Video game documentary premiering at Sundance
by Kevin Kelly 
{ Nov 30th 2006 at 6:25PM }
A documentary detailing the 1982 World Video Game Championships will be hitting the screens at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. It's called Chasing Ghosts or Rulers of the Galaxy depending on which source you read (Variety calls it Chasing Ghosts, but the Sundance site calls it Rulers of the Galaxy. They probably had to change the title since a film called Chasing Ghosts was released last year starring Michael Madsen) and is directed by Lincoln Ruchti ... perfect for an Xbox Live Marketplace download, right?The movie focuses on the championships held at the Twin Galaxies Arcade in Ottumwa, Iowa, which was declared the "Video Game Capital of the World" in 1982 by the mayor of Ottumwa, and then later made official by the governor at a special ceremony in 1983. So, if you've been wondering where the capital is, now you know. Start planning your trip now. It also stars top video gamers like Billy Mitchell and Darren Olsen, and contains plenty of retro-gaming action.
Twin Galaxies opened in 1981 after founder Walter Day toured over 100 arcades in four months, recording high scores on all the video games, and then brought them to his arcade as the "Twin Galaxies National Scoreboard." Although the arcade closed down in 1984 (wow, video game capital of the world doesn't hold much staying power, does it?) they still track high scores. Check out their Official Video Game & Pinball Book of World Records published in 1997. In today's day and age they live on the web, where you can search to your heart's content on their site. For instance, we just found out that Donald Hayes set the current official high score of 589,350 for Frogger in 2005. Now you know, and knowing is half the battle.
We'll be checking the flick out at Sundance and talking to cast & crew, so look for that in January.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Paulcardo @ Nov 30th 2006 6:34PM
First Post!!!
RainbowFrankenstein @ Nov 30th 2006 6:43PM
Im going to have to catch that flick. I live in des moines, IA and it actually in some small way makes me feel better knowing i live in the state that holds the video game capital of the world. Otherwise Iowa is incredibly boring
otakucode @ Nov 30th 2006 6:49PM
Microsoft opening the Live Marketplace to independent film makers? HA! Keep dreaming! I'd absolutely love to see it happen, but there is no way that the major movie distribution companies would agree to share a digital marketplace with movies they're completely being cut out of the loop on. And look at the Zune. Microsoft is entirely at the beck and call of the major media companies.
Kev Archie @ Nov 30th 2006 9:58PM
I thought George Castanza had the frogger high score?
TooManyGames @ Nov 30th 2006 11:26PM
I'm pretty sure that they filmed some of this movie at the arcade I hang out at, Challenge Arcade. A lot of the gamers that are going to be in this movie have also participated in tournaments held there, players like Donald Hayes, Kelly Tharp, Mark Alpiger, etc... I think there's another big event coming up at Challenge Arcade in March. If anyone wants to check 'em out it's www.challengearcade.com The website's kind of barebones right now and is a little out of date with the game lineup.