27 Facts About Rawson Stovall

Rawson Law Stovall was born on 1972 and is an American video game designer and producer.

Rawson Stovall started out as a video game journalist, the first to be nationally syndicated in the United States.

Rawson Stovall got the column in ten publications before Universal Press Syndicate started distributing it in April 1983; by 1984, the column, titled "The Vid Kid", appeared in over twenty-four newspapers.

In 1990, Rawson Stovall retired from video game journalism to attend Southern Methodist University.

Rawson Stovall later worked as a game designer and producer for Sony, Activision, Electronic Arts, MGM Interactive, and most recently Concrete Software.

Rawson Law Stovall was born in 1972 to Ronald L Stovall, a regional manager for the Texas State Health Department and former Boy Scouts executive; and Kay Law Stovall.

Rawson Stovall first became interested in arcade video games in 1978.

Rawson Stovall rented games from the Abilene Video Library, allowing him to study the elements and patterns used by different genres and developers.

Rawson Stovall became the youngest person to receive the Texas Governor's Award for Outstanding Volunteer Service after he raised over $5000 for Abilene's mental health association.

Rawson Stovall realized that, unlike reviews for movie and television shows, nothing similar existed for games.

Rawson Stovall's mother suggested he write an article about video games for the Wylie Journal, a local weekly.

Rawson Stovall thought the weekly was too small and an article would be too short, so she instead proposed that he write a column for his city newspaper, the Abilene Reporter-News.

Rawson Stovall decided to do so initially to raise enough money to buy an advanced home computer on which to design games.

Rawson Stovall attempted to sell his column to other newspapers, but was often turned down because of his age: the guard at the San Francisco Chronicle would not even let him into the building.

Rawson Stovall persuaded the editor to publish his column, securing his first sale outside Abilene.

Rawson Stovall's mother acted as his secretary and proofread his work, while his father, a journalism major, offered advice.

Rawson Stovall was invited to video game publisher Imagic's headquarters in Silicon Valley and went on a promotional nationwide tour with their vice president Dennis Koble.

Rawson Stovall's column ran in ten papers before Universal Press Syndicate began distributing it in April 1983 at the suggestion of Mercury News' editor.

Rawson Stovall was given special permission to attend the 1983 Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago as a minor, where he interviewed Nolan Bushnell and David Crane.

Rawson Stovall attended CES in following years and was consulted by industry professionals and companies, including Activision president Jim Levy.

Rawson Stovall was later featured on the front page of The Wall Street Journal.

In 1985, Rawson Stovall began to lighten his schedule to make more time for school.

Rawson Stovall helped to introduce the Nintendo Entertainment System at its North American launch, and began reviewing teenage-oriented software and games for his regular segment on the Discovery Channel show The New Tech Times, for which the channel paid him $850 each season.

In 2009, Rawson Stovall reflected that although it was sometimes difficult to balance school, journalism and his health issues, he felt his experience in journalism was a beneficial one.

Rawson Stovall retired from journalism in 1990 to attend Southern Methodist University in Dallas.

Rawson Stovall graduated with a degree in cinema due to the lack of game-related degrees.

Rawson Stovall is married to Jenn Marshall, who teaches art history at the University of Minnesota, with whom he has one son.