Whats the first shmup you EVER played

[Arkhan]

Life Force on the NES. I really didn't get to play many video games until I got my NES X-mas 1987. I remember my cousin returning a Gradius rental on the NES before I got my system, but I never got to see it or play it. Anyways, first time playing Life Force was when my mom rented it for my friend Terry and I. He had a sub to Nintendo Power and knew about the Konami code working and we went right through it 2 player.

The first Shootemup I owned was Abadox. It was OK actually. I don't have my copy due to the Thomas Floyd Randall incident of 96.
Me: "Hey Floyd, where are my NES games I let you borrow???"
Floyd: "Man, I, I, I lost em man."
Me: What in the hell do you mean you lost them? Those were like 15 games dude!".
I forgave him as he was the Nintendo King of our town. This guy could beat any game you throw at him.

You forgave someone for losing all your games because he was good at games?  Hey, send me some stuff to borrow. 

non scrolling.. would be Omega Race on Vic-20

Scrolling.. ? Thexder on PC(aka 286/386)

Man, Thexder doesn't get enough love.  I picked that up for the FC about a year ago and was like man this is pretty awesome!   I like the style.  There aren't too many games like it.  Its like a shooter/adventure hybrid.

[rodek]

Man, Thexder doesn't get enough love.  I picked that up for the FC about a year ago and was like man this is pretty awesome!   I like the style.  There aren't too many games like it.  Its like a shooter/adventure hybrid.

They remade it for the ps3 it will be released soon
Take a look

http://dlgames.square-enix.com/jp/ps3_dl/2010/thexderneo/

[Arkhan]

hooooohhh damn that looks sweet.  I need to get that.

[Gogan]

Altho BL was the first tg shootr I played, I VERY first I can remember, I believe, was called Star Strike on Intellivision.

Between rounds of Burgertime, we would pop it in and intentionally lose so we could watch the earth get blown to pieces!!

[SNKNostalgia]

You forgave someone for losing all your games because he was good at games?  Hey, send me some stuff to borrow. 

Well not really the reason. The guy was ghetto poor and he most likely pawned my games. My friend's cousin who also hanged out with Floyd did the same thing except with my SNES games around that time like Super Metroid, Dracula X, Actraiser and UN Squadron. I knew for sure my friend's cousin did it cause he did it to him as well.

The thing that pisses me off the most is that I let them borrow these games expecting them back. They didn't get shit for pawning them compared to what I paid or would have to pay to replace them. With Floyd it wasn't a huge deal since they were really cheap and common NES games, but the SNES games with the other guy were worth 8x more.

What is it about ghetto poor kids pawning their so called friends stuff? That is even worse than straight stealing them in some ways. I don't worry about it now, but at the time I was really pissed. I kinda forgave Floyd since I really think he is mildly autistic. Look how I quoted his words. Oh well, all in the past.

[hashiriya1]

Vanguard for 5200.

[Eltigro]

First I can remember that actually scrolled as the OP mentioned, was probably River Raid on the 2600.  After that, on the NES, Tiger-Heli.  And then they get muddled....

[Senshi]

I'm not sure which one would have been first exactly but it definitely was on a NEO-GEO arcade cabinet.

[Black Tiger]

One of the first shooters I played was Space Invaders in the arcade. An early one that made a big impression on me was Sinistar.

[Arkhan]

One of the first shooters I played was Space Invaders in the arcade. An early one that made a big impression on me was Sinistar.

the cockpit cabinet sinistar was awesome

[Mathius]

One of the first shooters I played was Space Invaders in the arcade. An early one that made a big impression on me was Sinistar.

the cockpit cabinet sinistar was awesome

Hell yeah I remember Sinistron! He scared the shite out of me when I was little!

I can't remember the 1st one, but Life Force on the NES made the biggest impression on me. The 1st stage's Brain Boss would probably go on a personal top 10 list of memorable 8-Bit boss fights.

[vestcoat]

I played Space Invaders in 1985 on some Texas Instruments console my friend had.
Then Zaxxon on some IBM.
Then Life Force on the NES, the first time I thought "whoa, shooters are cool."

[tsuran]

If you're counting old old school, then space invaders for me, other than that it was Ikaruga on Gamecube.

[Mathius]

If you're counting old old school, then space invaders for me, other than that it was Ikaruga on Gamecube.

That's one hell of a time gap!

[esteban]

If you're counting old old school, then space invaders for me, other than that it was Ikaruga on Gamecube.

That's one hell of a time gap!

Seriously. Well, I can't recall the very first shoot-em-up (it would be a tie between a bunch of games), but I can tell you that I obsessed over Asteroids, Space Invaders and MEGA ZONE in the arcade and Combat (2600).

There was a handheld LCD CALCULATER around 80-81 I obsessed over that had a shoot-em-up on it (diamonds and arrows for all the graphics, it actually was quite well done!)