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

[+thegoldenband]

My condolences as well. Something similar happened with my grandmother -- she was in her 90s when they found probable breast cancer, but they opted not to treat it, and she died in her sleep some time later from (AFAIK) unrelated causes. Chemo tends to be very rough on anyone over 70.

[Skippy B. Coyote]

Best wishes to you and your family in your time of loss Atarian. I know how heartbreaking losing a family member can be, especially when you think they're on the upswing. I went through a somewhat similar situation with my dad half a dozen years back, though he ended up making it through chemo before his heart gave out on him a month after he had finished cancer treatment and was in remission. As others have said though, at least she got to live a full life and didn't suffer at the end. I hope you and your family are able to stick together and pull through the ordeal, as tough as it might be.

[Opry99er]

I haven't had much playtime at all this week--vehicle maintenance got in the way. . .

 

TI-99/4A

 

Crossfire: 35 minutes (on an original physical TI cartridge no less--the only one I know of in circulation)

That is cool. i would like to see that cartridge.

[Iwantgames:)]

Not much gaming this week. I been learning some programming and making Xmas demos for the TI-99/4A. So here's my small contribution to the tracker.

 

TI-99/4A -

 

Crossfire - 180min

Still trying to break 9,000 points.

[Kurt_Woloch]

Here are my times for this past week:

 

Atari 2600:

 

Atari 2600 Invaders (Space Invaders hack) - 26 min.

 

Intellivision:

 

Q*Bert - 294 min. in 8 sessions

 

Online (non-eligible):

 

Nonograms - 350 min. in 4 sessions

 

TI-99/4A:

 

TI Invaders - 10 min.

 

I spent much time with the Intellivision version of Q*bert which is a version I hadn't tried before. It seems a bit harder than the others, partly due to the smaller pyramid (21 instead of 28 cubes) leaving less space. Still all the enemies are there. Coily is pretty quick in this one, so it's hard to get around her if she's between you and the next flying disc. Also, Slick and Sam are pretty aggressive here, and the animation is rather choppy. Also the scoring is different, it gives you less bonus points per round, but extra lives each 10,000 points, though you start out with only 3 lives here. I barely reached the first round of Level 5 after many tries, where the games throws enemies at you at about double the rate of Level 1 (One enemy for every two hops you take).

 

Then I solved some more Nonograms on a German page which has a "hall of fame" for all game sizes except the weekly special edition which is 30x30. On the 25x25 hall of fame, the best players seem to be 10 times as fast as me.

 

On the TI-99/4A, I spent about 10 minutes playing TI Invaders, however, I spent more than 6 hours writing an AI agent that plays the game by itself, or at least attempts to. It has become pretty good dodging enemy fire and hitting all the invaders there are, until there are only 4 or 5 left at which time they get so fast that it misses them, and their fire gets so intensive that it doesn't manage to dodge it anymore since it actually only keeps track of one bomb at a time (the one closest to the base). On TI Invaders, the bombs are dropping pretty fast... much faster than in the original arcade version.

 

Then I played the Atari 2600 version of Space Invaders to see how it is different to the arcade. However, I only found a hacked version of it which I played instead, in which the aliens have been replaced by sprites out of other Atari 2600 games, but the gameplay should be the same.

 

The MS1 has a broken power supply. Anyone of you guys an idea if I can use any other Sega power supplies? I have Mega Drive 1, 2 and Mega CD, as well as Master System 2 bricks. None seems to have the exact values I need for the MS1. Any harm in doing it anyway, so I can at least test it?

 

I don't know about power supplies, but the MS1 runs fine on a 7.2V RC racing battery (I tested this back in 1986 or 1987). With the "Action Fighter" cartridge inserted, it draws about 400 mA. (I tested this as a possibility to go with a small portable color TV belonging to a classmate which ran on 10 "D" cells).

[oyamafamily]

ATARI 7800 ONLY:

1) Dig Dug - 130 minutes. Highest Score of this week: 198,450 points for 7800 HSC Season 8, Round 2 (Default Mode).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxz3_Kx2NOg

 

2) Mario Bros. - 135 minutes. This arcade game is more irresistible to play on this system.

