The Self-Introduction Thread

[scarper]

When I was about 8, a close friend made me play Xevious on his Namco plug-n-play joystick thing. And thats when it all began! Shmups have been one of my favorite genres ever since.

Welcome Nick! Consider yourself lucky you found Xevious at such an early age, and actually enjoyed it. And moving into Saturn was a wise decision.

Thank you! I played the living hell oughta that game every time I went over to his house. It started to bug him after a while. I especially loved the glitchy effects caused by low batteries.

And yes, the model 2 Saturn controller still stands as my absolute favorite controller design/d-pad ever.

[Zaximillian]

Zaximillian here. I'm 43, so I don't play shmups as much as I used to. Now I'm working on designing a very large shmup using the homebrew FRAXY sandbox engine, looking for a team with various talents to join me, and testers to beat the crap out of it and have FUN!

I can do graphics work (I prefer angular logos and vivid colors), design starfighter player craft models (with LEGO!), and write basic music using MIDI. I'm also a big fan of the subtleties of game balance and of writing actual plots for games.

My personal favorite shmups to play: Gradius III (SNES), Starblade, Gyruss, Solvalou, Time Pilot, Galaga, Warning Forever, and of course, FRAXY.

Favorite enemy: Covered Core, Gradius III, SNES
Favorite level / music: Accident Road (High Speed Stage), Gradius III, SNES
Crowning Achievement: Technical Monkey, Gradius III, SNES (decades ago)

I pride myself on being professional and approachable. Message me anytime, and feel free to contact me via YIM. Zaximillian is my nick there.

[WarLord]

Hi Guys !

WarLord is in tha place ! (Sorry for this cheap intro... )

I'm a Video-Games addict since 1982 (Dawn, 30 years I'm playing like a Dingo !), I began with the usual Atari, Thomson TO7 (Oh my god, those audio carts to play !!! ) and even the Vectrex Hardware !

Just after, the NES Hardware make me feel happy as never with the VG World, it was the beginning of the end about the solidity of my wallet.

I always collected every games from every Hardwares but my real dream was to start an Arcade Games and Cabinets Collection.

I started it since about 20 years ago and even after all this time, my passion is intact.

To play the games wich loved my childhood, now, at home, is a magic feeling wich makes the same effect each time I turn on my cabinet.

I play on an Exceleena Red Cabinet and a SmallCab Deluxe SuperGun.

I like Shmups (Of course ! ), platforms and fighting games.

I will post some pics of my own severals colllection pieces nextly.

Hope I will feel good (Yeah !) on this forum to talk about this fantastic world.

See you later guys and have a nice day !

PS/ Excuse me in advance for my english, I speak it as good as possible.

[Heretik]

Hello everyone !!

i 'm a shmup addict since r-type on super famicom .It's my favourite game .I love a lot of shmup .Shmup are alive ^^
I hope to have good times with you !!

see you everyone

[blackoak]

I play on an Exceleena Red Cabinet

Welcome! An Exceleena is a great cab, I've had the privilege of playing on one at Dave_K's place. Aesthetically it seems like a mix between an E29 and a Cyberlead...
I'm guessing you have a nice PCB collection to go with it?

[WarLord]

Hi blackoak !

Thanks for your reaction !

Yes, the Red Exceleena Cab is an awesome easy rotation one, effectively like an Egret.

I like the Namco Layout Panel too, I'm in hurry to play again with it, when I'll come back to home !

A Nice PCB Collection... Sure, I had to add some greats titles to honnor this beauty you know, my last purhcase is a Dimahoo Japan board, I was dreaming since a long time to catch this legend.

I'll post some pics nextly.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

For WarLord,

Welcome to the shmups forum.

The very mention of the classic Vectrex name...it certainly is a unique piece of standalone gaming hardware indeed.

Back in 1982, it had the widest retail distribution of any gaming system on American soil upon it's initial debut: it was no problem finding it at Sears, Musicland, The Wherehouse, Toys-R-Us, King Norman's Toys (a toy store franchise based out of three states including California, Oregon and Washington back in the early '80s), The Toy & Hobby Co., etc. When the "Great Video Game Crash of '83-84" occured, most retailers had plently of brand new Vectrex consoles just sitting around unsold. The obvious solution to get rid of them: sell them at $49.99 USD and priced to move (they had an original MSRP of $249.99 USD back in '82). And boy, did they sell like hotcakes! All the Vectrex games sold at retail came with an original MSRP of $29.99 USD back in '82. In September of 1984, most U.S. based retailers were blowing out their remaining Vectrex software at a mere $5.00 USD easily -- so that was the perfect time to grab as many new Vectrex games dirt-cheap (or practically being given away for "mere pennies on the dollar" if you will).

GCE (General Consumer Electronics) was thinking about releasing such a color Vectrex console as the next serious major upgrade to it's monochromatic Vectrex console lineup but found out that they'd have to sell it at a whopping MSRP $499.99 USD just to break even (or turn a profit) from a manufacturing/production standpoint issue -- and so thus, it was never meant to be. And would the American gaming public be willing to plunk down a hefty five hundred plus for one?...common business sense in hindsight says "no". Sure, a single color-vector based Vectrex console prototype exists to this very day.

