With just five short days before Blizzard’s diabloical threequel hits store shelves, Amazon declares Diablo III the most preordered PC game in the online retailer’s history, surpassing StarCraft II and World of Warcraft: Cataclysm. Blizzard must hate itself right now.
The top two record-holders for Donkey Kong will try to topple the game’s existing all-time high scores tomorrow in a record chase you may watch live.
It was estimated that George Leutz would have to play Q*Bert for more than 70 hours -nearly three days straight- to break a 28-year-old all-time world record. If you, like me, wondered if there was some way to stick Q*Bert in the corner of the board and grab a nap during the record attempt, evidently there isn’t.
Last month, George Leutz set out to topple a high score nearly 28 years old: Q*Bert‘s all time mark of 33,273,520. It’s believed that it would take playing for 70 hours on a single quarter to beat that score. Halfway into it, someone kicked a power cord, (seen above) and all of Leutz’s work was lost.
Thirty-six hours into what was expected to be a 70-hour assault on an all-time world record, and with hundreds of lives to spare, someone unplugged a cabinet elsewhere in the arcade, resetting the Q*bert George Leutz was playing.
The notorious arcade champion Billy Mitchell was certified as the new world record holder in Donkey Kong Jr at his induction to the International Video Game Hall of Fame last month. But Mark Kiehl had already beaten his score.
It stood for 28 years and took 58 hours and one quarter to beat.
As you read this, history is in the making. Asteroids is being played with great verve. High scores will topple.
Steve Wiebe, featured in the acclaimed documentary “The King of Kong”, has reclaimed the world record high score for Donkey Kong Jr. after briefly surrendering it to an Oklahoma man.
One year older, and about two dozen or so titles fewer, Pac-Man still retains the “most recognisable” title among video game characters in the United States, according to the upcoming edition of the Guinness Book of World Records.
