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D.Yancey

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Everything posted by D.Yancey

  1. Activision Video Game Patches For Sale
  2. In the early 1980, when Activision was at its peak, 1000's of people were playing Dragster every day. Many of them were seriously competing to get a record score. Few games even existed at the time. When Activision stopped tracking scores and giving away patches and certificates, how many people do you think continued to play Dragster? Certainly not very many -- not nearly the number of serious player as there were previously. They moved on to other games and newer consoles and computers. Additionally, 2 of the 3 people who originally scored 5.51 on Dragster were disqualified by Activision. Their names were never printed in the newsletter again, after that one time.
  3. That is NOT possible. If you get higher times like 10.5x or 20.5x etc, the last digit in the times changes. It is no longer 1,4 and 7. Also, do you think that Activision would have accepted a photo for a world record with the left part of the screen missing. NO. They were very particular about world record photos.
  4. Here is a Youtube video of the official story of Todd's Dragster record as told by Todd himself. This is a NEW video today. Todd released the video on September 1, 2017 for the 35th anniversary of the world record.
  5. Todd's Skiing game 3b score of 27.51 is not possible (without using the cheat) in my opinion. I am in 5th place on this one with a score of 27.97. Todd's Starmaster game 1b (Ensign) score of 3,985 is not possible in my opinion. I have the 2nd place score at 3,972 which would be extremely difficult to beat by more than a couple of points. Someone mentioned Grand Prix game 1b score of 29.47. I have a 2nd place score submission on that one of 29.61. Several have tied me since that time. I'm not sure if I contest that score or not. I never tried to improve my score any further, so this one may be OK. I think that may be the only Activision scores by Todd that I disagree with.
  6. If anyone would like an Activision patch for their collection, feel free to stop by. Activision Patches for Sale
  7. Yeah he can still play Dragster. Recently I've seen him get 5.64, 5.61, even 5.57. But can he still get a better time than that today? Maybe. But it's more like aging reflexes, eyesight, timing, and patience & persistence to persevere until the score is achieved yet again. And for what reason? To appease a bunch of people whom he's never met? I don't think most people understand the amount of practice, time, and work that it takes to get a score of that magnitude. Does this even deserve his attention?
  8. No, because I do not know if another rom exists or not. That's only one possibility to explain the implausibility of the score. It could also be hardware differences, emulation differences, or even something no one has ever even conceived yet. Todd had a photo of the original 5.51 game done at his home that was sent to Activision. Afterwards, Activision contacted Guinness and they also accepted the score. Todd repeated the score 2 other times at Activision shows in public. But the record was already verified by Activison and Guinness, so no more photos were taken of the later scores that I know of.
  9. Dragster is reset while playing by moving the joystick to the right. I really doubt any type of frying was ever attempted especially while playing at the electronics shows and in front of the Activision people.
  10. 1. If Todd had wanted the explanation public, he would have explained it. I cannot give you further explanation. You will have to ask Todd in private about that. 2. I do not have an explanation for Barnstorming. My opinion is that is was a typo or simply remembered incorrectly. I am glad it was cleared up and so is Todd. The score of 32.04 was not possible. It was changed to 32.74, which I totally believe.
  11. I have photographic evidence of the Stampede rom difference which I am not willing to share. The Starmaster game 4 was proven to have a scoring bug, so if you can get a high enough score, you can see for yourself. I do not have 1st hand evidence of the Sky Jinks rom difference, but I do believe it to be true. That's the best I can give you, for what it's worth.
  12. Thank you for posting this. I also rule nothing out. I was trying to point out too that only one rom has ever been analyzed on the emulator. And we cannot discern if there are subtle differences in roms just by playing the game as you well know. It doesn't even have to be a rare rom. It could actually be quite common.
