The future of shmups on the PS3

[legendnthamaking]

Okay, its established that the X-Box 360 is the shooter fans gateway to shmup goodness. Mamoru-Kun was recently released and lets go by the assumption that what the Gulti CEO said was true about the sales and its doing okay (by their standards). Do you think that there is a possibility that there could be more shumps coming to the PS3? Right now aside from Infinity Gene and some PS1 classics, the lineup is really mediocre.

[Elixir]

There is no future for shmups on PS3.

Mamorukun PS3 sold less than 2000 copies, which is astronomically terrible for such a large Japanese PS3 userbase. The game being region-free didn't even help.

[PepsimanVsJoe]

Don't you have to have a present before you can have a future?

[Elixir]

Don't you have to have a present before you can have a future?

There is a present shmup library for PS3, but they're all PS1 or PC-Engine games.

[Cuilan]

There is no future for shmups on PS3.

Mamorukun PS3 sold less than 2000 copies, which is astronomically terrible for such a large Japanese PS3 userbase. The game being region-free didn't even help.

To be fair, that number doesn't include online sales or imports. However, I really doubt it sold much over 5,000 total. Then again, it wasn't a super-refined port, so I wouldn't be too surprised if they managed to break even or turn a small profit. It's possible that the first shipment has sold out, but that doesn't really mean much if retailers didn't order very many copies of it in the first place, and who knows if sales for the retailers were good enough for them to order a 2nd print run.

[Never_Scurred]

"Reads original post"
"Looks at asian 360 and selection of shmups"
"Smiles and leaves thread"

[stryc9]

I suggest you pick up a J360 at your nearest convenience, unless the 2 shooters you wanna specialize in are Soldner X2 and Mamarakun

[Never_Scurred]

I suggest you pick up a J360 at your nearest convenience, unless the 2 shooters you wanna specialize in are Soldner X2 and Mamarakun

Well, there is DoDonpachi, GunDeadligne, Everyday Shooter, Super Stardust HD and, uh....lol

[BPzeBanshee]

The Gundemonium series is on the PS3 I believe.

There's also the shoddy DonPachi and DoDonPachi ports, and homebrew emulation of arcade games via FBANext PS3.

[Demetori]

I use FBANext, so my library on the PS3 is huge, running fine.

[BPzeBanshee]

I use FBANext, so my library on the PS3 is huge, running fine.

EDIT: I take that back, I updated it and it runs amazing even on the old CRT. Shame there's a small black strip at the bottom for some reason but otherwise one can make games like ESPRade look friggin amazing on it. Also, lag input with the controller is really noticable, might be just me though. It ALMOST makes me want to buy a PS3 just for that kind of support.

The Megadrive emulator I found to be rather shoddy too, but then again PS3 homebrew is somewhat new compared to the Wii having homebrew for ages, and Genesis Plus GX for the Wii having been worked on for ages is the only one in existance to actually beat Kega Fusion for emulation accuracy.

They're definitely getting there, and if Sony will piss off with the anti-hacker stuff for five minutes we might actually get some really good programs running on the PS3.

[BIL]

There's also the shoddy DonPachi and DoDonPachi ports, and homebrew emulation of arcade games via FBANext PS3.

Donpachi's PS1 port is virtually arcade perfect. It's the PS3's laggy emulation of it that's the problem.

[burgerkingdiamond]

Hitagota Happa is an EXCELLENT game. Other than that the Ps3 blows for shmups. Since I dont play anything else anymore I've considred selling it a few times, but the hoarder in me wont let it happen.

[BPzeBanshee]

There's also the shoddy DonPachi and DoDonPachi ports, and homebrew emulation of arcade games via FBANext PS3.

Donpachi's PS1 port is virtually arcade perfect. It's the PS3's laggy emulation of it that's the problem.

That's what I meant by shoddy. Also, last time I tried the PS1 port of DonPachi the music didn't loop properly, ie. still playing when the WARNING logo shows up, fades out goes into the next track and cuts back to the previous one halfway through the stage). And good luck running DoDonPachi in an emulator, when I tried that it wouldn't load past the first stage most of the time.
I noticed when configuring my cousin's PS3 earlier today to see how well the homebrew stuff fared the programs themselves ran relatively well but the controls on all of the emulators felt rather laggy in regards to input. I blame this on the PS3 controller, since I've never had this issue with the 360 pads or the Wiimote/GameCube controller on their respective consoles.

[BIL]

PS1 Donpachi uses redbook audio streamed from the CD. I've never had, nor heard of, any issues when playing it on a Japanese PS1. I have heard of music problems when it's emulated on another system or played on a foreign PS1 via swap tricks, but LOL@ doing either.

Gameplay, graphics etc are dead-on accurate. Sound effects are slightly downgraded, but the music quality kills the PCB's notoriously shitty BGM, so it's about even.

PS1 DoDonPachi has a slowdown-on-demand button. That's all I need to know to avoid it like the plague, personally.

[BPzeBanshee]

No kidding about the BGM quality man - that stuff makes the tracks seem like something else. Gameplay wasn't the bone I was picking at with it - that indeed is dead-on even in slowdowns.

Why the lulz at emulating it though? I realise people don't like doing so because it's either "too close for comfort" (ffs) or playing on keyboard is lame-o (which can be solved by using adequate controller anyway) but I honestly got the impression from stuff I've read a while ago that it's not a common print and therefore goes up for some shocking prices. That being said I don't buy Sony so it's not like I'd rush to buy it regardless of price since I don't own Sony tech period.

