Our next Trading Card Spotlight features Roger Blair “Rogerpoco” who is displayed on card number 3183, from the Superstars of 2019 Collection.  Roger is a multi-platform world record holder.   He is top of this list on such consoles as Super Nintendo, Sega Master System and Vectrex among many others.  His proudest accomplishments are on the Intellivision and Atari 2600.  He was awarded the PC/Console Gamer of the year award recently and takes pride in this highest honor.  You can find and chat with Roger on the Twin Galaxies Forums.  Many of his thoughts and ideas are posted on the site. 

Do you believe some Video Games are too violent and lead to violence in America today?

Some games are more violent than I think they should be, but I wouldn't go so far as saying "too violent", knowing I'm a bit prudish.  I don't know that those games lead to violence, but I imagine they aren't a good influence on someone already predisposed to antisocial behaviors.

Our next Trading Card Spotlight features Dan Tearle who is displayed on card number 671, from the Superstars of 2014 Collection.   Dan is also featured on card 1153, 1326, and 1352.  To say Dan is an artist is an understatement.  Dan is very talented and has displayed his artwork in many different genres such as sports, Star Wars and of course video games.  He has created the artwork for various gaming t-shirts, posters and logos for gaming websites.  Dan is also a big competitor playing most of his gameplay on MAME and recreating the memories of the retro games when he was a kid.  Dan has also created some very cool Walter Day trading cards for the collection.   Some of these cards can be seen at this link, click here.

Are you still involved with drawing, and what role do you play?

Very much involved; along with my sports art, I work on trading cards for several companies such as Topps, especially their Star Wars sets. I do hand drawn one off ‘sketch cards’ which are inserted into packs as ‘hits’. It’s very cool to say my work is licensed by Lucasfilm, as the cards have to pass a strict approval process first.

Our next Trading Card Spotlight features Tim Hanson who currently is displayed on card number 2309, from the Superstars of 2015 Collection.  Tim is a huge Nintendo fan and gamer.  Games like Super Metroid and Super Mario Bros. 3 to name a few.  Tim finds himself collecting not only Nintendo but other retro gaming systems and newer consoles as well. His twitch channel, Timzy88, shows Tim playing his favorite retro games as well as modern-day first-person shooters on console and PC. 

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

The earliest memory I have is playing Super Mario Bros with my mother. I was around 3 or 4, and I can remember struggling to make a few jumps. I would pass the controller over to her, so she could make it for me and then I would take over. That slowly changed throughout the years, she was eventually passing the controller over to me in Super Mario Bros 3 or Donkey Kong County.

Our next Trading Card Spotlight features Ken Horowitz, who is currently displayed on card number 3190, from the Superstars of 2019 Collection.  Ken is a huge historian and a writer of many gaming topics.  Sega is his love and he has been writing about it for the last 15 years.  Ken runs Sega-16, the world’s largest resource on Sega’s hardware legacy.  With over 200 interviews, Ken has talked about and learned almost everything possible about Sega.  Beyond dominating Sega, Ken wants to preserve and keep the history of all gaming alive.   Ken wants the newer generation of gamers to remember the past as well as the present.  If interested, you can order Ken’s books on Amazon by clicking here. 

When did you write your first book and what motivated you to do so?

Working on Sega-16 was the primary motivation. After writing about the Genesis for so long, I had a lot of information that was too big for a site but perfect for a book. I also had a ton of new contacts that I wanted to explore for more material.

It was also just a matter of how things worked out. I would really like to dedicate a book to each aspect of Sega’s business, from Japan to South America, and the U.S. portion just happened to be the easiest one for me to start with. I had all the topics I needed, and the people involved, so it just evolved from there.