Come Out to Support High Scores!

Our new, loyal gamer friends are welcome to join us during our first Classic Arcade Gaming Dot Com Mini-Contest!!

The contest is set for SUNDAY, DECEMBER 12 from 6-9 pm. Its a no-pressure contest - all you need to do is get your name up on our high score board, and if not, at least you had fun :)

Its just 5 bucks to enter with the chance to win at least $10 and random prizes we come up with before then...contest titles are: Centipede, Do! Run Run, DK Jr, Joust, Ladybug, Ms Pac-Man Turbo, Paperboy, Star Castle, Super Pac-Man, and Track & Field. Full disclosure: Do! Run Run, Lady Bug, and the Pac-Man titles are on multicabinets. Full contest details and sign up are hosted by your friend and ours, Mark Alpiger, at his site: www.classicarcadegaming.com/contests/CAGDCM2010

Afraid your other half will be bored? Send them to Burlington's 30th Annual House Tour, beginning at 3:30 pm. The city is all sorts of lit up for the holidays with fun little things going on for the rest of the family all weekend. Check it out here.

Regular High Scores visitors and our current score holders aren't an easy bunch to beat...check out Randy's newly achieved Donkey Kong High Score of 402,700 on our score board. While DK isn't a contest game, it just goes to show our customers got game so come prepared!

Any questions about the contest, drop us a note @ highscoresburlington@yahoo.com

New High Scores

Wow! Took a little hiatus from posting lately, sorry about that. In the meantime, while I was being lazy, people were blazing their names onto the High Scores Board.

First off, Randy Y. handily brought down Mike W's place for Donkey Kong with an outstanding score of 334, 300.

But don't cry for Mike W...he came around and set scores for Do! Run Run (102,250), Mario Bros. (95,510), and Frogger (15,770). Neighborhood gamer Stacey gets to see his name on the big board for a score of 102,250 for Mr Do!

In other news...we're looking forward to Richie Knucklez December 11 Tronoff event. Check it out here. High Scores will be there and we welcome gamers to come around on Sunday, December 12 to check out our games...and play more Tron if you didn't get enough!!

Chicks and Games...

In recognition of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, I thought it would be interesting to point out some of the very influential women in video gaming history. While generally regarded as a "guy" thing, the fact is 40% of all gamers in North America are women according to a recent Entertainment Software Association Survey. Women over 18 represent a third of all gamers, and make up just about half of the game-buying public.

Let's start with Carol Shaw. Shaw was the very first female game programmer and designer. While working at Atari, she became the first woman to design a game, releasing 3D Tic-Tac-Toe for Atari 2600. She eventually moved on to a career at Activision. Shaw designed games for the Intellivision, Atari 800, and Atari 5200 during the course of her career.

Dona Bailey's story is a little more well known in world of classic arcade gaming, as she was the first woman to design a coin-op game. Together with Ed Logg, Dona created the smash-hit-and-still-classic Centipede. I have to admit that the color combinations were just too cool to be dreamed up by a man. Sadly, Bailey has admitted that the critical eye of male colleagues caught up with her, and she quickly fleed the industry after Centipede proved a success. She now teaches a variety of college-level classes, including game design.

And lastly, but not at all least, we have a woman who shined from the other side of the arcade cabinet. Those of you who are fans of "King of Kong" are familiar with Doris Self's story as one of the first female and the world's oldest competitive gamer. Doris ripped it when she entered the 1983 Video Game Masters Tournament and waltzed away with the world record on Q*Bert of 1,112,300. At 79 years old, Self became motivated to re-enter the competition world. Doris Self passed away at 81 years in 2006, but not before she totally rocked our world on Q*Bert :)

We tip our hats to the underrecognized female gamers out there!

Meg

CAGDC Tournament, Mark Alpiger and Mario Bros!!

Whew, where do I start? We had a pretty lively weekend. It started when I (predictably) embarrassed myself at The Classic Arcade Gaming (dot com) World Record Tournament at Richie Knucklez. Some top-notch gamers were in attendance to shake things up a bit, including Donald Hayes, Jimmy Linderman and Steve Wagner. I would put a link up to the results, but instead of making it that easy to mock my scores, I'll let everyone work to find it instead.



Following the Tournament we welcomed Mark Alpiger to crash for the night so he could come and check out High Scores. Mark showed off his Paperboy skills, but it was a late night for us all. Rest assured, Mark was up and at 'em early Sunday to work on finalizing the scores from the tournament! Afterward, he got his Gururin cartridge up on the Neo Geo and rocked out a bit.

Many thanks to Mark for putting together a fun tournament this year and making the trip to see High Scores Arcade!

And last, but oh no certainly not least, we welcomed a new acquisition - a beautiful Mario Bros. cabinet showcasing 19 games: Mario Bros., Super Mario, Ice Climber, Splat, Defender, Robotron and others. So now I can finally say "yes" when I'm asked if we have Mario Bros. every day!!

Meg

Mark Alpiger Comes to High Scores!!

Do you recognize this guy?

If you've ever sat and watched "The King of Kong", you definitely do. Mark Alpiger is a top-notch gamer and classic arcade gaming historian who runs Classic Arcade Gaming Dot Com, an awesome resource for anyone interested in the history of arcade games and the present thriving gaming community. On Saturday, September 25, High Scores proprieters Shawn and Meg will be participating in the 2010 Classic Arcade Gaming World Record Tournament at Richie Knucklez in Flemington, NJ.

We will be open on Saturday from 7 pm - midnight. Mark Alpiger, who is at the helm of the CAGDC Tournament, will be spending the night and will greet High Scores visitors late night Saturday (say, after 10 pm) and again on Sunday, September 26 from 11 am - noon. Come out and meet Mark in person!

September 18 High Scores

September 18 High Scores!!!

The moon must have been in the right position for gaming tonight - we had a lot of people make their way to the High Scores Rookie Board (and Pro Board!) today.

First up was Dawn, who made herself comfortable on Centipede with a score of 36, 202 on the Rookie Board. Then came Scott, who kicked off another score to be the leader in Champion Baseball at 13, 290. Then came Scott #2! who rocked out on a game of Galaga to take the Rookie Board High Score to 69,180. Last but not least, we all know the gamer who takes it seriously competes the hardest with him/herself...Amir came around and inched up his own Rookie Board standing on Ms Pac Man with 70,060.

Deciding that the Rookie Board was not where he belonged, Scott #2 gave some serious attention to Dig-Dug, and got his name up as the house High Score of 59,750.

Thanks to all that came out tonight - hope to see you again soon!