That’s my new high score - and the score to beat - after a marathon 3-and-a-bit hour game on Monday 17 August. It surpassed the 1,884,380 score I achieved back in February, and how close it came to scaling the magical 2 million point mountain!
It was one of those games where the timing was just about faultless throughout while silly errors were kept to a minimum. In the end, I think the lure of the 2 million contributed to a premature ending in the 183rd Act of the game (that is, during Act 7 on the twelfth time through).
In terms of the details, I started keeping track once I’d clocked the machine the first time around (at the usual 655,350 mark) with only a couple of men down. I had a feeling early on it was going to be a promising game when I made it through the first set unscathed with around 210,000 on the board. And by the end of the fourth time through, I was at 716,950 - a strong average of almost 180,000 per set (over 11,200 per Act).
At the end of the fifth set, I was up to 864,040, and by the end of the sixth set, I’d passed the one million point mark (at roughly 1,030,350 - I missed the score at the end of the 16th Act so recorded it at the end of the next Act instead).
After seven sets, the score was 1,214,050 and after eight times through, I’d reached 1,381,610. After nine times through, the score was 1,520,820 and after ten, it was 1,687,400 - and the nerves were jangling.
I finished the eleventh set with the score at 1,838,250 but with just one man left. Sadly, he died after a rookie error in Act 7 on the twelfth time around, with the final score on 1,905,430 (or, more accurately, on 594,730 with the machine clocking twice at 655,350).
So after a very fast start, I managed to maintain the momentum throughout the game, averaging a very healthy 10,800 for each of the 183 Acts.
This 1.9 million point game was my first since racking up after another million point effort on 13 August when I managed a reasonably uneventful 1,247,820.
Onward and upward!
Thursday 20 August 2015
Friday 14 August 2015
Public Pengos - update
A few months back, I started to document the location of publicly available Pengo machines around the place and came up with the following offerings:
• Powerhouse Museum - Ultimo, Sydney, New South Wales (last spotted - May 2014)
• Milkbar Café - Newtown, New South Wales (last spotted - yesterday)
• River Inn Resort - Thredbo, New South Wales (last spotted - August 2014)
• Funspot - Laconia, New Hampshire, USA (seen via website)
As it happens, I’m in the early stages of planning a trip to the USA in March 2016 (primarily to run the New York Half Marathon, around Manhattan) and thought I’d try again to check the state of public transport options to Laconia. I’ve mentioned previously that the absence of any realistic alternatives to driving there put the kybosh on a proposed visit late in 2013 when I was in nearby Boston for a time.
Anyway, as part of that planning, I came across a place called the “Galloping Ghost Arcade” located in a western suburb of Chicago and evidently adjacent to the local Congress Park train station. With over 440 machines, the Galloping Ghost bills itself as the largest video game venue in the United States. And - lo and behold - one of their games is Pengo! Their very informative website even lists the high score for each of their games. For Pengo, that score is 132,790 (yes, 132,790) which was set on 3 April 2015 by a gentleman named James White. Mr White, who must be a local, features a few times on that part of the site. So a few days visit to the Galloping Ghost is now in the diary.
I’ve been to Chicago only once before (in 2006, to run the Chicago marathon) and have very fond memories of the place - despite the unusually chilly October weather that year. So it will be good to get back there again for a few days on the way home from the Big Apple.
I haven’t finally booked anything yet, so if you have an arcade over there you think I should know about, would love to hear about it!
• Powerhouse Museum - Ultimo, Sydney, New South Wales (last spotted - May 2014)
• Milkbar Café - Newtown, New South Wales (last spotted - yesterday)
• River Inn Resort - Thredbo, New South Wales (last spotted - August 2014)
• Funspot - Laconia, New Hampshire, USA (seen via website)
As it happens, I’m in the early stages of planning a trip to the USA in March 2016 (primarily to run the New York Half Marathon, around Manhattan) and thought I’d try again to check the state of public transport options to Laconia. I’ve mentioned previously that the absence of any realistic alternatives to driving there put the kybosh on a proposed visit late in 2013 when I was in nearby Boston for a time.
