What have you actually PLAYED tracker for 2014 (Season 7)

[adamchevy]

Nes:

 

Tiny Toons 70 min.

Kabuki Quantum Fighter 40 min.

[+thegoldenband]

Here's the summary for Week 14, running from March 31 - April 6. We logged 2900 minutes of eligible play, playing 41 games on a total of 16 systems.

Top 10:

1. Kaboom (Atari 2600) - 692

2. Funky Fish (Arcade) - 417

3. Racket Attack (NES/Famicom) - 345

4. Jurassic Park Interactive (3DO) - 290

5. Dishaster (Atari 2600) - 203

6. Marvel's X-Men (NES/Famicom) - 111

7. Kangaroo (Arcade) - 91

8. Tempest 2000 (Atari Jaguar) - 75

9. Tiny Toon Adventures (NES/Famicom) - 70

10. Atari Karts (Atari Jaguar) - 55

Pre-NES top 10:

1. Kaboom (Atari 2600) - 692

2. Funky Fish (Arcade) - 417

3. Dishaster (Atari 2600) - 203

4. Kangaroo (Arcade) - 91

5. Space Rocks (Atari 2600) - 48

6. Pac-Man Collection (ColecoVision) - 30

7. World at War, A (VIC-20) - 26

8. Side Trak (ColecoVision) - 20

9. Fire Fly (Atari 2600) - 19

10. Clowns (VIC-20) - 17

Top 10 systems:

1. Atari 2600 (978)

2. NES/Famicom (587)

3. Arcade (508)

4. 3DO (290)

5. Atari Jaguar (145)

6. Sega Saturn (85)

7. ColecoVision (50)

8. Dreamcast (45)

9. SNES (45)

10. VIC-20 (43)

2900 minutes. Atari 2600. Tempest 2000. VIC-20. 3DO.

A multiple of 2, a multiple of 3 (optional), and some zeroes. (Quiet down, three-dee-oh.)

The moral of the story? I'm not sure, but in lieu of a moral, all aboard for fun time.

[carlsson]

If Activision had been more "leet", they would have called the game Kab00m!

[zylon]

tandy1000-

 

Gauntlet- 20min

Tetris- 10min

[carlsson]

Arcade:

Defender - 2 min.

Donkey Kong - 2 min.

Frogger - 2 min.

Galaga - 3 min.

Punch Out - 1 min.

Sea Wolf - 2 min.

Space Invaders - 5 min.

Atari 2600:

Track & Field - 4 min.

Atari ST:

Super Hang-On - 3 min.

C64:

B.C.'s Quest For Tires - 45 min.

Donald Duck's Playground - 5 min.

NES/Famicom:

Flipull - 5 min.

Galaga - 5 min.

Super Mario Bros - 15 min.

Super Mario Bros 3 - 4 min.

PC DOS:

Stunts / 4D Sports - 105 min.

Odyssey^2 / Videopac G7000:

Turtles - 45 min.

This week we had a local gaming event. Unlike otherwise when I carefully count the clock to get the exact minutes, this time the above times are rough estimates, but should be fairly accurate. All the arcade games were played through MAME in a tournament, and the short play times simply are because I sucked at almost all of them, with the exception of Space Invaders. While the others were playing their rounds, I split my time between the B.C. game and Turtles, which is a new encounter to me, and I quite enjoyed it.

The lot of playtime on Stunts is due to I got a new miniature computer that can be set up like a PC, and it took me 20+ years back in time to a period when we played a lot of Stunts and also did a lot of hex editing of the car data files, to change the properties of top speed, acceleration, braking, steering etc for the various cars. This time around though, I spend my minutes on playing instead of trying to hack the game.

Edited April 13, 2014 by carlsson

[+Ripdubski]

My Week, won't get to play tomorrow.

 

Atari 8:

Alleycat 15

Atari 2600:

Asteroids 20

Casino 10

Barnstorming 5

BMX Air Master 15

Chopper Command 5

Donkey Kong 2

Fatal Run 5

Gran Prix 10

Gyruss 30

Keystone Kapers 15

Skiing 5

SkyJinks 5

Space Invaders 10

Track And Field 10

[karokoenig]

Atari 2600

Asteroids: 10 min

Atlantis: 12 min

Flash Gordon: 110 min

Frogger: 7 min

Jungle Hunt: 6 min

River Raid: 6 min

 

NES

Mega Man 3: 5 min

Tiger Heli: 18 min

 

SNES

Super Ghouls`n Ghosts: 6 min

 

Mega Drive

Beast Wrestler: 4 min

Chuck Rock: 5 min

Super Hydlide: 85 min

Thunderforce IV: 15 min

Virtua Racing: 11 min

 

Game Boy Classic

Fortified Zone: 3 min

Max: 40 min

 

Quite the bag of tricks for my standards. This is the result of my new entertainment center (I showed you the photos) being available to me. The longest playtime, however, went into an emulated game: Flash Gordon for this week's HSC. I don't have the cart, and it's unlikely that I'll ever have it. It's extremely rare over here. The rest of the playtime went mostly into testing the different consoles I have wired together. I'm surprised by Virtua Racing. Picked it up for a buck plus shipping on ebay and would never have thought that it's actully kind of playable.

