What have you actually PLAYED tracker for 2023 (Season 16)

[+jgkspsx]

I’ve done a bit more modern gaming this week but made time for some classics (?).

 

Arcade:

Xevious - 10 minutes

 

 

“And it’s from Atari, where the vision continues…”

 

Genesis:

Romeow and Julicat - 105 minutes

 

 

LCD:

Tiger SportsFeel Pool - 25 minutes

This absolutely cracked pool toy is even stranger than it looks. You see…

 

it’s actually a mouse 😮 

 

 

NES:

Roniu’s Tale - 10 minutes

Super Mario Bros 2 - 20 minutes

Xevious - 85 minutes

[Keir]

5 hours ago, jgkspsx said:

This absolutely cracked pool toy is even stranger than it looks. You see…

 

it’s actually a mouse 😮 

Woah! What's the creepy hand for?

[+jgkspsx]

2 hours ago, Keir said:

Woah! What's the creepy hand for?

It was just there for a gag - it was a crazy promotional item from the launch of the Nintendo DS. Somebody asked if the hand shown in the package was an actual mannikin hand so I had to oblige.

[Hwlngmad]

15 hours ago, carlsson said:

Would that be Quad Challenge, a.k.a. MegaTrax (JP)?

Yep.  For whatever reason I was thinking about Stun Runner at the exact time I was noting my time on the game.  Clearly my typing and my thoughts mixed.  Definitely another sign I am getting old(er).

[carlsson]

Here's the summary for Week 15, running from April 10-16. We logged 3262 minutes of eligible play, playing 73 games on a total of 16 systems.

 

Top 10:

 

1. Castlevania: Rondo of Blood (English Fan Translation) (TG-CD/PC Engine CD) - 581 min.
2. Zak McKracken (Commodore 64) - 270 min. (#9)
3. Solar Fox (Atari 2600) - 251 min. (#5)
4. Splatterhouse 2 (Genesis) - 171 min.
5. Kyuukyoku Tiger (Arcade) - 159 min.
6. Shingen the Ruler (NES/Famicom) - 150 min. (#4)
7. Splatterhouse (TG-16/PC Engine) - 136 min.
8. Kaboom! (Atari 2600) - 133 min.
9. Romeow and Julicat (Genesis) - 105 min.
10. Pinball Fantasies Deluxe (PC DOS) - 87 min.

 

Pre-NES top 10:

 

1. Zak McKracken (Commodore 64) - 270 min. (PN#2)
2. Solar Fox (Atari 2600) - 251 min. (PN#1)
3. Kaboom! (Atari 2600) - 133 min. (PN#8)
4. Jump Bug (Arcade) - 78 min. (PN#6)
5. Arex (CoCo 1 & 2) - 73 min.
6. Bruce Lee (Atari 8-bit) - 72 min.
7. Eggomania (Atari 2600) - 49 min. (PN#7)
8. Arex (TRS-80 Model I/III) - 22 min.
9. Arex (Atari 8-bit) - 14 min.
10. Xevious (Arcade) - 10 min.

 

Top 10 systems:

 

1. TG-CD/PC Engine CD (1 game) - 581 min.
2. Atari 2600 (13 games) - 482 min. (#3)
3. NES/Famicom (25 games) - 473 min. (#1)
4. Arcade (10 games) - 404 min. (#5)
5. Genesis (7 games) - 356 min. (#10)
6. Commodore 64 (1 game) - 270 min. (#6)
7. TG-16/PC Engine (1 game) - 136 min.
8. PC DOS (2 games) - 123 min.
9. Game Boy Color (5 games) - 111 min. (#9)
10. Atari 8-bit (2 games) - 86 min.

 

A fan translation of Castlevania: Rondo of Blood enters directly into first place, followed by the two pre-NES games Zak McKracken and Solar Fox. On the systems side, the NES dominance is broken as it drops to third place with the TG-CD/PC Engine CD as well as Atari 2600 ahead of it.

 

Further down the list, Hishouzame (Arcade) becomes member #527 in the 1000 Minute Club with a total of 1010 minutes.

[Steven Pendleton]

Going to be out of town for a few days, so I'll post a few days early.

