International Classic Video Game Tournament - Day Two

I just returned from Laconia and Day #2 of the International Classic Video Game Tournament at Funspot and let me tell you it has been quite a day. I was able to speak with many of the best arcade gamers in the world, including several of the people featured in the films Chasing Ghosts and The King of Kong. Regardless of your take on those films, I wish to make it clear that this is one of the most gracious and friendly group of people that I have ever met. I strongly encourage anyone who has formed oppinions based on either of those films to discard any pre-conceptions you may have regarding the people on which these movies focused. Hopefully, at some point, you will get the opportunity to meet some of these folks in person. It has been my distinct pleasure to do so this weekend.

I am bushed and need to get some sleep after almost 12 hours spent at Funspot today interviewing players and representatives from Twin Galaxies, watching world records being broken left and right and playing alot of great arcade titles myself. Once again, I will be compiling the interviews from this weekend and hope to have something posted by mid-week. I will be taking the day off to spend with my better half tomorrow, but will be returning to Funspot on Sunday for the final day of the tournament and for the presentation of the awards for the winners. In the meantime, here are a few photographic highlights of my day today.

It's Official (They will let anyone into this event)

I had the pleasure of meeting and interviewing Walter Day, Founder of Twin Galaxies

Walter Day's Fans kept him busy signing autographs for much of the day

I also met Todd Rogers (though apparently I was napping at the time)

Todd Rogers and Brian Kuh both hold multiple world records

David Hernly Broke his old World Record high score for After Burner II Today

CJ Padilla, Kyle Faust & Adam Wood set the record for 3-person cooperative play on Quartet today as well

CJ Also holds the World Record for Crazy Taxi (arcade version)

Here is a cool cab you don't see very often - Q*bert's Cubes

First-time competor Benjamin Daniels checks out the PC-10 Cab

Another first-time competor, Jon Flanders, checks out the Monopoly Pinball Machine

Dennis Weaver and Dan Cunningham of Twin Galaxies

UPDATE: I forgot to include a picture of the bottle of Rickey's Hot Sauce made by Billy Mitchel that I was graciously given on Friday.