What have you actually PLAYED tracker for 2022 (Season 15)

[carlsson]

Arcade:
Spy Hunter II - 6 min.

 

Commodore 64:
Up 'n Down - 2 min.

 

Colecovision:
Mousetrap - 3 min.
Rocky - 1 min.
Turbo - 2 min.
Zaxxon - 2 min

.

Fairchild Channel F:
Dodge It - 4 min.
Hockey - 2 min.

 

MSX1:
Knightmare - 4 min.

 

Odyssey^2/Videopac:
Dynasty! - 1 min.
K.C. Munchkin! - 4 min.

 

A bit unusual selection, which is due to we had a weekend for inventory and testing systems for our upcoming retro gaming expo. Spy Hunter II was played on Midway Arcade Treasures 2 for the Xbox, which seems to be good enough emulations. Most of the games I only played long enough to verify that controllers operate as expected. I didn't get steering in Turbo to work, but perhaps it requires a steering wheel controller, not playable with the regular hand controller?

 

As expected, we encountered a series of various issues and it seems that vintage consoles and computers should be used at least once per year in order to ensure their operation. Systems with batteries, hard drives, risky capacitors etc should be checked even more regularly. The inventory continues next weekend and hopefully we are able to repair a few of those that didn't work.

[Kurt_Woloch]

Here are my times for, unfortunately, the last two weeks on classic systems (August 22nd through September 4th, 2022). I couldn't find time to post last Sunday because I was doing a livestream on Youtube, the replay of which can be found here:

 

 

Arcade:
Pepper II - 28 min.

 

Handheld:
Game & Watch: Mario's Cement Factory (New wide screen) - 60 min. in 3 sessions

 

These two weeks, I played Pepper II again, but didn't get as far as the 1st time aronud. Also, I replayed Mario's Cement factory which I haven't played for a longer time now, but didn't get as far as I thought I would. The games still took some time since they only advance at a pace of about 20-25 points per minute.

 

[agb]

PS one

Driver 2 - 34 mins

Space Invaders 18 mins

 

Atari 2600

Gran Prix for FB HSC 33 mins

Kaboom 12 mins  HS over 4,900

Solar Fox 37 mins

 

All fun.

[+thegoldenband]

Nothing for me this week, alas! I'll try to get back to Ultimate Stuntman or Ayakashi no Shiro this coming week.

[TheGameCollector]

This week I played:

 

Pokemon Yellow Version for Game Boy Color - 258 minutes

 

Progress:

I completed the 6th gym and have 107 caught in my Pokedex.

[Atarian7]

Atari 2600

Kaboom! - 62 minutes

Midnight Magic - 5 minutes

Mr. Do! - 2 minutes

Off The Wall - 25 minutes

Solar Fox - 82 minutes

 

 

[+wongojack]

Amiga

SWIV 80

Amiga AGA

Slam Tilt 93

Uridium 2 113

 

Arcade

Return of the Jedi 20

 

Atari 7800

1942 (wip) 25

 

C64

Outlaws 229

Uridium 88

 

Intellivision

BurgerTime 195 (p.b. 61,400)

Dreadnaught Factor, The 624

Gm 4 (p.b. 9320)

Gm 5 (p. b.8825)

Gm 7 (p.b. 3836)

 

NES

Last Starfighter 34

 

Wow - there is a lot to say this week as I competed in multiple HSCs and really pushed myself on a few games.  A loose theme here would be games where you destroy dreadnaughts or strafe the surface in aircraft.  Early in the week, I kept going with RotJ which certainly does this, but I quickly moved on to playing The Dreadnaught Factor in the Intellivsion HSC.  I love this game, but I've never made this type of commitment to it in a short amount of time.  I'm still going for my first ever victory on game 5, but I set personal bests in games 4, 5, and 7 as part of the competition.  I can't believe this game didn't get ported and spun out to different systems, and I would LOVE to play a modern remake.

 

At some point in the week, I realized, I'd been strafing dreadnaughts for weeks now with my previous week's gametime in 1942/3 and Uridium, so I doubled down.  I played more 1942 and tried Uridium, Uridium 2, Last Starfighter (a Uridium re-skin), and Hyper Sentinel.  I really don't understand how anyone thinks the original Uridium is fun.  It is a very impressive looking C64 game, but you have to be a very specific type of 80's gamer to really get good at that one.  Uridium 2 however has a nice amount of options and keeps the deaths that aren't your fault to a minimum.  I think I like this one even better than the modern remake Hyper Sentinel which got some more love from me this week in the modern section.

 

A note about BurgerTime.  I posted my thoughts about the Intellivision version of the game here.  Despite achieving a personal best, I don't think I ever want to play this version again - lol.  There's even a Super Chef Burger Time homebrew to play on Intellivision, so I think I will play that or some other version (arcade).  An interesting note is that during the competition, one AtariAge member achieved a score of 991k which he Twitch streamed.  It's one of the best recorded performances of Inty BurgerTime ever.

