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Competitor’s lives
filled with joysticks
By Ben Steelman
Staff Writer
Chompa-chompa-chompa, EEEEEEEEyowwww, wonk, zeeber,
“Destroy all humanoids!”, zeeeeet, pong, glang-glang (dooo-da-dum-dum),
AiEEEEEEEE, Pop!
IF things sound a bit more intese
this weekend at World Class Amusements, there’a s good reason.
Those young players manning the
joysticks of Ms. Pac Man, Galaga and Donkey Kong Jr. aren’t just there for the
fun of it. They’re shooting for a
chance to get their names in the Guinness Book of World Records.
Wilmington is serving as the
mid-South headquarters for the 1984 Video Masters Tournament, a three-day event
sponsored nationwide by Twin Galaxies.
Between 40 and 50 top video players
from across North Carolina are expected to compete on about three dozen
different games, according to organizer Walter Day.
The competition, which started
Friday afternoon, will continue until about 10 p.m. Sunday at world Class
Amusements, in Kerr Plaza at 1015-D S. Kerr Ave. in Wilmington, and at Carolina
Beach Amusements, 45 Cape Fear Blvd.
Tournament play is also proceeding
simultaneously at arcade in New York, Chicago, Miami, Oklahoma City, San Jose,
Calif., and Seattle, as well as the city of Victoria in British Columbia. In all, participants may number in the thousands,
Day said.
In all these locations, official
witnesses and notary public will be on hand to verify high scores.
The tournament is sponsored by Twin
Galaxies, a promotional firm who office in Gladstone, Mo., serves as a
nationwide clearinghouse for confirming video records.
The Guinness Book of World
Records uses Twin Galaxies to verify the high scores it prints in its
current editions, said Maris Cakars of Sterling Publishing Co., the reference
book’s American distributor.
High scores verified during this
weekend’s Masters will appear in the next edition of Guinness, which
will devote a page and a half to video games, Day said.
Among the video champs expected to
compete this weekend will be Leo Daniels, the 23-year-old Carolina Beach native
who broke so many past records that his picture was printed in Life
magazine. Daniels will be trying for
new high marks on the games Tempest, Food Fight and possibly M.A.C.H. III.
Other contenders with a good chance
at record-breaking, according to Day, are Scotty Williams of Wilmington, who
once spent 30 straight hours playing Stargate, and Rick Alexander of Rocky
Point, a former world0-record holder in Time Pilot.
Heading the out-of-town talent is
Jeanine Dearduff, the 22-year-old Charlotte whiz who will try to top her own
record on Tapper.
Ms. Dearduff may state headlines
June 20 while competing on a Tapper game in Charlotte. She had just passed the record mark of 7 ½
million points when her attempt was abruptly interrupted – Gerald Waymer, a
photographer for a TV station, accidentally pulled her game’s cord to plug in
his camera.
To sharpen the play, all the video
games have been reset for the tournament to allow players a maximum of only
five “men,” spaceships, ray guns or whichever.
Only “four” men are allowed on Ms. Pac-Man.
“Video playing has reached a level
where a kid can play Stargate foreover – or as long as his mother will let
him,” Day said.
In past tournaments, for example,
Daniels would often earn as many as a hundred bonus spaceships on Asteroids, then
walk away from the machine to rest, eat a snack or drink a soda as these were
successively “atomized.” He would then
resume play when only three or four spaceships were left, then zoom off to a
new record.
By eliminating the bonuses, the
tournament will show what the players can accomplish on the equivalent of just
one quarter, Day said. “That will show
us who the really best players are.”
SIDEBAR
Who’s a champ?
You just score 2 million points on Donkey Kong. How can you tell if you set a world record?
For one thing, you can contact the
Twin Galaxies International Scoreboard, an office that keeps track of verified
high scores from arcades across the United States and Canada.
Twin Galaxies insists on careful
documentation, which reliable witnesses to verify the score and ensure no
tampering with the machines, according to representative Walter Day.
The scoreboard’s mailing address is
1701 NE. 69th St., Gladstone, Mo. 64118. Its phone number is (816) 436-64118.
Source: Wimmington Morning Star, June 30,1984
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