News Archives

06-2004 through 09-2004

09-20-2004            Sui Ming Louie scored 64,071,484 on Star Wars in the 1987 VGMT

    Yes, there's yet again more news about...  Star Wars !  You may have read the speculation in the Funspot forums about somebody who scored more than double the currently listed (and, recently reinstated) TGTS world record of 31,660,614 points, which was accomplished by David Palmer in the 1986 Video Game Masters Tournament.  Well, that player's name is Sui Ming Louie, and I recently made contact with him about this accomplishment, which was done in the next year's edition of the tourney.

    Sui told me that he did play the game that year, but couldn't remember the score.  I do believe that he did achieve the listed 64,071,484 points on his game, but, I also believe, after talking with him, that it was not done at the proper settings.  Therefore, it looks like Dave's score is safe, for now (at least, until Brandon Erickson gets closer to it !).  Click here for more details, plus a look at all of the 1987 results, published for the first time anywhere on CAGDC.

09-08-2004            Brandon Erickson now topped by only one Star Wars performance

    More Star Wars news, and, this time it's big.  The increasingly prolific Brandon Erickson has made another personal best score, with 15,420,724 points, which is a nice increase from his previous 11M.  However, this score is really significant, as it now puts him in the all-time second place spot, not only for players, but also for any score that's ever been done (at TGTS).  The previous second-best mark was the super 15,250,793 performance made by the great David Palmer in the 1985 Video Game Masters Tournament, so this is quite an accomplishment, indeed.  Add to that the fact that he's only been playing for just a bit more than three months !

    Brandon relates that he was actually kind of tired for this game, and his vision was a bit blurry.  He has just gotten off a 10+ hour shift at work, and started the game at 6 PM.  Things were going well, and both he and a friend (who watched most of the game) thot that the wr might even be in jeopardy.  However, that was until wave 81.  He had about 14.5M, with two shields left, but then he got hit twice by Tie Fighters, which is very strange, since, before that, he had taken no hits from them in the game !  It was around 9 PM at that point, and he managed to continue his play for a few minutes longer, taking him up to the 15.4M final score.

    Here are Brandon's thots on his effort:  "I was really quite amazed at how well the game went, all things considered, and the nature of the mistakes that I made in the game has really strengthened my feeling about how much further I could potentially go.  The mistakes I made were not really in situations that I would consider really 'tough' situations in the game, and I would really categorize them more as being random human error types of mistakes.  Nevertheless, they were still mistakes, and so I need to work on reducing the frequency of such errors."

    Hopefully, Brandon will continue to ramp things up, and also reduce the mistakes.  If so, he may lay claim to having no one's score above his.  Good luck, and may the Force continue to be with you, Brandon !

08-14-2004            Brandon Erickson raises personal Star Wars mark

    Well, Star Wars has certainly been in the news a lot lately, and here's the latest from red-hot Brandon Erickson.  After playing the game for a mere 2 1/2 months, he continues to ramp up his personal bests - the score he set today now stands at a lofty 11,690,371 (see picture, below left, provided by Brandon (shown below right) and his cam-phone).  It was his first game of the day, but he neglected to take his video camera, so it wasn't recorded.  He recalls a few highlights of his game: he had "over 5 million" points, and was on wave 27, before taking his first hit, which is an incredible feat, even for seasoned players; the game lasted "around 2hrs 15min"; and, he thinks that the game ended with him on wave "68 or 69", approximately.  As always, he set the mark at a local arcade (only 8 blocks from where he lives), which is Ground Kontrol, located in Portland, Oregon (see www.groundkontrol.com).  Oh, in case you're wondering, the other scores shown in the top four on the picture are previous marathon scores, explaining why his new score is in the middle, and not on top.

