Thunder Force 3 Cover Final

What is SHUMP Master you ask? Let me explain.

I started this series with the sole desire to record high quality, no death (or 1CC as some call it) runs of various SHMUPS. I wanted to utterly and completely master these games, on the hardest difficulty, without cheating, the old fashioned way, with a lot of practice and patience. I also wanted to capture these runs ONLY on original hardware and in the highest quality possible. In order to do this, I purchased an Elgato capture device which captures footage in 1080p, 30fps. I then purchased SCART cables for my older consoles and a SCART to HDMI converter. This enables me to capture the runs in nearly the same picture quality that you would get from using an emulator. So far so good.

If this is your first episode of SHMUP Master, you may have noticed that it is in fact, Episode 2. That is because Episode 2 is what I would consider my first REAL video.

For my first video, I played an old, obscure Sega Genesis SHMUP called Whip Rush. It was a difficult game and it took me nearly 2 months of practice to pull it off. By the time I was done, I just wanted to put up the run on YouTube and be done with it. Although, I did somehow manage to put together a little intro that included a text scroll and some static images. These acted as my introduction, but frankly, I still think it was lame. If you want to look on the bright side though, at least I was able to achieve my goal of finishing the game without dying.

So with episode 2, I wanted to up the ante. At first, I figured I would just do a nice intro sequence. Then, I figured I would do a short segment on the history of the game. But one thing kept leading to another until I ended up with a 13 minute “produced” segment before my run. And in the process, I ended up teaching myself how to edit video! The results of my two month toil are below.

I  have included my fully produced video with the entire no death run, and my original run without commentary or any extras. I hope you enjoy the videos!

Text for Article 1

Click To Watch

Text for Article 2

Skip Intro and Start Video

0-39 Thumbnail

History of the Thunder Force Series

2-16 HistoryThumb

Music and Different Port Comparisons

3-40 Music Thumb

Fun With Hilarious Voice Samples

7-20 Voice Thumb

HUGE Death Montage!

10-06 Death Thumb

Start of No Death Run

13-01 No Death Run

Credits

43-13 Credits

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Click To Watch

  • You planning on posting the first episode here too?

  • Jimmy’s right you should consider posting the first episode here at some point, maybe when it’s slow or something.

  • Maybe in the community section… Episode 1 isn’t front page worthy lol

  • Media Breakdown

    Early thoughts (I’m still watching the video): For someone who had to learn editing all on their own, that intro is sick! I would know. I’ve been an editor for 6+ years. :)

  • Media Breakdown

    OK final thoughts: A pretty good video; with some fun commentary here and there. Using the footage/death sound of Lemmings was a great way to spice up the death montage. The one area I’d suggest anything for would be the voice recordings section. (07;15-09;30) There is already a bit anticipation with the freeze frame/giant question mark effect. It would be fine on its own, but add to that static/distortion sound/transition (which is too long for its own good) and the section became a little tedious. But hey, this is only your 2nd episode. I know you’ll continue to improve and tighten up the pacing in the future. Happy Recording!

  • Thanks for the advice Media Breakdown! Yeah it seems to be the consensus that the voice part was everyone’s least favorite. Granted, I’m proud of my little static title sequence (believe it or not, that took some doing lol) but the voices in that game were always a goofy thing for me growing up. I just love how the Genesis hardware seems to screw up voice samples like it did and I wanted to play around with it.

    But the death montage was my response to lazy editors. I wanted to do something that really took some thought and work and I’m so glad everyone seemed to enjoy that part of the video because it was an editing nightmare lol! And thanks for watching!

  • Media Breakdown

    I’m sorry Aggro; that is a bit of a bummer about the static effect. The visual dissolve was cool if that helps. :) Believe me, I know how tough tweaking some of that stuff can be. It took me like two weeks to make this firework effect for a commercial where footage of the event being advertised showed up in the explosions of the fireworks. 2 weeks of preparation…for something that lasted 30 seconds…elderly people in the bedroom don’t even have it that bad. LOL