Twin Galaxies

Twin Galaxies is a social media platform and video game database. It founded the U.S. National Video Game Team. Twin Galaxies is the official supplier of video game records to Guinness World Records.^[1]

Twin Galaxies

Formation	November 10, 1981; 41 years ago (1981-11-10)
Founder	Walter Day
Founded at	Ottumwa, Iowa
Purpose	Video game-oriented social media platform, news, competition, record keeping
Headquarters	Beverly Hills, California, U.S.
Key people	Jace Hall (CEO), Chris Nordling (COO)
Parent organization	None
Affiliations	Guinness World Records
Website	www.twingalaxies.com

History

In mid-1981, Walter Day, founder of Twin Galaxies, Inc., visited more than 100 video game arcades over four months, recording the high scores that he found on each game.^{[citation needed]}

On November 10, 1981, Day opened his arcade in Ottumwa, Iowa, naming it Twin Galaxies.^{[citation needed]}

On February 9, 1982, Day's database of records was released publicly as the Twin Galaxies National Scoreboard.^{[citation needed]}

Twin Galaxies' first event formed state teams from the top players in North Carolina and California, facing them off in a "California Challenges North Carolina All-Star Playoff." The teams played in 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.^[2]

In September, 1982, the book "Defending the Galaxy"^[3] is released—and declaring Twin Galaxies as the "Video Game Capital of the World," and describing the California/North Carolina contest just held.^{[citation needed]}

On November 30, 1982, Ottumwa mayor Jerry Parker declared the town "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 ceremony at Twin Galaxies on March 19, 1983.^[4][5][6]

Beginning in the summer of 1982, Video Games magazine and Joystick published high-score tables taken from Twin Galaxies' data. Additional high-score charts also appeared in USA Today, Videogiochi (Milan, Italy), Computer Games, Video Game Player and Electronic Fun.^[7][8][9]

On January 8–9, 1983, Twin Galaxies organized its first world championship, which was filmed by ABC-TV's That's Incredible! and aired on February 21, 1983.^[10]

In March 1983, Twin Galaxies was contracted by the Electronic Circus to assemble a professional troupe of video game high-scorers. Though the Circus was scheduled to visit 40 cities in North America, its Boston inaugural performance 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.^[11]

On July 25, 1983, Twin Galaxies established the first professional U.S. National Video Game Team. 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 and conducting the 1983 Video Game Masters Tournament, the results of which were published in the 1984 U.S. edition of Guinness World Records.^{[citation needed]}

In 1988, the Guinness Book of World records stopped publishing records from Twin Galaxies due to a decline in interest for arcade games.^[12]

On February 8, 1998, Twin Galaxies' Official Video Game & Pinball Book of World Records was published. It is a 984-page book containing scores compiled since 1981. A second edition was published as a three-volume set in 2007. A third edition was published in 2009.^{[non-primary source needed]}

Founder Walter Day left Twin Galaxies in 2010 to pursue a career in music,^[13] and since then ownership of Twin Galaxies has changed hands several times.^[14] In 2013, Twin Galaxies began charging a fee for score submissions.^[15]

In March 2014, Jace Hall announced that he was the new "Head Custodian and Caretaker of the TWIN GALAXIES organization".^[16] On April 28, 2014, the full Twin Galaxies website, including the high score database and forum content, came back online.

 

Walter Day (right) and his business partner from the early 1980s

 

Mark Hoff and Joel West

U.S. National Video Game Team

Main article: U.S. National Video Game Team

The U.S. National Video Game Team was founded on July 25, 1983, in Ottumwa, Iowa, by Walter Day and the Twin Galaxies Intergalactic Scoreboard.^{[citation needed]}

