Atari Coin Connection

ATARI FIELD SERVICE
IS GROWING
By Fred McCord,
Atari Field Service Manager
•
I
During the past 3 years, Atari
has been conducting operator
training seminars both domes-
tically and internationally. Based
on operator responses, as well as
those of distributor personnel,
these seminars have proven very
beneficial to those who have at-
tended.
The intent of these seminars is
not to create engineers or techni-
cians, but rather to give the
operator servicemen some basic
troubleshooting skills and to make
them aware of solid-state elec-
tronics from a practical and ap-
plicable standpoint.
Recognizing the pressing need in
our industry for more training of
this type, the field service staff has
been expanded to better meet this
need.
Mr. Russ MacDonald has been
with Atari for a total of 3½ years
and spent about 2 years working
as an operator and serviceman.
Russ' background and street ex-
perience has already proven to be
an asset during the past few mon-
ths, which he has spent as a field
service representative and
seminar instructor for Atari.
Mr. Bob Salmons joined Atari
4½ years ago. He spent 3 years
working in the test department,
where he gained a great deal of
knowledge about Atari products.
During the past year, Bob has done
. quite a bit ·of field service work for
Atari and has also been very suc-
cessful at conducting training
seminars.
I am very pleased with the addi-
tion of these two to our field ser-
vice team and will be contacting
our distributors to establish long
range schedules for future semi-
nars. These schedules will be
published in the Coin Connection
and other trade periodicals as soon
as they are available.
.
.
-
PROMOTION IDEA
ATARI VIDEO
GAME TRIVIA
A Charity Event
Local charity organizations often
have a lot of influence in the com-
munity. A game location can ob-
tain excellent publicity and ex-
posure to new potential customers
by sponsoring a major charity
event.
The charity organization should
send formal invitations to their
mailing list for the special evening
at the game location. It could be a
family fun night with games and
other entertainment or a formal af-
fair to honor a community VIP. All
proceeds to be donated to the chari-
ty.
The press should be invited along
with other influential people. This
event will encourage people to try
the games and thus introduce them
to a new kind of fun and entertain-
ment.
ATARI ART
EXHIBITED
Atari games and associated
graphic design were exhibited at
the art gallery, San Jose City Col-
lege.
The special display of
dynamic Atari art, November 29-
December 20, was a tribute to the
talented artists and designers for
the company's coin-operated pro-
ducts.
The art on Atari video and pinball
games is outstanding. It plays an
important role in adding to the
overall attraction and play appeal.
Now it is being recognized for its
esthetic value among the artist
community.
In the exhibit, seven Atari games
are displayed together with
original art backglasses, posters
and microelectronic presentations.
SP ACE RIDERS™ and MIDDLE
EARTH™ pinball games with their
eye-catching futuristic designs,
SPRINT 2™, STARSHIP l™, SUPER
BREAKOUT™, and ATARI FOOT-
BALL™ are the example games in-
cluded in the showing. Atari's art
featured at the gallery exhibition
further enhances the coin game im-
age as well as presenting the pro-
ducts as works of art .
(
See how many of the following
Atari video game trivia questions
you can answer without looking at
the games or brochures.
1.
Name 6 Atari or Kee video
games that have airplanes
in them.
2. Name 4 sit-down driving
games by Atari.
3: What are the names of the
different games on Super
Breakout™?
.
4. How many different tracks
are on Sprint 2™?
5. What is the name of the
saloon on Outlaw™?
6 . What was the first video
• driving game?
7. When was Indy 800™ first
introduced?
8. What was the Atari video
game for 1-6 players?
9. What was the first video
game introduced with the
built-in self-test system?
10. What are the four plays in
Atari Football™?
Answers in next issue.
THE
INTERNATIONAL
SCENE
The international market for
Atari games has been steadily in-
creasing over the past few years.
''With our new manufacturing
facility in Ireland now in full pro-
duction, we anticipate a significant
increase in European sales poten-
tial,'' noted Sue Elliott, Interna-
tional Sales Administrator. '' Addi-
tionally, this will help us to better
serve the European market,'' she
added.
January marks the beginning of
the big buying season in Europe.
The newest Atari products will be
prominently displayed at the
Cherry Leisure Booth at the
Amusement Trades E_x position in
London. At this largest interna-
tional show, to be held January 23
through 25, new games will be in-
troduced. The show will also give
many of our operators who did not
attend the AMOA an opportunity to
see some of the other exciting pro-
ducts first shown in November.
Following the show, Fred Mc-
Cord and Atari Field Service
representatives will be conducting
a series of technical seminars and
service assistance meetings in
Europe. These will be held in
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