How long have you been playing shmups?

LUNardei · Post by **LUNardei** » Sat Oct 07, 2006 12:08 pm

Since about 2004

CIT · Post by **CIT** » Sat Oct 07, 2006 1:32 pm

Ever since I got my first console I've always played shooters, although they were just one of many genres I played and I didn't try to 1cc them or anything. I played them more as a diversion from other games.

First I had an NES and shmupped Tiger Heli, Life Force and Guardian Legend.

Then I got a SNES and got Super Aleste, Gradius III, Axelay, Parodius and Pop 'N Twinbee. As you can see I was very focused on Konami games.

Then I got a PlayStation with Philosoma (which I knew sucked even back then) and Einhänder (which rocked)

Then I didn't play any games at all for a while and only focused on studying.

Then I studied abroad in Japan and went to the arcades a lot, mainly to play CVS2. Every once in a while I would try a shooting game just for fun. I thought games like Dodonpachi, Guwange and Ikaruga were the coolest looking games I'd ever seen, but I couldn't believe that it's actually possible to beat them.

Then I started buying a lot of retro games and got interested in picking up shmups for the Dreamcast and Playstation shmups I had missed, and eventually I turned into a shmups obsessive.

NAVVARR · Post by **NAVVARR** » Sat Oct 07, 2006 2:04 pm

Been playing since the days of 'Scramble' -one of the first proper horizontal shooters. Now i've got it on my mobile phone! -did i think that when i was playing that way back when.
I've watched the genre progress since then -Scramble- Defender- Jeff Minters Vic20 +C64 classics (Matrix, Lazer Zone etc etc) -Rtype series - then the consoles up to the present day of Pseudo 3D graphics and conoluted storylines.

The basics remain the same tho- dodge the bullets and shoot the baddies.

Its my favourite genre- always has been and probably always will be.

Acid King · Post by **Acid King** » Sat Oct 07, 2006 3:23 pm

I've been playing them since I started playing games, started focusing on them when I got my playstation, became my favorite genre when I got my saturn.

rib · Post by **rib** » Sat Oct 07, 2006 3:48 pm

katakis and a lot of other horizontal shmups on c-64 around 93.
i think shortly after r-type and axelay on snes.

Davey · Post by **Davey** » Sat Oct 07, 2006 4:22 pm

Rob wrote:You had to bring the hate into the thread.

Don't mind me, I'm just salty about my lackluster tournament performance. Perhaps I should jump into the Skill thread and get a good lecturing.

Rob wrote:A fast (or elaborate) bullet pattern is still exciting to me, though nothing can possibly top working through Strikers and GB2 for the first time (without superplays or talk of WRs... ahh, 2002, I miss ye).

Same thoughts here, except replace "Strikers and GB2" with the less noteworthy "first loop of DDP, while mostly ignorant of chaining, bees, and bomb mulitpliers" (i.e., the heart of the game). As for superplays and WRs, the board was different back then, just ask Rando.

I still like the genre enough to play it (can't say that for 99% of video games out there), but it's not what I thought it was when I got into it.

Vincere · Post by **Vincere** » Sat Oct 07, 2006 4:46 pm

I've been playing shmups for about 2 years. Yes, I'm a newbie for sure baby.

JJG · Post by **JJG** » Sat Oct 07, 2006 6:00 pm

I think the first shmup I played was dragon spirit on nes. When I was like 10 or 12 I played 1942 to like the 29th stage (out of 32) and then the screen started flipping, I was so freakin' pissed.

shinsage · Post by **shinsage** » Sat Oct 07, 2006 6:22 pm

I've loved games of the genre ever since I played Raiden 2 (still one of the greatest today), but it wasn't until later in the summer of 2003 that I started buying them -- starting with TFIII for the Genny.
EGM's review of Ikaruga also helped revitalize it, even though I didn't buy it until October.

Fighter17 · Post by **Fighter17** » Sat Oct 07, 2006 6:35 pm

Around 1995 on the SNES with R-Type.

elvis · Post by **elvis** » Sat Oct 07, 2006 9:40 pm

My first shmup was "Vortex Blaster" on SEGA SC-3000H (basically a SEGA SG-1000 with a keyboard, tape drive, and speech synth).

My dad came home with that one day back in 1985. That ignited my shmup love, and it has been constant since.

The only internet reference I've ever found was this:
http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/atari/segatape3.html

Although I've still got the hardware somewhere, and should blow the cobwebs off and have a play again. I hope the tapes are still readable!

Strider77 · Post by **Strider77** » Sat Oct 07, 2006 9:56 pm

I've played shooters since the days of the Atari and early arcades. I'll be 30 this January so it's been awhile. But I can remember two games in particular that had me played for quite a bit.

