The Self-Introduction Thread

[glyphs]

Hi I like it here.

( ・_・)ノ

Getting into arcade games (shmups and fighting) recently and decided to de-lurk. I'd really want to start messing with cabs and hardware if I didn't have a miniscule apartment, and the lack of any japanese-style arcades in NY is disconcerting. Literally on my block I can buy as many anime boob mousepads as I want but there's nowhere I can play on a candy cab? You'd think there'd be at least one Cave machine somewhere out there. I'm down the street from Chinatown Fair but it's kind of a joke. Also swiping a weird fake credit card to play a neo-geo machine feels anachronistic and lame.

I've tried a lot of shmups so far but I'm best at Espgaluda and DDP. Actually the whole interest is a result of buying Espgaluda 2 on my phone at random and getting kind of addicted. My transition to joystick has been hilariously bad because on a touch screen you just move around so freely.

Other interests include Moebius, indiepop/c86, Studio Ghibli, modernism and beer.

[PAPER/ARTILLERY]

Hey folks,

Well then let me introduce myself, long time lover of shmups and classic games in general. First console was a Master System and I have vague recollections of playing Fantasy Zone back then, later I acquired a Mega Drive and fell in love with Galaxy Force (maybe not strictly a shmup but hey), Gynoug for it's crazy bio-weapons and Thunder Blade. With time my shmup tastes and knowledge evolved a little and I found Batrider, R-Type Delta and Rayforce. Right now i'm mostly playing Dodonpachi, Mushihimesama whatever XBLA looks good this week. Apart from shmups I like Final Fantasy games, Gran Turismo, Doom, Metroid, Street Fighter and Castlevania.

Interests outside of games include typography, design, tea, lager, fixing things, breaking things by attempting to fix them and then fixing them again, and reading.

So yeah, hello. You all seem lovely.

[oboewan42]

Hey all, it's me, lurker and occasional poster.

I've only really been playing shmups seriously for a few months now, ever since I got really into MAME, though I spent some serious quality time with Tyrian back in the day. Playing the first level of DDP for the first time was practically a religious experience for me. That also was around the time I bought my weapon of choice, a MadCatz BrawlStick with a Seimitsu LS-32 that I mainly intended on using for miscellaneous classic gaming and such... what a coincidence that I would turn out to be such a shmup fan?

I used to be real intimidated by the genre (and who wouldn't after seeing some of the YouTube videos), but I personally credit Jamestown for being the game that really taught me that, hey, this is a thing normal humans can do! The shmup bug didn't really bite, however, until I played DDP.

However, I would not exactly consider myself "good" at shmups, by any stretch of the imagination... still, though, they're great fun, and I'm improving. Got this close to an Imperishable Night normal 1CC the other day (seriously, I was ONE CARD away), and I can regularly get almost to the third boss of most CAVE games!

But yeah, I'm about as casual as they come. I mainly play shmups for the sheer fun of it. I'll occasionally credit feed; instead of "how far can you get on one credit", sometimes I'll play "how may credits does it take for me to beat the game" (spoiler: several - but that doesn't mean I don't try!) I don't really play for score that often, but it is really satisfying when the score mechanic clicks and you get to the top of the default leaderboards. Mostly, though, I just like blowing stuff up.

Can't wait until the next STGT, even though I'll probably sit square at the bottom of the leaderboards, it still seems like it'd be fun to participate and discover some cool shmups!

...One thing I really like about this community is how nice you guys all are towards personal preferences. Everyone has games that they love and hate, and everyone's cool with that.

My personal favorites are CAVE's older stuff, Batsugun Special (which is the main game I'm working towards the 1CC on at the moment), Raiden Fighters (toothpaste laser 4 lyfe), and that one series with the lolis and the slow bullets and the really tiny bosses (you know which one I'm talking about). Tyrian 2000 still holds a fond place in my heart despite its flaws; I'd kill for a game with that much content (the twiddles, the datacubes, Super Arcade, ENGAGE, the list goes on). And I consider Jamestown to be highly underrated, and an excellent beginner's game.

On the other hand, Treasure games never really clicked for me (I think it's a movement speed issue personally), Yagawa games just seem too voodoo-heavy for my tastes (plus the concept of rank makes my skin crawl - Batrider's pretty fun though), and I've never been able to play anything horizontal for too long without ragequitting (though it is fun to credit-feed through Parodius once in a while).

