What have you actually PLAYED tracker for 2015 (Season 8)

[BurritoBeans]

Oh crap, I hope I'm not inconviencing you with this Goldenband, if it can't make it to this past week then throw it on the next one. I almost forgot to check in, whooops

 

Atari 2600:

Battlezone - 15 minutes

 

Intellivision:

Christmas Carol - 200 minutes

 

x68000:

Cameltry - 10 minutes

 

 

Yeah yeah yeah, I didn't play much this week. I have the same issue as opry99er - I like Christmas Carol but I'm not improving my scores a bit. Other than that, a tiny bit of Cameltry and Battlezone. Really nothing, oh well.

Edited December 22, 2015 by BurritoBeans

[+thegoldenband]

^Wow, you got in just in time! OK, here we go.

Here's the summary for Week 51, running from December 14 - 20. We logged 5180 minutes of eligible playtime, playing 53 games on a total of 15 systems.

Top 10:

1. Christmas Carol vs. the Ghost of Christmas Presents (Intellivision) - 1557

2. Stay Frosty 2: Stay Frostier (Atari 2600) - 770

3. Q*bert (Intellivision) - 707

4. Kaboom (Atari 2600) - 512

5. Andre Agassi Tennis (SNES) - 249

6. Monopoly (Game Boy Color) - 105

7. Q*bert (Atari 2600) - 78

7. Q*bert (TI-99/4A) - 78

9. Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster's Hidden Treasure (Genesis) - 73

10. Pinball Dreams (Amiga) - 63

Pre-NES top 10:

1. Christmas Carol vs. the Ghost of Christmas Presents (Intellivision) - 1557

2. Stay Frosty 2: Stay Frostier (Atari 2600) - 770

3. Q*bert (Intellivision) - 707

4. Kaboom (Atari 2600) - 512

5. Q*bert (Atari 2600) - 78

5. Q*bert (TI-99/4A) - 78

7. M.U.L.E. (C64) - 60

7. Never-Lander (TI-99/4A) - 60

9. Burgertime (Intellivision) - 55

10. Ku-Bert (TI-99/4A) - 51

Top 10 systems:

1. Intellivision (2409)

2. Atari 2600 (1510)

3. TI-99/4A (339)

4. SNES (251)

5. Arcade (120)

6. Genesis (113)

7. Game Boy Color (105)

8. C64 (81)

9. Amiga (70)

10. Sega CD (60)

Christmas Carol pulls off a second consecutive week at #1! Its numbers may not be as big as last week, but that's still more than enough to rule the roost, with Stay Frosty 2 joining it to make a pair of winter-themed homebrews at the top.

With 7857 minutes now logged, Christmas Carol also becomes our #4 game of all-time, passing Dragon Warrior III and Berzerk to earn that post.

Meanwhile another Intellivision game, Q*bert, becomes the latest member of the 1000-minute club, hopping in to square #186 with 1604 minutes logged to date.

[carlsson]

And BTW, meant to answer this, but Plug-N-Play would be filed under arcade, via emulation, unless it's obvious that it's been changed in some way and isn't really emulating but porting instead (to post-1999 hardware). So it's a judgment call, I s'pose.

I believe the conclusion is those Namco joysticks actually re-implement the games on a Sunplus SOC (system-on-chip) rather than running original ROMs on an emulator. I don't know if the entire execution and graphics environment are coded from scratch for each device that uses the same microcontroller/processor/SOC, or if application software (actual games) has a set environment just like any other traditional system you'd port your games for.

 

I read that the Atari Anniversary Advance for the GBA, and possibly earlier arcade compilations from Digital Eclipse running on Dreamcast, PlayStation etc use a technology they refer to as meta-emulation, meaning that some parts of the code had to be rewritten for the target system (at least GBA) while other parts are emulated original code. If programming a Sunplus from the ground up is anywhere similar to designing a FPGA in order to emulate hardware, I suppose those plug'n'plays could go as re-implemented emulation.

[jfitzenr]

Didn't play much this week so I refrained from bothering with an update, lots of work and there's this like, holiday coming up. Something about a red nosed fat guy that drinks Coca Cola I think.

 

I'm totally running into the same "problem" in Christmas Carol too. I feel like I improved a lot in the first couple hours getting used to it, and now I just... am not getting any better! I suck at most arcade style games anyway so it's no surprise. I'll try to put in a more valiant effort this week though.

 

I actually, coincidentally, have been kicking around the idea of a playthrough of Dragon Warrior 3, so I may have helped knock it down a peg, and then may help bring it back up! I might run the GBC version though, which would ruin the whole plan!

