Newbie looking for a place to start

[Marspants]

Hey! So the title says it all really, I'm new but interested in Shmups and I was curious if there is a good place to start. Like game wise or anything really, and if there are already threads of this nature please point me towards it, I did some searching but couldn't find any. Really what I'm looking for is some groundbreaking games that will lure me in the most, or maybe some media ect that will really help me get an understanding of where to look. Thanks!

[Estebang]

Your first priority should be to get the latest version of MAME running (although you may want an older version for certain games), find some roms (an easy task if you know how to use a search engine), and preferably get a gamepad or arcade stick hooked up to your PC as well.

The three most important and talked-about shmup-focused companies with lots of games playable in MAME are (or were) Cave, Raizing and Psikyo. Their selection should be your starting point. There's tons of information in English out there relating to the output of those three companies. Takumi's shmups are also reasonably popular, and they made two that emulate in MAME.

Arguably the two most important post-eighties shmups, and the ones most often talked about and referred to, are BATTLE GAREGGA and DODONPACHI. These two games and their design philosophies are the basis of modern shmup fandom.

Here are some great MAME-able shmups I think are reasonably welcoming and forgiving for newcomers (if you're not playing for serious score, at least), and would be a good starting point:

Gunbird (Psikyo)
Strikers 1945 (Psikyo)
Space Bomber (Psikyo)
Giga Wing (Takumi)
Donpachi & Dodonpachi (both Cave)
Dangun Feveron (Cave)
Battle Bakraid (Raizing)

Some of these games have rather complex and difficult scoring systems, but don't worry too much about those until you get comfortable. In the case of Feveron, it should be self-explanatory.

Alternatively, if you find you're not as interested in modern-style shmupping you could just go through all the old Konami/Irem/Capcom classics if you're not already familiar with them. Gradius and its spinoffs, R-Type, 1941, etc.

And if you're not already familiar with this essential caveat of arcade gaming: don't continue unless you're trying to practice a specific section of a game or just want to see everything once. Like any cheat code, it totally kills the experience and any sense of challenge.

Best of luck to ye.

[throne_of_wolves]

Check out the shmups reviews section here: http://www.shmups.com/index.html

Plenty of goodness to be sampled from those reviews.

[Exarion]

If you're willing to tolerate the absolutely awful fandom, you could try the Touhou series. They're easy enough, but just be careful as to where you mention them.

[RNGmaster]

Look through the older games and familiarize yourself with different companies' outputs. This doesn't just mean bullet hell - I highly suggest giving Life Force, Mahou Daisakusen/Sorcerer Striker, and R-Type a try.

I would not recommend Touhou unless you make it perfectly clear that you will not get involved in fandom. That stuff can destroy a person's soul.

If you don't find a game fun, don't keep playing it just to build up skill. Find the games that balance challenge and enjoyment just perfectly (for me it's Progear ATM).

[DragonInstall]

I suggest trying some 360 cave games.

Region free
Mushihime futari and Espgaluda 2 (Both have novice mode to help you start)

Deathsmiles is out for USA so you could pick that up at your local gameshop. (Probably the easiest overall 360 cave game)

[TrevHead (TVR)]

Personally I wouldnt recommend Touhou for complete shmup noobs as imo it can teach bad habits due reimu's homing shot and the way it plays differently to other arcade shooters.

Just get yourself shmupmame (the v1.5 .99 build as save states can be used for cave games) and try and 1CC the 1st loop of Dodonpachi (DDP). DDP is a great place to start as its THE definative bullet hell shmup and has gameplay found in most other arcade shooters just as a slightly basic and easier level.
For doujins i recommend shooters that although play well do allow a few hits rather then the standard one hit and your dead, just to allow a noob more playing time in the game. So tryout Blue Wish Resurrection (not plus, its too easy and the slowdown is jerky imo) Try X.X games other shmups like Eden's Aegis. Nomltest FS and ABA games shmups like Rrootage and P47 are good pratice shmups.

Demolition Gunner: ISAD, Exceed 3rd Black Package, Genetos, Samidare and Kamui are all worth it for a shmup noob to check out as all the games ive listed are on the easy side and have features that make praticing a pleasure. But they still will be a decent challenge of any new shmup gamer and make (compared to the more harder shmups) relativly quick 1CC that will get any adrenaline junkie hooked into shmupping asap.

Think of them as soft gateway drugs / shmups that noobs can get hooked on before moving onto the more hardcore Class A drugs / shmups.

