What have you actually PLAYED tracker for 2019 (Season 12)

[carlsson]

I really feel that us freeloaders should at least get 2 hours to edit a post lol...

No problem, I also look up most of the new games so I corrected the spelling to Alzadick.

[Atarian7]

Atari 2600

Kaboom! - 111 minutes

Gangster Alley - 14 minutes

 

 

I just couldn't get into Gangster Alley. So it's on to the losers Paper medal round.

 

 

[Kurt_Woloch]

Oh, sorry. Seems like I got multiple things wrong yesterday. To explain things, I was in a bit of a rush yesterday because I won tickets for a comedy show tomorrow night and struggled to find a 2nd person to visit it with me. Therefore I mixed up the two threads and also got the name of one game wrong...

it's still T:me Salvo. There is no game called T:me Blasto, though after this happened I thought about how one (a sequel to T:me Salvo) might look like...

 

you see, there is a game called Blasto on the TI-99 (and it was even played this week by other people as I see) which has got SOMEWHAT similar gameplay to T:me Salvo in that in both games you play as a vehicle which is able to go in four directions and also shoot into them on a single, non-scrolling screen... but that's where the similarities end.

 

On the TI-99, I actually have put this into a group of 3 games with similar gameplay which are Blasto, The Attack and Tombstone City, with Tombstone City being the most similar to T:me Blasto in that you always have a city, but it's in the center and only 4x4 blocks. The enemies can roam outside the city (as they do in T:me Blasto), but they can't enter it. To make up for that, the player ship is able to leave the city into the outer world where most of the actual fighting takes place. Actually, Blasto is an arcade port of a game by Gremlin (like Hustle, which was also made by Gremlin), and it greatly surpasses the original with much better graphics and sound, whereas the original version is only black and white, has no sprites and only one sound channel. Must have been one of the earliest CPU based games with only 6K of ROM in total. So... a "T:me Blasto" would have to be one more step up from the TI-99 version. T:me Blasto would have to be to Blasto roughly what T:me Salvo is to Targ. Things that were added include:

in Crossfire: More enemy types, glimpse of an outer world where the enemies spawn, shooting enemies, shot refills, bonus capsules, music

in T:me Salvo: bonus capsules converted to running men, smart bomb, challenging stages.

So a T:me Blasto should have moving enemies, more mine types, extras and multiple rounds, at the least. The "mine chain reaction" concept actually cries for multiple levels with specific mine arrangements which can lead to different strategies in how to eliminate them.

You mixed up the two threads, but I'll include your post here:


On the Atari 7800, would that be T:me Salvo or is T:me Blasto a sequel? I didn't find any info online.

[Skippy B. Coyote]

'Twas a fine week for gaming around here this past week, with a solid mix of both modern and classic titles.




Ineligible
Castlevania: Circle of the Moon (Game Boy Advance) - 75 minutes
Metroid Fusion (Game Boy Advance) - 370 minutes
Sonic Advance (Game Boy Advance) - 230 minutes

 

Game Boy

Contra: The Alien Wars (Emulated on EverDrive GBA X5) - 27 minutes

Sega Genesis
Cadash (Emulated on Nintendo Wii) - 16 minutes
Castlevania: Bloodlines - 118 minutes
Gain Ground (Emulated on Nintendo Wii) - 24 minutes
Light Crusader (Emulated on Nintendo Wii) - 70 minutes
Skeleton Krew (Emulated on Nintendo Wii) - 9 minutes
Super Smash T.V. (Emulated on Nintendo Wii) - 9 minutes
The Immortal (Emulated on Nintendo Wii) - 36 minutes


Total Video Game Play Time This Week
984 minutes (16 hours 24 minutes) [309 minutes eligible]

Individual System Play Times This Week
Game Boy Advance: 675 minutes
Sega Genesis: 282 minutes
Game Boy: 27 minutes



The big gaming event around here this past week was the arrival of all the hardware we needed to start exploring the Game Boy Advance library. A backlit AGS-101 screen for my Game Boy Advance, a Game Boy Player disc for our GameCube so the misses could play GBA games on the TV with her Wii/GameCube/Switch arcade stick, and an EverDrive GBA X5 to provide the games. It was a big investment for everything but it's been a ton of a fun so far!

We started off the week playing through Sonic Advance together, with the spousal unit playing as Sonic and me as Tails, and it was just an amazing throwback to the classic Sonic the Hedgehog games on the Sega Genesis. The game was easy to beat in a few hours but neither of us ended up being any good at the the bonus stages where you earn chaos emeralds so we ended up finishing the game with just one emerald, and I doubt we'll get the others anytime soon. After Sonic Advance I started in on Metroid Fusion and the misses began a game of Castlevania: Circle of the Moon, both of which are just flippin' amazing so far.

