The Self-Introduction Thread

[galagaking]

i am galagaking, i like shmups like dangun feveron, battle bakraid and of course, the great galaga

[6es_clinton]

Hi everyone,

My name is Clinton and I don't even remember how I discovered this forum a couple weeks back. I am very glad for the happy accident! It's been a treasure trove of information here and I feel grateful to have found this community.

I've always been a casual fan of shmups. My history with them goes back to the coin-op days of credit-feeding Raiden or whatever the flavour of the month was in the arcades and playing a slew of them on the NES and SNES. I have fond memories of playing through Life Force countless times using the Konami code and having my young mind "blown away" by its difficulty as well as the scale of the boss fights and ingenuity of some of those levels.

As time went on I would move on to other game genres such as space sims and FPS. How surprising it is that twenty years later I would have a renewed interest in shmups and get my first introduction to the bullet hell sub-genre on my iPad of all places.

I have floated around as a neophyte game designer since 2011 and I have recently begun work on my first indie project which is, wait for it...a shmup. It is admittedly a little bit off the beaten track as far as traditional shooters go but I will be beginning the process of playtesting and iteration very soon. Hopefully at least some of my design assumptions can be verified through the sobering light of external critique. Exciting stuff!

Some of the best perks of working on a shmup is, of course, indulging in a bit of market research and competitive analysis. To that end I have been dabbling in quite a few games, old and new. Here's a quick list of what's been rotating on the playlist:

PC: Jamestown, Warning Forever, MK Force and whatever web-based indie game I happen to stumble upon.

360: Ikaruga, Radiant Silvergun

iOS: Danmaku Unlimited 2, Espgaluda II, Lightning Fighters 2, Phoenix HD, rRootage Online, Shogun, Storm Strikers

And before I know it my introduction message has gone on for far too long. Thanks for reading if you've hung in there to this point. I look forward to learning from all of you here. There is a dizzying number of shmups that I have never even heard of and it's all very exciting to me.

I also look forward to sharing more news about my game in the very near future.

Take care,

Clinton

[Abandoned Witch]

(Note: I had never introduced here since i've registered.)

Hello everyone to all Shmups fans and the Shmups Forum staff.
I am Abandoned Witch.
I am a witch and Retro Gamer, and the descendant of Alice McNeil.
Most of all, I'm a shmups fan that uses rapid fire.
My obsession for shmups started 10 years ago, when I played Aero Fighters 2 with my brother on NeoRageX. That was fun. Because of that, I've played the first Aero Fighters game at my local arcade.
I've also played Strikers 1945 at that time.

Since then I played every shmup either on an emulator, a console, or in arcades.
My favorite shmups include Raptor: Call of the Shadows, Progear (The game which I play to train for shmups), D-Force (Dimensional Force), the Cotton series, and Hyper Duel.
I'm also a fan of Raizing Shmups.

Very soon I will get my hands on some Arcade Material (PCB's and Arcade Machines).
And please, don't shoot Alice's core!!!

[ACSeraph]

If you're a shmup witch then you should really be playing Deathsmiles...

My favorite shmups include Raptor: Call of the Shadows...D-Force (Dimensional Force)...

We have similar taste in kusoge. I love both of these despite my better judgement. I blame nostalgia mostly.

[Stevens]

Greetings fellow shmup lovers, Stevens here. It was supposed to be Peter Stevens (not my real name, but I assure you there is a good story that goes with it),
but the conformation email didn't go through so I had to register a 2nd time with my other email address. Like most I had been lurking for quite a bit and finally decided to take the plunge.

Been gaming for over 30 years (I'm 37), but didn't truly discover the awesomeness of the scrolling shooter until about a year and a half ago. I only have 10 different shooters between the DC, 360, and Steam. My wife is also a gamer, but we have very different tastes when it comes to games.

Favorite shooter to this point? Under Defeat (DC). I have spent over 100 hours with it since January and it never gets old.

About me? Live and work in Brooklyn NY. Other hobbies: Board games, Rangers hockey, working out, and being in charge of awesome things.

See you around..

[LordHypnos]

Welcome to shmups, Mr. Stevens.

[Blarget2]

Hello fellow Shmuppers, My name is blarget.
I am a graphics artist and a fan of Ravage (a shmup) and Descent (not so shmup).
My main skill set is pixel art and level design.

