When most of us think of a long session spent playing a single game, we think of spending a day or maybe a weekend immersed in story or competition. Eight or ten hours, maybe more, spent on the sofa or at a PC while the player loses track of time.
One man, this morning, just redefined that idea of a "long session" after completing a 68.5 hour game of arcade classic Q*bert. Ed Heemskerk, of Florida, has been busy hopping over isometric cubes for almost three full days nonstop. And he did it all on a single coin.
Heemskerk has broken the previously standing record for the longest single play of an arcade game, which was 67.5 hours — a record that has stood since 1985. He began playing at 8:00 a.m. Eastern time on Tuesday (February 28) and finally reached the game over screen Friday, March 2 at 4:30 a.m. His final score, 30,789,910, is the third-highest known. He live-streamed the entire event, of which the last few minutes remain archived online (see video).
In an interview with Examiner.com, Heemskerk described what inspired his arcade endurance marathon, saying:
"My oldest daughter is to graduate high school this year, and I'm thinking about my dream of being listed in the Guinness Book of World Records for something. Somehow I stumbled across the fact that video games have been included in the book recently, which led me to re-kindle my love of the arcade game Q*bert."
Perhaps more incredibly, despite breaking the endurance record and racking up such an impressive score, Heemskerk considers this week's achievement to have been a dry run. The world record score has been estimated to require 70 or more hours of play to beat, and Heemskerk reportedly intends to attempt an 80-hour playthrough this June.
Arcade gamer sets longevity record with 68.5 hour game on Q*bert arcade machine [Examiner.com]
(Top photo: Games DBase)