| Walter Day | |
|---|---|
| Born | Walter Aldro Day, Jr. May 14, 1949 Fairfield, Iowa |
| Occupation | Pro Video Game Referee/Scorekeeper |
| Years active | 1981-2010 |
| Known for | Twin Galaxies |
| Home town | Oakland, California |
| Title | Founder |
| Website | |
| http://www.twingalaxies.com/ | |
Walter Aldro Day, Jr. (born May 14, 1949) is the founder of Twin Galaxies, an international organization based in Fairfield, Iowa, that tracks high score statistics for the worldwide electronic video gaming hobby.[1][2] In March 2010, Walter Day announced his retirement from Twin Galaxies to pursue his music career.[3]
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On November 10, 1981, Day opened an arcade in Ottumwa, Iowa called Twin Galaxies. Though it was a modest arcade of merely 22 arcade games, it soon became known as the International Scorekeeper for the burgeoning video game industry. Under Day's direction, Twin Galaxies set rules for gameplay on hundreds of games, while maintaining a records database of competitive high scores. Twin Galaxies is considered by gaming historians as being the first organizer of professional gaming, putting competitive electronic gaming on the world map.[4]
A former oil executive, Day left the oil industry and opened the arcade as an excuse to be able to play more video games. Twin Galaxies' role as a small-town arcade was forever altered when the January 15, 1982 issue of TIME magazine carried a cover story on the growing popularity of video games. The story focused on the high-scoring exploits of Steve Juraszek, a 15 year-old Illinois suburbanite, who had broken the world record on Defender, with a score of 15,963,100 points. When a local Ottumwa boy, Tony Mattan, broke Juraszek's record with 24,565,975 points, Day was inspired to create the International Scoreboard.[4]
After Mattan's record breaking accomplishment, Walter Day attempted to contact Williams Electronics, the creators of the game, to report Mattan's score. However, upon learning that neither Williams nor Namco kept any records of high scores, he decided to set up his own scoreboard. He did so that same day, on February 9, 1982. Players from all around the United States began sending in their scores. Within six months of launching the scoreboard, Day was receiving about 50 to 75 phone calls per day, with many coming from countries other than the USA.[5]
Walter Day was designated an assistant editor in charge of video game scores for the 1984-1986 editions of the U.S. edition of the Guinness Book of World Records. Under Day's direction, Twin Galaxies wrote the first official rulebook for playing electronic games and established the rules and standardized settings for each game. Today, this rulebook has evolved into Twin Galaxies' most well known product: Twin Galaxies' Official Video Game & Pinball Book of World Records (ISBN 1887472-25-8), a 984-page book containing scores from players in 31 different countries compiled since 1981. A second edition, totaling 1500 pages in a two-volume set released in 2008, updated with newer PC titles as well as 6th-generation video game consoles.[6]
On July 25, 1983, Day founded the U.S. National Video Game Team, consisting of him and six of the nation's best players: Billy Mitchell from Hollywood, Florida; Steve Harris from Gladstone, Missouri; Jay Kim from Miami, Florida; "Cat" Cabrera from Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Ben Gold from Dallas, Texas and Tim McVey of Ottumwa, Iowa.
As portrayed in recent documentary movies: Chasing Ghosts: Beyond the Arcade and The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, Day is a singer and songwriter, and performs his own music on the stage. His songwriting aspirations are featured in a three part documentary filmed by VBS.tv, published on the Internet on April 27, 2009, under the title Walter Day: Twin Galaxies and the Two Golden Domes.[7] He plans to further pursue his musical career after his retirement from the video game sector in March 2010.