'Donkey Kong' record beaten twice in one day

Before the era of PC and console gaming, players worldwide turned to arcades to get their hands on video games. This era in gaming introduced the high score system and players worldwide do their best to outdo one another in popular games such as “Space Invaders” and “Donkey Kong.” The latter of which just recently got its world record beaten twice in one day.

In a report by Polygon, Wes Copeland scored a whopping 1,170,500 in “Donkey Kong” during the Donkey Kong Online Open 2015 organized by DonkeyKongForum.com. However, in a surprising turn of events, Robbie Lakeman beat the new record six hours later with a score of 1,172,100.

Lakeman was the previous holder of the record after beating Hank Chien at last year’s tournament. If Lakeman’s score gets verified, it will be the highest certified score on “Donkey Kong.”

Twin Galaxies is recognized as the authority when it comes to certification of video gaming records. It reported that Copeland immediately submitted his score upon beating the record, but Lakeman is yet to get his new record certified. This means that, Copeland’s record is currently recognized as the highest score in the game so far. Twin Galaxies reported that the two are the first players to surpass the 1.1 million mark in “Donkey Kong,” with Copeland being the first one to reach the milestone.

"He was able to sacrifice his three extra men on the final barrel screen, essentially making this a near perfect game," Twin Galaxies commented on Copeland’s run.

After beating each other’s respective high scores, the two currently have an unspoken rivalry. The two players’ paths are set to cross once again at an upcoming event organized by Twin Galaxies. The event called, Twin Galaxies Entertainment Festival will be held on Oct. 2-4 at Banning, California. Unlike the previous tournament, the one by Twin Galaxies will include other games aside from “Donkey Kong.”

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