12 Tear-Jerking Video Game Stories That'll Melt Your Heart

10. The Asteroids Champion Who Was Honoured After His Untimely Death

This is Scott Safran and he was arguably the best Asteroids player in the world. He spent twenty hours at a time playing the game at his local convenience store, eventually breaking the world record with a high score of 41,336,440 at a charity event in 1982. But things on Safran's end went mysteriously quiet. Twin Galaxies, the organisation dedicated to celebrating these achievements, set about tracking him down to award him for his monumental efforts but they never managed to meet him. They found his sister Marci Billow who explained Safran had died seven years after his feat; his cat came dangerously close to the edge of his apartment rooftop and when he went to round him up, Safran fell several stories and plummeted to his death. That was in 2002 and when Twin Galaxies heard the sad news, they decided Safran deserved a posthumous award for his game-playing ability. They gave the certification to his surviving sisters - as a tribute - and they happily accepted the gift, taking it in turns to house it. It was a sweet gesture from Twin Galaxies, celebrating the life of a guy who had tremendous talent. His record lasted over 25 years, eventually being broken in 2010 by a fellow American called John McAllister.