That is part of where I started playing shooters.
Funny story about it too...
Before 1995, I knew what shooters were, and had poked at Gradius and Lifeforce and stuff, but did not really like them enough to spend any real time with them. So, fall 1995 I was in a Street Fighter Alpha tournament. It was one of the typical east coast affairs, everyone drops $10 to compete and the winner walks out with 90% of the pot, the establishment retains 10% for hosting.
Anyway, long story short, I had pretty well wiped the floor with all comers, Kaptain-Kombo-Ken style. Final round I fought a guy a little younger than me playing Guy. And he wiped the floor with me. Anything I did he stayed a fraction ahead of me... and it was disturbing. I had never been plain beaten in terms of speed before that. Afterwards I talked to him, asking him about his gaming style, and where his speed came from.
"I dun much like fighting games. I just came to get paid."
It blew my fucking mind. He JUST CAME to get paid...
I talked to him a bit, we went for pizza, and he treated. Turns out the guy was a hardcore SHOOTER fan. His favorite game of all time was R-Type. He pretty well played nothing but shooters until he found out people were winning cash in Street Fighter tournaments.
Needless to say, after that I started playing shooters. ALOT. When Konami released a new one, I bought it. Even if I hated it, I played through it. Any other shooters that came out, I rented and played through. Even that god-awful Axelay on SNES. Any shooter I saw I played through once, all the way. It became a part of my training regimen for Street Fighter. Hell until 2002 or so, I pretty well kept this up, even if not on a brand new title, I was emulating old systems and playing a couple hours a day, just to be keeping sharp.
And... that brings me up to the Saturn, and to Radiant Silvergun. I started playing this fantastic game just to bolster my reflex speed and analysis capacity. Then I fell in love with it. Radiant Silvergun is a WONDERFUL game in and out itself, and I attribute my hours with it to my ability to parry nonstop when I play SFIII or CVS2. And Ikaruga... well SF4 is announced, and for the last week we have been spending 2 hours a day together, gearing up for the next Street Fighter.
I went from not liking shooters at all, to LOVING them. Because of Guy beating my ass, and Radiant Silvergun.
Ain't that a bitch?