Scott Safran

Scott Safran (August 19, 1967 – March 27, 1989) was an American video gamer noted for setting the world-record score, which stood for 27 years, on the arcade game Asteroids.

Scott Safran
Scott Safran about to beat the Asteroids world record
Personal information
Born	(1967-08-19)August 19, 1967 Trenton, New Jersey, U.S.
Died	March 27, 1989(1989-03-27) (aged 21) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Career information
Games	Asteroids
Career highlights and awards
Asteroids World Record (27 years)

Background

Safran was born on August 19, 1967, to Mitch and Frann Safran in Trenton, New Jersey.^[1] As a teenager, he became interested in baseball, guitars, the Grateful Dead, and eventually arcade games. He was determined to break a world record on an arcade game, finally settling on Asteroids. He practiced throughout 1981 and for much of 1982, and was eventually able to carry a single game for nearly 20 hours at his local 7-Eleven convenience store, his first attempt to beat the existing world record. On November 13, 1982, at All-American Billiard Co. in Newtown, Pennsylvania, he again attempted to set a new world record for a single game of Asteroids and he succeeded. The game lasted approximately 60 hours. His final score was 41,336,440.^[2]

Death

Safran graduated from Cherry Hill High School West in 1985 and moved to an apartment in Los Angeles, California, in 1987.^[2] On March 27, 1989, Safran died after falling three stories while trying to rescue his cat, Samson, from a ledge of his apartment building.

Unaware of Safran's death, Walter Day, an arcade referee who led Twin Galaxies, the official arcade scoreboard of the world, operating in Fairfield, Iowa, attempted to track down Safran in 1998 following the re-release of Asteroids. Day could not locate Safran, and asked newspapers and radio stations to ask people to help find him. Day personally offered a thousand dollars to whoever could locate Safran. Eventually, in April 2002, Day made contact with Safran's sister, Marci, and learned of Safran's death. In May 2002, a posthumous award ceremony was held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to honor him, and family members received the award on his behalf.

References

1. "Missing Asteroids Champion To Receive Posthumous Award". Twin Galaxies. March 14, 2002. Archived from the original on March 29, 2007.
2. Staff. "After 20 years, master gamester finally honored", The Philadelphia Inquirer, April 28, 2002. Accessed October 29, 2018. "Way back in 1982, when Pac-Man Fever hit the airwaves and teenage boys knew little of carpal tunnel syndrome, the challenging video game Asteroids ruled the arcades - and Scott Safran was king. The 15-year-old from Cherry Hill spent hours smashing boulders and racking up spaceships on a console at the local 7-Eleven store.... Upon graduating from Cherry Hill High School West, Safran moved to California to attend Pierce Community College."

Further reading

• Fennec Fox (March 19, 2002). "Missing 'Asteroids' champ found dead in California". CNN. Retrieved July 22, 2011.
• Gersh Kuntzman (April 22, 2002). "The Disappearing Asteroids Ace". Newsweek. Retrieved July 22, 2011.
• Chris Gray (April 28, 2002). "After 20 years, master gamester finally honored". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Archived from the original on June 9, 2012. Retrieved July 22, 2011.