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

[+wongojack]

A2600 

3D Tic Tac Toe 36 

Activision Decathlon, The 11 

Adventure 5 

Air Sea Battle 5 

Amidar 15 

Astroblast 44 

Blackjack 12 

Breakout 26 

Bump n Jump 24 

Centipede 18 

Crystal Castles 59 

Defender 87 

Night Driver 32 

 

I continue to be focused on playing physical carts.  Got into Defender early in the week and also Crystal Castles.  The good and bad of Atari 2600 Defender have been discussed A LOT.  Overall, I think what struck me on this playthrough is that it is an enjoyable game that offers a compelling high score challenge.  That's more than I can say for some other 2600 arcade ports.  As for Crystal Castles, this game is always sort of an underrated game no matter which version you talk about.  Even the arcade version is kind of hidden despite it being a relative success.  I guess ultimately it was bad timing for Bentley who came around at exactly the right moment to be (mostly) forgotten.  And a note about 3D Tic-Tac-Toe . . .  I don't think I have ever seriously tried to play this game before.  I found it quite good and had a hard time beating the computer even on level 3 (out of 9?).  I think I will probably go back to this one.

[+thegoldenband]

2 hours ago, wongojack said:

And a note about 3D Tic-Tac-Toe . . .  I don't think I have ever seriously tried to play this game before.  I found it quite good and had a hard time beating the computer even on level 3 (out of 9?).  I think I will probably go back to this one.

I have never, ever understood why this cart gets the hate it does. It does exactly what it says on the package, and does it well! What's to fault?!

 

Now if someone doesn't like the idea of the game, well...there are plenty of games I don't like the idea of either, but that doesn't invalidate them -- it just means they're a bad fit for me, personally, and the fault may well be mine.

[+jgkspsx]

7 hours ago, Atarian7 said:

jgkspsx,  feel free to elaborate next time. 

Hey, the entirety of the human race has probably gone whole months (if not whole years) since these games came out without even thinking of some of them. Now that somebody has experienced them again, it ought to be memorialized somehow

[agb]

Times for the week

 

Atari 2600

California Games BMX HSC 5

Harbor Escape FB HSC 36. Fun hack of River Raid. Very much enjoyed playing it. 
Solar Fox 91

 

i definitely agree with both of you that 3D Tic Tac Toe is a fun game to play. 
 

 

 

[Skippy B. Coyote]

Another good week for gaming around here this past week! I spent pretty much the whole week just playing through Ori and the Will of the Wisps in my free time. It's a fairly different game than it's predecessor Ori and the Blind Forest, but equally fun and just as engrossing. The first Ori game was a mostly silent and moody affair with the only dialog being a bit of narration here and there, whereas Ori and the Will of the Wisps is chalked full of interesting and charming characters to talk to and do little side quests for. I found myself enjoying the side quests so much that I actually put off finishing the game to complete 100% of the side quests before I went and did what I was pretty sure was going to be the final part of the game. The Moki creatures in particular were just ridiculously charming and always fun to talk to. Ori and the Will of the Wisps also has a much heavier focus on combat than Ori and the Blind Forest, with many different weapons to choose from, big epic boss battles, and a really fluid and responsive hack and slash combat system. It's just a really polished and brilliant game all around, and I'd definitely recommend it to anyone who has played and enjoyed Ori and the Blind Forest. 

 

The only games I played this week other than Ori and the Will of the Wisps were a handful of classic arcade and Neo Geo games. I've found myself really enjoying standing in front of the Neo Geo MVSX machine for half an hour or so before breakfast every morning to help shake off the groggies and wake up, and I've got mine hacked to play all the Neo Geo games and my own little selection of 72 of my favorite non-Neo Geo arcade games in a separate menu. Ms. Pac-Man and Space Invaders DX are kind of my go-to morning games, though I did manage to beat Samurai Shodown II for the very first time this week (on AES mode with the difficulty set to 1, cause I kinda suck at fighting games lol) and was pretty stoked about that. The spousal unit also spent some time on the Neo Geo MVSX one afternoon playing Bust-A-Move, which was actually the very first video game she ever played way back when, so having a Neo Geo machine at home is a pretty nostalgic thing for her too.

