Explain the significance of Middletown, Ohio.

James Donovan Halliday was born on June 12, 1972, in Middletown, Ohio.

In the early days of the OASIS, Halliday had created a small planet named Middletown, named after his hometown in Ohio. The planet was the site of a meticulous re-creation of his hometown as it was in the late 1980s.

Middleton was the location of the "First Gate".