What have you actually PLAYED tracker for 2016 (Season 9)

[carlsson]

If you play an emulated C64 this week, I promise to play an emulated TI-99/4A.

[Opry99er]

There any good C64 emulators out there that are easy to set up?

[carlsson]

I would strongly recommend WinVICE, assuming you are a Windows user. It works quite well out of the box, and you can drag and drop most emulator images onto it unless you want to mount them manually through the menu system. (CRT images may need to be mounted manually though)

 

As a bonus, you get a VIC-20, a C128, a Plus/4, a PET and a CBM-II emulator in the same package, and they all share most of the user interface.

[karokoenig]

Fully agree with Carlsson. WinVICE is the way to go. I get all my C64 fixes through that emulator these days. Sadly no room for the real thing, which is still in a closet at my parents' house.

[BurritoBeans]

Another vote for VICE from me. It's a pretty darn good emu, and it sure works well enough for all your PET/VIC-20/C64 needs.

 

And since we "don't have enough classic computers" or something like that, I'm going to take a break from the game.com at home (I'll keep it up in the car/on the bus) to play games on all of mine. (Well, ones that I have games for... IBM 5100 has a game but I made it a few months ago in APL and it just sits on a tape)

Edited February 2, 2016 by BurritoBeans

[carlsson]

As far as I can tell, so far we've had 104 different systems in the tracker of which about 48 are classic computers. Some are borderline, like Bally Astrocade and Creativision, but roughly 45% of all systems listed were computers, even if the percentage of minutes played would tell a different story.

 

Of course all the most significant systems have already been covered, but here are some lesser ones that could be considered more or less home computers and thus for which there probably exist games:

 

Acorn Atom, Archimedes / RiscPC

APF Imagination Machine (I didn't see the MP-1000 console either)

Apple ///, IIgs (or perhaps both those group as Apple ][ after all?)

Atari Falcon (or perhaps all ST/STE/TT/Mega/Falcon group into one?)

Camputers Lynx

Dragon 32 (unless it groups with the CoCo)

EACA Colour Genie

Enterprise 64/128

Exelvision EXL-100

Exidy Sorcerer

Fujitsu FM-7, FM-77 series

IBM PCjr (or perhaps those games equal PC DOS?)

Lambda 8300 / PC3000 etc (mostly a ZX-81 clone, but I think with a few own games)

Luxor ABC-80, ABC-800 (Swedish computers, so it might fall on me to play those)

Multitech MPF-II (close to an Apple ][, but with some own software)

National/Panasonic JR-100, JR-200, JR-300

NEC PC-xxxx models prior to the PC-9801

Sharp MZ-80 series, MZ-800 series (which I think is differen from the MZ-700)

Sinclair QL

Tatung Einstein

Thomson MO5 / TO7 / MO6 / TO8

VTech Laser 100/110, 200/210 etc (I'd play on my Laser 500 if I had any games for it!)

 

Of course there also are a bunch of e.g. CP/M systems, HP workstations, Sun workstations and so on for which there may be games, but I didn't list above. To summarize, there still are a lot of computers to explore.

[Opry99er]

First play times of the week::

 

 

Intellivision:

 

Bowling (60 minutes)

Copter Command (45 minutes)

 

 

 

TI-99/4A:

 

TI Invaders (30 minutes)

 

 

NES:

 

Blue Marlin (35 minutes)

[+wongojack]

I should really be tracking with you guys as I've been playing a lot of classics lately. Any reason not to join in?

 

Some games I've already put hours into this year for the C64 would be Gyruss, Pirates!, Arkanoid, and Lemans. Can I go back and estimate?

 

TGB - NES elevator action level 4 is insane. I've played for hours and never beat level 4 even while exiting and resetting the enemies after every door. What's your strategy.

[Nutsy Doodleheimer]

I logged some serious gaming this week due to being on vacation. Here it is.

