What have you actually PLAYED tracker for 2022 (Season 15)

[Skippy B. Coyote]

Another pretty small week for me this week. Just some Atari 2600 games for the High Score Club and... well, that's pretty much it!

 

Atari 2600
Reactor - 40 minutes
Reactor Trak-Ball - 3 minutes
Smurf: Rescue in Gargamel's Castle - 84 minutes
 

[DragonGrafx-16]

4 hours ago, carlsson said:

As it turns out, two other bootleg versions of Crackpots: Boom Bang [228] and Kampf dem Steinfresser [7] have been listed separately before. I suppose the differences may be minimal beyond editing out the Activision logo which any good pirate should do, but I'll add Cracker Pet as a third bootleg entry.

 

When it comes to Thunderground/Tank Battle etc, I didn't spot any previous bootlegs listed, going by the equivalence list over at Atarimania.

That game "Thunder" that I played on my C64 a few weeks back I think was actually a C64 port of Thunderground. The filename was truncated and so I missed the whole title.

[agb]

Atari 2600

 

Beamrider 8

Defender FB HSC 10

Reactor HSC 26

Smurf Rescue G HSC 31. Much better game than I expected. 
Solar Fox 77

 

 

 

[Atarian7]

10 hours ago, agb said:

Smurf Rescue G HSC 31. Much better game than I expected. 

I like Smurf, but it took me a few minutes to remember I had to double jump.    I crashed into that fence so many times.  Then to make it past the first raptor (or whatever bird that is)

I tried going under it so many times.  Finally it hit me: jump over it you idiot.

[+jgkspsx]

1 hour ago, Atarian7 said:

I tried going under it so many times.  Finally it hit me: jump over it you idiot.

So is there ever a point to ducking? I never found one. The bat at the end maybe?

[Atarian7]

I don't know yet.  I haven't played it long enough.

 

[carlsson]

Here's the summary for Week 15, running from April 11 - 17. We logged 5737 minutes of eligible play, playing 92 games on a total of 20 systems.

 

Top 10:

 

1. Phantasy Star Online (Dreamcast) - 600 min.
2. Reactor (Atari 2600) - 361 min.
3. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project (NES/Famicom) - 341 min. (#3)
4. Same! Same! Same! (Genesis) - 308 min. (#2)
5. Pokemon Red Version (Game Boy) - 295 min.
6. Pokemon Blue Version (Game Boy) - 261 min. (#1)
7. Chisholm Trail (TI-99/4A) - 248 min.
8. Zero Wing (Arcade) - 228 min.
9. Smurfs Rescue in Gargamel's Castle (Atari 2600) - 225 min.
10. Starflight (Genesis) - 200 min.

 

Pre-NES top 10:

 

1. Reactor (Atari 2600) - 361 min. (PN#5)
2. Chisholm Trail (TI-99/4A) - 248 min.
3. Smurfs Rescue in Gargamel's Castle (Atari 2600) - 225 min.
4. P.T. Barnum's Acrobats (Odyssey^2) - 190 min.
5. Solar Fox (Atari 2600) - 184 min. (PN#1)
6. Food Fight (Atari 7800) - 90 min.
6. Midnight Mutants (Atari 7800) - 90 min.
6. Tail of Beta Lyrae, The (Atari 8-bit) - 90 min. (PN#4)
9. Cosmic Hunter (Microvision) - 75 min.
10. Kaboom! (Atari 2600) - 74 min. (PN#3)

 

Top 10 systems:

 

1. Atari 2600 - 1076 min. (#2)
2. Genesis - 756 min. (#4)
3. Game Boy - 646 min. (#1)
4. Dreamcast - 620  min.
5. NES/Famicom - 606 min. (#6)
6. Arcade - 400 min. (#5)
7. TG-16/PC Engine - 304 min.
8. TI-99/4A - 248 min.
9. Atari 8-bit - 219 min. (#10)
10. Odyssey^2 - 210 min.

 

After 11 weeks of absence, Phantasy Star Online is back as the most played game. The HSC entry Reactor on the Atari 2600 takes an overall 2nd place, twenty minutes ahead of TMNT III, and at the same time becomes #1 on the pre-NES list. With a total of 17 games listed, the 2600 becomes the most played system.

 

Garou: Mark of the Wolves (Neo Geo AES/MVS) becomes member #483 of the 1000 Minute Club with a total of 1004 minutes. It is the fifth Neo Geo AES/MVS game to enter the club.

[digdugnate]

I dove into some classics and tried out a 2600 game I hadn't played before.

