What have you actually PLAYED tracker for 2019 (Season 12)

[Eltigro]

Only a couple for me this week...

 

NES

Life Force - 30 min (I remember beating this back in the day, but I probably used the Konami code cheat.  My TV is messing up... going out...  and the screen was kinda compressed vertically.  It was like I was playing in a letterbox mode.  Sigh, still playable, but I'll need a "new" TV.  The good thing is, CRTs can often be found for free on Craigslist or FB Marketplace or something.  Will have to keep my eye out for a good one.  Anyway, I got to level 3, the fire level, the "picture on the back of the box" level.)

 

GameBoy

Tetris - 60 min (I played this on my GBA while grilling last night.  I never was that good at it, but it is fun even if I'm not doing well.  I think the highest level I got to was 7.  I eventually had to give it up as the sky started getting dark with a storm coming in.  Don't need more handicaps while playing this one.)

[+wongojack]

6 hours ago, digdugnate said:

oh dude, slamball!  i totally forgot that game.  off i go to snag it!

 

i'm really happy the way this little machine works- it's the perfect device for me to relive my C64 days. 

 

would a regular C64/1541 setup be cool? sure!  It's cost-prohibitive for me and space-prohibitive, though.  I think this is a good compromise. 

I am not going to give up my Jiffy Dos modded C64 any time soon, BUT the 1541 on the other had, I finally got rid of that completely.  I use a C64 with the 1541 U II cartridge and it is AWESOME.

[Skippy B. Coyote]

We're Switching gears this week, and I've got quite a bit of gaming time to contribute! 

 

 

 

Ineligible 

Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon (Nintendo Switch) - 180 minutes

DOOM (Nintendo Switch) - 500 minutes

Sonic Mania Plus (Nintendo Switch) - 245 minutes

 

Arcade

Pac-Man (Played on Namco Museum Arcade Pac for Nintendo Switch) - 5 minutes

Splatterhouse (Played on Namco Museum Arcade Pac for Nintendo Switch) - 40 minutes

 

Sega CD

Silpheed - 82 minutes

Sonic CD - 259 minutes

 

Sony PlayStation

Resident Evil: Director's Cut - 289 minutes

 

 

Total Video Game Play Time This Week

1,600 minutes (26 hours 40 minutes) [675 minutes eligible]

 

Individual System Play Times This Week

Nintendo Switch: 925 minutes

Sega CD: 341 minutes

Sony PlayStation: 289 minutes

Arcade: 45 minutes

Edited June 17, 2019 by Jin

[carlsson]

Here's the summary for Week 24, running from June 10 - 16. We logged 3686 minutes of eligible play, playing 44 games on a total of 13 systems.

Top 10:

1. Impossible Mission (C64) - 475 min.
2. Thunder Castle (Intellivision) - 390 min.
3. Resident Evil: Director's Cut (PlayStation) - 289 min.
4. Kaboom! (Atari 2600) - 264 min.
5. Sonic CD (Sega CD) - 259 min.
6. Pac-Man Collection (Atari 7800) - 240 min.
7. Lode Runner (C64) - 134 min.
8. Solar Fox (Atari 2600) - 129 min.
9. Eggomania (Atari 2600) - 128 min.
10. Space Taxi (C64) - 126 min.

 

Pre-NES top 10:

1. Impossible Mission (C64) - 475 min.
2. Thunder Castle (Intellivision) - 390 min.
3. Kaboom! (Atari 2600) - 264 min.
4. Pac-Man Collection (Atari 7800) - 240 min.
5. Lode Runner (C64) - 134 min.
6. Solar Fox (Atari 2600) - 129 min.
7. Eggomania (Atari 2600) - 128 min.
8. Space Taxi (C64) - 126 min.
9. Alligator People (Atari 2600) - 95 min.
10. Boulder Dash (C64) - 80 min.

 

Top 10 systems:

1. C64 (1042)
2. Atari 2600 (729)
3. Intellivision (453)
4. Sega CD (341)
5. Atari 7800 (290)
6. PlayStation (289)
7. NES/Famicom (142)
8. N64 (120)
9. Atari 8-bit (103)
10. Game Boy (60)

 

The game might be an impossible mission (with ever changing layout of rooms and puzzles) but apparently it was perfectly doable to take the double and for once lead the C64 to the systems title ahead of all sorts of contemporary and more recent consoles.

 

Although Thunder Castle (Intellivision) is defeated twice by the Epyx classic, its 390 minutes are enough to secure #375 on the 1000 Minute Club, a total of 1047 minutes so far.