 

Intellivision:

 

Bowling: 40 Minutes

 

Atari 7800:

 

Joust: 20 Minutes

 

NES:

 

Vs. Super Mario Bros: 45 Minutes

Vs. Castlevania: 25 Minutes

The Goonies (Famicom): 30 Minutes

Contra: 60 Minutes

Castlevania 3 Dracula's Curse: 90 Minutes

Duck Tales: 35 Minutes

Doki Doki Panic (Famicom Disk System): 75 Minutes

 

Wii:

 

Wii Sports Resort: 30 Minutes

 

Here is the longplay videos I did of Vs. Super Mario Bros. And Vs. Castlevania.

 

[karokoenig]

Atari 2600

Donkey Kong Jr.: 47 min

 

High Score Club. Not as bad a game as it's believed to be, but not really great either.

 

Sega Mega Drive

Tiny Toons – Busters Hidden Treasure: 6 min

 

No serious attempt at getting further in the game. Just testing something else on the console and that cart was in reach...

[+thegoldenband]

I should really be tracking with you guys as I've been playing a lot of classics lately. Any reason not to join in?

No reason whatsoever -- welcome aboard!

 

Some games I've already put hours into this year for the C64 would be Gyruss, Pirates!, Arkanoid, and Lemans. Can I go back and estimate?

Please do. I realize it'll be rough numbers, but that's totally fine. When I first joined the tracker in 2010, it was a couple weeks after the start of the year and I did the same thing with Tower of Doom.

 

(I guessed that I played for four hours or so -- but now, based on my experiences since, I suspect it was probably quite a bit more! Some games stretch time, others compress it...)

 

TGB - NES elevator action level 4 is insane. I've played for hours and never beat level 4 even while exiting and resetting the enemies after every door. What's your strategy.

The trick I used in Level 3 & 4 is one that was discovered by someone on NintendoAge. Basically, you go to Floor 18, camp by the wall, and wait until all four enemies are on the opposite side of the wall (kill any that spawn on your side, and remember that the fourth enemy will take a minute or two to show up). They'll shoot at the wall endlessly, their aggression counter going up and up, until the volley of bullets sounds like a hard rain on a tin roof. In the meantime, go do some dishes, dust your mantle, etc.

 

And then, after about 12 minutes, it'll stop because the counter has rolled over to 0 -- accompanied by a sudden silence -- and for the rest of the level, they'll be as mild-mannered as Clark Kent. It totally defangs them, though if you take too long to complete the level it'll creep back up. Getting killed or starting a new level also resets the aggression counter, so you have to redo it at the start of Level 4.

 

The other nuance is getting them on top of the elevator at the start of Level 4. Otherwise, they're dangerously aggressive, making it hard even to reach the 18th floor. But for some reason the Level 4 AI leads enemies above you to go right for the elevator roof and stay there, so you can get all four of them out of the way and then make a break for 18.

[+wongojack]

Regarding Elevator Action - I exited the level at the bottom of the building which then sets you back at the top which resets the aggression a bit. If you open one door and repeat, you can do very well BEFORE level 4, but level 4 is VERY challenging. Perhaps, I'll try the method you describe some day.

 

I went back and made what I think are some pretty accurate estimates on what I've played this year. In some places, I may be high and in others low, but this is a pretty good summary for me for January:

 

 

Fri Jan 1 - Sun Jan 3

Gyruss C64 23mins

Pirates C64 960 mins (1987)

I was really playing this A LOT in the last week of December and the first few days of 2016. That weekend, I really pushed and finally got the very best ranking very early in the morning on Jan 3: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/247366-games-beaten-in-2016/?do=findComment&comment=3406561

 

 

Through Jan 10
Staying with the C64, I decided to try and conquer 2 different games from my childhood. Gyruss and Arkanoid. I also wanted to finally get through Star Wars KOTOR.

