Monday Oct 5th: Starbase Needs You Tonight

DWJ

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Starbase Needs You Today

The "Save the Arcades" contest is now entering its final ~30 hours, and it's still a statistical dead heat between the two leading contenders.

The contest ends at midnight EST on Tuesday, Oct 6th. Both the UFO and Starbase supporters have fielded crews of approximately 10-20 people each. (And yes, this is a shameless recruitment effort, because recruitment's going to decide this thing one way or the other.)

I've been tracking the score pretty closely. Starbase came back from an 8M-point deficit on Saturday, and UFO came back from a 16M-point deficit on Sunday afternoon, proving that an extra handful of players on either side can still turn the tide of battle. There will be people on both sides pulling all-nighters tonight (will you be one of them?); it's really that close.

Arcade UFO (Austin, TX) 785,945,850
Starbase (San Rafael, CA) 778,740,475

For those who haven't been following along:

1) Grind out points on this Flash game.
2) It's boring at the early levels, but if your machine doesn't bog down on Flash content and you've got some audiobooks you want to listen to, it's actually not that bad a way to kill an evening. Everyone's playing Marsupataur / boxing glove, and the fine points of strategy should be pretty obvious after the first hour or two of play. (Two 100K point games are just as good as one 200K-point game, and only take about 5 minutes longer to play than a single 200K-point run.)
3) Click "D"onate points after every game.
4) If it asks you to register, use Starbase's publicly-posted email/pass of "[email protected]" / "starbase".
5) Lather, rinse, repeat, until you fall asleep or carpal tunnel syndrome gets the best of you.

If I'd been running the contest, I'd have distributed the $25K proportionally amongst all four candidates, which would have induced players from all four arcades to continue working throughout the contest term, but it's not my contest, and it's not my $25K. Condolences and respect to Star Worlds and Game Galaxy (In addition to the new museum that just opened up, I also have these two places to visit should I ever find myself in the Midwest again...), we're down to the final two. UFO, you'll definitely be getting a roll or two of quarters should I ever find myself in Texas, and whatever happens over the next 30 hours, I'd like to thank your fans in passing for giving my fellow Starbase fans one hell of a fight. Whoever wins, it will be a well-earned victory.

Arcade UFO focuses on the newer style games - sometimes imported directly from Japan - which is pretty damn cool in its own right. But my points have been going to Starbase, not just as an occasional patron, but because Video Bob's done his damnedest to keep the retro vibe alive in NorCal for over 25 years.
More details on the backstory can be found in this thread; he lost a lot of his foot traffic due to road work last year, but he's somehow kept the lights on, and $25K would go a long way towards revitalizing a local institution.
 
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I need some kind of auto fire and I would do much better, my hand cramps from pressing the space bar so much but I will continue Bob really deserves this
 
Pretty amazing comeback - Starbase was down 30M yesterday, came back to within 1-2M of the lead, and UFO's now pulling back ahead with 8 hours to go.

UFO: 895,317,450
Starbase: 890,120,200

"Someday this war's gonna end..."
- Zapocalypse Now
 
Just not quite enough people playing on your side it appears. The numbers are going up pretty much equal.
 
Just not quite enough people playing on your side it appears. The numbers are going up pretty much equal.

Spread stands at around 6M for UFO. The edge is still UFO's (and they're traditionally strong at around this time of day - when Texas gets off work), but it could tip back when California gets off work in a couple of hours.

Anyone who didn't already take the day off work is going to be grinding hard until the contest closes.

Either way, I'll be glad when it's over!
 
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