karokoenig

PC: Machinarium: 35 min Oh, I hate logic puzzles... Cute game nonetheless.

PC: Machinarium: 20 min Well, I thought I had the saving problem fixed by changing the flash player settings as described in an online tutorial. Tough luck: I lost my progress again. This is really making a huge dent into my motivation, but I'm still willing to finish this game. So I went back to the internets and found out that I could copy the savestates into another directory before switching off the computer. Then, when I want to resume the game, I need to copy the whole directory back into the appropriate folder... Fingers crossed that this works.

Thanks! He already replied.

On this site... http://www.ataricompendium.com/ there is an awesome amount of background information to find about the Atari 2600, including the most comprehensive list/database of 2600 compatible controllers I know. Just look at this: http://www.ataricompendium.com/game_library/controllers/controllers.html Here's my problem: I found a weird joystick on a flea market recently and wanted to contact the guy to include it in his list. But the only answer I got was from the Mailer Daemon. Does anyone have information about the site and its owner? Is the guy maybe on AtariAge? As far as I saw some subsites were updated very recently (just a few days ago, in fact), so I think it is an active site. Any pointers would be highly appreciated. Also, that joystick list is so good - it should actually be endorsed through AtariAge imo.

It's not flawless. What threw me off in the beginning is that you have to actually walk next to a hotspot to even see it's there. But once you get that peculiarity, it's really okay. It's such a beautiful game, and so damn likeable. I'm more than ready to excuse such small flaws.

No classic games for me again this week. Some playtime will come up soon - that is if the hardware I bought off ebay actually works. Got myself a Saba Videoplay (Fairchild Channel F for you folks across the pond) and some games. One cartridge already arrived, and I got to say I love the clunky feel of this beast.

PC: Machinarium: 115 min Roter Baron III – Herrscher der Lüfte: 10 min Roter Baron is an arcade World War I flight "sim" I picked up for € 0.50 in a thrift shop. Glad I didn't pay more. The DVD case and cover screamed shovelware, and rightfully so. If I want to play a good, well-playable WW I arcade flight sim, I'd go back to Wings on the Amiga any day. Machinarium, on the other hand, is a very good game. A flash-based point & click adventure with very beautiful hand-drawn artwork and a super cute main character (a little robot on a robot planet). Careful when playing on Windows. You got to have the Flash Player settings right, or the game won't keep saved games when you shut down/restart the computer. There's a ton of forum posts about that problem and how to solve it. That flaw hit me early enough so that it wasn't too much work to get back where I left it. I definetly intend to finish this one. Highly recommended.

PC: Ghost Pirates of Vooju Island: 162 min Finished it with no further need for hints. The game does have its flaws, and the ending is a little lacklustre. Still, I enjoyed it quite a bit.

Atari 2600 Berzerk: 3 min Freeway: 4 min Oink!: 2 min Real Sports Soccer: 5 min Robot Tank: 2 min Star Wars Empire strikes back: 3 min Star Wars Return of the Jedi: 1 min Tomcat: 3 min Testing of an Atari lot I got off eBay. The console (a Jr) works, but I had to reflow a broken solder joint on the RF output. It certainly has suffered some rough treatment, as inside, 4 or 5 plastic pins were broken off. Well, they are tough little fellows :-).

It would be kinda cool if it were actually published by Activision. A company like Activision should do that just for shits and giggles.

Looks like it would have been much more to my liking than the original Keystone Kapers. Pretty nice ladder climbing animation.

PC: Jade Rousseau 1: 150 min Ghost Pirates of Vooju Island: 435 min Jade Rousseau is an Adventure/Hidden Object type casual game I picked up at some flea market for a Euro. I played through it and it wasn't a total waste of time. The adventure elements left a lot to be desired, and i can well live the rest of my life without "where's waldo" type of screens. The story of this one was pretty good, however. Shame this was the only part released. The series was planned with at least six parts - only part one was ever released. Ghost Pirates is a full-blown point & click adventure with some interesting mechanics, three rather stereotypical, but likeable characters, very well-made dialogue and a fun story. Graphics are comicy and look more than good enough for me. It sure ain't no Monkey Island, but it's definetly worth playing. At this point, I am about 2/3 through the game, and I will finish it when I have more time. So far, most of the puzzles are pretty straightforward, no weird illogical stuff. I did consult a walkthrough on two occasions. One occasion was my own stupidity/blind spot, the other was a rather badly designed charade puzzle which simply annoyed my old ass and I lost patience. I'm too old to waste hours on a single puzzle. The scene around that puzzle was pretty bizarre and hilarious, though, so no hard feelings... This game is definetly recommended!

