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


carlsson

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I twisted my ankle badly on Saturday, so a busy weekend of little gaming suddenly became a weekend of heavy gaming. Almost all emulation this time around.

 

Game Gear:

 

Arena Maze of Death - 65 minutes. Played through the first ”world” repeatedly on normal then changed it to easy and almost finished the second. Notably the difficulty setting doesn’t change the actual hard parts (timing the autogun fire, running off the edge of platforms into instadeath), it just cuts out unthreatening enemies and also cuts HUGE chunks of content out of the game. It’s a way to see more of the art in a hurry but normal mode seems more fulfilling. Played on a 3DS SMS/GG SD cart.

 

Tintin in Tibet - 20 minutes. More like “Tintin is suicidal”. Played on a 3DS SMS/GG SD cart.

 

Alien Syndrome - 35 minutes. Man, I can’t get enough of this. Sega of America really messed up by not bringing it over. One of very many catastrophically stupid decisions that kept the Game Gear an also ran. Played on an Analogue Mega SG.

 

The BerlinWall - 15 minutes. Rarely has a Lode Runner like game felt so claustrophobic. It’s not bad, but it’s CRAMPED. Played on a 3DS SMS/GG SD cart.

 

Daffy Duck in Hollywood - 20 minutes. So beautiful. So full of amazing animations. So cheap. This was probably made as a Master System game and cropped down. Something keeps bringing me back to it, though…

 

James Bond 007 The Duel - 15 minutes. I always thought this was a APB-like or Chase HQ-like racing game, having confused it with Test Drive the Duel. I think my idea would be better. This is just alright.


Sensible Soccer European Champions - 20 minutes. I can’t say I really know what I’m doing but it’s fast and fun. I actually won a game…

 

Monster Truck Wars - 20 minutes. It’s not Micro Machines, but this clone isn’t bad if you want something a little (and I mean a LITTLE) different. The tracks are tiny compared to the sprawling maps of the Galoob/Codemasters classics, but that is truer to the source material. Big moguls will throw your vehicle around with subtly impressive animation to back it up. I don’t hate it.
 

NES:

 

Flea - 60 minutes. It’s a really great game. But some levels make me want to throw my Evercade out the window. Played on Evercade Indie Heroes cart.

 

Star Soldier - 15 minutes. I don’t like this game. It really doesn’t have anything in common with the series that bears its name, which takes a lot more from the Aleste playbook.

 

Life Force - 105 minutes. Beat the game one time. This is one of the only shmups I’ve ever beaten legitimately, and I’ve beaten it multiple times, despite not loving the NES one. Played on 3DS.

 

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PC Engine:

 

Salamander - 35 minutes. I love this game but it doesn’t love me back. So much nicer looking and more exciting than the NES one. Then again I was playing it on a FunKey S…

 

Genesis:

 

FoxyLand - 25 minutes. This game is so close to being really fun but the plethora of cheap deaths really reduce the fun. It would be really easy without the cheap deaths and rough edges, though, so maybe it was their idea of “balance”. Played on Evercade Indie Heroes cart.

 

Alien Cat 2 - 30 minutes. Not the most original “move multiple characters through a maze of death” puzzle game, but really well done. Played on Evercade Indie Heroes cart.
 

The Indie Heroes cart is one of my favorites, and given that the Evercade has a great 7800 emulator it makes me hopeful that out of print homebrew unencumbered by unofficial use of trademarked characters (read: Rikki & Vikki) might be a possibility on the next one.


Game Boy:

 

Pinball: Revenge of the Gator - 15 minutes. Sometimes you just gotta whack gators with steel balls. Virtually.

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My times for the week:

 

PlayStation:
Disruptor - 17 min.

 

Nintendo 64:
Centre Court Tennis - 174 min.
Penny Racers - 9 min.
Rat Attack - 225 min.

 

Beat Centre Court Tennis on Normal difficulty -- though, since the game doesn't seem to have an ending, I've adopted "reach world #1 and win every tournament once" as a win condition.

