Albert Posted March 5, 2014 Share Posted March 5, 2014 Frequent visitors to AtariAge may know about our weekly gameplay tracker, started by AtariAge member cvga in 2008 and continued by thegoldenband since 2010. Participants in the tracker simply log the amount of time they spend playing games on pre-modern platforms (i.e. anything up to the Dreamcast), and the numbers are then totaled each week to see which games and consoles have gotten the most time. One of our members, Atarian7, has been on a quest to reach the maximum possible score of 999,999 points in the game Kaboom!. He's come very close in the past, logging a score of 928,982 in April 2012, and his prowess has even earned praise from Larry Kaplan, the game's designer. As of this week, he reached a tremendous milestone, and has now logged over 100,000 minutes of Kaboom since the tracker was founded. That's more than two months of continuous play! Will Atarian7 reach 999,999 points before he reaches 999,999 minutes? Thanks to thegoldenband for bringing this to my attention, as well as writing up the above news item! 14 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Master Phruby Posted March 5, 2014 Share Posted March 5, 2014 How did you do two months straight of game play? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slab0meat Posted March 5, 2014 Share Posted March 5, 2014 And I remember being so happy when I got the guy to change his frown to amazement (what was that at, 10,000 points or something? I haven't played since I was a kid)... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lynxpro Posted March 5, 2014 Share Posted March 5, 2014 Well, you could pause the game on the A8/5200, or a modded 2600... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Master Phruby Posted March 5, 2014 Share Posted March 5, 2014 Isn't that cheating? Doesn't the game use the same drop patterns and max out on speed after a while? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trebor Posted March 5, 2014 Share Posted March 5, 2014 How did you do two months straight of game play? I believe the intent is to state that he has played Kaboom! a total of 100,000 minutes through all his various tries at reaching 999,999. The total minutes if added together equates to about 2 months of playing the game - but was not done so consecutively, rather through numerous different attempts at reaching the goal. See an example of one of his postings here: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/207074-what-have-you-actually-played-tracker-for-2013-season-6/?do=findComment&comment=2671485 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adamchevy Posted March 5, 2014 Share Posted March 5, 2014 That's impressive, most impressive. Imagine if kaboom was as an mmorpg. That number would be crazy. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+thegoldenband Posted March 5, 2014 Share Posted March 5, 2014 I believe the intent is to state that he has played Kaboom! a total of 100,000 minutes through all his various tries at reaching 999,999. The total minutes if added together equates to about 2 months of playing the game - but was not done so consecutively, rather through numerous different attempts at reaching the goal. See an example of one of his postings here: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/207074-what-have-you-actually-played-tracker-for-2013-season-6/?do=findComment&comment=2671485 You've got it. I wouldn't have expected that this would be misunderstood, but I guess we should change it to "That's the equivalent of more than two months of continuous play!" 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bomberpunk Posted March 5, 2014 Share Posted March 5, 2014 is there a 3D top-down version of Kaboom out there? if not there should be. with multi-player. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doomwaves Posted March 5, 2014 Share Posted March 5, 2014 Very cool! Quite the milestone Atarian7! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Master Phruby Posted March 5, 2014 Share Posted March 5, 2014 I see so his high score was done in 399 minutes. It just too over two months of practicing to get there. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+thegoldenband Posted March 5, 2014 Share Posted March 5, 2014 Master Phruby, I'm not sure why you're having a hard time following this, but: 1) Atarian7 has logged over 100,000 minutes (on our gameplay tracker) playing Kaboom over the last 6 years. This has happened over the course of hundreds of sessions, spanning from late 2008 until this past week. 2) During one of those sessions in April 2012, he scored 928,982 points. (That week, he played for a total of 763 minutes.) That's his high score to date. 3) The "399 minutes" post is just one example from this year, and has no particular relevance to his high score. 4) Reaching the maximum score of Kaboom takes about 3 hours, from what I understand, so no single game can take much longer than that (though the game automatically pauses between rounds). Does that make sense now? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Ripdubski Posted March 5, 2014 Share Posted March 5, 2014 Congrats Atarian7! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Charlie Cat Posted March 6, 2014 Share Posted March 6, 2014 Hi guys, This great. More power & respect to Atarian7! Anthony... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jetset Posted March 6, 2014 Share Posted March 6, 2014 That's fuckin' hardcore right there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gorfy Posted March 6, 2014 Share Posted March 6, 2014 Congratulations on the milestone, Atarian7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christophero Sly Posted March 6, 2014 Share Posted March 6, 2014 (edited) Crazy. I should have kept track of how much time I spent playing Dragster back when I was fervently trying to break 5.61 secs. Nowhere near 100,000 minutes, but long enough that I finally had to give it up because I was getting nerve damage in my hands. Edited March 6, 2014 by Christophero Sly 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fiddlepaddle Posted March 6, 2014 Share Posted March 6, 2014 That's almost a man-year of labor (1,667 man-hours), in six years. So, assuming a 40 hour work week or 8 hours per day monday thru friday, with an hour for shower-sh..-breakfast, an hour for lunch, an hour for dinner, 8 hours of sleep, sex life and family stuff all day saturday, and Sundays off of course. Then there's Poker night/Bridge night/Bowling night, Boy Scout and PTA meetings, grocery shopping, laundry, two hours of TV every day, commuting to work, yard work, walking the dog or cleaning the litter box, buying light bulbs and toothpaste, checking in with Mom and Dad and the siblings, beer runs, and answering telemarketing phone calls. After ALL THAT, Kaboom! still gets over an hour every single day! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moycon Posted March 6, 2014 Share Posted March 6, 2014 Simply awesome! My hats off to Atarian7!! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+cvga Posted March 6, 2014 Share Posted March 6, 2014 Congrats Atarian7! Hope you reach 999,999 so you can cross it off your bucket list! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carlsson Posted March 6, 2014 Share Posted March 6, 2014 Yes, very impressive! As a relative newcomer to the tracker (since July last year), I can add that by participating in it, you easily triple or quadruple the amount of time you previously spent on playing retro games. I went from playing one game every second month to at least an hour a week of random games. I suppose in that way it is a bit like start exercising, once you get going you can't imagine why you didn't start doing it sooner. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+thegoldenband Posted March 7, 2014 Share Posted March 7, 2014 Yes, I strongly encourage folks to consider joining us on the tracker! It really does transform how you look at your gaming, or at least it has for me. I've been logging my own times since the start of 2010, and it's brought a mindfulness to my gameplay that has, in turn, added a lot to my enjoyment. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillyHW Posted March 7, 2014 Share Posted March 7, 2014 What happens to the score at 1 million, does it roll over? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+thegoldenband Posted March 7, 2014 Share Posted March 7, 2014 I just tried it in Stella, by setting RAM locations $A1 through $A3 to 99 99 98 and catching one more bomb, and the game simply freezes at 999999. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grownup Posted March 7, 2014 Share Posted March 7, 2014 Kaboom: one of my top favrite games for the VCS. Paddle games ROCK 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.