Celebrity Shmups: Shmups that appear on TV and Movies

[Blade]

Besides the quite obvious movies "The Last Starfighter" and "The Wizard", I've noted the occasional Shmup in movies from time to time.

One in particular (although I can't place the name of the shmup) is found in the movie Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, during the scene with all the foot clan gangsters with the skateboard rink, the shmup the guy was playing had a Huge Skull in it, but I'm not sure which one it was....Xevious is my guess (I may be way off on that one though).

So, have you ever spotted a shmup in the movies?

[sven666]

mido miko plays gradius (on a saturn) in one episode...

[BrianC]

Besides the quite obvious movies "The Last Starfighter" and "The Wizard", I've noted the occasional Shmup in movies from time to time.

One in particular (although I can't place the name of the shmup) is found in the movie Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, during the scene with all the foot clan gangsters with the skateboard rink, the shmup the guy was playing had a Huge Skull in it, but I'm not sure which one it was....Xevious is my guess (I may be way off on that one though).

So, have you ever spotted a shmup in the movies?

The only shmup I can think of with a huge skull in it is Truxton, but I remember that the gangsters were playing Narc in the TMNT movie. It's not a shmup, but it does have a huge skull in it.

[zinger]

I recently found DARIUS GAIDEN in Black Mask / Hap Hak (a Yuen Woo Ping movie starring Jet Li). The sissy girl was playing the saturn port with her hands tied to her back, trying to beat Golden Ogre

[Diabollokus]

Oh yeah! I was thinking about black mask and that saturn game the other day, could have sworn it was guardian heroes, ah well question answered.

[ThirdStrike]

There is a Viper Phase 1 in Bowling For Columbine when Michael Moore is standing in a Bowling Alley.

[EddyMRA]

An episode of Strangers with Candy had a Raiden II cabinet behind the Candy character. It had a screen time of like 5 minutes while Candy was talking.

[8 1/2]

There is a Viper Phase 1 in Bowling For Columbine when Michael Moore is standing in a Bowling Alley.

I thought that's what that was.

On a slightly related note to this topic, Drew Carey used to have a Saturn sitting in his living room.

[zinger]

Oh yeah! I was thinking about black mask and that saturn game the other day, could have sworn it was guardian heroes, ah well question answered.

That's funny, I was thinking about it the other day too. That's why I checked for which game (I had no idea at the time I first saw it) at a friends house (to whom I'd given it to), I was very surprised.

[Ex_Mosquito]

Dont forget the film Wargames with matthew Broderick, he's playing Galaga in the burger place at the start. He seemed decent at it too:)

[alpha5099]

There's a Truxton cabinet in the pharmacist's shop in Stephen King's It. When the asthma guy (the actor was on Caroline in the City) is there to get a refill, you can see Truxton right behind him.

[dementia]

I once turned to a rerun of Will and Grace in which the cast were inside a Chuck E. Cheese (or like children's amusement center). There was a Mars Matrix cab in the background.

[it290]

Dont forget the film Wargames with matthew Broderick, he's playing Galaga in the burger place at the start. He seemed decent at it too:)

Yes, the studio actually delivered a Galaga and a Galaxian to his house so that he could practice for the movie. Nice perk if you ask me.

[dczx]

in the old nickelodeon show "Clarrissa explains it all," her geeky brother is playing an Atari Lynx with "Gates of zendocon". Isn't it weird I remember that? hehe

[gunbird18]

There's a Truxton cabinet in the pharmacist's shop in Stephen King's It. When the asthma guy (the actor was on Caroline in the City) is there to get a refill, you can see Truxton right behind him.

Stole my shmup sighting, alpha!

I watched "IT" about a month back when USA had it on, and I jumped out of my seat when I saw it! What is so weird is that I thought about posting the sighting on the boards and thought about starting this same topic.

I remember the Saturn at Drew's house! The Viper Phase 1 sighting in Bowling for Columbine is awesome!