No classic games playtime this week, but I did do some modern adventure gaming. See the modern tracker for details.

Favourites: River Raid, Frostbite Surprises: Worm War I, Seawolf Worst: Shark Attack, Pele's Soccer

I was far away from any Atari console during the last two days, but I don't think I could have cracked 20k anyway. Keilbaca, you win. Well played, Sir - and all the best for the rest of the matches.

PC: Claude and the Phantom: 26 min Another short point & click adventure by Simon Reid, the guy I mentioned last week. This one is a tad longer, has a few more puzzles (all rather straightforward), and a really nice style. Definetly recommended!

Atari 2600 Asterix: 2 min Circus Atari: 5 min Dig Dug: 10 min Phoenix: 5 min Pitfall!: 8 min Q-Bert: 3 min Spacechase: 38 min Wizard of Wor: 15 min NES Chip & Dale: 10 min Duck Tales 2: 8 min Mega Man 2: 10 min Super Mario Bros: 20 min Spacechase for the HSC Bronze Medal Finals, some more playing with the neighbours' kids, and some testing of a bunch of Competition Pro joysticks I have fixed. My soldering equipment and skills are atrocious, but thankfully, inside a Competition Pro, they are sufficient.

Spacechase: 18,700. A tiny bit better even that my score during the season. And most probably the end of the line for me. I find it hard to survive the tediousness of the beginning, then starting with the skulls at around 10k, I do a lot of very quick dying...

PC: The treasure of Loch Inch: 10 min It's a very, very short point & click adventure in the style of Monkey Island. I think it was a competition entry or something. Just four locations to interact with, some very short dialogue and two or three easy puzzles. Presentation is nice for an impromptu programmed game like that, I guess. Most of the playtime was wasted because I was stupid and didn't realize that one location is larger than one screen. Could have done this in 3 minutes... Here's some information and the download link: https://pilchard.itch.io/the-treasure-of-loch-inch

Oh, that hit detection! Spacechase (BB): 13,750. I don't know how I got to 18k during the season.

Atari 2600 Missile Command: 10 min Phoenix: 10 min Wzard of Wor: 15 min NES Super Mario Bros: 15 min Not exactly my personal gameplay times - more like "household gameplay times". These games were played together with two neighbour kids (brother and sister, 11 and 9 ) as an introduction to retro game systems. It was fun to watch the two trying to get to grips with a joystick. That device was a totally new sensation to them. Well, not quite. A few minutes into the session I realized the girl tried to use the Competition Pro like an analog stick and I had to tell her to move it till it clicks :-). It was just a spontaneous session between an outdoor waterpistol fight and dinner, and we didn't have much time. Also, the experience was a little hampered by my own 4-year-old boy, who of course wanted to try as well. Usually, my gaming corner is off-limits to him. I am only starting to introduce him to videogames now, very slowly. Trying to limit media consumption in general, and want to take my time especially with videogames. I do, however, believe that retro systems are a good way to introduce him to gaming, because I'm somewhat critical about very young kids getting in touch with highly realistic, immersive modern games. The two were fascinated enough that they want to come back to it soon, hopefully with a little more time. They really liked to play Wizard of Wor co-op.

By one point, if I counted correctly. But I wouldn't count on my counting skills.

Pretty amazing how the HSC developed in the last couple of years. When I started playing here, a constant, but mediocre participation easily got you into the Gold/Silver brackets. These days, it's just enough to end up in the Bronze bracket ranks. Not that I find that bad, quite to the contrary. Many players, and many good ones as well. The contest is going strong, I'd say.

Atari 2600 Tunnel Runner: 10 min C64 Bear Essentials: 7 min Rescuing Orc: 6 min Sam's Journey: 8 min Tunnel Runner was played for the HSC, just posting a score to stay in the Bronze Medal Bracket. Those C64 games are all recent homebrews which I bought in the Protovision shop. I only had a little time to test them while visiting my dad today, and the experience was severely hampered by the one nasty joystick I had available (one of those stupid Atari CX24 Pro-Line sticks, with an already half-dead "up" trigger. That stick made especially Sam's Journey nearly unplayable. However, all games look absolutely excellent. Really motivates me to finally fix the bunch of Competition Pro sticks I had scored on a flea market some months ago. It is amazing how much love and quality went into programming, music, artwork and box design. All the goodies and feelies, and the exquisite attention to detail everywhere. Huge cheers to the C64 homebrew scene! I actually want to beat all those games. That probably won't happen anytime soon due to time constraints. But even if I can't play them much, I consider every cent well spent - if only to support the makers.

1,666.