 

I also tried out a couple of other games, and made it through six of Rat Attack's eight levels on Expert difficulty.

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Hyperdyne: Side Arms (PC Engine) 21 mins

 

A great horizontal shmup on the PC Engine... just wish it had unlimited continues, but the way the continues work in the game it would be kinda cheap. Other console shmups with continues make you restart the level... not in this game, you keep going. 

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Well, a few weeks of "I don't have any time for games" later and I finally got a bit in!

 

MZ-80K

Numbertron - 157 minutes

 

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I finally remembered to get a picture of something, check out that Sharp!

 

The MZ-80C earned a place on my computer desk within a week of buying it, I've been absolutely loving programming on this thing more than any other Z80-based retro computer I own for reasons I have yet to even understand myself, and this week it just got better. I found out about Sharpworks a while ago, Numbertron was actually part of why I bought that computer, and a physical copy of the game made it to my mailbox on Thursday! I love my simple arcade-y puzzle games, this definitely falls into that category, and it's been an absolute blast to play for the four days I've had it. My scores haven't been too amazing, I think 1,052 has been my highest and I've yet to actually clear more than half of the screen, so I'm hoping to do better over the course of this next week.

 

Speaking of this next week I finally did things like buy a power adapter and controller extension for my PC Engine, my PC-9801VX is coming home after four years of being lent out to friends, and I managed to find an original model PC-9801 (plus a PC-9801E) for a price I'm willing to pay (under ¥10,000 for both) after six years of searching! It should be a pretty fun-filled / NEC-themed week, that's for sure.

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13 hours ago, DragonGrafx-16 said:

Hyperdyne: Side Arms (PC Engine) 21 mins

 

A great horizontal shmup on the PC Engine... just wish it had unlimited continues, but the way the continues work in the game it would be kinda cheap. Other console shmups with continues make you restart the level... not in this game, you keep going. 

Or is it Side Arms: Hyperdyne?

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7 hours ago, Atarian7 said:

Atari 2600

Hunchy 2 - 26 minutes

Kaboom! - 46 minutes

Solar Fox - 33 minutes

 

I scored 2,309,200 on Solar Fox.  I made it past Rack 99 to Rack 13.   I don't know if that would be considered the 112th or 113th rack.

 

 

Congrats getting to rack 113. Great score. Do you feel like you can soon go on forever?  After rack 99 is rack 00 and then rack 1. 

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My sincerest apologies for the extremely late post! I just got back from a long vacation today and now is the first chance I've had to sit down at the computer and write >_< Here's my household's times for the week!

 

 

Ineligible (All Nintendo Switch)
Alien: Isolation - 130 minutes
Monopoly - 90 minutes
New Super Lucky's Tale - 520 minutes
Quake - 15 minutes
Untitled Goose Game - 115 minutes

 

Arcade
Ms. Pac-Man (Speed-Up Hack) - 10 minutes
Vampire Savior - 30 minutes


Neo Geo AES/MVS
Garou: Mark of the Wolves - 55 minutes
Magical Drop III - 20 minutes

Neo Bomberman - 190 minutes
Puzzle Bobble 2 - 25 minutes
Samurai Shodown II - 40 minutes

 

Sega Genesis
Mortal Kombat II - 15 minutes

 

Super Nintendo
Super Castlevania IV - 80 minutes

 

 

Total Video Game Play Time This Week
1,335 minutes (22 hours 15 minutes) [465 minutes eligible]

 

Individual System Play Times This Week
Nintendo Switch: 870 minutes
Neo Geo AES/MVS: 330 minutes
Super Nintendo: 80 minutes
Arcade: 40 minutes
Sega Genesis: 15 minutes
 

Edited by Skippy B. Coyote
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Here's the summary for Week 36, running from Sept 6 - 12. We logged 2992 minutes of eligible play, playing 70 games on a total of 18 systems.