 

Well, I think that's all the news that's fit to print for this week! Until next week, and as always, best wishes and happy gaming to you and yours

 

 

 

 

 

Ineligible

Ori and the Will of the Wisps (Nintendo Switch) - 1,525 minutes

 

Arcade

Golden Axe - 14 minutes

Ms. Pac-Man - 15 minutes

Space Invaders DX - 11 minutes

Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers - 5 minutes

 

Neo Geo MVS/AES

Bust-A-Move - 26 minutes

Samurai Shodown - 24 minutes

Samurai Shodown II - 60 minutes

 

 

Total Video Game Play Time This Week

1,680 minutes (28 hours 0 minutes) [155 minutes eligible]

 

Individual System Play Times This Week

Nintendo Switch: 1,525 minutes

Neo Geo MVS/AES: 110 minutes

Arcade: 45 minutes

[carlsson]

On 5/17/2021 at 5:21 AM, jgkspsx said:

Turbografx CD/Super CD:

 

Jessie Jaeger in Cleopatra’s Curse - 20 minutes. Played the demo until my CD comes. [..] This game will be the exact same on the HuCard except the music... how should it be tracked?

Good question. Usually we keep different versions separate based on media. I imagine it is similar to some Amiga CDTV titles, which probably are not more than Amiga 500 games but with a more advanced soundtrack. If the game is released both on HuCard and CD-ROM, I suppose the natural thing is to keep those as different entries even if the differences are minimal and near neglectable.

 

Thanks for your detailed summary about the games you played. I did track the Game Gear games you mentioned you only tried out for 1 min each, and looked up that the racing game in the Game Pack 4 in 1 actually has the full title Pan-American Road Rally.

[carlsson]

Here's the summary for Week 19, running from May 10 - 16. We logged 3060 minutes of eligible play, playing 67 games on a total of 21 systems.

 

Top 10:

 

1. Suikoden II (PlayStation) - 431 min. (#1)
2. Akumajou Dracula X: Gekka no Yasoukyoku (JP version of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night) (Sega Saturn) - 193 min.
3. reBOOTed (Atari Jaguar) - 150 min.
4. Kaboom! (Atari 2600) - 149 min. (#6)
5. Solar Fox (Atari 2600) - 136 min. (#4)
6. 4 Mile Island Adventure (TRS-80 MC-10) - 123 min.
6. Thunder Force AC (Sega Saturn) - 123 min.
8. Ms. Pac-Man (Tengen) (NES/Famicom) - 115 min.
9. Corpse Killer (Sega 32X) - 90 min.
9. Hexcite: The Shapes of Victory (Game Boy Color) - 90 min.

 

Pre-NES top 10:

 

1. Kaboom! (Atari 2600) - 149 min. (PN#2)
2. Solar Fox (Atari 2600) - 136 min. (PN#1)
3. 4 Mile Island Adventure (TRS-80 MC-10) - 123 min.
4. Defender (Atari 2600) - 87 min.
4. Pac-Man Collection (Atari 7800) - 87 min. (PN#3)
6. Pac-Man (Fairchild Channel F) - 86 min.
7. Jr. Pac-Man (Arcade) - 61 min.
8. Crystal Castles (Atari 2600) - 59 min.
9. Astroblast (Atari 2600) - 44 min.
10. 3-D Tic-Tac-Toe (Atari 2600) - 36 min.
10. Harbor Escape [River Raid hack] (Atari 2600) - 36 min.

 

Top 10 systems:

 

 

1. Atari 2600 (737) (#1)
2. PlayStation (431) (#2)
3. Sega Saturn (402) (#4)
4. Atari Jaguar (210)
5. Game Gear (165) (#6)
6. Sega 32X (155)
7. TRS-80 MC-10 (123)
8. Neo Geo AES/MVS (119)
9. NES/Famicom (115)
10. Arcade (106) (#5)
 

Suikoden II (PlayStation) holds onto #1 while last week's second placed game Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (PlayStation) is replaced by Akumajou Dracula X: Gekka no Yasoukyoku (Sega Saturn), which of course happens to be the Japanese version of the same game. On the pre-NES list, for once Kaboom! wins over Solar Fox, with the MC-10 text adventure 4 Mile Island in third place. The most played system remains to be the Atari 2600, so perhaps it is the revival of the cartridges?

