What have you actually PLAYED tracker for 2013 (Season 6)

[twoquickcapri]

7800:
Commando - 5 min.
Crazy Otto - 20 min.

[+thegoldenband]

Here's the summary for Week 49, running from December 2 - 8. We logged 2248 minutes of eligible play, playing 34 games on a total of 11 systems.

Top 10:

1. LHX Attack Chopper (Genesis) - 651

2. Kaboom (Atari 2600) - 487

3. Wani Wani World (Genesis) - 390

4. Juice (C64) - 130

5. M*A*S*H (Atari 2600) - 47

5. Battlemaster (Genesis) - 47

7. River Raid (Atari 2600) - 40

8. Rampart (Genesis) - 37

9. Adventure (Atari 2600) - 35

9. Joust (Atari 7800) - 35

Pre-NES top 10:

1. Kaboom (Atari 2600) - 487

2. Juice (C64) - 130

3. M*A*S*H (Atari 2600) - 47

4. River Raid (Atari 2600) - 40

5. Adventure (Atari 2600) - 35

5. Joust (Atari 7800) - 35

7. Reindeer Rescue (Atari 2600) - 30

7. Spider Fighter (Atari 2600) - 30

9. Boxing (Atari 2600) - 26

10. Robot Tank (Atari 2600) - 25

Top 10 systems:

1. Genesis (1159)

2. Atari 2600 (786)

3. C64 (130)

4. Atari 7800 (60)

5. NES/Famicom (50)

6. Atari 5200 (20)

7. Odyssey^2 (14)

8. Game Boy (13)

9. SNES (10)

10. Arcade (3)

10. PlayStation (3)

So let's see. A helicopter game for Genesis logged the most minutes overall, the Sega system is #1, and some paddle game took the top spot on the pre-NES charts.

That about covers it, right?...

...well, except for the fact that this week, Kaboom reached totally uncharted territory and became our first member of:

The 100,000 minute club!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtFeJw1gzAE

What can I say but a huge kudos to Atarian7 for his perseverance. May he reach 999,999 points before he reaches 1,000,000 minutes!

[+thegoldenband]

BTW Atarian7, do you mind if I make a thread in the Atari 2600 forum announcing your achievement? No worries if you'd rather I didn't, but I think people might be intrigued and impressed.

 

EDIT: Also, for sandmountainslim and Kurt -- we haven't been counting GBA or GameCube games, unless they're being used as an emulation platform. I believe the Atari compilations are emulated, while the Golden Axe port is a rewrite.

[karokoenig]

Atarian, Goldenband: That achievement MUST be front page news imo. Wow.

[carlsson]

Congratulations to Kaboom! I wonder if not even Activision would be a little impressed? Of course in terms of modern games, their current games probably are played at least 1,000,000 minutes per week.

[Atarian7]

BTW Atarian7, do you mind if I make a thread in the Atari 2600 forum announcing your achievement? No worries if you'd rather I didn't, but I think people might be intrigued and impressed.

 

EDIT: Also, for sandmountainslim and Kurt -- we haven't been counting GBA or GameCube games, unless they're being used as an emulation platform. I believe the Atari compilations are emulated, while the Golden Axe port is a rewrite.

No I don't mind.

 

And some of those minutes were played by other people too.

[Kurt_Woloch]

Top 10 systems:

1. Genesis (1159)

2. Atari 2600 (786)

3. C64 (130)

4. Atari 7800 (60)

5. NES/Famicom (50)

6. Atari 5200 (20)

7. Odyssey^2 (14)

8. Game Boy (13)

9. Arcade (3)

9. PlayStation (3)

Wait, there's something wrong... the SNES should be in the system charts because I've played on it more than 3 minutes on Sunday (see previous page). The SNES is eligible for the Top 10, isn't it? And as far as I know, it's a different platform than the NES/Famicom.

 

EDIT: Also, for sandmountainslim and Kurt -- we haven't been counting GBA or GameCube games, unless they're being used as an emulation platform. I believe the Atari compilations are emulated, while the Golden Axe port is a rewrite.

That's interesting. My mother has a GBA that still takes the old B/W Gameboy carts as well. So if I play one of the old carts on it, it would register as "Gameboy", but if I play a "native" GBA title, it wouldn't register at all. Is this correct?

