Our next Trading Card Spotlight features Ellis Rowland, who is displayed on card number 42, from the   Superstars of 2011 Collection.  Ellis is proud of his world record at the arcade game Eagle.  His score of 274,970 was posted on the Leaderboard on July16, 2011 and no one has beat it since. Growing up in the Arcade Boom of the 80’s, Ellis played a lot of Asteroids.   He has posted some others score on arcade games such as Bum N’ Jump, Defender, he also added a high score on Mario Kart for the Nintendo Wii. Living in New Jersey, Ellis remains involved in the gaming scene through his son, who he takes to gaming tournaments and roots him on.

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

Introducing people to bad ideas is not something we seem to avoid.  The media takes a local tragedy and sends it out for 300 million people to see and while most of us are appalled, one out of every 5-10 million people see the news and get inspired to do the same--law of large numbers in society I suppose.  Video game violence is usually like cartoon violence--we know it is fake even if the graphics are great.  Still one out of every million or so people is dumb enough to try something they saw in a cartoon so who knows.

Our next Trading Card Spotlight features Zack Hample who currently is displayed on card number 552, from the Superstars of 2013 Collection.  Zack has been the Arkanoid world record holder since the year 2000 and has put up numerous scores on the arcade version.  He is also the world record holder on catching baseballs in the stands at the MLB games he has attended.   He has collected more than 10,000 balls and has appeared on “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno” for his accomplishment.  Zack has used his skills to write three baseball books and has used his collection to raise more than $200,000 for the charity Pitch In For Baseball.  

What was the first game you ever purchased?

 The first game I ever owned was some primitive Snoopy Tennis game around 1984 on a handheld device that only played that one game. I can’t remember the first game that I bought with my own money because when I was young and playing NES and SNES, the few games I had were all gifts, and I never owned any gaming systems after that.

Our next Trading Card Spotlight features Victor Marland, who is displayed on card number 2815, from the Superstars of 2018.   Started in 2014, Victor began his current podcast, Ten Pence Arcade Podcast, focusing on arcade games from the 1970’s to the 2000’s.  Each episode focuses on a certain game, with videos, sketches, comedy, and reviews.   Victor and his cohost Shaun Holley (trading card 2816) compete against each other for each game they feature.   They encourage listeners to send in high scores form the game they feature on the podcast each time.  All scores he gets from the gamers are awarded points that they put in a high score table.   At the end of each year, they award a winner.   Victor & Shaun feature gamers all over the U.S. as well as the United Kingdom.  You can visit the podcast at www.tenpencearcade.co.uk

If you can design your own game, what would it be about and who would be the main character?

I’d do a sequel to Berzerk - but different to Frenzy. A souped up original Berzerk with new Ottos, different robots against you and more varied mazes would make a great game. Add in a co-op mode and it would be the perfect arcade game.

Our next Trading Card Spotlight features Alan Radue, who is displayed on card number 383, from the Superstars of 2012.  He is also featured on card 2210 from the Superstars of 2015.   Alan is the current world record holder on the arcade games Sea Wolf & Sprint 2.  Alan, who is a mechanical engineer in the automotive industry, created a home arcade in his hometown of Detroit, Michigan.  He called it Tranquility Base Arcade which was named after the Apollo 11 moon landing.  Opened in 2008, Alan has 25 vintage arcade games from the 'golden era' in his collection and in 2011 won the Home Game Room of the Year Award.   One area that stands out to other arcades are his personalized bar stools.  Alan designs customized Arcade bar Stools for his arcade as well as others.   He has graciously donated personalized bar stools for Richie Knucklez Kong Off tournaments. 

Which company makes the best arcade games and why? 

I have a soft spot for Atari.  They were the only company that 'entered my home' when I was a kid through a pong console, the 2600 game console, the Atari 400 and eventually the Atari 800.  Playing a 'Real Atari Arcade Game' at an arcade was always a thrill back then and is still a thrill for me today!  That said there are so many wonderful arcade game manufacturers from my youth!