    Less than a week ago, Brandon made a (then) personal high on the game of 8,143,471 points, getting to around wave 45.  Like today's effort, he didn't videotape this game either, but I would wager that he will be taping, from now on (just in case !).  As you can tell, his improvements have been remarkable, and, like today, on the 8M effort, he pushed up his score by about 3 million.  The score he beat then was a 5,508,635 effort that he made on 07-24-2004.  That actually beat an earlier effort that same day of 5,294,612 points, which actually beat the (then) Twin Galaxies wr of 5,198,043, held by my gaming friend Mark Boolman.  Because of various policies and decisions, the scores on Star Wars has varied wildly in the past year.  Mark made his 5.1M score during the Funspot 2003 tournament, but wasn't taping, as he didn't know about this new requirement.  He later taped a 3.9M score, and made the 'world record' on that one, even tho he had beaten it earlier, and even tho both he, and David Palmer, had actually decimated these weak marks in the mid-80's, at the Video Game Masters Tournaments held then.  Later in the year, Rob Mruczek made a 4,044,601 score, meaning he now had the 'record'.  Then, at the Funspot 2004 tournament, a decision was made (partly with generosity on Rob's part) that Mark's 5.1M score would now be accepted, on the status of it being played on a machine that was known to be properly set up in a contest situation.  Thereafter, Brandon seized the official TG record with his two 5M efforts, but then David's true world record was reinstated a week and a half later.  Whew - that whole situation had more twists than a mystery movie marathon !

    Now, let's get back to Brandon.  Based on his rapidly rising skill, he estimates that he will eclipse the now reinstated wr mark of 31,660,614, held by the legendary David Palmer.  David feels that he will also, but Rob, and myself, feel that Brandon's skill-set will soon meet its match, especially in the 20 to 25 million range.  Still, he is shooting for David's score, and feels it can be done by the end of the year.  Good luck on this one - you'll need it, Brandon !

08-04-2004            Twin Galaxies reinstates 'pulled' Star Wars score

    Rob Mruczek announced today on a post at the TG forums that, for the second time this year, Twin Galaxies would be reinstating a formerly 'pulled' score - namely, David Palmer's incredible 31,660,614 on Star Wars.  This was a bit unexpected, even tho I knew that David (or, Dave as he prefers in casual conversation) had been found, and that TG was in conversations with him.  I am also surprised at the great speed at which the ruling came about, and also, which of David's two scores were reinstated.

    I had argued for the longest time that David's score(s) shouldn't have been removed from the scoreboard, and especially the one from the 1985 Video Game Masters Tournament (a fantastic 15,250,793 point effort, which is David's second highest score ever).  The 31M score, set at the 1986 VGMT was admittedly another matter, as that contest was held under the auspices of the APA (Amusement Players Association), which was a Steve Harris entity.  I had no big problem with that score not (necessarily) being recognized by TG, but, the 1985 score was made while at a TG overseen and run tourney, and that was my argument (and, gripe) to Twin Galaxies personnel for many years (more on this will appear in an upcoming article about pulled scores, and the details behind the pull-downs).

    In any case, the situation is resolved, and to the benefit of one of the greatest players of all time, who had pretty much the greatest contest performance of all time during that 1985 tournament (he set six record scores in a single weekend !).  Here's congratulations to David, who is now back where he belongs - on top of the Star Wars record listings.

06-07-2004            Funspot 6th Annual International Classic Game Tournament results

    Well, another year, another batch of world records (not to mention, world-class winners) !  The latest Funspot tourney is in the books, and we have one of the more impressive set of results, as far as new classic game records, and some dominating winners for the contest games that were picked.  First, let's look at the games that had new world records established (approximately) during the four-day tournament, which took place from Thursday, June 3rd through Sunday, June 6th:

    All right, now let's get to the contest results.  As has happened in the past, some players dominate the results, and this year fit that description as well.  There were four 'color' games, three 'monochrome' games, and four pinball games in the tournament.  Each category featured $200 in prize money, and the results from the combination of all eleven games determined the Player of the Year, an honor that is especially prestigious, as there is no money prize involved.  In addition, this year featured a new category, the Ladies Challenge, which featured play on six games - three arcade, and three pinball.  The following are the overall tournament results:  Color Game winner: David Nelson; Monochrome winner: David Nelson; Pinball winner: Greg Bond; Player of the Year: David Nelson; and the Ladies Challenge winner: Catherine Karpins.  Congratulations to these fine players, and a big congrats to the new world record holders, which I think are just as notable as the contest winners.  Last, but not least, hats off to the Funspot crew for all the work involved, and let's hope that next year will be just as interesting and fun for all the players as this year turned out to be.

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