Iowa town seeks status as video gamers' mecca
May 17, 2009 By LUKE MEREDITH , Associated Press Writer
Ryan Miller, of Ottumwa, Iowa, plays a pinball game at a local video arcade, Wednesday, May 13, 2009, in Ottumwa, Iowa. Ottumwa city officials announced in April plans to develop what they're calling the International Video Game Hall of Fame. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
(AP) -- For a brief shining moment in the 1980s, Ottumwa was the unlikely hot spot of the fledgling video game industry as gamers around the globe flocked to this sleepy Iowa city and its video game arcade for a series of landmark tournaments.
Gamers set world records, the TV show "That's Incredible" broadcast a tournament to a national audience, and then-mayor Jerry Parker dubbed Ottumwa "The Video Game Capital of the World."
The glory days didn't last long. The Twin Galaxies arcade closed within a couple years, and memories of Pac-Man and Donkey Kong dimmed for everyone - except arcade owner Walter Day, who dreamed of making Ottumwa into a permanent game destination.
"You know how your average person fantasizes, when they daydream about having a new car or having a beautiful wife or inheriting from their uncle $2 million or something like that? I'm a little bit different," he said. "I fantasize about owning downtown Ottumwa and turning it into the first video game-themed amusement attraction."
It's a calling that's been heard by town officials. In April, they announced plans for an International Video Game Hall of Fame.
"Every town needs a place to be recognized for," said Terry McNitt, head of Ottumwa's Chamber of Commerce.
Day said he envisioned making Ottumwa a "cultural home base" for the lucrative worldwide gaming industry. The Entertainment Software Association, a game publishers trade group, said computer and video game industry sales climbed to $22 billion in 2008.
Ottumwa's bid to reclaim its past also was inspired by a pair of 2007 video-game documentaries, "King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters" and "Chasing Ghosts," both of which featured the Twin Galaxies' heyday when Day was known as the king of video game stats.
Although his arcade closed, Day's scorekeeper status remains. Twin Galaxies Inc., his Fairfield-based company, tracks rankings, high scores and championship tournaments for video games around the world.
City officials are passionate about Day's plans, but the idea is mostly a vision backed by a Facebook group with about 800 members. Officials said they hoped to buy a building near the original Twin Galaxies site and want to secure naming rights and a designation as a nonprofit and build up a Web site.
Day said he's also reached out to his contacts in the gaming industry for donations. The hall of fame would likely include donated classic games, exhibits about the industry and an area with modern games for visitors to play.
Dale Uehling, the city's mayor, noted there was "a lot of interest, a lot of enthusiasm" for the project.
"The thing is, it's real and it has potential, and I think that's what excites everybody," McNitt said. "Why Ottumwa, Iowa? We're a population of 26,000. Well, we're a great little town."
©2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
-
Company pulls plug on 'Fallujah' video game
Apr 28, 2009 |
not rated yet |
0
-
Video game archive is planned
Jul 30, 2007 |
not rated yet |
0
-
American gamer chronicles Japan's vibrant arcade culture in book
Jan 20, 2009 |
not rated yet |
0
-
Portables drive up video-game sales
Jan 17, 2006 |
not rated yet |
0
-
Study: Violent videos desensitize people
Jul 27, 2006 |
not rated yet |
0
-
Engineers build first sub-10-nm carbon nanotube transistor
Feb 01, 2012 |
4.9 / 5 (33) |
30
-
Something old, something new: Evolution and the structural divergence of duplicate genes
Jan 31, 2012 |
4.6 / 5 (7) |
1
-
The hidden nanoworld of ice crystals: Revealing the dynamic behavior of quasi-liquid layers
Jan 30, 2012 |
5 / 5 (4) |
1
-
Stock market network reveals investor clustering
Jan 27, 2012 |
3.9 / 5 (23) |
8
-
Of microchemistry and molecules: Electronic microfluidic device synthesizes biocompatible probes
Jan 26, 2012 |
5 / 5 (2) |
0
-
How to calculate total compressibility in liquid porous solid system
2 hours ago
-
Need help reading 3-D
21 hours ago
-
A way to send and receive wireless data
Feb 11, 2012
-
Calling function with no input argument
Feb 10, 2012
-
Force free body diagram problem on gym equipment
Feb 10, 2012
-
Empirical data regarding shower heads and water
Feb 10, 2012
- More from Physics Forums - General Engineering
More news stories
Google might launch Drive for cloud storage soon
(PhysOrg.com) -- Google's next big move, according to the Wall Street Journal, is a cloud storage service called Drive. Hardly first to the plate, Google is simply catching up to introducing its cloud reposi ...
Iran blocks email, restricts net access: reports
Iran has further restricted access to the Internet and blocked popular email services for the past few days, in a move a top lawmaker said could "cost the regime dearly," media reports said on Sunday.
3 hours ago |
5 / 5 (1) |
3
Love a click away in Indonesia's Twitter Republic
He was a geeky kid from Yogyakarta, she a glamorous city girl in Jakarta. In a country with one of the world's most vibrant social networking scenes they fell in love on Twitter.
11 hours ago |
4 / 5 (1) |
0
Walney offshore wind farm is world's biggest (for now)
(PhysOrg.com) -- The Walney wind farm on the Irish Sea--characterized by high tides, waves and windy weather--officially opened this week. The farm is treated in the press as a very big deal as the Walney ...
Navy to begin tests on electromagnetic railgun prototype launcher
The Office of Naval Research (ONR)'s Electromagnetic (EM) Railgun program will take an important step forward in the coming weeks when the first industry railgun prototype launcher is tested at a facility ...
Feb 06, 2012 |
4.5 / 5 (17) |
94
|
Scientists discover molecular secrets of 2,000-year-old Chinese herbal remedy
For roughly two thousand years, Chinese herbalists have treated Malaria using a root extract, commonly known as Chang Shan, from a type of hydrangea that grows in Tibet and Nepal. More recent studies suggest that halofuginone, ...
New method to examine batteries -- MRI from the inside
There is an ever-increasing need for advanced batteries for portable electronics, such as phones, cameras, and music players, but also to power electric vehicles and to facilitate the distribution and storage of energy derived ...
Lab study raises questions over nano-particle impact
Tests involving chickens have raised questions about the impact on health from engineered nano-particles, the ultra-fine grains commonly used in drugs and processed foods, scientists said on Sunday.
Injured boomers beware: Know when to see doctor
(AP) -- It happened to nurse Jane Byron years after an in-line skating fall, business owner Haralee Weintraub while doing "men's" push-ups, and avid cyclist Gene Wilberg while lifting a heavy box.
A mitosis mystery solved: How chromosomes align perfectly in a dividing cell
Although the process of mitotic cell division has been studied intensely for more than 50 years, Whitehead Institute researchers have only now solved the mystery of how cells correctly align their chromosomes during symmetric ...
Starve a virus, feed a cure? Findings show how some cells protect themselves against HIV
A protein that protects some of our immune cells from the most common and virulent form of HIV works by starving the virus of the molecular building blocks that it needs to replicate, according to research published online ...