 

Thunder Force IV (Sega Saturn) becomes member #448 in the 1000 Minute Club with 1032 minutes.

 

Suikoden II (PlayStation) becomes member #9 in the 10000 Minute Club with 10097 minutes. It also means it is the first second CD-ROM based game (after Silent Hunter for PC DOS) to break the 10000 minute barrier.

Edited May 18, 2021 by carlsson

[Steven Pendleton]

Yay, time for times. I tried some of the higher settings in Thunder Force IV. It's a completely different game on the higher settings.

 

Neo Geo AES/MVS
Neo Turf Masters - 10

 

Genesis/MD
Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon - 33

This is one of the more rare MD games that I have. Unfortunately, it definitely isn't one of the best. I've never finished it. There's a thing that looks like a Game Gear (well, maybe not, but it that was the first thing that I thought of when I saw it last year) that sometimes shows up in one of the stages, but not this time.
Gleylancer - 17
Panorama Cotton - 25

The hardware-pushing game that breaks emulators. At least, it used to. Maybe it still does. I actually have never really liked it because the framerate is extremely low and it's so damn choppy.
Sonic 3 & Knuckles - 82
Thunder Force III - 14
Thunder Force IV - 106

 

Saturn
Akumajou Dracula X ~Gekka no Yasoukyoku~ - 37
Panzer Dragoon Zwei - 44

Note to other humans: game has support for the Saturn's analog controller, but there is a glitch with that controller. The X button is mapped to the berserk attack by default, but if you leave it that way and use the analog controller, the berserk attack will activate when you press the R button. Change it to something else and you can use the analog controller properly.
Thunder Force IV - 160
Thunder Force V - 122

 

32X
Golf Magazine Presents 36 Great Holes Starring Fred Couples - 23

Yeah, don't ask.

Edited May 23, 2021 by Steven Pendleton

[carlsson]

Atari 8-bit:
Popeye Arcade - 7 min.

 

I had no opportunity (or motivation) to play any video games until now, late Sunday evening where I squeezed in a short session of the game in this HSC round. While others have posted insane scores, near tripling the previous HSC records, I've yet to finish a single round and to be honest it doesn't feel like my cup of tea.

 

[Kurt_Woloch]

Here are my times for this past week (May 17th through 23rd) on classic systems:

 

Arcade:

Jr. Pac-Man - 106 minutes in 5 sessions

Time Pilot - 9 minutes

 

I mostly continued to play Jr. Pac-Man which still fascinates me a bit. Looking for other games to play, I played 2 games of Time Pilot, and in the 2nd game I reached the UFO stage which was enough for me.

Other than that, I actually read something about UFO's and the creatures inhabiting them. They say UFO's are actually living creatures coming from a parallel world to Earth which runs in front of it by at least a few thousand years, so they are much further in their technical development than we. They say the grey aliens in the UFO's are actually bred by advanced men and are specialized in having a very high intelligence. Much of the technology we have might actually have come from them. In some secret buildings on Earth there actually might be some grey ones working as well as other creatures like dinosaurs.

[oyamafamily]

ATARI 2600:

Bowling - 14 minutes

California Games - 5 minutes

Galaxian - 24 minutes

 

ATARI 7800:

Pac-Man Collection - 109 minutes

 

NES/FAMICOM:

Ms. Pac-Man (Tengen License) - 29 minutes

 

EVIDENCES OF THE WEEK:

1) My new high score on 2600 Bowling - 267 points (Game 3 B/B on console)

 

2) My new score on 2600 Galaxian - 80,270 points (Game 1 B/B on console)

 

Edited May 24, 2021 by oyamafamily

[+thegoldenband]

My times for the week:

 

Sega Master System:
Golden Axe Warrior - 18 min.

