Hello friends! Just a quick note to let you all know that the Complete Shmopera will be available for download starting Monday, April 26th.

The Shmopera be available for a $10.00 donation to the show and will be in high quality MP3 format. Included in the ZIP file will be the following:

-An hour and a half of music comprised of all 3 years of the Shmopera. Newly remixed and remastered.

-A special episode of After Hours on the subject of the Shmopera. Found only in this package.

-3 Wallpapers featuring the Spacebot, the Captain and the Meat Cleaver

-A short behind the scenes video showing highlights from the making of Shmopera III.

-Unreleased material that never made it into the Shmopera plus outtakes and other funny shit I found.

Starting April 26th, the Shmopera Logo will appear on the main page of Robot Panic. Click the logo to go to the download page and follow the instructions in order to download your copy of the Shmopera.

Once again, thanks for listening and we hope you enjoy the Complete Shmopera!

As you may have heard on this week’s podcast, we’re giving away three Vic Viper Gradius II Version models to the three best epic shmup poems we receive. In addition, the grand prize will be awarded one of these models along with a TurboGrafx-16 and a copy of Galaga ’90.

The Gradius models were donated to us by the good folks at www.HLJ.com and our longtime friend The Danger Boy, who runs a site and a podcast over at www.HenshinJustice.com.

To enter, using the Shmopera for inspiration, write your own shmup-related story in the style of an epic poem. Weave us a tail of heroism and defeat, honor and betrayal… You know, all that bullshit. The top three entries will receive one of the models and the best overall will also receive Moe’s TurboGrafx and Galaga ’90.

Send your entries to mailbag@drunkengamersradio.com.

Good luck!

Over at Shmupmonth.com things are in full swing! MC Wilson and DJ Incompentent have put out the first of a weekly podcast dedicated to all kinds of shmup greatness. If you’re looking for some ideas on what to play or just need some SCIENCE! to help you play better, then the Weekly Shmupdate is the place for you!

Here’s a run down of what you’ll find on this week’s episode!

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!

Add it to your list of podcasts today by going here:

Weekly Shmupdate: Week One

Hey Everyone,

Just a reminder that tonight at 7pm Central, Mitch (rwiggum) will be hosting a live Oscar chat in our Ustream page. In the meantime, we’ll be recording the podcast (not live) and chatting along.

If you haven’t already, fill out the ballot for our Oscar Contest. The winner will receive their choice of Best Picture Nominees on DVD.

Speaking of prizes, if you like free stuff, you’ll want to listen to the new episode of Drunken Gamers Radio, which will be released on Tuesday or Wednesday. We’ll have the Nation Red contest as well as an Xbox Live giveaway. Listen later this week for more details.

We hope to talk to you tonight!

We here at Robot Panic love a little glitz and glamor. Don’t get John started on red carpet fashion, he can talk for hours about some of his favorite dress/handbag combos throughout history. (His favorite was Holly Hunter at the 1988 ceremony, in case you were wondering). So to celebrate the most important film awards of the year, we will be holding another contest. It will be just like last year, but this year we will be offering a prize to the winner!

Now, on to how you enter. The scoring will be familiar to those of you who entered last year, but if you are new, it may be a little bit different than how you are used to doing it. For each category, you will make two picks, rather than just one. The first will be the film that you predict will win the award. If you get that right, you will receive two points. The second pick will be the film that you want to win the award. If you get that right, then you will get one point. For example, let’s say I want Coraline to win for best animated film, but I predict that Up will win. Here is what that will look like on my ballot:

Best Animated Film:

1.) Up

2.) Coraline

Remember, the first pick will be the prediction, and your second will be the pick you want to win. If it helps, you may put a (p) next to your prediction and a (w) next to the one you want to win. Another thing that I should point out is that you must fill in every category. Last year there were several people who would have likely won if they had not put “I don’t know” in several of the categories. To curb that this year, any incomplete entry will be disqualified.

The Prize

As I mentioned earlier, the winner of this year’s contest will be awarded a prize: any one of the ten films nominated for Best Picture on DVD. Considering the quality of the nominees this year, you may have quite the choice on your hands. In the event of a tie, a random name will be chosen from the first-place entries.

How to Enter

So here’s all you have to do:

1. – Copy the below ballot into the word processor/email client of your choice.

2. – Go here for a list of all the nominees.

3. – Fill in each spot on the ballot with your choices for that category.

4. – Send your entry to OscarPanic@gmail.com with the subject “Robot Panic Oscar Ballot: (Your name here)” before 4:00 CST on Sunday.

5. – Join us at 7:00 CST on Sunday at the uStream page (located here) to live chat the awards and see how you’re doing!

Now snag the ballot after the break and get to it!
(more…)

A “shoot ‘em up”, also known as a “shmup”,is a game in which the protagonist combats a large number of enemies by shooting at them while dodging their fire. The controlling player must rely primarily on reaction times to succeed. Beyond this, critics differ on exactly which design elements constitute a shoot ‘em up. Some restrict the genre to games featuring some kind of craft, using fixed or scrolling movement. Others widen the scope to include games featuring such protagonists as robots or humans on foot, as well as including games featuring “on-rails” (or “into the screen”) and “run and gun” movement. Formerly, critics described any game where the primary design element was shooting as a “shoot ‘em up”, but later shoot ‘em ups became a specific, inward-looking genre based on design conventions established in those shooting games of the 1980s. -from the Wikipedia entry on “Shoot ‘em up”

Welcome, friends, to Intergalatic Shmuppreciation Month 2010!

