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


carlsson

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I'm going to post earlier than usual because a certain entire series of games will only let you save in very specific instances and I most likely don't have enough time to get to the next save point before midnight.

 

Dreamcast
Sakura Taisen 3 ~Paris ha Moeteiru ka~ - 1044

Well, it's done. This was the #7 best-selling Dreamcast game in Japan and I can see why, as Sega put a ridiculous amount of money and effort into this game. Apparently it cost Sega approximately $3 million USD just to make the opening movie alone. I was not really sure what to think of the entirely new cast, but I rather liked them by the end of the game. Got Erica's ending since Sakura's in another country on a different continent. I have a mixed opinion of the ARMS battle system. I like the freedom it allows, but not being able to attack just because I moved too much is very annoying for a strategy game. As far as the strategy itself is concerned, this was the easiest one so far by a great margin. Goodbye for now, Paris Kagekidan. I won't miss you as much as I missed the Teikoku Kagekidan, especially since there is one more main game left on Dreamcast and everyone's in it.
Sakura Taisen 4 ~Koi seyo Otome~ - 76

Here it is, the final game on Sega hardware and also the final game in the series aside from Atsuki Chishio Ni on the PS2 (which is next after this if I don't get burned out, but no problems so far!) and the various ports that is considered to be a great game because pretty much everyone hates V Episode 0, V, and Shin Sakura Taisen on the PS4. It's also the only game on Sega hardware to only have 1 disc; the devs decided to make this game literally because the Dreamcast was cancelled. They didn't want Sakura Taisen 3 to be their final game on the Dreamcast, so they immediately rushed this game through the entire development process and released it in 10 months instead of the usual 2 years. Because of this, the game's only about 8~10 hours long. Hopefully the other aspects don't show too much proof of it being the rush job that it is... I'll find out this week. I will say that it is very nice to finally hear Ogami sing Geki! Teikoku Kagekidan, though. I always forget what his voice sounds like since he has very few voiced lines...

 

Arcade
Scramble - 2 (estimate)

Edited by Steven Pendleton
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ATARI 5200:

Defender - 77 minutes

 

GAMEBOY:

Asteroids - 5 minutes

Centipede - 25 minutes

Pac-Attack - 5 minutes

Q*Bert - 5 minutes

Tetris - 5 minutes

 

GAMEBOY COLOR:

Asteroids - 25 minutes

Missile Command - 10 minutes

Ms. Pac-Man (Special Color Edition) - 80 minutes

Pac-Man (Special Color Edition) - 25 minutes

Yars' Revenge - 15 minutes

 

EVIDENCE OF THE WEEK: Ms. Pac-Man gameplay footage on GBC - 197680 points (Arcade skill)

 

Edited by oyamafamily
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Arcade:
Ghosts 'n Goblins - 8 min.

 

Atari 8-bit:
Alien Assault 2121 - 10 min.
Kooky Diver 2021 - 44 min.
Kooky's Quest 2021 - 8 min.
Overflow 2021 - 3 min.
Return of the Fungi - 15 min.
Space Assailants 2121 - 17 min.

 

So the current A8 HSC round is playing new (or improved) games released in 2020-2021. I counted to a total of 60+ skipping some of the graphics hacks. Time will tell how many of those I try for a minute or two.

 

On the arcade side, some of us stopped by our HQ again and gave the leaf buttons a de-oxit treatment and bending the leaf springs a little closer to eachother, so the buttons started working again. Eventually we'll replace them, probably with microswitched buttons anyway but for the time being I got a few minutes of playing GnG. I also got to consider exactly what is going on in the opening scene, where Arthur (?) is sitting in his underwear and the princess or whatever she is, sits next to him slightly hunched over in the direction of his crotch. I don't want to make inaccurate suggestions, but the scene looks a little suspicious when you think about it.

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Game Boy

Tetris - 130 minutes

 

PC-9801

Jelda - 45 minutes

Lode Runner - 10 minutes

 

Well, a slow week for gaming but still a fun one.

Most of my time was on-the-go Tetris, the usual, and I can say that man I wish I had a slightly smaller Game Boy. The DMG is awesome, no doubt, but my backpack is stuffed to the brim with books and things for projects to the point where I have to play stuff Tetris. Maybe I'll look into a Pocket, I used to do a lot of LSDJ so I avoided the GBP but nowadays that may just be nicer...