Rambo: First Blood Part II - 114 min.
 

Game Boy:

Double Dragon 3: The Arcade Game - 123 min.

Ken Griffey Jr. Presents Major League Baseball - 8 min.
Mega Man II - 68 min.
The Smurfs’ Nightmare - 67 min.
Snoopy’s Magic Show - 112 min.

 

Beat Rambo: First Blood Part II, Mega Man II, and Double Dragon 3, and also completed The Smurfs' Nightmare on Easy difficulty. (That last game is aka The Smurfs 3, so I guess it's a week for twos and threes.)

[+wongojack]

Arcade
Avalanche 22
Black Widow 16
Crystal Castles 14
Fire Truck 49
Magic Sword 20
Monte Carlo (Atari) 29
Skydiver 21
Space Duel 37
Sprint II 8

 

A2600
Air Sea Battle 15
Astroblast 14
Canyon Bomber 12
Centipede 15
Crystal Castles 6
Frogs and Flies 7
Frog Pond 7
Haunted House 10
Robot Tank 15
Star Ship 9
Yars' Revenge 20
 

Most of these times were played on the Atari Flashback collections on XBox One.  I REALLY wanted to get 'extended play' on 2 player Fire Truck, but my wife and I came up short despite quite a few attempts.

[+jgkspsx]

GG Alestes I haven’t played enough and Last Strike were the focus of this week on the classic side. Probably the last week for Hexcite for a while.

 

Jaguar

 

Last Strike - 240 minutes. And after all that I keep dying in the same places over and over. Ugh. It's fun until I die there, though. I feel like I'm getting better though my scores do not reflect it.

Biopede - 15 minutes.

Gauntlet 2 - 15 minutes.

Phase Zero - 20 minutes.

 

32X

 

I got out my normal Genesis to do some testing to see what is the Analogue Mega SG's fault and what isn't. It's all the Mega SG's fault. The Mega SG works fine for 32X cartridge games on the real Genesis, and NBA Jam TE works perfectly. Clayfighter didn't work, and that did work on the Mega SG. The Pinocchio demo, which is EU region locked, I think worked on the Mega SG? On the other hand, I can't run CD games from the MegaSD from the side port. So right now I have both the stock Mega SG set up and the Genesis/32X set up. I can play Master System and Game Gear games on the TV again, and that's really nice. I can't play 32X CD games right now. I could get out my real Sega CD, but the table the Genesis is on is only big enough for the Genesis 2 and the Jaguar...

 

NBA Jam Tournament Edition - 15 minutes. Plays fine on a real Genesis, does not work on a Mega SG.

Darxide - 25 minutes. (This is a hacked repro with the region lock removed.) Am I getting better at this? Maybe?

Soulstar X - 4 minutes. Really nice proto, beautiful with good sound. 4 minutes is all there is. It's not as good as the real Soulstar. I wish this had been finished.

Space Harrier - 15 minutes. What a great game.

 

Game Gear

 

GG Aleste - 45 minutes. Playing on real hardware (with the original screen), not playing a real cartridge, alas. What an absolute joyride of a game.

 

 

GG Aleste 3 - 70 minutes. I "beat" it using the training mode on the M2 ShotTriggers collection on Switch.

Alien Syndrome - 20 minutes. I really like this game - Gauntlet by way of Alien but less frenetic - and was wondering why I didn't have a real copy of it. PAL only. Well, that's that, then.

Outrun - 15 minutes.

Aerial Assault - 35 minutes. It makes a poor initial impression, but it gets a lot more enjoyable later on. Some impressive graphics later on. If you die past the first stage you might as well start over.

 

Also the game over screen is not playing.

 

 

 

Bubble Bobble - 15 minutes. While this is a good port and quite playable, it is probably not the version you want to play.

 

PC Engine

 

Don Doko Don - 25 minutes. I really like this hammer-wielding Bubble Bobble clone.

Son Son 2 - 30 minutes, of which at least ten minutes was spent trying to enter the doors at the end of each section. This is really fun except that part.

