Roger Sharpe is all about pinball. He’s most famous for being the “man that saved pinball” after he successfully convinced the New York City Council to legalize the game after demonstrating that pinball was not a game of chance, but instead a game of skill. Roger has worked for numerous pinball companies including Game Plan, Stern, and Williams. He even co-
founded the Professional Amateur Pinball Association (PAPA), a group that promotes pinball as a recreation-
al and competitive sport.
Thomasson: Pinball was a big deal when you were growing up as a kid. It was literally the king of the arcades. How did you manage to evade the pinball scene until entering college?
Roger Sharpe: Well, I can’t confirm that pinball was,in fact, the king of the arcades when I was growing up since I was in Chicago and pinball was illegal.
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Michael Thomasson is one of the most widely respected videogame historians in the field today. He currently teaches college level videogame history, design, and graphics courses. For television, Michael conducted research for MTV's videogame related program Video MODS. In print, he authored Downright Bizarre Games, and has contributed to nearly a dozen gaming texts. Michael’s historical columns have been distributed in newspapers and magazines worldwide. He has written business plans for several vendors and managed a dozen game-related retail stores spanning three decades. Michael consults for multiple video game and computer museums and has worked on nearly a hundred game titles on Atari, Coleco, Sega and other console platforms. In 2014, The Guinness Book of World Records declared that Thomasson had “The Largest Videogame Collection” in the world. His businesses sponsor gaming tradeshows and expos across the US and Canada. Visit www.GoodDealGames.com.
