Jeffrey R. Yee

[HatefulGravey]

I just stubbled on some interesting stories about video gaming in the past, and this name came up in my reading, Jeffrey R. Yee.

 

For those that don't know, and I was one of them before my internet time started, Jeffrey R. Yee claimed to get a high score of 6,131,940 points in 1982 I think on Pac Man. The story goes that Reagan even sent him something to make it official. It would seem that if a president sent something to someone like this it could be tracked down and proved. Oh, and he was 8 years old at the time as well.

 

Either way, a score like this would mean getting through the split screen at level 256. Something Mitchell offered 100k for proff of. Seems mister Yee finds himself in the middle of video gaming history as a result of this challenge...

 

Anymore stories like this out there? I know about the Missle Command drama that was also made popular by King of Kong, though I think I'll look more up on that next as I'm in the mood and know little about the facts.

 

What are your thoughts on things like this? Do you believe that the 256th screen of Pac Man can be completed? There seems to be some information out there to suggest its possible and the game would just start over after that screen.

 

Are there more of these stories I should know about it?

Edited August 24, 2010 by HatefulGravey

[VectorGamer]

 

See Yee whining and how he's not even close to being the player he claimed to be

[Chuck D. Head]

 

 

What are your thoughts on things like this? Do you believe that the 256th screen of Pac Man can be completed? There seems to be some information out there to suggest its possible and the game would just start over after that screen.

 

 

Hmmmm....if you could play Pac-man in emulation and get to that point and save then you could practice playing through the garbled screen over and over, but I am sure the timing would be different, even if the pattern is the same. I'm sure it could be done with an insane level of committment. Morgan

[Tempest]

Hmmmm....if you could play Pac-man in emulation and get to that point and save then you could practice playing through the garbled screen over and over, but I am sure the timing would be different, even if the pattern is the same. I'm sure it could be done with an insane level of committment. Morgan

Actually no you can't. There aren't enough dots to clear the screen.

 

Tempest

[HatefulGravey]

Actually no you can't. There aren't enough dots to clear the screen.

 

Tempest

 

That would suggest that the games has a dots per level complete condition, and not a dots left = 0 complete condition. I don't know that for sure. If we knew for sure which way the condition was set we would know for sure if it could be done.

[Tempest]

Actually no you can't. There aren't enough dots to clear the screen.

 

Tempest

 

That would suggest that the games has a dots per level complete condition, and not a dots left = 0 complete condition. I don't know that for sure. If we knew for sure which way the condition was set we would know for sure if it could be done.

It's a dots per level thing. It's a proven fact that the split screen isn't 'winnable'. I think at one point they looked into if you could get x number of dots with each of your remaining lives to reach the total amount of dots needed and complete it that way, but I believe they discovered that you couldn't have enough lives in reserve at that point even with a perfect game.

 

There's a website on this somewhere that has a VERY in-depth explanation.

 

Tempest

[HatefulGravey]

I can understand that for sure. It would seem easier to program with currect tech dots remaining = 0 but that says nothing about what was easiest or more diserable then.

 

On a related side note does anyone know where you can find the patterns drawn out completely? I found this:

 

http://www.djgallagher.com/games/classics/pacman/playguide.php

 

but it isn't the complete level and I have seen the complete levels drawn out somewhere before. I have never actually played with the patterns so I think it would be fun to try to play with them some.

 

And back to the original topic a little more.

 

Can someone also shed light on the Roy Shildt thing for me. I have done some looking but all I can find is how crazy he is. He mentions playing with something on or off all the time but I have found nothing that says what the means yet (I can't get to "games" sites from work so that hurts some too). Why is this all such a big thing? I have read somethings that would seem to prove his point without a question. I have even seen documents signed by TG officials and should help his case and yet don't.

[PAC-MAN PRIME]

 

See Yee whining and how he's not even close to being the player he claimed to be

 

At 5:45 Ricky Mori says, "I never do it for fun anymore."

 

That's kinda sad, really. In that sense I'm glad I never learned any of the patterns, since just winging it keeps the game somewhat unpredictable and challenging. I think my high score is somewhere around a mere 300,000 on a non-Speed chip machine set on 3 lives, and I am happy knowing I got there just by playing the game, not knowing the formulas.

 

 

Regarding Jeffrey Yee, the times he died didn't seem to be caused by the game at all. He just ran right into the ghosts! hehe Kids are funny. They say the darndest things. lol It does make one wonder about his record high score though.

[VectorGamer]

 

See Yee whining and how he's not even close to being the player he claimed to be

 

At 5:45 Ricky Mori says, "I never do it for fun anymore."