 

Atari 2600:
Gravitar - 30 minutes

 

PS1:

Chocobo Racing - 60 minutes
Chrono Cross - 360 minutes
Frogger - 360 minutes
R4: Ridge Racer Type 4 - 240 minutes

 

Dusting off some PS1 favorites, I replayed Chocobo Racing, Chrono Cross, Frogger, and R4.  I didn't sink a lot more time into Chrono Cross thinking that I'll pick it up on Switch this upcoming week.  Personally, I think that Square should've straight-ported Chocobo Racing instead of the abomination (in my opinion) that Chocobo GP is on the Switch.

 

As a huge fan of the original Frogger, I really like the take Hasbro did on the 'updated' version.  (I have the original PC CD ROM stored away as well in a tote, I'm sure).  I'm not very good at the later levels beyond the 'retro' ones, but it's great fun.  

 

The Ridge Racer series is still one of my favorite arcade racers and for me R4 was much more fun than any of the Gran Turismo offerings on the Playstation, though I owned both series.  

[Steven Pendleton]

Played every version of Hellfire this time. The guy who made this game has said in basically every interview about this game that he had great difficulty making it, and a lot of the stage design does seem rather uncertain as opposed to his typically extremely tight stage design. Mega Drive/Genesis version is the best one followed by the newer 1P arcade revision, then the older original 1P arcade version, then the 2P arcade version, and finally the PC Engine version in last place.

 

G/MD
Hellfire - 40
ResQ - 14
Same! Same! Same! - 243
Zero Wing - 46

 

Arcade
1941 Counter Attack (Japan) - 5
Hellfire - 27
Hellfire (2P version) - 3

As is typical, the 2 player version is pretty different from the 1P version. 1P version is better and Toaplan always considered the 1P versions to be the real versions anyway, so play the 1P version instead.
Out Zone - 63
Pac-Man - 5
I actually played Puckman, but the game's basically identical.
Tatsujin - 1

Why did I only play this for 1 minute? I don't remember... was probably testing something.
Zero Wing - 43

 

PC Engine CD
Hellfire S - 31

This is the worst version of Hellfire. It's ridiculously easy and unfortunately based on the 2P arcade version. Better music than the arcade version, though.
Zero Wing - 17 (estimate)
This is the worst version of Zero Wing. It's not actually bad, but there is no reason to choose this version over the arcade version and especially over the MD version. They probably rushed it through development. PC Engine should have been able to do a much better version of this game.

[oyamafamily]

ATARI 7800:

Pac-Man Collection - 55 minutes

 

NES / FAMICOM:

Formula One: Built to Win - 60 minutes

Twin Cobra - 30 minutes

 

GAME GEAR:

Arcade Classics - 46 minutes

 

SEGA GENESIS:

Ms. Pac-Man - 100 minutes

Twin Cobra - 130 minutes

 

SEGA SG-1000:

Q*Bert - 20 minutes

Sega-Galaga - 10 minutes

[oyamafamily]

EVIDENCES OF THE WEEK:

 

1) Genesis Ms. Pac-Man gameplay footage - Pac Booster OFF, Normal Skill, Arcade Maze and Level 1 start

 

2) SG-1000 Q*Bert gameplay footage - Default

 

3) NES Formula 1 BTW gameplay footage - Formula One Tracks

 

4) Genesis Twin Cobra gameplay footage - Easy A and Easy B tracks

 

[carlsson]

Nothing in retro gaming this week!

 

Usually I play some in the weekend, but for those who read my posts in the off-topic section, I was hospitalized for the weekend and now back home late Sunday evening. I considered downloading some 8-bit emulator on my phone but presumed I would not enjoy the UI so I skipped it.

 

There will be time for video games another time, now that I got penicillin to battle the current infection.

[Kurt_Woloch]

Here are my times for this past week (April 18th through 24th) on classic systems...

 

Arcade:

Frogger - 170 min. in 8 sessions

Pooyan - 9 min.

 

Atari 2600:

Toyshop Trouble - 15 min.

 

TI-99/4A:

Chisholm Trail - 4 min.

Demon Attack (Prototype) - 7 min.

Shanghai - 14 min.

 

This week was relatively quiet until the weekend when I picked up Frogger again. However, I don't manage to survive the 4th level because by then especially a certain row of cars goes so fast you can hardly avoid them.

Then I also played 1 round of Pooyan, nothing special there. Also, a round of Toyshop Trouble didn't get particularly far. Lastly, the TI-99/4A Games where played Chisholm Trail for a bit more, but also picked up Demon Attack (the prototype with speech output that was cut from the final release) and Shanghai (not the puzzle game, but a game where you control a boat on a river that buys and sells goods in harbours, with profit if possible, and has to avoid cliffs, enemy boats and torpedoes.

 

 

 

[+jgkspsx]

Feel better @carlsson!

