Justin

My New High Score: +6 Upped my game last night with a better performance. I'm really enjoying Neo Turf Masters. Although I was the one who nominated this game specifically, I should credit @RickR with nominating the general idea of us playing a Golfing game in HIgh Score Squad to celebrate the Masters Tournament. This has been great.

Also here's a quick look at Neo Mr. Do! for any Atari or Coleco classic gamers out there who might be wondering what Neo Geo has to offer outside of arcade fighters

My High Score: +16 As @Gianna said, this was my first time to actually sit down and enjoy my new Neo Geo! Neo Turf Masters was one of the top reasons I wanted to get back into Neo Geo, it's a fantastic game. I used to have a Neo Geo years ago but just couldn't get it into it as I'm not that big into fighting games. But I LOVE arcade games in general, and once I got a broader sense of what the Neo Geo can be, I saw there was a ton there for Atari classic gamers to enjoy! I'll take a deeper dive into this in upcoming topics I'm sure. Neo Turf Masters was just awesome, and it played great on the original Neo Geo arcade stick with new Seimitsu LS-56 joystick, Sanwa micro switches for the stock buttons, and AES button PCB from Taitoc labs. Hoping to get a few more rounds of golf in before we close this Squad Challenge out. More to come!

That looks awesome! I saw those on sale at Sam's Club and thought about picking one up! I'm glad you're able to enjoy Neo Turf Masters on the big screen! I really need to get caught up in the "recent pickups" thread, I have a few things to post. Also I'm loving your little Murciélago you have on display there, you're a good Italian @RickR ☺️

Just watched @nosweargamer's livestream of Neo Turf Masters and his performance was awesome!

Hi @RickR, yes, the goal is to complete all 18 Holes and post your final score. If you don't complete the course you're welcome to post your progress 🙂 I'm glad you're enjoying it! I honestly believe Neo Turf Masters is the #1 reason to have a Neo Geo in your home. Most Neo Geo guys will show off their fighting games, which are indeed legendary. But Neo Turf Masters is a work of art. It's beautiful, it's easy to play, I really love it. I love all of the other games on Neo Geo that would resonate with an arcade fanatic who loves Atari games. Games such as Neo Turf Masters, Neo Bomberman, Neo Mr. Do!, Puzzle Bobble / Bust-A-Move, and Stakes Winner is truly the evolution of Steeplechase, an underrated horse racing game for the Atari 2600. Viewpoint is an absolute masterpiece, it's so beautiful and relentlessly cool. Pulstar is the evolution of R•TYPE and developed by the same team. Last Resort is another good one. Enjoy!

Congratulations @datafry! Your Activision Crackpots badge will appear in your member profile, along with your new trophy. You're the only one to achieve the Crackpots badge

@RickR We may get to Top Player's Golf another year 🙂 I think you'll find Neo Turf Masters to be a better game.

Here's an excellent overview of Neo Turf Masters for the Neo•Geo AES and MVS. It's a great introduction to Neo Turf Masters if you've never played the game before!

Let's get the word out about this High Score Squad Challenge! The more people participating the more fun the challenge! Spread the word and invite friends to play!

Neo Turf Masters (aka Big Tournament Golf) Neo•Geo / MAME Controller: JOYSTICK / KEYBOARD / PLAYER'S CHOICE Difficulty Level: Stroke Play > Player's Choice of Character > Australia Play on: Real Hardware / Arcade / Dedicated Console / Emulation OK! ✔ Squad Challenge ends 11:59 pm PST March 31, 2022 Nominated by @Justin Objective Play for the highest possible score using the difficulty settings defined in the challenge. Post a photo or YouTube video of your score in this thread. Scores must be achieved between March 15th through March 31st, 2022. Screen captures are not allowed as they are more easily manipulated for falsified scores. Multiple submissions are permitted. The player with the highest score at the end of the competition is the victor! Eligibility Anyone can join in. All players are welcome! Play Rules Games may be played on real hardware, Flashback / Mini console, or emulation, using any controller or keyboard, following all rules and game settings defined in the challenge. Choosing between real hardware or emulation, and choosing which controller to play on is part of formulating your strategy. Enhancements, rewinds and hacked versions of this game are not allowed. Difficulty Level STROKE PLAY > PLAYER'S CHOICE OF CHARACTER > AUSTRALIA This year we are playing Neo Turf Masters at the Blue Lagoon Golf Course in Australia! After the title screen you will select STROKE PLAY. Next, the game will offer you a character select screen where you can select the pro golfer you will play as. Each golfer has different strengths, weaknesses, and abilities - so chose wisely! Finally, you will select AUSTRALIA to play at the Blue Lagoon Golf Course. (Note: If you are playing the home Neo•Geo AES cartridge, you will select "Normal" difficulty) Fair Play Your integrity is everything. Players should play fairly, be honest, and have fun! Falsified scores will result in your immediate removal from the site. It goes without saying that we will not allow cheats, hacks, cartridge frying, enhancements, rewinds, deceitful photo manipulation, subterfuge, or any other unfair advantage. Everybody hates a cheater. More To review detailed rules on how to play, please visit the High Score Squad page here: Message Welcome to our 120th Squad Challenge! For this challenge we're celebrating The Masters golf tournament coming up at Augusta National with possibly the greatest arcade golf game of all time, Neo Turf Masters! Neo Turf Masters is a stunningly beautiful golf game known for its gorgeous pixelated arcade graphics, simplistic gameplay, difficult courses, and a unique continue system - where exceptional performance rewards the player with additional game time. Last year we celebrated The Masters with "NES Open Tournament Golf", this year we're playing something at the opposite end of the gaming spectrum. Neo Turf Masters (known in Japan and in later re-releases as Big Tournament Golf) is a golf simulation game developed by Nazca. This is a golf game brought to you by the same team that developed Metal Gear! Neo Turf Masters was released by SNK in 1996 for the Neo•Geo "Gold" AES home console, and for arcades running on the Neo•Geo MVS hardware. As this is a Neo•Geo arcade game, it is playable on MAME. The Arcade Archives version was released for the Nintendo Switch and PC in 2017. ROM sets will have to be sourced for emulation. The game will provide on-screen instructions. This is quite honestly one of the greatest and most beautiful golf games ever created. Good luck! Do you have what it takes to play with the masters? P.S. - Let's clarify a little weirdness with this Squad Challenge before we begin: Neo Turf Masters is also known as "Big Tournament Golf". They're the same game. Neo Turf Masters is the same game on the Neo•Geo AES home cartridge as it is in the Neo•Geo MVS arcade machine. With Neo•Geo, home games are the same as the arcade. AES & MVS are both accepted in this Squad Challenge. As Neo•Geo games are arcade games, they are also emulated on MAME You can play Neo Turf Masters on the Neo•Geo AES home console, Neo•Geo MVS arcade machine, MAME, Mini console, or the Arcade Archives release on PC or Nintendo Switch. All of these ways to play are accepted in this Squad Challenge!

