1981 11 10 founder walter day founded at ottumwa iowa purpose video game scorekeeping headquarters banning california key people jace hall caretaker and custodian parent organization hdfilms inc affiliations guinness world records website www.twingalaxies.com twin galaxies is an american organization that tracks video game world records and conducts a program of electronic gaming promotions . it operates the twin galaxies website and publishes the twin galaxies official video game & pinball book of world records with the arcade volume released on june 2 2007 . the guinness world records gamers edition 2008 was released in march 2008 in conjunction with twin galaxies who guinness world records considers to be the official supplier of verified world records to the annual volume . 1 for a time in late 2013 after more than 30 years as a record keeper of video game world records twin galaxies appeared to be defunct with the website including the record high score database being inaccessible . in march 2014 jace hall announced himself as the new owner of twin galaxies . 2 on april 28 2014 the full twin galaxies website including the high score database and forum content came back online . contents 1 history 2 impact of high scores on the media 3 ottumwa 4 efforts to establish ottumwa as the site of the official video game museum 5 u.s. national video game team 5.1 chronological timeline 6 video game film festival 7 console video game world championships 8 classic video game world championship 9 iron man contest 10 film 11 twin galaxies gallery of posters 12 chronology of selected twin galaxies contests and events 13 see also 14 references 15 external links history edit during the summer of 1981 walter day founder of twin galaxies incorporated visited more than 100 video game arcades over four months recording the high scores that he found on each game . on november 10 he opened his own arcade in ottumwa iowa naming it twin galaxies . on february 9 1982 his database of records was released publicly as the twin galaxies national scoreboard . twin galaxies became known as the official scoreboard arranging contests between top players . twin galaxies first event attracted international media attention for gathering the first teams of video game stars . top players in north carolina and california were formed into state teams that faced off in a california challenges north carolina all star playoff playing on 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 . 3 similar competitions were also conducted during the summers of 1983 and 1984 when day organized the players in many u.s. states to form teams and compete in high score contests for the guinness book of world records . the states included california north carolina washington illinois nebraska ohio michigan idaho florida new york oklahoma alaska iowa and kansas . 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 twin galaxies status as the official scorekeeper was further enhanced by support from the major video game publications of the early 1980s . beginning in the summer of 1982 video games magazine and joystik magazine published full page high score charts taken from twin galaxies data . these high score tables were published during the entire lives of these magazines . additional high score charts also appeared in videogiochi milan italy computer games video game player magazine and electronic fun magazine . twin galaxies high score charts also appeared in usa today april 22 1983 games magazine and was distributed sporadically in 1982 and 1983 by the knight ridder news service as an occasional news feature originating from the charlotte observer . 7 8 9 twin galaxies brought top players together on november 7 1982 to be photographed by life magazine . this photo session is the subject of a recent documentary film chasing ghosts beyond the arcade which was screened at the 2007 sundance film festival . on january 8 9 1983 twin galaxies organized the first significant video game championship to crown a world champion . this event was filmed in ottumwa by abc tv s that s incredible and was aired on the night of february 21 1983 . 10 in march 1983 twin galaxies was contracted by the electronic circus to assemble a professional troupe of video game superstars who would travel with the circus as an act . with walter day hired as the circus ringmaster twin galaxies supplied a squad of 15 world record holders on twin galaxies high score tables . though the circus was scheduled to visit 40 cities in north america its boston inaugural performance opening in the bayside exposition ctr . on july 15 1983 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 professional u.s. national video game team the first such with walter day as team captain . 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 . under the direction of day functioning as an assistant editor for the guinness book in charge of video game scores the usnvgt gathered annual contest results that were published in the 1984 1986 u.s. editions . in september 1983 the usnvgt visited the italian and japanese embassies in washington d.c. to issue challenges for an international video game championship . in 1987 the usnvgt toured europe where it defeated a team of uk video game superstars . every month between 1991 and 1994 the u.s. publication electronic gaming monthly egm published a full page high score table titled the u.s. national video game team s international scoreboard . 12 13 14 in 1988 the guinness book of world records stopped using twin galaxies as a source . 15 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 . the second edition is planned as a two volume set with the first volume containing arcade mame novelty and pinball scores released on june 1 2007 . founder walter day left twin galaxies in 2010 to pursue a career in music 16 and since then ownership of twin galaxies has changed hands several times . 17 in 2013 twin galaxies began charging money for accepting score submissions . there are some claims 18 that this led to a termination of the relationship with guinness but other sources 15 state that this relationship was already over in 1988 . 19 impact of high scores on the media edit twin galaxies reports that during that early era it was not unusual for there to be multiple new world records reported in the media on a single day . 20 ottumwa edit on november 30 1982 mayor jerry parker declared ottumwa the video game capital of the world . ottumwa hosted history s first video game world championship which was filmed by abc tv s that s incredible on the weekend of january 8 9 1983 and aired the night of february 21 1983 . 21 ottumwa was the birth site of the twin galaxies intergalactic scoreboard and the u.s. national video game team two organizations that still exist today . 22 efforts to establish ottumwa as the site of the official video game museum edit on april 6 2009 owen good of kotaku penned a major article titled a claim to fame in the dodge city of video games . 23 in this story he examines ottumwa s prospects as potentially the cooperstown ny of the video game industry . on april 29 2009 ottumwa announced that it has reclaimed the title video game capital of the world . 24 25 with walter day billy mitchell and steve sanders in attendance the ottumwa government announced plans to develop a video game hall of fame and museum . 26 u.s. national video game team edit 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 . walter day was the team captain and the first six members chosen by twin galaxies for the team were billy mitchell hollywood florida had five listings in guinness that year a record steve harris gladstone missouri later founded electronic gaming monthly egm jay kim miami florida ben gold dallas texas won history s first video game world championship televised by abc tv s that s incredible tim mcvey ottumwa iowa achieved history s first billion point score on a video game . additional members accepted in 1983 tom asaki bozeman mt tim collum boyd tx eric ginner mt. view ca todd walker milpitas ca mark bersabe san jose ca jeff peters etiwanda california additional members accepted in 1984 mark hoff ottumwa ia leo daniels wilmington nc chris emery winnipeg manitoba canada additional members accepted in 1985 perry rodgers seattle washington donn nauert austin texas dwayne richard grande prairie alberta canada additional members accepted in 1986 gary hatt ontario california jim allee milwaukee wisconsin brent walker austin tx todd rogers bridgeview illinois first paid pro video game player eric gater oskaloosa ia chronological timeline edit july 25 1983 ; the team 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 . cystic fibrosis video game challenge week in ottumwa august 8 1983 27 letter from michigan house of representatives . harold sawyer to usnvgt august 16 1983 28 august 24 1983 ; u.s. national video game team inspired civic proclamations around the usa . 29 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 . 30 november 15 1983 ; ottumwa proclamation to the people of the country of italy november 15 1983 31 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 . 32 february 10 february 12 1984 ; canada usa video game team conference is organized by usnvgt . 33 april 12 1985 ; the red cross video game team invites president ronald reagan to join the team 34 april 8 1986 ; the u.s. national video game team is authorized by the guinness book of world records to organize contests . 35 april 1 1987 ; u.s. national video game team announces its 1987 best games at the acme . 36 april 1 1987 ; u.s. national video game team conducts 1987 video game masters tournament for guinness . 37 july 12 1987 ; the u.s. national video game team organizes 1987 video game masters tournament for guinness record book . 38 video