Galaga World Championship

Pessimeister

Living Backwards
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As someone who can barely cobble together 200,000 on this great arcade classic, such a concept very much intrigues me. It'll be most interesting to have some of the best in the world competing against each other; going down to the last man. :)

https://scorewars.com/

March 29 – April 1, 2018

This is going to be at Meow Wolf, Santa Fe New Mexico. Anyone live nearby?

It's also a pleasure to see such coverage and the value people still have for these games. Interestingly, at a local barcade called "Pixel Alley" in Melbourne, one of the ex-world record holders (Philip Day) dropped by recently to gently rearrange the former high score for Galaga. :) (It went from 300,000 to 990,000!) I missed that visit unfortunately, but he'll be returning to practice apparently before the big event.

I watched some live feed of an Australian competitive arcade event called the "Aussie Kong Off" last year live from the Netherworld in Brisbane and it was quite entertaining at times and included a Killscreen so hopefully this'll bring some fun times as well. :)
 
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That is quite interesting, I seem to remember helping fund a kickstarter some years ago for Meow Wolf, assuming it's the same place. I never have an issue giving funds to projects in the southwest, what a great area to visit and vacation to. Quite possibly the area we will eventually wind up at.
 
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Update:

Qualifying scores so far!

Top 10
SCORE NAME

3019540 APK
1388320 DOC
1234150 TCR
1149580 MRK
1114830 JON
983090 LWB
880240 ELF
833620 TKM
486190 J.M
323610 LAB

So did any Watchers have a particular call-sign or arcade signature? Or did most simply use their initials? :)
 
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Just my initials... not that I was on the high score table that often! Maybe on Double Dragon... ;)
 
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I used ILT for I love itties. My best arcade game was Mr. Do. I played it for hours and hours with my girlfriend at the local bowling alley. Got a buddy who still uses that for his games and he's in his 60's :D
 
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Pro-qualifiers now confirmed:

Andrew Laidlaw (record holder)
Phil Day (ex-world record holder)
Andrew Barrow (NZ - this guy kill-screened Donkey Kong live last year)

Armando Gonzales (Los Angeles, CA)
Keith “Arcade Doctor” Swanson (Orlando, FL)
Tanner Rousseau (Blue Springs, MO)
Mark Schult (La Porte, IN)
Jon Klinkel (Battle Creek, MI)
Larry Brockie (Mount Prospect, IL)
John McAllister (Seattle, WA)

You can check out some these qualifying scores on Youtube - I had a look at Mark Schult's which then prompted me to further check out a out a whole range of stuff on the Galloping Ghost Arcade which is quite remarkable for its sheer volume and size. Looks like an amazing place to visit and get lost in! (Brookfield, Illinois for those curious…)
 
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First round of the pro level qualifying scores from Meow Wolf are up:

Andrew Barrow 10, 301,080 (Could have gone on, but decided to conserve his energy!)
Armando Gonzalez 6, 972,250
Tanner Rousseau 4, 780,650
Phil Day 3, 854, 320
John McAllister 3, 135,740
Andrew Laidlaw 2, 922, 140
Jon Klinkel 2, 875, 440
Mike Thompson 2,062, 440
Keith Swanson 1, 885, 800
Mark Schult 1, 837, 700

The final head to head shoot-outs over the next two days should get quite intense.
 
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(Cheering for Tanner)

Can you imagine watching this competition? Screen after screen after screen of Galaga for hours?
 
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You just summed up the late seventies and early eighties, all that time spent in arcades waiting for your chance to play. This is why I've no interest whatsoever in watching someone else play a game!
 
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The Galaga Championships were covered on Twitch and as expected, was extremely exciting in the head to head encounters for the semi-finals. Arcade fans got a treat in watching ex-record holders battle it out to the last man under tournament settings. (5 men only, no extra lives)

In one semi, Andrew Laidlaw got down to his last man against Andrew Barrow, observably showed signs of giving up which in turn made his opponent stop playing to look over, losing two men in the process, thereby leaving both players with one man remaining! It was a pretty crazy sequence of events to see them go back at it with one ship left each.

The convincing winner in the end was New Zealand's Andrew Barrow. He's also slowly but surely winning over the hearts Australians who have basically claimed him as our own. "Barra" as he's known, also scored over 10 million in a marathon at the venue, stopping short of taking on the world record at 16 million set in the 80's.

The event also saw several world records in other games fall - Asteroids and MS Pacman for instance. I really enjoyed watching what I saw - I've never really been into E-Sports and the like, but with the commentary coming from players themselves, it was all quite entertaining. There will most certainly be a Score Wars II!
 
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I'm not sure what that means, you? There was a point where victory was declared - it was in the final when Armando Gonzalez ran out of lives and Andrew Barrow was still playing. :)

More info from the Twin Galaxies report:

https://www.twingalaxies.com/feed_d...ney-results-andrew-barrow-becomes-world-champ

Or maybe you meant that you wished Galaga had an end? I guess that's understandable. Though it is also one of the novel factors compared to many games of the day that had kill-screens or final screens. (Pacman, Donkey Kong etc...)
Personally I rather like that doomed sense of finality in the idea that the bugs will eventually win. :)
 
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