Berzerk - Berzerk High Score Competition

Berzerk High Score Competition

The world record high score for the Arcade version of Berzerk (fast bullets setting) is 350,340 by Steve Wagner of the USA.

While playing at the "E for All" event in the Los Angeles Convention Center on October 4, 2008, Phil Younger, of Whittier, USA, scored 401,130 points on the slow bullet version of Berzerk, beating the long-standing world record of 178,500 points logged by Ron Bailey of Shelby, USA, on August 30, 1982. With Twin Galaxies founder Walter Day in attendance as the official referee, Younger's gameplay employed the controversial "box pattern," which was described in Chasing Ghosts: Beyond the Arcade, a documentary film screened at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. The film featured Berzerk rivals, Ron Bailey, Chris Ayra and Joel West who argued the relative merits of using the box pattern. Bailey and West were among a select group of video game superstars who posed for a famous LIFE Magazine group photo at Twin Galaxies in Ottumwa, Iowa on November 7, 1982. This group photograph was the subject of Chasing Ghosts, which followed the lives of these gamers and, in part, focused on Bailey and West as they discussed their plans to win back the Berzerk crown from Chris Ayra.