 

Arcade
Kyuukyoku Tiger - 189
Out Zone - 25
Slap Fight - 154

[TheGameCollector]

This week I played:

 

Blue Sphere (aka Sonic the Hedgehog locked on to Sonic & Knuckles) for Sega Genesis (via Sonic Mega Collection for Gamecube) - 6 minutes

 

Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine for Sega Genesis (via Sonic Mega Collection for Gamecube) - 35 minutes

 

Knuckles in Sonic 2 (aka Sonic the Hedgehog 2 locked on to Sonic & Knuckles) for Sega Genesis (via Sonic Mega Collection for Gamecube) - 69 minutes

 

Sonic & Knuckles for Sega Genesis (via Sonic Mega Collection for Gamecube) - 86 minutes

 

Sonic 3 & Knuckles (aka Sonic the Hedgehog 3 locked on to Sonic & Knuckles) for Sega Genesis (via Sonic Mega Collection for Gamecube) - 370 minutes

 

Sonic 3D Blast for Sega Genesis (via Sonic Mega Collection for Gamecube) - 78 minutes

 

Sonic Spinball for Sega Genesis (via Sonic Mega Collection for Gamecube) - 45 minutes

 

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 for Sega Genesis (via Sonic Mega Collection for Gamecube) - 204 minutes

 

Progress:

Sonic 3 - I completed 3 save files of the game as Sonic & Tails, Sonic Alone and Tails Alone, getting all emeralds in each. 

 

Sonic & Knuckles - I completed the game as Sonic with all emeralds

 

Sonic 3D Blast - I completed the game with all emeralds

 

Sonic Spinball - I completed the game

 

Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine - completed the game on easy mode

 

Blue Sphere - The emulator I used can't really handle the Sonic 3 & Knuckles Special Stages in Sonic Mega Collection because of too many objects. That's basically because the emulator is emulating an emulator. I save stated through one stage but decided it would be best to just save this endless game for later and play the original rom or my physical copy of that cartridge combo someday.

 

Knuckles in Sonic 2 - I completed the game with all emeralds

 

Sonic 3 & Knuckles - The Sonic 3 save files automatically imported into this game. Because of the bad Special Stage emulator glitching I chose to just continue in Zone 7 (Mushroom Hill) with my Sonic & Tails, Sonic Alone, and Tails Alone save files and got all 7 super emeralds in each of those while completing the game. Then I created a 4th save file and played through as Knuckles from the beginning, getting all 14 emeralds along the way.

 

Not logged: After playing Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine I spent 115 minutes in the menus of Sonic Mega Collection just entering and exiting all the games a total of 30 times to unlock all the unlockable games (Blue Sphere, Knuckles in Sonic 2, Sonic 3 & Knuckles, Flicky, and Ristar.) I did all of that in one sitting without taking a break. Talk about boring...

 

I suppose my next gaming goal will be to do the best I can with Flicky, then try to complete Ristar to finish Sonic Mega Collection for Gamecube.

Edited April 23, 2023 by TheGameCollector

[carlsson]

Atari 8-bit:
Bruce Lee - 15 min.

 

Nothing extra, got as far as I got last week though in less amount of time.

[oyamafamily]

After some weeks without my presence in this thread...

 

NES / FAMICOM:

Ms. Pac-Man [Tengen License] - 250 minutes

 

ATARI 2600:

Plaque Attack - 90 minutes

[Kurt_Woloch]

Here are my times for this past week (April 17th through 23rd, 2023):

 

Arcade:

Jump Bug - 201 minutes in 12 sessions

 

In this week, I played "Jump Bug" more intensively than before, and I finally managed to get to the 2nd round, in which some of the enemies (especially the Joker) speed up condsiderably.

[Atarian7]

Atari 2600

Kaboom! - 58 minutes

Solar Fox - 294 minutes

 

 

[agb]

Atari 2600

Eggomania 38

Solar Fox 37

 

Both fun.

[+jgkspsx]

New system for me this week! Also the very first system I ever played.

 

[neogeo1982]

Sega Dreamcast

Phantasy Star Online - 1230min

    Gave up on modern after a terrible mishap in Minecraft. Going back to grinding weapon grinders in Phantasy Star. 