[Rautz]

Hi all,

I've been lurking on and off for a wee while now and thought I'd make the effort to become an interactive member in here. The amount of hardware and software knowledge in here is just too awesome

Arcades(r.i.p) played a large part in my childhood. I had alot of fun on the Raiden offerings and R-Type was something I never tried to enjoy until actually getting it on PS 1. The PS3 gen I saw as an opportunity to get back into gaming but it wasn't until replaying a couple of capcom titles in my local burger stand that I wanted to relive the classics that I missed/overlooked.

Catch ya round

[ahuffman]

Hello everyone,

I have been lurking for a while, but finally decided to join. I am not very good at shmups, but enjoy playing them regardless. Hopefully II can learn a thing or two from all of you!

[ACSeraph]

Welcome to the farm new guys!

Might I interest you in some Quickening?

[jww]

Hello, my name is Johnny, saying hello to everyone on this forum

I have been playing arcade games since I was a nipper, well over 30 years ago. Really can't remember exactly what the first shooter I played was, but it's probably Galaga, Space Invaders or 1942 if they count. My grandparents had a hotel in Cornwall and I remember playing on a cocktail table and upright games machines but memory plays tricks on me what exact games they had.

After that arcade gaming was restricted to theme parks in the uk and abroad when on holiday with my parents. Then consoles, until I started buying arcade cabs and games.

Current arcade shooter list owned (sorry if any don't qualify - please let me know)

• Aero Fighters 2
  Blazing Star
  DoDonPachi 2 Bee Storm
  Parodius Da
  Psyvariar Revision R
  R-Type II
  Raiden
  Sexy Parodius
  Shikigami No Shiro
  USAAF Mustang
  Vulgus
  XX Mission

I've also got a 19-in-1 and a 60-in-1, so the games on there too.

Anyhow, hello to all, seeya around on the forum

Cheers,


Johnny

[LordHypnos]

Welcome to the board! I bet you have a lot of accumulated experience to share with us, having played since the 1980s and your list of games seems diverse, which is always nice

[Jonst]

Hello jww! Welcome! I had similar-ish experience growing up with arcade games in the 80's in the uk,good times...

[jww]

Thanks for the warm welcome friends!

Dunno if I've got much in terms of skilled experience to share; I suck at games, so please don't expect any super-jedi-skills out of me but I love playing them none the less I tend to collect facts and trivia in my head like a sponge about games I've played and read about, and associate them to emotions and memories of the time and what was going on in my life when I played them.

I remember when I first played on Raiden II a long time ago and my jaw was on the floor with the intricate animation, the detail of what was going on, that some tank vehicle things left tracks behind it on the ground as it moved - not to mention the mega laser beam type weapons. I felt like I was very little again and am taken right back to that feeling each time I think of that game.

Currently playing and trying to learn Psyvariar Revision which is my shooter of choice atm. (Please no hints or tips - Part of the fun for me is grinding away beating my stupid head off it until I learn something). The joy of discovering a method, a hidey space or a combination of power-ups in my games is the best! It took me a while to realise there were no power-ups floating about to collect (probably due to the chaos going on) and then much more playing to learn that by grazing the enemy bullets you get bonus's and level up your weapon that way. (At least that's my current theory which seems to work). Next was learning not to hold the stick super tight and to just relax, focusing on the player space ship instead, guiding it away from bullets, only just to beef up my weapons.

Here's a crap youtube video I made of me starting to work out how to play Psyvariar. Am sure you'll all laugh at how rubbish I am compared to you lot, but I don't care. I love games and enjoy playing them:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_9YhRR1sCQ

Apologies for the strange camera angle, I balanced my ipad on one of my pinball machines (hence the angle) - and the sound is really quiet. Am going to have to get a proper HD camera and microphone to record my game sessions at some point.

I always play arcade games on 1 credit, no continues - dreaming that one day I might be considered 'not crap' with a space-ship

Anyhow, sorry, I'm rambling - just wanted to say hi and justify myself a bit. I heard people talking about this forum on another arcade forum I'm on and figured should probably join since I'm a shooter fan!

Have got a ridiculous amount of console games and shooters filling a few rooms of my house, quite a few older than a few forum members I dare say, but have left my consoles alone for a while - preferring the arcade cab experience - but hope and intend to get back to them in the future.

I work a lot so can't post the whole time, so please forgive any tardy responses.

Thanks again for the welcome! Will get reading around the forum and avoiding any guides on games I own

Cheers,


Johnny

[Mr12Inches]

Hello Shmups Forum!

