A beloved figure in the gaming world, Walter Day of Fairfield is the subject of a new movie, Arcades & Love Songs: The Ballad of Walter Day, now streaming worldwide. The founder of Twin Galaxies, an organization that tracks world records for video games and conducts electronic-gaming promotions, Day was dubbed the “Father of eSports” and became an iconic personality among video game players.
Day was the first person to recognize that gaming deserves official recognition as a sport. Shortly after creating an international scoreboard database in 1982, he received phone calls from video game players all over the world reporting their high scores. Day organized tournaments at the legendary Twin Galaxies Arcade in Ottumwa, kept track of high scores and gaming champions stats, and became the official supplier of verified video-game scores to Guinness World Records in 1983. He worked with Guinness for decades as an official scorekeeper. Although he closed the arcade in 1984, Day continued tracking international scores through the Twin Galaxies database.
Day has already appeared in nearly 20 documentaries, including The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters (2007), which chronicles the showdown between Donkey Kong record holders Billy Mitchell and Steve Wiebe. The movie features Day in his signature black-and-white-striped referee jersey and has a now-iconic scene of him playing guitar in front of an abandoned barn. King of Kong had a huge cultural impact and drew Day into the world of gaming conference appearances and speaking engagements.
While he was passionate about gaming, he was also passionate about music and left Twin Galaxies in 2010 to pursue his musical dreams. But life and lawsuits got in the way—until he got a little help from his friends. Arcades & Love Songs charts this journey.
Director Ed Cunningham, who worked with Day as the producer of King of Kong, says that after the movie they went their separate ways but kept in touch. Then controversy came up. “There was this huge lawsuit that Walter, who we all loved, got pulled into,” Cunningham says. “It was tied to the original film. It was a frivolous lawsuit, it was unfair, and it was costly. So I, as the producer of King of Kong, got involved. I had a responsibility as a non-fiction filmmaker to help Walter not get sued for something that didn’t happen.”
And while these legal issues were getting sorted out, Day was also revisiting his music. The idea of another documentary–this one focused on Day’s music—was born. “I love Walter’s music. I love Walter. I love his story, and so does everyone else. I had a responsibility to document him finally making his music.”
Cunningham explains that Arcades is a movie “about a 74-year-old guy who happened to be the father of eSports, and was the first person to really see video gaming as a competitive event. That’s Walter Day. In the history of video gaming, Ottumwa and Fairfield are classic, because that’s where his arcades were back in the ’80s. He has this great history with video games, but his real dream is to play music. . . and to mend a broken heart, because that’s what started the whole musical journey for him.”
“I did get my heart broken,” Day says. “Within a couple weeks of the heartbreak, I started hearing music play in my head like I was channeling a radio station, but the radio station was playing original songs that didn’t exist in the outside world.”
Day vowed to produce and perform the songs, but circumstances interfered. Then, almost 40 years after he began composing, Day was at a convention when he was approached by the Reichelt brothers, creators of an extremely successful gaming app called Color Switch. “These guys come out of a crowd,” Day recounts, “and said, ‘We remember you from the movie. We remember your music, whatever came of that music?’ And I told them, ‘I still believe in it, it’s still my heart’s desire, but there have just been too many obstacles.’ ” The Reichelt brothers generously volunteered to produce his album, setting him up at Catamount Recording Inc. in Cedar Falls. “The next thing I knew,” Day says, “I was in the music studio recording my music.”
When Cunningham found out about the recording session, he contacted Day and proposed a new documentary. “The movie is intended to prove that it’s never too late,” Day says. “That’s sort of like the mantra, the theme of the movie—it’s never too late.”
Day’s album, Arcades & Love Songs, was released June 6 on all digital platforms. Cunningham says there’s also “a digital copy with really cool liner notes and lyrics on the website. We call it ‘King of Kong meets Purple Rain, set in Iowa.’ ”
While key scenes from the movie were filmed as far away as Japan and the UK, plus California, Missouri, Florida, and Seattle, most of the film takes place in Iowa, predominantly Fairfield.
“Not only is it an all-Iowa film, it’s almost literally an all-Fairfield film,” says Day. “Everybody’s going to see so much and feel so much about Fairfield.” Cunningham adds, “And to that point, we actually had to form a company to own the copyright of the film, and we called it Fairfield Films. I’m a Southern California-based filmmaker, but I just love it there.”
He continues, “Iowa is one of the coolest places we have in this whole country. It’s got a conservative backbone, but there’s this artistic nature to a lot of Iowa, and I feel like this movie captures both of those aspects. It’s an amazing place.”
Cunningham also feels the film will draw a wide audience. “Obviously, it’s going to appeal to gamers and Iowans. But it has broad appeal. King of Kong was a human story of geek gaming culture, about two guys fighting over a video game score. This one is about Walter chasing a dream. . . . And then there’s the heartbreak. This is a movie about heartbreak and resolution.” Cunningham says screenings have been an emotional experience. “Everyone cries, even the hardened gamers who’ve never cried before.”
Day says, “I’m surprised again and again by the men and women who cried during the film. One reviewer referred to it as a soulful movie. When we showed the film at the Art Theater of Long Beach, the manager came up to Ed and thanked him profusely for making a good film about good people when things are so hard in the world. That’s the kind of buzz, the kind of energy that people leave the movie with. There’s a kind of happy, fun, heartfelt energy of love and friendship and people fulfilling their heart’s desires, which is the movie’s whole vibe. Even at the end, even though there are so many obstacles—it’s never too late.”
Arcades & Love Songs will be screened at the Fairfield Arts and Convention Center on Sunday, June 29, at 7 p.m., followed by a Q&A with Walter Day and others involved in the film. Also on Sunday, June 29, King of Kong will be shown at 4 p.m. Two additional screenings of Arcades & Love Songs will be held Monday, June 30, and Tuesday, July 1, at 7 p.m.
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Arcades & Love Songs: The Ballad of Walter Day is currently available on all video on-demand platforms worldwide. For more information, visit ArcadesandLoveSongs.com.
Walter’s debut album is available as a digital download with liner notes and lyrics: Arcades & Love Songs Album.