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Side Scrolling Shoot-Em-Up (R-Type, Gradius, etc)

Deleted member 12790

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
24,537
I am actually making a side scrolling shmup in the vein of Thunder Force right now. I've been working on it for over a year. My intent, actually, is to try and pitch it to Sega as a revival of Thunder Force.

The engine I've written is completely portable -- including to the Dreamcast (of which a port I maintain). Extremely performant, too. And I intend to release both the engine, and the SDK I made for it, as freeware.

Long, long ago, Gecko Yamori/Savage Regime donated this song to the project. I hope to get him back on board to do the full soundtrack:

Iri

Also trying to get Bill from Zeboyd games to help with the art.
 
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Deleted member 6056

Oct 25, 2017
7,240
Krejlooc said:
I am actually making a side scrolling shmup in the vein of Thunder Force right now. I've been working on it for over a year. My intent, actually, is to try and pitch it to Sega as a revival of Thunder Force.

The engine I've written is completely portable -- including to the Dreamcast (of which a port I maintain). Extremely performant, too. And I intend to release both the engine, and the SDK I made for it, as freeware.

Long, long ago, Gecko Yamori/Savage Regime donated this song to the project. I hope to get him back on board to do the full soundtrack:

Also trying to get Bill from Zeboyd games to help with the art.
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Wow thats awesome. That engine has my interest. I am shit at code, but love to art it up and make stuff. A good engine is something that'd be pretty dope. I keep hoping Shmup maker goes further on steam for that reason. I had some dumb fun with Blast Works back in the day for this too.

Thats another one for those who want some fun side scrollin. Folks could make and distribute there own levels and ships but it was before workshops were thought out so it was all a mess to get and showcase. Not certain if you can get any of that now...would be a great game for steam to revive.
 
BocoDragon

BocoDragon

Banned
Oct 26, 2017
5,207
Just get Treasure to make Gradius VI and call it a day.

...what do you mean Konami and Treasure are dead?! :(
 

Deleted member 12790

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
24,537
Whoops, forgot to link the song from Gecko Yamori: http://tindeck.com/listen/agzd

It's called Iri. I reached out to him a long while ago because of his work accurate recreating Sega Genesis music, but I had reached out way before I was ready for his involvement. Like I said, that was already over a year ago.

shaowebb said:
Wow thats awesome. That engine has my interest. I am shit at code, but love to art it up and make stuff. A good engine is something that'd be pretty dope. I keep hoping Shmup maker goes further on steam for that reason. I had some dumb fun with Blast Works back in the day for this too.
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It's not really a shmup engine. It's a general retro game engine. What it all does is kind of hard to explain in a short post, but the long skinny of it all is that it makes your GPU behave very similar to the way a Sega Genesis or SNES works. Very, very accurately.

DMECATTUEAAeSzD.jpg


This is me displaying a level from Sonic 2 directly off of a Retrode from a real cartridge using my tool. It can do a bunch of line scrolling and other stuff. All powered by runtime scripts. Part of the work developing the engine was recreating the first level from Thunder Force IV from scratch.
 
TheMadTitan

TheMadTitan

Member
Oct 27, 2017
27,231
Side scrolling shoot em ups are my jam; this thread was pretty much a goldmine of shmups I need to snatch up.

I know Super Hydrorah and Xydonia are coming soon, but is there anything else I'm missing PC wise?

I'm actively avoiding most bullet hells though since I either don't have the patience for pixel perfect measurements of hitboxes or don't care to see flying schoolgirls or witches shoot energy bullets at random things while they posture and float.
 

Deleted member 6056

Oct 25, 2017
7,240
Krejlooc said:
Whoops, forgot to link the song from Gecko Yamori: http://tindeck.com/listen/agzd

It's called Iri. I reached out to him a long while ago because of his work accurate recreating Sega Genesis music, but I had reached out way before I was ready for his involvement. Like I said, that was already over a year ago.



It's not really a shmup engine. It's a general retro game engine. What it all does is kind of hard to explain in a short post, but the long skinny of it all is that it makes your GPU behave very similar to the way a Sega Genesis or SNES works. Very, very accurately.

DMECATTUEAAeSzD.jpg


This is me displaying a level from Sonic 2 directly off of a Retrode from a real cartridge using my tool. It can do a bunch of line scrolling and other stuff. All powered by runtime scripts. Part of the work developing the engine was recreating the first level from Thunder Force IV from scratch.
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Thats awesome! Man there are some engines out there I've been wishing would adopt this instead of their current editor setups for views. Great job. This'd be awesome for shmups.
 

