Jealous.  See you next Tuesday etc.

There best fucking be pictures, Davy. Mark my words.

I echo Nicks words...

Have been whetting my appetite for asteroids today by playing the Atari 7800 version.

It's a splendid version of the game. It doesn't try to emulate the original and creates a raster graphics version with colour and rotating rocks. Similar to the old 2600 port but a great deal better.  The old 7800 can certainly shift a lot of sprites. The screen can get chock-full of rocks with no flicker or slowdown - this console could have been a contender had it been properly backed.

Of course the main limitation with any version of Asteroids that isn't HD is the limited angles you can shoot at (original arcade vector monitor Asteroids has the equivalent of HD res) but it's very playable. Extremely tough too. The 7800 controller is a shambles though - hand cramps set in after about 30 mins of play.

It's really only ever been the one version that scratches my asteroids itch to any degree. The XBL version is horrific. The emulation is shoddy and the modernised version is unplayable due to a surfeit of effects rendering bullets and rocks impossible to see with every explosion. Madness. And earlier attempts on PS1 with unnecessary additions were piss poor. MAME does a pretty good rendition of it but the sound isn't right and it just isn't the same playing it on a PC.

I've tried many online versions and indie/freeware versions but they just don't reach the parts that an Atari coded version does. Even the old 2600 port with its limited rock angles is more playable than many flash attempts. You would think this would be an easy game to put together but there is magic in that old Atari code that no-one seems to be able to recreate.

Notched up over 54K on intermediate level. The port has 4 difficulty levels. Tried expert and couldn't hit 30K. I'd play more of this version but my current setup for my 7800 and CRT isn't ideal. The 7800 RF hook-up isn't of the lightest quality either - it has good days and bad days.  Roll on Tuesday!

My 5 year old daughter was playing Castle of Illusion today and said “I need to take care of these ghost willies”

I managed to stay calm and explain they’re “glowing mushrooms”, but to no avail. They are ghost willies, and nothing was going to convince her otherwise.

Points off for stretched image.

Questor wrote:

Parenting win.

She didn’t hear the phrase “ghost willies “ from me, I assure you. Lol.

optimark_prime wrote:

Questor wrote:

Parenting win.

She didn’t hear the phrase “ghost willies “ from me, I assure you. Lol.

Ghosts give me the willies?

I have been dumping collections of SNES and MD games onto my pie.
In between the tedious job of scraping metadata I have dipped into a fair few at random, I really need a notepad to jot down the obscure games of note I have played.

One I do remember that was really fun was Pieces on the SNES.
It is a vs puzzle game, 1 on 1 vs cpu or a friend.
Each round starts by showing you a picture for a few seconds, you are then given jigsaw puzzle pieces, three at a time and have to recreate the picture. First to 3 wins the round. 
A really simple concept but the powerups add a level of tactics on complexity.
Powerups are earnt by placing pieces which fill a powerbar, each time you fill the bar you go to the next level of powerup but using them resets them (think Killstreaks in CoD).

So you need to balance going for a simple powerup like ones that highlight where to place your current 3 pieces or hold out and go for the broom which clears your opponent's placed pieces. Timing is also key, using the broom just as your opponent is about to complete a puzzle is ideal.

A really simple concept but it works really well.
Oh and your opponents are suitably mental Japanese things. Including Rice Bowl Crab.

I did think you might like it Davy.
Probably a lot less embarrassing to play than Body Special.

I dont think it was mentioned.

Pieces does appear on this list though so it should do.
https://www.giantbomb.com/snes-mouse-support/3015-3659/games/

It would definitely make the game easier, the difficulty against CPU ramps up quite quickly after the first few rounds.

I remember people nicking the balls out of the school mouses.

Thinking about Pieces it would be a great concept to bring over to Switch.
Skin it with Nintendo characters, maybe add a few more power ups and mix up the piece count and shape of the puzzles. Maybe even animated pictures like Body Special (just not that content)
The one fault I found with Pieces is unfortunately due to the hardware limitations the pictures aren't really high enough definition, which obviously would be sorted on modern hardware.

Asteroids Deluxe has arrived.

Fucking Hell - it's big.

More to follow.

Oh my, this is going to be cool. Hopefully you won't have to remove any windows!