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Local gamer inducted into Hall of Fame
By James Roth, jroth@acnpapers.com
Many people will remember last Saturday as the day Dallas Cowboy legend Emmitt Smith was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. However, one man in Farmers Branch was also be inducted into a hall of fame.
Ben Gold was one of many legendary gamers inducted into the first ever class at the International Video Game Hall of Fame. Gold is best known for setting world records in “Stargate,” “Millipede” and “Q*Bert.”
Gold was joined by fellow legendary gamers Billy Mitchell and Steve Wiebe, along with 25 others, in the inaugural class. The induction ceremony was held in Ottumwa, Iowa, the capital of video games.
Gold began playing games in 1979 when he was 13 years old. On a trip from Houston to Dallas, Gold’s father dropped him off at an arcade inside the Houston Galleria.
“I had some quarters and I played a couple of games and then I noticed this big crowd standing around one game. It was ‘Space Invaders,’” Gold said. “I waited and waited to play and when I finally put my quarter in and played, I was hooked.”
Gold said once he was done playing that game of “Space Invaders,” it began a four year obsession with games during which he played every day. He said this time period was the gold period of video games.
“The peak of this gaming was in 1981-1982,” Gold said. “Every couple of weeks a new game would come out that just blew everyone away. One week it was “Asteroids,” then “Defender” and then “Donkey Kong.” It was an amazing period of time that took our imagination away.”
Gold said at the time he was the only one who was competitive at these games in Dallas. Leagues and tournaments did not exist, so there was no way to truly know who the best was.
“I wanted to be the best at every single game in Dallas. Every game that was worth playing, I was the best at,” Gold said. “I could be the best at 10 different games and then I would find out that someone would beat my score on one of them. I would focus my attention on that one game and get the high score back.”
During a marathon game between Gold and another local gamer on “Stargate,” Gold became curious as to what the world record was. Gold was referred to a man named Walter Day, founder of Twin Galaxies that tracked high scores for video games and the man responsible for International Video Game Hall of Fame.
“Walter told me the record was 36 million points,” Gold said. “That Saturday morning I put my quarter in and the next day I had 40 million.”
From that moment on Gold went from the local to the national scene. Over the next couple of years Gold would join other world record holders as they would travel across the country playing the games they held records in.
In 1983, Gold was one of 16 gamers to be featured in “LIFE” magazine when they did a spread about gamers at the Twin Galaxies arcade in Ottumwa, Iowa. Gold was only 16 at the time.
“I don’t know how Walter convinced my parents to let me go alone, but I did,” Gold said with a laugh. “At this shoot is where I met Billy Mitchell and Steve Sanders, and we became good friends.”
Gold said he traveled across the country on the U.S. National Team and even appeared on the television show “That’s Incredible!” While it was fun traveling playing games, he knew that he could not make a living being a professional gamer. Then in 1984, things changed and Gold left gaming behind.
“The enthusiasm just died,” Gold said. “Multiple things happened, publishers and manufactures began to recycle their old ideas and I remember walking into an arcade and saying there is nothing new here. Then in 1984-1985 the gaming industry crashed and arcades all over closed.”
Gold was honored as the 1983 player of the year, and then one year later he was done with gaming.
“I had a Roger Staubach approach when it came to retiring from games, not Brett Favre,” Gold said. “When I was done, I meant I was done.”
Since leaving gaming in 1984, Gold took the passion he had for video games and put that towards traveling. Gold studied politics and international relations and began learning multiple languages.
Gold can speak five languages: English, German, Italian, Spanish and Romanian. Gold attended graduate school at John Hopkins University and went into a program that let him become a teacher overseas in Romania. After returning to the states and then going back to Romania as a consultant, Gold met his wife, Maria.
“I was going there for a one year assignment and I ended up staying for four years,” Gold said. “We had our first son born over there and then we came back here.”
Gold is now an outside sales representative for a company called Paychex. Still, the legacy the teenage gamer laid in the 1980s is being recognized today.
“The hall of fame was great, it was great to relive a part of the past and see people who I have not seen in a very long time,” Gold said.
Gold hopes the hall of fame can gain prestige and turn into something that is very meaningful to all gamers, old and new.
“We all learned something about this year’s induction,” Gold said. “We will take the good and throw away the bad to hopefully create an International Video Game Hall of Fame that all gamers want to be apart of.”
For information on Gold, go to, www.ivghof.com/the-big-bang/inductees/ben-gold and www.youtube.com/bengoldvideogames.
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