Edited November 15, 2015 by oyamafamily

[Opry99er]

Got a little more time in today.

 

TI-99/4A:

 

Aperture (30 minutes)

St Nick (additional 45 minutes)

 

 

That'll do it.

[oyamafamily]

TO ADD: Dig Dug on Gameboy Classic - 20 minutes

[zylon]

"The MS1 has a broken power supply. Anyone of you guys an idea if I can use any other Sega power supplies? I have Mega Drive 1, 2 and Mega CD, as well as Master System 2 bricks. None seems to have the exact values I need for the MS1. Any harm in doing it anyway, so I can at least test it?"

 

I ordered a replacement power supply for my SMS1 from Sega in the late 90's and they sent me the same one that Gen1 or MD1 uses. Sega said it was fine even with the higher amperage rating.

[zylon]

Genesis-

 

Sword Of Vermillion- 6hrs 22min

[+thegoldenband]

My times for the week:

 

Intellivision:

Championship Tennis - 13 min.

Defender - 5 min.

Tower of Doom - 226 min.

Beat three more scenarios in Tower of Doom with the Waif. The Tower/12 Levels and Tower/20 Levels were straightforward in one sense since I had them mapped out already, but Tower/12 has a nasty situation in the first level that, for the Waif, leads to certain death about 80% of the time. Tower/20 was easy by comparison.

Fortress/24 Levels took some luck, but when my Waif started getting more super-powerful items than he knew what to do with, victory was essentially assured. I ended up killing the Wizard in hand-to-hand combat and only having to complete about 2/3 of the levels.

I also won a set in Championship Tennis on the second-highest difficulty setting, 6-3, just for old times' sake.

In the ineligible category, my wife and I beat the GameCube version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: Battle Nexus on Easy. It's really not a good game at all, and several things about it are downright disastrous, but we still managed to have some fun with it.

[SiLic0ne t0aD]

Demolition Racer - Sega Dreamcast ~ 1 hour

Knightmare - ColecoVision ~ 4 hours

[BillyHW]

DEC PDP-1

 

SpaceWar! (1962, 20 min)

 

On emulation, obviously. (Does anyone have a real PDP-1 lying around in their collection?) This is the first digital video game ever created (I think). There was one earlier analog game and a couple of later analog and digital ones. I'm not sure if there are emulators available for the analog ones.

 

Pretty cool game. Apparently the star field is based on an actual star chart. I love the star's gravity well in the centre, add's a neat twist to the mechanics, and I'm sure it's calculating the orbits accurately. You can play at the link:

 

http://www.masswerk.at/spacewar/

 

BTW, this is what the computer looked like:

 

Edited November 16, 2015 by BillyHW

[Skippy B. Coyote]

Ineligible

The Pinball Arcade (Android) - 29 minutes

Arcade

Arkanoid - 16 minutes

Centipede - 18 minutes

Donkey Kong - 6 minutes

Donkey Kong Junior - 11 minutes

Frogger - 6 minutes

Millipede - 25 minutes

Ms. Pac-Man - 8 minutes

Pac-Man - 10 minutes

Space Invaders - 3 minutes

Atari 2600

Ms. Pac-Man - 12 minutes

Game Boy

Boggle Plus - 116 minutes

Solar Striker - 28 minutes

Game Boy Color

Battleship - 95 minutes

Duke Nukem - 31 minutes

Star Wars: Yoda Stories - 309 minutes

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 - 38 minutes

Warlocked - 98 minutes

720° - 34 minutes

PlayStation

Command & Conquer - 1,137 minutes

Total Play Time This Week

2,030 minutes (33 hours 50 minutes)

Individual System Play Times This Week

PlayStation: 1,137 minutes

Game Boy Color: 605 minutes

Game Boy: 144 minutes

Arcade: 103 minutes

Android: 29 minutes

Atari 2600: 12 minutes

It was another pretty standard week for gaming around here this week. I played quite a few handheld games on the Game Boy Color, did a few rounds of pinball on the Android tablet, and the misses completely blew away all my play times by logging nearly 19 hours in Command & Conquer on the PS1! I was joking with her last night that she really should have indulged her recent RTS addiction for another 200 minutes, then she could have had a truly "Elite" time for the week.