• Arkanoid C64 270mins (1987)
• Gyruss C64 660 mins (1984) I went back and timed how long it took me to get to Earth (about 16 mins) and then guessed at the number of attempts that I made from Jan 3rd to the 7th to try and roll the score. My initial estimate was actually waaaay lower than what it must have really been. http://atariage.com/forums/topic/247366-games-beaten-in-2016/?do=findComment&comment=3410222
• Lemans C64 100 mins (1982)
• Summer Games 2 C64 20 mins

Arkanoid Arcade (via MAME) 15 mins
Gyruss Arcade (via MAME) 45 mins

 

Untracked
Star Wars KOTOR Orig Xbox - 2,827 mins*

 

***We always take the first week of the year off and play games. Hence the very large total mins.

 

Through Jan 17
Arkanoid C64 315 mins
Lemans C64 50 mins

 

Untracked
KOTOR Orig Xbox - 249 mins

 

Through Jan 24
Arkanoid C64 405 mins

I went back and timed a solid playsession for this one. It took me about 45 minutes to get to a level in the 20s and die.
http://atariage.com/forums/topic/247366-games-beaten-in-2016/?do=findComment&comment=3423818

 

Black Widow Arcade 78mins (MAME HSC)

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/248048-arcademame-hsc-823-black-widow/?do=findComment&comment=3422773

 

Through Jan 31
Lemans C64 150 mins [switched from playing from U1541 II to original cart]

http://www.lemon64.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=23747&start=0&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=

 

2600

• Kaboom! 45 mins - I first tested it in the new version of Stella (4.7) and then switched to original hardware.
• Breakout 10 mins
• Super Breakout 50 mins

Untracked
KOTOR Orig Xbox - 614 mins

[jfitzenr]

Finally back home to retro gaming after my weeks of Wii-U binging and working too damn hard. (Some of the Zelda playing took place last week... if that's a problem I'll knock off a few hours!)

 

NES:

 

Zelda 2 - The Adventure of Link - ~15 Hours

Tecmo Super Bowl (2016 roster hack) ~6 Hours

 

ARCADE:

 

Ms Pac Man - 45 Minutes

Great 1000 Mile Rally - 2 Hours

 

Atari 2600:

 

Jungle Hunt - 15 Minutes

Frogger - 10 Minutes

Space Invaders - 10 Minutes

 

 

Notes: Ugh, these games are hard! Funny enough, a long detour diving deep into NES Remix, NES Remix 2, and Mario Maker on Wii-U (and playing WAY TOO MUCH of them) have actually probably helped me brush up and improve on some of my retro gaming abilities.

 

I FINALLY BEAT ZELDA 2! This game has haunted me for... what... 28 years now? (Well okay I was only 3 when it came out so... maybe more like 25?) Game is actually even more fun than I remember, and not nearly as hard (though it's still HAAAARD!) If it were slightly less cryptic, just a hair less hard, and the translation/text was better, this game would probably be easily remembered as an elite level classic. It's funny to me how even though when I was a kid I don't ever really remember getting past level 2 or so, all the years of watching my brother play it, reading Nintendo Power, etc. helped me remember quite a bit (still needed a bit of internet assistance.) Yes I did the "duck in the corner" trick on shadow link, as you can guess by my nearly full life meter (that was my last life, and my... third attempt on the palace I believe)

 

TSB: I decided in honor of the super bowl I'd take my Bears as far as I could on Tecmo... and of course we won it all, even with an injured Jay Cutler. If only video games were real life!

 

 

Also, Great 1000 Mile Rally needs to be in everybody's top 10 video games ever and I don't understand why it's not.

 

I think I might start diving back into my old quest of trying to 1cc Wonderboy in Monster Land soon, so watch out for way too many hours of that logged!

[Kurt_Woloch]

Here are my times for this past week (February 1st through 7th)...

 

Arcade:

Gorf - 32 min.

Q*bert's Qubes - 111 min. in 4 sessions

 

I quit solving Nonograms because they're just too time-consuming... I tried a 30x30 nonogram only to find out after two hours that I made a mistake somewhere or that it was unsolvable. So I went back to classic games which go much quicker. This week I replayed Q*bert's Qubes, where in the first attempt I got over 300,000 points, but didn't manage to repeat that, and Gorf, where I didn't manage to match my old high-score of over 12,000 points at a 6-ship game.

 

As for Vs. Super Mario Bros. which has been played by Retrogamer81081, I think this should be categorized as "Arcade" rather then "NES", because, although it used NES hardware, this version was an arcade game. Actually it appeared in arcades here in Austria back in 1985, two years before the NES was actually released for home use, which happened in fall of 1987.

