What have you actually PLAYED tracker for 2021 (Season 14)

[carlsson]

Here's the summary for Week 14, running from April 5 - 11. We logged 6069 minutes of eligible play, playing 90 games on a total of 20 systems.

 

Top 10:

 

1. Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse (NES/Famicom) - 605 min.
1. Suikoden II (PlayStation) - 605 min. (#5)
3. Thunder Force IV (Sega Saturn) - 411 min.
4. Isle of the Cursed Prophet, The (C64) - 350 min.
5. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (PlayStation) - 338 min. (#2)
6. Magic Knight Rayearth (Sega Saturn) - 284 min.
7. Solar Fox (Atari 2600) - 247 min. (#7)
8. Thunder Force AC (Arcade) - 237 min.
9. Kaboom! (Atari 2600) - 217 min. (#10)
10. Legend of the Amazon Women (UK ver?) (C64) - 203 min. (US ver #1)

 

Pre-NES top 10:

 

1. Isle of the Cursed Prophet, The (C64) - 350 min.
2. Solar Fox (Atari 2600) - 247 min. (PN#3)
3. Kaboom! (Atari 2600) - 217 min. (PN#4)
4. Legend of the Amazon Women (UK ver?) (C64) - 203 min. (US ver PN#1)
5. Dishaster (Atari 2600) - 138 min.
6. Asteroids Deluxe (Atari 7800) - 70 min.
7. Demon Attack (Atari 2600) - 50 min.
7. Robbo (Atari 8-bit) - 50 min.
9. Atlantis (Intellivision) - 38 min. (PN#8)
10. Asteroids Deluxe (Arcade) - 35 min.

 

Top 10 systems:

 

1. PlayStation (1093) (#1)
2. Sega Saturn (1009)
3. NES/Famicom (994) (#6)
4. Atari 2600 (750) (#2)
5. C64 (565) (#3)
6. Arcade (486) (#7)
7. Genesis (219) (#5)
8. Neo Geo AES/MVS (169) (#4)
9. Intellivision (134) (#9)
9. SNES (134)

 

It rarely happens, but this week Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse and Suikoden II are inseparable, meaning they share the first place on the overall top list. Those are followed by a couple versions of Thunder Force and another Castlevania, but also this week's pre-NES leader, The Isle of the Cursed Prophet, meaning this list for the second week in a row is headed by a C64 game. On the systems front it is a very close call between the PlayStation, Sega Saturn and NES/Famicom, less than 100 minutes beteen #1 and #3. The pre-crash systems like the 2600, C64 and Intellivision and found further down the list.

 

Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse (NES/Famicom) also becomes member #443 in the 1000 Minute Club with a total of 1527 min. For that matter, Akumajou Densetsu which according to my notes should correspond to the Japanese version of Castlevania III, is up to 631 min but I'm sure there are good reasons why we track these separately.

 

Speaking of tracking separately, we've got 27 games for the Atari ST tracked. Besides the STe enhanced version of Lotus Esprit Turbo Challenge played this week, I haven't tried to look up if any of the other games are STe specific, just like we on the Amiga side separate OCS games from ECS/AGA games. For the moment being, I'll keep it with the others and as the game title indicates it is a STe game it could be separated at a later point in time.

[Nintendo64]

23 hours ago, wongojack said:

You have a good memory!

 

I like the Intellivision version of Demon Attack, but even though it is a bit more basic, I kinda prefer the 2600 version.  Inty Demon Attack has different enemy patterns (that are not annoying) and it even has a mothership boss stage, but the 2600 version controls a bit more precisely, and I think it is just a slightly better experience.  Still, if you like Demon Attack, you should seek out and play the Inty version (and the Odyssey 2 version).  None of those seem to be as deliberatly annoying as Xevious.  At least not to me.

Thank you, but the memory comes and goes for certain things. That is interesting to know about the mothership boss on the Intellivision version and hopefully one day I can play that and the Odssey 2 version. I agree with you that the enemies are not anywhere near as annoying as in Xevious. I really do enjoy the Atari 2600 version as well: it has a simplistic design with great controls, and is progressively difficult at the same time.

 

22 hours ago, Steven Pendleton said:

I wonder how many times the words "Thunder Force" are going to show up on this page...

