So, friends, when I said in the last entry on this blog that I would “report shortly”, you understand, of course, that I was using the word “shortly” to indicate that I would get back sometime in the next year or two.
And now, true to my word, here I am!
In case you were wondering, it’s been an interesting and productive interlude, sprinkled with some national and international travel, a solid half-marathon at the Gold Coast, stints at Harvard and the LSE, cancer surgery, some sensational trekking (especially New Zealand’s Milford Track and England’s Coast-to-Coast walk), and other highlights too numerous and irrelevant to mention in a blog about a simple arcade video game.
But the standout moment occurred on a sunny Tuesday morning - on 15 July 2014 - on a table-top video game terminal in a café in Newtown (an inner suburb of Sydney) adjacent to the Dendy cinema.
For it was on that day in that place, that probably the highest ever score in a single game of Pengo up to that time was achieved - by me!
That score, ladies and gentlemen, was a magical - 1,237,950. A full 20,300 points ahead of the official Pengo world record established by my countryman almost exactly two years previously, in July 2012. I clocked the machine at 654,840 and reached 583,110 the second time around.
But there’s more …
Just two weeks later, on 31 July, at the same venue, I managed to beat that score by over 200,000 points - with a total of 1,452,130.
And again on 6 December, when I passed the monumental 1.5 million barrier, with a score of 1,548,250. At an average of around 9,000 points a minute, it took almost three hours solid play and two pots of green tea (happily, without inducing a need for a natural break) to get there.
That said, I still haven’t figured out the logistics around recording the games, so Paul Hornitsky’s position atop the official Twin Galaxies table is safe.
Since I started on this quest early in 2013, I’ve managed to exceed 1 million ten times - twice with the Powerhouse Museum machine which had four Pengos, and the rest at the Newtown machine, which has six (five to start with, and a bonus Pengo at 50,000).
The scores ranked as follows:
1. 1,548,250 - 6 December 2014
2. 1,452,130 - 31 July 2014
3. 1,237,950 - 15 July 2014
4. 1,164,090 - 22 October 2014
5. 1,077,940 - 12 August 2014
6. 1,059,670 - 19 December 2014
7. 1,017,250 - 8 June 2013
8. 1,016,940 - 15 August 2014
9. 1,005,030 - 26 May 2013
10. 1,002,130 - 19 October 2014
A few too many 900,000+ scores in recent months have left a bit of a sour taste in the mouth, but all up, very pleased with progress.
Compliments of the season to you all!
