Addendum to Ultimate History of Allied Leisure/Centuri
I am getting ready to post the next part of my ultimate history of Allied Leisure/Centuri, which will start covering the Centuri years, but I recently came across some new information about the Allied...
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Video Game Myth Busters - The Space Invaders Yen Shortage
Space Invaders was one of the most influential arcade video games in history. So huge was its impact that I consider its release to be the incident that separated the bronze age of video games from the...
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Early Unknown Computer Games Mentioned in the Magnavox Suit(s)
Recently, I was going through some of the Magnavox Vs. Activision documents that are available at the University of New Hampshire School of Law website (it looks like they were donated by Ralph...
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Video Game Firsts??
While perusing early trade magazines, I often come across information that challenges existing ideas involving well-known video game "firsts". Personally, I'm always skeptical of such claims and...
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The First Coin-Op Video Game Popularity Chart?
Today's post is a quick one. It's obvious from reading this blog how invaluable I think trade journals like RePlay and Play Meter are to any student of coin-op history. One of my favorite features of...
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Chasing Down Rabbit Trails - Fun and Food, Cartrivision, and Mad Man Muntz
“It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out of your door. You step into the Road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there is no knowing where you might be swept off to.”- Bilbo BagginsBilbo may well...
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The Ultimate (So Far) History of Allied Leisure/Centuri - Part 5
By late 1979 Allied Leisure Industries was having a rough time of it. They had lost money in five of their previous six years and were desperately in need of help. In June of 1979, that help seemed to...
View ArticleVideo Game Myth Busters - Did the "Crash" of 1983/84 Affect Arcades?
In recent months, I have come across a claim that I found a bit distressing – that the video game “crash” of 1983/84 was confined to home video games and didn’t really effect the coin-op industry. I...
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The Ultimate (So Far) History of Allied Leisure/Centuri - Part 6
Route 16, Challenger, Megatack, and Killer Comet Less successful were Centuri’s other 1981 games. Route 16 (another Tehkan license – though it was likely developed by Sun Electronics) was a...
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Century Electronics/CVS
Since I haven’t posted in a while, this one is going to be a long one. Sadly, it will not be a very in depth one since I was unable to interview anyone for it. During the...
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The Tangled History of Omni/Glak/Eagle/Magic Electronics (Part 1)
Magic Electronics of Cranston, Rhode Island is little remembered today but in 1984 and 1985, they released over two dozen video games, a few of which were minor hits. Their most well-known...
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Video Game Mythbusters - Was Rally-X the Hit of the 1980 AMOA?
There are number of well-known legends associated with various arcade video games of the 1980s. Perhaps the two games with the most are Pac-Man and Donkey Kong. With the latter there are...
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The Ultimate (So Far) History of Allied Leisure/Centuri - Part 7
In 1981, Centuri had undergone one of the most remarkable transformations in coin-op history, going from perennial also-ran to major player in a single year. As 1982 dawned, they seemed...
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A Sampler of Coin-Op Football Games - Part 1 (non-video games)
I planned to post this on Superbowl Sunday, but obviously didn’t get around to it. In honor of the Superbowl I wanted to look at a few coin-op football games. While there have been dozens over the...
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The Ultimate (So Far) History of Allied Leisure/Centuri - Part 8
Today’s post is part 8 of my ongoing history of Allied Leisure/Centuri. It mostly covers Tunnel Hunt and as such is basically a repeat of a post I did earlier. Sorry for that, but I couldn’t leave the...
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The Tangled History of Omni/Glak/Eagle/Magic Electronics (Part 2)
In part 1, we looked that the somewhat colorful history of Omni Video games. As we left the story, Omni had all but disappeared after coming out on the short end of the Stern v. Kaufman case. Omni...
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More Bronze Age Video Game Popularity Charts
Several months back, I posted what may have been the first coin-op video game popularity chart, from the March, 1976 issue of RePlay. Today, I thought I'd post some other charts from the 1970sFirst,...
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The Ultimate (So Far) History of Allied Leisure/Centuri - Part 9
Munch Mobile and Guzzler In 1983, Centuri continued to plumb the licensing market with a pair of games from Japan. Munch Mobile (SNK) was one of the 1980’s strangest driving games. The...
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The Ultimate (So Far) History of Allied Leisure/Centuri - Part 10
Today's post is the final part of my history of Allied Leisure/Centuri In 1983, Centuri’s licensing arrangement with Konami began to bear fruit in a major way. In prior years, Konami’s...
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Hologram Time Traveler - The Revolution That Wasn't
At the September, 1982 JAA show in Japan, Sega had had introduced Astron Belt, often cited at the first laserdisc game (though Electro-Sport’s Quarter Horse had actually preceded it). The game’s...
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