The Self-Introduction Thread

[trap15]

Crimzon Clover is pretty excellent, I hope you're playing Boost mode

Welcome, always nice to see another player around.

[uzernaem]

Hello everyone!
Long time lurker here, decided to register finally. I love classic shmups with R-Type and R-Type 2 being my absolute favorites. I am not that into danmaku because they tend to be too colourful and anime for my tastes but I enjoy the first DoDonpachi game very much and I love Ikaruga - my favorite of the sub-genre.

[awry]

What Cave games have you tried so far? Most of them are pretty brutal but some aren't so bad, like Deathsmiles and Mushihimesama Futari Black Label Original Mode.

I tried DoDonPachi and Espgaluda II. I will try the ones you recommended, thanks.

[Feedbacker]

N'cha!

Been lurking here for ages and finally decided to create an account. I went back to shoot z'em up few years ago when I started collecting them, then eventually began playing them for score and got severely hooked, to the point I almost only play STGs these days and pretty much forgot about all other kind of games. My favorite title is Dodonpachi Daioujou - I play both Black and White versions. Other games I play are Crimzon Clover WI, Ketsui, Soukyugurentai just to name a few. I'm also a member of french shmup.com forum.

See you on the scoring boards!

- Feedbacker

[spadgy]

Good to see more of you joining, and always nice to see lurkers levelling up! Welcome all!

[Skykid]

My favorite title is Dodonpachi Daioujou - I play both Black and White versions.

A man with impeccable taste. You're most welcome here!

[spadgy]

Skykid says that to every member when they join! He said it to me too, and I said I mainly liked Project X and Apidya.

(He doesn't really. He's a man who saves his compliments up to mean something, to be fair.)

[Stevens]

Welcome to the fold kids!

[Skykid]

Skykid says that to every member when they join! He said it to me too, and I said I mainly liked Project X and Apidya.

(He doesn't really. He's a man who saves his compliments up to mean something, to be fair.)

True.

You do like Project X though.

[Feedbacker]

Cheers guys!

Skykid : DOJ is such a great game, I love everything about it - the cyberpunk setting, the whole mecha-design, the soundtrack, the hyper system, and of course the scoring mechanics. Although it can be so frustrating sometimes, especially the vanilla version. This game wants me dead.

[spadgy]

You do like Project X though.

I really do. Though I admit it's mainly nostalgia-based as it was an Amiga game that made me fall for the genre (with Apidya and Agony).

[Skykid]

Cheers guys!

Skykid : DOJ is such a great game, I love everything about it - the cyberpunk setting, the whole mecha-design, the soundtrack, the hyper system, and of course the scoring mechanics. Although it can be so frustrating sometimes, especially the vanilla version. This game wants me dead.

It wants us all dead. That's why we love it.

[Eitoman]

Hello everybody!

I've been a casual shmup gamer most of my life, I liked them but never really been full into them until about a couple of years ago when I tried some Cave games, I immediately fell in love with bullet hell shmups, difficult but satisfying to play.

Thanks to this site I discovered there are several interesting games I missed and nowadays is one my favorites genres.

I'm actually playing Crimzon Clover and Deathsmiles, I love both.

Hope to learn more about this genre here, there are tons of info for a noob like me!

Cheers!

[copy-paster]

Hi all...!

First i know this forum since a long time... but i decided to register today

My first Shmup games : Tiger Heli (NES)
Games that makes me being shmups fan : Gradius series

That's all my self-introduction today, Sorry for my bad English

[catsxcradle]

Hi friends,

I'm a long time fighting game player and i've been to japan to play and complete in street fighter III: third strike. i've never been too good at shmups but i've been impressed by the communities i've see at akiba HEY and game mikado. Silly enough, the touhou communities and music have piqued my interest in the series and i found my way here. I'm just dropping by to say hello, pick up names of shmups that seems interesting/fun, learn strats, and gawk at glorious analog technologies.

[metus]

Greetings and Salute,
Casual Schumper and life long gamer.
First schump: R-Type on the snes
Favorite schumps: Aerofighters/Sonic Wings (own a stand up dedicated arcade cab)
Blue Lightning- Atari Jaguar CD
I've never invested the time into mastering any schump, but enjoy playing them. Just found out about this forum and decided to register to expose myself to some new info on a great genre.

