Donn Nauert

Donn first came onto the scene and earned his first notoriety in the competitive gaming space through the master of shooting games.  As players were busy trying to deconstruct and master the difficult gameplay of Exidy’s Crossbow, the most technically advanced gun game at the time, Donn was setting and breaking his own records almost on a daily basis.  This trend of pure mastery continued as Exidy released additional gun games in the series, and with the launch Cheyenne, Donn continued to reign supreme.

Cheyenne and Crossbow would be the games that all other players associated with Donn in the Golden Age and Cheyenne was elevated to much more significant importance when it was one of the 4 games included in the 1985 Player of the Year Invitational held in Los Angeles, CA.  Although Donn completely dominated the players at the contest with a first place finish on Cheyenne, he excelled overall to take home an overall 4th place finish at the coveted event.  Donn would eventually take the top mantle at the 1987 North American Tournament of Champions by taking 1st overall in the highly competitive event.

Donn was eventually invited to join the prestigious US National Video game team and served as Team Captain in the late 1980s while also competing on its behalf nationally and internationally.   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 was also featured on the first ‘how to’ video series from the US National Video Game Team to help players learn and master video games of the era. 

​Donn would eventually make the move from professional gamer to more industry professional, which included working for several magazines – Electronic Game Player, Electronic Gaming Monthly and Video Games & Computer Entertainment – as well as moving directly into video game development with companies such as Acclaim Entertainment and THQ during the 1990s.  

Today, Nauert is currently a teacher in the Austin, Texas area where he continues his passion for competitive gaming and coaches the school’s eSports team while working to establish eSports as an officially sanctioned school activity at the high school level.