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

[Steven Pendleton]

9 hours ago, Hwlngmad said:

Checked this out myself today for the first time ever.  The only other time I played a Metroid game was the OG back in 1987 or so.  Should I keep at after just doing 35 minutes, or should I come back to it some other time?  Just wondering as I haven't checked out any other Metroid game, except Metroid Pinball.  Appreciate any recommendations.

Metroid II is a very nice game. I guess there are people who get lost somehow, but all you really have to do is remember where you are and you'll be fine since the game is actually really simple aside from the only boss fight in the game requiring you to either hit the boss with 150 missiles (yes, seriously, 150 missiles) or use the secret other way to kill it quickly. It has 2 remakes. The first is that awesome remake on PC and that is absolutely worth playing since the only Metroid game better than it is Super Metroid. There is also the 3DS remake, but that thing is garbage, so pretend it doesn't exist.

[Hwlngmad]

15 hours ago, wongojack said:

Super Metroid is the greatest (2d) Metroid of them all IMO.  You would do yourself a favor to make that the first Metroid game you've played since '87.  If you like Metroid-style games, it is a Legendary 10/10 or 5/5.  Whatever your scale, it is right at the top.

Cool!  I appreciate the recommendation.  Yeah, from what I have read it Super Metroid is the best Metroid of them all.  Will try and check it out sometime soon.

[Hwlngmad]

8 hours ago, Steven Pendleton said:

Metroid II is a very nice game. I guess there are people who get lost somehow, but all you really have to do is remember where you are and you'll be fine since the game is actually really simple aside from the only boss fight in the game requiring you to either hit the boss with 150 missiles (yes, seriously, 150 missiles) or use the secret other way to kill it quickly. It has 2 remakes. The first is that awesome remake on PC and that is absolutely worth playing since the only Metroid game better than it is Super Metroid. There is also the 3DS remake, but that thing is garbage, so pretend it doesn't exist.

I played 20 minutes of it last night where I finally got the spider ball ability.  Definitely it is a cool little game that I might continue with, or go and finally play Super Metroid as I know that is highly recommend by lots.

[Skippy B. Coyote]

20 hours ago, Hwlngmad said:

Checked this out myself today for the first time ever.  The only other time I played a Metroid game was the OG back in 1987 or so.  Should I keep at after just doing 35 minutes, or should I come back to it some other time?  Just wondering as I haven't checked out any other Metroid game, except Metroid Pinball.  Appreciate any recommendations.

 

18 hours ago, wongojack said:

Super Metroid is the greatest (2d) Metroid of them all IMO.  You would do yourself a favor to make that the first Metroid game you've played since '87.  If you like Metroid-style games, it is a Legendary 10/10 or 5/5.  Whatever your scale, it is right at the top.

 

 

I totally agree with wongojack, if you're going to play a 2D Metroid game then Super Metroid is the absolute best of the best. I do really like Metroid II on the Game Boy and usually play through it once a year, but the lack of an in game map and somewhat monotonous looking environments can make it confusing and frustrating for new players. Super Metroid on the other hand gives you a map and lots of gorgeously detailed and distinctive environments to explore, so it's much harder to get lost or stuck. Definitely play Super Metroid if you can! 

 

Edited February 14, 2023 by Skippy B. Coyote

[carlsson]

Here's the summary for Week 06, running from February 6 - 12. We logged 4880 minutes of eligible play, playing 79 games on a total of 23 systems.

 

Top 10:

 

1. Super Metroid (SNES) - 926 min.
2. Beamrider (Atari 2600) - 387 min.
3. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (PlayStation) - 353 min. (#2)
4. Gold Quest VI Extended Version (Commodore 64) - 321 min.
5. Phantasie (Commodore 64) - 300 min. (#4)
6. Final Fantasy VII (PlayStation) - 237 min.
7. Ms. Pac-Man (Atari 8-bit) - 175 min.
8. Pac-Man Plus (Atari 5200) - 150 min.
9. Solar Fox (Atari 2600) - 124 min. (#10)
10. Star Fox [aka Starwing] (SNES) - 99 min.

 

Pre-NES top 10:

 

1. Beamrider (Atari 2600) - 387 min.
2. Gold Quest VI Extended Version (Commodore 64) - 321 min.
3. Phantasie (Commodore 64) - 300 min. (PN#3)
4. Ms. Pac-Man (Atari 8-bit) - 175 min.
5. Pac-Man Plus (Atari 5200) - 150 min.
6. Solar Fox (Atari 2600) - 124 min. (PN#4)
7. Calm (Commodore 64) - 85 min.
8. Dunkey Munkey (CoCo 1 & 2) - 84 min.
9. Phantasie II (Commodore 64) - 80 min.
10. Ms. Pac-Man (Atari 5200) - 60 min.