[+thegoldenband]

No I don't mind.

 

And some of those minutes were played by other people too.

 

Touché. Maybe I'll try to figure out how many minutes were contributed by other players.

 

Wait, there's something wrong... the SNES should be in the system charts because I've played on it more than 3 minutes on Sunday (see previous page). The SNES is eligible for the Top 10, isn't it? And as far as I know, it's a different platform than the NES/Famicom.

Yep, sorry! I simply overlooked it, I think, probably because it was right after an ineligible game. I'll add it back in.

 

That's interesting. My mother has a GBA that still takes the old B/W Gameboy carts as well. So if I play one of the old carts on it, it would register as "Gameboy", but if I play a "native" GBA title, it wouldn't register at all. Is this correct?

Exactly, though keep in mind that the GBA doesn't emulate the Game Boy -- it actually has extra circuitry for full backwards compatibility (like the Master System/Mega Drive, 2600/7800, and so on).

 

Similarly, if you played a PS1 game on a PS2, it would count, but not a PS2 game on the PS2.

 

Whether we want to revisit the cutoff date (2000) is another question, but I dunno -- I kind of like the status quo!

[carlsson]

Basically, I figure it is the system a game was designed to be played on that counts, not the actual system you played it on. Some more examples:

* Playing MSX1 games on a MSX2 computer = counts towards MSX1

* Playing SG-1000 games on a Sega Mark /// = counts towards SG-1000

* Playing C64 games on a C128 in C64 mode = clearly counts towards C64

* Playing CD32 re-issued Amiga 500 games on a CD32 = counts towards CD32

* Playing Amiga 500 games on an Amiga 1200 = should count towards Amiga 500 (OCS) rather than AGA

While it is a different matter, a couple of weeks ago we brought up a few cases of which systems to keep apart: Intellivision ECS, how Jaguar CD differs from Sega/Mega CD etc.

As for cutoff date, I pondered a definition of a system that (A) was released at least 15 years ago or (B) was officially discontinued at least 10 years ago. For example the DreamCast fits the B criteria, while most other 6th gen consoles don't. Already now I see a loophole in that the Gamecube was discontinued in 2007, while the Panasonic Q got axed already in 2003, so perhaps it is not a foolproof definition after all...

Regarding the GBA in question, its hardware capacities are equalled to a handheld SNES, but I'm unsure if it is a factor that speaks for inclusion. In that case, another interesting platform would be the C64DTV (2004). As far as I can tell from browsing various sites, apart from the DTV Hummer once sold by Radio Shack and possibly a Boulder Dash clone, most of the new development has been in the demo genre, not so many new games supporting the DTV features. I suppose you could say similar things about various Atari Flashback consoles?

[karokoenig]

Get ready for the super big bag of tricks - or maybe the Box of Pandora...

 

Atari 2600

Fire Fighter: 3 min

Gyruss: 21 min

M.A.S.H.: 16 min

Moonsweeper: 3 min

No Escape: 6 min

Solar Fox: 68 min

Superman: 5 min

Tutankham: 1 min

 

NES

Cartoon Workshop: 2 min

Tennis: 7 min

 

SNES

Lawnmower Man: 6 min

Spindizzy: 8 min

The Brainies: 12 min

 

VC20

Blue Meanies from Outer Space: 5 min

Car Chase: 2 min

Casino Style Blackjack: 11 min

Metagalactic Llamas Battle at the Edge of Time: 10 min

Skyhawk: 10 min

Slither: 1 min

Space Math: 3 min

 

Arcade

Galaga: 5 min (played on the GBA; Namco Museum)

 

Master System

Action Fighter: 5 min

After Burner: 4 min

Asterix: 5 min

Captain Silver: 2 min

Enduro Racer: 5 min

Ghost House: 5 min

Mickey Mouse - Castle of Illusion: 3 min

Olympic Gold: 12 min

Sonic the Hedgehog: 2 min

Streets of Rage: 25 min

Streets of Rage II: 5 min

Superman: 3 min

Super Monaco GP: 3 min

Trans Bot: 3 min

Wimbledon: 3 min

Wimbledon II: 4 min

Wonder Boy: 5 min

Wonder Boy in Monster World: 8 min

Xenon 2 Megablast: 5 min

 

