The biggest cheater in arcade history

I remember watching a Joust high score run and the total play time was about 50 hours I think.

 

He had to rack up enough lives that he could sleep and just let the character die repeatedly, so there was several hours on the stream of constant death animations

 

So it can be done

 

 

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If playing by Twin Galaxies and Guinness rules - this is known as marathoning a game. The rules, which I'm not sure how strictly enforced allow for a player to take a 5 minute break every hour. The player can bank time, but may not take more than a 60 minute break at any one time. In other words, in 24 hours, you can bank 120 minutes (2 hours) but you aren't allowed to go for a break of more than 1 hour. If that makes sense.

Not sure if this joust game you speak of is an official Twin Galaxies record, but if the player was taking breaks of more than 60 minutes it is probably a score that should be disputed/removed.

I believe they were going for a Guinness record and they had an official there, as well as it being streamed live and recorded

I can't remember when it was though

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I believe they were going for a Guinness record and they had an official there, as well as it being streamed live and recorded

 

I can't remember when it was though

 

 

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Just looked on Twin Galaxies, and there is a new WR up for adjudication now by John McAllister - but it was apparently done back in 2010 and not sure if streaming services were available back then.

This was apparently about a 53 hour game, final score 107,301,150.

If there was a Guinness and/or TG official, they shouldn't have allowed breaks of over 1 hour AFAIK

The biggest cheater in arcade history

That may well have been it - justin.tv (precursor to Twitch) was definitely around then

It seemed like there were breaks of longer than an hour, but maybe I just logged on to watch at the wrong times

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According to this article, what I saw was actually just him dumping lives to end the game, lol

Source: https://www.google.com.au/amp/s/kotaku.com/5671566/new-world-record-in-joust-awaiting-certification/amp

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With very, very few exceptions there's no way anyone could pull off a multiple day arcade game marathon without being able to bank break time for later use. Case in point: The current Q*Bert WR holder told me over a beer at Funspot a few years ago that without being able to take a few 40 minute sleeps there's no way he'd have lasted as long. How the hell anyone marathoned Centipede (apparently only 9 lives in reserve maximum so I'm told) or RTM and Brandon Erickson's Star Wars marathons of 49.5 and 52 hours respectively with a maximum of 6 shields in reserve is totally beyond my comprehension.

I may be wrong here but It's late and I've just got home from a 30th birthday party but I thought his 15M DK score was on the Atari 2600 version and removed because of a kill screen on some (most) versions of the cart. Most people hit an impossible rivet screen at around 800K but Todd (and one other person whose name I forget) claimed to be able to play on past that level. Once again I may well be wrong but that's what I remember reading

With very, very few exceptions there's no way anyone could pull off a multiple day arcade game marathon without being able to bank break time for later use. Case in point: The current Q*Bert WR holder told me over a beer at Funspot a few years ago that without being able to take a few 40 minute sleeps there's no way he'd have lasted as long. How the hell anyone marathoned Centipede (apparently only 9 lives in reserve maximum so I'm told) or RTM and Brandon Erickson's Star Wars marathons of 49.5 and 52 hours respectively with a maximum of 6 shields in reserve is totally beyond my comprehension.

 

I may be wrong here but It's late and I've just got home from a 30th birthday party but I thought his 15M DK score was on the Atari 2600 version and removed because of a kill screen on some (most) versions of the cart. Most people hit an impossible rivet screen at around 800K but Todd (and one other person whose name I forget) claimed to be able to play on past that level. Once again I may well be wrong but that's what I remember reading

I'd need to go back and see if I can find the relevant post regarding marathoning. Yeah you can bank time. But you can't use more than 60 mins of banked time in succession is my understanding. However exactly this works, I'm unsure. If you play 24 hours straight up - you've got 2 hours of banked time. Can you then take a 60 min sleep, get up, play for 5 minutes, then go take another 60 minute sleep?

I was of the belief that George Leutz (Q*Bert record holder) took longer than 60 minute breaks, but I read an article about his score a few weeks ago and this wasn't the case.

I'm sure I read somewhere that there were all sorts of other conditions that apply to marathoning such as no outside help - e.g. no one can touch the control, no one is supposed to help with score keeping - life tracking.

I'm not positive on any of this, it should be in the TG Forum archives, will try and find it tonight if I remember.

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According to this article, what I saw was actually just him dumping lives to end the game, lol

 

Source: https://www.google.com.au/amp/s/kotaku.com/5671566/new-world-record-in-joust-awaiting-certification/amp

 

 

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Well yes, that is fine :) Though if it was a game where you scored points while the lives were dumping (no games come to mind where this happens) - then I think your final score would be whatever it is after the end of 60 minutes. The game would then just play out naturally.

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That may well have been it - justin.tv (precursor to Twitch) was definitely around then

 

It seemed like there were breaks of longer than an hour, but maybe I just logged on to watch at the wrong times

 

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You could well be right, I didn't realise Justin.Tv was around then, but it was founded in 2007.

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Here is the relevant thread for anyone interested in marathoning, I haven't re-read all of it yet, but it does seem breaks of longer than 1 hour are permitted, haven't read further to see if this is rescinded as I believe, again without checking, that this goes against marathoning rules for other activities that Guinness track.

http://www.twingalaxies.com/showthread.php/109910-Official-TG-Policy-Marathoning-v1-0

I have raced 24hr mountain bike marathons and I race the whole race as fast as possible without any breaks and finished so full of adrenaline that I didn't sleep for about 12hrs after, so counting the time I was awake before the race it would be more than 40 hours. Not healthy but totally possible, people needing a sleep break while playing a video game are SOFT AS IMHO :D

Pick a game and show us how it's done? :P

Sorry I'm a bit confused (as per normal) In a marathon session when you take a break do you just literally let the game run?