 

Game Boy recommendation of the week: Max. A late release for the Game Boy. It's a very playable platformer with supertight controls and good level design. A hidden gem - check it out!

 

The Game Boy will probably get some more love in the future. Since we moved, I have time to kill on a 35-minute bus drive to work.

[Atarian7]

Atari 2600

Kaboom!-678 minutes

 

 

High score of the week: 50,623

 

 

[Kurt_Woloch]

Here we are again at the end of this week (April 7th through 13th), where I've played the following games:

 

Arcade:

Funky Fish - 159 min. in 2 sessions

Galaxia - 18 min.

Itazura Tenshi - 52 min.

Malzak - 34 min. in 2 sessions

 

Emerson Arcadia:

Funky Fish - 39 min.

 

This week I sort of "completed" the arcade version of Funky Fish by playing it on MAME with state save, so that I could rapidly start a game shortly before a point where I lost a life. That way I played up to Round 10 using both sessions where on the 2nd session I used the state of the first where I left off at Level 7. Level 7 gets pretty hard, you usually can't survive more than a few seconds. However, after that it doesn't seem to get harder, the fruits are always bananas and the normal rounds with even numbers are followed by rounds with odd numbers where your fish has the "tongue" like in Round 3, but considerably harder. Actually, I found Funky Fish to be somewhat similar to Wizball, another side scroller where you also have to first blow up something and then catch the remainings in order to progress. Even the sound when you blow up is similar.

 

I also replayed the Emerson Arcadia version of Funky Fish which has got considerably less variation and simply gets harder in the enemies getting faster and faster. I reached Round 6 there which takes about 18 minutes due to a generally slower progress and game pace.

 

Itazura Tenshi is a game I found on Youtube where you are a fairy and try to complete the signs in the sky by touching all the stars that belong to a sign. As usual, you get chased by various enemies like a witch which tries to undo your progress as long as you haven't completed a sign. It's somewhat similar to Bosconian.

 

Malzak is a clone of Scramble on different, 2650-based hardware originating in New Zealand. I learned that those arcade machines had lots of wires in them, and actually they put together different chips to produce the graphics... a Teletext chip for displaying score and alphanumeric characters, something else (I don't know what) to display the scrolling 16x16 playfield tiles, and two (!) 2636 graphics chips as used in the Interton and Radofin consoles, only that those consoles only had one such chip. Each 2636 chip generates 4 8x10 sprites and one sound channel while the background grid (similar to an Odyssey^2, but with a bit finer resolution) and score display capabilities don't get used. So actually, the video output of four sources gets mixed or overlaid on top of each other, similar to how it was done on the Odyssey^3 / G7400.

 

Similarly, Galaxia is a clone of Galaxian on 2650 hardware. I don't know if it also originated in New Zealand, though, but I think so.

[oyamafamily]

MY WEEK (April 7th-13th):

 

Atari 2600:

1) Mario Bros. - 33 minutes (I'm not used to play it in 2600 version)

2) Flash Gordon - 50 minutes

 

Atari 7800:

1) Xenophobe - 195 minutes (I made the longest video of all)

2) Super Skateboardin' - 14 minutes (Took me some attempts to obtain my best time - 5:04:20)

 

NES:

1) Mario Bros. - 47 minutes (You see how I'm better in comparison with Atari 2600 version)

 

Check out the following videos:

 

1) 2600 Mario Bros. - 125,500 points

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A82I2hjuXBE

 

2) 7800 Xenophobe Novice - 10,480,050 points (divided in 2 parts)

 

3) 2600 Flash Gordon - 240,030 points (for High Score Club)

 

4) 7800 Super Skateboardin' - 5:04:20 (my TOP favorite game, considering Radical Sports Games only)

 

5) NES Mario Bros. Game B - 428,300 points

COMING SOON!

Edited April 13, 2014 by oyamafamily

[oyamafamily]

NES Mario Bros Gameplay Video to watch:

[zylon]

Tandy1000-

 

Silent Service- 1hr 15min

 

5200-

 

Zenji- 25min

Hot Blocks- 35min

[karokoenig]

Tandy1000-

 

Silent Service- 1hr 15min

 

Is that version any good? I am a big fan of the series and played it on about every system I could get my hands on. Never heard about this one.

