Twin Galaxies 2004 MAME Decathlon - FINAL RESULTS !!
As reported on April 7th, 2004
Hello fellow gamers:
One of Twin Galaxies' proudest and most respected traditions is our annual MAME decathlon, a grueling event in which 10 arcade titles are contested by a large number of participants over a period of time. This year's results were nothing short of remarkable.
The general principle is simple. To keep things fresh, gamers vote on titles that have not previously been contested within the past few years, and the 10 titles that garnered the most votes make up the decathlon-to-be. The rules are established per title, inclusive of any banned tactics, and dedicated gamers volunteer to act as tournament referees for one or more of the titles. Next, over the course of typically 90 days, gamers submit as often as they like for each of the 10 titles within the pre-determined cutoff dates for the tournament.
The scores on a per title basis are worth up to 100 percentage points based on the lead position for that title. In other words, should "Donkey Kong" be a contest title, and the highest score submitted is 500,000 points, then that score is worth 100 percentage points, and if the 2nd highest score submitted is 400,000 points, then that score is worth 80 percentage points, and so forth. Players must submit a score for each of the 10 titles to qualify, and the sum of their percentage points for each of the 10 titles is tallied, and the competition final rankings are announced.
Depending on a gamer's finishing position, prizes are awarded, which could range from a modest cash prize to a Twin Galaxies certificate. All results are entered into the Twin Galaxies online scoreboard database, and top scores per title might be eligible for inclusion in the 2nd Twin Galaxies Book of Video Game and Pinball World Records.
That being said, the 2004 competition was very exciting. For starters, I would like to personally thank the many fine players who volunteered to serve as tournament referees throughout the competition. It could not have been a success were it not for their involvement. Additionally, the tournament is all for and about the players.
This year, over 50 players registered to compete from 18 different countries. Of this impressive and truly worldwide group, 24 qualified, meaning they submitted at least one verified score on all 10 titles. The gamers ranged from 13 years of age up to 49, quite an array of experience from both the classic and modern eras of gaming.
The array of titles was both diverse and challenging, including some of the most respected titles in gaming history. All titles were fun to play, and provided for an excellent mix to test the capabilities and skillsets of the participating gamers.
Although there can only be one overall winner, and one overall 2nd place
finisher, 3rd place finisher, etc, each of the indiviual title contests was equally important. So, in my recap, I'll cover each of the ten titles first and then wrap up with the overall championship rankings.
My personal thanks to the participants, one and all, for taking the time to partake in this time-honoured competition, and to the dedicated referees who did an exemplary job.
Here now are the various results, in alphabetical order by title.
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BAGMAN
Difficulty - Medium
Starting lives - 3
Extra life - one (1) at 30K, one more after each completed level
Special competition rules - five (5) lives only
One of the toughest titles in this competition, in my opinion. Not too many people at the start of the competition even knew how to passably play the game, as it is generally regarded as one of the more difficult titles from the classic era. But, the participants of a deca share their mutual respect, and several provided in-depth details on how to play the game, from the absolute basics to the most detailed nuances. That, combined with the perseverance of the participants over the course of the deca, lead to spirited competition and valiant efforts from one and all. Inevitably, some gamers pulled away from
the pack with outstanding performances.
For gamers who are not familiar with the title, you control what appears to be "Bagman", who travels across three screens gathering bags of money and bringing them to his wheel barrel to keep the timer replenished. Meanwhile, two "wardens" chase you relentlessly, and if they manage to catch you, then one life is lost. Gather all the bags of money within a level and you are rewarded with an extra life, and a new level to explore.
At the start of the competition, when gamers were getting acclimated to the title, the score to beat was in the 224K range. By the end of the competition, seven (7) participants managed to pass the vaunted 100K mark, most of which probably made it to the second level, thus a 5th and final life awarded.
The competition's top score later increased to the 522K mark which was extraordinary, but as the competition heated up, that mark was more than doubled. Rafal Politanski, who hails from Poland, set the highest mark on this title with a whopping score of more than a million points. Not to be outdone, Donald Hayes, who hails from ths USA, kept pace with another score that exceeded a million points but which fell a bit short of Rafal's. Still, on this title such scores are extraordinary.
The game can throw you for a loop when the wheelbarrel starts at different sections of a level, and when the wardens don't quite seem to go where you hoped they would. That, plus a very unforgiving timer, make for one tough gaming experience.
The pack, if you will, seemed to be those gamers that collected at least a few bags but didn't quite finish the first level.
The disparity between the top two scores and the next highest was actually the largest for the competition, a 58.70% difference, to be precise, a testimony to how difficult this title can be. Below are the specific results for the title for all who submitted a score, reflecting their name, their score, and their relative percentage points out of 100%.