Mega Drive

688 Attack Sub: 6 min

Mickey Mouse - Castle of Illusion: 26 min

Populous: 8 min

 

Game Boy Classic

Mario & Yoshi: 12 min

 

Game Boy Color

Tetris DX: 15 min

 

Nintendo 64

Dark Rift: 1 min

Diddy Kong Racing: 7 min

Golden Eye: 5 min

Pilotwings 64: 3 min

Super Mario 64: 2 min

Waverace: 5 min

 

 

Finally got my SMS to run, and there were quite a few SMS games piling up that I couldn't test until earlier this week. The N64 is a new console acquisition of mine, and I'm just testing stuff on that one so far. My recommendation of the week is "Metagalactic Llamas" on the VC20. That's a clever and challenging game, great fun.

[sandmountainslim]

Boxing (VCS) 50 minutes

Super Mario Land (Gameboy) 25 minutes

Spider Fighter (VCS) 35 minutes

Super Mario World (SNES) 15 minutes

Challenger! (Famicom) 15 minutes

[carlsson]

C64:
Bill da Snowman - 16 min.

 

A type-in game from Your Computer, perfect to play at this time of year.

 

Famicom:
Magic Jewelry - 36 min.

 

Megadrive:
California Games - 5 min.
Elitserien 95 - 25 min.
Marsupilami - 25 min.

 

Elitserien is a Swedish version of the EA NHL franchise, so pretty much the same game as e.g. NHL'95 for Genesis/Megadrive, but with Swedish teams and players.

 

VIC-20:
Clowns - 12 min.
Duck Shoot - 5 min.
Facemaker - 2 min.
Quackers - 6 min.
Sword of Fargoal - 19 min.
The Fourth Encounter - 12 min.

 

First I played Duck Shoot and waited for the bonus bear level to appear, until I realized it is in a different game, Quackers. For that matter, Duck Shoot was the bonus game in Gremlin Graphics' Lotus II. I also found a new-to-me gem in the shoot'em-up The Fourth Encounter, recommended if you don't mind "hard sprites".

 

By the way, greetings to Karokoenig for discovering Metagalactic Llamas. My new personal record from earlier this year is 83862 pts, mostly achieved by keeping the ceiling as low as possible and keep spitting. You get bonus if you cut the spider web multiple times before killing each spider. Even Jeff himself was impressed by that score when I tweeted it to him.

[+davidcalgary29]

Smurf Rescue (CV) -- 30 minutes

Burgertime (CV) -- 30 minutes

[Atarian7]

Atari 2600

Kaboom!-461 minutes

 

 

High score of the week: 117,455

 

 

[sandmountainslim]

Add 60 minutes of Reindeer Rescue 2600 to my list.

[Kurt_Woloch]

Here are my times for this past week (December 9th through 15th)...

 

Commodore 64:

 

Burger Chase - 21 min.

Park Patrol - 22 min.

 

TI-99:

 

TI-Scramble - 10 min.

 

As you can see, I didn't play too many games this week due to an extensive amount of pre-Christmas meetings with other people. TI-Scramble was played on the TI-99 meeting and exhibited graphics errors before we realized we were running an old version of it.

 

Then I revisited Park Patrol, in which I managed to beat Level 6 after which the game doesn't get any harder, and Burger Chase, which is a not-too-bright Burger Time clone on the C-64, but out of all versions on that system, it comes the closest to having the original arcade mazes. My favorite C-64 version still would be Burger Time 1997, but its mazes are based on the Intellivision version instead of on the arcade.

[zylon]

2600-

 

Endless Snow- 35min

[+davidcalgary29]

7800:

Klax (30 min.)
EdTris (10 min.)

VCSp:

 

Boulderdash (20 min.)

 

CV:

 

Elevator Action (20 min.)

[+thegoldenband]

My times for the week:

Microvision:

Blockbuster - 5 min.

NES:

Exodus - 4 min.

Nightmare on Elm Street - 19 min.

Genesis:

Barbarian - 5 min.

Dinosaurs For Hire - 17 min.

La Russa Baseball '95 - 157 min.

Pocahontas - 244 min.

Zoop - 17 min.