Anyway, as part of that planning, I came across a place called the “Galloping Ghost Arcade” located in a western suburb of Chicago and evidently adjacent to the local Congress Park train station. With over 440 machines, the Galloping Ghost bills itself as the largest video game venue in the United States. And - lo and behold - one of their games is Pengo! Their very informative website even lists the high score for each of their games. For Pengo, that score is 132,790 (yes, 132,790) which was set on 3 April 2015 by a gentleman named James White. Mr White, who must be a local, features a few times on that part of the site. So a few days visit to the Galloping Ghost is now in the diary.
I’ve been to Chicago only once before (in 2006, to run the Chicago marathon) and have very fond memories of the place - despite the unusually chilly October weather that year. So it will be good to get back there again for a few days on the way home from the Big Apple.
I haven’t finally booked anything yet, so if you have an arcade over there you think I should know about, would love to hear about it!
Wednesday 12 August 2015
Three weeks in the life
I thought I’d share with you a summary of a random period in my Pengo life (that is, the last three weeks) to give you a sense of how much I actually play this game and for what sort of result.
As it transpired, this was a reasonably productive period with another three one million point games, including a new second highest score of 1,785,850.
By way of background, just about all my games, including the ones documented below, are played when I’m either on the way to somewhere else, or on the way home. And usually I only play one game at a time, while having a pot of green tea and maybe some sweet potato fries, chicken and mushroom pasta, or some other item on the Milkbar café’s delicious menu. At the rate I play (roughly 600,000 points per hour), my visits usually last around an hour to 90 minutes - give or take.
On rare occasions, I need to cut a game short because a film I’ve booked in to see at the adjoining Dendy cinema is about to start, or because I’ve bumped up against the café’s 10:00pm closing time. But generally, I just play the games out. While I’ve felt like it from time to time, I’ve never actually quit a game because I’ve been going badly. Whatever the circumstance, I always remind myself of past occasions when the last one or two Pengos have racked up many hundreds of thousands of points to bring some modicum of respect to what might otherwise have been a quite mediocre score.
This snapshot covers the period from 23 July (the first game after my last post where I’d just achieved my 30th million point game) to today (12 August). I’ve rounded the scores which were less than one million.
23 July - Off to a flying start on the next 30 million point games with a score of 1,144,340
24 July - 840,000
27 July - 682,000
29 July - 1,785,850. A new second best score, achieved in just over three hours. It was one of those games that felt very smooth the whole way through, despite losing the first two Pengos in the first set. The third Pengo died just after the score had passed one million and as time went by, especially with the fourth Pengo scoring 500,000 on his own, I started getting visions of my first two million point game. But then the last two Pengos fell relatively cheaply and I was left hanging, a mere 200,000 points short.
During the game, I clocked the machine twice at 655,350 and finished with 475,150 on the score line. I also worked out that my last man died in Act 14 on the tenth time through, meaning that I’d completed a total of 157 Acts, dying in the 158th. It was also quite a high-scoring game in terms of points per Act. Usually, an average of 10,000 points per Act for a high scoring game is good going. But for this game, it averaged well over 11,000 points for the duration. I actually made a note of the scores for the final three sets, being 188,070 for the 8th, 167,000 for the 9th, and 146,500 for the incomplete 10th. All-up, it was a very impressive game and worthy of a new high score - if it had gotten to that point.
31 July - 598,000. A very poor start but a reasonable recovery.
6 August - 513,000
7 August - 336,000 and 813,000
9 August - 471,000 and 406,000
10 August - 1,234,120. Very happy with this effort after a series of outs.
12 August - 307,000 and 477,000. Both very disappointing efforts.
Overall, I managed to play on 10 of the 21 days, playing a total of 13 games, with three one million point games. That’s a strike rate of roughly one million point game every four to five games, which sounds about right.