 

That's kinda sad, really. In that sense I'm glad I never learned any of the patterns, since just winging it keeps the game somewhat unpredictable and challenging. I think my high score is somewhere around a mere 300,000 on a non-Speed chip machine set on 3 lives, and I am happy knowing I got there just by playing the game, not knowing the formulas.

 

 

My favorite games have predominantly been shooters. I thought that Pac-Man was fun in 1980 but I didn't get caught up in the "fever" like a lot of people did. I was happy with Galaxian, Asteroids and Space Invaders because I didn't have to memorize a pattern - it was just reflexes. When I started hearing kids talk about patterns I said "to heck with that"...

 

 

Regarding Jeffrey Yee, the times he died didn't seem to be caused by the game at all. He just ran right into the ghosts! hehe Kids are funny. They say the darndest things. lol It does make one wonder about his record high score though.

 

He doesn't have a record. If memory serves he claimed to have scored 6 million on Pac-Man which isn't possible. The highest possible score is 3.3 million because of the kill screen. But, Jeffrey would not have known about that...

[PAC-MAN PRIME]

I know what you mean. Shooters are less predictable, but even some of those have patterns of their own (Galaga comes to mind).

 

 

Yeah I kinda figured the Yee kid stretched the truth a little. lol I wonder what he's up to now. Has he made any appearances since? Or ever shown up here at AA?

[voodoo_chilly]

I know what you mean. Shooters are less predictable, but even some of those have patterns of their own (Galaga comes to mind).

 

 

Yeah I kinda figured the Yee kid stretched the truth a little. lol I wonder what he's up to now. Has he made any appearances since? Or ever shown up here at AA?

 

I think someone said he may be an attorney in San Francisco area. Google it and I think there is a pic of him (If it is SAME Jeffrey Yee)

[Nukey Shay]

The score is as bogus as screwdriver boards. There is no way of passing the board without glitching or hacking the game to grant a higher number of lives (which would have rendered such a score invalid for world records anyway).

 

Regarding why it happens, it's explained pretty clearly here. In a nutshell, rolling the level counter causes the fruit icon routine to overshoot (trying to display 256 icons instead of only 7 - corrupting the screen's "tiles" in memory). Because the tiles that would have otherwise held the dots were overwritten with glitched tiles, there's nothing present to decrease the number of dots you have eaten when you travel through those tiles.

[Franciscokid]

I just stubbled on some interesting stories about video gaming in the past, and this name came up in my reading, Jeffrey R. Yee.

 

For those that don't know, and I was one of them before my internet time started, Jeffrey R. Yee claimed to get a high score of 6,131,940 points in 1982 I think on Pac Man. The story goes that Reagan even sent him something to make it official. It would seem that if a president sent something to someone like this it could be tracked down and proved. Oh, and he was 8 years old at the time as well.

 

Either way, a score like this would mean getting through the split screen at level 256. Something Mitchell offered 100k for proff of. Seems mister Yee finds himself in the middle of video gaming history as a result of this challenge...

 

Anymore stories like this out there? I know about the Missle Command drama that was also made popular by King of Kong, though I think I'll look more up on that next as I'm in the mood and know little about the facts.

 

What are your thoughts on things like this? Do you believe that the 256th screen of Pac Man can be completed? There seems to be some information out there to suggest its possible and the game would just start over after that screen.

 

Are there more of these stories I should know about it?

 

Jeffrey Yee and his father Richard admitted years later that they simply put another quarter in and combined the score, this was done in the Pac Man parlor at pier 39 in San Francisco in 1982, after the screen went haywire Yee's Dad put another quarter in, no one saw this and the score was verified based on the time Yee was there at the machine that day.

[SoulBlazer]

 

Jeffrey Yee and his father Richard admitted years later that they simply put another quarter in and combined the score, this was done in the Pac Man parlor at pier 39 in San Francisco in 1982, after the screen went haywire Yee's Dad put another quarter in, no one saw this and the score was verified based on the time Yee was there at the machine that day.

 

Interesting, where did you read/see this at?

Edited September 23, 2010 by SoulBlazer

[Nukey Shay]

 

Oh yeah...I restarted the game...yeah, that's it.

[Franciscokid]

 

Jeffrey Yee and his father Richard admitted years later that they simply put another quarter in and combined the score, this was done in the Pac Man parlor at pier 39 in San Francisco in 1982, after the screen went haywire Yee's Dad put another quarter in, no one saw this and the score was verified based on the time Yee was there at the machine that day.

 

Interesting, where did you read/see this at?

