More than 20 years ago, Steve Sanders laid his joystick down and left the world of competitive gaming. He was not unlike the weary gunslingers of the Old West who saw one too many boys end their quests for fame dissolving into a puddle of pixels.
Much as you might try to change yourself, really you're only running away. No matter how many Montana pig farms Sanders tried to hide on, or law firms, as it were, the young fighter was still inside, longing to hear the sound of a freshly dropped quarter rattling in the guts of a Ms. Pac-Man machine.
Sanders has come to accept this. In December, he and his son, Isaiah, walked into Richie Knucklez Arcade Games in New Jersey and set a new world-record doubles score on Joust.
Their team score was 745,000 points.
"It might've been too late for this year's edition of the Guinness Book of World Records, but we'll definitely be listed next time they print, unless someone else breaks it," Sanders says. "It's the first time a father-son team has ever held a gaming world record."
Sanders would know. If you'll check out my January 2009 feature on Sanders, "On Like Donkey Kong, (it's awesome, I promise), you'll see how Sanders and his cohorts shaped the world of video games and helped blaze the trail so the next generation of talented kids would be able to make a living playing Doom.
Next on the schedule is this summer's International Video Game Hall of Fame induction ceremony in Ottumwa, Iowa. Sanders' plan is to take back his solo Joust title, not resting until all Joust games are the provinces of his bloodline's gaming empire.
"I think it'll be fun," he says.
Fly now, Mr. Sanders.
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