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

[Atarian7]

Atari 2600

Communist Mutants from Space - 64 minutes

The Official Frogger (Starpath) - 18 minutes

Kaboom! - 81 minutes

Rabbit Transit - 47 minutes

Solar Fox - 40 minutes

 

"Communist" ? mutants from space?  lol  There's nothing communistic about them.  But I guess the time period the game came out of is the reason they called them that instead of just mutants from space.

[+jgkspsx]

2 hours ago, Atarian7 said:

"Communist" ? mutants from space?  lol  There's nothing communistic about them.  But I guess the time period the game came out of is the reason they called them that instead of just mutants from space.

They were going for a cheesy 50s sci fi flick vibe and the cover art is awesome. Not much to do with the game but that’s par for the course.

[+wongojack]

10 hours ago, Keir said:

Week of 5/22/23 - 5/28/23

 

Atari 2600

Communist Mutants from Space - 20

Frogger (Official/Starpath) - 35

Rabbit Transit - 55

 

Commodore 64

Impossible Mission - 120

 

PC DOS

F. Godmom - 25

 

Total time = 255 minutes

 

I finished F. Godmom! Apparently there are 50 more levels that you had to mail away for. I might have to search for those so I can be fully complete, but this is good enough for now.

 

I also finished Impossible Mission last night. This was a game I played a lot as a kid but never really understood fully. I used a lot of save states to get to the end but now that I understand how to get there I'm going to try again without cheating!

I finally finished this game a few years ago after being helpless as a child.  To win without saves, I made a bunch of copies of a paper grid like the music puzzle.  Then I would mark up the solution, so I could bank snoozes.

[+thegoldenband]

My times for the week:

 

NES:

Arkista’s Ring - 55 min.

Bird Week - 5 min.

Chessmaster - 5 min.

Kyoro-Chan Land - 135 min.

Sesame Street ABC - 6 min.

Super Mario Bros. - 2 min.

Xevious - 7 min.

 

 

[Skippy B. Coyote]

No gaming of any kind for me once again this past week, life has just been too darn busy lately >_<

[+jgkspsx]

Another month is almost out and that means high score challenges have hit the put up or shut up stage. As they say in Flanders, hier is de rekening.

 

Arcade:

Bad Dudes vs DragonNinja - 35 minutes

Rod Land - 90 minutes

Genesis:

Granada - 15 minutes

Lynx:

Assembloids - 45 minutes

Crystal Mines 2 - 60 minutes

 

And one last one for myself:

 

Playstation:

Dragon Beat: Legend of Pinball - 35 minutes

Ouch.

[DragonGrafx-16]

Cyber Core (PC Engine) - 23 mins

PC Denjin: Punkic Cyborgs (PC Engine) - 15 mins

Seirei Senshi Spriggan (PC Engine CD) - 17 mins

Hypernova Blast (PC Engine CD) - 28 mins

Nexzr (PC Engine CD) - 7 mins

 

Edited May 30, 2023 by DragonGrafx-16

[carlsson]

Here's the summary for Week 21, running from May 22-28. We logged 3272 minutes of eligible play, playing 47 games on a total of 13 systems.

 

Top 10:

 

1. Record of Lodoss War (Dreamcast) - 960 min. (#6)
2. 1943 (NES/Famicom) - 165 min.
3. Kyoro Chan Land [JP Castelian/Nebulus] (NES/Famicom) - 135 min.
4. Mega Man X3 (JP Rockman X3) (SNES) - 131 min. (#10)
5. Rabbit Transit (Atari 2600) - 122 min.
6. Impossible Mission (Commodore 64) - 120 min.
7. Solar Fox (Atari 2600) - 114 min. (#2)
8. Communist Mutants from Space (Atari 2600) - 104 min.
9. Traverse USA (Arcade) - 101 min.
10. Rod-Land (Arcade) - 90 min.
10. Strike Gunner S.T.G. (EU: Super Strike Gunner) (SNES) - 90 min.

