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Walking the Streets of the Dodge City of Video Games
The "Toughest Guns" put on a show at Apollo Amusements as numerous world records are submitted to the Guinness World Records(TM) 2007 Book |
Pompano Beach, FL - May 2, 2006 -- Many heroes emerged during the "Toughest Gun in the Dodge City of Video Games" event held at Apollo Amusements in Pompano Beach, FL. To see the original news release which contains more background information, please go to Dodge City.
Not only were the joystick-pushing players heroes of the gaming world, but numerous people kept the event going with super-human effort, which, without them, the event would have collapsed.
Among the hearty souls who kept the peace in Dodge were John Jamshid (known as Evil Exidy on the internet) and Dwayne Richard of Grand Prairie, Alberta, Canada -- who traveled around Florida for 3-4 days, gathering the contest games from many different collectors, many of whom lived 6-7 hours drive from the contest site. And, in addition to moving the games up and down steep stairs numerous times, they had to return the games to their generous donors after the event was over -- another task that took more than a whole day.Apollo AmusementsAnd, of most importance, John Russo, founder of Apollo Amusements, contributed his Pompano Beach Showroom for use as the contest venue. This fortunate gift to the classic arcade hobby allowed history to be made just as the Guinness World Records 2007 Book asked Twin Galaxies for verified high scores on classic arcade games. Without the devotion to the cause of John Russo and his staff -- and the use of his facilities -- the event would not have been possible. So, all of John's three locations will have certificates to hang on the walls that commemorate Apollo Amusements' participation in the making of video game history.
Incidentally, John has posted lots of pictures at his website. They can be viewed at:
Apollo Amusements Photos #1Apollo Amusements Photos #2Apollo Amusements Photos #3The GunslingersMany "Tough Guns," representing England, Canada, Washington, Maine, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Florida, Missouri, New York, Kentucky and Indiana played thousands of games over the period of three straight days. Starting at noon on Thursday, many players played non-stop for the entire three days, quitting only in time for the Awards Ceremony held Sunday evening. Here are some of the results from the event:Ms. Pac-Man - The Legend of Abdner
On his first game, Thursday night, Abdner Ashman broke the Ms. Pac-Man world record with a score of 933,580 points. And, he accomplished the score on 133 boards -- the minimum number of screens that the game gives before ending in an upside-down board that commonly stops the game. Earlier Ms. Pac-Man high scores submitted by Abdner, Chris Ayra and Rick Fothergill were attained during games that gave "extra boards," extending beyond the 133-board barrier that usually ends a game. Some of these high-scoring games of the past enjoyed up to 8 "extra" boards before their games ended. In this light, Abdner's accomplishment can only be considered a Ms. Pac-Man 'miracle.'
Abdner Ashman is becoming a legend in the world of arcade gaming. At the recent "Legends of the Golden Age" event in Humble, Florida, during the weekend of Dec 2-4, 2005, he started a game of Junior Pac-Man at six o'clock in the evening and played one game until midnight, breaking the world record with a score of over 3.3 million points. Then he walked down the row of games and started playing Robotorn all night. After about 200 games, he broke the Robotron World Record at 6:00 AM in the morning with a score of 945,550 points. The Guinness World Records(tm) 2007 Book has requested Abdner's photograph so he may be about to receive the attention he deserves.
And, on top of that, John Russo, founder/proprietor of Apollo Amusements, has recognized Abdner's prestigious contributions to the art of classic gaming and is bringing him back to Apollo Amusements to give public workshops and seminars on classic game playing. Watch the Apollo Amusements website for further announcements on these workshops.Doris vs. Kelly Tharp -- Q*Bert Snackdown80-year-old Doris Self was the big media draw during the weekend as she faced off against Kelly Tharp, a new-comer to the Q*Bert circuit, seeking to claim a world record for himself on Q*Bert. Doris was interviewed on the phone during the weekend by journalists as far away as Kansas City and the country of Ireland. After all was said and done, Neither Doris or Kelly beat the current world record, both reaching slightly over 500,000 points. However, both players plan to continue their drive towards the world record of 1,895,000 points that has been held by Tom Gault of Duluth, MN for more than 22 years.
