A modern day resurgence of the genre has resulted from new titles being developed around the world, and although it may never reach the heights of popularity it once enjoyed, the genre lives on thanks to the enthusiasm of shmup fans the world over. The majority of shmups originated from Japan, but a flourish of notable efforts from European developers also occured during the 80's and 90's. Shmups would go on to be created solely for home systems, bypassing the arcades entirely. As the rise of affordable gaming systems in the home gained traction, many conversions of popular arcade titles were published to meet the demands of players, who were eager to experience their favourite arcade games in the comfort of their own home. This led to a boom of shmups during the 80's, as Japanese developers rushed to capitalise on the lucrative video game market, and saw the birth of several shmup series that would go on to span decades. The genre's origins are debatable, but can mostly be attributed to the widespread success of Space Invaders (Taito, 1978) in arcades. Another genre staple is a stock of lives granted at the start of play, and in most games the opportunity exists to earn more in order to aid progression. Other than earlier shmups with a single screen playing field where an infinite gameplay loop was the norm (mostly due to hardware constraints), the common climax of many shmups is to reach and defeat a final enemy (end-of game boss) in order to finish the game. Enemies come in all shapes and sizes, with stages traditionally ending with an enemy boss fight. The vast majority of shmups are set in a two-dimensional (2D) space, however the term can extend to more contemporary three-dimensional (3D) games. The term is broadly used to describe video games where a player is placed in charge of a craft or being, tasked with shooting several enemies using projectiles in stage-like environments. Shmup refers to 'Shoot 'em up' (STG = Shooting Game in Japan).
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