Slashdot Mirror
World's Greatest Gamers, Unite
SamMichaels writes "Zophar's Domain had news of a press release from Twin Galaxies, the people who've tracked the high scores in games since 1981 (got famous in 82). They're looking for the top gamers to be published in a special commemorative edition of Twin Galaxies' "Official Video Game & Pinball Book Of World Records", which is the industry's official record book. The search is for gamers of "every game, every genre and every platform, whether old or new"."
Besides the obvious possibility of using capabilities like flash saves to get high scores, how do they determine if a player has used technology in an unfair (unjust?) way?
If you set the world record for a game on a MAME cabinet, does it count?
What if you set the record for a Nintendo game using the "Advantage"?
It reminds of that scene in The Wizard where the Lucas character had a power glove...
Are you saying that online communities aren't a feasible way to make money? You might want to tell this to the hundreds of companies that have based their business plans around the idea. Like, say, slashdot.
Ben Schumin :-)
No matter what the activity someone is going to take it to seriously and become obsessed with it. Cars, gambling, football, cooking, etc. Instead of banning something outright since my child *might* become obsessed with it I'll introduce them to as much as possible. Moderation is the key - a little bit of this, a little bit of that. In the end I'll teach them how to decide what they like, don't like, and how not to get carried away with it.
Wouldn't it be a good idea to have a female section, like they do in the Olympics?
Kind of reminds me of the Home Improvement episode, when the two older boys told their brother what their parents were doing in their bedroom, making all sorts of noise. ( Somersault competition, I think it was )
Who won?
Your mom won. She always wins!
You can accomplish anything you set your mind to. The impossible just takes a little longer.
I spent many of my early years in front of beloved Tandy 1000, which was my only computer until 1994 BTW. And I seem to be in perfect health, able to carry on a conversation with someone and happily married.
Well there you go then, the exception that proves the rule. Statistically speaking there's always somebody that turns out differently from the norm...
Twin Galaxies' scores I believe are either verified by the presence of a referee, or by actually videotaping the entire game!
This applies to arcade games, and MAME scores are verified by recording your game file into a MAME input file and then sending the recording to a site such as www.snipercade.com or marp.retrogames.com
My wife watches that show okay? I promise it wasn't me.
Anyways the episode is one where Grandpa's memoires are sent away to the big publishing company and what do you know : They want to make a book out of it! Just send us $XYZ thank you. Of course the scam was that to cater to his egotism/narcicism and a feeling that people really gave a crap (which they really don't) they'd get him to pay for the "first publishing" which of course would be the last.
Who, except for the people who are in such a book, would buy such a book? I highly doubt anyone...
Actually, its not that hard at all. Its called Video. Set up your Video Camera and start recording. Then they can watch as the score rolls over.
Visit the Arcade Restoration Workshop @ http://www.arcaderestoration.com
...clone since about 1994. I can't seem to locate one. It has become something of a hobby of mine: searching the WWW in vain for a good Pong. There are many silly variations on the theme but no Nolan Bushnell-era emulators. Why? If someone happens to know of a good one, please post it here, by all means!
And please define #1 nation, you seem to be a little to aggressive with that #1 stuff. Does anyone have to be #1? Why can't we all just get along. I will play my games, you will censor people and we will all be happy!
Let us go through these:
1) Then only criminals would have guns.
2) You would not be able to post your last comment becuase it might offend someone.
3) Kids working graveyard shifts would not be able to help their single mother pay bills
And that ends the lesson for today.
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"Do you hear the Slashdotters sing,
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Oh bother.
"All your base are belong to us" You've gotta have it in there. Somewhere.
No kidding? Are they world records?
I can't say for certain since I haven't searched, but I'm fairly sure that there are females in the record book. Since the press release indicates that not everyone who holds a top score will get a feature in the book, there is a judgement call to be made for who does get in. I would hope that TwinGalaxies would ensure that at least one female would get in. For what it's worth, even though I'm not likely to have a shot at getting in, I'd be more than willing to give up a slot in the book (for high scores in Bank Heist, Frantic Freddy, Heist, Jungle Hunt, and...oh crap...I need to submit it...Venture) if it meant that a female could be included. Should a female be included in the feature section, certainly. Should TwinGalaxies start track seperate records for female, nope.