 

[Keir]

Week of 4/17/23 - 4/23/23

 

Atari 2600

Tomarc The Barbarian - 10

 

Commodore 64

Jumpman - 25

Zak McKracken - 240

 

PC DOS

F. Godmom - 30

 

Total time = 305 minutes

 

My advice to anyone playing Zak McKracken: Make sure you take really good organized notes! The reason I got stuck before was simply because I forgot that I was supposed to go back to someone once I had the yellow crystal. With that done I was finally able to get Zak to Mars but unfortunately I missed something else and he wasn't actually able to do anything there! Feeling frustrated, I looked at a walkthrough and found one thing I missed that Melissa and Leslie could do. However, I'm still not sure what Zak is supposed to do there or how to get into the Martian pyramid so I'm stuck again for now.

 

Not wanting to cheat my way to the end, I decided to give Zak a break and work on another DOS game that I played in college and never beat: Fairy Godmom. It's a great little Lode Runner inspired puzzle/platform game.

[+wongojack]

1 hour ago, Keir said:

Week of 4/17/23 - 4/23/23

 

Atari 2600

Tomarc The Barbarian - 10

 

Commodore 64

Jumpman - 25

Zak McKracken - 240

 

PC DOS

F. Godmom - 30

 

Total time = 305 minutes

 

My advice to anyone playing Zak McKracken: Make sure you take really good organized notes! The reason I got stuck before was simply because I forgot that I was supposed to go back to someone once I had the yellow crystal. With that done I was finally able to get Zak to Mars but unfortunately I missed something else and he wasn't actually able to do anything there! Feeling frustrated, I looked at a walkthrough and found one thing I missed that Melissa and Leslie could do. However, I'm still not sure what Zak is supposed to do there or how to get into the Martian pyramid so I'm stuck again for now.

 

Not wanting to cheat my way to the end, I decided to give Zak a break and work on another DOS game that I played in college and never beat: Fairy Godmom. It's a great little Lode Runner inspired puzzle/platform game.

I tried to play Zak a few years ago and gave up.  There's too many things that 2020's me just couldn't put up with, and it was exactly the type of stuff you are hitting here.  It required too much from the player to get everything just right in previous sequences or with the other characters that multiple saves and re-playing old sections was pretty much required.  I could see the brilliance of a Zak-like game somewhere inside, but it just misses on too many small things to really be worth completing.

 

If you don't know about it, the Universal Hint System is a good way to get some hints without spoiling the game.  Although, because of the way that Zak works, you often have to read hints for parts of the game you aren't currently trying to solve, so ymmv:  Zak McKracken Hints from UHS. Not your ordinary walkthrough. (uhs-hints.com)

[+wongojack]

DOS

Epic Pinball Collection 44 

 

Just one game in the classic tracker for me this week.  A brief time with a DOS game in my GoG library.  Interestingly, this is the pinball game my wife remembers playing the most in her life.  I think she only had the shareware version with one table, but she still talks about it (sometimes).

[Hwlngmad]

Today's (04/24/2023) totals:

 

Sega Genesis / Mega Drive

1) Aerobiz - 40 minutes

[Keir]

4 hours ago, wongojack said:

If you don't know about it, the Universal Hint System is a good way to get some hints without spoiling the game.  Although, because of the way that Zak works, you often have to read hints for parts of the game you aren't currently trying to solve, so ymmv:  Zak McKracken Hints from UHS. Not your ordinary walkthrough. (uhs-hints.com)

I did not know about that site, and it's exactly the kind of thing I need for this game! Thank you! Aside from everything you mentioned, another big problem is the complete lack of direction once you have access to all 4 characters. On one hand that creates a fun challenge compared to games that spell everything out but often I find myself lost so the "What do I do here?" sections on UHS are very helpful. I was able to determine, without spoilers, that I actually have done everything I need to and just have to try everything I can think of to get that door open!

[+jgkspsx]

Color Computer 2:

Stellar Lifeline - 15 minutes

The perfect keyboard for Defender arcade fans?

Genesis:

Steel Empire - 90 minutes for @Steven Pendleton’s HSC

 

 

Jaguar:

Biopede - 20 minutes

Bubsy in: Fractured Furry Tails - 75 minutes

Flip Out - 35 minutes

LCD/Handhelds:

 

Bombs Away - 20 minutes

Fun game, hampered seriously by its lack of scoring.
 

