I think getting the high score for a 40-year-old arcade game is a perfectly fine hobby and a fine thing to take pride in. Certainly, if you check Twitch, record competition in single-player games draws plenty of viewership. The most popular games are somewhat less old (usually NES era and onwards), and it’s usually in the form of speedrunning rather than high score competition, but it’s the same general idea.

Cheating is different, of course. But I interpret your comment as dismissing the activity itself.