Once again, it’s going to be a great month of celebrating one of our favorite genres that rewards the skillful and revels in it’s unforgiving old school aesthetic! During the month of March, we’ll be celebrating the shmup (or shoot-em-up) along with a whole bunch of other podcasters and friends. Before we get too far into it, however, I suppose there are some of you wondering what this whole celebration is all about.

ISM is, at it’s most basic, a month set aside to devote at least a little of your precious gaming time to a shooter of your choice. The idea is to celebrate by playing. For some, this means a casual credit feed of a shmup that’s been sitting in your pile of games or XBLA/PSN list gather dust. For others, it’s a time to focus in on that goal of the illusive 1CC. However you choose to celebrate the genre is completely up to you. The main idea is to play shmups in March!

For may of you, this may be your first ISM or even your first attempt at playing a shmup at all. Well, March is a fantastic time to jump in! There are plenty of resources available for you to check out. First off, visit our own Shmuppreciation Category where you can find links to free shmups on the net, reviews of great shmups to play and even some tips on how to play shmups better.

Another great resource is the Shmups.com Forums where all kinds of great shmup players share their wisdom. It’s one of the best places to read up on the genre and learn how to play these games at a high level.

You should also visit the Intergalactic Shmuppreciation Month Website where information on past ISM’s can be found as well as any new information regarding events for this year.

As far as this site is concerned, keep checking back each week for Shmup Month articles from us as well as our contributors. In addition, tune into Drunken Gamers Radio to hear our Shmuppreciation Month episodes that include the latest edition of the Shmopera! What is the Shmopera, you might ask? You may want to go check out that Shmuppreciation Category I liked to earlier. More to come on that front later.

So go out and enjoy a shooter of your choice and have fun! And let us know how YOUR ISM celebrations are going by submitting your stories to us. Just click the Submit a Story link over there in the sidebar. We look forward to hearing from you!

Happy Intergalactic Shmuppreciation Month!

For those who have been with us for some time, the title of this post should elicit a joyous feeling in your very soul. After almost eight years with the hosting company PowWeb.com, we are finally loosing the chains that have bound us to nothing less than the shittiest service the internet could provide. But let’s remember the good times, shall we?

I remember when our forums would crash every other day.

I remember when the podcast would take days to download, for no reason.

I remember the constant barrage of 404 errors that took down this very simple blog site for no reason.

I remember the constant calls to customer service that let us know PowWeb was doing it’s very best to not give a flying fuck about us.

So, yeah…maybe not so good times.

In PowWeb’s defense, they did provide us with cheap unlimited hosting when our bandwidth started to skyrocket. Of course, that was only after repeated phone calls with no solution. Calling a sales manager ended up working when we pointed out we’d been with them for a fucking eternity.

All in all, I’ve been fighting with these fucks for far too long and it is with complete elation that we say farewell to PowWeb!

In the meantime, please bear with us as we make the transition to our new server home. Things may get bumpy for a short time in the interim. Things will smooth out as I figure out all the shit I forgot to do. Thanks for your patience.

Just a heads up that our bastard robot Web Site Master is demanding some time to perform “necessary upgrades to fix your human ineptitude” this week. As such, the site will go through a period in the next day or so where it will be unavailable. We’re also going to suspend posting for a few days in order to make the necessary adjustments to the website.

Hopefully everything goes smoothly and you won’t even notice the interruptions but we felt it necessary to warn you considering everything I or PanicBot 5000 touches has the potential to die in a fire. When this is done we should be a much happier little crew around here.

Thanks!

Cast Medium has put up their podcast awards for this year and look who made the list! Drunken Gamers Radio placed Runner-Up in the “Best Format” category with the top spot going to BitMob’s MobCast. Guess you can’t feel too bad about second place when your ass has been kicked by such great company!

Our sincerest thanks to the CastMedium staffers and all who voted for us. Our most hearty congratulations and “We’ll Kick Your Formatting ASS Next Year!” to Dan Hsu and Co. over at BitMob.com!

Also, a big hearty congratulations to the other fantastic podcasts that graced the CastMedium list. When you look at all the quality shows out there, it reminds me what a great year podcasting has had. Thanks to all of you for listening and helping to make 2009 the best year yet for Drunken Gamers Radio and Robot Panic!

Tonight’s the night! Tune in to see Sean Sands from Gamers with Jobs, Phil Kollar from Game Informer, Panicbot 5000, and the DGR crew as we talk about the latest games, read your naughty letters to Santa, exchange gifts, and drink ourselves into Christmas oblivion.

We’ll also be taking your calls later in the evening, so be prepared to call in and tell us what you’ve been playing and what you’ll be up to during the holidays.

To watch the live show, head on over to our Ustream page, located here.

NOTE: We’ve been advertising the show with a 7pm start. However, due to scheduling conflicts, there’s a strong chance that we won’t be starting until 7:30 or 8pm. Feel free to pop by the Ustream page at 7pm as we’ll be in there for our pre-show chat.

See you tonight!