Ben Gold
Posted: Sat Mar 05, 2005 4:53 pm
Anybody know any good Ben Gold stories?
Zhorik wrote:Anybody know any good Ben Gold stories?
George was in the IRC channel when I mentioned that I had been waiting for an opening like that.
For those who don't know, Twin Galaxies and the television show "That's Incredible" did a video game competition on the show in 1983. Some of the biggest names in videogaming didn't quite make the final three who appeared on the show. The winner was a youth from Dallas named Ben Gold. Kathy Lee Crosby kissed him afterwards.
I never quite met Ben in person.
A friend and myself were perhaps the best Centipede players on the south side of the Dallas area once upon a time. This meant we were the best we knew of for awhile. My friend happened to visit an arcade on the far north side of town (the rich side) called "Pro Video". Apparently this is where the very best arcade game players in the metropolitan area played.
At the time my friend and I were probably in the mid 200 thousands for high score, and the difficulty was such that we were beginning to think the game might be at its limits there. My friend watched a kid (he was maybe 14 at the time) named Ben (later found out to be Ben Gold) play and was amazed. He went on about how the kid got 900 for every spider etc... There were two Centipede machines at this arcade (it was not a huge place) and Ben's high score at that time was in the high 300's
We went back to that arcade together to try to catch him again, but he was not there that night. My friend and I continued to play the game and progress, but by the time we were to the level where he had been before, he was in the 500 to 600k range. I know because I would occasionally make the trip across town and though I never caught him there, I would see his top three scores on the two machines there. (The top three are not erased automatically when the machine is turned off).
When eventually the side feed trap was discovered, and using it I was able to reach a million (though I would deliberately stop carefully at 999,999) I went and visited Pro Video again. By this time Ben had 999,999 as all three scores on one machine (no idea what method he played by), but on the other machine he only had two 999,999's. The third score was 900k plus, but not 999,999. Bear in mind once you have a 999,999 on the machine it can never be beaten. Subsequent tying scores are placed lower than the previous score.
About an hour and a half later I had third place at 999,999.
To this day I've wondered if he ever noticed/was chagrinned/wondered who the fuck JTC was. He was sort of an intense young man, the most well-known picture of him has him looking a little pissed:
http://www.classicarcadegaming.com/cont ... Life-3.jpg
Oh yeah, he also held the world records on Stargate and Q-bert at one point.
So much for my brush with greatness...well, near-brush.
