Berzerk! Or: How many kids has Evil Otto sent to an early grave?

[gbpxl]

Years ago I remember reading that a kid died of a heart attack after posting a high score on the coin-op game "Berzerk." The Wikipedia entry for the game says nothing about it. A Google search comes up with a page that says there were multiple deaths associated with the game but one of them was a hoax. I dont know how reliable those pages are. For all I know, both deaths were made up, though one seems plausible of course.

What I find strange about the story is that the game doesnt even seem that fast-paced or heart attack-inducing. Robotron 2084 seems like a game that wouldve at least caused some kids to go into seizure mode or possibly give a mild heart attack to a kid born with heart defects. but Ive never played a game so intensively that I thought it would adversely affect my health.

[wizardofwor1975]

I found this on arcade-museum.com, "Berzerk shares a rather chilling distinction of being the first known game to be blamed for an actual player's death. In January 1981, Jeff Dailey, a 19-year old Berzerk player, died of a massive heart attack right after playing his favorite game. His score was 16,660 (a very respectable score but disturbing for obvious reasons). On an equally distressing note, in October 1982, 18-year old Peter Burkowski, a physically healthy person who was alcohol-free and drug-free, inscribed his initials in Berzerk's top ten list twice in a matter of only fifteen minutes. A few seconds after that, he collapsed and died of a heart attack as well."

https://www.arcade-museum.com/game_detail.php?game_id=7096

[wizardofwor1975]

I also found this from the Chicago Tribune, April 27, 1982:

10697

[gbpxl]

I read that the Jeff Dailey death turned out to be a hoax

[Casati]

I remember that game!