  13. I don't think any of his scores have been said to be lies. Any of them that have been previously disqualified as world records in the TG database have been rom variations of early non-public releases by Activision or maybe even typos by Activision -- like Sky Jinks, Stampede, Barnstorming, and Starmaster game 4. I was the one who challenged Todd's scores on Stampede, Starmaster game 4, and Sky Jinks. (Starmaster game 4 has a bug in the scoring.) I even doubted some of his scores on Decathlon until I saw him play in person. I never doubted those Decathlon scores any longer! Todd has proven to me many times that he is quite honest. We should be looking for ways to support his score rather than ways to pile on more alleged evidence against his score.
  14. 1. I disagree. My statement was that if the rom differed that it would be so subtle as to be undetectable by observation alone. 2. That's not what I said. I said if you think Todd is lying, you'll likely never have enough evidence to change your mind. Please don't make me sorry that I tried to add to the discussion. I've actually been playing Dragster since to 80's and I have a TG verified second place score on Dragster of 5.61. I also know Todd personally and find him to be trustworthy. I thought maybe I was minimally qualified to give an opinion. Peace.
  15. I'm not even suggesting that a "super rare" rom exists. I am suggesting that only ONE ROM has ever been analyzed. A few random cartridge roms could be dumped and the code checked to see if it matches exactly. Try an early release of the game, maybe one that contained the sponge dust cover from the really early days of Activision. Try a very late release too. There could be a difference. Maybe since Activision determined that the best possible score had been reached on the game, they created a subtly different rom to create more buzz about the title among the avid gamers in the community of the day. If you believe in Todd's integrity, then we have all the evidence that we need. For those that do not believe in Todd's integrity, will they ever have enough evidence?
  16. As far as I know, only anecdotal evidence, which I have no reason to doubt.
  17. May I suggest that history may be repeating itself here. Activision originally created a computer simulation of a perfect run in Dragster to be 5.54. Along came Todd and broke that time. Activision scrutinized his performance. They even required him to repeat his performance. Activision found Todd's 5.51 to be legitimate. Activision even contacted Guinness and had the score submitted and verified by Guinness. Now 35 years later, it's happening all over again. May I ask exactly what is it that makes the data of today's analysts more reliable than that of the original programmers of the game at Activision? Why should any of us believe that they somehow know more than David Crane and the Activision team? May I suggest that an effort be made to look for ways to PROVE Todd's score rather than to discredit his score and his integrity. Maybe there could be more then one rom version of the game that was publically released. If there were, the differences would be so subtle as to be undetectable by the human eye. Maybe there could be a nuance at the start of the timer similar to the glitch in Night Driver that allows a perfect score of 81 vs a perfect score of 80. Maybe the distance required to finish the race could be ever so slightly less. Maybe the tach could allow an ever so slight bit of extra rpm's before the engine blows. There ae endless possibilities.
  18. Bump. Added a couple of new patches. Starting a rudimentary blog with hints on Activision High Scores at the website. http://www.ActivisionPatches.com
  19. This issue with the "perfect shifting" example on YouTube is that it allows the Dragster to start moving before the countdown is completed. You can see that the dragster moves about an inch or more off of the starting line before the counter reaches zero. That's how the times in the 4.xx seconds are achieved on this hacked rom. Thomas' version looks different and does not do that, making his version much more accurate. Todd's Dragster score is NOT fake. I've seen him get 5.57. I've gotten 5.61 many times and one day will get a 5.57. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=54&v=A7W19PDpIHw
  20. Thanks for looking. More pathces for sale.
  21. Yes, Rom Hunter knows that. And I make it very clear in all of my listings. It's not a secret. People here on Atari Age suggested that I include the scanned letters to make it seem more real when they received a patch from me. I though it was a great idea, so I started doing it. Rom Hunter is not looking to buy a real copy of the letter from me. He simply wanted to know if I had a BETTER scan than what exists on AtairMania. Their scan is not a very good scan of that one particular letter. Cheers.
  22. You can take a look at my Stampede strategy video on YouTube to get an idea of how to easily break 3k.
  23. I'm looking for one, but no luck yet. Sorry Rom.
  24. Sorry, that is the letter for one million points, which I already have. We are all looking for the letter for one hundred thousand points. Who has one? Anyone?
  25. ​Some of my items that were out of stock are now back in stock. Thanks for looking.
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