Forums opinion on best home console for shooters?

HardcoreOtaku · Post by **HardcoreOtaku** » Fri Jun 22, 2007 5:44 pm

I've just been reading the Results of the "5th Annual Top 25 Shmups of All Time!", interesting read.

Got me wondering what this Forums opinion is on the best home console for shooters?

(I know clearly overall the best platform for Shooters is the Arcade and most of the best shooters on home consoles are often inferior ports from the Arcade)

Post by **Icarus** » Fri Jun 22, 2007 5:49 pm

Saturn if you can afford it.
PS2 (with PS1 library) has a great selection of modern and classic games, either as standalone or as packs.
Ask before you buy, though, as some ports are better than others.

HardcoreOtaku · Post by **HardcoreOtaku** » Fri Jun 22, 2007 5:56 pm

Icarus wrote:PS2 (with PS1 library) has a great selection of modern and classic games, either as standalone or as packs.
Ask before you buy, though, as some ports are better than others.

yeh think I will have to checkout the PS2/PS1

Currently I think I've got pretty much every shooter on the PcEngine (Hucard and CD) and Saturn.

Post by **Shatterhand** » Fri Jun 22, 2007 6:03 pm

Well, I think the top 5 home systems for shmups are,

PS2 (with PS1 library in mind)
Saturn
PC-Engine
Dreamcast
MSX

Of course, PC-Engine and MSX only applies if you enjoy Old-school shmups, and I have to admit that I am biased towards the MSX .... but hell, it has a HUGE library in the genre, and a few exclusive top-quality classics there.

I think today the PS2 is undoubtly the best system for the genre, sporting a huge amount of high-quality arcade ports and a few exclusives that are amazing.

Saturn has some excellent arcade ports too, some that are available only in the system... and it also has Radiant Silvergun.

Dreamcast also has some exclusive ports (Mars Matrix and Gigawing comes to mind), and some recent exclusive ports.

PC-Engine and MSX are great for old-school, and they are also good because they have a HUGE library of shmups. PC-Engine has some very good games (Lords of Thunder, Soldier Blade), and the MSX has at least 2 shmups that I consider to be among the best shmups EVER (Space Manbow and Aleste 2).

Of course, the MSX also is out of question for most people, as it's an obscure system in most countries, and not easy to get hold.

But if I had to pick one... yeah, a PS2.

HardcoreOtaku · Post by **HardcoreOtaku** » Fri Jun 22, 2007 6:08 pm

Shatterhand wrote:Of course, the MSX also is out of question for most people, as it's an obscure system in most countries, and not easy to get hold.

Yeh I want to get a 'MSX ONE CHIP' but they seem really hard to find.

The MSX games seem to be readily available in Akihabara.

Post by **Shatterhand** » Fri Jun 22, 2007 6:26 pm

Are you in Japan? I'd guess they are easy to get in Japan.

You can buy MSX 1 systems without much difficulty here in Brazil, but MSX2s are more rare.. and original games are REALLY hard to find

Ceph · Post by **Ceph** » Fri Jun 22, 2007 6:38 pm

Old school: PC Engine. No other system from the 8-bit era comes close to what PCE has to offer, especially in terms of graphical quality. Sorry to say it Shatterhand, but MSX is fugly and most games don't have decent scrolling.

For 16bit and above there is not one best console.

I'd consider Mega Drive a must, as well as Saturn, PS1, DC and PS2.

ubersaurus · Post by **ubersaurus** » Fri Jun 22, 2007 6:39 pm

I thought last time this came up it was widely agreed PS2 had the most and widely varied shooter library, taking the PS1 into account.

Saturn and PCE both have hefty amounts of stuff, and the Dreamcast has a smaller but mostly pretty good library...but if you love the old, old school stuff, the atari 2600 has a pretty large library. That said, if you're going that far back, you may as well look into a colecovision, intellivision, 5200, or 7800...the first three have adaptors that play 2600 games on em, and the latter has backwards compatibility built in. Lots of fixed screen shooters on those machines, if that's your bag(and I know it's mine!)