I'm Mr12Inches (you might also know me as Shed_Ninja on Twitch or somewhere). I've been lurking this forum for some time, and I just decided today to make an account here. The game I'm currently working on clearing is Crimzon Clover v.1.01.
As for my experience, I have 1cc'd a couple of games (mainly the Touhou series, which seems like the standard gateway game for this genre), but I want to improve my skills further in this genre. I've been playing on and off for about a year, but now I want to get a bit more serious. I have a decent score in Crimzon Clover (around 1900 oku), but I want to push that score up some more before World Ignition comes out.
I'm probably not going to post very much here simply because I like to lurk (but who knows).
No, this isn't a troll account or anything. I actually like this nickname

[Bardoly]

Well, hello shmups!

My name is Daniel, and I live in Northwest Indiana just outside of Chicago. I am a member of Pcenginefx, Nintendo Age, Digit Press, and GameFAQs. (Although, I am most regular on Pcenginefx and not-so-regular on the other forums.) I have always loved shoot-'em-ups, especially the 'normal' forced scrolling space-style ones. The first shoot-'em-ups that I remember playing would be Galaga (and Defender and Asteroids a very little bit) at the local grocery stores in the 1980's. After my siblings and I got our first home video game console (a NES) for Christmas back in '88 or so, the first shoot-'em-up that we got for it was Life Force, and I loved it! I still enjoy playing it to this day, although I don't think that I've ever beaten the game without using the 'Konami code'. I still have and enjoy playing my NES with my library of ~250 games, but I mostly play SNES/TG-16/PC Engine.

Overall, my favorite system is the SNES (although the TG-16/PC Engine is right behind), with my favorite SNES game being Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals. It is simply a great story, and the Ancient Cave adds near infinite replayability. My SNES libray is nearing completion, with my only needing 3 more SNES titles to complete a 721 retail-released US SNES cart-only set. The most recent SNES game that I've played is Tetris & Dr. Mario with my sons yesterday.

Moving on the the TG-16/PC Engine, I am also working on building my libary, with my currently having 638/884 on Pcedaisakusen! I had played the TG-16 back in the early 90's some and had owned a regular TG-16 system, a Turbo Express, and about 20 HuCARD games, but I traded it all off in 2001 for a nearly new Game Boy Advance and 2 games. I am now kicking myself over that trade, but oh well... Anyway, I 'rediscovered' the TG-16 back in 2011 , by picking up a system and game lot on eBay. After about a year, I 'discovered' both the CD games and the robust PC Engine library, and so I got a region-modded PC Engine Duo from Keith Courage on Pcenginefx. Although I still enjoy the SNES and its library, ever since I've discovered these games, my game time has mostly been going to these, with a large portion of my time going to shoot-'em-ups, since the PC Engine's library is full of great shoot-'em-ups. My most recent game played is Magical Chase (TG-16 version), which I played trhough and beat on its medium difficulty setting about a week ago.

Anyways, I look forward to reading up on more shoot-em-ups here.

P.S. For those of you who enjoy reading shoot-'em-up tragedies, you are welcome to read my experience with Zero Wing (PC Engine).

[Siatome]

YO! I'm Siatome, just signed up, and the longer I'm here the more I feel like I'm far too scrubby at shmups to be here. However, I shall persevere!

Been obsessed with arcades since I was quite small and at the center of that obsession was always Metal Slug, and every TATE shooter I could get my hands on, eventually hopped on the HORIs too. I'd say my favorite shmup nowadays would be In The Hunt, because of how odd and unique it feels, and also because dem sprites.

I've been collecting arcade games for some years now, and have been longing to get my hands on a candy, but my location in northwest florida makes it a hard find. Hopefully I can pry a Sega Bass Fishing away from some bar someday and rescue all it's blast city goodness, or just meet some poor soul heavily laden with arcade cabinets who's burdens I can ease :-P

Thanks for listening shmuppers! Live long and if you die start over :-P

[LordHypnos]

Welcome Mr. 12 inches
Welcome Bardoly
Welcome Siatome

...Does any one else ever feel like they're at an AA meeting when they read and respond to posts on the Self-Introduction Thread?

[President_Obama]

I am your black emperor.

[theMot]

I am Mot. I have 1cc'd just about everything.

I own two mint Egret II's.

[fyxim]

Hi everyone,
I've been lurking this forum for a while. Enjoy playing CAVE shmups on my Blast City and Atomiswave SD.

Hoping to find more games here to play on my cabinets

Cheers,
fyxim

[BackwardPlot425]

Hello everyone. My Name is James Lee McKigney and I'm a gamer. I have started playing games since I owned a Game Boy Color and a Nintendo 64. I started using Emulators since I started using the internet and I have just got into Shoot'em Ups... Again.

