video games
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.
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.
view full location details...funspot
from largest arcade in the world posted in video games by chewing_the_scenery
Funspot in Laconia, New Hampshire is the "largest arcade in the world" according to Guinness World Records. It opened in 1952 featuring indoor mini-golf and a penny arcade and moved to its current location in 1964. It hosts competitive tournaments (you can see it in the 2007 documentary The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters) and is home to the American Classic Arcade Museum with over 200 classic games from the '70s and '80s.
view full location details...burnside skatepark
from tony hawk’s pro skater, grind session, and tony hawk’s pro skater 3 posted in video games by prof_improbable
Burnside Skatepark is located underneath the Burnside Bridge on the east side of the Willamette River.
Originally built by the skating community without permission, Burnside was eventually approved by the city as a public skatepark.
It is a level for multiple Tony Hawk skateboarding video games.
It was also featured in the 1993 film Free Willy, and the 2007 film Paranoid Park. You can catch a glimpse of it in the beginning montage (and the occasional segueway) of the TV show Portlandia.
view full location details...atari headquarters (former)
from pong, atari, nintendo, steve jobs posted in video games by pete_nice
Atari, Inc. was an American video game and home computer company founded in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney. They introduced several products to the North American market that cemented video games as part of popular culture. 2600 anyone? Bam!
Al Acorn worked here- the guy who invented Pong.
Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak (before they started Apple Computer) worked here in 1974.
The company closed up shop and sold assets in 1984.
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