[it290]

What game is Chunk playing in The Goonies? I can't remember.

edit, nevermind, not a shmup apparently. Anyway, this is a great site related to this topic:

http://www.mameworld.net/movies/

[Zach Keene]

Speaking of Nickelodeon, all sorts of early 90s shmups popped up for Nick Arcade's video challenges. (As you watch in horror as the contestants go for Battletoads instead. )

[alpha5099]

There's a Truxton cabinet in the pharmacist's shop in Stephen King's It. When the asthma guy (the actor was on Caroline in the City) is there to get a refill, you can see Truxton right behind him.

Stole my shmup sighting, alpha!

I watched "IT" about a month back when USA had it on, and I jumped out of my seat when I saw it! What is so weird is that I thought about posting the sighting on the boards and thought about starting this same topic.

That was my reaction when I saw IT a few years ago. I may even have started a thread about it, I can't rightly remember and the old boards are gone.

[iatneH]

mido miko plays gradius (on a saturn) in one episode...

!!!!! !!!!!

Now I have GOT to see this!!

[IlMrm]

There's a Truxton cabinet in the pharmacist's shop in Stephen King's It. When the asthma guy (the actor was on Caroline in the City) is there to get a refill, you can see Truxton right behind him.

Thanks for that. I have the movie and watched it many times, but I've never noticed it. I'll definitely check it out.

They all float!!!

[alpha5099]

What game is Chunk playing in The Goonies? I can't remember.

edit, nevermind, not a shmup apparently. Anyway, this is a great site related to this topic:

http://www.mameworld.net/movies/

Now that I've read that, I do remember seeing Viper Phase, although I couldn't identify it. I just saw it was tate and looked to be a shmup. I think I surmised it was Strikers 1999.

[D]

It would be so cool if someone would collect these snippets of movie footage and post them (damn I'm a nerd!)

[Herr Schatten]

In Never Say Never Again (you know, the "unofficial" James Bond movie and the last one with Connery), Largo ( the villain played by K. M. Brandauer) has a whole arcade full of games, some of them shmups. I think you can see Galaxian in the background while he's talking to Bond (or maybe it's Galaga) and you can see the side of a Centipede or Millipede cab in one scene.

[sven666]

mido miko plays gradius (on a saturn) in one episode...

!!!!! !!!!!

Now I have GOT to see this!!

yeah thought it was pretty cool too.. cant remember which episode tho but it was one of the old ones.

youll just have to watch em all

[K-J N.]

I remember that in one episode of the TV series The Flash the villain of the week was playing a vertically scrolling shmup in an arcade with the onlookers being impressed by how far he got. I don't know which game it was or if what was shown actualy was very far into the game (wouldn't count on it) though.

[BulletMagnet]

Speaking of Nickelodeon, all sorts of early 90s shmups popped up for Nick Arcade's video challenges. (As you watch in horror as the contestants go for Battletoads instead. )

I do distinctly remember seeing a guy do Gun-Nac once.

[captain ahar]

off topic: i've always wondered, were the arcade machines on Nick Arcade at full default? thinking back, it seems that the games were harder than that.

[Dartagnan1083]

they didn't use arcade games on Nick Arcade.

They used actual consoles within an arcade cabinet with the actual controllers wired out.

[BrianC]

they didn't use arcade games on Nick Arcade.

They used actual consoles within an arcade cabinet with the actual controllers wired out.

yes, all of the games were console games like Marvel Land, El Viento, or, as mentioned before, Gun Nac. And then there were the PC-ish looking special games that seemed to be created just for the show. Real simple stuff like a clone of pong, if I remember correctly.

[Zach Keene]

Well, Neo Geo games occasionally cropped up (Ghost Pilots comes to mind; it actually even got played on occasion), but since I know jack about the NG I couldn't tell you if it was running the home or arcade hardware or even if that distinction is meaningful...

Psygnosis was occasionally credited for "custom game programming" or some such. I assume this was for the simple Face Off games, though I can't recall the credit appering when the Face Off was a Pong knockoff.