What have you actually PLAYED tracker for 2013 (Season 6)

[Kurt_Woloch]

Here are my times for this past week (May 20th through 26th)...

 

Arcade:

Q*bert's Qubes - 99 min. in 3 sessions

 

Atari 2600:

Q*bert's Qubes - 211 min. in 3 sessions

 

Colecovision:

Q*bert's Qubes - 21 min.

Venture - 54 min.

 

MSX:

Q*bert - 30 min. in 2 sessions

 

This week, I put in some more time on Q*Bert's Qubes and derivatives, however, I finished all of those versions this time, one way or another.

On the arcade game, I found out that if you start on Level 5, Level 5 is much easier than if you start on Level 1. The speeds and goals are the same, but less enemies come out. Thus, when starting at Level 1, I usually didn't make Level 8, but when starting on Level 5, I reached Level 11 which according to the original instructions of the arcade game is the last one, after that the game keeps cycling between levels 9, 10 and 11.

 

On the Atari 2600 version, my last game took over one hour and 40 minutes. Here the levels are somewhat ordered differently. First you have to have 1, 2 and 3 tic-tac-toes with locking blocks, then the same with non-locking blocks, and then the game cycles between 4 tic-tac-toes with locking qubes and 3 tic-tac-toes with non-locking qubes, but in each you have 2 sets of 4 normal and one bonus round. I needed about an hour of playing time until the point where the first level repeats, but it still seems to get harder.

 

The Colecovision is finished not because I got to the end, but because it crashed again... no need to continue playing this.

 

Finally, in MSX Q*Bert eventually the rounds get so hard that your men drop like flies. You would have to finish such a round either by hopping of multiple cubes, and thus losing multiple lives, or waiting until you get special powers by touching a blue snake so that you can do a 2-cube jump (which is only possible in this version).

 

Then I played some Venture on the Colecovision, and I came surprisingly far... on Skill 1, I finished all 9 levels which are actually only 3 levels repeating 3 times with added difficulty. At the end of level 9, that level repeats endlessly, and if you lose a life, you find that your treasure chest, which already has been full, has got some empty places again since the already collected treasures of level 9 got erased after its completion.

Edited May 26, 2013 by Kurt_Woloch

[zylon]

A8-

Millipede- 2hrs 20 min

[+thegoldenband]

Meanwhile I got quite a few tips for games that are actually good - from you, goldenband as well, if I remember correctly. Thanks for that. So the console will not be flipped just yet.

 

Oh, good! Glad to hear it. There are a lot of games on the PlayStation that aren't really my speed, but there's enough there to keep my interest. And actually, that discussion inspired me to focus on the PS this week, as you'll see in my next post...

[+thegoldenband]

My times for the week:

 

Genesis:

Oh Mummy! - 7 min.

 

SNES:

Armored Trooper Votoms: The Battling Road - 4 min.

 

Sega 32X:

BC Racers - 7 min.

 

PlayStation:

Guardian's Crusade - 93 min.

Looney Tunes Racing - 32 min.

Steel Harbinger - 49 min.

 

Steel Harbinger is a trashy third-person shooter that looks like it should be a 3DO port (but isn't). It plays a bit like a cross between Robotron and Zombies Ate My Neighbors. I want to like it, but I spent close to an hour wandering through repetitive city landscapes just trying to find the item necessary to save the game!

 

Looney Tunes Racing is a decent cart racer that I played with my other half (who won most of the battles). Most of the courses have to be unlocked in single-player mode, but there's enough content to play 2P mode for a bit.

 

Finally, I've been meaning to dip my toe in the waters of the PS1 RPG library for a while, and Guardian's Crusade turned out to be a great choice. It feels like a SNES RPG that just happens to use a 3D rendering engine, and is mercifully free of cutscenes with spiky blue hair and whiny, angst-ridden heroes. I've only gotten a short ways into the game, but I'm looking forward to seeing where it goes.

[WispFollower]

I didn't get to play as much this week. All I did was work, work, work. I did do a bit of socializing on a couple nights, which is unusual for me lately. I also went to the Pacers game last night with a friend and had a couple Sun King beers. It was a good time.

