Taisen Hot Gimmick gets a mention for Psikyo, Irem should get a few more titles in, like X-Multiply or Gallop).

Compile & Raizing connection is worth mentioning. More worthy than mentioning their shmup-less offshoots.

I think it'd be best to fix the inconsistent identification of the games (no Mobile Light Force, please - or seriously, no Samurai Aces, Blazing Lazers, Grind Stormer, etc.).

though largely spurned by uninitiated critics in real time,

Maybe I'm not looking at this right, but I can't make sense of this part.

[Rob]

The once-mighty Toaplan, for instance, was shuttered in 1993
...
fantasy-tinged Sorcerer Striker
...
1998’s over-the-top-and-proud-of-it shooter Giga Wing,

-1994?
-Sorcer Striker. But again I say stick with the original title.
-1999. Nice description, though.

Sengoku Ace, Gunbird, and Strikers 1945, along with the rest of its catalog, retain the same tried-and-true “old-school” feel

Most of Psikyo's games certainly do not feel older than their release dates and Ace was clearly above the '93 crowd. It's not just me being crazy. Taken from oxtsu's thread - Gamest shooting game awards for 1993:

1. Sengoku Ace ` 358
2. Mahou Daisakusen (Sorcerer Striker) ` 129
3. Macross II ` 59
4. V.V ` 58
5. R-Type LEO ` 49
6. F/A (Fighter & Attacker) ` 39
7. Kaitei Daisensou (In the Hunt) ` 37
8. Viewpoint ` 34
9. The Great Ragtime Show (Boogie Wings) ` 29
tie. Dogyuun ` 29

That appears to be total domination and I doubt it impressed because it felt old school. It's much faster and to the point than other '93 games, which is probably what they were reacting to after playing some sluggish R-Type era shooters.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Sengoku Ace, Gunbird, and Strikers 1945, along with the rest of its catalog, retain the same tried-and-true “old-school” feel

Most of Psikyo's games certainly do not feel older than their release dates and Ace was clearly above the '93 crowd. It's not just me being crazy. Taken from oxtsu's thread - Gamest shooting game awards for 1993:

1. Sengoku Ace ` 358
2. Mahou Daisakusen (Sorcerer Striker) ` 129
3. Macross II ` 59
4. V.V ` 58
5. R-Type LEO ` 49
6. F/A (Fighter & Attacker) ` 39
7. Kaitei Daisensou (In the Hunt) ` 37
8. Viewpoint ` 34
9. The Great Ragtime Show (Boogie Wings) ` 29
tie. Dogyuun ` 29

That appears to be total domination and I doubt it impressed because it felt old school. It's much faster and to the point than other '93 games, which is probably what they were reacting to after playing some sluggish R-Type era shooters.

Um, don't you think it felt a wee touch like Sonic Wings? By the way, no Hyper Duel up there? Was Kaitei Daisensou THAT superior? Nor RayForce while we're at it?
Don't get me wrong, Sengoku Ace is the game that got me hooked on Psikyo, but there's no denying that it had a very simple control scheme (unlike typical console shooters of the era) and quite a large hitbox. "Oldschool" sounds right to me. It's a game I'd recommend to somebody who'd like to stay in touch with the old ways.

[Rob]

Early voting probably cut off the last few months of the year. No Batsugun (#6 for 1994) or Raiden II (not in '93 or '94, but I suppose DX already made it obsolete).

In bullet's "Olschool" (typo?) category he describes them as having relatively few, quick and aimed enemy shots. I think that's fitting. Psikyo's style was to minimize those moments. Make the wait between boss fights short while still giving the player a slight breather and a chance to grab an additional bomb or power-ups. It's definitely not like an old Toaplan shooter where you spend many minutes at a time shaking off snipers with only an occasional small scale miniboss.

I'll have to check out Sonic Wings again. I've never liked it, but it's been a long time since I last played.

Occasionally called “shtick-em-ups”

Never heard of this. Where do you pick this stuff up? :]

Finished. Very thorough and enjoyable read, bulletmagnet. The scoring systems idea sounds like a good addition.

[emphatic]

CAVE not Cave.

[DJ Incompetent]

Hitbox and Rank are proper, but you should add dodging strategies to the Tips and Tricks section.
Bullet Hoarding
Tap Dodging
U-Roll
Around the World

Are there others? I'm drawing a blank here.

edit: Oh! Oh! I thought of more.
Circle Strafing
Point Blanking (but you covered that in 'use whole screen' bit)

[KNTain]

I'd avoid describing a 1CC as something that only applies to this genre, since it applies to Japanese arcade games pretty widely.

[BulletMagnet]

Great to see some good discussion going already, I'll try to respond to the major stuff here:

I don't think the ridiculous scale of the doujin shmup scene comes across in your one short paragraph about it.

I did try to at least hint in that direction by calling homebrewers the "driving force" of the "underground" era...are there any specific aspects you think I ought to highlight?

Developers of note: Sega in, Warashi out.