Rafal Politanski 1,098,700 100.00%
Donald Hayes 1,027,970 93.56%
Robert Mruczek 382,990 34.86%
Andrew Peter Mee 291,670 26.55%
Martin Bedard 263,890 24.02%
Greg Erway 149,920 13.65%
Christian Rduch 103,990 9.46%
John Drake 77,170 7.02%
Robert Macauley 75,650 6.89%
Michael Bruhn 69,170 6.30%
Michael Span 66,630 6.06%
Ryan Gavigan 42,930 3.91%
Jason Hoseason 42,460 3.86%
Steve Knox 41,370 3.77%
Werner Pfurtscheller 40,620 3.70%
John Rhodes 40,440 3.68%
Darren Harding 38,560 3.51%
Tim Balderramos 37,830 3.44%
Kelly R. Flewin 36,610 3.33%
Brien King 31,520 2.87%
John Marks 29,860 2.72%
Ron Corcoran 27,000 2.46%
Steven Herschel 26,160 2.38%
Todd Rogers 24,370 2.22%
Jonathan Dunne 22,600 2.06%
Manfred Moosleitner 22,590 2.06%
Phil Younger 22,470 2.05%
Adam King 22,420 2.04%
Alex Weir 21,060 1.92%
Anders Svensson 19,720 1.79%
Brett A. Burnell 14,160 1.29%
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Crazy Balloon
Difficulty - default
Starting balloons - 3
Extra balloon - one (1) at 5,000 points
Perhaps the most unique event in this decathalon, Crazy Balloon was the only title where it's basically you against yourself, and of course the level timer. Unlike most titles, you do not have to shoot enemies, dodge enemy fire, use shields or warps, or perform any jumping maneuvers. All you need to do is guide your ever-swinging balloon through a maze of pointed stars. One false move and POP, your balloon suddenly explodes.
The game consists of three basic levels patterns which are appear in a sequence of 8 stages, each of which is a slight variant on one of the patterns, and may include moving objects or in some cases the entire stage itself is moving !! Afterwards, the same 8 stages repeat, only this time with the presence of a 'windy face' that attempts to thwart your effort by blowing you into the spiked stars if you allow yourself to get within it's line of sight. Finish 8 more levels like this, and then all 16 repeat, with your balloon swinging a
little faster.
Amazingly, about a year ago, the highest score achieved was in the 50-60K range and probably did not exceed stage 14 or 16, the toughest initial stumbling blocks of the game. This competition resulted in some scores that were comparatively in the stratosphere.
At the start of the competition, the pace was established (if memory serves) by a score in the 64K range...at the time a world record, or at least close to it.
Concurrent to the decathalon, a "bounty" existed for the first person in history to achieve a score over 100K. That happened when Joe Ledesma from the USA submitted to me for verification a score of about 100,790 points, if I remember correctly, thus earning Joe the commensurate cash prize. Shortly thereafter, some major leap-frogging took place. A 3-way battle between Anders Svensson (who hails from Sweden), Donald Hayes and Rafal Politanski took place, with the scores getting higher and higher. Anders I believe was the 2nd person
to break 100K, and started to send me INPs in the 103-143K range, continually getting a bit higher each time, eventually reaching the end of the 2nd cycle of 16 stages, and then reaching stage 40, a feat previously unheard of before this deca.
Donald Hayes and Rafal Politanski then took control, and Donald started with a now(for Donald) modest score of about 104K. After several improvements, and then some awesome achievements towards the end of the competition, each gamer literally shredded any vestige of difficulty that remained in the title, reaching stages that the average gamer, a year ago, would have said was flat out impossible and inconceivable to achieve, let alone go beyond.
Ultimately, Donald Hayes beat out Rafal Politanski after weeks of an awesome wave of submissions that forever redefined what players of this title previously thought was possible.
What's more unbelievable is that these gamers developed their skillsets during the competition, for the most part. Who would have thought that by the time the competition was over that the new world record would be more than SEVEN (7) TIMES the previously verified world record ? This just goes to show you...a decathlon can definitely raise the bar.
The final outcomes are below for all who submitted a score for this title, along with the comparative percentages.
Donald Hayes 466,920 100.00%
Rafal Politanski 314,090 67.27%
Anders Svensson 143,130 30.65%
Joseph Ledesma 100,790 21.59%
Robert Mruczek 89,760 19.22%
Greg Erway 78,770 16.87%
Martin Bedard 59,310 12.70%
Michael Bruhn 43,330 9.28%
Daniel Bamford 33,290 7.13%
Michael Span 31,050 6.65%
Werner Pfurtscheller 26,100 5.59%
Robert Macauley 25,600 5.48%
Alex Weir 23,920 5.12%
Jonathan Dunne 23,100 4.95%
John Rhodes 19,450 4.17%
Jason Hoseason 18,240 3.91%
Arild Lossius Jektvik 16,670 3.57%
Andrew Peter Mee 16,480 3.53%
Tim Balderramos 15,280 3.27%
Steven Herschel 11,730 2.51%
Chad Rogers 9,850 2.11%
Brien King 8,560 1.83%
Kelly R. Flewin 7,170 1.54%
Manfred Moosleitner 4,830 1.03%
Ryan Gavigan 4,370 0.94%
Brett A. Burnell 3,870 0.83%
Phil Younger 3,620 0.78%
Steve Knox 3,510 0.75%
Todd Rogers 2,310 0.49%
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Frenzy
Difficulty - default
Starting lives - 3
Extra lives - every 3K
Special competition rules - five (5) lives only
Frenzy is the sequel title to one of the all-time classic arcade titles,Berzerk. Here, indestructible maze walls are often replaced with ones that you can shoot a path through, or walls that can reflect your shots. Some stages feature special extras such as robot-generating machines or robot freeze devices, and the relentless Otto can actually be destroyed, although a faster, more aggressive replacement quickly follows thereafter.
