When I was young, I loved the the movie “The Last Starfighter“…I loved the idea that some random suburban kid could backdoor his way into saving the entire galaxy by simply excelling at playing a coin operated video game (really well).  Perhaps in retrospect, this was a bit of self-indulgent thinking…as I spent many a formative year dumping quarters into coin-operated video game machines.

My very first job was as a paperboy for the Philadephia Bulletin.  I’d deliver newspapers on my bicycle and I’d collect tips.  Many times tips came in the form of quarters.  And I’d spend those quarters on video games…like Asteroids, Space Invaders, Defender…  Galaga.

When The Last Starfighter came out in 1984, the Philadephia Bulletin had been out of print for two years.  The Bulletin was just an evening newspaper published daily in Philadelphia from 1847 to 1982…no big deal.  I was 13…my paperboy days were long gone.   But when I saw The Last Star Fighter for the first time I thought it was the coolest thing ever, mostly because I could relate to the main character, Alex Rogan.  Alex gets an opportunity, granted by “The Music Man” himself, Robert Preston, because he’s a smart geek.  The opportunity is to save the galaxy using the skills he’s displayed by #winning the #highscore at a coin-operated video game near his local laundrymat called (appropriately) The Last Starfighter.

Well, today is my birthday and I have an opportunity to help out a very real version of this concept.  It’s a project we’ve been working on at Geeks Without Bounds called “GameSave”… a competition challenging teams of game developers to create a game that teaches and trains players (in advance) in basic emergency relief and disaster mitigation techniques.

How can you help?

Donate $1, $25 (or more) by clicking this link:

GameSave Kickstarter Project

Help me make this birthday count… who knows…one day we might just save the galaxy from some “Trouble with a capital T”

Oh, and in case you’ve never seen the film…here’s the trailer for The Last Starfighter: