High Score

High score of the Commodore 64 game Great Giana Sisters. High score of the Commodore 64 game Great Giana Sisters.

The high score of a video game, arcade game, or computer game is usually the highest logged point value. Many times a game will have a list of several high scores, called the high score list.

History

The high score first achieved cultural significance with the rise in popularity of pinball machines. Players who achieve a high score are often greeted with a congratulatory message and are able to enter their initials or name into the machine. Their score and name will remain there until someone "knocks" them off the high score list by achieving a higher score. This functioning has caused high scores of popular games to carry a certain amount of "bragging rights" as it is proof of excellence in a game.

The high score has a close association to the "free game." When in an arcade, many games will offer a player a free chance at another game if they achieve a high score. This has declined in popularity in recent years, as players are often allowed to play for as long as they can without losing, but not given free games even if they achieve a high score.

The first video game to have a high score was Space Invaders (1978), but what made it take off was the personalized highscores introduced in Asteroids (1979). This meant that players now could compete with each other over who had the highest score.

The popularity of the high score has made it nearly ubiquitous among modern video games. In fact, the high score has become a defining feature of many games. Magazines such as Nintendo Power and Sega Visions would often publish high scores submitted by their readers. Often the performance would have to be videotaped to verify the achievement. The high score also exists in online games in various forms.

Many games include default "high scores" that do not actually represent real players, but are displayed whenever the machine's memory is reset, often with generic initials such as "AAA." These scores often represent certain levels of achievement for a player to aspire to. As a player still needs to knock these off in order to get his own score and initials listed, the default high scores ensure that there is always something for players to compete with (and keep them putting in quarters). Many computer games also have default high scores built in, sometimes attributed to fictitious entities (e.g. Commander Keen) or to members of the game's development team.

Some players as a joke will relinquish their bragging rights to enter a fake name or initials with their high score, particularly on arcade games in public places. This can be seen as juvenile humor; even on games that only allow initials, it is not uncommon to see "ASS", "SEX", or other profane or provocative three letter combinations.

Internet influence

While on old games the high score would only be visible on one particular machine, the spread of the Internet has made it possible to compete with the rest of the world. A lot of modern games have the ability to post your high score to a central webpage. Online multiplayer games, especially first person shooters, real time strategies, and RPGs often have ranking systems. These new high score lists and ranking systems often are more complex than conventional high score lists. Some are based on tournaments, while others track game servers continuously, keeping statistics for all players.

High score in culture

The high score's prominence in video game culture, and even mainstream society has led to various pieces of art and entertainment. There is a cartoon titled High Score. There is also a book entitled High Score!: The Illustrated History of Electronic Games.

In an episode of the TV series Seinfeld, George is astonished to find that the Frogger machine he played as a teen still retains his high score. With the owners wanting to get rid of it, George decides to keep the machine for posterity, the catch being that he has to move the game without unplugging it, because if he unplugs the game the high score will be erased. Unfortunately the machine is destroyed when George unsuccessfully tries to move it across the street in a spoof of the gameplay.

External links

Many websites have been created so that players of video games can compete against each other for fast times and high scores. Some of these are listed below.

General speedrun, time attack and high-score sites
Game-specific sites
Machinima archives
Other information

Home | Up