Just wanted to drop in and give a mention for Halley's Comet. It certainly qualifies for the bullet hell category, and has some awesome music. It is also one of those games that once you lose your first life, you are pretty much done, as it ramps the difficulty up quickly and you stand no chance once you lose your powerups.

EDIT: Doh, 1st post mentioned it.

Also worth noting is Prehistoric Isle in 1930. Interesting mechanic with the gun control on your plane, and like Vanguard, it does not scroll exclusively in one direction.

Yeah, the 1942 series of shooters was an all-time fave of mine.

I may have, but I'm not 100% sure on it. It was a REALLY long time ago.

The thing I like about the Sanwa JLF is that you can tweak it so may different ways. The square gate can be rotated to allow 4 or 8-way use, or you can use an octagon gate. For shmups, I have a larger actuator along with a stiffer spring giving a much tighter feel. It is totally different than how I have it configured for fighters (octagon gate, default actuator, default spring).

Yep. That's where I got mine. I use the slightly heavier than stock spring. I tried the stiffest one and it was just too much.

The larger actuator is key, too. So it's not just a stiffer feel, but is quicker to respond with less movement required.