BREAKING NEWS - NEW WORLD RECORD ON "TRON" !!
As reported on September 8th, 2005

Hello fellow gamers:

     A few months ago, prior to the Funspot competition, I was
contacted by a gamer who qas very enthusiastic about submitting a score on his
favourite title, "Tron".

     David Cruz, who hails from Florida, submitting a very respectable
score of more than 3 million on his first life, but due to recording
limitations could only submit a portion of his final score. David later
showed up at Funspt 2005, albeit wit ha wrist injury, and still managed
to crank out a multi-million point score, although coming up short
compared to his previous submission.

     But his inspiration was evident. He wanted to someday capture the
world record on "Tron" for his very own, and a few short months after
Funspot, his 22 year old dream has come true.

     So on June 29th, 2005, after playing for an eye-popping 12-1/2
hours on this potentially marathonable title, deemed as such by TG due to
the limited number of awarded lives (start of 3 plus 1 extra), David
cranked out a final score of 6,768,288 points, shattering the previous
world record of more than 4.5 million points held by Donald Hayes these
past few years.

     Perhaps the most impressive achievement for David within the
confines of his attempt is his first life. He kept it going to more than 4.8
million points before losing his first life, effectively setting a new
world record on his first man. And he did this all while still
recovering from his wrist injury, which was evident from the few times he
mentioned that he was seen struggling to fire.

     Interestingly, that very same feat happened two more times this
year so far !! Greg Erway passed the "Tapper" (TGTS) record on his first
life, as did Chris Ayra when he set the new "Berzerk" fast bullets
world record, so David's feat is right up there with the top players in the
world !!

     When David showed up at Funspot, he was distinguished by his very
easy-going, focused approach at his quest. He played several attempts,
dealing with his wrist as best he could, but it turned out that a
little more rest was all that was needed in order to pull off a new world
record.

     Here is a summary of how he pulled it off.

     ******************************

THE PATH TO VICTORY

     I double checked my numbers against David's, and here are his game
death threasholds...

1st life ended at 4,862,321 (tanks)
2nd life ended at 5,165,223 (tanks)
3rd life ended at 6,763,764 (spiders)
4th life ended at 6,768,288 (fast cone)

     As you can see, his last two losses were pretty much back to back.
That was due to fatigue kicking in. But his first two losses, that was
due to, as he put it, "a little mistake" which caused his first loss.
The second was followed by a simple "uh, oh".

     The tank pattern was difficult to execute, and the first 4-5
seconds critical. One tiny mistake and you have three tanks converging on
you from different directions to deal with, and at their rate of fire you
cannot afford to miss. In both cases, a wrong twist of the knob or a
mis-fire is what I believe caused David's demise.

     The third loss, that was a heart-breaker. David was in the "boat"
pattern, or "upside-down cup" pattern, in the spider stage. I was
stunned when I saw this one. They replicated something fierce as he was near
the lower left corner with about 450 or 500 time units to go before he
had to exit or lose a life. I don't think I ever saw them replicate
that quickly all in the same place. Within the space of 3 seconds what
appeared to be room for a left-side exit turned into a death trap.

     The constant replication continued and David was forced deeper
into the corner. By the time the countdown timer was at the 200 mark, it
seemed hopeless. One last attempt was made to bust through but the
ever-replicating spiders were just too much.

     The last life loss he attributed to being tired. Not even 5,000
points from where he lost his 3rd life. The tail-end (bottom segment) of
a fast cone did the deed. At the speed the fast cone turns, you can
take out perhaps 2 pieces per rotation. Your character is about 3 pieces
tall, so it's not a cakewalk to bust through since the cone is 4
segments tall !!

     And so, with a very unsympathetic hit, the computer ended the
world's best "Tron" performance to date, as verified by Twin Galaxies, due
to a tiny, square-shaped block worth a fraction of David's overall
score.

     ******************************

AFTERMATH

     David's son Kevin also submitted a score for TG to review, of
862,451 points. I can think of no comment more appropriate here than "like
father, like son".

     It is truly rare in the world of classic arcade and console gaming
when a father/son combination are experts at the same title. I can
think of just two off the top of my head...John V. Thomas and Josh Powell
on "Wizard of Wor", and Greg Erway and son on "Speed Coin" for the MAME
platform. I'm sure there are more, but probably not that many more.

     I heard briefly from David regarding his plans going forward. This
is one record he intends to defend, so this will be quite interesting
over the coming months and years, as both the top two players are
equally determined to call this record their own. But for now, David's the
top dog on the title, the new world record holder, and that is definitely
something he can be extremely proud of.

     And so, on behalf of the Twin Galaxies Intergalactic Scoreboard,
we congratulate David Cruz on his spirited performance in claiming the
"Tron" arcade world record. Nicely done !!

Robert

Please feel free to join us in discussion and congratulations, here.