when i read this i had a big smile on my face! THIS is what its all about!
its so funny, this is pretty much the exact same way that matt, chris and i got into video game world records. at first we looked up a few games that we grew up with and were pretty good at..then we saw the current records and were like 'WHAT!? we can beat that!" so we sent em in and it was so exciting for the first time having the #1 world records in these games that we had been playing since we were kids, it was like if someone told us back in the day that we would be world record holders in these games i wouldnt have believed them! (who knew that all that time sitting in my basement playing 'Monster Party' and all that time playing it at sleepovers...that it was actually a World Record Holder in training!!! as matt would say, 'its like watching Michael Jordan take his first foul shots') haha
Guiness does put out a video game anthology type book of all electronic and video game related world records- you could get it at any bookstore, but i assume they have only the REAL big titles (the marios, halo's, zelda's, etc etc).. but what was crazy was matt at one time held the number 1 spot for ninja gaiden for the NES. we were thinking that a title like that MIGHT wind up in the Guiness book! (we never actually checked though and since then matt's score has been knocked down severely! sorry matt!)
but like you said, we would go through all the games that we owned and were on a mission to get number 1 records in as many as we could. on our annual trip to the mountains (hence the name Team Mountain...get it!? huh? huh?) the last few years we have been having so much fun tryin to get records and reclaim our old ones that have been knocked down (and by now, MANY of them have been knocked down
)
one trip we got around 13 records in MAME (arcade emulation) - most of them were 2player and 3player games (X-men arcade, golden axe, etc). but what happened is that we didnt put our 'initials' in correctly at the game over screens, so actually we didnt get any of them.... BOO
SO...just make sure to be careful when recording...MAME is slightly different because of the 'initials' you get to put in at the game over screen in arcades...but other then that all home consoles pretty much run the same way....
1. have tape in and record like 10 seconds of blank screen
2. then turn on system (so they can see the screen 'flicker' and tell that it's from a legit system
3. play AS LONG AS YOU WANT with as many game overs and continues, whatever, and lets say your best score was on your 13th try out of 35, then just write that on the tape and you will be fine
4. when you are totally done and want to stop, get to a game over screen and let it sit for like 10 seconds
5. turn off the system and let it record for another 10 seconds
THEN YOURE DONE!!
just make sure you read the little rules for your specific game though (right on the scoreboard for that game) - because with certain games you might start out with 5 lives for example, but the Twin Galaxies ruleset for that game might say "3 live only" or something like that. then you would just assume your score at the end of your 3rd life, even though you still have 2 left. Just little crap like that, but for the most part its really really easy.
whew! can you tell i was excited!!
i just think its so cool that you are getting into it- when matt and chris and i first were getting records, it totally breathed new life into gaming. it was a different spin and angle on gaming- it kind of added a whole new dimension to games. now instead of just playing the game for fun, you had a whole new option of playing of the record, which made things fun and really exciting. mapping out complex levels and mazes, trying to figure out the fastest possible way to beat a game, trying to figure out how to get the most possible points within certain areas...it is all so fun!
have fun with it! and keep us up to date on what youve been getting
team mountain has been overdue for a "world record takeback night" ourselves.
...maybe a possible future marathon??.... haha!
)
like in The King of Kong lol.