Event referee Phil Younger, one of the greatest Berzerk players on the planet, set the pace with an initial entry of 57K. For the better part of the competition, most scores remained under that threshold, the highest of which was set by Donald Hayes in the mid-40K range. However, as the competition drew to a close, a few gamers dug deep down and cranked out some truly awesome performances.
Donald eventually passed Phil's score and set a mark of 73K, changing everyone's relative rankings in the process. But as the competition reached it's conclusion, one staggering score was submitted and verified that dramatically changed the rankings for everyone. Rafal Politanski submitted 229K, a score that was more than three (3) times that which Donald previously submitted. Also, Martin Bedard, who hails from Canada, cranked out a very respectable score of 46K.
Of the 10 decathlon games, what separates this event from all others is the fact that the least number of submitting players achieved more than a 10% ranking...just six (6) !! I took a look and no other title had so few players achieving that threshold or higher, counting the leader position of course.
Here now are the final results...
Rafal Politanski 229,144 100.00%
Donald Hayes 73,582 32.11%
Phil Younger 57,504 25.10%
Martin Bedard 46,863 20.45%
Robert Mruczek 24,159 10.54%
Werner Pfurtscheller 23,906 10.43%
Greg Erway 17,666 7.71%
Michael Span 17,633 7.70%
Jonathan Dunne 16,450 7.18%
Anders Svensson 15,896 6.94%
Michael Bruhn 15,429 6.73%
Alex Weir 15,346 6.70%
Andrew Peter Mee 14,476 6.32%
Robert Macauley 12,473 5.44%
Kelly R. Flewin 10,521 4.59%
Ron Corcoran 10,211 4.46%
Jason Hoseason 10,199 4.45%
Brett A. Burnell 8,393 3.66%
Todd Rogers 7,232 3.16%
John Rhodes 6,568 2.87%
Ryan Gavigan 5,663 2.47%
Brien King 5,430 2.37%
Tim Balderramos 4,919 2.15%
John Drake 3,548 1.55%
Adam King 3,543 1.55%
Steve Knox 2,969 1.30%
Manfred Moosleitner 2,906 1.27%
Steven Herschel 2,721 1.19%
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Galaxian
Difficulty - default
Starting ships - 3
Extra ship - one (1) at 7K
A personal favourite of mine, this is one of the grandaddies of the classic vertical shooters, and is regarded as an all-time classic that was the inspiration for many similiar titles to come. In general, a wave of enemies on top swoops down at you, one or more ships at a time, in an attempt to bomb you with any of their multiple shots dropped. Occassionaly, a squadron of ships will attack providing an opportunity for some major extra points if you are skilled enough to shoot the flagships first and then the command ship. As a wave progresses, the tempo increases until just a few ships remain whereby they all will swoop down at you, in a swarm if you will, in a last ditch effort to bomb your ship.
Strategic and accurate shooting is necessary in this title, and although the most points are possible when shooting an enemy in flight, only the most reckless and foolhardy gamers attempt that point-pressing strategy, especially when the game speed increases.
Early on during the competition, the lead score was I think in the 50-75K range. It's been awhile so I'm not really sure. Eventually, it was Martin Bedard that first passed the 100K threshold, an incredible mark for this title. At some point, I had a good game myself and set an even higher mark with a score of 196K. Although that changed the rankings, and as decent of a score as it was, even more impressive scores would be submitted.
Todd Rogers, who hails from the USA and who is the world record holder on the Atari 2600 version of Galaxian with more than 1M points, started to catch up with scores approaching the 160K barrier, and then close to 190K. But then, Martin Bedard, the current MAME record holder on the much faster and tougher Galaxian Part 4, pulled off this competition's first 200K+ score with 228K. Amazingly, Todd pulled off another great game and nearly caught Martin, coming to within 300 points of his score. Talk about close !!
Anders Svensson improved his score to the 67K mark, and I am pleased to say that he told me that my own tips on the game had helped to augment his own skillset at the title. What amazed me about Anders score is that one morning he said he was in the 30K range, then as he wrote back throughout the day he nearly doubled his score. Years back, it took me much longer to go from the 30K-level 10 range to where Anders reached.
Interestingly, more participants submitted a verified score on this title than any other within this decathlon.
Here are the final rankings for this title...
Martin Bedard 228,870 100.00%
Todd Rogers 228,580 99.87%
Robert Mruczek 196,300 85.77%
Anders Svensson 67,010 29.28%
Alex Weir 66,640 29.12%
Donald Hayes 63,060 27.55%
Rafal Politanski 55,580 24.28%
Greg Erway 32,380 14.15%
Chad Rogers 31,240 13.65%
Michael Span 25,840 11.29%
John Drake 23,650 10.33%
Jonathan Dunne 20,600 9.00%
Michael Bruhn 19,560 8.55%
John Marks 19,110 8.35%
Jason Hoseason 17,910 7.83%
Andrew Peter Mee 17,250 7.54%
Robert Macauley 15,580 6.81%
Werner Pfurtscheller 14,730 6.44%
Christian Rduch 12,770 5.58%
Richard Marsh 12,600 5.51%
Kelly R. Flewin 12,340 5.39%
Tim Balderramos 12,240 5.35%
Daniel Bamford 11,050 4.83%
Ron Corcoran 10,800 4.72%
John Rhodes 9,590 4.19%
Ryan Gavigan 9,580 4.19%
Steven Herschel 8,770 3.83%
Steve Knox 6,200 2.71%
Manfred Moosleitner 5,400 2.36%
Phil Younger 4,900 2.14%
Joe Ledesma 4,060 1.77%
Brien King 3,640 1.59%
Brett A. Burnell 2,440 1.07%
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Ghosts 'n' Goblins
Difficulty - Normal
Starting lives - 3
Extra lives - 20K then every 70K
Special competition rules - five (5) lives only
The only quest-based title in this decathalon, your goal is to rescue your abducted
ladyfriend from the clutches of an evil demon. Donning your suit of armour and trusty
lance, you proceed across land, over bridges, through demon-inhabitted towns, over seas
of fire, into caves, until finally you meet your nemesis and defeat it, only to have to do
this all over again.