 

Anyway, yes, most Metroid games are extremely short, and using your skills from practicing all of the fun tricks that you will learn to go even faster  and get a faster time and a better ending is the best thing about Metroid. You can really move through the games extremely quickly once you practice enough.

 

If you like video game music and want to play Thunder Force, make sure to get the Thunder Force Gold Packs on the Saturn, especially Gold Pack 1, as that has Red Book audio for the entire soundtracks of II MD and III, and Thunder Force V Special Pack, which includes Best of Thunder Force, which has 1 hour and 14 minutes of awesome Thunder Force music done by the dude who did the OST for Thunder Force V. Gold Pack 2 does not use Red Book audio unfortunately, but there are 2 bonus tracks on the disc.

 

As for the games themselves, I do recommend starting with III. It's the most accessible Thunder Force game since it was released on a system that many people have and it's been rereleased on a few common platforms and compilations like the Genesis/MD Mini. AC is easier than III with the autofire on Saturn and Switch, but I don't trust MAME to play it (or anything else, for that matter) properly, so it might be awkward to play it unless you have a Switch or a Saturn or the original arcade PCB (which is rare and expensive).

 

IV is ridiculously hard compared to III and will kill you many, MANY times at first, but IV is overall a better game than III is. I got all the way up to stage 8 yesterday morning on the Saturn without dying somehow, but the boss killed me. Still managed to easily 1CC the game, though. I spend hours resetting immediately when I die, as I really need to make it all the way to stage 6 without dying, or at least with both Hunter and Free Way. Stage 4 Daser is easily the hardest stage in the game, partially because it has the hardest boss by far, so if you can kill Fomalhaut without losing all of your weapons, you're basically good for the rest of the game, but stage 8 is a close second place for difficulty. I suppose you can play stage 4 first to kill Fomalhaut early and then coast until stage 8, but fighting Fomalhaut without Hunter is not something that I enjoy thinking about. I think there is a Free Way on Daser, so that would help a bit, but I think Hunter is the best weapon to use there, especially as Hunter makes the stage mostly trivial except for when I do something dumb like get killed by the annoying miniboss and lose Hunter.

Your right, I think if I practice the game more I would be able to finish it quicker. I am going to try and  play some of the Thunderforce series on the genesis during the current week. It's interesting that I really starting getting into shooters these past couple of years while joining this forum. It all really started with Galaga, and has moved on to other systems from there. I am also I am going to give a listen to those soundtracks for Thunderforce as well for the Saturn, and let you know how it goes.

 

13 hours ago, Atarian7 said:

Do you mean Atari paddles?

Is that the controller you guys are playing Kaboom with? That makes mores sense to me now if it is. I always figured you guys were playing with the Atari 2600 Joystick. After looking it up, it seems like a lot more fun to play this game with the paddle controller.

 

9 hours ago, carlsson said:

Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse (NES/Famicom) also becomes member #443 in the 1000 Minute Club with a total of 1527 min.

I'm glad to see that this game surpassed the 1000 minute mark because it is one of my favorite games. As always Thank you for taking the time to add all of the minutes up for the week, I really enjoy reading/seeing about all of the stats.

Edited April 14, 2021 by Nintendo64

[Steven Pendleton]

9 hours ago, carlsson said:

For that matter, Akumajou Densetsu which according to my notes should correspond to the Japanese version of Castlevania III, is up to 631 min but I'm sure there are good reasons why we track these separately.

I'm guessing it's this: https://tcrf.net/Castlevania_III:_Dracula's_Curse/Regional_Differences#Gameplay_.28JP_to_US.29

[Steven Pendleton]

38 minutes ago, Nintendo64 said:

Your right, I think if I practice the game more I would be able to finish it quicker. I am going to try and  play some of the Thunderforce series on the genesis during the current week. It's interesting that I really starting getting into shooters these past couple of years while joining this forum. It all really started with Galaga, and has moved on to other systems from there. I am also I am going to give a listen to those soundtracks for Thunderforce as well for the Saturn, and let you know how it goes.