 

 

He told me in 1988, I worked with his girlfriend at Fishermans Wharf. It was no secret here, him and his dad were a couple of characters.

[SoulBlazer]

 

Jeffrey Yee and his father Richard admitted years later that they simply put another quarter in and combined the score, this was done in the Pac Man parlor at pier 39 in San Francisco in 1982, after the screen went haywire Yee's Dad put another quarter in, no one saw this and the score was verified based on the time Yee was there at the machine that day.

 

Interesting, where did you read/see this at?

 

 

He told me in 1988, I worked with his girlfriend at Fishermans Wharf. It was no secret here, him and his dad were a couple of characters.

 

Not that I don't believe you, but I wish there was a print source for this. Maybe some retro site should try to contact them and do a interview? After all these years, it would be fun to read.

[NE146]

That would suggest that the games has a dots per level complete condition, and not a dots left = 0 complete condition. I don't know that for sure. If we knew for sure which way the condition was set we would know for sure if it could be done.

 

As said before, it IS known for sure. The Pacman code has been dissassembled completely to heck and back and pretty much every single thing is known about it at this point.

[HatefulGravey]

Jeffrey Yee and his father Richard admitted years later that they simply put another quarter in and combined the score, this was done in the Pac Man parlor at pier 39 in San Francisco in 1982, after the screen went haywire Yee's Dad put another quarter in, no one saw this and the score was verified based on the time Yee was there at the machine that day.

 

This reminds me of a friend of mine. Every time I talk about getting a new personal best he says something like "I got a million on that game, if you add all the scores I have ever gotten together." Putting another coin in the game should always end your record run. I hate it when people put another coin in a high score game. Buying high scores is for commies.

 

I guess back in the day though, before high score gaming was confirmable at all, and world records were assumed based on what people said, this wasn't such a big deal.

[Karbuncle]

Jeffrey Yee and his father Richard admitted years later that they simply put another quarter in and combined the score, this was done in the Pac Man parlor at pier 39 in San Francisco in 1982, after the screen went haywire Yee's Dad put another quarter in, no one saw this and the score was verified based on the time Yee was there at the machine that day.

 

He told me in 1988, I worked with his girlfriend at Fishermans Wharf. It was no secret here, him and his dad were a couple of characters.

 

$1000 and my left nut says they were both full of BS about that as well. It was clearly a cover story since they had no idea the kill screen even existed when they claimed the original bogus score. What likely happened is Jeff played for several hours and they added up multiple games worth of a single score to claim 6 million. What disgusts me is how the adults and arcade operators at the time actually had the audacity to "verify" the score claim. Of course, this happened back when a LOT of people were claiming bogus high scores. I used to referee for Twin Galaxies, and even some of the more celebrated and respected gaming masters were caught fudging records. I managed to get a lot of the records invalidated after putting up a big fight over them being in the database, but who knows how many others were bogus that went unchallenged...

Edited August 2, 2013 by Karbuncle

[number six]

Billy Mitchell mentioned this specifically at the Panel at Game Warp last week. Apparently there were a lot of people just making up stuff back in the day as it was hard to prove otherwise and people generally just took their word for it. I guess if you could say 'hey i did xxx on this game' and get calls from the president.. well that was too tempting for some people to pass up.

 

It's pretty obvious that many claims made back then turned out to be bogus.

[Mxyzptlk]

Billy Mitchell mentioned this specifically at the Panel at Game Warp last week. Apparently there were a lot of people just making up stuff back in the day as it was hard to prove otherwise and people generally just took their word for it. I guess if you could say 'hey i did xxx on this game' and get calls from the president.. well that was too tempting for some people to pass up.

 

It's pretty obvious that many claims made back then turned out to be bogus.

Kinda like.... Billy Mitchell and good 'ol ToAd Rogers.

[jcleverly]

You know, there is another offender of early pacman high scores. If you read copies of electronic games magazine the guy was always in there with a 14 million point pacman score. I believe his name is David Marsden if santo, Texas. I can double check in my eg issues when I get home.

[VectorGamer]

You know, there is another offender of early pacman high scores. If you read copies of electronic games magazine the guy was always in there with a 14 million point pacman score. I believe his name is David Marsden if santo, Texas. I can double check in my eg issues when I get home.

 

I have it documented here: http://retrocadeweb.webs.com/egmscoreboard.htm

[jcleverly]

 

I have it documented here: http://retrocadeweb.webs.com/egmscoreboard.htm

 

cool. that's way easier than me scanning in my eg mags.... what i'd like to know if anyone has ever contacted these guys since billy mitchell's perfect pac man game and if so, have they admitted to lying about the scores?