MC track ball speed at Funspot...

[pauldean]

"Mr. Awesome" plays live at All Games Interactive Lounge:

Here is the final Missile Command top score of "Mr. Awesome" after about 6 or 7 attempts done
live and on video tape on Thursday 12/21/06 at All Games Interactive Lounge, Los Angeles, CA.:

Missile Command Tournament Settings - From original Twin Galaxies Track Ball Settings
The best score on Missile Command for "Mr. Awesome" for Thursday, 12/21/06:

Missile Command 936,165

"Mr. Awesome" was unable to roll the game to zero and he was very disappointed about it.

However, a documentary crew, "The Production Factory", Max Yoffe from Manhattan Beach,
Ca. is filming his high score attempts.

"Mr. Awesome" will be attempting again to roll over Missile Command,  Friday, 12/22/06
at All Games Interactive Lounge, which will be live, and on the air.

"Mr. Awesome" is 51 years old and cannot walk up stairs and hobbles slowly with a cane, but he
is transformed when he is playing Missile Command. A site to see!

[Welby]

I never heard about Roy being unwell.  Did something drastic happen since Funspot 03?  He seemed to move ok then, despite storing crackers, canned tuna, mayo and a can opener in his pants; there weren't even any pockets   Given his age, that's still a damn good score.  Hell, that's a good score at any age.  He seemed pretty bummed at funspot, as I think he was in the 200-400k range, which I saw most of one of those games just over 200k.

[pauldean]

"Mr. Awesome" has severe arthritis from years of power lifting, and
takes pills to relieve inflammation. I myself have had two major surgeries
and it does get tougher to accomplish scores and to travel for competitions
with age related wear and tear injuries and pain as one who lives an
active life is bound to have a lot of physical harming things happen
to them with car accidents and work related injuries, etc. Not being
in ones prime and still trying ones best for a world record means
something in my book.

[TT]

Would be interesting to know the scores of the other 5 or 6 games Paul if you have that data.

I'm surprised that Roy could only manage 200 to 400K in 2003.

[pauldean]

Missile Command Tournament Settings Results

"Mr. Awesome" seemed to be a bit tense on his first games with three camera's
on him at all times. Each game he improved by about 100,000 having a poor start
of about 220,000 on the first game, and then improving to around 320,000 then
420,000 and so on. His second to the last game was the 936,165 as he had
started to relax and played much better.

He looked "tired" by the last game and missed the roll over by about 160,000
points. I was ready to witness and process a roll over which did not happen.
I wanted to see history in the making so that "Mr. Awesome" could finally say,
"I told you so." after 20+ years of criticism over his skill-set on Missile Command.

Is 936,165 on Missile Command good enough after all of these years for the
Nay-sayers? Apparently not. What if every player had to replay their marathons
or tournaments every 20 years or their scores would be deleted from the record
books. How many would fair as well as "Mr. Awesome?"

[Weehawk]

What if every player had to replay their marathons
or tournaments every 20 years or their scores would be deleted from the record
books. How many would fair as well as "Mr. Awesome?"

Bjorn Borg
Stockholm, Sweden

Dear Mr. Borg,

You claim to have won five consecutive Wimbledon singles championships from 1976 to 1980. The current #278 player on the ATP computer has challenged this record. You will be required to play again, winning at least four titles in a row to verify your abilities or we will be forced to remove your name from the record books permanently.

Sincerely,
The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club

[TT]

Thanks Paul - that's interesting.

I really don't have an opinion on this - I really don't. I wasn't there back in 1984 - end of story.

There is no doubt that Roy can play MC to a high level.

I will say this though - if you are a good MC player on Marathon, it doesn't take long to convert those skills to Tournament play. I started playing Tournament settings only two years ago, having not played the game at all for 20 years. When I did play it as a kid, it was on Marathon settings only.

Lets remember, no one has officially asked Roy to do anything to prove his score.

Weehawk, that's a great post!

[Weehawk]

Hello fellow gamers:

     What a crock of misinformation on the latest radio segment !!

Robert

If you're referring to his theory on your abdication, he said it was just a guess. He actually had me going on the Steve Wiebe thing for just a second, then it became prety obvious it was just a joke. (This stuff needs to be transcripted for posterity)

The real secret is out now though: it's pronounced "mer-check"

 

[Burgrtm]

Quote:
Is 936,165 on Missile Command good enough after all of these years for the
Nay-sayers? Apparently not. What if every player had to replay their marathons
or tournaments every 20 years or their scores would be deleted from the record
books. How many would fair as well as "Mr. Awesome?"  End quote


If this was done on the correct settings, I say its good enough for me. The games difficulty would for sure have maxed out by now. All thats left is for a player to have the concentration and focus to continue on. To get in, and STAY in the "ZONE".
When I was trying for the split screen on Pac-Man, I had a 9th key pattern that worked great. But I had to play the game 4 times before I had the focus to last that long. One little blip in your focus and its over.