EDIT: And speak of the devil, just got my first 1CC ever, Batrider Training Course. Maria-C, final score around 1.7M. Damn giant hitboxes. AUTO-BOMBAAAAA

[jin799]

hi all,

Nice forum good to be here.

I was looking for a game that I used to play during my teenage years..... I don't know the name but I do remember it saying the phrase "I CAN'T ROLL IT" when you died.
Thats all I remember about it and was wondering if anyone had any idea what game this was ?


Many thanks

[Pallerå]

i guess i should post something here

im a pallerå

i dont really play games

i dodge bullets sometimes though

I'm playing musha atari futari and daifukkatsu and games are too hard fuck everything.

Eveything sucks and I can't articulate my thoughts into sentences well, so I don't really have arguments because it's too much effort.

And every time someone gets mad because the games have anime artstyle i get happier than a corgi on silts.

[ChainsawGuitarSP]

Are you me by any chance

[O. Van Bruce]

Are you me by any chance

does he have Kirino as his waifu?

[Reiko]

Hi there!

Decided to come out from lurking for whatever reason and make an intro/life story post.

I'm 26 years old and I live in Australia. Since I was a kid I've been a fan of shoot em ups.

The first shoot em ups I played were Uridium and Zynaps, on the Amstrad CPC464. That would've been in about 1992 or so. That computer was also my first experience with programming when I was 6 years old.

There were others, like Raptor Call of the Shadows, but for a long period of time though I stopped playing them. When I was 17, I started writing a shoot em up game. Not really sure what suddenly motivated me to do so, but I did. After seeing a couple of other games at the time, I felt my game was a little too uninteresting and scrapped it, deciding that one day when I was a better programmer I would start again and make something fun to play. One of the games I tried at the time was Ikaruga. Saw some videos of it online, looked fun so I ordered the gamecube version from the UK on Ebay (the game was never released over here, I believe).

I was horrible at the game, but I enjoyed just credit feeding my way through it. After some practice, I did get decent at proper chaining and etc of stage 1, but that was about it. (I actually hooked up my Gamecube a couple months ago and had a game. Forgot how good it felt just to play the stage 5 boss; will always be one of my favourite STG bosses I think.)

Since then, writing an STG has been on the back of my mind, but I have not yet really done anything serious about it. However, I do have a university degree now and a good knowledge of C++.

About one year ago I was browsing some random games site and saw an article on the eXceed series. It looked interesting so I gave it a try. Aside from Ikaruga years earlier, this was my first experience with bullet hell games. Again I sorta credit fed my way through the first 2 games. The first game was very difficult for me I remember, but the 2nd game was fun because it shares the polarity mechanic from Ikaruga. When I played eXceed 3rd, I enjoyed it very much due to the visuals and music, and I started playing it a lot, memorising enemy spawns and bullet patterns and such. Aside from my little practice with Ikaruga, this was the first time I took an STG seriously, eventually 1ccing the game on Easy and Normal.

Wanting to share my knowledge of the game with others, I decided I wanted to make a guide for the game. Not just to try to help others, but to improve my own gameplay as well while creating it. Recently, I finally got around to doing that. The guide is here.

Other games I got into while playing eXceed 3rd was Crimzon Clover and Stella Vanity. I have 1cc Crimzon Clover on Simple, but that's it. For Stella Vanity, I've 1CC the game on Easy and Normal. I would like to one day no-miss eXceed 3rd (I can no-miss all stages in practice, but in a run I usually get 1 or 2 deaths), and get better at playing/scoring on Stella Vanity. I guess I would like to do the same on Crimzon Clover as well, but I haven't been playing it in a fair while so it isn't a priority.

Most of my friends think these games are stupid, but I do have one friend who is quite into the Touhou games. He introduced me to a few. While the patterns are pretty, I somehow found the games a little boring. I think mostly I just found the weaponry, music and sound effects uninteresting.

Anyway, after seeing a few videos on youtube of Cave games, to be honest I didn't like them much. Difficulty looked like something I'd never be able to achieve the skill for, and music in most games wasn't quite to my taste. A while ago I tried out Mushihimesama on PS2 emulator. Didn't like it that much. More recently, I decided that it was unfair to dismiss these games so easily, so I downloaded a bunch of the games for MAME and tried them out. I found that there was in fact several I didn't like much, however, there were also ones that I actually did like (Espgaluda, Muchi Muchi Pork, Pink Sweets, Deathsmiles).

