This week we revist the interview of one of the original Twin Galaxies arcade players and world champion,  Steve Sanders.   This article was published on December 28th , 2015.  Steve was nice enough to take some time out and answer my questions.  I hope you enjoy.  

Our next Trading Card Spotlight features Steve Sanders who currently is displayed on card number 308, from the Superstars of 2012 Collection.  He is also featured on cards 88, 127 (with Lonnie McDonald) and 328 (With his Son Isaiah).  Steve is one of the original members of the Twin Galaxies community back in 1982.  He can be seen on the famous Time Life Magazine photograph taken outside the original Twin Galaxies arcade opened by Walter Day.   Steve has many world records in arcade history, including games like Donkey Kong, Joust and Super Pac-Man.  He can be seen in the documentary, The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, which is currently out on DVD.   Steve wrote the book “The Video Master’s Guide to Donkey Kong” as a teenager back in the early 80’s and also competed on the “That’s Incredible” Arcade Championship as a top contender.  Steve currently works as a trial attorney in Kansas City, Missouri.  

Do you remember your first video game / arcade you played and what do you remember about it?

My first memory of video games is playing Atari’s Pong on a home console my parents bought for me in the early to mid-1970s.  I was still in elementary school, so it would have been 1972-1974 time frame.

This latest Trading Card "Rewind" was published on December 13th, 2015.  It is a very comprehensive interview that Josh was nice enough to take time out for. I hope you enjoy.     

Our next Trading Card Spotlight features Josh Houslander who is displayed on card number 139, from the Twin Galaxies Superstars Collection of 2011.  Josh was one of the creators of a podcast for Twin Galaxies website that discussed all things Twin Galaxies as well as world records established by the community.  The new podcast which Josh is involved in can be heard primarily on themajors.net.  Josh also was involved in an exclusive interview with Walter Day that can be purchased on DVD.   Josh has also personally interviewed top talent in the video game industry through the years and was a key part of the Video Game Hall of Fame in Ottumwa, IA in 2010.  Some of Josh’s Video Game Records include Bubble Bobble Plus on the Wii and Super Mario Bros. 3 for the NES.

Did I ever think when I was younger that I would be on a video game trading card? 

Hmm, yes I probably did.  My dream as a kid was to become an absolute video game master.  I wanted to test my skills against all comers, I wanted to work in the video game field as a game tester, write up reports on the latest and greatest new games, and be the ultimate video game champion.  At a young age I thought up ways to have potential tournaments, championships, and competitions to find out who the true "King of Nintendo" was (that is what I would have called it as a child).  The only problem is, that if one were to go back in time and tell eleven year old Josh that one day he would be on a video game trading card; but that he would be remembered much more for covering events, podcasting, and his journalistic contributions to the subculture rather than his own world records or prowess as a master of all video games. That may just be one heartbroken little dork.

April 6th, 2016 was when the Trading Card Spotlight of Nolan Bushnell was published.   Nolan was gracious enough to take some time out and answer some of my questions about gaming and his career.  I hope you enjoy.  

Our next Trading Card Spotlight features Nolan Bushnell, who is displayed on card number 165, from the Superstars of 2011 Collection.  Nolan can also be seen on card number 821 and 1333.  Nolan is the founder of Atari and Check E’ Cheese as well as over 20 other companies in his career.  Nolan is a pioneer in the industry and has been influential to millions of people across the globe.   He was named one of Newsweek’s “50 Men Who Changed America”.   To this day Nolan is still working on new designs for the industry.  On August 9^th, 2010 Nolan Bushnell was inducted into the International Video Game Hall of Fame in Ottumwa, IA.  You can see Nolan in dozens, if not more, documentaries about gaming or video game related material.   Some of those include Atari: Game Over and Video Games - The Movie.

Do you remember when you created your first video game or arcade and what do you remember about the experience?

My first electronic game development was modifying electromechanical games so they could operate in an amusement park setting where players could win tickets.  The other game I designed strictly in software on a large mainframe that had a video display was the game of Fox and Geese.  It was sometime in the winter of 1967 at the University of Utah.

Our next Trading Card Spotlight features Andrew Seklir, who is displayed on card number 2421, from the Superstars of 2016.   His documentary film trading card is featured on card number 2495.  Andrew is one half of the team that directed, produced and edited the documentary “Man vs. Snake”.  A story of the arcade game Nibbler and the fight to set the world record.   This successful documentary was featured in many film festivals over the past couple years and can also be seen on Netflix.  Andrew has worked for many studios such as ScyFy, HBO and Xbox Studios.   Andrew has also been a part of the Battlestar Galactica franchise as a producer and editor of the show. 

What games today do you play and what are your favorite genres of games?

I still play classic arcade games and older console games via emulation on my home-built arcade cabinet (“Robotron", “Defender” etc.), but I also play games on my PS4, some recent ones include smaller games like “Firewatch" and “Inside”, as well as some of the mega releases such as “Titanfall" and “Star Wars Rebellion”.