Games record destroyed after 58-hour session

Sadly, as a 30 something year old I find that I really suffer if I don't get a good night's sleep. For that very reason, my heart goes out to the 41-year-old guy from Seattle who stayed awake for a whopping 58 hours to become the highest-scoring Asteroids player of all time. Bloody lunatic!

Personally, I like Asteroids (the classic 1979 Atari title, not large lumps of space rock!) - but like a lot of games from yesteryear, playing it for any longer than hour in a single session was a fairly painful experience. Dismal graphics (see left), irritating sound effects and woefully boring gameplay with little variety left me cold... Rotate your tiny spacecraft left and right, occasionally propelling yourself across the screen to avoid incoming debris while shooting haphazardly in a vain attempt to hit something. Fun, but only in short bursts.

For that reason, I can only assume that this US resident is slightly crazy for even considering playing for so long. Nevertheless, he did it - and amassed a monstrous 41,338,740 score... 2,300 points higher than the previous record that had stood for 28 years. Better him than me!

(Photo credit: drewish)