What have you actually PLAYED tracker for 2018 (Season 11)

[Opry99er]

I have an old pocket watch hanging from a nail on my wall in my office. When we go in to play, we have a look-see at the time, then take another look before switching games or shutting it all down for the day.

 

Pretty lo-tech... but it works. We always round to the nearest 5 minutes.

[carlsson]

I've got my retro systems next to my PC so nearly all gaming I do, I am running the computer besides to write down starting and ending times and calculating exact minutes. It might seem like a waste of electricity but often I don't play games for hours non-stop so I have use of having the PC ready inbetween games anyway.

[Eltigro]

One reason I like the stopwatch feature on my phone is that I'm rarely able to play uninterrupted. I start it up, play, then when I have to go take out the garbage or whatever, I can just tap the stop button. Then when I come back, I just tap the start button and keep going. Seems easier than writing down times off a clock for when I got up and when I sat back down. Then at the end, when I'm finished playing that game for the day, I just have one time to write down. If that makes any sense... I mean, I guess I could just not worry about the extra five minutes it takes to do whatever it is I'm going to do, but when I'm actually timing (and not being lazy) I like it to be a little more accurate.

 

Same with the writing it down in a spiral. Seems easier and faster for me to quickly jot it down with pen and paper than type it into a word program or notepad or anything.

 

Interesting to see people's methods though.

 

Oh, and it was mentioned the 3DS has that time played screen or whatever. I forgot, because I haven't played it in a while, but the Wii has that, too. I've used that to track playtime when I've played it.

[+wongojack]

Yeah, I've used the Wii summary to report my times before as well. That is a handy feature.

 

Generally, my method is to keep a running OneNote file on my phone. I typically just glance at the clock and remember the minutes of when I started playing a game. "10:25 ok . . . 25." Then when I'm done, I look back at the clock and write the total minutes down in OneNote. Occasionally, I note the start time if I know I am going to play for a while. As for breaks to take a dump or clean up a dog's dump, I usually just subtract a little at the end. Sometimes, I will include time that I spent reading the manual or reviewing a guide in my overall gametime.

 

As for adding up the time . . . I'm not so great with math in my head, so if I am at home, this often ends up being a quiz for Alexa to figure out the difference and add the last session to the previous time (if there is any). "Hmm, I stopped at 12:08. Alexa, what is 68 minus 25 . . ." Or I shockingly use a lot of common core math. "Two hours would be 120 mins, so it is 120 minus 17 (25 - 8) or 103. Alexa, what is 103 plus 89?"

 

I have used spreadsheets, but I don't always have the laptop running and with me while gaming, so I'm sure I've made mistakes with these methods - oh well.

[+thegoldenband]

I track my times on a piece of scrap paper -- often the envelope or cover letter of some random junk mail -- and then enter it into a text file on my laptop, either at the end of the day or the end of the week. I have logs of all my gameplay going back to 2010, except modern systems I've just started logging (and seldom play anyway).

 

It can be a pain at times, but I like the discipline involved in being mindful about the time I spend gaming; it's one of the few areas of my life where I've ever successfully self-imposed a voluntary routine!

[carlsson]

Someone should raise a Kickstarter campaign for a handheld combined timer and logging device for people like us... well, perhaps there is a smartphone app that actually does both?

[Atarian7]

I use scrap paper like thegoldenband or one of those notepads that come with charities asking for money. I write down the time when I start and when I end. If I get interrupted I estimate how much

time I was away and subtract that from my time.

[karokoenig]

One day in a few hundred or thousands of years, when no one on this planet can read .doc or .xls anymore, those scraps of paper might become incredibly valuable historical documents.

[carlsson]

The archeaologists of the day will argue whether this was a prayer to someone's god, instructions to go to war or just meaningless scribbling.

 

Atari 2600

Kaboom! - 175 minutes

Shark Attack - 5 minutes

Raft Rider - 201 minutes

Pele's Soccer - 12 minutes

Lost Luggage - 19 minutes

Hunchy 2 - 21 minutes

(sorry Atarian7 for using your posting as an example)

[digdugnate]

adding to the convo about recording- i use a combination stopwatch on my phone and then paper

 

a lot of times my times end up being round numbers because i tell myself 'you have xxx minutes to play xxx game at a time'.

[Eltigro]

The archeaologists of the day will argue whether this was a prayer to someone's god, instructions to go to war or just meaningless scribbling.

 

 

Transcripts from an Atari themed beat poetry slam...

[+thegoldenband]

Here's the summary for Week 25, running from June 18 - 24. We logged 4453 minutes of eligible play, playing 63 games on a total of 16 systems.