In between all the GBA games we also played through Castlevania: Bloodlines on the Genesis, trading off the controller between levels, then we each explored some new Genesis games via emulation to see whether they were worth adding to the physical cartridge wants list. First I tried out Cadash, Gain Ground, Skeleton Krew, and Super Smash T.V.. I wasn't a big fan of Cadash, Skeleton Krew was kinda neat but really repetitive and definitely not worth the $45 that loose cartridges are currently going for, and Super Smash T.V. was pretty fun but really needed to be played on original hardware with dual arcade sticks to get a proper feel for it. The one game I absolutely loved though was Gain Ground, and I'll definitely be hunting down a physical copy of that one! It was a really fun and engaging RTS game, which is a really one of a kind experience for the Sega Genesis.

For the misses' games she tried out The Immortal and Light Crusader, which are both isometric 3D dungeon crawlers. She thought The Immortal was a great throwback to classic PC adventure games with clever puzzles, a cool and unique combat system, and a solid level of challenge. Light Crusader on the other hand turned out to be not quite as much fun, due to the heavy emphasis on Zelda style environmental puzzles that just don't work very well with the game's twitchy controls and is isometric perspective. She didn't think it was a "bad" game, just not a terribly good one. It was playable enough, but she wouldn't go out of her way to find a copy.


Looking ahead to next week I'll be continuing my play through of Metroid Fusion while my other half works on Castlevania: Circle of the Moon, and since I managed to squeak my way into the finals for the bronze medal bracket of the Atari 2600 High Score Club it looks like I'll be playing some Atari too. I'm pretty excited to see what games my opponent and I are going to end up playing! I'll have to wait a few more days to see what those games are going to be though, so until then and as always, best wishes and happy gaming to you and yours!

Edited April 29, 2019 by Jin

[carlsson]

Here's the summary for Week 17, running from April 22 - 28. We logged 3109 minutes of eligible play, playing 71 games on a total of 13 systems.

Top 10:

1. Aerobiz Supersonic (SNES) - 257 min.
2. Solar Fox (Atari 2600) - 167 min.
3. Asteroids (Atari 2600) - 164 min.
4. R-Type (TG-16/PC Engine) - 150 min.
5. International Karate [2014 Enhanced Edition] (Atari 8-bit) - 146 min.
6. Kaboom! (Atari 2600) - 123 min.
7. Chuck Yeager's Air Combat (Mac OS Classic) - 120 min.
8. Castlevania: Bloodlines (Genesis) - 118 min.
9. Eggomania (Atari 2600) - 105 min.
10. Age of Empires 2 (Mac OS Classic) - 90 min.

Pre-NES top 10:

1. Solar Fox (Atari 2600) - 167 min.
2. Asteroids (Atari 2600) - 164 min.
3. International Karate [2014 Enhanced Edition] (Atari 8-bit) - 146 min.
4. Kaboom! (Atari 2600) - 123 min.
5. Eggomania (Atari 2600) - 105 min.
6. Turtles (Odyssey^2) - 81 min.
7. J.G. Munchkin [Attack of the Timelord hack] (Odyssey^2) - 66 min.
8. Pac-Man Collection (Atari 7800) - 65 min.
9. Blasto (TI-99/4A) - 60 min.
10. UFO (Odyssey^2) - 57 min.

Top 10 systems:

1. Atari 2600 (711)
2. Odyssey^2 (432)
3. TG-16/PC Engine (427)
4. Genesis (307)
5. TI-99/4A (300)
6. SNES (257)
7. Mac OS Classic (245)
8. Atari 8-bit (146)
9. Atari 7800 (129)
10. TG-CD/PC Engine CD (68)

An airline management game tops the main list, who would've thought that? It almost makes me want to give High Flyer (on the C64) another go. Of course many of the other games also are about flying in one way or another: certainly there are spaceships in all of Solar Fox, Asteroids (who inbetween have a tough fight for the pre-NES title) and R-Type, Chuck Yeager's is a flight simulator and you can send flying kicks in International Karate.

 

In the systems category, the 2600 yet again takes the title while the older Odyssey^2 just nudges the newer TurboGrafx-16 away for 2nd place. Further down the list, the 16-bit Genesis barely defeats the likewise 16-bit but much older TI-99/4A.

