Atari Coin Connection

Atari Co-Sponsors
Benefit for Youth
In conjunction with the San Jose
(California) Parks & Recreation
Department and San Jose Youth
Commission, Atari co-sponsored a
game arcade as a fund-raising event
to benefit area youth programs. The
game arcade was set up at the an-
nual Tapestry in Talent 4th of July
Festival sponsored by the City of
San Jose. It is estimated that more
than 1,000,000 people attended the
three-day event, which featured a
wide variety of crafts, food booths
and entertainment.
A large store in the festival area
was donated by a local businessman
for the arcade. Nineteen Atari
games, including ten of the popular
ASTEROIDS™, were placed in the
building. The Atari Graphics De-
partment made large colorful signs
for the storefront, and game posters
were used to decorate the interior.
Parks & Recreation personnel man-
ned the arcade, and Atari techni-
cians took shifts to insure that the
games remained in top working
order for maximum profit. Pizza
Time Theatre offered the use of a
dollar bill changer.
In addition to proceeds from
game play, Atari T-shirts, belt
buckles, key chains, and posters
were sold to enthusiastic players.
The popular hand-held TOUCH-
ME™ games by Atari were also
made available.
As part of the plan to draw
players to the arcade, an
ASTEROIDS tournament was held
each afternoon from 2-4 p.m.
Signups were held during the day,
and prizes were awarded for the
three highest scores daily.
Proceeds from this fund-raising
event will be used for recreation
equipment, teen drop-in centers,
and other needs of the youth pro-
gram. The popularity of the games,
combined with the crowds that at-
tended the festival, made this a
monetary success for the youth pro-
gram and excellent public relations
and exposure for Atari. Many
families attending discovered the
fun of playing electronic games,
knowing that the proceeds would
benefit the youth of the community.
Distributors and operators across
the country can capitalize on this
idea by seeking opportunities to
become involved with worthwhile
causes in their communities.
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Customer Service
A typical phone call to the techni-
cians at Atari Customer Service
starts with the operator identifying
the fact that there is a game out of
order. The technician responds by
saying, "What is the problem?",
and the operator's answer usually
is, ''I don't know; it doesn't work.''
This might sound like an exag-
gerated scenario, but it happens
quite often, and a good percentage
of the problems with machines can
be fixed via the phone if the
operator has a few simple tools.
All of our machines are shipped
with manuals and schematics.
These should be left with the game.
Having these available on location
could save hours of guess work and
aggrevation.
The games have a self-test pro-
cedure. The test is explained in
detail in the game manual. Reading
the manual and being familiar with
the self-test feature will help you
locate the majority of the problems
in a minute.
Two pieces of equipment that are
''indispensible'' are the meter and
the logic probe. These items cost
you $15 to $25 each at a local elec-
tronics store (Radio Shack recently
had meters on sale for $9 and logic
probes for $19.95.) Having these
items could mean the difference be-
tween fixing the game ''on location''
or taking the game to the shop. Con-
sidering the earning potential of a
game like Atari Asteroids™ and the
revenues lost by having that game
down for more than a day, the tools
are very cheap investments.
The meter is useful for checking
voltages on the game board, and
power supply, lamps, etc. It can
also be used to check continuity in
wiring harnesses, finding breaks in
a wire, or loose connections, which
are common problems to all games.
A logic probe is useful for check-
ing IC components on a game board.
Many times it can isolate the pro-
blem down to a common $1.00 IC.
Having these tools is also useful if
you call the shop for help in fixing
the game on location. You'll be able
to trace through the schematic and
take readings to determine where
the problem is.
It pays to be prepared with some
basic, inexpensive tools in case your
game goes down. The tools can pay
for themselves in less than a day,
and probably will pay for them-
selves many times over. The most
important thing to remember is that
simple tools and the ability to use
these tools save you work, and keep
your games collecting revenue.