 

So, here are my strikingly low playing times this week:

 

Playstation

Dead Ball Zone - 60 minutes

 

Colecovision

Steamroller - 150 minutes

I still have not beaten the score I got in this game within the first two hours of owning it (over 15k)! What's up with that? I need a day to do nothing but play Steamroller. On my next day off, I'm going to beat that score!

 

 

Life seems very unbalanced- work for dozens of hours per week and enjoy video games for only a few hours. I need to win the lottery or something.

[+thegoldenband]

Here's the summary for Week 21, running from May 20 - 26. We logged 1411 minutes of eligible play, playing 26 games on a total of 10 systems.

 

Top 10:

 

1. Q*bert's Qubes (Atari 2600) - 211

2. SteamRoller (ColecoVision) - 150

3. Missile Command (Atari 2600) - 147

4. Millipede (Atari 8-bit) - 140

5. Kaboom (Atari 2600) - 138

6. Q*bert's Qubes (Arcade) - 99

7. Guardian's Crusade (PlayStation) - 93

8. Space Invaders (Atari 2600) - 75

9. Dead Ball Zone (PlayStation) - 60

10. Venture (ColecoVision) - 54

 

Pre-NES top 10:

 

1. Q*bert's Qubes (Atari 2600) - 211

2. SteamRoller (ColecoVision) - 150

3. Missile Command (Atari 2600) - 147

4. Millipede (Atari 8-bit) - 140

5. Kaboom (Atari 2600) - 138

6. Q*bert's Qubes (Arcade) - 99

7. Space Invaders (Atari 2600) - 75

8. Venture (ColecoVision) - 54

9. Q*bert (MSX) - 30

10. Q*bert's Qubes (ColecoVision) - 21

 

Top 10 systems:

 

1. Atari 2600 (592)

2. PlayStation (264)

3. ColecoVision (225)

4. Atari 8-bit (140)

5. Arcade (99)

6. Genesis (34)

7. MSX (30)

8. Game Boy (16)

9. Sega 32X (7)

10. SNES (4)

 

The Atari 2600 cements its second consecutive week at the top of the charts, led by a creature of indeterminate species (reports indicate possibly some sort of anteater hybrid) with a weakness for profanity.

[Atarian7]

It took me a minute or two to get what you meant by "a weakness for profanity".

 

[karokoenig]

A very early entry this week. In a few hours, I will leave for a (very necessary) short vacation.

 

Atari 2600

Kaboom!: 10 minutes

Space Invaders: 68 min

 

Some time went into the HSC again, and a few quick test minutes into my new Kaboom cart, which I finally picked up in great condition. It has been over 25 years since I last played it, and... Atarian, how the hell do you manage those scores? Albeit with slightly jittery paddles, I barely made it across the 1k mark! Sure, I feel that with a bit of practice and cleaned pots, I have significantly higher scores in me, but over 100k? Just wow! I consider myself quite good with paddles - after all, I beat Arkanoid on C64 without cheats back in the day, but you are certainly another league. I am impressed.

 

 

Mega Drive

Splatterhouse 2: 30 min

Wonder Boy in Monster World: 25 min

 

Two new pickups that can hardly be more different. Love Wonder Boy since the "...in Monster Land" arcade machine ate countless coins out of my pocket. And finally I got a decent version for a home system. Love that game, it's so cute, yet so badass.

 

Splatterhouse, on the other hand, is downright badass. I remember when the arcade machine came out back at the end of the 80s, and I remember the roar of righteous indignation from the conservative crowd, leading to heated discussions in the gaming magazines. I am very happy to have that bit of videogame history now, and I love it! And the HVGN is absolutely right about Splatterhouse: You never kill a human, just ghouls, zombies and other bad stuff. You're on a quest to save your beloved. Now, THAT's good family values right there :-). Now, if you excuse me - I have to go tend to some notches in my 2 by 4...

Edited May 30, 2013 by karokoenig

[Atarian7]

Atari 2600

Kaboom!- 172 minutes

 

 

High score of the week: 71,972

 

karokoenig: When I first started playing it took me a few hours a day for 3 or 4 days to get past 100k.

Get some decent paddles and really try your hardest. Maybe I will do better if I have some competition.

[WispFollower]

Colecovision

Steamroller - 25 minutes

 

Playstation

Dead Ball Zone - 25 minutes

 

Really sad play times for me this week. Once again, work and socializing keep getting in the way of my gaming time. What am I becoming?? Also, I got back into Uncharted 3 on ps3, so that took some of my time as well.

 

The good news is on the evening of my post last week where I said I couldn't beat my Steamroller score, I broke the record - over 20,000 points, and it was my only attempt of the week!

[zylon]

Lynx-

Rampart- 1hr 10 min

 

A8-

Millipede- 3hrs 20 min

[Kurt_Woloch]

Here are my times for this past week (May 27th through June 2nd)...

 

Arcade:

Faster, Harder, More Challenging Q*Bert - 190 min. in 5 sessions

Missile Command - 45 min.

 

I replayed Missile Command, but not for too long because I didn't manage to get beyond Round 9 or 10. Then, to keep our favorite character alive, I played some FHMC Q*Bert, but the games turn out to be much shorter than with Q*Bert's Qubes because the game is really hard... from Level 2 on, Wrongway locks the cubes so you can't complete the pyramid before Coily hops on them, unlocking them so that you can then hop on them to turn them to the correct color. I remember I reached the bonus round after Level 2, Round 4 once, but not this week... I didn't ever manage to complete the 2nd level this week.

[+thegoldenband]

My times for the week:

 

Genesis:

Mortal Kombat - 3 min.

Saint Sword - 134 min.

 

Game Boy:

Dead Heat Scramble - 262 min.

 

SNES:

Indiana Jones's Greatest Adventures - 7 min.

Scooby Doo Mystery - 2 min.

 

PlayStation:

Crash Team Racing - 49 min.

Gauntlet Legends - 69 min.

Guardian's Crusade - 29 min.

Tennis [A1 Games] - 148 min.

 

Dreamcast:

Wacky Races - 66 min.

Worms World Party - 45 min.

 

Beat the Game Boy racer Dead Heat Scramble, though I had to leave my Game Boy Advance SP running overnight (on pause) to do it! I beat the first nine races at night, and the tenth and final race the following day. It's crazy that a game like this would have infinite continues, but no password option, given that it's on a battery-powered portable system. The last two races are extremely frustrating, and heavily dependent on random item drops.

 

This week I also hoped to defeat Tennis (that's really the title!), a bargain-basement PlayStation offering from A1 Games. But after clearing Easy and Normal using "Assica" (a fake Andre Agassi), I lost in a tie-breaker in the semifinals of Hard mode. I had an epic game against the computer at 6-5, and had several match points, but couldn't quite break him...and then when we reached the tiebreaker, it'd been so long since I'd served that I forgot how to serve aces (which is crucial since the computer is a backboard). Ah, well, next time -- but since I've been playing on clay courts exclusively, it'd be nice to beat this before the French Open ends.

 

I also beat Saint Sword, which I bought last weekend, on Normal difficulty. It reminds me a bit of Jewel Master and other similar games, but at least on Normal, it's mostly quite easy (especially once you get invincibility and health-restoring magic). The only tricky part is finding the key and exit for each level, and of course the fact that, à la Ghosts 'n' Goblins, you have to play through the game twice to beat it (boo! hiss!). I'm planning to take on Hard and see if it offers a tougher challenge.

 

Other than that, I made incremental progress in several games (Wacky Races, WWP's Scenario mode, Guardian's Crusade, and GL with my fiancée), tried out a couple new acquisitions, and discovered that my fiancée is quite fond of Crash Team Racing. I'm enjoying it too -- I wasn't really "grabbed" by 1P mode when I tried it a while back, but 2P mode is good fun and seems well-balanced. After various forays into the game's battle modes, we took on Cup mode and cleared the easiest cup on the easiest difficulty, taking 1st and 2nd places overall (don't remember who got which). Gotta start somewhere.

[twoquickcapri]

Atari Jaguar:

Ultra Vortek - 30 min.

 

PC (Win9x):

Deus Ex - 20 min.

Dungeon Keeper - 15 min.

Heavy Gear - 10 min.

MechWarrior 2: Mercenaries (Titanium Edition) - 450 min.

Mechwarrior 3 - 35 min.

Need for Speed 3: Hot Pursuit - 10 min.

San Francisco Rush The Rock Alcatraz Edition - 45 min.

Edited June 3, 2013 by twoquickcapri

[Atarian7]

Happy birthday zylon.