The PC-98s, specifically the 9801 and 9801E, got put on the "useless" desk... okay none of the computers there are useless, it's just that they're extremely gimped compared to others in the same line. See the PC-8801 and Apple II+ that also sit there. The plain 9801 got the "usual dead test" routine as I finally made some 8" disks for it - just run Lode Runner and wait for the extremely ear-grating buzzer noises, thank the person who previously taped the thing quieter - and the 9801E got to play some Jelda. It was good fun, I just need a mini-DIN keyboard that has a working : key.

 

Next week is lining up to be a whole lot more Kenbak programming, Tetris playing, and waiting on boxes. Hopefully something good will come out of that?

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I spent more quality time with fewer games this week, perhaps as a result of reflecting on my dilettantish ways.


Microvision:

 

Blockbuster - 40 minutes across several sessions. I think I need to clean up my paddle. I really want to try Super Blockbuster.

 

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Atari 2600:

 

Fantastic Journey - 30 minutes. One of the best things about the Atari 2600 is that even with a huge library you can pick up games you have never played before and be blown away. This game is graphically terrific, with a similar pseudo-vector treatment to Suicide Mission, and tons of fun as a River Raid/Scramble homage too. I haven’t quite figured out what makes you flatline (sometimes when I feel I have been going fast and not getting hit too much the patient still dies) but I am enjoying trying to figure out the nuances. This leapfrogged into my top 25 for sure.

 

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Journey Escape - 15 minutes of AOR hilarity. I really need to figure out what you’re actually supposed.

 

1B1B9A18-8CBD-4EB4-8987-7E7D4079D9A1.thumb.jpeg.3b273671b1208f1da2483991a370f251.jpeg

 

Crypts of Chaos - 15 minutes. Another mindblowing achievement on the 2600. I need to give this quality time.

 

Stargate - 20 minutes. Arcade Stargate is a bit too much for me, but I like this a lot.

 

Rabbit Transit - 20 minutes. One of the Supercharger’s best and most maddening games.

 

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Survival Island - 25 minutes. I thought I could make it, but evidently not.

 

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Channel F:

 

Video Whizball - 35 minutes. Finally beat the CPU in a come from behind spectacle for the ages. Figured out you can hold the controller plunged down to keep firing, which helps a ton and may save the controller. 
 

F7DF6D51-B0EC-4BB6-BC43-9136F0F1F003.thumb.jpeg.044ebd69fad60907927f43506d037204.jpeg


Schach - 20 minutes. Got thumped by the computer on presumably the easiest setting as a result of assuming it was stupider than it was.

 

143C812D-FA95-48E0-B45A-05571B486D57.thumb.jpeg.11126cc485169adb201abf2ed82ce57c.jpeg
 

Tetris - 65 minutes. This is a great Channel F controller test and trainer. I am getting better but still make a lot of mistakes.

 

DE94FF84-C7ED-44FB-BD91-09D39FB86172.thumb.jpeg.fc9431fa81d8000c43084bf9a9cf9fba.jpeg

 

Hockey - 20 minutes. Played with my wife, who was really impressed by the controller but ragequit after own goal #4. Sigh.

 

NES:

 

Salamander - 25 minutes. Salamander is not my favorite shmup but it is the one I have played the most, for sure.

 

Turbografx 16:


New Adventure Island - 15 minutes. Always a great time.

 

PC Engine:

 

(ones I forgot last week)

 

Batman - 25 minutes. I am not great at this, but it’s also rather easy, so I feel doubly bad.


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Image Fight - 20 minutes. It’s awful that this inspired shmup didn’t come here because of a much inferior NES release.

 

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Game Gear:

 

Power Strike II - 40 minutes. Two games that went really well until the end of stage 3. This friggin boss and the one before it always ruin my game. I need to practice these on the trainer on the Aleste collection.

 

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Foreman For Real Boxing - 15 minutes. This odd “digitized photos on a system too low res to matter” game, which is okay, but probably only the fourth best boxing game on the Game Gear, was the last US Game Gear game I didn’t have. 
 

Mega Drive:

 

Psycho Pinball - 45 minutes for an Evercade competition where everyone else is using save states. Kinda pointless that, innit? This here is a real score. This is a fantastic real-ish pinball game.

