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What have you actually PLAYED tracker for 2014 (Season 7)


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Once more we've reached a new year, and with that it's time to move from the old thread to the new. We're now in our seventh year of the gameplay tracker, and still going strong, but new members are always welcome: the more the merrier, quite literally!

So what is this?

The basic idea is to post what games you played during each week, and for how long. You don't have to time it down to the minute (though some of us do), and estimates are acceptable. Then, at the end of the week, the statskeeper (that's me) totals everything up and we find out which games and platforms are seeing the most action.

Each week, we have top 10 lists for consoles and for individual games. We also have a separate top 10 list for games released on consoles before the NES (i.e. roughly the tail end of 1985). That way, arcade-style vintage gaming doesn't get totally lost in the shuffle of RPGs, collectathons, and other games that take 10+ hours to complete.

However, in 2013 the #1 game by a mile (and for the fourth year in a row) was Kaboom, the quintessential old-school VCS game, so the old consoles are more than holding their own.

Guidelines:

1. Be sure to list the system, the name of the game, and the length of time you play. If the game has any alternate titles by which it's better known (i.e. Air Sea Battle vs. Target Fun), please list them. If you list multiple games, please group them by system. If you play a game written for an older system on a later, backwards-compatible system, e.g. Atari 2600 games on the 7800 or SMS games on the Genesis, it should be listed under the older console's name.

2. Each week runs Monday through Sunday (at midnight), except the first and last week of the year. The deadline for posting stats is now 3:00 PM (EST) on Monday to allow for different time zones.

3. Playing on actual game consoles is preferred although emulators are certainly allowed. In some cases (homebrews in development) there is no alternative other than using an emulator.

4. Our cutoff year for consoles is 2000. That is, eligible consoles have to have been released (in the US) before 2000. This includes Dreamcast and N64, but excludes the most recent systems like PlayStation 2, XBox, GameCube, Game Boy Advance, et al. You're welcome to mention gameplay on those systems, but as of now they won't be added to the tracker.

5. Arcade games up to A.D. 2000 are permitted. So are emulated compilations of arcade games for modern systems, as long as they're not rewritten or otherwise massively "updated" versions. If you play 45 minutes of Robotron via Midway Arcade Treasures for the XBox, those 45 minutes are counted towards the arcade game. When you're playing arcade compilations, be sure to list each game separately (don't just put "Midway Arcade Treasures - 45 min.")

6. You don't just have to post a bare list of times -- comments, stories, gripes, and helpful hints are always encouraged! If you're struggling with a level, got a new high score, or have some thoughts about what's great or what stinks about a particular game...well, that's the kind of stuff that makes this fun to read.

Some things you can do to make the statskeeper's life a bit easier:

- If you post a big list of games, please consider alphabetizing them first (after grouping them by console).

- Posting your times in minutes, rather than hours + minutes, makes things a little simpler.

- Even if you don't know the exact time, it's better to post a specific number and say it's an estimate. If you say you posted a bunch of games for "between 20 minutes and an hour", I'll just average everything out to 40 minutes, but it'd be better to have a sense of which games you played more and which ones you played less.

- If there's room for confusion or ambiguity, addressing that in advance is much appreciated so I don't have to research it myself. Non-US releases, homebrews in progress, alternate titles, and expanded re-releases can get especially tricky.

That about covers it. I've just posted the summary for 2013 (starting here), so those who like stats are welcome to check that out.

One more thought:

If you haven't participated before, or if you did and got busy with other things, consider taking part in 2014! You may find that it has some interesting side effects -- I've found that keeping a log dramatically changes how I think about my own gaming, and mostly for the better. icon_smile.gif

 

P.S. Past years of the tracker: 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013

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Might as well post right away, since tomorrow and Sunday could be busy with non-gaming stuff and stuff...

 

Atari 2600

Congo Bongo: 63 min

H.E.R.O.: 9 min

Outlaw: 3 min

Summer Games: 2 min

Volleyball: 2 min

 

Some testing of new carts and maintenance of the Atari 2600 installed in our museum (Hero, Summer Games, Volleyball, Outlaw). Plus the excitement of the Silver Medal K.O. finals in the HSC (Congo Bongo).

 

C64

Battle Ships: 25 min

 

Some time killing in the wee hours, while my girlfriend was still sleeping. The computer was acting less stupid than usual this time, so it took me 5 more minutes to beat him :-).

 

By the way, Vocelli... I didn't see Battle Ships in the lists you posted in the Season 6 thread. Did I just overlook it, or was the gameplay time really that low? I can remember playing at least a handful of sessions, each lasting 20-40 minutes.

 

Anyway... Welcome to 2014 and Happy Gaming to everyone. May Kaboom go Boom this year.

Edited by karokoenig
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By the way, Vocelli... I didn't see Battle Ships in the lists you posted in the Season 6 thread. Did I just overlook it, or was the gameplay time really that low? I can remember playing at least a handful of sessions, each lasting 20-40 minutes.

 

I have you down for 4 sessions of Battle Ships in 2013, ranging from 12 to 19 minutes long, for a total of 65 minutes. (The minimum to crack the pre-NES Top 100 was 87 minutes.)

 

Also: "Vocelli"? :?

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Atari 8-bit:
Yoomp! - 24 min.

 

Famicom:
Arkanoid - 11 min.
Burger Time - 8 min.

 

VIC-20:
Clowns - 14 min.
The Fourth Encounter - 13 min.

 

For the first time, I reached level 8 - Piece of cake - in Yoomp! but as I didn't clear it, I'd not call it a piece of cake yet.

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Here are my times for this past week (January 1st through 5th)...

 

Arcade:

Locomotion - 23 min.

Joyful road - 41 min.

 

Online (non-eligible):

Barn Yard Jersey Joyride - 5 min.

