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The INTERNATIONAL VIDEO GAME HALL OF FAME is Proud to announce its INDUCTEES into the Class of 2021!  Please share the fantastic news as we continue to honor some absolutely amazing individuals and outstanding innovation in gaming.  Congratulations to all the inductees for this year’s well-deserving Class!

Click here for the acceptance speech from John Newcomer on behalf of Joust

Click here for Gary’s acceptance speech

Week 4 – Wii Sports™ offers five distinct sports experiences, each using the Wii Remote™ controller to provide a natural and realistic feel. To play the Wii Sports game, all you need to do is pick up a controller and get ready for the pitch, serve or that right hook. If you’ve played any of these sports before, you’re ready for fun!

Click here to see the acceptance speech on behalf of Nintendo

Click here for Robin’s acceptance speech

Click here for Tommy’s acceptance speech

 

  • The 2020 class of inductees were chosen by a selected group of individuals on a nomination committee which include accomplished gamers, journalists and past Hall of Fame inductees who have extensive knowledge of the achievements in gaming.
  • There were three phases in the decision process: Open nominations, committee and board input for narrowing down of the ballot and then a final decision from the voting committee that decided which gamers, games, developers and industry leader would be inducted. The Community Action Award and Walter Day Lifetime Achievement Award were determined by open nominations and a final vote by the voting committee and approved by IVGHOF Board of Directors.

We are pleased to announce the following individuals and video games are being inducted for the Class of 2020:

Golden Age Gamer

Donn NauertDonn served as Team Captain for the US National Video Game team in the late 1980s.  He is in the Guinness Book of World Records for high scores on Crossbow, Cheyenne and Vertigo and is mentioned seven times between 1985 and 1987. ​Donn would move into the industry side, working for several magazines, Electronic Gaming Monthly and VideoGames & Computer Entertainment, and video game companies such as Acclaim Entertainment and THQ during the 1990s. Today, Nauert is a teacher in the Austin, Texas area where he coaches/sponsors the school’s eSports team and is working to establish eSports as an officially sanctioned school activity at the high school level.

Click here for Donn’s acceptance speech

 

 

1990’s Gamer

Tomo Ohira –  Ranked #1 Street Fighter player of the 1990’s. He is widely regarded as the natural of his sport.  From the retelling, he was unbeatable, in an era when it was just local multiplayer, no quitting, no latency.  He also has given expert instruction in Street Fighter 2, in a video revealing the secrets and strengths of ever character in the roster.

 

 

 

 

 

2000’s Gamer

Hajime “Tokido” TaniguchiOne of the greatest Fighting Game Champions of all time.  Tokido has had 19+ Evolution top 8 finishes in 9 different games across 15 years. Tokido is considered to be one of Japan’s five “fighting game gods”. He is known for playing multiple fighting games on a competitive level in addition to Street Fighter, including Tekken, Marvel vs Capcom 3, and BlazBlue.

Click here for “Tokido’s” acceptance speech

 

 

 

Golden Age Game

Pong – The first commercially successful video game, and it helped to establish the video game industry. Pong is a table tennis sports game featuring simple two-dimensional graphics, manufactured by Atari and originally released in 1972. By 1973, the company had filled 2,500 orders, and, at the end of 1974, sold more than 8,000 units.

 

Click here for Allan Alcorn accepting on Pong’s behalf

Click here for Nolan Bushnell accepting on Pong’s behalf

 

 

1990s Era Game

Final Fantasy Franchise This video game series has sold more than 142 million games worldwide, making it one of the best-selling video game franchises of all time.

 

 

 

 

Warcraft The first three games in the Warcraft series, including their expansion packs, were all released on both the PC and Macintosh.  In the 1990’s Warcraft paved the way to what has become the most popular MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing game) of all time.

Click here for J. Allen Brack accepting the award on the games behalf.

 

2000s Era Game

Half Life 2 – 2004 first-person shooter game developed and published by Valve. Half-Life 2 received acclaim for its animation, sound, AI, graphics, and narrative. It won 39 Game of the Year awards, and has been cited as one of the greatest games of all time. By 2011, it had sold 12 million copies.

 

Click here for Gabe Newell accepting the award on the games behalf

 

 

Guitar Hero The Guitar Hero series has made a significant cultural impact, becoming a “cultural phenomenon”.  The series currently has twelve major releases on gaming consoles, three on handheld game consoles, and four on mobile phones.  The series has sold more than 25 million units worldwide, earning 2 billion dollars at retail.

