At the start of the 1980’s, games such as Galaga, Tempest, and the big one, Pac-Man, consumed my quarters in droves. That’s when I noticed a new driving game… Turbo! Unlike the previous games, Turbo was different in every way. Not only did it have the usual steering wheel and gas pedal, but it also had a shifter that had low and high gears. In addition, the digital display actually displayed a tachometer which would assist you in showing you when to shift gears.
One of the coolest aspects of Turbo was the fact you drove through many different environments and also had to deal with many different hazards. I’d never seen this before in any racing game. Some of the different environments were driving through a city, in the country, by the seashore, through a dark tunnel, and driving over hills. The hazards were cars. You will have 99 seconds to pass 30 cars. If you achieve this, you will continue to advance through subsequent rounds. The only way to lose the game is to fail to pass 30 cars in 99 seconds or to lose the two cars you were assigned.
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Since he played on the first Magnanvox Odyssey in 1973, Kevin was bitten by the video game bug. It didn't matter what the games looked like, they were just fun. When Space Invaders was released in the United States in the late 1970's, he spent a ton of quarters in his local Aladdins Castle trying (unsuccessfully) to master the game. He continued to play on various console and arcade games (even learning to program the Apple II+) until he joined the navy in 1983. Joined the navy in 1983 and became a Hospital Corpsman in 1984. While in the navy, Kevin was able continue his hobby of programming PC's and playing videogames. In the early to mid 1990's, Kevin learned to program the Atari ST and worked for Majicsoft for a couple of years. Before retiring from the navy in 2004, Kevin started to write FAQ's for GameFAQ's. His forte was arcade FAQ's since that was his real passion still. His FAQ's have appeared in many places that seek to preserve the arcade game history. This is especially true for the MAME project where his guides are a part of the documentation. After retiring from the navy, Kevin has been more involved in computer repair, networking, and computer security but he still is involved in the arcade history arena. He currently lives in Neosho MO with his wife and one son who is also a video game hobbyist.