NES:

Super Robin Hood - 150 minutes

[Skippy B. Coyote]

Lots of fun classic gaming this week! I played a few too many games to talk about them all individually, but the highlights were playing through and beating Streets of Rage 1 & 2 on the Genesis; and the first one I beat on one credit with no continues at all! Next up I played through The Castlevania Adventure on the Game Boy, which can be pretty frustrating without using save states, but I preserved and finished it fair and square anyway.

 

The last big highlight for me this week was playing the first two Bonk games for the TurboGrafx-16! The first game was a ton of fun and a great way to pass a few hours of time, and while it might have not been up to the same level of quality as the early Mario and Sonic games I still really enjoyed it. The only complaint I could really make about Bonk's Adventure is that sometimes it felt like there were a bit too many enemies and their placement in the levels felt kinda haphazard; like the developers just randomly flooded the levels with enemies without much thought to pacing. Still a great game though!

 

On the flip side, Bonk's Revenge had really thoughtful enemy placement and was an improvement over the original in almost every way! The bright and colorful graphics were just gorgeous, the level designs were fun and varied, it controlled excellently, and really felt on par with the Mario and Sonic games of the 16-bit era. The only downside is that while Bonk's Adventure gave you unlimited continues, making it a relaxing and pretty carefree game to play through, Bonk's Revenge limits you to just 3 continues and I just totally stuck on the Round 3 boss and ended up using up all my continues and bombing out less than halfway through the game. It was still a ton of fun though and I'm sure I'll go back and give Bonk's Revenge another try in the not too distant future!

 

 

 

Atari 7800
Pac-Man Collection - 20 minutes

Game Boy
Boggle Plus - 49 minutes
Kirby's Pinball Land - 66 minutes
Tetris Attack - 17 minutes
Tetris DX - 4 minutes
The Castlevania Adventure - 113 minutes

NES
Pac-Man Championship Edition - 8 minutes

Sega Genesis
Streets of Rage - 138 minutes
Streets of Rage 2 - 84 minutes

TurboGrafx-16
Bonk's Adventure - 208 minutes
Bonk's Revenge - 102 minutes 
Devil's Crush - 32 minutes
 

 

[Hwlngmad]

9 hours ago, Skippy B. Coyote said:

Lots of fun classic gaming this week! I played a few too many games to talk about them all individually, but the highlights were playing through and beating Streets of Rage 1 & 2 on the Genesis; and the first one I beat on one credit with no continues at all! Next up I played through The Castlevania Adventure on the Game Boy, which can be pretty frustrating without using save states, but I preserved and finished it fair and square anyway.

 

The last big highlight for me this week was playing the first two Bonk games for the TurboGrafx-16! The first game was a ton of fun and a great way to pass a few hours of time, and while it might have not been up to the same level of quality as the early Mario and Sonic games I still really enjoyed it. The only complaint I could really make about Bonk's Adventure is that sometimes it felt like there were a bit too many enemies and their placement in the levels felt kinda haphazard; like the developers just randomly flooded the levels with enemies without much thought to pacing. Still a great game though!

 

On the flip side, Bonk's Revenge had really thoughtful enemy placement and was an improvement over the original in almost every way! The bright and colorful graphics were just gorgeous, the level designs were fun and varied, it controlled excellently, and really felt on par with the Mario and Sonic games of the 16-bit era. The only downside is that while Bonk's Adventure gave you unlimited continues, making it a relaxing and pretty carefree game to play through, Bonk's Revenge limits you to just 3 continues and I just totally stuck on the Round 3 boss and ended up using up all my continues and bombing out less than halfway through the game. It was still a ton of fun though and I'm sure I'll go back and give Bonk's Revenge another try in the not too distant future!

 

 

 

Atari 7800
Pac-Man Collection - 20 minutes

Game Boy
Boggle Plus - 49 minutes
Kirby's Pinball Land - 66 minutes
Tetris Attack - 17 minutes
Tetris DX - 4 minutes
The Castlevania Adventure - 113 minutes

NES
Pac-Man Championship Edition - 8 minutes

Sega Genesis
Streets of Rage - 138 minutes
Streets of Rage 2 - 84 minutes

TurboGrafx-16
Bonk's Adventure - 208 minutes
Bonk's Revenge - 102 minutes 
Devil's Crush - 32 minutes
 

 

The Genesis and TG-16 games you played are stone cold classics and are among some of my personal favorites.

