karokoenig

Atari 2600 Asterix: 3 min Barnstorming: 7 min Enduro: 6 min Freeway: 4 min Jungle Hunt: 4 min Moon Patrol: 5 min PC (DOS) Silent Hunter: 20 min Played a little bit of Atari with my 4 3/4 - year old. And a tiny bit of Silent Hunter. Basically one convoy action.

Slight improvement in Barnstorming: 54:90

No gaming this week for me. Just too much other crap going on. Shame, because I did visit my dad - where my C64 is sitting on its table, set up and whispering "play me, play me". No time whatsoever :-(.

Atari 2600 Barnstorming: 5 min Boxing: 3 min Decathlon: 5 min Freeway: 4 min Grand Prix: 5 min Spider Fighter: 9 min PC (DOS) Silent Hunter: 58 min Activision weeks in the 2600 High Score Club and half a patrol in Silent Hunter. Nothing spectacular.

And here's the rest, after digging out my box with the Activision cart collection: Boxing: KO - 71, 32 seconds left Decathlon: 3,604 Freeway: 23 Grand Prix: 0:40.69

Let's start with Barnstorming: 0:56:52.

Vocelli, you haven't added the +5 bonus points for Vocelli yet.

Spider Fighter: 17,640. @ Vocelli: Dschungel Boy is a dumbed-down Pitfall! hack. Hence the clue with "crocodiles to lilypads". But I guess that one was a little too cryptic if you don't know where to look at all. Glad you found it anyway :-).

That is correct! +5 bonus points for Vocelli. (Were the hints helpful, or did you have to do a letter count-a-thon with a worldwide Atari games master list?)

You have all week, and you have this one all to yourself. So I thought I shouldn't make it too easy :-).

Atari 2600 Gingerbread Man: 9 min Reindeer Rescue: 7 min Toyshop Trouble: 21 min Not much for me this week. Just some quick participation points for the High Score Club. New personal best for me in Toyshop Trouble, though. 17K.

Also, Vocelli: Here's one for you - for +5 bonus points. If the rest of you don't mind our moderator getting a shot at this bonus as well: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Clue: "Crocodiles to Lilypads. It PALes in comparison"

Joust?

Final score for Toyshop Trouble: 17,804. New personal best. Reindeer Rescue: 17,175 Gingerbread Man: 2,000 Participation points for the last two.

Here's this year's early bird entry to the new tracker, and the first numbers for our new Master to crunch: Atari 2600 Galaxian: 4 min Moon Patrol: 5 min Mouse Trap: 3 min Pac Man: 3 min Sega Master System Wonder Boy III The Dragon’s Trap: 40 min PC (DOS) Historyline: 165 min Some free time certainly is good for my tracker times. I played a little bit of Atari with my 4 1/2 year old son. I also played two random maps in Historyline - I keep coming back to this game because it's so relaxing. Today's big news, however: I finally had enough undisturbed time to finish Wonder Boy III. The boss fight was closer than I would have wished for, mainly because I screwed up big time on the last few enemies. But I made it. A really great game, and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good platformer.

Oh, by the way... Here's a question for our new Master of Statistics. Carlsson, is there already a new thread for the start of the 2019 season? I had a few days off and times to post :-).

It was mostly a 2018 project, but I finally finished Wonder Boy III - The Dragon's Trap on the Master System today. I'm bad at platformers, always was. So this one, despite being not that hard for most peoples' standards, took me a while. I had to get all the best equipment together and needed three attempts to beat the final boss. Farming for potions and magical items included. The farming can get a bit tedious, but it really isn't all that bad. Especially when you are not a total dud at platformers, like I am :-). Overall, the game was great fun to play, and I highly recommend it.

I have been moderator in a different (not gaming-related) forum for a couple of years, so I know a little about how huge a commitment it is. And holy shit, have you lived up to that task, thegoldenband! Reliably collecting and crunching those stats every week for all those years is something you can be really proud of. My hat is off to you! Also, not quitting before an adequate successor is in place is a somewhat forgotten virtue in today's world. Too often, projects like this die a miserable death because this responsibility is being neglected. Another star on your chest for that. Finally, welcome to your new job, carlsson! I wrote "adequate successor" above, and I meant it. I have a good feeling about the future of this tracker.

