Shmups in a barcade - The 1up (Denver Colorado)

[exidy]

Ok so im new to the forum, but have been into shmups since the 80s and an avid collector of them since 97. I help run a barcade in Denver called the 1up and wanted to say that starting this next month im going to place a shooter there (of my choice) and have at least one there from now on. If the game does well, I plan to push for more as well as possible tournaments.

I wanted to hear some recommendations from you guys for our first shmup to be placed at the barcade.

thanks!

Jon

Short Video of our place:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56eO--dynRc

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http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-1up/1 ... 79?fref=ts

[trap15]

Battle Bakraid. Force everyone to play for score.

[shmuppyLove]

Batsugun Special

[KAI]

Radirgy/Karous. Force everyone to play them for score.

[J_Taishu]

Ikaruga -- If you got it, people love this game.
Life Force -- Lots of people have nostalgia over the NES verison. The arcade version is pretty difficult though.
Darius Gaiden -- People with Sega Saturn may be nostalgic for this. Pretty approachable as long as you have autofire on.
Espgaluda -- Features a special ability that allows player to slow down bullets. This is also not impossibly difficult.

You had pictures of Progear and Truxton up. I think Progear isn't a bad call, the game is very difficult though. Truxton can be brutal, and the length can be kind of a turn-off.

[trap15]

The game in that second cab isn't Truxton, it's Dogyuun.

[exidy]

Yeah its Dogyuun.
I have a ton of shmups, but ive been thinking about putting in Raiden Fighters II or 19XX in there to start, then gradually put in more hardcore shit. Im not wanting to scare off regular people with something like this:

[TrevHead (TVR)]

If beer is in involved

Touhou, because ZUN's drawings get prettier after every pint and after 10 pints you start fancying them.

My real sugestions would be either. Rayforce or Dodonpachi, Mars Matrix seems to be popular with folk trying MAME shmups for the first time.

Wartech senko no ronde, Change Air Blade & Twinkle Star Sprites could be interesting hybrids to hook the fighter / puzzle nerds.

Since there are no local arcades I couldn't tell you what would be popular for sure. Maybe a local to the Casino arcade in London could pipe in and say which shmups were the big hitters with general arcade go-ers

EDIT Gekirinden is quite easy at the beginning.

[exidy]

Yeah beer really tears games up.
I have a fairly nice vertical Dynamo Cab with a 25" monitor / 2 controllers and 2/buttons. Which will be perfect and im not so worried about the game cab getting damaged.

Jon

[TrevHead (TVR)]

Double post

[Nana]

Mushihimesama Futari!

Seriously, all of the gold and numbers everywhere and flashy lights will draw in the curious!

[emphatic]

Twin Cobra.

[lilmanjs]

Throw in Viper Phase 1. It only took me almost 15 years to 1cc that game. Then again when I first started playing it I had very, very, very bad eye-hand coordination. Though I think the length might throw some people off.

[Squire Grooktook]

Rayforce - I went in expecting a vertically scrolling Darius but had my mind blown so hard I couldn't stop playing it (despite the fact I had stuff to do and intended to just put in 1 quarter). Great scoring system too.

Dodonpachi and ESP RA.DE - My first bullet hell shmups. Very fun and a good bridge between traditional shmups and bullet hell. I was able to adapt pretty fast and start enjoying them right away.

[Crafty+Mech]

In a word, awesome!

A shump will be a great addition to the 1UP lineup. 19XX would be a solid start, I'd love to put some quarters into that machine since I have never played the game in the wild. I'm heading down there next Sunday, I'll keep an eye out for a new cab.

[hvx]

1up & 2up are cool, I think the crowd would like Mushi Futari.

[moh]

Batsugun Special

[ookitarepanda]

Oh hell yes. I'll be in Denver April 17-20 right next to the convention center. You bet your ass I'll stop by once or twice. Wish I could offer to bring one of mine but I'd be worried to pack a game like DFKBL in my suitcase. I'll let you know when I'm in town.

[cools]

Batrider.

Or Ibara.

[Annoyboy]

My suggestions are just repeats of what others have already said:

Battle Bakraid
DoDonPachi
Batsugun
Mushihimesama Futari

Perhaps also consider:

Armed Police Batrider
Parodius Da!
Salamander 2

[dpful]

Ddp doj or ESP Galuda are both amazingly accessible and addictive. I've had a cab out in public for a few years and those always end up in it.

[drboom]

Hey man - lots of good choices, but some good ones that all can enjoy (for the most part) and backing up other's suggestions:

Dodonpachi (this is the shmup that got a lot of us into current bullet hell styles)
Twin Cobra (cheap and addictive, an autofire pcb is a good idea)
Parodius (funny and fun)
Raiden
ESPgaluda
Battle Garegga
Batsugun (Toaplan's best and last effort, easy and fun, good visual style)
Mushihimasama Futari 1.5 (huge fav among most Cave fans, pretty easy start, visually appealing)
...and then there are a ton of easier but fun and visually enjoyable games, like Storm Blade, Twin Bee, vs. Gradius, Gigawing, etc.

[louisg]

I think you should err on the side of easy games: not only will these not be shmuppers, but they'll be drunk too! I second DoDonPachi. RayForce would also be bad ass, or Darius Gaiden with autofire maybe. One of the later TwinBees may draw people too : not too hard, fun, and colorful

Batsugun is definitely NOT easy just because of how fast it is

[exidy]

update:

I have decided to do a vertical game.

my top choices thus far in this order:

Raiden Fighters II
19XX
DDP
Espgaluda
Viper 1 (new version)

Not really interested in doing an older game like Twin Cobra, Truxton, etc.
Wanting it to be somewhat modern.

Jon

[emphatic]

Not really interested in doing an older game like Twin Cobra, Truxton, etc.
Wanting it to be somewhat modern.

Then I change my "vote" to Do-Donpachi.

[Squire Grooktook]

What do you mean by modern?

[exidy]

90's and newer

Here in Colorado I think Cave, etc are non existent on location or in any arcades.
so it would be cool to show people the progression of shmups, so games such as DDP would be ideal.

Jon

[Crafty+Mech]

Either one of your top two would be awesome:

Raiden Fighters II
19XX

Both of those games are modern and very accessible to casual players.

[trap15]

^ Pretty much this. RF2 and 19XX are great games, and not super hard.

[TrevHead (TVR)]

Deathsmiles (or Mushi Futari 1.5) is certanly one you should go for a modern CAVE shmup for that screen full of shiny score items flair mixed with novice gameplay. The fact that players can choose their own stage and rank should be popular with folk who like to make their credit go a long way, and the harder last stage means they won't get to beat it that easyily. Plus the fact it was one of the popular 360 stgs means they might play it at home too.

I think some games like Deathsmiles might benefit from instructions added somewhere to the cab. Just to explain things like rank, how the special shot works and how to go about getting 1UPs.