Guinness scrubs 35-year-old video game record over cheating allegations

Jan. 31 (UPI) -- A video gaming Guinness World Record that has stood for 35 years has been stricken from the database after evidence of cheating was presented to officials.

Todd Rogers held the Guinness World Record of "longest-standing video game record" after his 1982 record for speeding through a race in Atari 2600 game Dragster -- 5 seconds, 51 milliseconds --remained untouched for decades.

Twin Galaxies, Guinness' main adviser on video game scoring records, said Rogers' record -- and all of this other scores tracked by the group -- has been scrubbed after a speedrunner presented evidence that the record time is, in fact, impossible to achieve.

"Twin Galaxies is Guinness World Records' trusted adviser on video game high scores and as such we rely on it to monitor high score gaming records and handle any and all disputes that occur within its community," a Guinness representative said in an email to Kotaku. "Consequently, we have removed the Guinness World Records title for Longest-standing video game record from our records database, along with any other records that Mr. Rogers currently holds and we will continue to partner with Twin Galaxies for further video game record verification."

Twin Galaxies said ample evidence was provided that Rogers' score was fraudulent.

"Based on the complete body of evidence presented in this official dispute thread, Twin Galaxies administrative staff has unanimously decided to remove all of Todd Rogers' scores as well as ban him from participating in our competitive leaderboards," Twin Galaxies staff wrote in a post on the organization's forum.

Rogers said in a Facebook post Tuesday that he disagrees with the decision to scrub his scores.

"Although I disagree with their decision, I must applaud them for their strong stance on the matter of cheating," Rogers wrote. "While I do maintain that Twin Galaxies is wrong in my particular case, if the investigation into my score(s), and subsequent banning, can serve as a catalyst to clean the database of questionable scores and facilitate methods to catch future cheaters, this is a positive thing."

Rogers reiterated his long-time claim that he attained the record-setting score during a demonstration of his skills for employees of Activision during the 1980s, when he was a well-known expert gamer often called upon to play exhibitions.

David Crane, Dragster's designer, said he witnessed Rogers playing the game at one such event, but he did not recall the exact scores achieved during the demonstration. He said he believes Rogers' version of events.

"He took the controls and confidently played our games -- in front of the creators of the games -- with a proficiency that amazed us all," Crane told Kotaku. "I remember him showing us scores in various games that exceeded those that anyone at Activision had been able to achieve. After more than 30 years I can't remember what those scores were, but I don't have a shadow of a doubt that he achieved the scores he claims."