PII

11 minutes ago, Jeevan said:

The fezzari weighs 19.xx lbs, it is all carbon frame/forks and is soooooooo fast, i was doing 42.8mph down a hill and averaging 15.x mph on the paved trail i ride.  I'm gonna be going off road for the first time tomorrow on my mountain bike.  Hope i don't crash and burn

Nice, I am a teensy bit jelly  ; hitting that kind of speed on the downhill can get a little scary if conditions/brakes/cars are not ideal, or at least that's been my experience.  Pretty much all my bikes need at least a little lookin at; I'm a little behind on that right now.  Where are you doing your 162 and your 50?

9 minutes ago, Jeevan said:

Im over 412 miles for the year, with a goal of 3k, which i think im gonna surpass by a lot.  I have a 162 mile ride and a 50 mile ride set for july and august im training for.  What kinda bike you got?  I bought the fezzari last month, have a trek marlin 5 gen 2, never ridden a road bike, the fezzari is AMAZING.

All very cool!  Looks and sounds like you are getting serious.  I'm currently on a Trek 700 Multitrack Hybrid that is basically a tank compared to what you're riding, but it works well for what I do which boils down to "road and trail."  I've also got a no namer that I Frankensteined and use as a single-speed trainer.  I also have a mountain bike that I haven't used much yet that is probably very cheap since I got it for next to nothing and it says "Fear Factor" on it with a picture of a Tarantula....  + a few other old fixer uppers waiting for me to get at them any day now.  That Fezzari looks slick as can be.  I used to have a pretty sweet road bike, the make/model of which escapes me now, but it would have been light enough to chuck one-handed.  Kinda wish I'd hung onto it...

16 minutes ago, Jeevan said:

been busy riding my bicycle kuz it's super nice outside right now, bout ready to go on a 20-30 mile bike ride after work

Sweet, that's a nice looking steed.  I'ma be doing much the same soon.   

PII's MINIATURE SKINNIATURE SCOREBOARD

Earth-Something-Japanese-Word       -       487,250

P.opp-I.n I.ndefinitely       -       369,500

M.y B.alloon D.oes 39       -       339,500

Bashful Carp       -       112,250

Super Balloon-Can-Do       -       93,250

Helium Fiend       -       87,250

Separate Theater Award       -       74,500

I Squat 4 Booty       -       42,950

Skinny Balloon Animal       -       (posting instead of playing)

Balloon Butler       -       (still tryna figure out the name of the game)

369,500

22 minutes ago, NESfiend said:

That and if you walk a little ways ahead of the marching green turtle to create distance between you and him for when the red one comes back to life, the goomba would go too far off screen and stop following. Man, this makes me wonder if its possible to get 227 coins though. That red turtle going to waste seems like a missed opportunity marching 4 in. I actually thought you or someone else may find an extra coin somewhere and post it last minute Sunday. Too bad more people didn't dive into this pristine ruleset. 

I was thinking much the same about 227, especially on Sunday after I'd had the brunt of the week to forget about why I decided against screwing around any longer than I did with the red turtle.  The thing is, I think, it's one of those things that seems like it's just waiting to be utilized and it shouldn't be that hard but then when you actually try to make it happen you see all these problems popping up left and right and it's just totally unworkable; it's too much to account for in too little time.  You'd have to be in two places at once to make it work.  If you can figure that out, I'm all ears.  Until then the red turtle is just a red herring.  

...And it is too bad more folks didn't dive in as you say.  There are so many great bits of strategy we could've been comparing notes on...  Oh well, ever onward.

14 minutes ago, NESfiend said:

I think I actually get this now. I didn't think to manipulate the green turtle to reappear marching right (toward the goal) instead of left. I didn't think it was possible to get both non-flying goombas to the goal. Knowing now there is a way to march 4 in like you can march 5 in on 1-2. I kind of want to try that now. 

I was directing/walking with the green turtle to the goombas underneath the red turtle, letting him run into them, then taking the red shell with me. When green turtle runs into the goomba set, one goes with him toward the goal and the other goes the wrong way. The green turtle and one goomba march as I carried the red shell far enough ahead of them that when he blows up, I can hop on him again and go back to carrying him. The margins were too thin there to make it doable on a regular basis

Yeah, I get it now.  Seems like trouble though the way you have to keep dealing with red guy and taking hits...

1 hour ago, NESfiend said:

Im confused. How were you getting the 4 coins end of 1-3? The green turtle would run into the 2 goombas sending one goomba in the wrong direction. Id let the green turtle and the other goomba march and grab the red shell. It would time out and shrink me on the march (sometimes twice), then Id have to grab it again and run it in with the green turtle and goomba marching.  The flying goomba was the 4th. The getting shrunk and getting the red turtle again is where it always went to hell. Sounds like you had a different strat

Can't say I perfectly understand your strat either, but here's what I did:

After dropping out of the pipe and moving left I jump on the green turtle and pick him up and continue to run left to pick up 3 coins above the light blue rectangle, 1 coin above the white rectangle which also has the red turtle on it that I ignore more or less and then the 1 coin above the salmon rectangle.

