Coinman of the Month
a special three-part interview
RogerC.Sharpe
"If this industry had a clean image, wha t you'd find
would result would be an easing up
of local legislation against the industry"
Millie McCarthy
"If nothing else, the AMOA should have been
a clea ringhouse for information.
The re should be files on legisla tion by state."
Steve Kirk
"If you don't provide the media with the information,
they'll just write whatever they want."
For this, our "State of the Industry" issue, we
decided to change our Coinman of the Month format
somewhat. Instead of featuring one personality on
the industry scene today, we decided to revisit
three former Coinmen and ask them the same
question- "Do you see a problem that threatens the
state of the industry today?"
.
Though the three individuals were interviewed
separately, all three seemed to see the same
problem and also offered strikingly similar solutions
to that problem. They all feel there's a need for a
central lobbying force in this industry. And they all
believe there should be a clearinghouse of
in/ormation for legal matters.
The first of the three we tnterviewed was none
other than PLAY METER's own pinball critic,
Roger C. Sharpe, author of the book, Pinball!
Besides being a regular contributor to PLAY
METER, Roger did some moonlighting recently as
8
a game designer for Game Plan's first upright
pinbaU- Sharpshooter. Roger was first featured as
Coinman of the Month in our May, 1976 issue.
Millie McCarthy, New York's outspoken state
association president, was our second Coin(wo}-
man. In a letter to the editor-in this month's
Mailbox section-she takes exception with the
remarks made by a recent Coinman. Her thoughts
were so intriguing we decided to offer her equal
time. She was first featured as a Coinwoman in
February, 1975.
Our third Coinman is Steve Kirk, the president of
the PinbaU Association of America. The co-author
of a book entitled All About Pinball, with Bobbye
Claire Natkin-Steve was the designer of the big
Stern hit, Stars. He's designed a new game from
Stern (the game is called Meteor) which features
some new possibilities with drop targets. He was
our Coinman of the month in February, 1978.
PLAY METER, September, 1979