February 5, 2018 at 15:11Two decades-old game records invalidated
2018 for the world of classic game lovers began with the removal of several game records from the base of the American organization Twin Galaxies , which monitors the achievements of gamers. Player Billy Mitchell ( Billy Mitchell ) caught cheating - he set a record in Donkey Kong, using MAME emulator instead of the arcade. And the name of Todd Rogers ( Todd Rogers ), who set a record in 1982 a game in the game Dragster on the console Atari 2600, can soon be removed from the Guinness Book of Records. How did they manage to trick the community, and how were they taken to clean water? Let's get it right.
Dragster game on Atari 2600
In 2007, the United States released the documentary The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters , telling about the efforts of gamer Steve Wiebe to break the record of current Donkey Kong champion Billy Mitchell. Weebe played in different halls, tried to challenge his opponent to a duel, drove to his house, but Mitchell never appeared in the frame of the game for the entire film. Weebe broke Mitchell's record, but soon the defeated champion provided a record of the new game, where he restored the status quo.
According to Twin Galaxies, among Billy Mitchell's records at Donkey Kong were 1,047,200 points, 1,050,200 points and 1,062,800 points. An analysis of the community’s record confirming achievements helped identify fraud - the gamer used the MAME emulator. The images that the emulator produces differ from the original hardware of the gaming machine. You can find out what exactly the picture produced if you see how it was shown:
Mitchell said that he connected to the machine directly when he set one of his records. Chris Gleed did the same to test this version - but got a different result. And, perhaps, he became the only person who actually received the picture directly from the machine .
Twin Galaxies has tons of GIFs to prove Mitchell’s use of the emulator. Below is one example.
Billy Mitchell: a record of 1,047,200 and MAME version 0.116-0.181
Billy Mitchell: a record of 1,050,200
This should look like a game on a real machine with a direct connection: A
game when shooting on a smartphone with 60 fps:
The name of Billy Mitchell with a shame crossed out from the ranking of record holders Donkey Kong. The current leader is Robbie Lakeman. The result he showed on February 2, 2018 is 1,247,700 points - it is significantly higher than the Mitchell 1,062,800 achieved in an unfair way.
Billy Mitchell this year became the second record-breaking gamer to fall forged. The first was Todd Rogers. In 1982, he set a record for the Atari Dragster game, completing the flight in 5.51 seconds, took a photo on Polaroid and sent it to Activision. The company confirmed the achievement, and in 2000 it was automatically transferred to the Twin Galaxies database. In 2000, a gamer hit the Guinness Book of Records as the holder of a record that had not been beaten the longest in the history of games.
Nobody has overcome the result so far, but all records of achievement have been removed from the highscore lists, and information has been sent to the Book of Records that Rogers cheated the gaming community.
Twin Galaxies member Dick Moreland in November 2017 questioned the reliability of the record after Eric Koziel demonstrated the impossibility of a result under normal game conditions. Time is better than 5.57 seconds, it is impossible to show on the Atari 2600, even if you use the software to help in the game. The evidence gathered was enough to remove all of Rogers' records.
The best possible result in Dragster on the Atari 2600 is 5.57 seconds.
“We can not affect the recognition of the record by Activision, but we are responsible for the reliable provision of information on achievements in games and can no longer accept historical records from the company as the only evidence for the results established earlier. We have not witnessed the installation record, we can not find any evidence used by the publisher of games, and we can not find anyone who has seen the evidence provided by Activision as a confirmation of a record, "- wrote in the decision on the Twin Galaxies website.
Dragster game on Atari 2600
Billy Mitchell and Donkey Kong
In 2007, the United States released the documentary The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters , telling about the efforts of gamer Steve Wiebe to break the record of current Donkey Kong champion Billy Mitchell. Weebe played in different halls, tried to challenge his opponent to a duel, drove to his house, but Mitchell never appeared in the frame of the game for the entire film. Weebe broke Mitchell's record, but soon the defeated champion provided a record of the new game, where he restored the status quo.
According to Twin Galaxies, among Billy Mitchell's records at Donkey Kong were 1,047,200 points, 1,050,200 points and 1,062,800 points. An analysis of the community’s record confirming achievements helped identify fraud - the gamer used the MAME emulator. The images that the emulator produces differ from the original hardware of the gaming machine. You can find out what exactly the picture produced if you see how it was shown:
- A true Donkey Kong machine generates an image as if you are opening or closing a curtain: there are artifacts when parts of the image appear in pieces, from one side to the other
- Older versions of MAME before 0.122 show a picture like a puzzle - detail after detail.
Mitchell said that he connected to the machine directly when he set one of his records. Chris Gleed did the same to test this version - but got a different result. And, perhaps, he became the only person who actually received the picture directly from the machine .
Twin Galaxies has tons of GIFs to prove Mitchell’s use of the emulator. Below is one example.
Billy Mitchell: a record of 1,047,200 and MAME version 0.116-0.181
Billy Mitchell: a record of 1,050,200
This should look like a game on a real machine with a direct connection: A
game when shooting on a smartphone with 60 fps:
The name of Billy Mitchell with a shame crossed out from the ranking of record holders Donkey Kong. The current leader is Robbie Lakeman. The result he showed on February 2, 2018 is 1,247,700 points - it is significantly higher than the Mitchell 1,062,800 achieved in an unfair way.
Todd Rogers and Dragster on Atari
Billy Mitchell this year became the second record-breaking gamer to fall forged. The first was Todd Rogers. In 1982, he set a record for the Atari Dragster game, completing the flight in 5.51 seconds, took a photo on Polaroid and sent it to Activision. The company confirmed the achievement, and in 2000 it was automatically transferred to the Twin Galaxies database. In 2000, a gamer hit the Guinness Book of Records as the holder of a record that had not been beaten the longest in the history of games.
Nobody has overcome the result so far, but all records of achievement have been removed from the highscore lists, and information has been sent to the Book of Records that Rogers cheated the gaming community.
Twin Galaxies member Dick Moreland in November 2017 questioned the reliability of the record after Eric Koziel demonstrated the impossibility of a result under normal game conditions. Time is better than 5.57 seconds, it is impossible to show on the Atari 2600, even if you use the software to help in the game. The evidence gathered was enough to remove all of Rogers' records.
The best possible result in Dragster on the Atari 2600 is 5.57 seconds.
“We can not affect the recognition of the record by Activision, but we are responsible for the reliable provision of information on achievements in games and can no longer accept historical records from the company as the only evidence for the results established earlier. We have not witnessed the installation record, we can not find any evidence used by the publisher of games, and we can not find anyone who has seen the evidence provided by Activision as a confirmation of a record, "- wrote in the decision on the Twin Galaxies website.