Gadgetory

throughout my life I've kind of always imagined myself to be pretty good at video games better than average there was this one challenging game on the Nintendo saw Battletoads for the average player the game ends on the third stage somehow word got out in my neighborhood that not only was Shawn past the third stage on battle toes but he was on like level 9 or something like this level that nobody had ever seen before and suddenly just all these strangers were like crowded around the TV as I was playing it I remember being really like excited like I get this adrenaline rush from people kind of watching you do this for five years ago it was getting kind of late in the night and Shawn's like in his computer room or whatever and I'm like what are you doing in there is it time to go to bed and he's like I'm not coming to bed for a while why not he goes because people on reddit think that I can't beat Battletoads and I'm gonna do it live and I'm about to broadcast it right now before I saw the king of Kong I had always believed that that was the hardest game ever and I'd beaten that game well Donkey Kong without question is the hardest game and it's ridiculously difficult on the first screen the average Donkey Kong game doesn't last a minute it's absolute brutality there's a scene in the movie or Billy Mitchell's saying the people who could get besides myself that have been seen getting to the end of Donkey Kong gee now that I think about it I don't think anybody has I just I took it as a personal challenge like I almost took offense that like nobody could do this thing so I started saying hey could I maybe be good at Donkey Kong and get to the kill screen there is a set number of levels and therefore a theoretical maximum score and people just want to kind of push that to the limit you have to stay on each board as long as possible using really every available second to score points as efficiently as possible in order to beat the record that's it 1 million 37,500 I did it I did it when I put up my million point score I wasn't working I guess I should say I was a lot better at Donkey Kong when I was unemployed if a good game that would potentially go all the way to the kill screen and when the record takes about three hours and maybe it takes like an hour to get a game going I mean that that's just a large time commitment I had to play outside of my comfort zone in order to really compete and I put up you know a score that got halfway through the game but it was on pace for like 1.1 million the score that that won the event I think much of the community considers me to be a lucky player people don't think that I deserve it like I don't belong coming in this year I have other priorities in my life I'm working full time this year we got married Donkey Kong is definitely taking a backseat to other things that I'm doing I really probably stand no chance to win but it's all part of the I think greater good where we're not necessarily competing against each other and it's kind of like all of us versus the machine hey love how are you competitions about to start in like 15 minutes so I'm going to turn my phone off and stuff so before the dead air silence I just want to call and say hey and I love you and wish me luck again I'll let I'll let you know after the event as ended today how how I did and how everyone else did okay I love it you bye coming welcome to the 2013 Kong off I really want to thank all of you for going out of your way to making it out to Denver making the trip making the financial commitment and making the commitment to just getting together again with what we all found last year to be a very uplifting experience so again give yourselves a nice round of applause for being a part of this great event what really makes the Kong off worth wild and makes the whole thing worth wild is bringing everybody together we're a crazy community it's some of us are socially awkward some of us are misfits some of us I don't know I'll get along when the internet became available to everybody suddenly people were able to exchange information and bond his friends but not only bond his friends but bond is Donkey Kong playing friends we all spend a lot of time interacting with one another through a chat room or a message board but for the few that take the time to come to the Kong off and meet one another and shake one another's hands it's just it puts this whole burst of energy back into this and it just that's what makes it all worthwhile all right everybody's out here all right so you guys know the order that you're coming out in you guys kind of know who you're next to it'll definitely be the best Kong off yeah as far as the competition and the potential for someone to actually beat the world record live we've got all the best players playing right now we've got all of them shooting for top prize mr. Mike grows back Mike is another one of the top 12 competitors in Donkey Kong he happens to live very close to me and through our mutual interest we kind of become friends it's like like the nerves you kind of get before like you go in for a job interview or something it's just like a little bit of butterflies all right you're right when you're having that perfect game going it feels very zen you smash something with a hammer and time stops for a moment and it just it feels good decent for my first games your first game yeah all right I'll take a little break and try again Thank You Bailey first game first quarter drop got this 600,000 something which is better than what I did all last year so feeling pretty positive about it I mean I think I'd just be happy if I put up a higher score than them what I put up yesterday I'm not gonna run boards though and I don't want to do that you want to at least have a shot at placing in the top yeah even a low kill screen would be cool in the min like a you know a million 10 or something ok everybody your machines on your marks whatever that means get set and yeah call all three day twos off and running so it's day two of the Kong off I've basically been playing Donkey Kong like it's my job for the past two days first day I think I did nine or ten hours never put up as many points for today we have even less time there's like an hour and a half left until the final quarter drop which means since a game takes like three hours to play there's like one good game this is your last chance to take the lead in the congas last quarter Donkey Kong is different every time and although you can influence the game you're not in complete control of it you have to rely more on the random aspects of the game playing out in your favor continuously for you to ever come close to the record last quarter rap and my game didn't go anywhere got to like 200,000 with three men left but the pressure was too much Sam there's still people playing but I'm out of all the players I think a detective the Shawn Boyd was the humblest and the most also frank in his assessment of his plausibility of winning this contest he just wants to perform as well as he can and and maybe break down boundaries and have new new vistas of highscore possibility but doesn't necessarily come into this thinking he's going to be the winner I was imagining in my mind what I'd say if I want something along the lines of surprised like six screens from the kill screen he's got one man in reserve if he can cash in that man is probably worth like close to 10,000 points so it looks like he's about on like million 24,000 it won't put him in the prize rankings but definitely illustrate hey I'm here to play the next best thing is seeing Mike succeed yeah I start white nice nice tab very impressed very impressed he did get the kill screen and I think that's that's what he wanted he wanted to he wanted a million points and he did it Congrats again dude I'm so I'm so happy for it thanks yeah just got to play consistent for good randomness I guess thank you guys everybody for coming out and just making this such a great event if it wasn't for you guys showing up and giving it your heart and all your spice coming out spectating we wouldn't have such a great turnout in such a good time hey how are you the event is over I did not put up a score at all the guy who won last year Jeff Wilms did back-to-back victories he did it again so he is hardcore awesomesauce it doesn't matter I come here and have fun and talk with the players it's it's a good time I guess the other thing to mention is that Mike did real good he was talking with me at breakfast this morning that he just wanted to put up a million points and that's what he did and I caught the final moments on my camera so that was pretty cool I'm really excited for him all right well yeah I will be safe and then I will talk to you tomorrow and I look forward to coming home and I played close to every night for close to two years now always aiming for the record at the time and I've still not done it is that a reflection of my skill as a player maybe is it a reflection of how brutally mean the randomness of Donkey Kong games maybe it's that question that it's still possible maybe that keeps you playing you