Then I move back to the right still carrying the green shell and hop over the two ground goombas.  I'm still holding the shell because I don't want the green turtle to manifest yet.  If he does he's walking left and bumps into the first goomba which screws everything up.  So once I'm to the right of those goombas and have successfully prevented the green turtle from manifesting, I release the green shell to the right.

Next I'm using my P-wing to avoid the advances of the flying goomba.  FG lands and I fly over him to the right.  FG lands a 2nd time and I fly over him and the other two goombas to the left in order to manifest the green turtle who will be marching to the right again.  Then we all march to the flashing box in the following order: goomba, goomba, Mario, green turtle.  FG is flying around and lands twice more on the way.  Finally I jump into the flashing box and the 4 enemies present turn into coins.

Also, I missed something insipidly obvious.  I could have shaved a second or two off by picking up the green turtle right at the end and been able to jump into the box earlier.  I guess I got so obsessed with avoiding the FG as well as making sure that FG sticks around that I didn't see it right in front of me.  If you fly for the flashing box too soon, FG will leave the screen.

24 minutes ago, skinnygrinny said:

Always hold your score!

eaauuuch!  I knew I shoulda kept my mouth shut!

2 hours ago, NESfiend said:

I had 6-7 260s on 1-1 at least. Spent too much time on it in general. 

Did hit ONE 2:40 on 1-2 and at least 1, if not 2, 224s on 1-4. Something about the timing the last jump could shave off a second. A few times, when I jumped early and stretched out arching up and down into the box. That last second felt like it should have ticked and didnt. Cant really put it into words well and couldnt execute every time by any means. But everything else seemed the same about those runs. Just a perfectly timed hop at the end almost seemed to stretch it. 

1-3, thats where I sucked. I only got all 4 enemies in a few times and found every way to screw it up. 

You did have one close call on Sunday night you didnt know about. With 220ish on the clock, I somehow had the two turtles and one goomba all marching toward the black area. I still dont know how that happened.

Usually when the red shell times out and gets his legs back, he ends up facing left. Somehow that time it was going right and flying guy was flying around. In a split second brain blow up, I hopped on the red turtle to pick it up and blew up the sequence killing one of em. It occurred to me 2 seconds later all I had to do was let them all march, I was just so used to taking the red shell to the box with me. 

I doubt that would have beat you, but it seemed like a good pace to get pretty close. Drove me nuts all day. Crazy score - you earned it. 

It was not taking the flying leap off the turtle at the P-switch all week that kept me from 260's on 1-1.  By the time I realized it wouldn't be as difficult as I thought to do it consistently, time was close to up.  Glad to hear I'm not crazy thinking 240 is possible on 1-2.  At first I was like how in the heck can he get a 224 on 1-4, but after a moment of thought I think I have an idea: A flying leap for a slightly earlier pipe might result in being partially up to speed upon emerging out the other side.  Don't know why I didn't think of that during the week, but then that's how these things tend to go.  It really is amazing how many little points there are to think about.  So it looks like 9:30 - 9:31 might be the max...

Hmmm, it sounds like you should have potentially walloped me a good one by ahem, holding your score until the end after figuring out that red shell stuff.  I decided early on the first day or so that getting both turtles marching along just wouldn't work and then moved on.  I always used the green one.  I did wonder a little if someone was going to manage one more coin -looks like it might have been you w/a little more time to play...

Mario 3 was a good precursor for all this floating around.  

All the Joust I played over the weekend was too...

For any interested:

About 5 min. before 11p.m. VGS time Sunday I got my first 260 left on the clock in 1-1

And my best time for 1-3 was a 206 left on the clock.

I'm reasonably certain that 223 is the best possible time for 1-4.

And my best for 1-2 was 239 left over.

So I know that a 9:28 is possible.  

I believe I could get at least another second faster on 1-3 perhaps more.

and I think a 2:40 might be possible on 1-2 but I think it would take a highly refined degree of perfection in the run.

Anyway, I think a 9:29 or 9:30 might very well be in the realm of possibility.  I'm also presuming that I haven't missed any major tactics that would significantly reduce the time of the run.

This was a great ruleset and a smart way to make speed running more accessible for those without recording ability.  I had a lot of fun and learned quite a bit about the mechanics of the game.  

Dino Riki

Back To The Future

Isolated Warrior

Silver Surfer

Zaxxon's Motherbase 2000

Dreadnaught Factor (whoops, that's six....)

I have so many shooters on my "to play list"; classics, oddballs and otherwise that I haven't gotten to yet.  Just the ones on Genesis will take me ages to get through...

5 minutes ago, a3quit4s said:

28 minutes ago, skinnygrinny said:

That’s the pb&j making, diaper changing, no time for games score lol

ESPN 8 “The Ocho” is reporting that you had a death in World 1

I get all my worm-related news from the daily @Murray...

1 hour ago, Gloves said:

Stew is by far one of my favourite meals to make. Top 3 easily. 

