Is 1,218,000 on DK the most difficult to beat beatable real Arcade score?

[homerwannabee]

For me I don't think it's close.  There is not an Arcade game record that does not max out that is harder to beat.  It's the end all, and be all of Arcade scores.  The amount of time, talent, effort, focus, and skill to beat this record is by far the hardest thing to do.   Can Dean, or Robbie beat it?  Of course they can, but both of them have put in a massive amount of time into this game.  Jason McCurdy, and Jason Wade may one day do it too, but both of them also have put in the crazy grind that's needed to be as good as they are, and they'll have to put even more of  a crazy grind to get there.

So for me, I don't care what the game is Ms. Pac-man, Galaga, Donkey Kong Junior, Donkey Kong 3, Robotron 5 man, Junior Pac-man, or any other arcade game.  This is by far the hardest Arcade record to beat, and there is not a single arcade game that can hold a candle to that.

Yes, there are some fake arcade scores that can't be beaten because the person was lying through their teeth in 1982, but that's another matter.

[SanTe]

This is by far the hardest Arcade record to beat, and there is not a single arcade game that can hold a candle to that.

I disagree:

Crystal Castles     910,722     100.00%     Frank Seay     1988-03-17

[GalacticDancin]

I don't know enough to say Yes or No, so I didn't vote.  But It's definitely an extremely difficult score to beat. 

It's a very public score on a popular game with a lot of people gunning for it unlike more obscure game. 

[Adam_Mon]

Abstaining,

I don't know enough about other games to make such claims.

[WCopeland]

Probably not the toughest since all the knowledge needed to beat it is public. For many other arcade games, such knowledge is not public.

I'd argue Mark's Donkey Kong Jr. world record is much tougher to beat than the 1,218,000. It wouldn't surprise me in the least if Mark's score is never beaten.

[TheSunshineFund]

It's definitely high on the list for sure.  As Chris mentioned Crystal  is a good one.   Also you mentioned Jr. Pac Man, only one person has finished the game which is still amazing to me.  Also only one person (to our knowledge) has 1 cc'd Smash TV which is equally amazing.  Of course DK has volume of play/popularity adding to its lore and that certainly has to be a factor.  If no one is playing something, how do we know if it's really that difficult to top?   I'm not sure what the most difficult score to beat across every classic game would be, I'm not even sure such an assessment can be so boldly made, but I think one could definitely come up with a Top 10 list and I know a great sub forum for such things.   

[anningmay]

   Also you mentioned Jr. Pac Man, only one person has finished the game which is still amazing to me.

To add to this: he didn't do it publicly, and his WR score (which WAS done publicly) was not a KS game. So, officially speaking, NO ONE has ever finished Jr. Pac-Man.

So... have to disagree with OP here.

Dave

[YesAffinity]

A great score for sure, possibly among the top hardest to beat scores, but not the absolute pinnacle.  Adding another to the list, and echoing what Wes said that the info is out there for DK, whereas it isn't for other titles, I present Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo.

Yes, that's my #2 place holding, and that is an accomplishment in a list of many #1's on street fighter titles for me.  Enthusiasts all agree that the AI on this title is ridiculous.  I have been on pace for 1.3M on the best of best days, I think once.  Beating the current world record, by my best calculation, would require two perfect rounds against every computer opponent, winning those perfect rounds with a super move that provides significant points (20-40k range, per super victory), and would require dumping one round for points per opponent AND pulling off a super move for adequate points (10 - 20k) during that round but not killing with it.

The MAME world record is 1.246M, for comparison.

Maybe Jason Wilson knows a secret that the rest of us don't.

Super Street Fighter II Turbo [Points [Tournament Settings]]

1    1,865,000    100.00%    Jason Wilson    1999-07-31    Referee
2    1,070,100    57.38%    Chris Gleed    2016-11-18    TGSAP
3    1,069,809    57.36%    Dan Rodriguez    1997-12-10    Referee
4    838,500    44.96%    David Spence    2000-06-24    Referee
5    729,301    39.10%    Jesse Howard    2000-06-24    Referee
6    679,500    36.43%    Chris Wong    2000-06-24    Referee
7    445,101    23.87%    Jesse Cardenas    2000-06-24    Referee
8    283,800    15.22%    Mike Watson    2000-06-24    Referee
9    236,200    12.66%    Wes Truelson    2000-06-24    Referee
10    140,100    7.51%    Jason Gonzalez    2000-06-24    Referee
11    125,300    6.72%    Paul Deaville    2000-06-24    Referee
12    112,000    6.01%    Seth Killian    2000-06-24    Referee
13    19,400    1.04%    Nick Popovich    2000-06-24    Referee

[TheSunshineFund]

TRB has a 2m point score on MARP, though I don't recall if TG uses default or whatever MARP is using.

http://replay.marpirc.net/r/ssf2t

I agree, that game is crazy hard, the CPU input reads are ridiculous.

