+thegoldenband Posted April 23, 2012 Author Share Posted April 23, 2012 Neo-Geo (does this count as "Arcade" category or what? I was playing it in MAME): We've been treating it as a separate platform of its own. Until this week we were also theoretically differentiating between AES and MVS, but I've decided to lump them together, partly because some older entries just said "Neo Geo" so it'd be impossible to suss out which was which. Famicom: Star Force - 5 min. The Famicom version is different from the NES version. Tracking this one as "Star Force (J)". Nice to see some SG-1000 getting played, BTW. I have a strange fondness for that system, for some reason. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StanJr Posted April 24, 2012 Share Posted April 24, 2012 N64 Rogue Squadron 75 mins. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillyHW Posted April 24, 2012 Share Posted April 24, 2012 Neo-Geo (does this count as "Arcade" category or what? I was playing it in MAME): We've been treating it as a separate platform of its own. Until this week we were also theoretically differentiating between AES and MVS, but I've decided to lump them together, partly because some older entries just said "Neo Geo" so it'd be impossible to suss out which was which. Famicom: Star Force - 5 min. The Famicom version is different from the NES version. Tracking this one as "Star Force (J)". Nice to see some SG-1000 getting played, BTW. I have a strange fondness for that system, for some reason. Makes sense. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flammingcowz Posted April 24, 2012 Share Posted April 24, 2012 Intellivision: Beauty & the Beast - 30 min Lock N Chase - 2h 20m AD&D Cloudy Mountain - 40m Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StanJr Posted April 24, 2012 Share Posted April 24, 2012 N64 Rogue Squadron (95 mins) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
littleman jack Posted April 25, 2012 Share Posted April 25, 2012 Atari 2600 Burgertime 10 minutes Dodge 'Em 15 minutes FlapPing 7 minutes Seaquest 10 minutes Seaweed Assault 8 minutes Seawolf 5 minutes Venture 10 minutes Wolfenstein VCS The Next Mission 8 minutes Linux Burgerspace 10 minutes Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twoquickcapri Posted April 27, 2012 Share Posted April 27, 2012 Atari 7800: Rampage - 60 min. Sega Saturn: Albert Odyssey: Legend of Eldean - 330 min. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atarian7 Posted April 29, 2012 Share Posted April 29, 2012 Atari 2600 Kaboom!-477 minutes High score of the week: I don't know. I thought I would do better so I didn't write it down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kurt_Woloch Posted April 29, 2012 Share Posted April 29, 2012 Here are my times for this past week (April 23rd through 29th)... Arcade: Gauntlet - 203 min. Q*Bert's Qubes - 34 min. Atari 2600: Space Rocks (WIP) - 10 min. in 2 sessions Colecovision: Time Pilot - 45 min. Commodore 64: Burger Chase - 65 min. Burger Time 1997 - 17 min. Jouste - 7 min. Space-Pilot II - 211 min. in 3 sessions It has been a diverse week of gaming... and the games can be divided in some groups. So, in chronological order... The first game I played was the arcade game "Gauntlet". I actually meant to play this last week when I ended up playing some NES games instead... First I strived to come as far as possible on a single credit, which brought me up to Level 8. Then I used the continue option and got until, I think, Level 14 before I gave up. At that point it gets pretty hard, and it's pretty much impossible surviving without steadily losing health. Then I played some more versions of Burger Time... specifically 2 different versions for the Commodore 64. "Burger Time 1997" is a pretty good port, but the patterns are modeled after the Intellivision version, which in turn is similar to the Aquarius version. "Burger Chase" borrows the patterns more from the arcade version, though I'd say they are only inspired by the arcade, not copied 1:1. And there are only four levels. What's unique about this version is that your enemies are as fast as you, but they don't home in at you at all, rather they wander around randomly, at least at the start. However, as the levels progress, they get smarter and tend to move towards you more often, especially the onions that come up. I also played a port of "Joust" on the C-64 which I didn't know yet... it's called "Jouste". It has pretty good graphics, but sloppy animation, and, desprite trying hard to faithfully reproduce everything the arcade version does, they screwed up the physics of the game. I tried two other versions of that game on the C-64, but the playing times were so short that I didn't note them, because those versions were even worse than Jouste. And then... Space Rocks. It's a homebrew WIP for the Atari 2600, set out to become an Asteroids clone without the constraints that plagued the original Atari 2600 version, but sometimes introducing heavy flicker as a trade-off. The latest version already has explosions (which were pretty much absent in Atari's 2600 version) and sound. The way Space Rocks played reminded me of "Time Pilot"; especially of the Colecovision version which I hadn't completed yet. Well, maybe I'm wrong here... I completed the first set of screens in the first game. The animation on that is pretty choppy with objects often moving by whole character steps at a framerate of only 2-3 fps. After that, I tried another version of Time Pilot... Space-Pilot II on the Commodore 64. This game has changed the rules a bit, introducing different graphics on in total 8 levels, compared to the 5 on the arcade original and the 4 in the Colecovision version. The last game I played was just an hour ago when I learned that Q*Bert's Qubes is featured on the Arcade HSC this week. Since I've played this game some months ago, I knew I could make a high score here... see the Arcade HSC forum for the result. