Shmuppers post your age!

[Berty]

Hi,

If shmups (gradius, ikaruga etc) are your FAVORITE type of game, then how old are you? But only if shmups are your favorite.

(I have also posted this thread on www.shmups.com but wanted to get as many participants as possible; but if you are a member of both boards then please only post once.)

some of you may know that i am creating my own shmup as part of a Ph.D that i am doing (no, really). Anyway, part of my Ph.D is to look at the history of shmups and then pose a whole lot of further reseacrh questions.

One thing that i am looking at is whether shmuping missed a generation and if so, what generation. I will have to wait for the results of this before i move further but i already have some hypothosies but i dont want to mention them yet as i dont want to skew these results in anyway.

I need as many replies as possible to make this research valid so you may find this post on other forums. Once again i welcome your comments.

Cheers.

[Iron Draggon]

36yo male here, about to turn 37yo on Dec. 31st

Shmups rule!

[Sosage]

26. In my opinion, I don’t think shmups have skipped a generation as much as they fell off being the dominant genre at a certain point in time. *shrug*

[soniko_karuto]

22 here.

[max 330 mega]

im 16, and schmups are definitely my favorite genre of game, and i seem to be better at those than any other type of game.

[Gemini-Phoenix]

Well, we had Space Invaders which we played on our parent's Atari's, then 1943 and Solar Striker when we was little 'uns, then we grew up a little and played Rtype and Axelay when we were in high school, then the mighty Radiant Silvergun for the saturn when we were leaving school, onto Gunbird II for sixth form, then Ikaruga for now - Post uni days!

So no, I wouldn't say it skipped a generation - I'd say the same generation has grown up with it.


And what are we classing as "Shmups" here? 2D classics like Silvergun and Parodius? Or also games like Colony Wars and Rogue Squadron? (Cos technically they are the next generation of Shmups... All in 3D spendour and all!

And what about Tempest 2000, Elite, and Rez? Do they count?

[autobotracing]

23

[maxlords]

I'd count Rez as a shmup, but not Rogue Squadron or Colony Wars...those are more flight sims. As for me, I prefer the solid 16-32 bit shmups, mostly horiz ones. Shmups are probably tied for my favorite genre with RPGs....I play both about equally. I vastly prefer horizontal shmups to verts though, and I don't play the newer shmups in general (Castle Shikigami 2, Giga Wing 2, Psyvariar, etc.). I avoid all the "manic" shmups.

On a side note, the abundance of terminology for shmups as a sub-genre is quite frankly, astonishing. Shmuppers have their own jargon that even other gamers get lost from I've always found it amusing, being as I inherently understood it as soon as I heard it, but I've had a lot of other gamers go "huh??" when I use it.

[Lady Jaye]

I'm a 29-year-old woman and my fave schmups are Defender, Galaga and Cloud Master (aka Chuka Taisen) for the Sega Master System. But I do love schmups in general (just like Maxlords, it's my favorite genre along with RPGs), from the Gradius series to the R-Type series, to Ikaruga, Zero Wing and countless others. And yes, I do love Zero Wing, with or without the All Your Base dialog.

[ddockery]

28 and I love schmups, but I also suck at them quite a bit. Or most of them anyway.

[Dire 51]

I'm 30 and a diehard SHMUP fan for life.

[slip81]

23 here and shumps are tied with RPG's and adventure games for my fave genre. Out of the three though I'm the worst at shumps, but that doesn't stop me from loving them

I'd have to saythat the main thing that draws me to shumps is the art style and cool graphics. They're so colorfull and fun to watch while you play.

[Captain Wrong]

Hi, I'm Rob G., 29 and I'm a manic addict. Basically, if it says Cave, 8ing/Raizing, or Psyiko, I can't help myself. *hugs ABP PCB*

[NintendoMan]

23. They are probably my fav. 2 or 3 genre.

[bargora]

32. I have a PS2 with a 5" screen in my kitchen so I can play Gradius III when I'm cooking.

[kainemaxwell]

27 for me.

[GobopopRevisited]

Hi, I'm Rob G., 29 and I'm a manic addict. Basically, if it says Cave, 8ing/Raizing, or Psyiko, I can't help myself. *hugs ABP PCB*

17, but can't stay away from those companys. Only problem is I have few means of playing them beyond Saturn and MAME.

[Jibbajaba]

27. I really like shmups, but not my favorite genre.

Chris

[rbudrick]

Defnitely a huge shmup fan. I'm 26. Gradius 2, ikaruga, Guardian Legend, and most definitely Thunder Force 2 and 3 are major favorites.

-Rob

[josekortez]

I'm 25. I wouldn't say it's my favorite genre, but I just bought Arrow Flash for the Genesis last week and Castle Shikigami 2 this week, so I'm definitely a shmupper.