Top 10:

1. Parasite Eve (PlayStation) - 522

2. Alien 3 (Game Boy) - 297

3. Punky Skunk (PlayStation) - 257

4. Knockout Kings 2000 (N64) - 240

5. Super Mario Bros. 3 (NES/Famicom) - 225

6. Scooby-Doo! Classic Creep Capers (Game Boy Color) - 211

7. Machaon (VG 5000) - 206

8. Raft Rider (Atari 2600) - 201

9. Kaboom (Atari 2600) - 175

10. Pad [NRV] (Atari 8-bit) - 152

Pre-NES top 10:

1. Machaon (VG 5000) - 206

2. Raft Rider (Atari 2600) - 201

3. Kaboom (Atari 2600) - 175

4. Pad [NRV] (Atari 8-bit) - 152

5. River Raid (Atari 2600) - 132

6. Solar Fox (Atari 2600) - 93

7. Pole Position (Atari 5200) - 55

8. Microprose Soccer 2010 (C64) - 52

9. Popeye (TI-99/4A) - 45

10. Metagalactic Llamas (Atari 8-bit) - 43

Top 10 systems:

1. Atari 2600 (916)

2. PlayStation (779)

3. NES/Famicom (510)

4. Game Boy (445)

5. N64 (440)

6. VG 5000 (221)

7. Atari 8-bit (213)

8. Genesis (212)

9. Game Boy Color (211)

10. Sega Master System (112)

Just as with last week, we have Parasite Eve at the top of the individual charts, while the Atari 2600 is the hottest system. However there's an interesting twist on the pre-NES top 10, as the seldom-seen VG 5000 earns a #1 placement thanks to Machaon, which just edges out Raft Rider at #2.

With two weeks at #1 it's no surprise that Parasite Eve also reaches the 1000-minute club, with 1160 minutes logged to date that earn it spot #331 and a set of cufflinks.

(Oh, and: “Pound pastrami, can kraut, six bagels—bring home for Emma.” Or, if you prefer: "Quant suff! Quant suff!")

[Opry99er]

Interesting. The VCS did not have a single game in the top 7 (!!) but still manages to take the system crown for yet another week.

 

Didn't see that coming

[Opry99er]

Fun week for me!

 

 

Weekday times (Monday-Friday)

 

 

NES:

 

Super Mario Bros 2 (45 minutes)

Super Mario Bros 3 (90 minutes)

Tetris (360 minutes)

 

 

N64:

 

Knockout Kings 2000 (120 minutes)

 

 

TI-99/4A:

 

Alpiner (120 minutes)

Popeye (60 minutes)

 

 

VCS:

 

Atlantis (10 minutes)

Missile Command (20 minutes)

 

 

 

Tetris got my brain whacked out now.... . Every night after work I'm fuzzing out on some Russian blocks until I get tired.

 

 

I'm going for an Alpiner record right now on the TI-99/4A, but have only managed 35k.... not quite there just yet.

[+chue]

TI-99/4A:

Popeye - 1 hour

 

Trying to break 100K score for the TI game contest, but only getting to 60K for today.

[oyamafamily]

ATARI 2600

Draconian - 19 minutes (for my participation on 2600 Homebrew Tournament 2018)

Space Invaders Invasion (Megamania hack) - 50 minutes

Tunnel Runner - 1 minute (for my participation points on 2600 NEW HSC Season 7, final round)

[digdugnate]

pretty good week for me, all things considered.

 

Atari 2600:

 

Galaxian - 33 minutes

Berzerk - 16 minutes

 

SNES:

 

Smash TV - 10 minutes

Super Mario All Stars - 10 minutes

Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past - 25 minutes

[Kurt_Woloch]

Here are my times on classic games for this past week (June 25th through July 1st)...

 

Arcade:

A.P.B. (All Points Bulletin) - 90

 

Atari 2600:

Amoeba Jump (WIP) - 11 min.

Frostbite - 15 min.

Poodle Jump (WIP) - 11 min.

Seaquest - 25 min.

Zaxxon - 9 min.

 

Atari 7800:

Baby Pac-Man (WIP) - 105 min., in 4 sessions

Spirit of the ancients - 2 min.

 

Commodore 64:

David's Midnight Magic - 83 min. in 2 sessions

David's Midnight Magic II - 25 min.

Moonwalker - 52 min.

 

This week I'Ve played quite an assortment of different games. I played the latest build of Baby Pac-Man on the Atari 7800 which now features colored mazes, and, inspired by that I replayed the C-64 classic David's Midnight Magic as well as its sequel which actually is a hack of the original version with improved graphics and music.

