(NOTE: NUMBER ONE WAS RENAMED,ORIGINALLY "PUBLISHED" ON NOVEMBER THE 13TH).

This is what i wrote to Matt (board modder on shmups.com) on the subject: [MESSAGE] Ehi Matt, while scouting for useful postings, i read that nice flame on metal slug 3 and whatnot. I understand that useful definitions (the ones that are simple and describe many phenomenons at once) are not something you learn to do at school (or even university, unless you're lucky). Luckily, i know a bit hoe to do useful definitions,so:

"Shmups are those games in which you control an avatar (character,plane,space ship,whatever) you see from a third-person perspective, your main attack is based on shooting bullets and your ONLY interface (control) to move the said avatar is the joystick/pad".

A pseudo-logical definition is:

A game is a shmup if it has the following properties:

1)you control an avatar in third person perspective ANDyou use one interface control, a joystick/pad to move your avatar on the screen; 2)you shoot bullets (something that destroys enemies after a given number of them) as your base attack;

If a game has at least one and not all properties is a border liner.Examples:

A-1)In "After Burner" you have a first-person perspective (lack of first property);In "Virtua cop too (but here you just shoot, first perspective, no control of any avatar).

A-2)In "Metal Slug" or "Contra" you can also jump (also lack of first property).

B)Most platform games are based on shooting something that doesn't kill enemies (lack of second property);

I wrote the first property as two separate properties, but then i realized than anything properly 2d is played in a third person perspective...so i thought that that was the interesection of third person games where joystick is the only control (if you know a bit of logics, i'm saying that first property is " p AND q").I'm not considering as an axiom of any kind of scrolling or bombs - heck, i do save Galaga and rayforce (no bombs!) with this move, while some games have close range attack or other funky systems ( do you know Dark Seal and Wizard fire by Data East?Well, look close - they're basically shmups. You don't jump and use a weird magical tool as a form of smart bomb), see Takumi and their reflect force...

So, it's pretty obvious - if they've got both properties at once they're shmups;one, border liners.Since it's a formal definition, it may be counterintuitive - the Dark example is perfect. Now, Atomic Robo Kid (as someone posed it as an example). Do you jump with a button?If not, it's a full shmup ( i don't really recall right now, and no rom for MAME).

This definition is quite a Beta: it should work though (being functional in describing the vast majority of shmups).Exceptions should exist too - there's even a math theorem on the existence of exceptions (unprovable theorems) in a theoric system! (by Kurt Goedel). Of course you may use at will and proclaim it's yours, so people without sound arguments will flame you

Cheers, R [/MESSAGE]

Hope this helps...and,today, i feel even lazier than usual.