Jail Break.

It's been a little too busy here at the Victory Pellet Vault the last couple of weeks but yesterday I was able to put in a couple of hours playing X-Box Live. I decided to check out Game Room on Live and was very happy to see that they had updated the arcade with quite a few new title choices as well as a ton of Activision Atari 2600 titles.

The game that I spent the most time playing yesterday was a little gem released by Konami in 1985 called Jail Break. The premise of the game is that a mass riot has broken out in a Federal prison, the inmates have captured the Warden and are holding him hostage, while they also roam the streets terrorizing its citizens and killing any law official they happen to see.

Jail Break is a side-scrolling game where you are in control of a lone police officer called in to deal with the riot, starting off with merely your service revolver you can obtain two more weapons (a bazooka and tear gas launcher) by saving the civilians you come across, I was stuck with the revolver most of the time as my run and gun method unfortunately didn't lend itself to civilian safety.

This is a pretty tough game as the inmates do not just merely walk towards you, they swarm you while at the same time throwing Molotov cocktails at you and using their own firearms to try to kill you. I wasn't able to get very far in the game during my limited play time but I definitely had a blast playing it. You have to be pretty careful on how fast you advance on the screen as more often than not you'll end up walking into an oncoming bullet.

At one point I shot a barrel with my bazooka and a shirtless Batman appeared...smiled at me and then disappeared. I'm not sure what that was all about but at least it gave me a pretty hardy chuckle.

A little research shows that this game was inspired by John Carpenter's Escape From New York and that there is an Easter egg of sorts...a type that I've not heard of before...if you use your tear gas gun on the first sniper in the window it will reveal a brief glimpse of a pixelated topless female. I am going out on a limb here and saying that Microsoft made sure that was removed before it was released on X-Box live.

Thanks to the Twin Galaxies scoreboard, the high-score holder for Jail Break is Martin Deem with 265,450 points, recorded by referee on February 21st, 1985.

Universal Theme - Nigel Godrich (Scott Pilgrim Original Score)

Billy Mitchell Holds Donkey Kong Record Again!

Billy Mitchell on Aug. 7th cracked the top score on both Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Jr., the very day he was inducted into the International Video Game Hall of Fame. Scoring 1,062, 800 on Donkey Kong and 1,270,900 nabbed Mitchell the ultimate in bragging rights.

Mitchell held the top score over Steve Wiebe which was documented in the King of Kong but lost his place on the throne when Hanks Chien netted 1, 061, 700 in March. Billy apparently stopped playing the game as soon as he bested Chien's high score. Mitchell is quoted as saying about his actions, "Some say I'm being cocky. Some say I'm being lazy. I say, I'm being Billy Mitchell."

I'm not quite sure how I missed this news but a big thanks to Twin Galaxies for the info and photo above, as well as to Kotaku.

I'll try to post some more info from the celebration last week at Ottumwa, it certainly sounds like a very big deal for those of us that love video gaming and its history.

This Looks Familar - Paul Williams

Hail to the King...maybe.

Looks like the fabled Asteroids record score achieved by Scott Safran back in 1982 has been topped. John McAllister of Seattle, Washinton has racked up a score of 41,338,740 points during a 52 hour marathon. 52 hours of continuous play. That just boggles the mind, to be good enough to topple the score much less be good enough to play it for 52 hours without losing all of your ships. A praise worthy talent to be sure.

However the score has still to be confirmed by the referees of Twin Galaxies, they have a pretty strict method of verifying scores. You have to videotaped the entire challenge, that means never shutting off the camera, and you have to record the settings of the game you are playing. Since it was a 52 hour sessions the referee will have to watch the entire 52 hours of play before John is crowned the new King of Asteroids.

Only Solutions - Journey

Walter Day retires.

We here are the Victory Vault are sad to see the legendary Walter Day step down as an official referee of Twin Galaxies, though none of us can fault him for wanting to retire after so many years of hard work. If it wasn't for Mr. Day and his love of Video Games we would never have record of those lofty high-scores some of us gamers shoot for.

He will go on and concentrate on his musical career, a small sampling of that was offered on the great documentary King of Kong.

On a happier note, Day has succeeded in getting Ottumwa nationally accepted as the Video Game Capital of the world. There are plans for a museum of Video Game history to be built there and this August 5th through the 8th there shall be a celebration. With many of the top score holders in a type of 'parade of champions' where one can get autographs and with a little luck, some of Billy Mitchell's hot sauce.