High Scores lists?

[Meta_Fish]

Has anyone ever gotten their name on a high score list? Arcade games are most impressive, as with most of them it seems impressive to even get on the stock high scores, but online leaderboards are pretty impressive, too. Did you write "a**?" Did you pump your fist up in the air? Did you tell your friends? What's your most impressive high score?  

[Meta_Fish]

Mine would have to be Crazy Taxi. When I was younger, my mom worked at the bar in a bowling alley (weird, I know) and for awhile she couldn't afford a babysitter, so I would just d**k around at the bowling alley during her INSANE hours late at night. I must have been around eleven or twelve because I would take Pokemon Gold with me too, but I was already pretty bored with that. Bowling gets very boring after about a week of doing it, so I ended up going into the bar and taking my mom's tips, getting quarters and playing the arcade machines in the alley.

There wasn't much; a crane game, Kiss Pinball, Hydro Thunder, and then, of course, Crazy Taxi. I liked Hydro Thunder, but it was too much of a commitment to do well in it. You had to keep playing and playing and it didn't seem like you really got any better. It just got harder so you couldn't. So I went with Crazy Taxi.

I wasn't very good at first. I must have picked up five customers my first time, gotten rank 63 and thought that was pretty impressive. Other people weren't any better though. But I just kept pouring quarters into the machine. I learned the techniques for going fast. How to rack up more money. I learned the city; where people would want to go, what a good path was to take, and who to pick up. I got so good that people would stand and watch me before they went into the bar. They'd tried their hand and picked up maybe five customers. Not eleven. Not seventeen.

After each game over I'd watch the high scores list, all the numbers ending with 000. No one had ever gotten onto the high score list here. If I wanted to, I'd need to get 20th.

I still remember that day. It was late at night, not a school night, because there were kids my age there. I was playing the game, kicking some major a**, and this kid had been behind me, watching me for awhile. He asked if he could have a turn, and I had to tell him that these were my fifty cents I were playing on, and when I lost, he would get to spend his. The thing was, the better you were, the longer you could play. The more the fifty cents was worth. He was expecting a two minute play, tops.

I kept slamming the shifter into drive and then hitting the gas as I drove to get the speed boost. It looked absolutely ridiculous as I stood there (it was a standing machine), flicking this shifter forward and slamming on the gas, steering down the streets. The kid came up closer and said "You know, that doesn't make you go any faster."
"Yes it does."
"No it doesn't!"
"Yes, it does. Look at the tip on the machine." I pointed, and he saw it. He shut up. For then. He was still being impatient though. Tapping his foot. Sighing.

I got to the other part of town, past the highway. When you make it past the highway you know you're doing well. 21st place. One more customer, and maybe I'd have it. I picked them up. The clock was ticking. Flashing. Ten seconds to go. I'd never done this well before. 23rd on my best day. I could see the location. Five. Drive and gas. Four. Tapping his foot. Three. Two. Screeching the tires. One. Trying to stop the car. The man gets out of the taxi, pays his fare, and it happens. 20th.

Time's up! I grin completely. The kid steps up for his turn, trying to get me out of the way. "Hold on." I tell him. The credits are rolling. They take awhile, and while they aren't singing "We are the champions" they might as well be. "What are we waiting for?" This kid asks impatiently.

"Enter your record into the hall of fame!" I smile and put my name in and step aside for the kid. I watch him deposit his quarters and feebly attempt to put a dent in what I've done. He gets three customers. Newbie. I walk away to save him the embarrassment.

Epilogue: That Christmas I got Crazy Taxi for my new GameCube. I can now get first place on it with complete ease, nearly doubling the highest (number one rank) high score. I just need to find an arcade machine.  

[Thanatoast Crunch]

Good read. xd I haven't ever had enough loonies afford to get all that good at an arcade machine game (if it was quarters, it might be a different story...) and you have to have no life to get one online, since anyone in the world can easily try to top it.

I did manage to at least get my name on a high score list on the Simpsons arcade machine, though, but I think it was just new or something then. Either that, or no one played it.  