I figured that someone would probably suggest removing Warashi, and I've no major problem with that, though I'm a bit more hesitant to put Sega in the same league as the rest...as you say, most of their contributions were in the Borderliner area, which I'm trying not to go TOO deeply into here. By the by, I thought that Fantasy Zone was a Sunsoft production...

Irem's says too little (when Taisen Hot Gimmick gets a mention for Psikyo, Irem should get a few more titles in, like X-Multiply or Gallop).

Hm...I tried to vary things a bit in that paragraph (Metal Slug, Disaster Report, Bumpy Trot, Image Fight, In the Hunt), and in terms of "number of games mentioned" it's comparable to the rest of the companies, do you think I ought to shift the inherent emphasis, or am I on the wrong track?

Compile & Raizing connection is worth mentioning.

Could you offer a quick-and-dirty explanation of this one for me? I'm not familiar with it off the cuff...

I think it'd be best to fix the inconsistent identification of the games (no Mobile Light Force, please - or seriously, no Samurai Aces, Blazing Lazers, Grind Stormer, etc.).

Yeah, this is definitely on the to-do list...I'm currently unsure whether it'd be best to stick with the more "authentic" Japanese titles or the Western ones that readers might be a bit more familiar with. I'd definitely like to avoid listing both if possible.

Maybe I'm not looking at this right, but I can't make sense of this part.

Basically, "when the game released, shmup-unfriendly reviewers trashed it". Maybe I ought to reword that bit...

(date checks)

It appears you were right on both of those, will fix.

Most of Psikyo's games certainly do not feel older than their release dates and Ace was clearly above the '93 crowd. It's not just me being crazy.

Admittedly, I've always found Psikyo a bit difficult to place in this area...while the speedy enemy shots and relatively simple scoring systems feel more "classic", the quicker pace and higher bullet counts do suggest more "modern" leanings, especially by the time Gunbird 2 and Dragon Blaze rolled around. I'll definitely have to redo that segment.

"Olschool" (typo?)

Urk, yup, missed that one...though I'm rather tempted to just leave it like that, truth be told.

Never heard of this. Where do you pick this stuff up? :]

I KNOW I'm not the first one to use that term...either way, I LIKE it, dangit! In any event, thanks for all the suggestions, Rob.

The scoring systems idea sounds like a good addition.

Hrm...I'll need more input from others first, but here's a preliminary list I've cooked up for "Most Common Scoring Systems":

-Chaining
-Medaling/Item-based
-Proximity/Quick Kill Bonus
-Multi-kill Bonus
-Boss Dismantling/Milking
-Grazing
-End Bonus

...and here are a few candidates I'd put forth for "Weirdest Scoring Systems":

-Batsugun (macros and bombing)
-Cotton2/Boomerang (sealing/throwing/abusing)
-Hyper Duel (sit still)
-Night Raid (positive/negative/neutral point awards)
-Raiden Fighters Jet (feed the big floating medal, Seymour)
-Dimahoo (you'll never find all the items without an FAQ)

Did I miss any major ones?

CAVE not Cave.

Bah, I mention what the acronym stands for in the article, that's good enough...all the caps get annoying after awhile, heh.

Hitbox and Rank are proper, but you should add dodging strategies to the Tips and Tricks section.

Hmm...an interesting idea, though I'm wondering if it'd be a bit overkill. Anyone else have thoughts on that?

I'd avoid describing a 1CC as something that only applies to this genre, since it applies to Japanese arcade games pretty widely.

That's true, though I do want to keep an emphasis on it, since relatively few readers, even at a site like RB, will be "in tune" with it, for lack of a better term.

Thanks for the thoughts so far, everyone - keep them coming.

[Rob]

By the by, I thought that Fantasy Zone was a Sunsoft production...

We'll need a game credits scholar in here because I can't be sure of this. Looks like Sunsoft did the Famicom port and Super FZ, but not sure about anything other than Sega presenting Fantasy Zone as if it is theirs (and the occasional involvement of "Sega people" like Rieko Kodama).

Hm...I tried to vary things a bit in that paragraph (Metal Slug, Disaster Report, Bumpy Trot, Image Fight, In the Hunt),

Yeah, that one feels too varied and padded to me. More like a company summary than a summary of the company within the genre, especially when they had a large part in the late 80s/early 90s "golden age" of side-scrollers, which is one thing readers might be familiar with.

Memorizer has a place in the subgenre section (and mentions R-Type), but there is no mention of it in Irem's paragraph. Any mention of memorizer makes me think of Irem automatically. Your Cave summary is a good model of getting to right to what they are about:

Cave – The standard-setter for “bullet hell” shooters and the predominant genre developer within the industry today

Could you offer a quick-and-dirty explanation of this one for me? I'm not familiar with it off the cuff...

I don't know who exactly went on from Compile to Raizing, but you can see it in various things like the graphics style of Mahou Daisakusen (quite similar to Spriggan), the Zanac-ish rank exploration, the Musha Aleste pod configurations resurfacing in Garegga.