[carlsson]

TI-99/4A:

Bouncy - 13 min.

TI Invaders - 2 min.

Ineligible:

Advanced Civilization (board game) - 570 min.

No real hardware was injured this week. I held up to my promise and downloaded a modern TI-99/4A emulator, namely Classic99 by Tursi. Quickly I found out that my Athlon64 3800+ with Windows XP is much too slow or malware ridden to run this emulator, although most other emulators run pretty OK. Thus I had to power on my more recent PC, an AMD F1 based one that I built in the summer of 2012 but still to this date haven't really got to use. To begin with, the computer started to act up in the worst possible ways: no front sound, no front USB, HDD didn't register properly which caused Windows 7 to BSOD. After reseating some cables, in particular the SATA cable, I managed to get all functions back to life again, and I could move on to downloading emulator and software.

Since I have no clue how TI-99 "DSK" images are supposed to work, or which emulators support which formats - it looks like a big lake of different emulated formats, akin to how the Commodore emulation scene looked like 20+ years ago - I restricted myself to playing whatever cartridge based software I could find, first testing one of the supplied cartridge games and then downloading Rasmus' big 8-in-1 cartridge on which I enjoyed Bouncy. I might have another go on this system in the future, but not sure when.

The bulk of my gaming this week however fell into the ineligible category, as I drove over to a friend from 15 years ago who invited his friends to a round of the board game Advanced Civilization. We played for eleven hours minus breaks for lunch and dinner, taken into consideration above. I understand there is at least one computer version of this game, but I've never tried it. And no, Sid Meyer's game series is an entirely different beast that doesn't relate to the board game, although I've come to understand that his computer game has been translated to the board as well, for maximum confusion.

[oyamafamily]

ATARI 2600:

The Activision Decathlon - 3 minutes

 

ATARI 5200:

Centipede - 45 minutes

Defender - 40 minutes

Dig Dug - 39 minutes

Galaxian - 10 minutes

Joust - 194 minutes

Jr. Pac-Man - 45 minutes

Kangaroo - 2 minutes

Mario Bros. - 10 minutes

Megamania - 58 minutes

Millipede - 27 minutes

Moon Patrol - 5 minutes

Ms. Pac-Man - 20 minutes

Pac-Man - 42 minutes

Pengo - 8 minutes

Robotron: 2084 - 25 minutes

Space Invaders - 45 minutes

 

This week, I started playing Atari 5200 games using Altirra Emulator and learning the mechanics. I played a lot of games in this category because I'm participating in the HighScore.com Official Contest - Atari 5200 / 7800 Trophy Cracking Contest. The user who cracks more worldwide trophies will get an Atari 7800 Prosystem Hardware, and I'm trying to do my best in this competition. The battle between me and Deteacher will be hard!

 

ATARI 7800:

Crossbow - 25 minutes

Dark Chambers - 136 minutes

Fatal Run - 100 minutes

Joust - 10 minutes

 

Dark Chambers is my TOP favorite game on 7800 system. Since I'm expert on this game, I'm able to score more than 999,990 points on all 3 difficulty levels: Beginner, Standard and Advanced.

And I beat Fatal Run by completing 32 levels and reaching the main objective: drive to the rocket launch site, in order to launch a satellite which will save the people and the entire world. Video to check out the mechanics of Fatal Run:

Edited February 8, 2016 by oyamafamily

[oyamafamily]

Speaking on 5200 games, my gameplay videos are available on the topic "What 5200 games are you playing right now?"

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/247413-what-5200-games-are-you-playing-right-now/

[oyamafamily]

7800 Dark Chambers Standard (video and statistical tables).

Edited February 8, 2016 by oyamafamily

[zylon]

2600-

 

Kaboom!- 35min

 

Battlezone- 25min

 

Battlezone and Galaxian were the first 2 2600 games I purchased new back when.

[Atarian7]

Atari 2600

Kaboom! - 315 minutes

Donkey Kong Junior - 339 minutes

 

Kaboom! High score of the week: 165,962

 

 

[+thegoldenband]

Only one this week, and it's a doozy:

 

NES:

Action 52 - 1062 min.

