guinness-book-of-world-records
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Mitsubishi Electric to build world's fastest elevator, usher in the death of small talk
Cheer up, ladies, because Mitsubishi Electric is about to make your elevator ride substantially less awkward. Yesterday, the company unveiled plans to construct what it hopes will become the world's fastest lifts, as part of a new project in China. The forthcoming set of elevators will be housed within the still-incomplete Shanghai Tower, where they'll travel between the basement and 119th floor at a speed of 59 feet per second -- a rate that would narrowly eclipse the current Guinness world record, which sits at about 55 feet per second. These elevators, of course, would be significantly slower if they were filled with vomit, which is why Mitsubishi will add active roller guides, vibration-dampening roof covers and pneumatic controls to make the ride a bit easier on the human body. Unfortunately, it'll be a while before these flesh wagons enter the record books, as the Shanghai Tower likely won't be completed until 2014. Willy Wonka, however, has already begun the appeals process. Elevate past the break for more information in the full press release. [Image courtesy of AMC]
Wicked Lasers' S3 Krypton laser is bright enough to blind astronauts (video)
If you ever plan to lead a PowerPoint presentation projected on giant white board orbiting the Earth (we'll leave the logistics of that one up to you) there's only one laser that will get the job done -- Wicked Lasers' S3 Krypton. The Guinness Record-pending laser produces about 86 million lux and can be seen from up to 85 miles away, well beyond the edge of our atmosphere. Of course, at roughly 8,000-times the brightness of the Sun, serious safety precautions are needed when operating the S3. Goggles are a must (and bundled with the handheld laser), while sensors and a microprocessor regulate current to keep the tube of aluminum from overheating in your hands. The top end model is available now for $1,000 but, if blinding astronauts isn't on your agenda, lower-powered versions can be had starting at $300. Check out the video after the break.
Two years of Free Realms: A retrospective
"It's your world." Those three words sum up Free Realms, and it's no coincidence that it's the title song for the game. It's hard to believe that the game is only two years old -- much has changed since launch, and in many ways, this young MMO has been a pioneer in the market. To celebrate Free Realms' second birthday, we're going to take a look back at some highlights. From pet training, to Chatdy's name change, to its Guinness World Record, the game has experienced many milestones. Read on for a retrospective as well as a peek at the future.
Microsoft Kinect shatters hyper-specific Guinness world record
Microsoft's Kinect is clearly gunning to grab the Guinness record for most Guinness records. Back in March, the hands-free peripheral nabbed a certificate naming it the "Fastest Selling Consumer Electronics Device," and now the Xbox Live and Kinect Sports teams are the joint owners of the record for "The Largest Online 100 Metre Sprint" -- after Microsoft managed to convince 10,539 of its closest pals to help it run in place via Xbox Live earlier this month. According to Redmond, the long-winded accomplishment is under consideration for inclusion in a Guinness volume -- though admittedly only the Gamer's Edition spinoff, itself a shoo-in for "most superfluous record book."
Rube Goldberg Machine to set new world record, bring forth apocalypse
If you've never seen the rise and fall of humanity as told by a series of pulleys, levers, and CO2 rockets, now's your chance -- a team of Purdue engineers have built a contraption that not only tells the history of the world through the end of days, but is also a contender for the world's largest Rube Goldberg machine. The Purdue team's "Time Machine" catalogs a history of dinosaurs, war, and rock 'n roll before finally culminating in a cataclysmic inferno and efflorescent renewal in 232 steps -- narrowly beating out the previous record of 230 set by Ferris State University in 2010. Impressive, but not officially the "world's largest" just yet-- the team is submitting a video of a flawless run to Guinness World Records to certify the historic thingamajig, hopefully eking out a victory with its two step lead.
Sunswift IV, world's fastest solar-powered racer, leaves GM Sunraycer in its dust
The Sunswift IV (aka IVy) might look like a mobile dinner table, but it's actually the world's fastest solar-powered vehicle. The table-top on wheels got the official nod from the Guinness Book of World Records last week, for hitting a top speed of 88km/h (about 55 mph) -- nearly 10 km/h faster than the previous record-holder, the GM Sunraycer, which bears a striking resemblance to a disembodied Android monster. IVy, designed by Sunswift, a student-run non-profit at the University of New South Wales, reached its top speed using 1050 watts, about 400 watts less than the Sunraycer, and performed its record-smashing run without the 25kg battery it's usually packing. Faster runs have been clocked, including by IVy, but Guinness has not been on hand for confirmation.