 

Top 10:

 

1. Total Annihilation: Core Contingency + Battle Tactics (PC (Windows 95/98)) - 364 min.
2. Eggomania (Atari 2600) - 239 min. (#10)
3. Rat Attack (N64) - 225 min.
4. Neo Bomber Man (Neo Geo AES/MVS) - 190 min.
5. Centre Court Tennis (N64) - 174 min.
6. Numbertron (Sharp MZ-80K) - 157 min.
7. Life Force (NES/Famicom) - 105 min.
8. Solar Fox (Atari 2600) - 96 min. (#4)
9. Kaboom! (Atari 2600) - 88 min. (#8)
10. Super Castlevania IV (SNES) - 80 min.

 

Pre-NES top 10:

 

1. Eggomania (Atari 2600) - 239 min. (PN#4)
2. Numbertron (Sharp MZ-80K) - 157 min.
3. Solar Fox (Atari 2600) - 96 min. (PN#1)
4. Kaboom! (Atari 2600) - 88 min. (PN#3)
5. Asteroids (Atari 8-bit) - 65 min.
6. Basic Burger (Atari 8-bit) - 60 min.
7. Norseman (Intellivision) - 50 min.
8. Beef Drop (Atari 8-bit) - 40 min.
9. Astroblast (Atari 2600) - 32 min.
10. Hunchy II (Atari 2600) - 26 min.

 

Top 10 systems:

 

1. Atari 2600 (553) (#1)
2. N64 (408)
3. PC (Windows 95/98) (364) (#3)
4. Neo Geo AES/MVS (330)
5. Atari 8-bit (231) (#5)
6. Game Gear (210)
7. NES/Famicom (180) (#2)
8. Sharp MZ-80K (157)
9. Sega Saturn (137) (#7)
10. Genesis (105) (#6)

 

Apparently we never experienced Total Annihilation until now, and while the damage it does isn't completely shattering, at least it beats all the other games straight into first place. Eggomania is in strong second place which also makes it the pre-NES game of the week followed by Numbertron on the much more seldom seen Sharp MZ-80K. Systems wise, the Atari 2600 retains its title. Note that @agb didn't include a number for Home Run (Sears Baseball) so I guesstimated 5 but of course it could be much higher. Feel free to add any leftover minutes for next week.

 

Centre Court Tennis (N64) becomes member #456 in the 1000 Minute Club with a total of 1023 minutes.

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I had some time to dork with gaming more but I'm done with Classic Gaming for this week.

 

Arcade:

Dig Dug - 15 minutes

Pac-Man - 15 minutes

Ms. Pac-Man - 15 minutes

 

SNES:

Chrono Trigger -- 360 minutes

Super Mario RPG -- 120 minutes

Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island --120 minutes

 

Gosh, I like Chrono Trigger.  I feel like parts of it didn't age well story-wise, but THAT SOUNDTRACK.  Yoshi's Island was a neat replay for a couple of hours, though I wish that there was a version that removes the Baby Mario cry when he leaves Yoshi. ;)

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Not much here this time. I think I'm now ranked #36 on the Sega Ages Thunder Force IV Rynex leaderboard or something like that now, though. I really wish they'd used the Saturn version for Sega Ages instead of the Genesis and Japanese MD versions or given an option to make it play exactly like the Saturn version.

 

PC
Total Annihilation - 24

 

Arcade
Space Harrier - 12
Thunder Force AC - 28

 

Genesis/MD
Herzog Zwei - 27
Thunder Force IV - 41

 

Saturn
Panzer Dragoon - 33

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Here are my times for this past week (September 13th through 19th, 2021) on classic games:

 

Arcade:

Gyruss - 14 min.

Ikari Warriors - 32 min.

Jr. Pac-Man - 32 min.

 

This week I only did one session with classic games since my main game still is the online game "Taonga: the Island Farm". Jr. Pac-Man was nothing special. In Ikari Warriors, I made it to the bridge in my last attempt, but I played very cautiously, trying to get everyone I could before advancing. In Gyruss, I got through the first two chance stages, so nothing special there either.

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I spent a lot of time gaming this week.
 

Microvision:

Block Buster - 25 minutes. I do not trust the collision detection but I’m getting better.