All of which means there’s a couple of changes to the following summaries:
Top 5 scores:
1. 1,884,380 - 21 February 2015
2. 1,785,850 - 29 July 2015
3. 1,548,250 - 6 December 2014
4. 1,488,480 - 6 July 2015
5. 1,452,130 - 31 July 2014
Other records/milestones:
• Fastest Act clearance - 11 seconds
• Fastest Act clearance with 10,000 bonus - 23 seconds
• Highest score after first 16 Acts - 221,880
• Total scores over 1,000,000 - 33
• Total scores in excess of current official world record - 15
Top 5 official Twin Galaxies high scores:
1. 1,217,650 - Paul Hornitzky, 9 September 2012
2. 1,110,370 - Rodney Day, 13 August 1983
3. 809,990 - Kevin Leisner, 25 February 1983
4. 723,950 - Frank Lupia, 20 September 2008
5. 694,030 - Paul Elia, 31 March 1983
As it transpired, this was a reasonably productive period with another three one million point games, including a new second highest score of 1,785,850.
By way of background, just about all my games, including the ones documented below, are played when I’m either on the way to somewhere else, or on the way home. And usually I only play one game at a time, while having a pot of green tea and maybe some sweet potato fries, chicken and mushroom pasta, or some other item on the Milkbar café’s delicious menu. At the rate I play (roughly 600,000 points per hour), my visits usually last around an hour to 90 minutes - give or take.
On rare occasions, I need to cut a game short because a film I’ve booked in to see at the adjoining Dendy cinema is about to start, or because I’ve bumped up against the café’s 10:00pm closing time. But generally, I just play the games out. While I’ve felt like it from time to time, I’ve never actually quit a game because I’ve been going badly. Whatever the circumstance, I always remind myself of past occasions when the last one or two Pengos have racked up many hundreds of thousands of points to bring some modicum of respect to what might otherwise have been a quite mediocre score.
This snapshot covers the period from 23 July (the first game after my last post where I’d just achieved my 30th million point game) to today (12 August). I’ve rounded the scores which were less than one million.
23 July - Off to a flying start on the next 30 million point games with a score of 1,144,340
24 July - 840,000
27 July - 682,000
29 July - 1,785,850. A new second best score, achieved in just over three hours. It was one of those games that felt very smooth the whole way through, despite losing the first two Pengos in the first set. The third Pengo died just after the score had passed one million and as time went by, especially with the fourth Pengo scoring 500,000 on his own, I started getting visions of my first two million point game. But then the last two Pengos fell relatively cheaply and I was left hanging, a mere 200,000 points short.
During the game, I clocked the machine twice at 655,350 and finished with 475,150 on the score line. I also worked out that my last man died in Act 14 on the tenth time through, meaning that I’d completed a total of 157 Acts, dying in the 158th. It was also quite a high-scoring game in terms of points per Act. Usually, an average of 10,000 points per Act for a high scoring game is good going. But for this game, it averaged well over 11,000 points for the duration. I actually made a note of the scores for the final three sets, being 188,070 for the 8th, 167,000 for the 9th, and 146,500 for the incomplete 10th. All-up, it was a very impressive game and worthy of a new high score - if it had gotten to that point.
31 July - 598,000. A very poor start but a reasonable recovery.
6 August - 513,000
7 August - 336,000 and 813,000
9 August - 471,000 and 406,000
10 August - 1,234,120. Very happy with this effort after a series of outs.
12 August - 307,000 and 477,000. Both very disappointing efforts.
Overall, I managed to play on 10 of the 21 days, playing a total of 13 games, with three one million point games. That’s a strike rate of roughly one million point game every four to five games, which sounds about right.
All of which means there’s a couple of changes to the following summaries:
Top 5 scores:
1. 1,884,380 - 21 February 2015
2. 1,785,850 - 29 July 2015
3. 1,548,250 - 6 December 2014
4. 1,488,480 - 6 July 2015
5. 1,452,130 - 31 July 2014
Other records/milestones:
• Fastest Act clearance - 11 seconds
• Fastest Act clearance with 10,000 bonus - 23 seconds
• Highest score after first 16 Acts - 221,880
• Total scores over 1,000,000 - 33
• Total scores in excess of current official world record - 15
Top 5 official Twin Galaxies high scores:
1. 1,217,650 - Paul Hornitzky, 9 September 2012
2. 1,110,370 - Rodney Day, 13 August 1983
3. 809,990 - Kevin Leisner, 25 February 1983
4. 723,950 - Frank Lupia, 20 September 2008
5. 694,030 - Paul Elia, 31 March 1983
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