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On this episode of the Weekly Shmupdate: Our contest entrants report in after tackling their respective Challenges. Some completed the Challenges and some did not, but all who sent in a report were eligible for the contest. In the end, the prize goes to MyDyingHide– congratulations, sir– but be sure to download this episode in order to hear reports from all entrants.

Thanks to all who participated! Subscribe to this show via iTunes, or you can download it directly.

This post marks the end of Intergalactic Shmuppreciation Month 2010, as well as the deadline for the Shmup Month Contest. If you have not yet sent in a report on your assigned game, you’re out of luck. For everyone else, the winner will be announced here in the next couple days. Stay tuned, and thanks for playing!

It’s already the 23rd, and I haven’t posted an update over here in several weeks. What on Earth and beyond is going on?

This month has kept me extremely busy: new job, getting married, etc. When I’ve had free time, I’ve been spending it on two ShmupMonth-related projects:

1) Working on the arcade stick that will serve as the prize
2) Rewriting the old scoreboard application in order to build something extensible enough to use year-round

I’ve been devoting so much of my spare time to the second of these projects that I have neglected all other ShmupMonth responsibilities. This was a mistake, and as a result, the Weekly Shmupdate podcast has been on hiatus for a couple weeks. If you have requested a game assignment but have not yet received one, this is the reason why. All remaining assignments should be sent by the time you read this, and the Weekly Shmupdate podcast will be returning on Monday night.

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M.C. Wilson and DJ Incompetent present this first episode of the Weekly Shmupdate, a podcast that examines all that’s worthy of Shmuppreciating during Intergalactic Shmuppreciation Month. This episode features some great basic information on shmups presented by both the Couch Bandits and DJ Incompetent, as well as the first 2010 Shmup Month Contest entry. Good luck to all participants!

Links to items mentioned in this episode:

• JoyToKey
• Cho Ren Sha 68k

Subscribe to this show by adding this link to iTunes, or you can download it directly.

Greetings to all of you, and apologies to those of you who have been checking this site over the past few days, awaiting an update. Technical issues with the server have prevented me from accessing the site until today, but those should all (hopefully) be resolved now. With that said, let’s look to the future!

Welcome to Intergalactic Shmuppreciation Month 2010. Here at ShmupMonth.com, we have traditionally celebrated this month in two ways:
1) playing a lot of shmups
2) giving away an amazing prize

I’m happy to say that both of these traditions will continue in 2010. More than ever, though, our focus this year is on encouraging folks that are relatively new to shmups to take part in the enjoyment of this fantastic gaming genre. As part of that, we’re giving away a custom-built arcade stick (and more, possibly); and if you want a chance at winning, all you’ll need to do is to… play more shmups, incredibly enough. For the full details, click here.

Through the calm, through the storm, through the delights and through the pain, the fighters of the Federation stood their ground and weathered it all.

R-Type.
Super Stardust HD.
Ikaruga.
Frantic.

These were the four Challenges set forth by the Galactic Federation in this, the 2009 Intergalactic Shmuppreciation Month Contest. There can only be one winner– but to that winner goes an amazing prize: a Japanese Sega Saturn (“This Is Cool” Edition) along with four games! First and foremost among these is Dodonpachi, long considered to be one of the finest shmups ever made, yet never released in America. (Also included are three bonus Saturn games, which shall remain a mystery except to the winner. These games are a gift from our friends at import retailer Mad Gear.)

The Galactic Federation would like to congratulate all of those brave pilots who successfully completed the Challenges set forth during the month. We hope that you’ve found these Challenges to be enjoyable and rewarding, whether or not you are the winner of this Grand Prize. But for one lucky pilot, selected at random from all entrants, the reward is great indeed! And that pilot is…
Read the rest of this entry »

Entries in the ISM Contest will be accepted until midnight tonight (March 30). The winner of the contest will be posted here shortly after midnight. Good luck to all of you!

For those of you that are able to complete all four of the Shmup Month Challenges, special recognition will be given here on the main page of the site! Thus far, there is only one such person, and his name… is Deadward. This post is dedicated to you, sir.

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The final Shmup Month Challenge for 2009 is likely to be the easiest of the bunch; yet it should still prove enjoyable for those that are up to the task. Your mission this week, should you choose to accept it, is to acquire the Heart of the Cards badge in Frantic, a browser-based shmup available to play for free at Kongregate.

While a browser-based game is not a very traditional option, the Galactic Federation wishes to have at least one Challenge that is open to everyone. In order to get the Heart of the Cards badge, you must complete the game (it has ten stages). Make sure you create a Kongregate account! Once you’ve obtained the Heart of the Cards badge, email your Kongregate username to Vic Viper and we’ll verify that you’ve successfully completed the Challenge.

Good luck!

You’ve trained for weeks now. Your training has focused first on pure survival, then on building up score multipliers. But to complete this week’s Challenge, you’ll need more than that– you’ll need absolute focus.

This week’s Challenge: Get the Good Grade Achievement. This Achievement is awarded for completing Stage One with a grade of “A” or better.

Apologies for the lack of a strategy guide last week. However, DJ Incompetent has kindly provided a SCIENCE! guide for this particular Achievement, which you can find here.

Once you’ve completed the Challenge, send a message over Xbox Live to Nijhazer. I’ll review your profile, verify that you’ve gotten the Achievement, and put your name into The Hat.

Good luck!