 

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Mindbuster - 15 minutes of utter confusion. It’s not Lights Out. I’d better read the manual.

 

Sea Bust… I mean Duel - 45 minutes of destroying the computer as both sub and destroyer. It’s easy but it’s fun. Two player seems like a good time.

 

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32X:

FIFA 96 - 15 minutes. Who’d have thought the 32X had a good sports game after all?

 

Game Gear:

Dracula’s Castle - 25 minutes. The first professionally physically released Game Gear homebrew that I know of, this game is probably a better fit gameplay wise for the previous generation. Run around, collect treasures, hope you find a weapon, find the exit. It’s very fun but I feel it could have used a little something else.

 

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Sensible Soccer European Champions - 15 minutes. Someday I’m going to learn how soccer works.

 

Les Schtroumpfs - 15 minutes. A gritty realistic take on the Smurfs as the small, hapless creatures constantly die at the hands of everything.

 

Game Boy:

Volleyfire - 75 minutes. Almost beat this but didn’t press continue on the last boss fast enough. I want to believe two player on this is the bomb but I bet it’s not.

 

SNES:

Space Invaders The Arcade Game - 20 minutes. Just because it comes on a Game Boy cartridge doesn’t mean it’s not an SNES executable, and this one is the single biggest reason I bought a Super Game Boy.

 

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Game Boy Color:

Commander Keen - 210 minutes. This is not a great game, but it is not unplayable as some (myself included) have said. Yes, the defining feature of this game is falling into bottomless pits. Yes, the developer randomly mixed up names and backgrounds and enemies, which does not show a lot of reverence for the source material. (More than Doom II had, though.) Yes, the gameplay style punishes you for wild jumps that were the staple of exploring in the real Keen games. 
 

But the pogo feels good, and once you realize how you’re supposed to play you will not fall into bottomless pits quite as often. I beat the game on easy, and intend to go back for normal. It’s not great, but it’s the best Keen game I had never seriously played. *shakes fist at id Software*

 

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It has to be one of the best looking games on the Game Boy Color, with well chosen palettes and nice animation. The music sounds like an experienced SID composer wrote it - maybe an odd fit for Keen, but I like it.

 

Also, the Dopefish.

 

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NES:

I got my wife’s NES out of mothballs as I had accumulated enough new NES games (I am NOT collecting for the NES, dammit, I am just buying a couple games here and there.)

 

Castle Quest - 65 minutes. People hate this? I love this. Well, I guess it’s kind of disgustingly cruel. Jumping over the barrel makes me long for save states. But generally I am having a blast.

 

Adventures of Lolo 2 - 50 minutes. Ahhhh, now that’s the life. Talk about a series that cries out for a reboot.

 

Super Mario Bros 2 - 15 minutes.

 

(the next three courtesy of @Atari_Bill’s purge sale)

 

Super Mario Bros 3 - 15 minutes.

Marble Madness - 25 minutes. I feel like this is the most playable home conversion. I don’t know what it is.

Donkey Kong Classics - 20 minutes, mostly on Donkey Kong. I gotta say, coming from the 7800, this is a very impressive port.

Clash at Demonhead - 50 minutes. Got this for my birthday. The stupid crying sprite on Route 13 is going to be crying for a long time before I manage to not screw up those stupid platforms.

 

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Seicross - 20 minutes. This is a particularly dumb future sport, but I’m having a good time.

 

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Bigfoot - 15 minutes. Long enough to die embarrassingly. Poor Bigfoot, RIP.

 

SG-1000:

Chack’n Pop - 25 minutes. The best home port of this predecessor to Bubble Bobble? At least it’s way better than the NES port.

 

Teddy Boy - 30 minutes. This is super fun but there are some really questionable art decisions here. I think there is a reason this got shot down the Sega memory hole…

 

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Super Famicom:

Super Aleste - 35 minutes. Holy wow what a fun game.

 

Jaki Crush - 30 minutes. This might be better than the other Crushes. Why choose, though?

