Tuesday, February 26, 2013

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 one). One of the events is very well known.
The other two aren't but, in my opinion, make for far more interesting stories.

     The one you no doubt all remember is the 1983 North American Video Game Olympics  - considered by many the first national video game championship.Everybody remembers the finals on That's Incredible. The image of Ben Gold crossing the finish line isn't quite as iconic as the Life photo, but it isn't too far behind.

     Not nearly as many, however, remember the qualifying event and even fewer probably remember that the even was not the first video game tournament shown on That's Incredible. But anyway, on with the article...

That's Incredible Ms. Pac-Man Tournament

            That's Incredible was an ABC reality television show in the tradition of Ripley's Believe It or Not and NBC's Real People that aired from 1980 to 1984. Most video game fans remember the video game competition that aired on the show in February of 1983 (see below) but few remember the Ms. Pac-Man championship that aired the year before. Sponsored by Six Flags amusement parks, qualifying rounds were held at six Six Flags locations around the nation in the summer of 1982. Thousands competed in the tournament with finalists from each of the six regions (at the Southeast Regional in Georgia in June, there were 44 finalists) receiving $500 and a four-day trip for two to Los Angeles to compete in the televised finals, which aired on October 11th. Tim Collum of Boyd, Texas (who had won the Texas Video Game Championship in June) won the competition with a score of 123,000.



Tim Collum, winner of the That's Incredible Ms. Pac-Man tournament
Seen here winning the Texas Video Game Championship in June of 1982
One of the great unknown players from the 1980s, Collum was named video game player of the year for 1983



The North American Video Game Olympics/That's Incredible Invitational

 
 

Perhaps the most famous video game competition of the golden age came in the  January 1983 "North American Video Game Olympics" -  a contest that many consider the world's first national video game championship. Once again, That's Incredible was the driving force, though the main competition took place in Ottumwa. While they hadn't been credited, Walter Day and Twin Galaxies had been involved in the That's Incredible Ms. Pac-Man tournament, providing advice on how to run the competition. When the show proved to be a hit, producer Alan Landsburg decided to do another show related to video games and director Todd Simon made another call to Day looking for ideas. As he had with Life, Day suggested bringing top players to Twin Galaxies, this time for a five-game video game "pentathlon". Simon was skeptical but when he arrived in Ottumwa to scout the location, the just-released year-in-review issue of Life magazine and all doubt vanished (some sources claim that the competition was actually announced in the Life issue). The competition was scheduled for January 8-9, 1983 and Twin Galaxies was paid $1,100 for expenses. Excited by the prospect of their national television debut, the citizens of Ottumwa chipped in. The local Radio Shack supplied a Model III computer and a technician to help create a computerized scoring system (sadly, calls for a  marching band went unanswered). Volunteer referees came from as far away as South Carolina and Maryland.  The documentary crew from the Life shoot was on hand.