For me it's something that tends to just sort of come together when things, meat, vegetables, broth etc. happen to be on hand or cheaply acquirable.  It's a great way to make food go the distance for sure.  Soup/Stew and Salad or Sandwich once a day all week long makes life easier.

2 hours ago, Khromak said:

I think the low points for me were:

• A lot of enemies feel like you can't avoid their attacks and you have to just spam them with bullets to kill them as fast as possible, while tanking damage, which is boring
• Some of the platforming sections are quite annoying, especially the laser gates/lava pits that bounce you all over
• Some enemies can absolutely DESTROY your health if you end up inside their hitbox

The puzzle and discovery elements were the strongest parts TBH. It is a pretty fun little adventure game, but the combat mechanics are weak. It definitely doesn't feel like a game you can master to the point of dodging all enemy attacks while sniping them or anything like that. In a lot of situations the whole screen is full of bullets. The dogs, especially in certain areas, are incredibly annoying. With some grenades they're manageable, but more than a couple times I found myself without any, or them in a position I couldn't grenade, and they're just unstoppable whirlwinds of death you CANNOT shoot.

All-in-all, it's a pretty fun game and worth playing through to be sure, but there are certain elements that definitely had me scratching my head. A lot of the robot/machine stage feels like you're supposed to use the jetpack, but it's unwieldy and has very limited fuel, so I'm not sure what you're expected to do. TBH I just jumped into the lasers and bounced to the end, since they were too large to jump without jetpack.

You'll see; or maybe I'm just really bad. 

I highly doubt that you qualify as "really bad", lol.  It's just an awkward sort of game.  I don't remember the lasers for whatever reason....

@Murray Damn, that looks good!

7 minutes ago, Khromak said:

James bond Jr is done. It's an alright game, but it has some frustrating aspects and it's another one of those "beat it twice" games, because they were too lazy to make more levels. Not one I'd look forward to playing again

I've played about 20 or 30 minutes into this one a time or two and you are correct, in that some parts can get pretty awkward and frustrating, but I also found it to be rather dynamic with varied action and the puzzle codes to decipher and I found myself always looking forward to what was around the next corner as well.  It's def. a game I want to play all the way through at some point...

I still think some of the stuff on the current list would be good to do but here is my running list of suggestions for the future.  Feel free to repost at any time with your own commentary, additions etc.

SUSHI - (I'm not really expecting a whole lot of people to want to do this, but you never know unless you ask...)

SEAFOOD - (Make something that came from water)

MUSHROOMS - (Make something that utilizes mushrooms in some way)

STUFF IT IN - (Make something that involves stuffing one or more things inside of something else)

GRILL IT - (Make something on the grill outside)

SOUP OR STEW (Make one)

AWESOME SAUCE - (For dipping, pouring, marinating etc. just make an awesome sauce)

BIG KAHUNA BURGER - (I think most of us probably know where the idea for this one originated.  Pick one of the made up recipes available online or make up your own version of this semi-fictitious burger.)

3 hours ago, Dr. Morbis said:

Thunder Castle on the Intellivsion uses a few famous pieces, one of which is Schubert's unfinished 8th, IIRC...

THE MUSIC OF THUNDER CASTLE

TITLE SCREEN

Second Movement (Rondeau)

Abdelazar or The Moor's Revenge

Henry Purcell

GET READY SCREEN, ALL MAZES / LEVELS

First Movement (Opening Melody)

Eighth Symphony

Franz Schubert

GAMEPLAY, ALL MAZES / LEVELS

First Movement (First Theme)

Eighth Symphony

Franz Schubert

LOSE A TURN, ALL MAZES / LEVELS

Second Movement (First Scherzo Codetta)

Ninth Symphony

Ludwig van Beethoven

VICTORY FANFARE, ALL LEVELS

Arrangement of Opening Melody and Coda (Truncated)

Sonata Kk. 159

Domenico Scarlatti

POWER-UP TREASURE, HEDGE MAZE / DRAGON LEVEL

The Black Service (Fanfare)

Night on Bald Mountain

Modest Mussorgsky

POWER-UP TREASURE, CASTLE MAZE / WIZARD LEVEL

Fourth Movement (Main Theme)

Eighth Symphony

Antonín Leopold Dvořák

POWER-UP TREASURE, DUNGEON MAZE / DEMON LEVEL

Second Movement (Trio)

Ninth Symphony

Ludwig van Beethoven

GAME OVER

Second Movement (Rondeau)

Abdelazar or The Moor's Revenge

Henry Purcell

3 hours ago, Murray said:

Why does Murray have to take all these pictures Can we get a rule change? 

New Rule: All gamers who refer to themselves in the 3rd person must now post no less than 8 photos of their progress.   

3 hours ago, Tenjikuronin said:

Once the pin is removed it's just a matter of time before an explosion?

Also, both look to have been manufactured...

...how much time do we have?....

3 hours ago, TrekMD said:

Pretty sure that's also the look you get when you use the word "behooves." 

I've always been a fan of World 7.

I played every level a few years ago.  Since then I've warp whistled my way a few times...