 

Finally <gag> Outlaws.  Why, oh why, did I play this?  I watched a video that was a history of the 80s game company Ultimate Play the Game which basically went on to become Rare.  The creator (Kim Justice) claimed that Outlaws was the worst UPtG title.  THEN, I discovered they were playing this game in the C64 HSC over on Lemon 64, so I had to give it a try.  The game isn't THAT bad.  It is certainly a good choice for a HSC.  It does some interesting things with the old west theme.  Notably, it manages to create a real sense of tension as you ride through town hunting down outlaws that will kill you in less than 2 seconds if you're not fast enough on the draw.  There's also an unexpected moral component as you often end up accidentally murdering many of the townspeople.  It can be quite infuriating though if you don't put all the pieces together just right.  I found myself yelling quite a bit as I failed to put the pieces all together for even the 2nd sequence of tasks.  Definitely not the worst, but I doubt this one will ever get booted up again.

 

 

***Ineligible***

My modern gaming is almost entirely classic adjacent . . .

 

Browser Based

• Crossy Road 4
• Retro Bowl 316

via Pico 8 (fantasy console)

• Demon Attack 25

via Voxatron (fantasy console)

• Red 10

PC

• Hyper Sentinel 119

 

Looking for a mobile game called "Retro Bowl," I discovered some websites that offer browser based game libraries.  The first was Poki where I started playing Retro Bowl and browsing other games in the library.  I then discovered that there are a number of places making Retro Bowl available in the browser and chose this github page's implementation:  unblocked1889 (unblocked1889) (github.com).  I can't decide if this is safe or not, but I'm rolling with it.  I found multiple other github projects trying to do the same thing, so maybe they pop up and get shut down.  I dunno.  I could always play on my phone, but that's less fun for me.

 

Next up, I discovered the concept of a "Fantasy Console."  Pico 8 and Voxatron are software implementations of a resource restricted console that runs on virtual carts.  I think this is a neat idea.  I discovered that many of the creators just make their games playable in the browser on itch.io or other websites.  Here's that version of Demon Attack for your enjoyment.  This is exactly the type of stupid things that I should NOT be playing between meetings, but I will anyway.

 

Finally Hyper Sentinel.  More dreadnaughts, so this fits the bill for that, and I started playing on the "Retro" difficulty which adds the oh so fun element of letting you bang into stuff.  Thanks!

 

 

[onlyinajeep]

MS-DOS

Jones in the Fast Lane - 250 min

[DragonGrafx-16]

C64

Zeta Wing - 12 mins

Defender - 4 mins

Beamrider - 14 mins

[Skippy B. Coyote]

Just a few Atari 2600 High Score Club games for me this week!

 

Atari 2600
Midnight Magic - 144 minutes 
Mr. Do! - 10 minutes
Off The Wall - 61 minutes

[+jgkspsx]

Arcade:

 

Gaplus - 20 minutes

I am not good at this.

 

 

Atari 2600:

Midnight Magic - 45 minutes

 

 

Mr Do - 10 minutes

Off the Wall - 30 minutes

 

 

Atari 7800:

 

Asteroids - 75 minutes for an Evercade HSC

bon*Q - 15 minutes

 

 

LCD Handheld:

 

Tiger Stix: Meeba - 20 minutes.

I just cannot figure this one out. Maybe it’s broken or maybe I don’t know what I’m supposed to do. I do have the manual so maybe I should look at that…

 

Nintendo Game Boy:

 

Astro Rabby - 25 minutes

like a demo for the Virtual Boy’s fantastic cancelled but complete game Bound High, especially with the color palette I was using:

 

 

Nintendo Game Boy Color:

 

Power Quest - 20 minutes

I got a terrible AtGames Game Gear/Master System handheld full of great Game Gear and Master System games for a young relative whose mother was a big Game Gear gamer as a child. It’s decent enough for a kid. I had to quality control it first, though  

 

Sega Game Gear:

Sonic Chaos - 15 minutes of co-playing with my relative. I handled the d pad and she did the jump.

Sonic Drift 2 - 5 minutes of a dwindling attention span

Ristar - 20 minutes of blessed quiet at home alone before bringing the “gift” over. I can’t believe they pulled that off on the Game Gear.

Tails Adventure - 20 minutes of my explaining to my young relative why ducks are evil.
 

Sega Master System:

 

Bomber Raid - 10 minutes of a blurrier picture than an actual Game Gear

 

[Hwlngmad]

Only mustered 10 minutes playing Killer Instinct.  That was it for me.

[carlsson]

5 hours ago, Hwlngmad said:

Killer Instinct - 10 min.

I presume that was on the Game Boy? If not, you can correct me later.

[carlsson]

Here's the summary for Week 35, running from August 29 - September 4. We logged 3713 minutes of eligible play, playing 61 games on a total of 23 systems.