-sk
now when it comes down to the old netware game snipes... im the best hehe LOL!
Thanks for spoiling my trip down memory lane. Burn all Burger Time games!
-sk
In Europe it is illegal for anyone under the age of 18 to hold a job.
That is fucking bullshit. Where do you get that from?
Plus you're doing what most ignorant North Americans do; you speak of Europe as one nation.
Granted, with the EU that's what it might look like soon, but they all are independent nations like Norway, which I'm from. Or Sweden. Or Germany, Belgium, France, Italy etc.
To be frank; you really sound like a 60-year-old with a grudge. Or a Nazi. Or both.
No, I am not spamming, I just happen to think his games are great.
Everytime you look at porn a devil gets their horns.
Kibo is the Panty Cat champion of the world.
But you knew that.
K.
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Shoot, a fella' could have a pretty good weekend in Vegas with all that stuff.
My brother and I used to switch off on that Atari 2600 great, Megamania (by Activision)--a game played by about three fewer people than Circus. Our record is three and a half hours on one game. We taped the joystick button down so that our hands wouldn't cramp up so badly from playing.
This should at least win an honorable mention for pathetic wastes of time. Speaking of which, does anyone remember the deal Activision used to have for their Atari 2600 games where, if you achieved a threshold score, you could take a picture of the television and send it in to get a free patch or badge or something identifying you as "Grand Master of Megamania" or somesuch? Those were so cool.
On the other hand, I know I can do well enough to crack the top 20 in the Gameboy version. I guess fewer people posted their scores on it.
IANAL, but I play one on
I have a new UID, but I've been around for a while (about 2 years). Never believed in logging in before. I just decided (very, very recently) to start gathering some of the Karma I've been missing. My mistake has been posting as AC and losing out on all of that.
I wasn't poking fun at his UID - and the comment was a JOKE. Then again, I'm certain that yours was too, but I just wanted to clarify.
You can accomplish anything you set your mind to. The impossible just takes a little longer.
Ho about who can run a 5K the fastes, but only moving while playing a game? would that be a sport?
:)
oh, juggling is a sport
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Also, both sides are equal athletically in chess, and there is no room for "luck". In football you have to choose your offense and defense at the same time, guessing what the other is doing. In chess you can make the move knowing fully the opponents position at the end of your move.
t
I'm curious as to how high the scores in Hextris have gotten. Does anyone still play this game? Myself, I've become slightly addicted to it and I'd like to see if my 452,960 at all measures up. At least that game actually stores scores on disk so I won't lose that.
So, you're going to pay to get access to a site just to see who score 345,000 points on Bad Dudes in 1990? And don't even start about the ad revenue earned by websites. Like, say, the other 97% of the online business world. Where's all the dot-com trillionaires now? Items like this are much better served as coffee table books, with updates provided online. Given some nice pictures of the games, and game cabinets if arcade/pinball, it could be nice to have to remind us of the good ol'days.
Anybody remember Duck Hunt? Heh - it was fairly simple to cheat with that light gun. Just point it at a bright light :)
Oh wait... uh... yeah - I have the highest score ever! A million ducks!
Hmm... guess you're not impressed. Well... I beat Super Mario Bros. Can that count?
You can accomplish anything you set your mind to. The impossible just takes a little longer.
BTW, I can beat anyone in either of these...
Must keep.. strait... face.....
Not only is this childish and petty
... you're new around here, aren't you?
Not to criticize you or anyhing (because I think you have a great and valid point), but...
You can accomplish anything you set your mind to. The impossible just takes a little longer.
So ? The criminals have guns now. At least they know how to use them and won't shoot their friends by accident.
2) Well that's a good thing right ? I don't want to offend someone, that infringes on their constitutional right to happiness.
3) Kids should not be working. Period. In Europe it is illegal for anyone under the age of 18 to hold a job. This is because they recognise the importance of a stable home and an education. How can you study when you are flipping burgers until 4am ???