Deleted member 12790

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
24,537
shaowebb said:
Thats awesome! Man there are some engines out there I've been wishing would adopt this instead of their current editor setups for views. Great job. This'd be awesome for shmups.
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One day I'll make a topic about Thunder Force hacking. Part of doing all this involved taking apart Thunder Force III and IV and figuring out how it all worked. The compression routines for the graphics and level files, for example, are pretty fascinating. I have a long list of notes I made during the project.

The actual level files for the game are so mind bogglingly simple, though. I was amazed once I knew how the game "worked."
 

Deleted member 6056

Oct 25, 2017
7,240
Iucidium said:
Have you heard of the good word of Sine Mora?
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Well...not many good words.
Game had a lot of offputting design choices in stages. The trash stage of hiding within garbage or instadeathing while dodge, the random difficulty lags and sudden spikes, odd things in the background you needed to notice or you'd instantly die at the start of levels...
Had its moments but it was all over the place.
 
Folkenhellfang

Folkenhellfang

Member
Oct 27, 2017
412
I liked Sine Mora, not enough to buy it again at 30 bucks, but it's good.
Calling Einhander anything but great comes off as wanting attention. Having said that, the Lord of horizontal shooters demands you all bend the knee and swear fealty to Thunder Force. You can pick which one
 

Deleted member 3534

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
1,537
Sorry to bump this thread a year late but I want to talk about Gradius and I can't make threads.

Holy shit I love Gradius. Shmups have never been much on my radar. I haven't loved them as much as I've admired them. I've owned Ikaruga on several platforms but can't get into it. It feels like a game you need to be a shooter virtuoso to play.

And when I played Gradius Galaxies for GBA (my first entry into the Gradius series) last month I was hooked. I feel motivated to not die and rack up points to keep my upgrades. That's a key difference between a game like Gradius and Ikaruga.

I bought the PSP collection but it unfortunately doesn't include 5 which looks amazing. I'm hoping to track down a copy. In the meantime are there any great shooters like this for Switch?
 
Poimandres

Poimandres

Member
Oct 26, 2017
6,869
If you are digging Gradius as a "straight" shmup I'd recommend the R-Type games. They just play really well, no pretension. Also Darius if you want to keep on the horizontal kick
 
Ge0force

Ge0force

Self-requested ban.
Banned
Oct 28, 2017
5,265
Belgium
Soldner-X² is one of the best side-scrolling shooters I've ever played. Too bad it's only for PS3 and Vita...




Another great game is Alien Stars, which seems to be free on archive.org.

 
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bunkitz

bunkitz

Brave Little Spark
Moderator
Oct 28, 2017
13,523
It's a shame Housemarque decided there's no market for arcade type games like these. Love Resogun and loving (just started it last weekend) Matterfall too.
 
eXistor

eXistor

Member
Oct 27, 2017
12,294
Love this genre, but I'm not into bullet hells at all. I tried a bunch but I can't really get into them, I much prefer the more traditional ones like R-type, Thunderforce, Gaiares etc. Super Hydorah was a pretty good recent one, but even that one doesn't come close to the classics imo; too unfocused.
 

rawhide

Member
Oct 28, 2017
3,003
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) said:
In the meantime are there any great shooters like this for Switch?
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R-Type Dimensions comes out next week, it's a 3D remake of the first two R-Type games that lets you switch between the new graphics and the original 2D sprites on the fly--if you've never played R-Type, this is a fine place to start.

As for indies, Super Hydorah just came out on Switch, that's a two-man indie game that takes very heavy inspiration from Gradius and other horizontal shooting games of the era.
 
Fularu

Fularu

Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,609
This is the first time I've read people claim that the Soldner games are good..

I should try them again but man were they playing like trash when I purchased them back in the day :/
 

Deleted member 31873

Banned
Nov 8, 2017
3,532
Anyone who enjoys Parodius should definitely check out Ordyne (Arcade, 1988). It's not quite as off-the-wall as Parodius, but still a colourful horizontal shoot-em-up with a similar vibe. It's also one of the easier arcade games I've played (but still may be challenging if you've never played it before).

I'm not sure how you'd play it today though; I only discovered it back around '99 because the student union in my UK college somehow had a cabinet from Japan.
 
