Ed Heemskerk, of Florida, was a man on a mission last week. The goal? To break the record for longest single play of an arcade game. The game? The arcade classic "Q*bert." And the amount of time? 68.5 hours.
The session began at 8 a.m. ET Tuesday Feb. 28th and with just one quarter, which he was able to sustain until Friday, March 2, at 4:30 am ET. The entire run was live-streamed, and here are the final few minutes:
Heemskerk’s final score was 30,789,910.
According to the Examiner, Heemskerk’s playing time beats the most talked about and longest standing record, which was previously set in 1985. The point total itself is the third-highest ever recorded for "Q*bert."
The craziest part, which Kotaku also pointed out, is how last week's playthrough is a dry run, in order to beat the aforementioned high score. To reach and surpass 33,273,520 points, Heemskerk estimates he will need 70 or more hours, which is why he is setting aside 80 hours to do it this June.
Matthew Hawkins is an NYC-based game journalist who has also written for EGM, GameSetWatch, Gamasutra, Giant Robot, and numerous others. He also self-publishes his own game culture zine, is part of Attract Mode, and co-hosts The Fangamer Podcast. You can keep tabs on him via Twitter, or his personal home-base, FORT90.com.