Yeah, this is definitely on the to-do list...I'm currently unsure whether it'd be best to stick with the more "authentic" Japanese titles or the Western ones that readers might be a bit more familiar with.

Best to skip the confusion, since I don't think many people reading a 101 article will be more aware of a name like Sorcer Striker than the original and in some cases the western version is different enough to not just be a matter of choosing a regional name (won't catch me playing Grind Stormer over V-V). Maybe in a few cases where a game was somewhat popular in the west or significantly different it would make sense to mention both titles. It's also awkward when there's a line such as "titles like Blazing Lazers and Spriggan are especially revered by the PC Engine faithful" which jumps regions mid-line. It'd be much easier and cleaner to just to go with the native titles. Anyone getting into the genre should also get used to the fact that it's primarily a Japanese thing outside of arena shooters.

here's a preliminary list I've cooked up for "Most Common Scoring Systems"

Bullet canceling-Cave item vacuum. Pretty common considering Cave has about a million games out.

-Cotton2/Boomerang (sealing/throwing/abusing)

I've never played Cotton 2/Boomerang, but is this anything like Space Bomber or Triggerheart Exelica?

[DMC]

Could you offer a quick-and-dirty explanation of this one for me? I'm not familiar with it off the cuff...

I don't know who exactly went on from Compile to Raizing, but you can see it in various things like the graphics style of Mahou Daisakusen (quite similar to Spriggan), the Zanac-ish rank exploration, the Musha Aleste pod configurations resurfacing in Garegga.

yuichi toyama, who was the main programmer/supervisor of non-yagawa Raizing games (Mahou Daisakusen series, Soukyugurentai, Brave Blade) was also programmer on Musha Aleste and others. There are some other names appearing in compile games that latter became part of Raizing, but I think he's the main one.

edit, Here's some stuff.
Credits Musha: 8:30 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lb_qxuWRqEI
http://www.arcade-history.com/index.php ... chi+Toyama

I wonder where he went on from there? after raizing. And I would like to know what raizing staff came from toaplan?

Great stuff to read btw!

[BulletMagnet]

We'll need a game credits scholar in here because I can't be sure of this.

None of the sources I've checked seem to be either: the HG101 article, for instance, can only conclude that Sunsoft "played a large part in the series". In any event, even if it was counted as a "Sega game", I'm still not sure it'd be enough to earn the company its own spot in the list.

More like a company summary than a summary of the company within the genre

I guess that's another thing I need to nail down - for several of the larger developers I reference some of their non-shmup properties, though that obviously doesn't match up with the genre-focused ones...maybe I ought to standardize things as you suggest, but I'm sure that those with a different perspective could come back with "how could you not mention Castlevania in a Konami write-up?"

Memorizer has a place in the subgenre section (and mentions R-Type), but there is no mention of it in Irem's paragraph. Any mention of memorizer makes me think of Irem automatically.

I had actually considered this, but hesitated since, as you say, I'd already named R-Type as the "gold standard" of the subgenre, and was afraid that basically saying the same thing backwards a little later on might be redundant. I'll wait for some futher opinions on this one, I think.

I don't know who exactly went on from Compile to Raizing, but you can see it in various things like the graphics style of Mahou Daisakusen (quite similar to Spriggan), the Zanac-ish rank exploration, the Musha Aleste pod configurations resurfacing in Garegga.

Ah, I was unaware that they shared personnel (though the shared elements you list make sense in retrospect) - will definitely make a note of that, thanks. An extra tip of the hat to DMC for the additional details.

It'd be much easier and cleaner to just to go with the native titles.

Yeah, I'll probably end up doing this, though if anyone else has an argument for going in the other direction I'm definitely interested in hearing it.

Bullet canceling-Cave item vacuum. Pretty common considering Cave has about a million games out.

Heh, I'll have to reserve a special "Thanks To..." spot for you, offering full credit for Snarkiness. In seriousness, I am considering adding a wider-scope "bullet-based" scoring category, which would also encompass Giga Wing and others, though maybe it'd be better-served as a subsidiary of the existing "item-based" listing.

I've never played Cotton 2/Boomerang, but is this anything like Space Bomber or Triggerheart Exelica?

A little bit, but it's more complicated: basically, hitting almost any enemy with certain attacks "seals" it inside an energy orb (its properties vary depending on your character's "element"), which you can either a) shoot at pretty much indefinitely to earn points or health items, or b) move in and pick up. Once you've grabbed a "sealed" enemy you can touch/throw it at other enemies: upon hitting the target the first enemy disappears and the new one is "sealed" in its place. The more "seals" you can perform in a row without losing the "active" energy ball the more points you get - basically a "chaining" variation, though more open in nature than most.

[DMC]

Not as important names as toyama, but Kazuyuki Nakashima, Yasunari Watanabe were two other names that were involved in compile stuff and later joined Raizing.

