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

[Darth Link]

Latest session was New Super Mario Bros. Wii, played for two and a half hours, gathered all Star Coins but like 2 in those levels, and finished nearly all the Red Coin challenges, but made the WORST mistake possible, I didn't save...

[+thegoldenband]

Here's the summary for Week 11, running from March 10 - 16. We logged 3820 minutes of eligible play, playing 64 games on a total of 15 systems.

Top 10:

1. Kaboom (Atari 2600) - 924

2. WarpSpeed (SNES) - 392

3. Tetris (NES/Famicom) - 360

4. Mickey Mouse: Magic Wands! (Game Boy) - 244

5. Defender (Atari 2600) - 236

6. Smurfs, The (Game Boy) - 163

7. Vanguard (Atari 2600) - 142

8. Super Monaco GP (Genesis) - 68

9. Threshold (Atari 8-bit) - 65

10. Wall Defender (Atari 2600) - 64

Pre-NES top 10:

1. Kaboom (Atari 2600) - 924

2. Defender (Atari 2600) - 236

3. Vanguard (Atari 2600) - 142

4. Threshold (Atari 8-bit) - 65

5. Wall Defender (Atari 2600) - 64

6. Dig Dug (Atari 2600) - 61

7. Venture (Atari 8-bit) - 60

7. Christmas Carol vs. the Ghost of Christmas Presents (Intellivision) - 60

9. Funky Fish (Arcade) - 47

10. Funky Fish (Emerson Arcadia 2001) - 41

Top 10 systems:

1. Atari 2600 (1527)

2. NES/Famicom (512)

3. SNES (495)

4. Game Boy (407)

5. Atari 8-bit (175)

6. Genesis (169)

7. Atari 5200 (140)

8. PC (Windows 95/98) (105)

9. Arcade (89)

10. Intellivision (60)

In another strong week, nothing can stop the VCS, whose 1527 minutes on the platform -- led by a resurgent Kaboom -- beats out the combined total of the three Nintendo systems at #2-#4.

[Darth Link]

Spent six hours playing Pokemon FireRed, reset the game, and am currently grinding out for EV's to Lv. 35, going Master Quest mode, full Pokedex, all items, etc.)

[karokoenig]

Spent six hours playing Pokemon FireRed, reset the game, and am currently grinding out for EV's to Lv. 35, going Master Quest mode, full Pokedex, all items, etc.)

 

Every bit of participation here is most welcome. But for the sake of clearness, I think thegoldenband would appreciate it a lot if you could post all your playtimes in a post per week instead of isolated bits. That would make it much easier for him to keep track.

[Darth Link]

Sure thing man, I can do that.

[Atarian7]

Atari 2600

Kaboom!-611 minutes

Vanguard-42 minutes

 

 

High score of the week: 89,167

 

It's not such a high score but I had trouble with the same paddles that had been great the week before.

 

[karokoenig]

Atari 2600

Chuck Norris Superkicks: 9 min

Kung-Fu Master: 15 min

Vanguard: 55 min

 

HSC, HSC, HSC.

 

Master System

Alex Kidd in High Tech World: 10 min

Astro Warrior: 5 min

 

These were played on an interesting pirate handheld I picked up at a flea market last sunday. It has a few dozen Master System and Game Gear games. Playtimes were significantly higher than mentioned here, but I couldn't always tell if it's a Game Gear game or a Master System game. Columns, I guess, is the iconic Game Gear one, so if you like, add 15 minutes of that to the Game Gear data.

 

Game Boy Classic

Battleship: 61 min

 

Battleship - again - is a nice time killer while my hunny watches her soap operas. It has a campaign mode. I wonder if I can "beat" it...

[+thegoldenband]

Playtimes were significantly higher than mentioned here, but I couldn't always tell if it's a Game Gear game or a Master System game. Columns, I guess, is the iconic Game Gear one, so if you like, add 15 minutes of that to the Game Gear data.

 

Will do. FWIW some GG games use the exact same ROM as the SMS version, or one changed so little as to be almost indistinguishable. So since we count both systems, if you don't know which one it's drawing from, no need to omit any playtimes -- just take your best guess.

[carlsson]

Channel F:

Pac-Man - 1 min.

Tetris - 3 min.

Very quickly I found that my hand controller has broken. I tried to take it apart, but didn't get any smarter. I will need to measure the signals, perhaps there is a cable break somewhere... duh!

Interton VC4000:

Invaders - 17 min.

Outer Space Combat - 10 min.

Megadrive:

Thunder Force IV - 23 min.

MSX2:

Quarth - 82 min.

New personal record 90830 pts after I blew a session where I gathered a lot of points at an early stage.

Tandy MC-10:

Pac-Man - 11 min.

VIC-20:

Clowns - 16 min.

Motocross Racer - 49 min.

Pole Position - 10 min.

Snakebite - 3 min.

Although non-eligible, I broke my virginity when it comes to playing PS2 games in my own home when I got some Eye-Toy sports game to test the PS2 and Eye-Toy that I picked up last Sunday. Happily both works fine, although I have no plans at all to start collecting for this one.