Watching my better half get bit by the strategy gaming bug made me decide to pick up a copy of Warlocked for the Game Boy Color (which is very similar to WarCraft) and give it a try, and I gotta say I'm extremely impressed with the game. I had no idea that the Game Boy Color could even run something like this, and in spite of the fact that I'm generally pretty terrible at strategy games I have been having a lot of fun with it.

The game that really consumed the bulk of my free time this week though was Star Wars: Yoda Stories, which was also published on my handheld of choice. I played the PC version of Yoda Stories a lot as a kid and have some really fond memories of it, so when I found out that it was also released for the GBC I just had to pick up a copy and try it out; and I'm pleased to say that I was not the least bit disappointed! Much like the PC version it is a pretty repetitive game (find items, solve simple puzzles, do some basic combat, read some humorous dialog, complete your mission, then do it all again for the next mission while listening to the same Star Wars theme play over and over and over) but unlike the PC version the missions in the GBC aren't randomized so there is a some semblance of a story and a password save system in the GBC port. That made me like the game even more, even if it is still a bad game. I think we all have some bad games that we enjoy now and then though.

As far as what next week has in store, I think it's safe to expect that I'll continue playing Yoda Stories and the misses doesn't seem like she'll be losing interest in Command & Conquer anytime soon. If I can manage to pry the PS1 away from her at some point I have been wanting to give Tomb Raider II another play through, but I'm not counting my chickens. lol

That's all for this week!

Edited November 16, 2015 by Jin

[+thegoldenband]

Just to check in, times will be posted tomorrow. Neat to see the PDP-1 this week -- I should go down to Brookhaven and play Tennis for Two!

[+thegoldenband]

Here's the summary for Week 46, running from November 9 - 15. We logged 7052 minutes of eligible playtime, playing 59 games on a total of 17 systems.

Top 10:

1. Command & Conquer (PlayStation) - 1137

2. Kaboom (Atari 2600) - 875

3. St. Nick (TI-99/4A) - 585

4. Crossfire (TI-99/4A) - 565

5. Knightmare (ColecoVision) - 480

6. Sword of Vermilion (Genesis) - 382

7. Silent Hunter (PC (DOS)) - 345

8. Star Wars: Yoda Stories (Game Boy Color) - 309

9. Q*bert (Intellivision) - 294

10. Tower of Doom (Intellivision) - 226

Pre-NES top 10:

1. Kaboom (Atari 2600) - 875

2. St. Nick (TI-99/4A) - 585

3. Crossfire (TI-99/4A) - 565

4. Knightmare (ColecoVision) - 480

5. Q*bert (Intellivision) - 294

6. Tower of Doom (Intellivision) - 226

7. Tris 2 (TI-99/4A) - 215

8. Mario Bros. (Atari 7800) - 135

9. Dig Dug (Atari 7800) - 130

10. Shamus (TI-99/4A) - 50

Top 10 systems:

1. TI-99/4A (1455)

2. PlayStation (1137)

3. Atari 2600 (972)

4. Game Boy Color (605)

5. Intellivision (538)

6. ColecoVision (480)

7. Genesis (382)

8. PC (DOS) (345)

9. Dreamcast (330)

10. Atari 7800 (265)

Any week over 7000 minutes is an event, and while this one just misses the top 10, we still see big numbers across the board.

It's always nice when there's a different system at the top of every chart, and this week fills that bill, with Command & Conquer taking the individual chart, the TI-99/4A claiming the system spectrum, and Kaboom triumphing in the pre-NES division. A three-way split!

No surprise that Command & Conquer joins the 1000-minute club, with 1419 minutes logged so far that earn it membership card #180.

Finally, though it doesn't appear in any Top 10, it's still good to see the PDP-1 and SpaceWar! join the tracker from the dawn of video gaming history. We just need to get Tennis for Two on the charts and we'll have practically the full breadth of pre-2000s video gaming represented.

