Contestant: Mark Walsh

Mark was a contestant on a special Cliff Hanger show. Cliff Hanger was a brand new laser disc game when this show was taped and when the show was over, Mark took home his very own Cliff Hanger game.

We invited a previous STARCADE! contestant Marcelo Hassmer to come back and play the Cliff Hanger game during this special show ... so all the Starcaders could see the fair damsel rescued. When the show ended, Marcelo did just that - or at least, Cliff, the suave international hero, saved the princess with an assist from Marcelo.

Reason he wanted to be on STARCADE!: "I like to play video games and think it would be interesting to be on a television show"

Mark also said he was designing video games ... "I am a computer game programmer & designer. I design and sell games on the Commodore 64 computer ... In 1982 (that would be when Mark was 14) a friend and I started a small company to market our games written for the Commodore 64."

He described his video game playing ability as "average" but he far exceeded that playing Cliff Hanger and pretty much won everything we had to offer.

When Mark checked in, he wrote: 

"WHAT EXCITEMENT TO FIND THIS SITE!!! For years I've done sporadic Web searches for info on STARCADE! ... I participated in (and won!) the Cliff Hanger special. Great fun."

"By the way, as I am curious...am I still under any contractual obligations having been a contestant on the show? I recall something about having to notify the producers before running for public office ... but it was so long ago." (A silly rule we had to abide by ... and no, Mark, you can run for whatever office you like...whenever you like...and use your STARCADE! experience as a springboard.)

Today Mark is known as Marco and produces Groove TV, a peer-to-peer community-distributed live music TV program based in Santa Cruz, California. Check it out at http://www.groovetv.net.

Mark during the taping of STARCADE! -  December 1983