Fly safe,
Metus

[Samuray]

So yeah, it's my turn, I guess.

Finally decided to register after having discovered my love for STGs just a a few years ago, after returning to classic console gaming. Up until that point I just went with the current systems of the time but suddenly I felt the urge to play the old stuff again. Tried Virtual Console at first but that did nothing for me, so I dug out the old systems and games I had and continued the collection. Luckily I never sold anything.

I had most of the relevant systems, including Saturn, PC Engine and Neo Geo AES, but only around 20 games each because I was always distracted by the next new console. Therefore I had and still have to acquire a LOT of titles, but hey, the hunt is half the fun, right? Still...I'm still missing so many shmups it's not even funny. Hyper Duel, Thunder Force V, Batsugun and many more , and that's just on Saturn.
And I haven't even really started with PSX and PS2, except for the odd "Einhänder" or "Philosoma".

What else to tell? My very first one was "Gradius" on NES which of course I still have, but now it's supplemented by the Saturn version.

I'm surprised by the number of nice shmups on the NES, by the way. Everyone knows about "Gradius" and "Life Force", I guess, and the STG sections of "The Guardian Legend". And while I prefer "Parodius" on other platforms, there are quite a few gems on this system! "Star Force", "Star Soldier", "Recca", "Crisis Force", "Over Horizon", "Legendary Wings"....excellent stuff! Hell, I even got myself "The Last Starfighter" in spite of it being frowned uppn. Never had a C64 so this was a good a chance as any to play some "Uridium".

Phew....this is getting longer than anticipated. I'll leave it at that for now, thanks for reading!

Samuray

[qmish]

A bit late, but wanted to say something here.

Before 2014, i wasn't into stgs at all. I'm playing videogames since ~2000 (i'm relatively young, yeah). My first console was MegaDrive with just 5 games and later i switched to PC until some years ago got my interest to console games (of many generations) back. I've always been more a casual (challenge? who needs it? ok ok don't yell at me. or do) caring more for "wow! virtual reality! worlds you can breath in!" etc. etc. Anyway, past 3 years i dived deep in videogames music. And guess what, most wonderful tracks i've met were from shmups. That's main thing what got my attention. Another thing is that "arcade gameplay" i had yet to experience after years of fps/adventure/rpg gaming. I'm amazed how tense action you got in short segments of time in stgs. I'm still yet to experience my first 1CC so i'm still mostly a newcomer though i 've read a lot this forum (which has meny interesting and helpful threads) and other/random resources (+videos) so currently i'm more learing legacy of this great layer of Games (yes with big letter) though started my own way too. I also never was in arcade center in my life yet (but hope to fix this soon).

I was pleased to notice some guys who create electronic music here Cause modular synths is another thing i'm dreaming about. Well, i have pretty small friend by Doepfer but haven't really used it since i haven't ended with software yet before switching to hardware. As for "listening to", besides vgm and - obviously - analogue synth-related electronics (from Morton Subotnik and Michael Stearns to Keith Fullerton Whitman and KK Null), i dig different artists from different genres, most notable influence for me is John Zorn and his projects (Naked City, Masada, Moonchild Trio, PainKiller etc.).

P.s.
Exotic Shorthair cats are cute .

[Skykid]

Casual Schumper
First schump
Favorite schumps

We need more casual schumpers.

[Glenn Magus Harvey]

Well if you need more casual schumpers I could help with the schumping. Can also help on the casual shmupper side, too.

Anyway, I'm a longtime gamer (since the NES days), and found my way here through an acquaintance I've known for several years now. I think he goes by Blinge. Met him on another gaming forum, and we kept in touch on Steam. He's pointed me to threads here a number of times and y'all seem like a cool bunch.

