User:Stevenseagull/Sandbox

Jonathan Thompson, born in Salford, Greater Manchester, November 1976 is a British television presenter, actor and entrepreneur. He is an avid collector of classic arcade games and is a popular figure in the retro gaming community.

Early life
Educated at St James' Primary School, Rusholme, and Trinity C of E High School, Manchester before taking A-levels at Manchester Grammar School. He went on to study at both the University of Salford where he gained a HND in Design & Media Communications in 1997, and the University of Central Lancashire from which he graduated with BA (Hons) Television and Radio in 1999

TV & Radio Career
Jonathan started his broadcasting career at the age of 18 when he presented on SKY’s | Nickelodeon channel. In addition he presented on hospital radio based in the Manchester Royal Infirmary where he presented various evening and weekend shows. BBC GMR where he presented a program called “The People” He also had a role in ITV’s popular drama ”Cutting It” in 2005.

Business interests have meant he has had to scale down his media activity, but he still operates on a freelance basis when time allows and has found time to conduct some candid interviews with some of the best-loved actors in the science fiction community, including Dave Prowse and Elisabeth Sladen

Online Work
He has also done reporting work for Southport Reporter, and Channel M.

Video Games
Jonathan’s obsession with video games started at an early age when he was first encountered a ”TRON” machine, this fascination with arcades led frequent trips to Blackpool and it was on one of these trips that he purchased his first Star Wars machine. This sparked the collecting bug, and he had amassed a small collection whilst still in his early teens. He was able to take advantage of the lack of interest in old hardware in the early 1990’s and managed to make several block purchases of machines for bargain prices, using the then fledgling Ebay to search for machines. The retro gaming revival and subsequent rise in interest in classic machines enabled him to build a successful business, to such an extent that he was a millionaire before he was out of his teenage years. .

He now runs several companies, including JS Classics which deals in original machines, Sci Fi Machines which offers machines for hire and he also founded the Voyager arcade company which makes new cabinets for classic games. His company was also commissioned to produce commemorative cabinets to celebrate the release of ”Taito Legends” in 2005.

Star Wars
Jonathan’s love of Star Wars led him to collect as many of the machines as possible, and the 1997 cinema re-release of the trilogy led to a stroke of good fortune. Several machines were sited at a local cinema which led to an unexpected demand for his machines. Jonathan currently possesses the largest collection of Star Wars arcade machines in Europe, they have been exhibited all over the country and will feature prominently at Star Wars Celebration Europe commemorating the movie’s 30th anniversary.

Miscellaneous
In addition to his Star Wars obsession Jonathan’s time in radio has made him a keen supporter of new musical talent and he has his own management company. He also recently launched the "Voyager Crusade", a competition to find young up-and-coming game designers with the emphasis on playability, rather than the modern gaming trend of style over substance.

Trivia

 * Went to University with, amongst others, Peter Kay and Wes Butters
 * Collects classic cars