The longest you have played a single shooter (total).

[Rob]

Just curious to see the results. Estimate as best as you can.

[8 1/2]

I've been playing DDPDOJ pretty consistently since the home port came out. It was the first Cave game that I really put time into, so the first few months were just a brutal learning experience. I'd say I have 500 or more hours on that game. Too bad it's spread out over a period of frantic bursts intead of all in one shot as I'd have a hell of a lot better score than I do.

[Plasmo]

Ikaruga - 350hours

[it290]

Hard to say, but I imagine I've probably completed Thunder Force III at least 50 times, and each completion probably takes about 25 minutes (guessing). So that's ~20 hours, not a lot, but counting all the non-completed plays I've probably put more time into TFIII than any other shooter (especially considering I first got the game shortly after its original release).

[FRO]

I've probably spent a total of 150+ hours with Lightening Force...

...Of course, that figures the total time since I bought the game some 16 years ago.

[Rob]

I think I've got at least 5 games at 100+, but nothing anywhere near 350 or 500. Sometimes I wish these games had in-game timers, or maybe it's better that they don't.

So far I guess the <50 hours people are more fans of old school shooters?

[theevilfunkster]

Not much. Probably about 20-50 on most of my shmups, maybe more on Silvergun (I've had my Saturns memory wiped a few times and had to start over)

I should really stop buying new games for a while and just work on what I've got.

[uwfan]

on dodonpachi at least 150-200 hours.

[Icarus]

I must have sank about 300-400+ hours into Garegga. At one point, it was the only game I played for a whole year plus extra. Been enjoying it on-off (inbetween other games) for the past seven years.

[shiftace]

Raptor - Call of the Shadows: I've had it for a long time, cleared the full game at least 30 times. I've pretty much memorized it, for which I feel like a huge dork. I might have spent over 100 hours, but I'm guessing not quite.

Parsec47 - There was a while when I played it close to every day, about 1-5 hours, for nearly a month. Probably close to 100 hours there, too.

I'd guess 50-75 hours on Perfect Cherry Blossom and Radio Zonde. No console games for me, I haven't had a working console in 10 years, and it was a NES at that.

[freddiebamboo]

I get too bored with the repetitive nature of staying with one game for say 20 hours, I always seem to get distracted by something else when I stop improving noticably.

Probably put about 50 odd into DDP, but thats the most I've done I reckon.

[BulletMagnet]

Maybe I'm just weird, but am I the only one around here who doesn't keep very close track on the time spent with games (or anything, really)? I just kind of play stuff when I'm in the mood for it...some things I'm in the mood for more often than others, but I've never really kept track of the time I've spent with any game in particular...I just find it interesting that quite a few others feel comfortable giving ballpark estimates of said time, when I couldn't even begin to venture a guess, I've just never bothered to keep track at all.

[professor ganson]

Maybe more than 20 hours on Shikigami no Shiro II.
Probably 15-20 on Gunbird 2.
Possibly more than 10 hours on Zanac Neo and Striker 1945 I.

I feel I have only begun to play these and my other favorite shmups. I only discovered this forum in February, and before that I didn't know what a 1cc was and I never played for score, only for survival. I've come a long way and improved my shmupping talents by a lot, but long hours at work are presently crushing me and I don't see an end in sight to that problem. So I will continue to be hanging at the bottom of the scoreboards, slowly but methodically becoming the greatest shmupper ever to have these genes I was born with.

[sven666]

prolly spent upwards 200 hours on ikaruga waaay back..

spent roughly 30-40 hours on r-type delta getting/doing everything too..

batrider, garegga, gigawing and all the others.. god knows..

[freddiebamboo]

Maybe I'm just weird, but am I the only one around here who doesn't keep very close track on the time spent with games (or anything, really)? I just kind of play stuff when I'm in the mood for it...some things I'm in the mood for more often than others, but I've never really kept track of the time I've spent with any game in particular...I just find it interesting that quite a few others feel comfortable giving ballpark estimates of said time, when I couldn't even begin to venture a guess, I've just never bothered to keep track at all.

This is true, the only game I've noticed a time counter on has been final fantasy (and other rpg's) and I did 70 odd on that and there is no way I've done that on a shooter, but I compare it to the amount I play on games with counters.

[it290]

So far I guess the <50 hours people are more fans of old school shooters?