[Skippy B. Coyote]

2 hours ago, Hwlngmad said:

The Genesis and TG-16 games you played are stone cold classics and are among some of my personal favorites.

 

They really are! The more I play the games for it the more I'm coming to love the TurboGrafx-16/PC-Engine, enough that I might buy a real PC Engine and a Turbo EverDrive Pro or Super HD System3 Pro at some point even though it would be kind of a novelty. I can already emulate all the PC-Engine and CD games perfectly and play them on the modern big screen in beautiful 720p over HDMI out with my Retroid Pocket 3+, but it's just such a neat and underrated little system that I kinda want a real one

 

Edited April 25, 2023 by Skippy B. Coyote

[carlsson]

Here's the summary for Week 16, running from April 17-23. We logged 5109 minutes of eligible play, playing 44 games on a total of 14 systems.

 

Top 10:

 

1. Phantasy Star Online (Dreamcast) - 1230 min.
2. Sonic 3 & Knuckles [aka Complete Version] (Genesis) - 370 min.
3. Solar Fox (Atari 2600) - 331 min. (#3)
4. Ms. Pac-Man (Tengen) (NES/Famicom) - 250 min.
5. Zak McKracken (Commodore 64) - 240 min. (#2)
6. Bonk's Adventure (TG-16/PC Engine) - 208 min.
7. Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (Genesis) - 204 min.
8. Jump Bug (Arcade) - 201 min.
9. Kyuukyoku Tiger (Arcade) - 189 min. (#5)
10. Slap Fight (a.k.a. ALCON) (Arcade) - 154 min.

 

Pre-NES top 10:

 

1. Solar Fox (Atari 2600) - 331 min. (PN#2)
2. Zak McKracken (Commodore 64) - 240 min. (PN#1)
3. Jump Bug (Arcade) - 201 min. (PN#4)
4. Plaque Attack (Atari 2600) - 90 min.
5. Kaboom! (Atari 2600) - 58 min. (PN#3)
6. Eggomania (Atari 2600) - 38 min. (PN#7)
7. Jumpman (Commodore 64) - 25 min.
8. Pac-Man Collection (Atari 7800) - 20 min.
9. Bruce Lee (Atari 8-bit) - 15 min. (PN#6)
9. Stellar Lifeline (CoCo 1 & 2) - 15 min.
 

Top 10 systems:

 

1. Genesis (12 games) - 1245 min. (#5)
2. Dreamcast (1 game) - 1230 min.
3. Arcade (4 games) - 569 min. (#4)
4. Atari 2600 (5 games) - 527 min. (#2)
5. NES/Famicom (3 games) - 408 min. (#3)
6. TG-16/PC Engine (3 games) - 342 min. (#7)
7. Commodore 64 (2 games) - 265 min. (#6)
8. Game Boy (5 games) - 249 min.
9. Atari Jaguar (3 games) - 130 min.
10. PC DOS (2 games) - 74 min. (#8)

 

This week is a strong one for some of the Sega systems, as the Genesis is a mere 15 minutes ahead of the Dreamcast on the systems list. Individually though, Phantasy Star Online easily takes the title. On the pre-NES list, Solar Fox and Zak McKracken swap places.

 

Two more games for the 1000 Minute Club:

#528 Plaque Attack (Atari 2600) - 1014 min.

#529 Sonic & Knuckles (Genesis) - 1074 min.

 

and one more game for the 10000 Minute Club:

Eggomania (Atari 2600) - 10011 min.

 

Historically, it means the 10000 Minute Club has grown as following:

 

End of 2010: n/a (though most certainly Kaboom! and Galaxian already were on the list)
End of 2011: 2 games
End of 2012: 2 games
End of 2013: 2 games
End of 2014: 2 games
End of 2015: 3 games
End of 2016: 4 games
End of 2017: 5 games
End of 2018: 8 games
End of 2019: 8 games
End of 2020: 8 games
End of 2021: 9 games
End of 2022: 10 games
April 2023: 12 games

[Hwlngmad]

Today's (04/26/2023) totals:

 

Sega Genesis / Mega Drive

1) Aerobiz - 40 minutes