NTSC-J wrote:The Problem with PeriklesIf you've been on these forums the past few years, you've no doubt seen the impressive handiwork of Perikles. The most prolific poster in this site's history, Perikles has laid waste to many a shmup, with over a hundred top-ranked scores in our high score forum. At the same time, he's contributed 1CC difficulty rankings, while also no doubt challenging the vocabulary of anyone who's read his posts. He's also helped out with the Hall of Records thread and has been very gracious and polite through the many correspondences I've had with him.
However, not too long ago,
a short video started circulating, pointing out some rather dodgy dodges from some of his replays. Over the years, there have been rumblings about Perikles, and while I've always given every player here the benefit of the doubt and would prefer to follow
EOJ's philosophy, Perikles's scores have such a presence here and the evidence in this case was enough that looking into the matter is justified and probably long overdue.
And while I'm sure most of you think that being the curator of the Hall of Records means a life of fast cars and faster women, it also means that sometimes I have to ask the hard questions. While I'm still not entirely convinced either way, I'd like to present the following points to consider in regard to the legitimacy of Perikles's scores that have been proposed to me by others as well as what I've discovered on my own.
1. Is it reasonable to clear so many games so quickly?
Probably the most noteworthy thing about Perikles's scores and clears is how quickly he achieves them. In some cases, it's not a tall order (scrubby Batsugun Special clear), but others are remarkably fast (three days for 1-ALL Hacha Mecha Fighter, six days for 1-ALL Tatsujin Ou, etc.). Some games he returns to, and it's hard to know exactly how long he spends on each game, but the clears come fast and they come often, even though many of these games require a lot of planning, which leads to the next point…
2. Why the strange dodges?
Players that are newer to these games tend to think that reflexes are the biggest factor to top-level play, when, as most seasoned players will probably agree, coming up with a strong route is paramount to success, and most twitch dodging is likely the result of a lack of planning, particularly so with older games (i.e., the kind Perikles spends the bulk of his time with). Perikles himself has noted that he's good at memorization and bad at execution, when the opposite seems to be apparent in many of his runs, which often demonstrate some very ballsy, yet unnecessary, maneuvers. Indeed, it's the kind of thing you'd expect of a player that hadn't spent a ton of time with a game, but that usually doesn't lead to fast clears or top scores, hundreds of times, week after week.
3. Are these replays legit?
The short clip posted above highlights some suspicious dodges. Of those, the most noteworthy is probably the Tatsujin Ou clip. It's true he had no bombs and had to do his best in that moment, but dodges that tight, at that speed, are extraordinarily difficult in a game with a hitbox of that size. You might pull that off in a run after hundreds of attempts, but probably not within your first few days with the game.
Others to watch:
Same! Same! Same!DaiohRaiden IIDaisenpu (particularly
this boss)
Batsugun Special (particularly
this dodge)
4. How do you fake a replay?
There are probably a few ways one could cheat using emulators, such as save state abuse. Another way would be playing the game at a slower speed (say, 50%), recording an INP, then replaying the INP at full speed and recording with OBS, etc. Fortunately, this can be verified by looking at the INP, and as luck would have it, Perikles has said that he does sometimes record the INP first and then record the footage later.
I messaged Perikles to ask for some of the INPs for the games mentioned above. He said he didn't have them. I asked for any INP, of the hundreds he's recorded over the years. He said they're all gone after getting a new computer. It's not a crime to delete INPs, but this struck me as especially odd given the care and fastidious nature of his posting, from his diction to his formatting to his generally thorough nature. Plus, INPs are so tiny, I don't know why you wouldn't keep your best ones around just as back-ups; I still have all of mine, some even older than Moglar.*
He then mentioned to me that he used to have a Gradius INP up on Restart Syndrome, but unfortunately, it was gone now because he posted a higher score with a video, which he said caused it to override the old one and its attached INP. I used the Wayback Machine to confirm, and yes, at one time there was an INP uploaded that is now gone. However, Restart Syndrome doesn't work like that—all scores are archived—simply click the date of a score and it'll bring you to a record of every score that user has posted for that game along with any pics, videos, or INPs. Curiously, when I checked his Gradius history, the old score and INP were gone. This means that he would have had to have manually deleted the score and INP.
*Note: Perikles first told me that he didn't have the INPs anymore because he's "been using a new computer for a while now, not having transferred any of the emulators," which sounds like the INPs are still on the old computer, then he said in a later message that he didn't keep the files, so I'm not sure if they were deleted or he just hasn't felt like moving them.5. Why not just meet other local players and prove it?
According to some other players that live near Perikles, their requests to meet up with him and play a few credits have been politely declined.
I don't want to make it seem like this is an open-and-shut case and that Perikles should be run out of town, but all of these factors combined I think warrant consideration and should be shared with the other members here so that you can judge for yourselves. I'd also urge everyone to check out
this video regarding past cases of cheating in DOOM and see how it reflects a number of the issues mentioned here, particularly regarding player movement.
Of course, I did bring the accusations up to Perikles when asking for his INPs, expecting that he'd be eager to prove his innocence considering how much work he's put into all of this, including his frequent requests to me via PM to update the Hall of Records with each new score he posted. Unfortunately, his reply, while polite, was mostly disinterest in providing any evidence and a request to just quietly remove every score. When pressed further, his next and final response was uncharacteristically typo-riddled and somewhat hostile (and eerily reminiscent of the bit about typical cheater responses at the end of the DOOM video, although still not insulting to me or anyone here), and he said he would not try to explain himself and did not wish to discuss the issue further.
Ultimately, we likely will never know if Perikles did in fact manipulate his scores in any way without a confession. If the general consensus here is that he did, I think it would be best to no longer accept his scores, but if he is the real deal like I hope he is, I would be grateful if he would change his mind and provide more solid proof of his scores so that players who doubted him can be reassured that he is as skilled as we were led to believe.