Shmup Ticker: What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

[rockaroller]

Just 1cc'ed Raiden Fighters - think I'm gonna drop it for a while. Started playing Deathsmiles on monday, and occasionally having a run of Strania.

[Despatche]

Congrats to 100 pages, didn't think it would happen.

[Kollision]

In order to celebrate 100 pages, I hereby list the shmups I'm playing (not right now because I'm at work, but later when I get home):

Shikigami No Shiro - currently in the 4-2 midboss; could've taken him down last time I played, but I was distracted.
Sol Divide - finally looped it, gonna try to improve my multipliers on bosses

btw this is my 777th post

[Wonderbanana]

Still playing Zero Gunner 2.

Still shit.

I suck.

[drauch]

Guardian Legend. Had to restart 3 fucking times because it has one of the WORST password systems in NES gaming. I wrote it down wrong I guess multiple times, mainly because it uses like 30 frickin' characters.

[Drachenherz]

EspRaDe, PCB on my cab. It's just so much fun! Yesterday evening, I played around 30 credits. I'm actually saving money playing this game on the cab: I have to insert CHF 1.-- coins/credit. It's my personal piggie-bank, ehehehe.

While practicing before on mame, even after 20h of playtime, I didn't manage to get to stage 4 with 1 credit regularly... But yesterday, I managed to do this on a regular basis, I got about 6 to 7 times to stage 4 on 1 credit! Yay, progress!!!!

Owning the PCB, I definetely want to 1cc this game now. I told myself NOT to empty the coin box until I get the 1cc. I guess, I'll save at least about CHF 1000.-- or even more. Stages 5.1 and 5.2 are rather harsh, and The Bitch (tm), Miss Garra... She's giving me nigthmares already...

Unfortunately, I cannot play the cab at home, I don't have the room for it there, so it's always a 20 min drive to the dojo in order to play EspRaDe on the cab.

At home, I'm a bit undecided what to play.

I'm still playing Mushi Futari BL on a regular base, I even pushed my personal record up to 420 millions...

I'd love to give MMP v1.01 some more playtime, but Crimzon Clover, Alltynex Second, Deathsmiles and the soon-to-arrive Eschatos all demand my precious time... and there's also Ketsui in MAME at home...

[EinhanderZwei]

My contribution to 100th page:

UN Squadron
Axelay
Lords Of Thunder
Ys II bosses?

[jonny5]

Dodonpachi Ressurection

[Observer]

TOUHOU 13 DEMO.

(sorry, someone had to do it... and I'm really playing it, lol)

[dunpeal2064]

My contribution to 100th page:

UN Squadron
Axelay
Lords Of Thunder
Ys II bosses?

Also playing Lords of Thunder. Such a kickass game.

Ironically, I am pushing to finish the rpg I am currently playing so that I can finally begin Ys book 1 and 2. I have wanted to play this game for years, and just got the duo and game a few days ago.

Axelay is also great, sadly I usually end up playing macross when the snes comes out. Need to give UN Squad some more time, because I suck ass at it and can never get far.

Aside from LoT, I have been playing a lot of Raiden on the turbo. I think I enjoy the first game more than the 3rd or 4th

[BPzeBanshee]

Esp Ra.De.

My. First. PCB. Ever!

Now my Cab is finally complete. And I have to admit: the feeling is somehow different...

......



See that red reticule on your chest there mate?

How much did it cost, out of curiosity?

[Drachenherz]

Esp Ra.De.

My. First. PCB. Ever!

Now my Cab is finally complete. And I have to admit: the feeling is somehow different...

......



See that red reticule on your chest there mate?

How much did it cost, out of curiosity?

Hihihi... Thanks god I god a bullet proof west.... *bam* *headshot* *oh shit*...

Ahm... Yah, I shelled out 280 US$. Not too bad as the swiss franc is very strong atm (1 us$ is about 95 swiss rappen = cents). I got a EspRaDe Marquée for 20 $ with it.

Yeah, I know, I told myself that I have to be insane to spend so much money on a singel game...

But... The feeling alone is worth it.

[RNGmaster]

Welp, I guess I could pass this off as "trying to refine my score route" - and I am getting about 1m more - but I can't get through the first 3 stages of Ra.De without dying. Guess I'm playing too late.

[Austin]

I took a break from Deathsmiles and picked up the PC ports of Raiden II and Darius Gaiden. Surprisingly, they both run perfectly in Windows 7 without any compatibility change requirements.

I also got a rotatable LCD monitor stand in the mail earlier this week and have spent a lot of time playing shmups in MAME in TATE mode. Hell yeeeaaah!

[BPzeBanshee]

Welp, I guess I could pass this off as "trying to refine my score route" - and I am getting about 1m more - but I can't get through the first 3 stages of Ra.De without dying. Guess I'm playing too late.

What order do you play? I play as JD the Fifth and go through the High School stage as stage 3, the helicopter as Stage 3 is too damn hard.

Also, was just playing Deathsmiles 1.1 MBL. I actually made it up to Jitterbug after only a few tries while trying to get used to the controls. Quite a neat Arrange mode but the lacking of lag in some places is definitely noticable.

[crackfox]

Been playing some border down on dreamcast...
Forgot how good it was...
Hard as nails also!!!!

