Aurcade.com Top News

Kill Screen Sunday at Envision Classics Arcade

auric@aurcade.com (David Hernly) — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 01:52:56 GMT

Some of the Pacific Northwest's best classic arcade gamers have converged on Envision Classics Arcade in Milwaukie, Oregon (near Portland) for a day of high score destruction. On the hit list are Donkey Kong (Ross Benziger), Dig Dug (Ken House), Robotron (Matt Hall), Pac-Man Turbo (Bill Carlton), Ms. Pac-Man Turbo (Dan Corcoran), and Track & Field (Elijah Hayter). Kill screens are expected on all but Robotron and Track & Field, which do not have them. Come join us via live web stream at http://www.twitch.tv/scoundrl where we will have a roaming camera to cover the highlights as they happen. The event is expected to last from noon to 5:00pm PT.

Ross did a 954k kill screen on DK last night on his first attempt for practice, and Bill just recently notched a new personal best on Pac Turbo of over 2.2 million, with over 1 million on his first man.

RESULTS: We put eight new high scores on Envision's high score board as two gamers achieved kill screens. Ross upped Donkey Kong from 217k to 669k. Ken upped Dig Dug from 999,990 to a 4.3M kill screen. Dan upped Ms. Pac-Man Turbo from 353k to 903k, just missing the kill screen by four boards. Bill upped the Pac-Man Turbo high score from the 300k range to 3.165M, getting his first ever kill screen on the game. Dick Moreland took Envision's top spot on Video Pinball with a 431k. Matt took the top spot on Pole Position with a 50k (and his total destruction of the 1943 high score was still in progress when I left), and yours truly took over the top spot on Jungle King with a 44k. And the 4-player Warlords cocktail was enjoyed tremendously by all. The archived six hour stream of the event can be viewed here. Can't wait to do this again soon!

ACAM Needs Your Help to Purchase 5 Rare Games They Don't Have

auric@aurcade.com (David Hernly) — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 11:17:18 GMT

Currently on the ACAM front page:

Dear Supporters,

ACAM has been approached by a private collector with an offer to purchase games from his collection. The games being offered are pieces we do not have in our collection: Space Dungeon, Mad Planets, Solar Fox, Disc of Tron and Black Widow. The agreed price is $3,650 of which we have already received $1,810 in donations leaving a balance of $1,840. We have until Sunday, January 15th to raise the remaining amount and would appreciate your help in obtaining these pieces for the museum. Donations can be made via the ChipIn widget.

Of the $1,840 they need they have raised $1,250 so far, leaving just $590 to raise by January 15, 2012. The ChipIn widget on their front page uses PayPal for payment processing. You do not have to have a PayPal account; you can use a credit card.

Let's help push 'em over the top. It'll be worth it just to see them get Space Dungeon alone. The other four are somewhat hard to come by these days, but a working Space Dungeon is practically Bigfoot.

UPDATE #1: Only $85 to go, thanks to the five anonymous contributors who chipped in a combined $505 today!

UPDATE #2: Well that didn't take long! Two more contributions in the last ten hours and the goal has been met. Major thanks to everyone who chipped in to preserve five more classic arcade games!

REMINDER!: Forgot to mention... The American Classic Arcade Museum is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization and your donations to them are tax deductible. So if you plan on itemizing your 2011 return be sure to keep your donation receipt!

Dave McCrary 1,015,000 Donkey Kong Killscreen

auric@aurcade.com (David Hernly) — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 09:53:18 GMT

Congrats to Dave McCrary for kill screening Donkey Kong on his 3rd man just now, and finishing with a score of 1,015,000, his first 1M+ game and so far only the fourth proven to have happened on the Arcade platform.

Dave streamed his game live on twitch.tv and was also recording to submit to Twin Galaxies. Dave will take over the #4 spot on TG's Donkey Kong Arcade standings.

Overheard on Richie Knucklez' twitch.tv stream last night right after Dave's game: the entry requirement for next year's "Kong Off 2" event will be a verified 1 million point game, which as of now is a pretty exclusive club. Only Bill Mitchell, Steve Wiebe, current champ Hank Chien, and now Dave McCrary have proven million point games. The race is on to see how many top DK players can qualify before the as-yet-unannounced cut-off date.

