About Me

Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Saturday 30 January 2016

Happy 2016!!

And it’s great to be back with you all again after a short time away.

It’s been a reasonably busy couple of months with study and travel and such since the previous post (including a second crossing of the Milford Track in New Zealand - love that place!). But, of course, not too busy to squeeze in the odd Pengo game now and then. So it’s about time I brought you up to date.

Last time we spoke, my million point games total sat at 45. Today, it’s at 54, with another nine big ones posted. Actually, most of them weren’t all that ‘big’ with a couple only just making it into seven figure territory. But I did manage a new fifth highest score with a 1,490,700 on 17 November.

Overall, I’m not too disappointed with progress. I found that each time I got back to playing after any of my reasonably frequent absences, it invariably took two and sometimes three games before I hit my stride. And given I only ever play a maximum of two games in any one session, it’s not surprising there were fewer huge scores than I would have liked.

This is how things panned out.

The first of the nine million point games came on 14 November - 1,320,670, which was the first million pointer after a 3 week break. The second was three days later when I almost broke the 1.5 million barrier for the fifth time. Instead, I had to settle for 1,490,700. It was a very solid game featuring a long run by the third Pengo, although the next two fell quickly and the last man clung on until he was killed off with only a couple of sno-bees left on Act 16. It could so easily have been another 100,000 if I’d gotten through that.

On 24 November, I scored 1,165,350. It was another very solid game, especially after a somewhat scratchy start. Unfortunately, I had to leave the game early because of a film I’d booked to see at the cinema next door (“99 Homes” - an excellent, if somewhat maudlin, affair) and was already running late, so I bailed with two Pengos still remaining. What might have been …

On 11 December, I managed a 1,184,550 and three days later, a 1,201,260 - my fiftieth million point game. They were two good games after another two week break.

On 30 December, it was 1,235,140, which included a record-equalling 11-second clearance on one of the Acts (can’t remember which one), and on 4 January, it was 1,164,320. Nine days later, I just managed to scrape past the one million mark (1,002,300) after a very long battle by the last Pengo standing. And finally, on 18 January, after a great start but several deaths toward the end, it was another very tense effort to make it to 1,028,330.

So with all that, and after checking the even newer and improved-er Twin Galaxies website, the various records and statistics are 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. 1,490,700 - 17 November 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 - 54
• Total scores in excess of current official world record (1,217,650) - 23

The top 5 official high scores are unchanged:
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