[BillyHW]

Arcade:

 

Pac-Man (30 min).

 

Android (Not Eligible)

 

Pac-Man Championship Edition (1 hour). Fun game!

[twoquickcapri]

PC (Windows 95/98):
Final Fantasy VII - 520 min

Sega Dreamcast:
San Francisco Rush 2049 - 90 min.

Xbox:
Outrun 2 - 285 min.

[doomwaves]

Perhaps too late?

 

SNES

F-Zero - 30 minutes

 

Gameboy Color

Dragon Warrior Monsters 2: Tara's Adventure - 25 minutes

 

Genny

Ristar - 10 Minutes

Virtua Fighter 2 - 20 Minutes

[+thegoldenband]

My times for the past week:

 

Atari 2600:

Walker - 7 min.

Intellivision:

Old School - 20 min.

NES:

Kid Klown in Night Mayor World - 3 min.

Top Players Tennis - 2 min.

Game Boy:

Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends - 149 min.

Incredible Crash Dummies - 91 min.

Beat Rocky & Bullwinkle, which was mediocre and tricky but still gratifying to take down.

[zylon]

 

Is that version any good? I am a big fan of the series and played it on about every system I could get my hands on. Never heard about this one.

I like it. Controls are good and it loads much faster than some others. it also supports the extra colors for tandy graphics.

My copy came with an extra disk as a backup. The sequel is good too.

 

Played it for 80min today.

Edited April 14, 2014 by zylon

[+thegoldenband]

Here's the summary for Week 15, running from April 7 - 13. We logged 3239 minutes of eligible play, playing 74 games on a total of 18 systems.

Top 10:

1. Kaboom (Atari 2600) - 678

2. Final Fantasy VII (PC (Windows 95/98)) - 520

3. Xenophobe (Atari 7800) - 195

4. Flash Gordon (Atari 2600) - 160

5. Funky Fish (Arcade) - 159

6. Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle (Game Boy) - 149

7. Stunts / 4D Sports (PC (DOS)) - 105

8. Incredible Crash Dummies (Game Boy) - 91

9. San Francisco Rush 2049 (Dreamcast) - 90

10. Super Hydlide (Genesis) - 85

Pre-NES top 10:

1. Kaboom (Atari 2600) - 678

2. Xenophobe (Atari 7800) - 195

3. Flash Gordon (Atari 2600) - 160

4. Funky Fish (Arcade) - 159

5. Itazura Tenshi (Arcade) - 52

6. B.C.'s Quest For Tires (C64) - 45

6. Turtles (Odyssey^2) - 45

8. Funky Fish (Emerson Arcadia 2001) - 39

9. Hot Blocks (Atari 5200) - 35

10. Malzak (Arcade) - 34

Top 10 systems:

1. Atari 2600 (1070)

2. PC (Windows 95/98) (520)

3. Arcade (310)

4. Game Boy (283)

5. PC (DOS) (210)

6. Atari 7800 (209)

7. Genesis (150)

8. NES/Famicom (104)

9. Dreamcast (90)

10. Atari 5200 (60)

Huge week for the VCS, with 22 different games played on the console! True, the lion's share of the time goes to Kaboom -- but all 22 games contributed to cement the Atari 2600's spot high atop the system charts, with more than twice as much time logged as the #2 platform.

[Atarian7]

Atari 2600

Kaboom!-756 minutes

 

 

High score of the week: 100,926

[karokoenig]

Atari 2600

Berzerk: 5 min

California Games: 19 min

Megamania: 20 min

Motorodeo: 23 min

Mouse Trap: 5 min

Skate Boardin': 5 min

Yars' Revenge: 5 min

 

Master System

Astro Warrior: 5 min

 

Mega Drive

Blockout: 9 min

Might and Magic II: 18 min

Zero Tolerance: 60 min

 

Game Boy Classic

Max: 5 min

 

Game Boy Color

R-Type DX: 3 min

Earthworm Jim: 4 min

 

More Mega Drive and a tiny bit of NES coming up next week. I picked up some good stuff on this weekend's flea market. Will testplay it when it's thoroughly cleaned. Need to find an online manual for Might & Magic. Game came with box, but without manual. It looks like it's right up my alley, but I don't get the rules and controls yet.

[carlsson]

C64:

Kickman - 6 min.

Motor Mania - 25 min.

Star Post - 20 min.

Very little gaming this week, just testing a few recent pickups, and testing my uIEC/SD after I resoldered the wires that had come loose.

[Kurt_Woloch]

Here are my times for this past week (yes... yet another week) from April 14th through 20th...

 

Atari 2600:

Obelix - 245 min. in 6 sessions

Omicron - 60 min.