Watanabe was a test player in Musha.

According to mobygames, Toyama was also part of technosoft in late 80's. He designed and programmed Herzog and a 3d shooter feedback. Toyama's last console game was "The Pinball of the Dead" to game boy advance in 2002. He was also programmer of Ghostbusters to Sega Mega Drive. I just love that a favorite shooter developer made a ghostbusters game

Speaking of to-do lists. A toyama-session playing Herzog, MUSHA, Spriggan Mark 2, mahou-series, soukyugurentai, and brave blade.

[BulletMagnet]

Thanks once again for the details. By the by, two other things I ought to put here, before I forget 'em again...

1) Another list I was thinking of adding is an "Essential Console" rundown, i.e. the systems with the "best" shmup libraries on them: off the cuff I might put, for starters, the Saturn, PS1/PS2, Genesis, and TG16 on the "main" list, and the Dreamcast, NES, and 360 in the "secondary" section. Not sure what exactly I might do with the arcade and PC platforms, though...anyway, is this a worthy addition, or just superflous?

2) I'm nowhere near an expert on handheld and computer (i.e. Commodore, PC-98, etc., not "modern" computers) shmups, but I get the feeling I'm giving them a bit of a short shrift...I only mention them in passing in the History segment. Can anyone name any major stuff from this front that I ought to put in here someplace? It obviously shouldn't dominate or anything, but it's a decided gap in my knowledge, and I don't want that to get in the way of objectivity.

[TrevHead (TVR)]

Its good to see that youre still writting BM, I used to love your Dtoid shmup articles. Any plans on going back to them in the future?

[Wenchang]

[And I would like to know what raizing staff came from toaplan?

A lot of people around these parts of the internet have long claimed that Shinobu Yagawa worked at Toaplan, though I have never heard any confirmation in any Toaplan or Cave interviews or anything. In any case, I don't believe he worked on anything there. It's basically a falsehood that Raizing spun off from Toaplan, as Mahou Daisakusen was released before Toaplan went under.

It is worth noting that both Tatsuya Uemura and Masahiro Yuge(the two main programmers from Toaplan's very beginnings) both did later work at Raizing at one point though. Uemura was a programmer on Battle Bakraid and both were on the staff(under special thanks if I recall) of Dimahoo.

A couple of points I want to make about the article:

- Calling Toaplan's early efforts, specifically Flying Shark "pedestrian" really does not do them any justice. Flying Shark blew away the various airplane shooters at the time(was a heck of a lot more sophisticated than 1942 and its ilk). If you're looking for the novelties of the time, the fact that you could blow the roofs of buildings and the like starting in Tiger Heli(Flying Shark expanding on this, having enemy tanks hiding behind buildings and the like) was unique for the time. Beyond that, Flying Shark is historically important for being a very direct influence on Raiden, even to the point of Raiden having a musical tribute in it. Also, I wish I had the know how to explain, but the enemy movements in Flying Shark were incredibly sophisticated for the time, they're not in the same place every time like a memorizer obviously, but even the way the various planes and tanks respond to the player's movements is very unusual, it's not simple homing. I wish I knew how to explain, but it's rather advanced for the time. If you check out Air Gallet any time, it's also a Tatsuya Uemura project, you will find a more modern(by 96's standards) version of Flying Shark(also if anyone's curious, Gyrodine is what Uemura did at Crux pre-Tiger Heli and Flying Shark). I think anyone who plays Raiden and Air Gallet alongside Flying Shark can see the latter's merits, and personally I think it's a great game. I would go so far to say that Flying Shark is up there with Truxton as the best and most important Toaplan games.

- Nichibutsu is another developer you could add to the list. Moon Cresta was one of the first original(as opposed to a literal clone of Space Invaders, Nichibutsu did those too) post-Space Invaders shooters alongside Asteroids and Galaxian, and imo at least deserves a mention in the article's early mention if nothing else for the fact that it formalized the use of docking and power-ups. They releases several games that were similar to Moon Cresta(and a few other oddball single screen and very simplistic scrolling shooters), but after Xevious, Nichibutsu really came into their own and released a ton of arcade Shmups. Terra Cresta is the most famous of these, but there was also Mag Max, UFO Robo Dangar, Armed Formation, Legion, and a host of others. The reason I suggest them is that, aside from being one of the most prolific arcade shmup developers of the 80s, they clearly had their own style. The signature power up system was innovative, the game mostly had a pretty similar/distinctive look to them, the patterns of enemy waves was a weird circular almost Galaga-esque formations, and unusually they stuck with the lack of stages looping Xevious style gameplay all through the 80s long after that style had gone out of favor.

- Also, call this nitpicky, but Nolan Bushnell co-founded Atari with Ted Dabney and the latter was responsible entirely for the creation of Computer Space(all Bushnell did was describe Spacewar to Dabney). Nolan Bushnell really never had much of a hand in any video game development, he was a business man(not much of one at that) first and that's about all. It's merely do to publicity that his name is constantly brought up. Just my opinion, but I would edit out his name and not mention any particular people involved with Atari. The Bushnell name drops I see all the time in regards to Atari history continually spread misinformation.