Not to mention a late 1983 released Vectrex full color brochure with a cool photo of the upcoming optional Vectrex computer keyboard accessory to turn a plain-vanilla Vectrex unit into a full-fledged computer setup was in the works as well. That too, never materialized either, due to the Great Video Game Crash of '83-'84 fiasco/incident and with the parent company of Milton Bradley (as GCE was a subsidairy of it) bailing out of the home video game business for good. GCE saw that other video game manufacturers were releasing or planning to release such 1st-party computer keyboards to their current gaming consoles (i.e. -- the prototype Atari Graduate keyboard add-on accessory for the Atari VCS/2600 or even the Coleco Adam bundled set comes to mind), so why not make the Vectrex double as a handy computer for greater versatility.

GCE made a deal with Bandai Electronics division to sell the Vectrex in Japan with rebranded sticker labels -- sure fetches a pretty yen/penny/pence on the secondary Vectrex collector's market these days.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[WarLord]

What a wonderful story, thank you PC Engine Fan X! and thank you for your Home too.

I've already constated your big video-game culture since I read and browse this forum.

You also have a good and educational way to teach some interesting chronics about this intriguing world.

I remember Pole Position with my cousin... The entires afternoons to be hypnotised by this vector graphics console almost from elsewhere.

At the Atari ST and its various achievements in 2D, more fashion with the times, the Vectrex was a concept in its own right, it was very special, it must be appreciated... That was my case!

[Crafty+Mech]

Hi everyone, I've been lurking for a couple months and am a long time fan of shooters. The first Shmups I played in the arcade would be Space Invaders, Galaga, 1941, and Time Pilot. RType was the first shooter that I got into on a console, and in '90 I dropped way to many quarters into Raiden. I loved the oversized enemies and the frenzy of bullets that filled the screen.

I have a 1941 arcade board, as well as a Scramble pcb. I've played through Metal Slug 4 & 5 on the Xbox 360, and would love to pick up a few titles from that series for the MVS board I have.

I'm not familiar with most of the titles that are discussed here, so I'm looking forward to trying a few of them.

[Farian303]

Hello everyone,

Long time reader, but not an active poster on here. I don't really fit in the "normal" arcadescene, I'm too shmup-minded. The last years my passion for shmupgames has become bigger and bigger, and my interest in other game genres became smaller and smaller.. Raizing and Cave games in particular, thats my style. I allso like the Grev stuff.

Right now I have 2 cabs, 1x JVS (Naomi uni) and 1x Jamma (New Astro). My most prized arcadeposession must be my Espgaluda PCB. Man, I'd sell my mother before I would ever sell that one.

Im here to expand my knowledge about shmups, meet some cool fellow-shmupfans, and do some buying and (if necessary to fund new stuff ) sell some PCBs.

[moh]

Hello everyone,

Long time reader, but not an active poster on here. I don't really fit in the "normal" arcadescene, I'm too shmup-minded. The last years my passion for shmupgames has become bigger and bigger, and my interest in other game genres became smaller and smaller.. Raizing and Cave games in particular, thats my style. I allso like the Grev stuff.

Right now I have 2 cabs, 1x JVS (Naomi uni) and 1x Jamma (New Astro). My most prized arcadeposession must be my Espgaluda PCB. Man, I'd sell my mother before I would ever sell that one.

Im here to expand my knowledge about shmups, meet some cool fellow-shmupfans, and do some buying and (if necessary to fund new stuff ) sell some PCBs.

wow! two cabs and a cave board. I'm already jealous of you. you sure have great taste in games though, galuda is one of my favourites. the trading community is great here, so you'll feel right at home

welcome to the forum!

[Farian303]

Thanks Moh!

[Squire Grooktook]

Hello all.

I'v always had shmups in my game collection, dating back to The Guardian Legend and Einhander which I inherited from my brother. I enjoyed them, but never really got into them since at the time I was more into character based games (platformers, hack and slash, adventure, etc) rather then "space ship games". After a while though, it kinda hit me that it doesn't really matter what your ship looks like, it's just an avatar of the player. After that I got addicted to Gradius 3 and G-Darius, Axelay, and everything else in my collection.

Several years ago, I started to get more into multiplayer gaming (particularly fighting games), so I kinda took a rest from shmups. But now that I'm in college and have less free time, I figured I'd go back to them since it's a lot easier to play them in between classes and whanot, instead of having to practice combos for 3 hours just to stay competitive among friends.

Spent last semester playing Darius Gaiden, I'm hoping to master Rayforce and Gradius 2 ARC this one.

[spadgy]

Great to see that a stream of freindly new users continues to join us! Welcome all!

[ncc]

Hi I'm new. Sometimes I play shmups. I'm pretty bad at them.

That's the end of my story.

[Nana]

Hey, nice to meet you ncc! Welcome in, your avatar is pretty rad. What are some of your favorites?

And welcome as well Squire, G-Darius kicks ass

[ncc]

What are some of your favorites?

Right now I'm pretty enamored with Raiden Fighters 2, which is unusual because I'm more prone to Cave's stuff. I also love me some Kenta Cho games.