A sequel title, Ghouls 'n' Ghosts, was later released, by the way. But for this
decathlon, the original title was selected by the participants.
However, the game itself is not as easy as I make it sound. In fact, very few gamers
managed to actually finish one complete cycle of stages. Due to an allowable point-pressing
strategy that exists in one of the earlier stages (3), it is possible to amass a lot of
points without leaving that stage, so I cannot be sure who other than the lead player
managed to complete one full cycle of stages.
That being said, there were a lot of impressive scores for this title in the
competition, but three stood out from the rest.
Rafal Politanski cruised to a lofty 893K in the closing days of the competition,
raising what I seem to remember was his previous competition high of between 717-722K.
Anders Svensson pulled off a whopping 679K...awesome, but a whole 200K less than Rafal's
score. Rounding out the top three, Martin Bedard pulled off a last week submission that
helped to propel him into not just 3rd place on this title, but vaulted him to the upper
echelons of the overall champions of this decathlon.
Ten (10) additional players managed to break the 100K mark on this title. Here are the
final results...
Rafal Politanski 893,500 100.00%
Anders Svensson 679,700 76.07%
Martin Bedard 478,200 53.52%
Alex Weir 381,700 42.72%
Werner Pfurtscheller 378,000 42.31%
Donald Hayes 343,500 38.44%
John Drake 276,900 30.99%
Michael Span 274,700 30.74%
Jonathan Dunne 253,000 28.32%
Kelly R. Flewin 202,300 22.64%
Robert Mruczek 191,000 21.38%
Robert Macauley 114,600 12.83%
Greg Erway 101,900 11.40%
Daniel Bamford 66,100 7.40%
Todd Rogers 59,400 6.65%
John Rhodes 56,500 6.32%
Jason Hoseason 54,400 6.09%
Manfred Moosleitner 52,100 5.83%
Ron Corcoran 37,900 4.24%
Tim Balderramos 34,700 3.88%
Phil Younger 34,400 3.85%
Ryan Gavigan 32,400 3.63%
Michael Bruhn 31,300 3.50%
Brett A. Burnell 26,300 2.94%
Adam King 25,100 2.81%
Andrew Peter Mee 22,800 2.55%
Steve Knox 17,600 1.97%
Steven Herschel 17,000 1.90%
Brien King 16,600 1.86%
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Mappy
Difficulty - B
Starting lives - 3
Extra lives - 20K and then 70K
Not an easy title to learn, let alone master. For those not familiar with the title,
you control "Mappy", a member of the mouse micro-police, and your goal is to recover stolen
objects that are strewn across a mansion by crossing platforms and using trampolines to go
from level to level. Attempting to thwart your efforts are a number of cats (what else ?)
that attempt to surround or touch you, causing you to lose a life. The longer you take in a
stage, the more difficult it later becomes as additional cats are released. Take even longer
and this game's equivelant of evil Otto from the title Berzerk comes out and chases you down.
But you are not without some defenses, in the form of doors that can let out a microwave beam
which temporarily removes some of the cats from the screen, or doors that can block other
cats from catching you. But, all in all, you yourself are pretty much helpless, and have to
avoid contact with the cats at all cost.
Not exactly a pattern-title, as the behaviour of your enemies is not always a given.
They may start out going in the opposite direction (towards you) at the beginning of a stage,
or as the stage progresses, small changes in your pattern have a global affect on the position
of all the enemies on the screen regardless of where you are, so a lot of improvisation is
required. And once the stages increase and more cats, by default, come out, then it gets tough.
This competition started out with I believe a top score in the 140K range, maybe by
Donald Hayes (it's been awhile and I forget the progress). Some scores started to come closer,
approaching 70K (enough to earn the extralife), or getting close to 100K. The bar was then
raised by Donald Hayes and Greg Erway from the USA, each of which ran the score up to the
200K+ threshold.
As the final week neared, a few more gamers made their presence known in this event,
and at the same time, the event leader (Donald) was also working on improving his standings,
as he fully expected at least one or more gamers to crack the 200K barrier.
Sure enough, Donald was right. Two (2) gamers additionally managed to reach the 200K
barrier...Rafal Politanski with a score of 238K, and Martin Bedard with a score of 309K.
Donald himself managed to raise the bar to the 340K range, thus preserving his lead in this
segment of the competition.
Here, now, are the final results...