 

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PC Engine:

Hana Taaka Daka - 45 minutes. This cute em up is a marvelous time. One of the last HuCARDs I ever plan to buy. (I got a good deal on it, too.)

 

game.com:

Williams Arcade’s Greatest Hits (just Joust) - 20 minutes. A playable Joust is more than some systems ever get.

 

Batman and Robin - 65 minutes. This does not play great but it is a genuinely impressive game visually. If the game.com had had a better screen, a faster processor, better music, and better ideas about how games should play, the impressively high resolution and painstakingly drawn 1-bit style graphics of games like this would be remembered a lot more fondly.

 

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My times for the week:

 

Atari 5200:
RealSports Tennis - 43 min.

 

Nintendo 64:
Rat Attack - 22 min.

 

Got a little burned out on Rat Attack, so I switched over to RealSports Tennis, the only Atari 5200 game I own. It has the reputation of being difficult (or at least difficult to play), but despite the fact that I was using semi-functional, non-refurbished 5200 controllers, it didn't exactly put up much of a fight.

 

I beat Intermediate 6-0 6-0, then won the first set against Advanced 6-0, whereupon the match mysteriously ended (despite the fact that it's supposed to do 2-set matches). Rebooting the console solved the problem, and I beat Advanced 6-0 6-0.

 

Oh, and I'd never played the game before that day. :) Maybe I'll try to take out the two VCS tennis games this week?

 

 

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24 minutes ago, jgkspsx said:

Castle Quest - 65 minutes. People hate this? I love this. Well, I guess it’s kind of disgustingly cruel. Jumping over the barrel makes me long for save states. But generally I am having a blast.

 

SG-1000:

Chack’n Pop - 25 minutes. The best home port of this predecessor to Bubble Bobble? At least it’s way better than the NES port.

You did a lot of gaming this week that's very much on my wavelength, but these two really stand out. Castlequest is on my "must beat someday" list, as I got about 75% of the way through the Famicom version before getting derailed.

 

And yes, Chack'n Pop is so much better on the SG-1000! I translated it, even, and beat it legitimately last year (which was no small feat). The only thing I don't like is that getting the pacifist bonus is more erratic than on the Famicom version, which has a clear game plan for it. In the SG-1000 it feels more like luck, which is less in the spirit of the game.

 

In a couple of minor details the Famicom port is slightly, and unexpectedly, more faithful (for example, its music is more like the arcade). But in the ways that count -- e.g. number of levels, the game actually having an ending -- the SG-1000 version is both more faithful and better.

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PC-9801:

Galpus - 45 minutes

 

PC Engine:

Splatterhouse - 16 minutes

 

Yep, just two games for the whole week. That's okay though, it was still a fun time!

 

Most of my week was taken up by the two new PC98s, an original model and 9801E, which both needed their own sets of repairs. Exploded barrel batteries, loose factory bodge wires, and nearly forty years dust always make for a fun time but I'm glad to say that both units are now in clean and stable shape! I have no games that run on the original 9801, 96K of VRAM is miserably small for anything but business software or the earliest titles, but I do have Galpus for the 9801E. The game, oddly enough, requires you to rotate your monitor vertically and runs pretty close to the arcade version. I was quite impressed!

 

The PC Engine got a little bit of playtime, exactly one playthrough of Splatterhosue to be exact. I've run through that game so many times that it's no longer a challenge, I'll still call it my favorite game to this day but I won't deny that it's just a speedrunning thing for me now. Biggy Man and Captain Mozzarella are really the only points of issue, the first because I usually forget to carry both shotguns across the stage and the second because I slide around like a fool, but they're not enough of a problem to actually make me lose a life.

 

It's looking like next week will be a lot of organizing hardware, after all getting a bunch more computers means actually cleaning off shelves and neatening things up, so I'm not entirely sure on what I'll play. I may finally buy an XT-IDE for my 30-286, I've been wanting to run something on that machine again since it has a nice SoundBlaster, so maybe some older DOS titles?

Edited by BurritoBeans
Removed some extra spacing
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