Whatever you do play though dont creditfeed as its a sure way to kill the enjoyment of the game. Instead limit yourself to 1, 2 or 3 credits, when youve used your last credit quit and start the game again. Its kind of annoying having to repeatedly tell noobs about creditfeeding, its about time shmup devs did more to address the problem in educating new players rather then leaving it to us lot.

[NzzpNzzp]

Think of them as soft gateway drugs / shmups that noobs can get hooked on before moving onto the more hardcore Class A drugs / shmups.

And with a comparison like that, how could you not want to play them?

[TrevHead (TVR)]

Hmmm if i follow my own analogy It does make the more overpriced Ebay shmup sellers, seem even more evil then they already are

[moozooh]

rRootage, DoDonPachi, Armed Police BatRider.

[Obiwanshinobi]

http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.ph ... 59&start=0
The input lag in Battle Garegga, Battle Bakraid and Armed Police Batraider on M.A.M.E. being rather awful, I wouldn't recommend those to a beginner. Mahou Daisakusen is where it's at (with the "lagless" hack, that is).
I say Sonic Wings Special (arcade screen mode and difficulty set to Hard recommended) and Zanac: Special Version (part of the Zanac X Zanac compilation).
As for M.A.M.E., I suggest to unzip regular mameuifx32 AND mamefx_lagless into the very same folder (this way both versions will share resources such as ROMs, BIOSes, audio samples and *.png files). For each and every game you're gonna play, go to Display and DISABLE bilinear filtering, then go to Advanced, Select Effect "Real_Scanlines" (or some other mode, but in my book on a CRT Real_Scanlines look best). If you are using an LCD, your screen resolution of choice should be your LCD's native.

[Mischief Maker]

I wouldn't look necessarily for an easy shmup. Instead I would look for a shmup that has a scoring system whose effect on gameplay you really like. Do you like a game that encourages you to point blank your enemies? Get Blue Wish Resurrection. Do you like a game where you chain your kills? Get Patriot Dark. Do you like a game that encourages you to scrape dangerously close to enemy bullets? Get Twin Seeds DX. Do you love canceling huge bullet swarms into delicious candy? Get Eden's Aegis. And so on... (These are all freeware BTW)

Once you've found a shmup with a scoring system you like, play for score. Right now. Put any thoughts of 1ccing the game out of your head and approach the shmup like a game of pinball. If you exceed your highest score, you're a winner. Do this for 3 reasons:

1. You’ll survive better

The obvious reason is, higher score means more extra lives, but there’s a much deeper reason.

Generally speaking, a good scoring system is one that rewards the player for living life dangerously, and it’s valuable practice for the later stages in the game, where surviving situations like that is necessary just to survive. If you spend the early levels hiding in a corner and panic bombing your way through the tough spots, you’ll be completely unprepared for the difficulty of the later levels and knocked on your ass.

And finally, when you stop looking at your enemies as unstoppable menaces looking to kill you and everyone you love, but instead as an attack of heavily armed Piñatas filled with delicious candy, you’re a lot less likely to panic under pressure. Take the attitude of Will Smith in Independence Day saying “Oh no you did NOT shoot that green shit at me!”

2. It keeps things fun

Shmups are hard. You will not finish an arcade-difficulty shmup your first time. That’s the nature of the beast. But if you take the attitude that every time you don’t see the end credits, it’s a failure, then the game is going to make you frustrated and miserable. On the other hand, if you take the attitude that going balls to the wall and dying on level 4 with a high score is a bigger achievement than hiding in the corner and panic bombing your way to the end credits, then every game is a success as your score climbs higher and higher. That’s probably the biggest advantage of playing shmups on the home system, being able to track your personal scores instead of looking balefully at the impossibly high score some superplayer cranked out at your arcade.

On the flip side, when you’ve become good enough that surving the first couple levels is no sweat, and the difficulty is bottlenecking you at the fourth or fifth stage, the first couple levels can become tedious if you’re just playing to survive. If you’re playing for score, the fun’s just begun. Now you can show off and milk these early levels for every point they’re worth. And since you’re pulling off dangerous maneuvers to get these points, the challenge stays there for experienced players. In fact there are many players who can handle shmups at lunatic difficulty who enjoy playing at normal or even easy mode with the aim of maximizing their scores.

3. The scoring system is the backbone of a great shmup

If you’re wondering whether a particular shmup is worth your time, a good rule of thumb is that great shmups are designed around their scoring system, while lousy shmups are built around showcasing a gimmick, usually graphics or some special powerup technique, with score as an afterthought.

