Games that defined the shmups genre

[CRTGAMER]

should just be called "shopping list"

Support Racket Boy and click through the eBay and Amazon links in the article!

Good links, I like the way they go to a search showing all systems the game is available on. I remember when Raptor came out by Epic Games, reminded me of Raiden with all the explosions.

[ExedExes]

I remember when Raptor came out by Epic Games, reminded me of Raiden with all the explosions.

Unless Epic distributed it later on, Apogee was the publisher for Raptor.

I know -- because I have the original *floppy* disks

[EllertMichael]

Nice work, BulletMagnet!

While scrolling through the article I felt like this could have easily been "Developers That Defined the Shmup Genre." Obviously I see why it's more important to mention the Games but I liked that you didn't have to read very far into each section to be told who the Developer was. Looking into the back catalogs for each of these companies is the equivalent of hitting a Mother Lode. So let this article be your shovel, fire up MAME and dig deep, my friends! Newcomers may be surprised as to just how much variety this genre has to offer

[pakopako]

Heh. I can see how this was called "a shopping guide" rather than a historical guide.
What about other genres of shoot'em ups like rail shooters (from Space Harrier to Cotton to Panzer Dragoon to REZ) and tunnel shooters (Gyruss and Tempest are the only that come to mind) and gallery shooters (Operation Wolf, T2, Dynamite Duke...) and 4P-S shooters (Quartet can't be the only one, R-Type Leo was an oddity outside of the Darius games) ... and that's not even touching run-and-guns or arena-shooters.

[mjmjr25]

Yup, Agreed. Super job BM.

Don't recall seeing anything on those Euro PC games before. The more you know...

[Breetai]

Nice article. Only ones I own are Space Invaders (Atari 2600), R-Type (SMS) and R-Type DX (GBC), and Gradius Collection (PSP). Maybe I'll track a few more of these down.

You aren't a Phalanx fan, are you?

I remember when Raptor came out by Epic Games, reminded me of Raiden with all the explosions.

Unless Epic distributed it later on, Apogee was the publisher for Raptor.

I know -- because I have the original *floppy* disks

I can confirm this. I also bought Raptor back in the day (1996 I think). I got the Shareware version on an Apogee Shareware disc I got with a controller I bought. I found it on sale later for I think $15 or $20 and picked it up. I quite enjoyed it. I've been a shoot 'em up fan since playing River Raid on the 2600 and 1943 and Life Force on the NES. I can also remember playing a lot of R-Type, Saint Dragon and the original Raiden in arcades around that time period. One of the very first games I owned was TI Invaders, which was a Space Invaders clone on the TI-94/a system as a really little guy.

I have always made a point to have at least one shoot 'em up or two for each system I owned. NES was definitely Life Force, Thunder Force II, III and Sol-Deace on the Genesis (even though I had a Sega CD, I found this for really cheap back then), Silpheed on the Sega CD, Gradius III on the SNES, G-Darius and Einhander on the PS1, etc. I had all those as a kid. I didn't have any of the (two) shoot 'em ups on the US Saturn back when I had my first Saturn in 1996/1997, but I rectified that when I got my first modded white JP Saturn in 1999/2000. I had burns of a lot of Saturn shooters during my first years of university. My first impressions of Radiant Silvergun? Cool graphics, but I'd rather be playing Parodius games, Macross: DYRL and Street Fighter Zero 2 and 3.


I wish I still had that control pad that came packed with that Apogee shareware disc. It was sweet. It had 6 face buttons and two shoulder buttons in addition to the d-pad and start/select buttons. All buttons were fully mappable with keyboard buttons. It was white in colour and I think the buttons were blue. It had the standard serial joystick plug and also a keyboard pass through plug (old fat style). I forget the company that did it, but I'm pretty sure it had "sun" in the name.

[ExedExes]

I wish I still had that control pad that came packed with that Apogee shareware disc. It was sweet. It had 6 face buttons and two shoulder buttons in addition to the d-pad and start/select buttons. All buttons were fully mappable with keyboard buttons. It was white in colour and I think the buttons were blue. It had the standard serial joystick plug and also a keyboard pass through plug (old fat style). I forget the company that did it, but I'm pretty sure it had "sun" in the name.

Suncom, perhaps? They made Atari 2600 joysticks and I think I had a PC joystick by them.

I got Raptor and like 4-5 other games when Apogee had a huge sale in 1994-1995. You bought 2 and got 1 free, these were all *full* versions of their popular titles. Ended up getting Raptor, Wacky Wheels (Mario Kart rip off), Blake Stone Aliens of Gold (FPS on Wolf3D engine), Mystic Towers (adventure) and got Major Stryker (shmup!) and Crystal Caves (platformer) free. GOOD times.

[Breetai]

Suncom, perhaps? They made Atari 2600 joysticks and I think I had a PC joystick by them.

I got Raptor and like 4-5 other games when Apogee had a huge sale in 1994-1995. You bought 2 and got 1 free, these were all *full* versions of their popular titles. Ended up getting Raptor, Wacky Wheels (Mario Kart rip off), Blake Stone Aliens of Gold (FPS on Wolf3D engine), Mystic Towers (adventure) and got Major Stryker (shmup!) and Crystal Caves (platformer) free. GOOD times.

Yeah, I think it was by Suncom. I still can't find the controller in a Google search, unfortunately.

I also had Wacky Wheels. TOTALLY fun game!

[ExedExes]

Suncom, perhaps? They made Atari 2600 joysticks and I think I had a PC joystick by them.

I got Raptor and like 4-5 other games when Apogee had a huge sale in 1994-1995. You bought 2 and got 1 free, these were all *full* versions of their popular titles. Ended up getting Raptor, Wacky Wheels (Mario Kart rip off), Blake Stone Aliens of Gold (FPS on Wolf3D engine), Mystic Towers (adventure) and got Major Stryker (shmup!) and Crystal Caves (platformer) free. GOOD times.

Yeah, I think it was by Suncom. I still can't find the controller in a Google search, unfortunately.

I also had Wacky Wheels. TOTALLY fun game!

I just tried too, and found some funky looking pads, but none that match your description.

Wacky Wheels had some neat multiplayer in addition to the good single player.

[brunoafh]

Whacky Wheels... Raptor, man I have those disks too. Apogee games were just the friggin best back in the day. Right along with Sorcerian, Save our Pizzas, Riptide, Jill of the Jungle, Captain Comic, Ladder Man, Secret Agent Sam, Crystal Caves, Duke Nukem games, Cosmo's Adventure... too many to even mention.

Racketboy really needs a DOS games guide for fucks sake.