Todd Rogers (video game player)

Todd Rogers (born December 1, 1964) is an American video game competitor from Brooksville, Florida who gained fame in the early 1980s for his many world record high scores and for his expertise on Activision games. Among the records he holds is a 65 million point game in Centipede.^[1] He appears in several feature films: Chasing Ghosts: Beyond the Arcade, The King of Kong, FRAG, High Score, The Space Invaders: In Search of Lost Time, and Nintendo Quest.

Todd Rogers and others provide commentary during the Twin Galaxies Entertainment Festival in Banning California, 2015

Biography

Rogers was born on December 1, 1964 in Chicago, Illinois.

Rogers studied at the Art Institute of Chicago.^[2]

Gaming career

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.^[3] Rogers was featured in many well-publicized "Beat The Champ" contests that pitted his skills against those of the public.^[4] Rogers is recognized for being the first paid pro video gamer^[5] 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.^[6] On July 25, 1983, Walter Day founded the U.S. National Video Game Team and in 1986 Rogers was invited to be part of the team.^[7][8] The group 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. 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 (now Caitlyn).

On October 3–5, 2008 Todd joined the "Five Kings of Gaming" at the "E for All" Expo at the Los Angeles Convention Center to feed the homeless people of Los Angeles.^[9] 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 US$100.

Twin Galaxies 1999 - 2012

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 title record for over 26 years. He had many more world records at that time, But they were not recognized by Twin Galaxies due to the fact that Activision didn't have any involvement with the Twin Galaxies company. Todd traveled the country 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, 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's status with Twin Galaxies was upgraded 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 in a new direction focusing on many of the newer gaming titles. In 2010 Todd's title once again changed with Twin Galaxies as Walter Day stepped down as the Chief Evangelist of classic gaming, passing that title on to Todd. In the latter part of 2012, Todd resigned from Twin Galaxies. With the new administration in place Todd felt that his valued interest and shared ideals in the company was no longer needed.

Accomplishments

All winnings listed are in USD.

Honors

• 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 alongside 11 other gaming legends.
• On August 7, 2010 was inducted into the first class of 2010 of the International Video Game Hall of Fame alongside 28 other inductees.
• On October 20, 2010 was included in a set of Twin Galaxies trading cards.
• On November 30, 2012 was recognized by The Guinness Book of Records for holding the longest-standing Video gaming score 30 years 91 days.

Centipede 3 Minute challenge

• 1st K B Toys, Illinois 1983 ($5,000)
• 1st American Sales Tournament Bridgeview Illinois 1983 ($500, Atari 400 computer)

Asteroids

• 1st Asteroids challenge Friar Tuck's Arcade Illinois 1984 ($1,500)

GORF

• 1st Bally's Aladdin's Castle Chicago Ridge Mall High Score 1983 ($1,000)

Television and movie roles

Chasing Ghosts: Beyond the Arcade, The King of Kong, FRAG (movie), High Score, The Space Invaders: In Search of Lost Time, The Video Craze, Bonus Life: Extended Play, The Perfect Fraudman, G4, TechTV, MTV, VH-1, CNN, ESPN, E:60, WLS-TV, KSTP-TV, WXYZ-TV, WMUR-TV, WMAQ-TV, WTVT-TV, Showtime, HBO, Univision Communications, Inc. Bay News 9.

Endorsements and business ventures

Bandai, Coca-Cola, Ford City Mall, NOS Energy Drink, Pepsi, Toys "R" Us,

Endorsements in the gaming industry

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, Rainbird, Romstar, Sega Corporation, Sierra Entertainment, Spectrum HoloByte, Ubisoft, Xonox, Williams.

Professional wrestling

American Combat Wrestling (2010)

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 independent wrestling company.^[1] 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.

References

External links

• Todd Rogers on IMDb