[agb]

Atari 2600

 

Beamrider 19

Glaciar Patrol for FB HSC 13

Smurf Rescue HSC 49. Fun game. 
Surround for FB HSC 54. First time I played this and had a lot of fun. 
Solar Fox 198

 

 

[DragonGrafx-16]

PC Engine:

Override - 25 mins (man does this game throw a lot of crap at you in the later stages)

Final Soldier - 21 mins

Dragon Saber - 5 mins (tried this game out using emulation and bought it off of Ebay.)

 

Arcade:

Sorcer Striker - 21 mins (I found out that my Hori arcade stick is broken so I used my ASCII stick via a SNES to USB adapter in MAME)

Edited April 25, 2022 by DragonGrafx-16

[+thegoldenband]

My times for the week -- sort of:

 

NES/Famicom:

DuckTales 2 - 218 min.

Family Tennis - 8 min.

 

I say "sort of" because I actually played Family Tennis last week (and wrote the time down) but forgot to include it. Anyway, I got the best ending in DuckTales 2 on Difficult mode.

[+wongojack]

NES/Fami 

Pooyan 28

TMNT III: The Manhattan Project 285

 

Cowabunga!  I managed to get through TMNT III without using any codes, cheats or save states.  In (kinda) modern gaming news, I also defeated the final game mode on the World Cup Soccer table in The Pinball Arcade.  I posted about both here:  https://atariage.com/forums/topic/328987-games-beaten-in-2022/?do=findComment&comment=5046696

 

 

[+jgkspsx]

The last couple weeks I've been learning the ropes at lvlupscore.com and highscore.com. There are a ton of AtariAgers in both places. Since very few people look at the high score thread here it is a little lonely, and lately my tastes have been moving much more in the high score direction anyway...

 

On the minus side, I have been playing a lot less of games that aren't scored.

 

Arcade:

Discs of Tron - 110 minutes.

Tron - 95 minutes.

 

 

I assembled my Arcade1up Tron machine on Friday night and am relatively happy with it. Alas, there seems to be some lag, which primarily affects the lightcycle game and makes it very hard at BASIC or above. On the plus side, I'm better at Discs of Tron than I've ever been (because I've never played it with a joystick and a paddle before).

 

Atari 2600:

Smurf Rescue in Gargamel's Castle - 210 minutes for HSC.

And it was only good for 8th place this week

 

 

 

LCD handhelds:

Joust (Basic Fun) - 25 minutes.

Such a strange game... it seems to simulate a real game of Joust but displays an LCD representation. As you can imagine this does not feel great to play. It's almost like playing Joust by sound alone. Which admittedly is kind of interesting.

 

Star Trek First Contact - 15 minutes.

 

Behold the magic:

 

 

Milton Bradley Microvision:

Block Buster - 20 minutes.

 

Cosmic Hunter - 25 minutes.

Cosmic Hunter would be one of the best games on the system if the d-pad were smaller and had no dead spot in the center. Alas.

 

Super Blockbuster - 25 minutes.

 

Nintendo Game Boy:

Out of Gas - 20 minutes

Pop Up (aka Cool Ball in the US) - 25 minutes

Two very fun and home computer-y action-puzzle games.

 

Nintendo Super Nintendo:

Corn Buster - 40 minutes

Very fun but excessively hard Devilish clone.

 

Taco: Princess from the Moon - 15 minutes

 

Socks the Cat Rocks the Hill - 25 minutes

Best platformer starring the Clintons' cat that was never released.

 

Sega Genesis:

War in the Machine - 60 minutes. @Gemintronic's and Michael Thomasson's opus is very strange but quite addictive. I prefer the original control scheme to the new simplified one.

 

Sega Master System:

Astro Warrior - 20 minutes.

Hang On - 10 minutes.

 

Sega SG-1000:

Yamato - 35 minutes.

I don't really mind when I lose...

 

Turbografx 16:

Soldier Blade - 25 minutes.

[onlyinajeep]

Arcade

BurgerTime - 15 minutes

Frogger - 8 minutes

Jungle King - 12 minutes

Moon Patrol - 8 minutes

Tron - 7 minutes

PolePosition - 5 minutes

 

Bally Astrocade

Muncher - 30 minutes

Space Fortress - 15 minutes

The Incredible Wizard - 45 minutes

 

CoCo2

Mrs. Pac - 35 minutes

 

CoCo3

ZeroHour - 45 minutes

 

Odyssey2

Killer Bees - 40 minutes

P.T. Barnum's Acrobats - 260 minutes

 

[Atarian7]

Atari 2600

Kaboom! - 85 minutes

Smurf RIGC - 54 minutes

Solar Fox - 121 minutes

 

I made it to the really fast snakes on Smurf and then fell apart.   I was going to play again and see if I could make it past them, but I fell asleep while taking a break.