[+thegoldenband]

Here's the summary for Week 22, running from May 27 - June 2. We logged 2299 minutes of eligible play, playing 29 games on a total of 12 systems.

 

Top 10:

 

1. MechWarrior 2: Mercenaries (Titanium Ed.) (PC (Windows 95/98)) - 450

2. Dead Heat Scramble (Game Boy) - 262

3. Millipede (Atari 8-bit) - 210

4. FHMC Q*Bert (Arcade) - 190

5. Kaboom (Atari 2600) - 182

6. Tennis [A1 Games] (PlayStation) - 148

7. Saint Sword (Genesis) - 134

8. Rampart (Atari Lynx) - 70

9. Gauntlet Legends (PlayStation) - 69

10. Space Invaders (Atari 2600) - 68

 

Pre-NES top 10:

 

Not enough entries for a top 10. (Millipede would be #1 with 210 minutes.)

 

Top 10 systems:

 

1. PC (Windows 95/98) (585)

2. PlayStation (320)

3. Game Boy (262)

4. Atari 2600 (250)

5. Arcade (235)

6. Atari 8-bit (210)

7. Genesis (192)

8. Dreamcast (111)

9. Atari Lynx (70)

10. Atari Jaguar (30)

 

1990s PC gaming rules the roost, with the Titanium edition of MechWarrior 2: Mercenaries taking the top spot.

 

Interesting number coincidences this week: Week 22, 2299 minutes, 29 games. And the dates, 5/27 and 6/2? Well, 5+2+7+6+2 = 22. Spooky!

[karokoenig]

Another early entry this week from me - travelling time again...

 

Atari 2600

Berzerk: 5 min

Deadly Discs: 5 min

Jr Pac Man: 12 min

King Kong (TV): 4 min

Mission 3000: 6 min

 

Mega Drive

Splatterhouse 2: 35 min

 

Game Boy Classic

Asteroids: 4 min

Missile Command: 10 min

 

PS1

Dead Ball Zone: 10 min

 

Hands off the Gameboy port of Asteroids everyone. That's just not a game made to be played with a d-pad...

 

Beat another level of Splatterhouse 2. Love the music in that one, but I am still not really good at it. Used a lot of continues till I finally got the pattern of the third boss.

[zylon]

Game Boy Classic

Asteroids: 4 min

Missile Command: 10 min

Hands off the Gameboy port of Asteroids everyone. That's just not a game made to be played with a d-pad...

 

I'd agree. I have that cart, but I will say that the Missile Command port was good. I'd also recommend the Centipede/Millipede cart as well.

[Atarian7]

Atari 2600

Kaboom! - 272 minutes

 

 

High score of the week: 153,581

[Kurt_Woloch]

Here are my times for this past week (June 3rd through 9th)...

 

Arcade:

Lock'n'Chase - 21 min.

Loco-Motion - 6 min.

 

Game Boy:

Burger Time Deluxe - 76 min.

 

TI-99:

Macroman - 50 min.

 

First, I played a BurgerTime variant I hadn't played for a long time... Burger Time Deluxe for the Game Boy. I remember that back in the day, I didn't manage to complete the game. Well, here the experience with other variants of the game paid off, and I managed to beat the game in a single session. The game consists of a total of 24 screens, after which the credits roll and you get thrown back to the title screen.

 

Then I played some Lock'n'Chase, the original arcade version. But I didn't play it for too long because after a few levels, nothing really changes much.

 

After that, I played a short game of Loco-Motion, but I didn't really feel like continuing with it.

 

Finally, Macroman on the TI-99. This is a non-scrolling jump'n'run game where you objective is to first touch a red button and then the exit which appears on touching the red button. The exit often is lower than the red button, so while you have to ascend to reach the red button, you have to descend to reach the exit, which is often harder than ascending. The background graphics only consist of blocks, ladders and deadly cactii. Climbing up a ladder, you can go though a block upwards, but not downwards. There are also flying force fields which you shouldn't collide with, and monsters which you can annihilate by jumping on them. All in all it's a challenging little game.

 

I did less gaming than in previous weeks due to the fact that it's been a full week with five working days while the previous weeks usually contained some holidays.