 

No new entries to any clubs this week, though 17 of 71 games (24%) were new entries to the tracker. I haven't compared to previous weeks but it is a decent number given we now have 8897 games tracked. Next week for sure we'll have lucky number 8900, whether you associate it with the Intellivision STIC = General Instruments AY-3-8900, the Trident TVGA 8900 SVGA graphics cards or something else.

 

Happy Walpurgis!

Edited April 30, 2019 by carlsson

[Opry99er]

Neat! I'll probably make up those three new games on my own this week-- been diving deep into the mystical world of System 6 Macintosh games..... and there are hundreds of bizarre and funky titles out there!!

[karokoenig]

Atari 2600

Frogger: 34 min

 

Real life keeps interfering with the lure of my Atari console, which is a bit of bad news for my performance in the Bronze Medal competition. But there are quite a few days left, so I'm confident that I will get a few good attempts in. Very happy with my Frogger score for now. The other games are Toyshop Trouble and Infiltrate, one of which is great fun to play.

[digdugnate]

i tried to do my part for Classic Gaming this week even with FFX stealing my free time:

 

TI 99-4/A:

 

Borzork -- 182 minutes

 

 

Borzork is @nanochess' port of Berzerk for the TI. I think it's a mighty fine port!

[Kurt_Woloch]

Here are my times for this past week (April 29th through May 5th)...

 

Arcade:

Blasto - 10 min.

Mario Bros. - 17 min.

Super Qix - 11 min.

 

Atari 2600:

Alien - 9 min

Hunchy II - 21 min.

 

Commodore 64:

Frantic Freddie II - 15 min.

Slamball - 18 min.

Super Pipeline - 12 min.

 

This time I played short sessions of a handful of games... Frantic Freddie II is a sequel to the original Frantic Freddie from back in the day (actually a hack) with different music (and a different music routine as well), different enemies, intermissions and levels. It starts out with a rendition of "Don't stop me now" by Queen (which really seems to have exploded in popularity since late last year, mind you!) and then plays various other tunes like "Paranoid" by Black Sabbath.

 

Then, following my hiccup with last weeks' postings, I played the arcade original of Blasto which must be one of the earliest CPU based arcade games with no sprites, monochrome graphics and only 2K of ROM (if I got it right). Out of no particular reason, I also played Mario Bros. and Super Qix in their original versions, likewise on the C-64 without particular reason I replayed the pinball sim Slamball and Super Pipeline. Then I tried Alien on the Atari 2600 which is a variation on Pac-Man.

 

Finally, Hunchy II. This is a sequel to Hunchy on the Atari 2600 which in turn is modeled after the arcade game "Hunchback". Hunchy II changes the game mechanics a bit into a platformer where you have to collect several bells per screen. I'm not surprised about that because the C-64, after getting a port of Hunchback by Ocean, also got a sequel in Hunchback II which changes the game principle in a similar way. The original arcade Hunchback had a last screen which differs from the rest a bit in that you have multiple platforms which you change by climbing on bell ropes. That screen is missing from the C-64 port, but instead it's the first screen of Hunchback II which in its subsequent screens expands on that principle as does the Spectrum version, but with different levels. Hunchy II differs from this as well by having the player climb ladders instead of bell ropes, and the main enemy is the difficulty of the terrain rather than the floating sprites as on the C-64 and Spectrum.

[carlsson]

Arcade:
World Rally (Championship?) - 3 min.

Atari 8-bit:
Deflektor - 10 min.
IK+ (preview, build 0284) - 14 min.
International Karate [2014 EE] - 30 min.

Atari is of course HSC, one round ending last Friday and a new one just starting. IK+ is a preview build from 2010 which lets you play one round at a time (regardless if you win or lose) until you reach 20000 pts and the game halts. Looks very promising, hopefully it gets finished one day.

We also moved our computer club headquarters by 1.5 miles which meant transporting a lot of goods - namely 3 small trailer loads and 5-6 full station wagons, including a full size noname arcade cabinet which since a couple of years is fitted with World Rally, though I still haven't figured out if it is Atari's version from 1993 or the Gaelco Championship version also from 1993. Based on what I can find on YouTube, the two may even be known as the same game though KLOV lists them separately.

[oyamafamily]

ATARI 2600:

Asteroids - 120 minutes

Roc N Rope - 10 minutes

Space Game - 10 minutes

Learn more about Space Game for 2600: https://atariage.com/store/index.php?l=product_detail&p=1173

 

EVIDENCE OF THE WEEK: My recent Asteroids scores in my last sessions on ProSystem console, with game variations without special features (hyperspace / shields / 180-degree flip)

[+thegoldenband]

My time for the week:

NES:

Rush ’n Attack - 248 min.

