Duru was 13 years old and an 8th grader when he appeared in STARCADE! Show #5 ... which was actually the second show we taped in the STARCADE! series. Duru did win the overall competition but failed to score the points he needed to win the Grand Prize. Duru said of his Grand Prize play, "I only remember playing Q*Bert ... my final game! I remember being very nervous because I was never too good at it, and indeed, I fell off the grid before scoring enough points to win the grand prize! ... since then I managed to overcome the trauma ..."

In the short autobiography Duru wrote for the show, he hoped for a career in Science, "Ever since first grade I've had a fascination for science ... I want to become a scientist ... I'm not too sure what field of science ... physics, chemistry, astronomy and/or maybe the computer sciences."

When Duru appeared on the show, he had just scored his first published article, "I wrote a story on a (trip to Nigeria) and it got accepted for the 'Chart Your Course!', a children's magazine, Fall/Winter Issue (1982)."

In the final sentence on his autobiography, Duru expressed the optimistic hope, "I certainly hope they (his dreams for the future) all work out okay."

Duru realized his dreams of becoming a scientist, telling us when he checked in (2002) that he had a Ph.D in Engineering and since graduating, "had held different jobs ... from mechanical engineering gigs to government lab work to software start-ups to management consulting and now back to software. I guess I will always have a computer near me wherever I go. Thanks for putting the (STARCADE!) site together! I had a good laugh seeing all these old time pics!"

Thank you, Duru, for being a great contestant!  Your optimism about your future seems to have paid off. Thanks for sharing your dreams with STARCADE!