 

Yep, that's not a typo. I managed to clear eight minigames in Action 52, and most took less than 30 minutes, but one of them -- Silver Sword -- required nearly eight hours of practice and mapping to beat. In fact, I just learned that it's one of only four Action 52 minigames that were never beaten when NintendoAge first tried to complete the unlicensed NES set in 2013, so I guess I'm a pioneer of sorts.

 

Bubblegum Rosie also took a while, at 5+ hours, but that's largely because of the game's infuriatingly random enemy movement patterns -- though at least the enemy spawn locations themselves are fixed. I'm beginning to realize that Silver Sword may be the best game on the cart by a large margin, in part because the enemy spawn patterns are 100% deterministic; the games with random enemy placement are practically unplayable (sorry, Random Terrain).

[+wongojack]

Feb 1 Through Feb 7

 

C64

• Arkanoid 45mins (1987)
• Gyruss 16 mins (1984)
• Lemans 238 mins (1982) New Personal Best 478,290!

 

2600 homebrews

• Fall Down 30 mins (Cart)
• Juno First 15mins (Cart)
• Man Goes Down 40 mins (Harmony) AtariVox is awesome with this one

 

2600 released

• Kaboom 68mins (Original Cart) New Personal Best 20,764!
• Spacemaster X-7 10mins (Harmony)

 

Arcade

• Black Widow 13mins (via MAME) New Personal Best from Wave 1 158,025!
• Joyful Road (aka Munch Mobile) 2 mins (MAME)
• Laguna Racer 2 mins (MAME)
• Monaco GP 30mins Arcade Remake - Windows app faithful to original http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=134445.0

 

==========================
Untracked

 

Jakks Pacific Star Wars TV games from 2006 (the Millennium Falcon one)
Battle of Endor 20mins
Red Leader 50 mins

 

Xbox Live Indie Games
Captain Foraxian 8mins
Monaco 360 8mins
Retro Boy V1 8mins

[Opry99er]

Final posting:

 

Did my C64 duty this week...

 

C64:

 

Bards Tale (260 minutes)

 

 

Intellivision:

 

World Championship Baseball (30 additional minutes)

 

Bowling (additional 45 minutes)

 

 

TI-99/4A:

 

TI Invaders (additional 30 minutes)

 

 

 

Did something stupid and started The Bard's Tale for the Commodore. Spent 30 minutes figuring out the setup and then spent the rest of the time wandering aroubd Skara Brae. I have a feeling I will be logging quite a bit of time on this game in the future. Thanks to carlsson for the challenge. The C64 is a nice unit for sure.

 

Anyway, a little more baseball, plus the high score contest for the TI-99 and the Intv Bowling league used up the rest of my time. A good week, nothing more, nothing less.

[+wongojack]

Final posting:

 

Did my C64 duty this week...

 

C64:

 

Bards Tale (260 minutes)

 

 

Did something stupid and started The Bard's Tale for the Commodore. Spent 30 minutes figuring out the setup and then spent the rest of the time wandering aroubd Skara Brae. I have a feeling I will be logging quite a bit of time on this game in the future. Thanks to carlsson for the challenge. The C64 is a nice unit for sure.

 

 

 

Bard's Tale on the C64 was a formative experience for me. It basically taught me what a role playing game was. My friends and I would dink around with pen and paper stuff, but we never really got serious until we played The Bard's Tale. I only finished the game years later as an adult. My wife and I actually took turns making the maps and played the whole thing together. It turned out to be quite a great 2 player game.

 

You will definitely need the manual because the codes you type in for the individual spells are all in there. There is also a map of Skara Brae that you can find which helps when you are trying to find a temple or the guild when coming up out of a dungeon.

[BurritoBeans]

Well, time for a good 'ol list.

