A classic video game from 1981 has a new world record holder by a player who did not even live to see the game released in arcades.
On Friday, Robbie Lakeman became the fifth person to break the all-time Donkey Kong arcade machine scoring record. He edged out New York plastic surgeon Hank “Dr. Kong” Chen’s previous record of 1,138,600 points by earning 1,141,800.
The previous record was set back in 2011, when Chen first took the title from The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters rivals Steve Wiebe and Billy Mitchell. He would later reclaim the title after Wiebe and Mitchell earned new high scores, and went on to improve his score three more times before his final total in Nov 2012.
Lakeman’s world record effort took over three hours to complete, and upon finishing the game, he personally called Chen to break the news.
Little is currently known about Lakeman. According to his PocketFives and WordPress account, updated through 2011, he was a 27-year-old Sport Management graduate student living in New Hampshire.
Donkey Kong’s latest record king began consistently playing the iconic game two and a half years ago after a bar bet was placed on earning a top 20 score.
The record has yet to be officially verified, but Donkey Blog is already declaring Lakeman the new title holder.
