Twin Galaxies is the organization started by Walter Day in the 1980s to keep track of video game world records. My wife and I decided that it would be fun to take a trek down there for the day considering how close it was (only a couple hours drive from Des Moines) and compete in the Mario Kart 64 tournament that was advertised on their website.

I had read on the forums for the event a few months back that they'd hoped to get 10,000 people to show up, but when we first pulled up and realized that parking in the Bridge View Events Center parking lot was no problem, it became quickly apparent that the event was much smaller than that.

To say it was not crowded would be a vast understatement. We didn't have to wait in line to hand over our $20 tickets and get wristbands, and after we walked past the event check-in, and saw nothing. In the main hall there wasn't a whole lot of anything other than a few tables with folks eating nachos and drinking beer. To the left I saw a Pac-Man room which was the first sign that this was a gaming event. The Pac-Man room had about 8 different Pac-Man machine variants and spin-offs all set on free play, with prizes to be handed out to the top score on each machine for the day. I played a game of Pac-Man Plus and Ms. Pac-Man later in the day, while my wife decorated a birthday card for the round yellow guy. The event also was to celebrate his 30th birthday, and a Namco exec was on hand to help celebrate, as well as a Pac-Man mascot. 

A Namco Senior Vice President and Pac-Man were on hand to accept the nomination

Once we walked around the corner, I saw something that caught my eye and made me realize that maybe there would be something interesting at the event afterall: a Vectrex.   There were two Vectrex units sitting out, and I spent a few minutes playing around on one of them. After moving on from the Vectrex, I found the "open play" and "BYOC" (Bring Your Own Computer) area. There were hundreds of TVs with NES, Super NES, N64, PS1, PS2, Xbox, Xbox 360, Wii and other systems hooked up to them, as tournaments happened throughout the day.

The Mario Kart tournament was fairly unorganized, starting a good 30 minutes late and using a fair number of third party controllers with no real rules or officiating. My wife and I played together in the first round on 150cc on Choco Mountain and Mario Speedway. I finished second out of the four, but my wife was eliminated.

While waiting for the first round to finish, I headed over to the NES area and got the first four power-ups in Metroid before dying and losing interest.

In the second round, I was paired up in a one-on-one match with the person who had won my bracket in the first round.  I knew I would get killed because in the first round, the guy had won without any problems, and I was right. We played 150cc on the last three tracks in the Special Cup, and he finished first in each, lapping me in two of the three races. I never claimed to be any good at video games, especially Mario Kart 64!

After the tournament ended, we headed into the theater for the Class of 2010 induction, but not before getting a chance to shake hands and accept a free bottle of Rickey's Chicken Wing Sauce from Billy Mitchell. He was friendly, but bossy, and made some offhand quip when I called him "Mr. Mitchell" saying that was his dad's name, and I should call him Billy.

The actual induction was a series of names I'd never heard before, who had performed amazing feats on games that hadn't been relevant in a long time. Some of the achievements were mind boggling - two people who had played Asteroids on one quarter for over 53 hours were inducted, and of course Billy Mitchell and Steve Wiebe, the "Kings of Kong" were also inducted. It was fun to watch a lot of people who had dedicated their lives to classic gaming earn recognition for things they did many, many years ago in some cases. A few of them choked back tears, and a few of them seemed like they didn't really even want to be there. Some of them traveled from many miles away to come to this little town of Ottumwa, IA for the induction, and all of them had nice things to say about Walter Day.

The Class of 2010

Day himself was awarded a Lifetime Achievement award by the IVGHOF for the things he had done to legitimize competitive gaming. Day seemed surprised by the honor, and chose instead to spend his time thanking others for the help they'd given him through the years.

Shigeru Miyamoto was inducted, but was unable to attend, and wrote a letter to the organizers thanking them for the invitation.

Miyamoto's Induction Writeup

Afterwards, I managed to get a picture with "The King of Kong" star and protagonist Steve Wiebe, who was very nice and personable.  He seemed almost surprised that anyone would want to get a picture with him, and also seemed tired after flying in from Seattle a few days prior. Nonetheless, he was gracious enough to say hello to me and get a picture.

"King of Kong" star Steve Wiebe

Afterwards we headed out on the highway for the drive home. All in all, it was an event that needs a lot of work, but has a bright future. The event has some legitimacy, but needs to find a way to get some more popularity. The idea that Ottumwa, IA is the perfect place for the event was driven home time and again during the induction ceremony, but if they are set on having the event in Ottumwa, getting some more gaming celebrities to attend is a must.   For now, an event with maybe 250-500 attendees isn't going to set the world on fire, but for folks in Iowa who have to plan for months to find a way to attend PAX or Comic-Con, it's nice to have something nearby, run by passionate organizers who really believe in what they're doing. If you're anywhere near Iowa, I'd recommend checking it out next year. And hey, maybe you'll get some free hot sauce out of the trip.