The opening parade







            Day invited 21 of the top players to compete in the event. Only two failed to participate, including Billy Mitchell.  Mitchell wanted to attend but after the expense of the Life magazine trip he decided that he didn't want to spend any more money or take any more days off from school. With the temperature dipping below freezing, the festivities kicked off in Ottumwa on Saturday, January 8th with a torch-lighting ceremony and a parade down Main Street. Heading the pack was a player dressed in a Pac-Man uniform that had been donated by Bally/Midway. In place of the band there were pickup trucks with boom boxes (plans to have a convoy of dump trucks fell through). After the festivities (including, some say, a call from Ronald Regan) and parade, the main event got underway (after, that is, Day chased a gaggle of groupies out of the arcade).  Players competed on five games: Super Pac-Man, Donkey Kong Jr., Millipede, Joust, and Frogger. Each player would play three games on each machine with their highest score being recorded.  The top scorer on each game was given a 100 percent rating with the others given a score based on the percent of the top score (i.e. if the top score was 50,000, a score of 10,000 would be given a score of 20%). The final score for each player was calculated by averaging the percentage scores achieved on each game. 19-year-old Todd Walker of Milpitas, CA was the odds-on favorite. Considered the best all-around player in the world, Walker took a unique approach to video games. He found that it was easy for him to get good enough to beat 99.9% of the players in any given game. Getting good enough to beat the handful that remains, however, would take longer than it did to beat the first 99.9%. Instead, Walker preferred to move on to another game at that point. In Ottumwa, Walker  didn't disappoint He crushed the competition with a winning score of 69.58% - almost 23% ahead of second place. The top three finishers - Walker, Darren Olsen of Calgary, and Ben Gold of Dallas would be compete in the finals on That's Incredible. Joe Malasarte of Anchorage finished fourth, less than one percentage point behind Gold. Eric Ginner, winner of the 1981 Centipede fiasco, finished fifth - largely due to a bug in Frogger. The game had a "kill screen" that appeared randomly, making it impossible to finish the game. Ginner got the kill screen after scoring just 15,000 points. Steve Sanders, author of The Video Masters Guide to Donkey Kong, finished 6th.  Ms. Pac-Man champion Tim Collum finished ninth.  Finishing dead last, with a paltry 12.9% was none other than Steve Juraszek, the original video game superstar (though his critics were not surprised).



The players arrive. I believe that's Steve Sanders in the jacket.




Drawing for position


 

Final Standings
 
1.    Todd Walker (Milpitas, CA) - 69.58%
2.    Daren Olsen (Calgary) - 46.85%
3.    Ben Gold (Dallas) - 46.17%
4.    Joe Malasarte (Anchorage) - 45.32%
5.    Eric Ginner (Mountain View, CA) - 42.12%
6.    Steve Sanders (Clinton, MO) - 36.97%
7.    Steve Harris (Gladstone, MO) - 36.91%
8.    Lee Whitney (Las Vegas) - 36.87%
9.    Tim Collum (Boyd, TX) - 35.58%
10. Jeff Stueve (Dayton, OH) - 30.66%
11. Matt Brass (Helena, MT) - 29.59%
12. Mike Lepkosky (Spring, TX) - 27.92%
13. Antonio Medina (Napa, CA) - 26.21%
14. Landon Rothstein (Happauge, NY) - 25.49%
15. Tim Foland (Spring, TX) - 21.16%
16. Joe Louks (Moncks Corner, SC) - 20.16%
17. Mark Sellers (Grand Rapids, MI) - 18.87%
18. James Marino (Happague, NY) - 13.15%
19. Steve Juraszek (Mt. Prospect, IL) - 12.95%

----------------------------------------------------------------------
            The finals, which aired on February 21st, were more of a sprint than a distance race. Players had to achieve certain scores on five different games in turn: Cosmos (50,000 points), Burgertime (8,000), Millipede (90,000), Donkey Kong Jr. (30,000), and Buck Rogers (20,000). After the whistle blew, the players ran to the first game. When they reached the target score, they could move on to the next. While Walker was considered the best player, Gold took the early lead - within minutes he was 20,000 points ahead of Walker on Cosmos. Walker lost more precious time when he peppered in the wrong direction on Burgertime. Olsen briefly pulled ahead on Millipede before Gold climbed back to the top. The commentary by hosts Cathy Lee Crosby, Fran Tarkenton, and John Davidson, was unintentionally hilarious: "He piles on the pepper and sends down a bun covered with hot dogs and an egg!" "Junior caught papa and papa kicks the evil Mario temporarily out of the picture!" "Ben, the leader, just lost a life to a millipede head!"
 
 

Olsen and Gold finished the penultimate game practically simultaneously and headed for Buck Rogers neck and neck. Olsen quickly took the lead but Gold quickly caught up and was first to the 20,000 mark. He then madly sprinted the 30 feet to the "finish line" pursued by - no one, since Walker and Olsen were still blasting away. Gold, arms raised in triumph, breasted the tape, followed by Walker (who had miraculously managed to catch up) and Olsen. The three collected medals, and kisses, from Crosby (who almost gave the gold to Olsen). The event was perhaps the high water mark of video game popularity in the U.S. The low point would come shortly thereafter.

