I have always been an open-minded gamer. Amiga vs. Atari ST, SNES vs. Mega Drive and other platform wars have never bothered me. And when I play a game I simply cannot just switch over all the other platforms there are. If you have ever played a really impressive game on one platform you will have a hard time playing something similar on another console or portable or whatever and not compare these games. Saying: "It's a PC game so you must not compare it to arcade or console games", is not a realistic scenario.

I've played plenty shmups across various platforms and still do, but I don't have a problem playing "lesser than really impressive" games and frankly it mostly depends on a personal taste in many ways. Shmups aren't all alike, and while I like some of them I don't happen to enjoy certain sub-genres. Does it makes them bad? Nope, they have their own fans, people who found those enjoyable, good for them I suppose. So I simply take each shmup for what it is, and if I like it, as it is with Raptor, then I'll find it enjoyable not bothering much about comparing one to another when playing one, contrary to what you have said there. And so yesterday I played Raptor again and unsurprisingly I found it just as enjoyable as it was before when I played it the first time. There are many little things I like about this game. For shmups in general it's a matter of simply enjoying the "game flow", and if I do then I'm happy, simple as. :-)
Raptor is simply a classic euroshmup for me, a good and well-polished game which I enjoy. I simply like it for what it is, and all that arguing about which game is better... meh. With old games of my childhood, like this one, if I play them today and I experience the same enjoyment I had back then - it brings smile upon me and it's good enough. I like or dislike shmups for what each one is, for how each one plays on it's own, separately. I'm just glad there are various games in that old school genre.
Another positive thing with Raptor is that it's accessible shmup game. Many other shmups are often hardcore and will punish player mercilessly for every little mistake. So in a contrast it makes Raptor enjoyable for those who aren't familiar much with the genre, who may be just getting into it, and for that it's a good start, giving a taste of what the genre is, providing some challenge but not being hardcore. As such I consider it important to the shmups genre.

I think it's entirely reasonable to note that Raptor is pretty simple by overall shmup standards as established on consoles and arcades. There's a natural PC-centric "bias" on a site like GOG (where even stellar and massively influential console titles are discussed rarely), though, so it's not surprising if the vast majority of users simply aren't that familiar with the genre as a whole.
Raptor is a charming title if ultimately rather generic and simplistic in its gameplay. Probably still worth $6 for nostalgic reasons for those of us who were shareware fans back in the day, though; especially given the unexpected "2010 Edition" extras.

Whoa, did'nt know this one! Looks great!
And it's another mid-90s game on GOG as God intended.

You be careful when mentioning Fifa '93!
;) It was repetitive, simplistic and awesome.

Actually in that time there were more of these type games for (MS- or compatible) DOS:
- Tyrian series
- Highway Hunter
- Baryon (i think it was russian?)
- also Apogee had some other similar games, like Major Stryker
This was the classic shoot-em-up genre.
There were (and are still available) many more on other platforms.
On the PSN, you've got the 1942: Joint Strike game, that were remade for HD graphics.

Yeah. Major Stryker came first in 1993, then Raptor in 1994, then Tyrian in 1995. I think those were the more famous ones.
Highway Hunter, 1995, was relatively unknown I thought. It's not actually that great of a game, but has awesome music. For some reason it freezes when I try playing it through DOS Box... Worked before...
Stargunner is a good Apogee one that came in 1996. It's freeware now. So it Tyrian 2000 btw.
Oh and Epic's Overkill came even before Major Stryker, in 1992 :)

Is it just me or does the mouse reactions seem a bit.. unresponsive at times? I also feel like there's an invisible force field stopping me from reaching the higher end of the map - never had those problems through DOSbox. I gotta use the keyboard now