Topic: Win Bounties for High Scores

[Jonnyboy117]

Twin Galaxies referee wants to pay you to set world records on various games.

Reported by Jonathan Metts

Source: Twin Galaxies Press Release
Link: Twin Galaxies Website

Have you ever wished you could be paid to play games?  Robert Mruczek, Chief Referee of Twin Galaxies, has promised cash bounties for proof of high scores on a set of classic (and a few modern) video games, including several games among the NES, Super NES, and N64 systems.  The bounties range from $25 to $200 each, with all of them totalling for a whopping $3000 to be paid by the end of the year.  In addition to being paid for their skills, the winners may also be recognized as world record holder for their particular games.  Twin Galaxies is, after all, the leading authority and maintainer of video game world records.

Nintendo games on the bounty list include Super Mario 64, Diddy Kong Racing, Blaster Master, Metal Gear, and Zombies Ate My Neighbors, among others.  Hit the link above to find a complete list of the bounties and the official rules.  Here's the official press release from Twin Galaxies:

Quote
Video Game Player Promises Thousands of Dollars in Prize Monies to Players
Who Break Selected Video Game World Records

FAIRFIELD, IOWA - January 17, 2004 - Cash prizes have been promised for top
high-scores achieved during the course of the new year 2004. And the money
is coming straight out of Robert Mruczek's own pocket - nearly $3,000
dollars in bounties. Mruczek, who is most well known as Twin Galaxies' Chief
Referee, says: "I want to prime the pump and get players tackling old world
records that have not been beat in some time. I think its good for the
hobby."

What is a bounty? It is a cash reward promised to individuals who attain an
established goal in a designated time frame. In this case, the goals are
high score thresholds designated by Mruczek on many different titles on the
NES, SNES, Magnavox 2, Dreamcast, Playstation, PS2, X-Box, N-64,
Colecovision, Atari 2600 and arcade coin-op platforms.

"This is a very significant offer," says Walter Day, Twin Galaxies' Chief
Scorekeeper and editor of the forthcoming Twin Galaxies' Official Video Game
& Pinball Book of World Records. "Robert Mruczek is a devoted supporter of
the gaming hobby. In fact, he is one of the hobby's leaders in civic
activism, willing to put the needs of the hobby ahead of his own gain. The
only other player who has put his own money up to encourage competitive
playing was Billy Mitchell, who issued a famous poster in 1999 that offered
thousands of dollars in prizes for high scores on dozens of classic arcade
games from the early 1980s." To see Mruczek's list of bounties, go to
http://www.twingalaxies.com.

 

[Mario]

Quote
Bounty (27) - 'Simpsons Road Rage' for Microsoft Xbox
Challenge Difficulty Rating - 2 (easy)
Challenge - meet or exceed $25,000 on any of the six (6) course-based events; prize awarded once to only the first player to accomplish this challenge. To be perfectly clear, as with the '18 Wheeler' challenge (14), only one (1) bounty prize of $50.00 is potentially payable here
Special Rules and Settings - any driver/vehicle may be selected
Bounty Prize - $50.00
Bounty Payable Date - ninety (90) days after mailing postmark of successful accomplishment

I've already done this one!! Except it was in the PS2 version.. and that says the Xbox version..

This is a great idea, if only there were... better games. And Super Monkey Ball is perfect for this type of thing, argh. Good idea, bad selection of games (in my opinion). Maybe if there was a few GCN games i would attempt at least something.. not that i would send it in, just for fun.

[ralph98201]

Mario Kart... the list needs Kart for '64.

[joshnickerson]

Bounty (9) - 'Mario 64' for the Nintendo 64
Challenge Difficulty Rating - 1 (easiest)
Challenge - fastest completion of 120 stars in the same continuous game
Special Rules and Settings - player must start from a new file; player may acquire stars in any order they choose
Bounty Prize - $25.00
Bounty Payable Date - Jan 31st, 2005

Uh, how can they time that? The game has no clock to keep track of how long you've played as far as I know... are you supposed to tape your entire play time or something?

[KDR_11k]

Of course. How else would they verify it?

[Jonnyboy117]

Yes, you have to video the entire thing.  It says so in the rules.

Mario Kart 64 (as well as the original) would not be a great choice for one of these bounties.  There are way too many bugs and trick shortcuts.  I used to love a website with Mario Kart tricks, hosted by a guy named David Wonn.  It might still be around, I dunno.  His crowning achievement was a best time of four seconds on one track.  That's for all three laps combined.  Suffice it to say that Mario Kart 64 is a very broken game.