News briefs ....... news briefs ...................................... AMOA show notes ... .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Tournament Games "Spectacular," a national $400,000 world
championship tournament staged in Chicago during the AMOA Show, has turn ed
out to be a veritable fiasco with winners finding out that their checks are
being returned for insufficient funds. Atari, Inc., which as a co-sponsor
of the tournament, reportedly will make good on $50,000, the total of cash
prizes due to winners of the Atari video game competition. A spokesman for
the company , Frank Ballouz, said Atari had paid Tournament Games International
(TGI) $50,000 plus additional fees for running the tournament but that money
apparently was not paid to the players. Atari indicated it will probably
sue. Atari in s i s ts, however, that it has no further legal obligation as far
as the outstanding $350,000 in prizes promised by the tournament.
"Because of the adverse effect this national fiasco is going to have on
arcade licensings and extra-legal restrictions on the industry in general,"
said David Pierso n, editorial director of Play Meter, "the magazine has
volunteered itself to be the central clearinghouse for all industry donations
to help with the outstanding debt.
"We don't know what the response from the industry is going to be on this,"
Pierson said.
"But something has got to be done by the industry as a whole
to show everyone that Tournament Spectacular does not reflect the way this
industry condu c ts its business. An incident like this can create exactly
the kind of legislation backlash we are all trying to avoid."
Donations to the cause should be addressed to "Tournament Fund," P.O.
Box 24170, New Orleans, LA 70184.
"Please do not make checks out to
P lay Meter or to any individual's name.
Industry people are reminded that
their donations to the fund ar e tax deductible.
Readers will be kept
abreast of the Tournament Fund, as will the general media which is watching
us closely to see if we have the wherewithal to police ourselves." ......... .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The AMOA International Expo drew the largest numbers it will
ever pack into the Chicago Conrad Hilton Hotel on North Michigan, October
29-3l ... a total of over 10,900 attendanc e which includes a contingent of
1,243 exhibitors personnel. The halls were overflowing for the swan song
of the Conrad Hilton as the AMOA site; next fall, the show moves to the
downtown Chicago Hyatt Regency. Filling 370 exhibit booths at the Conrad
Hilton were 131 games manufacturers and support & supply companies in the
coin -op world. AMOA staff said all records were broken by the 1981 show,
except the number of foreign attendees, which stood at 800 persons in Chicago.
And AMOA membership swelled to over 2,000 with 566 new members signing at
the show , according to staff spokesman John Schoff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
...... ... .. .... It was not all game-playing, buying, and party-going at
Chicago , however. The AMOA had several chief items of business at hand,
not the l east of which was the confirmation of Leoma Ballard, Belle, West
Virginia , as the incoming preside nt of AMOA.
Other top AMOA officers
elected at its genera l meeting October 30 were: First Vice President
Clayton L. Norberg, Manakata, Minnesota; Secretary Wesley S. Lawson, Winter
Haven, Florida; and Tre asurer Dock Ringo of Mineral Wells, Texas.
Incoming
vice presiden ts are Walter .Bohrer, Jr., Milwaukee, Wisconsin; James
B . Reeves, Whiteville, North Carolina; and Vincent Storino, Toms River,
New Jersey. Full coverage of the annual meeting--as well as the AMOA
seminars --will follow in Play Meter, January 1 and January 15 issue s .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Among AMOA's main business was a resolution to wage "a
campaign we have never seen before" (in outgoing President Norm Pink's
words) in pet itioning the Congress to amend the Copyright Revision Ac t of
1976 to exempt coin-operated phonographs from infringement of copyright--
which would strike out the requirement for per-jukebox royalty fees, if
the AMOA effort succeeds. Pink said the legislative p rogram should draw
support from the influence of locations as well as jukebox operators ..... .
64
PLAY METER, December 15, 1981