 

Pre-NES top 10:

 

1. Rabbit Transit (Atari 2600) - 122 min.
2. Impossible Mission (Commodore 64) - 120 min.
3. Solar Fox (Atari 2600) - 114 min. (PN#1)
4. Communist Mutants from Space (Atari 2600) - 104 min.
5. Traverse USA (Arcade) - 101 min.
6. Kaboom! (Atari 2600) - 81 min. (PN#3)
7. M.U.L.E. (Atari 8-bit) - 68 min.
8. Frogger (Official/Starpath) (Atari 2600) - 53 min. (PN#6)
9. Archon (Atari 8-bit) - 48 min.
10. Pooyan (Arcade) - 12 min. (PN#5)

 

Top 10 systems:

 

1. Dreamcast (2 games) - 1005 min. (#1)
2. SNES (9 games) - 502 min. (#5)
3. Atari 2600 (5 games) - 474 min. (#3)
4. NES/Famicom (9 games) - 390 min. (#6)
5. Arcade (7 games) - 340 min. (#2)
6. Commodore 64 (1 game) - 120 min.
7. Atari 8-bit (2 games) - 116 min.
8. Atari Lynx (2 games) - 105 min.
9. Genesis (3 games) - 70 min. (#4)
10. TG-CD/PC Engine CD (3 games) - 52 min. (#10)

 

While Phantasy Star takes a week off the tracker, Record of Lodoss War also on the Dreamcast takes a massive victory ahead of 1943 on the NES, and at the same time makes the Dreamcast the most played system. The pre-NES list is tighter, with HSC entry (?) Rabbit Transit in first place.

 

Record of Lodoss War (Dreamcast) becomes member #534 in the 1000 Minute Club with a total of 1060 minutes after two weeks of recorded playing. A few other games get a bit of liftoff, like Strike Gunner S.T.G. (SNES) which goes from 2 to 92 minutes in total, and Arkista's Ring (NES) from 1 to 56 minutes.

[zylon]

wow, STG only had 2 minutes till now, lol. It's been one of my most played for ages. The trick to that one, is each special weapon can only be used for 1 stage, and picking the best order to use them in. I have a 180-in-1 multicart for the nephews to play, and it's one of the few good ones on it IMHO. It doesn't have anything their parents don't want them playing. 🙄

 

Genesis 3-

 

Bio-Hazard Battle- 25min

Double Dragon- 28min

 

SNES via RD2-

Strike Gunner STG- 40min

Gradius III- 25min

Aero-Fighters- 30min

Firepower 2000- 20min

Raiden Trad- 15min

Gun Force- 5min (horrible Midnight Resistance clone, clone of a clone)

Axelay- 10min

D-Force- 5min wasted

Space Megaforce- 45min

Sonic The Hedgehog- 5min (horrible hack of something...)

 

NES via original Retron-

1943- 1hr

1942- 90min

Gun Nac- 30min

Macross- 15min

1945(Sky Shark hack)- 5min Just as brutal as original

Samurai Pizza Cats- 20min

Guardian Legend- 10min

Super Star Force- 15min

Summer Carnival- 20min (wicked shooter)

Zevious- 10min

Air Fortress- 20min

Double Strike- 5min

Gulf War- 10min (decent hack of Silkworm) 

Edited May 31, 2023 by zylon

[Hwlngmad]

Today's (05/31/2023) totals:

 

NES / Famicom

1) Arkista's Ring - 40 minutes

[+thegoldenband]

8 hours ago, Hwlngmad said:

Today's (05/31/2023) totals:

 

NES / Famicom

1) Arkista's Ring - 40 minutes

I decided to give that one a whirl last week, having originally beaten it around 1992, and doing so fair and square as far as I recall. I was curious to see how much I remembered and how familiar it felt (answer: not especially, but I recalled the gist at least).

 

Ultimately I decided that one loop was enough; you have to do four to beat the game, and I don't think it's really justifiable for me to spend time on that in 2023. (At least, not again.)