Peter Penguin - 11 min.

Pumuckl I (AKA Zoo Fun) - 6 min.

 

Emerson Arcadia:

Funky Fish - 19 min.

 

NES:

Ultimate Frogger Champion (Demo) - 2 min.

 

Online (non-eligible):

Crash 'n' burn - 113 min.

Milkshake - 33 min. in 2 sessions

 

I started off the week continuing to play Funky Fish on the Emerson Arcadia, but there's not as much variation in it as in the arcade version... I played until Round 6, and all it does is getting faster.

 

Then there were some long sessions of Obelix on the Atari 2600. I managed to somewhat "beat" the game which in this case means I got to Round 4 which seemingly never ends. There's not too much variation in this game either. However, I remember wanting to see it in a local shop back in 1984 when it was advertised in a mag, but the clerk there just said it's a bad game and showed me Asterix instead, which I didn't like.

 

Another game based on a European comic/cartoon character is Pumuckl I, which is a reworking of Panda Chase. For those who don't know, Pumuckl is a Kobold which is normally invisible, except for Mr. Eder who is the only one able to see him, and turns invisible whenever someone else could see him. In the game, Mr. Eder is nowhere to be seen, but Pumuckl's job is to catch animals in the zoo. If you press the button, he becomes invisible for a few seconds. However, he's only able to catch animals while visible, but only able to jump while invisible, so you have to change between the two states to accomplish the goal of catching an anmial and then getting to the exit of that screen. It's actually a pretty bad game, but the theme song of the Pumuckl TV series which ran back in 1984 is at least recognizable, and Pumuckl himself is nicely drawn.

 

There is an advertisement of a whole series of Pumuckl games. The other two games are Lily Adventure, actually a reworked version of Bobby's going home with a female player character, and Peter Penguin. I tried Peter Penguin since I wasn't familiar with that game, and it clearly sets out to be a Pengo clone with some differences... the music already gives it away, although the music didn't appear in Atari's official Pengo port. Other differences are that each starting level is completely filled with blocks with no paths in between, and a level ends if you managed to put the three blocks together in a row. However, the penguins are badly drawn, badly flickering and always seen from the back. Actually, the game seems to borrow some code from Atari's Pac Man... the dying sound is very similar, and so is the scoring band at the bottom. Maybe you could say that this game is to Atari's Pengo what Atari's Pac Man is to Atari's Ms. Pac-Man. This makes a bit of sense considering Pac-Man and Pengo ran on very similar hardware in their original arcade form.

 

Speaking of arcade games, I visited the Vienna Prater yesterday and also every arcade that still contains video games. There are only 3 such arcades left with maybe 40-50 games in them, while back in 1980 or 1981 there were about 17 arcades which had gone down to 7 by 1990. The games left are all 3D games, nearly all of them racing games. The earliest ones I saw was, I think, Ridge Racer (which was turned off due to the high amusement tax here), Daytona USA and Suzuka 8 hours, which is the earliest game and the only one not featuring texture-filled polygons. There are no classic 2D games left, not even the biggest hits like Pac Man and Frogger.

 

Speaking of Frogger, I played a NES Frogger homebrew, but it's only a 1-level demo version which ends after the first level, hence the short playing time.

 

For my fix of 3D games, I played Milkshake and Crash'n'burn, which for an online game is actually pretty good and rich and also has a pretty big map, nearly comparable to one of the islands of GTA 3.

 

Finally, I also replayed Omicron on the Atari 2600, but I didn't manage to go over 600 points.

[oyamafamily]

MY WEEK (April 14th-20th):

 

Atari 2600:

1) Elk Attack (Prototype) - 60 minutes

2) Fatal Run - 4 minutes

3) Galaxian - 22 minutes

4) Gravitar - 1 minute

5) INV+ (Homebrew) - 20 minutes in several sessions

6) James Bond 007 - 1 minute

7) Pac-Man Arcade (Functional, Graphical and Audio Hack of Ms. Pac-Man) - 40 minutes

8. Sorcerer's Apprentice - 4 minutes

 

Atari 7800:

1) Galaga - 195 minutes in several sessions for 7800 HSC Season 7

 

Check out the following videos:

 

1) 2600 Elk Attack: Round 1 - Score 1,000,000 points (Rolled The Score)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2YTd-xVOTg

 

2) 2600 Pac-Man Arcade - Score 336,870 points

 

3) 7800 Galaga Advanced - Score 610,000 points

[+Ripdubski]

My week:

 

Atari 2600 Jr. Pac-Man 5m

Atari 2600 Keystone Kapers 20m

Atari 2600 Pitfall 12m

Atari 2600 River Raid 10m

Atari 2600 Summer Games 10m