F I N A L R E S U L T S ! !
Hello fellow gamers:
For six long months, several players had been battling for the top rankings of the 2004 Twin Galaxies Advanced MAME decathlon. The format started in 2003 as a harder, more challenging version of the traditional annual MAME decathlon, offering players a chance to show just how well they could parlay their overall gaming skills towards a series of ten (10) varied and definitely difficult challenges.
January 2005 was the last month of the challenge in which each player had an opportunity for one more attempt at each of the ten titles, which were contested at a pace of two titles per month. The players themselves voted on the titles that made up the competition, while the staff of Twin Galaxies determined the specific settings and rules per title.
After some last minute posturing...literally, as submissions kept coming in until the closing minutes...a winner emerged. It was a close call, so I double checked my own data and then triple checked against that of my fellow contest adminsitrators. After the fact-checking phase was completed, it was safe to announce the winner.
There was a 100% maximum possible per title for all ten titles. Although points per title determined the percentage, total points for the ten titles did not. In other words, if you scores 10 million points on a title and was number one on that title, that earned you 100%. Suppose you scored poorly on the other 9 titles, none of which even came close to 10 million points. Then it is quite possible that although your cumulative point total was far in excess of 10 million points, you still might have lost the competition. That being said, onto announcing the winners.
Martin Bedard, who hails from Canada, was the overall winner, achieving a tally of 705.64% out of a maximum of 1,000%. This was a close finish. Donald Hayes, who hails from the USA, came in a close second with 694.63%. Between the two players, they controlled all ten of the top scores from this event, splitting it evenly at 5 and 5.
Their pace was blistering...most, if not all, of their performances were either world records for full-game performances, or newly established world records at these extreme settings and parameters. They blazed forth a tough act to follow.
Coming in 3rd place was Anders Svensson, who hails from Sweden, with 332.75%, followed by David Nelson from the USA with 240.64% and Robert Macauley from Australia with 237.54%.
The competition selection was a mix of classic titles from the 1980's era plus a few colourful titles from the era that followed. It also included some of the toughest titles of all time (\"Super Zaxxon\", \"Millipede\", \"Elevator Action\") and a variety of skillsets. It provided a competetive and interesting blend of action and entertainment for all participants.
Here are the final results...
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FINAL RANKINGS (PERCENTAGES)
705.64% - Martin Bedard
694.63% - Donald Hayes
332.75% - Anders Svensson
248.93% - Robert T Mruczek (*1)
240.64% - David Nelson
237.54% - Robert Macauley
198.99% - Greg Erway
143.26% - Phil Younger
110.61% - Jonathan Dunne
88.48% - Kelly Flewin
61.11% - Rafal Politanski (Did Not Qualify) (*2)
54.59% - A. Peter Mee (DNQ)
20.33% - Brien King (DNQ)
(*1) - as competition administrator I was competiting for fun, not rankings or prizes)
(*2) - competitors had to submit results for each of the ten selections at each leg of the competition or were disqualified)
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HIGHLIGHTS BY TITLE
BALCUBE
Martin took control of this event as the only player to pull off a score in excess of a million points. He nearly hit two million on his first life. Some players have since prodded him to now try for the world mark which is slightly over two million.
BERZERK
Donald Hayes hit 106K on his first life at the \"fast bullets/slow Otto\" ROMset which was selected for the competition. His final score ended at 109K. Once he died it was extremely difficult to get back into sequence. Phil (\"Robot Killer\") Younger gave him competition with 70,740 but no one else came close.
CAMEL TRY
The only fixed-duration title this competition that players had a realistic chance of completing. Played at maximum difficulty and settings, There were two close scores for the top spot. Martin Bedard hit 304,760 while Anders Svensson hit 288,070. No one else broke the 200K barrier.
DIG DUG
Contested at maximum difficulty and on one life only, \"winging it\" would only get you so far in this title. Donald Hayes, the arcade world champion, took his default difficulty skills to the next level and lasted to 948,330 points on his first life. Martin gave it a go reaching 178,180 but no one else even came close.
ELEVATOR ACTION
One of the toughest and most unpredictable titles this competition, it was contested at maximum difficulty for one life only. The top two scores were nearly a tie, with Donald edging out Martin by a mere 350 points (43,500 vs 43,150). Anders Svensson came in a close 3rd with 41,150.
MILLIPEDE
When contested at maximum difficulty AND one shooter only, the playfield became quite even. Granted, one player happened to be one of the world's best at the title, and he came through with a whopping 171,362 on his first shooter, but everyone else tried equally hard, and most players all came within the same range of so, albeit a fraction of Donald's score.
