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The King of Arcades

It’s almost five weeks before the Oct 18 & 19 Philly Show and we’re already planning for the May 2015 Philly Non-Sports Card Show (taking place May 2 & 3). The reason for this was Walter Day of video game fame invited us to attend.

By Sep 16,2014  0

It’s almost five weeks before the Oct 18 & 19 Philly Show and we’re already planning for the May 2015 Philly Non-Sports Card Show (taking place May 2 & 3). The reason for this was Walter Day of video game fame invited us to attend the world premiere of The King of Arcades at the Frank Banko Alehouse Cinema in Bethlehem, PA on September 13. This was a premiere of a movie already out on DVD but it was the official premiere and most of the main stars attended. Prior to the movie, a group of us met at Buca di Beppo restaurant for a delicious meal and a chance for a business meeting.

The King of Arcades marquee

The King of Arcades marquee

Billy Mitchell and Walter Day

Billy Mitchell and Walter Day

In 1981, Day founded one of the most well-renowned arcades in the world, Twin Galaxies, which became the official adjudicating organization to track records in arcades and pinball. Since that time, Day has proven to be an entrepreneur to end all entrepreneurs and has continued to educate the world about arcade video games and bring gamers from all over the world together whenever possible. Day’s home of Ottumwa, IA is known as the video game capital of the world and he is pushing to have an International Video Game Hall of Fame built there. Because of him, there was even a display and event entitled The Art of Video Games at the Smithsonian from March through September of 2012.

Before you ask what this has to do with non-sport trading cards, Day and various video game celebrities attended the spring 2012 Philly Show because they were in the midst of producing trading cards to honor the history and document important milestones by honoring world record holders, pioneers and all who have been a part of the worldwide video game culture. Their attendance was an eye-opener for non-sport card collectors and an eye-opener for the gamers. It was a blast. One thing to bear in mind is it is certainly much easier to collect trading cards than arcade games! Day has thus far produced over 1,000 different printed video game trading cards and 2,000 when you include the virtual designed cards.

Day will again be setting up at the May 2 & 3, 2015 show and has some fantastic ideas. Day is working on a time-capsule that will be buried in Ottumwa in August of 2015 and to be opened in 2071. One of the items which will be included in the capsule is autographed trading cards. Various celebrity gamers will visit the May Philly Non-Sports Card Show to autograph their cards in front of a representative from Beckett Grading Services. The cards will be taken back to Beckett’s grading card location where they will be graded, encapsulated, and finally, delivered back to Day for the time capsule. Philly Show attendees will also get the opportunity to play a few arcade games at the show and Day and company are cooking up some other terrific ideas to be revealed soon.

Billy Mitchell and Richie Knucklez

Billy Mitchell and Richie Knucklez

Jeff Zapata and Joe Simko

Jeff Zapata and Joe Simko

There was an unexpected plus at the sold-out movie screening. There is a new Garbage Pail Kids movie in the works and there was a preview for it which ran ahead of The King of Arcades. It looks really great and will be nothing like the 1987 Garbage Pail Kids movie flop. There is some crossover between 30 Years of Garbage: The Garbage Pail Kids Story and The King of Arcades, chief among them being Sean Tiedeman as the director and producer of both. Some of the people involved with the new GPK movie attended the premiere and it was fun to see Jeff Zapata, June Gonzales, Joe Simko and Sean & Krystle Tiedeman. Stars from The King of Arcades movie in attendance were: Walter Day, Billy Mitchell, Richie Knucklez, Faith Knucklez, Hank Chien, and TriForce Johnson.

Another perk was a freebie table inside the theater with a set of 15 promotional cards related to the movies (many of the cast members are featured on the cards). The cards are part of Day’s ongoing series.

The movie itself was done really well and we learned more about Richie Kuncklez and his NJ arcades. Hoots and hollers could occasionally be heard from audience members in the theater. After the screening, a special Q&A panel was presented. All-in-all, it was a very fun night.

A Garbage Pail Kids display at the theater entrance

A Garbage Pail Kids display at the theater entrance allowed movie patrons to insert themselves into a GPK sticker!

The pre-show presentation

The pre-show presentation

Richie and Faith Knucklez

Richie and Faith Knucklez

The King of Arcades promo cards with art by Joe Simko

The King of Arcades promo cards

Walter Day gets interviewed

Walter Day gets interviewed

Super fan David Gubernot

Super fan David Gubernot was in attendance seeing The King of Arcades for his 200th time (his third time in a theater)

 

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