After moving to the town of Fairfield, Iowa, Day sold commemorative newspapers for a living and in 1980 went to Houston, Texas, to become an oil futures trader. Day soon moved back to Fairfield and became a landlord, purchasing the Twin Galaxies arcade in Ottumwa, Iowa, in 1981. That same year, he appeared on the cover of "Time" in an edition featuring video games, and he established an online platform to establish rules and compile records for competitive video game playing. Twin Galaxies soon became known as the trusted database for high score records.