 

Top 10:

 

1. Dreadnaught Factor (Intellivision) - 624 min.
2. Pokemon Yellow Version (Game Boy) - 258 min. (#2)
3. Jones in the Fast Lane (PC DOS) - 250 min.
4. Outlaws (Commodore 64) - 229 min.
5. Ms. Pac-Man (Tengen) (NES/Famicom) - 205 min.
6. BurgerTime (Intellivision) - 195 min.
7. Midnight Magic (Atari 2600) - 194 min.
8. Solar Fox (Atari 2600) - 119 min. (#4)
9. Off The Wall (Atari 2600) - 116 min.
10. Uridium 2 (Amiga AGA/ECS) - 113 min.

 

Pre-NES top 10:

 

1. Dreadnaught Factor (Intellivision) - 624 min.
2. Outlaws (Commodore 64) - 229 min.
3. BurgerTime (Intellivision) - 195 min.
4. Midnight Magic (Atari 2600) - 194 min. (PN#6)
5. Solar Fox (Atari 2600) - 119 min. (PN#2)
6. Off The Wall (Atari 2600) - 116 min.
7. Ms. Pac-Man (Atari 5200) - 110 min.
8. Uridium (Commodore 64) - 88 min.
9. Asteroids (Atari 7800) - 75 min.
10. Kaboom! (Atari 2600) - 74 min. (PN#8)

 

Top 10 systems:

 

1. Intellivision - 819 min. (#9)
2. Atari 2600 - 558 min. (#1)
3. Commodore 64 - 349 min.
4. Game Boy - 293 min. (#2)
5. NES/Famicom - 284 min. (#6)
6. Dreamcast - 250 min.
6. PC DOS - 250 min.
8. Amiga AGA/ECS - 206 min.
9. Arcade - 124 min. (#7)
10. Atari 7800 - 115 min. (#8)

 

This week, the Intellivision bounces back into first place on all three lists, thanks to nearly 10.5 hours of The Dreadnaught Factor. Between places #2 and #7 on the overall list the difference is just over an hour.

 

Pokemon Yellow (which we consider to be a Game Boy title though it was released next to a Pokemon themed GBC unit) enters the 5000 Minute Club with a total of 5250 minutes. Thus it was the game I mentioned last week being only 8 minutes behind. No other changes to the all-time stats.

[+wongojack]

spoiler alert - if Dreadnaught Factor is not already above 1000 mins, it will be after this week.

[neogeo1982]

On 9/5/2022 at 1:27 PM, wongojack said:

There's even a Super Chef Burger Time

Diner. Thats the true Burger Time sequel for Intv. Kickin around meatballs...

[neogeo1982]

On 9/6/2022 at 9:20 AM, jgkspsx said:

had to quality control it first, though  

Oh wow. Not the least bit ashamed are you😹

[+wongojack]

1 hour ago, neogeo1982 said:

Diner. Thats the true Burger Time sequel for Intv. Kickin around meatballs...

True but SCBT is a homebrew that was made by @intvdave:Intellivision Super Chef Burgertime

[+jgkspsx]

4 hours ago, neogeo1982 said:

Oh wow. Not the least bit ashamed are you😹

Not in the slightest. Had to make sure it was all kid friendly!

[carlsson]

Yeah, Dreadnaught is only at 879 min so just over two hours is all it takes to break the glass ceiling. If you feel for it, here are some more Intelliviison games close to the 1000 Minute Club:

 

Copter Command - 984 min.

Auto Racing - 928 min.

AD&D: Treasure of Tarmin - 908 min.

Stonix - 885 min.

Tutankham - 834 min.

Pinball - 821 min.

 

Normally I try to not "provoke" gaming choices like this but it might inspire someone.

[+wongojack]

Hmmmm

[Hwlngmad]

On 9/6/2022 at 3:16 PM, carlsson said:

I presume that was on the Game Boy? If not, you can correct me later.

It was indeed.  Should have stated that earlier.  My apologies.

[oyamafamily]

ATARI 5200:

Ms. Pac-Man - 100 minutes

 

ATARI 8-BIT:

Ms. Pac-Man - 100 minutes

Sir Pac-Man [aka Pac-Man by Martin Day] - 45 minutes

 

NES / FAMICOM

Ms. Pac-Man [Tengen] - 50 minutes

 

EVIDENCE OF THE WEEK: Sir Pac-Man (Pac-Man by Martin Day) gameplay footage, recorded on Altirra Emulator 4.01 (Atari 8-BIT profile).

 

[Steven Pendleton]

Not much to say here.

 

Arcade
Tatsujin Ou New Version (ROM hack) - 16

 

G/MD
Slap Fight MD - 53

[carlsson]

Mattel Aquarius:
BurgerTime - 4 min.

 

Odyssey^2:
Bowling - 2 min.

 

Barely detection limits again, and I didn't even make room for playing in the A8 HSC this week. We continued with inventory for the upcoming event, including me resoldering a homemade power switch for the Videopac G7000, fixing an Amiga power supply (but no games played on it) and testing other stuff.