Twin Galaxies is reporting the rather sad news that Doris Self, the 'world's oldest competitive gamer', has passed away at the age of 81 following an auto accident.

According to the obit: "Doris first gained notoriety in 1983 when she achieved a world record score of 1,112,300 points on the classic arcade game Q*Bert during Twin Galaxies' 1983 Video Game Masters Tournament, an event that was conducted for the Guinness Book of World Records. She was 58 years old then, the oldest person up to that time to capture a video game world title"

What's more: "To Doris, Q*Bert was more than just a game; it was therapy. According to Ann Ennis, Doris' sister, Doris would play Q*Bert five nights per week from 1-3:00 AM in the morning as an alternative to taking pills for sleeping. And, on the last night of her life, it was no different. Ann Ennis heard Doris playing for hours, practicing into the night." In her final years, she was chasing the regaining of her Q*Bert world crown, but sadly didn't quite make it, aw - but sounds like she had a real blast trying. [Via RetroBlast.]