- I can understand not listing Sega because of the "borderline" nature of their games as you put it. But you could at least namedrop them in the section on rail shooters. Pretty please. Not only did Sega create the first rail shooters and the vast majority of notable rail shooters in general, but they were experimenting with pseudo 3D perspective almost from the very beginning, if you play games like Tac/Scan and the like. It just seems an injustice not to give them credit. Although it might be simpler just to list them in with the other developers as I do think they were very influential(even though it's isometric, I would consider Zaxxon the precursor the horizontal memorization style Shmups like Gradius and R-Type, because the stages are mostly about memorization oriented gameplay revolving around navigation without running into objects, also the emphasis on bosses probably in all video games basically started because of Zaxxon).

[DMC]

[And I would like to know what raizing staff came from toaplan?

A lot of people around these parts of the internet have long claimed that Shinobu Yagawa worked at Toaplan, though I have never heard any confirmation in any Toaplan or Cave interviews or anything. In any case, I don't believe he worked on anything there. It's basically a falsehood that Raizing spun off from Toaplan, as Mahou Daisakusen was released before Toaplan went under.

It is worth noting that both Tatsuya Uemura and Masahiro Yuge(the two main programmers from Toaplan's very beginnings) both did later work at Raizing at one point though. Uemura was a programmer on Battle Bakraid and both were on the staff(under special thanks if I recall) of Dimahoo.

Interesting, thanks for the info.

[mesh control]

Yuge is also credited in the Mars Matrix credits as a sound programmer and Giga Wing's music arrangement.

[DMC]

Thinking about Yagawa and Toaplan some more, here's some speculation. Looking at the credits of the former, Yagawa was involved with KID games for famicom in 91-92. He was not credited in early Raizing games afaik (Mahou in 93 and Shippu in 94). So it's pretty much blank between 92-96. It makes sense, given that major Toaplan programmers joined Yagawa in 1999 with Battle Bakraid, that he had some smaller role in a toaplan game between 92-94, Dogyuun, FixEight, Grindstormer, or Truxton II.

Toyama and his compile associaties probably went directly from Compile in 1992 (after Spriggan Mark 2) to create Raizing and make Mahou Daisakusen in 1993, following up with Shippu Mahou Daisakusen in 1994. Then they recruited Yagawa in 1994/1995 as Toaplan closed down, and had two somewhat overlapping teams release Soukyugurentai (with Toyama in the front) and Battle Garegga (with Yagawa in the front) in 1996.

so yeah, the supposed, far from complete, timeline

87: Yagawa makes Genius for MSX.
88: Toyama joins Technosoft, makes Herzog and Feedback.
89: Yagawa makes LaserFight for MSX
90-92: Yagawa joins KID and makes Recca for famicom. Toyama joins Compile, makes Musha Aleste and others.
93-94: Yagawa perhaps joins Toaplan (Dogyuun, Fixeight V-v or Truxton II). Toyama starts with Raizing, makes two Mahou Daisakusen games.
95-96: Yagawa joins Raizing after Toaplan closed their doors. Toyama's team makes Soukyugurentai, Yagawa's makes Battle Garegga.
97-99: Yagawa teams make Batrider and, with the help of some supposed old friends from Toaplan, Battle Bakraid. During this time Toyama are involved in other 8ing games like Bloody Roar 2 (which Watanabe was the main programmer of though).
00: Toyama makes Dimahoo and supervises Brave blade with Kenji Shibayama as main programmer (and who was a co-programmer for Soukyugurentai).
00-> Raizing stops making shooters. Toyama becomes involved in some other 8ing games (like Kuru Kuru Kururin and that pinball game, then after 2002 it's blank). Yagawa we all know joined Cave a few years later.

One interesting common feature in some Toyama games is the experimental hybrid of two genres. Herzog is decribed as strategy/shmup-hybrid (have yet to play it myself though), Kingdom Grandprix is a racing/shmup-hybrid, and Dimahoo is an adventure RPG/shmup-hybrid.

[emphatic]

- Calling Toaplan's early efforts, specifically Flying Shark "pedestrian" really does not do them any justice. Flying Shark blew away the various airplane shooters at the time(was a heck of a lot more sophisticated than 1942 and its ilk). If you're looking for the novelties of the time, the fact that you could blow the roofs of buildings and the like starting in Tiger Heli(Flying Shark expanding on this, having enemy tanks hiding behind buildings and the like) was unique for the time. Beyond that, Flying Shark is historically important for being a very direct influence on Raiden, even to the point of Raiden having a musical tribute in it. Also, I wish I had the know how to explain, but the enemy movements in Flying Shark were incredibly sophisticated for the time, they're not in the same place every time like a memorizer obviously, but even the way the various planes and tanks respond to the player's movements is very unusual, it's not simple homing. I wish I knew how to explain, but it's rather advanced for the time.

