March 30, 2004

Asteroids Record Stands

From Skiffy's website:

"A Portland, Ore., man tried and failed to top a 22-year-old record playing the 1980s arcade game Asteroids when his machine malfunctioned after 27 hours of play, the GameSpot Web site reported. Bill Carlton was gunning for Scott Safran's 1982 Asteroids world record of 41 million points at the Ground Kontrol Arcade in Portland, the site reported."

But that's not the really disturbing part of the story...

...this is:

"Carlton had notched up some 12.7 million points when the aging arcade machine malfunctioned. Walter Day, editor of Twin Galaxies' Official Video Game & Pinball Book of World Records, told the site that Carlton would have needed to play for at least two more days to beat Safran's score."

I'm just waiting for Bill Carlton to sue the arcade and the machine's manufacturer, for depriving him of his potential place in the record books... *sigh*

On a more seriously sadder note, I ran a quick Google on the original record holder, and found this:

"The world record holder for Atari's classic arcade game "Asteroids" was located by game record keeper Walter Day of Twin Galaxies after nearly 20 years of searching. Unfortunately, the "Asteroids" champion, Scott Safran of Cherry Hill, New Jersey, died in 1989 after falling off a roof during an attempt to save his pet cat." [full text]

Posted by thinkum at March 30, 2004 07:21 PM
Comments

I guess he's just going to have to go to plan B. Obtain the world record for the longest running game of Dig Dug.

Posted by: Noah at March 30, 2004 09:25 PM

Why am I suddenly hearing this little voice in my head, saying, "What are we going to do tomorrow night, Brain?" ... *g*

Posted by: Thinky at March 30, 2004 09:40 PM

At least he had the feline priority in the right place.

Posted by: PyeCat at March 31, 2004 04:49 AM

So, you're saying it would be entirely fair to blame this young man's death on catdom?

Posted by: Thinky at March 31, 2004 01:36 PM

I'm saying the man fulfilled his obligation to felines by going up on that roof. The fact that he fell down has absolutely nothing to do with us. Out of respect to the dead, I won't speculate on just WHY he fell.

Posted by: PyeCat at April 1, 2004 02:08 AM

Uh-huh. *g*

Posted by: Thinky at April 1, 2004 02:59 AM