Hello everyone:
Paul's recap suggests "Will 'TT' accept the Challenge and come from England to Southern California to defend his honor?".
That is a media stunt and nothing more. This is now the FOURTH (4TH) time that Roy has tried a stunt of this nature...
1st - when Roy tried to challenge Bill Mitchell openly on the forums about playing "Missile Command" versus "Donkey Kong"
2nd - when Roy's lawyer sent Bill Mitchell a document suggesting that he play versus Steve Wiebe at "Donkey Kong" and if he did not show up, then Roy would "declare Steve Wiebe" the champion (as if Roy declaring Steve a champion had any legitimate value to it)
3rd - when Roy, at Funspot 2006, had his "private investigator" (i.e. minion) present Tony with some papers suggesting a challenge similiar to what he mentioned on the AllGames show this past Friday (Todd Rogers can back me up on this one...he directly dealt with this "private investigator" back then
4th - this past Friday on the AGN interview
The pattern here is obvious...fame by association. It's a win-win for Roy. Come in first place, great, but if not, his name will be right up there against that of a marquee player. And of the four (4) attempts above, Roy would not actually be playing at a Bill-vs-Steve DK challenge, but he surely would have been present to include in that ridiculous legal missive the part about declaring Steve a "champion".
So, let's recap...Roy can't beat Tony at TGTS, then he invents this "100 rounds" routine claiming that it is a better show of skill than a full game (see his other website to read this one), and NOW he wants to play at marathon settings (not even TGTS or 100 waves) to see who loses the least cities by wave 100. Laughable. If this event takes place and Tony were to beat him yet again, what's next...playing with just the side bases active ?
Amusingly, after years of touting his alleged 1.695M as the greatest score of all time, he NOW says on the AGN show that at TGTS, "there is no difference between a score of 1M to 2M" as it is "nothing more than luck". Note the quote marks as you can hear this for yourself if you download and listen to the AGN show. So, Roy's so-called greatest achievement...assuming it was even done (which is the core of the debate)...is now nothing more than luck. Which means, using this train of thought, that Roy's recent claim of an alleged 1.8M score..which he still has yet to present on videotape...must be an even luckier achievement than his alleged 1.695M score !!
That also means that Tony must be the luckiest MC player alive, according to Roy's logic. So if this is just a matter of luck, why the big stink over now 25+ years ?
Roy believes that if Guinness accepts this "showdown" then he will make it into the next Guinness book. In fact, he says he wanted an April date because HE wants to get into the Guinness book. Apparently the Funspot event is not good enough for his majesty...too many mosquitos according to what Roy said on-air. Note that not once did he even consider whether Guinness might even be interested in this. And the fact that he knew the Guinness cutoff date as a matter of fact does imply that he researched this date before the interview and that this hypothetical event was pre-planned by Roy all along. And the way he kept cutting me off to get the compleye so-called challenge to Tony articulated...punctuated with music at it's completion by the AGN staff (listen to it and see for yourself), this also tells me that this was a pre-planned stunt using AGN to get his challenge across.
If this was a TRUE test of who the best player is at these never-contested-before settings, then a TRUE champion would want to also test himself against three of the other top players around, such as John Zabel, Bill Carlton and his friend from Oregon who are close by and could easily attend if asked. Roy is right there and can walk to the event. Tony, on the other hand (if he agrees) would be playing after a near-10 hour flight. Guess who starts with an automatic advantage ? Roy...small wonder there.
Next up...Roy's insistance that he needed to be told the proper settings before coming to FS. He pushed and pushed on the show that he needed to know the settings before showing up. He did this in 2004, 2005 and 2006. Fact is that the whole concept of "Dip Switch 4" being important never was raised once until year 2006 after Tony achieved his score. So what explains his reluctance to play in 2004 and 2005 ? And why is TG responsible for telling him the settings...we don't run the FS event for starters nor have we co-participated since 2002, and Gary Vincent is the FS operations manager and HE should be the one telling Roy. And Randy Lawton, who actually owns the machines, can always change to the proper settings upon request.
However all this is moot, as I explained on the show. TG only tracks ONE (1) setting...and if Roy opts to pass on attending, that's his prerogative.
As for his expecting Tony to fly out to attend his so-called challenge. The game-plan of Roy is to put money into "escrow" with AGN (as if they are a bonafide/licensed escrow service) to give to Tony ONLY IF he arrives AND wins. So...what if Tony shows and there is no MC machine available, of if it breaks down, or if the trackball is less than perfect ? Roy would not be beaten thus would not give out his money. How convenient. Granted, I have my own issues with cash promises which I will at least keep as time goes on, but in this case he is expecting someone to travel probably 6,000 miles on a promise for nothing more than a media circus to put Roy into the spotlight. He just cannot give up his "15 minutes of fame", but in Roy's case he is a legend in his own mind, to quote something that Clint Eastwood said in one of his movies.