Better than the games I've been playing lately, I suppose. But I still find it hard to love a game that can so easily insta-kill you by making you accidentally grab a ladder, or spawning an enemy onto the screen at random times.

[DragonGrafx-16]

 

My time for the week:

NES:

Rush ’n Attack - 248 min.

Better than the games I've been playing lately, I suppose. But I still find it hard to love a game that can so easily insta-kill you by making you accidentally grab a ladder, or spawning an enemy onto the screen at random times.

 

I get annoyed by games that kill you in one hit (that have no way to give yourself another). That might sound weird from a shoot em' up addict... but my favorite ones are the ones that give you multiple hits or a shield or at least generous checkpoints.

[Eltigro]

My games for the week... Not a huge amount, but some pretty action heavy games. I'm actually kinda proud that, as I type this, my thumb kinda hurts. lol

 

TurboGrafx-16

R-Type - 176 min (Really been on a bit of an R-Type kick lately. Figured out the third boss for the most part and have gotten to the fourth boss several times now... although I still haven't done much at all against it... It's funny, though... getting further in the game, but still haven't eclipsed my high score. I've gotten over 200,000 points in the past, but haven't broken that barrier recently. I think it's because I'm not redoing the entire third stage as much...)

 

Jaguar

Tempest 2000 - 90 min (Playing some Tempest 2k and trying to beat old scores. Played three games, but only broke 400,000 once. I have the same hell levels for the most part... and those electrical enemies that "fry" you still get me more than any other.)

Ultra Vortek - 19 min (I don't like fighting games, so I rarely play them at all. And that's even with good fighting games. Ultra Vortek is not known as a good fighting game. I figured I'd pop it in and mess around anyway. Played as Volcana and did pretty decent I guess. At some points, it even looked like I knew what I was doing! I got to some character named "Shadow" who was like a shadowed version of a previous enemy. But when I beat him, he just changed into another one... with a full life bar. I don't know how many of the different characters he goes through, but it's a tough fight.)

[+wongojack]

I've had company this week who also enjoy some gaming, but it has diversified the titles a bit. The kids enjoy the little dedicated handhelds and one of them wants to play Super Hero Squad in co-op with me as much as he can (logged in the other tracker). Their dad enjoys Mortal Kombat and their uncle NBA Jams. All of these games are being played at my house, so I'm logging time for all of it this week.

 

Arcade

Mortal Kombat 130

NBA Jam 60

Wonder Boy 9

 

Odyssey 2 / Videopac

Space Monster 45

UFO 20 (personal best 171)

[+wongojack]

 

My time for the week:

NES:

Rush ’n Attack - 248 min.

Better than the games I've been playing lately, I suppose. But I still find it hard to love a game that can so easily insta-kill you by making you accidentally grab a ladder, or spawning an enemy onto the screen at random times.

 

 

I agree, there are some things to like about this game, but MANY things not to like. The actual game can be pretty fun, but you have to try. The biggest confusion about the setup is why would any military ever send a soldier on a covert mission armed only with a knife! It's almost like they were trying to create a game that sounded worse than it was. "Hey, let's design a game where you can almost never shoot and have to press up to jump. Kids will love that right?!"

[DragonGrafx-16]

Soldier Blade (PC Engine/TG-16) 45 mins
Bomberman '93 (PC Engine/TG-16) 52 mins

 

Been working on my game (soundtrack atm) so I haven't played as much.

[agb]

Times hit the week are:

All atari 2600:

Asteroids 75 mins

Eggomania 97 mins

Galaxian 57 mins

Kaboom 13 mins

Phoenix 47 mins

Pole Position 10 mins

Solar Fox 158 mins

 

All fun.

Edited May 6, 2019 by agb

[Atarian7]

Atari 2600

Kaboom! - 304 minutes

Roc 'N Rope - 27 minutes

Hunchy 2 - 29 minutes

 

 

[Skippy B. Coyote]

I'm having a really cruddy day medically speaking today and typing isn't the easiest, so no picture or writeup this week, but I can still get my household's times posted.


