What have you actually PLAYED tracker for 2015 (Season 8)

[Skippy B. Coyote]

^Eh, I posted somewhat earlier than usual, so you know what -- I'll edit it in. Shouldn't take too long at all.

 

BTW the other option when folks miss the deadline is to just count the gameplay times with the following week -- we've done that a ton of times.

 

EDIT: Done!

Aww, thanks goldenband!

Normally I'm really good about getting my times in on time, but I ended up coming down with a stomach bug over the weekend and have been spending a lot of time trying to sleep it off. If something like this happens again at some point in the future though I'll just lump two weeks worth of time together like you suggested. Thanks again for adding me to last week though!

 

And oh, I've got some good news for this week! That "very special (and very Centipede related)" thing I mentioned last week is scheduled to arrive on Wednesday, and I'll also be getting a properly working Atari 2600 Vader system in the mail that day too. Just two more days and I can finally get back to playing all of those awesome 2600 games that aren't on the Flashback 2!

[carlsson]

So all in all, have we reached 70 different systems this season? We were up to 58 in the beginning of July, but it seems a number of lesser played systems have emerged since then.

[+thegoldenband]

It looks like we're up to 73 different systems, so yes! (Assuming the subtotaling function in my spreadsheet program -- which I've never used before -- worked properly, that is.)

[SiLic0ne t0aD]

Just picked up Christmas Carol CIB for Intellivision a couple days ago, -35 minutes playtime total today.

 

I need to memorize the patterns better.. I was 1 present away from moving onto level 13, with a score of 961..

I love cutscenes and the music especially.. the AY-3-8914 really shines on this game! The low-end sounds heavenly when piped through an old Technics receiver.

Edited September 22, 2015 by SiLic0ne t0aD85

[karokoenig]

Atari 2600

Gravitar: 37 min

Jungle Hunt: 12 min

Solar Fox: 3 min

 

NES

Gauntlet II: 5 min

Ghengis Khan: 10 min

Pac Man (Tengen): 8 min

Pinball Quest: 1 min

Super Mario 2: 10 min

Wizardry: 2 min

 

Mega Drive

Ms Pac Man: 10 min

Spiderman: 3 min

 

PC (DOS)

Silent Hunter: 510 min

 

Some more variety this week, as I was finally able to clean and test a few of the NES and Genesis games I scored in a big lot. Some Genesis games work just fine on my Mega Drive, some seem to have a software region lock. They tell me the cart is only for US NTSC consoles. Anyone an idea how to circumvent this? An adapter module didn't work. I also have a Genesis Game Genie. Would I be able to program that thing to make the NTSC games work? I'd rather not try to mod my console. Too bad at soldering...

[+thegoldenband]

Some Genesis games work just fine on my Mega Drive, some seem to have a software region lock. They tell me the cart is only for US NTSC consoles. Anyone an idea how to circumvent this? An adapter module didn't work. I also have a Genesis Game Genie. Would I be able to program that thing to make the NTSC games work?

Absolutely! The only caveat is that you can't save your game through a Game Genie. Here's a list of bypass codes that will get around region lockout in most games.

[karokoenig]

Thanks for the link and tips. That caveat is a huge one, though... Among the region locked games are Phantasy Star 3 and 4, as well as a few other lesser known RPGs. I doubt I can play through those in one sitting :-).

 

Ah well. At least I should be able to play a few rounds of Rocket Knight Adventures.

[Atarian7]

Atari 2600

Kaboom!- 745 minutes

 

 

High score of the week: 336,473

 

 

[oyamafamily]

ONLY 2 games played this week for Atari 2600:

1) Gravitar - 25 minutes (final game of 2600 NEW High Score Club Season 4).

My prediction is to end Season 4 on 7th place at the end of Gravitar contest.

 

2) Buck Rogers: Planet of Zoom - 75 minutes.

NEW high score obtained by me - 1,304,926 points (with video and statistical table)

[carlsson]

Amiga AGA/ECS:

Super Skidmarks - 6 min.

Microbee 32:

Hopper - 4 min.

NES:

Duck Hunt - 3 min.

Super Mario Bros 1 - 3 min.

PET:

Car Race ][ - 14 min.

SNES:

Super Mario World - 4 min.

Nintendo 64:

F-1 World Grand Prix II - 2 min.

Super Mario 64 - 3 min.

So yes, we hosted the local yearly retro gaming event with 58 vendor tables, 33 different gaming systems, 3 exhibitions, 4 competitions, 1 lecturer (two more were planned but had to cancel due to malfunctioning trains and airplanes), 8 crew members, 10+ assistants and about 950 visitors, making the total number of people at the event a bit beyond 1000.

