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What have you actually PLAYED tracker for 2010 (Season 3)

cvga

By cvga
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JayWI Stargunner

JayWI

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Intellivision

 

Demon Attack - 10 minutes

 

Just got this game earlier this week CIB. I much prefer playing on the original hardware than emulation. The game seemed to behave differently but it may have been the difference in screen size.

 

 

Now for trying out my purchases from the MGC:

 

Colecovision

 

Pepper II - 15 minutes

Time Pilot - 5 minutes

Space Panic - 10 minutes

 

Time Pilot was one of my favorite arcade games and even using inferior hardware the game play was still pretty true to what I remember. I got up to 1985 before somehow having my bullets go right through the enemies causing them to crash into me.

 

Pepper II is an interesting game that I didn't think I'd like at first. After figuring it out I enjoyed the puzzle aspect to it. I look forward to playing it some more to see how well I can do.

 

Space Panic. Frustrating until I figured out what I was supposed to do. An interesting concept but I didn't play it long enough to really get into it.

 

I was a bit disappointed in all 3 games. I remember when the system was new how it was supposed to be superior to the Intellivision. I can't help but think these same games on the INTV would have been much better. The game play was still good but it just didn't look or feel as good as they could have been, even with early 1980s hardware.

 

 

 

NES

 

Paperboy - 15 minutes

Ninja Gaiden - 15 minutes

 

I can't believe neither of these were in my library yet. I was nuts for both these games as a kid and would spend hours just flipping between the two. Although now I remember what frustrated me about Ninja Gaiden, the music in the game just brought back so many memories. Paperboy is just one of those games that I really like to play so I'm sure these two will be showing up quite a bit on my played reports.

 

 

 

Sega Master System

 

Shinobi - 15 minutes

 

I rented this game back in 1990 and haven't played it since then. I remembered it being better. The side scrolling view was just ugly and the ninja moved like a stiff board, not fluid like Ninja Gaiden. The bonus stages were just as good as I remember even though I failed them every time. I never figured out how to beat the first boss. I'll have to look that up.

 

 

Sega Genesis

 

Tinhead - 20 minutes

Caesars Palace - 20 minutes

 

I had no idea what to expect from Tinhead. Found it in the box but minus the instructions for $2 so I took a chance. It's your regular side scroller but you have the ability to change which kind of shot you use (arc up, straight ahead or arc down.) The bullets bounces off of walls floor and ceiling so there's some strategy involved with deciding which shot to use. There's a few powerups you grab but I'm not sure what they do yet.

 

Caesers I got because 1) I like to gamble, even if it's just a video game and 2) CIB for $1

 

 

SNES

 

Super Punch Out - 25 minutes

 

I have wanted this game for a while and was glad to find it for a reasonable price at MGC. I actually prefer this version of the game over the arcade. The game play, the look and feel, everything about it is better than the arcade IMHO. I got to Mr. Sandman before he kicked my butt. I had figured out his pattern so I would have beaten him in the rematch but I wanted to play some of the others games.

 

Tomorrow I'll try out the stack of 2600 games I picked up. They all look promising but I've been let down by 2600 games before so I'll keep my fingers crossed.

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Kurt_Woloch Stargunner

Kurt_Woloch

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Here are my times for this past week (March 22nd through 28th)...

 

The classic games (eligible for the Top 10):

 

Shamus (Atari 400) 324 minutes in 6 sessions

Spare Change (Atari 400) 37

 

The non-classic game (non-eligible for the Top 10):

 

Little wheel (Online game) 17

 

As you can see, I played quite a lot of Shamus the Atari 8-bit version this week. I've become somewhat better at it by now although the priorities you have to set as a player are different than on the TI-99 version. In the Atari 8-bit version, the enemies' shots are more dangerous since you aren't always aligned so your shots cancel them out. But at the same time, enemy fire is slower than on the TI-99 so you can avoid it more easily. On the Atari 8-bit version, it's also quite a bit easier fighting upwards and downwards than to the left and to the right. The reason for this is that your character has about the double speed going left and right compared with going up and down, but at the same time its height is greater than its width, so going up and down it takes much longer to get out of the line of enemy fire than going left and right. It's also easier hitting the enemies shooting upward and downward because they are two times as wide as they are tall. On the TI-99 things are just the other way... here fighting to the left and right is easier because if you enter a corridor from there (other rooms always have the exits on the left and right, never on the top and bottom), there's a longer way to the middle of the corridor where the enemies are usually bunched, whereas if you enter a room from the top or bottom, that way is shorter, and the enemies often come at you faster than you can shoot them. There's also the alignment problem coming from the top or bottom, as stated earlier.

On the other hand, the enemies themselves are not as big a danger on the Atari 8-bit version. On the TI-99 version they nearly always home in directly on you (unless there's a wall between you and them), while on the Atari 8-bit they often wander around aimlessly. There's also more of them on the TI-99 than on the Atari 8-bit simply due to space reasons (on the TI-99 they are 1 character wide and 1 character high, on the Atari 8-bit they are 2 wide and 1 high), and on the TI-99 you only destroy one of them with each shot, while you often destroy multiple enemies with one shot on the Atari 8-bit. Also, the jumpers on the TI-99 often jump around 2 characters at once which makes you miss them with your shots, which doesn't happen this way on the Atari 8-bit where they are fast, but easily shootable.