 

And Goldenband I meant to comment earlier; I absolutely love that you logged 2 minutes of SimAnt. Something about that makes me very happy

[+DZ-Jay]

I'm totally running into the same "problem" in Christmas Carol too. I feel like I improved a lot in the first couple hours getting used to it, and now I just... am not getting any better! I suck at most arcade style games anyway so it's no surprise. I'll try to put in a more valiant effort this week though.

 

 

Psst! You do know we're running a High Score Competition with prizes and stuff, right? I haven't seen your score... we have some room left in the leaderboard and rookies are always welcome!

 

In that thread people also offer tips and assistance to beat the game, so make sure to visit.

 

-dZ.

[+thegoldenband]

I believe the conclusion is those Namco joysticks actually re-implement the games on a Sunplus SOC (system-on-chip) rather than running original ROMs on an emulator. I don't know if the entire execution and graphics environment are coded from scratch for each device that uses the same microcontroller/processor/SOC, or if application software (actual games) has a set environment just like any other traditional system you'd port your games for.

 

I read that the Atari Anniversary Advance for the GBA, and possibly earlier arcade compilations from Digital Eclipse running on Dreamcast, PlayStation etc use a technology they refer to as meta-emulation, meaning that some parts of the code had to be rewritten for the target system (at least GBA) while other parts are emulated original code. If programming a Sunplus from the ground up is anywhere similar to designing a FPGA in order to emulate hardware, I suppose those plug'n'plays could go as re-implemented emulation.

 

Very interesting -- thanks for that. I think it makes sense to classify meta-emulation under the emulation heading (i.e. eligible for the tracker), since it's trying to reproduce the basic experience of the arcade game without reshaping its appearance or mechanics for the target system. But, the whole thing can get rather complex.

 

I actually, coincidentally, have been kicking around the idea of a playthrough of Dragon Warrior 3, so I may have helped knock it down a peg, and then may help bring it back up! I might run the GBC version though, which would ruin the whole plan!

 

And Goldenband I meant to comment earlier; I absolutely love that you logged 2 minutes of SimAnt. Something about that makes me very happy

 

The Dragon Warrior III in the top 10 is indeed the Game Boy Color version, so you wouldn't ruin any plans!

 

And glad my short SimAnt session brought a smile. I'd actually like to play it in earnest at some point, since it looks interesting and actually has a goal (from what I can tell). As it happens, it's another one of the very first SNES ROMs I ever downloaded, along with Andre Agassi Tennis and 10-12 others. Funny thing is, Andre Agassi Tennis didn't actually work on the emulator I had back then, so it's taken until now -- about 15 years -- for me to really play the game.

[carlsson]

It reminds me I bought reissued versions of Sim City and Sim Life (or if it's Sim Earth) about a decade ago. However my then current PC was much too fast for those games to be playable. Fortunately I've since then acquired an arsenal of inferior PC's ranging from 8088, via 486 and a couple P1 to P3, so either of those lower end machines should probably work, or of course if I installed DOSbox or similar software. I used to play (?) Sim City for long stints on the Amiga in the early 1990's so one day I might give it another go.

[oyamafamily]

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

2600 Stay Frosty 2 - Complete playthrough - How to solve all 128 levels? Check out videos and statistical tables.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IK1W9S_ZPn4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RI_N1VCBvzY

 

[Opry99er]

Looking forward to watching this video, Oyama!! Thanks for posting.

[BillyHW]

Well it was a very MAME Christmas for me and my nephews. A little disappointed with MAME OSX (running .135). Experienced a lot of slowdown and skipped frames which I don't think should be happening on my Core 2 Duo Macbook with 4GB RAM. I know that the app hasn't been updated in years and years...but there's no reason the performance should be this poor. It seemed to be struggling on the audio of all things. Not sure what's going on.

 

But we still had fun.

 

Arcade/MAME

 

● Jr. Pac-Man (1983, Bally-Midway, 10 min). It's scrolling Pac-Man.

 

● Centipede (1980, Atari, 15 min). Hard game for kids.

 

● Space Invaders (1978, Taito, 10 min). It's Space Invaders.

 

● Galaxian (1979, Namco, 10 min). It's harder than Space Invaders.

 

● Galaxia (1979, Zaccaria, 5 min). Galaxia is to Galaxian what Crazy Kong is to Donkey Kong. Shameless bootleg.

 

● Berzerk (1980, Stern, 20 min). The kids really liked this one. I looked at the dip-switch settings and it looks like you can also select German/French/Spanish. I will definitely have to try it in German.

 

● Mega Man - The Power Battle (1995, Capcom, 10 min). Just boss battle, unfortunately. Nice, pretty colourful graphics and sound.