[spadgy]

Hi I'm new. Sometimes I play shmups. I'm pretty bad at them.

That's the end of my story.

That's how it starts for all of us!

Welcome!

[Deca]

Right now I'm pretty enamored with Raiden Fighters 2

You have earned my respect.

[ncc]

Hi I'm new. Sometimes I play shmups. I'm pretty bad at them.

That's the end of my story.

That's how it starts for all of us!

Welcome!

I think 5 years of relative non-improvement on my part is a statistical anomaly (aka I am a bad). Then again I'm too much of a youngin' to have cut my gaming teeth on shooting games, so maybe I'm just working with a handicap.

[ricebunny]

Hey guys! I recently discovered shmups, so I thought I'd join this forum, I've been playing a lot of pink sweets/muchi muchi pork on xbox 360, I'd love to pick up the pcbs, but I dont have a cab or a supergun to play them on. ;-;

[moh]

Hey guys! I recently discovered shmups, so I thought I'd join this forum, I've been playing a lot of pink sweets/muchi muchi pork on xbox 360, I'd love to pick up the pcbs, but I dont have a cab or a supergun to play them on. ;-;

hey ricebunny! I've actually never played mmp or pink sweets before, they're just a bit too weird for me either way, can't go wrong with cave titles!

welcome to the forum

[Softdrink 117]

Hey guys! I recently discovered shmups, so I thought I'd join this forum, I've been playing a lot of pink sweets/muchi muchi pork on xbox 360, I'd love to pick up the pcbs, but I dont have a cab or a supergun to play them on. ;-;

Welcome to the forum!

MMP and PS are really complex, but they're a lot of fun. I've been playing Pink sweets a lot myself recently, actually. Still terrible at it though. Be sure to check out the strategy section if you haven't already; lots of great info in there, especially for CAVE and Raizing games.

[thelion1856]

New to the forum here a lil bout me:

I first played STG's on the NES and early on in those years of Nintendo, genesis and Super Nintendo it built a love for shmups. But the now extinct American arcade was where I really fell in love with video games in general. I miss the 90's where you could go to an arcade and play all the new games. I was a big dreamcast fan and that's where the shmups addiction really took off. (Still got my dreamcast hooked up with a wireless Logitech ps2 controller that works flawlessly for it). I found this site while looking for xbox 360 shmups and now I'm here, wish I found it sooner. I pretty much suck at STG's but the fun is what counts for me. My favorite STG are the horizontal games and I hope these are making a come back!

[superpretendo]

Hello, everyone! I've recently been bitten by the arcade gaming bug, and have developed a fondness for 15khz shmups and retro gaming. I have a New Astro City that I am in the process of getting sorted (If you have any pointers, I have a thread open in the Hardware section), and a 20" Sony PVM for retro consoles (RGB all the way!). Can't wait to get tons of pointers around here, and maybe make a few friends! It's an arcade wasteland down here in Florida, USA :/

[ncc]

It's an arcade wasteland down here in Anywhere, USA :/

Fixed that for you.

[LZQ]

Howdy from Atlanta, GA, USA. Longtime lurker who's been into shmups ever since I rented M.U.S.H.A. in the early 90's. I've been around long enough to remember the old message board and back when shmups.com actually updated it's reviews. I'm lucky enough to have picked up a number of the Saturn and PSX games before they got too expensive, and more recently have the joysticks to match. Used to own a Neo-Geo arcade cabinet, but got rid of it a few years back (though I still have as a keepsake my MVS copy of Viewpoint). I finally started de-lurking when the latest 'Top-25-of-all-time' thread started. Considering hosting a small shmupmeet in Atlanta.

Speaking of which, apparently the local anime convention ( http://www.awa-con.com/ ) is getting ZUN of touhou fame in as a guest this year. Is there a thread about that yet? I haven't been to this con in awhile ( I drifted away from anime after I finished college ), but that might be enough for me to go this year.

[Zenzizenzic]

Greetings from the Netherlands! Been a lurker here for a couple of months now, and probably less of a shmup fan than most of you guys in here, but nonetheless, I do my best :) The core reason why I'm diving headfirst into the shmup arena is because I'm developing my own shmup at the moment, but also of course because of personal interest, otherwise I wouldn't have begun with the project in the first place. I always had a fascination for the genre and felt compelled to vigorously dive into them when one caught my attention. But it's been a while, so here I am to reinvigorate the desire and get some inspiration for my own project :)

[Yacepaderborn]

Hi everyone ... new shmup junkie here ! .... I'm from Toronto Canada , and been playing Shoot'em ups since the late 80's , damn i miss those old arcades!! , its great ive found a place to kibitz with fellow shmupers

[SePh1r0tH]

Hello there, long time fan of this website and forum but only started becoming active recently. I've been into this genre of games since Gradius 3 on the snes and recently started playing original pcbs in the last few months. This site has helped me fuel my addiction of old and new shooters so I thank you all!

I also have a small YouTube channel focused mainly on shmups so check it out if you're interested! Its not high production or anything but I have some cool things

http://www.youtube.com/user/outlawstar107

It's nice to see so many people with similar interests

-Dave