Yes Meits, absolutely the way we played back in the days.
I gave Ys 1,2 and 3 the most gaming time of all games. Finished the games in Japanese by just hitting all persons until items apperead. Also trying to translate the Katakana game text.
When Oasis translated alle three games, I finished them again and again... my all time favorites!!
I forgot Aleste and allot of Athletic Land when I was a small kid.
It is impossible to tell because I have spent hours and hours with so many games... Just to mention something different, the witch from "Youkai Yashiki" (a.k.a Boynight Haunted House) kept me hooked on my MSX for long months until I found the secret. I had no idea how to kill her, and because of those terrifying hairs, I never got close enough to the mouth, just to jump and quickly shoot several times to send her to hell. I should have called her 'b'itch...
Impossible to remember which game I spent the most time, but I remember using hours and hours for several games. At least I remember using a lot of time with these, a lot more than average:
Aleste, Aleste 2, Gauntlet, Krakout, Nemesis, Nemesis 2, Nemesis 3, Salamander, Metal Gear, Metal Gear 2, Scramble Spirits, SD Snatcher, Space Manbow, Starquake (even made a map for this!), Storm (also for this...), YS 3, Zanac
Elite, absolutely!
There are indeed a lot of Konami games I played back in the days; Athletic Land, Metal Gear, Usas, Kings Valley I en II, Knightmare, Roadfighter. Also shooters like Galaga, Bosconian, Aleste, Aleste Gaiden, Zanac-ex were played a lot.
But... the game I can remember from what I think I played the most / spend the most hours on (..and I think it is strange it is not mentioned here before) is: Eggerland Mystery
I'm pretty sure my most played MSX game was "Nemesis". I loved this game to bits, and still today modern shoot'em ups give me a great deal of nostalgica. My reactions today are not as sharp anymore as they were when I was a kid, but yeah, I love that kind of stuff. 2nd on my most-played list is most probably "The Goonies" which I finished over and over again, always in search for new hidden secrets!
It must have been Metal Gear ... I bought it in the fall of 1987, and played almost every night until I finished the game, 3 or 4 months later. Yeah, I know, it's not a great performance, but bear in mind that I did not belong in a club, nor did I have help from magazine and such.
Next would be Nemesis 2, which I bought around the same time as Metal Gear. I thought I finished the game a first time, then read in a magazine, that it was not the case, that you had to go back through the 7 levels once again ! I must say that in order to finish that game, I used the trick of having a second cartridge inserted (Q-bert I think), which gave you some passwords to be invicible (almost).
Actually, I did not insert a cartridge but loaded the second game from disk, and 'hot' inserted the Nemesis 2 cartridge. How yound and foolish !!
My most played MSX game is Beamrider. That game is just plain awesome and was the first game my parents bought with the MSX. I still play it to this day!
Other games i played many, many, many times are Hero, Ghostbusters, Road Fighter and Atlethic Land.
That must be without any doubts the great Penguin Adventure! This game has it all! Some years ago I did a spontaneous walkthrough with my brother. No cheats of course but the good ending! Hasten slowly!