 

● Double Dragon II - The Revenge (1988, Technos, 20 min). Controls are a bit odd, and take some getting used too. Unfortunately plagued by tremendous slowdown that was there in the original. For 1988 this game should be on a 68000, but it's still using 8-bit processors, that could be why. (That being said, The Simpsons arcade uses a similar processor, I think, and it handles 4-player action just fine...so who knows what the issue is). Still a good game though, for all its flaws.

 

● Armor Attack (1980, Cinematronics, 20 min). Great vector game! Fun, 2-players.

 

● Gun Fight (1975, Midway, 30 min). Of all the games, this was the kids favourite. This is the oldest game emulated by MAME because it's the first to use a CPU (Intel 8080). The concept is so simple, but it just works and it's good fun. They had a blast trying to shoot each other.

 

● Missile X / Guided Missile (1977, Taito, 10 min). Black-and-white 70s game. Pretty simple. Not terrible, but a little underdeveloped. Would have made a good port to the 2600. I haven't looked though. I imagine it probably was.

 

● Shinobi (1987, Sega, 30 min). Still holds up great. Well done Sega. Needs an energy bar though. A lot of one-hit kills.

 

● Pac-Man (1980, Namco, 10 min). It's Pac-Man.

 

● Fatal Fury (1991, SNK, 10 min). Still holds up well. Nice 2D art. Controls are a bit simpler than SFII so better for kids maybe.

 

● Space King (1978, 5 min). Shameless copy by Konami of Taito's Space Invaders. And by shameless I mean it's nearly exactly the same. The sprites were only changed slightly, by a few pixels maybe. Same colour overlay. Identical sounds I think. A few English characters were changed to Japanese. Not sure how they got away with this.

[Opry99er]

First posting of the week!!

 

 

TI-99/4A:

 

Henhouse (25 minutes)

Never-Lander (45 minutes)

St. Nick (65 minutes)

 

 

Intellivision:

 

Advanced Dungeons and Dragons (30 minutes)

Bowling (20 minutes)

BurgerTime (10 minutes)

Christmas Carol (330 minutes)

Frogger (15 minutes)

 

 

VCS:

 

Stay Frosty 2 (35 minutes)

 

 

 

Christmas Carol has continued to be an obsession. What an excellent game and what a well-run High Score contest!!!

 

I hope to earn a game patch and some recognition from Santa Claus this year.

[BillyHW]

k, so I tried Berzerk in German mode but it does not change the voices. It only changes some of the on-screen text (but not all) to German.

 

So disappointed. I was hoping to fight some scary Nazi robots.

 

Does anyone know if there are any ports/clones of Berzerk or Frenzy out there on any system that have German voices? Let me know.

[karokoenig]

So disappointed. I was hoping to fight some scary Nazi robots.

 

Does anyone know if there are any ports/clones of Berzerk or Frenzy out there on any system that have German voices? Let me know.

 

I think you're out of luck, to be honest. I've never heard of an actual translation of the speech samples. However, you could always get back to the first Castle Wolfenstein on the C64. You get your Nazis, and they're talking some kind of German. Game play is even similar, when you think about it...

[oyamafamily]

Xmas Time (Atari 7800) - 200 minutes

Highest score: 375,400 points, for 7800 High Score Club Season 8, Round 5 (Christmas Special Round)

 

Edited December 26, 2015 by oyamafamily

[Atarian7]

Atari 2600

Kaboom! - 587 minutes

 

 

High score of the week: 136,650

 

 

[+Darrin9999]

Christmas Carol Vs. The Ghost of Christmas Presents (Intellivision) - 1322 minutes

[+DZ-Jay]

My score for this past week are:

 

Intellivision:

Christmas Carol vs. The Ghost Of Christmas Presents - 3 hours (180 minutes)

 

Atari VCS:

Stay Frosty 2 - 2 hours (120 minutes)

 

I love Stay Frosty! It's my new favourite Christmas-themed game -- After Christmas Carol, of course.

[carlsson]

C64:

Giana Sisters - 22 min.

Gyruss - 10 min.

Impossible Mission - 10 min.

Mirrorsoft Tetris - 31 min.

Pitstop II - 41 min.

Toki - 4 min.

Up'n'down - 20 min.

Famicom:

Gradius - 4 min.

Gyruss - 12 min.

Slalom - 4 min.

PC Windows 95/98:

Worms 2 - 36 min.