Q*bert Record Under Assault as Richie Knucklez' Arcade Games Goes Out With a Bang

auric@aurcade.com (David Hernly) — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 04:17:35 GMT

First, the bad news. As 2011 comes to a close Richie Knucklez' Arcade Games in Flemington, New Jersey will be closing along with it as Richie seeks to spend more time with his family and to recharge his batteries for whatever comes next.

Now the good news. Richie is going out with a bang not only by hosting a final Saturday get together on New Year's Eve but also by hosting Mad George Leutz's fourth and final (let's hope) attempt to take down the 28-year-old marathon Q*bert record. And you'd have to be mad to try to do so; it is expected to take nearly 70 hours of play on a single credit to top the 33,273,520 score set by Rob Gerhardt on November 28, 1983.

George is reportedly sleeping at Richie's arcade as we write this, and it is expected he will awake and begin his three days of self-induced optical torture at midnight tonight, Eastern Time (GMT - 5:00). The plan is to surpass the record as the ball drops in Times Square on Saturday night to ring in 2012. The entire attempt will be streamed at http://www.twitch.tv/richieknucklez, so be sure to stop by and cheer George on to victory.

UPDATE #1: And he's off and ~~running~~ hopping! Official start time appears to be 12:18am ET on Thursday.

UPDATE #2: He topped 20 million at the 39-1/3 hour mark. He's on pace for 65.4 hours, which would put record achievement at 5:30pm ET tomorrow, but his pace will slow due to fatigue and breaks. George estimates 8:00pm ET on Saturday.

UPDATE #3: 26.2 million at the 56 hour mark. His scoring pace has slowed. The typical scoring pace for Q*bert is 500,000 per hour, so he "should" be at 28 million by now, but slower scoring is to be expected this late in the game. He's now on pace for just over 71 hours, which would put him at the record at the stroke of midnight ET.

UPDATE #4: At 9:48am ET at the 57.5 hour mark his extra lives dipped below 9 for the first time. Ten minutes later it was all over. Total elapsed time was 57 hrs 40 mins, and the final score was 26,721,915. Thanks, George, for a monumental effort!

New Nibbler World Record!

auric@aurcade.com (David Hernly) — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 11:39:47 GMT

Tim McVey has reclaimed the Nibbler World Record over Christmas weekend!

He played just shy of 40 hours and the final score was an amazing 1,041,767,060!

Congrats to Tim from all of us over at Aurcade!

Two Days of Track & Field!

auric@aurcade.com (David Hernly) — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 03:10:54 GMT

Congratulations go out to Elijah Hayter of Hillsboro, Oregon, who just completed what is believed to be the longest ever single-credit game of Track & Field, the 1983 Konami/Centuri button-demolishing classic.

As he approached the 48-hour mark Elijah's extra lives were dwindling and he was soon down to no extra men in storage. He then briefly gained a second wind and earned back three of them. But after two sleepless nights the timing demands of the 110 meter hurdles became a hurdle itself, and by the end the timing of the long jump, javelin, and the high jump were getting harder to nail as well.

Elijah's game ended on the 110 meter hurdles after tipping two hurdles and just missing the qualifying time. The game lasted just four minutes shy of 49 hours, and the final score was 26,479,630.

Holiday Marathons

auric@aurcade.com (David Hernly) — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 08:35:57 GMT

For those of you relaxing at home, you can kick back and watch BOTH the Track & Field and Nibbler marathons *at the same time*!

How you ask? Click Right Here!

UPDATE: Looks like we have many people streaming today, you can switch between them all automatically as well!

The 'Versus' page was built to allow viewers the ability to watch two streams at the same time, even with unified chat!

Happy Holidays everyone, and good luck to those marathoners!

Track and Field Marathon???

auric@aurcade.com (David Hernly) — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 10:28:22 GMT

Thats right, emerging classic gamer Elijah Hayter is currently about 8.5 hours into his first

official Aurcade marathon record attempt on the classic button masher Track and Field.

You can follow his progress by browsing to his justin.tv stream

16000 games in database

auric@aurcade.com (David Hernly) — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 04:00:08 GMT

Just like the title says, we have officially reached 16000 games in the database. The game that put us over the top was Stern's pinball game Indiana Jones.

I want to thank you guys for not only finding new locations out there, but also making sure our existing locations stay up to date.

I also want to wish everyone here a happy holidays. Enjoy!

