After 27 Years, a New High Score For Asteroids 193
blair1q writes "In a marathon 3-1/2 day session, John McAllister, of Portland, Oregon, has broken the 27-year-old high score for Asteroids, set in 1982 by Scott Safran. The attempt was broadcast via webcam."
Re:Sudden persepective. (Score:1, Insightful)
from the article:
which adds value to it. Human nature drives us (or more so men) to excell and try to push the limits. You wont achieve the same. Sometimes, achieving a thing that seems very unlikely (high continued concentration) makes some go out and try to do it, just because they can or want to push themselves. That in itself is admirable, wheverever you cannot see value in that.
It translates to 84 hours of persisted activity. If the average person watches 8 hours of TV a day, he just did something more useful and challenging for 10 days where the median average just is vegetating in front of a light box on a dialy base over an average 71, that's 598 hours of tv which do not amount to anything. Over a population of 309,018,640 in the us. How does that put things into perspective for you?
Re:Sudden persepective. (Score:5, Insightful)
That said, it's easy to criticize someone like this. But hey, we all have our hobbies and talents right?
As my sister puts it about me (though - luckily (for me), not about old arcade games; and not meant in a creepy fashion (I hope)):
And somehow I feel, here on slashdot, I am not the only one for whom this statement is true...
This might be newsworthy (Score:3, Insightful)
if he beat the record set for the Tron arcade game...
Re:where's the virgin tag? (Score:1, Insightful)
nerd girls in skirts & glasses.... Drool
Re:2 Things have to be said (Score:5, Insightful)
First, props to the quality of old time hardware. Do you think you could still play games on contemporary machines, almots 3 decades in the future?
Nope, because the DRM servers will have been shut down 29.5 years earlier...
Re:Sudden persepective. (Score:5, Insightful)
If women have a compulsion to wash their hands often, they'd:
a) Be ashamed of it and try to keep it a secret.
b) Go seek help from therapists.
c) Just wash their hands often.
If men have a compulsion to wash their hands often, they'd:
a) Try to find the best soap, water, time and method to do it.
b) See how many times they can do it per minute/hour/day, or how few times they can do it.
c) Brag about it and have long arguments with fellow "hobbyists" about a), b) and other related matters.
Re:Score (Score:4, Insightful)
Because the game was programmed more than 30 years ago, and its designers probably didn't think anybody would be insane enough to try to rack up a score in the hundred million range?
Re:Score (Score:5, Insightful)
also called an extra digit?
the 10's place is really a rollover counter for how many times the 1's overflowed.
Re:2 Things have to be said (Score:1, Insightful)
It's a neat thing about vector displays. Specifically with Asteroids, it's a truly impressive thing when your ship's bullets are actually, literally, physically brighter than other elements on the screen. Not "whiter pixels", not "has a gradient glow rendered around it", not "ooo, look at the awesome 3D light effects this video card can do zomg". No, the shots actually emit more light in the physical, real world than everything else. Just impressive.
Re:Sudden persepective. (Score:5, Insightful)
The question is, is his "a life well spent" or "a life, well, spent".
I absolutely hate quotes like this. It stinks of elitism and moral authority. No one knows the purpose of life, so by what right does one person judge another's success or failure in life? If a person led a life they personally are happy with, how can anyone say it was wasted?
I'm not aiming this at you personally, but people that watch/listen to these type of stories and then spend any time to comment that it's a waste of time makes me run in the other direction. Just in case a black hole of hypocrisy swallows them up.