I just started playing Gradius on the blueMSX emulator and let me tell you, I tried to do a Single Credit Run on that game... I can't even get past the first level. But I will continue to enjoy the shmups even though I usually suck at them. Also I unfortunately have Autism, Aspergers and ADHD but I manage to be a nice guy as long as I have medicine to keep me stable. On Facepunch I go by KOManiacJim and I dabble in some Let's Plays sometimes but I tend to forget to do the scheduling but aside from that I manage to do well and I can do just about anything that I put my mind to.

I swear to abide by the rules and to be fair and to treat everybody as if they were me. I vow to help other people at all times and to be excellent to everyone on the fourms.

[PAPER/ARTILLERY]

I swear to abide by the rules and to be fair and to treat everybody as if they were me. I vow to help other people at all times and to be excellent to everyone on the fourms.

Noble sentiments, nice to have you here Jim!

[L___E___T]

Hello, I've been meaning to sign up here for ages after visiting a number of threads for one reason or another.

I'm a moderator over at FamicomWorld where I've been a member for nearly ten years, so I recognise Ghegs from his posts there and I know Stealthlurker and Gaijin Punch similarly.

Looking forward to read and learn about lots of Shmups I have missed out on. If I had to pick a favourite it would be Pop N Twinbee or Mercs, so I'm pretty casual as you can tell.

Cheers!

[Prinny]

Hello. I am a Prinny, a name I decided to use in the games I play. I've been lurking here for a while and decided to make an account here.

As far as shmups are concern, I really started when I bought Gradius V in 2011. My first introduction to the bullet hell genre (or at least I consider it my intro to the bullet hell genre) is Castle Shikigami II on PS2 when I bought it in 2012. However, I only really got into the genre when I got the 7th Touhou game Perfect Cherry Blossom last summer.

As far as favorite shooters go, I would say Perfect Cherry Blossom is my favorite for getting me into the genre and Crimzon Clover World Ignition for its scoring.

Hopefully this is a good self-introduction.

[jhonny_d]

Hi, took a while to find the thread, it should be a sticky

Btw, I'm an italian gamer (mostly retro), love mostly 90s capcom and snk stuff but I'm also in love with early cave games (pre-DOJ, mostly because I've not yet played the later ones) and other ones like sonic wings, RF series and the whole parodius nonsense (gokujou parodius pcb should arrive in my mail in a few days along with garegga)

I own an Egret 2 which I consider the crowning achievement of my gaming career since I lusted after "arcade at home" since I was like 7

Lately I've been switching from being an hardcore anal collector (Neo Geo AES and hibahin stuff, you know...) to being an hardcore gamer, looking at stuff that I really want to play and stopping worrying obsessively about the conditions

I'm also building a website dedicate to japanese gaming but it's italian only at the moment so I won't bother posting the url

[nullity]

Greetings!

My name is nullity, and I'm telling you my name because I'm a huge fan of stating the obvious... and I like shmups.

I'm here because, beyond liking shmups, I get tired of not being able to follow links to this forum posted by the PCEFX chat gang. I want in on the action!

I mainly game on the TurboGrafx/PC Engine (no shortage of shmups there!) but have a few other consoles that get some attention now and then. Mostly a nut for NEC, though. I run a very (un)popular fansite for the TurboGrafx; link is in my sig if you wish to ignore it and not click it.

Currently playing Blazing Lazers on the TurboGrafx... I've been trying to hone my skills for a 1cc run, but my love of rum makes it far more challenging than it should be.

This concludes my official intro. Thanks for skimming it- I'm glad to be here!

[executioner]

Hi all

Been lurking for a little while on the forums mainly looking for ways to get the best picture quality for my consoles and learn about RGB and stuff. Shmups are in my top three favorite genres of video games. I'm from Panama in Central America.

Consoles I own are NES, Famicom, SNES, GC, GB Pocket, GBC, GBA, N64, VBoy, NDS, Wii, SMS, GEN+CD+32X, GG, SAT, DC, WS, WS Color, NGPC, XBOX, 360, PS1, PSone, PS2, PSP, PS3, 3DO, CD-I, NGCD, Actionmax, TG16+CD, TE, PCE-DUO, Odyssey2, Playdia, 2600, Lynx & JAG.

[KuroiSabato]

Hello guys, first time poster. Made a little video as an introduction, hope you like it! My favorite games are Mars Matrix and Giga Wing, the last being the only one i've ever CC'ed .

http://youtu.be/wUrBQrGI2to

[spadgy]

Welcome all! So great that there's still a nice stream of new members here! That alone gives me faith shmups will never die!

Get posting, getting conversing, and get submitting your high scores! No better way to improve and enjoy the games even more!