more and more difficult, but also more and more
interesting, more challenging and more fun. When
Midway hit with the Gun Fight, based on
a microprocessor- they used RAM and ROM based
logic before- it was a complete turnaround in the
industry. It was like everybody else was working in
the automobile industry, and Midway went out and
invented the airplane. Now they've shut down their
automobile plants, and everybody is building
airplanes. And it's a whole lot different working on
airplanes than working on automobiles.
PLAY METER: We hear constantly that the
microprocessor is going to bring down the price of
equipment. Do you think this is going to happen?
BUSH: For sure. Not just because of the
microprocessor but because of all the related
electronics that go along with it. You know, the
RAMs that Doyle was using out at Texas
Instruments five years ago designing space
equipment were costing him hundreds of dollars
apiece; you can now buy them for two or three
dollars apiece . Still the microprocessor won't make
a significant dent in the cost of the machine. A large
portion of the cost must be in the cabinet, in the
switches and the control mechanisms. The
electronics is not really that much any more. You
know, for $300 or $400, you can build a full-fledged,
honest-to-god, sophisticated computer. But when
you start putting on it steering wheels and gas
pedals and gearshift knobs and flourescent lights
and pJexiglass and particle board and speaker
covers, it turns into a $1500 piece of equipment. So
you drop the price of the computer down from $500
$400, you still have a $1500 machine.
PLA Y METER: But the repair will become less
expensive because parts will be less expensive.
BUSH: Parts will be less expensive, but the largest
portion of the repair bill is not in parts. It's in the
technical labor involved in finding the parts. It
might be a 29 cent resistor, but it will cost you $25
to have somebody change it. The part is cheap, but
you still have to take the old one out and put the
new one in , and you're talking about a $25 flat rate.
I'd say that generally 80 per cent of your repair cost
is labor, and quite often 99 per cent of it. But it's
highly sophisticated and well-trained labor. The
guy is making $300-$350 a week. If he's working
back there changing resistor packs, he can still only
change so many a day and you've got to charge $25
for his time in order to pay his salary. Otherwise he
can just go across the street to the computer firm
and get his $350 a week there.
PLAY METER: Do you have any trouble getting
parts?
BUSH: Yes and no. Yes in that sometimes it's hard
to determine what it is. Used to, in the "early"
days- five years ago- they would paint over the
chip numbers, so the serviceman didn't know what
it was and he didn't know what to go down and get
to replace it. Then they decided, "That's not very
logical. We'll leave the numbers on it, but let's
design it so that the chips have our own numbers on
them." So the manufacturer, the games manu-
facturer, would go to a parts manufacturer and say,
"Take this standard part and put my number on it."
Steed's "electronics smarts," Doyle Modesto.
Then when somebody wanted to buy that part, he'd
have to use the manufacturer's number. This is a
favorite trick of the people in the TV business, like
Zenith and RCA. Their parts are made by typical
parts manufacturers but they've got Zenith
numbers on them and RCA numbers on them; it
may be the same identical part, but you've got to
buy it by the Zenith number or the RCA number, or
the Midway number, in this case, or the Atari
number.
PLAY METER: In that case, the parts could be
obtained only from the distributors?
BUSH: Right and they're extremely expensive. The
expense is probably related to the distribution
system. The parts manufacturer makes it and gives
it to the games manufacturer, and the games
manufacturer turns around and gives it to the
distributor and everybody's got to inventory it,
everybody's got to stock it, pay the parts man, the
counter man, and by the time the 29 cent part gets
to its ultimate user, it's a five-dollar part. If they
had never put the Atari number on it, we could go
down to the local Radio Shack and pick it up for 29
cents.
PLAY METER: So generally, you do have to get
your games parts from the distributor?
BUSH: Well, not any more. In Phase I you got your
parts from the distributor because they'd painted
over the number. In Phase II they had their parts
private labeled, so for all practical purposes, you
couldn't get them from just anybody. Phase III has
been okay. Midway and Atari have decided they're
not in the parts business; they don't want to be in
the parts business-it's just too much trouble. I can
understand that. So now they tell you, "If you want
a microprocessor, don't even bother to go to State
Music, for example. Go to an Intel representative
somewhere. "
PLAY METER: And that makes parts cheaper?
BUSH: It makes them much cheaper but it also
makes them a little bit more difficult to find,
especially in what I would call remote areas. Here
in Dallas, there is a lot of electronics: we can find
most anything. But what would I do if I were in
Tyler, Texas or Waco? I don't know what the
electronics industry is like in Waco- I use that just
as an example. But I don't know where I would get
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