Let's see what happens if his so-called "challenge" (i.e. media stunt) is met with an "I cannot attend" from his competitor. The fact that other top players should be included to try their own skills at these challenges aside, let's see what stunt Roy pulls next. And I am pretty sure I know what he will do, too.
Roy's challenge on the show...very reminiscent of the scene in "Rocky V"...there is another "Rocky" movie scene, this one from "Rocky II", which might come into play. In that movie, when Rocky will not accept a rematch with Apollo Creed, Creed's PR filks tell him he has to embarrass Rocky to get him to fight, and he does just that. So let's see if Roy uses any embarrassment tactics as time marches closer to the early-April date. Or let's see if he tries a similiar stunt from his attempt to coerce Bill Mitchell into playing versus Steve Wiebe at DK, that if Bill did not show, Roy would declare Steve the champion. But in this case, since Roy is a would-be participant, I am banking that someone else, possibly the AGN staff, possibly an attending classic arcade gamer who is pro-Roy, might make a similiar announcement.
In any event, time will tell...approximately 60 days or so, in fact.
Well, that's that. The AGN forum had a "No More Me Awesome" thread that was created by their own registered forum participants shortly before the interview, and a thread making critical comments about the results of the show afterwards. The AGN people even created a mock-comic book page poking at Roy, so I think he's wore out his welcome mat there in the eyes of many of their listeners. A few die-hard pro-Roy listeners are still out there, but their views are overwhelmingly in the minority compared to those tired of yet another show devoted to "Missile Command", track balls and dip switch settings. You have to admit, it does get to you after awhile.
I am on record, after Walter voiced his support for such a competition IF it can be arranged AND if both competitors could willfully attend, that if such an event does take place, I would be interested as to the outcome. After all, Walter is fully in control of TG, and if he wants to invest his time and energy into this, who am I to contradict him on the air ? However, I did my best to stress that Tony's acceptance is entirely up to Tony, and no judgment can be made regardless of what he states, assuming he even deigns to respond to such a bold-faced calling out over the public airwaves.
Additionally, I stressed that Guinness is under NO obligations to host such an event in their book pages. Roy was under the impression that they would, possibly based on prior events, but as Walter definitively stated, the ultimate choice as to their content is up to them and them alone.
However, Roy said at one point in the interview, and this is a close quote but listen yourself to hear the full quote, that when it comes to settings (dips), "it doesn't matter what TG says, it doesn't matter what Guinness says, and of Jesus Christ came down off the cross it doesn't matter what He says" (nice on, Roy...offend all Catholic players, why don't you ?) as to what the proper dips should be (he STILL believed that manual 2 is correct and manual 3 is wrong...call me crazy but revisions tend to become MORE correct in time, not the reverse). So after THIS rant, why would he expect the Guinness people to even give him the time of day seeing how it "doesn't matter" what they say about the settings ?
As for these ficticious videotapes which he has yet to show for fear that they might be used as a training tape or something of that nature, his own other website states that videotapes can be manipulated by the gamer do only live performances should be trusted...SO, this begs to ask (A) why does he even bother to make tapes of himself playing at TGTS (which according to Roy is now nothing more than luck when you pass 1M), and (B) why is he pushing Steve Wiebe's score on tape when tapes can be manipulated according to his own words ? Very inconsistent.
Anyway, back to Roy. It always does seem to go back to Roy, it seems
I suggested to Roy that he meet Tony half-way at FS, which he shot down. So, instead of Roy putting several thousand into escrow, he COULD spend far less to fly to FS and play Tony over a 4-day period, BUT, it seems that Roy is troubled by "mosquitos". Good reason for not showing, Roy. If it is such a "mosquito den" at FS, why were you so gung-ho about finding out what the settings were ? WHY would you, then, show up to play with all those nasty mosquitoes around to ruin your time ? Makes no sense. Could it be that "Mr Awesome" is more fearful of a few mosquitos than playing at FS against Tony ? Yeah, that's the reason. As Eric Cartman would say, "WEAK !!".
One of the mentions during the show was that Roy was now 50 years old (probably 51 or 52, but definitely at least 51, I think). I sincerely hope that he will not take the unsportsmanlike route of using his age as a qualifier in case he, at either his so-called "challenge" (if Tony agrees), or at FS (if he can actually show) as a reason why he cannot do better than Tony. That would be pretty lame indeed. And it surely did not stop at FS 76 year old John Lawton from setting world records at "Depth Charge", or 82 year old Doris Self from coming to play "Q*Bert". So please, Roy, let's not make age an issue...ever. We are what we are, gamers from the 1980's growing older every day, and every day that you age, so does Tony, so don't use a second crutch to make a set with the other one you use...that FS and TG do not give you the settings before you come over. Just show up, and do not squander your time giving out literature as you did when you showed in 2003 (the one year I did not show and I thank the good Lord that I had to work that year !!)
I should state at this point that much of what I stated below that relates to the AGN show can be downloaded from their site as per Paul's links, but please listen to the entire interview to catch it in full context. I get on at the 42:00 mark or so on segment "C", with Walter several minutes thereafter.
Robert