 

Top 10 systems:

 

1. SNES (3 games) - 1036 min.
2. Commodore 64 (10 games) - 866 min. (#4)
3. Atari 2600 (11 games) - 617 min. (#1)
4. PlayStation (2 games) - 590 min. (#3)
5. Arcade (12 games) - 309 min. (#2)
6. Atari 5200 (2 games) - 210 min.
7. Atari 8-bit (1 game) - 175 min. (#8)
8. CoCo 1 & 2 (2 games) - 138 min.
9. NES/Famicom (5 games) - 131 min. (#5)
10. Watara SuperVision (7 games) - 125 min.

 

The game that others above describe as the best 2D Metroid game, namely Super Metroid for the SNES, also is the most played this week. As Barnstorming leaves, Beamrider enters on the pre-NES list, followed by a couple C64 games to make that system the second most played behind SNES of course.

 

Super Metroid (SNES) also enters the 5000 Minute Club with a total of 5303 min, which equals 38th place on the all-time list. At the same time, the two PlayStation games FF7 and Castlevania SotN also advance, to positions 22 and 27 respectively.

[Hwlngmad]

Today's (2/16/2023) totals:

 

Game Boy

1) X - 20 minutes

 

GBC

1) Test Drive Le Mans - 10 minutes

[oyamafamily]

Atari 5200

Ms. Pac-Man - 200 minutes

 

Atari 8-BIT

Ms. Pac-Man - 50 minutes

[Steven Pendleton]

Went to the arcade again. I don't remember if Tatsujin Ou was entirely on PCB, but everything else is, although Out Zone is on my PCB, not the arcade's.

 

Arcade
Darius Old Ver. - 5
Elevator Action Returns - 10
Kyuukyoku Tiger - 60
Out Zone - 124
Raiden DX - 10
RayForce - 10
Tatsujin Ou - 80
Thunder Dragon 2 - 10
 

G/MD
Zero Wing - 24

[Prosystemsearch]

Here are my times for the week:

Atari 2600: 

Killer satellites- 6 minutes

Fast Food- 3 minutes

Dodge'em: Dodger Cars- 5 1/2 minutes

Space invaders- 7 minutes

Space invaders Deluxe (Homebrew hack)- 7 1/2 minutes

Sadisteroids (Homebrew hack)- 4 minutes

Atlantis- 4 minutes

Dig Dug- 6 minutes

Pole Position- 5 minutes

Vanguard- 6 minutes

 

NES: 

Abadox- 5 1/2 minutes

Alien Syndrome (Unlicensed)- 3 1/2  minutes

Action 52 (unlicensed)- 3 minutes

Klax (Unlicensed)- 8 minutes

 

 

[TheGameCollector]

This week I played

 

Final Fantasy VII for Playstation - 1,325 minutes

 

Progress:

I made it to disc 2 of the game and got to the point where I got Cloud and Tifa back and have retrieved 4 huge materia. Next I have to take Bugenhagen to the place where Aeris died I think.

[carlsson]

Amiga OCS:
Pinball Fantasies - 30 min.

 

Apple II:
Star Blazer - 2 min.

 

Atari 8-bit:
Robotron: 2084 - 24 min.

 

Mattel Aquarius:
Astrosmash - 2 min.

 

A mix of A8 HSC (where I found Robotron to be more fun than expected) and hardware testing for an upcoming expo. I got kind of stuck in Pinball Fantasies, estimated time.

[oyamafamily]

Times to add - Ms. Pac-Man for Atari 5200 - 175 minutes

[Keir]

Week of 2/13/23 - 2/19/23

 

Atari 2600

Fire Burg - 2

 

Commodore 64

Deliverance - 5

Phantasie II - 220

 

Total time =227 minutes

 

Breaking my rule of rounding to the nearest 5 minutes because I couldn't take more than 2 minutes of Fire Burg.

[agb]

Arcade

Mappy 20 using playstation namco museum

 

Atari 2600

Asteroids 20

Solar Fox 146

 

All fun.

