I’ve done it again. I have obtained another world record for a video game that no one really cares about. A co-worker asked me, “why don’t you try to beat a record that people know,” and my response was quite simple, “that’s hard.”

Going after a Pac-man-ish game record is just silly. Everyone is trying to beat that record and only a small, small handful will even come remotely close. When the distance between success and failure is so great, there is very little chance for reward. Attempting to beat easier records will not only require relatively little effort, but the attempts by people to try and beat you increase - that is, assuming people care about the game. But being a fan of any one game is subjective in the first place.

Even the crappy games have fans

After I broke the Urban Champion world record (Wii), I set my sites on a game I actually loved and played when I was little, Robocop. Being a huge fan of the Robocop movie (notice I didn’t say movies), everything that went along with Robocop I wanted. I never actually owned the Robocop game when I was little. One of my friends had it and I had to play it at his house. I never beat it back then, it was too hard. It’s funny how games that you remembering being near impossible are now stupidly simple (except for Mega Man, it’s still hard).

I’ve played Robocop on my emulators a lot, but having never owned the cart I hadn’t played it on original hardware since probably 5th grade. Without the original cart I had no chance of breaking the record. The score keepers don’t accept emulator scores (for the most part). By chance, however, when I was at CORGS Con this year I came across the Robocop cart for a mere $3, much better than the $10+ I would have paid for it online through eBay and other finds.

With Robocop cart in hand I needed yet but one thing - about 30 minutes of free time to get a high score. That, fortunately, was easy to find. I setup the camera, hit record, and played through the game in 25 minutes to get a high score. Better yet, the highest score I had ever gotten even playing on emulators.

My high score of 111,996 is a world record

What makes me mad is the lack of four points to reach the 112,000 mark. After watching my own replay there several places where I missed scoring opportunities. But even then, my score is a good 9,000 higher than the previous record. It’s obviously not unbeatable, but hopefully it’s enough of a gap to make it a wee bit of challenge for the next person. Then again, it’s only Robocop.

However, I must admit to what could be a questionable technique of playing that would raise the “ethics” flag in some gamers. I didn’t cheat. To my knowledge there are not cheats/codes for Robocop. I did absolutely nothing the game would not normally allow, but to that end, I used those rules to my best ability to accumulate my high score.

If you play Robocop straight through, like a normal person would killing most bad guys along the way, you would get a score of somewhere between 100,000 and 104,000. That’s a good score and is one you’ll get if you complete the game without dying. I had done that numerous times and only after watching Chasing Ghosts did it hit me on how to get a true high score: game the system.

Playing for points

Each level in Robocop is timed, so that’s the pressing challenge, not the bad guys attacking you. So how do you get as many points possible within the time limit given? You defeat as many bad guys as possible, simple. Thankfully the programming of the game means you can use an old Nintendo trick - blipping characters. This being the technique of going backwards in the level then moving back forward to make the bad guys you already defeated come back.

The first three levels of Robocop are very easy to fight through, which means you can play through each almost twice within the time limit you’re given. So lets say playing through level one gets you 10,000 points one way. I just went back to the start of the level once I got to the end and played it again, netting me 20,000 points.

This is what puts gamers into two camps, 1) those just trying to get to the end, and 2) those trying to get points. Most video games these days are developed with one of those two purposes in mind. But back then in the transition from arcade to home console, games offered both. Even Super Mario Bros. kept a score, but how often did you pay attention to your score? I always just tried to save the princess, nothing more. As there is a hard ending to Robocop, I’d say they made the game to “reach the end,” but included a score if for nothing else than to determine when you earned an extra life. It wasn’t intended to be a “get a high score game,” but we’ve turned it into that.

So while I’m sure Brent Coffman, whom I beat to be #1, could argue I didn’t play the game as you’re “supposed” to play it, I nonetheless did nothing that the game wouldn’t let me do. I played within the rules of the game, I just took my time. I’ve come to realize that the key to getting high scores is to not hurry. Of course, it also helps that I have the entire game pattern memorized.

In the end a world record in Robocop doesn’t mean too much. Every person reading this has a fairly good chance at beating my record. In the end my name at the top of the world record charts means less to me than having my name attached to a game that was a big part of my childhood. A game I wanted, loved, and loved playing. Robocop. Vaughn. Two names that I’ve wanted to see together since 1988.

And for those that need the proof, here’s 25 minutes of record breaking game play smushed down into five minutes.