Just my 2 cents...

Bryan

[pauldean]

Missile Command   
Variation: Points [Tournament]

Dip Switch Settings: Settings of 8-Toggle Switch on Game PCB (at R8)

Tony Temple's, New Tournament Settings, at Twin Galaxies Settings:

1 = ON
2 = ON
3 = ON
4 = OFF (Comment: Fast track ball speed, Current TG Settings)
5-7 = OFF
8 = OFF/UNUSED


"Mr. Awesome" Old Tournament Settings, at Gold standard settings from the 1980's,
and played at the following: On video tape on Thursday 12/21/06 at All Games Interactive
Lounge, Los Angeles, with a tight hand held zoom in on both panels of dip switches each
one at a time with a hold and then a slow pan back and hold at the complete board for
three seconds, For documentation sake to make everything on the legitimate side for
now and for 20 years from now by a documentary crew, "The Production Factory",
Max Yoffe from Manhattan Beach, Ca. which are filming his high score attempts.

Missile Command - Roy Shildt dip swiitch settings 12/21/06

Dip Switch Settings: Settings of 8-Toggle Switch on Game PCB (at R8)

1 = ON
2 = ON
3 = ON
4 = (on) (Comment: Slow track ball speed - different than current TG settings)
5-7 = OFF
8 = (on) (Comment: This is an un-used switch - different than current TG settings)

Because these settings are different, then Tony Temple can make the case that the Roy Shildt
score does not count, because you are supposed to play on TG's (Tony's - fast track ball settings dip #4 off),
instead of playing on (Roy's - slow track ball settings dip #4 on) which is not the new gold standard
of the Missile Command Tournament mode, but it is the old Missile Command Tournament
mode switch which was the correct one for the 1980's and 1990's but not the correct one
today because it has been changed by TG.

Then Roy could make the case that when you switch the settings to the new (Tony's - fast track
ball settings dip #4 off), you negate every single Missile Command score from the 1980's and 1990's
because you are playing at an unfair advantage to those in the classic era who had to play on the
original Twin Galaxies settings.

Roy did not want to take advantage of the new TG settings as he wants his score to be compared
to all of the scores of the Golden Age with the slower track ball speed, which are the benchmark scores,
of (Roy's - slow track ball settings dip #4 on), and wants apples to be compared to apples and so
on and so forth. He does not believe that anybody should have an unfair advantage over the
classic scores of the Arcade Era.

It really isn't my goal to be a spokesman for "Mr. Awesome" and to be fair to Tony, "Mr. Awesome"
has stated that there is very little difference between track ball speeds when you are playing the
game. It becomes strictly a technical issue on whether or not there is an unfair advantage?.

TG will not consider "Mr. Awesome's" scores under any conditions, so I say, he does have
a skill-set which will beat everybody else but Tony. I just wonder what Tony could get on the
slower track ball speed of the Golden Era.

Apples to Apples?

[TT]

The thing is Paul, Roy does not want this to end. That's what this is all about. Because when it ends, he's old news.

There was an easy way to resolve this nine months ago - Roy could have played a game and submitted a score using the Switch OFF setting (the correct one). But he chose not to. Don't forget his 1984 TGTS score has been on the scoreboard in second place until only recently.

The fact remains that despite all the trash talk, he is still not in the ballpark.

"Mr. Awesome" has stated that there is very little difference between track ball speeds when you are playing the game.

I rest my case. What are we talking about here? TG made a call on what the settings should be going forward, that's all. If he'd shut up and got on with beating my score with switch OFF, we wouldn't be where we are today with all this mess.

One more thing Paul - these are not "Tony Temple's settings" as you put it; these are the confirmed settings by Twin Galaxies, that everyone should play under.

[rtm]

Hello fellow gamers:

     Assuming correct settings and board were used, this is indeed a great score. But does it prove that 1.695M was done ? Not in my book.

     By the same train of thought...that a 935K with the difficulty maxed could mean a 1.695K score (750K+ higher) just by maintaining being in the zone...then Tony Temple's 1.9M would imply that if Tony said he once achieved 2.65M that we should just believe it. After all, the difficulty not only is already maxed, but at stage 256 it is lowered once stage 255 is cleared. You don't even play stage 256, technically, and then you are back to stage 1 again where it is comparatively a cakewalk.

     On any score achieved on any marathonable title, even when played at TGTS, until a higher score threshold is reached it cannot be assumed that it is reachable, or that it was previously reachable by a player, regardless of how impressive their current performance may be.