2020 ACCEPTANCE By Activation “We’re really excited that the Guitar Hero franchise has been inducted into the “2000’s Era Game” category at the International VideoGame Hall of Fame. Guitar Hero put a cool new spin on the concept of letting players unleash their inner Rockstar. We’re really proud of the cultural impact that the series has had on the world. But, more importantly, the game brought people together in a way we never could have imagined. On behalf of everyone at Activision, thank you for this amazing honor.”

 

Game Developer

Will WrightWright’s greatest success to date comes from being the original designer for The Sims. The game spawned multiple sequels, including The Sims 2, The Sims 3, and The Sims 4 and expansion packs, and Wright has earned many awards for his work.  At one time, The Sims was the best selling PC game of all time. His latest work, Spore, was released in September 2008 and features gameplay based upon the model of evolution and scientific advancement. The game sold 406,000 copies within three weeks of its release.

 

 

Industry Leader

Mark Cerny –  an American video game designer, programmer, producer and entertainment executive.  Atari, Sega, Crystal Dynamics and Universal Interactive Studios before deciding to become an independent consultant under his own company Cerny Games in 1998. He since has frequently collaborated with Sony Interactive Entertainment, including being the lead designer for hardware of several PlayStation consoles, and has consulted with both Naughty Dog and Insomniac Games.  In 2004, he was the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Game Developers Association, and was inducted into the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame in 2010.

 

 

Community Action Award

Keisha Howard – Keisha started Sugar Gamers over 10 years ago. She’s created a unique community, united not only by common interests in gaming and geek culture, but by the mission of promoting diversity and inclusiveness in a space that often suffers from the lack of it. Her journey has afforded her the opportunity to work with brands like SYFY, Watchmojo, AT&T, HBO, Nintendo, HTC, Microsoft, Google and more. She regards video games as more than just entertainment, but a system of ideas and processes that can move and inspire people to action.

Click here for Keisha’s acceptance speech

 

Walter Day Lifetime Achievement Award

Gabe Newell – an American computer programmer and businessman best known as the co-founder of the video game developer and digital distribution company Valve.  He also worked for Microsoft, where he worked as a producer for some of the early Windows operating systems. Intrigued by the prospect of having their own game development studio, Newell and Harrington left Microsoft in 1996 to found Valve, where Newell remains president.

 

Click here for Gabe’s acceptance speech

 


The induction ceremony for the class of 2020 was held October 3rd,2019 in Ottumwa, IA.

For more information: http://www.ivghof.info/

About the International Video Game Hall of Fame

Located in Ottumwa, Iowa, the International Video Game Hall of Fame is dedicated to honoring excellence in the field of electronic gaming by recognizing the champions, industries and professionals related to this popular activity. We will build and maintain a state-of-the art interactive facility containing historical archive exhibits describing the historic milestones of the video game industry, and preserve significant video gaming relics, memorabilia and artifacts of the times past and present.

  • The 2019 class of inductees were chosen by a selected group of individuals on a nomination committee which include accomplished gamers, journalists and past Hall of Fame inductees who have extensive knowledge of the achievements in gaming.
  • There were three phases in the decision process: Open nomination, public and board input for narrowing down of the ballot and a final voting pool which decided which gamers, games, developers and industry leader would be inducted. The Community Action Award and Walter Day Lifetime Achievement Award were determined by open nominations and a final vote by the IVGHOF Board of Directors.

We are pleased to announce the following individuals and video games are being inducted for the Class of 2019:

Golden Age Gamer

David PalmerDavid has multiple Guinness World Records, including Empire Strikes Back, Star Rider, and Tron.

 

Click here for David’s acceptance speech

 

Jeff PetersJeff was a pioneer in competitive gaming in the 1980’s and one of the top players in the world-wide scene. Among his many achievements were running and growing the exposure of US National Video Game Team as well as competing on its behalf domestically and internationally, including organizing national competitive gaming tournaments. Jeff was also an original founder of the industry staple “Electronic Gaming Monthly” (EGM).

Click here for Jeff’s acceptance speech

 

1990’s Gamer

Ryan Hart  –  First sponsored fighting game player, Won first UK title at 17 years of age, Won first World Title in Japan at 19 years of age in 1998. 4 Guinness world record. Most successful champion to ever come from the European continent. Most career longevity, spanning 25 years (1994 -2019)

Click here for Ryan’s acceptance speech

 

 

 

 

2000’s Gamer

Donald HayesMultiple Classic Arcade record-holder including Centipede, Dig Dug and more. Only player to have a “quad” perfect Pac-Man score list – including perfect scores for Normal Speed and Turbo speed – both for Arcade and Emulator.

