On September 18th, 2019, A dear friend and fellow gamer passed away.   He was a local gamer in my home state of Illinois.  Sean was a frequent visitor of Galloping Ghost Arcade in Brookfield, IL.  He was a true competitive gamer that loved hanging out with his friends and being a part of the gaming community.   Many fellow gamers and friends have many good memories and stories about Sean. I will share some with you here in this article.  If you have a story you would like to add remembering Sean, please contact me and we can add it to this.   I will miss you Sean. 

It was brought to my attention that sometime last year, Norman Zierold passed away at the age of 90.  This week I would like to remember him by displaying his Fairfield Trading Card that was created for him in 2015.  

“That Reminds Me” is ‘A Conversational Memoir’ by Hollywood biographer and award-winning author Norman Zierold.  Rather than a chronology of his life, the author engages the reader in a conversational manner, relating various episodes from his life.  Norman started life in the Amana Colonies of Iowa. 

Happy New Year to Everyone.  I hope you have enjoyed the Walter Day Website so far. 2019 will be a big year for the trading cards as there will be more unique ones designed by Walter himself.   Some of those include Business Card Historians, Video Game Museum Hall of Fame Cards and Lynn English High School - Class of 1967 Cards.  2019 will also be the year of the first edition of the Walter Day Trading Card Book.  A perfect keepsake of all of the trading cards and special comments from the card holders themselves.  

Our next Trading Card Spotlight features Joel West, who is displayed on card number 11, from the Circus Card Collection of 2011.  Joel is also featured on cards 1236, 1911, 2103, 2189 and 2197.   Joel grew up in the early 1980’s when the arcade boom began.  He was one of the original members of the famous TIME Life Magazine photo shoot in Ottumwa, IA outside the original Twin Galaxies arcade.   The game he is most known for is Berzerk, where he holds a number of world records on both the Fast and Slow versions.  In 2016, Joel is looking to break the marathon record on Frenzy (the sequel to Berzerk) with 100 hours of nonstop play on single quarter.   You can see Joel in the documentary “Chasing Ghost: Beyond the Arcade” as well as in person at Walter Day events across the country. 

Do you learn anything from playing video games?

Oh so much! I learned how to spend money while standing in one spot for hours before internet shopping was invented. I learned there is no place too far to go to attend a competition. I learned all video gamers have superior hand-eye coordination and driving skills. I learned there is a cacophony of peoples from many different walks of life who love video games. While their paths may never cross in other areas of life; when they cross in an arcade, they easily make friends for life.  The most important thing I learned is my life would not have been as rich if I had never dropped that first quarter and became a part of the gaming community.