Space Invaders Record smashed
A New Jersey man has crushed the world record for the retro shoot ‘em up ‘Space Invaders’. It’s only 33 years since the game first swept the arcades, but well done sir!
Richie Knucklez hasn’t so much beaten the previous highscore as obliterated it. His new score, as verified by the record-keepers at Twingalaxies.com, is a whopping 115,510. That’s more than double the 55,160 set by Donald Hayes in 2003, so some respect is probably due.
Then again, Knucklez (possibly not his real surname) could be deemed to have had an unfair advantage because he owns his own amusement arcade. ‘Richie Knucklez Arcade Games’ in Flemington, NJ, is a veritable Aladdin’s Cave of old-school machines and has already hosted numerous world record attempts on such classic cabinets as Q*bert, Donkey Kong and others equally dusty.
Knucklez has also learned a few tricks n’ tips from the previous champ. “He and I played together a few times,” he tells examiner.com. “He taught me the basics with counting the shots for 300 points and I tweaked it in a way that I could score at a faster rate.”
It’s not known whether Hayes now plans to regain his lost crown. However, Knucklez is not going to rest on his laurels and has already registered himself in a Space Invaders marathon at the Twin Galaxies ‘Iron Man’ event.
“I feel I could play the game 24 hours plus with a ton of practice and conditioning,” he says, proving in an instant that some people really do have too much time on their hands...
See www.freespaceinvaders.org if you fancy some free training for the title and find yourself with a few hours to spare.
(Originally posted on Yahoo here).