 

Then I tried the C-64 version of Moonwalker. The home computer versions have been made by U.S. Gold and are very different from Sega's version for its consoles and its arcade machine. In the home computer versions, the first two levels are large scrolling overhead mazes where you have to pick up various objects shown on a map while avoiding enemy robots. The 2nd level is structured a bit differently, however, since after clearing the first part of the maze, you transform into a car and then quickly have to pass over to the next part of the maze, but if you fail to do that, you lose a life and have to start over. I find this game more frustrating than Sega's version, and even though the programmers claim in an interview that they put out the best they could do, it still doesn't quite feel like an exiting and challenging game. What doesn't help is that the game is a multi-loader tape, and if you fail at Level 2, you have to rewind the tape and pretty much restart the loading process, waiting a few minutes for the game to restart. Also, while they programmers claim they were required to put in "all of the music", in fact they only play snippets of Michael Jackson's songs.

 

Then I replayed the original version of A.P.B. getting pretty far using continues, but there's a point I can't pass, I think it's Day 12 or so.

 

On the Atari 2600, I replayed Coleco's Zaxxon and Activision's Seaquest (after I managed to remember its name) and Frostbite.

 

And then I looked at some WIP's from this site... Spirit of the ancients on the Atari 7800 is inspired by Dungeon Master, but I couldn't quite find out what to do. And then there are "Poodle Jump" and "Amoeba Jump" which are both derived from the phone app "Doodle Jump" and, as simplicistic as they are, I actually wonder why this seems to be the first "demake" of this game since a similar version could also run on the Channel F or Odyssey^2 systems.

[carlsson]

Atari 8-bit:

Pad [NRV] - 13 min.

MSX1:

Butamaru Pants - 25 min.

Galaga - 9 min.

Malaika Prehistoric Quest - 16 min.

Road Fighter - 12 min.

Sky Jaguar - 9 min.

Super Boy II - 4 min.

Turboat - 22 min.

Odyssey^2 / Videopac G7000:

Bowling - 9 min.

Tutankham - 4 min.

This week (June 27 to be exact) was the 35th "birthday" of the MSX standard, which I celebrated with playing a bunch of games. Beyond that, the usual Atari 8-bit HSC plus that I brought out my poor Videopac G7000. I tried to install a power switch, but before I realized how a power switch is wired, I had killed the ZX Spectrum PSU connected to the console (by short circuiting 9V and GND for several seconds). After measuring the pins on the power switch, I learned how to actually wire it, though it is a dull one that only switches on when it is not fully toggled so I'll replace it eventually. At least my Mega Drive PSU didn't burn out... To make matters worse, this G7000 doesn't have original controllers but instead two DE9 connectors wired for the Atari standard. However there seems to be some bad wires in the cables, so not all directions and fire button work properly. Besides I didn't really have any game to test controller #2 fully. Over time, I might replace the cables entirely, if the existing ones have intermittent breakage in the wires.

[Iwantgames:)]

Not too much classic gaming, most of my time this week was on iPhone due to being in the Hospital with the misses due to pneumonia. Hoping it clears up soon :/

 

CDi -

7th Guest - 70min

Battleship - 40min

Defender of the Crown - 10min

Laser Lords - 10min

[agb]

Atari River Raid for the HSC 94 minutes. Was always a favorite of mine cant believe how high the scores were this week.

Atari 2600 Solar Fox 93 mins.

Atari Tunnel Runner. For next weeks HSC. 2 mins. Not sure I understand how to play it yet.

[Eltigro]

Not a lot of classic gaming for me this week...

 

Sega Genesis

MUSHA (emulated via PSP) - 5 min (Was just going through and messing around on my PSP. This is such a great game, but I don't think the controls on the PSP are quite up to it... or maybe it's me... lol)

Truxton (split about evenly between PSP and real hardware/cart) - 30 min (Well, I played more than just 15 min this time, and I still suck! lol... but anyway, I did get a little farther and was able to get past some of the little mid-bosses or whatever a little easier now, but it's still a rough game. I did notice an issue with my Genesis Arcade Stick, though... sometimes, when I'm moving left and let go of the stick to stop, my ship keeps moving left. So I may need to take it apart and give it a clean.)

[zylon]

5200-

 

Pole Position- 2hrs 12min

 

C64-

 

River raid- 15min

 

2600-

 

River Raid- 25min

[+thegoldenband]

My times for the week:

SMS:

Andre Agassi Tennis - 104 min.

Great Tennis (JPN) - 5 min.

Super Tennis - 33 min.

Toto World 3 - 81 min.

Atari Lynx:

Blue Lightning - 87 min.

Jimmy Connors Tennis - 22 min.

Went back and did a 1CC of Toto World 3, since credit-feeding my way through it last week felt wrong (though the bottleneck was really just one level + boss). Then I also beat Super Tennis on the highest difficulty setting, and Blue Lightning for the Lynx, which I'd started last year.

Otherwise I tried two tennis games named after real-world players. One's a legend, the other's a punk.

[karokoenig]

Otherwise I tried two tennis games named after real-world players. One's a legend, the other's a punk.

 

I wonder which is which :-).