Virtual asteroid in a virtual universe sells for a frighteningly real $635,000 (video)
We're pretty sure there are better ways to spend your cash than virtual real estate in the Entropia Universe MMORPG. Then again, we didn't spend $100,000 on a virtual asteroid -- John "NeverDie" Jacobs did, in 2005. And here we are, some five years later, only to learn that he flipped the thing for a staggering $635K -- enough to pay the salaries of roughly a dozen American high school teachers for a year. Apparently, both purchases have earned places in the Guinness Book of World Records for something like "most expensive virtual item," but our favorite part of this post was finding a video for Mr. Die's tune "My Girl's A Gamer Chick." Check it out after the break.
Engadget's Darren Murph nabs Guinness World Record for most blog posts ever written!
We always knew Darren Murph had oodles of talent and was extremely prolific -- but now the man has got the paper to seriously prove it. Our own Mr. Murph was just awarded the Guinness World Record for most posts ever by a blogger. Not only is this a first for Darren, it's a first for Guinness as well, creating a new category for the group. Darren joined Engadget in July of 2006 (his first post is here), and almost four years to the day (when these numbers were submitted to Guinness) he'd arrived at 17,212 individual posts (since surpassed, of course). That's single posts on Engadget, Engadget HD, and Engadget Mobile, not duplicated work. We obviously couldn't be more proud of Darren and the work he's done (and continues to do) here, and we think this is an amazing feat for one writer. Of course, this is the guy who did 59 posts in a single day at CES 2008. Seriously. To put it in perspective, his current word count is at 3,389,148. That's War and Peace about six times over. We asked Darren if he had anything to say, and he gave a nod to Ryan Block (our former editor-in-chief) for giving him the chance to start here (and "not killing me when I passed him early on"). Darren also told us that he intends to defend the title for the rest of his natural life. So would-be competitors, you'd better get started... right... now.
Daigo Umehara enters Guinness for tournament wins
Renowned Street Fighter champion Daigo "The Beast" Umehara joined up with Mad Catz just this year and already the company has gotten him into the record books. At this past weekend's "Super Vs Battle" tournament in London, Guinness presented Umehara with a certificate entering him into the Guinness Book of World Records Gamer's Edition 2011 for achieving "Most Consecutive Tournament Wins" (15 in all). Umehara said of the accolade,"Receiving this award at the culmination of a spirited international tournament is truly a great honor, one made all the more special when considering the fierce competition in the international fighting game community." Speaking of fierce competition, just imagine how many arcade sticks and controllers have been smashed by Umehara's opponents after losing those heated matches. Now that's a record someone needs to recognize!
Dutch gamers break world record by playing for 50 hours straight
A group of six Dutch gamers played Red Dead Redemption for 50 hours straight over the weekend, garnering them recognition from the Guinness Book of World Records. The event took place at a Dixons store in the Netherlands, where six players started out as competitors, but eventually decided to keep playing and get the world record together. All six will receive recognition from Guinness, a $1300 prize and a Twistdock connector from the event's sponsor. There are two things that make this stand out from your average weekend-long play session. First, we're talking 50 hours for all six gamers with no breaks. While that's definitely been done before (with less than healthy consequences), Guinness was there to put the official stamp on everything. So, until you get them to watch you play Final Fantasy XIII and all of its optional missions all in one sitting, this record will probably stand.
Modu, world's lightest cellphone, lands in UK
Another day, another... oh wait, what's this? The Modu phone has been an enigmatic figure in the mobile world, treading the precipice of vaporware for a while before finally launching in its home market of Israel last year and in a few more places around the world since then. Aiming to shake up the apparently stale mobile market, this minimalist take on the phone is no larger than the standard battery in your modern smartphone and gets its name from the modular "jackets" it can slip into. They furnish it with added functionality and buttons, while also sprinkling a bit of extra style on top as well. Slide past the break to learn more about this handset, the Modu 1, together with a few teasers about the upcoming touchscreen-based Modu 2.%Gallery-97442%%Gallery-97441%
Star Trek Online team seeks world record
Namco Bandai and Atari are helping Cryptic keep the hype machine for Star Trek Online at full throttle with this latest event: an attempt to make it into the Guinness Book of World Records. The team at Star Trek Online is pursuing the record for "largest gathering of people dressed as Star Trek characters", and of course, they want your help. Fans in the London area are asked to join dressed as anything Star Trek related. The gathering will take place on London's Millennium Bridge Join other fans February 14th (bring your significant other -- it's romantic!) at 1.00pm on the bridge and prepare to be checked out by officials from Guinness to be sure everyone is dressed in full Trek regalia. Best dressed fans can win Star Trek Online prizes, including lifetime subscriptions. Check out all the details on the event here, and if you attend, have a great time.
