If you go
› What: Screenings of “Man vs. Snake: The Long and Twisted Tale of Nibbler.”› When: 7:30 and 9:45 p.m. Friday, June 24-Sunday, June 26.› Where: Cine-Rama, 100 W. Main St.› Admission: $10.› Website: thecinerama.org.
In video gaming circles, Tim McVey is a legend.
“Back in January of 1984, at Twin Galaxies of Ottumwa, Iowa, I was the first person to ever score a billion points on an arcade machine using a single quarter,” says McVey, an Ottumwa native.
In the early afternoon of Jan. 15, 1984, McVey fired up Nibbler, the first arcade game with a nine-digit score counter, and rolled a single quarter into the machine’s slot. Forty-four hours later, on the morning of Jan. 17, the game ended, with McVey racking up 1,000,042,270 points, according to official records.
Twin Galaxies was the nexus of video gaming at the time, and players from around the country traveled to the arcade to attempt to set records.