Post by **Shatterhand** » Fri Jun 22, 2007 6:55 pm

Ceph wrote:Old school: PC Engine. No other system from the 8-bit era comes close to what PCE has to offer, especially in terms of graphical quality. Sorry to say it Shatterhand, but MSX is fugly and most games don't have decent scrolling.

For 16bit and above there is not one best console.

I'd consider Mega Drive a must, as well as Saturn, PS1, DC and PS2.

I don't think the PC-Engine is from the 8-bit era in spite of having a 8 bits processor, as much as I don't think the CD-32 is a console from the 32 bits-era in spite of having a 32 bits processor.

The PC-Engine has games that technically are better even than Mega-Drive games.

And, come on

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_axJXPZAI_8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFUPX3kdvYw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p05Ud8bg3iE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7XOnwR9uec

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0m8qMdEK7Q

Ceph · Post by **Ceph** » Fri Jun 22, 2007 7:14 pm

Yeah, those are the exceptions (Aleste, Manbow).

That's what MSX usually looks like:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSf6aTTYQCo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAGSvrJ8yww

Note the "scrolling"

Most MSX shooters are of sub-Famicom quality.

Post by **Shatterhand** » Fri Jun 22, 2007 7:22 pm

This is an MSX 1 game, and an amazing one I have to add.

The scroll is jerky indeed... but... it doesn't hurt gameplay. The gameplay itself is NOT jerky, the bullets, enemies, your ship and everything moves very smoothly (Except maybe the power cells, but it doesn't affect the gameplay).

Of course, here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iSE5hrG1kM
it could hurt a bit.

But for every people who complain about the jerky scroll, there are 5 who overcome this and just enjoy those games because they play really well. After you get used with it (And it's not that hard) you have some amazing games there.

And obviously, I am talking about Gradius. Nothing can compete with Space Manbow

HardcoreOtaku · Post by **HardcoreOtaku** » Fri Jun 22, 2007 7:25 pm

Shatterhand wrote:Are you in Japan? I'd guess they are easy to get in Japan.

I'm in the UK but most of my current games I've bought in Japan and squeezed into my luggage home.

HardcoreOtaku · Post by **HardcoreOtaku** » Fri Jun 22, 2007 7:28 pm

Shatterhand wrote:You can buy MSX 1 systems without much difficulty here in Brazil, but MSX2s are more rare.. and original games are REALLY hard to find

Here in the UK MSX is non exsistant,

The one chip plays both MSX 1 & 2 games
http://www.bazix.nl/onechipmsx.html

I just can't find one

Post by **Shatterhand** » Fri Jun 22, 2007 7:32 pm

Funny, earlier today I was watching a video recorded back in 1984 covering the launch of the MSX system in UK. It even showed a young Bill Gates in the video, heh

I've read somewhere that Gradius alone actually helped sell the MSX a little bit in UK (And it was probably called "Nemesis" over there). But indeed, I guess that's the Commodore 64 country, hands down.

But the MSX was very popular in Spain and Netherlands at least (And in a few other Europe countries for sure), not to mention URSS and here in Brazil.

HardcoreOtaku · Post by **HardcoreOtaku** » Fri Jun 22, 2007 7:37 pm

Shatterhand wrote:I don't think the PC-Engine is from the 8-bit era in spite of having a 8 bits processor, as much as I don't think the CD-32 is a console from the 32 bits-era in spite of having a 32 bits processor

The very, very first games perhaps were in a similar league to the Famicom, Mrk III but over its lifetime I agree, I think its more in the Super Famicom, Megadrive.

HardcoreOtaku · Post by **HardcoreOtaku** » Fri Jun 22, 2007 7:40 pm

Shatterhand wrote:Funny, earlier today I was watching a video recorded back in 1984 covering the launch of the MSX system in UK. It even showed a young Bill Gates in the video, heh

lol yeh i posted that same video on the Retro Gamer Forum a few days ago
http://www.retrogamer.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5659

but no one seems to care on there

I don't think they're really interested in Japanese games, which is fair enough.
http://www.retrogamer.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1179

Post by **BulletMagnet** » Fri Jun 22, 2007 8:16 pm

Toss another vote up for the import-ready PS2 and Saturn as my top picks...Dreamcast at a distant third.

iatneH · Post by **iatneH** » Fri Jun 22, 2007 10:15 pm

Icarus wrote:Ask before you buy, though, as some ports are better than others.

