January 28th, 2003 (12:00am) - The date was January 20th, 2003. The place was Funspot in Weirs Beach, New Hampshire. With his video camcorder set up on a tripod next to him, Donald Hayes set out to capture on videotape a new world record on what is widely regarded as one of the top ten hardest video arcade titles ever released..."Super Zaxxon". Released by Sega in 1982 as a sequel to the mega-hit title "Zaxxon", this title was much faster and harder than the original by far. Most gamers can’t last more than 3 to 5 minutes, if even for that long.
When Donald Hayes, who hails from New Hampshire in the USA, started playing his game at Funspot, the title song "Fame" from the movie was starting to play in the background, perhaps a hint of good things to come. Fittingly, he set a new world record of an incredible 496,950 points, reaching farther than anyone else ever has...stage 15. Incredibly, he lasted from 198,500 to 496,950...just under 300,000 points...on his last ship !! This score resoundingly beat the previously verified world record of 339,750 as set by Greg McLeod from Canada way back in July 25th, 1983, according to the Twin Galaxies Intergalactic Scoreboard, the worldwide authority on player rankings, gaming statistics and championship tournaments since 1981.
Donald played on what is known as Twin Galaxies tournament settings, or "TGTS", of hard difficulty and three (3) ships to start, with an extra awarded at a certain point threshold. The game is subdivided into four sections per level. Each requires a unique skillset in order to conquer that level.
Section 1 is a "city" layout, with many ground targets, some of which launch upwards or shoot at you, and include a few laser screens to find the path thru, and several wall-barriers over which you must navigate safely. This quickly leads to section 2 otherwise known as "The Tunnel", which is the toughest part of the game. In it, you must face an onslaught of up to 40 enemy ships (by stage 6) flying at you and/or shooting at you, some of which home in on your precise location.
Section 3 is a much harder version of the "city" layout from section 1. Here, the walls you must navigate over, 8 in all, are protected by laser screens. As early as stage 2, players will encounter wall gaps no larger than the width of their spaceship, and by stage 3, every single gap is only that wide. With less than 2 seconds of maneuvering between each laser screen and wall gap, this section also contributes to why this game is one of the top ten toughest of all time.
Section 4 is where the player must defeat the "Super Zaxxon dragon", a harder version of the classic "Zaxxon" boss, faster moving to say the least.
And that’s not all. There’s a small matter known as your fuel consumption that is constantly draining. Stages 1 thru 3 are not too bad according to Donald, but stages 4 and thereafter are tough battles. You need enough fuel to keep going or you can lose your ship when your supply runs out. As if you didn’t already have enough to worry about.
I watched Donald’s videotape the other night and was pleased to be witness to videogame greatness. His game started off with a decent score of 63,850 on his 1st ship. He became trapped in the 3rd "tunnel" sequence, the toughest aspect of the game. Up to this point, his personal best (unverified) was in the 438K range, and was visible on the high score display screen as he accumulated points, so he had a long way to go. Although Donald’s game only lasted approx 8 minutes up to this point, he still lasted more than double what most gamers do for their entire game...and this was just on his 1st ship !!
And there’s an interesting story about that 438K score that was visible on the high score display when he started his game. Donald told me that he had showed up earlier in the day with his videocamera but had nowhere to plug it in, so he figured he would play a practice game or two until he was given the means to plug in his videocamera. As luck would have it, on his very first game he set a new personal best.
Donald took his 2nd ship about as far, lasting to 129,500 points and was trapped in the 5th "tunnel". His 3rd ship reached a bit further, up to "tunnel" number 7 and 198,500 points. Then he entered "The Zone"...that zen-like state of mind where master class gamers find themselves so attuned to their game at-hand that they play while tuning out everything else around them...all other noises, people, distractions, and that’s when world records are often set.
His 4th ship lasted from the 7th "tunnel" all the way up to the 15th "tunnel", where he was trapped at just about the end of the stage...shy of 500K, but definitely a new world record by a healthy margin of approx 157,000 points. Mind you...Donald was playing at the "Hard" difficulty settings and just three (3) ships to start...quite the player he is.
For those "Zaxxon" fans looking for an extreme challenge, here now are Donald’s threshold scores per wave. Interestingly, Donald employs a strategy of survival versus going for every single point possible. Quite simply, you can’t get every target possible...the game moves too fast !! His strategy incorporates a balance between point acumulation and safety, which in a game like "Super Zaxxon" is quite possibly the best strategy of all to employ.
Stage 1 - 28,100 points by end of stage
Stage 2 - 52,950
Stage 3 - 83,450 (lost ship in stage 3 "tunnel")
Stage 4 - 116,800
Stage 5 - 152,100 (lost ship in stage 5 "tunnel")
Stage 6 - 184,850
Stage 7 - 221,400 (lost ship in stage 7 "tunnel")
Stage 8 - 254,950
Stage 9 - 292,150
Stage 10 - 329,400
Stage 11 - 364,850
Stage 12 - 401,650
Stage 13 - 441,150 (he passes his previous personal best at approx 437K)
Stage 14 - 477,800
Stage 15 - 496,950 (last ship lost in "tunnel")
Starting with stage 3, the wall gaps are all the width of your ship. There are 2 in each section 1, and 8 in each section 3, most of which are protected by laser screens. In other words, Donald had to perform over 130 ship-width maneuvers thru the wall gaps between stages 2 and 15, and that’s in addition to dodging all the enemies in the "tunnel" and the other obstacles in each "city". Definitely not an average accomplishment, to be sure !!
Twin Galaxies proudly proclaims Donald Hayes as the new champion of "Super Zaxxon". He adds this title to his growing list of arcade video game world record accomplishments including...
Centipede - 7,111,111 (difficulty 3, starting lives 3)
Tron - 4,580,031 (difficulty 5, 3 lives plus 1 extra)
Congratulations, Donald...a job well done !!
