In an effort to set a world gaming record and to raise money for local schools, 25-year-old Brandon Erickson of Portland, Oregon played a single game of Atari's Star Wars from 8:00am May 16 until 2:10pm May 18 at the famous Ground Kontrol Classic Arcade. And he did it on a single quarter.
"I think I definitely got my money's worth," jokes Erickson. The game set a record for the longest non-stop play of an arcade game in history. "Star Wars only let's you rest for about 7 seconds between levels. The gameplay is absolutely relentless. If I had left the controls for even 30 seconds, it would have been over. It's the most mentally and physically exhausting thing I've ever done."
Exhaustion wasn't the only challenge Erickson had to contend with. After nearly 35 hours of grueling gameplay, the controls started malfunctioning. "I guess all that continuous play took a toll, and the flight controls just started to break down. I thought the game was over." But Erickson pushed ahead, adapting his gameplay as he went along. "I didn't think I'd last another 20 minutes, let alone another 20 hours." When he finally succumbed to enemy fire in the Death Star trench, he had been playing continuously for over 54 hours and 10 minutes, the longest non-stop arcade marathon since Brooklyn's Robert Mruczek played the same title for 49-1/2 hours in 1984.
In addition to setting an arcade marathon time record, and blowing up the Death Star over 1500 times, Erickson's game raised more than $800 for the Portland Schools Foundation.
