Twin Galaxies

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Twin Galaxies is an organization which tracks video game world records through a website, a Book of World Records, and a diverse program of promotions designed to crown the champions of the electronic gaming industry.

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During the summer of 1981, Walter Day, founder of Twin Galaxies, visited more than 100 video game arcades over four months, recording the high scores that he found on each game. Later, on November 10, 1981, Day opened his own arcade in Ottumwa, Iowa, naming it Twin Galaxies. On February 9, 1982, his database of records was released publicly as the Twin Galaxies National Scoreboard.

Twin Galaxies became known as the official scoreboard, arranging contests between top players. Twin Galaxies' first event attracted media attention throughout the world when it organized gaming history's first teams of video game superstars. Top players in North Carolina and California were formed into state teams that faced-off in a "California Challenges North Carolina All-Star Playoff," playing on 17 different games in Lakewood, California, and Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina. California defeated North Carolina 10–7 over the weekend of August 27–30, 1982.

Similar competitions were also conducted during the summers of 1983 and 1984 when Day organized the players in many U.S. states to form teams and compete in high score contests for the Guinness World Records(tm) book. The states included California, North Carolina, Washington, Illinois, Nebraska, Ohio, Michigan, Idaho, Florida, New York, Oklahoma, Alaska, Iowa and Kansas.

As a result of Twin Galaxies' growing renown, on November 30, 1982, Ottumwa's mayor Jerry Parker declared Ottumwa to be the *"Video Game Capital of the World," a claim that was backed up by Iowa Governor Terry Branstad, Atari and the Amusement Game Manufacturers Association in a special ceremony at Twin Galaxies on March 19, 1983.

Twin Galaxies' status as the official scorekeeper was further enhanced by support from the major video game publications of the early 1980s. Beginning in the summer of 1982, Video Games magazine and Joystik magazine published full-page high-score charts taken from Twin Galaxies' data. These high-score tables were published during the entire lives of these magazines. Additional high-score charts also appeared in Videogiochi (Milan, Italy), Computer Games, Video Game Player magazine and Electronic Fun magazine. Twin Galaxies' high-score charts also appeared in USA Today (April 22, 1983), GAMES magazine and was distributed sporadically in 1982 and 1983 by the Knight-Ridder news service as an occasional news feature, originating from the Charlotte Observer.

Most notably, Twin Galaxies was the first to organize competitive video game playing on a major scale, bringing the top players together on November 7, 1982 to be photographed by Life magazine. And, on January 8–9, 1983, Twin Galaxies organized the first significant video game championship to crown a "world" champion. This event was filmed in Ottumwa by ABC-TV's That's Incredible! and was aired on the night of February 21, 1983.

In March 1983, Twin Galaxies was contracted by The Electronic Circus to assemble a professional troupe of video game superstars who would travel with the Circus as an "act." With Walter Day hired as the "Circus Ringmaster," Twin Galaxies supplied a squad of 15 top players—all world record holders on Twin Galaxies' high-score tables—to perform with the Circus. Though the Circus was scheduled to visit 40 cities in North America, its Boston inaugural performance—opening in the Bayside Exposition Ctr. on July 15, 1983—lasted only five days, closing on July 19. The players selected by Twin Galaxies for the Circus are believed to be history's first professionally-contracted video game players.

And, on July 25, 1983, Twin Galaxies established the U.S. National Video Game Team, the world's first organized, professional video game team, with Walter Day as the team captain. The USNVGT toured the United States during the summer of 1983 in a 44-foot GMC bus filled with arcade games, appearing at arcades around the nation, conducting the 1983 Video Game Masters Tournament, whose results were published in the 1984 U.S. edition of the Guinness Book of World Records. Under the direction of Day, functioning as an Assistant Editor for Guinness in charge of video game scores, the USNVGT gathered annual contest results that were published in the 1984—1986 U.S. editions of the Guinness Book of World Records. In September 1983, the USNVGT visited the Italian and Japanese Embassies in Washington D.C. to issue challenges for an international video game championship. In 1987, the USNVGT toured Europe where it defeated a team of UK video game superstars. Every month between 1991 and 1994, Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM), a significant video game magazine produced in the United States, published a full-page high-score table titled "The U.S. National Video Game Team's International Scoreboard" which crowned the high-score champions of the games popular during that time period.

On February 8, 1998, Twin Galaxies' Official Video Game & Pinball Book of World Records (ISBN 1-887472-25-8) was published. It is a 984-page book containing scores compiled since 1981. The second edition, planned as a three-volume set, will be released one volume at a time throughout 2007 and 2008 and will contain records for PC games as well as modern console games such as the GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox and Xbox 360.

[edit] U.S. National Video Game Team

  • July 25, 1983 - Founded by Walter Day and Twin Galaxies
  • August 11, 1983 - USNVGT embarked on tour of the United States
  • September 15, 1983 - USNVGT conducted first score-checking survey
  • September 24, 1983 - USNVGT presented challenges to Italian and Japanese Embassies in Washington, D.C.
  • January 14, 1984 - USNVGT presented the 2nd Coronation Day Championship to crown the video game champions of the world

[edit] Video Game Film Festival

Twin Galaxies organized history's first Video Game Film Festival on June 2, 2001 at the Funspot Family Fun Ctr. in Weirs Beach, NH as a vehicle to document the cultural impact that video games have exerted on today's society. A 2nd Video Game Film Festival is planned for the end of 2006.

[edit] Console Video Game World Championship and Console Game World Championship

Twin Galaxies conducted the first Console Video Game World Championship during Twin Galaxies' 1st Annual Twin Galaxies' Video Game Festival at the Mall of America, Bloomington, Minnesota, on the weekend of July 20–22, 2001. This event is also known as the Console Game World Championship and had originally been planned for March 24–25, 2001 at the Sheraton Dallas Brookhollow Hotel in Dallas, Texas, but was moved forward to the Mall of America event.

The second Console Video Game World Championship was held the weekend of July 12–14, 2002 at the 2nd Annual Twin Galaxies' Video Game Festival at the Mall of America.

[edit] Classic Video Game World Championship

Twin Galaxies conducted history's first Classic Video Game World Championship on June 2–4, 2001 at the Funspot Family Fun Ctr. in Weirs Beach, New Hampshire. This event was descended from the Coronation Day Championships that were conducted by Twin Galaxies in 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986 and 2000. The 2nd Classic Video Game World Championship was conducted on the weekend of June 30–July 2, 2002.

[edit] Twin Galaxies today

In July of 2001 and 2002, Twin Galaxies conducted annual Twin Galaxies' Video Game Festivals at the Mall of America, attracting approximately 50,000–75,000 attendees each year.

On August 15, 2005, Walter Day and the staff of Twin Galaxies led a contingent of USA and UK video game players to Paris, France where they delivered an 8 ft (2.4 m) tall Proclamation which proposed a "London vs. Paris" Video Game Championship. This event, which will be created and refereed by Twin Galaxies, will be described as a "Video Game Championship to settle a 650-year-old Rivalry."

On September 24, 2005, The U.S. National Video Game Team revived and formed a New England Chapter with Walter Day as the National Team Captain and David Nelson of Derry, New Hampshire, as the Chapter Captain.

In 2007, a film about Twin Galaxies and video game champions in the 1980s called Chasing Ghosts: Beyond the Arcade was screened at the Sundance Film Festival.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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