Zoo Keeper - Brother Against Brother, Cram Against Cram.The world record of 35 million + points was not broken, but both brothers attained very high scores: Jason at 29 million (new personal high) and Shawn at 22 million. Since both brothers live in Lebanon, Maine, they are a short drive from Funspot VIII where they plan to renew their Zoo Keeper feud the weekend of June 1-4, 2006.Joust - Old School Against New School; Kansas City against New England.The world record of 1,002,500 points was not broken but Steve Sanders reached 800,500 (new personal high) and Donald Hayes topped 787,000 (his personal high score now stands at 878,000 -- recorded on videotape earlier this week). These contest scores were respectively the 2nd and 3rd highest Joust scores in history. Since one of the two available Joust machines turned out to have the wrong ROM chip installed, both players alternated on the only remaining Joust, keeping the game occupied non-stop for the entire three days. Both Hayes and Sanders plan to re-group at the forthcoming Funspot to renew the furious rivalry. "Joust is going down at Funspot," promises Steve Sanders. Incidentally, Steve Sanders' Joust efforts were the object of a Kansas City Star news item that also co-appeared in the online editions of 13 other big-city dailies, among them the Charlotte Observer, the Monterey County Herald, Biloxi Sun Herald, Macon Telegraph and the Duluth News Herald.Steve Wiebe and Donkey Kong
Steve Wiebe came from Redmond, Washington in hopes of being the first video game player in history to break 1 million points on Donkey Kong in a public venue. Steve already enjoyed the status of scoring the highest score on Donkey Kong in a public venue when he reached 985,600 points at Funspot VII, June 3, 2005. Now with support from his wife and two children, he sat in front of the game starting on Thursday night and never let up for the entire weekend, hoping to be the first to 1 million points. After about 50-75 games, he began to get his groove and managed 3 or 4 games in the 825,000 - 865,000 range. His gaming ordeal was one of the harder ones during the event, because each game took slightly more than two hours, so a single game could be very exhausting. Still, he would start again and again, never giving up. This is the third consecutive event that Steve Wiebe has attended, proving he has the heart of a serious contender who is not afraid to face his competitors.Galaxian - England Against the World.When Perry Rodgers went to England in August, 2005, to face Gary Whelan, his Galaxian nemesis, Whelan fell sick and couldn't make the match-up. (See this link about earlier meetings between the two). Now, this year, Gary Whelan came to America, but neither the Galaxian machine nor Perry Rodgers metarialized. But, Whelan had plenty of time to practice on the Multi-Arcade emulator edition of Galaxian at Apollo Amusements, familiarizing himself with the "American Galaxian" chip, which was never circulated in the United Kingdom. After building his score up to 167,000 points, he said: "It has a slightly different play to it, but now I'm more use to it, so I think I can get good scores when I go to Funspot in June to face Perry Rodgers, my American Galaxian rival." Stay tuned for a report from Funspot VIII in June as Perry finally meets Gary in their third attempt to face each other. It will be: Galaxian Rivalry III: The Final Showdown.Dig Dug - The heroics of Dwayne RichardDwayne was determined to beat Donald Hayes' Dig Dug world record at the "Toughest Gun" event. But, his unselfish efforts to keep the whole show going left him with virtually little time to play -- and definitely no time to practice. So, with only a few hours available to tackle Dig Dug, he put up 2.1 million points, far less than his previous 4,211,920 point-tally, that once stood as the world record. So, the entire gaming community has Dwayne to thank for finding the contest games, moving them, fixing them, and, essentially sacrificing his own participation as a competitor in order to keep the show moving onward.
As an interesting aside, however, when Dwayne did play his abbreviated game of Dig Dug, he discovered that the Dig Dug machine had a previously unknown ROM chip that Twin Galaxies had never encountered before. It was harder and did not require the monsters to slow down in the later boards like the normal chip does. The TG Board of Referees may consider allowing scores to be submitted on this chip because it does not give an unfair advantage, but, instead, gives an unfair disadvantage. The deciding factor on this ROMset depends on whether it has a "kill-screen," like the normal Dig Dug chip. If it doesn't, then the ROMset will not be accepted by Twin Galaxies.
Frogger
Pat Laffaye came from Westport, CT to tackle the Frogger world record of 589,350 points, which is currently held by Donald Hayes, Laffaye's arch-rival. Laffaye lifted his best score up to around 490,000 points, making it history's 2nd best Frogger score, not too far behind Hayes' mark. While working on his new personl best, Laffaye was often seen in conference with both Donald Hayes' and Dwayne Richard (also a Frogger contender), discussing advanced tactics and Frogger theories. "We're within inches of figuring out Frogger," the three announced after the event. Tune into Funspot VIII (June 1-4, 2006) to see if Frogger has been solved.
Gorf
Todd Rogers has held the 3-man Gorf world record since November 11, 1982, making it one of history's longest-held records. To top off this distinction, Rogers logged Twin Galaxies' first record on Gorf with 5-men during the "Toughest Gun" event, scoring 294,650 points, a new standard for future players to tackle.
Raven Pinball
Though Luis Lopez of California was busy working with LaunchPad Productions, the documentary crew filming the "Toughest Gun" event, he still managed to be the top scorer on Raven pinball, logging an inauagural score of 1,040,000 points for Twin Galaxies.
The Amazing Cram Family During the Awards ceremony at the end of the event, the Cram Family (Anna, Jason, Shawn, Christina F., Shawn and Pauline, the Matriarch of the family) were introduced to the crowd as the "First Family" of classic gaming. In addition to being the biggest supporters of classic gaming in New England, numerous members of the family are Twin Galaxies referees and they have also created a private arcade in the basement of their home featuring 54 arcade coin-op video games.
Score TableListed below are the contestants and their scores and how these scores rank in the current Twin Galaxies database. Please note that numerous players currently hold higher scores in the database on the games listed below but failed to match those records. Among them are Doris Self on Q*Bert, Gary Whelan on Galaxian, Dwayne Richard on Dig Dug and Shawn Cram on Zookeeper.Ms. Pac-Man 933,580 (New World Record) Abdner Ashman, Queens, NY
Raven Pinball 1,040,000 (New World Record) Luis Lopez, California
Gorf (5-Man) 294,650 (New World Record) Todd Rogers, Brooksville, FL
Joust 800,500 (2nd Place in the world) Steve Sanders, Kansas City, Mo
Joust 787,000 (3rd Place in the world) Donald Hayes, Windham, NH
Frogger 490,000+ (2nd Place in the world) Pat Laffaye, Westport, CT
Zookeeper 29 Million+ (2nd Place in the world) Jason Cram, Lebanon, ME
Zookeeper 22 Million+ (3rd Place in the world) Shawn Cram, Lebanon, ME
Galaxian 167,000+ (3rd Place in the world) Gary Whelam, Dukinfield, UK
Donkey Kong 864,000+ (4th Place in the world) Steve Wiebe, Redmond, WA
Q*Bert (5-Man) 530,000+ (4th Place in the world) Kelly Tharp, Sellersburg, IN
Q*Bert (5-Man) 521,000+ (5th Place in the world) Doris Self, Miami, FL
Dig Dug 2.1 Million+ (16th Place in the world) Dwayne Richard, Grand Prairie, AB, Ca
Dig Dug 1.1 Million+ (21st Place in the world) Kelly Tharp, Sellersburg, IN
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