24, 1981. Edward played for
only six hours to get his
high score.
continued
Thanks, Ron, for your en-
This month's letter is from thusiastic comments about
outlined for them.
Frank Ballouz, Vice Presi- Ron Brunckhorst of Annapo- Missile Command. There are
obviously some other Mis-
lis, Maryland. He writes:
dent of Marketing for the
sile Command fans out
"I wou ld just like to say
Coin-op Games Division,
there. In the past month, the
said: "Asteroids Deluxe is
that your Missile Com-
high score has been beaten
the big new game for 1981. mand™ is your greatest
twice. It seems that ardent
With all of the new features video aame since Aste-
roids T . It seems Atari can't Missile Command players
we've put in, like the
just don't give up once
"shield" the "smart"
come out with a bad ma-
they've been challenged.
chine these days. My high
sauce rs, and the "Killer
If you or your players
score is 207,000; what is
Satellite", players will be
have any comments or
the highest score in the
thri lled and challenged all
questions regarding
United States?"
over again. We've received
Well, for your informa-
ATARI games, please send
very positive reaction to the
them to The Editor, The Coin
game on field test. Basically, t ion, as well as for Ron's,
Connection, Atari, Inc. 1265
we th ink Asteroids Deluxe is the current high score is
6,373,305, achieved by Ed- Borregas Ave., Sunnyvale,
the best coin-op game on
CA 94086.
the market since Asteroids.·· ward Trudeau on February
Letters
to the Editor
ATARI Introduces
Asteroids Deluxe™
on how to place radio ads
effectively, a sample ad
"slick", 8"x1 O" glossies of
the game and of the ful l-
color t-shirts and location
decals which wil l be avai l-
able in conjunction with the
game. Along with these
items there are many new
ideas and suggestions for
tournaments and contests
that will help to attract at-
tention and new players to
your location. Distributors
wil l also receive the special
"Astrodata" promotional kit
with al l of the exciting fea-
tures of Asteroids Deluxe
I
ATARI Video Games
Part of Science Center Exhibit in Baltimore, Maryland
You are all aware of the
many applications of coin-
operated . games. . But a coin-
op game 1n a science mus-
eum? That's right. There is
presently an ATAR I Luna r
Lander TM video game lo-
cated in the Maryland Sci-
ence Center in Baltimore,
Maryland. How did all of this
come about?
The Science Center had
been experiencing a drop in
their membership enroll-
ment over the past few
months. So they decided
that the only way to in-
crease the membership
would be to open a new ex-
hibit which would be inter-
esting and appeal to a wide
range of people. The direc-
tors of the museum chose
"The Great Computer Inva-
sion" as the theme of the
exhibit, hoping that the
presence of computers in
every phase of our lives
would attract people who
had never visited the
Science Center before. It
was at this point that
Kristan Leatherman at the
Science Center got together
with Banner Distributing,
the local ATARI distributor,
and came up with a way of
really drawing new crowds.
The exhibit was quite ex-
tensive, taking up the enti re
second floor of the mus-
eum. At the top of the stairs
leading to the second floor
a huge screen displayed
color closeup shots of As-
teroids™, Missile Com-
mand™ and Battlezone TM
screens in action. The elec-
tronic sounds generated by
the games were even broad-
cast outside the Science
Center in the promenade
along the harbor. As people
walked by the museum they
would suddenly hear the
radar warning sound of an
Asteroids enemy space ship
approaching.
To top off all of this ac-
t ivity, the museum, in con-
junction with Banner, ran
high score tou rnaments on
ATARl's three latest games,
Aste roids, Missile Com-
mand and Battlezone. The
Asteroids tourney was held
~
h.'"lli
on December 13th, Missile
Command competition was
on the 20th, and Battlezone
on the 27th. Then on De-
cember 28th a final contest
was held to determine the
top prize-winner on each
game, each of whom was
awarded an ATARI Video
Computer System™. Run-
ners up received ATARI
t-sh irts and belt buckles.
What was the resu lt of all
these efforts? The Maryland
Science Center nearly dou-
bled its membership during
the time that the exhibit was
on display. Banner Distri-
buting donated an ATARI
Lunar Lander game to the
Science Center's permanent
collection. And Banner con-
tributed 50°/o of the earn-
ings on Asteroids, Missi le
Command and Battelzone
during the time of the com-
petition and exhibition to the
museum. (Banner also set
the games on free play for
the Science Center em-
ployees' Christmas party.)
Al l in al l, it was one of
the most successfu l exhi-
bits in the Science Center's
history. The ATARI games
located in the Maryland Sci-
ence Center helped draw
large crowds, boosting the
c ity's awareness of the
museum and also increas-
ing public awareness of
coin-operated video games.
It just goes to show that
ATARI video games are
winners in many different
locations.
. ,......;ai
Howard Scaggs, Chairman of the Board of t he Maryland Science Center, receives a check
covering 50% of game earnings, from Larry Hunt of Banner Distributing.