Interviews


I'm grateful for the opportunities that I've had to interview people involved in the video game industry, people whose works have inspired me and influenced me down through the years. I'm happy to have been able to preserve their words in these pages. - Rob

David Crane

David is not only the creator of the legendary Pitfall series, but also co-founded Activision, Absolute Entertainment and Skyworks Technologies. Included among the many games he's designed and programmed over the years are A Boy and His Blob, Ghostbusters, Dragster, Fishing Derby, Laser Blast, TheActivision Decathlon, Little Computer People, and David Crane's Amazing Tennis.

Martin Alessi

Martin Alessi is an avid retro and modern gamer and former Senior Editor and Art Director for Electronic Gaming Monthly. During his tenure at the magazine he played and reviewed almost 2000 games during the 8-Bit & 16-Bit generations. While an original member of EGM's Review Crew, his reviews were respected and trusted by readers worldwide. Current Favorites: Super Contra (arcade), God of War Ascension (PS3), Castle Crashers (360), Wind Waker HD (WiiU)

Kouichi "Isuke" Yotsui

Kouichi "Isuke" Yotsui is the creator of Capcom's legendary Strider, as well as the cult classics Nostalgia 1907, Osman/Cannon Dancer and Moon Diver. He also worked on the arcade versions of Capcom's Ghosts 'N Goblins, Bionic Commando and The Speed Rumbler, as well as designing the Mitchell arcade games The Karate Tournament and Lady Killer. Kouichi is currently a freelance video game designer.

Yuzo Koshiro

Yuzo Koshiro is a video game music composer and developer whose works include the soundtracks to Xanadu Scenario II, Romancia, Ys I: Ancient Ys Vanished, The Revenge of Shinobi, the Streets of Rage series, the ActRaiser series, and the Shenmue series. The company he co-founded, Ancient Corp., developed the fondly-remembered action RPG games Beyond Oasis and The Legend of Oasis.

Dan Tovar

Dan Tovar is a former producer at Namco and was not only associate producer, but also the "face" of Splatterhouse (2010, Xbox 360/PlayStation 3). He also produced the games Spawn: Armageddon, Pac-Man World 3, Dead To Rights: Reckoning and The Fast and the Furious.

Dave Wilkins

Dave Wilkins is a video game and comic book artist extraordinaire who was the lead artist on Splatterhouse (2010, Xbox 360/PlayStation 3). He has done artwork for DC Comics, Dark Horse Comics, IDW, Marvel, Heavy Metal Magazine, Warner Brothers Entertainment, Namco Bandai and Capcom (for the game Marvel Vs. Capcom 3).

Caitlin Oliver

Caitlin Oliver is the world record high score holder on the original arcade game Splatterhouse and will be appearing in the upcoming film No Princess in the Castle - a documentary on the lives of women in gaming who, against all odds, punched through the peripheral shadows and entered the gaming world center stage.

Allan Findlay

Allan was the senior programmer at the video game developer Tiertex in the early '90s, and was the sole programmer of the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive game Journey From Darkness: Strider Returns/Strider II. Later in his career, he also worked on Hexen 64, Wayne Gretzky's 3D Hockey '98, Fifa: Road to the World Cup, Fifa '98, Carmageddon 64,Nicktoons Racing, Nascar Racers and Worms Blast.

Howard Scott Warshaw

Howard Scott Warshaw created three of the Atari 2600's most legendary (or infamous) titles: Yars' Revenge, Raiders of the Lost Ark and E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial. He is an accomplished author and also produced and directed several documentaries, most notably Once Upon Atari.  Most recently, Howard participated in the excavation of buried E.T. cartridges at the 'Atari Tomb' in New Mexico, as part of a documentary with Xbox, Lightbox, and Fuel Entertainment. He is currently known as "The Silicon Valley Therapist" having become a licensed psychotherapist in California in 2012.

Bill Kunkel

Bill Kunkel co-founded the pioneering video game magazine Electronic Games in 1981. It was in these pages that Bill first became known to legions of gamers as The Game Doctor. Over the years, Bill's Game Doctor column appeared in many magazines such as Electronic Gaming Monthly and Video Games & Computer Entertainment. Sadly, Bill passed unexpectedly in September, 2011. This was a true loss for the video gaming community, as he was still active in it until his death. I interviewed Bill in 2003, but that interview was never made public - until now.

Jay Moon

Jay Moon is a former Software Development Manager at Sunsoft of America. During his career, Jay helped start both Electronic Gaming Monthly and GamePro Magazine, and has worked for a variety of game companies besides Sunsoft. Some of the many games he's worked on over the years include Batman: The Video Game (NES & Genesis), Journey To Silius (NES), Gremlins 2: The New Batch (NES), Aero The Acro-Bat 1 & 2 (Super NES & Genesis), Turok: Dinosaur Hunter (Nintendo 64) and South Park (Nintendo 64).

David Siller

David Siller is former Vice-President of Product Development for Sunsoft of America, overseeing several fan favorite games. Not only was David a co-founder of of both GamePro Magazine and Electronic Gaming Monthly, David wrote under the pseudonyms "Terry Aki" and "Sushi-X," the latter of which became his most popular alter-ego. David also was the creator/lead designer of Punky Doodle (arcade), Aero The Acro-Bat (Super NES),  Crash Bandicoot (PlayStation), Maximo: Ghosts to Glory (PlayStation 2) and PAIN (PlayStation 3).