Agreed. Hitting a small plane in the wing make them crash (when they hit a tank it'll blow that up in the process). When you hit the cockpit, the plane disintegrates. This was incredibly cool back when I first laid eyes on the game in 1987.

[BulletMagnet]

Its good to see that youre still writting BM, I used to love your Dtoid shmup articles. Any plans on going back to them in the future?

Unfortunately I don't have the time to blog regularly these days (heck, a project like this one is enough by itself to occupy a good amount of computer time), but I still lurk around the site, and post occasionally.

Calling Toaplan's early efforts, specifically Flying Shark "pedestrian" really does not do them any justice.

I figured someone would probably take issue with that one, too...I'll do a bit more research on the "pre-chunky" Toaplan stuff and see where it leads me.

Nichibutsu is another developer you could add to the list.

I'm not inherently familiar with Nichibutsu's work, so I'll need to look a bit more into it...not sure it'll qualify for its own developer segment, but a mention in the History section sounds like a possibility.

Just my opinion, but I would edit out his name and not mention any particular people involved with Atari.

Sounds reasonable from here.

I can understand not listing Sega because of the "borderline" nature of their games as you put it. But you could at least namedrop them in the section on rail shooters. Pretty please.

Another reasonable-sounding request, though I'm a tad more hesitant on the Zaxxon stuff offhand...anyone else want to weigh in on that one?

[Observer]

Wow, this is great. I think you could stand to make a little bit of a bigger deal about the doujin scene; perhaps just try to give some sense of the enormous number of doujin shmups and fan projects released every year, especially in comparison to other genres; I don't think the ridiculous scale of the doujin shmup scene comes across in your one short paragraph about it.

Overall very solid, I always enjoy reading your stuff.

Yep. Pretty much this. There is this period before and after the release of Kamui and Cho Ren Sha 68k (to my knowledge, the two most prominent and named doujin STGs of "old", aka, prior 1999) and how the "wave" and awareness of these games began to grow from 2003-2004 onwards, practically exploding around 2007-2008 and now keeping a high profile with, indeed, games like Crimzon Clover or the upcoming RefRain and, obviously, Touhou 13.

"Mucha tela para cortar", like we say in spanish.

Also, I didn't see a single mention to MAME or the importance of emulation of certain platforms precisely housing dozens of shmups, some of them incredibly hard (or expensive) to acquire to a non-fan. While I understand it might be the best not to mention it due to how close it gets to the zone of comfort, the combination of MAME and that infamous Youtube video of the hardest boss ever contributed a whole damn lot for many people to go back to the genre or simply discovering it. I had people asking me what a "STG" or even "shoot 'em up" was, hell, my cousins asked it recently too so I showed them Espgaluda running on the PS2 to make them go "WOW!". There you have your discovery. I prevented them from playing CoD in the process too.

edit: however, the article is already big enough... this could well be a subarticle or something.

[Obiwanshinobi]

I don't enjoy Toaplan shmups great deal, but there's no denying Raiden, Raizing games and the very first DonPachi are influenced by them. Heck, Capcom has a history of looking up to Toaplan shmups (Varth, 19XX: The War Against Destiny). Toaplan is certainly up there with Konami and Irem when it comes to the impact their games had on thre genre.

[DJ Incompetent]

Hitbox and Rank are proper, but you should add dodging strategies to the Tips and Tricks section.

Hmm...an interesting idea, though I'm wondering if it'd be a bit overkill. Anyone else have thoughts on that?

Thanks for the thoughts so far, everyone - keep them coming.

I saw the crapload of other suggestions people are giving you. So to try to be of help, I tweaked your Tips & Tricks section.
It probably needs a proofreading and you're the legit writer, but copy, edit, rewrite, ignore, do whatever you want with this.
I know I'm the minority here, but I feel learning the basics of operating the games in a genre should be 'class 101' and the intense interesting history should be more like a 'class 102.'

But however you look at it, if you're going to include an overview of scoring systems, dear god at least include these general tricks on just how to stay alive playing these games.

Anyway, hope this is useful to you.

Tips

Equip Yourself Well – In a shooter, precision is paramount – players must be in total control at all times just to stay alive, let alone excel. Unfortunately, console hardware manufacturers these days simply aren’t designing with shmuppers in mind, leaving us to fill in the blanks ourselves. Some have gone so far as to acquire full-fledged arcade cabinets or other high-end accoutrements for the most “authentic” shooting experience possible, but the rest of us can make things better on a smaller scale, too. First and foremost, definitely shop around for a controller with a responsive d-pad, or a joystick featuring a short “throw” (high sensitivity). When playing arcade ports originally intended for a vertical monitor, check to see if the options menu features a “tate” (vertical) option – this allows you to physically turn your screen 90 degrees on its side, banishing those ugly letterbox bars and giving you a more detailed look at the action. Just make sure your display device of choice won’t be damaged in the process: look around the web a bit for more detailed info.