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keilbaca Posted April 29, 2012 Share Posted April 29, 2012 Berzerk (Atari 2600) - 12 hours Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StanJr Posted April 30, 2012 Share Posted April 30, 2012 Berzerk (Atari 2600) - 12 hours I LOVE this entry! Go! As for me, lots to tell: Arcade Congo Bongo 25 mins. Pac-man 30 mins. VCS Berzerk 15 mins. Asteroids 10 mins. Adventure 5 mins. Golf 10 mins Defender 10 mins. Circus Atari 35 mins. (Aimee) Haunted House 5 mins. Pac-man 15 mins. Entombed 10 mins. Missile Command 10 mins. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillyHW Posted April 30, 2012 Share Posted April 30, 2012 (edited) ColecoVision: Frenzy! - 20 min. Destructor - 20 min. PC (DOS): Civilization - 5 hours. Forgot what a black hole for time this was. NES: R.C. Pro-Am - 20 min. Edited April 30, 2012 by BillyHW Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillyHW Posted April 30, 2012 Share Posted April 30, 2012 Berzerk (Atari 2600) - 12 hours Impressive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+thegoldenband Posted April 30, 2012 Author Share Posted April 30, 2012 My times for the week: Game Boy: Casper - 58 min. Genesis: Super Hydlide - 225 min. Nintendo 64: A Bug's Life - 60 min. Jet Force Gemini - 14 min. Paperboy 64 - 16 min. Pilotwings 64 - 395 min. I made a big push to finish off Super Hydlide at the start of the week (actually very early on Monday). But as I wrote in a feature for Sega-16, I think I may have inadvertently wrecked my chances of finishing the game, and haven't had the heart to go back and check. So I changed gears, busted out the N64, and ended up playing a lot of Pilotwings 64 which I'd never played before. Great game, very much in the spirit of the SNES original, and if anything it's even more addictive. So far I've gotten perfect scores in all events in the first two classes (though I haven't perfected Cannonball yet), and made inroads in the third. The other N64 games I tried were less compelling, perhaps because I wasn't really in the mood for 3D collectathons with complicated control schemes. Actually, the training mode in A Bug's Life was kind of fun, but my enjoyment took a steep dive as soon as I got to the first level proper, thanks in part to the constant nagging of your sidekick. "This way, Flik! This way, Flik! This way, Flik!" Ehh, shaddap. Finally, I played Casper for basically the first time. It's a lame collection of minigames, though the Rube Goldberg levels are a nice change of pace. I didn't have too much trouble beating it on Easy once I knew what to do (I don't have the manual), but we'll see if the higher difficulties pose a stiffer challenge. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+thegoldenband Posted April 30, 2012 Author Share Posted April 30, 2012 Here's the summary for Week 17, running from April 23 - 29. We logged 3950 minutes of eligible play, playing 46 games on a total of 13 systems. Top 10: 1. Berzerk (Atari 2600) - 735 2. Kaboom (Atari 2600) - 477 3. Pilotwings 64 (N64) - 395 4. Albert Odyssey: Legend of Eldean (Sega Saturn) - 330 5. Civilization (PC (DOS)) - 300 6. Super Hydlide (Genesis) - 225 7. Space Pilot II (C64) - 211 8. Gauntlet (Arcade) - 203 9. Star Wars: Rogue Squadron (N64) - 170 10. Lock 'n' Chase (Intellivision) - 140 Pre-NES top 10: 1. Berzerk (Atari 2600) - 735 2. Kaboom (Atari 2600) - 477 3. Space Pilot II (C64) - 211 4. Gauntlet (Arcade) - 203 5. Lock 'n' Chase (Intellivision) - 140 6. Burger Chase (C64) - 65 7. Rampage (Atari 7800) - 60 8. Time Pilot (ColecoVision) - 45 9. AD&D: Cloudy Mountain (Intellivision) - 40 10. Circus Atari (Atari 2600) - 35 Top 10 systems: 1. Atari 2600 (1405) 2. Nintendo 64 (655) 3. Sega Saturn (330) 4. Commodore 64 (300) 5. PC (DOS) (300) 6. Arcade (292) 7. Genesis (225) 8. Intellivision (210) 9. ColecoVision (85) 10. Atari 7800 (60) If a VCS game is on top, and it doesn't start with a K, then it usually ends with one! Berzerk may have supplanted Kaboom this week, but the two joined forces to ensure that the Atari 2600 had more than twice the gameplay time of its nearest competitor, the Nintendo 64. BTW since Gauntlet came out in 1985, I wasn't sure whether to count it as a pre-NES game since I don't know in which month it was released. But since the hardware seems similar to Marble Madness, which dates from 1984, I think it's in. (Q*bert's Qubes was #11, with 34 minutes.) 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillyHW Posted April 30, 2012 Share Posted April 30, 2012 NES was late 1985, so you're pretty safe counting Gauntlet as pre-NES. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StanJr Posted May 1, 2012 Share Posted May 1, 2012 Arcade Congo Bongo 75 mins. VCS Berzerk 20 mins. Asteroids 10 mins. Missile Command 10 mins. