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Play Silvergun 101: a free bullet-hell shooter on Tommy's 80s Arcade

TOMMY'S 80s ARCADE PRESENTS
SILVERGUN 101
Fly←↑↓→orWASDordrag / mouse
FireZorSpacehold to lock on, release to laser
BombXBreakCFocusShiftPauseP
BREAK GAUGEKills and stars fill it. At 100% hit Break: bullets become stars, shots double, score x2.
DOUBLE BREAKRefill to 100% during Break Mode and hit it again: x4 score, shockwave, chaos.

HIGH SCORES

Finish in the top 10 and the machine asks for your name.
INSERT COIN · FREE PLAY · TOMMYSEILHEIMER.COM
// How to play
  • ENTERPress Enter, click the screen or hit 1 Player Start. On a phone, tap the screen.
  • ←↑↓→Arrow keys or WASD to fly. Mouse: hold the button and the ship follows. Phone: drag anywhere; the ship follows your finger without hiding under it.
  • ZTap for the wide shot. Hold to open the lock-on cone, release to laser every tagged enemy at once.
  • XBomb: wipes every bullet on screen into stars, hurts everything, 2 seconds of shield. 3 per ship.
  • CBreak at 100%. Break again at 100% while it runs for Double Break.
  • SHIFTFocus: half speed, tight shot, hitbox shown. Your hitbox is only the tiny dot in the middle of the ship.
// Meet the bosses
SENTINELStage 1. Rings and aimed fans. Learn the rhythm here.
VORTEXStage 2. Twin wavers and a triple spiral.
HIVE QUEENStage 3. Spawns drones while it fires.
IRONCLADStage 4. Double rings, sniper shots.
SILVERGUNStage 5. Everything at once. Then it loops.
// Scoring
Zako / Dart100 / 150
Turret / Spinner / Tank800 / 1,500 / 2,500
Carrier6,000
Boss50,000 × stage
Star / Graze100 / 30
Chain multiplierup to x8
Break / Double Breakx2 / x4
Extra ship200K, 500K, +500K

A vertical bullet-hell shooter built the way the arcade greats were built. One ship, a tiny hitbox, screens full of glowing bullets, a lock-on laser, three bombs, and a Break gauge that turns a good run into a wild one. Silvergun 101 is an original game made for tommyseilheimer.com: 5 stages, 5 bosses with 3 phases each, stars that feed your multiplier, and a high score table with your name on it. Beat stage 5 and it loops, faster.

Tips from the high score table

Your hitbox is the dot, not the ship: hold Shift when the screen gets busy and thread the gaps. Fight near the top of the screen and every star flies to you on its own. Save Break for the boss: hit it at 100% when the second phase starts, keep killing to refill, then hit it again for Double Break and watch the multiplier go x4. The lock-on laser fills the gauge faster than the wide shot, so the rhythm is tap, tap, hold, release. Bombs are for staying alive, not for score: a lost ship also drops your power level and multiplier. Graze bullets (pass within a whisker) for 30 points each and a trickle of gauge.

Shmup questions (and Silvergun 101 answers)

What is a shmup?
Shmup is short for shoot 'em up: you pilot a ship, shoot continuous waves of enemies and dodge their fire. Vertical shmups scroll bottom to top, like Silvergun 101. The genre started with Space Invaders (1978) and Galaga (1981) and grew into the bullet-hell era in the late 90s.
What is bullet hell (danmaku)?
Danmaku means "bullet curtain" in Japanese. It is the style where enemies fill the screen with hundreds of slow, patterned bullets and your ship has a tiny hitbox, so survival is about reading patterns and threading gaps rather than reflexes alone. Cave's DoDonPachi (1997) defined it; Crimzon Clover and Radiant Silvergun are two of the most loved examples.
What is Crimzon Clover?
Crimzon Clover is a bullet-hell shooter by the Japanese doujin developer Yotsubane, first released in 2010 and later on arcade boards and PC as World Ignition and World Explosion. It is famous for its Break Mode: fill a gauge, trigger it, and you get a screen-filling shot with doubled score, then trigger it again for Double Break and total chaos. Silvergun 101 is an original game built in that spirit; nothing here is copied from it.
What is Radiant Silvergun?
Treasure's 1998 Saturn and arcade classic, one of the most acclaimed shooters ever made, known for its seven weapons, chain scoring by enemy colour and its bosses. The name Silvergun 101 is a nod to the genre's history, not a version of that game.
How does Break Mode work in Silvergun 101?
Everything you destroy and every star you collect fills the Break gauge at the bottom of the screen. At 100 percent press C (or the BREAK button) and Break Mode starts: bullets on screen turn into stars, your shot doubles in size and damage, and every point is worth 2x for about 12 seconds. If you refill the gauge to 100 percent while Break Mode is running and press C again, you get Double Break: 4x score, a damaging shockwave, and even wider shots.
How does the lock-on laser work?
Hold the fire key. After a third of a second a cone opens in front of your ship and every enemy inside it is tagged with a green ring, up to your lock limit. Release fire and a laser hits every tagged enemy at once. Laser kills feed the Break gauge faster than shot kills, so the rhythm is tap, tap, hold, release.
What do the stars do?
Stars drop from every kill. Fly near the top of the screen or run Break Mode and they are pulled to your ship automatically. Each star is 100 points (times your multiplier) and adds to the Break gauge. Kills within 1.6 seconds of each other build a chain; every 5 in a chain raises your multiplier, up to x8.
How many stages and bosses are there?
Five stages, each about a minute long with its own waves, and five bosses with three phases each: Sentinel, Vortex, Hive Queen, Ironclad and Silvergun. Beat stage 5 and the game loops with faster, denser bullets. Extra ships at 200,000 and 500,000 points and every 500,000 after that.
Can I play on a phone?
Yes. Drag anywhere on the screen to fly (the ship follows your finger without covering it), fire is automatic, and the BOMB and BREAK buttons sit under the screen. On desktop use the arrow keys or WASD, Z or Space to fire (hold to lock on), X for bomb, C for Break and Shift for focus mode.
Does it save my score?
Yes. Finish in the top 10 and the machine asks for your name; the board is saved in your browser on this device.

Having fun?

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