GameRoom Magazine - International Video Game Hall of Fame

Golden Age of Video Games
It all started in 1982, when Walter, then
owner of the Twin Galaxies Video Game
Parlor in Ottumwa, noted that one of his patrons,
Tony Mattan, had achieved a particularly
high score on Defender. Suspecting that
this might be the highest score ever achieved
on that game, Walter contacted the manufacturer,
Williams Electronics in Chicago,
and asked if a world record had been set.
Company officials had no idea—because no
one was keeping records. Walter immediately
recognized a great opportunity. Video gaming
was at the height of its popularity. Players
in video game arcades all over the world obsessed
over becoming the high score holder
of their favorite games, and yet nobody was
keeping track.
Within days, Walter Day had created
the Twin Galaxies National Scoreboard,
becoming the official keeper of high scores
for the global video gaming industry. Walter
sometimes received up to 50 calls a day from
players claiming to have achieved top scores
in various games.
Ottumwa became known as the “Dodge
City of Video Gaming,” where players from
all over the world came to face off against
one another and strive to set new world
records. Then-mayor Jerry Parker proclaimed
Ottumwa the “Video Game Capital of the
World” and shortly thereafter, in 1983, Governor
Branstad gave the state’s official blessing.
Media such as Life Magazine and ABC
TV readily jumped in to cover the news, too.
Ottumwa Claims Its Due
So in April of last year, a very enthusiastic
group of individuals were merely reminding
the world of a forgotten legacy. With
the support of notable gamers such as Billy
Mitchell and Steve Sanders, Mayor Jerry
Parker (who reminded attendees that he outdueled
Governor Branstad in a game of Pac-
Man back in the day), and, of course, Walter
Day, Ottumwa officially began its quest. To
seal the deal, Mitchell, the official “Video
Gamer of the 20th Century,” autographed
and donated the Donkey Kong machine on
which he had set the world’s record.
Then the grunt work got underway: committees
labored to develop a website (www.
ivghof.com), plan events, fashion a Video
Game Hall of Fame similar to the Baseball
Hall of Fame in New York, and appoint a
curator to accept donations of “artifacts” like
old consoles and home gaming machines
such as the Intellivision.
The next big step was the official launch
party for the International Video Game
14 GameRoom August, 2010
The 4500 Game Campaign
The IVGHOF plans on becoming
the “Smithsonian Institute” of
video game history, responsible for
preserving one copy of every game
ever produced—a number considered
to be around 100,000 different
games, from the mass-produced
console titles of the modern era to
the rare prototypes of the 1970s and
1980s. Of this number, about 4500
were released as coin-operated arcade
games. So, using this number as a focal
point, the 4500 Game Campaign
was launched at the NW Pinball and
Game Room Show to inspire gamers
to donate their arcade games to the
IVGHOF’s fast-growing archival
collection.
The 4500 Game Campaign was inspired
by the support of members of
the Seattle Metro Arcade Collectors
(SMAC, a grassroots hobbyist organization
that works to preserve the
arcade legacy) and the NW Pinball
and Gameroom Show—an annual event that celebrates the
history of classic and arcade gaming. On June 12, 2010,
in a special ceremony at the Seattle Center, members
of SMAC and the NW Pinball Show donated to
the IVGHOF the Asteroids machine which had
been used by John McAllister to break Scott Safran’s
28-year-old world record.
Bill Jones, of Chicago, quickly followed suit when he
donated his Stargate and Defender machines to the campaign—
games which he had used to achieve world records.
To contribute games to the 4500 game Campaign, contact:
Josh Bolinger, IVGHOF Archives Curator
c/o International Video Game Hall of Fame & Museum
217 East Main Street P.O. Box 308 Ottumwa, IA 52501
donations@ivghof.com