RadioPoultry

Some of my finds over the last month or so: Picked up these GameCube games in a Pasco, WA Goodwill. I still need to find a GameCube memory card for my Wii, but I have a couple controllers, at least. Found these two Competion-Pro joysticks at a Goodwill in Hermiston, OR. Haven't tested them out yet. I assume they were designed for the 2600 and the two buttons serve the same function, but it would be nice if they supported the 7800's 2nd button. We'll see! And I found these at a Idaho Youth Ranch thrift store in Boise. (I discovered there's a lot of thrift stores in Boise. I only had time to stop by a couple, though.)

Score: 34,810 With the assistance of a 16 oz. can of Orange Fanta. I like how this game keeps adding new enemy types as you progress. Even about this far into the game, they reveal a new one: little spinning squares that zip across the screen and hunt you down.

Score: 12480 Emulator used: Nostalgia 5.0 Neat game. Kinda reminds me of Tempest.

I just remembered another I was going to suggest: Superman (2600). It was published 40 years ago this year!

If games for home computers are an option, then I would like to nominate Spare Change for Atari 8-bit/Apple II/C64. (It's possible to change difficulty settings with ctrl-Z.)

I've got a question: Every time we restart the game, are we supposed to cycle through the game modes to generate a new course, or are we allowed to memorize a single generated course by only hitting "game reset" instead?

2'01"70 These are my best first two laps by far. The two spots I've been focusing on improving are the path through the mines and the final turn. This is probably my last one. Let's see if anyone can beat it! Here's looking at you, Kid A 😃

2'02"06 If there's any advantage to being stuck at home sick, it's that I can spend way too much time trying to perfect a single track of a single game. I've hardly tried the other tracks at all. (I'm really glad we're not doing Death Wind II.)

2'02"54 I was stuck for a while, but I think I found some ways to shave off a few milliseconds here and there. I may have been taking the corners too sharply early in the first lap. Or maybe I just had a change in luck. I'm playing it without sound, now. I think it may help me concentrate. And it is Mute City after all. Your turn, Kid A!

This is how I'm currently doing it (more or less). On the first lap, I turn early into the corner of the rough area, which gives me a comfortable path to the corner of the other rough area, which I try not to hit at all. During all of this, I never let go of the accelerator. Like so: On the laps afterwards, I use my boost just after the space starts to open up, and go diagonally all the way through:

2'03"90 I feel like I'm starting to hit my limit now. I spent a sizable amount of time trying to improve on this, but I wasn't able to. I've started using Fire Stingray now. The vehicle/driver selection seems oddly familiar. Fire Stingray/Samurai Goroh' s high speed and slow acceleration reminds me of Wave Race 64's D. Mariner, while the slower speed and high acceleration of Golden Fox/Kevin Stuart reminds me of Wave Race 64's... A. Stewart.... Interesting.

2'08"25 I was using the Blue Falcon at first, but now I too have taken the path of the Wild Goose. I also switched to using a game controller instead of the keyboard I usually use for emulation. (I'm going to see if there are keyboard settings that work well with the SNES. My emulator's default keys were going to destroy my fingers!) My impression is there is a way to accelerate quickly from the starting line, like the AI drivers do, but I haven't figured it out yet, so instead I immediately slide to the right and let one of the other vehicles knock me forward. Cheap, I know, but it puts me in 1st very quickly!

Time: 2' 26" 40 Emulator used: Snes9X For this competition, make sure you use the North American version of the game! I tried the European (PAL) ROM first, and the framerate was considerably slower. The clock ticks at normal speed though, so I ended up with this :

Two fairly common games that might work are Solar Striker and F-1 Race (in obstacle course mode, perhaps.)

I don't know if I can say my parents actually liked any particular games, but I remember my parents at least briefly playing Apple ][ versions of Frogger, Lode Runner, and a Pac-Man clone called "Snack Attack". And I can still remember my dad reading to me the intro to Dino Eggs.