 

Much of the information in this article came from Walter Day's outstanding Video Game and Pinball Book of World Records - 1st Edition. Many of you may have skipped this one thinking it's nothign but records, but pick up a copy if you can find one.
Note - That's the FIRST edition, not the 2nd of 3rd.
The first edition had a wonderful 200+ page section on "the golden age of video games" in which Day recounts many of the stories associated with Twin Galaxies. The 2nd edition did not include this section (can't speak as to the third).

OK, this article probably didn't tell you anything you didn't already know but I think the next one will - the fascinating and tragic story of the Electronic Circus.

Sunday, February 24, 2013

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 since operators were looking for anything that might make money in the wake of the crash (cranes, for instance, took up 8 pages).

A few of the odder items:

Pizza Time Theate wasn't the only place offering animated mannequins.

Here are a couple of others:





The next one might seem boring (OK, it IS boring) but it does illustrate a litte-known fact.
The breakup of AT&T went into effect on January 1, 1984. One of the results of the breakup was that other companies began making private pay phones. After the video game crash, many operators actually turned to pay phones as an alternatative.
Here is just one of a number of them offered in the 1987 Machine Catalog:



Along similar lines, but probably a bit more interesting were condom dispensers. Oddly, the trade mags seemed to have no compuctions about advertising them (in earlier years, for example, they refused to mention gambling machines).
This oddball combines a condom vender with a love tester.


I assure you that it's only coincindence that I put tis one right after the Sex Tester. Did UBI have a warped sense of humor or were they just unaware of the meaning of the term "bimbo"?



Arm wrestling machines were nothing new in the coin-op biz, but they uusually involved one player against either a video opponent (as in Nintendo's Arm Wrestling) or a mechanical one.
Here's one that pitted two human opponents against one another:


This one gets my vote for weirdest of the bunch. I'm not sure exactly how it works but I don't think it used video or laserdisc footage.
Has anyone out there ever seeen (or played) one in the wild.



A few un-TAFA'd games (Face to Face is on TAFA but they don't have a photo of an actual machine):

Face to Face from SMS Manufacturing







Finally a few photos that I found interesting.

This may have been one of the largest arcades of the 1980s- 270' x 180' with over 1,000 games.
It as located at Cedar Point, the amusement park near Sandusky, OH


As a preview of my upcoming series on tournaments, here is a photo from the the New York Regionals of Atari's 1980 Space Invaders Championship. This wasn't a coin-op tournament. It was on the Atar 2600 version of the game. Over 10,000 competed in the five regionals with one winner from each region competing in the finals in New York. The winner was Bill Heieman (who later had gender reassignment surgery, became Rebecca Heineman and co-founded Interplay).



And for those who missed it, I added some photos of designers to my Cinematronics series.

Here are Kevin Lydy, Phil Sorger, Bob Skinner, and John Rowe (at least I think so, Replay and Play Meter often mislabeled photos of designers):


And here's Medo Moreno:

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

The Ultimate (So Far) History of Cinematronics/Vectorbeam - Pt. 12

Cinematronics/Vectorbeam/Leland Errata

This is the final part of history of Cinematronics/Vectorbeam.
No narrative in this one, just some statistics/lists:


1.    A list of all known Cinematronics/Vectorbeam/Leland games, released or unreleased
2.    A summary of Cinematronics/Vectorbeam game performance on the Replay, Play Meter, and Electronic Games popularity charts
3.    A complete list of known Cinematronics/Vectorbeam/Leland designers/programmers/artists/engineers etc., along with the games they worked on.

I hope everyone has enjoyed the series or articles. I know I enjoyed putting it together but not everyone is likely to be as interested in the company as me.
There's still so much more information I wish I had and the story is still very incomplete (maybe one day I'll track down Jim Pierce, if he's still around).

Feedback/additions/corrections are much appreciated.
And for those of you who are sick and tired of Cinematronics, I will be moving on to a new topic with my next post (I plan on doing a three part series on 3 major gaming events of the 1983 that were a direct result of the Life magazine cover).