[carlsson]

I may have tried a replica/simulation of a Saab D2 computer playing an unnamed cannon simulator from 1960, but never put enough effort into it to count as play time.

 

By the way, that particular simulator was purely marketing fluff from Saab, convincing airplane builders about the benefits to install computers into airplanes, demonstrated by this "game". Apparently it was successful in such way that computers found their way into the airplanes.

Edited November 17, 2015 by carlsson

[BillyHW]

After doing some more research I think there may have been even earlier implementations of Tic Tac Toe games in the 40s and 50s. Not sure if these "count" as the first video games. I need to do some further research.

 

The amazing thing about SpaceWar! is that we actually have the source code of the program, and know all the people involved in programming it. I found a video online of the lead programmer talking about it. He's still alive. (Must have been really young when working on it. I think just a college student.) I will post it later. I can't wait to get a look at that source code later. Thank goodness someone saved it for history.

 

It looks like the only working PDP-1 is located in the Computer History Museum in California. They restored one back into working condition. Apparently Bill Gates played around with it when he visited. (He donated a bunch of $$$ to get the museum off the ground.) And yes, they got SpaceWar! up and running on it.

[BillyHW]

I may have tried a replica/simulation of a Saab D2 computer playing an unnamed cannon simulator from 1960, but never put enough effort into it to count as play time.

 

By the way, that particular simulator was purely marketing fluff from Saab, convincing airplane builders about the benefits to install computers into airplanes, demonstrated by this "game". Apparently it was successful in such way that computers found their way into the airplanes.

 

Did it come with the operator?

 

[carlsson]

I never saw her at the exhibition, maybe she was out for lunch.

 

Anyway, I wonder if not a television like display (including oscilloscope) is the least requirement to count as a video game, or would a front panel with knobs and then turn based output on a teleprinter still count as a video game? Anything that runs on at least vacuum tubes and consumes electricity while running, to not wind down to mechanical games.

Edited November 19, 2015 by carlsson

[+Ksarul]

I had a little bit of playtime this week.

 

TI-99/4A

 

Crossfire: 36 minutes

St. Nick: 15 minutes

Arcturus: 20 minutes

Lasso: 10 minutes

Super Demon Attack: 10 minutes

[Opry99er]

So far (and no guarantees on playtime this weekend)

 

TI-99/4A:

 

St. Nick (360 minutes)

Crossfire (60 minutes)

Lobster Bay (20 minutes)

Minesweeper (40 minutes)

Henhouse (45 minutes)

Story Machine (30 minutes)

Pitfall (55 minutes)

Alpiner (5 minutes)

[karokoenig]

Sega Master System

Asterix and the Secret Mission: 12 min

Fire and Forget II: 5 min

 

PC (DOS)

Silent Hunter: 361 min

 

 

Submarines. Love them. Also tested the SMS1 with the Mega Drive 1 power supply, and it works like a charm! Thanks for the confirmation, guys.

 

While cleaning the console, I even found that the scratches on the front panel were only on the protective plastic foil, which was still on there! Removed that and the whole system looks almost like new. Not bad for € 7. Not bad at all...

[zylon]

Will be traveling rest of the weekend so I'll add my time now.

 

Genesis-

Sword of Vermillion- 4hrs 5min

[carlsson]

C64:

High Flyer - 45 min.

 

Alarmingly enough, this is the second week in a row where I've settled with a C64 emulator to get my weekly fix of retro gaming!

 

For a while now, I've been curious about High Flyer which I read about in a program catalog in the 1980's, so I had to download it and see how advanced it is. To my dismay, I found you get the longest possible play time if you do nothing and just let the years pass by, slowly letting the tax office take your small amount of starting money. If you dare to buy an airplane to your airline company, you need to be careful which destination to fly to in order to have a chance to make a profit. And don't wait too long to buy airplanes, as they increase by an exponential amount of money for every year, so the plane you barely could afford in late 1945 is unobtainium in 1950. After a while, I found that a few destinations like Marseille and Warsaw might barely be profitable, but not even with the help of bank loans and getting as many airplanes as possible while they're still affordable, I could build a big company.