> I, for one, would like to know who the world's greatest PONG player is.
Well, in two words: "I Am."
--Nolan
Although certainly honorable, the results of this study won't mean much because of the difficulty to compile. A good hypothetical example might be the old Sienfeld episode where George finds his old frogger game with his high score intact. Do you think George would come forward? No, only current video game junkies would come forward. While junkies, I'm sure, are a good correlate with expert skills at video games, I'm not sure they would be a good correlate with the best ever.
-Moondog
Do ignominious records make it into the book?
Given a reasonably level playing field, who would win a fight between a bear and a shark?
I wonder what the criteria for being the world's greatest Zork player is.. memorizing every move in the game and typing them as fast as you can?
Douglas Adams
1952-2001 :(
I wonder how they verify these sorts of things.
Although I'm sure a lot of people stop and take a screenshot/photo when they make a big achievement, how easy would it be to forge/alter it. Photos are probably a bit "safer" than screenshots, because of the equipment that would be required to alter a photo, but I would imagine it would be fairly easy for a person to take a screen-shot of a decent score and then "enhance" it somehow. Is there any other way of verifying such things?
I once scored over 4,000 on the Atari 2600 game Circus. (Anybody remember that one? You were a clown, bouncing around and popping balloons. Sweet. Eat your heart out, Quake 3 Arena!) I imagine that's some kind of record, considering only 9 people ever even played that game...
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Gort! Klatu Barata Nikto!
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"Do you hear the Slashdotters sing,
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Oh bother.
Juggling isn't athletic? I would hope you've actually tried juggling 3, 4, or 5 clubs or balls for a few hours before telling me that it's not athletic. Sheesh.
With a huge chunk of information like that, they could create a community around people who are trying to get high scores on video games. Message boards about your favorite games where you can communicate with other people who like the same games.
I realize part of the reason they are publishing this book is to stroke the egos of the people involved, but they could really do so much more. It's disappointing to see the opportunity to create a new online community wasted.
Ben Schumin :-)
(ok I stayed in my chair)
Please stop APK.. you're only hurting yourself.
I, for one, would like to know who the world's greatest PONG player is.
The problem is that the gaming world seems to be terribly dominated by men. Wouldn't it be a good idea to have a female section, like they do in the Olympics? That way, despite females probably not being very good at it (they are outnumbered and not as enthusiastic), there will still be a place for them to go.
I think that playing games is fun, but perhaps some people play them too much. I think playing games 24/7 is okay if you are doing it for money, but not if you are not, because it might just be dangerous. Thats why you are supposed to take a break every 2 hours for 15 minutes.
I stiull break those rules sometimes though, tee-hee :P
They fuck you up, your mum and dad.
--Anticipation of a New Lover's Arrival, The
I heard that the editors of the book will place an asterisk (*) by your name to indicate that you've moved out of your parent's basement and gotten laid.
This is another view of the world.
What methods are they using to know if the scores are valid? With all the emulators out there, I would think it would be easy to fake some scores.
Think like a man of action, act like a man of thought.
_ _ _
I was working on a flat tax proposal and I accidentally proved there's no god.
As fond as I am for the odd game or two it sort of disturbs me to see that some people take their game playing to such obsessive levels. When people started creating computer games back in the 70s I wonder if they ever realised quite how profoundly they would change society, and for the worse in many cases?
I feel that whilst computer games can be beneficial and relaxing when they're part of a normal live, they have an addictive quality which makes people spend far too much time playing them, to the detriment of their social skills. We're seeing it now - too many people here on /. seem to know more about how to win a Quake deathmatch than how to deal with the opposite sex for instance. Spending all of your formative years in front of a computer leads to a level of social skills rivalling autism. Indeed, many of the symptoms seem eerily similar.
Unfortunately, with recent statistics showing that computer gaming is an industry worth twice as much as Hollywood this trend seems to be accelerating. And parents nowadays seem more concerned with keeping their children quiet than fostering their social skills, which leaves them crippled when they finally have to enter the real world! How can this be right?
