Initiate Launch Sequence !!!

The rain drops slide down the polycarbonate signage, backlights beaming slick kanji colours. Photons stream across the narrow gap between the night dark concrete buildings, reflecting them in the wet slate mirror lake that is the pavement.

You shake out your see-through plastic umbrella and slide it into the mesh rack at the doorway of the thin corridor. You see the wall sign, UCHKUDAKE 4F. Uchikudake - ‘to break through, to smash’.

As the lift doors open you hear the cacophony of synthesized explosions, laser blasts and the thrash of music. As you approach the doorway you see the reflected coruscating flash of ten thousand bullets. As you cross the threshold and see what lies before you, your know this is where you are meant to be.

Welcome

Hi, I'm Marty_DYR. You may know me as 'That guy who makes the Shmup_Lyf Zines'. I also happen to have a PhD in digital games and Japanese culture (a.k.a. a higher education 1 - ALL).

Welcome to UCHIKUDAKE, a website focused towards sharing specifically Shmup / STG / Shoot' Em Up content.

And most importantly, a space for you to share your shmup content. My genuine hope is that this can become a place where people will come to see content from a range of contributors, not just me, discussing many different aspects of Shmup culture from a plethora of points of view.

So are you:

• Making a shmup that you'd like to tell us about?

• Seen a great shmup video or article that you think more people should know about?

• Have a written piece about shmups that you'd like to put out there?

• Seen an upcoming game that we should be talking about, or found a hidden gem doujin that more people need to try?

Reach out and let’s make it happen :3

Why Uchikudake?

I'm not sure if anyone is particularly bothered, but here are a few dot points on why this thing exists:

Scrolling social media is draining my Hyper Gauge - I spend too much time scrolling social media when all I really want is shmup content. I like the idea of going one place to find all of it. Creating this site is my attempt to be the change I want to see in the universe.

Discords are great, but it can be hard to be there for all the conversations - I appreciate that there are a number of great active shmupping discord communities out there, but I find it hard to keep connected and and across all the streams of communication. With this single discourse stream, I'm trying to this for people who might have the same needs.

More/different opportunities for expression - This internet thing doesn’t seem to be going away, and I’m interested in experimenting with other sorts of shmup stuff I can do in this format (that it is different to what I have done on IG and in my zines).

What to expect

There will be jank - if you have seen any of my other content you will know I have a particular affection for the unpolished - especially when it comes to doujin shmups. There will be bits about what’s happening here that are not clean for a while while I get the hang of it. Or maybe I’ll just leave it like that because that’s what zines are like.

Apart from that, once again welcome and WATCH OUT FOR THAT BULLET!!! … oh never mind, you dodged it… like a pro.

_DYR