Clik here to view.
Coin Op Weekly Earnings
Back in the day, most of the coin-op industry mags published annual opeartor surveys. One of the things they reported on was the average weekly earnings of different types of coin-op games.I am still...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Ultimate (So Far) History of Cinematronics/Vectorbeam - Pt. 5
War of the Worlds In early 1982, Cinematronics released War of the Worlds, a conversion kit for StarCastle. The game had originally been designed by programmer Rob Patton in 1979.[Rob...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Ultimate (So Far) History of Cinematronics/Vectorbeam - Pt. 6
Not a lot of pictures in today's post, which covers a pair of unreleased games, but a lot of new information.I have also unearthed some new info about War of the Worlds, Barrier, and engineeer Bob...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Ultimate (So Far) History of Cinematronics/Vectorbeam - Pt. 7
I expect more information about Cosmic Chasm to be forthcoming. If it does, I will update this post.The next post in this series will cover Dragon's Lair and Space Ace.------IntrepidAnother...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Ultimate (So Far) History of Cinematronics/Vectorbeam - Pt. 8
As 1983 dawned, the situation at Cinematronics was grim. Mired in the middle of a bankruptcy proceeding and saddled with a host of games that weren't selling, it looked to many like the company was on...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Video Game Related Deaths
This is a subject that I broached in an earlier post but thought I'd cover a bit more fully.What was the first coin-op video game-related death?Most sources point to Peter Bukowski, who died of a heart...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Ultimate (So Far) History of Cinematronics/Vectorbeam - Pt. 9
Dragon's Lair had been a huge hit in 1983 - in many ways one of the biggest the industry had ever seen. Many saw laserdisc games as the savior of a dying industry. In the end, however, this...
View ArticlePlay Meter Operator/Industry Surveys
I don't know how much interest there is in this kind of information but the various industry trade magazines published yearly operator/industry surveys with a number of statistics on the coin-op...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Ultimate (So Far) History of Cinematronics/Vectorbeam - Pt. 10
Today's post covers one of my favorite Cinematronics games - World Series: The Season. A game that I consider one of the best, if not the best, arcade baseball games ever. Sadly, it seems to be almost...
View ArticleClik here to view.
More Un-TAFA'd/KLOV'd games
Another utilitarian (read boring) post today.I recently bought the 1986 summer catalog issues of Replay and they had a number of games that were either not on Arcade Flyers, not in KLOV, or not in...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Updates/Odds and Ends
I have found more information on two posts I made earlier.Both posts have been updated with the new info, but I'll give a summary here.Simutron Tournament CenterFirst is this post on the Simutron...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Ultimate (So Far) History of Cinematronics/Vectorbeam - Pt. 11
With World SeriesCinematronics had finally found a winner and was seemingly (yet again) on the road to financial recovery. Yet again, it was not to be so. In May of 1986 Cinematronics released another...
View ArticleThe Ultimate (So Far) History of Cinematronics/Vectorbeam - Pt. 12
Cinematronics/Vectorbeam/Leland ErrataThis is the final part of history of Cinematronics/Vectorbeam.No narrative in this one, just some statistics/lists:1. A list of all known...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Odd Coin-ops From 1987 - Plus Odds and Ends
I recently looked through Replay's 1987 Machine Catalog - 66 pages of all manner of devices for sale to the coin-op amusement industry. The variety of games was surprising - or maybe not so surprising...
View ArticleClik here to view.
That's Incredible - The North American Video Game Olympics
Today's post is the first of three on a trio of events that followed in the wake of the famous Life magazine photo shoot in November of 1982 (if you're reading this blog, I suspect you know about that...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Electronic Circus
In an earlier post, I talked about the disastrous 1981 Atari $50,000 World Championships. Today's post is about an event that may have been even a greater disaster - the Electronic Circus. In terms of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The US National Video Game Team and the North American Video Game...
Today's post is the final in my three-part series on events that occured in the wake of the Life photo shoot. Unfotunately, I didn't have as much information on this event (save Walter Day's book) and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Galaxy Game
A quick post about what some consider the first coin-op video game ever - Bill Pitts' and Huck Tuck's Galaxy Game. Much of this info is from an interview I did with Bill Pitts about 12-15 years ago -...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Arcade Origins
Today's post covers the early history of four of the more popular arcade chains of the 1970s and 1980s. It's a little short on details, but I hope to correct that in the future.Time-Out Family...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Rare Games, More 1975 Atari Photos, and Odds and Ends
Here are a few games I've come across that I've seen almost nowhere else. Actally, I haven't "seen" most of them since they don't even have flyers or photos that I know of: Mugger (c1982?) – This game...
View Article