This piece originally appeared in the Video Game Collector Magazine but has been updated and added to with more current information.
Q: What were you into when you were growing up?
SW: I was really into drawing. I was always drawing as a kid. Iād make my own baseball cards, copy the designs from other cards, and make my own players. Once I made a Darth Vader mask with five rolls of electrical tape. But I also had an Atari and Iād play it every day, especially in the summer. That was the only system I bought, but my friends would have other systems, so sometimes weād play on one personās Intellivision, and then someone got a ColecoVision, so weād kind of play at different houses.
Did you play in arcades much?
SW: Oh yeah,we had a couple of great arcades. There was a dedicated arcade called Wizards in a strip mall, and another place called Galaxy 2. I got in trouble for that one once. I skipped out on my chores and rode my bike up there to play. I was maybe thirteen or fourteen, and it was four miles away, which was farther than the other arcade but it was an easier bike ride. My mom found out I was there, came in and got me in front of my friends, and threw my bike in her car. But generally, my parents were very supportive of me playing video games.
In fact, my dad had one of the earliest video games-one of those one of those Sears dedicated Pong games that plug right into the TV. Arcade games were everywhere back then. They were in gas stations, pizza places. I remember Godfatherās pizza had a row of four or five machines and even though there werenāt as many games there as the arcades it was a lot cooler to play there because you could hang out with your friends. And eat pizza while you werenāt playing! Read the rest of this article on page 37 by clicking here!
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