• John Spinelli
    SHOW #69 & #48 Invitational
    taped: 6/10/1983 & 7/27/1983
John was 24 when he appeared on STARCADE! shows#69 and the Invitational show #48. Show #69 was taped in June 1983, the Invitational show#48 was tapted in July 1983. Invitational shows showcased 4 Contestants who had won on a previous show.

On Show#69 John beat his opponent Matthew Delaney by 3,710 points ... seems like a lot BUT it was all scored on one game - the first one they played Zoo Keeper. Matthew took game 2 Graplop by 400 points and John took game 3 by 400 points ... sooo the whole thing boiled down to the very first game. Interesting ... John had a chance to play for the Grand Prize Pengo but failed to score the points needed to win it.

On his Invitational Show#48 John lost a playoff with Lori Graham, basically on the game Gyruss.

In 1983 John owned a t-shirt printing company. According to his short bio, he had "appeared in approximately 25 plays in high school, college and dinner theatres on the East coast." He had an "active interest in motorcycles, cats, music, video & pinball games. Highest pinball score is 1,700,000."

In 2006 when John checked in, he said, "Wow does this bring back memories. In fact, I don't even recall how long it has been since I was a contestant ... I recall playing Pengo and beating some younger kid ... the day after my show aired on TBS, I went to Yosemite National Park with my family and, of course, wore my STARCADE! blue shirt. I was recognized by one of the other visitors. This young kid came up to me and told me he had seen me on STARCADE! the previous day and asked for my autograph! As per his Mom, I was the very first person he had ever seen on TV then seen in person. Isn't that a laugh?"

John also told us, "After leaving the San Francisco Bay area, I was with American Creditors Bureau. They sent me from San Francisco to Sacramento, then Orange County, CA then to San Diego until finally I ended up in Phoenix at the Corporate headquarters. For the past 15 years I've lived in Arizona. (Today) I own my own consulting firm which provides audit services to Collection departments and Collection agencies. The last several years I spent my free time as a Baseball Umpire. I do every level from Little League to High School to NCAA Division II to Olympic Baseball-Juniors ... he signed his email a no-longer lost STARCADE! contestant ..."

Great to hear from you John. We knew you'd show up eventually.
JOHN'S OPPONENT: Matthew Delaney has not checked in.
JOHN'S GAMES
JOHN'S SCORES

50 secounds
ZOO KEEPER

5,520 John

1,810 Matthew Delaney

50 secounds
GRAPLOP

2,230 John

2,630 Matthew Delaney

40 secounds
DONKEY KONG JR

1,600 John

1,200 Matthew Delaney

TOTALS
all games played

9,350 John Spinelli-OVERALL WINNER!

5,640 Matthew Delaney

JOHN'S GRAND PRIZE PLAY

30 secounds
PENGO

SCORE TO BEAT: 1,257

SCORED: 830
WINNER? NO

PLAYING FOR: BURGERTIME VIDEO ARCADE GAME

JOHN'S GAMES INVITATIONAL SHOW #48
Because John was the overall winner of his show, we invited him back to compete against 3 other Winners. We called these shows Invitationals. Invitationals were formatted differently:
4 contestants - John Spinelli vs Lori Graham & Michael Griggs vs Eric LaBadie
2 Rounds - 2 contestant teams in each round
Final Round - winning team of each round competing against each other to choose an Overall Winner
JOHN'S GAMES INVITATIONAL SHOW #48
JOHN'S SCORES INVITATIONAL SHOW #48

30 secounds
STAR WARS

6,132 John

5,594 Lori Graham

30 secounds
GYRUSS

2,850 John

4,850 Lori Graham

30 secounds
ZOO KEEPER

22,300 Eric LaBadie- OVERALL WINNER!

8,370 Lori Graham

PLAYING FOR:
RB5X Robot

JOHN'S PRIZES