One other difference is that if you die in the Atari 8-bit version, the enemies cease shooting at you in that room and also in the next room you enter, so you get to clear 2 rooms without enemy fire before they start shooting again.

 

Still, despite all this I didn't get as far in the Atari 8-bit version. I only got somewhere into the green level on my best try (which would be about 50-60% completion), and I couldn't reproduce this in the last 2 sessions.

 

Another game I revisited was "Spare Change", but this gets pretty hard on Level 6 (which does take over half an hour to reach, however), and I couldn't quite figure out what to do in order not to lose at this level. Seems like the Zerk brothers (your enemies) just grab their coins and toss them into the piggy box faster than you can do anything about it.

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JayWI Stargunner

JayWI

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Atari 2600

 

Mouse Trap - 20 minutes

Jr. Pac-man - 15 minutes

Infiltrate - 10 minutes

Spider Fighter - 10 minutes

Riddle of the Sphinx - 5 minutes

Miniature Golf - 5 minutes

Dig Dug - 20 minutes

 

I picked up Jr. Pac-man, Infiltrate, Spider Fighter and Riddle of the Sphinx at the MGC. They only game I don't really care for out of this batch is Riddle of the Sphinx. I'll need to look up the game later to see if there's anything I should or shouldn't be doing. Usually with 2600 games I'm looking for something I can just throw in and play and this game didn't seem to be one of those.

 

Jr. Pac-man was a HUGE improvement over Pac-man. The ghosts are much smarter and the mazes are much bigger. The sound is a lot better and had a feel that was closer to the arcade Pac-man than the original. You only get about 20 seconds to move about the maze before the ghosts lock on to you and go for the kill. You can outrun and outsmart them but they will get to you eventually.

 

Spider Fighter moved very fast and was your typical shooter type game. I was expecting a Centipede type clone but was pleasantly surprised that it was different and actually fun to play. After a couple of rounds I got tired of pushing the fire button so I moved on.

 

Infiltrate was a very fun game. It reminded me of Elevator Action quite a bit. A big surprise was that I could actually duck! I did not expect a 2600 game to have that capability in it.

 

As for the others in the list, since I already had the 2600 out I figured I'd play some other games. Mouse Trap was a favorite on the INTV. This version isn't bad but the mazes seemed smaller and with the INTV controller you had more control over the doors so you could lock the cats away in more places than just the middle. It was still fun, but I missed the challenge of the hawk and being able to stock pile bones. I believe I was only able to keep 4 or 5 at a time in this version.

 

I got miniature golf a while ago and never played it so I figured I'd throw it in. It would be a fun 2 player game but is boring to play by yourself.

 

Dig Dug is a must have for any system it's available IMHO. I could play this game for hours without having to reset the game but I had to call it quits eventually. I usually get over 100k before just turning off the game.

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thegoldenband Quadrunner

+thegoldenband

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Times for the last three days of the week:

 

Sega Genesis:

Ariel: The Little Mermaid - 80 min.

Columns - 33 min.

Dashin' Desperadoes - 6 min.

Marble Madness (Tengen) - 15 min.

Mortal Kombat - 107 min.

Pit Fighter - 6 min.

Populous - 2 min.

Virtua Racing - 14 min.

World of Illusion - 50 min.

 

Some notes:

 

Ariel: The Little Mermaid - Bought as part of a nice lot of Disney titles, this game gets thrashed over at Sega-16, but I think they're selling it somewhat short. The music is nice, the graphics are reasonable, and overall it has that pleasant vibe typical of the Disney franchise on the Genny. Not that it's a great game, because it surely isn't: there are some control issues, the boss fights are trivial (even the final boss!), certain enemies are exceptionally annoying (especially the pirate skeletons and heat-seeking discus statues), and it's quite short and very easy (I've played it twice, and beaten it twice without yet using a single continue). But it's a perfectly fine way to spend 45 minutes, and there's certainly room in my library for a superficial but pleasant game that doesn't ask much. Having said that, I've beaten it on Easy and Medium, but have yet to try Hard mode, so maybe I'll start cursing at it soon.

 

Columns - My girlfriend and I took down Pro 8 in Flash doubles! Once we trained ourselves to never hit down, i.e. to use all the time available to us, we were able to strategize much more effectively. (It also gave me time to drink my tea in between turns.) The only Flash level left for us to conquer is Pro 9: then on to Columns III, maybe? It stinks that it doesn't have a battery to save your best times, as it'd really add a lot of replay value. Maybe the release was rushed, as there are obvious bugs in the music programming (it gets out of sync with itself) and high score tables (garbage characters in the high score list), and I have two copies so it's not a bad cart.