R-type on the master system was 1st but I'd have to give Thunder Force 3 the credit for making me hooked. That game wowed me big time, i was hooked. If I had to note a key event that got me addicted it would have be the christmas my grandmother got me TF3 deffinately.

now like i said i've been playing them way before TF3 but i give that game the credit for making me have the thought "shooters are one of my favorite types of games".

Klatrymadon · Post by **Klatrymadon** » Sat Oct 07, 2006 10:10 pm

It's kinda weird, since I was drawn to shmups because I thought they were overwhelmingly intense and completely unconquerable. Now that I see how cold and calculated they are once you're past the ZOMG teh BULLLETS!!!111 phase, I'm kinda disenchanted by them...

Nah, there's still a lot of romanticism in them, and a lot of great art direction and music. Obviously those things tend to go uncelebrated on forums like this, where everybody's talking in clinical, mechanical terms and trying to improve their game, but I like to think they don't go unnoticed.

And besides, there are still plenty of "just shoot and dodge" titles around.

JJG · Post by **JJG** » Sat Oct 07, 2006 10:46 pm

I think there's something to be said for a genre of games that get ignored by the mainstream for their graphics yet are the only genre to consistantly cause slowdown on consoles.

Pirate1019 · Post by **Pirate1019** » Sun Oct 08, 2006 12:20 am

JJG wrote:I think there's something to be said for a genre of games that get ignored by the mainstream for their graphics yet are the only genre to consistantly cause slowdown on consoles.

Something to be said about a genre of games that has "died" but still has titles coming out to this day.

Something to be said about a genre of games that is for the most part ignored, and so the few individuals that still play them can enjoy them in all of their splendor without hearing "OMG HaXx! Teh gme totaly cheatz!!1!"

Something to be said about a genre of games that is, in today's world, the only genre of games completely void of savepoints.

Lots of things to be said.

benj · Post by **benj** » Sun Oct 08, 2006 12:47 am

Pirate1019 wrote:the only genre of games completely void of savepoints.

Not really.

Pirate1019 · Post by **Pirate1019** » Sun Oct 08, 2006 2:00 am

benj wrote:
Pirate1019 wrote:the only genre of games completely void of savepoints.
Not really.

Guess not. In hindsight that was a dumb conclusion, however I do still hold the other 2 statements as true.

No_not_like_Quake · Post by **No_not_like_Quake** » Sun Oct 08, 2006 2:54 am

Late 80s.

Dale · Post by **Dale** » Sun Oct 08, 2006 3:43 am

First one I played was Galaga for NES got it for my birthday with SMB's Double Dragon2TR. I actual think I popped it in before SMB's(man I'm hardcore)This was probaly ninety two,pretty late to get an NES. It was the first system I owned, but I had played Kid Chamelon at a freind's house before and that was the first game I played.

MadSteelDarkness · Post by **MadSteelDarkness** » Sun Oct 08, 2006 3:57 am

About a quarter of a century. Not as long as DEL, but still. And I suck at them to this day.

It was Phoenix. But Xevious was the first one to really capture my imagination.

Turrican · Post by **Turrican** » Sun Oct 08, 2006 10:44 am

Pirate1019 wrote:Something to be said about a genre of games that has "died" but still has titles coming out to this day.

it never really died - it just evolved into a niche to survive.

ktg · Post by **ktg** » Sun Oct 08, 2006 12:07 pm

Some of my earliest gaming memories are playing Life Force and 1942 on the NES with my brother. I was probably about five years old.

In the early 90's it was Axelay and Musha. I never really thought of myself as a fan of the genre, I just really liked the games.

I bought Einhander when it first came out, but that was more because I was a Squaresoft loyalist and purchased every game they made. Had been playing their games since Secret of Mana.

About 2000 I got very competitive in fighting games. Even travelled for Tekken Tag and VF 4. By 2002 I ran into real life. Had to go to school and get a job. Lost my competition.

About 2004 modern games were losing my interest. I was buying anything considered old school or hardcore. This included Ikaruga and Gradius V.

Late 2005 I started really playing Gradius V and for the first time ever in a shmup I wanted to beat it without continuing.

Early 2006 I found this site and began lurking. Soaking up all the info I could. Amazed that so many shmups were still being made.

Mid 2006 I finally signed up and bought a JPS2. Finally I can compete again within my time constraints. I'm still not very good, but there's nothing quite like beating your hi-score, and seeing just how good you really are. I've yet to 1CC GV.

Edge · Post by **Edge** » Sun Oct 08, 2006 1:09 pm

I think the first shmup I played was probably Gradius on NES. It might also have been some other on Atari, but Gradius was the first one which got me excited. A little later I also played R-Type and Swiv on Amiga. Haha, I still remember the day when I first saw R-Type.

...My eyes went like this:

Though I was never shmup obsessed or anything, I continued playing some shmups over the years. They were just one genre among all the others. But still played some shmups in the 3d era on PS1 (R-Type Delta. Einhänder) and Giga Wing on DC.

