Looking for a little proper Twin Galaxies record-chasing action this weekend? A few of the Twin Galaxies Community faithful are set to take on a monster of a challenge to kick off June. A marathon attempt at the World Record for the Atari 2600 version of Asteroids will begin on Saturday June 2, 2018, and any who take on the chase with them are welcome to join in this open-invitation event.
It was Twin Galaxies member William "Snowflake" Rosa, who announced the marathon in a recent wall post on Twin Galaxies. Beginning at 7AM PT on Saturday June 2, Rosa will be streaming his marathon via his personal Twitch channel. Rosa will be joined by Alex "TB-303" Lyons, who will not be streaming, but instead be doing his own personal recording of his attempt for possible upload later.
Rosa and Lyons invite any and all interested players to join in the hunt for the Asteroids record. It is an open-invitation marathon. To this end, they have enlisted the aid of Glen "Ninglendo" Updike of Settle It On The Screen. Updike has offered the services of the Settle It On The Screen Discord channel for all parties to join in the fun, voice chat, and be a part of the chase.
It's a daunting task ahead of anyone going for the gold in this particular record run. At current, Mike Morrow holds the top spot in Game 1, Difficulty B of the Atari 2600 Asteroids Leaderboards with a supermassive record of 10,004,100 points, set in 2002. His closest competitor is Steve "Stygian" Germershausen at a score of 1,721,160. Rosa and Lyons have done some research on what it will take to get the job done and more than anything, it will take break planning and endurance.
"First place takes about 36 hours," Claims Rosa. "The game itself is pretty easy, but even an easy game that long adds up. you can only store up to 9 lives, so bathroom breaks are possible but challenging. Naps are impossible."
That said, company is certainly appreciated. In such an arduous task, extra voices may just be the thing to stave off fatigue, but the participants just want anyone thinking of getting involved to feel comfortable over all else.
"The more the merrier," Rosa explains. "People can get involved using emulation or whatever. They just wont be able to submit their score of course if they dont follow the rules of whatever track they're playing for, but they're still welcome to join the fun... I want everyone to feel comfortable getting involved, and if enough of us join in, maybe one of us will get the record."
With a full weekend worth of game ahead of them, Twin Galaxies wishes any who involve themselves in the event luck, and we share in the hopes that maybe we'll have an impressive new record to talk about come Monday!
Meanwhile, what exactly does it take to marathon a high score and record? Former Galaga Tournament World Record Holder Phil Day gives an analytical take on the Galaga marathon record, the current state of retro and arcade gaming, and what it takes to challenge a massive marathon score with help from fellow gaming champions.