Know Thy Hitbox – As was mentioned in an earlier section, not every pixel of your onscreen “character” is always vulnerable to enemy attacks. Knowing which parts ARE is essential: typically the “danger zone” is a square, rectangle, or circle near your avatar’s center, but many times it’s not openly visible, so whenever you get shot down do your best to take note of exactly where you were drilled for future reference. Even in cases where the vital area is plainly displayed onscreen you have to get used to focusing on getting it through the onslaught while ignoring everything else, so don’t be discouraged if you have some trouble at first. Of course, if you’re playing an older shmup with a “full ship” hitbox, just stay the heck away from everything!

Use the Entire Screen – When you’ve got an alien armada with a severe case of the crankies staring you down, one’s first instinct, understandably, is to stay as far away as possible, hugging the back end of the screen for dear life - don’t let that stop you from utilizing every inch of the real estate you’re given when the opportunity arises. Sometimes it’s actually in your best interest to get right in an enemy’s face and “point blank” him for maximum damage, bringing him down before he gets a shot off; on other occasions slowly luring enemies and bullets along an edge or even staying perfectly still in the middle of a nasty-looking pattern can, against all appearances, keep you safe. Always keep an eye out for “safe spots” in unlikely places – depending on the situation, either a daredevil dash across the battlefield or a tiny nudge to the side could make things a lot easier.

Bomb to Zero – In many cases your finite stock of “smart bombs” serves primarily as a “Plan B” for when “regular” shooting and dodging just aren’t quite enough to push you over the top – as you get better you won’t need to fall back on them as often, but no matter how comfortable you are with a particular shmup you’d still better know when to whack the “bomb” button. Your goal when newly approaching any shmup with bombs available is to make absolutely sure you have spent your entire bomb stock before losing every life. Every bomb unspent is another few critical seconds you could have lasted. While it is true bombing may reflect unfavorably in some scoring systems or even raise the rank, most of the time the longest play has the highest score. Ergo, exhaust every special attack given to you before you lose a life. If you frequently find yourself dying with unused bombs in stock, shake up your approach a bit and make those little explosive bundles of joy count.

Practice Makes Perfect – Kind of an obvious one, but considering that many shmups are in the same league as tourney fighters in terms of the time commitment required for even “competent-level” performance, a bit of persistence is definitely your ally. “Credit feeding” through tough stages to take a peek at later areas is okay at first, but as you get more accustomed to a game’s nuts and bolts, gradually start aiming for the coveted one-credit clear. Recording footage of your attempts, which some games can do for you out of the box, might help, as can studying “superplays” of “expert” runs, which are available both online and as full-featured commercial videos. One of the most important resources available in modern shmups is the training and practice modes. No need to run into a brick wall every fifteen minutes when you can jump to the difficult sections and develop a plan for the harder half of the game. Most training modes will let you select stages, others let you recreate powerup or rank conditions, and some even allow a “no bullets” mode to practice the scoring system.


Tricks

While it may appear the only plan of attack is “don’t get hit”, there are several methodical ways you can approach a wave of enemies or a bullet pattern. If you find yourself losing a life in the same places, try one of these strategies next time you get to that trouble spot:

Bullet Hoarding – One of the most common strategies, this tactic lures enemies into shooting aimed bullets and large attacks into the sides or the top of the playfield, preventing slow moving attacks from cluttering the back where your movement typically resides. To bullet hoard, position yourself along a side of the playfield a reasonable distance forward. When the attack(s) start filling up that side (immediately), head back or across to the (relatively) open area you have now created. This tactic is particularly effective against certain bosses or large enemies as complex bullet patterns often have a distinct beginning and end. Legitimate bullet hording on bosses can go as far as standing directly behind the boss at the front of the playfield.

Tap Dodging – Another common maneuver for those who know to practice it, the tap dodge is one of the best ways for dealing with continuous streams of aimed bullets or spread patterns. During a stage, simply tap-move slowly toward a side of the screen until you find a gap in the bullets to double-back through. Using this method lets you ignore or simplify parts of the playfield while giving you precious extra seconds to plan your next move or wait for a hole in the bullet stream beside you to to dive through. During a boss, most tap dodging is done moving back and forth along the same spot in tune with the bullet pattern frequency. This simplifies the boss fight (or a particular bullet pattern) to concentrating on the aimed shot heading for you and the gap of the bullet next to it you need to squeeze through, all while planning for the next bullet spread. Games with slow moving player ships or continuous slow bullet hell style patterns are good indicators that using the tap dodge will be a primary technique to win.

Point Blanking – Depending on the game, the closer you get to an enemy, the more damage you will deal (or the higher your DPS). This is true if you are using a type of spread weapon or if your weapon has a limited number of projectiles that can be active on the screen.

