Four Los Angeles Area Men to be Inducted into Video Game Hall of Fame

July 30, 2010 - PRLog -- The International Video Game Hall of Fame has announced that men from Van Nuys, Whittier and Riverside are to be inducted into the IVGHOF on Saturday, Aug. 7, 2010, at the Bridge View Center in Ottumwa, Iowa.

The four men, all from the greater Los Angeles area, will be honored for their contributions to the video game industry as either video game competitors or as entrepreneurs. Among them is Seamus Blackley of Los Angeles, Paul Dean of Riverside, Phil Younger of Whittier, and Nolan Bushnell of Van Nuys.

As members of the IVGHOF Class of 2010, the four will take their place alongside 25 other gaming celebrities, including Shigeru Miyamoto, creator of Mario and Donkey Kong; Dennis Fong, a pioneer in the field of modern PC competition, and Pac-Man.

Bushnell is well-known as the founder of Atari and of the Chuck E. Cheese Pizza Time Theatre chain. He is considered one of the “Founding Fathers” of the video game industry. Dean is a successful competitor on the arcade gaming circuit, holding numerous world records,  even some that took more than 40 hours of game play to accomplish.  Younger also has enjoyed success in the arcade gaming field, noted for his world records on numerous games, among them the classic Berzerk arcade game, attaining a score that took more than 12 hours to compile. Blackley is being honored for being an original member of the four-man design team that created the XBOX for Microsoft in 1999.

The IVGHOF was created to honor the video game age luminaries and to preserve artifacts and memorabilia generated by this dynamic industry. The IVGHOF is registered with the IRS as a 501C(3) not-for-profit, tax-exempt organization allowing it to accept donations and issue tax receipts.

The City of Ottumwa is recognized as being the "birthplace" of organized, competitive video game playing. The city was proclaimed the "Video Game Capital of the World on November 30, 1982, by then-Mayor Jerry Parker. This claim was confirmed by Iowa Governor Branstad, Atari and the Amusement Game Manufacturer's Association (AGMA) in a special ceremony on March 19, 1983. Today, the City of Ottumwa conducts an annual four-day video game festival called "The Big Bang" to give further recognition to the gaming celebrities being inducted into the IVGHOF.

For more information on the four Inductees, go to these IVGHOF biographies:

http://ivghof.com/the-big-bang/inductees/seamus-blackley

http://ivghof.com/the-big-bang/inductees/paul-dean

http://ivghof.com/the-big-bang/inductees/phil-younger

http://ivghof.com/the-big-bang/inductees/nolan-bushnell

or

International Video Game Hall of Fame & Museum
217 East Main Street
P.O. Box 308
Ottumwa, Iowa 52501
info@ivghof.com

Walter Day at 641-226-6275

For more information on the event, please visit http://www.ivghof.com

About The Big Bang
The Big Bang is Ottumwa's Annual Video Game Festival, co-created by the Citizens of Ottumwa and the International Video Game Hall of Fame.  The Big Bang 2010: Making Gaming Matter is a four-day event held concurrently with the Grand Induction Ceremonies for the International Video Game Hall of Fame & Museum (IVGHOF&M).  The festival features contests, concerts, dealer showrooms, panel discussions, guest celebrities, costume contests and much more.  For more information visit: http://www.ivghof.com

About The International Video Game Hall of Fame
Located in Ottumwa, Iowa, the International Video Game Hall of Fame and Museum 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.