SMASH TV
To my knowledge, Twin Galaxies has never contested this classic title before, and for good reason. Two-way controller titles are difficult to play via keyboard, but players gave it their all. Martin Bedard lead the pack as the only player to reach level 2, defeating the \"Mutoid Man\" and earning the big bonus points that followed, finishing with a whopping 5,779,620 point score. No one else broke a million.
SUPER ZAXXON
Long deemed to be one of the toughest titles of all time, it showed as most players could not last beyond 60 seconds on their first life. World champion Donald Hayes pulled off an astounding 273,800 on his first life. Only one player had the skillset to even come close. Martin Bedard achieved 90,300 points, which is great score on this title, but Donald's 273K was just too awesome to catch. Some players could only muster a single digit percentage of his final result (myself included)
VANGUARD
This one was a close call. Two players cracked the 100K barrier on this old and unpredictable 4-way shooting, 8-way movement title. Martin Bedard lead the way with 172,460 on his first shooter. Donald Hayes gave chase with 144,960. Only Dave Nelson passed 40K out of everyone else, and his game ended at 63,310. This is one of those titles where no matter how good you are, anything can happen.
WONDERBOY
This was the surprise ending of the competition, as it single handedly put Martin Bedard into first place, although he did improve some other titles towards the end.
Martin submitted a score of 2,122,630 points on \"Wonderboy\" in which he completed the game, with the perfect ending, all on his first life. This has NEVER been done before...arcade or MAME...and as such, ranks as one of the highlights of this competition.
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RANKED RESULTS BY TITLE
Now it's time to see how we all did !!
BALCUBE - 1st life only
1st - 1,929,810 - Martin Bedard
2nd - 756,100 - Anders Svensson
3rd - 671,160 - Robert T Mruczek
4th - 465,000 - Donald Hayes
5th - 310,580 - Dave Nelson
6th - 275,390 - Greg Erway
7th - 265,030 - Robert Macauley
8th - 191,240 - Jonathan Dunne
9th - 140,870 - A. Peter Mee (DNQ)
10th - 104,460 - Rafal Politanski (DNQ)
11th - 57,920 - Phil Younger
12th - 37,330 - Kelly Flewin
13th - 26,000 - Brien King (DNQ)
BERZERK - 1st life only
1st Place - 106,030 - Donald Hayes
2nd Place - 70,740 - Phil Younger
3rd Place - 19,670 - Martin Bedard
4th Place - 10,530 - Greg Erway
5th Place - 9,600 - Robert T Mruczek
6th Place - 8,870 - Robert Macauley
7th Place - 8,260 - David Nelson
8th Place - 8,050 - Jonathan Dunne
9th Place - 3,330 - Anders Svensson
10th Place - 1,500 - Kelly Flewin
CAMEL TRY - Beginner Full Game
1st Place - 304,760 - Martin Bedard
2nd Place - 288,070 - Anders Svensson
3rd Place - 192,270 - Robert Macauley
4th Place - 177,890 - David Nelson
5th Place - 160,490 - Robert T Mruczek
6th Place - 148,910 - Donald Hayes
7th Place - 91,590 - Greg Erway
8th Place - 88,730 - Phil Younger
9th Place - 68,620 - Jonathan Dunne
10th Place - 14,160 - Kelly Flewin
DIG DUG - 1st life only
1st Place - 948,330 - Donald Hayes
2nd Place - 178,180 - Martin Bedard
3rd Place - 91,800 - David Nelson
4th Place - 80,070 - Jonathan Dunne
5th Place - 59,160 - Greg Erway
6th Place - 57,940 - Robert Macauley
7th Place - 41,140 - Robert Mruczek
8th Place - 37,370 - Phil Younger
9th Place - 12,600 - Kelly Flewin
10th Place -2,150 - Anders Svensson
ELEVATOR ACTION - 1st life only
1st - 43,500 - Donald Hayes
2nd - 43,150 - Martin Bedard
3rd - 41,450 - Anders Svensson
4th - 28,400 - Robert T Mruczek
5th - 28,050 - Robert Macauley
6th - 26,200 - Dave Nelson
7th - 22,750 - Greg Erway
8th - 14,750 - Kelly Flewin
