A New York man’s personal mission to smash the Q*Bert world record was achieved over the weekend, after nearly 85 consecutive hours of game-play. His longevity helped push him ahead of a record score that has been in place for close to three decades.
To be exact, 38-year-old George Leutz played the classic video game for 84 hours and 48 minutes. He began his Q*Bert marathon on February 14 and didn’t stop until February 18. He amassed a record-breaking score of 37,163,080 points in a single-quarter game.
According to UPROXX , Leutz achieved what many video game enthusiasts thought to be an impossible feat. While many other classic arcade game scores have been toppled throughout the last several decades, Rob Gerhardt’s record Q*Bert score of 33,273,520 points held strong for nearly 30 years.
Dedicated Q*Bert gamers have attempted to break the record before, but never quite reached Gerhardt’s impressive score. A 2012 effort by Florida resident Ed Heemskerk led to a record in Q*Bert game-play time after his marathon bid ran an epic 68.5 minutes, but he failed to achieve the highest score.
The Hunterdon County Democrat writes that George Leutz now reigns supreme over his fellow Q*Bert aficionados, breaking both records in a single marathon session. He has long sought the achievement with last weekend marking his fifth attempt.
Guinness World Record rules allow for five minutes of rest for every hour of game-play, so Leutz was able to take short naps during his four day stretch. Accordingly, his choice of Q*Bert from among the many classic arcade games still being played was a practical one:
“It’s just one control, no buttons, so I can eat while I play. So at break time I didn’t have to spend anytime eating. Also it happens to be the game that I’m good at from when I was a kid.”
Leutz celebrated his record-breaking Q*Bert session with a much easier marathon: 12 straight hours of well-deserved sleep.