Timeline

• July 25, 1983: The Team was founded in Ottumwa, Iowa, by the Twin Galaxies Intergalactic Scoreboard with Walter Day as Team Captain.
• August 11, 1983: Embarked on a national tour to conduct the 1983 Video Game Masters Tournament.
• August 8, 1983: Cystic Fibrosis Video Game Challenge Week in Ottumwa^{[17][non-primary source needed]}
• August 16, 1983: Letter from Michigan House of Representatives. Harold Sawyer to USNVGT^{[18][non-primary source needed]}
• August 24, 1983: U.S. National Video Game Team inspired Civic Proclamations around the USA.^[19]
• September 15, 1983: Conducted a tour of the East Coast of the United States on behalf of Video Game Player Magazine to verify excessive high-score claims submitted by players.
• September 24, 1983: Hand-delivered official documents to the Japanese and Italian Embassies in Washington, D.C., challenging these countries to an International Video Championship.^{[20][non-primary source needed]}
• November 15, 1983: Ottumwa Proclamation to the People of the Country of Italy, November 15, 1983^{[21][non-primary source needed]}
• January 14, 1984: Working with the Twin Galaxies Intergalactic Scoreboard, the USNVGT conducted the 1984 Coronation Day to crown the 1983 players, manufacturers, and magazines of the past year.^[10]
• February 12, 1984: The U.S. National Video Game Team attends the February 1984 AMOA Expo in New Orleans, beginning a long tradition of reviewing new games for the video game industry.^{[22][non-primary source needed]}
• February 10–12, 1984: Canada-USA Video Game Team Conference is organized by USNVGT.^{[23][non-primary source needed]}
• April 12, 1985: The Red Cross Video Game Team Invites President Ronald Reagan to Join The Team^{[24][non-primary source needed]}
• April 8, 1986: The U.S. National Video Game Team is authorized by the Guinness Book of World Records to organize contests.^{[25][non-primary source needed]}
• April 1, 1987: U.S. National Video Game Team Announces its 1987 "Best Games" at the ACME.^{[26][non-primary source needed]}
• April 1, 1987: U.S. National Video Game Team Conducts 1987 Video Game Masters Tournament for Guinness.^{[27][non-primary source needed]}
• July 12, 1987; The U.S. National Video Game Team organizes the 1987 Video Game Masters Tournament for Guinness Record Book.^{[28][non-primary source needed]}
• 1987: USNVGT toured Europe where it defeated a team of UK video game players
• 1991–1994: Every month Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM), published a full-page high-score table titled "The U.S. National Video Game Team's International Scoreboard".^{[29][30][31][non-primary source needed]}

Events

Video Game Film Festival

Twin Galaxies organized the first Video Game Film Festival on June 2, 2001, at the Funspot Family Fun Center in Weirs Beach, New Hampshire, as a vehicle to document the cultural impact that video games have exerted on society.^{[citation needed]}

Console Video Game World Championships

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.^{[citation needed]}

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.^{[32][33][34][35][36]}

Classic Video Game World Championship

Twin Galaxies conducted the first "Classic Video Game World Championship" on June 2–4, 2001, at the Funspot Family Fun Center in Weirs Beach, New Hampshire. The winner of this renewed video game contest was Dwayne Richard, with Donald Hayes coming in second place. 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. The winner was Dwayne Richard, with Donald Hayes again coming in second place.^{[37][38][non-primary source needed]}

In July 2001 and 2002, Twin Galaxies conducted the annual Twin Galaxies' Video Game Festivals at the Mall of America.^{[39][non-primary source needed]}

On August 15, 2005, Walter Day and the staff of Twin Galaxies led a contingent of US and UK video game players to Paris, where they delivered an eight-foot-tall (2.4 meters) proclamation that proposed a "London vs. Paris" Video Game Championship.^{[citation needed]}

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.^{[citation needed]}

Iron Man Contest

In the first week of July 1985, Twin Galaxies conducted the 1st Twin Galaxies Iron Man Contest. The goal of the Iron Man competition was simple: competitors had to continue playing their game for as long as they could. If anyone passed 100 hours, they would be awarded a $10,000 prize from the Sports Achievement Association.^{[citation needed]}

The winner of the contest was 18-year-old James Vollandt, who carried his Joust game for 67½ hours. The game malfunctioned at around 58 hours, wiping out all of his 210 extra lives. However, he earned back forty of them. He left the game voluntarily with a record-breaking score of 107,216,700 points, a record that stood until 2010 when John McAllister broke the record over a live streaming video on justin.tv.^[40]

Media

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

The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, a feature documentary about retro arcade gamers, and the competition between Billy Mitchell and Steve Weibe, which in which Walter Day and Twin Galaxies feature prominently, was released in theaters on August 24, 2007. The documentary was critical of Twin Galaxies' handling of challenges to long-established top scores and suggested that its organizational structure is rife with conflicts of interest.^{[non-primary source needed]}

Frag, a feature documentary about modern professional gamers, was released on DVD on August 1, 2008, by Cohesion Productions^[41] of Cedar Falls, Iowa. The first ten minutes of the documentary covered Twin Galaxies' role as the pioneers of organized video game playing back in the early 1980s.