Yes. You have to have built up enough lives that you can take a break as they die off as the game continues with no pausing.

When you resume gameplay the idea is to build up your lives again ready for your next break.

Sorry I'm a bit confused (as per normal) In a marathon session when you take a break do you just literally let the game run?

Just let it run after ideally building up enough lives to get you through the break. I'd assume if the game had a safe spot where you could park your man out of harm's way it'd be allowed but I'm not 100% certain about that

Just let it run after ideally building up enough lives to get you through the break. I'd assume if the game had a safe spot where you could park your man out of harm's way it'd be allowed but I'm not 100% certain about that

They have special rules for these games on a case by case basis, the only two that come to mind that I personally know are Pac-Man, though you aren't really marathoning that, and Galaga. There are other games listed in the post I linked to, but I'm not familiar with the mechanics of those games as I don't play them. I believe having safe spots where you won't die is a lot more common in console gaming than it is in arcade.

AFAIK a compulsive liar from the start. Been digging himself a hole probably since his 2nd or 3rd score submission. Not really his fault though, surely someone at TG should have set some rules regarding evidence (ie 2 verified photos) that accompany every submission from the start. They had cameras to take pictures of the guy with the models but none of the screen score to accompany the record? If players wanted to be recognized on TG so bad then EVERY score MUST be accompanied by 2 photos. TG done it to themselves (recording cheaters) by allowing scores to be recorded without adequate evidence.

Just my 2c.

Definitely case-by-case.

Galaga is a hard one because you're not really "marathoning" the game because of the limited number of lives, but you can also park your ship on stage 0 (256) indefinitely. No known Galaga regular fire games have gone over 12 hours

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AFAIK a compulsive liar from the start. Been digging himself a hole probably since his 2nd or 3rd score submission. Not really his fault though, surely someone at TG should have set some rules regarding evidence (ie 2 verified photos) that accompany every submission from the start. They had cameras to take pictures of the guy with the models but none of the screen score to accompany the record? If players wanted to be recognized on TG so bad then EVERY score MUST be accompanied by 2 photos. TG done it to themselves (recording cheaters) by allowing scores to be recorded without adequate evidence.

 

Just my 2c.

It was the way of the times. TG BITD didn't require any hard evidence at all and just imported scores from credible sources (in this case, Activision)

Hindsight is a wonderful thing. The system in place now is by FAR the best one out there. Still has its flaws but you can't fault the transparency.

Nibbler is another one, build up enough lives to then die off while you have a pit stop to eat and drink etc.but game plays with no safe spot.

Nibbler is a game where you can only build up 128 lives though, and allows only for minimal breaks. Losing about 4 lives a minute, you've got 25-30 mins tops for a break. It also becomes harder the longer you play due to fatigue to re-build your lives. The MAME WR was recently beaten by a Brisbane and AA member Michael Kibbey.

Lot's of games suffer from weird happenings with lives built up, generally 128 (Nibbler) or 256. Missile command does weird stuff also with extra's, which if not managed right can mean instant death.

Gyruss I believe rolls the lives at 256, meaning it takes you back to 0 lives. If you build up 255 lives in Gyruss, you can have a 15 min break - which makes it seriously tough to marathon.

EDIT: I should mention, it takes 24 hours of perfect play (no deaths) to build up 255 lives in Gyruss. I'm keen to try for a top 10 score on it which is around 10 hours of play, but bugger me if I'm going for the unofficial WR which is 55 odd hours

Pick a game and show us how it's done? :P

I'm too busy riding my bike :) hardly have any time for gaming I have just had two weeks off work and played about 6 games of pinball that's it.....but my riding and racing is going really well :D

I might get a bit more gaming in Winter but stuffed if I'm spending this summer indoors.

Just saw this about Silly Bitchell

Just saw this about Silly Bitchell

 

 

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A Donkey Kong Forum member did some frame by frame analysis and concluded that Billy played on MAME and not original hardware.

Article here:

https://venturebeat.com/2018/02/02/donkey-kong-world-record-analysis-claims-king-of-kong-star-billy-mitchell-lied/

Donkey Kong Forum post and analysis here:

http://donkeykongforum.com/index.php?topic=2055.0

The plot thickens - all does not look good for B.M.

It's not looking good for B.M at all and after the Todd debacle it's looking like a possible 2 from 2 lifetime bans for big name 80's gamers.

This also adds more fuel to the fire of the TG members who think that anything not submitted under the current system that doesn't have video evidence that can be provided right now should be thrown out immediately.

In my case theoretically:

1. I have some pal Atari 2600 scores that were submitted on tape in either 1999 or 2000 that were sent to Walter and forwarded to Corcoran (strike 1 against me), I didn't make copies of what I sent (some say I should have made copies but I never thought of it)

2. I have a lot of Atari 2600 and a few Atari 7800 and Colecovision scores that were done on an emulator and submitted screenshots to Corcoran as per the system at the time. I have no evidence of those screenshots any more and no video footage at all so strikes 2 (Corcoran) and 3 (no video) against me.

3. My arcade and the 3 pinball scores were verified live at Funspot so once again no video exists (forget counting strikes I'm already out) :banned:

4 As for MAME some were sent to RTM and the rest submitted directly to the site. Some may be on MARP and can be verified but not all of them.

I'm a small fish in a big pond but it could potentially get interesting :rolleyes

Billy Mitchell always has a plan..

He is going to need the channel McGuyver to get out of this pickle.

He is going to need the channel McGuyver to get out of this pickle.

not just a Pickle, he seems to be in a bucket of hot sauce too :rolleyes