Doris Self: The 80 Year-Old Arcade Champion
Two words – video games. What comes to mind?
Photo Credit | Deposit Photos | @mikdam
For most, it’s small children sitting too close to the TV screen, furiously mashing the buttons on their controllers while they scream at virtual reality. Others might think of introverts (“nerds,” if you will) hastily tapping away at their keyboards and taking a quick moment every now and then to push the frames of their glasses back up to their eyes. Doris Self didn’t think any of those things. No, the then-58 year-old woman from South Boston had only one thing in mind: setting records.
Back in 1984, on the first day of July, Doris became the world’s oldest video game champion when she set the world’s highest score of 1,112,300 points in the arcade game Q*bert. Doris held the “oldest video game champion” title until 2003, eventually losing it to 72 year-old John Lawton.
For Doris, setting precedents didn’t start with competitive video games. In 1945, at age 20, Doris became one of the world’s very first airline stewardesses, eventually organizing the first association for ex-stewardesses after leaving that career behind. Doris seemed to have taken a heavy liking to accomplishing the unexpected – she even made a habit of it. For example, she celebrated her 40th birthday by successfully surfing off the coast of Fort Lauderdale.
Photo Credit | Deposit Photo | @72soul
So how did video games come about? Doris lived 10 minutes from a 24-hour arcade. She once said she would wait until 11pm came around before heading in to improve her gaming skills. “Sometimes I wouldn’t get home until seven in the morning,” she was quoted as saying in 2000. “But that’s just the way I am.” Doris liked taking things to the extreme, once breaking a bone in her foot from gaming a bit too hard.
Ten years ago, in 2005, 79-year-old Doris decided to give her old world record another shot. The video game competition was filmed for the documentary King of Kong, and follows Doris as she went on to reclaim her “world’s oldest competitive video gamer” record. Amazing, right? As it turns out, you can never be too old to be the best at something you love.