Around the World – This is a risky maneuver to escape being pinned by enemy fire and return to a safe attack position. When you have reached the side of the screen, you cannot spot a hole in the bullets to dive through, and you have run out of bombs, try moving upward around the very front of the playfield and sweeping across, basically circling behind most of the enemies onscreen. The chances this tactic will work depend on the spread of your firepower, defenses of popcorn enemies, if collision with enemies can occur, terrain, and a little bit of “right-place at the right-time” luck. Use this tactic only as a last resort.

Circle Strafing – This method is reserved for Arena Shmups. This tactic is simply to move about the arena in a large circle, normally firing forward or toward the angle you intend to turn. A majority of twin-stick shmups do not have enemies that use projectile attacks. As most of them simply chase and charge you in various ways, the ideal way to stay alive is to keep enemies following behind you. This allows you to focus on disorganized enemies who spawn in your path.

U-Roll – This is longer methodical approach for an uncommon circumstance. It has very limited applications, but this may work for a known trouble spot where impromptu bullet hoarding and tap dodging have repeatedly failed. To U-Roll, repeatedly draw a ‘U’ shape with your player craft (U in a vert, C in a hori) but coincide reaching the tips of the ‘U’ to when a patterned aimed attack is expected to fire. You can also time the enemy’s patterned attack to fire when you reach the bottom of the ‘U’ formation. This organized movement lets you ignore a large centered enemy using aimed attacks as you deal with smaller disorganized enemy attacks.

Memorize – If all else fails, learn the order of attack patterns or the sequence of where enemies spawn. The difficulty of a stage often depends on the enemy attacking you. If you can anticipate enemy appearance to the point where you destroy them before they launch their attacks, your game becomes easier. Memorizing enemy locations is also recommended for games with "Quick Shot" scoring bonuses such as the Raiden Fighters series.

The rest of your article is a great read, by the way. Good times.

[ubersaurus]

I dunno about that revised "tips and tricks," it seems a bit too hardcore. Specifically I'm thinking making the huge deal about tate and what type of joystick, since those are really a matter of preference than anything. I can play just fine on a Happ with standard 4:3 screen settings; it may not look as pretty but it's entirely manageable.

[jepjepjep]

- Calling Toaplan's early efforts, specifically Flying Shark "pedestrian" really does not do them any justice. Flying Shark blew away the various airplane shooters at the time(was a heck of a lot more sophisticated than 1942 and its ilk).

This is from a great interview with Uemura (http://www.gamengai.com/cmnt_inf.php?id ... lation&p=2).
Uemura: I think Hishouzame[Flying Shark] was a little more popular. It was the biggest in all of Toaplan.

Iona: When Toaplan started making software, about how many people were there?

Uemura: At first, the two main members were Takano-san and [Toshiaki] Ohta-san, the top guy on the Vastar project and now at Tamsoft. Soon after, [Yuichiroh] Nozawa-san and [Masahiro] Yuge-san joined. They called me but I was still at Crux working on Repulse, so I told them to wait until I was done. It took about a year... no, about 6 months. After that, I joined. There was also [Atsushi] Kawaguchi-san, who is no longer working in games. Those were the original 6 members.

[BulletMagnet]

"Mucha tela para cortar", like we say in spanish.

No argument here: again, if there are any specific examples/other things you think ought to be in here, by all means list them.

Also, I didn't see a single mention to MAME or the importance of emulation of certain platforms precisely housing dozens of shmups, some of them incredibly hard (or expensive) to acquire to a non-fan.

As someone who "rediscovered" shmups via MAME I definitely feel this one...as you say,though, I probably shouldn't go TOO deeply into it. On the bright side, RB isn't overly shy about discussing emulation, so I doubt it'd be too much trouble to throw in.

I know I'm the minority here, but I feel learning the basics of operating the games in a genre should be 'class 101' and the intense interesting history should be more like a 'class 102.'

Yeah, ideally I'd be able to release multiple volumes of this stuff, but as I said in the first post the most challenging part of this article is not knowing what to put in,but deciding what to leave out. The previous RB "101" submissions seemed (to me, anyway) more focused on what you call the "102" aspects, so I definitely need to keep those in here, though I also do want to be at least somewhat "noob-friendly" - how deep I want to go into specific techniques (which can themselves be intimidating) isstill somewhat up in the air.

On a semi-related note, I don't think "u-roll" is in the Glossary yet,so I might hafta add it later.

I dunno about that revised "tips and tricks," it seems a bit too hardcore. Specifically I'm thinking making the huge deal about tate and what type of joystick, since those are really a matter of preference than anything.

I didn't mean to make that section sound like "do all this crap or you might as well not even play", but I do think it's important to note that the "default accoutrements" for most people's setups aren't ideal, to say the least, for shmupping - if nothing else, it ought to at least let them know that huge letterboxes and 360 d-pads aren't the way the creators intended they be experienced.

[Domino]

I like in Tiger Heli about the 16 shots.

Shoot 16 times before you get to the first railroad and this car will be on it and you get a 1up.

The early Toaplan games has many things that only expert players will know.