I'm actually relatively new to the shmup scene. I've played things like platformers and JRPGs for many years, but while I always felt that shmups looked really cool, I never really had the chance to sacrifice tokens by the bag to arcades, nor did I get shmups on game systems at home when I was younger. Instead, it's been recent years that I've semi-accidentally picked up a few shmups, in the course of my interest in the relatively new but quickly growing localized doujin games scene, and I've had a lot of fun with them.

Aside from some earlier interest from [s]playing bits of[/s] watching supremely good players kick butt at Raiden at arcades, my most recent interest in shmups started with a few good experiences playing Flying Red Barrel, Ether Vapor Remaster, and RefleX, which made me feel like, "wow, I didn't know I could have so much fun at shmups, despite being a filthy casual". I especially like those games (such as EVR and RefleX) that give extra continues for getting game overs. It's a mechanic that's win-win-win -- it (1) lets people who aren't great at the game (such as myself) see the whole story, it (2) feels more forgiving and thus inviting to new players, and at the same time it (3) incentivizes practice at the game and actually does help the player increase their skill. (Oddly, I haven't broken into Touhou, despite my interest being doujin games.)

As I mentioned, I make no secret that I'm pretty casual about my play -- I'm not competitive nor particularly skill-focused in the way I enjoy my games. Still, though, I like shmups for the spectacle, sometimes for the narrative (sometimes it gets good), and surprisingly often, for the music. Heck, I've probably listened to the eXceed soundtracks more than I've played the games -- especially that first game, which runs really weirdly on modern systems but has an excellent techno soundtrack (which was supremely hard to find for a while but is now sold on Steam as a DLC because Steam stupidly sells soundtracks as DLC).

I can say more about what shmups I've played if anyone wants to hear more.

Most recently -- by most recently I mean "when I was up way too late at night still chatting on Steam with Blinge" -- he dared me to join here and post about our argument over what it means to "beat" a game.

05:38 - Minnesota Fats: please join the shmups forum and tell everyone how you beat the games
05:38 - Minnesota Fats: :)
05:38 - Quint the Coffin Princess: are ya darin' me?
05:38 - Minnesota Fats: yes#
05:38 - Quint the Coffin Princess: this chat is getting logged and pasted :P

Well, I'll answer that dare right here. I personally consider myself to have "beaten" a game by getting to some sort of non-suck ending sequence, such as by triumphing over the final boss. Doesn't necessarily mean I've gotten the best ending yet -- for example, I have yet to even meet the true final boss in eXceed 3rd because I'd need to (1) wean myself off of autobomb and then (2) 1cc the thing, including a bonus boss in one of the stages. Been planning on doing that eventually, but just haven't gotten around to it. I'd call that "completing" the game.

These ain't the best terms, I'd agree, and I actually kinda blame my using these terms on Backloggery. It has the following game statuses: null, unplayed, unfinished, beaten, completed, mastered. So I had to find some way to differentiate between a "barebones" beating/completion of the game vs. a full-featured one. Ideally I'd say there should be statuses like "cheated completion", "basic completion", "best ending", "100%", "know the game too well", and the like -- and probably different status choices for different genres, even -- but I'm not the one running the site. But in the meantime, if I've gotten to the end of the game, seen a resolution to the story (even if not the best resolution in some cases), brought up the credits roll, and so on, it's nice to get to record that on a personal list of some sort. It's certainly different from and better than a Game Over, at least. And nothing says that I can't return to the game later anyway.

I know what I consider "beating" a game isn't what he considers it to be, and frankly speaking, I'm cool with that. To me, the terminology doesn't matter much -- all that really matters is whether he or I or you or anyone else had fun or is/am/are having fun playing the game. I know that there's a lot of competitive context to the shmup scene overall, and I certainly can't and won't count myself as being anywhere near competitive (on shmups or even gaming in general), but I certainly still enjoy the games, and also enjoy admiring the skills of those who do play them very well.

So yeah. There you go, that's my response to your dare.

Happy to be here and hope to enjoy some good conversation!~

[Trygon]

Hi everyone, I'm a friend of ACSeraph's. I'm kind of new to the whole shmups genre of games. I have played them in the past via emulator but never have really sat down or completed one.

[Vampire_Saviour]

Hello all.