[BIL]

It's not that I look down on emulation - it's just that glitches are to be expected when a game isn't on its native hardware, so emulating a port whose only advantage over MAME is easier setup seems self-defeating. For stuff that never got decent home ports, I just use MAME and a Saturn pad. <3 too close for comfort.

Have you tried mounting the disc image on a virtual drive and running it as a CD, by the way? That's how I get redbook audio games to run with music in ePSXe and pSX, works most of the time.

[Jeneki]

Hitagota Happa is an EXCELLENT game.

My buddies always refer to this game as a "suicidemup".

[BPzeBanshee]

It's not that I look down on emulation - it's just that glitches are to be expected when a game isn't on its native hardware, so emulating a port whose only advantage over MAME is easier setup seems self-defeating. For stuff that never got decent home ports, I just use MAME and a Saturn pad. <3 too close for comfort.

Have you tried mounting the disc image on a virtual drive and running it as a CD, by the way? That's how I get redbook audio games to run with music in ePSXe and pSX, works most of the time.

Ah, of course. I'm an emulation nut with a curious mind so I've done strange things with emulation in the past just to see whether it's possible or not.
MAME is naturally easier to run so normally I'd just MAME a game, though if a port can be emulated that does something better than how the arcade did it I'd be willing to get past the initial setup of such .

As for virtual drives, I haven't tried that with running it in ePSXe, though I did notice when ripping the Redbook audio as a virtual drive some of the tracks were cutting into eachother, mainly the Stage Clear one. The stage 2 theme loops twice and then fades out. I suppose it could just be I have a dodgy ISO and if I wasn't so cheap and bought the damn thing it'd work wonders and I'd never go back to the MAME version ever again. 1.7.0's default sound driver runs CD Audio fine most of the time.

[apple arcade]

If it makes you feel better, the PS3 is lacking in all departments, not just shmups.

If you're not a huge NIS fan, there is not much reason to even own a PS3. (IMO)

[Never_Scurred]

Pardon me, but what does NIS mean?

[StarCreator]

NIS = Nippon Ichi Software, a developer/publisher of mainly tactical RPGs.

[whoozwah]

it's weird how that "different strokes" thing works. My PS3 is the only system I have that gets played every day (obviously not for shmups). The exclusives are more plentiful and are more suited to my gaming interests outside of shmups than other systems.

[stryc9]

J360 for shooters (you can upload scores without a Gold account) and PS3 for fighting games (service is free and the machine itself is region free) But trying to play the latest shooters on Playstation is impossible, so I ended up with both machines.

It's really sad it has panned out this way, it was impossible to predict this series of events. Eveyone naturally assumed Gradius V would be PS3 bound and that Cave and the rest of the STG Devs would be on board as well, but it's 2011 and we have... Mamorakun.

It seems futile to hope that things will change in the near future, although with longer life cycles these consoles may just surprise us, you just don't know.

My advice: get that J360 stat. I got mine in November last year and havn't had very much sleep since. At all.

[LtC]

It's funny how PSP has better shmup library than the PS3. Also the PS1/PC-engine games play better on the PSP. I'd like to see more shmups on PS3 but I don't really care that much since I don't enjoy shmups as much on consoles as on PC, mostly since in PC you're not as restricted about things that can restrict availability or enjoyment as on consoles.

If it makes you feel better, the PS3 is lacking in all departments, not just shmups.

If you're not a huge NIS fan, there is not much reason to even own a PS3. (IMO)

Well, you could also say the 360 isn't getting as many bigger exclusive titles anymore besides shmups and halo (Not to mention that to access the ideal library for those requires you to have at least 2 consoles) which I sure hope doesn't lead the bigger companies in completely focusing with move and kinect waggling.

[burgerkingdiamond]

Hitagota Happa is an EXCELLENT game.

My buddies always refer to this game as a "suicidemup".

yeah suiciding is involved, but it's unique. Actually the whole game and scoring system is very unique. I apent about a week playing it constantly and really learning the system. I was battling elixir on the leaderboards for a while going back and forth but he eventually blew right past me. unfortunately since I havent played in a while I forgot how to play and dont have the motivation to re learn it.

the game is awesome though.

[Ruldra]

If it makes you feel better, the PS3 is lacking in all departments, not just shmups.

If you're not a huge NIS fan, there is not much reason to even own a PS3. (IMO)

I love how people still say the PS3 has NO GAEMZ while I'm clocking hours upon hours on it. My backlog is huge already and it's just getting bigger.

It indeed is lacking on the shmups department but there are plenty of other games to spend your time with.

[burgerkingdiamond]

If it makes you feel better, the PS3 is lacking in all departments, not just shmups.

If you're not a huge NIS fan, there is not much reason to even own a PS3. (IMO)

I love how people still say the PS3 has NO GAEMZ while I'm clocking hours upon hours on it. My backlog is huge already and it's just getting bigger.

It indeed is lacking on the shmups department but there are plenty of other games to spend your time with.

for some people no shmups = no games

[bcass]

Well, you could also say the 360 isn't getting as many bigger exclusive titles anymore besides shmups and halo (Not to mention that to access the ideal library for those requires you to have at least 2 consoles)

No it doesn't.

[louisg]

I'm not a huge Sony fan, but I also don't get the "no games" argument. I think it's just meant as a slam because it has *fewer* games. And all of these systems have awesome downloadable games. Like the PS3 has Pixeljunk Shooter. I haven't played it a lot, but I was impressed at how tightly it controlled and how varied the game's influences were.

But yeah, all the shmups wound up on the 360 this gen. Even if you've got a Wii, which seems to have the second-largest number of recent shooters this gen, the best you can do is Shikigami 3. That was a little disappointing because I figured if any user demographic would be up for non-HD games that are fun for quick plays, it'd be that target audience.