I've been a fan of gaming and shmups in general for most of my life, way back in the stone age when dad had to rent a VCR so we could watch movies on VHS for Xmas, and mom was taking up microwavery lessons; filling our developing bellies with nuked instameals to give energy needed to bash our heads into bricks, stab oncoming commie Russians, and maybe just maybe, getting to and beating Mike Tyson.
But I digress. Although some trace the birthplace, or altleast popularization of, shmups in particular, and tight game mechanics in general to that era I just mentioned, I hadn't gotten my fix until much later. Those first experiences were with the mostly frustrating nes ports of titles like Tiger Heli, 1943, and Space Harrier.
There were some true greats from the time, like Life Force and Gradius but the first shmup I actually seriously tried to 1cc was not until the launch title playstation1 port of Raiden (project). Looking back at it, it wasn't all that special of a title - ploddingly slow, underdeveloped art style and unfair bullet sections that barely stand out from the background. That was around 1995. I basically gave up on shmups except for the odd play at the local arcade until I discovered mame and got introduced to a litany of overseas and rare titles, especially those from a new developer called Cave. I never went too far with mame because I found it too laggy (at the time), and had trouble adapting (or altleast having fun with) a keyboard for input.
Flash forward to around 2007 and by now I was very familiar with dodonpachi super plays circulating on the net, but couldnt bring myself to really sit down and play shmups seriously. I always assumed that those super plays were all done by some superhuman Asian kid with no regard for appetite, emotions, or other such human interests and spent all his time perfecting the impossible bullet patterns (perhaps I wasn't ALL wrong about this). I assumed I would never be able to 1cc any of these 'bullet hell' games... Then I caught wind of a new Cave game called Espgaluda that also happened to be released on the PS2. Interested, I checked out some videos online and concluded that that was a game I could POSSIBLY 1cc... Some day.
From that point forward I was hooked. I started to understand the intricate scoring systems hidden underneath the hood, the right way of memorizing and planning out sections for scoring and survival... I FINALLY GOT IT!...
And I still could not stand Raiden-series games no matter how often I went back to them
I have since heard from others that the original Espgaluda was the game that "got me back into shmups." I think shmups have a great future despite what pundits often say (remember them declaring fighting games as dead until only recently?) Although I still hate the way "shmup" sounds when you hear yourself saying it. Nevertheless, I feel there is a strong push occurring again for games that remind us just why we play them to begin with. It's not just to escape, to mindlessly control an avatar, mashing our way through uninspiring and unchallenging terrain. It's to challenge our memory, reflexes, and imagination. That's what pure gaming is all about. Thats what we had in those halcyon NES days when you got exactly ONE game at a time and developers knew that game had to last. You just couldn't fit junk levels into a max-50kilobyte cartridge and get away with it. So instead games were short in theory, but took much longer to master and, therefore, complete.
So yeah, that's my story I guess.
Currently obsessed with: Espgaluda 2
Currently own:
(XBOX): Guwange, Espgaluda 2, Mushihemisama Futari, DDP DFK, Deathsmiles, Trouble Witches Neo, Score Rush, Raiden IV (I swear I will never learn)
(PS3): SoldnerX, SoldnerX2
(iOS): Espgaluda, bug princess 1 & 2, DDP Blissful death
I am sure I'm forgetting some - will add later if I remember.
Favorite input device: Seimitsu stick and buttons (EX-SE)
Favorite system: Good old arcade
Wish I had: an arcade cabinet, japanese X360
Other favorite gaming genres: Fighting, Puzzle, Action-Adventure
Things I have learned while visiting shmups.system11: Touhou games are easy. Cave games are hard. Touhou games are hard. Cave games are easy. Everything other than SUPER GOD LUNATIC MODE with the EX stage of the 20th loop on the MEGA BLACK LABEL original arcade pcb version... Is just too damn easy.
Most absurd image I haven't been able to get out of my head for years: that "Team Hard Gay" signature (???)
