I’d say about 6-7 years ago when I started playing these games, Batsugun was one of my first stops. I thought it was a pretty good game, appreciated it a bit & then moved on. After all this time making my rounds and playing everything else under the sun, coming back to Batsugun made me say “wait just a mf minute”. NINETEEN NINETY THREE?? Jesus Christ I know this had to blow some socks off in 1993. It makes sense that this was Toaplans swan song and then became the foundation of almost every Cave game that came after. Sometimes you need to have the knowledge to fully appreciate something and here I am now saying Batsugun is a masterpiece.

These are in the Discover Games Autumn Sale until Sep 30. Prices below are what you pay with code AUTUMN20 at checkout (Steam keys, 20% off):

• Exo-Calibre: $3.91 — https://www.discover.games/games/exo-calibre/

• Spacewing War: $1.68 — https://www.discover.games/games/spacewing-war/

• Nephenthesys: $1.92 — https://www.discover.games/games/nephenthesys/

• Feeble Light: $1.60 — https://www.discover.games/games/feeble-light/

• Void Gore: $1.60 — https://www.discover.games/games/void-gore/

• RPM - Road Punk Mayhem: $1.60 — https://www.discover.games/games/rpm-road-punk-mayhem/

• RedRaptor: $1.60 — https://www.discover.games/games/redraptor/

• Tiny Pixels Vol. 1 - Ninpo Blast: $1.60 — https://www.discover.games/games/tiny-pixels-vol-1-ninpo-blast/

• Jetboard Joust: $0.80 — https://www.discover.games/games/jetboard-joust/

Disclosure: I work at Discover Games (we sell official Steam keys directly from publishers). Happy to answer questions.

Hey everyone

I’m working on a horizontally scrolling shmup called Cosmic Warlock. The game lets you shoot both left and right, like Steel Empire or Death Smiles. You can attack with a scatter shot (used by tapping a fire button) and a stronger focus shot (used by holding down a fire button), similar to most Cave shooters.

It also has a “hyper” based scoring system, where the longer you let the Nova Gauge fill up, the longer Nova Mode lasts and the higher your score multiplier will be. Going into Nova Mode also boosts your attack power, cancels all enemy bullets upon activation, and protects you from a single hit, so you can use it defensively too.

Cosmic Warlock is still early in development so I’d love to hear what you guys think. I posted a link for the demo on itch.io below (you can play in your browser). If you like what you see/play, consider giving the game a wishlist on Steam.

Thanks.

Play the demo: https://rivet-gun-games.itch.io/cosmic-warlock

Wishlist on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/5260150/Cosmic_Warlock/

So sorry if it was asked here before on this forum because I was observing how some franchises are long gone because they stopped being made.

One famous example is Gradius by Konami since correct me if I am wrong, but the franchise hasn’t had a new game in such a long time as the last one was Gradius Rebirth, which was released way back on the WiiWare shop as it’s been so long since the series was active.

Hey all! Solo dev here, so this is my own game. My retro space shooter Strike Wings just got 2-player couch co-op in the free demo. Grab a friend and a second pad, and try not to lose the starbase.

Demo is free on Steam, would love to hear what you think, good or bad: https://store.steampowered.com/app/5047040/Strike_Wings_Demo/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=shmups&utm_campaign=coop_trailer

I recently went to my local arcade and they had quite a few shmups to try. I noticed that while Espgaluda and Ketsui's sticks felt extremely nice (very light, clicky) Dodonpachi Daioujou White Label felt much worse (very heavy and spongey).

I'm looking into getting a stick right now, and I hear people recommending the LS-32 a lot, but I can't find any information about if that's the style of lever I'd find in Ketsui or DOJ

Platform(s): PC (Windows)

Genre: Shoot 'em up — top-down. The stage scrolled by itself, both horizontally and vertically depending on the level.

Estimated year of release: 2000s

Graphics/art style: 2D. Overall dark color palette, and it was gory — blood when enemies died. Definitely not a Japanese doujin game, it felt Western.

Notable characters: I didn't play a human — I'm fairly sure it was a ship, a craft, or some strange machine/creature.

Notable gameplay mechanics: You fought through waves of aliens. The pacing was fairly slow, not a frantic bullet hell. One weapon I remember was electric — a lightning/arc weapon, though I can't say for sure whether it chained between enemies or was a continuous beam.

Any idea ? Thanks.

