After a hiatus, the Scoreboard Spotlight is back! Like before, we're here to shine a little light on some of the performances that were peer-reviewed by community members through the Twin Galaxies Submission and Adjudication Process (TGSAP), which was recognized as the "gold standard for videogame adjudication." 

Joe Dearman - Defender (Arcade): TGTS - No Baiter Hunting

You might say that this scoring achievement was a long time coming. Turns out that the last time Joe Dearman seriously played the iconic William's shooter Defender, Ronald Reagan was president of the United States, E.T. phoned home and Joan Jett had us lovin' rock n roll. Yes, we're talking 1982. But over the last year and a half, Joe found himself blasting invaders and saving humans once again thanks to acquiring an original Defender arcade cabinet. From there, it was only a matter of time before Joe got his name onto the leaderboard in second place with 265,725 points on the "No Baiter Hunting" track.

Rickster8 - Masters of the Universe: The Power of He-Man (Intellivision - NTSC/PAL) - Novice

It was Rickster8's turn to “HAVE THE POWER!” on the Intellivision title Masters of the Universe: The Power of He-Man. In this contest, arch-nemesis Skeletor proved to be skilled at performing escapes after a brief but furious sword battle. Turns out Rickster8 had to catch him three times before Skeletor was finally "defeated," only to start the cycle all over again at increased difficulty. No matter - Rickster8 chased the Evil One through mountains, forest, and finally to Castle Grayskull itself where he defeated Skeletor enough times to earn 512,300 points to finish in fourth position on the TG leaderboard.

Theradiocal and Cole Machin - Altered Beast (Sega Genesis - NTSC - Points 2 Player Run)

For our third feature, we're giving a shout-out to some Altered Beast teamwork! Theradiocal and Cole Machin had twice the fun with a two player run through Ancient Greece and the underworld to rescue the goddess Athena from the clutches of Neff. Bestowed with transformative powers from Zeus, Theradiocal and Cole went from skinny dudes who got sand kicked in their faces to fearsome supernatural beasts that collected a combined score of 639,400 points for second place.

Evan Mcgahey - Super Pac-Man (Arcade) - Tournament Settings

Evan Mcgahey showed the community the super side of Super Pac-Man and an inaugural first place finish to go with it. Yes, for some reason Namco was inspired to create a Pac-Man sequel where traditional dot-filled mazes were replaced with sneakers (a maze filled with cake or grapes, we can get behind). Despite the non-traditional fare, Evan was inspired to gobble up footwear and ghosts with an eye towards a new benchmark - achieving the first submitted score on the Tournament Settings track with a final score of 96,850 points.

Luigi Ruffolo - Flappy Crush (Android) - Points

Admit it - when you first tried out Flappy Bird and kept bonking the bird's head on the pipe, you wondered what it would be like if you could take out your frustrations by taking that pipe and making a bird pancake. Well, if you did (or wanted to but were too polite to ask), Luigi Ruffolo found an answer for the community, and in doing so set himself up for an inaugural TG world record. Yes, we're talking about the aptly-named Flappy Crush for Android. Watching Luigi take a turn as the unforgiving pipe was a portrait of gritty determination. Bird after bird felt his wrath and he had the piles of bones to prove it. Unfortunately, a little birdy eventually got away and ended his run with an impressive 1,367 points.

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, finishing fast, and game on!