Donald Hayes 340,680 100.00%
Martin Bedard 309,990 90.99%
Rafal Politanski 238,090 69.89%
Greg Erway 217,270 63.78%
Robert Mruczek 186,870 54.85%
Andrew Peter Mee 113,550 33.33%
Alex Weir 101,750 29.87%
John Bowman 91,660 26.91%
Robert Macauley 91,390 26.83%
Jonathan Dunne 79,090 23.22%
Kelly R. Flewin 69,510 20.40%
Steven Herschel 68,740 20.18%
Anders Svensson 65,320 19.17%
Werner Pfurtscheller 63,550 18.65%
Michael Bruhn 61,690 18.11%
Christian Rduch 61,600 18.08%
Michael Span 59,850 17.57%
Darren Harding 56,870 16.69%
Daniel Bamford 49,220 14.45%
John Drake 46,710 13.71%
Ryan Gavigan 46,640 13.69%
Jason Hoseason 46,090 13.53%
Brett A. Burnell 43,740 12.84%
John Rhodes 42,710 12.54%
Todd Rogers 41,340 12.13%
Brien King 37,210 10.92%
Ron Corcoran 30,100 8.84%
Manfred Moosleitner 29,710 8.72%
Tim Balderramos 20,750 6.09%
Adam King 15,820 4.64%
Steve Knox 14,840 4.36%
Phil Younger 11,990 3.52%
******************************
Pacmania
Difficulty - default
Starting lives - 3
Extra lives - one (1), which I quite honestly am not sure if it comes via
completing a certain stage of by passing a point threshold
The first (I think) 3-D Pacman entry into the Pacman family, the game offers more
than the traditional 4 ghosts per stage, including ones that jump when you do, and one
that quite simply acts as an enforcer, zealously guarding certain areas of the board and
providing you with the maximum challenge. Fruits appear and can be worth points or can
temporarily turn your enemies blue a-la Pacman Plus. And for the expert gamer, grouping
the ghosts takes on new meaning, as the ghosts approach a value of 7,650 points each, and
running over another energizer at that point preserves the point value per ghost. So, if you
plan your strategy well, it is possible to make huge sums of points per stage.
I am told that there are a limited number of stages to complete before this game comes
to an inevitable conclusion.
In this competition, most gamers opted to try for one of two initial strategies. Some
chose to complete the hardest stage available, thus obtaining a 150K completion bonus, which
just happens to be, all by itself, more than 25% of the tournament record. Other players
opted to try for the extra points during the easier, earlier stages, where it was potentially
possible to achieve more points than had you started with the 150K bonus stage.
In this decathlon, there was no question from the beginning who the event champion
would be. Michael Span, who hails from Austria, set an awesome goal of 547K right off the
bat. No one would beat that score for the rest of the competition. A few gamers, however,
came very close to doing so.
Rafal Politanski came the closest with 530K, so close that running over just two more
ghosts would have been all that he needed to beat Michael's score, but that was not meant
to be. However, 530K is nothing at all to sneeze at, as Rafal was comfortably in 2nd place.
Coming very close were Anders Svensson and Donald Hayes, each of which passed the 400K
barrier with 466K and 444K respectively. Five (5) more gamers cracked the 300K barrier, lead by
Werner Pfurtscheller who hails from Austria with a score of 377K.
Here are the final scores for this event...
Michael Span 547,800 100.00%
Rafal Politanski 530,140 96.78%
Anders Svensson 466,320 85.13%
Donald Hayes 444,040 81.06%
Werner Pfurtscheller 377,000 68.82%
John Rhodes 336,590 61.44%
Alex Weir 320,280 58.47%
Greg Erway 307,760 56.18%
Tim Balderramos 302,720 55.26%
Robert Macauley 291,890 53.28%
Robert Mruczek 286,990 52.39%
Andrew Peter Mee 259,540 47.38%
Kelly R. Flewin 251,900 45.98%
Jonathan Dunne 231,510 42.26%
Michael Bruhn 231,110 42.19%
Phil Younger 201,670 36.81%
John Bowman 190,250 34.73%
Ron Corcoran 188,220 34.36%
Jason Hoseason 186,780 34.10%
Ryan Gavigan 182,660 33.34%
John Drake 178,600 32.60%
Steve Knox 177,960 32.49%
Christian Rduch 177,640 32.43%
Steven Herschel 174,500 31.85%
Manfred Moosleitner 126,760 23.14%
John Marks 113,640 20.74%
Martin Bedard 97,800 17.85%
Adam King 52,550 9.59%
Brien King 40,570 7.41%
Brett A. Burnell 37,530 6.85%
Todd Rogers 22,550 4.12%
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Spectar (revision 3)
Difficulty - default
Starting ships - 3
Extra ships - none (beating the top score awards extra credit)
Another of my personal all-time favourite titles !! This colourful and challenging
sequel to Targ has always been viewed by me as one of the toughest titles ever made. Before
this competition, the verified world record was well under 100K, and out of personal interest, I
announced a bounty for the first verified score of 100K or more, hoping to lure out the
best performances out of today's hottest gamers, and maybe a few experts from yesteryear.
An average score on Spectar was in the 35-45K range, and better players were averaging
between 55-65K or so, with a cluster of top scores between 63-67K. Due to the 9K bonus
value achieved at the end of each stage, it would appear that all that was needed was to
complete just one more stage and set a new world record. Not quite. Not at the speed level
that this game reaches. Privately, I was hoping that the competition would simultaneously
serve to produce a lofty score, maybe one of over 100K.