 

DD146752-0F40-4F47-8D76-97DF8B0ADFCF.thumb.jpeg.8625870841c439fa9aed5bce10221c9d.jpeg
 

Genesis:

 

Outrunners - 45 minutes. Played some arcade mode then beat the “Original” game mode (consisting of 1 on 1 duels with all the other characters) on easy. The last boss made me laugh out loud and the driver’s loss animation even more so. It is a criminal shame that the arcade was not ported to a capable console, but this demake is tons of fun even if much more primitive.

 

FF4343E2-29DF-4F39-9BFA-5942D2CFE087.thumb.jpeg.7f2b889f98ad8afe4c282d6583a5251d.jpeg

 

Game Boy Color:

 

Quest Fantasy Challenge - 25 minutes. This game is Mr Do with a Quest 64 skin, and it’s pretty fun. In 35 years of playing it I have never quite figured out Mr Do and how to not play it like Dig Dug, but this is helping with that, so…

 

DAC37C95-0FA0-4345-81A3-5C0AE6893532.thumb.jpeg.c23c4dce37fcce342ac444c9de61006a.jpeg

 

The New Addams Family - 105 minutes. I have made good progress in this very solid EU exclusive point and click adventure.  I am not sure how far I am but I intend to finish it this week and move onto the also excellent Scooby Doo point and click GBC game.

 

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… so that ended up kind of undermining my initial point, didn’t it? Oh well.

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Finally back to more normal gaming time around here this week! After many months of sitting idle I dusted off the Atari 2600 and played a few games of Super Breakout, then the misses joined me for a couple rounds of Berzerk. On my first try at Berzerk I ended up topping my all time Game 3 high score of 9,730 with a whopping new personal best high score of 25,240!

 

After that I put a little time into the Doom add-on No End in Sight on the Switch, played a bit of Pac-Man Plus and Samurai Showdown II on the MVSX machine, then picked up the brand new Metroid Dread for the Nintendo Switch!

 

I spent all weekend playing Metroid Dread and I've been enjoying it a lot, though the game definitely has it's faults. The size of the game world is easily more than double that of Super Metroid so it's quite easy to get lost and not be sure where to go next sometimes, and the game is just absolutely loaded with tons of rather generic boss fights that are fairly unmemorable aside from their intensely frustrating difficulty.

 

That's not to say the boss fights are unfair, because in spite of the high difficulty level all of the bosses have attack patterns that can be memorized and once you do memorize them it's definitely possible to beat every boss without taking damage, but it often took me a dozen or more tries to get the boss patterns down. It wouldn't have been an annoyance we're there only a handful of bosses like in previous Metroid games, but there are dozens of them in Dread and only a few really stood out as cool and fun to fight; the rest just kinda felt like generic filler.

 

So, while I wouldn't say Metroid Dread is a bad game, it's certainly not the masterpiece that Super Metroid or the original Metroid Prime was. If I had to make a list of my personal favorite Metroid list I think Metroid Dread would occupy the #5 spot:

 

1. Metroid Prime (GameCube)

2. Super Metroid (Super Nintendo)

3. Metroid Prime 2 (GameCube)

4. Metroid II: Return of Samus (Game Boy)

5. Metroid Dread (Nintendo Switch)

 

All in all Metroid Dread a fun and quite lengthy game that should bring a lot of enjoyment to long time Metroid fans and new players alike, and the Alien: Isolationesque hide and seek sequences with the E.M.M.I. robots do add some new excitement to the tried and true Metroid formula, but the game world may be a bit too big for it's own good and the frequent tedious fights against lackluster bosses can cause a lot of frustration. I'd give it a solid 8/10 rating :)

 

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Ineligible (All Nintendo Switch)
Doom (Classic): No End in Sight - 25 minutes
Metroid Dread - 870 minutes

 

Arcade
Pac-Man Plus - 10 minutes


Atari 2600
Berzerk - 41 minutes
Super Breakout - 31 minutes

 

Neo Geo AES/MVS
Samurai Showdown II - 39 minutes

 

 

Total Video Game Play Time This Week
1,016 minutes (16 hours 56 minutes) 
[121 minutes eligible]


Individual System Play Times This Week
Nintendo Switch: 895 minutes
Atari 2600: 72 minutes
Neo Geo AES/MVS: 39 minutes
Arcade: 10 minutes

Edited by Skippy B. Coyote
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Here's the summary for Week 41, running from Oct 11 - 17. We logged 3046 minutes of eligible play, playing 65 games on a total of 15 systems.

