The Weirdest Gaming Records

From CVG comes the news that the Guiness Book of World Records, purveyors of ever-spiraling and progressively stupider world records, will apparently include a section for gaming for the first time ever. Woo. Someone count up the most days off work record for playing games and I'm in a close second. Till then, there's a few from that list after the jump below.

Longest prison sentence for playing a video game
In September 2002, the UK's Faiz Chopdat was jailed for four months for playing Tetris on his mobile phone on a plane. Nobody has been jailed longer for playing a video game.



Smallest Dance Dance Revolution Mat
The smallest DDR mat in the world measures 10 cm (4 in) wide by 11.5cm (4.5 in) long and weighs just 20 g (0.7 oz) and is the world's first hand-held dance mat.

First game to inspire a ballet
The first video game to inspire a ballet was Dragon Quest.

First gaming clan to legally bind their players
The success of Counter-Strike inspired the first ever gaming clan to legally bind their players to the clan. The clan, SK Gaming, subsequently became the first clan to have a player bought out of their contract when Team NoA bought Ola "elemeNt" Moum for an undisclosed sum in May 2004.

Most expensive home-made flight simulation cockpit
Australian trucking tycoon Matthew Sheil has spent the last eight years constructing a flight simulator cockpit based around the Boeing 747-400. To date the project has cost $300,000 Australian dollars (£132,000) - it is the most expensive home-made flight simulation cockpit in the world.

Largest virtual beer festival
Once a year the warring factions of the Horde and the Alliance put down their arms and celebrate "Brewfest"; the world's largest virtual beer festival.

Most wins on Wii Sports
Most consecutive one-game wins of Wii Sports Tennis by an individual against multiple players is 21 set by Sta Kostrzewski (France) at Virgin Megastore, Paris, France on 7 November 2007. pictured

Character with the most real life stand-ins
Having been officially portrayed by nine different models, Lara Croft is the video game character with the most real life stand-ins.

Most prolific video game character
Mario has appeared in 116 distinct titles (not including remakes or re-releases) making him the most prolific video game character of all time.

Largest instruction guide for a racing video game
In China and Japan, the first editions of Gran Turismo 4 included a 212-page reference guide. The book feature a car index, an introduction to racing physics and various professional tutorials.

Most collectable items in any platform game
The most collectable items in any platform game is 3,821, held by UK developers Rare for Donkey Kong 64, released in 1999. Players can collect 201 golden banans, 3,500 coloured bananas, 40 banana medals, 20 banana fairies, 40 blueprints, 8 boss keys, 10 battle crowns, 1 Nintendo coin and 1 Rareware coin. There are also many infinite-supply items to gather, such as banana coins, watermelons and headphones.

Most players in an online race
The biggest race ever staged online was in TrackMania, where 132 players took part in a single time trial. In addition to standard races, the game uses a turn-based system to achieve such large numbers of racers.

Smallest game of Tetris
With the aid of a microscope, a game of Tetris was played at the Physics of Complex Systems Department at Vrije University, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, in November 2002 using tetraminoes made of tiny glass spheres. Each block measured just one micrometre (1/1000th of a millimetre) across.

Most uses of the F Word in a game
During a one-hour lunchtime LAN session of Quake III Arena team CVG.co.uk produced 4397 profanities, including several uses of the F word that no one had ever heard of, and received two official complaints from the HR department. They also went through a box of PC mice, after slamming them on the desk every time they got shot with the rail gun on The Longest Yard.