Whats the shmup that inspired you to get into this hobby.?

[Tokyo-J]

Asteroids on Atari and Lifeforce + Gradius on NES

[HamidoOs]

A youtube video of Gradius V. I Played many shmups after watching that vid. Ironically, playing Gradius V itself has become a wish!
If only they ported that thing to 360...

[shadowbringer]

Imperishable Night (because of Dracil's IN Extra video), which made me ask myself: "can I play like this, too?". There was also a video of a PoFV Extra no-miss no-focus run, which got me interested (however, I wouldn't realize at that time that this was a much more difficult feat, but fortunately for me, I was hooked by IN instead of giving up trying to do said no-miss no-focus run. Suffice to say that I tried to graze for the first time in PoFV, without understanding why nothing was happening, and thought that no-miss meant that the player didn't let any enemies escape alive).

The first Touhou game which I've found, though (iirc), was the first fighting game (IaMP), at that time I was trying to find a combo video ("Ode to the 2-hit combo") on Youtube, in a time where there couldn't be videos over 11 minutes long (I was new to YT as well, and didn't pay attention to the video length), so I found an IaMP video by accident thinking that it could be a Rozen Maiden game (which was a new anime at that time, but I didn't watch it). What kept me playing IN was the "achievements" (Last Word Spell Cards, which are unlockable missions) that made the game more interesting, plus, the game telling me to try to not use continues (it was shocking for me, who used to credit-feed games and thought that the goal of shmups was to reach the ending with as much lives and continues you had.. none of these games told me that I should try to 1cc them).

At one point, though, I became greedy and overstimulated with scoring, to the point that I care much more about scoring well than I care for an 1cc (while considering scoring mechanics to be a more unique source of fun, than survival play). But then, I got to understand that scoring well in most Touhou games involve grazing, at which point I thought (since a long time, years maybe) that it was too much for me to handle (execution, memorization -- I easily mismemorize things, and to make things worse, background scenery memorization doesn't help as much in Touhou games -- and inability to understand clearly what are the optimal scoring routes -- and remembering them -- and why. Learning from replays is a difficult task for me, to the point that when I play a game and screw up, I restart the game so I can think of what mistake I did, and I think I can't make good use of stage practice, because I forget things or get stressed when there's much things to remember while playing. Last, but more importantly, I suck at dodging and put the blame on my inability to reliably determine player/bullet hitboxes :3*), so I would try to evolve at my own pace. But, since I procrastinate a lot, I've since then seen newer players which are now much better than me, while I still haven't improved.

tl;dr: if you lose to me in STGT (if you can play the game), I'll laugh at you. Okay, not really.

* example: I bomb most of Sakuya's patterns in EoSD, because it seems to take less effort than learning its hitboxes. (plus, dying at such a late stage sucks)

[Ruldra]

That classic video of the Mushihimesama TLB. Someone posted the video in another forum I used to visit and when I saw that, I immediately thought "I MUST try this game!". Found out that the game was available for the PS2, managed to get a hold of it and was hooked. Started doing some research on the web about bullet-hell games, found a video of Triple Lei clearing Daioujou along with a link to this forum. The rest is history.

At the time I was starting to lose interest in gaming. I was playing too many crappy RPGs back then and I thought games just weren't fun anymore. Shmups made me enjoy gaming all over again.

[lilmanjs]

Viper Phase 1 (Original version). Was a game me and my dad back when I was little bonded over in the arcade here. Never knew about it being updated into a fair and quite a bit easier game till I found out about mame.

[wnka]

The Mushi TLB video got me back into shmups. As I kid I played a lot of Space Invaders on the 2600 and NES shmups like 1943 and Lifeforce. In college there was a Galaga machine that I would always play before exams to relax, then I saw that Mushi video and was surprised that the genre was still alive. I started playing stuff in MAME and just went from there.

[MOSQUITO FIGHTER]

One of the first video games I remember playing was Tandy Cosmic Fire Away 3000. I might have got hooked with that. It was a handheld game in the same vein as Space Invaders but was a little different and was in color. It was a pretty good handheld game for the time and I played it quite a lot.

The next one would have been when I rented Tiger Heli on nes. I remember liking the game and being surprised that you could shoot holes in people’s houses. My mom offered to spend some money on me and I remembered the game and wanted to get it really badly. I made my mom drive to the city in the rain to get it because you could not get video games anywhere locally at the time except for sears I think and they did not have a copy. Well KB Toys did not have a copy of Tiger Heli either so I ended up being really disappointed but I got some fancy GI Joe tank instead. That might have been where it started.

I didn't really own any shooting games when I was younger though. I think that that might be part of the reason that I'm not all that great at them. I think the first one I bought was R-Type Delta. EGM gave it a great review and I had good memories of renting Super R-Type.

