Ted Olson , 36, started in the coin-op business in 1972
as an accountant for Atari When Pong was still on the
line . Two years later he left the Sunnyvale , California
manufacturer and turned his efforts toward operating on
a full -time basis. First , it was a street operation , Syzygy ,
with stops in pizza parlors , bars , etc. Then , after a short
time , he opened his first Time Zone amusement center in
San Jose , California in November, 1974 .
He sold Syzygy in 1976 and , this past November 30,
sold all nine of his Time Zone stores to Aladdin 's Castle [a
wholly owned subsidiary of Bally Manufacturing] .
Remaining on as president of Time Zone , he is currently
involved with the leasing negotiations for new stores and
with new store construction. Time Zone 's nine locations
are all in the northern California area, from Fresno to the
north e rn California border. Six of them are in enclosed
mall e nvironments, which most agree is the premium
amusement center location.
Married [his wife 's name is Barbara] with two sons
[Jeff, 11, and Kevin , 9)- Ted Olson is a graduate of the
University of Montana with a Bachelor of Science degree
in Accounting. Before becoming involved in the coin
machine industry, he had worked for United Airlines and
a couple of electronics firms , then moved into the
industry, via Atari, because he was looking to get into a
higher level of finance , preferably either as a controller or
vice president of finance.
Most recently, Ted chaired the "Starting and Managing
an Arcade " seminar at the Amusement Operators Expo.
Our interview with this successful arcade operator was
wide ranging touching on various topics from his view of
the enclosed mall situation , token operations , game mix
and rotation , and several other subjects .
8
PLAY METER, May, 1980