Centipede World Record Smashed

Donald Hayes' ordeal is over. After months of repeated attempts, he has finally broken the 14-year-old world record on Atari's classic arcade video game, Centipede. He has almost nine hours of videotape to prove he earned the new world record and every last one of his 7,111,111 points.

He willingly ended the game after nearly half a day of non-stop cyber warfare at the famous Funspot Family Fun Center in Weirs Beach, New Hampshire. Hayes, 32, of Salem, New Hampshire, gained video game immortality on Sunday, November 5, when he earned 7,111,111 points -eclipsing the former world record of 5,500,000 points established by G. Ben Carter, Jr., on June 28, 1986 at the Aladdin's Castle in Fremont, Nebraska.

"Breaking the Centipede record is one of the greatest video-game playing accomplishments seen in recent years," explains Walter Day, Chief Scorekeeper at the Twin Galaxies Intergalactic Scoreboard and the official judge for all video game world records, since 1982.

"This accomplishment will be entered into the Official World Scoreboard that Twin Galaxies maintains on the Internet at www.twingalaxies.com, in addition to publication in Twin Galaxies' Official Video Game & Pinball Book of World Records, the industry's official book of records," Day said.

In further recognition of the greatness of his accomplishment, Hayes will be honored by the Mayor of Salem sometime in December at Salem City Hall, where he will receive a framed certificate created by Twin Galaxies to commemorate the accomplishment.

Hayes' world record was the culmination of months of practice and numerous weekends at Funspot. "I have my own arcade edition of this game in my home in Salem," he reveals. "I had already unofficially beat the world record last month with 5.7 million points, but I had no witnesses or a videotape of the performance to authenticate my claim on the title, so I decided to turn my next attempt into a public spectacle at Funspot."

Hayes chose Funspot as the site of his record challenge because they routinely offer complete videotaping services and game referees to any world-class player attempting to break a world record at their facilities. As a worldwide leader in supporting competitive classic video game playing, Funspot has been the site of many recent headline events, including the world's first "perfect" Pac-Man score, as well as world records on Super Pac-Man, Junior Pac-Man, Star Wars and Arkanoid.

In order to verify the feat, Funspot captured Hayes' marathon on two tapes; the first runs about 7.5 hours capturing just over 6 million points, with the second tape preserving another hour and a half to the end of the game. "Videotaping is necessary," explains Scorekeeper Day, "because Centipede is one of the hardest games to prove that you didn't cheat. Twin Galaxies will not accept scores achieved by trapping the Centipede or by emptying the screen of mushrooms. The flea must always be falling and the player must always be shooting," advises Day. "This is why Centipede world record attempts must be videotaped from the coin-drop to the final score appearing on the score table, to prove that the player used the 'shoot-em-up' style of play."

To increase his odds for success, Hayes brought in the control panel from his own Centipede machine to insert into the Funspot machine. "I'm very used to the feel of my own trackball," explains Hayes.

Interestingly, most players who have mastered Centipede had an easy go of it, learning tricks and strategies by watching other top players. But, Hayes, who had never before participated in a coin-operated video contest, had to work on it alone. When asked how he developed his technique, Hayes confessed that he just "figured it out himself."

"His skill is unbelievable," explains Kai Butler, Twin Galaxies' Chief Score Analyst. "You can only get six shooters at any time, so the margin for era is narrower than on any other legendary golden age game. Plus, the game is faster and more ferocious than even Robotron when played on difficulty level #9."

So, how earthshaking will this news be to residents of Fremont, Nebraska, now that the title is no longer held by a local man?

Well, calls to Fremont, Nebraska have revealed that the Aladdin's Castle in Fremont closed its doors over 10 years ago and the manager of the nearest Aladdin's Castle -- in Omaha -- was unaware that a local man had held the Centipede record for the last 14 years. However, reporters at the Fremont Tribune found the story intriguing enough to start a search for G. Ben Carter but were unable to find him.

Meanwhile, Hayes plans on taking a rest - at least for a while. "I will still continue to play Centipede," he said. "But now that the Centipede record is out of the way, I want to concentrate on the Zaxxon world record and own that title, too."