[+cvga]

The 13y.o. and I have been playing B-17 Bomber this week. I started by giving it a 0 out of 10 score (he agreed). However, it's grown on us as we've learned more about it. It's still not among my favorites, or even close, but I can appreciate it more. I'd probably give it a 4 out of 10. Lots of flying makes it somewhat boring. Other planes can be too difficult to hit but targets are super easy. The real strategy is making sure you have enough fuel to get back home.

 

Intellivision:

B-17 Bomber - 127 minutes

Thunder Castle - 22 minutes

[oyamafamily]

ATARI 2600:

Mappy - 30 minutes (just for fun)

 

ATARI 7800:

Pac-Man Christmas 2018 - 59 minutes (I know it's NOT Christmas time. Reference: see infos here)

Pac-Man Collection - 89 minutes (just for fun)

 

EVIDENCES OF THE WEEK:

1) More Pac-Man Collection scores noted in my last sessions, played on my 7800 real system.

 

 

2) My Mappy scores for 2600 Harmony Games 2019, Final Round

[+cvga]

Session 12 of our Final Fantasy quest ended in victory! The end is a bit of a letdown with just a bunch of text but it feels good to complete the game.

 

NES:

 

Final Fantasy - 58 minutes

 

Now on to Final Fantasy II

[oyamafamily]

TIMES TO ADD

 

Atari 2600:

Galaxian - 28 minutes

Mappy - 22 minutes

Pac-Man - 15 minutes

Space Invaders - 12 minutes

 

Atari 7800:

Pac-Man Collection - 68 minutes

 

ADDITIONAL EVIDENCES:

1) My Mappy gameplay footage, for 2019 Harmony Games Final Round, organized by Dan Iacovelli

 

2) My cousin having fun with Atari games. She played Pac-Man Collection (7800), and other 3 VCS games - Pac-Man, Space Invaders and Galaxian.

[Kurt_Woloch]

Here are my times for this past week (June 17th through 23rd)...

 

Arcade:

Puzzle Bobble - 20 min.

 

Atari 7800:

Frogus - 6 min.

 

I didn't play much this week because the weather was hot and I went swimming with my father, also I rode some shared scooters again...

 

Frogus is a variation on Frogger, but I don't think it plays as well as the original game.

Puzzle Bobble actually was a single game... I don't think I ever got this far in the game as in this session (I think it was Level 14 or so).

[carlsson]

Atari 8-bit:
Bounty Bob Strikes Back - 56 min.
M.U.L.E. - 133 min.

 

All HSC as usual!

 

[+thegoldenband]

My times for the week:

 

NES/Famicom:

Fushigi no Umi no Nadia (Nadia: Secret of the Blue Water) - 3 min.
The Goonies II - 327 min.
Mitsume ga Tooru - 129 min.
Moon Crystal - 194 min.

Musashi no Bouken - 111 min.

 

Beat The Goonies II, Mitsume ga Tooru, and Moon Crystal, and made modest progress in Musashi no Bouken.

[Eltigro]

My retro gaming for the week...

 

2600

Space Invaders - 20 min (Playing game 4.  I don't like it.  lol... this variation has moving shields and zig zag missiles.  The projectiles didn't bother me too much, but those shields kept getting in the way!  I think I did better once they got down low enough to make the shields disappear.  I need to get a new TV to play this on (mine's going out), and probably get either a new 2600 or get mine repaired.  The output is horrible.)

 

NES

Tetris (emulated) - 11 min (Played some GameBoy Tetris recently so I figured that practice would help me out here.  Nope.)

 

Genesis

Sonic the Hedgehog - 60 min (Was doing a challenge to see how far I could get on one life.  Made it to somewhere in the Spring Zone.  Surprised myself with getting three Chaos Emeralds.  I usually suck at the bonus round Emerald things...  get lost and fall into the Exit.)

[DragonGrafx-16]

Chasm: The Rift (PC(DOS)) 74 mins
Pitfall II (Atari 2600) 15 mins
Duke Nukem (the first game) (PC(DOS)) 22 mins

[+wongojack]

It was more time on the C64 mini this week.  I stuck to the built in games.  Some of these I had played as a kid like World Games while others I had only heard about in recent years like Who Dares Wins.  One thing I didn't remember about World Games is that each of the individual events has a unique song that plays before the competition begins.  They are usually themed by the country where the event takes place and all of them are very enjoyable.  I'm not sure World Games gets mentioned very often in conversations about the best music on the C64, but it probably should.

