Scoreboard Spotlight: John Hurst's Deadly Shaq-Fu & More
By Twin Galaxies Editorial Staff ·
On this week's Scoreboard Spotlight we look at new records including an impressive Battlezone run, a massive series of new Gran Turismo records, and a top-tier Shaq-Fu throwdown!
We love the highest scores and the lowest times here at Twin Galaxies. It’s just kind of our thing. That’s why each week we dig into the Twin Galaxies Adjudication Archives to check out the latest Undisputed new world records and bring them to you in our Scoreboard Spotlight. This last week saw some amazing runs, including an awesome classic arcade record made on M.A.M.E., a massive collection of racing runs spanning a whole beloved series, an impressive fight to the finish on a cult classic fighting game, and more!
Doron Gronski - Battlezone [Set 1] (M.A.M.E.): Points
Our first record takes us to the classic wire-frame tank game Battlezone. This incredibly early and rudimentary play at 3D graphics tasks players with blowing up tanks and UFOs on their way to a high score. Some incredible runs on the actual arcade range in the tens of millions, but Doron Gronski’s record-setting run on the M.A.M.E. version of the game is admirable nonetheless. Gronski displays an impressive understanding of where enemies will be, how to avoid them and their attacks, and when to place his shots to stack point after point on his run. By the time Gronski’s two hour run is finished, he amassed an even 2,000,000 points for this version of the game, climbing nearly 1.5 million points over the previous record set by Jeff Wolfe in 2005 on the Battlezone M.A.M.E leaderboards. Gronski attributes his learning of the game to the current Arcade Battlezone master David Palmer, and though Palmer sits quite in the distance at 23,000,000 points on the Battlezone Arcade leaderboards, Gronski’s impressive run to capture the M.A.M.E. record is still quite a run to watch.
Mike Tylak - SolarStriker (Game Boy/Game Boy Color): Points
Our next record takes us back to the handheld playing field. SolarStriker is a neat and tidy little arcade shooter. It doesn’t quite have the variety or flashiness of some of its peers, but it is tough and pulling down a high score in the limited time you have is dependent upon hitting every precious ship you can before they can. Mike “Mtylak” Tylak knows how to get the job done as he gathers an incredible amount of points in his run of SolarStriker. Not only does Tylak have the accuracy and timing to destroy nearly every ship possible, but he also has the reflexes to dodge the ships that can’t be destroyed and keep himself alive throughout the run. In mastering these two ends of the game, he pulls down an impressive end score of 703,900, overcoming David “dcs577” Solomon’s record of 619,000, set in 2016 on the SolarStriker Leaderboard. Matching the accuracy and survival of Tylak’s will be a tough act to follow, dependent upon whether anyone can discover a way to kill off just a few more ships than he did.
Paul Zimmerman - Funky Fish (Atari 2600 - NTSC): Game 1, Difficulty - B Points
This one goes back to the Atari 2600 roots with a classic run of Funky Fish. This port of a 1981 has you playing the titular fish as you fight back against aliens that invaded the oceans. It required players to blast the aliens with bubbles and then collect the fruit they turn into in an increasingly frenetic level system. Paul Zimmerman recorded a stellar run at the game, dodging danger, shooting the baddies, and collecting fruit left and right on his way to a new Funky Fish record. The enemies are jerky to say the least in this game, but Zimmerman makes moving through them look about as natural as it gets. For his efforts, Zimmerman lands himself a score of 19,410 for the Atari 2600 Funky Fish Leaderboard, beating out the 17,320 point score set by Terence “RaGe” O’Neill in 2017. It’s not an impossible score to beat, but contenders are going to have to bring a substantial amount of funk to the table if they want to knock Zimmerman off of his place at the top.
Paul Kearns - Gran Turismo 1 Through 5 (PS1/PS2/PS3 - PAL): Various Records
Paul “Kernzyp” Kearns clearly has a love for the Gran Turismo games as he didn’t just go out to put up one record recently, but rather a massive collection of them. From the first game on PS1 all the way up to Gran Turismo 5 on PS3, Kearns went through a diverse collection of courses, difficulties, and record styles and set a massive array of bars for other players to contend with. There was a lot to look at, but one of the really interesting runs was his Fastest Race run through Monte Carlo on Normal Difficulty in Gran Turismo 3 A-SPEC. As you’ll see below, Kearns flies through the streets, but still takes the difficult corners and curves of Monte Carlo like a champ, coming in at just around 6 minutes once his race is finished. This level of driving can be found throughout all of Kearns recent runs, though Kearns himself invites competition and challenge to any of his records. The bars have been set on a wide array of runs. It will be interesting to see who rises to the challenge to compete with Kearns and try to claim one of these many records for themselves.
John Hurst - Shaq-Fu (Sega Genesis/Master System - NTSC): Story Mode - Points
The infamous Shaq-Fu is an odd fighter to say the least. Besides cashing in on the fame of Shaquille O’Neil for a fighting game of all things, this game features some notorious control and mechanics. It’s not easy, but John “Sircrowbar” Hurst navigates the Story Mode of this game for a point run that would make Shaq proud. It may not seem like much at first glance - there’s a lot of kicks - but Hurst outplays floaty jump mechanics, cheap enemies, and annoying hitboxes to wrack up a massive collection of points by the time the credits roll. By the time he unraveled the final boss in the last round, Hurst had gained a score of 824,673, putting him squarely at the top of the Shaq-Fu Leaderboards. Coming to the end of the game without continues is tough on its own, but amassing a score that beat out the previous one (690,713 by Wayne Meares in 2015) by such a degree goes to show that, at least for the time being, Hurst’s Shaq-Fu is truly best.
And that covers our Scoreboard Spotlight for this week. As usual, while these particular records caught our full attention, they were not anywhere near all of the new Undisputed records that have come in within the previous week alone. Each and every high score and low time that made the cut has its place in the pantheon of Twin Galaxies gaming. Keep pushing those points and finding those new low times on your favorite tracks and you just might end up on our next edition of Scoreboard Spotlight.
In the meantime, check out our previous Scoreboard Spotlight, featuring a legendary 10-hour marathon record run of Centipede and much more!