Fularu

Fularu

Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,609
MartinB105 said:
Anyone who enjoys Parodius should definitely check out Ordyne (Arcade, 1988). It's not quite as off-the-wall as Parodius, but still a colourful horizontal shoot-em-up with a similar vibe. It's also one of the easier arcade games I've played (but still may be challenging if you've never played it before).

I'm not sure how you'd play it today though; I only discovered it back around '99 because the student union in my UK college somehow had a cabinet from Japan.
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There's a PC Engine port so it could be on japan's PSN for PS3 maybe?
 
Lardonate

Lardonate

Member
Oct 25, 2017
399
MartinB105 said:
In case it is, be aware that the PC Engine version is nowhere near as good as the arcade version.
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It's on PlayStation Namco Museum vol.4 as well. That's how I remember playing it. A local arcade in the next town over from me had in when it was new but I never got to play it much. Fun game tho yeah.
 
charlieman999

charlieman999

Member
Oct 29, 2017
760
Spain
What's the opinion on the game In the hunt? Im no shootemup expert by any means but i really liked that game when i played it on the ps1, although Thunderforce 4 has always been my favourite.
 
Regiruler

Regiruler

Member
Oct 28, 2017
12,293
United States
Super Hydorah's level "No Mercy" is pure euphoria. It's like playing a platinum game.

But in all I'm more of a vertical person. Soldier Blade is perfection and no one can convince me otherwise.
 
AfropunkNyc

AfropunkNyc

Member
Nov 15, 2017
3,958
The switch is turning into a nice shump machine. Use to love this genre but i don't have that connection to it like i use to but i always see em popup on that machine.
 
tiesto

tiesto

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,865
Long Island, NY
One thing I love about oldskool horizontal shmups is that more often than in modern day bullet hell style games, the environment is an obstacle. Clever level design that morphs and moves around makes things almost like a puzzle to solve.

A game I hardly see mentioned is Air Buster / Aero Blasters. It's an attractive game with a funky, upbeat soundtrack, straightforward solid game design, (the high gravity levels throw a bit of variety into the proceedings) and cool visuals.
 
Fularu

Fularu

Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,609
tiesto said:
One thing I love about oldskool horizontal shmups is that more often than in modern day bullet hell style games, the environment is an obstacle. Clever level design that morphs and moves around makes things almost like a puzzle to solve.

A game I hardly see mentioned is Air Buster / Aero Blasters. It's an attractive game with a funky, upbeat soundtrack, straightforward solid game design, (the high gravity levels throw a bit of variety into the proceedings) and cool visuals.
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The PC engine version is stellar, the MD version isn't as good but easier to get.
 
KDR_11k

KDR_11k

Banned
Nov 10, 2017
5,235
tiesto said:
One thing I love about oldskool horizontal shmups is that more often than in modern day bullet hell style games, the environment is an obstacle. Clever level design that morphs and moves around makes things almost like a puzzle to solve.

A game I hardly see mentioned is Air Buster / Aero Blasters. It's an attractive game with a funky, upbeat soundtrack, straightforward solid game design, (the high gravity levels throw a bit of variety into the proceedings) and cool visuals.
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Modern shmups certainly seem to favor having nearly no level geometry and little if any enemy collision, everything interacts only via bullets. Kinda makes things more forgettable since you're just dealing with different arrangements of glowing circles in most of the game while your attacks fan so wide that you barely even have to look at the things you're fighting.
 
SweetSark

SweetSark

Banned
Nov 29, 2017
3,640
Uuff!!
There are so many games I can list which come soon, but for now I will leave this one here.
I dont know if is great, but it look very promising.

CoverFull_test4_medium.png

 
ShinUltramanJ

ShinUltramanJ

Member
Oct 27, 2017
12,949
The PSP Collection has Gradius Gaiden, which to me is the best Gradius.

Galaxies is also fantastic. Honestly after playing the Gradius games it's hard to go back to the slow R*Type series.
 
ShinUltramanJ

ShinUltramanJ

Member
Oct 27, 2017
12,949
MartinB105 said:
Anyone who enjoys Parodius should definitely check out Ordyne (Arcade, 1988). It's not quite as off-the-wall as Parodius, but still a colourful horizontal shoot-em-up with a similar vibe. It's also one of the easier arcade games I've played (but still may be challenging if you've never played it before).

I'm not sure how you'd play it today though; I only discovered it back around '99 because the student union in my UK college somehow had a cabinet from Japan.
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Ordyne was on the Turbografx. I'd say maybe VC, but I think that's dead now.
 
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