Congratulations Datafry! Congratulations to the incredible @datafry on becoming our new Crackpots Squad Champion! This is Datafry's first time winning a Squad Challenge, so let's all give him a hand on his absolutely killer score and decisive win! And a big congratulations to everybody on all those incredible scores across the board! I hope Crackpots was fun to revisit. Datafry takes 1st Place in our Final Standings with a score of 80,920, making him the only Squad Member to achieve a patch-worthy score. @Kid A was on fire in Crackpots, securing the 2nd Place in our Final Standings with his burning hot score of 61,020 points. @RickR takes 3rd with an impressive 41,670 points, and @Doug.dryerlint17 was hot on his tail, taking 4th with 37,700. I take 5th Place with my score of 32,010 points, and @Sabertooth was hot on my tail taking 6th Place with 31,660. @nosweargamer @TrekMD @Atari 5200 Guy and @Gianna all joined us in our Crackpots Activision Squad Challenge and shared terrific high scores. I hope everybody who joined us for this one had a blast! Our new Achievement Badges have been a real hit in the forums. For this Squad Challenge we introduced the "Crackpots" Activision Badge, which is being awarded to all players who achieved a "patch-worthy" score of 75,000+ Points or higher in our Crackpots Squad Challenge. @datafry was the only Squad Member this time to earn the Activision Crackpots Badge! For all Activision games played in High Score Squad moving forward, we will be recreating the classic Activision Patches as Badges and awarding them to all players who achieve a "patch-worthy" score as originally set forth by Activision. We think that will be a fun way to play Activision games in High Score Squad, and revive the spirit of the original Activision Patches. As always I'd like to encourage @datafry to post his high score on the Scoreboard, and let's make sure this Challenge continues on! Congratulations to Datafry, and a big congratulations to our wonderful little community for being such a great group to spend time with, I hope everybody had fun playing Crackpots! NOTE: Our next High Score Squad Challenge is an arcade game for MAME! Be there!

Ever since I posted the new New Kids On The Block song about going back to 1989 I've been thinking about all the great memories in the music video and what a wild time that was at the end of the '80s and the beginning of the '90s. It's hard to think of a more epic moment for video games than 1989. In a time before the internet there was a lot more going on in commercials - lots of "Call Now To Order!" with 1-800 Numbers, P.O. Boxes, sending a self-addressed stamped envelope off to some company with the hopes of receiving your item in 8 - 12 weeks, and of course "Sorry, no C.O.D." I thought I'd share some of those commercials below. What's your favorite?

They could've called it anything really. Atari "Nexus", whatever, anything. They even could've done something like call it the "Atari Nexus Video Computer System" or the "Atari 3200 Video Computer System" or anything you could come up with, as long as there wasn't product confusion.

Really enjoyed this "deep dive" review! Robot War: 2684 looks incredible. This looks almost as good as the Atari 7800 version of Robotron: 2084. Champ Games is doing an incredible job with these new releases. Even the box and manual look fantastic. Thanks for sharing another great review @GRay Defender

I think Atari is doing a nice job with the new "VCS" but they should've chosen a better name. As in, a name that wasn't already taken. Maybe Atari 3200 or Atari 2900 or something less confusing than VCS. We're bound to run into this now. At this point that's my only real complaint about the new Atari "VCS". Crackpots is also available to play on Virtual Atari here: http://www.virtualatari.org/soft.php?soft=Crackpots

Right? I was thinking the same thing. It was a fun trip back.