Man vs Snake: The Long and Twisted Tale of Nibbler, a feature documentary about the video game Nibbler, was released worldwide in 2016. The film includes Twin Galaxies' history and the competition for high scores. Walter Day is featured throughout the film.

Cheating controversies

Records by both Todd Rogers and Billy Mitchell were invalidated by Twin Galaxies after investigations determined that the scores were not genuine.^[42] Rogers was revealed to have entered fake records into the database either by himself or by his friend who was a referee at Twin Galaxies, whereas Mitchell was found to have used an emulator to reach certain scores despite claiming to have played on an original arcade machine, which is a violation of the Twin Galaxies rules.^[43][44]

Poster gallery

Since August 1, 1982, Twin Galaxies has been producing stylized posters to document gaming events.^{[45][non-primary source needed]} Though the first dozen posters issued in the early 1980s had printing runs of 500–1,000 copies each, the posters created in later years have been issued as limited editions with only 20–24 copies produced.^{[citation needed]}

Twin Galaxies contests and events

Date	Title	Venue	Location
April 3–4, 1982	National Defender Championship	33 Arcades across America	Nationwide
August 27–30, 1982	California Challenges North Carolina	Light Years Amusement/Phil's Family Fun Ctr.	Wrightsville Beach, NC/Lakewood, CA
January 8–9, 1983	North America Video Game Olympics	Twin Galaxies/"ABC-TV's "That's Incredible"	Ottumwa, IA
August 24–28, 1983	1983 North American Video Game Challenge	8 Cities Across America	Lake Odessa, MI/Omaha, NE/Chicago, IL/San Jose, CA/Seattle, WA
January 14, 1984	1984 Coronation Day Championship	Twin Galaxies	Ottumwa, IA
January 12–13, 1985	1985 Coronation Day Championship	Captain Video	Los Angeles, CA
April 19–20, 1997	1997 Video Game & Pinball Masters Tournament	12 Cities	Fairfield, IA/Wilmington, NC/Edmonton, AB, Canada/Voorhees, NJ/St. Louis, MO/Kansas City, MO
June 27, 1998	Crowning the Superstars of Mobile, Alabama	Cyberstation Arcade, Springdale Mall	Mobile, AL
August 22, 1998	Crowning the Videogame Superstars of Tulsa, Oklahoma	Funhouse	Tulsa, OK
August 29, 1998	Crowning the Videogame Superstars of St. Louis, MO	Exhilirama Arcade	St. Louis, MO
August 29, 1998	Crowning the Videogame Superstars of Hattiesburg, Mississippi	Cyberstation Arcade	Hattiesburg, MS
January 30–31, 1999	Chicagoland Arcade Championship	Friar Tuck's Arcade	Calumet City, IL
July 10, 1999	National Family Fun Day	28 States Across America	Nationwide
July 29–30, 2000	Classic Gaming Expo 2000	Plaza Hotel, Las Vegas, NV	Las Vegas, NV
September 25 - October 20, 2000	Unreal Tournament Championship	Online Competition	International
Nov. 20 - Dec. 20, 2000	Official Tony Hawk Pro 2 World Championship^[46]	Home-Based Submissions	International
January 1 - March 7, 2001	Space Empires IV World Championship^[47]	Online Submissions	International
May 3 - July 2, 2001	Crazy Taxi World Championship	Home-Based Submissions	International
July 20–22, 2001	1st Twin Galaxies' Video Game Festival	Mall of America	Bloomington, MN
May 18, 2002	Save the Pak Mann Arcade^[48]	Pak Mann Arcade	Pasadena, CA
May 30 - June 2, 2002	2nd Classic Video Game World Championship^[49]	Funspot Family Fun Center	Weirs Beach, NH
July 12–14, 2002	2nd Twin Galaxies' Video Game Festival^[50]	Mall of America	Bloomington, MN
November 12–19, 2005	November Hi-Score Jamboree at Funspot	Funspot Family Fun Center	Weirs Beach, NH
December 2–4, 2005	Legends of the Golden Age^[51]	Totally Amused	Humble, TX
April 6–9, 2006	Toughest Gun in the Dodge City^[52]	Apollo Amusements	Pompano Beach, FL
April 28–30, 2006	2006 Video Game & Pinball Masters Tournament	Pinball Hall of Fame	Las Vegas, NV
September 16, 2006	Grand Rapids Nintendo DS Championship	Ultimate LAN Experience	Grand Rapids, MI
November 10–18, 2007	5 November Hi-Score Jamboree at Funspot	Funspot Family Fun Center	Weirs Beach, NH
March 5, 2008	Steve Wiebe Attempts Donkey Kong World Record	MIX08 Event	Las Vegas, NV
July 17, 2008	Steve Wiebe Donkey Kong Record Attempt	Twiistup 4 Technology event	Santa Monica, CA
August 2, 2008	Nintendo Wii Shootout	Ultimate LAN Experience	Grand Rapids, MI
June 12–14, 2009	Steve Wiebe Donkey Kong World Record attempt and Walter Day presented inaugural Twin Galaxies Hall of Fame Ceremony^[53]	Northwest Pinball and Gameroom Show	Seattle, WA