Ineligible
Castlevania: Circle of the Moon (Game Boy Advance) - 206 minutes
Metroid Fusion (Game Boy Advance) - 372 minutes

Sega 32X
Doom - 15 minutes
Golf Magazine Presents: 36 Great Holes Starring Fred Couples - 25 minutes
Star Wars Arcade - 93 minutes

Sega Genesis
Mega Bomberman - 144 minutes
Mortal Kombat II - 137 minutes
Mortal Kombat 3 - 98 minutes
Ms. Pac-Man - 105 minutes


Total Video Game Play Time This Week
1,195 minutes (19 hours 55 minutes) [617 minutes eligible]

Individual System Play Times This Week
Game Boy Advance: 578 minutes
Sega Genesis: 484 minutes
Sega 32X: 133 minutes

[Agamon]

Atari 2600

 

Frogger (10 min)

Keystone Kapers (15 min)

Ms Pac-Man (5 min)

Solar Fox (10 min)

Stampede (7 min)

Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (21 min)

Tapeworm (5 min)

 

Picked up a Retron77 now that the Stella guys got 6.0 on it, so tested out some carts on it. I like the Trooper controller.

[Opry99er]

TI-99/4A:

 

Borzork (90 minutes)

Riding for the Brand (30 minutes)

 

 

Mac Classic:

 

Age of Empires 2 (45 minutes)

Apache Strike (45 minutes)

Donkey Doo (40 minutes)

PGA Tour Golf (60 minutes)

Tetris (20 minutes)

Wizardry VI (30 minutes)

[carlsson]

Here's the summary for Week 18, running from April 29 - May 5. We logged 3287 minutes of eligible play, playing 53 games on a total of 12 systems.

 

Top 10:

 

1. Kaboom! (Atari 2600) - 317 min.

2. Borzork (TI-99/4A) - 272 min.

3. Rush 'N Attack (NES/Famicom) - 248 min.

4. Asteroids (Atari 2600) - 195 min.

5. R-Type (TG-16/PC Engine) - 176 min.

6. Solar Fox (Atari 2600) - 168 min.

7. Mega Bomberman (Genesis) - 144 min.

8. Mortal Kombat II (Genesis) - 137 min.

9. Mortal Kombat (Arcade) - 130 min.

10. Ms. Pac-Man (Genesis) - 105 min.

 

Pre-NES top 10:

 

1. Kaboom! (Atari 2600) - 317 min.

2. Borzork (TI-99/4A) - 272 min.

3. Asteroids (Atari 2600) - 195 min.

4. Solar Fox (Atari 2600) - 168 min.

5. Eggomania (Atari 2600) - 97 min.

6. Galaxian (Atari 2600) - 57 min.

7. Hunchy II (Atari 2600) - 50 min.

8. Phoenix (Atari 2600) - 47 min.

9. Space Monster (Odyssey^2) - 45 min.

10. Frogger (Atari 2600) - 44 min.

 

Top 10 systems:

 

1. Atari 2600 (1094)

2. Genesis (484)

3. TI-99/4A (302)

4. TG-16/PC Engine (273)

5. NES/Famicom (248)

6. Arcade (240)

6. Mac OS Classic (240)

8. Sega 32X (133)

9. Atari Jaguar (109)

10. Odyssey^2 (65)

 

An old friend has returned to the top spot. While the margins are not huge, they're large enough for having Kaboom! taking the double and leading the 2600 as the most played system, obviously together with Asteroids, Solar Fox and the others. Further down the list we see a bit of Mortal Kombat action on Genesis and arcades.

 

No new entries to the 1000 or 5000 Minute Clubs, though Solar Fox on the Atari 2600 becomes our 2nd game ever to break 15K minutes, and I'm expecting an even bigger milestone next week...

 

(If anyone forgot to post their times for this week, please add them and we'll include them with next week)

[+cvga]

(If anyone forgot to post their times for this week, please add them and we'll include them with next week)

 

*raises hand sheepishly*

 

NES: Final Fantasy 148 minutes

 

Finally made time for the 9th session of our Final Fantasy quest. We hadn't played since mid March so it took a little while just to recall where we were and what we needed to do. The whole party died a couple of times after running into a pack of 4 ankylos. Most of the non-wasted time was a grind through the desert fighting, gaining experience and leveling up. We do think we're ready to go back and hopefully finish it up in Session 10 this coming weekend.

 

TI-99/4A

 

Dragon's Lair - 30 minutes

The Attack - 30 minutes - interesting game. I don't really know if I like it or not but I guess it was captivating enough for me to play for 30 minutes

TI Invaders - 8 minutes

Football - 4 minutes (yawn)

Hopper - 8 minutes

Moon Mine - 12 minutes

Super Demon Attack - 11 minutes (I still like the 2600 version best)

Video Games 1 - 20 minutes (I found the pinball game strangely addicting)

[carlsson]

TI-99/4A

Football - 4 minutes (yawn)

 

Perhaps that is the reason nobody before you had played it in this tracker. Got your times for the past week, will add additional times for the current week if you post later.