Excellent shooters that are unpopular

[CIT]

It recently occured to me that there are some games that were all the rage when they were released, but now they get almost zero activity on the scoreboards.

For example Radiant Silvergun, Rastorm, G Darius and Border Down.

All are considered excellent games by most accounts, but people aren't playing them.

Why might that be? Graphics didn't age that well? Game system too complex and not easy to pick up and play? Not danmaku enough?

[Bananamatic]

most shmups get zero activity on scoreboards these days

[ebarrett]

Some (most? (all?)) of these are not properly emulated.

[CIT]

I think you guys are on to something!

[KAI]

[Xyga]

What, you mean shmuppers are getting too old and busy with their lives ?
Great shmup dev companies including Cave are dead and the golden age is over ?

[royalfan84]

A product of a niche genre with WAY too much emulation and piracy....

[Pretas]

A product of a niche genre with WAY too much emulation and piracy....

Happens to every game. Piracy is a scapegoat, other factors are to blame for the genre's decline.

[replayme]

Einhander.

[Gespenst]

Psyvariar?

[Nifty]

There are quite a few games scattered around the place that are popular (or at least come off as well-regarded) but don't appear to get a lot of scores posted. Since last year I've been tossing around the idea of fortnightly/monthly/whatever game choices with a focus on ones that for some reason (usually emulation that older computers can't handle) would not be appropriate for tournament play and could afford to see some more action. I do not intend to start it for some time now, if at all, after seeing how quickly interest tends to fizzle, but a quick look through just the arcade releases turns up these (give or take a few and trying to avoid things with somewhat recent ports):

Game Tengoku (Saturn emu; however, MAME seems to have fixed the layering issues it was having at least)
RayStorm & RayCrisis (Whole bunch of ports)
Cotton 2 & Cotton Boomerang (Saturn emu)
Guardian Force (Saturn emu; got this to run in MAME too until input stopped working at the start of stage 5 (was a slightly older build though))
Brave Blade (working in MAME)
Border Down (DC emu)

There are plenty of others too that aren't so inaccessible as some might still think.

[Astraea FGA Mk. I]

Einhander.

[Wyrmnus]

Brave Blade (working in MAME)

Do you know a specific version this has worked fully in? Last time I tried playing this game the sound was all laggy and skippy.

[Nifty]

I have it working back as far back as v0.143

[Wyrmnus]

Would you happen to know the latest 32 bit version? Kind of a drag that alll of these new emulators are 64 bit only.

[Eno]

Would you happen to know the latest 32 bit version? Kind of a drag that alll of these new emulators are 64 bit only.

MAME still has x86 binaries(for windows) on the official site. AFAIK so does shmupMAME.
You can always download the source and compile it yourself too.

[Wyrmnus]

Way beyond my head. Thanks, anyway.

[Mortificator]

Binaries means you simply download the emulator and run it. I think you'll find that within your head's operational range.

[bsidwell]

Would you happen to know the latest 32 bit version? Kind of a drag that alll of these new emulators are 64 bit only.

why are you using a computer from 2004

[Wyrmnus]

I've said it before. I'm a poor man. I'm in a situation in which I cannot find work at the moment. I won't delve into it for the sake of the forum.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Guardian Force

I don't think it's ever been popular at all. I was lucky to have just got my first Saturn when the Guradian Force thread on Shmups Chat appeared. Before that, the name had never caught my attention.
Ever since I've played it, I'm dumbfounded as to why Radiant Silvergun got so much more spotlight. Easier to understand why Souky and Shienryu are better known (ports), but I can't think of a Saturn/ST-V exclusive (shmup) I'd pick up and play sooner than Guardian Force. Not even Hyper Duel Saturn mode does it for me.

[Never_Scurred]

IBARA

[chempop]

IBARA

Not so sure, it has a couple regular players here and people on Arcade Otaku seem to love it too.

I think Dimahoo fits the bill

[tinotormed]

Game Tengoku (Saturn emu; however, MAME seems to have fixed the layering issues it was having at least)
RayStorm & RayCrisis (Whole bunch of ports)
Cotton 2 & Cotton Boomerang (Saturn emu)
Guardian Force (Saturn emu; got this to run in MAME too until input stopped working at the start of stage 5 (was a slightly older build though))
Brave Blade (working in MAME)
Border Down (DC emu)

There are plenty of others too that aren't so inaccessible as some might still think.

Raiden II (MAME is not (YET) properly emulated, most people would hitch a PC version)
Raiden III (PC & PS2 version)

Strangely, most Cave games (e.g. DonPachi, EspGaluda, Deathsmiles, etc.) are not known in the Philippines.

[Nifty]

I don't think it's ever been popular at all.

Not popular so much as those who do play it generally seem to give positive feedback. Definitely underrated though, and I'm sure it's mainly due to lack of exposure. Perhaps it would be timely to set up a Guardian Force Defence Force, or possibly a Guardian Force Guardian Force

Raiden II (MAME is not (YET) properly emulated, most people would hitch a PC version)

I think the PSX port on The Raiden Project is supposed to be mostly accurate (as opposed to the Raiden port's mismatched difficulty settings, but then it's working in MAME anyway).

[DrTrouserPlank]

Triggerheart Exelica was great but people didn't take to it.

IMO Radiant Silvergun is massively over-rated for what it is, even taking the game's age into account there were vastly better shmups out during it's time that aren't tongue-lashed daily.

[Xyga]

Personally I think RS is fantastic and deserves its reputation.
It's just too long and requires a lot, and I mean A LOT of dedication from the player to get even reasonably good at it.
People who actively played this game in the beginning were in their twenties, today they may not have enough free time for this.
The same could be said about Garegga, or even RPGs, etc...

Getting old, busy, tired, not enough free time, can't gather enough motivation.
With skill level going down as time passes...

Real life is overrated, it kills the magic, slowly like a cancer, we should all go back to being happy NEETS and hikikomori.

[Erppo]

and requires a lot, and I mean A LOT of dedication from the player to get even reasonably good at it.

This is a rather odd claim considering how easy most of the basic chains are. Sure, chaining all of stage 5 is very hard and will probably take a lot of practice, but all the other stages shouldn't take much time to learn and bring more than enough experience to beat the final bosses without any trouble.

[KAI]

Learn to chain by your own and not watching superplays it's hard. It's similar to try to discover combos on fighting game. Watch videos of people doing infinites and unblockables and you will be missing the fun of it.

[Xyga]

It's not just chains, should I mention destruction bonuses, weapon bonuses, merry dogs, scratching...
There's so much going on in this game, so much to learn before one can even consider approaching decent scores that I wouldn't call it 'easy' by any means, especially considering the lenght of a full run.