[Meta_Fish]

It was fifty cents, so it would be about half the price. That's a bit ridiculous, Canada-land. Getting on the high scores is usually pretty impressive anyway. They usually have high stock scores.  

[Tonberry Crunch]

Epic story. I dream of making it on an arcade's high score list, but I never leave home that much. And the places I'm taken don't have arcade cabinets ):  

[Meta_Fish]

Tonberry Crunch

Epic story. I dream of making it on an arcade's high score list, but I never leave home that much. And the places I'm taken don't have arcade cabinets ):

It's too bad arcades aren't very prevalent outside of Japan. I wish I could go back to the early 80s just to get in on the arcade boom. Now all the arcade games we see are probably five to fifteen years old. xd  

[Rad Electropow]

Area 51.
After a $20 the list went something like

1.Me
2.Friend
3.Me
4.Other Friend
5.Me

Not much, but it stayed that way for a good few months.  

[Meta_Fish]

I came back about a year or two later (maybe three) to the bowling alley, with my class, and got a friend to wait for it to show my record, and it had been erased. sad Not replaced, just erased. BUT apparently someone knows where the machine is located now so I'm going to reclaim my former glory.  

[Tae-Kwon-Doh-Boy]

I have three high-score experiences worth sharing: Street Fighter 3: Third Strike, Area 51 (with a fast-fingered partner), Need for Speed, and Tekken 3.


The first and last time I played SFIII: TS in the arcade was at a good campground near Traverse City, at the cost of a mere quarter. I never had a serious challenge from a human player in that game, or any other SF game, so I decided to give it my best in single player mode. The regular challengers are always a breeze, ironically easier than the minigames. The minor boss, Urien, is a bit tough., but Gill... lies just below the level of SNK-Boss Syndrome (a boss that makes the game go from as easy as Mario Party to as hard and cheap as Ninja Gaiden). While I was there, my score was largely untouched from my daily vigil of playing it every day for two days. I don't doubt, though, that it's been surpassed after six years.


I played Area 51 for $ 0.50 at the same campground in the same time frame as my SFIII: TS experiences, forming a team with a kid half my size, half my accuracy, and ten times the firing rate. His trick?. He'd hold the gun with his right hand normally, and use the left hand to rapidly beat on his trigger finger - a technique I later used to a great advantage in games like Alien Hominid and WarioWare. With all that, we went through the game twice before the arcade shut down for the night - on the last night that I was there. I don't remember our high scores.


Two years ago, I lived near a Wal-Mart that had one of the more recent installments of NFS (released in '04-'05), costing one whole dollar to pay > sad . Great time were had, racing in the more recent model cars. I'd usually get 2nd or 1st place in the races, 3rd in the overall scoreboards.


Tekken 3 is by far my favorite game in the arcade, and I have yet to be beaten on it more than once. I'd go through the game with ease playing as Hworang taking top honors until my demise - juggled to death by an Asian kid. stare


To close, I do better in sharing my experiences verbally - like a thread where we'd podcast our messages. Just a proposal that I, for one, would have a lot of fun with.  

[Orphie]

When I was a kid, my mom worked at a restaurant while she was going to college. I practically grew up there, and when I had free time and quarters, I'd always play Galaga. I never got any good, though, since I wasn't even 6 years old.  

[Paper Sonic]

Yep.
It was some Puzzle Bobble clone.
I think I used AAA.
I don't remember the placing since it was years ago XD  

[Hobo Scruffy]

On games that only let you use three letters(such as all arcade cabinets) I use BBQ. Or BQQ when I'm not paying attention. >.<


I'd have to check, but I think I got pretty high on the Geometry Wars: Galaxies leader boards for the DS.  

[misternitsua]

I think I topped a Soul Calibur machine once at a local pizza place. Other than that, I don't remember any big high scores.  

[Vaettur]

The only arcade-games i've played excessive enough to actually get in the high score list were the 2nd and 3rd House of the Dead games.
My country doesn't have a lot of arcade halls. sweatdrop  

[Invulnerable Enthusiasm]

OMG, it's Meta Fish. crying

Don't mean to go off-topic. >_>