PLA Y METER: Did you attend the A.M. 0 .A. show
this year?
TERRY: Oh, yes. I started going three years ago.
Everyone had always tried to talk me out of it.
They said there was nothing up there for me
because I was going to see it all later anyway. But I
went anyway, and now I'm making all the shows.
PLAY METER: Were you impressed by this year's
how?
TERRY: It was the best one they have ever had.
Last year's was good. The year before that it was
small; it looked as if nobody wanted to show up that
year. But like I said, last year's show was real good,
and this year it was a fantastic show.
PLA Y METER: Was the show long enough for you?
TERRY: I felt the hours could have been a little
longer, I know it hurts the salesmen's feet, but we
went to one last night-a tools trade show-and
their exhibits were open until nine o'clock at night.
PLAY METER: There's been some talk about
having an extra day. What do you feel about
something like that?
TERRY: I think it would be better if it did. A lot of
people can't get out to the show in time. For
instance, we missed almost the whole first day. We
drove up and got there in the evening; so I feel like I
missed a lot of it. I like to walk the floors and study
the machines, and then walk the floor some more
and then I get up to the people and listen to what
the operators or whoever are saying about the
machines.
PLAY METER: So you feel that under the present
three·day arrangement there isn't enough time for
you to do all that?
TERRY: That's right. Some people go up there one
day and that's it. They've got their minds made up
for one thing. They go to maybe four dealers, make
their deals, get on an airplane, and go back home.
For me, I was expecting there to be more machines
there. And there were. That's why I had to study
what they had. An extra day would have made it a
little bit better.
PLAY METER: How did you like the seminar?
TERRY: Last year's was a hundred percent better
than this year's. Last year's speaker brought a lot
of facts to light that are the truth about people. The
problem with this year's was that it wasn't that
interesting.
PLAY METER: You're saying that the presenta-
tion itself wasn't stimulating?
TERRY: Right. Last year you were on your toes
the whole time.
PLAY METER: Would you like to see maybe more
seminars.
TERRY: Oh, yes.
PLA Y METER: What were some of the games that
you were impressed with at the show?
TERRY: Cinematronics' Space Wars game. I
couldn't ever get to play it. We went ahead and
ordered two of them to get them brought in. I've
heard that it's a good piece.
PLAY METER: What else at the show impressed
you?
TERRY: Well, the number one machine was
Bigfoot, but I don't know if anybody is going to buy
it. Now, I liked Americoin's Dozer. It's got good
PLA Y METER, December, 19n
possibilities. The J unkyard did real good for us last
year. It surprised us. The reason we think it did so
good is that it plays for a long time. And the reason
we think Dozer is going to be good is that it seems
every adult wants to be a bulldoze driver.
PLA Y METER: Anything else, in the way of video,
that impressed you at the show?
TERRY: Exidy's Circus at the end of the show
impressed us. It has some damn good possibilities.
Everybody was talking about it. At the Atari
booth, I was impressed by their new pinball game
Airborne Avenger. That's the only one of their
pingames that I have really liked, and we're going
to get it. This will be the first Atari pinball game
we'll buy. I feel that was the best game they had at
the show.
PLA Y METER: What do you look for in a game?
TERRY: When I first look at it, I'm looking to see if
it's easy to play. Can I play it when I walk up to it. I
want to play every game there is, and what do I
think about it. Just like Tank when it first came out
at the M.O.A. show, I kept watching the people,
and I saw that they liked to play it. But it was very
confusing. I said tQ myself that if they learned to
play it, it was going to be one helluva game. We got
the first two in, and believe me we had people
standing in line to play it. They ran $600 a week for
almost three solid months, and that's the honest
truth. I couldn't believe it. But when I walk up to a
game, I like to play it a bunch of times to see if I like
it. You've got to do that at the A.M.O.A. show.
You've got to walk back and forth. I'll walk off from
the game and come back later and play it again.
PLA Y METER: Was there anything else at the
show that impressed you?
TERRY: Rock-Ola's equipment. But we've always
had a lot of faith in Rock-Ola. We've got their
equipment as far away as 600 miles from here on
one of my routes. When you can put them out that
far away and have faith in them, to me, they have
got to be good phonographs.
PLAY METER: Is Rock-Ola the only phonograph
you operate?
TERRY: No, for the most part, we operate all
brands.
PLAY METER: Are you operating more phono-
graphs now than you did three or four years ago?
TERRY: We've always operated a lot of phono-
graphs, but in the last five years or so it has gotten
better.
PLA Y METER: What I'm getting at is that there
has been speculation that the jukebox business is in
a state of decline. In your opinion is that true, from
your own standpoint?
TERRY: Phonographs make us good money. But I
have been to some states where I find out that they
still have their music on a dime-play. I think that
it's just that some states and operators are
backwards in time. They just haven't come up.
Personally, I wouldn't know what to do without my
phonographs. Phonographs are the backbone of my
business.
PLAY METER: What kind of split do you work on?
TERRY: Fifty-fifty. Everybody may be saying that
we're going to have to start getting sixty percent. I
think sixty percent should be here tomorrow, but
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