Peter Skerritt, a freelance writer from Massachusetts specializing in video-game related stories, was one of nearly 80 participants at the 4th annual Twin Galaxies/Funspot Classic Gaming Competition held at the Funspot Family Amusement Center in Weirs Beach, New Hampshire, May 30th - June 2nd.

Peter distinguished himself during the competition by setting a new World Record on the 1985 Taito game, "Mania Challenge", one of the first wrestling-themed games to hit the arcades. His score of 1,243,250 beat the previous world record by approximately 20,000 points as verified and authenticated by the Twin Galaxies Intergalactic Scoreboard, the world's premiere tracker and authenticator of videogame and pinball world records since 1981.

Peter, who also happens to be the world champion on "Sea Wolf," a monochrome boat-hunting game from the 1970's, believes the gameplay in "Mania Challenge" is more complex than other wrestling based titles of that era. He says: "Each match is a one-on-one affair, with dozens of moves at the player’s disposal. Suplexes, piledrivers, clotheslines, and high-flying moves off of the top rope are just a few of the maneuvers that players can pull off. While the game is primarily known as a “versus” type of game, the single player mode becomes more challenging with each successive round as computer opponents become faster and stronger. In order for me to obtain my 1.24 million point score, I won 69 consecutive matches."

And any time you deal with a game that gets progressively harder, every additional point earned, or match won, is that much more impressive than the previous record, according to Twin Galaxies chief referee Robert T. Mruczek, a long-time gamer for over three decades and one of the officials at the Twin Galaxies Intergalactic Scoreboard who ensures that all player score submissions are duly authenticated and tracked on the online database.

Peter's record on "Sea Wolf" is equally impressive. At 10,800 points, Peter was the first person in recorded history to have "rolled over" the score counter. Many games from the 1970's were designed with short-term gameplay and low scoring expectations, so a 5-digit score was unusual. Like the classic "Space Invaders", "Sea Wolf" rolls over at a mere 9,999 points to zero, requiring the vigilant presence of an authorized Twin Galaxies referee to log his final score. This tournament, Peter came close to his "Sea Wolf" score with 10,200 points, the small difference basically coming down to missing a single boat along the way, a small and fast moving submarine worth a cool 700 points. Peter's next closest competitor on this title is a tad below 10,000 points, but percentage-wise, Peter maintains a significant advantage. In this title, you start with 61 seconds on the clock, and a bonus of just 20 additional seconds is awarded after achieving a pre-determined threshold score. Such limitations do not give players much of a margin for error, or time to even miss. In his 10,800 world record, he also didn't miss a single shot in the process.

Twin Galaxies would officially like to recognize Peter Skerritt as the new world champion on the 1985 title "Mania Challenge" effective end of competition day June 2nd, 2002.