The competition started easily enough with (as expected) the top tier reaching the
range of 65-70K. The first player to breach the all-important 70K barrier was Donald Hayes,
and although I cannot remember his precise score at that point in the competition, I believe
it was somewhere between 73-77K, in that range. What separated Donald from all the other
top tier scores at the time was that he finished a mere one (1) extra stage...which for this
title is very significant due to the bonus value. He was well deserving of his 1st place
ranking after his achievement.
Enter Martin Bedard, who came thisclose to achieving the 100K mark with a score of
98,980 points. I watched that INP myself, and was thrilled at being the second person ever
to see Martin's performance. I was fairly sure, now, that my bounty threshold of 100K
would be achieved during this competition. Martin's score vaulted past Donald's for a new
1st place ranking. His score was in effect three (3) completed stages ahead of everyone else,
for all intensive purposes, and also was now officially the new world record.
I received an E-MAIL from Rafal Politanski awhile later, announcing "Is this good ?", and
saw on the name he assigned to his INP file what resembled 105,000. That
INP I received at my office so could not wait to return home and watch it on my computer,
and when I did, I watched in amazement as he reached approx 95K on his first life, an
unprecedented achievement. But his 2nd ship was lost almost immediately thereafter. On his
third and final ship, he cleared the stage for a 9K bonus, and the score rolled past zero
to about 105K. The bounty was claimed, successfully, and better than that, another new
world record was set.
In the closing days of the competition, Rafal improved his score to 115K, reaching
one stage beyond his previous attempt, and DOnald Hayes did the same, passing the 80K
mark with a score of 85K. So, by competition end, the world record was in effect broken by
three participants. And let's not discount the 67,600 by Werner Pfurtscheller which was also
very close to, if not in excess of, the previous MAME world record !!
All in all, fourteen (14) players breached the 60K barrier and achieved at least 50%
of the top player's score...the most for any title in this deca.
Here are the final results below...
Rafal Politanski 115,140 100.00%
Martin Bedard 98,980 85.96%
Donald Hayes 85,120 73.93%
Werner Pfurtscheller 67,600 58.71%
Michael Bruhn 67,100 58.28%
Robert Mruczek 66,550 57.80%
Michael Span 66,420 57.69%
Andrew Peter Mee 66,000 57.32%
Joe Ledesma 65,910 57.24%
Anders Svensson 65,710 57.07%
Jonathan Dunne 65,180 56.61%
Marco Tapella 65,020 56.47%
Kelly R. Flewin 64,920 56.38%
Greg Erway 64,620 56.12%
Robert Macauley 56,710 49.25%
John Rhodes 55,650 48.33%
Tim Balderramos 54,510 47.34%
Derek Litton 45,680 39.67%
Alex Weir 35,090 30.48%
John Drake 29,910 25.98%
Jason Hoseason 29,700 25.79%
Manfred Moosleitner 27,500 23.88%
Steven Herschel 27,140 23.57%
Ron Corcoran 15,200 13.20%
Phil Younger 14,470 12.57%
Todd Rogers 13,750 11.94%
Steve Knox 10,300 8.95%
Ryan Gavigan 10,020 8.70%
Beau Barnett 5,150 4.47%
Adam King 3,450 3.00%
Brien King 2,070 1.80%
******************************
Tempest (revision 3)
Difficulty - hard
Starting ships - 3
Extra ships - every 20K
Special competition rules - can start from no higher than level 9
According to the VAPS site, Tempest is one of the top 10 most desireable titles to
own by serious classic arcade collectors. It is among the most popular titles from the
80's, and one of the best vector-based titles ever made, and one of the most unique titles
of all time. So it is no surprise that it was chosen as one of this year's deca selections.
For the competition, gamers were not allowed to start beyond level 9. Although it was
possible to start from a lower level, thus (maybe) earn an extra life at the sacrifice of
about 20K in starting bonus points, most players opted to start from 9.
A few lofty scores were achieved early on during the tournament, the highest of which
came from RIchard Marsh, who hails from the USA. Richard became the first player to crack
the 300K barrier and finished with a score of 309K. Only Todd Rogers seemed to have a chance
to surpass him, as he slowly increased his score to 303K. A few gamers broke the 100K barrier,
but at the end of the competition, one gamer managed to unseat Richard's top spot.
John Rhodes, another player from the USA, achieved a final score of 319K, and taking
top spot for this event in the deca, and being the 3rd player to break the 300K barrier.
Interestingly, of all the other participants, only one managed to pass the 200K barrier,
Donald Hayes.
Tempest was the title that had the most players achieving at least 10% of the top score,
largely due to the 54K bonus awarded after completing stage 9.
Here are the final results...
