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Twenty-eight-year-old Asteroids high score beaten

by Justin McElroy on Apr 6th 2010 11:31PM

America gets a bum wrap sometimes, but you should keep something in mind. You should remember that America's the sort of country where a 41-year-old locksmith from Seattle can spend 58 hours of that most precious gift of life scoring 41,336,440 points in Asteroids to break a 28-year-old world record. We're not sure what that implies about this great land, but it implies it very, very hard.

It's a staggering accomplishment Koku Gamer brings word of, and one that leaves us with just one question for John McAllister: We've waited two and a half days, would you please come help us get our keys out of our car now? Our dog looks very sleepy.

Source

Tags: arcade, asteroids, records, retro, world-records

Reader Comments (57)

It implies GREATNESS! And an awesome role model.

"Proud to be an American, Were atleast I know I'm free. . ."

Downvoted. I'm just as proud as you are, but that awful song makes me feel so ashamed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyHSjv9gxlE

Really? A song made you ashamed to be an American? I think you should be a shamed for taking what I posted out of context.

I admit, it did seem more harsh in writing. And perhaps "ashamed" isn't the best word. But it's still an awful song, and context doesn't really have anything to do with it.

A song of all things makes you ashamed to be an American? The public educational system makes me ashamed to be an Amurican.

Can you image the time he spent training? He probably went on at least a day straight beforehand to be able to spend this much time in the real deal.

*imagine

Out of all places, I heard about this on All Things Considered on NPR. I was very pumped when I heard the little "pew pew" sounds from our brave little triangle on the radio.

It shows our dedication!

How did he drink/eat?

You're focused on that, I'm focused on bathroom and sleep.

But while I was at the arcade I had my girlfriend (at the time, fiance now) feed me and give me stuff to drink. Then afterwards I did the same.

Once he'd gotten enough extra lives, he got up and paced the room a little while eating a sandwich. Apparently a bathroom break near the end almost cost him victory. I shit you not.

I guess he just consumed lots of caffeine for the sleep thing.

IVs work wonders. : )

Wow, this man is an American Hero.

I would've just used a diaper.

Serious gamers wear catheters.

Never again! That stuff hurts so much.

I couldn't do it.

Good Lord, look at this guy's eyes. The sh** no sleep will do to you...

28 year old record, eh? Probably took people that long to find a working Asteroids arcade machine.

...I can buy a working one on eBay for $500 right now.

Not really, you can buy the parts everywhere for older arcade machines. Plus, you can also build one pretty easily.

I'm proud to be an American today.

He looks like "Sark" from the TV show Alias.

Sort of.

I miss that show. D*mn you ABC, for always cancelling my shows in the fifth season.

You know what, I don't usually say this, but that sounds like a complete waste of time. I have plenty of respect for people who want to be the best at anything, including classic videogames, but Asteroids is a beaten game, plenty of people could've done this, the only real challenge was staying awake for long enough to overtake the old score. I may not have gotten my name in the papers over the last 3 days, but I still think my time was better spent with my family and friends and studies.

This is America! We don't care about people doing good or the right things. We only care about people wasting their times, and acting like total idiots.

Jealous much?

Now with this attention, it will be beaten again in 2 weeks.

. . . one week if previous record holder was Billy Mitchell

. . . in fact, he may be sending in his dusty old record setting VHS tapes as we speak

The previous record holder was a 15-year-old (at the time) kid who died a few years afterward in an accident. That part of the story is actually a bit sad; as I recall, he left before he received the certificate celebrating his achievement, and it wasn't until almost two decades later that Twin Galaxies' Walter Day located his family to give it to them and learned of the death. Oddly enough, I don't think his family had realized that their son had set a world record which was the longest-standing world record in video games history.

Looks like the only thing he wont be scoring in is a woman after this.

Why is it every time we have an article like this, someone comments "lul he r not g3t gurlz!"?

Because people are jealous and want to make themselves feel better.

Insecurity, most likely.

Nerd!

this dude's 41? what kind of moisturizer does he use?

It rubs the lotion on its skin, it does this whenever it's told.

41....what!?

My thoughts exactly. He looks like he's MAYBE 25, if even. I* don't even look that young. I'm calling shenanigans.

*It's come to my attention that using Caps Lock for emphasis on the word "I" doesn't quite pan out...

dude's got some wacky eyebrows though, I tell you hwhat

I hope i look that young when i'm 41. I'm 26 and i look way older than he does :(

Also a staggering accomplishment; those eyebrows that are completely different from each other.

"We're not sure what that implies about this great land, but it implies it very, very hard."

I can't express enough how much this sentence delights me. Justin McElroy, you are very good at what you do.

Why does everything keep saying that you're proud to be an American because of this guy? Does that mean if this guy was European you wouldn't be proud to be an American?

It's just some random guy doing something awesome. Whether he's American or not doesn't change what he does or whether you should be proud of being who you are.

You know, I can't believe it took this long...I believe it's "bum rap", not "bum wrap".

In all honesty, I thought this was a record that would never be broken. The previous record took 60 hours, and I simply thought no one would want to endure that kind of suffering again. Yes, I know that there are other classic arcade records with extremely long runs (Star Wars arcade comes to mind), but the fact that this one was around so long gave me the impression that it must have been more taxing on the player.

All that time and still wouldn't get through a decent RPG with full completion :P

Won't last long once Billy Mitchell sends his tape in.

Asteroids kill screen coming if anybody wants to see it. Asteroids kill screen.

He is even hotter now!

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Twenty-eight-year-old Asteroids high score beaten

Reader Comments (57)

Posted: Apr 6th 2010 11:37PM HammerShark said

Posted: Apr 6th 2010 11:55PM That Burning Sensation said

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