A Million and One Newb Questions

[The Expanding Man]

Hi all - great forum.

I have recently been bitten by the shmup bug.

I want to take a few lines to explain where I am, and then I am asking for some suggestions as to where to go next.

Current Set Ups

Saturn.

About the only shmup I have is Darius Gaiden.

Dreamcast

Only shmup I have is an order for Last Hope

PS2

Gunbird SE
Gradius 3 & 4

N64

No shmups

Gamecube

No Shmups

PC

Mame

XBox360

Espgaluda 2
Mushihime Sama Futari

Other hardware I have is a Hori EX for the 360, and an arcade stick for the PS2 and PC.

Where to next?

Are there any other titles you can suggest for my consoles?

Is it worth getting a Japanese PS2 for the Japan only PS2 shmups?

Any useful links for running Japanese titles on a Dreamcast?

I'm also interested in getting into some arcade hardware.

I've been considering Neo Geo and Jamma motherboards.

I've seen some cool conversions to run motherboards as consoles.

Is it worth it to go the whole hog and get an arcade cabinet? I know some purists swear by this, and original arcade video outputs.

Sorry about so many questions in the one thread I know these questions are higly subjective, but I'd be interested to hear some opinions.

[neorichieb1971]

It must be USA tax month or something.

JP PS2 highly advisable.

Saturn - Game paradise, Batsugun, Radiant Silvergun (Watch some youtubes first as they are not cheap)

Arcade boards - Hmm, if your going this route forget about the above. The reason I say this is because A) its more expensive and B) your over estimating your demand for shmups. If you have too many all at once your not going to play them.

An Arcade cabinet is advisable if you have room. I would recommend two of them so you can have one permanently in TATE mode (screen on its side) and one in the traditional horizontal bed. If you search for an Egret 2 you can switch quite easily between TATE and hori, although I wouldn't like to do that myself.

PCB's and arcade cabinets - It helps if you know a little about soldering, wiring, like getting on your hands and knees, like expanding, worrying about where to get adapters, joysticks, buttons and how to source Japanese PCB's. You might think its like buying a car, and it is.. you need to service the things, keep maintaining, upgrading.. Basically its a pet that feeds on your money. Good luck.

[The Expanding Man]

PCB's and arcade cabinets - It helps if you know a little about soldering, wiring, like getting on your hands and knees, like expanding, worrying about where to get adapters, joysticks, buttons and how to source Japanese PCB's. You might think its like buying a car, and it is.. you need to service the things, keep maintaining, upgrading.. Basically its a pet that feeds on your money. Good luck.

I have some skills - most of my audio gear is DIY.

[TrevHead (TVR)]

Ill do what i always do and pester folk about doujin shmups http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJEr4d7BsdQ

[ROBOTRON]

N64 - Star Soldier...despite the fact no one here really likes it...I do.

Saturn - omg, the are so many quality shmups....unfortunately, the best ones are pricey.

I've had an import PS2 from jump...It is a shmup playing machine as well as a few fighter.

Dreamcast - Makes a shmup lover Creamcast in his pants. There are many quality, exclusive shmups to this machine which still rivals the PS3/Sexbox 3 sexty in sound, graphicss and playability.

my 2 cents.

as far as mame goes, i personally don't like to emulate games on PC...unless its an emergency...WARNING FOREVER was an emergency. Something had to be done about those boss fights that change shape and weaponry according to the way you fight them...the AI is perfect.

[ave]

Is it worth getting a Japanese PS2 for the Japan only PS2 shmups?

You may go the JPN hardware route (recommended for collectors in particular) or the modded console alley (recommended for anyone).
Either way it's worth it. There are many (MANY) great JPN-only PS2-games out there, you can never really stop finding unknown gems and great ports of real classics, esp. if you include the PS1-sector.

Any useful links for running Japanese titles on a Dreamcast?

The CD-X boot disc is nice, but the only comfortable way to play imports is a modchip or an import console.

[qzote]I'm also interested in getting into some arcade hardware.[/quote]
Buy a supergun + RGB screen if you don't have one yet and see what happens next. It's not such an expensive investment and it can easily be resold if you don't like it.

I've been considering Neo Geo and Jamma motherboards.

MVS is an ideal way to start arcade gaming as it's very affordable and easy to handle. As for Jamma motherboards, there are some fancy cartridge-based systems but most of them got excellent ports, therefore I would recommend you start with MVS and some Jamma PCB's and not the other Jamma motherboards such as ST-V, Taito F3 and so on.

I've seen some cool conversions to run motherboards as consoles.

Is it worth it to go the whole hog and get an arcade cabinet? I know some purists swear by this, and original arcade video outputs.

Sorry about so many questions in the one thread I know these questions are higly subjective, but I'd be interested to hear some opinions.

An arcade cabinet is the best way to enjoy arcade games, just because that was the way there were intended to be played. But as an alternative, you could just get yourself a nice RGB supergun setup with a quality arcade stick and you have an equally great arcade corner, maybe even better if you have limited space.

[spadgy]

Arcade hardware is the way to go eventually, but it takes up a huge amount of time, space and money.

If you want to jump in the deep deep end, go for it, but with so many systems at your disposal already and so many quality console shmups, don't rush the arcade boards side of things. It's a side of this hobby best approached slowly, as there's so many potential pitfalls.

That said, those pitfalls are part of the pleasure of learning about it all, and almost without exception, games are far better when played on their original arcade PCB than on console. It's a slippery slope.

A Japanese PS2 should definitely be the next system to add to your collection, or a Japanese PS1 (a few JPN PS1 games run a bit dodgy on JPN PS2s).

[BulletMagnet]

If you want one person's thoughts on the shmup libraries of the Saturn and PS1, head here and here, respectively.

[TrevHead (TVR)]

If you want one person's thoughts on the shmup libraries of the Saturn and PS1, head here and here, respectively.

as soon as i read the question your articles came imediatly toi mind, unfortunatly the links are on my old pc and im too lazy to do another search 4 em

[dan76]

If you want to collect hardware get a japanese PS2 - if not get a copy of Swap Magic 3.6. Much cheaper and allows you to play any region PS2 games (original or back ups) on your native console. Worth getting for the cave ports alone.

[dpful]

I'd make a name cab. Maybe you could only really appreciate it after you've owned a lot of the original hardware.