It also meant the week to a good part consisted of play testing, which explains the relative diversity above. I excluded those systems that I just connected, checked so a game would load and run and then left to its fate without really playing through (e.g. C64, VIC-20, MSX, BBC Micro, Super Cassette Vision, Atari 8-bit, Arcadia 2001, Videopac G7000 and more) so in theory I could have listed even more systems with one minute each.

[Kurt_Woloch]

Here are my times for this past week (September 21st through 27th...)

 

Online (non-eligible):

Nonograms - 242 min. in 3 sessions

 

TI-99:

Burger Time - 3 min.

 

There have been hardly any classic games played this week, with the only exception being Burger TIme on the TI-99 which I actually played in order to record its sounds to an MP3. By the way, I'm not really sure if it's "Burger Time" or "Burgertime"... it's even inconsistent in the game itself which says "BURGER TIME" on the selection screen, but "BURGERTIME" on the splash screen in the game itself.

 

Other than that, I've tried to solve some more Nonograms, but I failed nearly each time (on 20x20 or 30x30 Nonograms). I then tried to put the data into an automatic solver in order to see which cells I got wrong.

[Iwantgames:)]

Mega Duck -

 

Arctic Zone - 7min

This game sux Lol, boring and way to easy

 

Bomb Disposer - 20min

Kinda like tetris except to score and finish lvls you have to destroy the bombs

 

Magical Tower - 10min

Not to sure what to think of this one yet

 

Railway - 45min

Fun little game where you gotta build tracks before the train crashes

 

Store Tris - 20min

Basic Tetris clone

 

The Brick Wall - 6min

I don't get this game at all

 

Virus Attack - 15min

Fun Space Invaders clone

 

 

Wonderswan -

 

Puyo Puyo Tsu - 85min

 

 

TI-99/4a -

All games played via Gazoo's multi game carts in remembrance of the Great Gazoo

 

Ambulance - 20min

 

Dig Dug - 5min

 

Henhouse - 10min

 

Killer Katerpiller - 10min

 

Miner 2049er - 25min

 

Munchman - 10min

 

Munchman 2 - 15min

 

Oh Mummy - 20min

 

Pac-Man - 20min

 

Virus Attack - 30min

[Opry99er]

Not a huge week.

 

VCS:

 

GORF: 18 minutes

Worm War I: 30 minutes

Vanguard: 40 minutes

Dolphin: 25 minutes

 

 

 

TI-99/4A:

 

Miner2049er: 15 minutes

Parsec: 20 minutes

Trek (by Adamantyr): 15 minutes

Gravity Run: 10 minutes

Never-Lander: 20 minutes

 

 

Total of 193 minutes of play time...

 

Most of my time this week has been focused on building my new gaming/computer desk.

 

 

 

[BurritoBeans]

"I would like a number three with a side of games, sir"

 

Atari 2600:

Space Attack - 27 minutes

 

BBC Micro:

Elite - 152 minutes

 

Commodore 64:

Creatures - 54 minutes

Creatures 2: Torture Trouble - 41 minutes

Turrican 2 - 53 minutes

 

PC-9801:

Brandish - 201 minutes

 

PC-Engine:

Kato-Chan Ken-Chan - 60 minutes

Kiso Louga II - The Ends of Shangrila - 71 minutes

 

 

Sharp X68000:

Cameltry - 42 minutes

Strider - 82 minutes

 

Virtual Boy:

Mario Tennis - 57 minutes

 

Total time - 840 minutes/14 hours

 

Uhh... I played stuff? Like last week, nothing really to say. I spent a lot of time playing/working on MTG stuff or at a friends house, so I didn't play too many games that fit into this tracker. Oh well, it was fun enough.

[AtarinDave]

Not a huge week.

 

VCS:

 

GORF: 18 minutes

Worm War I: 30 minutes

Vanguard: 40 minutes

Dolphin: 25 minutes

 

 

 

TI-99/4A:

 

Miner2049er: 15 minutes

Parsec: 20 minutes

Trek (by Adamantyr): 15 minutes

Gravity Run: 10 minutes

Never-Lander: 20 minutes

 

 

Total of 193 minutes of play time...

 

Most of my time this week has been focused on building my new gaming/computer desk.

 

Good idea, I may have to do that, too.

[Opry99er]

It is a beast at 8' x 4'...

 

'Twill be home to 3 computers, a CRT and my 3 favorite gaming consoles: VCS, NES, and Genny.

 

The 4th coat of poly is going on RIGHT NOW. 1-2 more coats and we will be in business.

[zylon]

SMS-

 

Columns- 1hr 5min

 

5200-

 

River Raid- 20min

 

GBC-

 

Dragon Warrior III- 13hrs 50min

 

Beat this one today and earned the bonus Sky world, so I'll play around with that while I think about my next game.

