Atari Coin Connection

Issue: Vol 3 Num 5 - 1980 May

Players
(bars,
taverns,
restaurants,
etc.).
They are bringing with them their
awareness of games and their game
WHO ARE YOUR PLAYERS?
Think about
it.
Each location
caters
preferences.
• A recent study* of game center
players revealed that as a player
gets older, his level of preference for
different game types (pinball, video,
table hockey, foosball, shooting,
skeeball) changes. Each of the age
groups between 13 and 30 showed a
high level of preference for pinball,
but as the player gets older his
preference for video increases. The
player over 21 years old, while still
to a slightly different clientele with
respect to the players’ motivations,
interests, and expenditures. But
Changing

any changes in the players?
As you’re thinking about your
see
lifestyles,
two income
impact consumer behavior. In-
expensive leisure activities have
all
locations and perhaps what your
players look or act like, consider
been growing at an unprecedented
rate as people seek out convenient
forms of entertainment to comple-
ment their lifestyles.
Think about your players. The
name of your game is to collect full
these factors...
• The baby boom is over. Players
are getting older. The growth of the
18-84 years group is slowing sharp-
ly and by the 1980’s will be declin-
ing steadily. The fast growing seg-
ment will be the 25-44 years group.
• Young players, niirtured on coin-
op games in game centers, will now
be entering other types of locations
awareness of game technology, and
increased awareness means more
players.
families, more females in the work
force, inflation, and the cost of fuel
who is really playing games? Do you
The best way to fill
is to meet the customers
— learn about your
and offer them the
games that maximize on
preferences and demands.
cashboxes.
cashboxes
demands
expressing a high level of prefer-
ence for pinball expressed an even
higher level of preference for video.
• Electronic toys and games is the
fastest growing sector of the toy in-
dustry. People of all ages are de-
manding electronic entertainment.
Electronic technology in games has
reached out to consumers in dif-
ferent behavior modes
outside
the home via coin-operated games,
in the home via home electronic
games and in the hand via the por-
table hand-held games. The result
has been a dramatic increase in
players’ profile
mix
of
their
•Game Center
Study.
March 1979,
C.
Well

Help Your Organizations Heip You
Ours is a fast-moving, changing
industry. As an operator, you
already know how competitive it is.
You also know that any help you
can get keeps you that much fur-
ther ahead.
There is more help available than
you may now be using to your full
from your State and
National industry organizations. To
get the type of support you need,
advantage...
you have
to
support them. Their
level
of effectiveness is directly
related to the people who make up
their memberships. That’s right.
Busy people just like you who are
constantly trying to improve and
advance our industry.
At last count, AMOA can boast of
no more than 12-15% of U.S.A.
operators as members. In Wiscon-
sin and Illinois and other state as-
sociations, the support is only 20%.
A free play bill was recently pass-
ed in Wisconsin and its passage was
astonishing when you consider how
few of the operators worked on it.
Restrictive legislation is being in-
troduced in communities large and
small aU over the country. For ex-
ample, on December 30th, without
any notice or hearings, an or-
dinance was passed in Park Ridge,
Illinois, limiting the operation of
games to one unit per 2000 square
feet of floor space.
And the AMOA
ter battle
is engaged in a bit-
with ASCAP-BMI to pre-
vent the escalation of the $8.00 per
jukebox
levy.
These are just a few examples. As
a manufacturer, we participate in
legislation and legal proceedings.
But you can help yourself most by
our own participation. The most ef-
fective way to do this is through
local association and AMOA.
your
You
can’t afford not to.
look. Why not join
Take another
today?
—an excerpt from a letter to operators from
Joe Robbins, Empire Distributing Co.
Asteroids'" Champ
In the
last issue of the
Coin Con-
n ectio n, we reported a high score on
ASTEROIDS™ of 1,000,000 points.
records were meant to be
Well,
broken, as the saying goes!
Duncan Brown
of Charlottesville,
Virginia, broke that record on
29. Duncan reported that he
March
game of ASTEROIDS for
and one-half hours, scoring
played one
fifteen
7,200,620 points.
playing, there were
extra ships left.
When he
still
quit
twenty-two
Promotions
ship on the side of the screen and
waits for the enemy saucer to come
out. The player has a distinct advan-
tage over the enemy saucer because
the saucer is usually not as agres-
sive as the player,
An ASTEROIDS game modifica-
tion is now available to help cut
down on excessive player game
times. (See related articles in this
issue.) This modification will
the
make
enemy saucer more agressive.
WHAT YOU’VE ALL BEEN
WAITING FOR! ATARI Asteroids
now available for pur-
games in the location as well. Player
enthusiasm is sure to Increase good-
toward your business.
As an example, during February
and March, Music-Vend Distri-
Do you see this happening in your
locations? This picture was taken
recently at the Mountain View Time
Zone near Atari, Eric Ginner and his
friend, Samir Mehta, achieved a score
of over 8,000,000 points after playing
more than two and one-half hours.
REMINDER
t-shirts are
As stated
chase from your ATARI Distributor.
These navy blue t-shirts are
Connection, with summer on the
way, now is the time to recondition
your “seasonal” games. We have
main plexiglass available for such
games as Drag Race, Breakout, Sky
Diver and all the Triple Hunt games.
Contact your ATARI Distributor to
place your orders.
make
great
giveaways,
premiums.
location
and
Supply
prizes,
advertising
is
limited
so
place your orders now!
Atari Brings
Atari
Home the
jumping fences and win-
ning ribbons? Sounds unlikely? Not
exactly... Meet J.T. Perry of Los
Gatos, CA, and her ‘junior jumper’
Atari Superstar. Together they
walked away from the Indian Hills
Schooling Show in March with 2