I think I finally started to play shmups competively in 2004. When Gradius V got released, a friend and me bought it at the same day and we always tried to top each others scores. Since this was so much fun, I started to compete in shmups with my friends on MAME. Unfortunatelly they soon grew tired of the games and dying so often. That's where I started to look for more competition in the net. Among other retro and emu forums, I finally came across this site.

PS: I remember I played DoDonPachi on PSX back when it was realized and I thought this game sucked. Because the developers made the game very cheap, impossible to beat. Just to suck out the quarters of the players.

(The ignorance!!

)

ParegoricKid · Post by **ParegoricKid** » Sun Oct 08, 2006 9:17 pm

Started around 1986 when I got my first homecomputer, a Sony MSX. Fell in love with Nemesis (Gradius), Knightmare, Salamander, Galaga, Firebird and Space Manbow and I was hooked.

Went on to play Shmups on my Amiga, classics like Xenon 2, Uridium, Hybris, R-Type...besides playing at home I always hit the arcades near my school. I was totally addicted to laser game Cobra Command back then, could easily play it trough with 1 coin and did so Monday trough Friday.

In the Nineties I hadn't so much time anymore and lost interest because I favored many other things and was busy. Still I could never pass an arcade without spending at least some cash when I happened to come by one. Played Raiden, DonPachi, Battle Garegga...
I played occiasionally on my PC, more strategy games though, and then someone gave me a NES and I started to play more shooters once again.

After a long break I discovered the emulation&retro scene trough the Net and tried all kinds of emus like MSX, Amiga, Speccy, C-64 and finally Mame. The sheer amount of great games available on Mame was terrific and the game bug hit me once again heavily. Bought a PS2, GBA and other stuff, my girlfriend gave me XBox as a present, and I play quite regularly for the last 3 years or so. I love Shmups obviously but still I like to play other oldschool games like isometric games but also new stuff like Halo, Warcraft or Tomb Raider.

I have no PCB's or cab but I kinda toy with the idea of building a Mame cab or to buy a supergun and start collectign some PCB's.

chempop · Post by **chempop** » Mon Oct 09, 2006 1:10 am

First shmup was either 1942 (arc) or Lifeforce (nes). Lifeforce was one of my favorite nes games back then.

16bit era I was all over Lightening Lorce, MUSHA, trouble shooter, gates of thunder (brother had a turboduo), Silpheed, and Robo Alesta. Never really though R-type was as exciting as a shmup was supposed to be, I prefered twitch over strategy.

Stopped gaming for several years after the Saturn died. But eventually got DC in 2001, weeks before Sega spilled the bad news. Found a copy of Radiant Silvergun in my friends basement and 2d shmup gaming was back in the spotlight. Soon followed MarMatrix and the rest is history, haha.

Went to Tokyo in 2002, first thing off the plane was find arcade with Ikaruga. Yen-fed till the credits

Went to Akihabara and bought saturn shmups with the little knowledge I had at the time (man I wish I knew more about the Saturn's shmup library then... still got Souky and Layer Section so no complaining form me.) ALso got to meet people from Hit-maker, and UGA (people who were involved with Rez had this great party I went to where many Sega heads were chillining out, very friendly people).

Still need JPN-PS2, argh.

Iaspis · Post by **Iaspis** » Mon Oct 09, 2006 11:40 am

I recall myself playing Moon Cresta and Phoenix at the arcades back in the early 80's...

ryosnk · Post by **ryosnk** » Mon Oct 09, 2006 4:51 pm

Well for me it was Twin Cobra (arcade). I was so addicted to that game that I saved many of months allowances (I was 12) to get the Genesis version. Since I'm older now I'm able to get old games that I did not know (like the import and pce shmups).

Venom · Post by **Venom** » Mon Oct 09, 2006 8:04 pm

Rented UN Squadron once early in the SNES period. Rented Raiden Project a few times when the PS came out. Traded some guy Guilty Gear for Souky back in 99 (I guess), a while after that I picked up a Saturn and started really playing shmups. I wouldn't consider it really playing with any dedication before then, shmups were just another genre and I sometimes rented. So, technically early 90's, actually, near 2000.

SuperGrafx · Post by **SuperGrafx** » Mon Oct 09, 2006 9:30 pm

Since Laser Gates on the Atari 2600. Around 1982 or so.

sven666 · Post by **sven666** » Mon Oct 09, 2006 9:41 pm

been playing shmups all my life (thats 24 years if anyone cares), tho not competitiveley for score untill Ikaruga came out (DC)..

back in the days of nes, amiga, snes, MD, psx i was more of a 1cc clear player tho, never had anyone to compete in scoring with so i wasent really aware of that aspect of shmups..