After watching the STG Weekly video of Gus' run of Mushihimesama Futari, it inspired me to try playing it more, and the game has grown on me a bit.

I decided that I would probably have more fun with these games with better sound/resolution as well as practice mode, so I went ahead and bought a pre-owned xbox 360. While I was at it I also ordered Mushihimesama Futari, Eschatos (also cause of the STG Weekly episode ), Dodonpachi Resurrection, Muchi Muchi Pork & Pink Sweets and Akai Katana. I guess after all, I've become a Cave fan.

Now I'm looking forward to playing and becoming better at these games in the future, and still one day I would like to write my own bullet hell game.

[Skykid]

Now I'm looking forward to playing and becoming better at these games in the future, and still one day I would like to write my own bullet hell game.

And we'd like to play them. Welcome to the forum, enjoy yourself, don't post any pictures of lolis!

[O. Van Bruce]

Welcome to the forum! You surely have good taste by liking Crimzon Clover and Stella Vanity. Please do continue playng Cave games.

And don't worry, post all the lolis you want. The more the better.

[Skykid]

And don't worry, post all the lolis you want. The more the better.

Stop trying to get our new members banned O.Van, you know it's against the rules.

Sorry Reiko, he does this sometimes. He's a bit protective over the community and suffers a slight online xenophobia.

[asu_tenan]

umm... just realized there is introduction thread...

Hi! Hello there! Just joined here.. dunno what's my intention, but i like shmups!
i just bored to play shits like cod or whatever, so now i like these kind of games


Its fun and challenging too. I play doujin games mostly, and cave arcade games.

my favorite dojin shmups of course is crimzon clover

and recenlty just loved hard drugs like hellsinker and akashicverse. But im still working on clearing hellsinker..

what about favorite cave games? almost all. Cave games are just damn too superior

[n0rtygames]

what about favorite cave games? almost all. Cave games are just damn too superior

I give you one year before you go Psikyo

[O. Van Bruce]

And don't worry, post all the lolis you want. The more the better.

Stop trying to get our new members banned O.Van, you know it's against the rules.

Sorry Reiko, he does this sometimes. He's a bit protective over the community and suffers a slight online xenophobia.

online Xenophobia

Anyway, here are the rules http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=779

[CloudyMusic]

Welcome, guys!

Don't take anything posted here seriously. Except for the Strategy forum.

[Reiko]

Thanks all for the warm welcome

[Nana]

Nice to meet you all!

Pallera likes Yume Nikki, Futari, and Classic Game Room, so he's alright by me.

[Dawn111]

Hello everyone!

I would like to introduce to myself in this forum. Shmups are some of my favorite video game genres I've played. I especially love Einhander and R-Type Delta on the PS1. They're some of my favorite games I've played. I know that some of you are going to hate me for this, but I also love Sexy Parodius. Personally, I find that game to be pretty fun and challenging.

[spadgy]

It's great to have more and more friendly seeming members arriving so frequently.

Welcome to you all, and have fun!

[Nana]

willkommen Dawn111! Sexy Parodius is awesome, and it's brutally difficult. Probably moreso than most bullet hell shmups I've played. Could be just me, though, but either way it rocks.

[powerflower]

Hi there everyone
Glad that I signed here and got intantly access to this board.
Im from Germany and a very big time shooting freak since Ive played AstroWarrior on the SMS.Shortly after I got in contact with Aleste on the same system and from then on I was hooked on shooting games until today with my beloved AkaiKatana.
I do not care if horizontal or vertical as long as it kicks ass.
My favorite companies are Taito,G.Rev,Sega,Cave,Capcom,Konami.Im a collector who actually plays his stuff from SMS to PCBs.I think I own every major console designed in Japan including PC-Engine and NeoGeo.

My favorites:
MetalBlack,G-Darius,BorderDown,Gradius2,WindsOfThunder,Gunhed,AkaiKatana,DDP Daifukkatsu,Pulstar and many many more.