See also

• Time attack
• Speedrun

References

1. . GuinnessWorldRecords.com. Archived from the original on July 23, 2008.
2. California Tops Carolina in Video Challenge - RePlay Magazine, October, 1982 2007-10-23 at the Wayback Machine
3. Rubin, Michael (1982). Defending the Galaxy. Triad Publishing, Gainesville, FL. pp. 193–195. ISBN 0-937404-17-9.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
4. What is the Video Game Capital of the World? - Cashbox Magazine, April 2, 1983 March 13, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
5. The King of the Video Game Addicts - Toronto Sunday Star, March 27, 1983 October 23, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
6. Video Game Capital Lies Amid Iowa Cornfields - St. Louis Post-Dispatch, October 9, 1983 March 13, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
7. Seek Individual Excellence - Associated Press Wire Story in Miami Herald, August 21, 1982 October 23, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
8. Records, like promises, are not always meant to be broken - USA Today, July 7, 1983 March 24, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
9. Video Game Records - USA Today, April 22, 1983 March 24, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
10. Twin Galaxies' Coronation Day Crowns Video's Best of '83 - RePlay Magazine, February 1, 1984 March 11, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
11. Video Hall of Fame - Blip Magazine, February 1, 1983 October 23, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
12. "Guinness to Release Book of Game Records". Sidney Morning Herald. February 7, 2008. from the original on October 26, 2014. Retrieved October 26, 2014.
13. "Walter Day leaves Twin Galaxies". Eurogamer. August 3, 2010. from the original on October 26, 2014. Retrieved October 25, 2014.
14. "Twin Galaxies Sold to New Ownership?". October 4, 2012. from the original on October 26, 2014. Retrieved October 25, 2014.
15. "Twin Galaxies starts charging for score submissions". BitGamer. April 22, 2013. from the original on October 26, 2014. Retrieved October 25, 2014.
16. Kyle Hilliard (March 30, 2014). . Game Informer. Archived from the original on April 11, 2014. Retrieved March 31, 2014.
17. . Archived from the original on March 19, 2012. Retrieved July 10, 2011.
18. . Archived from the original on March 19, 2012. Retrieved July 10, 2011.
19. . Archived from the original on March 19, 2012. Retrieved July 10, 2011. Proclamation for Cystic Fibrosis Video Game Challenge Week, Lake Odessa, Michigan, August 8, 1983
20. "Benefit Hones Video Game Skill", Chicago Suburban Tribune, August 24, 1983 March 19, 2012, at the Wayback Machine"U.S. vs. Japan Video Tournament", CashBox Magazine, August 27, 1983 March 19, 2012, at the Wayback Machine "U.S. Video Team Forming, Plans Call for Match with Japan", RePlay Magazine, October 1, 1983 March 19, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
21. Ottumwa issues a Proclamation, challenging the Country of Italy on behalf of the U.S. National Video Game Team, November 15, 1983 July 11, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
22. "U.S. National Video Game Team Rates Games", PlayMeter Magazine, March 1, 1984 October 23, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
23. Canadian Video Team Being Formed - CashBox Magazine, March 10, 1984 October 23, 2007, at the Wayback MachineU.S. National Video Game Team at 1984 AMOA Expo - Vending Times, December 1, 1984 October 9, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