9th - 12,300 - A. Peter Mee (DNQ)
10th - 11,550 - Rafal Politanski (DNQ)
11th - 5,550 - Phil Younger
12th - 4,550 - Brien King (DNQ)
13th - 1,750 - Jonathan Dunne
MILLIPEDE - 1st shooter only
1st Place - 171,362 - Donald Hayes
2nd Place - 62,331 - Greg Erway
3rd Place - 61,905 - Martin Bedard
4th Place - 58,880 - Dave Nelson
5th Place - 56,550 - Robert T Mruczek
6th Place - 47,444 - Rafal Politanski (DNQ)
7th Place - 39.427 - Jonathan Dunne
8th Place - 38,883 - Anders Svensson
9th Place - 36,050 - Robert Macauley
10th Place - 30,222 - Phil Younger
11th Place - 28,956 - Kelly Flewin
12th Place - 16,923 - A. Peter Mee (DNQ)
13th Place - 13,751 - Brien King (DNQ)
SMASH TV REV 8.00 - Full Game
1st Place - 5,779,620 - Martin Bedard
2nd Place - 804,350 - Robert T Mruczek
3rd Place - 786,020 - Jonathan Dunne
4th Place - 748,930 - Robert Macauley
5th Place - 691,460 - Greg Erway
6th Place - 645,680 - Anders Svensson
7th Place - 588,930 - Kelly Flewin
8th Place - 564,800 - Donald Hayes
9th Place - 463,650 - Dave Nelson
10th Place - 314,480 - A. Peter Mee (DNQ)
11th Place - 306,650 - Phil Younger
SUPER ZAXXON - 1st life only
1st Place - 273,800 - Donald Hayes
2nd Place - 90,300 - Martin Bedard
3rd Place - 24,200 - Greg Erway
4th Place - 12,100 - Robert Macauley
5th Place - 9,100 - Robert Mruczek
6th Place - 7,300 - David Nelson
7th Place - 3,900 - Jonathan Dunne
8th Place - 3,500 - Phil Younger
9th Place - 3,400 - Kelly Flewin
10th Place - 1,600 - Anders Svensson
VANGUARD - 1st life only
1st Place - 172,460 - Martin Bedard
2nd Place - 144,960 - Donald Hayes
3rd Place - 63,310 - Dave Nelson
4th Place - 40,270 - Greg Erway
5th Place - 39,230 - Robert Macauley
6th Place - 37,930 - Robert T Mruczek
7th Place - 37,320 - Anders Svensson
8th Place - 32,920 - Jonathan Dunne
9th Place - 6,640 - Kelly Flewin
10th Place - 6,150 - A. Peter Mee (DNQ)
11th Place - 5,210 - Phil Younger
WONDERBOY - 1st life only
1st Place - 2,122,630 - Martin Bedard
2nd Place - 940,340 - Anders Svensson
3rd Place - 590,990 - Donald Hayes (FINAL)
4th Place - 437,240 - Robert Macauley
5th Place - 277,300 - Kelly Flewin
6th Place - 224,410 - Robert T Mruczek
7th Place - 142,540 - Dave Nelson
8th Place - 120,420 - Greg Erway
9th Place - 30,970 - Rafal Politanski (DNQ)
10h Place - 21,280 - Jonathan Dunne
11th Place - 10,510 - Brien King (DNQ)
12th Place - 10,250 - Phil Younger
13th Place - 2,830 - A. Peter Mee (DNQ)
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POINTS
As I stated earlier, the cumulative point total was not the final factor in determining who came in first place. However, it is definitely fun to see who scored the most points, so let's do that...
10,702,485 - Martin Bedard (1st place in percentages)
3,457,682 - Donald Hayes (2nd)
2,754,923 - Anders Svensson (3rd)
2,043,130 - Robert T Mruczek (n/a)
1,825,710 - Robert Macauley (5th)
1,398,101 - Greg Erway (6th)
1,350,410 - David Nelson (4th)
1,233,277 - Jonathan Dunne (8th)
985,566 - Kelly Flewin (9th)
616,142 - Phil Younger (7th)
493,553 - A. Peter Mee (DNQ)
194,424 - Rafal POlitanski (DNQ)
54,811 - Brien King (DNQ)
So, in a competition for this format, it certainly does pay to have the highest scores possible, but in terms of percentages, sometimes it can make for a huge difference.
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AFTERMATH
Twin Galaxies certificates of achievement will be sent to each of the top five finishers, as well as a cash prize that I have personally committed to for this competition.
Congratulations to each participating gamer. I look forward to seeing each of you in the 2005 Advanced MAME decathlon later this year, and thank you each for competing in a most memorable tournament.
Robert