Newb looking for a little direction

[TrevHead (TVR)]

Blue Wish Ressurection+

Easy 1cc, and also will teach you the ropes.

Blue Wish Resurrection freeware PC (or BWR+ which is slightly easier but has too much slowdown imo) is my recommendation for anyone learning bullet hells, the bullets move super slow and is good for training noobs how to dodge bullets and see openings and routes through the bullets. Eden's Aegis is another good noob STG by the same dev, good for learning how to cancel. Nomltest & Kenta Cho's PC STGs make good practice STGs too.

Jamestown is a recomendation for getting ppl hooked onto the genre as it gives them a taste of what makes 1CC/scoreplay so fun, Since it's a widescreen vert I would say it's not the best STG to learn to dodge bullets. The OP is already into the genre so Jamestown isn't necessary in this case, but I thought it worth a mention for others to reccommend.

I would then recommend moving onto console / arcade STG's which are generally harder (apart from Deathsmiles which is rather easy).

I recommend switching up different methods of play/practising to find what suites you for any given situation. What is important is that you have a goal when practising and study your mistakes and look for solutions. It's very easy to fall into the trap of treating practice as normal play and not getting anywhere at all apart from wasting alot of hours and burning yourself out.

For me I have trouble with bossfights and inconsistency between play sessions. Practising the bosses and planning bombs helps as does playing the last stage as a warm up. My biggest hurdle is a bad memory and short attention span but there's no helping that

[Spirit X]

sorry i'm late, thought this was the other thread.

i believe many of these suggestions are in error, and i suggest dodonpachi daioujou (black label) as always. it's a game that is perfect for anyone (it should be suggested by everyone and played by everyone) and it only lacks in the area of graphics, it's not too hard (people are liars) and not too easy to start, it's not hilariously complicated or annoying to play well yet has lots of depth, etc.

This may well be good advice (I wouldn't know because I haven't played it), however I think I'm right in saying that DOJ is a Japan only release so Cap probably wouldn't be able to play it.

The post does make me want to play DOJ more than ever though. I just can't justify buying another Xbox for the sake of 4 or 5 games that I want to try . As Microsoft have announced that the Xbox One will be region free for games, I wonder if there's maybe a glimmer of a chance that they could patch the 360 firmware to ignore region locking? Then I can cruise to Japan on my flying pig to buy the games I want .

[Capaneus]

This may well be good advice (I wouldn't know because I haven't played it), however I think I'm right in saying that DOJ is a Japan only release so Cap probably wouldn't be able to play it.

There are ways

[7711]

The post does make me want to play DOJ more than ever though. I just can't justify buying another Xbox for the sake of 4 or 5 games that I want to try . As Microsoft have announced that the Xbox One will be region free for games, I wonder if there's maybe a glimmer of a chance that they could patch the 360 firmware to ignore region locking? Then I can cruise to Japan on my flying pig to buy the games I want .

Just play it in MAME dude, the game runs fine even on poor hardware, and nobody's going to bitch about it

[Capaneus]

So when playing older shumps, which is better, emulation of original arcade game, or a port on the original hardware? I know this heavily depends on the game, but say DonPachi, MAME it, or play the Saturn or PS1 version? Obviously best case would be original PCB's, but that's not a reality for me. Are there general rules, or a list of popular shumps that has a ranked way to play them? I know this is also sometimes subjective.

[nasty_wolverine]

So when playing older shumps, which is better, emulation of original arcade game, or a port on the original hardware? I know this heavily depends on the game, but say DonPachi, MAME it, or play the Saturn or PS1 version? Obviously best case would be original PCB's, but that's not a reality for me. Are there general rules, or a list of popular shumps that has a ranked way to play them? I know this is also sometimes subjective.

Some games are 100% emulated, others are almost perfect, and a few have major issues.

As a general rule:
PCB > Ports > Emulation

I cant get PCB's so i get ports when i can and emulate the rest.

[7711]

Both DDP and DOJ plays to perfection on MAME, some versions (like ShmupMAME) allows you to play with very little latency (~1 ms if I'm not wrong), so I would highly recomend you to at least try and see it for yourself.
A lot of very good players (like Prometheus) praised the emulation regarding these games, and don't forget, the closest to actual arcade expericence (in both gameplay and content) you will get is on emulators.

edit. regarding nasty_wolverine,

I'm wondering why you would regard ports as beeing better than emulation, especially when you say something like

Some games are 100% emulated, others are almost perfect, and a few have major issues.

Since most (well every) ports are inferiors to the original arcade games, and emulation is as you said it "almost perfect", wouldn't that put emulation before ports ?

[Mortificator]

I agree. If an arcade shooter's listed in MAME with "good" status in everything (emulation, color, sound, graphics), and it has a console port, MAME's almost always the better choice.

Of course, there are many games that aren't "good" across the board, like everything for ST-V hardware, which is much better on a Saturn.

