Space Invaders. Our grandfather of gaming. Up there with Mr. Pac-Man and his wife as the true legends of gaming. The importance of Space Invaders both as a cultural icon for gaming and for history in general, is unfathomable. Without it, gaming would still be made by a guy in his basement and showing it off to his friends. Without someone like Rich Knuckles, we wouldn't have a new winner of the Space Invader championships.

Knuckles, yes that is his real last name – beat the previous record held by Donald Hayes back in 2003. His score was 55,160, the new score, beaten on October 7^th, 2011, was 110,510. Beaten in the classic Twin Galaxies arcade, Knuckles hit the game's kill screen (see below) and has been chosen to beat the score again in November during an Arcade Marathon. About the upcoming match, Knuckles said, "I am going to throw myself at the mercy of the arcade gods and hope the random 'whammies' don't beat me up too bad,

The Kill Screen is a lovely piece of gaming glitching where the game's digital components incorrectly register pieces of the game as error code as it reaches out of the actual programming range. For example, say you have a set of 100 levels and you go to level 101, the kill screen would be here and the game would detect whatever is on screen or moving (i.e. the player) and “kill them” and the game.

Tweet

33.3% of voters think this story ROCKS!

Vote Now!    (1) (2)