What game got you into SHMUPS?

[Koa Zo]

These games made a lasting impression on me when I first played them:
Space Invaders
Scramble
Defender
Zaxxon
Time Pilot
Spider Fighter (2600)
Galaxians (5200)
1942 (NES, then arcade)
Zanac
Thunderforce III
Viewpoint
Raiden II
Aerofighters series
Space Megaforce

[listed in approximate chronological order of my first experience with each]

F-Zero X

Yes, I credit that game for getting me into shmups. I was absolutely obsessed with this game before it even came out, and when a nearby EB got a Japanese copy of the game in one of their kiosks, I became quite a familiar face .

Man, that's great! I have a similar scenario tied to my purchase of Thunder Force III. I hadn't had any dedicated interest in shooters since Spider Fighter, or Galaxians on my Atari systems. It was all adventure games and action platformers for me through the late 80's. Back when the Genesis was a fresh young system, Phantasy Star 2 was my most wanted game, ...but impossible to find in any retail stores. I was sure it hadn't been relesed even, but the toll-free Sega phone line said that it had been available for months. Not even knowing Electronics Boutique existed, I stumbled into one of their stores while browsing a mall after a failed attempt to find PSII at ToysRUs. Electronics Boutique didn't have Phantasy Star either, but they did have a game on the shelf that stood out from all the rest: Thunder Force III. The Hot-B packaging looked kinda different from the other official Sega games, and that gave me reason to not trust it (after my experience with the early EA Populous that didn't work on the TVs in my house), and TFII retailed for like $65, so it was a miracle I even considered it. Anyhow, I made the right choice, and haven't ever looked back. ...except for the fact that I never could match Martin Allessi's scores in EGM.

[chempop]

Life Force (nes) and 1942 (arcade) introduced to to the genre. Although I was too young to become good at Life Force, I'd still play it all the time and watch my babysitter beat it (if it wasn't for him I would have missed out on most of the 8-bit classics as a kid). Even though my brother sold our NES years ago I managed to keep our copy of Life Force, and somehow recently I've managed to aqcuire another copy, strange...

Lightening Force, MUSHA, Trouble Shooter, Robo Alesta, and Silpheed kept me playing during the 16-bit era. After that though, shmups seemed to disappear from the US market. It wasn't until years had passed and I hadn't been gaming for some time when I started doing research on Treasure games that I had missed. While hunting for Radiant Silvergun, I mentioned it to a friend and they told me that they had a copy somewhere in their basement! My friend sold it to me (and some other old junk) for $25, and I was hooked. After that MarsMatrix made me fully aware of how much I had missed the shmup genre.

[Platypus[gEc]]

Actually, i forgot my first shmups' name, but i do know i was hooked. Some kid in the building i lived in had it, and did not like playing it so he gave it to me (until he figured out what to do with it). I had one of those advance nes sticks (for the love of god, i don't know why i had that since i did not (and still do not) own NES shmups) and i absolutely LOVED that game. I played it for 3 weeks straight, until the kid wanted it back because he found someone who wanted to buy it. Now that i'm all grown up and strapped with cash (well, sort of) i'm wrecking my brain trying to remember the games name, trying to remember how it looked, searching the "interweb" for pictures of NES shmups... but alas.

I figured out which game it was... it was (drrrrrrrrrumroll) "Burai Fighter" (tadaaa). As soon as i found that out i searched ebay for a copy and about one week later is was in my NES again... memories....

[5parrowhawk]

The first time I really got into the zone in a shmup was playing 1943 on my uncle's NES at about age 7. I'd had the idea that "those games with the little planes are cool" before then, but since I didn't have an NES... there was no way to sustain interest. (Plus, my annoying kid cousin was poking me with this small wooden object of unknown provenance... I grabbed it and threw it back at her, and apparently it hit hard enough and accurately enough to make her burst out wailing and carrying on. Proof of video-game-induced violence, anyone? In any case I was in serious trouble with my parents after that - heh.)

Fast forward about 15 years, and I'm in the army. One day, me and my buddies are off duty and hanging around the canteen, and I spot a 19XX cab. I sit down to play out of nostalgia and promptly get challenged to single-player score attack... 2 opponents and about 4 or 5 games later, I emerge (barely) the victor, having made it to stage 3 (ooooh... NOT), with enough adrenaline running through my system to literally give me dry heaves. You can tell the other guys weren't really shmuppers either

And I look at my score, and go "Okay, this sucks. I can still do better." The rest is left as an exercise for the reader

[ROBOTRON]

I was gonna say "Zanac" by Compile, but I forgot I did have the original Atari 2600...so I would have to say River Raid and Chopper command. Imagic's "Demon Attack" was huge with me also back in the day.

[LAshujin]

Guwange on Mame - one of the kids living in our dorm last year and I got into a score war on it and the rest is history. Now I own a cab and PCBs of Guwange and ESP Ra.De

[Samudra]

Still I don't know the name of that arcade shooter. I think the backdrop consisted of buildings in at least one stage and sometimes also dinosaurs appeared. I think they gave powerups, though I'm not sure about that.
-
Sounds like Prehistoric Isle by SNK

I checked the screenshots on KLOV, but the game I saw back then was a vertical scroller. Also I'm pretty sure it was not a SNK/Neo Geo game.

[Zero]

Well when I was younger I played these games which sparked the intrest I have today.

Galaga( I didn't really like it that much at the time)
There was a gameboy game but I can't remember the name of it....
1942 ( I loved this game at the arcades)
Star Fox( Loved it!)
Area 88( U.N. Squadron) - ( Me and my cousin played this for hours. I just recently purchased it for snes for nastalgic reasons )

Then there where various games I would play at the arcades. I don't remember the names of them but they were some interesting SHMUPS. Sometimes they would go so fast I couldn't keep up. But they never really got me back into the SHMUP scene.

It wasn't till recently with Ikuraga that I've started back getting into it.