I would highly recommend not listening to the Thunder Force music until you've played the games and heard every track as you play the games, as it might take away from the experience if you hear it before you play them. Gold Packs 1 and 2 have the same music as the 16-bit versions, so don't expect completely new music like I did or you will be disappointed, but it's high-quality CD audio instead of being produced by the sound chip (Saturn's sound chip is incredible, in case you've never heard it). I did notice one difference recently, though, which is that because of the way the YM2612+Z80 combination handles sound, sometimes the music channels on the Genesis/MD versions will cut out to play sound effects instead. This doesn't happen on the Saturn since it can do the sound effects with its sound chip (I'm assuming that it uses its sound chip, which is why the sound effects are different from how they are on the Genesis/MD versions) while the music is streamed from the disc simultaneously. Voice quality is noticeably better on Saturn as well and the music doesn't stop to play the voices, but you still probably won't understand anything that she says.

[Atarian7]

10 hours ago, Nintendo64 said:

Is that the controller you guys are playing Kaboom with? That makes mores sense to me now if it is. I always figured you guys were playing with the Atari 2600 Joystick. After looking it up, it seems like a lot more fun to play this game with the paddle controller.

The joystick won't work for this game and if it did it would be impossible to play the game with it.  LOL

[Atarian7]

Yesterday I was playing Kaboom! and I got to where I needed to catch 73 bombs with one bucket on level 8.  I was able to do it but a few rounds later I lost anyway.   I was

so disappointed because I made such a great comeback and then lost. ( My score was over 100,000 at the time. )

 

 

 

 

[+wongojack]

3 hours ago, Atarian7 said:

Yesterday I was playing Kaboom! and I got to where I needed to catch 73 bombs with one bucket on level 8.  I was able to do it but a few rounds later I lost anyway.   I was

so disappointed because I made such a great comeback and then lost. ( My score was over 100,000 at the time. )

 

 

 

 

I hate that - you'll have some amazing rounds and then just piss it all away.  Happens to me all the time.

[carlsson]

On 4/13/2021 at 2:14 AM, Nintendo64 said:

That sounds like me with the regular version of Kaboom. One day I would really like to play it with the Atari Joysticks.

Apparently the Atari 8-bit computer version of Kaboom! lets you choose paddles or joystick. I haven't tried it, but I suppose it simulates acceleration in movement by for how long you hold into one direction. Some other games like Circus and Breakout type games were originally made for paddles but often support joystick movement too. I figure that Kaboom! is more frantic though and very fast movement across the screen is required compared to Breakout.

[Nintendo64]

On 4/13/2021 at 10:31 PM, Steven Pendleton said:

I would highly recommend not listening to the Thunder Force music until you've played the games and heard every track as you play the games, as it might take away from the experience if you hear it before you play them. Gold Packs 1 and 2 have the same music as the 16-bit versions, so don't expect completely new music like I did or you will be disappointed, but it's high-quality CD audio instead of being produced by the sound chip (Saturn's sound chip is incredible, in case you've never heard it). I did notice one difference recently, though, which is that because of the way the YM2612+Z80 combination handles sound, sometimes the music channels on the Genesis/MD versions will cut out to play sound effects instead. This doesn't happen on the Saturn since it can do the sound effects with its sound chip (I'm assuming that it uses its sound chip, which is why the sound effects are different from how they are on the Genesis/MD versions) while the music is streamed from the disc simultaneously. Voice quality is noticeably better on Saturn as well and the music doesn't stop to play the voices, but you still probably won't understand anything that she says.

Thanks that is very good advice because I would prefer play the game while listening to the music, instead of just listening to the music by itself. Since I don't have the saturn versions, I will just give the soundtrack a listen and let you know how it goes.

 

On 4/14/2021 at 7:53 AM, Atarian7 said:

The joystick won't work for this game and if it did it would be impossible to play the game with it.  LOL

 

Yesterday I was playing Kaboom! and I got to where I needed to catch 73 bombs with one bucket on level 8.  I was able to do it but a few rounds later I lost anyway.   I was

so disappointed because I made such a great comeback and then lost. ( My score was over 100,000 at the time. )

Ahh that shows how little I know about the Atari 2600. I grew up with the NES and when I think of the Atari 2600, I picture the joystick with the one button. This is really my first year playing the Atari 2600, and I use my ps2 style controller to play it on the Stella emulator. 