Or as Ceph would say, use the forum search before you ask

Personally I tend to like the post-1995 (give or take) shooters, so PS1/2 and Saturn and Dreamcast hold the best for me.

roker · Post by **roker** » Sat Jun 23, 2007 2:46 am

PS2, hands down

then Dreamcast

Saturn

PC Engine

szycag · Post by **szycag** » Sat Jun 23, 2007 2:54 am

PS2!

Even if you do like old school stuff mostly, you can't turn down the Capcom/Taito collections. Also Hamster has put out ports of stuff like Rabio Lepus and Sonic Wings

Dreamcast is very close behind...

Post by **Shatterhand** » Sat Jun 23, 2007 3:18 am

Sorry for derailing the topic even more, is just that I didn't feel like creating a whole new thread for this, and as were posting MSX youtube videos here, I just thought...

Ok, tell me.. What NES or PC-Engine or even Mega-Drive game has something with THIS quality graphics

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdHgppVW ... ed&search=

This is an MSX game alright.

just for my nostalgic sake, back at those days I used to get dozens of floppies with MSX stuff, most of the stuff wasn't even labeled, so I would load the disk without knowing what to get.

This video only shows what would be the "boss" of a stage. The game itself is an overhead multi-directional shooter where you shoot robots and collect lots of items. Nothing incredible, nothing horrible either. The first time I played it, I was just playing it alright... and then at the end of the 1st level I reach a girl, I believe I was supposed to save her or something.. and then this loads up. The items you collect through the level are supposed to be used here.

Turrican · Post by **Turrican** » Sat Jun 23, 2007 3:40 am

I think Michelle should be in your avatar, not Aleste 2

jp · Post by jp » Sat Jun 23, 2007 3:42 am

Saturn >>>> All.

roker · Post by **roker** » Sat Jun 23, 2007 3:42 am

jp wrote:Saturn >>>> All.

your top 10 shmup list was hilarious

EOJ · Post by **EOJ** » Sat Jun 23, 2007 4:05 am

JP PS2 is absolutely the best shmup console out there.

JP Dreamcast and JP Saturn fit in the 2nd and 3rd best slots.

That's all you need to know.

Twiddle · Post by **Twiddle** » Sat Jun 23, 2007 4:07 am

1) modded ps2
2) unmodded US dreamcast
3) pc

arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

louisg · Post by **louisg** » Sat Jun 23, 2007 4:12 am

Depends.. it seems like there is more overlap between PS2 and Saturn.. more Cave, Konami and Psikyo. DC's got the Treasure, Takumi and G-Rev (most are playable in vga) and a couple of the 3d Psikyo games. All 3 are pretty good shmup machines.

Catch 'em all and get a Megadrive too

And if you like the TG16 shmups, can I recommend Space Megaforce on SNES?

Ayanami · Post by **Ayanami** » Sat Jun 23, 2007 6:55 am

Jap Saturn with Jap PS2 (PS1 Library in mind of course) close behind.

HardcoreOtaku · Post by **HardcoreOtaku** » Sat Jun 23, 2007 8:35 am

louisg wrote:And if you like the TG16 shmups, can I recommend Space Megaforce on SNES?

Yeh i love Super Aleste on the SFC, one of the best shooters for the machine. Yeh i def aready got every shooter on the SFC because I was trying and one point to collect EVERY game for the SFC which got a bit stupid in the end for reasons of taking up space lol and because I was just buying crap games for the sake of it lolol, now i just got about a 100 SFC titles, but all the best ones.

I think Macross: Scrambled Valkyrie is probably the best shooter on the SFC it seems very under rated and not mentioned very much.

Grant Windsor · Post by **Grant Windsor** » Sun Jun 24, 2007 5:12 pm

Um....

1. PS2
2. Saturn
3. PC Engine

I'd have to think about it a bit, but I think I'd tend to put the DC behind the MD/Genesis and SFC/SNES. The DC shmup library tends to get a bit overrated...unless you think games like Chaos Field, Karous, Radirgy, Trizeal and Trigger Heart Exelica are the pinnacle of shmupliness.

- Grant