While there hasn’t been as much activity as I would have liked on this blog over the past several weeks, I’ve more than made up for it with some very heavy scoring since we last spoke. Between then and last night, I’ve managed to reel off another nine million point games, ranging in magnitude from 1,018,390 to 1,442,300. I haven’t calculated it, but I think my strike rate over recent months is getting perilously close to one million point game for every two games played.
Along the way, I also managed a couple of little oddities and special moments. To recap …
On 3 September, I scored 1,205,730, but the clear highlight was a new high score for the first 16 Acts. I ended up with 228,840, achieving all but one of the 10,000 point bonuses. This beat my previous best of 221,880. The rest of the game fell away somewhat by comparison.
The next million came on 8 September with a 1,282,240 score. After several early deaths, the last two Pengos lasted a very long time, getting me over the million point mark for the 38th time, and well beyond.
A week later, on 15 September, I managed my second back-to-back million point games. The scores weren’t anything to write home about - 1,018,390 and 1,163,310 respectively - but they were both very solid efforts. If anything, and given I really was “in the zone”, they should have been a little higher.
On 19 September, million point game 41 came along, with a score of 1,086,980. Again, the last man survived for an inordinately long time and I can tell you the palms were sweating prodigiously the longer I worked through the 900,000’s.
On 28 September came another fairly straightforward million, with 1,035,920. Not much at all to say about that one really, other than to express my deepest gratitude that I again managed not to die in the 900,000’s.
There were some more last man heroics on 4 October, when million point game number 43 - a very respectable 1,415,150 - came about. Incredibly, the final Pengo scored well over 800,000 on his own. I don’t know exactly how many he scored, not bothering to record it after I was resigned to a non-descript finish at five men down. But what a champion!
Another very solid score on 10 October, with 1,442,300. It was a strong start and very evenly paced throughout. I’ll take it.
And yesterday came probably the most frustrating million, if there is such a thing. I’d booked in to see a film at the Dendy cinema next door (“The Martian” - great film, very entertaining), and allowed myself a couple of hours beforehand to get a game in. As it turned out, I’d reached a million by the time the session was due to start and 1,107,150 well into the pre-movie show.
So I had to bail.
Problem was - I still had three men left. And I’d just finished level 6. The way I was playing, a score well over 1.5 million was in the offing. But I suppose that’s the life of a cinephile arcade gamer. You’ve just got to take the rough with the smooth sometimes.
So that leaves the various records as follows:
Top 5 scores:
1. 1,905,430 - 17 August 2015
2. 1,884,380 - 21 February 2015
3. 1,785,850 - 29 July 2015
4. 1,548,250 - 6 December 2014
5. 1,488,480 - 6 July 2015
Other records/milestones:
• Fastest Act clearance - 11 seconds
• Fastest Act clearance with 10,000 bonus - 23 seconds
• Highest score after first 16 Acts - 228,840
• Total scores over 1,000,000 - 45
• Total scores in excess of current official world record (1,217,650) - 20
The top 5 official high scores are unchanged, as recorded on the very spiffy new Twin Galaxies site - good job to the guys maintaining it:
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