 

I can understand how that feels. Sometimes in Galaga I'll start off great, and die pretty quickly. Also there are times when I start off horrible but actually end up getting a decent score. It happens to me a lot in Galaga and Demon Attack.

 

7 hours ago, carlsson said:

Apparently the Atari 8-bit computer version of Kaboom! lets you choose paddles or joystick. I haven't tried it, but I suppose it simulates acceleration in movement by for how long you hold into one direction. Some other games like Circus and Breakout type games were originally made for paddles but often support joystick movement too. I figure that Kaboom! is more frantic though and very fast movement across the screen is required compared to Breakout.

That is really interesting to know about the Atari 8-bit system and thank you for that information.  I know so little about it that originally thought the 8 bit came out before the 2600 until you made me aware of it by the list of games you played. I saw how good the graphics looked in some of those games and then looked up that the system came out in 1983. I would really like to try out that system one day.

Edited April 15, 2021 by Nintendo64

[carlsson]

2 hours ago, Nintendo64 said:

the Atari 8-bit system [..] I [..] originally thought the 8 bit came out before the 2600 [..] and then looked up that the system came out in 1983.

Yes and no. The original Atari 400/800 computers were relesed in Nov/Dec 1979. The 1200XL was released sometime in 1982. In order to meet the competition, Atari reworked the older models into 600XL and 800XL which were launched in 1983 but at least the 800XL was not readily available (in Europe at least, perhaps in the USA) until early 1984. The differences between 800 and 800XL are very small: 48K vs 64K RAM, an updated OS and possibly a few more graphics modes but two joystick ports less. Even the even later models 65XE, 130XE and console version XEGS were mostly backwards compatible (1979 - c:a 1988) which is why the entire series are referenced as Atari 8-bit computers rather than separating each model in detail. That is opposed to Commodore, Apple and most other manufacturers who came up with gradually improved but inbetween them fairly incompatible models.

[Nintendo64]

5 hours ago, carlsson said:

Yes and no. The original Atari 400/800 computers were relesed in Nov/Dec 1979. The 1200XL was released sometime in 1982. In order to meet the competition, Atari reworked the older models into 600XL and 800XL which were launched in 1983 but at least the 800XL was not readily available (in Europe at least, perhaps in the USA) until early 1984. The differences between 800 and 800XL are very small: 48K vs 64K RAM, an updated OS and possibly a few more graphics modes but two joystick ports less. Even the even later models 65XE, 130XE and console version XEGS were mostly backwards compatible (1979 - c:a 1988) which is why the entire series are referenced as Atari 8-bit computers rather than separating each model in detail. That is opposed to Commodore, Apple and most other manufacturers who came up with gradually improved but inbetween them fairly incompatible models.

Well I learned multiple new things about Atari systems today. It sounds like Atari made an error with the naming of there systems like 65XE, 130XE and XEGS, but I could be mistaken.  Its very interesting that these developers were working with 48k and 64k of ram, and the funny thing is that computers like the Mac had 128k of ram and cost $2500 back then. I didn't own one, but I still do remember playing Oregon Trail during the 80's. I owned my first gateway 2000 in the early 90's and remember how expensive these computers were, and how fortunate I was to own one because not allot of people could afford them.

Thank you for that information.

Edited April 15, 2021 by Nintendo64

[carlsson]

400 and 800 originally were named after planned launch prices in USD which they weren't able to match. From there, 1200XL probably was a logic step. 600XL was somewhat between 400 and 800. With the later models, 65XE is one higher than the primary competitor C64. 130XE was twice as much (128K). There was a 260ST in Europe and of course there were the 520ST and 1040ST series, always doubling the number. Not sure about 2080 but I've seen 4 MB Atari ST called 4160...

 

 

[karokoenig]

On 4/13/2021 at 6:00 PM, wongojack said:

I don't buy a lot of the Psytronic games but this one really looked interesting to me.  I'm glad to hear you enjoyed it.  I may give it a shot.

As I said - it's simplified. It sure ain't no Zelda. Worth the money for the digital download to me. The full box - maybe not. It depends on how much you like the elaborate boxes, goodies/feelies and manual for your shelf.