Bikkuriman World - 15 minutes. It's Wonder Boy in Monster Land again. I expected it to be a naked clone, but they didn't even edit the main character sprite! Just the NPCs in shops and bosses!

 

Game Boy Color

 

Super Mario Bros DX - 15 minutes. Good old Game Gear crop feels like home.

Hexcite - 180 minutes. Won five matches in a row on Master! Then seven! Then ten! Five in a row without turning off the system! Did not unlock Grand Master! It turns out you have to win 5 without SAVING to get Grand Master. Aaaargh.

 

 

Game Boy

 

Street Fighter II - 15 minutes. Why?

[Steven Pendleton]

2 hours ago, jgkspsx said:

I can't run CD games from the MegaSD from the side port.

You should talk to Analogue/Terraonion/Mobius Strip Tech. I tested it just now and it works. Awkward angle and garbage lighting, but here you go

 

 

 

 

If you meant that the 32XCD games don't work, I can't test that, as I don't have the DAC. Still, I'd talk to one/all of the 3 companies involved and get it fixed somehow, as that's not supposed to happen.

Edited May 24, 2021 by Steven Pendleton

[+jgkspsx]

Oh, no, I can run it just fine on the Mega SG, just not on my Genesis 2. I think the power supply I’m using (a three in one model) might not be up to the power demands, or I just need to service my old beat up Genesis.

[Atarian7]

Atari 2600

Hunchy 2 - 5 minutes

Kaboom! - 151 minutes

Mountain King - 5 minutes

Solar Fox - 53 minutes

Spike's Peak - 58 minutes

 

[Eltigro]

My work schedule changed, so I streamed twice last week and finished up Suikoden 2... finally...  I think the final game save said I had around 75 hours on the playthrough.  Considering going on to play Suikoden 3.  Never played that one.  But it would be on the modern tracker.

 

PS1

Suikoden 2 - 571 min (So... on Suikoden 1, I messed up something and didn't get all 108 recruitable characters (although I swore I did) so I couldn't get the best ending.  This time, I screwed up on what is essentially the only QTE in Suikoden 2 and didn't realize it (because I was talking to people in my Twitch chat) so one of the characters died.  It's been a while since I played and I kinda remembered that the game wants you to think she's dead, but really, surprise!, she was just faking.  But if you don't do some things right, nope, she's really dead.  Well, I didn't do them and so she was really dead.  So now I couldn't get the best ending in Suikoden 2 either.  When I played through them both a few years ago (can probably go back to past What Have You Actually Played trackers to see the numbers even) I got the best ending on both of them.  Oh well.  I did go through and redo some things a few times at the end to see if they had an effect on the endings, but mostly they did not.  There's a dialog option near the end with three options.  The first one gives you one ending.  The second one goes nowhere and the dialog keeps returning to the same options.  The third one allows you to leave and go meet up with someone for a final duel.  You can choose not to fight the duel or to fight it.  So I did both.  Either one gives you the same ending as the first one with a different ending picture.  So... kinda saw like three different options for the end of the game, but none of them were the good one.)

 

Also, here's a video of me fighting the last boss battle.  (Before all the different ending options above...)

 

 

Edited May 24, 2021 by Eltigro

[agb]

Atari 2600

 

California Games BMX - 25 HSC

Jungle Hunt 7 personal HS

Mountain King - 18 HSC

Shootin' Gallery 36 FB HSC - fun game

Solar Fox - 79

Spikes Peak 15 HSC

Super Cobra 15 HSC

 

[TheGameCollector]

I'd really like to rejoin this topic. I had so much fun doing this back in 2011.

I would say I played Final Fantasy 6 (as III on SNES) for at least 22 hours last week when I did all my magic spell/level up grinding for every character then completing the game because I kept it running all day but I was multitasking through all of it and ripping my old cds to my computer and taking breaks. You can count it if you want to or don't. I had the game on longer than that but 22 hours is what I would estimate for actual play time. I had it on from noon to 4am one day and 1pm to 5am the next, then woke up on Saturday and finished the last 2 hours. I left for a shopping trip and pizza one of those days too so that's already subtracted from the all day run.