Click here for Don’s acceptance speech

 

 

Pete HahnPete currently has over 90 world records verified by Aurcade in arcade games including
Contra and Super Contra! He also helps other gamers with improving their scores. He is not
only a great competitor, but also shows true examples of cordiality and sportsmanship.

Click here for Pete’s acceptance speech

Golden Age Game

Galaga – A 1981 fixed shooter arcade game developed and published by Namco. In North America, it was released by Midway Games. Controlling a starship, the player is tasked with destroying the Galaga forces in each stage while avoiding enemies and projectiles. Some enemies can capture a player’s ship via a tractor beam, which can be rescued to transform the player into a “dual fighter” with additional firepower. It is the sequel to Galaxian (1979), Namco’s first major hit in arcades.

Tetris Tetris was sold for a range of 1980s home computer platforms as well as arcades, it was the successful handheld version for the Game Boy, launched in 1989, that established the game as one of the most popular video games ever. Electronic Gaming Monthly’s 100th issue had Tetris in first place as “Greatest Game of All Time”. In 2007, it came in second place in IGN’s “100 Greatest Video Games of All Time” (by 2019, it had moved down to 7th).

Click here for Chris Tang introducing Maya Rogers

Click here for Maya Rogers accepting on Tetris Behalf

Computer SpaceComputer Space is a space combat arcade game developed in 1971 as one of the last games created in the early history of video games. Created by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney in partnership as Syzygy Engineering, it was the first arcade video game as well as the first commercially available video game.

Click here for Nolan Bushnell accepting on Computer Space’s behalf

Ms.Pac-Man  – Ms. Pac-Man was critically acclaimed by critics for its improvements to the original gameplay and female protagonist, some labeling it as superior to Pac-Man. It has been listed among the greatest video games of all time and one of the most successful American arcade games ever made. The game’s success inspired several ports for home consoles and handheld systems, as well as numerous sequel and remake games, spawning a Ms. Pac-Man spin-off series.

1990s Era Game

Street Fighter Franchise (SF2)Street Fighter is one of the highest-grossing video game franchises of all time and serves as the company’s flagship series. Street Fighter II was the first one-on-one fighting game to give players a choice from a variety of player characters with different moves, allowing for more varied matches.

Click here for Yoshinori Ono accepting on Street Fighter’s behalf

Super Mario 64 Super Mario 64 is a 1996 platform video game for the Nintendo 64 and the first in the Super Mario series to feature three-dimensional (3D) gameplay.  It is acclaimed as one of the greatest video games of all time, and was the first game to receive a perfect score from Edge magazine.  Numerous developers cited Super Mario 64 as an influence on their later games.

DOOM Doom is one of the most significant games in video game history, and is frequently cited as one of the greatest games of all time.  Doom helped define FPS genre and inspired numerous similar games, known as “Doomclones”. It pioneered online distribution and technologies including 3D graphics, networked multiplayer gaming,

Click here for John Romero accepting on Doom’s behalf.

2000s Era Game

Super Smash Bros. Melee – Super Smash Bros. Melee received critical acclaim, as well as several awards and acknowledgements from various publications. It achieved strong sales upon its release, becoming the GameCube’s best-selling title with over seven million copies sold by 2008.  Following the popularity of its multiplayer gameplay, Melee has been featured in many gaming tournaments, and is one of the most popular fighting games.

Fortnite –  Created by Epic games, Fortnite became a resounding success, drawing in more than 125 million players in less than a year and earning hundreds of millions of dollars per month, and since has become a cultural phenomenon.  In 2017, the game was nominated for “Best Co-op Game” by PC Gamer,  and for “Best Spectator Game” by IGN.  In 2018, the game won the award for Best Ongoing Game by PC Gamer.

Assassin’s Creed The Assassin’s Creed series has received multiple awards and nominations, including Game of the Year awards. It is also commercially successful, selling over 100 million copies as of September 2016, becoming Ubisoft’s best-selling franchise and one of the highest selling video game franchises of all time.

Game Developer

Brian ColinBrian is an American video-game designer, artist and animator. Among his best-known works are the coin-operated arcade games Rampage, Arch Rivals and Rampage: World Tour as well as General Chaos for the Sega Genesis game console. He is the CEO of Game Refuge Inc., an independent video-game design and development studio with offices in Downers Grove, Illinois. He has been noted for his work in the field of bitmapped video-game graphics and animation, creating video-game sprites and tiled background graphics with a recognizable, identifiable style.