American Classic Arcade Museum hosts 2nd Annual PAX-East Party

auric@aurcade.com (David Hernly) — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 03:19:24 GMT

On Saturday, November 19th 2011, The American Classic Arcade Museum @ Funspot will be holding our 2nd Annual PAX-East Arcade Party. Join your fellow PAX-East attendees for a day of classic arcade gaming and fun inside the largest arcade in the world.

We have a special offer. Show up wearing a PAX-East shirt, scarf, or even wear your PAX-East badge and get $10 in free tokens. Just come to the table we will have set up inside of ACAM entrance on the 3rd floor for your free tokens. You will be required to show a photo ID for your free tokens. For additional tokens, print out the coupon at the link below for a special deal -- 150 game tokens for $20!

http://www.funspotnh.com/mws-coupon.htm

PAX-East Day will take place Saturday, November 19th, 2011 from noon until closing. This is great opportunity to game with other PAX-East attendees and start the countdown for PAX-East 2012. We will also take some group photos of everyone that attends.

Hailed as “The Mecca of Classic Gaming” by MSNBC and "One of the shrines every sports fan should visit" by ESPN: The Magazine, The American Classic Arcade Museum at Funspot is the first 501c3 non-profit organization dedicated to preserving and displaying vintage coin-operated amusements. Located on the third floor of the immense Funspot Family Entertainment Super Center, the museum celebrates the origins of the arcade industry with popular games from the past. Asteroids, Pac-Man, Centipede and Gorgar are just a few of the over 300 games currently on display & available for play in the Museum. The museum also contains static displays of game history and the walls feature many posters of vintage arcade games.

The Funspot Family Entertainment Super Center is located on Route 3 in Weirs Beach, NH. The facility was founded in 1952 by Bob Lawton and has been continuously operated by him and his family ever since. The 60,000 square foot center features over 500 games, 20 bowling lanes, a miniature golf course, a 400-seat Bingo hall, a restaurant, the D.A. Long Tavern, and the new Monkey Trunks Zipline Adventure Park. In June of 2008, Guinness World Records named Funspot the largest arcade in the world.

The American Classic Arcade Museum and Funspot are open year-round.

More information on the facility, directions & lodging options can be found at www.ClassicArcadeMuseum.org and www.funspotnh.com.

The American Classic Arcade Museum @ Funspot
579 Endicott Street North
Laconia, NH 03246

It's on like ummmm... Mappy

auric@aurcade.com (David Hernly) — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 01:51:16 GMT

With all the focus these days on Donkey Kong we thought we'd lighten things up by having a contest on the arcade classic Mappy.

Basically, the highest score, MAME (US), a Multicab that plays RIGHT or an actual Arcade Machine will win the $100 grand prize. ThisOldGame.com has graciously donated a Mappy poster for the second place enrty. In addition to the high score contest there is a level 1-1 challenge (best single man score on the first level). This winner will get 'The Pigger Prize' of FIVE american dollars!

This will be an online stream only contest (if you cannot stream for some real reason we may make an inp exception but the inp will be streamed at some point during the contest.)

Contest will run from 10-20-2011 until 11-20-2011 (midnight PST)

You can see who is streaming by browsing to Aurcade.com and looking in the upper right corner of the screen under the 'Live Streams' section. Not all the streams will be Mappy but there has been a lot of play lately with cash on the line.

Lets get it on!

Basic rules

1. Game must be played/streamed live on Justin.TV (AKA Twitch.tv) or USTREAM

2. You need to be able to clip the performance so someone can verify the gameplay. In some cases a ref may be watching the stream and can verify it right then but you'll still want to clip the broadcast so the rest of us can enjoy it,

3. You can use MAME (any version without obvious ways to exploit the game), You can play on an actual machine if you are lucky enough to have one, you can play on a multicab/multiboard that has Mappy as long as gameplay is not obviously different from MAME or the original machine.

4. You will need and Aurcade.com account with your stream URL setup in the 'stream' field so the notification system works and we know who is streaming when.

5. First place prize is $100. for the highest score at the end of the contest 11-20-2011 Midnight PST. Second place is the 1983 Bally Midway Arcade Mappy Advertising Flyer donated by ThisOldGame.com and 'The Pigger Prize' of FIVE american dollars goes to the highighest level 1-1 single man score.

Good Luck and Happy gaming!

GameStock - 3 Days of Peace, Love and Arcade Fun!!!!

auric@aurcade.com (David Hernly) — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 09:29:36 GMT

Klassic Arcade will be open 24/7 during this event and there will be a lot going on!

