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''.

Background

Safran was born on August 19, 1967, to Mitch and Frann Safran in Trenton, New Jersey. 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.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."

Death

Safran graduated from Cherry Hill High School West in 1985 and moved to an apartment in Los Angeles, California, in 1987. 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

Further reading

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1967 births
1989 deaths
20th-century American people
American esports players
Accidental deaths in California
Accidental deaths from falls
Cherry Hill High School West alumni
People from Los Angeles
People from Cherry Hill, New Jersey

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