[homerwannabee]

It seems to me that a lack of competition has made an obscured understanding of how difficult some of these games are to beat.

Case in point, the Arm Wrestling Arcade world record.   I had seen statements before about how this was some kind of super score because no one in 30 years had gotten within half of the score.  After less than 200 hours spent on MAME I got a score that was higher.  I personally spent over 400 hours on Donkey Kong trying to get my ho hum 851k score.

I understand that not all games are for all people, but I truly believe the right person on the right game can take down the high score on that game if they simply are willing to study, grind, and focus for a very very long time. 

Most of these super high scores on these games are simply mirages because of the lack of competition.  If by some miracle the Arcade/MAME competition got as popular as speedrunning is now you'd see almost all these Arcade records fall.  Maybe the people who lied would have their scores remain, but that would be it..

[Xermon54]

Same thing applies with DK. 874k seems near impossible to beat, but now everybody's beating it.

It's kindda tricky to judge which score is the hardest compared to Donkey Kong, because no arcade game has ever been played competitively as much as DK. I'm 90% sure that if each arcade game had been played as much as DK, and by all the great DK players, all of the arcade top score would've fallen (the legit ones, obviously).

Back then, a perfect pac-man game was seen as a huge achievement, but in fact, I once got to 1m on a perfect pace after playing for like a month. I could've probably gotten a perfect game within 2 months of playing.

And same thing applies with DK: If all the great esport gamers in the world had invested as much time in DK as in starcraft/league of legend/dota, 1,218m would've definitely been crushed by lots of people.

[YesAffinity]

TRB has a 2m point score on MARP, though I don't recall if TG uses default or whatever MARP is using.

http://replay.marpirc.net/r/ssf2t

I agree, that game is crazy hard, the CPU input reads are ridiculous.

  The secrets are available.  Thank you for that!  Time to study...

[danman123456]

Isnt the secret to the SF series a bunch of perfects and double kos that keep the matches going on and on and on?

[YesAffinity]

Isnt the secret to the SF series a bunch of perfects and double kos that keep the matches going on and on and on?

Only on the original (SF2 World Warrior), and maybe on Champion Edition.  I think it is corrected in Champion Edition, too, though, because in the original days, guys would put a quarter in each, start a 2P game and then practice the moves like dragon punch and fireball that nobody truly knew how to do yet, indefinitely on 2 quarters and double KO's.

As of Champion/Hyper Fighting and later, if you get to a round 4 against the computer, that will be the final round no matter the outcome and there is no bonus points award for perfect or timer.  If you double KO on the 4th round, the game ends.  So, you get 3 rounds per computer opponent effectively to max out points.

But yes, perfects are the bigger part of the points equation.

[HugDD]

Hey Chris, do you have a favorite in the Street Fighter series?  I seem to recall you don't sway much into the crossovers, such as X-men vs. Street Fighter.

Hmm, so I was pondering the subject of this poll, and it brings to mind a thread on Twin Galaxies that I believe RTM started a while back, but for the life of me, I can't seem to locate.  It was similar, but called upon folks to list which feats in gaming they believe to be extraordinary and difficult.  The two I would've responded with are David Gomez's 100M marathon of Robotron on maximum difficulty (10), and Tim Hett's single archer run of Millipede on hard settings of 202k.

As others have stated though, there's been more competition with Donkey Kong, than many other games, especially in the classics.  Pop culture has a bit to do with this.  Every now and then when I'm at a bar arcade in Chicago, or one of the freeplay arcades in the west suburbs, someone'll bring up King of Kong.  As it stands, there's perhaps only so much more that the game can be pushed, and even Hank suggested the cap may be 1.3M if I recall correctly.

I'd say though, that speed runs may be the tougher feats to topple, but certainly Wes' incredible achievement stands on its own.

-Duc