Page 11 - Old School Gamer Magazine Issue #38 FREE Edition

The maintenance of the machines was handled by Mark Zeller, and a crew of technicians donated free of charge by Hawk-Eye Amusement of Iowa City. Ottumwa's Radio Shack directed a team of high school computer science students in handling and programming the contest scores and standings.
The three finalists would win complimentary subscriptions donated by Play Meter, Replay, and Joystick magazines.
The contestants were: Joe Malasarte, Anchorage Alaska; Joe Louks, Moncks Corner, SC; Mark Sellers, Grand Rapids, MI; Steve Harris, Gladstone, MO; Jeff Stueve, Dayton, OH; Lee Whitney, Las
Vegas, NV; Ben Gold, Dallas, TX, Mike Lepkosky, Spring, TX; Todd Walker, Milpitas, CA; James Marino, Hauppauge, NY; Antonio Medina, Napa, CA; Darren Olson, Calgary, Alberta, Canada; Steve Sanders, Clinton, Mo; Tim Collum, Boyd, TX; Matt Brass, Helena, MT; Eric Ginner, Mt. View, Ca; Landon Rothstein, Hauppauge, NY; Steve Juraszek, Mt. Prospect, IL; Tim Foland, Spring, TX.
LOS ANGELES
The top three finalists in Ottumwa were flown to the "That's Incredible" studios in Los Angeles for a final show-down for the Silver, Bronze, and Gold medals. Ben Gold of Dallas, TX won first place by out-playing Darren Olson of Calgary, Canada, and Todd Walker of Milpitas, CA on five different games: Burgertime, Donkey Kong, Jr., Buck Rogers, Kosmos, and Millipede. The players had to run from game to game after achieving a certain minimum score on each machine and then run across a finish line.
Todd Walker and Darren Olson, finishing second and third
respectively, crossed the finish line less than 15 seconds after Ben Gold, who was crowned Champion.
BACK IN IOWA
On the night of February 21, 1983, nearly 100 people crowded into the nearby Osco drugstore in Ottumwa to stand and watch the live That’s Incredible broadcast on the store’s television set.
As fun as the show was, many people were disappointed and expressed their disappointment very vocally. The show’s producers and editors had edited out most of the Ottumwa segment of the episode. They focused almost entirely on
the “finals” conducted in the That’s Incredible studios in Hollywood.
In the opinion of everyone present, the qualifying contest held in Ottumwa at Twin Galaxies was far more interesting and entertaining than the competition organized for the Hollywood grand finale. Though some Ottumwans felt betrayed, they all agreed that this was a landmark accomplishment for everyone in the video game kingdom.
BEN GOLD’S VIDEO GAME “ORIGIN” STORY AND EXPERIENCE WITH THAT’S INCREDIBLE!
(from an interview with Ryan Burger)
In the summer of 1982, I was playing video games in Dallas. I was trying to be the best at
everything, doing my best to be. Trying to figure out where these competitions were. I found a few competitions. I got into this high- score war with one of my arcade friends. We were playing Stargate, which is a marathon game. This means you can play it until you drop because you get a free guy every 10,000 points. So, if you average more than 10,000, you can just keep playing.
I started getting into a high-score war with him, where I would get 2 million points and spend two hours playing. Then he would come back and get 4 million points. He ended up getting 17 million on Stargate in
one day. That was basically, if you think about it, 17 million on Stargate takes about 15 hours to achieve.
So, I called up Williams (Electronics - Stargate Publisher) and asked, “What’s the world record?” It was 36 million. Actually, they said
they didn’t know, but there’s a guy named Walter Day in Iowa. They told me to give him a call and he would tell me.
I called Walter. We had a conversation... and it was like... life-changing for me. I was like, ‘What? I’m not the only one playing these games?” It was like I found my brotherhood if you can say
that. We talked for like an hour. I told him I was gonna set the world record. I told him when and where
I was going to do it. This was back in September of 1982. I did 36 hours and got 40 million, setting the world
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