[onlyinajeep]

CoCo3

Lift by Inufuto - 22 minutes

Popstar Pilot - 135 minutes

 

Commodore 64

Gold Quest VI Extended Edition - 212 minutes

[Atarian7]

Atari 2600

Hunchy 2 - 16 minutes

Kaboom! - 55 minutes

Solar Fox - 110 minutes

 

 

[Hwlngmad]

Today's (2/20/203) total:

 

SNES / Super Famicom

1) Battle Cross - 25 minutes

[Eltigro]

23 hours ago, TheGameCollector said:

 

I made it to disc 2 of the game and got to the point where I got Cloud and Tifa back and have retrieved 4 huge materia. Next I have to take Bugenhagen to the place where Aeris died I think.

I need to get back into my game.  I'm very early on disc 2... just before the snowboarding thing.

[+wongojack]

Arcade

Choplifter 5

Crystal Castles 9

Defender 27

Eyes 12

King and Balloon 5

Mushihimesama 4

Punch Out 6

Speed Buggy 8

Spy Hunter 17

Stun Runner 12

Super Dodge Ball 7

Time Traveller 4

 

DOS

Tex Murphy: Mean Streets 75

 

I made my way to the latest location of the Free Play arcade chain here in Dallas.  We are truly blessed with an embarrassment of arcade goodness here.  Most arcade time above is from that visit, and I also played the below "modern" pinball machines while I was there.  Free Play Dallas... (freeplayinc.com)

 

Tex Murphy: Mean Streets was buried in my Steam library, and it fit my current pattern of playing games under 120mb.  Mean Streets (as I knew it) is a game I played bitd.  I remember a friend coming over and we installed it on the hard drive, so I could play after they left.  Although, they must have left me the manual too because it is all very familiar.  Anyway, I never really got deep into the game back then, so it is kind of nice to rediscover it now.

 

Pinball
Cactus Canyon
Godzilla
James Bond Dr No
Led Zeppelin

[TheGameCollector]

8 hours ago, Eltigro said:

I need to get back into my game.  I'm very early on disc 2... just before the snowboarding thing.

I finished the game on Sunday. I had really good materia strategies so it went by pretty easily. But the time from that will be posted next week. Now I'm on to much shorter games for a while.

[Skippy B. Coyote]

Just a bit of Neo Geo for me this week! I decided to try out the Sengoku series, since there aren't a whole lot of beat 'em ups on the AES/MVS, and I'm curating a ROM library for a couple handheld emulation consoles I have coming in the mail so I wanted to see if they'd be worth including.

 

I found the original Sengoku to be a little stiff and clunky and (being an early release) the graphics weren't quite up to typical Neo Geo standard. Sengoku 2 was much more polished and smooth and my favorite of the bunch, though thematically it's just as bizarre as the first one. I decided it was a keeper though. Sengoku 3 was really impressive graphically speaking, but the gameplay was monotonous and repetitive as heck just beating up the same couple enemy types over and over. Plus you can't transform into a wolf in Sengoku 3 like you can in the first two, which automatically made it less cool in my book

 

I ended up adding Sengoku 2 to my ROM library but passing on the other two, and I really liked Prehistoric Isle 2 as well. It's like SNK just said to themselves, "Jurassic Park is really popular right now, let's make a really graphically impressive shoot 'em up game with dinosaurs for the enemies instead of spaceships" and it totally works! 

 

 

Neo Geo AES/MVS
Prehistoric Isle 2 - 12 minutes 
Sengoku - 5 minutes
Sengoku 2 - 18 minutes
Sengoku 3 - 21 minutes 

 

[+jgkspsx]

A potpourri. I really need to get back to my Sega roots.

 

Amiga:

Slam Tilt: The Pinball Game - 15 minutes

 

Atari 2600:

Aquaventure - 10 minutes

 

Atari Lynx:

Robotron 2084 - 45 minutes

 

Atari Jaguar:

Joust - 5 minutes

 

Game & Watch:

Donkey Kong Jr - 15 minutes

 

Genesis:

Phelios - 75 minutes

Psycho Pinball - 50 minutes

Slap Fight MD - 45 minutes

Vapor Trail - 60 minutes

 

Handheld/Tabletop:

Mattel Electronics Dungeons & Dragons - Computer Fantasy Game - 25 minutes

aka Hunt the Wumpus. Pretty amazing! Gobbles batteries, though.

Tiger Miniature Golf - 40 minutes

Getting better but it does feel arbitrary a lot.

