posted by chewing_the_scenery #
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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.