CINEMATRONICS/VECTORBEAM/LELAND GAMES

Below is a list of all Cinematronics/Vectorbeam/Leland games by year of release.
The number in parenthesis before the game indicates approximate month of release (often the month its release was announced in trade magazines).
A number with a d indicates a debut month (i.e. the month the game appeared at a trade show, which was often a few months before its release)
V = vector game, LD = laserdisc game


1975
Video Amusement Game Table
1976?
Flipper Ball


1977
(4) Embargo

1978
(2, d 10/77) Space Wars [V]
(10) Space War (Vectorbeam) [V]
(11) Scramble (Vectorbeam) [V]


1979
(3, d1) Starhawk [V]
(3) Speedfreak (Vectorbeam) [V]

(8) Barrier (Vectorbeam) [V]
(10) Sundance [V]
(10) Warrior [V]
(12, d11) Tailgunner [V]


1980
(4) Rip Off [V]
(11) Star Castle [V]

1981
(6) Armor Attack [V]
(11) Solar Quest [V]

1982
(s3) War of the Worlds [V]
(4) Boxing Bugs [V]
(4) Jack the Giant Killer (lic Hara Industries)
(6) Naughty Boy (lic Jaleco)
(d11) Zzyzzyxx/Brix (dev Advanced Microcomputer Systems)

1983
(5) Cosmic Chasm [V] (lic GCE)
(7) Dragon’s Lair (dev Advanced Microcomputer Systems) [LD]

1984
(2) Scion (lic Seibu Denshi)
(3) Space Ace [LD]
(10) Freeze
Express Delivery

1985
(5) Mayhem 2002
(9) Power Play
(10) World Series: The Season
Cerberus

1986
(5) Alley Master/Up Your Alley
(12) Danger Zone
(12) Redline Racer


1987
(6) Baseball: The Season II (Leland) (note - same game as World Series: The Season)
(7) Quarterback (Leland)
Super Baseball Double Play Home Run Derby (Leland)
1988
(2) Strike Zone Baseball (Leland)
John Elway's Team Quarterback (Leland)
All American Football (Leland)


1989
(4) Ironman Ivan Stewart's Super Off Road (Leland)
1990
(6) World Soccer Finals (Leland)
Pig Out: Dine Like a Swine (Leland)

1991
(5) Attax (Leland)
Brute Force (Leland)
Danny Sullivan's Indy Heat (Leland)


Unreleased Games
Oops(Vectorbeam) [V]
Clown Skeet (ca 1981)
Outpost (ca 1980-1982)
Cutter (ca 1982)
Intrepid (ca 1982)
<<unknown torpedo boat game>> (ca 1982)
<<unknown "self-generating maze" game>> (ca 1982)
Hovercraft (ca 1983)
Striker (ca 1986)
Side Gunner (ca 1987) - a retrofit for Danger Zone, it was mentioned in the April, 1987 Replay as an upcoming release

Viper (ca 1988) - released?
Asylum (ca 1991)
Others
(1980) Armor Attack - licensed to Rock-Ola for European release
(1980) Tailgunner 2 - released by "Exidy II" after Exidy bought Vectorbeam
(1980) Star Castle - licensed to Rock-Ola for European release
(7/1982) Rip Off Cocktail - licensed to Centuri


CINEMATRONICS/VECTORBEAM CHART SUMMARY

This section lists all games that appeared on the Replay, Play Meter, and Electronic Games popularity charts.
I don't want to go into the details of each chart here (I may do a separate post with a full summary of each chart. If so, I will give details there) but Replay and Play Meter charts were basically based on game earnings. Electronic Games used a readers poll.

Replay (through 12/87)
Replay charts were based on operator earnings.
The monthly charts started in April, 1980. From 1976-1979 they did a chart at the end of each year.They also did a chart in April of 1976.
I only have the charts through December of 1987. Some games were still on the charts at that point. I also don't include Leland games.
I am missing charts from around 6 issues but I believe that these issues did not include charts.