24. The U.S. National Video Game Team organizes a fundraiser for the Red Cross and announces plans to create a Red Cross Video Team to take to Washington, DC. 2007-10-25 at the Wayback Machine
25. Guinness sends letter to U.S. National Video Game Team, April 8, 1986 July 26, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
26. U.S. National Video Team Picks its Favorites, Vending Times, New York, NY, April 1, 1987 October 25, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
27. Video Game Masters Match Will Help March of Dimes, Vending Times, New York, NY, April 1, 1987 December 17, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
28. Video game champ buys 40 hours of play with 25 cents - Torrance Daily Breeze, Torrance, CA, July 12, 1987 October 9, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
29. U.S. Video Team Holds Tourney - CashBox Magazine, October 22, 1983 December 8, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
30. U.S. vs. Japan Video Tournament? - CashBox Magazine, August 27, 1983 October 23, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
31. They're Masters of Video Games - Spokesman-Review, Spokane, WA, August 24, 1983 December 8, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
32. "Register for Console Competition - News". Nintendo World Report.
33. Gaming-Age.com, February 16, 2001 November 26, 2005, at the Wayback Machine
34. XGR.com, February 16, 2001 December 14, 2005, at the Wayback Machine
35. Video Game Festival at Mall of America, July 1, 2001 December 8, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
36. . Archived from the original on November 27, 2005.
37. Classic Video Game World Championship Set for New Hampshire May 8, 2001 October 23, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
38. Classic Video Game World Championship Attracts the World's Best, May 26, 2002 February 19, 2006, at the Wayback Machine
39. Festival Marries Classics with CounterStrike, RePlay Magazine, Woodland Hills, CA, September 1, 2001 December 30, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
40. Good, Owen (October 24, 2010). "New World Record In Joust Awaiting Certification". Kotaku. from the original on October 27, 2010. Retrieved March 25, 2011.
41. Cohesion Productions Releases FRAG - www.cohesionproductions.com 2008-07-24 at the Wayback Machine
42. Alexandra, Heather (July 7, 2017). "Doubt And Drama Still Haunt An Old, Seemingly Impossible Atari World Record". from the original on January 30, 2018. Retrieved February 6, 2018.
43. "Gaming Documentary Highlights the Biggest Cheater in Video Game History". Gamerant. January 24, 2018. from the original on February 7, 2018. Retrieved February 6, 2018.
44. Crecente, Brian (April 12, 2018). "'King of Kong' Star Stripped of High Scores, Banned From Competition".
45. Twin Galaxies' Gallery of Posters, 1982-2008 2008-03-28 at the Wayback Machine
46. . www.gamerankings.com. Archived from the original on December 29, 2008. Retrieved May 3, 2015.
47. http://www.strategyplanet.com/news/index.asp?month=1&day=5&year=2001^{[permanent dead link]}
48. . Archived from the original on May 25, 2011. Retrieved August 21, 2008.
49. . www.gamersmark.com. Archived from the original on March 7, 2003.
50. . www.gamezone.com. Archived from the original on January 10, 2016. Retrieved May 3, 2015.
51. . www.gamezone.com. Archived from the original on January 10, 2016. Retrieved May 3, 2015.
52. . www.gamezone.com. Archived from the original on January 10, 2016. Retrieved May 3, 2015.
53. "Twin Galaxies Inaugural Hall of Fame Ceremony in Seattle". www.classicarcadegaming.com. from the original on June 21, 2011. Retrieved April 1, 2010.

External links

• Official website
• Twitch channel