Our next Trading Card Spotlight features Stephen Wagner who currently is displayed on card number 158, from the Superstars of 2011 Collection.  Stephen has been playing arcade games since he was 7 years old.  All the years of experience has put Stephen in the record books on such games as Berzerk and Elevator Action.  As an avid guitar player and sports fan, Stephen still finds time to playing arcade machines and beating any high score that comes his way.

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

Front Page Sports Baseball ’98 as well as classic arcade games that I haven’t yet been satisfied with scores on, like Rally-X, Galaxian and others.   My favorite genres are probably platformers, sports and janky early 80’s space shooters.

Our next Trading Card Spotlight features Greg Mott, who is displayed on card number 34, from the Superstars of 2011.   Greg has been around the gaming scene since 1999 when he joined UKvac group on line and first met up with other UK collectors.  He holds a record on the Buster Bros. Arcade game with a score of 2,228,150.  Not only is Greg a major competitor for arcades in home country of England, he also competes in pinball tournaments and is highly regarded as one on the greatest gaming competitors  in England.

Do you prefer playing video games alone, against friends or online against the world and why?

Definitely most fun is with others around and for console gaming is the only way to play with others.  Just don't get the online model as was always accustomed to playing with others in the same room and a lot more fun interacting that way than with someone you don't always know remotely.  Even the classics are more fun to play as a double and watch others.

Our next Trading Card Spotlight features Stuart Rankin who is displayed on card number 192, from the Twin Galaxies Superstars Collection of 2011.  From Glasgow, Scotland, Stuart is a huge Space Harrier collector.  He holds many Space Harrier World Records on the Twin Galaxies scoreboard.  He is involved in building a small desktop model which will run on raspberry pi.   Other games Stuart has an interest in are Star Wars arcades and Tempest as well as the game NARC, which he has built a bar top cabinet with the NARC graphics on it. 

Which console company is your favorite and why?  Nintendo, Sony, Sega, or Microsoft?

Sega. I own all of them except the Mega CD and Nomad. Always liked the Sega stuff. Most of my favorite arcade games were from Sega so naturally I tend to gravitate towards getting home versions of them first. Oh, and Sonic.

Our next Trading Card Spotlight features David Crane who is displayed on card number 337, from the Superstars of 2012 Collection.  He has been named number 12 of the top 100 game creators of all time.  David has created some of the most memorable Atari 2600 games in the library.  As the Co-Founder of Activision, some of his creations are Pitfall, Dragster, Freeway and Grand Prix.  David has received numerous awards for his work of the past 35 years.  Some of his awards include the AIAS Pioneer award, Video Game Designer of the year twice and a Parent’s Choice Award for “positive human values” in a video game.  You can see more of David’s biography at www.dcrane.com.

What is your favorite game you have worked on in your career?

I can never single out one of nearly 100 games that I created.  Every game has something unique and interesting that I, as a game creator, found special.  In many cases, the game player might not even know about the cool technological thing I did to make the game they enjoyed, but as long as they enjoyed the game that doesn’t matter.  That said, Grand Prix was one of the most technically challenging 2600 games ever made, and it often comes up as a favorite of mine for the internal technology.