DISTRIBUTORS' NEW OFFICES
Two Atari distributors recently cele-
brated the opening of new offices. Franco
Distributing l1eld grand opening festivities
at their new offices in Montgomery,
Alabama, the week of December 5th.
And on December 4, Portale Automatic
officially opened their new San Francisco
office with an open house for their
customers.
Rubin Franco of Franco Distributing
said, "We are pleased to be in our new
building. The opening celebration for our
operators was a great success."
To1n Higdon, Manager of Portale's San
Francisco office noted, "Tl1e turnout for
our opening was excellent. We look
forward to working with tl1e operators in
Northern California."
Atari is pleased to see the growtl1 of
our distributors. "Their expansion will
provide even more support for operators,
and will help to facilitate overall growth
of our industry," said Frank Ballouz. "We
wish them the best of luck in their new
offices."
LOCATIONS:
CRUISE SHIPS
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Atari has initiated a new procedure to
furtl1er assure that games from our plant
arrive at their destination in good
working order. Tip-N-Tell is a visual
indicator which will be placed on tl1e
game cartons to show if a game has been
mishandled or dropped in shipment.
Tip-N-Tell is a heavy cardboard label
in day-glow red with a specially designed
arrow cutout covered with clear plastic
adhesive material. The bottom portion of
the arrow is filled with bright blue sand.
This is placed on the carton with the
arrow pointing up. A metal strip that
holds the sand in the bottom portion of
the arrow is then removed. The blue sand
will flow to the top portion of the arrow
if the carton is tipped in any direction to
a 90° angle or more. If this happens, a
special adhesive material holds the sand in
the top part of the arrow; thus the
Tip-N-Tell will show if the carton has
been mishandled in any way.
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TIP-N-TELL
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"We believe that the use of Tip-N-Tell
in shipping of Atari gan1es will help to
alleviate the reported problems of con-
cealed damage," reports Frank Ballouz,
National Sales Manager. "In addition to
being able to detect mishandling, these
indicators on our cartons will make the
freight companies more aware of the
importance of proper handling of the
gan1es in shipment," he adds.
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There are hundreds of cruise ships in
the world. Some have game rooms. For
example, it was recently reported in
Philadelphia Magazine that approximately
1000 passengers on the SS Rotterdam
could enjoy playing pinball games in their
leisure time.
Cru ises are growing in popularity all
over the world. Ships leave from all ports
daily. They range from a few hundred
passengers to over 1600 people on the
Queen Elizabeth, departing for a relaxing
vacation with an excess of leisure time.
This is an ideal location for coin-op
games.
There are only a few cruise ships that
presently have ga1ne rooms according to
the International Passenger Ship Associa-
tion. Operators should contact the
individual cruise lines to investigate the
possible opportunities for game rooms on
their ships. Organized contests and
tournan1ents for passengers would also be
a good cruise activity that would
encourage more player participation.
TECHNICAL TIP
TV MONITORS
TV monitor problen1s on new games
are in the majority of cases not electronic
component failu re. The cause is most
often mechanical and one should check
the fal lowing:
1. Check for loose monitor board com-
ponents.
2. On the underside of the monitor PCB,
all solder pads of larger components
must be closely checked for lifted
pads (such as the flyback trans-
fo rmer).
3. Check to make sure all solder
connections to components make
electrical contact. If not, resolder the
connections.
PINBALL GAMES- FLIPPERS
Resistor-switch modification kits to
extend the life of the flipper solenoids are
available through Atari distributors at no
charge. These kits are for rigl1t and left
single flipper assemblies for Ti1ne
2000 TM and for Airborne Avenger™ 's
with serial ntllnbers less than -0065'. The
dual flipper kits for The Atarians ™ will
be sent within the next month.