Longest-standing gaming record invalidated by Twin Galaxies

Twin Galaxies’ longest-standing record has been declared impossible and invalidated, the record keeper has confirmed. As a result, player Todd Rogers and his Dragster record have been wiped from the books… alongside every other record Rogers previously held.

Rogers submitted his completion time of 5.51 to Activision’s official newsletter back in 1982, using that publication as proof in his submission to Twin Galaxies in 2001. In April 2017, Guinness World Records named Rogers the world’s longest-standing gaming record holder.

The record was a source of contention at Twin Galaxies, as administrative staff fought over the legitimacy of the claim. Normally, actual proof of an achievement is required for the site rather than a confirmation from a game’s publisher. After a number of users took to Twin Galaxies’ new dispute system to question the record, the site unanimously decided to remove it.

“Based on the complete body of evidence presented in this official dispute thread, Twin Galaxies administrative staff has unanimously decided to remove all of Todd Rogers’ scores as well as ban him from participating in our competitive leaderboards,” Twin Galaxies said of the decision.

“We cannot change Activision’s acknowledgement of this score but we have an overall responsibility for gaming achievements and can no longer accept their historical records as the sole justification for scores set at the time,” the post continued. “We were not there, can not find any of the evidentiary materials they used at the time to confirm the score, and could not find anyone who would on-the-record testify that they directly saw the evidence that was presented to Activision.”

A number of other players have used empirical evidence to confirm a time of 5.51 is impossible. Dragster‘s new fastest time, held by several players, is 5.57 seconds.