 

Mortal Kombat - With DULLARD in hand, I had little trouble beating it through Medium, but haven't made it past the second Endurance match on Hard mode yet. I will say that the Genesis port is much better than the SNES version I had back in the day -- not just for the blood 'n' guts, but for the much tighter gameplay and if I'm not mistaken, smarter AI. It looks quite good on the Nomad, too. I don't remember who I used to use on the SNES, but on this version I stick with Scorpion, and then switch to Liu Kang for Goro and Shang Tsung (assuming that Goro beats me at least once, which seems to be the fashion).

 

Populous - A warning to all Genesis Model 2 owners: some (or all?) copies of this game don't get along with the TMSS lockout system. If your copy has this issue, you MUST use a Game Genie as a passthrough, or it will not work! I bought this at a convention, and groaned when I thought I had a dud cart, until I discovered the solution. Several Genesis games allegedly also have this problem -- Budokan, Zany Golf, maybe a few others -- though I don't own any of those to test.

 

Virtua Racing - People paid $99 for this? Really? It's a perfectly fine game in and of itself, I suppose, and an impressive technical feat as well. But it just seems utterly pointless, with no real sense of purpose or momentum. When you take first place and then are promptly greeted with a "GAME OVER" screen, it's yet another reminder that the arcade paradigm doesn't always work so well for home ports of racing games. And once again, no battery! As my girlfriend said, for a hundred bucks, it really oughta save your high scores. (I paid a whole dollar for my CIB copy, by the way.)

 

World Of Illusion - Now here's a fine Disney game for the Genny. Beat Mickey mode, which had some nice eye-candy that's not in two-player co-op -- the flying cork level was especially pretty. Now to try Donald, allegedly the toughest.

Edited by thegoldenband
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StanJr Quadrunner

StanJr

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Little Mermaid on SEGA Genesis is a good game (I like most Little Mermaid games oddly enough) Rock on!

 

Tonight:

 

Secret Quest (VCS): 1 hour (mapping)

Xenophobe (VCS): 15 mins.

Barnstorming (VCS): 30 mins. (and a new personal high score! 33.02!! Unbelievable!)

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cvga Quadrunner

+cvga

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This week was a little weaker with only 85 games played for 2,847 minutes...

 

Week #12; Season #3

 

1. Shamus (Atari 8-bit) 324 minutes

2. Magician (NES) 180

3. Kaboom! (Atari 2600) 164

4. Sinistar (Arcade) 140

5. Mortal Kombat (Genesis) 107

6. Radar Lock (Atari 2600) 105

7. Eagle (Arcade) 97

8. Burgertime (Atari 2600) 90

8. Mr. Do! (Arcade) 90

10. Ariel: The Little Mermaid (Genesis) 80

 

The pre-NES Top Ten is...

1. Shamus (Atari 8-bit) 324 minutes

2. Kaboom! (Atari 2600) 164

3. Sinistar (Arcade) 140

4. Radar Lock (Atari 2600) 105

5. Eagle (Arcade) 97

6. Burgertime (Atari 2600) 90

6. Mr. Do! (Arcade) 90

8. Missile Command (Arcade) 65

9. Dark Chambers (Atari 2600) 60

10. Dig Dug (Atari 5200) 45

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cvga Quadrunner

+cvga

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The Top Ten by System played is...

 

1. Atari 2600 - 705 minutes

2. Genesis - 490

3. Arcade - 436

4. NES - 390

5. Atari 8-bit - 361

6. Sega Saturn - 140

7. Turbo Grafx - 65

8. Atari 5200 - 45

9. Neo Geo - 40

10. Sega CD - 30

10. Handhelds (Tiger) - 30

10. Colecovision - 30

10. Intellivision - 30

14. SNES - 25

15. Sega Master System - 15

16. TI-99 - 10

17. CoCo - 5

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cvga Quadrunner

+cvga

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The Top Ten by System played is...

Hmm, I think my Dreamcast time went missing? :? I think that session may have put Worms World Party into the 1000-minute club, too.

 

Good catch. I logged it but included it with the Sega Saturn instead of the Dreamcast. You are also correct about it becoming the first Dreamcast game to reach the 1,000 minute club! Congrats!

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VectorGamer Quadrunner

VectorGamer

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This week was a little weaker with only 85 games played for 2,847 minutes...

 

Week #12; Season #3

 

1. Shamus (Atari 8-bit) 324 minutes

2. Magician (NES) 180

3. Kaboom! (Atari 2600) 164

4. Sinistar (Arcade) 140

5. Mortal Kombat (Genesis) 107

6. Radar Lock (Atari 2600) 105

7. Eagle (Arcade) 97

8. Burgertime (Atari 2600) 90

8. Mr. Do! (Arcade) 90

10. Ariel: The Little Mermaid (Genesis) 80

 

 

 

The last 1.5 weeks have been crazy for me. Although I got a lot of gaming in at CAGDC especially Sat the 20th when I was at the arcade for about 10 hours.

 

Other than that, soccer practice has kicked in, Cub Scouts is wrapping up, arcade auctions, writing articles, ramping up time at the gym and with spring comes a lot of yard work and resuming the Pole Position cabinet project. For me, that leaves only the weekends really to play games and I haven't even touched a console in over a month.

 

As for the top 10, it's nice to see the true classics dominating this past week.

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