When talking about video game history it's virtually impossible to avoid discussing Shmup's. Love them or loathe them, they are unarguably a cornerstone of gaming history. For many the genre still lives on today, outside of the traditional gaming spotlight dominated by the current generation of consoles.

The PC homebrew scene has embraced the Shmup with open arms, throwing a lifeline to those with twitchy trigger fingers and who still hunger for endless barrages and grazing.

NTSC-uk spoke to ABA Games, the Japan based homebrew Shmup developer (and creators of titles such as Torus Trooper and rRootage) to find out more.


1. Can you tell us a bit about ABA Games ? Who are you and what is your background ?

I started my site, ABA Games, when I was in college for distributing my games and applications. Now I'm working as an Informatics researcher. Since I've never worked in a game company, I wrote my games in my own fashion without knowing how commercial games are written.

I've written all things included in my games such as code, graphics and sounds. That is one reason why my graphics style becomes so primitive.

2. How did you get into developing Homebrew games ?

About twenty years ago, I started writing my own games in BASIC with an old NEC computer called PC-6001. I regularly read Mycom Basic Magazine, the popular 'Type-it-in-yourself' computer game magazine in Japan, and posted my games to it. I've been developing games since that time.

3. What are your favourite games both past and present ?

From the lineup of my games, you can easily imagine that I like shmups. Xevious, Gradius, Darius and Dragon Spirit were great titles and now I enjoy playing Ikaruga, Border Down and DoDonPachi Daioujou. Other than Shmups, I like playing god sims such as Transport Tycoon and Civilization.

4. What games developers (both eastern and western) do you admire the most and why ?

I've been deeply influenced by the style of Rez, so one of the people I admire is Tetsuya Mizuguchi. As for Shmups, Hiroshi Iuchi is a great developer who puts innovative ideas into his creations, Ikaruga, Radiant Silvergun and Gradius V.

But if I have to say the most, it's Sid Meier. I'm a huge fan of his games till I played Railroad Tycoon.

5. The games industry seems to be going through a lot of change, with many developers struggling to innovate. What do you think of the industry today ?

Once I heard someone talking about the game industry. They said "A lot of sequels kill innovation in the game industry", but I thought there are still totally new games released in recent years such as Katamari-Damacy (PS2) and Catch Touch Yoshi (NDS). The launch of Nintendo DS and PSP might spur innovation and I think we can make innovative games in the future. Now I'm looking forward to playing Mercury (PSP) as a Marble Madness in the new era.

6. Typically how long does it take, from start to finish, to produce a title ?

Recently I've released a game every 6 months. I don't decide a certain period to develop a game, but I tend to get tired easily to continue creating a game, so I try to develop fast before I get bored with an idea.

7. Where do you draw your ideas from and how do you decide what makes a good game?

From retro games. The great games in the old era always help me to draw ideas. Torus Trooper comes from Tempest and Tumiki Fighters comes from Phozon. A good game comes from an exciting new game play, and I try to create a good games by mixing retro game play and new technology.

8. How popular are your titles in Japan and did you expect your games to gather such a large following in the West ?

I don't know how popular my games are, but I've received many mails from all around the world (especially from Europe) and it's my pleasure to read them. And I'm also glad to see that many people port my games to many platform such as Linux, MacOSX, DreamCast, MorphOS and GP32.

I think it can be a measure of popularity for an open source game.

9. What do you see as being the future of Shmup and homebrew games ? Do you think that they will still have a place in this age of rapidly changing next generation hardware ?

Shmup's are not dying, it lives on with homebrew developers. On the internet there are so many people who release new Shmups and some of them, such as EveryExtend and WarningForever, have very good game play.

Since Shmup's are very primitive, they are easy to develop and it is easy to put innovation into the game play. So for homebrew developers, it may be a good choice to create Shmups.

I know the market for Shmups is not so large, so in the commercial market it is difficult to keep them alive. In Japan, there is still deep-rooted popularity for maniac Shmups, I think a few titles will keep being released for the arcade.

10.Do you find it difficult developing games that are homebrew, given how much time and effort you have to put in ?

You can create a full game with little time. Focus on the game play that you want to realize in that game, and you may be able to get the first prototype in a few months. If the prototype can include good game play, it may take not so much time to evolve it into the full game.

11.Do you feel any pressures when developing games ? Do fans expectations worry you at all?

A little, but my main purpose for creating games is to play them myself. I'd like to continue creating a game that I want to play and think less about expectations.

12.Would you ever want your games to go commercial and charge for your titles ?

If the occasion arises, but it may be not so easy to evolve a free game into a commercial product. It needs to be added with more replay value.

13.Can you tell us what ABA Games has planned for the future ? Do you plan to produce more Shmups or do you plan to expand further into other genres ?

I don't have a plan for the distant future, but I'm going to continue creating shmups for a while because I like playing them.

We also interviewed OMEGA and had a look at the homebrew on offer:

Homebrew Shmups

OMEGA Interview