I bought the Namco Arcade Pac today at Best Buy for $20 specifically because of the Flip Grip and Switch vertical gaming. I own most of those games what seems like a hundred times and yet I’m super excited for that to arrive!
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The flip grip doesn’t interest me for one reason or another. I mainly play my switch at work so I like to set my switch on the steering wheel and play with the detatched joycons.
I know there’s a lot of people looking forward to it though and I hope it works well!
Is the initial shipment of Flip Grips only for Kickstarter backers or can you just order one now?
^^^^
Points to question above. 
Fangamer handled the construction and production and marketing of the device after the kickstarter. You can now preorder one from them and it looks like you’ll still get one in December like those of us who pledged. Fifteen bones is what you need.
I suspect they will make them for as long as people keep buying them. It’s not intended as a one and done since Fangamer sells lots of merch.
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This is an awesome thread, just wanted to say that. Going to try and post in it when I get a chance at some shmup action. I recently finally finished building my custom retro arcade stick, and slowly amassing cables for different systems for it. So hope to make lots of use of it with some classic shmups.
I kickstarted a Flip Grip as well and excited for them to be shipping soon.
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Cool, thanks!
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Not a Sunday night but yesterday I got some shmup time in.
While my wife was watching the parade I put some time into the switch port of Thunder Force IV, which is fantastic. The hunter gun was feeling pretty clutch to me while I was playing it. I also got some time with Raiden DX, which is freaking amazing. I really just love the Raiden series. I wish there was a mode that had the screen rotated but not quite so zoomed in, otherwise its a pretty damn enjoyable version of it.
So Gekioh Shooting King…its the US version of the PS port of Shienryu. Which is a really fun shooter, this port is a little disappointing though. I haven’t played it in ages, and realized this time that its 480i…and no tate mode. Not sure if the Japanese version is 240p or has a tate mode, but the US version lacks both. It does have some interesting modes though, like one where its all monochromatic with like old film effects layered over it, and a version making it look like a really simple Gameboy game. I really wish I could afford the Saturn version instead.
This Sunday I might actually stream some shmup action. I’m supposed to be getting a Saturn cable for my custom arcade stick in the mail tomorrow. If it shows up I might stream some Saturn shooter action in the early evening on Sunday.
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Huh… I recently sold a copy of that game on eBay and had no idea about those extra modes. Would have liked to try those out before I got rid of it. I have the arcade version on a PS2 collection so I decided to sell this version.
I’m really tempted to buy LF and Sonic 1 right now on Switch. They’re 2 bucks off and even if I play them very little I just want to support M2’s work. I want all the retro on my Switch… it’s just insane what a selection of older games that system has now…
I’m definitely picking up Lightening Force and Sonic on Switch in that sale. $2 is not a huge deal, but portability and M2 porting is.
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And save states. Always nice for shmups.
Love Sierra Nevada! Shmups aren’t bad either 
Great post! And I didn’t know Hamster ported Raiden DX, didn’t realize they’d been around that long.
I had an opportunity to buy the U.S. version of Shienryu years ago, glad I passed on it for the Saturn version, it’s been a long time since I played it but pretty sure it has TATE. I’m sure it was only removed from the U.S. version at the behest of Sony.
On this beautiful day, I pulled out another of my guilty pleasures, Raiden Trad! I always preferred the Genesis version over the SNES, even though I rented it often on Nintendo’s machine when I was younger. The sound and music are, what’s the best word… crunchy? There’s just something special about the music and sound from early Japanese Genesis games.
Oh, and shout out to Micronet/Bignet for possibly one of the coolest (and funniest) box designs. How could you not want this game if you saw it on the shelves back in the day? Hahahaha 
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I can’t say anything about the Japanese version of the PS1 game, I have not had access to it to try it. I did get access today to the Saturn version of it and honestly I wasn’t super impressed here either. Saturn mode can only be played in yoko mode, and its 480i. There is a tate option for the Arcade mode, and it is thankfully in 240p, BUT your controls don’t rotate as well…and I wasn’t able to find any option to enable this. I may need to try and find a way to try out the PS2 version and see if it has any better options.
@stereoasis
Any version of Raiden is a winner in my book! I love that damn series. I can’t comment on SNES vs Genesis since its been ages since I played either version. I’ve been mostly playing a lot of the Jaguar and PS1 Raiden DX.
I may stream this evening, in like 3 - 3 1/2 hours from now (It’ll be like 6 - 630 eastern time). Unfortunately my Saturn cable for my custom arcade stick did not come in yesterday, so maybe not Saturn shmups tonight.
I’m going to be doing on twitch and youtube if anyone wants to drop in.
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First you want to set the game to arcade mode so the screen rotates, then go back into the options and you will see a new option “rotate”, set this to off.
Saturn mode is 480i because otherwise you would not be able to properly display the game in the vertical resolution available in yoko at 240p.
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So that’s what rotate does, thanks for that!
