Vicki was 12 when she appeared on STARCADE! show#129 with her Dad Alan (aka Al). This was close show ... Vicki & Al played brothers Noah & Uriah Sulley. Vicki was good player and won by 70 points on game 1 Zoo Keeper and took game 3 Super Astro Fighter by 650 points. Game 2 Moon Patrol was a different story. In a team show each team member was required to play one game. Al played Moon Patrol and scored 350 points to the Sulley's 1,800. A vallant attempt on Al's part ... actually a difference of 1,450 points is not much in the video game world. Vicki did a good job of trying to makeup the difference with Super Astrofighter and did come back with 620 points against the total but ultimately the Sulley's won by 830 points. Vicki was a video game player. According to her bio in 1983, "My favorite game is Gyruss ... I have some high scores on Star Wars 158,660, Pole Position 40,100 and Gyruss 39,000." She was proud to say, "I am the fourth generation of my family to be born and raised in Santa Clara, California AND the fourth generation of my family attend St. Clare's School."

Al, her Dad, was a salesman and, as he said, "I'm a neat person who lives to have fun." He described his game playing ability as "poor" BUT STARCADE! was more about the games and playing strategy than it was game playing ability. In his bio in 1983, Al told us, "After high school I purchased a 1959 Porsche Speedster and I became a Porsche lover ... I would drive for hours ..." In 2005 when he checked in, Al said, "I drive a '74 911 Porsche still, not fast but corners well on the back road to Santa Cruz..." Nice to know some good things don't change.

In 2005 Al checked in saying, "It's me Al Venturini and Vicki. We were on (STARCADE!) vs the Sulley boys. I was horrible, I scored zero on Moon Patrol (not quite that bad, Al). My daughter Vicki beat the boys big time. Vicki and I had lots of fun, however, my daughter still feels the pain of us losing to the Sulley boys ... Their father was a dip, he came apart in the stands when my daughter beat the boys. He was also a big cry baby in the private room you had us in waiting to tape our show. He was telling all of us what a dumb production company you guys had, and was going to tell Herb Cain (columnist for the San Franciso Chronicle) how stupid the show was, and he was ticked off that the crew had lunch before us. We politley told him to shut up ... then after his boys beat us, since I scored like zero points ... he was thanking everyone saying what a great time they all had and how he would tell Herb what a great show you had. What a PUTZ ..."

Hmmmmm ... intrigue in the backroom of STARCADE! We had no idea that the competition extended beyond the stage ... who knew?