VP Candidate Tim Walz Was a Big Dreamcast Fan, and We Think We've Found His Favorite Game

It’s been a while since a known gamer frequented The White House. The first, and last, to do so was former President Barack Obama, who brought a Nintendo Wii with him when he took office and, according to someone who played against him, apparently mains Captain Falcon in Super Smash Bros. But depending on the outcome of the 2024 election, The White House may soon have a second gamer milling around: current Minnesota governor and vice presidential candidate Tim Walz.

But Gov. Walz isn’t bringing a Nintendo Wii with him (that we know of), nor has he attempted to settle his political disputes in Smash to our knowledge. His gaming habits are, surprisingly, a bit deeper a cut than that. It turns out that Gov. Walz is reportedly a fan of the Sega Dreamcast. And through some sleuthing, we’ve managed to not only track down Walz’s old Dreamcast console, but we may have also uncovered at least one game that the former teacher-turned-politician has historically enjoyed: Crazy Taxi.

Little Dreamcast, Big Adventure

We first learned that Gov. Walz was, at one point, a Dreamcast enjoyer due to an article in The New York Times. In the report, a former student of Walz’s recalls that he used to share “unusually relatable” stories with his classes, “like the time his wife had seized his Dreamcast, the Sega video game console, because he had been playing to excess.”

Obviously, this immediately sparked a flurry of community memes speculating what game had Walz so enraptured. Was it Sega Bass Fishing, a quintessential “dad” game that seemed in keeping with Gov. Walz’s overall demeanor? Was it Sega Sports NFL 2K, an apropos choice given he was a football coach and then-Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Randy Moss was on the cover? Was it something more left-field like Shenmue or Skies of Arcadia? Theories abounded. We, and probably a number of other journalists, reached out to Gov. Walz’s office weeks ago looking for the answer, but didn’t get any response.

That would have been the end of it, but for one member of gaming forum ResetEra. The user, Bryn Tanner (who goes by Aaron on the forum), had posted way back in 2018 that they were in possession of Gov. Walz’s old Dreamcast. “Oh I bought a Dreamcast for $25 back in 2012 from one of his former high school students who worked on his campaign. Walz was just like ‘hey we have this old video game thing, do you want it?’ And the guy took it.”

When I reached out to him, Tanner was taking a well-deserved and humorous victory lap as news about the Dreamcast surfaced. “lmao yes I still have that Dreamcast this fucking rules,” he wrote in a post following the NYT piece. Tanner went on to tell me that while the Dreamcast he purchased at the time came with a VMU, a third-party rumble pack, two controllers, and a controller extension cable, the VMU didn't have any data on it. And the console did not come with any games, though Tanner bought a copy of Crazy Taxi for $4 at Pawn America later on the day of the purchase.

“I get a little kick out of knowing our future VP might know who Big the Cat is if he ever played Sonic Adventure,” Tanner tells me.

Though Tanner didn’t know what games Walz played, he did know someone who might. He referred me to Alex Gaterud, one of Walz’s former Global Geography students at Mankato West. Though Gaterud doesn’t remember Walz ever speaking with him about video games, he was roommates in college with another Mankato graduate who brought along the Dreamcast in question and left it behind when he moved out. Gaterud then says he sold the Dreamcast to Tanner, though he points out to me that "advertising something ‘formerly owned by a U.S. Congressman’ doesn't add any value on Craigslist.”

What games came with the Dreamcast? Gaterud doesn’t know - there weren’t any around when he handed it off to Tanner, and he can’t recall ever playing anything on it. Fortunately, Gaterud was able to connect me to one more person who might be able to sort this out once and for all. So I called up Tom Johnson, another Mankato West graduate and a former campaign intern for Gov. Walz.

Tim Walz and the Nerd Herd

Tom Johnson graduated Mankato West in 2007, and spent the summer before he went to college working for Walz’s congressional campaign. As an intern, he would send out mailers, coordinate volunteers, and drive around Minnesota, occasionally with Walz along for the ride.

Given that it wasn’t an election year, Johnson says the vibes were fairly relaxed and quiet, and the campaign office had a break area in the back with a mini putt set, a couch, and a TV. One day, he recalls, Walz brought in a box of stuff that he had planned to donate, saying he thought the staff might like to use it. Inside, of course, was the Dreamcast.

Johnson and the other staff didn’t play the Dreamcast much during its stint in the campaign office, so when he left for college, Johnson just took it with him, which is how it reached Gaterud and later Tanner. But while Johnson wasn’t doing much Dreamcast gaming, he tells me that in high school he was a part of a group of individuals known (“affectionately, I hope”) as the “Nerd Herd” at Mankato West. The group would have LAN parties together, and play World of Warcraft late into the night. Many Nerd Herd members, Johnson says, went on to work on Walz’s campaign for Congress in 2006. “I would say the Nerd Herd of Mankato contributed greatly to [Walz’s] election to Congress in 2006, which had the domino effect of him being nominated for vice president of the United States.”