WHO ARE YOU PEOPLE?!

For some it's the Wario Burger that keeps them coming back, for others it's the 300+ arcade classics but for Phil and Damian there's only one game. The iconic 1987 shooter R-Type.

Since our Leeds venue opened back in 2019 this dynamic duo has been blessing us with their R- Type skills, their time and dedication not going unrewarded. Phil holds the current undisputed world record for R-Type with a whopping score of 1,563,100, a whole 59,400 points ahead of second Place! Such a proud accomplishment shouldn't go unnoticed! I had the opportunity to speak to our local legends about their journey to the top of the leaderboard and had them spill some of their secrets for any brave challengers who dare to attempt to claim 1st place.

HOW LONG HAVE YOU BOTH KNOWN EACH OTHER? WAS IT R-TYPE THAT BROUGHT YOU TOGETHER?

Damian: "We've known each other since '97, we used to work at the same company together. We've sort of grown up together, through our 20s gaming. We're mad console fans. 90s was N64 and Mario Kart, Goldeneye, all the way into the 2000s gaming. In 2017 we found out about Bury and said “yeah, lets go!”

We went to Bury just looking around going "No way! Do you remember this?" We didn't have anything in our heads but we saw R-Type and both had this this connection thinking "No way it's R-Type!". It'd been about 30 years since we last played it."

ANY TIPS FOR THE LEADERBOARDS?

Phil: “The main one is, it’s doable. You can learn the muscle memory, it’s all about learning patterns, that makes it good because everything is repeatable as long as you can remember where you need to be. It’s not a bullet hell where you sometimes need to rely on an element of luck. There is one problem level however. Level 5 or “The Blob” as we call it. The only non deterministic pattern. It can be kind to you or literally rush you to the bottom of the screen. You’ll be on a make or break run and it’ll smack you. One huge tip is the game’s intensity scales with your powerups. We stay on one speed, stick with the red powerups, we call it “the helix”, and you can do the entire game. If you can make it through level 4 and persevere you can make it though level 5. Obviously there’s then “The Blob” but after that it’s a whole lot less chaotic. It really throws everything at you in level 4. Persevere. Learn the patterns then you can do all 8.”

“THE BLOB”

Level 5's boss “Bellmite” is the #1 run killer. Being locked into a run and being faced with brutal RNG will test the nerves of even the most experienced players. Dont choke on the second loop >;)

WHAT’S THE TRICK TO A HIGH SCORE?

Phil: “On level 3, the iconic level where you fly around a space ship and shoot things off it, on the second loop we noticed that there’s all these guns that you blow up which reappear about 10 seconds later. It turns out that when you kill them they’ll keep reappearing. You can basically just keep strafing them. Kill them, reappear, kill, reappear. You can get another 15k out of just doing that. It’s difficult while you’re being shot at but we’ve nailed being able to do that. As it turns out you’re able to do that on the first loop as well. We timed it and you have to wait 45 seconds before they appear but we worked out you can get another 7k out of those. That’s where you start to get your incremental gains where they all start to add up.”

OPERATION BODICKER

Damian: “There’s these two guys who had the highest scores previously in the Czech Republic and they hosted an official weekend event trying to beat our scores. They said ”the English have robbed us”. They devoted a full weekend with two R-Type cabs, cameras on them for 48 hours for Phil personally cuz they wanted to bring that score home. We were here on my 50th birthday watching the livestream cheering every time they crashed. He got closer and closer then, you can’t make this up, as they were about to close on the Sunday night he was on a good game and they beat it by 25k.”

Phil: “That’s where “Operation Bodicker” came in. Shout out to Jan Orna, Lexa and Wex. At the end of the day if they hadn’t have gotten the record we wouldn’t have been pushing. Jason sent us a Facebook flyer - it was a cartoon picture of Wex and Lexa stood back to back. It said something like “the English took the record off us and we’re gonna get it back”. Jan contacted and told us to say hello to Jason. They had their livestream so obviously we had to get the record back, so I set up a board at home with all of Wex’s scores for each level. I wrote down my scores for the same level and the difference between where I needed to improve. I worked to improve in the levels where I wasn’t doing as well as him. Level 5 and level 6 were the ones that I learned. I played them over and over, all I had to do was get good at those two then play the same for the rest of the game and I could get the record back. That’s the one I currently hold. The competition was great, it’s all in good fun. I log in every few days to see if they’ve pulled one over on me and taken the score back. So far they’ve not touched it!”

THE ONLY WAY IS UP!

Phil’s board of his scores vs Wex’s. It takes real grit and determination to line your performance up against another, identify your shortcomings and grind until you’re number 1!

Watch a video of Phil's current world record score:

Article by D.E, March 2025