Seinfeld Frogger High Score Finally Beaten

Andy Chalk

One Flag, One Fleet, One Cat
Nov 12, 2002
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Seinfeld Frogger High Score Finally Beaten


A gamer in Westport, Connecticut, has finally broken the world-famous Frogger [http://www.sonypictures.com/tv/shows/seinfeld/] high score, beating George Constanza's old mark by more than 36,000 points.

For the benefit of those unfamiliar with Seinfeld [http://www.amazon.com/Seinfeld-Complete-Jerry/dp/B000VECAEE/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1280785447&sr=1-1], allow me to explain. In a 1998 episode entitled "The Frogger," it is revealed that in his teenage years, Jerry's buddy George set a high score of 860,630 on a Frogger machine in an old restaurant, a mark that was somehow still standing when he rediscovered the unit, still in the same eatery, years later. While George's efforts to preserve the classic arcade stand-up ended in predictable failure, his imaginary score remained, seemingly unassailable. It was, after all, a "few hundred thousand" points higher than the real-life high score.

But no longer! Pat Laffaye of Westport, Connecticut has finally done the impossible, smashing Costanza's old mark by a full 36,350 points. His final score, as verified by Twin Galaxies [http://www.twingalaxies.com/], was 896,980 points, making him the first gamer on record ever to cross the legendary Costanza line.

"The game is elegantly simple at first glance," he told the Westport News [http://www.westport-news.com/ci_14177300]. "Just make a little frog cross a road and a river, what's so hard about that? However, its true difficultly is completely disguised in that there are at least a dozen ways to get killed."

Andy Robin, a Seinfeld writer in the 90s (although he didn't participate in this episode) said Frogger was chosen for the show because one of the other writers had once set a record on a Frogger machine in Queens, New York. He added that it was "pretty cool" that someone would make a point of beating a fictional score from so many years ago.

"It's all relative. I think that most people would call it a pointless, lazy man's use of time," said Robin, a self-described gamer. "It speaks a lot about the George Costanza character. I can really identify with George. For me, playing video games is the noblest, most efficient use of human time."

Not everyone was quite as impressed, however. When told about the new record, Jason Alexander, who portrayed George on the show, said, "Mazel Tov, you beat a fictional character with a fictional score. Give your parents back whatever they paid for your college."

via: Game Culture [http://www.gameculture.com/2010/01/13/mythical-frogger-record-broken-real]


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Onyx Oblivion

Borderlands Addict. Again.
Sep 9, 2008
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Wow...That's a really high score. Considering that the score bar has 5 digits from the screenshot.
 

Jared

The British Paladin
Jul 14, 2009
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Yeah...thats, something. Dont know if I should be impressed or not at this. None the less, congrats are in order I suppoxse
 

Tales of Golden Sun

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Dec 18, 2008
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Andy Chalk said:
Not everyone was quite as impressed, however. When told about the new record, Jason Alexander, who portrayed George on the show, said, "Mazel Tov, you beat a fictional character with a fictional score. Give your parents back whatever they paid for your college."
Brilliant response.
 

Cherry Cola

Your daddy, your Rock'n'Rolla
Jun 26, 2009
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A man defeated a god[footnote]of complaining about stuff[/footnote]!?

I am in shock and awe! Congratulations to this lass who has proven that life his overestimated.
 

saejox

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Mar 4, 2009
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"Mazel Tov, you beat a fictional character with a fictional score. Give your parents back whatever they paid for your college."
such an evil man.
 

obisean

May the Force Be With Me
Feb 3, 2009
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saejox said:
"Mazel Tov, you beat a fictional character with a fictional score. Give your parents back whatever they paid for your college."
such an evil man.
He should be happy to have a fan dedicated enough to remember such a trivial piece of information about a show he loves. Instead, he decides to be a dick about it.
 

JakobBloch

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Apr 7, 2008
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obisean said:
saejox said:
"Mazel Tov, you beat a fictional character with a fictional score. Give your parents back whatever they paid for your college."
such an evil man.
He should be happy to have a fan dedicated enough to remember such a trivial piece of information about a show he loves. Instead, he decides to be a dick about it.
Actually looks to me like he is a bit miffed that his long standing high score was beaten - even if it is fictional.
 

AC Medina

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Oct 12, 2009
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That was a classic, classic Seinfeld episode. And George Costanza should be a hero to all gamers. After all, he's a mostly unemployed loser whose main sources of satisfaction in life come from completely irrelevant accomplishments that nobody else cares about.

Ok, maybe that's just me.
 

dragontiers

The Temporally Displaced
Feb 26, 2009
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The_root_of_all_evil said:
anthony87 said:
Man, Jason Alexander is kind of a wanker.
Yeah, that was pretty uncalled for.
I thought that was especially strange, since it has come out that he considers himself a gamer. Magic: The Gathering, if I remember right, was supposed to be one of his big pastimes. Or was it D&D? Now I can't remember, just that there was a big article about it at one point.
 

Marlow

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Jan 8, 2010
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First Kramer with his racist bulls***, now George with such an arrogant line, it's really hard to enjoy Seinfeld when you know the actors are idiots.

Andy Chalk said:
"...For me, playing video games is the noblest, most efficient use of human time."
That IS a strange thing to say though... .
 

Omikron009

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May 22, 2009
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I think Mr. Alexander is just jealous that his alter ego had his high score beaten. That's also one of my favourite episodes of Seinfeld. One of the characters is a rogue electrician named Slippery Pete, played by the guy who voice Nilsson from mercs!
 

theaceplaya

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Jul 20, 2009
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Jason Alexander should be grateful none of the pictures of his shrinkage made it on the internet.

On a side note of Seinfeld references, I really saw a cashmere sweater with a red dot in a department store once and wondered if it was deliberate or not.
 

SnootyEnglishman

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May 26, 2009
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You spent probably thousand's of dollars in quarters to beat a fictional character's high score. Would you like a cookie
 

TheNumber1Zero

Forgot to Remember
Jul 23, 2009
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SnootyEnglishman said:
You spent probably thousand's of dollars in quarters to beat a fictional character's high score. Would you like a cookie
Dude, give him two cookies.
 

kotorfan04

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Aug 7, 2009
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Maybe Jason Alexander was just being sarcastic, after all print is a bit difficult when it comes to conveying levity. Also never watched Seinfeld much. It is a personnel failing.