B e g i n n i n g Of  T w i n G a l a x i e s

Beginning - Golden Age January 18, 1982
Twin Galaxies Arcade was the Official Location of the Score Keeper of
Video Game High Scores and without Walter Day's passion for keeping high scores, there would be no Video Game Guinness World Records and no way to know who was best in the world. The Golden Age of Video Game Arcades began on January 18, 1982 when John Skow of Time magazine wrote an article which crowned Steve Juraszek the first superstar of the video game age by achieving the record of 15,963,100 points on

Defender in 16 hours. He was the first player to receive worldwide recognition. This imortalized Twin Galaxies in Ottumwa, IA as the Video Game Capital of the World.

W a l t e r D a y

Walter Day - Guinness Official Referee
The Video Game High Score Board was the brain child of Walter Day who knew that if he could make the world believe that he had the only official score board that video game high scores would be taken seriously and everyone would clamor to be recognized on that score board. He proclaimed to every organization, AGMA, ACME, AMOA, Time Magazine, Life Magazine, Replay Magazine, Playmeter Magazine, Atari, Midway, etc. that he had the official score board and because he was the first who cared to put in the work they gladly gave him the job. From 1981 to 1986 he was the official score keeper and ran many contests that were well received by the media which gave him and his high score players fame and adoration as being the best in the world.

Publicity Twin Galaxies Ottawa, Illinois - Video Game Capital of the World

In order for Walter Day to be taken seriously he first figured
out a way to make his video game arcade the best known in the world.
If he could proof that Fame would come to all those players who came
to his Ottawa arcade, Twin Galaxies, the self proclaimed Video Game
Capital of the World, then he could become an instant success.

C o m p e t i t i o n Video Game Heroes

Walter Day needed to create Heroes and did this by introducing
contests like the North Carolina versus California Playoff, The U.S.
National Video Game Team, The State Teams Tournament, That's
Incredible with Tim Collum Ms Pac-Man Champ, The Electronic Circus
with Conga the Gorilla who played Congo Bongo, The (Annual) Video
Game Masters Tournament, The Iron Man 100 hour Contest and (Annual)
Coronation Day. These contests were all set up to see who was the
best of the best. Everybody wanted the coveted title of Player of
The Year as well as Video Game Master.

High Scores were published in the Guinness Book of World Records and in many magazines. Anybody who could beat these top gun players would be proclaimed the best and be put on the official high score board and would be received favorably by the media and by the millions of fans who were amazed that someone could master the video game. Players were becoming overnight heroes. This in turn made Walter Day famous for his Tournaments and High Score Board-(TGTS). He was known as Mr. Video Game.

Twin Galaxies Intergalatic Score Board
(TGTS)

First International Scoreboard Contest.
The first Twin Galaxies International Scoreboard contest was on
April 9, 1982. Twenty four players went head to head to compete on the game.
Defender in twenty-four different cities. Rick Smith from Mission Viejo, CA won with a record score of 33,013,200. This contest had helped cement the status of Twin Galaxies as being the Official Record Keeper.

Twin Galaxies - First International Arcade
Because people were calling from all over the world to report their
high scores to Walter Day, he coined the term, "Twin Galaxies is the world's
most famous arcade." The offical scoreboard was the only connection to all
of the world champions.

Apparently there were a disproportionate number of high scores coming
from California and North Carolina. It was unusual because the two had equaled all of the other states combined high scores. The scores were coming from Light Years Amusement in Wilmington, NC. and Phil's Family Fun Center, a first-class promoter in Lakewood, CA was ready to compete against North Carolina. This competition was the first in which the players suspected other players were lying about their scores. This meant that stringent rules had to be written up for competitive video game playing so that cheating would be thwarted.

Think Tank Arrives

Spencer Oueren, Tom Asaki and Don Williams were the Bozeman Think Tank.

It was their job to find fraud in other players high score applications. In order to get a score accepted onto the scoreboard you were questioned by these three masters regarding your marathon skills. If you didn't know the intimate details of the higher levels of play then you were a fraud. New rules were made when finding flaws whle judging marathons. Players world trade off with their friends or use tricks which made it very easy to beat a game.

Legitimate Scores

Marathons were no longer supported because the games have to be watched at all times by witnesses that have to be trusted to stay awake and be honest. High scores needed to be photographed in order to show proof that the score can be accomplished along with valid referee witness signatures.

You would have to answer to the think tank and they knew if you were lying because they had master skills as well. Scores could also be challenged within the first year of the high score and you would have to proof your skills again, at least to 80% of your high score total. Finally, if not in an actual tournament, you must submit a video tape of the entire game and the dip switch setting in order to show the legitimate score.

Second Annual Coronation Day - Golden Age

January 12-13, 1985 - 2nd Annual Coronation Day/3rd Annual Inventational Player of the Year Contest The best of the best all flew in to Los Angeles CA from all over the world to challenge the local players at Captain Video's Arcade in West Los Angeles. This would prove to be one of Twin Galaxies' greatest achievements. This was as big as the That's Incredible Contest two years earlier. The competition was very serious because the players were pitted against each other instead of just against their own high score attempts.

Media coverage included USA Today, Nationally syndicated ABC's Entertainment Tonight,and many other local stations. The contests four games included: SNK's Mad Crasher, Exidy's Cheyenne Gun, Data Easts' Karate Champ, and Atari's Return of the Jedi.