[DragonGrafx-16]

On 4/13/2021 at 11:00 AM, wongojack said:

I don't buy a lot of the Psytronic games but this one really looked interesting to me.  I'm glad to hear you enjoyed it.  I may give it a shot.

I just bought it too. I'll stick it on my C64 mini. I really love the 2D Zelda games so I'll try it.

[Steven Pendleton]

I'm kind of tired, so I'll post earlier than I normally do and go to sleep.

 

MD/Genesis
Arrow Flash - 14

This game is super boring, so I'd only recommend playing it if you are in the mood for an extremely boring shooter.
Gleylancer - 135

I finally beat this game after close to 2 years of having it. I used to love this game, but I really do not have much desire to play it again at all because the enemy patterns are relatively boring. Still has a great soundtrack and mind-blowing parallax scrolling, though.
Slap Fight MD - 18
Thunder Force IV - 54

It's back. I don't remember if this is the Switch version or the real MD version.

 

Saturn
Magic Knight Rayearth - 49

Yeah, this game is kind of extremely boring to me. Hopefully I will be able to force myself to finish it, especially since it's only like 10 hours long and I'm somewhere around halfway at least.
Thunder Force IV - 339

Somehow I got a no miss on normal only about an hour or so after my previous post in this thread. What a strange feeling to get my first no miss in any shooting game ever and have it be on this game, which is famous for its difficulty. Have not been able to duplicate it yet. Not sure if I want to because damn did I feel mentally dead after I did it.
Thunder Force V - 52

 

Arcade
Thunder Force AC - 59 (estimate)

 

Dreamcast
Ikaruga - 72

 

Neo Geo AES/MVS
Garou: Mark of the Wolves - 26

Apparently I forgot how to play this game since I am garbage at it again.
Samurai Spirits - 15

I honestly don't know if there is a difference between Samurai Spirits and Samurai Shodown; my usual source, The Cutting Room Floor, doesn't even have a page for this game at all. My AES is Japanese, so I play the Japanese versions of everything, as the system's region is what determines which version you play. I never learned how to play this game and am unbelievably terrible at it; usually can't beat the first opponent on the easiest setting.

 

Proof of Thunder Force IV no miss:

One of the advantages of the Saturn version is that it saves all of your high scores. No other version, including the Switch version, does this. That no miss bonus REALLY makes a huge difference in score. Can you do better?

 

Finally, proof of finishing Gleylancer. Love you, Lucia~

Edited April 18, 2021 by Steven Pendleton

[carlsson]

Atari 8-bit:
Chuckie Egg - 22 min.

 

C64:
Wizard of Wor - 5 min.

 

A8 HSC (as usual) plus that I helped someone on Twitter to convert the MAX WoW prototype V3 (10/19) from BIN to CRT. Supposedly it is very close to the final production version. I spent about 1 minute trying that rather horrible WoW version, and then switched to playing Jeff Bruette's completely reworked C64 version for a bit longer. Generally those HAL games were quite OK - at least on the VIC-20, but perhaps the limitations on the MAX regarding max 8K ROM and 1K (or is it 2K?) built-in RAM and ideally no additional RAM on the cartridge, made those games much weaker than they could've been if Commodore really wanted to invest a little into the MAX. I imagine if it had 4-8K RAM built-in and the guidelines had supported 16K ROM cartridges (which I think the MAX memory map supports, but Commodore didn't want to spend that much money on ROMs), it would have yielded quite a bit better games, perhaps no need to reprogram them for the C64 releases.

 

[Kurt_Woloch]

Here are my times for this past week (April 12th through 18th, 2021) on classic systems::

 

Atari 2600:

Smurf's Rescue in Gargamel's Castle (Prototype) - 5 min.

 

Colecovision:

 

Steamroller - 20 min.

 

Commodore 64:

Legend of the Amazon Women (UK version) - 223 min. in 6 sessions

 

This week I played some more sessions of Legend of the Amazon Women, keeping with the UK version. However, to continue last week's discussion, I noticed that the Retrocollector site shows pictures of the US version for the Mastertronic release. I'm not sure if all screenshots on that site have actually been taken from the release shown though. Anyway, I thought I'd get better at this game this week, but in today's session I somewhat topped out at about 70-80% of the way which I seem not to be able to surpass. Actually the enemies are a bit unfair since they do things the player is unable to do, specifically moving towards the player by a fraction of a step and then starting an attack while the player has to complete a full step before starting that attack.