Big Tournament with HUGE prizes! Entry fee is $45 for the MAIN tournament! Early signup is $40 through Klassic Arcade!

$500 1st Place, $400 2nd Place, $250 3rd Place, $100 4th Place and $50 5th Place!!! If you want to meet some WORLD RECORD HOLDERS, make sure you come out!!!! There will definitely be some on hand!!!!
...
Individual game tournaments will be going on all during the weekend! Make sure to be aware of when to sign up for your game's tourney! The individual tourneys will be $5 each to enter. Prizes to be determined for these.

All High Score holders are invited to come out and up their scores, along with the unveiling of a LEGENDS score list and a KIDS score list!

Don't forget all the bottled soda pop and RC track!

There is also plenty of room to camp out for the weekend if you'd like to stay on-site for all of the gaming going on! Grilling will be going on, as well!!!

http://www.klassicarcade.com

Lonnie and his WR attempt in Joust

auric@aurcade.com (David Hernly) — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 09:16:21 GMT

Lonnie McDonald is shooting for arcade immortality on the arcade game Joust.

For full details, click on the link below which leads to the news article.

http://www.examiner.com/arcade-game-in-national/joust-expert-taking-his-classic-arcade-skills-across-the-country

It is also important to note he is relying on our database to find these Joust machines! He even titled this as "The Aurcade Inspired tour"!
Hopefully we'll catalog his success either on here or in the forums!

Aurcade milestones

auric@aurcade.com (David Hernly) — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 05:13:52 GMT

We have officially reached 15,000 games in the database. Great job guys!

We have also officially reached 1000 locations in the database. The location that became our 1000th location was the Adams County Castle Rock Park in Wisconsin.

I want to thank all you guys for getting out there and finding these games. Keep up the great work!

WR Weekend at the KenCade

auric@aurcade.com (David Hernly) — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 05:44:59 GMT

Well folks, He's doing it again! Our very own Bill Carlton is attempting one more time to break the Missile Command arcade world record set by Victor Ali in 1982.

Come join the fun at the aurcade.com events page HERE

OFFICIAL start time 4:04 PST 9-02-2011

UPDATE : First game over at around 6:45 PST. New start time, 7:00 PST

UPDATE : Second game over New Start time estimated to be 9:00am PST 9-3-2011

UPDATE : Started at 10:00 PST 9-3-2011

UPDATE : 1:30pm 6 million. Going Strong.

UPDATE : 2:00am game ended due to reset at 29.3m.

Aurcade gets a nice mention in EDGE Magazine

auric@aurcade.com (David Hernly) — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 09:41:40 GMT

In this months edition of EDGE Magazine, they interview the organizers and gamers at the 13th Annual ACAM tournament at Funspot in Weirs Beach, New Hampshire.

It's a nice size article with some great interviews. You can buy the digital edition here.

Gary Vincent of Funspot/ACAM Celebrates Milestone

auric@aurcade.com (David Hernly) — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 03:47:13 GMT

At the risk of offending my long-term friend who did not want to make a big deal about this, I would like to announce that today is an important day. On this day (August 20th) 30 years ago, Gary Vincent had his first day of employment at the Funspot Family Entertainment Center in Weirs Beach, NH. Over the last 30 years, he has made countless contributions to the arcade gaming industry and the gaming community.

Of primary interest to the people here at Aurcade, Gary is the founder and current President of The American Classic Arcade Museum @ Funspot in Weirs Beach, NH. Founded in 1998 and incorporated in 2002, The American Classic Arcade Museum (ACAM) is the first 501c3 non-profit organization & museum facility dedicated to the preservation of classic coin-operated amusements. Under Gary’s supervision, ACAM had acquired & restored hundreds of classic videogames that are on display for all to play within the ACAM facility. Approximately 300 classic arcade games and pinball currently machines occupy the 8,000 square foot museum facility that is that is open to the public 364 days per year. Another 150+ games are in storage awaiting restoration.

Gary oversees the largest arcade in the world according to the Guinness Book of World Records, and runs the largest & best annual classic gaming tournament. The Funspot Family Entertainment Center has a history of videogame & pinball tournaments dating back to the mid-1970’s. Gary has been involved in running these events throughout his tenure. He also oversees ACAM’s fundraising activities and runs a weekly charitable Bingo game that is crucial to funding ACAM’s restoration & operational activities. This weekly Bingo game requires 8 hours of effort from Gary’s personal time each week, and is crucial to keeping ACAM funded in a down economy where donations & sponsorships are few and far in-between.

