| Todd Rogers | |
|---|---|
| The King of Video Games, ToddZilla, Mr.Activision, DadZilla | |
| Status | Active |
| Date of birth | December 1, 1964 |
| Hometown | Brooksville, Florida |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Current team | U.S.National Video Game Team, Empire Arcadia |
| Games | Gorf Dragster (game) Journey Escape Crazy Taxi Decathlon Street Fighter II Turbo Street Fighter III Dragrace Super Pac-man SSX SSX 3 Sky Gunner Major League Baseball Centipede Robotron 2084 |
| Official website | |
Todd Rogers is an American video game competitor living in Brooksville, Florida who gained fame in the early 1980s for his many world record high scores and for his expertise on Activision games. He appears in several feature films: Chasing Ghosts: Beyond the Arcade, The King of Kong, FRAG (movie), High Score, and Space Invaders: Americas Underground Arcade.
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Born on December 1, 1964 in Chicago, Illinois, Rogers gained local notoriety in 1982 at Burbank Haunted Trails for his world record on the arcade game Gorf. On November 24, 1982, he scored 653,990 points, a world record that stood for over 26 years on the Twin Galaxies scoreboard. John P. McCann would later eclipse Rogers record on March 20, 2009.[1] Another of Todd's accomplishments was on a home console game by Activision called Dragster. Rogers is currently recognized for being the only person to have beaten a time on this game where the computer was programed to do a certain run of a quarter mile. The computer's Dragster time was of a 5.54 and Todd beat the computer's time by 3 hundredths of a second with the quarter mile run of a 5.51. Rogers has held the Dragster world record title since December 1, 1980.
Rogers was the video game industry's first player to be hired for his playing skills. During 1980-1992, Rogers appeared at The International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) as well as other gaming expositions in order to demonstrate games to the attendees.[2] Rogers was featured in many well-publicized "Beat The Champ" contests that pitted his skills against those of the public.[3] Rogers is recognized for being the first paid pro video gamer and has represented over 40 major software publishers. One of the first publications that Todd was featured in was a paper back book called "How To Master Home Video Games" by Tom Hirschfeld because of his Dragster skills.[4] Rogers has been featured in an assortment of other prominent publications such as Money Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, and Joystik Magazine,[5] you can see more of Todd's exploits on the IMDB site where they list over 100 of his recognitions and interviews. On July 25, 1983, Walter Day founded the U.S. National Video Game Team, in 1986 Todd was accepted into this prestigious group of gamers. It was a select team of the best video game players from that era. They competed against anyone who would challenge them and traveled throughout the country showcasing their exceptional gaming skills. He went on to also promote and beta test several popular arcade games. Wacko was one of the games that he tested for the Marvin Glass company.[6] Nintendo acquired his skills in 1986 to help shuttle the new line of Mario Brothers games. Shortly after that Sega wanted Todd to promote several contests that they were running. Rogers also helped promote games with celebrities on the games that they were featured in. These celebrities included Michael Jordan, Mike Tyson, Marina Sirtis, Robert Culp, Barbie Benton, and Bruce Jenner. On October 3–5, 2008 Todd joined the "Five Kings of Gaming" at the "E for All" Expo at the Los Angeles Convention Ctr to feed the homeless people of Los Angeles. Billed as "The League of Legendary Gamers," the "Kings" include some of the greatest names in gaming history, representing many different genre. The "Kings" are: Todd Rogers, Johnathan “Fatal1ty” Wendel, Billy Mitchell, Isaiah TriForce Johnson and Justin Wong. Games were supplied on each of the champions platforms the public was charged a perishable food donation to have the chance to play one on one against these champions. Also at the same venue Todd was involved in a promotion with All Games Network presenting the “Meet, Greet, and Beat the Champs” where Todd played Dragster against the public blindfolded. The prize offered to anyone who could beat him while he was blindfolded was $100.00. Todd is also an avid player of Wizard101 and is currently in the works of talking with KingsIsle to make the game Wizard101 an amazing game. Todd's character is a Necromancer named Valkoor CrowFinder.
Twin Galaxies has been around since 1981 as a data tracking company for high scores on video games and pinball games. Todd only had one entry into their data base in that time era, that was on GORF the game that he held that tile record for over 26yrs even though he had many more world records at that time, they were not recognized by Twin Galaxies due to the fact of Activision didn't have any involvement with Twin Galaxies company. Todd traveled the county receiving payment for his gaming skills, while Walter Days group of gamers “U.S. National Video Game Team” even though they were the best at what they did, never got paid on a monthly basis like Todd did. Todd’s involvement with Twin Galaxies back then was only listed for that GORF game, then in 1999 he was offered the opportunity to work hand in hand with Walter Day on doing monthly columns for the Twin Galaxies site entitled "On the home front", Todd also verified and consulted with Twin Galaxies on and off as needed when sensitive gaming issues came up. In 2000 Todd was asked to become an official Twin Galaxies Referee so that he could have on the spot interaction with the current gamers at live gaming venues. In 2006 Todd status with Twin Galaxies was up graded to Senior Referee and once again he set the template for how game settings were tracked and recorded. In 2009 Pete Bouvier became the new owner of the Twin Galaxies Company turning the Twin Galaxies brand into a new direction focusing in on many of the newer gaming titles. In 2010 Todd's title once again changed with Twin Galaxies as Walter Day steps down and the Chief Evangelist of classic gaming, passing that title on to Todd.