[nasty_wolverine]

I'm wondering why you would regard ports as beeing better than emulation, especially when you say something like

Some games are 100% emulated, others are almost perfect, and a few have major issues.

Since most (well every) ports are inferiors to the original arcade games, and emulation is as you said it "almost perfect", wouldn't that put emulation before ports ?

The reason i put ports before emulation is, buying ports and PCB's, or game disc for that matter supports the creator, however if its an old game and hard to come by, emulation is a good alternative. Also, you cant put a binary rom on a shelf, but you can put a port on a shelf and show it off.

Also, if its really a crappy port, emulation is better. As i mentioned, its more like a rule of thumb, you dont have to live and die by it.

As a general rule:
PCB > Ports > Emulation

[Capaneus]

buying ports and PCB's, or game disc for that matter supports the creator

Only if you buy new right? Like if we are talking about emulation vs a port that is only available used, like a PS1 port. I get what you mean though in terms of modern ports.

[nasty_wolverine]

Like if we are talking about emulation vs a port that is only available used, like a PS1 port.

Well, if the port is good and i had a ps1, i ll get the port. But if i dont have a ps1 or the port is crappy, emulate it.

[Despatche]

"easy" is never a good starting point. when you start on easy, you either end on easy or you spend years upon years moving up to "hard", as opposed to a few weeks or months. of course, keep in mind "easy" (milestone) is not the same thing as "basic" (galaga).

Well I have to disagree with that, I can now fairly easily reach the end of DDP's first loops and DOJ still kicks my ass, maybe the game itself isn't has hard as some people would say but its still clearly one (big) step above DDP in that regard.

well, you're playing the original version, it's a good bit harder all around. black label at least is a somewhat small step above ddp.

actually... are you using exy in doj? i ask because EVERYONE uses exy no matter what. exy means you can't bombspam stage 4 and 5 like it's ddp.

This may well be good advice (I wouldn't know because I haven't played it), however I think I'm right in saying that DOJ is a Japan only release so Cap probably wouldn't be able to play it.

There are ways

that's what i like to hear :V

So when playing older shumps, which is better, emulation of original arcade game, or a port on the original hardware? I know this heavily depends on the game, but say DonPachi, MAME it, or play the Saturn or PS1 version? Obviously best case would be original PCB's, but that's not a reality for me. Are there general rules, or a list of popular shumps that has a ranked way to play them? I know this is also sometimes subjective.

it's a tough call. generally you want the real thing, then emulation, then a port. one thing is that ports are either emulation (mame can totally be considered a "port") or "conversions" (where a lot was changed in order to fit the hardware). official ports to consoles are supposed to change things, and many older ports are "conversions".

for example, the ps1 and saturn versions of donpachi are really weird, and there are already 4 different versions of the arcade version to worry about.

[Capaneus]

it's a tough call. generally you want the real thing, then emulation, then a port. one thing is that ports are either emulation (mame can totally be considered a "port") or "conversions" (where a lot was changed in order to fit the hardware). official ports to consoles are supposed to change things, and many older ports are "conversions".

Yeah, I really find this stuff terribly interesting, because a "port" can range anywhere from a repackaged emulator to the exact same machine code with tiny modifications. With all other things equal, machine code running on an emulation layer will never be as good as instructions running natively. The thing is, the native code might have to be chopped up and have weird omissions based on the limitations of the target hardware. Then there are ports from NAOMI and ST-V hardware, which are mostly the exact same hardware as Dreamcast and Saturn, there just have to be small changes to accomodate smaller RAM. Has anyone out there attempted to index the best way to play each game? I know that sounds crazy ambitious, but each game page could even have a discussion thread where subjective factors could be discussed. So if someone wants to find out the best port of an old arcade game, they could see how it ranks against the current state of emulation, and the order of the ports themselves. Factors like input latency, color accuracy, sound authenticity, framerate could be tallied so that each emulation or port has a authenticity score.

[Despatche]

...you've pretty much described one of the biggest game resources i want to see!

i need to make a super fancy wiki that no one can edit

[Deca]

Savestates can be extremely helpful for practice although some of the L33T players look down on it.

I'm sure it's already been mentioned but I just want to reiterate that every high level player I know uses savestates to their fullest.

[EmperorIng]

Savestates can be extremely helpful for practice although some of the L33T players look down on it.

I'm sure it's already been mentioned but I just want to reiterate that every high level player I know uses savestates to their fullest.

credit-feeding (sort of like save-states) is the only way I've gotten close to (or accomplished) 1CCing any of my shmup games.

My biggest advice would not to break bank buying a dozen expensive shmups (since the games are often very expensive). I like sticking to cheaper ones if I can. Good news though is that many of the best are cheap (Gradius games, US-released DC shooters, some of the XBLA stuff, etc.).

My second biggest advice: Psikyo and Takumi!