What have you actually PLAYED tracker for 2014 (Season 7)

[carlsson]

Atari 8-bit:

Loco (or perhaps L.O.C.O.) - 6 min.

Yoomp! - 37 min.

C64:

Zoom! - 10 min.

VIC-20:

Congo Bongo - 14 min.

This week I had an O week, meaning I only played games including only the vowel O, twice or more (obviously not considering Y to be a vowel in English). As I didn't fancy Doom or Loom, I selected some other games instead. For the record, it took me 9 minutes of play time to reach the second screen in Congo Bongo, which itself is a rather crude version compared to other formats but it was the only VIC game with multiple O's that I could find without looking too deep.

Karokoenig: Sorry, I don't have any joystick adapter cables. As for testing the drive, if you got some blank 5.25" floppy disks you should be able to format them. While I don't own a Plus/4 myself, I believe the disk format is the same as VIC/C64, even when you use a 1551 drive. If you like, shoot me a PM and I can write some floppy disks and send you for postage costs.

Edited December 21, 2014 by carlsson

[adamchevy]

Vectrex

 

Thrust 45 min

[+cvga]

Intellivision Goodness:

 

Astrosmash - 50 min

AD&D Cloudy Mountain - 30 min

Thunder Castle - 20 min

 

I wanted to show Thunder Castle to my brother because i think it's a great game. He wasn't so impressed

[BillyHW]

Grandstand/Tomy Caveman standalone LCD portable:

 

Caveman (30 min). Here's the link to the online emulator: http://www.pica-pic.com/#/caveman/

[oyamafamily]

ATARI 2600:

Smurfs Rescue in Gargamel's Castle - 58 minutes (for mini-tournament on 2600 HSC)

High Score: 95800 points (Skill 3)

 

ATARI 7800:

Space Invaders - 384 minutes in several sessions

High Score: 7600 points (Normal Bombs and Fixed Shields, for 7800 HSC Season 7 / Round 13)

[zylon]

5200-

 

Wizard Of Wor- 15min

[+thegoldenband]

Arcade:

Arkanoid - 6 min.

Contra - 7 min.

Dig Dug - 9 min.

Marble Madness - 3 min.

Robotron: 2084 - 14 min.

Atari 2600:

Mangia - 2 min.

Atari 8-bit:

Adventure in Time - 191 min.

Microvision:

Alien Raiders - 2 min.

Baseball - 7 min.

Blockbuster - 4 min.

Bowling - 3 min.

Connect Four - 21 min.

Cosmic Hunter - 4 min.

Mindbuster - 8 min.

Pinball - 6 min.

Sea Duel - 6 min.

Star Trek: Phaser Strike - 3 min.

Vegas Slots - 2 min.

Game Boy:

Extra Bases - 2 min.

Top Rank Tennis - 2 min.

Sega Saturn:

Steep Slope Sliders - 8 min.

PlayStation:

Crash Team Racing - 49 min.

Dreamcast:

Xtreme Sports - 23 min.

Didn't have much time for gaming during the first part of the week, but in Crash Team Racing I did beat two of the four Cup races on Hard with my wife. Then I took a trip to Barcade, where my most fruitful efforts were on Robotron: 2084 (Wave 12 and 256,550 pts) and Dig Dug (Level 13 and 52,700 pts). I know that's a personal best for Robotron on real hardware, and it might even be in the ballpark of my MAME record on default settings -- not sure.

Over the weekend I fired up my Microvision for the first time in ages. I bought a complete US collection a while back, but got frustrated by a jittery dial controller and only played a couple games before shelving it for over a year. However, thanks to the Microvision's weird architecture, cleaning the cart contacts actually seems to help the jitter. I ended playing through my whole collection, and managed to beat Connect Four on the lower skill level, but had no joy on the higher level. Getting a 300 on Bowling looks doable on the slower setting -- I got a 224 on my first attempt -- but the harder setting is another story.

Finally, my wife and I played through and beat another Atari 8-bit text adventure, Adventure in Time, which had a couple decent puzzles but a subpar parser. After that, we fired up Xtreme Sports, a Dreamcast title that's probably the best I've played of its kind -- and which makes it hard to fully engage with Steep Slope Sliders, a well-regarded Saturn game I just picked up, whose visuals are unfortunately light-years away from its Dreamcast counterpart.

[twoquickcapri]

7800:
Dig Dug - 5 min.

Nintendo 64:
Aero Fighters Assault - 31 min.
Cruis'n USA - 190 min.
Super Mario 64 - 15 min.
Top Gear Rally - 45 min.
World Driver Championship - 32 min.

 

RGB modded the N64 last weekend and found myself Cruis'n USA like it was 1996 this week.

[+thegoldenband]

Here's the summary for Week 51, running from December 15 - 21. We logged 2361 minutes of eligible play, playing 72 games on a total of 20 systems.

