I'm #1

So, Todd and I went to see "King of Kong: A Fistfull of Quarters" about a month or so ago. Much of the movie centered around him tyring to get his Donkey Kong score validated by the official video game scoring group, namely, Twin Galaxies.

As we were leaving the theater, someone had mentioned that Billy Mitchell had broken then record again. Out of curiosity, I looked up Twin Galaxies' web site to see if they had an online score board. Which they do and, yes, Billy Mitchell reclaimed the top spot from Steve Wiebe by putting in a score of 1,050,200.

While I was perusing the score, something caught my eye. They allow scores for M.A.M.E. If you don't know what it is, do your homework. Now granted, scores recorded against M.A.M.E don't count towards those records set against actual arcade games, but still, for games that are mostly long long gone and are hardly seen in the wild anymore, it's kinda nice that you can use MAME to set a score.

And so, I threw my hat into the ring. I mostly like playing the really really early titles. Lots of stuff from the first two years of video games, stuff from 1979 and 1980. One of my favorite games is Depthcharge. It's a fairly simple game where you heave explosive barrels at submarines below you. Now, the MAME score for this is really high. I thought I was pretty darn good at the game, until I went to Twin Galaxies. Right now, I'm sitting at #12 with a score of 3780. I've only pulled that score off once. My high up until a few weeks ago was in the 3500 range. I can consistently get into the 3000s, which I thought was pretty good. However, the top score at the moment is 4800. I have no idea how that guy pulled it off 'cause there is alot of delay for the barrels to get to the bottom. I'm starting to guess that despite the fact that I have spent many many hours, I have not noticed that there is a pattern somewhere.

"But Darrin", you say, "I thought you said you were #1". Yes, that is what I said. I am. Just not for this game. That game would be Datsun 280Zzzap!. And my score, at the moment, is 4.10. So, according to the official video game score keeping body, I have the world record score for playing Datsun 280Zzzap! using MAME.

But the victory is some skewed. You see, there is another contingent of players who log their scores at MARP (MAME Action Replay Page). This is where players can post their best MAME scores. A couple of people have logged scores at 4.64 which pretty much obliterates my record. Why they haven't posted them to Twin Galaxies probably has to do with a whole Jets vs. Sharks West Side Story kinda thing. Basically, there are some members of MARP who think TG sucks, and some members of TG that thinks MARP sucks. I don't know why this is really. They are both groups of players to strive to be the best. Some players happily exist at both places and are just as confused as I am why there is such friction there. I dunno.

But no matter, it is what it is. At the moment, if the Guinness Book of World Records wanted to put out a book about the top MAME car driving scores, I would be No. 1, Numero Uno, Top Cheese at Datsun 280 Zzzap! And that's kinda cool.

I really need to try to improve that score, but some people are just much better at video games and it's just a matter of time before one of the top 10 players at MARP finally get fed up and submit their score to TG and I am dethroned.

But like Billy Mitchell, I always have something up my sleeve. I'll keep you posted.

For now, HERE are my scores at Twin Galaxies.