Let me demonstrate by comparing two shmups. As a rental that you just play once and quit, Jets ‘n Guns is a great game. It has fantastic visuals with its retro-futuristic art design and particles flying everywhere, you can customize your fighter with a dizzying array of gratuitous weapons, and it has a goofy hilarious plot skewering everything from action video game clichés to Ben Affleck. And finally, it has one of the best soundtracks in the history of videogames.

But while it’s an entertaining action game, it’s not a very good shmup. Your ship has all kinds of RPG stats like cooling and inertia and armor, but their effect on gameplay is a ship that handles like a pig, that can’t dodge most projectiles and collisions, and that periodically has to stop shooting and bring the action to a halt while you patiently wait for your guns to cool down. Enemy placement is haphazard and many levels quickly outlast their welcome. Finally, the simple afterthought scoring system is that enemies are each worth a set amount, and your score is also the money you have to buy new weapons. This means that wide angle weapons that maximize enemy kills are king, while screwing up an early level will ruin the rest of the game for you because you won’t be able to upgrade your weapons to keep up with the increasing hitpoints of enemies.

Contrast this with Parsec 47, a freeware shmup released by independent auteur Kenta Cho. It’s about as stark a contrast from Jets ‘n Guns as you can get, with minimal vector graphics, no plot, and a forgettable techno soundtrack. And if I may put on my hipster glasses for a moment, Pfft! Kenta Cho was doing vector arcade games YEARS before Geometry Wars made it trendy.

But what Parsec 47 may lack in art assets, it more than makes up for in gameplay. Its scoring system is based on the arcade disco shmup “Dangun Feveron.” Here’s how it works. Points for enemy kills range from a paltry 10 for popcorn enemies up to 10,000 for bosses. Whenever an enemy dies, they drop a large amount of score chips that float to the bottom of the screen, then float back out the top. Chips start out worth only 10 points, but each additional chip you pick up increases the value of the next chip, up to a maximum of 1000 (at the very top left of the screen there’s a number that gives how many points the next score chip will be worth.) If you die, or if you let a single score chip reach the top of the screen, the value drops back to 10. With enemies worth a paltry handful of points, it doesn’t take a genius to figure that the real money is in catching every single score chip and not letting a single one escape. There’s a term for shmups with a scoring system like this, called “collect’em-ups”

And this scoring system informs every aspect of the game. Your ship moves faster than most shmups, to accommodate dashing all over the screen after score chips. Enemy shot patterns are sparser than usual, to give room to maneuver and chase the chips, but also move faster than normal to keep the challenge up. Most enemies are one-shot popcorn style, to keep the number of chips on the screen high and the action intense. Even the circular secondary weapon is at its most effective when partially powered up. All this adds up to fast, frentic, and exhillerating gameplay. The only gimmick this game has up its sleeve is that the levels are randomly generated, so you never play the same game twice.

So forget the 1cc. Play for score and THEN you may be surprised to find that these retro games that rarely last more than 40 minutes from start to finish (no worries about looking up from your screen to see the sun rising the evening before a test) have more replay value than the most bloated Nippon Ichi RPG.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Meh. If anything, the scoring system is the backbone of a shmup when said shmup doesn't have Fun Weapons™.

[Drachenherz]

*snip*

And finally, when you stop looking at your enemies as unstoppable menaces looking to kill you and everyone you love, but instead as an attack of heavily armed Piñatas filled with delicious candy, you’re a lot less likely to panic under pressure. Take the attitude of Will Smith in Independence Day saying “Oh no you did NOT shoot that green shit at me!”

*snip*

Best. Advice. EVARRRRRRR!!!!

[louisg]

DoDonpachi Resurrection on iPhone/etc is a lot of fun if you have one of those devices. It has interesting scoring and level design, isn't too cut and dry, and it's just ten bucks. It's also accessible because it has the autobomb feature- if you have bombs left and you're hit, it bombs for you. And when you're used to the game, you can move onto the other mode where you (afaik) can score more but it doesn't help you out.

I've also been playing Darius Gaiden with autofire a lot recently.. I can recommend that one on the basis of really interesting art and music. It's just entertaining as hell, and it has a fairly easy difficulty setting (and there's a hidden code on the Saturn one for an even easier setting).

[nimitz]

DoDonPachi

[TLB]

DoDonPachi

[nZero]

DoDonPachi

[CptRansom]

DoDonPachi

[spl]

DoDonPachi

This is the only post that matters. Disregard everything else you read in this thread.

[drauch]

Ohhh, come on now. Start with a few like Gradius, R-Type, Raiden and the like, the play some DoDonPachi and the like.

[RNGmaster]

DoDonPachi

Chaining can ruin someone's perception of the genre forever. I enjoyed Dodonpachi, but I don't want it to frustrate someone so much that they give up shmups.

