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Walter Day, founder of international video game scorekeeping organization Twin Galaxies, announced that he's retiring from the organization to pursue his "lifelong dream" of a music career.

Day left the oil industry in the early 1980s to open the Twin Galaxies arcade in Ottumwa, Iowa, where he established a database of arcade game high-scores (and gameplay rules for those records) that was soon regarded as the official scoreboard for competitive video games. Day also helped organize professional gaming events around the country and increase media coverage of high score attempts.

Though the Twin Galaxies arcade closed after just several years of operation, Day kept its name alive by tracking video game records and holding competitions for 28 years. The scorekeeping organization is featured prominently in several documentaries about gaming and high scores, including The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, Chasing Ghosts: Beyond the Arcade, and Frag.

Day says he's slowly removed himself from Twin Galaxies's day-to-day duties in the past several years, turning over those responsibilities to newer staff members like David Nelson, Rich Booth, Todd Rogers, Patrick Scott Patterson, and Nik Meeks.

You can hear Walter Day's comments on his retirement, the future of Twin Galaxies, and Ottumwa, Iowa's efforts to open a Video Game Hall of Fame & Museum later this year in the video interview below:

Fresh off his reclaiming of the Donkey Kong Jr. world record, King of Kong star Steve Wiebe will make another attempt to re-capture the high-score for Donkey Kong from rival Billy Mitchell at next week's Game Developer Convention, thanks to bug-tracking software developer Atlassian (Jira).

"Last weekend, I watched the documentary The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters," explains Atlassian's marketing events manager Jessie Curtner. It's an awesome flick about the World Champions in the classic arcade game, Donkey Kong. ... After watching the documentary I thought, 'Wouldn't it be cool if Steve would come play Donkey Kong at [GDC]?' Well, Steve has agreed to do just that."

Wiebe will hang out at Atlassian's booth (#2132) from March 11-13th around 10AM 6PM, giving out autographs when he's not trying to beat Michell's Donkey Kong high score. If you have a copy of his new Christian music album, here's your chance to get that signed!

Developed by PigalleGame Family Entertainment Machines, a Hungary-based company that specializes in boxing and arm-wrestling games, Box4Sex challenges you to "Show you[r] lust is at maximum power, and prove yourself for the lady of your choice - with a sexy gift!"

Box4Sex offers a speed bag that you hit once as hard as possible. Depending on the strength of your punch, the machine will spit out (through a hole decorated with squiggly sperm cells) a capsule that rewards you with rings, thong underwear, and condoms! And if you beat the high score, you can play a free bonus game to win another pair of panties.

The machine is cluttered with text; I counted seven instances of the phrase "Play 4 A Sexy Gift". The middle circle has a particularly embarrassing message: "I'm Horny Let Me Play." There's also at least one section that shows a subtle variation of the title: "Box 4 Safe Sex".

You can watch a video of the Box4Sex machine in action after the break:

[Via Arcade Heroes]

Coptra is an arena shooter in which you have to destroy enemy vehicles and survive for as long as possible. The power-ups that you collect can stack up, hence if you collect two or more power-up items their attributes will combine into a super-weapon until the ammo count is exhausted.

Scanlines can be turned on or off using the N key, and you can quickly skip to the next round by pressing the enter key. Tips on increasing your survival chances are given at the end of each game, and support for standard dual analog and Xbox controllers are included as well. The high score table is located here. (Windows, 3.34MB)

Monkey Kong is a tribute game based on the Game Boy version of Donkey Kong, created by Mike Meyer for the Mini Ludum Dare 15 competition. This version is all about collecting bananas, although after playing for a couple of minutes you'll realize that the structure of a level gets repeated with just the order of it randomized.

Still, it has a nifty backflip element that could be fun if the challenges had more variety and a timer or online high score feature was built in. (source: Rob Fearon) Continue reading

Donkey Kong's second highest scoring player Steve Wiebe is running a limited promotion for his newly released debut album, The King of Song, an 11-track Christian music collection of songs like "Pilot In My Soul" and "A Song For The World".

If you buy the $9.95 (shipping included) CD online before January 1, 2010, he'll include a free signed DVD copy of The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, the documentary following his attempt to take Donkey Kong's high score record from current holder Billy Mitchell, with your order "while supplies last".

You can preview all of the tracks from The King of Song through his online shop. If you don't really need the DVD but want to buy his music in a digital format, you can also purchase them through iTunes.

[Via dchrisd]

Online Games' Basketball is a shoot the hoops game in which players have to get the ball through the basket as many times as they can in under two minutes. The further the ball is from the basket, the more points you score when you successfully make the shot. A multiplier bonus is also awarded if you manage to put the ball through the basket without it touching the metal hoop.

Players can create profiles, join groups, and compete for a place at the top of the high score table with colleagues or friends. (source: ortoslon) Continue reading