I set a new personal best in Mirrorsoft Tetris, 10329 pts. I also compared the C64 and Famicom (Disk System and NES USA) versions of Gyruss. A lot is similar, but I didn't quite fancy the updated graphics on the Nintendo, and the extra phaser bomb was mostly fired by mistake. Also the order of planets is different. On the arcade, C64, various Atari and Coleco versions you visit Neptune, Uranus, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars and end at Earth, while the Nintendo journey goes Neptune, Pluto, Uranus, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Earth, Venus, Mercury and ends at the Sun. Indeed some of the time the trajectory of Pluto lies within that of Neptune, but it also makes me wonder how much "sideways" one would have to travel in space to visit every planet in that order.

[karokoenig]

SNES

Killer Instinct: 15 min

 

Sega Master System

Micky Mouse Land of Illusion: 10 min

 

Sega Mega Drive

Tiny Toon Adventures: 40 min

 

N64

Doom 64: 8 min

Re-Volt: 12 min

 

Small numbers, but a bit of variety at least. Mostly testing of stuff (I'll never become a fan of Doom, on any system), plus a little progress in Tiny Toon Adventures - Buster's hidden Treasure. Those 40 minutes were spent beating one more level and getting frustrated in the following underwater level. I suck at platformers...

[carlsson]

It wasn't that great of a week but I had to change paddles, and now I'm getting my confidence back.

Have you ever tried to modify any set of paddles? I read about a guy who installed a 33K ohm resistor in series to the 1M ohm potentiometer in the 2600 paddles, and a 2.7M ohm resistor in parallel. It means the value range goes from 0-1000K to 33-730K ohm. The active range seems to be 50-350K ohm, so a reasonable trade-off if you want bigger movement. Perhaps you're used to very small movement already, so it would not be a mod for you.

 

(Not sure if this has been discussed at more appropriate sections of the forum, or perhaps it never was an issue for anyone)

[Opry99er]

Final post of the week.

 

 

Intellivision:

 

Advanced Dungeons and Dragons (additional 30 minutes)

 

Christmas Carol (additional 180 minutes)

 

Copter Command (40 minutes)

 

 

That's it. My Caroling will be winding down this week, but it sure has been an awesome binge game. Copter Command will likely start picking up for me, as the high score contest is upcoming in February.

[+DZ-Jay]

Another session of Christmas Carol this morning:

 

Intellivision:

Christmas Carol - 20 minutes

 

I'll be playing a bit more later today... I hope you don't mind the multiple posts. I just don't want to forget, in case I don't get to play again.

 

-dZ.

[Kurt_Woloch]

Here are my times for this past week (December 21st through 27th)...

 

Arcade:

FHMC Q*bert - 15 min. (not sure if eligible)

Q*bert - 25 min.

Q*bert's Qubes - 152 min. in 3 sessions

 

NES:

Q*bert - 187 min.

 

Online (non-eligible):

Nonogram of the week - 111 min.

 

PC (DOS):

J-Bird - 53 min.

 

After having "completed" the Intellivision version of Q*bert, I continued to try some other versions to see if my strategies learned from the Intellivision version would help me there. On the NES version, it's important to catch the green ball whenever possible since it lasts very long while Coily is pretty aggressive. I managed to get to my goal of 100,000 points there although I didn't complete a single round of Level 5. After that I briefly replayed the arcade original which actually is much easier than the NES version.

Then I turned to FHMC Q*bert which was only released for MAME, but went unreleased in the arcades. Therefore I'm not sure if it's actually eligible for the Top 10... it was written by the original programmers back in the 80's, but only released in 1998 or 1999 (I think I even played a part connecting the programmer, Warren Davis with the MAME team... also, of course, because I wanted to try this version myself!) although the platform is very similar, if not identical to the original Q*bert hardware, even the sounds and most of the graphics are the same. However, it gets very difficult in Level 2 when Sam begins to BLOCK the cubes so you have to have Coily run over them before you can turn them into the correct color.

 

After that, I played the official sequel, Q*Bert's Qubes, where after some time I managed to reach my goal of 300,000 points (which I had achieved in previous sessions some time ago). The last Q*bert version I replayed was J-Bird, but I didn't get very far there. This version was written in 1983 (I even remember seeing it at a computer show in the summer of 1983).

 

Other than various Q*berts, I managed to solve the Nonogram of the week.

[oyamafamily]

ATARI 7800 - TO ADD IN THIS WEEK:

Beef Drop - 202 minutes

Highest Scores: 560,000 on Child / 332,400 on Normal / 129,400 on Hard Difficulty

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_--KSrnMugM

Edited December 28, 2015 by oyamafamily

[pimpmaul69]

Intellivision

----------------

Christmas carol.

18hrs 23 min.