New Guinness World Records Gamer Edition in January
The third edition of the Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition hits store shelves January 4 and 21 in the US and UK, respectively. The edition likely contains some of this year's more profound records, including: Batman's most ridiculous world record in the history of world record keeping. The f*ckinest f*cktastic f*ckin' game with the most f*ck ever. The only world records book with its own video game. Also, this post marks the Guinness World Record for the most times the word Guinness appeared in a video game blog post without it being in reference to beer. It also marks the record for the most times we've shamelessly made up a statistic just to get in the Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition.
Cosplay record attempt fails at GamesCom, Guinness believes TGS attempt could 'smash' record
If we had a "sad panda" costume, we'd put it on right now for this post. The GamesCom attempt to break the Guinness world record for "The Largest Gathering of Games Characters" failed this weekend -- but it wasn't an "epic fail." Joystiq spoke with Gaz Deaves, Guinness' video games records manager, who told us 311 cosplayers were present, which was 65 short of the record set at London MCM Expo on May 23 of this year. Deaves explained that once the line was cleared, organizers didn't think it would be fair to keep the folks waiting while they went looking for more people on the show floor -- a good thing, considering the heat already caused our pity meter to go into overdrive for the folks hotboxing inside the Tetris blocks and full Yoshi costumes. The organizer's eleventh-hour change of venue from the South Hall entrance to a random location between two halls in the enormous complex probably didn't help costumed revelers attend the event either. The next attempt to break the record will likely be London Games Festival or MCM Expo, which have applied the last two years, successfully breaking the record on both occasions. Deaves tells us, "However, the big competitor who has yet to apply is TGS. I expect Tokyo could smash this record; however, until they've been officially counted they can't claim it." [Image: Koelnmesse] %Gallery-70732%
Guinness World Record wailed on and then smashed for Brutal Legend
440 European fans of the upcoming heavy metal-inspired game Brütal Legend got together in Leicestershire, UK this past weekend to, well, fake-play guitar all at the same time. During the metal heavy 2009 Download Festival, the game's publisher EA organized attendees clad in Brütal Legend shirts around its "EA hub" and began the faux rocking while an "official adjudicator from the Guinness Book of World Records" oversaw the whole schebang. Though we're wary of fans of games that aren't even released yet, it's hard for us to deny our love for Tim Schafer's latest project. We'll let you slide this time, strange publicity grab, but next time you're gettin' a ticket, ya hear?
E3 2009: Free Realms and The Dares set world record concert event
Last night at SOE's gigantic E3 booth, attendees were actually a part of history. The Dares -- that youthful pop-punk band that sings the light-heartedly rebellious theme song for Free Realms -- performed a small set for a live concert audience at E3 and simultaneously in the game. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, who awarded the bandmates a plaque after the concert, this is the first time this has been done. Yeah, sorry Second Life fans.If you're interested in seeing the live performance of "It's Your World", and thereby getting it stuck in your head for the next three weeks, check it out after the jump below. There's also a separate video showing the Guinness World Record reception, as well. Congrats goes out to those guys, although I'm pretty sure they'll never read this.
Samsung adds three phones to Guinness Book of World records
Samsung can add a few notches in its belt with news that a couple of Ultra line of handsets -- and an older model -- made the Guinness Book of World Records for 2008. Award for thinnest handset in a leading role goes to the 0.2 inch thin -- as a size comparison, the MotoRAZR MAXX is only 0.2 inches thinner than the V3x -- Ultra Edition 5.9. Setting a record for thinnest 3G phone is the Ultra Edition 8.4, with the record breaking 10 megapixel SCH-B600 taking top honors for, you guessed it, most megapixels. Not a bad outing by the Korean monster, now we'll all have to wait to see who can beat the venerable "Phone that totally blew Engadget Mobile's mind" record which is currently held by... err, nobody.
Halo 2 run makes the record books
Halo 2 player, Cody Miller, has reportedly been entered into the 2007 Guinness Book of World Records. His accomplishment? A speed run of Halo 2 with no deaths -- on Legendary difficulty. There is no mention of his actual clear time, but no deaths is impressive all by itself. Anybody with a copy of the Guinness care to send us a scan? It should be on the only page with Master Chief. And anyway, how the hell does anyone make it off of Cairo Station on Legendary without dying once? Cody explains it himself right here (there's even a video here). [Via Joystiq]