 

Other than that, I played a single game of Steamroller in which I got pretty far, but didn't rack up too many points, and I tried the prototype of Smurf's Rescue in Gargamel's Castle which is only 4K and has got only three screens, fhe first two being different from the final release without moving enemies and the third one being the end screen with Smurfette.

[+jgkspsx]

Quite a grab bag this week:

 

Game Gear

Space Harrier - 15 minutes

 

Mega Man - 30 minutes

 

Game Boy

 

Kwirk - 45 minutes

 

Catrap - 35 minutes

 

Two of the greatest games ever made right here. I love that they just let you select levels. No password required.

Arcade Classics 4: Joust / Defender - 20 minutes

 

All Joust, simply to convince myself that Nintendo had indeed made a worse version of Joust than Tiger Electronics (see below). I remembered this version as the version with the most hilariously awful artwork Joust has ever (?) inspired, but little did I know how bad the game would be. Bad flap mechanics, dumbed down scoring, bad bird AI, and a hilariously perfunctory egg wave. 4 eggs, Nintendo? Really? This plays much worse than it looks on video. It’s marginally better than the tragic GBA turd, but that’s like saying I’d rather step in goose poop than dog poop.

 

I have the GBC mulligan of this cart coming in this week, and it appears to be hands down the best Game Boy version of Joust. Which is faint praise, but it looks to be a very solid port and better than many earlier home conversions. I hope it is.

 

32X

 

Afterburner - 85 minutes

Beat the game (easy mode, 6 lives, don’t judge me) Friday night after almost beating it in an insomniac haze early Wednesday morning.

 

Star Wars Arcade - 20 minutes

I really wish more people could play the 32X’s best games. It would get a little more respect. Not that much, but some.

 

Knuckles Chaotix - 25 minutes

most of which consisted of playing through the tutorial repeatedly. I am intrigued by the idea that the game isn’t as terrible as people think it is and the problem is that people try to play it like a Sonic game. I’m trying to deprogram my expectations and play it as its own thing.

 

Sega CD

 

Star Wars Rebel Assault - 45 minutes

This has to be the best FMV game on Sega CD, right? The sequences where the Imperial Grand Nebbish was talking to Darthy and they only animated his eyes and mouth spongmonkey style was one of the laugh out loud unintentionally (?) funniest things I’ve seen in a while.

 

Afterburner III - 20 minutes

I have not looked up reviews of this, but besides the awesomely cheesy music this was an unfun, horribly punishing, ugly slog. Nobody likes this, do they? I played it mostly to show my wife how revelatory 32X Afterburner was, but that may have been an unfair comparison. It honestly looked worse aesthetically than G-LOC on the Game Gear. Sheesh.

 

Batman Returns - 30 minutes

 

Bat Rash, as I like to call it. I have never beaten the last boss of the vehicular combat session, but I came painfully close this time. Tons of fun despite the brick wall ending.

 

Adventures of Batman and Robin - 30 minutes

 

This looks cleaner and better than Batman Returns, but also a lot more monochrome. Admittedly that’s the Animated Series’s style, and it’s not too bad until you get to Lilly and Violet, but what a violently unpleasant ending to a fun driving section. I don’t know if I’m missing something but I just cannot dodge their friggin’ mushrooms and metriods. I know people love these games but every version from Game Gear to Genesis to Sega CD is just so crushingly harsh to me. Or I suck and/or don’t know what I’m doing.

 

It’s funny that both these Batman games use the iconic music of their source material in the intros and drop them for much more generic (though surprisingly awesome) and ultra 90s surf metal.

 

game.com

 

Mortal Kombat Trilogy - 20 minutes

 

I bet this is better than the Game Boy MK ports. The graphics are super detailed, and the frame rate is slow enough that the blur isn’t fatal. The music is bad but the overall sound isn’t awful. I beat the game (admittedly the easiest tier) with... Sub Zero maybe?... by just crouch kicking or sweep kicking. Motaro and Shao Khan take off 60% of your health bar with one kick/hammer blow, but you can weak kick them into oblivion. Ohhhh yeaahhh.