I've decided to do a little scientific experiment to establish the difference between US and German Goldbears. In the attached photo, you can see the flavours side by side. The most pronounced difference in colour is definetly the green ones, followed by red. Throughout, the US Goldbears are a tad stiffer to the bite than their European brothers. A difference in taste is also there, but slight. I would not be able to tell which one tastes more "artificial", because let's face it: they all do - which is exactly how I want them to be :-). If anyone wants to repeat this experiment: I am afraid these particular specimens are no longer available. They have been destroyed in the course of the experiment. Gee, I love Science!

Last time we played it in the High Score Club was 2013. Top score was 68k. See here. Not too shabby either, I'd say.

Need more contributions, or are you set?

Welcome to the "Mostly below detection limit" Club :-). Apart from some spikes (Historyline, Silent Hunter and some others), I hardly make any dent in the weekly stats. Still fun. Also, here are my playtimes for this week, as I will be travelling from tomorrow on: Atari 2600 Toyshop Trouble: 25 min Played it for the HSC, and played it on real hardware. The cart was a gift from my AtariAge Secret Santa and it arrived just today!

Toyshop Trouble: 11,467. Played not on emulation, but on real hardware, with the real cart. Which I only got - among other awesome things - about 2 hours ago in the mail, from my AtariAge Secret Santa!

Well, look at that! About 15 minutes after I submitted that last post, it arrived! Is that perfect timing, or what? I must say - my Secret Santa was very very generous, and did some serious research. So, dear Mrs. Santa, let's go through what we've got here: - Haribo Goldbears. Love those. These are especially interesting to me, because in the US, they still have the strong colours I remember from my childhood. In Germany, Haribo changed their Gold Bears many years ago due to harsh safety regulations concering artificial colours. They also taste a little different, if I'm not mistaken, and they are just a tiny bit more stiff to the bite. A very special treat for me, and a really nice trip down memory lane. - A variety of Atari video game catalogues, which are always great fun to read. I especially love the green one for its weird artwork, which has nothing to do with the actual box artwork - which in turn has nothing to do with the look of the game. Those were the days. - A Space Invaders piggybank in form of a little arcade cabinet, which conveniently needs no key to open. You never know when you might need some small change, right? - A Space Invaders something - don't know how to call it in English. Like a little cushion. It will most probably find its place hanging from the rear view mirror in my car. - One of Osgeld's Tactile Switch Controller Boards for the Atari CX-x joysticks. My Secret Santa probably found out that I mentioned I am interested in one of these, but was held back by shipping costs, which were considerably higher than the price of the unit itself. Now I have a board, and I am very happy about it. - Last... holy shit! Toyshop Trouble cart with manual! Apart from the fact that it fits the Season and it's hard to get here in Europe because of high shipping costs and possibly extra tolls via German customs, this item is even more awesome than you think, Mrs. Santa. Incidentally, in the Atari 2600 High Score Club, we currently have "Homebrew Holidays" Weeks, and Toyshop Trouble is one of the three games we are playing. I'm so happy that I can submit a score for this one played on real hardware now. The only catch is that from this day on I can't blame my pathetic scores on playing with keyboard controls on emulation anymore. Ah well, can't have everything... In conclusion, I am super happy with my Secret Santa package. It certainly is one of the - if not the - highlight of this year's Christmas for me. Thank you very very much, Mrs. Santa! Now, if you'll excuse me, I have an appointment with my junior. With my Atari Junior, to be precise. There are some bad scores to achieve in Toyshop Trouble :-).

My package hasn't arrived yet. Tracking has it "in transit to destination" since Dec 14. I am not worried at all yet. Package travel times across the pond are erratic - it may take a while, or it may take an even longer while. Also within Germany during the season. Package delivery services are notoriously overworked around christmas. I will be travelling in the next few days, but not long enough that the package is in danger of being sent back to the sender. So I'm comfy and look forward to receive a late gift, which is always fun.