Dreamcast:

Cool Herders - 7 min.

Worms World Party - 36 min.

Beat Pocahontas on real hardware. The ending seems like a "good" ending, but based on rumors at GameFAQs I replayed it in an emulator afterward, with savestates, to see if "perfect" play -- no continues, getting every item -- would unlock any kind of bonus ending. No dice.

I also played through La Russa Baseball '95 on Veteran difficulty, going straight to the championship series as Boston against New York's National League team (unnamed for licensing reasons). Since the game lets you save at absolutely any time, it's a cakewalk. However, either my battery replacement didn't take or there's a board fault that drained the new battery (I need to check which one). So I had to play all four games straight through without powering off -- but the game is so easy, and so slow, that I could watch videos online while I played.

(Among them was Werner Herzog's short documentary about horrible accidents caused by texting while driving: rather a downer, that one.)

[+thegoldenband]

Here's the summary for Week 50, running from December 9 - 15. We logged 1965 minutes of eligible play, playing 89 games on a total of 16 systems.

Top 10:

1. Kaboom (Atari 2600) - 461
2. Pocahontas (Genesis) - 244
3. La Russa Baseball '95 (Genesis) - 157
4. Solar Fox (Atari 2600) - 68
5. Reindeer Rescue (Atari 2600) - 60
6. Boxing (Atari 2600) - 50
7. Worms World Party (Dreamcast) - 36
7. Magic Jewelry (NES/Famicom) - 36
9. Endless Snow (Atari 2600) - 35
9. Spider Fighter (Atari 2600) - 35

Pre-NES top 10:

1. Kaboom (Atari 2600) - 461
2. Solar Fox (Atari 2600) - 68
3. Reindeer Rescue (Atari 2600) - 60
4. Boxing (Atari 2600) - 50
5. Endless Snow (Atari 2600) - 35
5. Spider Fighter (Atari 2600) - 35
7. Klax (Atari 7800) - 30
7. BurgerTime (ColecoVision) - 30
7. Smurfs: Rescue in Gargamel's Castle (ColecoVision) - 30
10. Park Patrol (C64) - 22

Top 10 systems:

1. Atari 2600 (794)
2. Genesis (535)
3. Sega Master System (107)
4. VIC-20 (98)
5. NES/Famicom (83)
6. ColecoVision (80)
7. C64 (59)
8. Dreamcast (43)
9. SNES (41)
10. Game Boy (37)

Everybody else is just green!
Have you seen the charts?

- Pink Floyd, "Have an Atar(i)", from their acclaimed album Wish You Were Kaboom ('Cause If You Were, You'd Be #1). All rights resoived.

("And if we tell you the name of the game, boy, we call it...wait, we call it a Game Boy, we've established that. And it's in at #10.")

[carlsson]

Dunno, but it seems like the 10 min of EdTris on the Atari 7800 (davidcalgary29) may have been credited towards the Atari 2600 instead? On second thought, perhaps that is exactly how it should be, given that it looks to be a 2600 game even when played on a 7800...

Edited December 17, 2013 by carlsson

[+thegoldenband]

^That was my assumption, yeah -- I wasn't able to find anything about a 7800 version of EdTris after a quick Google -- but if I'm incorrect let me know. (I do check these things! )

[+davidcalgary29]

I did indeed play my (2600) copy of EdTris on my 7800. (I actually forgot that I had the title! I was cleaning up the other day, saw a 2600 cart with no label in a box of commons, and said to myself 'what's this'?).

[AtariBrian]

Nes

Popeye - 20 minutes

Marble Madness - 15 minutes

Goonies 2 - 10 minutes

Donkey Kong - 15 minutes

Donkey Kong jr - 20 minutes

Little League Baseball - 30 minutes

Super Mario Bros - 20 minutes

 

Atari 7800

Frenzy/Berzerk - 20 minutes

Crazy Brix - 15 minutes

Failsafe - 20 minutes

Commando - 15 minutes

 

Atari 2600

Toyshop Trouble - 30 minutes

 

Atari 5200

Koffi Yellow Kopter - 20 minutes

[zylon]

2600-

 

Endless Snow- 20min

 

5200-

 

Ms Pacman- 15min

 

Lynx-

 

Shanghai- 50min