Eastern Iowa man wins 20 million points, world record playing Japanese arcade game in his kitchen

Jordan Dorrington, of Cedar Rapids, plays Galaga, a Japanese card game, in his kitchen. He...
Jordan Dorrington, of Cedar Rapids, plays Galaga, a Japanese card game, in his kitchen. He holds a world record. (KCRG)(KCRG)
Published: Feb. 19, 2020 at 9:06 AM CST
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A Cedar Rapids man is making a name for himself in competitive video gaming.

Not many people have a full-size Galaga arcade game in their kitchen but Jordan Dorrington at Cedar Rapids does.

"My wife decided that she would never see me again if it is in the basement so we had to put it right here in the kitchen so she could sit on the couch and watch TV while I try to break a record," he said.

Galaga is a Japanese arcade game released 1981 and let's just say Dorrington is addicted to it.

Jordan recently broke the Galaga world record with 20,980,450.

And yes he did it in his kitchen. To break the world you have an incredible amount of skill, patience, and endurance.

It is a 14-hour game to break that world record.

"The big question people ask me is 'can you take a break during that time. Believe it or not, you can," he said. "In Galaga, you can park the ship and take a break for about 10 minutes. Go to the restroom take a drink whatever."

You can say Jordan is a star in the arcade world. They flew him over to Australia last year to play the best in the world in the Battle for the Hemisphere.

"Due to Facebook, a lot more attention is being put on arcade games because people can connect from around the world now and share strategies and watch other people play," Jordan said.

Before Jordan had his own Galaga game in his kitchen, he honed his skills at Quarter Barrel in downtown Cedar Rapids where he still plays and is a local legend.

"I will go down to the Quarter barrel and I will stream down there," he said. "People will approach me every once in a while and say 'are you any good at this game?' I will be like 'yeah I'm one of the best'. So then they will take a picture with me and talk to me."

There was even a TV crew filming Jordan at Quarter Barrel, hoping to do a documentary on Netflix.

Only 5 people in the world have won an award for being in a 6 million point club.