Gamertell

This past February 1982, Twin Galaxies started releasing to the public its list of new high scores achieved on arcade games. If you are lucky, you can find the complete list of updated scores posted at your favorite arcade.

Otherwise. here are the latest entries in the Twin Galaxies National Scoreboard for this year…

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Titanstrike online is proud to host this year’s Miss Video Game 2008 (MVG 2008) online tournament.

I recently caught up with Francisco Diaz the co-founder of TitanStrike to find out what it is about all about.

“Titanstrike, a platform for gamers that seeks to blend the best of social networking with cutting edge gaming services including a tournament engine that allows sponsors to create and manage events,” Diaz explained. “The Titanstrike platform also has flash forums, gamer profiles and instant chat to power interaction within the community. The goal of Titanstrike is to provide an ideal environment for online competitions so the Miss Video Game event was a natural fit…

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Professional gaming buffs take note: the Championship Gaming Series (CGS) has just announced its list of North American franchise players. Franchise players are the cream of the proverbial crop in the CGS world - above the other tiers of players on CGS teams. The franchise players were selected to represent each team - from San Francisco Optx, Chicago Chimera, Los Angeles compLexity, Carolina Core, New York 3D, and Dallas Venom; before the rosters become filled with pros drafted in the March 7-9, 2008 CGS combine and draft.

Looking at the announced players, it looks like competition will be quite stiff in the 2008 season. Read on to check out player bios from the press release.

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Blizzard Entertainment recently announced its 2008 World of Warcraft Arena Tournament with more than $200,000 in cash prizes.

The competition is based on World of Warcraft‘s arena system except separated from the live realms to provide a more secluded area for professional-level players to compete with their individual skills and strategy. Consisting of two rounds of regional qualifiers, the winners of the regionals will go on to compete in the live regional finals and a chance to compete in the global world championship.

By being separated, those who compete in the standard arena for…

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The Boston Herald online recently published a tease of the upcoming gamer’s edition of Guinness World Records, due out in March. The book will be the very first all-gaming edition, and will launch on March 11, 2008.

Among the morsels mentioned in the article was the heated competition between Steve Wiebe and Billy Mitchell for the top Donkey Kong score (the drama that was so perfectly examined in the recent film The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters), along with some of the more impressive sales records (the original NES Super Mario Bros. and Halo 3 are in that category). 

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Next Tuesday (January 29, 2008) marks the release of The King of Kong: Fistful of Quarters on DVD. This week’s Cut/Scenes takes a closer look at what many consider to be one of the best videogame related films ever to see mainstream release.

The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters strays far from the usual formula. The film is actually a documentary, focused on the trials and tribulations of nice-guy Steve Wiebe as he challenges the ultimate Donkey Kong score (and Ego) of Billy Mitchell, the self proclaimed king of classic arcade games…

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According to GameDaily, pro game organizer Major League Gaming (MLG) has just signed a contract with “real” sports network ESPN to provide professional gaming coverage. The pact includes a multi year deal to cover MLG competitions on ESPN’s sites, which will include the games-only ESPNVideogames.com. ESPN will launch its own competitive gaming portal (complete with details on past and future events) and will co-sponsor competitions with MLG in the future.

The deal came about due to the increased interest in competitive gaming as a serious sport (the article cites the recent professional poker phenomena’s success as a parallel). High ratings for previously televised tournaments and the exodus of the young male population from TV to videogames were other reasons listed for ESPN’s interest.

From the article:

“The new deal includes ESPN covering MLG’s upcoming season across multiple platforms, including ESPN360.com. ESPN will serve as a primary outlet for news about MLG, providing extensive digital coverage of MLG’s 2008 Pro Circuit Competitions, including exclusive streamed matches, pro player interviews, and scores and stats.”

Overall, it appears that the coverage will be fairly extensive and far-reaching, so perhaps pro gaming will finally enjoy the mainstream status it deserves in North America? This is certainly a big step in the right direction.

Read [GameDaily]

Space Pirates are alive and well in the virtual world as Jon Jacobs, also known as NEVERDIE in the Entropia Universe, has announced the first $5 million virtual treasure hunt in a game named Space Pirates. The event will take place during CES 2008 from the MindArk Entertainment booth at the Las Vegas Convention center and will be exclusive to the Entropia Universe.

On Thursday, January 9, 2008, Space Pirates, will become the launching site for the second annual Massive Multiplayer Online World Championships finals at the MindArk Entertainment booth starting at 12:00 p.m. with Jenna Star Mercury (USA) and Linden Avery (South Africa) battling for land on Planet Calypso which is worth more than $25,000 in U.S. dollars in real cash. The land areas on Planet Calypso will feature hunting and mining taxation rights that provides a monthly real world cash income. NEVERDIE, will provide the live play-by-play commentary of the tournament.

Jacobs, an entrepreneur and independent…

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I ran into Zach Wigal (pictured right) online well after our interview for the “Teen with a Dream” story and was glad to hear his dream came true. He and his friends were finally able to host a Halo tournament through a CyGamZ fundraiser held in November 2007.

He told me GOF was able to raise $500, which was used towards community service projects within his area and that this year he and his friends are hosting another Halo tournament event called Gamers for Giving February 29, 2008.

“I believe last we spoke about GOF happenings I told you we had a small fund raiser for our organization at a LAN center called CyGamZ planned, and that we were still discussing possible dates and things for our big comeback event, Gamers for Giving,” Wigal said when I caught up with him earlier this week. “Well the CyGamZ event has ended, and we’re 100% focused on Gamers for Giving, which is a Halo 3 tournament combined with a 3 day straight PC LAN.”

Wigal plans to “raise at least $7,500 dollars to help families and kids who struggle with Autism,” he explained. “All profits made from the event are…

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Hudson and Microsoft are looking to use the Bomberman LIVE New Year’s Bash Tournament and Sweepstakes to start off 2008 with a kaboom! Xbox 360 owners over 13 who live in the US and have a penchant for blowing stuff up can pick up Bomberman LIVE, the “Bomb-Up Pack 3” add-on and register at Hudson’s official website. The registration period for the event started December 31, 2007 and ends January 13, 2008. The tournament and sweepstakes are connected, once you’ve registered for the tournament you automatically are entered into the sweepstakes as well. The top eight in the tournament and 25 random sweepstakes contestants will win various awesome prizes.

The Bomberman LIVE New Year’s Bash Tournament all gets started on January 6, 2008 and ends seven days later on January 13. Players participate over Xbox LIVE in the “Bomb-Up Pack 3” pack’s “Friendly Fire” mode. Blow up as many people as possible and try and earn a place in the top eight on the leaderboard. When the dust has settled, the ultimate bomb master gets 100,000 Microsoft Points. The second place winner gets an Xbox 360 Elite console and third place gets VIP Xbox 360 accessories and two controllers. The four remaining runners-up will each receive 1, 600 Microsoft Points.

If you love Bomberman, but don’t have an Xbox 360, then don’t despair! You can still enter the sweepstakes. Just visit the registration page and register as normal. When the tournament ends, the sweepstakes does too and 25 people will be picked to receive additional goodies. Five winners will get Hudson jackets, ten will receive 1,600 Microsoft Points and ten will get Hudson T-shirts.

Read [Destructoid] Site [Hudson Entertainment]