[Hwlngmad]

9 hours ago, thegoldenband said:

I decided to give that one a whirl last week, having originally beaten it around 1992, and doing so fair and square as far as I recall. I was curious to see how much I remembered and how familiar it felt (answer: not especially, but I recalled the gist at least).

 

Ultimately I decided that one loop was enough; you have to do four to beat the game, and I don't think it's really justifiable for me to spend time on that in 2023. (At least, not again.)

Yeah, having to do four loops is bush league imo.  I gave this a spin after seeing it in the latest Chrontendo episode (see below).  Personally I feel it is a nice little game with some flaws, but it is entertaining and has replay-ability.

 

 

[+thegoldenband]

4 hours ago, Hwlngmad said:

Yeah, having to do four loops is bush league imo.  I gave this a spin after seeing it in the latest Chrontendo episode (see below).  Personally I feel it is a nice little game with some flaws, but it is entertaining and has replay-ability.

That's exactly what prompted my play too! I'm a Patreon supporter of Dr. Sparkle, so I saw a rough draft of the episode a bit early.

[carlsson]

Four more minutes and you'll make the game have three digit number of minutes.

[Hwlngmad]

Today's (06/01/2023) totals:

 

SNES / Super Famicom

1) Spider-Man and Venom: Maximum Carnage - 20 minutes

2) St Andrews Eikou to Rekishi no Old Course - 20 minutes

[neogeo1982]

The end of RoLW is very difficult without doing the additional dungeons for better upgrades. It may be time to move on again soon to something else.

Dreamcast

Record of Lodoss War - 1113min

Dead or Alive 2 - 35min

Power Stone - 20min

Soul Caliber - 20min

[carlsson]

Atari 8-bit:
Archon - 9 min.
Frogger II - 19 min.

 

As usual, only HSC entries. I never finished that game of Archon, had better things to do.

 

On the ineligible front, yesterday I played the following board games in twelve hours between noon and midnight:

Settlers of Catan (6 players)

Alhambra (6 players, with two sets of rules/misunderstanding of the rules)

Ruins of Arnak (4 players)

 

I skipped the card game The Crew and a parallel game of Dune: Imperium with the remaining 3 players.

[Kurt_Woloch]

Here are my times for this past week (May 29th through June 4th, 2023) on classic systems:

 

Arcade:

Moon Patrol - 17 min.

Traverse USA / Zippy Race - 33 min. in 3 sessions

 

TI-99/4A:

Chisholm Trail - 13 min.

 

This week I continued to play "Traverse USA". This runs under a double name of "Traverse USA / Zippy Race" because there's one DIP switch that lets the operator select the name and logo used. Another DIP switch switches the speed reading from mph to km/h, but strangely, on the first level, 150 mph are equal to 210 km/h, which can't be right... normally it should be over 240 km/h. Other than that, I still didn't manage to complete the first round without using continues.

Then I noticed a similarity to "Moon Patrol" in that in both games, a round consists of 5 areas you must pass, after each of which bonus points are being collected based on how fast you were, and the music is also similar, especially the game-over music. And yes, both games are by Irem, so I continued to play Moon Patrol after that. Moon Patrol features parallax scrolling, but each layer on screen, including the sprites, is less colorful than on Traverse USA. I can remember that back in the 80's, I noticed some similarities between Moon Patrol, Joust and Mario Bros., so I thought about combining the games (somehow)...

 

Anyway, I also played a bit of "Chisholm trail" on the emulated TI-99 because the real thing doesn't quite work anymore. However, it does seem to throw out a picture to the RF modulator, but the modulator doesn't give out a picture to the TV... if you've still got a TV that accepts RF signals with analog picture information. I also tried a Game Gear console which I found lying around in a drawer... I actually had two of them, and one was confirmed to be broken. Sadly, the other one has broken too, although it seems to have never been used. But I got it in late 1992 as a prize for winning a Karaoke competition, so the hardware seems to have died by now. This makes me realize that to actually play the games given above on real hardware, there probably would have had to be some repair to the hardware, which means that probably many items like this were sent to the dumpster by now for not working anymore. I actually wonder what to do with these broken devices... if I should still keep them or not. And the same thing happens to even newer devices... for instance, a Philips stereo radio recorder from around 2000 now lost its auto reverse function, and printers and battery-powered devices with built-in batteries are even more short-lived. This signals to me that everything, seemingly, has its end, even classic gaming as we know it. Yes, you can still play many of these games in emulation on today's systems, but it's sort of the same as streaming songs from Spotify instead of listening to the vinyl records they originally were released on, and some lesser-known songs, or games, will always fall through the cracks, for instance, the B-side of F-R David's hit single "Words", "When the sun goes down", isn't available on Spotify, and I can't easily find a romset for "Elevator Action" that runs on the current version of MAME (even though that's not exactly an unknown game).

