'Boise, Idaho - Video Game Capital of the world ?' article @ Classic Arcade Gaming (dot com)

I first saw the story on the possibility of Twin Galaxies establishing its headquarters, and more, in Boise, Idaho when checking the main page at Twin Galaxies the day the story was posted. I read through this 'news release' (reproduced below, along with the new logo), and my reaction was one of doubt. First, the financing for a major move, plus facility construction, would naturally be quite prohibitive. Second, and most importantly, in order to make a gaming facility of most any size reasonably self-sufficient, a lot of paying customers have to patronize it. The proposed location doesn't help this necessity, in my mind. If it was me, I'd go for a year-round warm-weather area (like California, Texas, or Florida), and/or one that draws a lot of tourists (read: fresh patrons all the time). The latter is one thing that helps Funspot do so well.

I next checked out the article in The Idaho Statesman newspaper's 05-04-2004 issue, which is reprinted (including the text, side-captions, and photo) just below the TG release. After reading through it, my suspicions of the difficulty involved were confirmed by the various sources in Boise that were quoted.

In spite of the reservations that I have about it, I'm all for the general plan, and wish the best of luck to Walter Day, TG, and all those involved. It's a great idea overall, and if it can come to fruition, then everyone that's into cag will benefit.

Today's Idaho Statesman has published a front page news story on Twin Galaxies' plans to open up a facility in Idaho which features an olympic gaming center for the electronic gaming hobby in addition to an official Museum of Video Game History. In an official news release sent out today in conjunction with the news story in the Statesman, Walter Day, Twin Galaxies founder says: ""Not only is the Boise facility intended to be the olympic center of video game competition - like Athens, Greece was to athletic excellence thousands of years ago, but it will also maintain a complete historical museum of video game history, similar to the role played by Cooperstown for the baseball industry.

The Video Game & Pinball Museum will stock between 20,000 and 40,000 different titles for visitors to play, featuring ongoing promotions on classic games as well as on today's hottest PC and console games like Battlefield 1942, Halo, Counterstrike and Unreal Tournament.

It will be a hands-on facility and visitors will be invited to attempt to break current world records on any game and win a listing in the next edition of Twin Galaxies' Official Video Game & Pinball Book of World Records, the industry's official record book.

Day also states: "An historical resource of this magnitude has never been attempted before," explains Day. "Usually, when a game has run its marketing cycle, both the manufacturer and public abandon the game and it becomes just a forgotten memory."

"However, Twin Galaxies will be the only place in the world that keeps the memory of all these forgotten games alive, offering contests and promotions on not just today's X-Box live and PS2, but also on the original arcade Pac-Man and Donkey Kong, Atari 2600, Sega Saturn and N-64."

Boise? World's video game capital?
Iowa firm may build gaming stadium, museum

Eric Nelson

Athens is known for the Olympic Games and Cooperstown is known for the Baseball Hall of Fame. But Boise?

Move over potatoes, Boise may soon be known as the video game capital of the world.

Twin Galaxies, a company that has held championship video game tournaments, kept player rankings and tracked video game world records since the days of Pac-Man and Donkey Kong, wants to establish its headquarters in Boise, said Walter Day, founder and chief scorekeeper of Iowa-based Twin Galaxies.

The company's time frame "is ASAP," Day said. It's working on financing with shareholders, and if everything goes according to plan Twin Galaxies could be building a 12,000-square-foot "stadium" in early September to house a historical gaming museum, weekly competitions and the annual video game world championships. The company said it could hire as many as 50 people if it moves from Iowa to Boise.

"We'll build a stadium, we'll post statistics and results from video game players throughout the whole world," said Day. "Almost every weekend we'll have something big and every few weekends we'll bring a competition of national caliber to Boise. This will bring thousands of people to Idaho."

Day's optimism, however, should not be mistaken for a sure thing, city representatives said. Twin Galaxies has not contacted the city's economic development council or the Chamber of Commerce, said Shirl Boyce, vice president of economic development for the Boise Metro Chamber of Commerce.

Local gaming facilities, such as Game World arcade, family entertainment center Pojo's, and Pie nightclub have struggled to draw large crowds to video game competitions.

"To pull off what they're trying to do would be very difficult," Game World manager Vince Dick said. "Competitions don't usually draw as many people as they once did, especially with the way home game systems have taken off."

But, Julia Roether, a spokeswoman for the video game company Nintendo, said Twin Galaxies is well-known in the video game industry and has the ability to draw competitors and spectators to Boise.

Twin Galaxies has held more than 90 competitions over the past five years at a variety of locations — Las Vegas, New Hampshire and the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn., to name a few — drawing from 100 to 100,000 spectators, according to media reports.

"Right now there's no unification in the gaming industry," said Bill Cserjes, Twin Galaxies' chief operations officer. "But our plan is to put the headquarters of a $24 billion industry in Boise and unite the industry."

Cserjes moved to Boise several years ago. He said he's now researching possible locations for Twin Galaxies headquarters, although the company hasn't made any formal land inquires. Among the sites Twin Galaxies is considering: The old Costco building at 8109 W. Franklin Road and land on the western outskirts of the city, Cserjes said.

"If they do start holding worldwide competitions in Boise, I can't think of any negatives to the industry," said Gary Wood, co-owner of Pojo's in Boise. "If anything, I think (Twin Galaxies) could really help the video game world gain awareness, get people talking about video games again."

About Twin Galaxies

In 1981, Twin Galaxies founder Walter Day visited more than 100 arcades across the county and recorded the high scores he found on each game. Within a year, he opened his own arcade in Ottumwa, Iowa, and continued to keep a growing database of high score statistics, which he made available to the public.

According to the company's Web site, Day gained recognition from high-profile game manufacturers such as Atari, Nintendo and Universal.

Twin Galaxies continued to rank top players and Day was picked to edit scores for the 1984-1986 editions of the U.S. Guinness Book of World Records. Twin Galaxies also produced the first official rule book for playing electronic games and established the rules and settings for each game, according its Web site.

Twin Galaxies is currently run by a handful of its shareholders. The company expects to start up in Boise and hire about 50 people locally. Promotions, sponsorships, membership, competition entry fees, investors and book sales will help finance the Boise project, Day said.

The company tracks the scores for about 10,000 games such as Pac Man, Donkey Kong, Crazy Taxi, Star Wars, Tony Hawk, Men in Black, Super Mario Bros and Grand Theft Auto.

Day's book, the Official Video Game and Pinball Book of World Records, is 984 pages with 12,416 scores from players in 31 countries. Day plans to release an updated version in the fall.