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atari2008 Posted May 1, 2012 Share Posted May 1, 2012 Intellivision Tron Deadly Discs 40 mins. BurgerTime 20 mins. Dig Dug 10 mins. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillyHW Posted May 1, 2012 Share Posted May 1, 2012 Atari Lynx: Klax - 3.5 hours. For the HSC. Best version of Klax and better than the arcade version. Great sound effects. Superb game and must have for any Lynx owner. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kurt_Woloch Posted May 1, 2012 Share Posted May 1, 2012 BTW since Gauntlet came out in 1985, I wasn't sure whether to count it as a pre-NES game since I don't know in which month it was released. But since the hardware seems similar to Marble Madness, which dates from 1984, I think it's in. (Q*bert's Qubes was #11, with 34 minutes.) Well... I'd rather not count it as a pre-NES game. In fact I wouldn't even count Marble Madness as one since both of them are 16-bit games with a 16-bit processor, lots of sprites (at least Gauntlet has lots of sprites on the screen) and FM sound. An indication for that would be that neither of the games have been ported to a pre-crash console or computer, not even as an unreleased or unfinished prototype. (For that comparison, I wouldn't count consoles and computers which were around before the crash but survived it, such as the Commodore 64, the ZX-Spectrum or the Famicom which post-crashly became the NES, as pre-crash ones). Although... here in Austria, it did appear before the NES. I saw Marble Madness first in the arcade in Vienna in December 1984, and Gauntlet one year later, in December 1985, while the NES got released roughly in summer of 1987. But I saw NES-based arcade games like Super Mario Bros. (actually called Vs. Super Mario Bros) and Excitebike already in 1985... but just in the arcade, not in retail stores. The last big hit from Atari Games before Marble Madness was the laser disc game Firefox appearing in 1984, sharing roughly the same cabinet form with Marble Madness. When Firefox appeared, at least here the crash was still underway with still many games on the shelves for pre-crash consoles and computers, while by the end of 1984 the supply was drying out with Atari even refraining from releasing the basically finished 2600 version of Track & Field in Germany. But you are right that it's a bit on the fringe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+thegoldenband Posted May 1, 2012 Author Share Posted May 1, 2012 I wouldn't even count Marble Madness as one since both of them are 16-bit games with a 16-bit processor, lots of sprites (at least Gauntlet has lots of sprites on the screen) and FM sound. An indication for that would be that neither of the games have been ported to a pre-crash console or computer, not even as an unreleased or unfinished prototype. (For that comparison, I wouldn't count consoles and computers which were around before the crash but survived it, such as the Commodore 64, the ZX-Spectrum or the Famicom which post-crashly became the NES, as pre-crash ones). Heh, that's a tough standard! There are Marble Madness ports for the Apple II and Tandy CoCo, but both of those computers did survive the crash. There was also a version for the IBM PCjr, but that computer debuted just at the peak of the crash. Honestly, I can't think of too many home computers per se that didn't survive the crash; the main exception that comes to mind is the TI-99. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StanJr Posted May 2, 2012 Share Posted May 2, 2012 (edited) Arcade Congo Bongo 65 mins. Pac-man 35 mins. VCS Circus Atari 30 mins. (mostly Aimee, she is sick at this game) Super Breakout 10 mins. Missile Command 20 mins. (Aimee) NES Atlus Golf Grand Slam 25 mins. Edited May 2, 2012 by StanJr Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kurt_Woloch Posted May 2, 2012 Share Posted May 2, 2012 Heh, that's a tough standard! There are Marble Madness ports for the Apple II and Tandy CoCo, but both of those computers did survive the crash. There was also a version for the IBM PCjr, but that computer debuted just at the peak of the crash. Honestly, I can't think of too many home computers per se that didn't survive the crash; the main exception that comes to mind is the TI-99. How about the VIC-20 and the ZX-81? And the computers by game companies that never really took off, the Coleco Adam and the Mattel Aqarius... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StanJr Posted May 3, 2012 Share Posted May 3, 2012 Arcade Congo Bongo 30 mins. Pac-man 55 mins (serious run tonight, fell just short of my personal best, 267K, my best is 285K) VCS Circus Atari 10 mins. Super Breakout 5 mins. Marble Craze 5 mins (oh hell yeah, baby, breaking out the classic homebrews!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StanJr Posted May 4, 2012 Share Posted May 4, 2012 Serious VCS today. A crazy mix of the classics and the homebrews Marble Craze 30 mins. Berzerk 15 mins. Bowling 25 mins. Missile Command 10 mins. Asteroids 5 mins. Space Invaders 5 mins. Crazy Balloon 5 mins. Circus Atari 10 mins. Chunkout 2600 20 mins. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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