Tim Balderramos

Truth be told, Guinness and Twin Galaxies have a history of working together in the past. Guinness had largely resisted publishing high scores due to the ever-growing number of games, platforms, variations, etc. of video games (they had published tournament results in the 1980’s). Walter Day, founder of Twin Galaxies, was himself a contributing editor for Guinness before taking on the daunting task of building an “international recording house” of high scores dating back to 1981.

In response to the claims that TG is a closed society known for disallowing scores from those not within their circle, I would say this: Mr. Day and those who have worked with him have made extensive efforts to ensure the validity of high scores that appear in their database. TG has always been a non-profit organization and its staff have worked countless hours without compensation. Despite this, said staff has time and again gone the extra mile – figuratively and literally – to check on scores to ensure their legitimacy.

Given my experience with TG I would say that anyone who accuses TG of being “poorly run” or “unfair” is either unaware of the lengths some have gone to lay claim to a high score, or is among those whom have been called on a fraudulent score. Case in point: In 1983, a player was credited in the media with a Pac-Man high score of over 12 million before it was discovered that such a score was not possible (Pac-Man has a maximum possible score of 3,333,360). This player’s score was listed in a USA Today article – disenfranchising the legitimate scores of the day.

This is just one of the many cases which have led TG to have stringent submission and review policies. While said policies can be time-consuming, it is better than the alternative: Dooming other players to countless hours of trying to attain the unattainable when someone posts an inflated score.

With Mr. Day’s history with Guinness, I would imagine there’s some residual rapport there. I for one am interested in seeing this book when it comes out.