 

Williams Arcade Classics - 15 minutes

 

All Joust. Which might not be good - wing lift is noticeably lacking - but it’s a world better than the GB version.

 

R-Zone

 

Indy 500 - 30 minutes

I beat the championship mode. If you don’t screw up it’s ridiculously easy. But honestly a lot of fun.

 

Road Rash 3 - 45 minutes

Of which 15 minutes went into just trying to upgrade my bike. I figured it out now. I still don’t know how to win a race. I’ve only managed 3rd place in one race.

 

Virtua Fighter 2 - 20 minutes

 

I beat the game with Pai. It seems easy, or maybe she’s just the easiest character to win with. Pretty amazing how full featured it is.

 

Mortal Kombat Trilogy - 20 minutes

 

Beat the game with Sektor. Or one of the other robot ninjas. I was hoping this would be better than Mortal Kombat 3, but it’s much worse. Literally all of the playable characters are boy ninjas or girl ninjas or robot ninjas... and then Sonya. Admittedly “good” and “bad” are strange concepts to bring to an LCD fighting game in the first place, but this somehow managed to be significantly below expectations.

 

Batman Forever - 20 minutes

 

I still don’t understand this game. I just run out of time over and over again. Am I not running fast enough? Or what?

 

Battle Arena Toshinden - 15 minutes

 

Toshinden doesn’t get a lot of respect, but I will have you know that it is above average for R-Zone fighting games.

 

Area 51 - 15 minutes

 

I think this is better than Virtua Cop. But I would appreciate it if I could finish the first level even once.

 

If you would like to read more about the crazy people who voluntarily play this Tiger LCD device, there’s a lot more including screenshots in the semi-official thread. 

 

[Eltigro]

Just the one Classic game for me this week... again...

 

PS1

Suikoden 2 - 433 min (I'm at the Greenhill school section... along with the kinda uncomfortable subplot or whatever of Nina the schoolgirl and her obsession with Flik.  I tried leaving to recruit some characters after starting the Greenhill stuff, but I think it makes it so you can't until you finish the area?  All I know is I left town to go to another place where someone was supposed to be, but they weren't there.  I went to another area to try to recruit someone and they didn't show up (but I didn't really try that long...)  Oh well, I'll finish Greenhill then try again.)

[oyamafamily]

ATARI 2600:

Communist Mutants from Space - 40 minutes

 

ATARI 7800:

Pac-Man Collection - 188 minutes

 

COLECOVISION:

Tarzan (for HSC) - 7 minutes

Lady Bug - 10 minutes

 

EVIDENCES OF THE WEEK:

1) My Communist Mutants from Space video footage - Score 167,040 with shields, time warp, penetrating and guided fire

 

2) My Pac-Man Collection video footage - Score 355,000 on Pac-Man Plus at faster movement

 

Edited April 19, 2021 by oyamafamily

[+x=usr(1536)]

Atari 7800: Rikki & Vikki (single-player; 1 hour)

A8: Qix (5200 version; 30 minutes)

MAME: Ms. Pac-Man Twin (30 minutes)

MAME: Zoo Keeper (30 Minutes)

[+wongojack]

Arcade

Asteroids Deluxe 81

 

A2600

Asteroids 54

Megamania 31

 

C64

Arkanoid 49

Montezuma's Revenge 66

Pinball Spectacular 21

Space Taxi 15

SubHunt20 4

Sub Hunter 14

Sydney Hunter Sacred Tribe 19

 

Intellivision

Atlantis 25

River Raid 14

[Atarian7]

Atari 2600

Cosmic Corridor - 8 minutes

Dishaster - 34 minutes

Kaboom! - 67 minutes

Solar Fox - 65 minutes

 

 

[agb]

Times for the week are:

 

Atari 2600

Dishaster for HSC 12 - didn't care for the game.

Eggomania 19

Kaboom 65 - no high scores, couldn't even get a patch

Solar Fox 85

[twoquickcapri]

MS-DOS:

Lemmings - 60 min.

 

Windows 95:

Mechwarrior 2 - 60 min.

 

If you reallly like tracking games separately this is the Power VR version of Mechwarrior 2. It requires a video card with the PCX1/PCX2 video chip to play. It's also one of the better looking version of the game.