Personally I think that children shouldn't be allowed to play computer games while they're young. Things like this and television do them no good - did you know obesity is on the increase in the under fives? My kids will be encouraged to play and have fun instead, and when they deserve a treat I'll get out something wholesome like Mary Poppins that we can all watch as a family.
It's just not right to let your kids grow up knowing nothing other than Tekken Tag.
Burger Time kicked major ass. Wasn't one of the guys that chased you a hot dog?
anybody can do minesweeper in 1 second by hacking the winmine.ini file. It's not encrypted, so just open it up and edit the thing in notepad.
...science has faltered in the face of overwhelming religious evidence. Praise Jeebus!
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I wonder if anyone ever broke the 2-digit barrier playing BLAZEMONGER! and actually scored 10 points.
My best game ever I played for almost a full minute, and only got an 8.
DG
Hi Dan!
Want to learn about race cars? Read my Book
Has to be one of the best strategy games ever made, any one know what the record would be for that ?
There's a Twin Galaxies version of MAME, which
has the pause function removed, and has its own encryption for recording games. These recordings are used on sites such as MARP (marp.retrogames.com) for tournaments and verifying hiscores on the main leaderboard.
Those games don't have any score or any actual ending (you can't "win"). I could think of a couple good ways to measure Ultima Online. Most PKs. I know a guy with 2000 officially. That most count for something. =)
Maybe Ashren's Call could be judged by level, and EverCamp..erm Quest judged by who has the most uberloot and/or paid the most money for it on ebay.
There is also no conclusive proof that there are no invisible Telescope Gnomes who (delightful tricksters!) remove the lenses from telescopes and hold up carefully painted pictures of supernovae between the observer and the big hide with the holes poked in it.
Don't laugh until you've done the research. Plane'arium workers consistently have large gardens, with many garden gnomes. Coincidence?
Unlike others of their kind, they worked out Step 2 early in the game.
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What was the last first person shoot to actually keep score? Not kills/frags, but actual points (for picking up treasures, finding secret areas, etc...as well as just geting kills?)
Of the two most popular genres, FPS, and RTS, neither seem to base any real importance on points, just survival and time.
I wonder if there's a reason for the slow disappearence of 'points'?
...most first posts on /. ?
Does any one else find it slightly offensive that the "Best gamers" list is solely comprised of console gamers? Furthermore that largely the console or standup games in question are fairly old? How about Galaga or Space Invaders? It seems a little silly to forget all the people that play quake or UT, or doom, or god forbid even the multitudes that play Roller Coaster Tycoon or Sim City or Moo2
Chess is a serious game: Donkey Kong is not. Why? Because chess fully engages your intellect, while Donkey Kong and (most) video games merely engage your physiological reflexes.
Applying egalitarian principles to games (of all things) is a very bad idea. Some games are actually more inherently worthwhile than others. This is why brilliant people have written voluemes on chess, while the only thing that gets written about most video games is penned by bepimpled unwashed mid-adolescent boys.You forget that before we can land that ship on Mars or navigate the asteroid belt or guide a nanoprobe through the human bloodstream somebody is going to have to invent the requisite technology. And I'll bet you that your average 17-year-old chess player will go on to invent more significant tech than your average 17-year-old Donkey Kong player.
(So we're clear on this one, I'm writing this comment from the perspective of a 17-year-old chess player. Just thought you'd like to know.)
I claim The Legend of Zelda, Street Fighter II, and Contra (up,up,down,down,left,right,left,right,b,a,start!)
--Dave
89 seconds, set in 1995
I like to play children's songs in minor keys.
"We're all sons of bitches now." --J. Robert Oppenheimer
Finishing Tetrisphere in the "Rescue" game.. too bad the "hide and seek" mode gets rediculously hard.
Finishing Adventures of Lolo 1 and 2 (3 is freakin' hard)
Finished Solstice.
Finished The Guardian Legend in one game. I think I died once though.
One game that is INSANELY HARD is the NES game Metal Storm after you enter a certain password. I think you have to finish the whole game in one life to get it or something... which isn't too hard.