Game - Peak Position (times at #1) - Times Charted - First:Last Appearance (timespan in months between the two)


Alley Master - 20 - 2 - 12/86:2/87 (2)
Armor Attack - 10 - 3  - 7/81:10/81 (3)
Baseball: The Season II - 14 - 5 - 8/87-12/87 (3)
Danger Zone - 10 - 2- 6/87:9/87 (3)
Dragon's Lair - 1(3) - 13- 9/83:3/85 (18)
Power Play - 22 - 1 - 1/86
Rip Off - 4 - 7 - 6/80:2/81 (8)
Space Ace - 11 - 3 - 5/84:11/84 (6)
Space Wars - 1(1) - 7 - 11/78:10/80 (23)
Star Castle - 4 - 10 - 12/80:10/81 (10)
Starhawk - 5 - 7 - 11/79:12/80 (13)
Tailgunner - 7 - 8 - 4/80-2/81 (10)
World Series: The Season - 2 - 18 - 1/86:12/87 (23)

The following games did not appear on the main charts but did appear on the New Games charts (peak position on New Games charts in parenthesis):
Cosmic Chasm (2)
Mayhem 2002 (3)

Play Meter (incomplete)

Play Meter's monthly charts started in June of 1979.  In 1977 and 1978 they did a year-end chart.
Play Meter charts were also based on earnings but were more complicated since they had up to six separate charts at one time: Arcade dedicated games (AD), Street location dedicated games (SD), Arcade conversion kits (AC), Street location conversion kits (SC), Arcade laserdisc games (ALD), Street location laserdisc games (SLD)
They also had a period where they just had Arcade (A) and Street Location (S) charts.

Play Meter also came out twice a month instead of once a month for most of the early 1980s.
Once again, I only have the issues through December of 1987. I am missing the 1985 issues from March until about August and a few other issues.


For a brief period, the Play Meter charts included average weekly earnings for each game. Note that the figures below are average earnings only for the time the games appeared on the charts (i.e. during its peak popularity)
For first/last appearance I show the game's first and last appearance on any chart. For peak position, I list its peak on the chart(s) on which it had the highest peak.

Game - Peak Position (times at #1) - Times Charted - First:Last Appearance (timespan in months between the two)  - Average Weekly Earnings (Peak weekly earnings)

Alley Master - 26 - 1 - 11/15/86
Armor Attack  - 4 - 5 - 8/15/81:11/1/81 (3) - $184 ($197)
Dragon's Lair - A: 1(10), S: 1(5) - 39 - 9/15/83:3/15/86 (30)
Rip Off - 5 - 5 - 8/80:12/80 (4)
Space Ace -  A: 1(2) - 9 - 5/1/84:2/15/85 (10)
Space Wars - 1(1) - 13 - 11/78:7/80 (20)
Speedfreak - 15 - 1 - 6/79

Star Castle
- 5 - 4 - 1/81:6/15/81 (5)
Starhawk - 5 - 6 - 6/79:1/80 (7)
Tailgunner - 4 - 6 - 4/80:8/80 (4)
World Series: The Season - 4 - 7 - 3/15/86:11/15/86 (8)
In addition, Play Meter had a "Provisional" chart for games that didn't have a high enough response rate to make the main charts (i.e. they weren't in many locations).  Two games made the provisional charts that didn't make the main charts.
Note that due to the low response rate, the earnings figures for these games are generally higher than those on the main chart.
Also note that this chart generally only had 3-10 games on it.


