Q 01/05

The earliest known video game competition, held at Stanford in October 1972, was played on which game?

A) Spacewar!

B) Tennis for Two

C) Pong

D) Computer Space

Answer · why

A) Spacewar!

The 'Intergalactic spacewar olympics' offered a magazine subscription as its prize; Bruce Baumgart won the free-for-all.

Q 02/05

What was the grand prize at that 1972 Stanford tournament?

A) A DEC PDP-10 computer terminal

B) A Rolling Stone subscription

C) A trip to a Woodstock reunion

D) Five hundred dollars in cash

Answer · why

B) A Rolling Stone subscription

Rolling Stone writer Stewart Brand covered the event, one of the first mainstream articles on gaming culture.

Q 03/05

Which 1980 Atari event, with over 10,000 entrants, was the first big video game competition?

A) The Asteroids Invitational

B) The Pac-Man Championship

C) The Space Invaders Championship

D) The Atari World Cup

Answer · why

C) The Space Invaders Championship

It was won by Rebecca Heineman, and the same year Walter Day founded a high-score record-keeping body in Iowa.

Q 04/05

Which high-score record-keeping organization did Iowa arcade owner Walter Day found in 1980?

A) The Arcade Registry

B) Score Central

C) Guinness Gaming

D) Twin Galaxies

Answer · why

D) Twin Galaxies

It supplied Guinness with video game records and created the U.S. National Video Game Team in 1983, making minor celebrities of players like Billy Mit...

Q 05/05

Guinness lists the largest organized video game competition ever as a 1984 tournament for which arcade game?

A) Track & Field

B) Pac-Man Plus

C) Galaga '84

D) Donkey Kong Jr.

Answer · why

A) Track & Field

Konami and Centuri drew more than a million players across Japan and North America; Play Meter called it 'the coin-op event of the year.'