 

TI-99:

Defender - 60 min.

Munchmobile - 103 minutes in 3 sessions

 

This week I extensively played Munchmobile on the TI-99, and Joyful road, which is the original arcade version of the same game. The TI-99 version is pretty slow (it runs at about 6 FPS - on the fastest setting!), so you need much more time to complete each level than in the arcade (at least 4 minutes vs. 2).

 

Then I picked the TI-99 version of Defender (over others) where I reached over 50,000 points. Then I replayed Locomotion, which doesn't work properly in MAME Version 0.135, but does work in a higher version. Finally, a quick game of Barn Yard Jersey Joyride, where I was actually led by an ad promising a "realistic 3D game", but that ad only leads to a page with many games on it, and you don't know which game it actually meant.

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My times for the week:

 

NES:
Boulder Dash - 12 min.
Double Dragon - 73 min.
Genesis:
Pete Sampras Tennis - 357 min.
Traysia - 350 min.
True Lies - 127 min.
Worms - 28 min.
Sega CD:
Mansion of Hidden Souls - 160 min.
Panic! - 558 min.
Beat Mansion of Hidden Souls and Panic! with my fiancée this week. The former is a graphic adventure, the latter is...uh...hmmm. Thoughts here.
Before that, I'd also played through Double Dragon on New Year's Day, which is probably the 3rd or 4th time I've beaten it; thoughts on that old favorite here. And I played a session of Worms for the new-in-2014 PAL phase of the Sega-16 beat-'em-all effort, but I'm not really counting that as a beaten game since the CPU is so pathetic and there's no real ending.
Otherwise I started working on three different Genesis games: first, Pete Sampras Tennis, partly because I'm aiming to play the PAL exclusive Sampras Tennis '96 and figured I ought to beat the earlier game first; then, True Lies, which I'm partway through on Normal difficulty and is a lot like the Game Boy version I beat several years ago; and Traysia, a mediocre RPG I've been meaning to undertake for a while now, and which I assume I'm roughly halfway through.
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Here's the summary for the abbreviated Week 1, running from January 1 - 5. We logged 2813 minutes of eligible play, playing 39 games on a total of 15 systems.


Top 10:


1. Panic! (Sega CD) - 558

2. Pete Sampras Tennis (Genesis) - 357

3. Traysia (Genesis) - 350

4. Kaboom (Atari 2600) - 287

5. Mansion of Hidden Souls (Sega CD) - 160

6. True Lies (Genesis) - 127

7. SNK vs. Capcom: Match of the Millennium (Neo Geo Pocket Color) - 120

8. Munch Mobile (TI-99) - 103

9. Double Dragon (NES/Famicom) - 73

10. Congo Bongo (Atari 2600) - 63


Pre-NES top 10:


1. Kaboom (Atari 2600) - 287

2. Munch Mobile (TI-99) - 103

3. Congo Bongo (Atari 2600) - 63

4. Defender (TI-99) - 60

5. Ghost N Zombies (ColecoVision) - 50

6. Joyful Road (Arcade) - 41

7. Moon Cresta (Atari 7800) - 30

8. Scramble (Atari 7800) - 25

8. Battle Ships (C64) - 25

10. Yoomp! (Atari 8-bit) - 24


Top 10 systems:


1. Genesis (862)

2. Sega CD (718)

3. Atari 2600 (401)

4. TI-99 (163)

5. Neo Geo CD (130)

6. Neo Geo Pocket Color (120)

7. NES/Famicom (104)

8. ColecoVision (100)

9. Arcade (64)

10. Atari 7800 (55)


Despite a shortened schedule, we had a lot of gameplay this week. Different platforms top all three charts: last year's most-played console takes the top spot for systems, while the Sega CD's befuddling button-pushing bizarro known as Panic! is #1 on the individual game charts, and mighty mighty Kaboom rules the pre-NES turf.

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I am gonna enter mine today that I have played in the last few days .

 

Colecovision

 

Burn Rubber - 20 minutes

Flora and the Ghost Mirror - 25 minutes

Sidetrak - 25 minutes

Quest for the Golden Chalice - 15 minutes

Lode Runner - 30 minutes

Golgo 13 - 30 minutes

 

Atari 7800

 

Commando - 20 minutes

 

Atari 5200

 

Boulderdash - 25 minutes

Miner 2049er - 40 minutes

Adventure 2 - 20 minutes

Joust - 45 minutes

Baseball - 10 minutes

River Raid - 30 minutes

Bounty Bob Strikes Back - 10 minutes

Qbert - 2 minutes ... yes I hate the controls on this one but I tried :grin:

Edited by AtariBrian
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Wow, this thread continues to get better and better each year. Thanks goldenband for all of the hard work you put into this!!

 

My 8 year old (he was the 7 year old last week) and I continued with some Atari Jaguar goodness

 

Raiden - 20 minutes

Club Drive - 12 minutes

Dino Dudes - 10 minutes

Val d Isere Snowboarding and Skiing - 12 minutes

Bubsy - 8 minutes

Tempest 2000 - 5 minutes

 

Raiden is his favorite game so far for this system. He really likes the games we can play simultaneously. However, he didn't like Tempest 2000 at all. We played the "duel" option. It is difficult to tell what's going on, especially if you haven't played Tempest before.

 

Quote of the night, "I really like the old games but I don't tell my friends at school because I think they would make fun of me"

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Wow, this thread continues to get better and better each year. Thanks goldenband for all of the hard work you put into this!!

 

You're very welcome, and hey, thank you for starting the ball rolling in the first place! :)

 

Quote of the night, "I really like the old games but I don't tell my friends at school because I think they would make fun of me"

 

Ha! :D Though I initially misread it as "...but don't tell my friends" which is even better.

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