Portland Arcade To Face Foes in Houston and Madison, Wisconsin During Classic Video Game Championship

Classic arcade gaming will get a big boost in Oregon the weekend of June 4-6, 2004 as regional video game champs gather at the Ground Kontrol classic arcade to try for record-breaking scores that will win listings in Twin Galaxies' forthcoming Official Video Game & Pinball Book of World Records. But the Portland video champs will have their work cut out for them as they compete against similar groups of video players in Madison, Wisconsin and Houston, Texas, all seeking to grab a few remaining berths in the upcoming record book.

At the Ground Kontrol Classic Arcade in Portland, Oregon, the Aftershock RetroGames Arcade in Madison, Wisconsin and the Houston Area Arcade Group Expo in Houston, Texas, high score champions will spend three days celebrating the legacy of Pac-Man, Centipede, Donkey Kong and Frogger in the form of an interstate high-score championship titled Classic Video Game Championships Across America. "Players at the three different locations will be going head-to-head for listings in the book of records," explains Walter Day, editor of the record book and coordinator of the event. "During the three-day event, the management of each of the three locations will monitor high scores and submit them to the Book of Records for consideration in the forthcoming edition, due out in the fall."

At Ground Kontrol in Portland, William Carlton, who has already achieved the 5th highest score on Asteroids, will try to capture a world title on Astro Fighter, a highly contested game created by Sega in 1980. "Though our Asteroids champ is our biggest draw,quot; explains Anthony Ramos, Ground Kontrol proprietor, "we also have Ryan Coulter, a world-class Spy Hunter contender who may eclipse the current world record on that game." Additional stars at Ground Kontrol will be tackling games like Galaga, Missile Command, Space Invaders and 720.

Open To The Public

Throughout the three-day event, competitors will play on a stage for public view and be recorded on videotape to capture their record-breaking gameplay. Ground Kontrol will be open to the public at no charge, as usual.

As contestants schedule their record attempts, we'll post the day, time, and game they plan to attempt here on this web page. You're invited to stop by and see some of the world's most expert videogame players in action.

Schedule

Day/Time	Player	Game	Settings	Score To Beat
Friday 7pm-Midnight	Alan Johnson	Missile Command	Tournament Mode Starting Cities: 6 Bonus Cities:NONE	1,695,265
Saturday Noon-3pm	Ryan Coulter	Spy Hunter	Default Settings	9,512,590
Saturday 3pm-8pm	Chris Magee	Galaga	Difficulty: "D" Start: 3 Ships Bonus: 1 ship at 20,000 and 70,000 points and every 70,000 points until one million points	15,999,990
Saturday 9pm-10pm	Bill Carlton	Astro Fighter	Default Settings	15,470
Sunday 1pm-4pm	Perry Rodgers	Galaxian	Start: 3 Ships Bonus: extra ship at 7,000 points	389,770
Sunday 4pm-8pm	Perry Rogers	Mario Bros.	Default Settings	3,481,550
TBD	Chris Magee	Q*Bert	"Five Man" rule: Points scored during first five lives.	1,895,565