Defender TGTS (arcade): 274K

This is a sample game of Twin Galaxies Tournament Settings, aka 'TGTS'.
The player starts with 5 ships & 5 Smart Bombs, and is rewarded NO bonus ships or bombs. Having to deal with Pods/Swarmers without bombing them is of course the biggest difference from a "normal" game, were you're awarded a new ship & bomb every 10.000 pts. Also, no bonus ships means you have to be very careful not to crash, why playing TGTS is very much about reducing risks and trying to control you environment -- hence why I kill off my humanoids from wave 3: trying to save humanoids and dealing with Mutants is risky. Ideally, taking risks and chances should have no place in a game of TGTS. This is of course quite the opposite from your normal game, where the rush of flying at break-neck speed through a labyrinth of enemies, bullets and debris, firing like crazy, is as much a reward as that next ship & bomb.

Below is the Defender Tournament 'All Time Greatest'. As you can see, Bill Jones more than doubled the 33-year old record in 2008. His was a monster achievement that may very well prove to stand the test of Time. But I think George M Barton's single day tries, when he scored 472K, is at least as impressive. According to the verifying referee (PSP -- Patrick Scott Patterson) he is/was so good he could score 250-300K at will (!).

John McAllister is a well known CAG player with numerous records. He's the reigning Robotron TGTS Champ (Arcade & MAME), and has taken down the early 80's Marathon records on Asteroids and Joust. You can see his Defender 264K TGTS here on YT:    • defender record attempt 1st ten waves  

Allegedly, the 80's records were done with only 3 ships & bombs. This, and the fact that they were all done in contests, makes them very impressive records, too. If we were to re-calculate Gino Yoo's 230K to a 5-ship score, it's the equivalence of 380K. But it's of course harder to string 5 good ships together, than it is 3. (I have problems getting 2 good ships in the same game!).

Note the wave were I have all 4 Pods left at the end (240K): the Baiters materialize at a very comfortable pace -- lots of time to pick them off one at a time. But as soon as I bomb the Pods and let some Swarmers lose, the Baiters immediately pick up pace. This is possibly a way to get to the very high scores: 2500 Baiters x 200 pts = 500K. But wouldn't this be "leeching" -- i.e. not allowed by Twin Galaxies?

Sorry about the sound disturbances -- apparently something interfered with the DV cam.


DEFENDER TGTS (Arcade):

1. 543.950 (108K/ship) Bill Jones Aug 15 2008 (Video)

2. 472.150 (94K/ship) George M Barton Sep 17 2009 (Referee)

3. 264.450 (52K/ship) John P McAllister Dec 31 2008 (DVD)

4. 230.125 (76K/ship) Gino Yoo Jun 30 1985 (Referee)

5. 184.025 (61K/ship) Shane Ducharme Jun 30 1985 (Referee)