 

NES:

Dig Dug - 10 minutes

Tower of Druaga - 15 minutes

 

SNES:

Full Throttle All-American Racing - 75 minutes

Spent a lot of time on this for an Evercade high score challenge only to find out that the only way to win is not to play the game.

 

Supervision: 

Journey to the West Reborn - 20 minutes

You can only throw your staff when you're flying on the cloud. Boo.

 

Turbografx 16:

Jinmu Denshou - 10 minutes

[carlsson]

Here's the summary for Week 07, running from February 13 - 19. We logged 3991 minutes of eligible play, playing 76 games on a total of 24 systems.

 

Top 10:

 

1. Final Fantasy VII (PlayStation) - 1325 min. (#6)
2. Ms. Pac-Man (Atari 5200) - 375 min.
3. Solar Fox (Atari 2600) - 256 min. (#9)
4. Phantasie II (Commodore 64) - 220 min.
5. Gold Quest VI Extended Version (Commodore 64) - 212 min. (#4)
6. Pop Star Pilot (CoCo 3) - 135 min.
7. Out Zone (Arcade) - 124 min.
8. Tatsujin Ou (Arcade) - 80 min.
9. Full Throttle All-American Racing (SNES) - 75 min.
9. Phelios (Genesis) - 75 min.
9. Tex Murphy: Mean Streets (PC DOS) - 75 min.

 

Pre-NES top 10:

 

1. Ms. Pac-Man (Atari 5200) - 375 min. (PN#10)
2. Solar Fox (Atari 2600) - 256 min. (PN#6)
3. Phantasie II (Commodore 64) - 220 min. (PN#9)
4. Gold Quest VI Extended Version (Commodore 64) - 212 min. (PN#2)
5. Kaboom! (Atari 2600) - 55 min.
6. Ms. Pac-Man (Atari 8-bit) - 50 min. (PN#4)
7. Defender (Arcade) - 27 min.
8. Dungeons and Dragons (Mattel) (Handheld/Tabletop) - 25 min.
9. Robotron: 2084 (Atari 8-bit) - 24 min.
10. Asteroids (Atari 2600) - 20 min.
10. Mappy (Arcade) - 20 min.

 

Top 10 systems:

 

1. PlayStation (1 game) - 1325 min. (#4)
2. Arcade (20 games) - 441 min. (#5)
3. Commodore 64 (3 games) - 437 min. (#2)
4. Atari 2600 (16 games) - 413 min. (#3)
5. Atari 5200 (1 game) - 375 min. (#6)
6. Genesis (5 games) - 254 min.
7. CoCo 3 (2 games) - 157 min.
8. SNES (2 games) - 100 min. (#1)
9. PC DOS (1 game) - 75 min.
10. Atari 8-bit (2 games) - 74 min. (#7)

 

Final Fantasy VII storms ahead with 22 new hours of gameplay, ahead of the four pre-NES games Ms. Pac-Man, Solar Fox, Phantasie II and Gold Quest VI Extended Version. Not surprisingly, the PlayStation becomes the most played as well, despite only having one game entering.

 

None of the games break into the 1000, 5000 or 10000 Minute Clubs, but Final Fantasy VII (PlayStation) climbs five places on the all-time stats, to 17th place.

 

As a bonus, here are the system top 10 so far this year:

 

1. PlayStation (5 games) - 7257 min.
2. Atari 2600 (57 games) - 5965 min.
3. Arcade (64 games) - 2903 min.
4. Commodore 64 (44 games) - 2681 min.
5. NES/Famicom (44 games) - 1803 min.
6. SNES (9 games) - 1689 min.
7. Genesis (24 games) - 1156 min.
8. Atari 8-bit (19 games) - 833 min.
9. Game Boy (24 games) - 762 min.
10. TI-99/4A (8 games) - 665 min.

[Eltigro]

On 2/20/2023 at 3:07 PM, wongojack said:

 

 

I made my way to the latest location of the Free Play arcade chain here in Dallas.  We are truly blessed with an embarrassment of arcade goodness here.  Most arcade time above is from that visit, and I also played the below "modern" pinball machines while I was there.  Free Play Dallas... (freeplayinc.com)

 

 

I've been to the Free Play in Richardson a few times.  Great place to get some arcade gaming in.

[Atarian7]

@agb

I got to rack 256 on Solar Fox.  It took me to rack 1 but it said rack 0.  There were a few extra cells (or whatever they're called) on the bottom.  I cleared the rack and then nothing happened. 

It was my last life so losing a life didn't do anything.  Does the game continue somehow?