Edited September 28, 2015 by zylon

[+thegoldenband]

My times for the week:

 

Arcade:

Arkanoid - 22 min.

Asteroids - 5 min.

Berzerk - 3 min.

Crystal Castles - 10 min.

Final Fight - 50 min.

Galaga - 3 min.

Ikari Warriors - 20 min.

Timber - 11 min.

NES:

Breakthru - 11 min.

SMS:

Andre Agassi Tennis - 5 min.

SNES:

Andre Agassi Tennis - 35 min.

Took a trip to an arcade with my wife and, among other things, beat Final Fight. Thoughts on that, plus Family Feud and the Genesis version of Andre Agassi Tennis, here.

I also managed to play the best game of Arkanoid I've ever played, getting the high score, and the worst game of Galaga I've ever played as an adult (possibly because of bizarrely laggy controls).

Otherwise I just futzed around with a couple other ports of Agassi -- both terrible, though in different ways from the Genesis version -- and played a bit of Breakthru, a reasonably fun side-scrolling vehicle-based shooter for the NES.

[Skippy B. Coyote]

What a week! In terms of video game play time, this week was the second biggest week that our household has had for gaming since we started participating in the tracker. Which I think is pretty fitting, since this week the biggest gaming system we've ever had arrived in the mail!

 

 

 

Ineligible

The Pinball Arcade (Android) - 189 minutes

Arcade

Arkanoid - 26 minutes

Centipede - 150 minutes

Donkey Kong - 34 minutes

Donkey Kong Junior - 9 minutes

Frogger - 28 minutes

Galaga (Fast-Fire Version) - 10 minutes

Gun Smoke - 3 minutes

Juno First - 8 minutes

Millipede - 32 minutes

Ms. Pac-Man - 27 minutes

Ms. Pac-Man (Speed-Up Version) - 45 minutes

Pac-Man - 4 minutes

Phoenix - 25 minutes

Pooyan - 12 minutes

Shao-Lin's Road - 39 minutes

Space Invaders - 17 minutes

Super Breakout - 8 minutes

Xevious - 20 minutes

1942 - 2 minutes

1943: The Battle of Midway - 3 minutes

1943 Kai - 3 minutes

Atari 2600

Battlezone - 34 minutes

Centipede - 8 minutes

Donkey Kong - 23 minutes

Frogger - 29 minutes

Gorf - 46 minutes

Midnight Magic - 51 minutes

Millipede - 14 minutes

Ms. Pac-Man - 41 minutes

Sentinel - 32 minutes

Venture - 15 minutes

Game Boy

Pipe Dream - 37 minutes

NES

Battle Chess - 66 minutes

Freedom Force - 86 minutes

Pinball Quest - 133 minutes

Pipe Dream - 35 minutes

Tetris - 107 minutes

Total Play Time This Week
1,451 minutes (24 hours 11 minutes)

Individual System Play Times This Week

Arcade: 505 minutes

NES: 427 minutes

Atari 2600: 293 minutes

Android: 189 minutes

Game Boy: 37 minutes

 

Usually I take a picture of every game cartridge or disk that was played each week along with the controller it was played with, or the entire system in the case of plug & play consoles, but I don't think I'm going to be dragging the 35 lb. Centipede themed 60-in-1 bartop arcade machine from http://doxcade.com shown above off it's spot on the counter every week for a photo. Suffice it to say, that behemoth is the "very Centipede related" thing that the misses and I had been waiting to get in the mail the last few weeks.

 

The machine itself has been a bit of a mixed bag. On one hand it looks awesome and I've never had as much fun playing Centipede as I have using this bartop arcade machine with it's beautiful 17" LCD monitor and real arcade trackball, but on the other hand I've been finding a lot of the original arcade versions of games that I love the home console ports of to be just too darn difficult to be fun for me. The biggest ones that come to mind are Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Junior, which I adored on the ColecoVision growing up but find the difficulty of their original arcade versions to be way too high to be anything other than an exercise in frustration for me. On the upside of things, I've been having a real blast playing my old arcade favorite Shao-Lin's Road again for the first time in the better part of a decade; and it plays exactly like I remember it. The misses has gotten a bit of fun out of it playing games like Frogger and Ms. Pac-Man that only use the joystick, but unfortunately due to some physical mobility limitations she has it turned out that having the fire buttons located up above the joystick towards the top of the control panel made them just too difficult for her to reach without experiencing some pretty nasty discomfort. She always plays video games with arcade sticks on every system we own (since it's pretty much impossible for her to hold and use a traditional joypad), so we figured that this bartop machine would work perfectly for her; but the higher-than-normal button placement in comparison with the home console arcade sticks that she's used to ended up making it a big NO GO.