Well into the Dreamcast generation I lucked out and found a copy of Radiant Silvergun in a pawn shop for $40. I was really excited after reading all the praise the Gamefan magazine heaped onto it and convinced my girlfriend to let me borrow the money to buy it on the spot. Bought it and then went to the game x change and they had a saturn and a gameshark with instructions on how to start imports hand written on it. I guess it was meant to be. I really got really deep into shooters after that. I can't really peg it on any one game though.

[neorichieb1971]

I am not a die hard shooter fanatic. But I bought quite a few shooters on the C64. I only come here to see where the genre is going. I don't like most of the modern day shooters, they seem to follow the same trends of bullet hell. Still prefer the old school shooters. The most modern day shooter I really like is ESP ra.de for some reason. I like games with awesome music. I am also a big big fan of Parodius on the PS1 and Game paradise on the saturn.

[MonkeyJug]

Tiger heli and flying shark. Fell in love with both of those games in the arcade and the bug has stayed with me... (i'm now in my 40s (just!))

[Webster]

Hi, newbie here. Nice to have the oppurtunity to finally share my thoughts about one of my favourite art forms.

I suppose R-Type on the master system, many moons ago. Although, Darius Gaiden really made the fever set in. That damn music...

I hate to stray off topic, but I could really do with some advice on how to get Ketsui's music to play properly. I'm running it on the latest version of shmupmame, with both an acer notebook and a regular, mid range laptop. Annoyingly, the arrange version music is almost bearable, yet I would much rather play the original.

Really would be grateful for any assistance. Cheers.

[scrilla4rella]

Life Force on NES when I was a kid. I dugg Einhander, G Darius and R-type Delta in the PSOne days, but I didn't dive into the genre hardcore until I played Radiant Silvergun sometime around '00. I got Ikaruga when it came out in '01 and was so blown away that I kept on playing it until I got my first ever 1cc, ruining a CRT in the process. Then sometime around '02 I got Battle Garegga. After that my gaming habits would forever be changed
-
Those are the big ones that stick out in my head but I also remember buying a loose copy of MUSHA on ebay for $10 back then but It took me awhile to appreciate it. I guess the 16-bit shmups just couldn't compete to the 32-bit Saturn and PSOne shooters back then. Damn, I used to be such a graphics whore..

[TrevHead (TVR)]

Apart from a large number of Touhou players

You suck and I hate you

Hahaha THX

[lewisit]

I played every shooter I could find as a kid in bars and diners (Space Invaders, Moon Cresta, etc.) - but the ONE game that totally blew me away was a Xevious cabinet:


THESE GRAPHICS: flying over lifelike landscape! rotating objects! balls that looked like real balls! ...!


I still remember me saying "if it would ever be possible to have that game looking & playing exactly this way at home I'll forever be satisfied!" (you gotta remember back then all we had were Atari 2600s and the likes...)

[Vortecks]

This is a fun thread.

I'm fairly new to shmups. I played them as a kid, albeit not passionately. The Deathsmiles US release caught my attention and made me realize that there are some awesome games still being made. I've been playing Dodonpachi and Mushihime Futar (BP2) on iPad for a while now, and am looking forward to picking up the 360 imports.

Also picked up Under Defeat for the PS3 recently, and I'm having a BLAST with that.

[powersoul]

Bwings when I was a kid, along with Star Force (Mega Force in some regions)

[scrilla4rella]

Great thread! I especially like seeing all of the recently made shumup fans. Keep on shootin' fellas!

[Astraea FGA Mk. I]

Einhänder, not surprisingly.

[MX7]

Truxton on the Mega Drive. Then maybe Perfect Cherry Blossom a few years later (sorry)

[ancestral-knowledge]

basically this:

http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.ph ... 0&start=55

[coturnix]

Am i the only one that got into shmups as a hobby because of this forum? I had played shooters in the arcades, and afterwards in mame, but never cared much about them. It was just 30 minutes of credit feeding, and nothing else.

Then i stumbled here (and can´t remember why to be honest) and to my surprise people here played those things without credit feeding . Actually they were able to complete them in one credit, even those i considered absolutely ridiculous (hello cave) And there´s more, they played for score, those stupid numbers i had never cared for What´s this Yagawa games they mention here, rank??? Suiciding???? Like, seriously??????

So there, i had played a ton of those shooters, but it was like i had never read the instruction manual. Those forums showed me new ways to enjoy shooters, and it was those surprising "play for score" and "try to complete it in one credit" that got me definitely hooked on shmups. It maybe sounds really dumb, but hey

Oh, and i without those forums there´s no way i was going to understand Yagawa games. Even then it cost me quite a lot of time to appreciate them, but i just had to "get" them with so much praise (and now i just love them, except Bakraid ).

