MAKE YOUR MOVE IN IOWA, PARDNER

by ALICE NOBLE
United Press International

Now you know: Ottumwa, Iowa, is the rootin'-tootin'-shootin' Dodge City of video games.

Why, the south central Iowa town's city council has even proclaimed Ottumwa the "Video Gaming Capitol of the World."

Twin Galaxies arcade manager Walter Day, who thrust the south central Iowa town into the national limelight last year, now calls the city a "video mecca."

"Remember the gunfights between the so-called 'fast guns' in Dodge City?" he asked. "It's the idea of all the best people come to that one place where they can expect to meet someone who can be a good match.

"The kids love it. They like the fact that the best video game player in the country can be playing next to them."

So how did Day put little Ottumwa, Iowa, on the map?

"Once upon a time, we were just an arcade," Day said. "We had a guy get a high score on the Defenders game, and it was so high we wanted to know if it was a world record.

"So we started making phone calls and writing letters, but couldn't find out if it was the high score. Nobody kept those records."

Finally, Day said, he and his partner, John Bloch, declared their Defenders player the world champion and further declared their little video arcade as the International Scoreboard for video scores.

"It started with a couple of long-distance phone calls coming in here each day to the point where we get an average of 50 calls a day," he said, and there are usually 25 letters in the mailbox each day.

The International Scoreboard is kept on a computer disk and
updated each week with newly verified scores. Each new record must have an affidavit signed by several witnesses and the arcade owner.

Day is building the ultimate scoreboard on his arcade's back wall, where one of seven television screens will display the highest score in the world on any given video game. In a back room, he plans to build the Official Video Game Hall of Fame.

The Twin Galaxies arcade sponsored the first North American Video Olympics in Ottumwa last fall, bringing in the best players from around the country to compete on five games.

"You should have seen the girls vying for the affections of the video players here for the Olympics," Day said. "It's just another version of rock stars."

Caption:
photo: Walter Day