Vice Presidential candidate Tim Walz was a huge Dreamcast fan, and we think we’ve found his favorite game.

It’s been a long time since a high-profile player visited the White House. The first and last to do so was former President Barack Obama, who I brought a Nintendo Wii. With him when he took office, and according to someone who played against him, Captain Falcon seems to be the main protagonist in Super Smash Bros.But depending on the outcome of the 2024 election, the White House may soon have a second player lurking: current Minnesota Gov. and vice presidential candidate Tim Walz.

But Governor Walz didn’t bring a Nintendo Wii with him (as far as we know), and he didn’t try to settle his political disputes over Smash, as far as we know. Surprisingly, his gaming habits run even deeper than that. It turns out that Governor Walz is a huge fan of the Sega Dreamcast. With some detective work, we were able to track down not only Walz’s old Dreamcast, but we may also have discovered at least one game the former teacher-turned-politician historically enjoyed: Crazy Taxi.

Small Dreamcast, Big Adventure

We first learned that Governor Walz was once a Dreamcast fan because Article in the New York TimesIn the report, one of Walls’ former students recalls that he used to share “unusual” stories with his classes, “like the time his wife took his Dreamcast, the Sega video game console, because he was playing too much.”

This, of course, immediately sparked a wave of community memes speculating about what game had Walz stumped. Was it Sega Bass Fishing, a quintessentially “dad” game that seemed to fit in with Walz’s public demeanor? Was it Sega Sports NFL 2K, a fitting choice given that he was a football coach and that then-Minnesota Vikings quarterback Randy Moss was on the cover? Was it something more extreme like Shenmue or Skies of Arcadia? Theories abounded. We, and possibly a number of other journalists, reached out to Walz’s office weeks ago in search of an answer, but have yet to hear back.

That might have been the end of it, if it weren’t for a member of the ResetEra gaming forum. The user, Bryn Tanner (who goes by Aaron on the forum), was Published in 2018 “I bought a Dreamcast for $25 in 2012 from one of his former high school students who worked on his campaign. Walz said, ‘Hey, we have an old video game, do you want it?’ and the guy took it.”

When I contacted him, Tanner was Taking a well-deserved and joyful victory lap As news of the Dreamcast surfaced, Tanner wrote in a post following the New York Times article: “If it weren’t for, yeah, I still have that Dreamcast, that damn system.” Tanner then told me that while the Dreamcast he bought 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. Nor did the console come with any games, though Tanner did buy a copy of Crazy Taxi for $4 from Pawn America later that day.

“I’m thrilled to know that our future VP might know who Big the Cat is if he ever plays Sonic Adventure,” Tanner told me.

Although Tanner didn’t know what games Walz played, he knew someone who might. He referred me to Alex Gatrude, one of Walz’s former students in the world geography department at Mankato West. Although Gatrude didn’t recall Walz ever talking to him about video games, he had been roommates in college with another Mankato graduate who brought the Dreamcast with him and left it behind when he moved. Gatrude later said he sold the Dreamcast to Tanner, though he noted that “advertising something that was ‘formerly owned by a member of Congress’ doesn’t add any value on Craigslist.”

What games came with the Dreamcast? Gaterud doesn’t know—there weren’t any available when he handed the machine over to Tanner, and he doesn’t recall ever playing anything on it. Fortunately, Gaterud was able to connect me with someone else who might be able to solve this problem once and for all. So I reached out to Tom Johnson, another Mankato West alumnus and a former intern on Walz’s gubernatorial campaign.

Tim Walls and the Dice Pack

Tom Johnson graduated from Mankato West in 2007 and spent the summer before going to college working on Walz’s congressional campaign. As an intern, he delivered mail, coordinated volunteers, and drove around Minnesota, sometimes with Walz along for the ride.

Johnson says the atmosphere was fairly relaxed and comfortable, given that it wasn’t an election year, and the campaign office had a lounge area in the back with a small golf club, a couch and a TV. He recalls that Walz brought a box of stuff he planned to donate one day, saying he thought the staff might like it. Inside the box, of course, was a Dreamcast.

Johnson and the other staffers didn’t play the Dreamcast much during his time at the campaign office, so when he left for college, Johnson took it with him, which is how he later came to be with Gaterod and Tanner. But while Johnson didn’t play the Dreamcast much, he told me that in high school he was part of a group of people known (“affectionately, I hope”) as the “Dice Flock” of Mankato West. The group would throw local networking parties together, playing World of Warcraft late into the night. Several Dice Flock members went on to work on Walz’s 2006 congressional campaign, Johnson says. “I would say the Dice Flock in Mankato contributed a lot to [Walz’s] “He won election to Congress in 2006, which had a domino effect as he was nominated for Vice President of the United States.”

“Walz is a really great regular guy,” Johnson continues. “He’s one of those guys, he’s your friendly neighbor, and then you find out this guy has the Guinness Book of World Records for free throw shooting. He’s just a regular guy, and he’s also a governor. Everything people say about him that he’s a down-to-earth guy, very nice, very friendly, very serious, it’s all true.”

But what video games does he play? Johnson thinks he remembers one disc that was inside his Dreamcast when he took it from the office to go to college.

“I want to say there’s a crazy taxi,” Johnson says.

Was Crazy Taxi the game that Governor and Vice Presidential candidate Tim Walz played so much that his wife took his Dreamcast? We still don’t know for sure. As Gatrude told me, “The law says that every Dreamcast needs a copy of Crazy Tax,” so Governor Walz must have owned at least one. TikTok video posted by Tanner about the DreamcastOne commenter seemed to hint that they knew Walls at one point, and that he talked a lot about Crazy Taxi — we’ve reached out to them for more details. I’ve also reached out to his office again to see if he’d confirm that, but nothing has come of it yet. I’ve reached out to Sega for comment on the possibility that their silly driving franchise played a small role in the current presidential election. No comment there either.

Whatever the case, Governor Walz’s brief flirtation with the Dreamcast would make him the first known vice president in the gaming business if he and current Vice President Kamala Harris are elected. And since Crazy Taxi is Looks like it’s getting an open world reboot.Maybe we’ll see him in the White House one day.

Rebecca Valentine is a senior reporter at IGN. Have a story tip? Send it to [email protected].