In 1983 Bob was a Junior at San Francisco State University studying Broadcasting (translation ... television ... show biz). One of his hobbies was magic or 'sleight of hand', as he called it ... and he did a bit of it on his STARCADE! show.

Bob got beat on one game - Astron Belt - he had a bit of bad luck and his opponent pushed ahead of him by over 4,000+ points. The two low-scoring games that followed did not give Bob the room to catch up. Bad luck but great contestant.

Bob's favorite games in '83 were Star Trek, Star Wars, Gyruss, Cloak & Dagger, Dragon's Lair and Pole Position. According to Bob, "I am one of the few people I know who have completed the fifth wave on Star Wars using the Force for a bonus of 100,000 points (I derezzed in the sixth wave.)."

"On a new game from Atari Cloak & Dagger, I have gotten down to Dr. Boom's secret laboratory and retrieved the stolen secret plans; however, I didn't quite make it back out." Bob had never seen STARCADE! when he tried out in December 1983.

In 2003 Bob checked in to tell us, "I now work in television news ... I am an editor and also operate the satellite truck." In fact, Bob works for the TV station that once owned the studios where STARCADE! was taped in 1983. Could this be some of Bob's magic in action?

"I also serve as an online game master for Modus Operandi, a multi-player text-based adventure game from Simutronics I also maintain an active interest in tabletop role-playing games and have worked on part of the programming for a number of science fiction conventions."

Starcader Bob Lai - TV guy & still a gamer!