I would like to expand my PCB collection,unfortunately I dont swim in money,haha.Nevertheless I hope to get some good advice especially regarding arcade stuff and of course may help others with my knowledge and experience.My brain is like a shoot em up library(thx to mame).But only real hardware is the real deal for me.No laggy LCDs,PCs and emulators.Cause when I hate something really really bad its lag.

Oh and as a good first advice,if I may,for all you guys searching a nearly lag free display for console gaming.Grab the Panasonic ST50 Plasma as long as you can.Reference picture,under 1000 Dollars@50" with around one frame lag.

And sorry if my english is a little imperfect
Greetings to all

[Dawn111]

willkommen Dawn111! Sexy Parodius is awesome, and it's brutally difficult. Probably moreso than most bullet hell shmups I've played. Could be just me, though, but either way it rocks.

Thanks! I'm glad that I'm not the only one who loves that game. It's really difficult though, and I agree that it's more difficult than most bullet hell shooters I've played as well.

Also, welcome powerflower.

[powerflower]

Thank you Dawn111.
Im looking forward to digging some good info about anything related to maybe the oldest genre.
Only problem is the further I dig the more my pocket screams,haha.

[iast]

Hello all! I've been a casual shmup player for the longest time, but recently started getting involved in more serious learning after having watched STG Weekly for awhile. I tend to gravitate towards older shmups or those that I grew up with.

Currently working on a 1cc of Kingdom Grandprix (hopefully a looped 1cc to come after that), and Soukyuugurentai once I can get hold of a Saturn copy.

[Ghenry]

Hello everyone, Ghenry here!

I joined this forum because I kind of got back into shmups ever since I've been working on a big project. More on that later.

I have enjoyed shmups ever since I was a kid. Contra is a series I still hold dear to me. I have adored R-Type, Gradius, and just recently discovered (and ultimately loved) Sine Mora and Akai Katana. It's nice to see companies still haven't lost hope for this genre!

I'm also part of a Youtube channel known as The Sweet Homies (homage to the NES game by Capcom that is argued as the first ever Survival Horror title), which you can check out through the link in my signature! There's a couple videos of me playing Contra 3. It's nothing special, but feel free to check it out!

So, I mentioned a big project I'm working on. As part of this Youtube group, I realized they're able to help me with something I've wanted to do for a good while now. Something that hasn't been done yet. It's going to be a retrospective on the entire Contra series. Not a single game is left behind (except maybe that one Mobile game, which I can find nothing about). From the very beginning in the arcades, to Hard Corps Uprising! It won't be ready for months, but I hope I've interested some of you guys here! If you like Contra, I'll make it my best to make it seriously worth watching.

[railslave]

AH , i never did this !

Hi everyone..

My shmup obsession started with forgotten worlds, Gynoug, Thunderforce 4 and zero wing on the megadrive. I probably would never have picked up a guitar if it wasnt for tf4 or ....um...devoted my life to drawing stuff like gynougs bosses.

Im terrible at these games btw...


More recently i discovered Aero blasters, Gley lancer, thunderforce 2 and thanks to the absolute beasting ive had in the dev section, the Cave games, batsugun and mushi.

I also discovered Rozyrg ......

Im currently helping out with several indie shump games projects, hoping to not only reach thunderforce 4 levels of graphical and musical perfection but ... stupidly enough , leave them in the dust (not ambitious am i ??)

one i made earlier , a certain indie shmup dev has me chained in a dungeon of black and white

[O. Van Bruce]

hi railslave. interesting stuff you do. that cutie you draw reminds me contra 3 last boss. But you have yet to discover the most wonderful art style for shmups: Cute 'em ups!

Cute 'em ups are power, Cute 'em ups are wonderful, Cute 'em ups are justice! so come back after drawing a fine and cute piece of art

...


Nah, I'm just teasing you . Once again welcome. Take a look at the development forum to see if something interests you. And about sucking at shmups, don't worry, we all did

[Nana]

I dunno, I would play a cute-em-up with monstrosities like that.

Sup railslave! I've already noticed you about the forums as you might know, but 'welcome in' officially! You guys should go check out his projects, he's incredibly promising.

[zeroroute]

l've been gaming for about 15 years, my first shmup was aero fighters. A local video store had it back in the day, and since my dad knew the store owner, after hours fun was had, but we still paid to play. I've always had an interest in obscure/niche games for some reason (maybe it's natural).

[Reiko]

Welcome!