 

Top 10:

 

1. Sakura Taisen 3: Paris ha Moeteiru ka (Dreamcast) - 1044 min. (#4)
2. Tetris (Game Boy) - 135 min. (#3)
3. Rally-X (Arcade) - 120 min.
4. New Addams Family, The (Game Boy Color) - 105 min.
5. Solar Fox (Atari 2600) - 101 min.
6. Ms. Pac-Man: Special Color Edition (Game Boy Color) - 80 min.
7. Defender (Atari 5200) - 77 min.
8. Sakura Taisen 4: Koi seyo Otome (Dreamcast) - 76 min.
9. Tetris (Fairchild Channel F) - 65 min.
10. Solar-Warrior (Xain'd Sleena) (Arcade) - 60 min.
 

Pre-NES top 10:

 

1. Rally-X (Arcade) - 120 min.
2. Solar Fox (Atari 2600) - 101 min. (PN#9)
3. Defender (Atari 5200) - 77 min.
4. Tetris (Fairchild Channel F) - 65 min.
5. Jr. Pac-Man (Arcade) - 45 min. (PN#4)
6. Kooky Diver 2021 (Atari 8-bit) - 44 min.
7. Berzerk (Atari 2600) - 41 min.
8. Blockbuster (Microvision) - 40 min.
9. Video Whizball (Fairchild Channel F) - 35 min.
10. Super Breakout (Atari 2600) - 31 min.

 

Top 10 systems:

 

1. Dreamcast (1120) (#1)
2. Atari 2600 (423) (#4)
3. Arcade (365) (#3)
4. Game Boy Color (285)
5. Game Boy (175) (#5)
6. Fairchild Channel F (140)
7. Atari 8-bit (97)
8. Genesis (90)
9. Atari 5200 (77)
10. TG-16/PC Engine (60)
 

Another week, another Sakura Taisen game in the top. This week it completely smashes the competition, making up for more than 1/3 of the total minutes on an overall list where 60 minutes is enough to enter. On the pre-NES list, Rally-X takes the title by 19 minutes ahead of Solar Fox. The fact that the Dreamcast is the most played system shouldn't come as a surprise, but 6 of the top 10 systems from last week have been replaced by other formats.

 

We have two new entries to the 1000 Minute Club:

 

#461 Sakura Taisen 3: Paris ha Moeteiru ka (Dreamcast) - 1281 min.

#462 Worm War I (Atari 2600) - 1004 min.

 

As always, in case anyone was late to post, I will include your minutes for next week.

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Dreamcast
Sakura Taisen 4 ~Koiseyo Otome~ - 372

Well, that was disappointing, extremely easy, and very short. I finished the game like 12 hours after my previous post. Sakura's ending again. Unfortunately, the game definitely shows signs of its extremely rushed development; the story is weak (but the ending is quite good) and some of the artwork looks weird, like Sakura's new portrait. It's only been several months since she visited in Paris, but it looks like she gained a lot of weight in that time or something... Well, that does it for Sakura Taisen on the Dreamcast. Never again would Sakura Taisen sell well or be well-received by its fans. It's almost a mirror of Sega itself: Sakura Taisen died with the Dreamcast, went third-party but nobody cared anymore and sold horribly on the PS2, fell apart, and died for 14 years only for the new PS4 game to show up specifically to take a massive dump on the original cast and original fans. Good job, Sega.

 

PS1
Castlevania Chronicles - 25

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Arcade

Crossbow - 35 minutes

Zaxxon - 50 minutes

 

Game Boy

Tetris - 230 minutes

 

MZ-80K

Heiankyo Alien - 40 minutes

 

PC-9801

Lode Runner - 30 minutes

Lunatic Dawn - 60 minutes

YU-NO - 90 minutes

 

X68000

Mr. Do! - 30 minutes

 

No more gaming for today but, against all odds, I actually played more than five games this week.

