popturf

city: ottumwa

twin galaxies

from the videogame capital of the world posted in video games by chewing_the_scenery

Twin Galaxies is featured in two documentaries from 2007: Chasing Ghosts: Beyond the Arcade and The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters. Watch Vice magazine's interview with Walter Day here: Twin Galaxies and the Golden Domes.

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twin galaxies

from the videogame capital of the world posted in video games by chewing_the_scenery

Walter Day opened the Twin Galaxies arcade in Ottumwa, Iowa in 1981. After realizing early on that there was no unified record of video game high scores, he started the Twin Galaxies International (now Intergalactic) Scoreboard to keep track of high scores from all over the world. Twin Galaxies began organizing competitive gaming events, and the popularity of video games in the culture at the time led to a LIFE magazine story with a photo of some of the country's best players lined up outside the arcade. Ottumwa's mayor, followed by Iowa's governor, declared Ottumwa "The Videogame Capital of the World" in 1982.

The arcade itself was a victim of the video game crash and shut down just a few years later, but Twin Galaxies lives on as a score keeping organization. There has been an effort for several years by record holder Billy Mitchell, Day and others to build a video game museum and hall of fame in Ottumwa.

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canteen lunch in the alley

from roseanne posted in television by chewing_the_scenery

Canteen Lunch in the Alley in downtown Ottumwa, Iowa was the model for the Lanford Lunch Box in Roseanne Barr's sitcom Roseanne. Tom Arnold, Roseanne's husband during the time the show was on the air, was an Ottumwa native. The Canteen, founded in 1936, is known for its loose meat sandwiches... yum.

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