Steve earned the ‘interesting’ tag and the dubious honour of having a Spitting Image puppet based on himself due to his apparent lack of emotion and his monotonous voice (as he’s the first to admit). He’s also been dubbed "The Ginger Magician" and "The Nugget".
Davis became Snooker’s first millionaire and continues to play the game at a pro level. He’s currently ranked as the fifteenth best player in the world. In addition to his snooker playing and regular TV punditry and quiz show appearances, Steve’s also a keen pro pool player, having instituted the annual Europe vs. US Mosconi Cup team nine-ball competition. He’s also a high-ranking pro poker and chess player. It’s fair to say that he likes his games! So SPOnG decided to quiz him on his videogaming habits.
SPOnG: What are your favorite games of the last year or two? And why?
Steve Davis: I haven't really played any games recently, although I have spent many hours watching my two sons buffing up on World of Warcraft and proudly announcing that they'd achieved level 80. They also enjoyed South Park's piss-take on the whole subject! I have to admit that the only game (software wise) I've played recently has been online poker!
SPOnG: What are your top three favorite games of all time? Any particular memories they evoke?
I have a softspot for Space Invaders and Defender as they were the pioneering years and were in every snooker club in the country around 1980 and '81. I must admit that Pac Man was brilliant in its simplicity and I'm sure that if you connected people up to heart rate monitors they would be jumping off the scale. What a wind up! I used to panic more on that game than the World Championship at the Crucible.
My Favorite PC game is Gods (Platform Game) probably because I used to sit my oldest boy on my knee and we used to move the joystick together and also probably because we actually completed it! But as far as console games I've never really got addicted to any.
SPOnG: What are your earliest memories of playing videogames?
Steve Davis: The hero in the Romford Snooker Centre was "Screwy Lewey" (forgotten his real name. Not sure if I ever knew it!) . An average Snooker player, apart from his huge cue power and the ability to play fantastic screw shots. However when Space Invaders landed into our little world, Screwy became an overnight legend. Rumour had it that he could hit the spaceships blindfolded and also that he could actually bend the bullets.
Screwy was also brilliant at Pac Man, Defender, Missile Command and every other game that went into the club. We all wanted to be him and I was World Champion at the time!