John Rhodes 319,366 100.00%
Richard Marsh 309,011 96.76%
Todd Rogers 303,380 94.99%
Donald Hayes 207,646 65.02%
Robert Mruczek 191,934 60.10%
Martin Bedard 170,689 53.45%
Rafal Politanski 123,974 38.82%
Phil Younger 107,409 33.63%
Michael Span 93,960 29.42%
Chad Rogers 87,660 27.45%
Greg Erway 87,119 27.28%
Werner Pfurtscheller 85,380 26.73%
Kelly R. Flewin 83,505 26.15%
Alex Weir 81,052 25.38%
John Marks 80,698 25.27%
Tim Balderramos 78,147 24.47%
Robert Macauley 77,664 24.32%
Steve Knox 76,796 24.05%
Joe Ledesma 75,739 23.72%
Jonathan Dunne 74,498 23.33%
Andrew Peter Mee 74,395 23.29%
Ron Corcoran 74,282 23.26%
Brien King 74,115 23.21%
Manfred Moosleitner 73,441 23.00%
Steven Herschel 72,769 22.79%
Anders Svensson 71,021 22.24%
Jason Hoseason 67,005 20.98%
John Drake 66,625 20.86%
Michael Bruhn 63,646 19.93%
Ryan Gavigan 26,660 8.35%
Brett A. Burnell 14,578 4.56%
******************************
Wizard of Wor
Difficulty - default
Starting lives - 3 (single player game)
Extra lives - up to 2 based on clearing certain dungeon levels
Special competition rules - the tactic of shooting the computer opponent's men for 1,000
points each is an acceptable tradition for this title
Rounding out the 10 game array is Wizard of Wor, another classic from the early 80's,
and easily one of the hardest titles of all time. Invisible enemies, warping wizards, and
featuring a do-or-die stage known as The Pit which has no barriers to hide behind, and
which is the bane of even the most experienced of players, this title is viciously hard.
You control a Worrior armed with only a single projectile ray-based weapon and must
make a quick determination of where, within the randomly generated dungeon, might be the safest
place in which to hide and fire, or at least which area might pose the least risk. And
considering how fast your enemies move compared to you, you had better make the decision as
fast as possible. It is not uncommon for a player, even an expert player, to lose men
back-to-back in the same stage in this title.
Scores of over 100K are rare on this title, whether via the MAME platform or on the
authentic arcade upright machine. Still, considering the calibre of this competitions'
participants, it stood to reason that at least one or more would breach that mark.
As it turned out, a constant battle developed with the lead position being held by
Martin Bedard for most of the competition with a score in the 140K-range, which he later
increased to 158K during the last week. Four other gamers managed to pass 100K, with the
highest being Rafal Politanski who scored 113K, followed by Andrew Peter Mee (who hails
from the UK) with a score of 108K. The next two highest scores were very respectable...
Werner Pfurtscheller achieved 103K, and Donald Hayes pulled off 100K.
In every facet of this competition, the pressure to do better was constant. It's not
easy to tell from the scores below who reached what stage due to the double score values
attributed to a dungeon after Worluk is dispatched, but everyone gave it their all on this
extremely hard game.
Here are the final results...
Martin Bedard 158,100 100.00%
Rafal Politanski 113,300 71.66%
Andrew Peter Mee 108,000 68.31%
Werner Pfurtscheller 103,700 65.59%
Donald Hayes 100,900 63.82%
Anders Svensson 98,100 62.05%
Robert Mruczek 68,300 60.28%
Greg Erway 64,500 56.93%
Tim Balderramos 56,200 49.60%
Michael Span 56,100 49.51%
Robert Macauley 45,400 40.07%
Kelly R. Flewin 44,500 39.28%
Todd Rogers 40,500 25.62%
Michael Bruhn 38,800 24.54%
Ron Corcoran 37,700 23.85%
John Rhodes 29,700 18.79%
Alex Weir 29,600 18.72%
Jason Hoseason 27,700 17.52%
Daniel Bamford 19,700 12.46%
Brien King 19,600 12.40%
Steve Knox 19,300 12.21%
Beau Barnett 17,000 10.75%
Adam King 16,600 10.50%
Jonathan Dunne 15,500 9.80%
Steven Herschel 15,000 9.49%
Ryan Gavigan 14,600 9.23%
Brett A. Burnell 13,400 8.48%
John Drake 11,600 7.34%
Manfred Moosleitner 11,000 6.96%
Phil Younger 8,100 5.12%
Oh yes...I almost forgot. One totally unique tactic was employed during this
competition by a gamer who was very determined to get an extra 1,000 points added to their
score. Someone attempted to keep alive their computer opponent long enough to earn an extra
life for it after I think stage 3 or 4, and THEN shoot it for the extra 1,000 points, along
with the remaining 3 lives. Clever, but extremely tough. Not sure if they pulled it off, but
I'd be interested in finding out if they did !!
******************************
FINAL OUTCOME
This was a tough competition to call. The rankings changed on a daily basis as the new
scores came in after verification. With so many participants of different skillsets, events
like a MAME decathlon are nearly impossible to predict. However, some extremely strong players
were participating, each of which had a good chance at coming out in the top few rankings.
But that is not to discount the dozens of other participants whose continuous efforts to
better their own scores had the cumulative effect of creating an atmosphere where all
patricipants felt that if someone could do it, then they could as well. Thus the scores
continued to climb.
At one point in the competition, it became clear that one gamer, Donald Hayes, was
setting the bar for which every other participant needed to adjust their goals towards. What
was at one point a lead of approx a hundred points that he had over his nearest competitor
shrunk to a lead of about seventy, but then he started to pour the heat on and cranked out
a few awesome scores that put him quite a bit ahead of the pack, outdistancing his nearest
competitor at one point by over 125%.
That status was not meant to last. A very strong gamer from Poland named Rafal
Politanski made his presence known, and then some. From the gaming forums we learned that he
was an excellent Bagman and Crazy Balloon player, but were not really sure of his skills with
the 8 other titles involved. But as his scores came in, it was clear that the battle for
first place was definitely underway, and the outcome was impossible to call.