This is my first post here after lurking for a while. I got into shoot-em-ups because my brother is somewhat enthusiastic about them. Prior to playing shmups, arcade-styled games were always the most appealing to me because of their focus on the actual design of the game/elements of game play.

I primarily play fighting games and action games, but you could have guessed that from my username. My favorite fighters are Vampire Savior (obviously), 3s, and Tekken. For action, Devil May Cry 1,3, Vanquish, Zone of the Enders 2 (which actually draws much inspiration from shoot-em-ups) etc.

Right now, the only shmup I have finished on 1 credit was Under Defeat back in 2009. I now own and am working on Mamoru-kun. I don't only play G.rev games though; they are just a little easier to play at this point.

I'm glad to have joined!

[qmish]

Did you play Pocky & Rocky 1-2, i'm curious, huh?

[BixHD]

Hi, I'm Bix. I like arcade games, mainly fighting games (even though I've never actually been to a proper arcade before), and I recently got into the shmup genre around a month ago. Recently picked up Crimzon Clover since it was on sale for 2 bucks, and I really like it, so I would like to learn how to get high scores in it.

Cheap plug:

Spoiler

I'm also getting into streaming, and since I currently won't get a better computer till I graduate, I'll be learning Crimzon Clover on my Twitch channel http://twitch.tv/bixhd

[microfolk]

I'm a filthy 2hu trash through and through which also happens to love the shit out of Hellsinker and is trying to expand his tastes playing various other shmups here and there.
I've been lurking this forum since ages ago but until last year I've never tried to play shmups "seriously". Then I started 1ccing the Windows Touhous on Normal and now I'm slowly but surely working my way with Hard mode and Extra mode, and I'm also trying to 1cc Hellsinker but nobody knows when I'll be able to achieve it ehe.
I'm also a huge fan of STG weekly, Aquas and Softdrink have some hella sexy voices.

[Shepardus]

You can't be that trashy if you love Hellsinker. If you're not using Minogame use him/her/???, easiest character by far for 1cc'ing Hellsinker.

[microfolk]

You can't be that trashy if you love Hellsinker. If you're not using Minogame use him/her/???, easiest character by far for 1cc'ing Hellsinker.

I'm so trashy I care about Touhou plots.
And I'm progressing pretty well with Deadliar (I've finally unlocked stage 7 for practicing!), Minogame is a cool character but I've already spent too much time with Deadliar to want to take the "easy way", the only thing that's slowing me to a crawl is that Hellsinker stress the hell out of me, one run takes forever and it's far too easy to panic and start losing tons of lives in a really short time span (hello Apostles of the Seed).
But I like it so very much~

One of these days I'll start playing the Really Cool and Important STGs I promise.

[CWM]

I feel a bit out of place here, having been almost exclusively a PC gamer for the entirety of my life, a lot of that time spent on Quake and Stacraft. Haven't even owned a single console till I bought a used PS3 last year to play Demon's Souls. I mostly play strategy games and RPGs. I even remember replying to a thread on another forum asking about most intimidating game genres with "bullet hell shmups" - didn't think I could succeed at these games ever.

Then I bought Crimzon Clover a bit after Christmas on recommendation from someone whose taste I trusted. And now, almost exactly 6 months later, I'm here, having cleared Novice Original of that, then Touhou normals, BWR+ Original, EspGaluda, and recently DDP. Needless to say, I'm having fun. I also like to think of this as a kind of training regimen that will eventually make me good enough to clear CC on Arcade Original.

I like talking about videogames in general, and have been perusing these forums for advice on how to not suck for some time now, so here I am.

[gatr]

Hi! I'm gatr. I'm kind of terrible at shmups and usually only have completed the first stage and a half. I started sometime back on Dreamcast with Mars Matrix and Ikaruga. I just recently played DDPDOJ as my first Cave shooter a month or so ago. Tried a few other Cave games out and actually enjoy Espgaluda, and I'm hoping to have that be one of the first shmups I complete!

[Urabutbl]

Hi all - finally found this place after being a retro gamer for a long time. Well, before it was retro I suppos, when it was just gaming.

I'm 38, Swedish, and I play a mean Slap Fight.