 

This was from 5/20 thru 5/22.

 

I am getting a new HDMI capture card soon and still have my old composite one so Ill be able to record or stream my gameplay like I used to and could get more exact times in the future.

Edited May 24, 2021 by TheGameCollector

[carlsson]

Welcome! I'll add that as 1320 min, as we don't require "effective gameplay" here as long as one is honest about it. I mean, putting the game on pause in order to go grocery shopping for an hour would obviously not count but if you're somewhat actively playing while doing something else and taking micro breaks is not a problem for me.

[TheGameCollector]

You're also going to need to add 390 minutes of Final Fantasy V for Super Nintendo as well.

 

I'm playing it with an English translation patch. It's the last of the first 7 Final Fantasy games that I still need to complete without codes on their original systems.

[Skippy B. Coyote]

A smaller week than usual for gaming around here this past week, but still a very exciting one! I played my usual assortment of arcade games here and there on the Neo Geo MVSX machine and finished my playthrough of the original Doom on the Switch, finding and collecting 100% of the secrets in every level of all 4 episodes for the first time ever. A few of the secrets in the 4th episode Thy Flesh Consumed are actually impossible to get collect and get credit for on the Switch, since due to bugs in the game they can only be accessed with a cheat code that lets you walk through walls, but I did collect every secret that was collectible. The real highlight of the week though was finally getting in a game in the mail that I ordered from Limited Run Games back in October of last year. 

 

As a Game Boy and Game Boy Color collector there was always one game I wanted for my collection that was simply out of reach due to it's price, going for around $700 for a loose cart or $2,000 complete with box and manual, so as soon as Limited Run announced that they were doing an officially licensed reprint of Shantae for the Game Boy Color I knew I had to get one! Limited Run did an outstanding job on the cartridge, box, and manual and everything looks and feels exactly like the Game Boy Color boxes, manuals, and carts from the late 90's and early 2000's. They really pulled a John Hammond on this one and spared no expense, and for the $45 it set me back this will be a priceless addition to my Game Boy Color library. It's turning out to be a heck of a lot of fun to play too!

 

 

 

 

 

Ineligible (Nintendo Switch)

Doom [Classic] - 595 minutes

 

Arcade

Altered Beast - 42 minutes

BurgerTime - 12 minutes

Ms. Pac-Man (Speed-Up Hack) - 20 minutes

 

Game Boy Color

Shantae - 148 minutes

 

 

Total Video Game Play Time This Week

817 minutes (13 hours 37 minutes) [222 minutes eligible]

 

Individual System Play Times This Week

Nintendo Switch: 595 minutes

Game Boy Color: 148 minutes

Arcade: 74 minutes

[Skippy B. Coyote]

On 5/24/2021 at 2:44 AM, Steven Pendleton said:

 

 

 

May I ask what manner of sorcery you are using to get the 32X running on the Mega SG and outputting to a modern display? I always thought the Mega SG only worked with the 32X with a DAC outputting composite or component analog video signals from the 32X!

[Steven Pendleton]

50 minutes ago, Skippy B. Coyote said:

 

May I ask what manner of sorcery you are using to get the 32X running on the Mega SG and outputting to a modern display? I always thought the Mega SG only worked with the 32X with a DAC outputting composite or component analog video signals from the 32X!

lol just an HDMI cable. I don't have the DAC. Basically in this picture I'm taking advantage of how the 32X video gets mixed into the G/MD's video signal, which of course doesn't happen on this game as all of the video is handled by the Mega Sg and MegaSD, so my Super 32X isn't actually doing anything other than being there. I do have the Super 32X powered with its AC adaptor, but you can't see that due to the angle.

 

One other thing to note is that I believe the standard 32X connector cable is actually an RGB cable. One exception, though: Wondermega doesn't output RGB, so the Wondermega's 32X cable is I believe an S-video cable, as that's the Wondermega's best video signal because Sega decided to remove RGB output from the Wondermega for some reason despite it being the ultra-premium ultimate Mega Drive variant. I need to do more research on the Wondermega, though.

Edited May 25, 2021 by Steven Pendleton