Top 10:

1. Space Invaders (Atari 7800) - 384

2. Kaboom (Atari 2600) - 333

3. King's Field (PlayStation) - 228

4. Adventure in Time (Atari 8-bit) - 191

5. Cruis'n USA (N64) - 190

6. Smurfs Rescue in Gargamel's Castle (Atari 2600) - 73

7. Astrosmash (Intellivision) - 50

8. Crash Team Racing (PlayStation) - 49

9. Top Gear Rally (N64) - 45

10. Thrust (Vectrex) - 45

Pre-NES top 10:

1. Space Invaders (Atari 7800) - 384

2. Kaboom (Atari 2600) - 333

3. Adventure in Time (Atari 8-bit) - 191

4. Smurfs Rescue in Gargamel's Castle (Atari 2600) - 73

5. Astrosmash (Intellivision) - 50

6. Thrust (Vectrex) - 45

7. Yoomp! (Atari 8-bit) - 37

8. Tomy Grandstand Caveman (Handheld/Tabletop) - 30

8. AD&D: Cloudy Mountain (Intellivision) - 30

8. Armor Attack (Vectrex) - 30

8. Hyperchase (Vectrex) - 30

Top 10 systems:

1. Atari 2600 (418)

2. Atari 7800 (389)

3. N64 (313)

4. PlayStation (277)

5. Vectrex (275)

6. Atari 8-bit (234)

7. Intellivision (100)

8. Microvision (66)

9. Game Boy (44)

10. Sega CD (43)

In one of the last weeks of the year, the tracker sees one of the highest levels of system diversity we've ever had, with 20 different platforms represented.

In the end the two biggest-selling Atari consoles win out, as Space Invaders for Atari 7800 takes the top spot on the individual charts, while the VCS claims the #1 ranking among platforms.

[adamchevy]

Vectrex

 

Space Wars 45min(played 2 player against my wife!) Really an awesome 2 player game.

[oyamafamily]

Merry Christmas to all participants in this thread!!

 

Due to Christmas celebration, here's my time for Intellivision Platform:

Christmas Carol vs. the Ghost of Christmas Presents - 82 minutes in several new attempts

 

Edited December 24, 2014 by oyamafamily

[+cvga]

Pinball - Intellivision 20 minutes

[Darth Link]

Quite a few since I lost internet months back:

 

NES:

 

Galaga

Kirby's Adventure

Metroid

Paperboy

Tetris

 

SNES:

 

Super Double Dragon

Super Mario World

Super Metroid

Super Star Wars

 

Sega Genesis:

 

Altered Beast

Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers

Sonic the Hedgehog 2

Streets of Rage 2

Vectorman

 

Game Boy/Color:

 

Pokemon Yellow

 

GameCube:

 

Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning

Super Mario Sunshine

 

Nintendo DS:

 

The Little Mermaid

Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championship 2007

 

Nintendo 3DS:

 

Pokemon Omega Ruby

Pokemon Y

The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds

 

Sega Game Gear:

 

Sailor Moon S

 

Super Famicom:

 

Sailor Moon R

 

Xbox 360:

 

Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood

Assassin's Creed: Revelations

Mortal Kombat 9

 

These aren't all games I beat, just games I played for more than 10 minutes.

[+thegoldenband]

^All righty! If you want to assign ballpark numbers to any of the games (except the GameCube, DS/3DS, and XBox 360), go for it. Otherwise, I'll put down 15 minutes each.

[Darth Link]

Tetris and Galaga I played for an hour, usually after an hour I need something else lol.

 

Rest of the NES:

 

Kirby's Adventure: 1hr 35mins

Metroid: 45 minutes

Paperboy: 30 minutes

 

SNES:

 

Super Double Dragon: 55 minutes

Super Mario World: 45 minutes

Super Metroid: 1hr 21mins

Super Star Wars: 20 minutes

 

GB/GBC/GBA

:

Pokemon Yellow: About 15 minutes, just transferring data.

 

Game Gear:

 

Sailor Moon S: 34 minutes

 

Super Famicom:

 

Sailor Moon R: 1 hour

 

Sega Genesis:

 

Altered Beast:12 minutes

Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: 20 minutes

Sonic 2: 1hr 11mins

Streets of Rage 2: 15 minutes

Vectorman: 15 minutes

[+cvga]

More Intellivision goodness. Spent some quality time with the family and the Intellivision Flashback...

 

Pinball - 20 minutes - This game is slowly growing on me. Still not one of my favorites but I'm not hating it. It will get some more play.

 

Shark! Shark! - 25 minutes - The kids (ages 15 and really like this one. I don't think they believed me that people were blown away by the graphics when it was first released though

 

Horse Racing - 15 minutes - Other than one long race where the lead kept changing and we had four people all betting on a different horse, it wasn't all that exciting. It's a game that feels like it has more potential than it delivers.

 

Snafu - 20 minutes - Another one the kids really enjoyed. Too bad you can't play with four human opponents. We'd probably still be playing!