 

The Japanese computers are all out on the desk and got playtime, well the X68000 just being the three games I own (Mr. Do, Castlevania, Cameltry) as the computer itself is sitting in Ohio and should be delivered tomorrow afternoon. I have projects lined up for each, making a PCB for MZ-80C/repairing the X68K/getting the right cards in the PC9801s, and I'm excited to get to all of 'em. Can I just say how much I love suruga-ya?

 

I finally had the drive in me to work on some arcade boards... I no longer have the drive in me to work on some arcade boards, I forgot how frustrating some of 'em can be. Crossbow wasn't too bad, I just needed to burn six EPROMs and drop 'em in place, and I'm hoping soon to buy a multigame kit that way it can also be things like Chiller or Crackshot with the press of a button. Zaxxon was hell, having to scope out which stupid little IC was making everything go bad got frustrating.

 

And finally, as-usual, Tetris stuck in my Game Boy all week. Nothing amazing, no new high scores, no new strategies, just a lot of killing time since I was in the slowest position at work which was fun.

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ATARI 5200:

Defender - 90 minutes

 

ATARI 7800:

Pac-Man Collection - 171 minutes

 

GAMEBOY:

Millipede - 25 minutes

Q*Bert - 34 minutes

Tetris - 22 minutes

 

GAMEBOY COLOR:

Yars' Revenge - 15 minutes

 

EVIDENCES OF THE WEEK:

1) Gameboy Millipede footage - Score 508,080 points

 

2) GBC Yars' Revenge footage - Score 83,375 points

 

3) 7800 PMC footage - Pac-Man, Plus On, Fast On, 5 Lives, Apple One and 1P - 544680pts

 

Edited by oyamafamily
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I had the sort of week this week I said I had last week until I actually started writing :)

 

SNES

 

Legend of Zelda Link to the Past - 45 minutes. I beat this in the last year and still couldn’t stop once I started.

 

Game Boy 

 

Brain Drain - 45 minutes. This has to be one of the easiest puzzle games on the Game Boy. The content of the game does not reflect the cover art AT ALL. I left this one running overnight because I was falling asleep so severely playing it I couldn’t even grab a password. It’s not unfun, it’s just… very simple and the computer “moves” are mostly no-ops.

 

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Game Boy Color

 

Merlin - 45 minutes. This is a really fun platformer with a very ingenious upgrade powerup system apparently inspired by Gradius. The more enemies you kill the more powerful you get but if you take a hit you’re back to zero. It has rough edges (particularly leaving and entering towers, which looks neat but leads to cheap hits) but it is one of my favorite GBC exclusive platformers at this point.

 

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Scooby Doo! Classic Creep Capers - 180 minutes. Beat it despite two game crashes (both near the start of chapters). Very capable point and click adventure game with some minor complaints outlined here.

 

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I saw Scoob and friends compared favorably to Maniac Mansion by a very well known review site, and… let’s be a bit more realistic, shall we? It’s not that great. But it might just be the best point and click adventure game on the GBC if not for:


The New Addams Family - 115 minutes. Finished this very solid point and click adventure too. Despite a very rough Italian to English translation that was one of the major sources of challenge in the game, this  somehow felt more satisfying. Partly because I was lost more often, partly because there was more character interaction and more personality in general, and partly because of the rhythm-based platform dodging segments which although frustrating were mostly fair.

 

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NES

 

Zanac - 35 minutes. 
 

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The proto-Aleste series is very well represented here.

 

Microvision

 

Blockbuster - 20 minutes. Up to 80. Excelsior!

 

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Back to a more normal week for me gaming wise this week! I finished off Metroid Dread on the Switch and then decided to give Super Metroid for the SNES a playthrough, even though I had already beat it once this year. Metroid Dread was a lotta fun, but it just wasn't anywhere near the masterpiece that Super Metroid or the original Metroid Prime are so after finishing Dread I really had the itch to revisit the best that the Metroid franchise has to offer :)

 

 

Ineligible
Metroid Dread (Nintendo Switch) - 625 minutes


Super Nintendo
Super Metroid - 970 minutes

 

 

Total Video Game Play Time This Week
1,595 minutes (26 hours 35 minutes) 
[970 minutes eligible]


Individual System Play Times This Week
Super Nintendo: 970 minutes
Nintendo Switch: 625 minutes

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