First ever 'professional video gamer' (Todd Rogers) found to be serial cheater 35 years later, loses WRs, is banned for life

Yeah, he gave some explanation of the Dragster record (involving starting gears or something), and it was never clear whether he might have played it on a non-standard console/setting that might have allowed this. The disassembly (think I read it at tasvideos.org?) showed his time was impossible under proper conditions, but you never know.

The so-called "perfect" Omni-loser solution doesn't even hit 5.54, as Activision simulated. So why trust it at all?

Here is how it all goes down:

What I didn't know was that they had a computer-simulated perfect run! The computer's run was of a 5:54, and Activision wanted to know how I could do better. I told them how I engage the clutch until 0 and then pop the clutch, already in 2nd gear. I max all 4 gears and down-shift before the end, so I don't blow my engine."

You know it's a soft record when it says Arcadia on your shirt.

Don't trust those "statistical models"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfXwSYzEjcE

Ok, then, it's fake. But what about the other 2 guys who hit 5.51, why not DQ them too??

Supporting Rogers' claim that 5.51 is achievable is the fact ... Activision said that two other players had achieved scores of 5.51 in the Spring 1983 edition of its newsletter, which was called Activisions.

Activision encouraged players to photograph their scores send them to the company. If those scores were below six seconds, Activision would reward the players with a cloth Dragster patch and certificate.

David Crane said that Activision was stringent about its own high-score record-keeping. "Activision used photographic evidence, requiring a Polaroid photo of the TV screen," he said. "This was pre-internet, and pre-Photoshop. It would have been very difficult to falsify a Polaroid photo."

Moreover, says Crane, if Rogers were simply making up a high score, it would be highly unlikely that he would invent the number 5.51 out of whole cloth. While the game's timer may appear to count each hundredth of a second, it actually advances 0.03 seconds at a time. Activision's internal tests gave them a theoretical best time of 5.54, and if Rogers was able to best that by a single tick of the clock, it would be 5.51.

"If someone was trying to cheat in some way, he wouldn't have known to claim that exact time," Crane said. "I think you can rest assured that Todd's time was, in fact, the time of his run as played on the actual game system."

Even the Omni-loser skeptic admits it was possible in the 80s:

"Technology in the 80's was open to a few problematic issues," Koziel said. "It's possible that his Atari happened to have a memory block stuck at some value that enabled certain things to happen that could have caused a 5.51."

"We have credible empirical evidence that 5.51 was, in fact, possible," he said. "The question should be, 'Why does the mathematical analysis disagree with the empirical evidence?'"

It seems like the majority of Todd’s scores were verified by Ron Corcoran, a referee who turned out to be a longstanding friend of Todd’s. Ron failed to ever bring any of the video proof to the public, and a previous internal investigation implies that the video evidence Corcoran supposedly collected may never have existed in the first place.

Even worse, Corcoran was arrested for sexual conduct with a minor, prompting Rogers to claim that some of Ron’s VHS tapes that the police seized in the investigation contained his high scores. According to Rogers, the police never returned these tapes. However, calls with the Glendale Police property unit confirmed that all VHS tapes had been returned, and none of the tapes featured Rogers genuinely achieving any record-setting high scores.

Fake Headlie: First ever 'professional video gamer' (Todd Rogers)...

http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/first-person-to-be-a-professional-video-gamer/

Not recognized buy Guinness wrote:

Fake Headlie: First ever 'professional video gamer' (Todd Rogers)...

http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/first-person-to-be-a-professional-video-gamer/

Eh. Looks like that dude was famous for a tournament in 1997 while Todd Rogers has been sponsored by Activision since the early 80s. WSJ regards Todd Rogers as "the world's first professional gamer" in this article:

Dijon Gebremustard wrote:

The fact that his times stood for 35 years and were still able to be challenged certainly makes me rethink how we do recordkeeping in T&F though. What do yall think?

Who cares?

Also, this has no connection or similarity to WRs in track.

I am glad that they exposed a cheater, but what is at stake here? Someone's name on a website indicating that he was the best-ever at Atari Dragster? If it was possible to prove his times were false in 1982 they should have done it back then when somebody cared and it would have mattered to the best people.

The Overexplainer wrote:

Dijon Gebremustard wrote:

The fact that his times stood for 35 years and were still able to be challenged certainly makes me rethink how we do recordkeeping in T&F though. What do yall think?

Who cares?

Also, this has no connection or similarity to WRs in track.

I am glad that they exposed a cheater, but what is at stake here? Someone's name on a website indicating that he was the best-ever at Atari Dragster? If it was possible to prove his times were false in 1982 they should have done it back then when somebody cared and it would have mattered to the best people.

Hi Mike!

In 1981 Rogers was running 5.9x at best. Then he starts working with Salazar in 1982 and all the sudden he's hitting 5.51? I think we can all see what is happening here.

Dang, the video game bans are harsher than WADA.

i bet they are all virgins

Todd's interviews in the book "How To Be Inappropriate" by Daniel Nester also include Todd's claims that:

- He possesses psychic powers he is reluctant to use

- He ran the mile in his school record of 4:08

- Has bench pressed 460 pounds

- He speaks eight different languages (Greek, Japanese, French, Spanish, Russian, German, Swahili, Polish)

- His wrestling record junior year at Argo High School in South Side, Chicago, was 38-0, 155 lbs. weight class

Believe what you will about those claims, but many of his video game claims were provably false which is why they banned him.