When Roger tried out to be a contestant on STARCADE! he was a Computer (Data Processing) Instructor at IBM. He had been 18 years servicing and programming computers which put him on the leading edge of the industry AND there at the beginnings of video games as we know them today.

Roger brought his two children, Kristen 15 and Michael 13, to tryouts. We found him interesting and asked him to audition also. Actually Roger auditioned twice. First in February 1983 when he brought in his 2 children. He was offered a contestant slot but wasn't available the week we were taping so we asked him to come back in May, when we again offered him a contestant slot and he accepted.

In the short bio he wrote in 1983, Roger described his game playing ability as "Fair" and he wanted to be on STARCADE! "to see if I could apply some of my 'old time' pinball skills to video games."

"I have played very few arcade games, mostly home games. My vice has been pinball ..."

Roger played against Gary Lupher, a 19-year old, but he held his own, losing by only 890 points.

The games on Roger's STARCADE! show#57 were Bump N Jump, Pop Flamer, Wild Western, Galaxian and Congo Bongo. The Grand Prize was an R5X Robot.

In 2007 Roger checked in to tell us, "JUST BUMPED INTO YOUR SITE WHILE DOING A GOOGLE SEARCH ON MY NAME."

"I was one of the contestants.  I orginally took my son to SF to try out for the show but was picked instead. Interestingly my son is still in the field, Works for GOOGLE."

"The show was a lot of fun but that was the good old days."

"I have retired from IBM after 30 years in various positions ... I'm slowed down now..."

Don't slow down too much Roger ... Gary might want to challenge you to another game.