first,
2 second and one
fifth place
ribbons.
J.T. has always enjoyed riding
horses, beginning with her first
pony ride when she was six years
old. Now, at age sixteen, J.T. is an
accomplished equestrienne. She
purchased her 4-year-old registered
thoroughbred last November and
decided to
name him
Atari Super-
star. “I had played alot of Atari
games and always thought they
were the best. I wanted a strong,
positive name for my horse and lik-
ed the sound of Atari Superstar, or
just Atari for short,” she explained.
TOURNAMENT
Tournaments are a great way to
increase your location revenue.
Tournaments not only add dollars
will
Service Specials
available in small, medium, large
and extra-large sizes. They will
ASTEROIDS
to the cashboxes of the featured
games, but add revenue to other
Duncan has been pla3hng ASTE-
ROIDS since January at Noel’s Sub
Shop and Game Room near the Uni-
versity of Virginia. Before his
record-breaking game, Duncan had
spent alot of hard-earned money
learning how to play ASTEROIDS.
Duncan’s ASTEROIDS technique
is much the same as other expert
players have reported. He leaves a
couple of small asteroids on the
screen so that the larger ones do not
appear. He then places his space-
for
Profits
in the April issue of Coin
about 24 shows a year
presently training for the
is
Pacific
Classic”
Atari,
Horse
to
Inc,
Center “Spring
be held April 18-20.
wishes J.T. and Atari
Superstar the best of luck!
ASTEROIDS™
tournament at Goldie’s and the New
Century Tavern in Seattle, Washing-
ton.
Four ASTEROIDS games in
Goldie’s
and three ASTEROIDS
games in the New Century Tavern
were used for the tournament. Over
a six week period, one color televi-
sion was given away bi-weekly to
the player with the highest score.
This promotion was so profitable
that the operator and the locations
have decided to continue the con-
test. $50 cash prizes wBl be given
away each week through the sum-
mer to the highest scoring player.
The highest score recorded to date is
approximately 135,000 points.
TECHNICAL
TIP
Asteroids
Modification
Blue
J.T. enters
and
buting sponsored an
As a result of inquiries regarding the
achievement of extremely high scores
on Asteroids, we have developed a
modification that will accomplish the
following:
When the small flying saucer enters
the screen, it fires immediately in the
direction of the player. The missiles
also have a wraparound capability.
Originally, the program was entered
so that the saucer would go one-sixth
way across the screen before fir-
without wraparound capability.
There are two revisions currently in
the field. ROM revision 02 has the flip-
flop capability, version 01 does not.
Kits are available Immediately from
your Atari distributor. To determine
of the
ing,
which kit you require, check ROMs on
your Asteroids PCB. If ROM code is
“-01”, order kit no. 08-0303009. If
code is “-02”, order no
08-0303008.
ROM

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