Guinness Publishing Pinball Records

[Jess]

Not long after it was announced the Guinness World Records would introduce Lara Croft the record for "Most Successful Human Videogame Heroine," Twin Galaxies has revealed the definitive database of record keeping would be introducing the highest scores in 10 different pinball games in its upcoming 2007 edition.
Guiness World Records 2007 will include the high scores as verified by Assistant Editor Walter Day from Kings & Queens (Gottlieb, 1965), Lawman (Gottlieb, 1971), Wizard (Bally, 1975), Captain Fantastic (Bally, 1977), Taxi (Williams, 1988), The Addams Family (Midway, 1992), Creature from the Black Lagoon (Midway, 1992), Twilight Zone (Midway, 1993), Scared Stiff (Midway, 1996), and South Park (Sega, 1999).

Though Twin Galaxies obviously has plenty of other recorded high scores, in order to enter the Guinness World Records book, new material was needed under the ideal conditions of a gameplay from machines deemed in perfection condition and in uniform settings. Wear and tear on machines could be seen as a possible uncontrollable variable.

Day explains why the records are so meticulous. "No two pinball machines are exactly alike. Because of the large number of moving parts involved, games can have minor differences even when they are fresh off the assembly line," he says. "And after they accumulate wear and tear from being played for a while, they become even more different from each other, making it difficult to compare scores from one machine to the next."