Page 10 - Old School Gamer Magazine Issue #38 FREE Edition

Twin Galaxies’ fame had become international and many
game manufacturers considered
Twin Galaxies to be the premiere organization that represented the interests of the player. When That’s Incredible contacted numerous game manufacturers with the idea for a video game competition, they were directed by the manufacturers to contact Twin Galaxies.
Twin Galaxies had been the
official consultant for the Ms. Pac- Man championship that That’s Incredible! staged in October 1982. Based on the viewership their show enjoyed, they planned to revisit the video game competitions.
Soon, in December 1982, Todd Simon, a producer for That’s Incredible, contacted Walter Day and started the ball rolling for a video game segment. He wasn’t certain what the theme or essence of the show should be, but he agreed to visit Twin Galaxies in person to work directly with Walter Day in hashing out a plan for a show.
By coincidence, on the actual day that he arrived at Twin Galaxies, the famous LIFE magazine issue had arrived on the newsstands and
it seemed clear that the two-page photo and story were instrumental in influencing him to green-light the contest planned for Ottumwa in early January.
While he was in Ottumwa, I filled his head with a vision of how the contest could be based on the percentages that made the top
score on each of five different games equal to 100%, and then each lesser score scaled accordingly. For instance, if 100,000 points was the highest score in a game, it would be made equal to 100%. Accordingly, 55,000 points would therefore be equal to 55%. After all the players had attained a percentile ranking
on each of the five games, their percentages would then be averaged out together and then placed in the final standings.
OTTUMWA, IOWA
So, Ottumwa - the video game capital of the world - hosted history’s first video game Olympics. It was held at the Twin Galaxies International Scoreboard, Jan 8-9, 1983. And, as planned, the entire proceedings were filmed by the ABC-TV show "That's Incredible" for an exclusive airing on February 21.
Nineteen hand-picked video game superstars participated in the pentathlon (five-game contest) featuring Donkey Kong, Jr., Super Pac-Man, Millipede, Joust, and Frogger. Designed to determine which players were the "best all- around performers," the competition - billed as "the best of the best" - tested the contestants' skill on both slow strategy games as well as the fast-shooting type.
The nineteen contestants were selected with their past track records in mind. Almost all were either past or present world champions in at least one video game. Many were title holders on as many as 3-4 different games. Hundreds of players were screened to locate the rare individual capable of this caliber of play.
The Olympics began with a parade down Main St., an inaugural speech by Ottumwa Mayor Jerry Parker, and the singing of the National Anthem. Local Ottumwa residents, along with many spectators from
as far away as Salisbury, Md., Ypsilanti, Mi., and Kenosha, Wi., were invited to don black and white striped referee jerseys to act as the official referees.
The Olympics benefited greatly
from the help offered by members
of the video game industry. All the machines used for the competition were donated free of charge by Phillip Moss & Co. of Des Moines, IA. An entire crew of skilled technicians tackled the technical problems encountered when hooking up overhead monitors and moving over 100 machines around in a small area.
THAT’S INCREDIBLE! WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS!!! By Walter Day
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OLD SCHOOL GAMER MAGAZINE • ISSUE #38