By Peter Dabbene
When Hamilton Post managing editor Joe Emanski and senior editor Rob Anthes said they had a kind of retrospective in mind for the paper’s 10th anniversary, checking back with people who appeared on its pages during the last 10 years, they mentioned a local writer who, in 2005, had just released a book of short stories called Glossolalia. His name was Peter Dabbene.
When I did that Q & A with Joe in 2005, I never anticipated that I’d be writing a monthly column—now approaching its own 5-year anniversary—for the Hamilton Post. Did I want to reflect on Glossolalia’s release 10 years ago, or what’s happened in the time since then, Rob suggested?
Or, alternatively, I could attempt to revisit one of the other people profiled during the 10-year history of the Hamilton Post. Rob reeled off a list of local residents who’d been featured for one reason or another, one of whom immediatelly caught my attention—a guy named John Dunn, who had set a video game record for Atari’s Championship Sprint & Super Sprint Arcade Version back in 2009. When I expressed interest in finding out what Dunn was up to these days, Rob warned that since his record, Dunn had seemingly disappeared from casual Google searches.
In Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, characters spend a good chunk of the book in a mostly philosophical search for a reclusive, near-mythical hero, sort of a cross between an everyman and a superman—John Galt. “Who is John Galt?” becomes a mantra, the words on every main character’s lips. Once he finally reveals himself, Mr. Galt chews up another hunk of the gargantuan novel with a 90-page, political-philosophical diatribe/manifesto.
I don’t know exactly what I expected, but I found myself asking, “Who is John Dunn?” What motivates someone to set a record in a vintage video game? And seeing that many gamers now earn money by having other people watch them play (in the form of YouTube tutorials), was John Dunn simply ahead of his time? Had he, like the fictional Galt, abandoned a world that didn’t appreciate his talents?
To his credit, nothing so dramatic.
Though he’d inadvertently acquired a level of 21st century anonymity through the fortune of having a common name, I was able to track down Dunn through his business website, impactstudios.biz. It turns out he’s quite a personable guy, and not at all given to lengthy, grandiose pronouncements (except, maybe a little, when it comes to his favorite video game). In the words of the man himself:
“Amazing how priorities in life can shift from one focus to another. Fortunately, I still retain the World Record on Atari’s Championship Sprint Arcade Version. However, it appears that I am now third in the world, according to Twin Galaxies and Guinness, for the points record on Super Sprint. If there was a Super Sprint arcade machine in the area, I would have something to say about that, but until I find one, I guess the first and second place guys can enjoy their time in the sun. If there is one around, let me know. I have plenty of quarters!”
In the meantime, Dunn focuses on his company, Impact Studios, which has done work designing websites and print products for a number of local businesses, and others across the count ry. Regarding the future, Dunn said:
“I am excited about the end of the year and next year especially. It’s likely that Impact Studios will form a partnership with Alex Paul Consulting, and open a store to better serve the community. We are looking to hire our first designer soon and to start impacting our community in a bigger way. And as far as the old world record is concerned, I’m not worried about it because when the time comes, I will break it again. But, for now, my customers are my priority, and my business has its own records to set.”
I can understand that since it’s been 10 years since Glossolalia was published, and while I haven’t published another collection of short stories since then, I’m not worried about it, either. It will happen, hopefully in the next couple of years. The last decade has seen a number of unexpected “priority shifts” for me as well, most notably having two children.
Who is John Dunn? He’s a person like many of us, who enjoys his hobbies and passions and tries to balance them with the demands of survival in the modern world; who strives for excellence in what he does, and takes pride in his accomplishments. He’s the subject of an 800-word column, not, like the idealized John Galt, a 562,000-word novel. But it’s people like the very real John Dunn who actually make the world go ‘round.
Peter Dabbene lives and writes in Hamilton. His website is peterdabbene.com. His short story collection Glossolalia, graphic novels ARK and Robin Hood and his newest book, More Spamming the Spammers (with Dieter P. Bieny) are available through amazon.com.