Naughty Boy - S: 1(1) - 6 - 9/1/82:2/1/83 (5) - $217 ($260)
Solar Quest - 3 - 4 - 1/1/82:3/1/82 (2) - $193 ($250)

Electronic Games
Electronic Games charts were based on reader surveys.
Game - Peak - Times charted


Dragon's Lair - 1 (3) - 4
Space Ace - 5 - 2


CINEMATRONICS/VECTORBEAM/LELAND DESIGN CREDITS

Scott Benefiel
Pig Out: Dine Like a Swine - 1990 - Cabinet Art

Don Bluth
Dragon’s Lair – 1983 – Animator
Space Ace – 1984 – Animator


Scott Boden
Star Castle –1980 – Programmer
Solar Quest – 1981 – Programmer
Clown Skeet –Unreleased
Outpost – Unreleased


Rick Bryant
Tailgunner – 1979 - Cabinet Art
Star Castle – 1980 – Cabinet Art
Armor Attack –  1981 – Cabinet Art
War of the Worlds –  1981 – Cabinet Art


Tom Carroll
Artist
Dave Cartt
?Cerberus - 1985 - Sound
?Danger Zone - 1986 - Sound
Quarterback - 1987 - Sound


Dana Christianson
Mayhem 2002 - 1985 - Art/Graphics
World Series: The Season - 1985 - Art/Graphics
Baseball: The Season II - 1986 - Art/Graphics
Danger Zone - 1986 - Art/Graphics
Strike Zone Baseball - 1988 - Lead Artist
Ivan Stewart Super Off-Road - 1989 - Art/Graphics
Asylum - Unreleased - Art/Graphics
David Dentt
Cosmic Chasm - 1983
Freeze - 1984
Cerberus - 1985 - Programmer
World Series: The Season - 1985 - Programmer
Mayhem 2002 - 1985 - Lead Programmer
Alley Master - 1986 - Lead Programmer
Danger Zone - 1986 - Programmer
Infomania/Reflex - Unrleased? - Programmer


Dave Dodd
All American Football - 1989 - Direction

Rick Dyer
Zzyzzyxx/Brix - 1982
Dragon's Lair - 1983 - Designer
Space Ace –  1984 – Designer

Mike Enright
Quarterback - 1987 - Sound
Ironman Ivan Stewart's Super Off Road - 1989 - Sound

George Fiock
Danny Sulivan's Indy Heat - 1991 - Hardware

Cris Fitch
Pig Out: Dine Like a Swine - 1990 - Programmer


Keith Gabryelski
Quarterback - 1987 - Programmer


Gary Goldman
Dragon’s Lair – 1983 – Animator


Helene Gomez
Programmer

Mike Gomez
Cosmic Chasm – 1983

Ellis Goodson
Danny Sullivan's Indy Heat - 1991 - Additional Help
Bob Hale
hardware system -  ca 1979


Dennis Halverson
hardware system -  ca 1979

Eric Henderson
Quarterback - 1987 - Hardware
John Elway's Team Quarterback - 1988 - Hardware
Ironman Ivan Stewart's Super Off Road - 1989 - Hardware
Pig Out: Dine Like a Swine - 1990 - Hardware
Brute Force - 1991 - Hardware
Danny Sullivan's Indy Heat - 1991 - Hardware
Mike Hendricks
Programmer

Steve High
Ironman Ivan Stewart's Super Off Road - 1989 - Graphics
Danny Sullivan's Indy Heat - 1991 - Graphics, Programmer


Steve Hostetler
Cerberus - 1985 - Programmer
Alley Master/Up Your Alley - 1986 - Programmer
?Danger Zone - 1986 - Programmer
Quarterback - 1987 - Programmer
John Elway's Team Quarterback - 1988 - Programmer
Jerry Huber
Power Play - 1985 - Art/Graphics
World Series: The Season - 1985 - Art/Graphics
Alley Master/Up Your Alley - 1986 - Art/Graphics
Baseball: The Season II - 1986 - Art/Graphics
Danger Zone - 1986 - Art/Graphics
Redline Racer - 1986 - Art/Graphics
Quarterback - 1987 - Art/Graphics
Super Baseball Double Play Home Run Derby - 1987 - Art/Graphics
John Elway's Team Quarterback - 1988 - Art/Graphics
Strike Zone Baseball - 1988 - Art/Graphics
Ivan Stewart Super Off-Road - 1989 - Art/Graphics
Pig Out: Dine Like a Swine - 1990 - Art/Graphics