[Mero]

Getting annihilated by my new MVS cart Viewpoint

[RNGmaster]

What order do you play? I play as JD the Fifth and go through the High School stage as stage 3, the helicopter as Stage 3 is too damn hard.

I do the exact same order, but for the opposite reason - Satoru is a really hard boss if you take him for Stage 3, and I love the satisfaction of no-missing him. High School is also a better scoring route for Stage 3 in my opinion.

EDIT: GOT TO THE HANDS WOOOO
Garra went well, except for the pink ball phase where I forgot what was coming and ate a huge orb to the face (probably could have made the 1cc if not for that derp).
I swear the hitboxes on the last attack are fucked, too - got through a purple wave and then got hit by a blue when it didn't even touch my sprite.

[mesh control]

Feels bad, man.

[Neith]

At this very moment I'm playing Battle Garegga on my Saturn. Just starting out. Default arcade settings.

I've been playing my new Xbox like crazy this past few weeks since I just got:

HRAP EX-SE
Muchi Muchi Pork! & Pink Sweets
Espgaluda II
Mushihimesama Futari 1.5
Deathsmiles [PAL]

So yeah I've been playing all of those, Pink Sweets arranged more than anything else.
That stuff is enough to keep me entertained for a couple of years.

[Aquas]

I credit fed to the last stage of Parodious Da! in MAME last night. But I couldn't beat the last stage on recovery! Pretty fun game, I'm thinking of putting more time in. I like to use Twinbee.
Also I'm close to 1cc'ing Raiden III on PS2.
Woooo page 100 madness!!!

[drauch]

Parodius Da! is amazing! All Parodius is amazing, really.

[RNGmaster]

Just found Retro Game Challenge when taking an inventory of my collection - I'm having a lot of fun with Star Prince at the moment. and just looped it before closing my DS.

Scoring trick: Right before the final boss, shoot the two powerups out of the sky using your bullet shield - each should give you 100000 points due to the number of sprites you're deleting. Suicide, take the red power-up at the checkpoint, and repeat the process by shooting the green powerup. You can waste as many lives as you want milking this section, but the boss is tough so it puts you at risk.

[Deca]

PSIKYO FEVER

I recently came back to Psikyo, their games never clicked with me before. They seemed very bland, uninteresting, and spartan. After a LOT of time spent on other games, mostly Raizing, I've given them a second chance with a clean slate, and HOLY SHIT I'm glad I did.

These games (primarily Gunbird 2 and Strikers 1999) are incredible. The patterns are unique and present challenges I'm not used to, the scoring system if very basic but still interesting, and the overall feel is just remarkably solid and enjoyable. I don't know if it's just me, but I feel like these games are harder to appreciate when you're fairly new to the genre. At first glance they're somewhat sparse, and even when there are a ton of bullets on screen it never feels quite the same as a cave game (probably because they're so small). Overall the games feel very much like function over form. While I used to be disappointed there weren't as many bullets in a Psikyo game as your average Cave offering I'm now realizing that all the ones that actually matter are there, and usually moving faster.

So yeah I'm pretty much obsessed for the time being.

[drauch]

Chatting Parodius: Forever With Me on the Saturn thanks to the good Professor Gan. Seems harder than the other Parodius games thus far. I had to rage quit, but that was probably after playing Phantasy Star for a couple of hours before hand...

[RNGmaster]

PSIKYO FEVER

I recently came back to Psikyo, their games never clicked with me before. They seemed very bland, uninteresting, and spartan. After a LOT of time spent on other games, mostly Raizing, I've given them a second chance with a clean slate, and HOLY SHIT I'm glad I did.

These games (primarily Gunbird 2 and Strikers 1999) are incredible. The patterns are unique and present challenges I'm not used to, the scoring system if very basic but still interesting, and the overall feel is just remarkably solid and enjoyable. I don't know if it's just me, but I feel like these games are harder to appreciate when you're fairly new to the genre. At first glance they're somewhat sparse, and even when there are a ton of bullets on screen it never feels quite the same as a cave game (probably because they're so small). Overall the games feel very much like function over form. While I used to be disappointed there weren't as many bullets in a Psikyo game as your average Cave offering I'm now realizing that all the ones that actually matter are there, and usually moving faster.

So yeah I'm pretty much obsessed for the time being.

Try Dragon Blaze, it's really great.

BTW, In ESP Ra.De I got the sixth life container for the first time (which means I no-missed to 8 million points) but messed up at the Alice Clone hallway. Also, HANDS

[durias]

Otomedius Excellent. I wish.

[R-Gray 1]

Today i was playing for first time


Touhou Mystic Square I could get the final stage. Very nice!! i liked when i saw Touhou videos on Youtube(long time ago)...but today was my first experience with a touhou game :p

Mars Matrix ( Dreamcast) I could get 2nd stage lol . I like the bullets patron in this game! xDDDDDDD

[Marurun]

Pink Sweets. I have a cavity now.

[chempop]

Finally got the Pink Sweets Arrange 1CC with score I'm happy with so I'll be taking a break from that for a while.

Still working on MMP 1.00 but got distracted with Matsuri Ver for a while. Picked up Futari BL again since I've only 1CC Maniac once before and want to get decent at God Mode. Got Dragon Blaze itching to be played too, made it to Stage 6 once but that was a lucky fluke I think, I'm usually horrible at Psikyo games but I do e joy them a lot.