 

C64

Impossible Mission 746

Mega Apocalypse 19

Monty on the Run 11

Skool Daze 10

Summer Games II 30

Thing on a Spring 14

Uridium 16

Who Dares Wins II 62

World Games 58

Zynaps 12

 

After all these years, I finally stopped Elvin Atombender and completed the Impossible Mission.  Knowing what I know now, I never even got close as a kid.  I had to print out a grid the same size and shape of the music puzzle to get it done.  Even then, I still failed a few times.  One thing to note, this is a pretty long game for 1983, and the gametime of an individual game gets much LONGER as you improve.  I was playing almost 3 hour games before I finally won.  Overall it is a fun game, and each of the 3 main elements (music room, platform rooms, jigsaw puzzle) are well done, but all of them get tedious and feel LESS rewarding as you make progress.  The music puzzle is a child's memory game that quickly becomes too difficult for an adult.  At least it mercifully doesn't get any harder once you get to the 12th level.  After that time, solving the puzzle requires putting 14 musical notes in order, and it always rewards the player with a "snooze" if you complete it.  The platform rooms are nice in that they can usually be solved in numerous ways.  However, some of the furniture is very hard to reach and because the robot functions are random, you can occasionally be required to spend multiple snoozes on the same room.  Finally, it is nice that the jigsaw puzzles are difficult, but the fact that you can sometimes assemble 2 or even 3 pieces (out of 4) incorrectly can really send the player down the wrong path in a frustrating way.  My advice is to simply clear ALL of the furniture before really spending much time trying to solve the jigsaw puzzles.  Then start with the pieces that have the highest percentage of color or design on them and just do one set of 4 pieces at a time.

 

 

 

[digdugnate]

C64 Mini time!  It's not a lot of time since I have it in my office and playing on breaks when I just can't stand to do my desk work after a few hours, lol.

 

C64:

 

Attack of the Mutant Camels -- 53 minutes

Forbidden Forest -- 67 minutes

Lode Runner -- 78 minutes

Space Taxi -- 82 minutes

[+wongojack]

12 hours ago, thegoldenband said:

My times for the week:

 

NES/Famicom:

Fushigi no Umi no Nadia (Nadia: Secret of the Blue Water) - 3 min.
The Goonies II - 327 min.
Mitsume ga Tooru - 129 min.
Moon Crystal - 194 min.

Musashi no Bouken - 111 min.

 

Beat The Goonies II, Mitsume ga Tooru, and Moon Crystal, and made modest progress in Musashi no Bouken.

 

Hey hey - I noticed in another thread that Goonies II was sort of a bucket list game for you on the NES.  Well done!

[+wongojack]

2 hours ago, digdugnate said:

C64 Mini time!  It's not a lot of time since I have it in my office and playing on breaks when I just can't stand to do my desk work after a few hours, lol.

 

C64:

 

Attack of the Mutant Camels -- 53 minutes

Forbidden Forest -- 67 minutes

Lode Runner -- 78 minutes

Space Taxi -- 82 minutes

It is amazing how diverse the library is for the C64.  Peoples' experiences can be so different from one gaming session to another.

[+thegoldenband]

1 hour ago, wongojack said:

 

Hey hey - I noticed in another thread that Goonies II was sort of a bucket list game for you on the NES.  Well done!

Thank you! The impact's a bit muted since I did play through it with savestates and a FAQ about 15-16 years ago, but that never really felt like it counted. This time I did it legitimately and even made my own maps -- far more satisfying. I did have to peek at a walkthrough once to remind me where to go next, but other than that it was pretty self-driven.

 

Actually -- from the "must finish" thread -- probably the one that drives me most nuts (and which I didn't mention in that thread) is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for NES. I had that game down except for the last level, which I never could clear. Now I know the trick to making the floating soldiers leave you alone. Maybe time to take that one on sometime soon...

[digdugnate]

1 minute ago, thegoldenband said:

Thank you! The impact's a bit muted since I did play through it with savestates and a FAQ about 15-16 years ago, but that never really felt like it counted. This time I did it legitimately and even made my own maps -- far more satisfying. I did have to peek at a walkthrough once to remind me where to go next, but other than that it was pretty self-driven.

 

Actually -- from the "must finish" thread -- probably the one that drives me most nuts (and which I didn't mention in that thread) is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for NES. I had that game down except for the last level, which I never could clear. Now I know the trick to making the floating soldiers leave you alone. Maybe time to take that one on sometime soon...

man, i bought that TMNT game new BITD and was soooo disappointed, lol.  It has some pretty grueling stages that require just flat-out rote memorization (stupid bombs underwater, I'm looking at you!)

 

though.. it's a pretty solid game for graphics and sound.  for me it was just hard as nails.

[carlsson]

2 hours ago, wongojack said:

It is amazing how diverse the library is for the C64.

