Our next Trading Card Spotlight features Joe Brewer, who is displayed on card number 133, from the Superstars of 2011 Collection.  Owner of his own arcade, Brewer’s Arcade, Joe has become an arcade collector and preservationist.  Joe even donated one of his games to the International Video Game Hall of Fame in 2010.  After Joe’s generation donation, more followed and the IVGHOF received many arcade games that year as donation.    Joe can restore and preserve old 1980 arcade games to keep the fever alive.   Joe’s arcade is located in his basement of his home and a few times a year hosts an open house to the public to play the arcade games and have a good time. 

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

I believe parents should use common sense with what games their children play. If you don’t know that allowing your 8-year-old to play Call of Duty may be have a negative influence, then the parent doesn’t have common sense and the child doesn’t have a chance in life anyway. If you allow your child to watch violent movies and realistic violent video games that depict real life situations I think it easily can numb that child mentally and definitely has the potential to negatively affect their perception of the real world.

Our next Trading Card Spotlight features Warren Davis, who is displayed on card number 239, from the Superstars of 2012.  The designer and programmer of Q*Bert, Warren has been around the gaming industry for decades.  He has worked at such companies and Gottlieb, Williams/Bally/Midway, Disney Interactive and ILM.   Other games Warren worked on are Us Vs. Them, Joust 2, T2: Judgement Day, and Revolution X to name a few. His video digitization system was used on many games including Mortal Kombat and NBA Jam.  Warren is still marginally involved in the videogame industry today working with Sony on PS4 projects.   His future projects will involve PSVR. Warren has also worked as an actor when not involved with gaming.  He has been seen in such shows as House M.D. and Criminal Minds.

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

I've enjoyed all of them in one way or another. I'm not very good at picking favorites. If I had to single one out it would probably be Us Vs. Them, because we were able to combine my love of video games and my love of filmmaking in a way that was unique and innovative for its time.

Our next Trading Card Spotlight features Arda Ocal who is displayed on card number 2813, from the Superstars of 2018 Collection.  Arda is a broadcaster whose resume includes ESPN, NHL, WWE, MSG Network and many more. From being the weather reporter or a report for championship games, Arda has been all over.  An avid Video Game fanatic, he hosted and participated in the 2017 NHL 94 Championship in Las Vegas.  He was successful in his very first world record attempt.  

What are your opinions about today’s generation of video games?  How do you compare them to older, classic games?

What I appreciate about retro games is that there was a big limitation when creating them: the challenge was, “make a fun game that people will want to play over and over while dealing with limited memory space, graphics and functionality”. That's what makes games from the 8 and 16-bit era, that you can still play and enjoy, so impressive.Today, the possibilities are endless: games evolve at such a fast rate. In 1985, Mario was a crowning achievement. In the foreseeable future, we could literally be playing Mario in Virtual Reality. Zelda: Breath of the Wild is just mind boggling in terms of how complete and vast it is. It has to be in the conversation of greatest video game ever made.

Happy New Year !   Welcome to 2018.

Our next Trading Card Spotlight features Sami Cetin (UK) who currently is displayed on card number 482, from the Superstars of 2013 Collection.  Sami is one of the World Record Holders at Super Mario Kart SNES.  In 2012 he won the World Title that was held in France.  He also manages the Super Mario Kart Time Trial World Rankings since 1998 at www.mariokartplayers.com/smk/  . A collector of Nintendo games, he has over 200 boxed games among various Nintendo consoles in his collection.  Some of his Guinness World Records include Super Mario Kart Mario Circuit 1 PAL version – 57.90 seconds & NTSC Version - 55.97 seconds.   Sami has been training his niece for many years to be a Super Mario Kart Champion herself and is also among the fastest players of the World.

 When did you first meet Walter day and where was it at?

I first got to know Walter in late 1999 / early 2000 when him and the Twin galaxies team found our Super Mario Kart community and the partner site for Mario Kart 64 and wished to link up from there to help provide additional content for any upcoming books / projects. Then I had the opportunity to meet Walter Day in person in August 2005 at Fairfield Halls, Croydon, South London, UK (near where I live). It was a retro gaming event where several of the Twin Galaxies crew were there, including Billy Mitchell, Doris Self. I also had a very nice chat with Perry Rodgers who was due to have a Galaxian Showdown then with a British Gamer, Gary Whelan. However, Gary was apparently unwell at the time and couldn't attend the event. I have been in touch with Walter since then and really hope to meet him again.