I challenge the world to beat me in the card game "War". I used to always win (well... at least 50% of the time!) ...
... maybe it was because I was the only one who cared enough to pay attention. So what if nobody noticed that I took their ace with my 2?
1... 2... 3... FLIP! I win again!
You can accomplish anything you set your mind to. The impossible just takes a little longer.
I love the smell of Karma in the morning
I believe that would lead to a very disapointing
look on reality.
I've met atlhetes that program, and barkeeps
that played amazing chess. Chess, like all forms
of entertainment, is simply that. It doesn't
reflect skill, it reflects experince.
Yes there is an a logic to chess, I will not deny that.
But is there any less logic to Football? I think
not. In fact, I bet they are about equal.
The point is this,
one) people do these things because they are
entertaining in some way. If its watching football, or
coaching chess. They are entertaining.
Its a simple fact that bordeom kills,
we all need amusement, we all desire entertainment.
So before you pass judgement on a person obsessed
with Donkey Kong, realize, somewhere, somebody
thinks your a fool for your obession with chess.
Excellent troll. Claiming that there is as much logic in football as in chess. Brilliant.
-- Brian
The most rabid believers in American Exceptionalism are the exact same people whose policies are destroying it.
Funny that people chose football and chess for comparison. Both are based on the strategy of war. It's interesting that two so wildly different activities/games/sports are both based on the same thing.
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I wonder if someone's going to get in touch with Alex Rogan for beating 'The Last Starfighter'. Man! That was a keeler 80's Sci-Fi B movie!!
--Chemguru
--Chemguru
I've whiled many a day away with drool on my chin trying to take out a shambler with a shotgun, but could these people perhaps be taking their fun a bit too seriously? As a game addict I still feel a bit embarassed when I see phrases like "stellar accomplishments", "inner genius", and yes... "athletes" used to describe the process of jumping over the barrels being hurled at me by a video gorilla named "Donkey Kong". Video games are no more an athletic sport than juggling or burping the alphabet. Sure it takes practise and some skill, but that doesn't make it a sport.
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You might think I'm lying, but honest - I was THAT good!
I'm CERTAIN that I've been "ASSHOLE" more than anyone here! So there! Count me in!
You can accomplish anything you set your mind to. The impossible just takes a little longer.
Does Meatspace count as a gaming platform??
I mean, Hell, I was never any good at Joust and my railgun sucks in Quake 3, but I'll take on any of you in a game of Charades!
-the wunderhorn
Karma: Bored. (Thinking about resurrecting the "Anyone else is an imposter" joke.)
Well, I've been playing Hextris off and on now since you mentioned it on Saturday. I just got 459,415 points. Seeing as not many people play the game (since it is mainly a Linux game) you would rank pretty high on the list (if there was one). Of course, my personal best in Tetris is only good enough for 63rd place; so if all the good Tetris players played Hextris, we would rank about 70th or so??
IANAL, but I play one on
Yar's Revenge had to have been my favorite 2600 cart. I remember scoring somewhere in the 2,000,000 area. That's gotta be some sort of record. Eh?
--Chemguru
... who got 00.600 on Atari 2600 Dragster I will KICK HIS ASS!
Must have been a bug or something.
Glückwünsche, haben Sie Slashdot ermordet, indem Sie zum korporativen Druck beugten und Subskriptionen einlei
The N.e.r.d. Clan
Penguins need lovin too. The Linux Pimp
--It's Pimptastic!--
I installed Red Hat 7 on the drive, but lost a digital camera image of the backglass display from Black Rose with my high score as grand champion (I can't remember how high it was, but it was 9 digits). I could have sent that picture in and see if they would give me credit for it.
<sarcasm>
Why dont we just give girls a 10x multiplier in games?
Or minorities??
</sarmcasm>
I cant win against everyone, lets narrow the field.
FunOne
FunOne
One thing I noticed bout the site.. they've got top scores for PC and Mac games - but what-tha' no AMIGA high scores? Damned if my Record of 812-8 vs. Super Nashwan in Speedball 2 is going to be ignored because the don't have Amiga records!