Man Breaks World Record by Playing Q*Bert for 84 Hours

You'll never get those 84 hours back.

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Q*Bert

The 38-year-old Manhattan resident, George Leutz, has broken a world record by playing the iconic video game Q*bert for 84 hours and 48 minutes on a single credit. The accomplishment — if that’s the right term — took place at Richie Knucklez Arcade Games, in Hunterdon, New Jersey.

According to an article by the Hunterdon County Democrat and published on NJ.com, Leutz, who was citing the Guinness World Record rules, claims he was able to take five minutes of rest for every hour of play. But because pausing the game wasn’t an option, the way to keep the game going was by amassing enough “lives” so it didn’t end during the downtime. In the arcade classic, the orange character Q*bert must change cubes in a pyramid to a specific color by jumping on them, while staying clear of enemies.

(LIST: All-TIME 100 Video Games)

Out of the 50 games to choose from at Knucklez’s arcade, Leutz opted for Q*bert because “it’s just one control, no buttons, so I can eat while I play. So at break time I didn’t have to spend anytime eating. Also it happens to be the game that I’m good at from when I was a kid.” His high score of 37,163,080 points beats a player called Rob Gerhardt, whose score of 33,273,520 has reportedly stood for nearly three decades.

It was fifth time lucky for Leutz, who finally broke the record of 68.5 hours set by Ed Heemskerk of Florida. As for the new record-holder, Leutz’s tactic was to play for nine hours straight, followed by a 45-minute nap, which he repeated over the period of Feb. 14-18. When it was finally game over, Leutz slept on the arcade owner’s couch for 12 hours.

TIME: Video Games Go Crunch!