[carlsson]

22 minutes ago, Kurt_Woloch said:

on the first level, 150 mph are equal to 210 km/h

Perhaps it was a programming shortcut, some algorithm where multiplication with 1.4 is easier than multiplication with 1.609? In particular if it is only for display, and the game internally still calculates with mph. But yeah, multiplication with 1.5 or even 1.6 might be even easier, without looking into the details.

 

Pseudo 6502 code to multiply a 8-bit number with 1.5:

STA $xx

LSR

CLC

ADC $xx

 

.. now I would assume an arcade game of that age uses a Z80 or perhaps 680x but the same logic would apply.

Edited June 4, 2023 by carlsson

[+wongojack]

SNES 

F-Zero 30

 

Just one classic game for me this week.  I found myself playing a lot of GBA racing games via emulation while traveling, and I wanted to give the original F-Zero another shot.  Honestly, I don't see the appeal of this game.  To me, it looks absolutely awful with those flat textures stretched out along the track, and the colors are hideous.  The gameplay is fine, but every time I try it, I'm just left wondering why anyone would ever play this instead of Mario Kart.

 

I was also not really impressed with the GBA iterations of this series.  Although I did play a decent copy-cat GBA game called Hot Wheels World Race, but it would only let me play one race before it crashed on the emulator I was using . . .

 

 

Edited June 5, 2023 by wongojack

[Skippy B. Coyote]

After 3 weeks of not playing any games at all I think I should probably stop using the excuse of being too busy and just accept that I really just haven't felt like playing anything lately

 

Maybe I'll have some time to contribute next week?

[Atarian7]

Atari 2600

Communist Mutants From Space - 48 minutes

Frogger, The Official (Starpath) - 25 minutes

Kaboom! - 81 minutes

Rabbit Transit - 80 minutes

Solar Fox - 106 minutes

 

 

Edited June 5, 2023 by Atarian7

[Steven Pendleton]

I found Hellfire at Mikado. It's very rare to actually find this game in a modern arcade, so of course I played it.

 

Arcade
Hellfire (2P version) - 30
Kyuukyoku Tiger - 440
Out Zone - 55
Slap Fight - 24

 

G/MD
Granada - 13

[Keir]

21 hours ago, carlsson said:

On the ineligible front, yesterday I played the following board games in twelve hours between noon and midnight:

Settlers of Catan (6 players)

Alhambra (6 players, with two sets of rules/misunderstanding of the rules)

Ruins of Arnak (4 players)

Ruins of Arnak is a fun one which I haven't played in a while. Maybe we need a board game tracker!

 

Week of 5/29/23 - 6/4/23

Atari 2600
Communist Mutants from Space - 30
Frogger (Official/Starpath) - 30
Rabbit Transit - 30
        
Commodore 64
Impossible Mission - 120

Total time = 210 minutes

Even though I beat Impossible Mission last week, I wanted to try again without cheating and I did it! Not so impossible after all...

[+thegoldenband]

My times for the week:

 

NES:

Bases Loaded - 3 min.
Bird Week - 3 min.
Chessmaster - 3 min.
Family Tennis - 12 min.
Golf - 5 min.
Klax - 1 min.
Tetris - 12 min.
 

All with an inquisitive toddler in my lap -- sometimes watching, sometimes "playing". She actually won a point in Family Tennis!