 

Amiga:

It Came From the Desert - 40 minutes

Another World - 20 minutes

 

Atari 8-bit:

Moon Patrol - 62 minutes

 

Atari 2600:

Battlezone - 12 minutes

Video Pinball - 40 minutes

 

Atari Falcon:

Transarctica - 40 minutes

 

Apple II:

Time Zone - 52 minutes

 

BBC Micro:

Elite - 31 minutes

 

Compucolor:

Star Trek - 39 minutes

 

Commodore Plus/4

Blagger - 12 minutes

Jet Set Willy - 42 minutes

 

Commodore 16

Ghosts 'n Goblins - 27 minutes

 

Commodore 64

Space Taxi - 20 minutes

Knight Games - 10 minutes

 

Commodore PET

Temple of Apshai - 30 minutes

 

NEC PC-8001:

Deep Scan - 22 minutes

Heiankyo Alien - 10 minutes

 

NEC PC-8801

Xanadu - 7 minutes

Ys I - 92 minutes

Super Mario Bros. Special - 30 minutes

 

NEC PC-9801

Policenauts - 22 minutes

 

PC (DOS)

King's Quest III - 42 minutes

 

PC (Windows)

Myst - 50 minutes

 

Sharp X1

Mappy - 19 minutes

Xevious - 6 minutes

 

Sharp X68000

Cameltry - 70 minutes

 

Sinclair ZX-80

Adventure A: Planet of Death - 30 minutes

 

Sinclair ZX-81

3D Monster Maze - 15 minutes

Colossal Cave Adventure - 12 minutes

 

Sinclair ZX Spectrum

Jetpac - 43 minutes

 

TOO. MUCH. STUFF. Old PCs are just crazy to me, I dunno why I even collect them but I do. No consoles this week as I cut out all my Game.com time for these beasts, and heck, it was kinda fun. I discovered some fun software on some of the more obscure computers, and I always love stuff like my X68000 and DOS/Windows PCs.

 

For the computer stuff, I was kinda amazed with some of the computers. The PC-8001 was what I started off with as I have the 2nd least software for it, and well, it's nice but I don't think I could ever find a use. Cool computer, but not the best one that I know. The game I played are OK enough, I mean Deep Scan is an old Sega title that's kinda fun and Heiankyo Alien is decent enough. After that, the Falcon got some playtime for once. I bought the falcon broken from a garage sale a while back, and thanks to Best Electronics I got a PSU for it. I was thinking of getting a CF card hard drive replacement, but it works fine stock so I leave it that way. The ZX line got some use, starting with the ZX80s. Adventure A is cool but eh, not my favorite. For the '81, 3D Monster Maze was the highlight for me as I always like that game. Finally, the Speccy was up after playing with the 81, and by that point it was 1:20 in the morning so I just fired up some jetpac, as that's always a fun game. The Commodore 16 and Plus/4 that I own somehow have working TED chips so I ran with them for a bit. They're OK computers, but like the 8001, I really don't know what I'll do with them. The compucolor got more time with Star Trek, as all my other programs are either ones I wrote and saved to blank 8-tracks or aren't games. The Amiga got some playtime with It Came From the Desert (Sooo much better than the TG-16 version) and Another World, two pretty good games. The PC-9801 and 8801 got some time, but I didn't feel like much so I took the first floppy out of their floppy-holder-things, and played for a bit. The Sharp X1 got its time, and well, it's a nice computer as I have the Twin model with the PC Engine built-in. The good 'ol Apple II and BBC Micro got used for their stuff, nothing exciting there. For IBM rigs, well, same deal as the 98/8801s - took the first game out and played 'em. I turned on the PET for once in a lifetime and loaded in a program, which that game was kinda fun, maybe I'll run through it just to give the PET a use. The 600XL got turned on, and all I own is Moon Patrol so that got playtime - dang do I love that game.

TL;DR - I played a bunch of stuff and it was fun to me at least.

 

There's only one computer that I left out, my IBM 5100, as I don't know if anyone actually made games for it and the one I own is one that I wrote with no title and just has the code printed out on a sheet to key in. I'd like to find something for that "portable", but eh, never really looked as everything for that box is too expensive.

 

I probably missed "descriptions" for some PC stuff, but I don't feel like looking through that mess of text up there.

 

Game.com will start back up for the next week I guess, so hopefully I get a good game.