All winnings listed are in USD.
On March 5, 2001, was called "The King of Video Games" by numerous papers for his many world record high scores. On August 2004, was one of four select gamers that were featured on baseball card likenesses in the magazine SYNC. On September 1, 2007 was presented a poster from Twin Galaxies with his image on it for the "Impossible Record" the Dragster time of 5.51 On August 13, 2009 was presented with a medallion and participated with the launching of the gaming industry's "official" International Video Game Hall of Fame & Museum along side 11 other gaming legends. On August 7, 2010 was inducted into the first class of 2010 of the International Video Game Hall of Fame along side 28 other inductees.
Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, The Reporter, Hernando Today, The Weirs Times, The Bradenton Herald, The Citizen, The Weekly Planet, Orlando Sentinel, Los Angeles Times, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Daily Herald, El Mundo Tech, San Francisco Chronicle, The Nashville Scene, Suburban Life, Lombard Spectator, The Joplin Globe, The Barnstable Patriot, The New York Times, Omaha World Herald, New Times Broward, Dayton Daily News, The Portland Mercury, Seattle Times, LA Weekly, The Star Ledger, The Stranger, Variety, Sierra Mountain Times, The Miami Herald, The Citizen, Philadelphia City Paper, Pegasus News, The Austin Chronicle, Recherche.
How To Master Home Video Games, Joystik Magazine, Video Games Magazine, How To Win At E.T. The Video Game, Atari Age, Electronic Fun With Computers And Games, Electronic Game Player, Retrogaming Times, SYNC, WIRED, Gamers, Philadelphia Weekly, Video Game Collector, Weekly Planet, Retro Gamer, Create, EGM, Tips & Tricks, Guinness World Records, Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition, GameRoom, Edge, Loaded, Chief , Sci-Fi Magazine, Saturday Night Magazine, Open Source Magazine, 1Up, NH Magazine, Times, Top Score Magazine, Activisions, Electronic Fun, Playboy Guide Electronic Entertainment.
Chasing Ghosts: Beyond the Arcade, The King of Kong, FRAG (movie), High Score, Space Invaders: Americas Underground Arcade, G4, TechTV, MTV, VH-1, WLS-TV, KSTP-TV, WXYZ-TV, WMUR-TV, WMAQ-TV, WTVT-TV, Showtime, HBO, Univision Communications, Inc. Bay News 9.
Bandai, Coca-Cola, Ford City Mall, NOS Energy Drink, Pepsi, Toys "R" Us,
Acclaim Entertainment, Accolade, Activision, Atari, Atlus, Bally, Brøderbund Software, Capcom, Codemasters, Coleco, Data East Corporation, Electronic Arts, Epyx, Gottlieb, Infocom, Imagic, Konami, LucasArts, Mattel, Microprose Software, Midway Games, Mindscape, Muse Software, Namco Bandai, Nintendo Co., Ltd., Rainbird, Romstar, Sega Corporation, Sierra Entertainment, Spectrum HoloByte, Ubisoft, Xonox, Williams.
Make-A-Wish Foundation, Get Well Gamer Foundation, The Achievers Of America, American Association of the Deaf-Blind (AADB), Alzheimer's Foundation of America, Muscular Dystrophy Association,
Purchased from Juan Carlos Lopez on February 9, 2010, Todd being one of three owners of the ACW Underground a wrestling Indie company along with "Jeff Hofschadt", & "Howard Ward" the owner of CCW Wrestling another Florida based Indie wrestling company. The ACW brand was originated and founded by Ralph Mosca in 2005, Ralph being no relation to the great Angelo "King Kong" Mosca superstar wrestler from the 80's circa, wrestled for and promoted the ACW brand along with several others at that time. ACW noted for their blood, guts, and hard core style of wrestling, the ACW brand grew in popularity among the local fans and spawning off some hard core groups of fans titled "bSm" Bourbon Street Mafia, coined after the home location of where the wrestling shows were held, Bourbon Street Nightclub of New Port Richey, Florida. ACW a weekly venue, often showcases wrestlers from the FCW a WWE owned company, TNA, and NWA, the superstars from these shows co-mingle with the local talent on the card making the ACW Underground a well-respected home for many new wrestlers to have their debuts into the wrestling world.