Bay Area Shmupmeet - Saturday Jan 21st.

[Alec]

I'll be out there by 1 or 2 today. Can't wait. Sounds like the game selection is going to be extra exciting this time!

[300wins]

I want to say thank you to Dave_K for hosting this awesome meet. It was nice to see some old friends and meet some good new peoples.
Sorry I couldn't stay longer. Hopefully next time I can stay until the end. Thanks again Dave.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Thank you Dave for hosting a cool shmupmeet & for showing the Neo-Geo MVS Fast Striker version 1.5 game as well. It was nice to meet/chat with the regular shmuppers. There was an awesome FS score run done on maniac mode by shmupper blackoak...he got to stage 5 on a single credit.

And a special thank you to shmupper mdl & the guys whom helped load the NEC XP-37 monitor into the van. It was appreciated very much.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_˜

[IlMrm]

A big thank you to Dave for hosting another meet.

[mdl]

As always, thanks to Dave for another great meet. I'm not sure I'll ever be able to rival that collection even now that I'll be able to buy off Yahoo with less hassle and expense.

Also thanks to blackoak and PCEFX for taking my monitors--I hope you guys get lots of use out of them--and thank you to everyone who wished me luck in Japan.

If anyone comes to Tokyo, we should try for a meet then--or, if I don't find work, see you all again in a few months!

[BER]

Dave, thanks for hosting this meet! I imagined the hidden gems would be like P-47 Aces and Last Resort, but it was quite different and pleasantly surprising. I have to say that my favorite was something not quite hidden, Game Tengoku.

alamone, after over ten years of following your exploits, I'm so glad to finally meet you in person! I'm amazed at the raw talent you displayed in games that I never saw you play before.

mdl, best wishes to your settlement in Japan, and thanks for providing us the 1CC of the day. You and Ray cleared up my confusion about the game's rank system, so I can finally work towards crossing off Darius Gaiden from the list of easy games I haven't beaten yet—if I ever want to get around to the game again. :>

Oh yeah, since there was an epic shield-less battle going on between Aru-san and alamone in Gunnail, if you all want to see a high-scoring replay, I think this is it: http://replay.marpirc.net/r/gunnail. Wish I could find something better than a MAME INP file, but I couldn't find anything on Youtube or Nico Nico Douga.

[Aru-san]

There is no doubt that this meet was pretty spectacular. I managed to get my feet wet in a few games I haven't played like Game Tengoku and Fast Striker, as well as see some familiar games like Gunnail, Rapid Hero, Air Gallet, Gradius III and IV, and much more. I'm a bit ashamed at my performance in the tournament, and I practically burnt myself out in the end trying to top Alamone in Gunnail, but overall, this meet was pretty sweet.

Videos to come soon (and the next time we have a shmupmeet planned, those videos will be added to the line-up of looping shmupmeet footage to play a week before the meet). In the meantime, for those that haven't seen how the tournament on Macross II turned out, enjoy. I said this before and I'll say it again, gs68 put up a real good fight in this tourney, especially against someone like Alamone.

[Dave_K.]

Thanks everyone for coming out and making this another memorable shmupmeet. A big thanks to Alamone for coming all the way from LA and bringing his Darius Gaiden and Gradius III & IV boards. Also thanks to our special guest PC Engine Fan X! who made an appearance and brought Fast Striker 1.5 for MVS!

I'm glad everyone enjoyed these hidden gems, and didn't miss the standard Cave/Raizing/Psikyo games we typically play. I still have MORE gems that we did not get to play, so I'll sneak them into future meets. Here is a list of everything we played:

Windy II: Cybattler (Jaleco), Air Gallet (Banpreseto/Gazelle)
Windy II: Gunnail (NMK)
Windy I: G-Stream G2020 (Oriental Soft), Rapid Hero (NMK)
Windy I: Desert War (Jaleco/NMK), Game Tengoku (Jaleco)
New Astro City: Gradius III (Konami)
Astro City 2: Fast Striker 1.5 (NG:Dev-Team), Andro Dunos (Visco Games), Macross II (Banpresto/NMK), Gradius IV (Konami)
Exceleena: Mr. Heli (IREM), X-Multiply (IREM), Armed Police Unit Gallop (IREM)

Last but not least, thanks to Aru-san for providing the livestream, and helping to run the Macross II head-to-head competition on challonge (http://challonge.com/macrossii)!

I'll update with some pics shortly.

[robivy64]

Pics of PC Engine Fan X!???

This will be epic.

[NOAH]

Pics of PC Engine Fan X!???

Nope.

[NOAH]

Major thanks to Dave K. for his generosity and one of the few lifetime opportunities to play the true arcade versions of some pretty rare games. Rapid Hero was awesome. Cybattler was frustrating. All-IREM was a great idea for the Exceleena. Air Gallet was a charitable inclusion and much appreciated.

Although the Gradius series doesn't really fit the "Hidden Gems" theme, it was great to actually play the arcade hardware of two Gradius titles. Thanks for bringing the boards, alamone. Too bad those assholes in customs are still playing your Gradius II board on some candy cab that's also trapped in customs.

It's always great seeing PCEFX, sadly he had to leave earlier than I expected and I didn't get to say goodbye or play his Fast Striker. Playing co-op Space Duel with him was one of the highlights of the event.