Ken Hull
Cerberus - 1985
Mayhem 2002 - 1985
Danger Zone - 1986

Brooke Jarrett

Cosmic Chasm –  1983


Hwan Kim
Brute Force - 1991 - Programmer
Joe Kosic
Pig Out: Dine Like a Swine - 1990 - Programmer
Danny Sullivan's Indy Heat - 1991 - Diagnostics


Vera Lanpher
Dragon’s Lair – 1983 – Voice Acting
Bob Loney
Mayhem 2002 - 1985
Danger Zone - 1986 - Lead Programmer


Kevin Lydy
Redline Racer - 1986 - Art/Graphics
Quarterback - 1987 - Art/Graphics
John Elway's Team Quarterback - 1988 - Art/Graphics
All American Football - 1989 - Art/Graphics
Ironman Ivan Stewart's Super Off Road - 1989 - Art/Graphics
Brute Force - 1991 - Designer, Graphics
Mike Marsh
Quarterback - 1987 - Sound


Alex McKay
Cerberus - 1985 - Hardware
Mayhem 2002 - 1985 - Hardware
Power Play - 1985 - Hardware

Danger Zone - 1986 - Hardware
Pig Out: Dine Like a Swine - Hardware
Brute Force - 1991 - Hardware
Danny Sullivan's Indy Heat - 1991 - Hardware
Medo Moreno
World Series: The Season - 1985 - Lead Programmer
Alley Master - 1986 - Support Programming
Baseball: The Season II - 1986 - Lead Programmer
Danger Zone - 1986 - Support Programming
Quarterback - 1987 - Support Programming
Super Baseball Double Play Home Run Derby - 1987 - Lead Programmer
John Elway's Team Quarterback - 1988 - Direction
Strike Zone Baseball - 1988 - Lead Programmer
All American Football - 1989 - Direction
Ironman Ivan Stewart's Super Off Road - 1989 - Direction
Pig Out: Dine Like a Swine - 1990 - Direction
Brute Force - 1991 - Executive Producer
Danny Sullivan's Indy Heat - 1991 - Manager


Dan Molina
Dragon’s Lair – 1983 – Voice Acting


Bruce Moore
Brute Force - 1991 - Additional Software
Danny Sullivan's Indy Heat - Additional Help


John Morgan
Redline Racer - 1986 - Programmer
Quarterback - 1987 - Programmer
John Elway 's Team Quarterback - 1988 - Programmer
Ivan Stewart Super Off-Road - 1989 - Designer, Programmer
Danny Sullivan's Indy Heat - 1991 - Designer, Programmer


Lou Newell
Engineer  - may have worked on the 1975 Pong game and/or Flipper Ball

Sean O'Donohue
Dragon's Lair -  1983

Patton, Rob
Barrier –  1979 – Programer
War of the Worlds –  1981 – Programmer
Cutter -  Unreleased


Victor Penman
Dragon’s Lair –  1983 – Story and Design

John Pomeroy
Dragon’s Lair – 1983 – Animator


Sam Powell
Quarterback - 1987 - Music
John Elway's Team Quarterback - 1988 - Music
Ironman Ivan Stewart's Super Off Road - 1989 - Music
Pig Out: Dine Like a Swine - 1990 - Music
Brute Force - 1991 - Music, Soundware
Danny Sullivan's Indy Heat - 1991 - Music


Jack Ritter
Boxing Bugs – 1983 – Designer
Hovercraft – Unreleased
Larry Rosenthal
Space Wars –  1977 – Designer
Scramble –  1978
Speed Freak – 1979
Tailgunner –  1979
Oops! – Unreleased


John Rowe
Quarterback - 1987 - Director
John Elway's Team Quarterback - 1988 - Director
All American Football - 1988 - Direction
Ironman Ivan Stewart's Super Off Road - 1989 - Direction
Pig Out: Dine Like a Swine - 1990 - Direction
Brute Force - 1991 - Direction
Danny Sullivan's Indy Heat - 1991 - Concept
Michael Rye
Dragon’s Lair – 1983 – Voice Acting