I wouldn't say that about myself -- I do like 16 bit generation shooters a lot, but I don't get into much of the earlier stuff (shooter-wise; I love older games, I just don't find most of the earlier shooters as much fun, for some reason), but I also play a lot of the newer stuff. I've spent a lot of time on some newer games, it's just that I usually only play them 2-3 times in a session, so I don't rack up the hours that quickly.

[UnscathedFlyingObject]

I'll be conservative and say more than 50 less than 100 with Gradius Gaiden. My total amount of 1CC for that game is 27. About half of that is from the 1rst loop, meaning that I played well into the 2nd loop or beyond before dying (one loop takes 45 mins approximately.) The other half begin from the second loop, and I usually get to the third loop Moai Heads. From this solid data, I can say I've put at least 35 hours. When the time of failed attempts is calculated in, that amount could easily double.

[Rob]

Maybe I'm just weird, but am I the only one around here who doesn't keep very close track on the time spent with games (or anything, really)?

I don't think it's very close unless you're an Ikaruga fan, since it has its timer. I just guess if I've played a game consistently (1-2hrs/day) for a total of 3 months, that's about 100 hours. For example, I'm pretty sure I played GW2 for one month in mid '03, another in fall and another month last year. I usually play games in chunks I can remember, so estimating beyond that point is fairly easy.

[Smraedis]

DoDonPachi, Darius II and Darius Gaiden sure have got at least 100 hours each from me..

[Rob]

Finally, a vote for 10 hours or less. Fess up.

[EOJ]

At least 400 hours on ikaruga for me. Probably more like 500+.
I've spent about 40-50 hours on ESPGaluda by my estimates. I can see that going over 100. I'm also spending some time on Mushi and DDP DOJ, but I don't think I've passed 20-30 hours on either yet.

[sethsez]

Probably some ungodly amount on Darius Gaiden and Gradius III (both arcade and SNES versions).

[crithit5000]

190 hours on Ikaruga, and I still blow at the damn game.

[Xexyz]

I feel that I'm close to the ten hour mark on both Gunbird 2 (DC version) and Gradius Galaxies (GBA). These are my two most often played shmups and the two I spend the most time on improving.

The imrpovement part aint going to well

[TWITCHDOCTOR]

Thats a little hard for me to say, as I don't count time by the "hours". I judge it by years.
Games like Blazing Lazers,Gradius and Thunder ForceII,III, etc, I've been playing since the late 80's and still playing to this day. Even though I've 1CC em many, many times.

I figure a good game shouldn't be "rushed" so to speak. I've heard many people trying to beat Ikaruga in under 40 hours, etc,etc...bullshit.
A great game takes time to age well, just like fine wine!

Gaming "hours" are for the new generation of gamers who time everything they do with a stopwatch to unlock shit...whereas "years" are for the "True Shmup-o's" who simply enjoy playing the said game.

[nZero]

Voted earlier, but didn't put any comment down. So... here goes.

Just judging from the number of years of casual play I'm sure that I've logged well over 100 play-hours on both Raiden and Raiden DX. I'd guess somewhere between 20 and 50 for many of my other time honored favorites.

[Titus Andronicus]

I've spent 8-10 hours with Ikaruga, which is nothing if one strives to be any better than crap at that game. Other than that, I sprinkle my shmupping on lots of different games since I'm in the process of figuring out what kind of shooters I like the most (and what I'm good at!).

[ED-057]

I would guess that there are 10-20 shmups I've spent more 10 hours on. Tyrian is probably the only one that I've got more than 50 hours in (and it was only the shareware version). It's not my favorite shmup, and I wasn't really playing for score or trying to finish it on the hardest difficulty. I just played it because it was one of the better games that would run on a 486 and there were so many weapon combinations to play around with. Outside of shmups, I must have over a thousand hours in Super Robot Wars, and quite a few in Warcraft II also.

[zubiac]

Super Aleste (or Space Mega Force for stupid US market)
I bought it blindly cause of the "cool" coverartwork.
At home I realized what a jewel it is.
I don't know how many hours I played it but i can easily say that I finished it about 50(or more)times.

[IlMrm]

At least 200 hours on Strikers 1945 Plus. During those times I spend more time at the student union arcades than in a classroom. Beaten the first round over 100 times.

Gunbird 2 at least 80+.