That is what 10K+ different games will do for you. Yes, I know GB64 has 25K+ entries but a lot are duplicates and hacks so I'm gladly cutting that number in half to get a reasonable number of unique, playable titles. Perhaps even cut it by 3 to bring it down to 8K, still a vast library.

 

Rough stats for the tracker in its current state:

 

Atari 2600: 892 different entries

NES/Famicom: 632

Genesis: 566

Arcade: 516

Atari 8-bit computers: 452

C64: 447

SNES: 373

PlayStation: 326

TI-99/4A: 323

Game Boy: 299

NEC PC-9801: 220

Sega Master System: 201

ColecoVision: 189

Intellivision: 174

VIC-20: 156

Sega Saturn: 155

 

All others below 150 different games. By the way we're up to 129 different formats now. We started this season at 128 so I'll have to go back and see which one is the newcomer.

 

Edit: False alarm, two systems were tied for 128th place last season so we really have the same 129 as we begun with.

Edited June 24, 2019 by carlsson

[+wongojack]

1 hour ago, thegoldenband said:

Actually -- from the "must finish" thread -- probably the one that drives me most nuts (and which I didn't mention in that thread) is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for NES. I had that game down except for the last level, which I never could clear. Now I know the trick to making the floating soldiers leave you alone. Maybe time to take that one on sometime soon...

 

1 hour ago, digdugnate said:

man, i bought that TMNT game new BITD and was soooo disappointed, lol.  It has some pretty grueling stages that require just flat-out rote memorization (stupid bombs underwater, I'm looking at you!)

 

though.. it's a pretty solid game for graphics and sound.  for me it was just hard as nails.

 

I can't remember how far I got in that game, but I was very excited about it, and it is still probably the most disappointing game experience I've ever had.  Zelda 2 is close, but TMNT was worse.  It is the Pac-Man of the NES for me.  Most people say they were expecting it to be like the arcade game, but that wasn't my problem with it.  The game just hates you.  It doesn't want you to finish.  It is the kind of game that makes you wonder if anyone has every finished it.  Of course they have, but it is hard to remember that when playing.

I referenced this last week, but be sure to check out a new fan version inspired by the NES series.  TMNT Rescue Palooza.

[Skippy B. Coyote]

A good week for gaming this week, but man could I use a new Switch game or two. I've been replaying the same old ones for a while now!  

 

 

Ineligible

Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon (Nintendo Switch) - 135 minutes

DOOM (Nintendo Switch) - 445 minutes

 

Arcade

Pac-Man (Played on Namco Museum Arcade Pac for Nintendo Switch) - 10 minutes

Rolling Thunder (Played on Namco Museum Arcade Pac for Nintendo Switch) - 5 minutes

Rolling Thunder 2 (Played on Namco Museum Arcade Pac for Nintendo Switch) - 5 minutes

 

Sega Genesis

Sonic & Knuckles - 231 minutes

 

Sony PlayStation

Resident Evil: Director's Cut - 159 minutes

 

 

Total Video Game Play Time This Week

990 minutes (16 hours 30 minutes) [410 minutes eligible]

 

Individual System Play Times This Week

Nintendo Switch: 580 minutes

Sega Genesis: 231 minutes

Sony PlayStation: 159 minutes

Arcade: 20 minutes

 

Edited June 24, 2019 by Jin

[agb]

Only two 2600 games. 

Eggomania 59 mins.

Solar Fox 77 mins. 

[+Ksarul]

This week, we're doing something different. Turtles has been collecting classic systems for a while now, and now they're wired up with a switch box so he can play lots of different things. So we now have a few more entries to add to our traditional TI-99/4A fare.

 

TI-99/4A

Frogger                                                      5 minutes

Pac Man                                                    22 minutes

Centipede                                                   6 minutes

Turmoil                                                     10 minutes

Q*Bert                                                       2 minutes

Donkey Kong                                            12 minutes

 

NES (he also has a Famicom now)

Dr. Mario                                                  11 minutes

Super Mario Bros.                                     21 minutes

Super Mario Bros 3                                   13 minutes

Ice Climber                                               10 minutes

Punch Out                                                   2 minutes

Donkey Kong Jr.                                       11 minutes

 

Game Boy

The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening        2 minutes

Pokemon Blue                                          10 minutes

 

N64

Super Smash Brothers                             13 minutes

 

Turtles is also trying to convince me he needs a Sega Genesis, as he found a couple of nice games for it this past week. . .it seems I have created a retrogaming monster. That is a good thing.        He also has a Game Cube now (a good machine built out of two dead ones this past Friday).

 

[iliketurtles]

Those games were Sonic The Hedgehog 1 & 2 for $2 a pop.