David Bishop was the Executive Vice President of NAMCO USA INC., and he became passionate about games during the 1970s as the stereotypical nerd who, when not obsessively studying, spent free time hanging out in pinball arcades, conducting tabletop war games, and running all night D&D sessions!
David first entered the game business when he landed his dream job as a mall arcade worker while attending college in 1981, and he immediately became so enamored with the emerging video games that he changed his major to Electrical Engineering to pursue game design. David remained with the arcade business when he finished school, and during the 1980s worked his way through the management and technical ranks of a southeastern arcade company to eventually become the VP of Technical Operations.
David moved from Atlanta to Silicon Valley in 1987 to join Atari Games Corporation and establish their national mall arcade chain, and in 1990 David helped relocate that same growing arcade chain to initialize NAMCO in America and ultimately enable the release of new games under its own brand. By the late 1990s, David was managing the largest chain of amusement facilities in the Americas with nearly 500 sites, 2,500 employees and over 27,000 games, rides and attractions on location.
Throughout his 35-year career, David advanced NAMCO as well as the game industry through a wide variety of positions and responsibilities, from technician to COO to his favorite role of “Chief PAC-MAN Evangelist”, and he helped pioneer numerous new entertainment concepts, from the earliest known commercial LAN gaming center in 1982, to a full motion flight simulation center in the early 1990s, to his latest project, Level 257 in Chicago, a 43,000 square foot melding of hospitality, social entertainment, and gaming inspired by PAC-MAN and featuring a chef-driven restaurant.
David currently serves on the Board of Directors of NAMCO USA and focuses on the development of new entertainment concepts as well as the use of emerging technology to craft innovative experiences (including, for example, “more immersive” game attractions using cutting-edge Virtual and Augmented Reality hardware.)
David resides in a suburb of Chicago with his wife Jeannine (who also worked at Atari Games) his daughter Jessica (who literally grew up in the game business and works in it herself today), and their beloved dog, Guinness.
And… David STILL plays games every day!
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