 

All in all the arcade machine has been a bit hit and miss, so next week we're going to see if we might be able to order a new control panel for it with the fire buttons relocated to lower down to make it more comfortable for my wife to use. In the meantime, we were finally able to pick up a new and (mostly) working Atari 2600 Vader system this week, and my better half went out and scored a bunch of new NES games to lessen the sting of arcade machine not working out quite as well as we had hoped. What resulted was a much more diverse than usual week of gaming around here, with the NES, Atari 2600, and Arcade (in addition to the ever-present Android version of The Pinball Arcade that I'm always playing on my cigarette breaks) all posting strong times. All things considered it was a pretty good week for gaming.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

P.S. : Freedom Force on the NES rocks beyond measure and may very well be my new favorite pre-32 bit era light gun game!

Edited September 28, 2015 by Jin

[twoquickcapri]

Atari Jaguar:
Downfall! - 90 min.

Sega Genesis:
Lotus Turbo Challenge - 45 min.

SNK Neo Geo MVS:
Metal Slug - 30 min.

[+thegoldenband]

Here's the summary for Week 39, running from September 21 - 27. We logged 5456 minutes of eligible playtime, playing 111 games on a total of 26 systems.

Top 10:

1. Dragon Warrior III (Game Boy Color) - 830

2. Kaboom (Atari 2600) - 745

3. Silent Hunter (PC (DOS)) - 510

4. Brandish (NEC PC-9801) - 201

5. Elite (BBC Micro) - 152

6. Centipede (Arcade) - 150

7. Pinball Quest (NES/Famicom) - 134

8. Tetris (NES/Famicom) - 107

9. Downfall! (Atari Jaguar) - 90

10. Freedom Force (NES/Famicom) - 86

Pre-NES top 10:

1. Kaboom (Atari 2600) - 745

2. Elite (BBC Micro) - 152

3. Centipede (Arcade) - 150

4. Buck Rogers: Planet of Zoom (Atari 2600) - 75

5. Gorf (Atari 2600) - 64

6. Gravitar (Atari 2600) - 62

7. Creatures (C64) - 54

8. Turrican 2 (C64) - 53

9. Midnight Magic (Atari 2600) - 51

10. Ms. Pac-Man (Speed-Up Version) (Arcade) - 45

Top 10 systems:

1. Atari 2600 (1330)

2. Game Boy Color (830)

3. Arcade (629)

4. PC (DOS) (510)

5. NES/Famicom (480)

6. TI-99/4A (248)

7. NEC PC-9801 (201)

8. BBC Micro (152)

9. C64 (148)

10. TG-16/PC Engine (131)

For the fourth week in a row, it's Dragon Warrior III and Kaboom in the top two spots! I don't remember if we've ever had the same top 2 for 4 consecutive weeks, but there they are.

Though the overall numbers may not be as big as we've grown accustomed to lately, we've broken records in a different way, as not one, but TWO games join the 5000-minute club this week. The new inductees are Silent Hunter and Dragon Warrior III, with 5296 and 5210 minutes logged respectively, putting them at #6 and #7 on the all-time list, and making them the eighth and ninth members of the club. The 5000-minute club has more than doubled its size since last year!

Meanwhile our diversity level remains strong, with well over 100 different games contributing this week. Our 26 systems include the first-ever appearance of the Mega Duck handheld, and a rare sighting of the Virtual Boy.

Finally, the arcade version of Centipede joins the 1000-minute club in position #173, with 1182 minutes logged to date. It's now the fifth Centipede release to make the club -- only natural that the original finally finds a home there!

[Opry99er]

Very cool, the diversity...

 

I am basically a two-trick pony these days with the 2600 and the /4A, but I will be expanding my horizons once my game room is set up.

[Shift838]

TI-99/4A

 

Miner 2049er : 93 minutes

Munch Man : 20 minutes

[SiLic0ne t0aD]

Re-Volt - Nintendo 64: 120 minutes

 

Trying to unlock all the cars and tracks.. I used to play this on Dreamcast a lot when I was younger. The N64 version can't touch DC, frame rate is horrible.. extremely choppy. Hoping to get a Dreamcast soon!

[karokoenig]

PC (DOS)

Silent Hunter: 186 min

 

Game Boy Classic

Pop 'n Twinbee: 6 min

Primal Rage: 3 min

Side Pocket: 3 min

 

Not too much time to play this week. The Gameboy games were flea market finds, and nothing really worthwhile. Pop'n Twinbee works ok, but isn't great. The other two are utterly awful.