[WispFollower]

NES

Arkanoid - 120 minutes

 

Colecovision

Jeepers Creepers - 25 minutes

Steamroller - 25 minutes

Konami's Ping-Pong/Billiards - 60 minutes

 

Intellivision

Congo Bongo - 30 minutes

 

I beat my Steamroller score again in one try! On the other hand, I love Arkanoid on nes, but I can't get past round three!

[zylon]

A8-

Megamania 20min

 

Lynx-

Rampart- 45min

 

5200-

Dreadnaught Factor- 15min

Gorf- 1hr 5min

 

Set new PB's in Megamania and Gorf.

Edited June 9, 2013 by zylon

[+thegoldenband]

My times for the week:

 

NES:

Arctic (J) - 2 min.

F-1 Race (J) - 3 min.

 

Genesis:

ATP Tour Championship Tennis - 48 min.

Cal Ripken Jr. Baseball - 2 min.

DJ Boy - 54 min.

RBI Baseball '93 - 2 min.

RoadBlasters - 7 min.

Saint Sword - 225 min.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Crossroads of Time - 24 min.

Technoclash - 9 min.

 

Game Boy:

Mysterium - 3 min.

World Bowling - 41 min.

 

PlayStation:

Crash Team Racing - 32 min.

Gauntlet Legends - 123 min.

 

Beat Saint Sword on the highest difficulty, and was actually able to 1LC (no-death) the entire game on both playthroughs (you have to go through it twice, like Ghosts 'n' Goblins). Not a bad little game, just quite easy (once you know what to do).

 

My fiancée and I played through half-a-dozen more levels of Gauntlet Legends, and got 1st place in two more Cup races on Easy in Crash Team Racing. I have no idea if doing the latter will unlock anything, but we get a little star next to each Cup, so one imagines that must mean something.

 

Otherwise I muddled about in a few new acquisitions (and a couple uninspiring Famicom exclusives in ROM form); won my first match of World Tour mode in ATP Tour Championship Tennis, 6-4 1-6 6-1 against Muster; made it to the final boss of the bizarre (but taxing) beat-'em-up DJ Boy for the first time (on Easy); and was bemused yet again by World Bowling aka Romstar World Bowling, a Game Boy title which would be a reasonable little bowling game if it had a password system -- but instead expects you to bowl six 200+ games in a row in one sitting to win, which is just stupid. I'm sure someone's done it, but I haven't found a sufficiently reliable way to throw strikes yet.

[twoquickcapri]

PC (Win9x):

Daytona USA: Deluxe - 20 min.

Mechwarrior 3 - 455 min.

Need for Speed 3: Hot Pursuit - 30 min.

[+thegoldenband]

Here's the summary for Week 23, running from June 3 - 9. We logged 2001 minutes of eligible play, playing 40 games on a total of 13 systems.

 

Top 10:

 

1. MechWarrior 3 (PC (Windows 95/98)) - 455

2. Kaboom (Atari 2600) - 272

3. Saint Sword (Genesis) - 225

4. Gauntlet Legends (PlayStation) - 123

5. Arkanoid (NES/Famicom) - 120

6. BurgerTime Deluxe (Game Boy) - 76

7. Gorf (Atari 5200) - 65

8. Konami's Ping-Pong/Billiards (ColecoVision) - 60

9. DJ Boy (Genesis) - 54

10. Macroman (TI-99) - 50

 

Pre-NES top 10:

 

1. Kaboom (Atari 2600) - 272

2. Gorf (Atari 5200) - 65

3. Konami's Ping-Pong/Billiards (ColecoVision) - 60

4. Macroman (TI-99) - 50

5. Congo Bongo (Intellivision) - 30

6. Jeepers Creepers (ColecoVision) - 25

6. SteamRoller (ColecoVision) - 25

8. Lock 'n' Chase (Arcade) - 21

9. Megamania (Atari 8-bit) - 20

10. Dreadnaught Factor (Atari 5200) - 15

 

Top 10 systems:

 

1. PC (Windows 95/98) (505)

2. Genesis (406)

3. Atari 2600 (304)

4. PlayStation (165)

5. Game Boy (134)

6. NES/Famicom (125)

7. ColecoVision (110)

8. Atari 5200 (80)

9. TI-99 (50)

10. Atari Lynx (45)

 

This week MechWarrior 3 follows in the footsteps of its predecessor, topping the charts (and securing a second week at #1 for PC-based gaming) while Kaboom regains the pre-NES crown.