Final high score was 30,500.

 

[Skippy B. Coyote]

No retro gaming for me this week, though I did log 15 hours in the 2016 remake of DOOM on the Switch for the modern tracker.

 

I sure hope you have a speedy recovery and feel better soon Carlsson! Best wishes from the frozen north of Minnesota 

 

Edited April 25, 2022 by Skippy B. Coyote

[TheGameCollector]

This week I played:

 

Pokemon Red Version for Game Boy - 277 minutes

Super Mario Bros.: Level-Headed v0.3.8 for NES - 77 minutes

Super Mario Bros.: Level-Headed v0.3.9 for NES - 120 minutes

 

Progress:

Pokemon Red - made it to Cerulean city getting all the Pokemon I need along the way. This time I am trying to do less backtracking than I did in Blue version.

 

Super Maro Bros.: Level-Headed - This is a rom hack randomizer where you just attach a rom, choose some settings and it pumps out a unique rom hack of Super Mario Bros. in 1 second that you can then play and explore. I have 2 different versions of the program. One has improvements made over the previous version. I spent quite a while trying out multiple hacks and showing them to my family so I'm taking the 17 minutes of actual recorded footage and guesstimating a few more hours worth of play. Mostly on the new version I used to create fresh hacks with specific groups of settings.

[carlsson]

Here's the summary for Week 16, running from April 18 - 24. We logged 5261 minutes of eligible play, playing 77 games on a total of 20 systems.

 

Top 10:

 

1. Chrono Cross (PlayStation) - 360 min.
1. Frogger (PlayStation) - 360 min.
3. Solar Fox (Atari 2600) - 319 min.
4. Smurfs Rescue in Gargamel's Castle (Atari 2600) - 313 min. (#9)
5. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project (NES/Famicom) - 285 min. (#3)
6. Pokemon Red Version (Game Boy) - 277 min. (#5)
7. P.T. Barnum's Acrobats (Odyssey^2) - 260 min.
8. Same! Same! Same! (Genesis) - 243 min. (#4)
9. R4: Ridge Racer Type 4 (PlayStation) - 240 min.
10. Duck Tales 2 (NES/Famicom) - 218 min.

 

Pre-NES top 10:

 

1. Solar Fox (Atari 2600) - 319 min. (PN#5)
2. Smurfs Rescue in Gargamel's Castle (Atari 2600) - 313 min. (PN#3)
3. P.T. Barnum's Acrobats (Odyssey^2) - 260 min. (PN#4)
4. Frogger (Arcade) - 178 min.
5. Discs of Tron (Arcade) - 110 min.
6. TRON (Arcade) - 102 min.
7. Kaboom! (Atari 2600) - 85 min. (PN#10)
8. Pac-Man Collection (Atari 7800) - 55 min.
9. Surround (Atari 2600) - 54 min.
10. Incredible Wizard, The  (Bally Astrocade) - 45 min.
 

Top 10 systems:

 

1. PlayStation - 1020 min.
2. Atari 2600 - 848 min. (#1)
3. NES/Famicom - 826 min. (#5)
4. Genesis - 633 min. (#2)
5. Arcade - 607 min. (#6)
6. Game Boy - 322 min. (#3)
7. Odyssey^2 - 300 min. (#10)
8. Bally Astrocade - 90 min.
9. SNES - 80 min.
10. TG-16/PC Engine - 76 min. (#7)

 

This week, we are unable to separate the two PlayStation games Chrono Cross and Frogger, so they split the overall victory about 40-45 minutes ahead of the pre-NES top two games Solar Fox and Smurfs Rescue in Gargamel's Castle, both on the 2600. This kind of manifests itself on the systems list - PlayStation ahead of Atari 2600 but also with NES/Famicom not far behind in third place.

 

Two new entries to the 1000 Minute Club:

 

#484 -- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project (NES/Famicom) with a total of 1073 min. (1029 min this year)

#485 -- Same! Same! Same (Genesis) with a total of 1188 min (all achieved this year)

 

And yes, I didn't have much time to play during last week and in particular not in the weekend when I took a vacation at the hospital due to a medium intense case of erysipelas on my lower left leg. So now I'm on penicillin for another week. Yet another fairly common disease you didn't knew about, but many around you seem familiar with.

[+wongojack]

6 hours ago, carlsson said:

I took a vacation at the hospital due to a medium intense case of erysipelas on my lower left leg. So now I'm on penicillin for another week. Yet another fairly common disease you didn't knew about, but many around you seem familiar with.

Holy Sh!+  I'm glad you are ok!  Are you ok?