     Take David Cruz and his "Tron" score. You cannot imply that even 100,000 can be done unless someone pulls it off for real

     If assumptions are made that one score achieved in the here and now implies that at some past point in time a higher score was achieved, then back everything goes to the days of the vanity scoreboard where the sky was the limit in terms of claims. Anyone remember the 12M on "Donkey Kong" ?

Robert

[Burgrtm]

Hello fellow gamers:

 

 By the same train of thought...that a 935K with the difficulty maxed could mean a 1.695K score (750K+ higher) just by maintaining being in the zone...then Tony Temple's 1.9M would imply that if Tony said he once achieved 2.65M that we should just believe it. After all, the difficulty not only is already maxed, but at stage 256 it is lowered once stage 255 is cleared. You don't even play stage 256, technically, and then you are back to stage 1 again where it is comparatively a cakewalk.

Tony is not claiming that he got higher and wants credit for his claim. He has more credibility then that.
Roys score was "OFFICIAL" for so long that when Tony was shooting for the record, WHO's score was he chasing???
Roys.
Given the fact Roy was given credit for so long (1.6 miliion), THEN he made 930,000+ seals it for me.

 On any score achieved on any marathonable title, even when played at TGTS, until a higher score threshold is reached it cannot be assumed that it is reachable, or that it was previously reachable by a player, regardless of how impressive their current performance may be.

 If assumptions are made that one score achieved in the here and now implies that at some past point in time a higher score was achieved, then back everything goes to the days of the vanity scoreboard where the sky was the limit in terms of claims. Anyone remember the 12M on "Donkey Kong" ?

I agree completely. However, these comments border an insult as I am not a novice to this sport. We are not talking about some guy off the street. We are talking about a score which was held up for all to see and chase for 20+ years. Perhaps this shouldn't have been done.

There are some people who dont believe 9,000,000+ on Spy Hunter was achieved. But when these people saw 1,000,000 + made, that was good enough for them. Go figure...

Bryan   

[rtm]

Hi Bryguy:

      Sorry, but no insult was intended or implied. I do agree with you on one point and disagree on another, however...

-> When I personally spoke with Paul Dean, courtesy of Mark Alpiger, Paul convinced me after answering three very specific questions on hebaviour, tactics and execution at three of the harder moments within the game. At that point, I had a sworn affirmation from Mark Longridge that he personally could vouch for Paul getting at least 2M, and I eventually had a different but equally compelling response from Jeff Peters. Paul's own testimony sealed the deal on that one and to date I have never looked back

-> Roy, however, is different. There were conditions and situations that were unique and inevitable on SH which Paul knew how to get by based on my exact description of each situation. MC however is virtually different every wave, with only a few possible conditions...missiles predominantly first, smart bombs coming on screen first (often 3 + plane), or a mix of the two. Where the cities are located at TGTS is not relevant as the strategy is generally identical (city slot closest to center base), so here, in my opinion, there was no comforting explanation of strategy as it varied widely based on incoming missile layout. I had no tangible explanation that could plug in the gaps of the tough points in a game consisting of multiple waves of back to back activity of a simiilar nature, and so I could not make the same determination after multiple discussions with Roy years back.

     As for my earlier statement about Tony and 2.6M, I did clearly pose this with the preceding word of "IF as it was a hypothetical statement and event, Tony claiming an earlier higher score, that is.

     We are all entitled to our opinions on whether one performance can imply another, higher performance. In the case of a claimed, previously higher performance that has substantial corroborating facts and affirmations, I do believe that it is easier to make that leap of faith in the higher, earlier score than in a case where a preponderence of evidence would suggest otherwise. In no uncertain terms, and this is my opinion as a former referee involved with the above two scenarios, Paul's story held up, Roy's did not.

     My apologies if these opinions and statements came across as an insult, as such was not my intent. But I will stand by the previously made statements that I posted notwithstanding and on their own merits.

Robert

[pauldean]

12/21/06 All Games Interactive
Posted: 12/23/2006 11:12:00 AM 

The below is the podcast link info for All Games Interactive on "Mr. Awesome's" D-Day
Competition from 12/21/06:

All Games Interactive Quote:
"Mr. Awesome, Tommy Tallarico, Keith Robinson, and a slew of other guests join All Games
Interactive for a 9 part "Holiday Party Thursday" featuring Mr. Awesome's attempts to break
the Missile Command record."

All Games Interactive "Mr. Awesome" interview before his Missile Command World Record Attempts:
224B - 12/21/06 All Games Interactive
Posted: 12/23/2006 11:09:00 AM

All Games Interactive "Mr. Awesome" game results are being reported while in progress:
224C - 12/21/06 All Games Interactive
Posted: 12/23/2006 11:08:00 AM

All Games Interactive Podcast link to 12/21/06 "Mr. Awesome" Missile Command Attempts:
http://www.allgames.com/radio.asp?show=agi