Grandee of gaming records stripped of accolade by disgruntled reddit boffins – Activision fails to notice (or care).
Speed runs are are all the craze these days, even mythical ancient relics such as the Atari 2600 get the attention of obsessive-compulsive-gamers, who clearly have more time on their hands than they should.
In the case of the Atari classic Dragster a certain famous OCG by the name of Todd Rogers has held the record for finishing the simple drag racer in the fastest time for the last 35 years. Well no longer, as it turns out the supposed time that he posted is in fact, by the standards of the physics of this particular game, impossible. Ouch.
Why did it take 35 years for this unmitigated act of gaul to be challenged you ask? Well, it turns out that Activision, the publisher of the game in question, officially recognised his impossible time of 5.51 seconds without ever asking for proof….yes you read that right. This dude just told everyone he’d done it without ever offering more than a vague explanation as to how. No video, no stats, nothin’!
It seems interested gamers in the reddit-sphere had long questioned this so-called achievement, but it was only when Twin Galaxies (the keepers of official gaming records for Guinness World Records no less) introduced an official dispute system that the crime was robustly exposed as, even with the aid of special technical tools, the speed-run-boffins could not come close to Rogers ‘record time’ of 5.51 seconds.
Supporters or Rogers’ have since waged a comment war, defending their fallen hero without ever of course offering a good explanation for how he magically achieved his score without cheating. Like any good conspiracy theorist I suppose.
And despite exposing Rogers as a fraud, Activision have so far failed to comment, let along strip the disgraceful cheat of his coveted award patch.
The moral of the story? Don’t try and pull the wool over the eyes of competitive geeks, because they will always expose you. As for gaming publishers? Meh go nuts, they might even give you a medal…