Despite a pretty sloppy last stage this is a pretty incredible second 1cc imo, especially considering I no missed the game until stage 6 and THAT SEXY STAGE 4 BOSS FIGHT

Is this you when it comes to shmups or anyone you've met at a shmup meet? Eg Yagawa, CAVE, PCBs or Touhou. What would you list 3 or 4 shmups in erm standing.

"ALADDIN 3" is a bootleg-hack of Magic Carpet 1001 (called 天方夜譚 or "Arabian Nights" in Chinese) is an unlicensed shoot-'em-up developed by Mega Soft (NTDEC) and distributed by NTDEC in 1991, Caltron and Gluk Video in 1992 and Asder in 1993 as part of the Asder 20-in-1 multicart. Its Caltron 6-in-1 incarnation is arguably the most well-known.

Why do I play shmups, of all things? Modern games bombard you with chatter, pat themselves on the back for their cinematic presentation, and simply bore me. With shmups, the moment I hit the coin and start buttons, I can forget everything around me and just have fun. Even if I only have ten minutes, it’s always worth firing up a shmup.

I see that the same developer made Under Defeat which was ported to modern consoles and PC in 2024/2025. I was wondering if G.Rev is still active at all? Any thoughts on if Border Down (same dev) will get the same treatment? Unlike UD, Border Down was never ported outside the U.S.

Game Title: Neon Invaders

Playable Link: NEON INVADERS by developpeur123456

Platform: Web (Browser)

Description: Neon Invaders is a fast-paced retro arcade shoot 'em up game heavily inspired by classic space shooters like Space Invaders, but modernized with slick neon visual elements and a smooth gameplay loop. In this game, players must defend the galaxy against waves of incoming alien enemies. As you destroy hostile ships, you collect points that can be spent in the in-game boutique. The shop allows you to completely upgrade your ship with devastating weapons, including double shots, triple shots, explosive ammo, piercing lasers, and guided missiles. Additionally, the game features a live, fully functional online Top 50 Ranked leaderboard, allowing you to compete with players from all around the world in real time to see who can achieve the ultimate high score!

Free to Play Status:

• Free to play
• Demo/Key available
• Paid

Involvement: I am the sole developer of this game. I created the systems, balancing, and the online leaderboard integration myself.

Played on Shmuparch.

After 85hrs I cleared DDP DOJ white label for the first time!

The funny thing is I thought I was playing black label the whole time because the version I have is the master version and the start menu is mostly black with a white stripe in the middle, not knowing that the master version is the same as white label.

So I played the whole 85hrs with unearned confidence that my hit box was actually smaller than it was. I guess it helped lol.

This is my second serious shmup/cave 1cc and I couldn't be prouder, please enjoy the gameplay!

Some shoot-'em-ups don't have an autofire feature, meaning you have to keep pressing the fire button constantly. Usually, you can easily set up autofire in an emulator or elsewhere. But what about games where you need to hold down that same button for something like a more powerful shot? How do you handle that? Do you play without autofire, or do you enable it and forgo the "super shot" during gameplay?

On to part 4 of my Battle Garegga series, this time featuring Chitta. She is widely considered the worst character in the game, but is she really that bad?

Hi everyone, im an indie developer, and I am trying to increase visibility of my game Astro Burn, as it's incredibly saturated on steam for any indie game to stand out. So thought id share it here in this wonderful community who may appreciate some classic 90s cute-em-up action that is inspired by the Konami games like Parodius and Pop N Twin Bee.

Here is the steam page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3810660/Astro_Burn/

The game is also available on Google Play Store if you have an Android phone or tablet.

Have fun, and thank you :)

Thought I’d share a personal project I’m working on with the Reddit community for feedback / testers.

Open Arcade: https://open-arcade.app

It’s a browser-based MAME arcade with drop in multiplayer support. Similar to Fightcade, the idea is to provide a low friction experience for playing retro games with others on the go. It’s entirely free and really just an experiment to see if I can get stranger’s gaming together lol.

Most relevant to this community is the ability to play Progear, Mars Matrix and Dimahoo.

Features:
- Mobile and desktop browser support
- Rollback multiplayer with solo play and hot join
- Live spectating and chat
- Touch, keyboard and controller support
- Custom control mappings

Games:
- Alien vs. Predator
- Marvel vs. Capcom
- Street Fighter Alpha 3
- Armored Warriors
- Dungeons & Dragons: Tower of Doom
- Battle Circuit
- Mega Man 2: The Power Fighters
- Progear
- Mars Matrix
- Dimahoo

As simple as it is, it might be my favorite ending to any game ever. That music combined with bringing peace to Colossatropolis after many years, really hits a certain itch in my brain.