Click here for Brian Colin’s acceptance speech

Richard Allen Garriott de CayeuxRichard is an English-American video-game developer and entrepreneur. He is also known by his alter egos “Lord British” in the game series Ultima and “General British” in Tabula Rasa. Garriott, who is the son of NASA astronaut Owen Garriott, was originally a game designer and programmer, and is now involved in a number of aspects of computer-game development.

Garriott founded a new video-game-development company in 2009, called Portalarium.  His current project is Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues where his primary role is as CEO and Creative Director. In 2011, Garriott married Laetitia de Cayeux. Both changed their last names to Garriott de Cayeux.

 

Industry Leader

Bonnie RossRoss was named the 2019 inductee of the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame, and has been named one of Fortune’s most powerful women in gaming.  Over the last twelve years, Ross pushed to broaden franchise reach and define Halo as a leader in trans-media across the entire entertainment industry, including the Halo series of video games, the upcoming Halo television series by SHOWTIME, and live-action series, such as Halo: Forward Unto Dawn and Halo: Nightfall.  Ross brings over 20 years of experience in the game industry, beginning her gaming career as a producer on PC sports games. She has worked on such titles as NBA: Inside Drive, Pandora’s Box, Zoo Tycoon, Dungeon Siege, Counter-Strike, Gears of War, Jade Empire Psychonauts, and Mass Effect.

Click here for Bonnie’s acceptance speech

Community Action Award

Doc Mack –  Founder of Galloping Ghost productions, Doc has turned Galloping Ghost Arcade from a dream into a mammoth arcade of over 720 machines and counting.  Doc has donated his time and machines to multiple events and tournaments.   Doc never has a worried look on his face as he gives everything he has to his community and fellow gamers.  Galloping Ghost productions has created numerous signs and banners for events all over the U.S., and most of the time without charge.  Doc has brought in many gifted gamers and celebrities into his arcade and treated them like kings and queens,  a very gracious host.   Recently he opened a pinball area and has purchased a Auto Repair Shop near the arcade to offer more to the community he loves.  Doc is truly a one of a kind with his contribution to his community.

Click here for Doc’s acceptance speech

https://www.gallopingghostarcade.com/

Video Game Palooza –  In 2013 Video Game Palooza was created as a way to give back and create awareness of several pressing challenges facing the video game industry such as STEM Research, STEM Learning, and increasing diversity in the game industry by increasing the number of women in the field.  A non-profit organization, they have set up and organized the Video Game Palooza Foundation, a game industry charity dedicated to improving the lives of people of all ages by utilizing video games and interactive technologies, and by offering education, awareness, and activism within the world of video games.  By hosting events or taking donations, Video Game Palooza looks to make a difference in someone’s life using the power of video games.

https://videogamepalooza.org/

Click here for Rick and Cara’s acceptance speech

Walter Day Lifetime Achievement Award

Reggie Fils Aime – Reggie is an American businessman, most recognized as the former president and chief operating officer of Nintendo of America, the North American division of the Japanese video game company Nintendo, from 2006 to 2019. Prior to his promotion to President and COO, Fils-Aimé was Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing. Fils-Aimé gained celebrity status among gamers following his appearance at Nintendo’s E3 2004 press conference in May 2004, and helped to revitalize Nintendo’s image as a major contender among the other video game console makers, Sony Interactive Entertainment and Microsoft. In addition, Fils-Aimé had held previous sales and marketing executive roles at Procter & Gamble, Pizza Hut, Guinness, Derby Cycle, Panda Express, and VH1.

Fils-Aimé retired as president of Nintendo of America on April 15, 2019 after an announcement on February 21 and was succeeded by Doug Bowser.

Click here for Reggie’s acceptance speech


The induction ceremony for the class of 2019 will be held October 4-6 in Ottumwa, IA.

For more information: http://www.ivghof.info/

About the International Video Game Hall of Fame

Located in Ottumwa, Iowa, the International Video Game Hall of Fame is dedicated to honoring excellence in the field of electronic gaming by recognizing the champions, industries and professionals related to this popular activity. We will build and maintain a state-of-the art interactive facility containing historical archive exhibits describing the historic milestones of the video game industry, and preserve significant video gaming relics, memorabilia and artifacts of the times past and present.