So there, no shmup inspired me, i needed another kind of trigger. Like actually learning how to play them.

[Nate]

Really it has to be Super Darius for the PCE-CD; early 1991. Lifeforce for NES and numerous Atari 2600 games, but the time I spent playing Super Darius really forged my undying passion for the shmups.

[endoKarb]

Am i the only one that got into shmups as a hobby because of this forum? I had played shooters in the arcades, and afterwards in mame, but never cared much about them. It was just 30 minutes of credit feeding, and nothing else.

Then i stumbled here (and can´t remember why to be honest) and to my surprise people here played those things without credit feeding . Actually they were able to complete them in one credit, even those i considered absolutely ridiculous (hello cave) And there´s more, they played for score, those stupid numbers i had never cared for What´s this Yagawa games they mention here, rank??? Suiciding???? Like, seriously??????

So there, i had played a ton of those shooters, but it was like i had never read the instruction manual. Those forums showed me new ways to enjoy shooters, and it was those surprising "play for score" and "try to complete it in one credit" that got me definitely hooked on shmups. It maybe sounds really dumb, but hey

That's exactly how it was for me too. The only shmup I played before finding this forum was the DOS port of Sky Shark when I was a kid, and I could never even get past the second level.

I never cared about shmups at all until I saw all these people getting ridiculous scores and 1ccing games left and right. I was playing a lot of Guitar Hero for score back then (actually that was when it was starting to die out) and I thought. "Hey, I could really enjoy this."

Espgaluda was the first game I really tried to learn. I still remeber grinding the third boss over and over and getting so frustrated. No idea why I used to find it so hard .

I also went back and played Sky Shark again. That game still manages to kicks my ass lol. Dying and having all your power up taken away is so frustrating. At least I finally made it to the fourth level.

[VixyNyan]

This game~ :3
(I still have it, altho I don't have the overlay. God I feel really old now, turned 30 last year...)

I also grew up with U.N. Squadron (Area 88) on SNES, Gradius, Super R-Type, Guardian Legend, Gun.Smoke, Life Force, and countless other well-known games that were localized in western regions in the 80s and 90s on Nintendo, Sega and Sony systems.

I went into more unknown territory once I was able to play the Saturn versions of Radiant Silvergun, Gunbird, Sengoku Ace Episode II, Battle Garegga and other colorful Psikyo, Raizing and Treasure games on many other systems. While still collecting ROMs on Mame and gathering up some ROM GoodSets for other retro systems, it took a while until I could play the more manic danmaku style STGs on a game console in front of a TV. So I was graced with Ikaruga on Gamecube and Gradius V on PS2. Fast-forwarding a few more year, still having an old low-end laptop, I could get my hands on Milestone Collections on the Wii and also Castle of Shikigami III through ISO collecting.

Once my Japanese Xbox 360 Slim showed up, I started buying (or at least trying to buy) every single STG in existence for that system, including XBLA (altho I missed some delisted games). Later I got a PS3 and Vita, and at that point I have access to a wide variety of devices, including Wonderswan Crystal and NeoGeo Pocket Color. It all went "downhill" from there (in a good way).

[zendor118]

First shmup I ever played was on NES, gradius. Loved the game to death and then played Lifeforce and Stinger with my cousins. On SNES, I absolutely loved UN Squadron and the Darius gsames. From there, R-Type on the TG-16... good times!

[Captain]

Arrow Flash and later Donpachi.
Not a great start, I know, but it got me hooked, so i started playing every hori I could get my hands on, after that I started vertical shmups with Donpachi and liked them as much as the hori ones.

[Skykid]

So many people got into shmups because of Ikaruga! That game almost put me off the genre entirely.

(Exaggeration, it's not that bad. But I hate it.)

[Illyrian]

Like a number of others, it was that "HARDEST VIDEO GAME BOSS EVER" video. I literally typed that into youtube one day to see what would happen. One of my online friends sent me MAME with dodonpachi, guwange, and progear. The rest is history. Over the next few months I discovered touhou and other doujin shmups like Blue Wish Resurrection. Taken a few long breaks since then, but always come back eventually.

[Edge]

Gradius V got me back into the genre.

After some more horis I started with Giga Wing and Dodonpachi.

[mikemcbike]

R-Type when I was still at school and Truxton while I tried to survive my university time in Berlin... Not sure, where I was more successful...

Greets,
Mike McBike

[hermosaguy]

My grandparents had a Gorf cabinet in their basement growing up. Really attribute all my gaming to that game.