Stephen was on one of the first STARCADE! shows taped. It was show #7 for us and became show #14 for airing. The host was Mark Richards (now that was an early show). Show #14, taped when Stephen was 14 years old. Stephen was called in for contestant tryouts after he sent us a postcard in February 1983 asking to a contestant.

Reason he wanted to be on STARCADE!: "Because I'm an avid video game play, and I like to watch the show...even if I am not a winner it will be something I will remember for the rest of my life...I like to joke around a lot and all my friends think I'm a funny guy."

Stephen went into business with another STARCADE! contestant Damon Claussen. They owned a company they called 'Blast From the Past', reconditioning and selling the classic video arcade games they played on STARCADE! Reversing the process, they brought us (meaning JM) a GYRUSS video arcade game delivering it to the STARCADE! office."

Thank you, Stephen for the game (we still have it in 2025).

According to an email we received from Damon in June 2011, "We closed 'Blast from the Past Amusements' around 2003 as the economy and post-911 state-of-mind took a lot of buyer's discretionary spending away. Stephen decided to go into the video game parts business full-time and has been buying up very large inventories of arcade parts distributors. He recently purchased all the remaining parts from CA Robinson when they closed their doors in Los Angeles. As of now, he's putting the finishing touches on his 3,000 sqft warehouse which houses an ever growing array of old but new and never used arcade video game parts. In addition, he's now a re-seller for the only pinball manufacturer in the US, Stern Pinball. Needless to say, he's been quite busy in the world of arcade games."

In 2019 we received an update -- "I'm still in the coin-op biz. I own ArcadeFixit.com which is a site that sells NOS (new old stock) arcade video game parts. I have about 250,000 parts from the 70's thru the 2000's in stock and I ship all over the world."

"I became a Dad in 2012 and (to the left and to the right) are pictures of my daughter, Makenna Sky Beall. (the photo on the right includes Stephen, all grown up) She does like to play games but not as much as I did back in the day. She does know all the classic game characters like Pac Man, Donkey Kong, Mario, Qbert, etc. which makes me happy."

"We moved to Santa Fe, NM in 2016."

Thanks for the update, Stephen - you have a beautiful daughter! We are happy to hear she likes the 'cute' games!