Gary & the ACAM facility were recently showcased in an article in Edge Magazine (August, 2011). Due to the work of Gary and the volunteer staff, ACAM was named one of the “33 shrines every sports fan should visit” by ESPN: The Magazine in 2010. ACAM has been repeatedly singled out as the “Mecca” of arcade gaming by almost a dozen news outlets & gaming media such as MSNBC, Yahoo! and Joystiq. To get repeated recognition by these respected media outlets is a testament to the work that Gary has done, and to the reputation he has built.

Gary, on behalf of the ACAM Board of Directors and the volunteers who assist you with your restoration efforts, I would like to thank you for your contributions over the last 30 years.

Mike Stulir
Board of Directors
The American Classic Arcade Museum
http://www.classicarcademusem.org

Donkey Kong World Record Attempts

auric@aurcade.com (David Hernly) — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 12:11:20 GMT

SPACE FURY World Record! During the DK event, Richie Knucklez achieved a new world record on Space Fury with a score of 241,760!! Way to go Richie!!

Hank Chien and Dean Saglio are going for the Donkey Kong WR today at the Richie Knucklez' Arcade in Flemington, NJ.

Or you can catch the stream here: http://www.aurcade.com/events/stream.aspx?u=83

New World Records Set This Weekend!

auric@aurcade.com (David Hernly) — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 04:50:29 GMT

While there are still more to report, here are a few of the World Record's set this weekend. Congratulations to all the players!

Frenzy: Joel West - 4,933,702
Nibbler: Rick Carter - 1,002,222,360
Snake Pit: Mark Alpiger - 317,350
TRON: David Cruz - 14,007,645
Ice Cold Beer: Zach Kaczor - 350,000

QBert Marathon

auric@aurcade.com (David Hernly) — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 09:48:44 GMT

George Leutz is underway with a Qbert marathon in his attempt to claim the world record.

Status so far: He ended his game after 60 hours of gaming nonstop.
Final Score: 26.978 million

We also had a marathon of Nibbler!
Final score: 1, 002,222, 360

Watch the Marathons Here

Fox 25 in Boston covers the Pinball Wizard Tournament

auric@aurcade.com (David Hernly) — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 07:30:34 GMT

You'll also see some nice coverage of the Aurcade Tournament System =)

Seth Gordon's "Horrible Bosses" Opens in Theaters Today!

auric@aurcade.com (David Hernly) — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 11:25:42 GMT

This may not *seem* like arcade news, but in fact it is. The R Rated comedy about 3 friends attempting to get ride of each others bosses is directed by non other than Seth Gordon. He made his mark with the arcade documentary "The King of Kong" and former Donkey Kong champ Steve Wiebe himself is suppose to have a cameo in the film.

I wonder if he'll have Steve playing Donkey Kong? Hmm....

See The Rotten Tomatoes reviews here.

Aurcade milestone

auric@aurcade.com (David Hernly) — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 04:20:43 GMT

We have reached 14,000 games in the Aurcade database. The game that gave us the newest round number was MTV Drumscape.

I want to thank you guys for a great job at finding these locations.
Just a reminder. There are plenty more locations out there. Bus depots, truck stops, laundromats, casinos, pool halls, and even some colleges and universities all have arcade games at them. Keep it up!

Aurcade location milestone

auric@aurcade.com (David Hernly) — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 04:46:58 GMT

We have reached 900 locations around the world! The winning location is The Adventure Dome in Las Vegas. Only 100 locations to go before we reach 1000 locations. We can do it! There is definitely 100 locations in America that we haven't documented yet.

As time marches on, some of the locations have updated their inventory. It is up to us to insure we stay on top of these changes. Some locations have not been updated in two to four years. If you are looking for new locations. Your best bets would be local bowling alleys, laundromats, truck stops, cinemas, and skate centers. Speaking of cinemas. The existing theaters can change out their inventory every once in a while, so it is often a good idea to drop by from time to time.

We documented over 3700 new games since we hit 800 locations. That is huge! If you are new to the site and would like to learn how you can help find arcades in your area, check out the forums.

Great job guys!

Pinball Wizard Challenge 2011

auric@aurcade.com (David Hernly) — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 07:41:46 GMT

First Annual International Pinball Wizard Challenge 2011