 

Math Fun - 6 minutes - Cute. You have to type in the numbers from right to left, which can be a bit tricky if you know the answer without doing the "math"

 

Auto Racing - 2 minutes - No one wanted to play after we crashed a couple of times. I'll get back to it one day.

 

Golf - 10 minutes - I tried this after everyone else quit. It's ok I guess. I can't see myself playing it much more though.

[Atarian7]

How are we going to work the end of this year?

[+thegoldenband]

Since the year changes midweek, we'll just "play it straight". That is:

 

Week 52 will run from December 22-28, so submit times as normal this Sunday (or before Monday at 3:00 PM EST).

 

Week 53 will be a short week from Dec. 29-31, so submit those times on Dec. 31, and we'll do year-end stats.

 

And then Week 1 of 2015 (!) will be 4 days long, starting next Thursday and running until Sunday, with the usual Sunday/Monday deadline.

[karokoenig]

N64

Star Wars Rogue Squadron: 35 min

 

Picked this up a while ago, but since my N64 is set up at my parents' place, I rarely get to play it. I played through the first two missions and checked out the third. All I can say is... "Meh". I really find the controls lacking. I can't help it: I compare every Star Wars Flying game with "Tie Fighter" (THE best flying combat simulator ever conceived). All the graphcal flimflam of the N64 game doesn't help if I can't stand the gameplay.

 

Game Boy Classic

Battleship: 87 min

 

On a mission to beat this game. I thought (hoped) it had 30 something levels, but unfortunately it has 48.

 

Pong (2nd generation):

40 min

 

"2nd generation" means: analog sticks instead of simple paddles. The console is a clone sold in Germany by Quelle around '81 or '82. I brought along this thing for Christmas, hooked it up and had some fun with my cousin when he visited us. He is generation NES, and of course I beat the crap out of him . We had a blast.

[+cvga]

Still playing Intellivision Flashback games...

 

Bowling - 25 minutes - Yikes! Scores of 73 and 82. I was a lot better at this as a kid.

 

Shark! Shark! - 30 minutes - My 8 year old wanted to play it again tonight. Gotta love the classics.

 

World Championship Baseball - 15 minutes - One player against the computer. He didn't have a chance.

 

Super Pro Wrestling - 20 minutes - I had originally purchased this at a Toys R Us around 1990. Forgot how fun it was. Love all the different moves you can perform.

 

Thinking of introducing my son to Utopia tomorrow if we play some more. I think he would enjoy it.

[Darth Link]

NES:

 

Gauntlet - 20 minutes

Little Nemo: The Dream Master - 20 minutes

MiG-29: Soviet Fighter - 1hr 23mins

 

SNES:

 

Super Double Dragon - 55 minutes

 

Atari 2600:

 

Haunted House - 20 minutes

Star Raiders - 20 minutes

[BillyHW]

C64:

 

Civilization [Demo] (7 min). This is just a demo where you can pan around an 8-bit recreation of the Civilization Earth map. Too bad nobody ported the full game over.

 

Utopia (1984, HPBooks, 10 min). Sadly no relation to the legendary Intellivision game. This is just a text-based simulation. Not very interesting.

 

Utopia [Preview] (1998, 20 min). Got a nice demo song at the beginning, but couldn't end up figuring out how to get to the actual game. Seemed to freeze. If anybody else can figure it out let me know. http://www.gamebase64.com/game.php?id=8338&d=42

[Atarian7]

Atari 2600

Kaboom!-355 minutes

 

 

High score of the week: 90,819

 

 

[carlsson]

Utopia [Preview] (1998, 20 min). Got a nice demo song at the beginning, but couldn't end up figuring out how to get to the actual game. Seemed to freeze. If anybody else can figure it out let me know. http://www.gamebase64.com/game.php?id=8338&d=42

You need true drive emulation (or run it on a real floppy drive if you use a real C64). Possibly it is PAL only too, as all the text is in German. Actually those who made it seem to be very big fans of MS-DOS, the whole game loads in a pretended MS-DOS environment. Besides you need to switch floppy disk in the middle of loading, so the main game in on the disk numbered 1, while you originally boot from the disk numbered 0. I don't know how fluent you are in German, otherwise you might soon abandon it.

 

So to get it right, you spent 20 minutes listening to the cracker intro music, but didn't get the actual game to load?

 

Edit: Yup, you need both PAL and True Drive Emulation so if you try to play this game on a real NTSC C64, you're out of luck.

Edited December 28, 2014 by carlsson

[carlsson]

VIC-20:

Gridder - 21 min.

New York Blitz - 17 min.

Santa - 6 min.

ZX Spectrum:

DIVIDE - 8 min.

Christmas week unfortunately meant much less time for playing games than otherwise, despite getting five days off work. The ZX Spectrum entry is a brand new, self made crap game I whipped up on Saturday and actually played past the debugging stage for a little while. It might be questionable if it should count.