Until this week, Stephen M. Krogman held something very special: one of the longest-running records in video games. His 15.999 million score in the classic Galaga arcade game stood for almost three decades, having been set and verified in June 1989.
But that record now belongs to Armando “APK” Gonzalez, who is being hailed as the undisputed Galaga world champion.
Gonzalez set a score of 17,684,050, a substantial improvement on the 29-year-old record and an incredible feat of endurance. He spent 10 hours and 50 minutes playing at the Museum of Pinball, California, where the score was verified.
The rules for the Marathon World Record are slightly different to the Tournament World Record, the latter of which only gives players five lives and no bonuses to compete with. Gonzalez smashed that record earlier this year as well.
“We all knew this was well within his reach,” Tanner Rousseau, one of the official referees said. “[Gonzalez] truly is now top of the Galaga world.”
The Marathon rules are different in that they allow players to gain bonus ships at certain stages. Players can also freely give up a ship to gain dual shooting ships.
What’s not listed in the rules, however, are more practical matters. Like toilet breaks. Or lunch. Or not being dehydrated after almost 11 hours. Or what happens when your wrists no longer function because you’ve been playing an arcade machine for almost half a day straight.
Hell, I’m impressed that the referees held out for that long.
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