National Hydro Thunder Championships To Crown Top Arcade
Players
CHICAGO, IL Midwayıs Hydro Thunder arcade video
game will be the center of attention this summer as two big
contests sponsored by Twin Galaxies hand out cash prizes to the
fastest players in North America.
The National Hydro Thunder Championships, co-sponsored by Friar
Tuckıs Gameroom in Calumet City, Illinois and the Twin Galaxies
Intergalactic Scoreboard, will give cash prizes to the top 20
contestants, including a $1,000 first-place purse. And, to give
everybody a chance to prove their stuff on Hydro Thunder, a
second $1,000 contestone for players who canıt get to the
Chicago finalswill accept high-scores via mail from any
location operating a Hydro Thunder game.
³The huge public acclaim for Hydro Thunder has made these
contests unavoidable,² says Walter Day, chief scorekeeper at
Twin Galaxies. ³Its been like a traffic jam at Twin Galaxies
since Hydro Thunder hit the arcades,² Day adds. ³Everybodyıs
submitting Hydro scores, trying to dominate the high-score race.
In fact, the last time there was this much rivalry for a high
score crown was when Williams Electronics released Defender in
1981. The public pressure to crown a champion back then was so
great that Twin Galaxies was forced to stage the 1982 National
Defender Video Game Championships, which saw a player in
Mission Viejo, California beat out players in 23 other cities on
April 9, 1982.²
Scheduled for Saturday, October 2nd at Friar Tuckıs, the
National Championships will give the nationıs top players the
opportunity to prove their stuff in head-to-head eliminations,
following the same competition format popularized by professional
boat racing.
And, to add further excitement to the Chicago finals, five
regional championships will give local Hydro Thunder players an
opportunity to win an all-expenses-paid trip to the National
Championships, where the winner will be competing against
hundreds of other nationally-ranked players, including the
winners of the four other regional Hydro Thunder Championships.
Second, third and fourth place finishers at all the regional
contests will receive framed certificates and other prizes to be
announced. The results of all these events will be published in
the next edition of Twin Galaxiesı Official Video Game &
Pinball Book of World Records, the official record book for
the worldwide video game and pinball industries.
To vie for the title of ³Regional Champion,² players will be
competing at these regional contest sites:
July 31st, The Northwest Regional Championships at
Wizards of the Coast Game Center, 4518 University Ave. NE,
Seattle, WA 98105 (800)923-0017
August 13th, The Southeast Regional Championships at
Grand Prix Race-O-Rama, 1501 NW First Street, Dania, Florida
33004 (954)921-2416
August 21st, The Northeast Regional Championships at
the Funspot Family Fun Center, U.S. Rte 3, Weirs Beach, NH 03246
(603)366-4377.
September 11th, The Southwest Regional Championships
in Los Angeles, California. Arcade to be announced.
September 18th, The New York-NJ Regional Championships
at Fun N Games, 1860 Willowbrook Mall, Wayne, NJ 07470
(973)785-0830
October 2nd, The National Hydro Thunder Championships
at Friar Tuckıs Gameroom, 674 River Oaks Drive, Calumet City, IL
(708)891-1444.
Knowing that many players cannot travel to either the regional
contests or the world championships in Chicago, Twin Galaxies
created a second contesta free one that every location
operating a Hydro Thunder can join. Running from August 1st to
September 30th, this contest invites competing players at each
location to send in photographs of their highest scores on all 10
Hydro Thunder tracks. Their race times will be added together and
the 10 players with the lowest cumulative times will win cash
prizeswith $1,000 going to the first place winner. Players can
register their arcades for the free contest by going on the
internet to <www.twingalaxies.com> or register via mail
by contacting Twin Galaxies, 600 North Third Street, Fairfield,
IA 52556.
The Twin Galaxies Intergalactic Scoreboard has been keeping score
for the world of video game and pinball playing since 1982. Its
most well known product is the Twin Galaxiesı Official Video
Game & Pinball Book of World Records (ISBN
1887472-25-8), which is a 984-page book containing 12,416 scores
from players in 31 different countries compiled since 1981. For
information on the contest, please call (515)472-3882 or go to www.twingalaxies.com
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