[AtariBrian]

Atari 5200

 

Koffi : Yellow Kopter - 30 minutes

Lasergates - 15 minutes

Boulderdash - 15 minutes

Zaxxon - 25 minutes

Blueprint - 5 minutes

Berzerk - 45 minutes

Pac-man - 10 minutes

[+cvga]

Vanguard (2600) - 20 minutes

 

I'm not a fan of this game. The concept seems ok but I just don't find it to be fun. Maybe if I had more time to play it, I'd feel differently

[Kurt_Woloch]

Here are my times for this past week (March 17th through 23th)...

 

Arcade:

Funky Fish - 84 min. in 2 sessions

 

I didn't play anything other than this one game because I didn't have much time to play. I had a rehearsal on Friday and a gig at my father's birthday party yesterday and some preparations for that, so that didn't leave much time for gaming.

 

I set the DIP switches to 5 lives and was able to complete round 4, and in round 5 the fruit are actually pineapple, not grapefruit as expected, but they look somewhat similar. It seems that the hardware uses an interesting sprite system involving an 8-color bitmap and a blitter, but no sprites (it's actually Kangaroo hardware).

[carlsson]

Late Sunday night addition:

 

Tandy MC-10:

Space Assault - 6 min.

 

This is a newly ported Tandy CoCo game, with hopefully more CoCo games in the same graphics mode to be converted.

[zylon]

C64-

 

Ardok the Barbarian- 10min

Breakthru- 10 min (using Space for jump sucks)

Turmoil- 20min

Spiderdroid- 15min

Talladega- 15min

 

A8-

 

Green Paras- 20min

Espial- 15min

[+Ripdubski]

My week:

 

Nada, zip, zero. Bad week...

[oyamafamily]

My week (March 17th-23rd, 2014):

 

Atari 2600:

1) Vanguard - 268 minutes

2) Wabbit - 11 minutes

 

Atari 7800:

1) Crossbow - 10 minutes

2) Robotron: 2084 - 154 minutes

3) Planet Smashers - 80 minutes

 

Check out the following videos:

 

1) 2600 Vanguard - 1,000,000 points

 

2) 7800 Planet Smashers Hard Difficulty - 362,025 points

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGIDJOHkR0Y

 

3) 7800 Robotron 2084 Intermediate - 1,103,125 points

 

4) 2600 Wabbit: Games 1-BB (480 points), 1-AA (540 points) and 5-AA (575 points)

Edited March 24, 2014 by oyamafamily

[+thegoldenband]

My times for the week:

 

Odyssey^2:

Pick Axe Pete - 36 min. (best score 203 pts.)

Genesis:

Granada - 148 min. (best score 639,013)

Game Boy:

Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle - 77 min.

Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle 2 - 358 min.

Beat Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle 2 on the Game Boy. That's now the fourth game I've beaten from the series, and it's comfortably the best so far.

SegaAge had a high score contest this week for Granada, a game I know pretty well after beating it a couple years ago on Mania (the highest difficulty). As of this writing I'm in the lead, with only a few minutes left to go, but unfortunately participation was fairly low. Playing for high score definitely made me better at the game, especially since you're only allowed to use the default number of lives, and not allowed to continue. I was able to reach the end of Stage 6, and I think I could make Stage 7 or 8 with practice, but a 1CC of the full game would be tough -- and I have no idea how anyone would 1LC the game, as the time limits get super-tight on Mania.

Otherwise, I also pulled out the Odyssey^2 for the first time in ages. I ended up playing Pick Axe Pete exclusively, and probably got my best score ever at the game. The mechanics are fun, but like many O^2 games it's a bit too repetitive.

Finally, I started working a bit on Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle. After repeatedly getting stuck on the mine stage, I finally broke through, rescued Rocky, and made it most of the way through the moon. A GameFAQs walkthrough claims this is just a reskinned version of Ren & Stimpy: Space Cadet Adventures (which I beat a while back); as far as I can tell that's not true, but it is pretty similar in some ways, though Rocky & Bullwinkle is a weaker effort to be sure. Perhaps both games use the same engine?

[twoquickcapri]

Atari Jaguar:
Tempest 2000 - 90 min.

PC (MS-DOS):
Screamer - 15 min.

PC (Windows 95/98):
MechWarrior 2 (Titanium Edition) - 70 min

[BillyHW]

Haven't had much time to play the last couple of weeks.

Flash (Not Eligible)

 

Robot Unicorn Attack (1 hour). I want to be with you, make believe with you...

[Darth Link]

Not enough time this week, but I did get some in:

 

Galaga (NES). - 390 minutes

 

Star Wars: Tge Force Unleashed (Wii) - 48 minutes

 

Super Metroid (SNES) - 148 minutes

 

Tetris (NES) - 655 minutes

 

Transformers Dark of the Moon: Decepticons (DS) - 103 minutes

 

So yeah, just under a day's worth this week,

[+thegoldenband]

Here's the summary for Week 12, running from March 17 - 23. We logged 3,918 minutes of eligible play, playing 49 games on a total of 21 systems.

