Here at Twin Galaxies, we love a good high score and a record time. So each week we look deep in the wealth of Undisputed and Verified scores in the Twin Galaxies Adjudication Archive and dig up some spectacular recent scores! On this edition of the Scoreboard Spotlight, we have two obscure arcade titles, the arcade version of Super Contra, an incredible run of VS Duck Hunt on the arcade, and one tenacious marathon of Tapper. Let’s check out these incredible performances!
Charlie Wehner - Super Contra (Arcade): Points
A series that popularized a cheat code that has been branded into the pop-culture subconscious, Contra is probably one of the more infamous titles from Konami. It’s also one of the harder game series they’ve developed. With twitch reflexes though, Charlie Wehner was able to put up a massive score on the arcade version of Super Contra of 10,795,400 points. Even with multiple continues, this game is a beast, so being able to do it on a single set of lives is incredible on its own. Putting up a jaw-dropping score on top of that though is just amazing.
Interestingly enough, the spot this score edges out was one put up by Pete Hahn in 2015. A three year record has finally been bested!
Dave Mitchell - VS Duck Hunt (Arcade): Points
Contra definitely hit a lot of its popularity thanks to a fantastic version on the NES and the NES was also famous for its lightgun classic Duck Hunt, of which a VS arcade version was made. This is where Dave Mitchell comes in, who shows us that accuracy and skill is what it takes to score big, no tricks or strategies, just play better. Through excellent play, Mitchell was able to submit a score of 2,085,000 points. We don’t get to talk about lightgun games very often, so we had to recognize this classic game played in an extreme way.
For those looking for a bit of Duck Hunt nostalgia mixed with fear, there’s also the VR horror game Duck Season. It’s a modern celebration of that era of gaming, juxtaposed with truly creepy situations.
Nick Vis - Poitto! (MAME): Points
Now that we’ve touched on some nostalgia it’s time to get weird. One of the coolest things about highlighting scores at Twin Galaxies is the discovery of games we didn’t know about. That’s where this cute puzzle game Poitto! falls in and Nick Vis crushes the monsters like a pro. Released in 1993 by Metro, Poitto! has players matching bottles to unleash spells on monsters. There’s also a vs mode for players to compete against each other, but slowly squishing a monster flat while he struggle against the ceiling is just as appealing as it is disturbing.
Vis was able to squeeze 520,313 points of this run and now we have something new to consider when looking for interesting arcade games.
Eric O’ Brien - Espgaluda (MAME): Points
Twin Galaxies players truly have a gift for finding obscure gems. Espgaluda is a colorful and frantic shoot-em-up title that takes an extra level of dexterity due to how the shooting works. Holding the button creates a laser and tapping shoots standard bullets, an extra layer to deal with while making pixel-perfect dodges. These games take an almost super human level of talent to pull off, as they’re designed typically to drain quarters. Eric O’ Brien was able to 25,069,380 points on a single credit. Talk about playing economically!
William Rosa - Tapper (Arcade): Points
Lastly, we have a 19-hour marathon session of the drink slinging Tapper. Tapper is all about serving guests and mentally keeping track of what spawned first and how fast they cross the bar before going away. William Rosa shows off his ability to work under pressure by solidifying a 10,361,550 points second place record by playing for almost a full day, just shy of twenty hours. It’s an older submission, but was finally re-submitted and fully accepted. Excellent performance, but is still amazingly 4 million shy of the top score submitted by Lauren Featherstone in 2017.
These endlessly looping game records take incredible skill and stamina, pushing bodies to the limit. Maybe we’ll see some upsets in the future.
Bounty of the Week - Parodius: Non-Sense Fantasy (SNES): Points
We’ve already taken a stab at Metal Slug on the Switch, Shovel Knight Any%, and even Monster Hunter World, but now it’s time to get strange with this parody shoot-em-up title Parodius on the SNES. It’s a weird one, but the shooting mechanics are solid, so let’s get scoring. Here is the track, either take on Normal or Lolipop mode.
This covers our Scoreboard Spotlight for this week. As a reminder, these were just a few of exceptional records that were adjudicated and accepted recently. Every record that made it through verification and landed on our leaderboards has a well-deserved place in the Twin Galaxies gaming pantheon.
Keep scoring high and finishing fast and you just might end up on our next Scoreboard Spotlight!
To check out our previous Scoreboard Spotlight, in which we check out some Atari PIIIIIGGGGSSS IN SPAAAAAAAACE and more.
