FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

APOLLO AMUSEMENTS TO HOST CLASSIC ARCADE GAMES WORLD RECORD COMPETITION: RECORDS TO BE
SUBMITTED TO GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS BOOK  
“The Toughest Gun in Dodge City” tournament is scheduled for April 6th to 9th, 2006 at Apollo Amusements: 820 Andrews Street; Pompano Beach, Florida 33069.  (I-95 and Atlantic exit.)
During the first week of April 2006, several American pop-culture icons will be pushed beyond their limits in south Florida.  Man will compete against man, against machine, and against history…with an 80-year-old retiree thrown in for good measure.
Games including Q*Bert, Ms. Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Galaxian, Dig Dug, Joust, Gorf, and Zookeeper may finally meet their match in “The Toughest Gun in Dodge City” tournament.
For the first time in 21 years, the 2007 Guinness World Records Book will include video game high scores. Any records broken at the “Toughest Gun” competition will be submitted to Guinness World Records by Walter Day, President of Twin Galaxies-the worldwide authority on video game scores, just in time for the their publication deadline.

The chance to be recognized by Guinness World Records will bring many of the most heated rivalries and high score attempts in gaming to the surface.  Here are the biggest match-ups and record attempts:

• Q*Bert, the World Record for which has stood for over 20 years, will be pushed by Kelly Tharp, who will take a 48-hour train ride from Sellersburg, IN to challenge Doris Self of Plantation, FL.  Doris has been working day and night to reclaim the Q*Bert World Record she held in the mid-80s, when she was 58 years old.  Now 80, Doris has been focused on her comeback since her old arcade buddy, Billy Mitchell, bought her a tournament-spec machine so she could train at home…in between Texas Hold ‘Em tournaments, Bridge League, and Craps games at the local casino.

• Abdner Ashman of Queens, NY will be out to prove that his World Record of 921,000 points on Ms. Pac-Man is no fluke.  Mr. Ashman has been recording scores so high that many of his peers need to see them achieved in public in order to believe them.

• Steve Wiebe, a middle school science teacher from Redmond, WA, will attempt to reclaim the record on Donkey Kong, currently held by the Video Game Player of the Century: Billy Mitchell.  Mitchell, a restaurateur and hot sauce manufacturer from Hollywood, FL, became the first player in history to record a perfect score on Pac-Man in 1999.  No one has ever broken 1 million points on Donkey Kong at a public venue, and the classic gaming world is watching this event to see if history will be made. 

• A U.S. vs. U.K. showdown will pit Galaxian’s current World Record holder, Gary Whelan, from Dukinfield, England, against former champion Perry Rodgers of Redmond, WA.  Whelan will be making his first trip to America for this match-up, which has been several years in the making. 

• Dwayne Richard of Grand Prairie, Alberta, will attempt to set a new standard on Dig Dug, taking the record from Donald Hayes in the process.  Hayes, meanwhile, who will be traveling from Windham, NH, hopes to add Joust to his amazing total of 11 classic arcade records. Standing at the Joust next to Donald will be Steve Sanders, an attorney from Kansas City, MO, who will be trying to reclaim one of the many records he held in the early 80s. 

• Todd Rogers, a.k.a. Toddzilla, will drive from his home in Brooksville, FL looking to put an unbeatable number up on Gorf.  Rogers, who earned a living in the early to mid 80s making appearances at video game conventions, has held the Gorf record since it first hit the arcade, but may be best known for his better-than-perfect 5.51 second run on Dragster.

• It will be brother against brother as Shawn and Jason Cram of Lebanon, ME travel south to do battle on Zookeeper.  Shawn currently holds the record, but both he and Jason have been working on a new technique that could generate a score once thought impossible.  Whoever pulls it off will take Zookeeper bragging rights back to their personal arcade, housed in the family’s basement.

Who will be recognized as the best in the world on some of the most popular video games of all time?  The gamers whose 3 initials are atop the high score page at the conclusion of “The Toughest Gun in Dodge City” tournament.