Shmups where putting more quarters in is not a terribly inefficient way to practice

[Licorice]

I've been playing Deathsmiles casually over the last few days, and noticed myself improving quite naturally due to the rank and stage select, and maybe the fact that it is not such a difficult game. If I hit a wall somewhere, I just make sure the next few runs I rank that stage down and play it early in my run so I get the practice in. Later when it becomes a sure no-miss I rank it up for the challenge. It's all very natural and fun.

Armed Police Batrider and Ibara's special mode have nice practice tools as well, I especially appreciate Batrider's boss rush special course and wish more shmups did the same. While Batrider only provides a stage edit for the first three stages, Ibara has free stage select, but sadly no way to change the starting rank (I could be, and hope I am mistaken).

Speaking of boss rush special courses, Raiden Fighters 2 and Jet indeed offer the same. RFJ, in fact, presents itself as a training program, but, sadly, presentation is all it is, because whether you get the easier or harder stages just depends on whether you've figured out how medaling works -- once you have it figured out, you will never ever see the lower branch of the levels again.

Lots of people hate checkpoints in shmups, but I don't. I think they're an excellent learning tool. You got sniped? *thwack* power down and pay attention this time! Though there is irreconcilable tension between checkpoints, long power up cycles, and rank.

Finally I want to mention the anti-pattern here for example present in Radiant Silvergun, where, like an RPG or dungeon crawler, you get more handicaps the more time you put in to the game, and, unless you avoid them, it hinders your progress in actually getting good. I put tens of hours into Radiant Silvergun playing casually and getting shit clears to no benefit whenever I tried a legit arcade mode run. Lesson learned.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Back in March/April of 1988, there was an indy local burger joint that had a Capcom/Romstar version of Hyperdyne Sidearms up & running on a Dynamo cab (Romstar was the American arcade game distributor/licensee of Capcom arcade games back in those days of arcade gaming lore). Since I was playing it with real quarters, the idea of trying to make each game session last as long as possible was at the forefront -- playing arcade games, especially back in the 1980s, was not a cheap hobby to begin with forcing the player to get better at said arcade game. Eventually, with enough credits spent, I found out that with just using the full-auto power-up alone, I could reach the end of the final boss of "Bozon" on my first life and still have four additional lives remaining in reserve. Those extra lives wouldn't be enough to defeat it, thus requiring a second quarter to finally finish Bozon end-boss once and for all as a "2CC-All" affair at best with an average of scoring of 1,400,000+ points per Sidearms gaming session indeed (it'd take about 30-35 minutes to do with absolutely no breaks/pauses in between whatsoever). So yes, spending "real hard-earned money" learning to master those mid-1980s arcade game titles was quite something to experience/behold back in the day during the "Golden Age of Arcades" era. The old adage of "Practice makes perfect" rings true in this instance as an "old-school" arcade gamer myself.

The same thing applies of a 1CC of playing the classic Data East's Heavy Barell arcade game as a true 1LC affair was quite fun, especially assembling the Heavy Barell weapon, to take down the final boss with a few well-placed shots (it can be done if you time it just right in acquiring all the pieces before the final showdown making it quite easy).

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Licorice]

Yes certainly a large part of it is psychological -- holding on to dear in-game life as if it were your own.

Still, even armed with that mental state, I can't imagine if you hit a wall that is simply beyond your skill level (e.g. a boss pattern you just don't understand, or you can only dodge 10% of the time) you'll surmount it in a time comparable to save state practice.

I guess if it's something you simply don't understand you could watch another, better player, if there were one, back in the day, or simply an online video today. But the other case, where it's just something beyond your skill, the game would need to provide some kind of an affordance to practice.

[Sumez]

Credit feeding is my primary method of practicing any shooter. Mostly because I tend to always play on hardware, and don't enjoy the luxury of savestate practice.

Lots of people hate checkpoints in shmups, but I don't. I think they're an excellent learning tool. You got sniped? *thwack* power down and pay attention this time! Though there is irreconcilable tension between checkpoints, long power up cycles, and rank.

I agree, if the checkpoints are as well designed for recovery options as they are in most Toaplan shooters, it's one of the most enjoyable aspects of practice for me. Learn how to recover at a checkpoint and ace that section when you're at full power.

The best example I can think of as a game where this method of practice is a clear disadvantage would be something like Parodius where dying enough times, and continuing especially, is gonna lower the rank so hard that most sections become a breeze to get through. Get there in a run with few or no deaths, and the experience is just completely different - and with so few extends, it's quite limited how many times you can afford to lower rank.
This logic of course applies to most game with heavy rank.

[pja]

I think even more crucial than checkpoints is power-down on death, any game that does that is instantly very hard to practice just by "putting in quarters"

[RedApple7]

Depends on how much resources you lose on death. For example, Tiger-Heli doesn't punish you much because there is only one power level, and the only useful resource in the game, bombs, are replenished on respawn. Unfortunately there are no continues, but the extends are fairly generous.

Compare that to something like R-Type series where trying to recover without your weapon, speed, bits, or forcepod is borderline impossible in many sections, and your routing is going to be based on full power; even simply grabbing a different weapon can lead to the demise of your run.