Dennis Sable
Quarterback - 1987 - Hardware
John Elway's Team Quarterback - 1988 - Hardware
Ironman Ivan Stewart's Super Off Road - 1989 - Hardware


Dave Scott
cabinet design
Quarterback - 1987 - Hardware
John Elway's Team Quarterback - 1988 - Hardware
Ironman Ivan Stewart's Super Off Road - 1989 - Hardware
Pig Out: Dine Like a Swine - 1990 - Cabinet Design
Danny Sullivan's Indy Heat - 1991 - Additional Help


Scott Sexton

<<unreleased torpedo boat game>>

Robert Shaver
Embargo - 1977

Michelle Simon
All American Football - 1989 - Sound
Ironman Ivan Stewart's Super Off Road - Sound
Pig Out: Dine Like a Swine - Sound Software
Brute Force - 1991 - Soundware
Dann Sullivan's Indy Heat - 1991 - Sound


Tim Skelly
Rip Off –  1979 – Designer, Programmer
Starhawk –  1979 – Designer, Programmer

Sundance –  1979 – Designer, Programmer
Warrior –  1979 – Programmer
Star Castle – 1980 – Producer
Armor Attack –  1981 – Designer, Programmer
War of the Worlds – 1981 – Art
Clown Skeet – Unreleased


Bob Skinner
Cosmic Chasm – 1983 - Programmer
Dragon's Lair - 1983 - Auxiliary Programming
Express Delivery - 1984
Freeze - 1984 - Programmer
Cerberus - 1985 - Programmer
Mayhem 2002 - 1985 - Programmer
Power Play - 1985 - Programmer

Danger Zone - 1986 - Programmer
Quarterback - 1987 - Programmer
John Elway's Team Quarterback - 1988 - Programmer
All American Football - 1989 - Programmer
Ivan Stewart Super Off-Road - 1989 - Programmer
Brute Force - 1991 - Designer
Intrepid- Unreleased  - Designer, Programmer
Striker - Unreleased - Programmer
Phil Sorger
Mayhem 2002 - 1985 - Programmer
Power Play - 1985 - Programmer

Danger Zone - 1986 - Programmer
Quarterback - 1987 - Programmer
John Elway's Team Quarterback - 1988 - Programmer
All American Football - 1989 - Programmer
Ivan Stewart Super Off-Road - 1989 - Programmer
Brute Force - 1991 - Programmer
Striker - Unreleased - Programmer
Viper - Unreleased? - Programmer


Chris Stone
Dragon’s Lair – 1983 – Music


Earl Stratton
Boxing Bugs - 1982
Dragon's Lair - 1983 - Auxiliary Programming
Ironman Ivan Stewart's Super Off Road - 1989 -- Programmer
Brute Force - 1991 - Additional Software

Danny Sullivan's Indy Heat - 1991 - Additional Help
Hovercraft – Unreleased

Dave Sullivan
Danny Sullivan's Indy Heat - 1991 - Graphics, Programmer

Dan Sunday
Scramble –  978 – Programmer
Speed Freak – 1979
Tailgunner – Vectorbeam – 1979 – Programmer


Hartono Tjitro
Ironman Ivan Stewart's Super Off Road - 1989 - Programmer


Dan Viescas
Freeze - 1984 - Art/Graphics
Cerberus - 1985 - Art/Graphics
World Series: The Season - 1985 - Art/Graphics
Alley Master/Up Your Alley - 1986 - Art/Graphics
Baseball: The Season II - 1986 - Art/Graphics
Danger Zone - 1986 - Art/Graphics
Super Baseball Double Play Home Run Derby - 1987 - Art Director
Strike Zone Baseball - 1988 - Art Director
All American Football - 1989 - Art Director
Ivan Stewart Super Off-Road - 1989 - Art Director
Pig Out: Dine Like a Swine - 1990 - Art Director
Brute Force - 1991 - Executive Producer
Danny Sullivan's Indy Heat - 1991 - Manager


Dok Whitson
Ironman Ivan Stewart's Super Off Road - 1989 - Graphics