C.A. Robinson & Co. the legendary distributor of video games and pinballs in
Los Angeles sponsored the event.

In the end, the Local Californian's held back their legendary competitors and won the competition. The winners in order: Phil Britt of Riverside, CA., Mike Sullivan of Riverside, Ca in second, and Jeff Peters of Etiwanda, CA was in third. Phil Britt was named 1985 Player-of-the-Year. He had beaten everybody who was considered the best.

Third Annual Masters Tournament

Third Annual Masters Tournament - June 28, 1985 On June 28, 1985

Paul Dean of Riverside, CA had beaten Phil Britt on Spy Hunter in the June 28-30, 1985 Third Annual Masters Tournament in Upland California.

Phil Britt's 1984 score was beaten by ten times the amount and Paul Dean's score still stands today 19 years later. This score was published in the Guinness Book of World Records 1986 and 1987 Edition.

Phil Britt has a lot to lose by allowing my score to go through because he was crowned the best in the world January 13th of 1985 and here he had been beaten just seven months later in the same year. Of course he still has many other high scores which still stand without competition. His most notable high score is in Paperboy.

Note: I hold Phil Britt in the Highest Regard because he was my Teacher and friend and without his skill in teaching me Spy Hunter in Riverside, CA., I would never have been published.

If my high score is deleted and no longer published it will be based on the fact that the High Score Board refuses to interview all of the referee's and highly regarded players that were present at the time of my high score. Jeff Peters of Etiwanda, Ca. and Phil Britt both Guinness Players, knows and watched my abilities on many occasions including the 3rd Annual Masters Tournament on June 28, 1985. All of the below Guinness Players also know my Masters abilities and have seen my master level play for several years as we were all a pack who would challenge other groups of players.

Great Players from Riverside, CA: Dave Dean, Mappy High Score
Mike Quarlls, Crystal Castle High Score
Mike Sullivan, Karate Champ High Score
Phil Britt, PaperBoy High Score
Paul Dean, Spy Hunter High Score

The End Of The Golden Age

Home Entertainment Systems Stifle Arcades
End of Golden Age - January 5, 1986

The golden age of video game arcades has just about completely dried up
because everyone is staying home and playing their home games. Walter Day's arcade had closed down on March 6, 1984 and the shake out was unraveling even further after that time.

The boom year of 1982 had 425,000 coin-op arcades running but one year
later there were only 250,000 left. This number kept going in a downward
spiral as more kids were getting their brand new home enterainment units.
January 5, 1986 was a time when players were not turning out any more and
so the scoreboard was no longer needed.

Changing Times
When Asteroids was introduced in 1979 the player had the opportunity
to show off to his friends his high score abilities by putting his initials
on the final screen if he had won. This was a time for celebration and for
social bonding. The Arcades were packed and everyone was happy to meet there new found video game friends to compete with and share ideas about everything from video games to World War.

Home Entertainment Systems Introduced

Then came the Home Entertainment System. It gradually took over the
public's interest and people went back into their homes never to come out to
the arcade again. They went from being very extraverted and social in the
arcades to being introverted and unwilling to leave the house until they
had mastered the game they had brought home. The kids got fatter and more
anti-social and now we live in an obese age in which the kids don't go to
a local arcade to exchange their ideas any more. Life has changed as we
know it and I do not believe that we will ever go back to those golden
years of video game arcade hang-outs.

High Scores Luck or Skill

Can A High Score Be Faked or Stumbled on to? A high score cannot be gotten without intimate knowledge about the game. Every situation leads to a problem which must be solved and can only be solved at a masters level of understanding. This is how the cheats and lyres are weeded out. They cannot answer the questions of the other master players because they don't have the knowledge to recite the pattern in order to complete an advanced stage of play. A great player never forgets what he has learned because he has practiced it literally thousands of times.

Guinness Book High Scores Discontinued
In 1987 Guinness Stops Publishing Video Game High Scores
Because so many people were playing games and were interested in beating
these games, the [Guinness Book of World Records] published these high scores. Unfortunately, the craze of video games wore out and the Guinness Book of World Records DISCONTINUED publishing High Scores after 1987.

My 1985 Spy Hunter high score is the last ever published in the
Guinness Book of World Records. This history basically revisits the past
craze and special time when people would get together in Video Game Arcades and share ideas about how to beat the latest video game.

Current News

Current News - Year 2004
Now in 2004, Twin Galaxies Score Board is publishing a second edition
of the "Twin Galaxies Official Video Game & Pinball Book Of World Records." They are considering taking my 1985 Spy Hunter High Score out of print simply because nobody has reproduced my score and that my score simply seems impossible because it is ten times higher than any other high score even after 19 years of attempts by the best players in the world.

Fake Score Published

There have been bogus scores that have been published in the Guinness
Book of World Records but when investigated, these scores were thrown out
because there were no credible witnesses who could come forward. My
Guinness World Record was made at the 1985 3rd Annual Masters Tournament in front of Phil Britt, previous Spy Hunter World Record Holder 1984, and of course he would have stopped my game if he thought it was bogus because it was his score that I was beating. He wouldn't want his score
to be taken down unless he found that someone was able to get a higher