In time, over the last two weeks of the competition, he and Donald submitted some
amazing scores, and the rankings became disparate with each passing day. Martin Bedard also
chose to at this time submit his scores on all the titles that up to this point he had not,
and changed the leaderboard's top three positions in the process, that's how strong his scores
came to be.
When it was all said and done, and the final scores tallied, the top tier positions
wee evident. Rafal Politanski was the clear winner with an impressive total of 768% out of a
maximum theoretical 1000%. In the history of Twin Galaxies' decathalons, no gamer in any
decathalon has ever achieved a perfect score, by the way. Coming in second, place was
Donald Hayes, with a final score of 675%, Rounding out the top three was Martin Bedard who
cranked out scores that carried him to the mark of 558%.
These three gamers each earn a Twin Galaxies certificate of achievement for their
rankings within the deca's top three finishers, and are certain to be strong contenders for
all MAME decathlons to come. Rafal, the top finisher, will also be awarded a cash prize of
USD $100.00 for his outstanding cumulative performance.
Here below are the final rankings, followed by a brief analysis and then some final
thoughts on this year's MAME decathlon...
QUALIFYING PARTICIPANTS ONLY
(registered gamers who submitted verified scores for each of the ten titles)
Rafal Politanski 768.70
Donald Hayes 675.50
Martin Bedard 558.95
Robert Mruczek 457.19
Anders Svensson 390.39
Greg Erway 307.93
Werner Pfurtscheller 306.97
Michael Span 302.60
Andrew Peter Mee 276.12
John Rhodes 262.32
Todd Rogers 261.20
Alex Weir 248.48
Robert Macauley 219.84
Kelly R. Flewin 214.56
Jonathan Dunne 206.72
Michael Bruhn 197.40
Tim Balderramos 186.80
Jason Hoseason 138.06
Phil Younger 125.56
Steven Herschel 119.69
Manfred Moosleitner 98.25
Steve Knox 92.53
Ryan Gavigan 88.45
Brien King 66.25
ALL PARTICIPANTS
(registered gamers who submitted at least one score during this decathlon)
Rafal Politanski 768.70
Donald Hayes 675.50
Martin Bedard 558.95
Robert Mruczek 457.19
Anders Svensson 390.39
Greg Erway 307.93
Werner Pfurtscheller 306.97
Michael Span 302.60
Andrew Peter Mee 276.12
John Rhodes 262.32
Todd Rogers 261.20
Alex Weir 248.48
Robert Macauley 219.84
Kelly R. Flewin 214.56
Jonathan Dunne 206.72
Michael Bruhn 197.40
Tim Balderramos 186.80
John Drake 150.39
Jason Hoseason 138.06
Phil Younger 125.56
Steven Herschel 119.69
Ron Corcoran 119.37
Joe Ledesma 104.32
Richard Marsh 102.26
Manfred Moosleitner 98.25
Steve Knox 92.53
Ryan Gavigan 88.45
Brien King 66.25
Christian Rduch 65.55
John Bowman 61.63
John Marks 57.08
Marco Tapella 56.47
Daniel Bamford 46.26
Chad Rogers 43.21
Brett A. Burnell 42.52
Derek Litton 39.67
Adam King 34.13
Darren Harding 20.20
Beau Barnett 15.23
Arild Lossius Jektvik 3.57
A FEW INTERESTING STATISTICS...
(A) Cumulative finishing percentages by threshold...
1 - 700%+
1 - 600-699%
1 - 500-599%
1 - 400-499%
4 - 300-399%
7 - 200-299%
5 - 100-199%
4 - 0-99%
(B) Five (5) players held the top scores for the 10 titles
1 - 4 scores
2 - 2 scores each
2 - 1 score each
Between them, the top 3 players held 8 of the top 10 scores
(C) Lowest Scores per Top Five (5) Finishers
1st place - 24.28% (8 scores were 50% or higher)
2nd place - 27.55% (7 scores were 50% of higher)
3rd place - 12.70% (6 scores were 50% or higher)
4th place - 10.54% (6 scores were 50% or higher)
5th place - 1.79% (4 scores were 50% or higher)
******************************
AFTERTHOUGHTS
For me, both as a referee and as a participant, this was a very exciting and special
decathlon. A few of my favourite titles were selected by my fellow participants, and I
set 8 personal best scores by the time it was over. There's nothing quite like a competition
to force a gamer to exceed their own limitations.
I would like to once again personally thank all the people who made this decathlon
possible...the organizers, the referees, and of course the players who voted on the titles
and participated in the event itself. And to those of the gaming community that provided
valuable assistance, both techincal and strategic during this competition, you all made it
a great success.
The tradition of the annual MAME decathlon shall continue, as will the "Advanced"
decathlon in a few months. Competition is good for the soul, and for a gamer, it's a way
to share the experiences of the gaming community and quite simply to have a lot of fun along
the way...and maybe even set a high score or two by the time it's all over.
Congratulations once again to Rafal Politanski, Donald Hayes and Martin Bedard for their
top three finishing performances in the Twin Galaxies 2004 MAME decathlon.
I find myself already looking forward to the next competition !!
Robert T Mruczek
Twin Galaxies - Editor and Chief referee
Star Wars classic arcade champion
Robert Mruczek (work E-MAIL)
*****************************