Chicago Gamer Becomes First Woman to Hold Arcade World Record Since 1984

This past weekend on Twitch, Caitlin Oliver of Chicago became the first woman in nearly 30 years to hold an arcade video game world record with an incredible performance in the cult classic, Splatterhouse. The world record attempt was broadcasted via Galloping Ghost Arcade and ended with a score of 493,700, besting the previous world record by more than 120,00 points. It has since been submitted to Twin Galaxies and is currently awaiting verification.

(Click here to watch Caitlin Oliver’s World Record Splatterhouse run)

Twin Galaxies is recognized as an authority on video game world records, particularly those in which a high score is the objective. In 1984, Doris Self claimed the title of “world’s oldest video game champion” when she topped the Twin Galaxies scoreboard with an impressive 1,112,300 points in QBert at the age of 58. While Doris ultimately lost her title of QBert world champion, her legacy lived on as the last woman to lay claim to a Twin Galaxies world record.

In an interview with Patrick Scott Patterson, Oliver explains her connection to Splatterhouse:

“I first got my hands on Splatterhouse as a young girl,” she recalled. “My father picked up a TurboGrafx-16 for me one lucky Christmas and he was always good about letting me pick out a game to rent for the weekend at the local video rental stores. Once I got it home I was totally hooked. Gross monsters, corpses, skeletons; it had it all.”

The purity of high score pursuits in video games is always exciting, and we hope that Caitlin doesn’t stop here. Congratulations!