And for the record, stawberry Pocky donuts are on HIT!!!

[Aru-san]

So as I was saying before about uploading videos on my previous post, here you go. :3

[Dave_K.]

Pic of epic-ness...

[Dave_K.]

So as I was saying before about uploading videos on my previous post, here you go. :3

Thanks for uploading these! What a great final match that was, so many huge bonus points in that level going back and forth tie-ing up right to the end boss.

[Aru-san]

Pic of epic-ness...

[image]

[caldwert]

I do believe that's PC Engine Fan X!

[mdl]

I do believe that's PC Engine Fan X!

I never actually got to see the legend that took one of my monitors!

[gs68]

GRADIUS TORTURE DEVICES YAY

That side, it was great seeing everyone at the shmupmeet as well as getting to try some obscure shmups.

Shoutouts and thanks to:
Aru-san, for streaming and capturing footage of my rage once more
mdl, may we clash at shmupmeets and other unexpected events again someday.
alamone, for bringing G3&4 (and beasting them) and being a worthy adversary in the tournament.
Nina, thanks very much for bringing food!
and of course, Dave K., for hosting another fantastic shmupmeet!

Hope to see (almost) all of you at the next shmupmeet~

My photos can be found here.

[Kiselgof]

What an awesome meet! First off thanks from Ironish and myself to Dave and Nina for hosting, and for the donuts (I'm a sucker for dessert).

The lineup was amazing, and it was great to play some of these rarities on original hardware. Big ups to Al for bringing the Gradius boards. Gunnail and Desert War really surprised me so props to Dave for picking those up. Great to see the usual crowd and to meet new locals Noah, blackoak, and the famous PCEFX, and a great time as always with the friends I've made over prior meets.

Good luck to mdl in Japan! And man that 37" monitor was like moving a dead moose to a campfire. Altogether an epic meet that really ignites the arcade hobby passion. Gives me something to look forward to in the new year as I realize how many great unplayed arcade gems are still out there!

Mikhail

[NOAH]

And man that 37" monitor was like moving a dead moose to a campfire. Mikhail

Then I guess the 42" monitor was like lugging a whale through the woods.

[Age of Kings]

Awesome meet. It was great meeting new people and trying out new games, and most of all thanks to Dave for being a gracious host. The only downer was that Fast Striker left early, I was having a ton of fun with that! But yeah, can't wait for the next one

(ohay that's me in the photo)

[blackoak]

Just wanted to add my thanks to Dave_K for hosting! It was my first shmupmeet (I nearly missed the June one last year in San Mateo), and it was awesome to see Dave's setup in full glory. My personal, not very profound rundown:

Cybattler: only played 1 credit, but very cool. Looks like it would be fun in 2player mode as well.

Gunnail: couldn't get into this on account of the lack of autofire. I fear too much for my aging wrists...

Gstream2020: hidden perhaps, but didnt seem too memorable to me

Rapid Hero: liked this, would have liked to play more, but came out later in the meet

Fast Striker: was very impressed by this, had a nice little run for my first go at it. thanks PCEFX for bringing this! I haven't played many vertizontals, but thought this was quite intuitive.

Gradius III: not hidden, but cool to see. a fun challenge until you realize how damning the slowdown is throughout the game. is there a playstyle that minimizes slowdown (ie less options, but enough for survival)? really too bad, as I like the levels and the music. watching mdl and others get frustrated by GIII throughout the day was great fun.

Gradius IV: didn't play it much, but seemed like a vast improvement on III. vertical mine...

Armed Police Unit Gallop: seemed a little clunky, not sure if it gets better after the initial stages. probably not one id return to, criticism seems justified.

Would have loved to see some others Dave had lined up... next time! Special thanks from me to mdl for the 42" monitor. If I ever need to part with it, I will be sure to pass it along free to a fellow shmupper. I was pleasantly surprised at the good taste in music displayed through idle chitchat with John, kiselgof and others (I'm very bad with names, apologies). The candy cab and technical monitor banter was also a welcome change from the usual glazed over response of: "candy cab?"

Looking forward to the next one! In the meantime I intend to proselytize to friends&family about the joy of shmups, and hopefully bring some new faces next time.

[robivy64]

*looks for guy with ^_~ face*

[Battlesmurf]

Wow. Wish I had paid more attention and planned for this haha. Looks like you guys had tons of fun!

[PC Engine Fan X!]

There's always next Dave's famous shmupmeet to aim for, Battlesmurf. And yes, Fast Striker wil be making a return appearance as some shmuppers expressed that they weren't able to try it out.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Alec]

Awesome meet up again Dave!

Thanks for hosting and double thanks for loading up X-Multiply and Cybattler, those games rock!

[antron]

Indeed, thanks again Dave!

I've got to get the PS2 port of Gradius IV.

[papa_november]

Hey man, I LIKED Gallop! It tries to do something different, and I always appreciate that in a game.

I gotta say, I had a LOT of fun.

[shariar07]

Ah man too bad i couldn't make it, looks like fun at Dave's as usual. Dave let me know when you have another shmup meet i want to come up north for some SHMUP Action

[GaijinPunch]

People come for the games, stick around for Dave's lovely co-host.