Top 10:

1. Tetris (NES/Famicom) - 655

2. Kaboom (Atari 2600) - 611

3. Galaga (NES/Famicom) - 390

4. Vanguard (Atari 2600) - 385

5. Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle 2 (Game Boy) - 358

6. Robotron: 2084 (Atari 7800) - 154

7. Granada (Genesis) - 148

7. Super Metroid (SNES) - 148

9. Tempest 2000 (Atari Jaguar) - 90

10. Funky Fish (Arcade) - 84

Pre-NES top 10:

1. Kaboom (Atari 2600) - 611

2. Vanguard (Atari 2600) - 385

3. Robotron: 2084 (Atari 7800) - 154

4. Funky Fish (Arcade) - 84

5. Planet Smashers (Atari 7800) - 80

6. Motocross Racer (VIC-20) - 49

7. Berzerk (Atari 5200) - 45

8. Pick Axe Pete (Odyssey^2) - 36

9. Koffi: Yellow Copter (Atari 5200) - 30

10. Zaxxon (Atari 5200) - 25

Top 10 systems:

1. NES/Famicom (1045)

2. Atari 2600 (1031)

3. Game Boy (496)

4. Atari 7800 (244)

5. Genesis (171)

6. SNES (148)

7. Atari 5200 (145)

8. Atari Jaguar (90)

9. Arcade (84)

10. MSX2 (82)

If you like things falling down, then this is your week, as the top three games all use gravitational attraction to help send objects in our general direction.

But while Kaboom earns its customary #1 spot on the pre-NES charts, Nintendo's grey box makes the most of every club that'll have it as a member, edging out the Atari on the system charts.

Meanwhile Tetris takes top laurels in the Top 10, and enters the 1000-minute club with 1334 minutes logged to date, making it #75 on the all-time charts. It's also another big week for the tracker, with nearly 4000 minutes logged.

[Atarian7]

Atari 2600

Kaboom!- 523 minutes

 

 

High score of the week: 81,748

 

 

[karokoenig]

Atari 2600

Dig Dug: 22 min

Space Rocks: 15 min

 

C64

Lazy Jones: 25 min

Terra Cresta: 6 min

 

Master System

Aztec Adventure: 5 min

Dragon Crystal: 7 min

Fantasy Zone 2: 3 min

Golden Axe: 4 min

 

Game Boy Classic

Dschungelbuch (Jungle Book): 2 min

Lingo: 3 min

Mystic Quest: 25 min

Pinocchio: 2 min

Splitz: 3 min

 

Game Boy Color

Dexter's Lab: 3 min

Pokemon Puzzle Challenge: 5 min

Star Wars Ep. 1 Racer: 11 min

 

Inspired by a Youtube show by Reinhard Klinksiek, I had to play a round of Lazy Jones on the C64. You may know the guy. He is the one who did all the C64 Longplay videos on YT.

 

The rest of my playtime is HSC (2600), some fiddling around with the pirate handheld I picked up (SMS) and some Gameboy games I picked up for a dime a dozen. The only worthwhile one among the latter is "Mystic Quest". The rest is shovelware.

 

Next week will probably be devoid of gaming. Too much stuff to do. Moving to a new appartment and lots of work on top of it.

[carlsson]

MSX:

Hyper Rally - 21 min.

Knightmare - 24 min.

VIC-20:

Clowns - 10 min.

Metagalactic Llamas - 14 min.

[Kurt_Woloch]

Here are my times for this past week (March 23th through 30th)...

 

Arcade:

Funky Fish - 349 min. in multiple sessions

 

Atari 2600:

Funky Fish - 43 min. in 2 sessions

 

Church Organ (non-eligible - this isn't even a gaming system!):

Amazing Grace (instrumental) - 2 min.

I'm born again (vocal) - 4 min.

Näher mein Gott zu dir (Nearer my God to thee) (vocal) - 4 min.

So nimm denn meine Hände (O take my hand, dear father) (vocal) - 4 min.

Over the rainbow (instrumental) - 4 min.

 

Technics KN-550 keyboard (non-eligible - not a gaming system as well):

Saving all my love for you - 4 min.

 

Apart from playing the organ at the funeral of my grandmother-in-law, I only played one game in two versions, "Funky Fish". I reached round 5 again in the arcade version, but didn't manage to complete Round 2 on the Atari 2600 version because I always get caught by the seahorses there. That version is watered down, but pretty colorful... in fact more colorful than the arcade original since the Atari 2600 supports more colors.

 

For the sake of completeness, I also included the list of songs I played solo this week, but of course, these aren't games, so they aren't eligible for the Top 10. (I played some more songs at a rehearsal of "Helmi's Nightmare")

 

Just for the record, I didn't play the Emerson Arcadia version of "Funky Fish" this week. I also didn't play "Send in the clowns", nor "Am Brunnen vor dem Tore", "Leatherwing bat" or "I know an old lady", since I'm neither Thomas Quasthoff nor Judy Collins.