And just stick with MAME until you're sure the genre is right for you - don't spend hundreds on X360 titles until you know you'll get the maximum value out of them.

[moozooh]

Pfff, who needs chaining? You have a huge laser and there are explosions to behold! And rock music, lol.

[locklear93]

There was a recommendation for DeathSmiles above. As someone who's also basically a total noob with shmups (last one I really cared for was 1942 when I was a kid), I strongly support the Deathsmiles recommendation. It really manages to be appropriately non-threatening in a way the (admittedly few) shooters I'd given a try since the 80s have. It can also get sufficiently hard when difficulty is turned up that it's not a total joke. It also did its "job" by getting me interested in other shooters with less of a reputation for being totally easy (though I have no intention of going for any I hear are extremely hard anytime soon, either), such as Touhou.

I certainly recommend trying out the free recommendations made in the (awesome) post about playing for score before spending money. I haven't tried them, but hey, free is good.

[spl]

DoDonPachi

Chaining can ruin someone's perception of the genre forever. I enjoyed Dodonpachi, but I don't want it to frustrate someone so much that they give up shmups.

And just stick with MAME until you're sure the genre is right for you - don't spend hundreds on X360 titles until you know you'll get the maximum value out of them.

It's the first shmup I played seriously.

I got addicted to the chaining straight away and fell in love with it so it depends on the person.

Of course as moozooh says you can play the game without chaining anyway.

[Lance Boyle]

Chaining is just an extra puzzle for each level/ship type combination. I feel satisfied knowing how to get 180+ Hit on Stage 1 with C-Laser and just play the rest for survival.

DoDonPachi

EDIT: I also suggest pirating MAME roms before playing the gimmicky freeware shmups or seriously investing in commercial titles you might not like. Get a whole shitload of MAME roms. Everything by Cave, Psikyo, and Raizing

Start with DDP, Gunbird 2, the Strikers 1945 series, Armed Police Batrider, and work your way down the list from there

[BPzeBanshee]

Actually, before you get into deep games with complex systems I recommend you go for Raiden (Raiden 1 can be obtained for MAME, otherwise set up a Playstation emulator and get The Raiden Project), and then Xeno Fighters R. If you see a cameo ship in that game that perks your fancy go look up the game that it came from. That's how I did it, and I've gotten into all of the major company games of the 90s that way.

[jepjepjep]

Battle Garegga

This is the only post that matters. Disregard everything else you read in this thread.

Sorry, I couldn't resist. It is my favorite shooter. Doddonpachi is awesome too, but I like Garegga better.

[Special World]

I'm voting Mushihimesama Futari by a landslide.

Easily the most fun, visceral shooter I've ever played, and my favorite game of all time. The graphics are the most gorgeous I've ever seen, the patterns are mesmerizing, and it plays like a dream. It has novice modes, but Original mode isn't ridiculously difficult to 1CC; Black Label Original is actually the first scrolling shooter I ever cleared in a credit. It has multiple scoring modes, and even if you don't like one you're bound to like the other. They're lenient but extremely satisfying, and there's never that moment of "dammit I fucked up and this entire level has gone to waste" like you'd find in the dodonpachis, espgaluda 2, or even deathsmiles.

Also, it was recently marked down in price, so it's an absolute steal imo. If you buy it and enjoy it, I strongly recommend you download Black Label. It definitely took my favorite shooter of all time and made it my favorite game of all time.

If you want a more traditional scrolling shooter, I'd recommend Gate of Thunder for TG-16/Wii. Absolutely fantastic horizontal shooter, definitely the best of its kind imo.

And if you find yourself struggling to care about scoring and progressing in shooters, give Mars Matrix for DC a shot. It's an absolutely phenomenal shooter that gives you a huge incentive to score with its included shop, which, even though the game itself is quite hard, does a lot to negate frustration by allowing you to unlock extra lives and continues. It really gives you something to strive for in terms of scoring, and the gameplay is A++ as well.

[Kaiser]

I definitely would'nt recommend anything from cave to newbies outside Donpachi. And what's up with the Futari recommendations, or Dodonpachi, the guy's merely starting out and hasn't grasped a bit from the art of dodging yet.

So basically Dodonpachi is a bad place to start for a complete newbie, same with Futari, hell even anything cave is not a good place to start.

You should start playing Raiden, Gradius, R-type or Thunder Force games. Stick with classics until you're good at them. SO DON'T PLAY ANYTHING post-1995 for now. There's a good suggestion why I recommend classics over moderns to newbies, because they teach the basics of dodging and memorization. AND OF COURSE, a good reaction time.