NEWS UPDATE
Vol. 7, No.8
May 1, 1981
Staff
Publisher and Editor:
Ralph C. Lally II
Editorial Director:
David Pierson
Managing Editor:
Ray E. Tilley
Administrative Assistant :
Valerie Cognevich
Art Director:
Katey Schwark
Circulation Manager:
Renee' C. Pierson
Te chnica l Contributors:
lac Oliver
Randy Fromm
Frank Seninsky
Correspondents :
Patrick Matthews
Roger C. Sharpe
Charles C. Ross
Dick Welu
Mary Claire Blakeman
Irving Blackman
Joseph Arkin
Tony Licata
Classified Advertisi ng:
Valerie Cognevich
Advertising Manager:
David Pierson
European Representative:
Esmay Leslie
PLAY METE R, May 1, 1981 .
Volume 7, No. 8. Copyright 1981 by
Skybird Publishing Company. PLAY
METER (ISS
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2
Pacific Novelty
hits the water
After months of research and
development and field testing,
Pacific Novelty Manufacturing, Inc .
has begun producing its first video
game, Shark Attack.
Led by its president, Brian Semler,
the Marina del Rey, California firm
first showed the game at the 1980
AMOA show in Chicago.
"We called the prototype Deep
Death," said Semler. "Reaction at
the show was terrific . Because of the
game's unusual playing perspective
and its rather bizarre sound track,
people were drawn to the booth , and
later everybody wrote about it. We
thought changing the name to Shark
Attack would be a little more
revealing- and the field testing
results have indicated that the entire
package is a winner." [See the New
Products pages of this NEWS
UPDATE for more details of the
uideo game.]
For the job of seeing a company
through its infancy, Semler has spent
seven years preparing: he started as
the European-American liaison for
Segasa and Williams Electronics.
Later, with his brother Larry Siegel
(now the president of the Seeburn
division of Stern Electronics), began
a distributing and route operation in
the San Francisco area . Four years
later, he began developing video
games and licensing them to various
manufacturers.
According to Semler, manufactur-
ing his own games was the "ult imate
step of the progression." He said,
" We have seven more games
planned for this year All of them will
be well -built, unique, and have the
operator in mind . Shark Attack is a
great start."
Among recent additions to
Pacific's national distributor ne twork
are General Vending Sales Corp. of
Baltimore and Circle International of
Los Angeles.
U.S. Team Open cues up
MILWAUKEE- Ready to break
during the weekend of April 4 and 5
will be the National Pocket Billiard
Association's third annual "Schlitz
Cup" U.S. Team Open Tournament,
with a purse of $25,000 based on the
number of expected entries.
Two innovations this year are the
rule allowing players to enter the
Schlitz Cup rounds twice, on two
differently constituted and qualified
teams from their league, and the
guarantee that one win will put a
team in the money with a minimum
award of $200.
Of these changes, an N.P.B.A.
spokesman explained: "We wanted
to encourage teams in areas remote
from Milwaukee, from even as far
away as Southern California,
Washington, and both coasts of
Canada, to attend the tournament.
By allowing each player to enter
twice at a discounted fee," he
continued, "yet limiting each team to
a single entry, we're able to give
these people additional opportuni-
ties to win at a reduced cost per
player without exposing anyone to
the experience of having to play the
same team twice, or the same player
more than twice."
Distant travelers to the tournament
will also be given byes in the early
rounds, the spokesman added.
The tournament will be held at
Bayview Manor, 2535 South
Kinnikinnic, Milwaukee.
Entry forms are available at local
Schlitz distributors' displays- or call
the National Pocket Billiard
Association: 414/ 672-3935; write:
2635 West Burnham Street ,
Milwaukee 53204.
To qualify, all four players on a
team must have competed regularly
among one another on the same
season schedule, and verfication of
this is required in the form of league
or team rosters, score sheets, or
other evidence.
First team entry fee is $300;
second team, $200 additional fee ;
third team, $100 additional; down to
an added $50 for a fourth team. It is
not necessary to send the fee with an
entry; the league will be billed at a
later time.
The 1980 event hosted 216 players
and awarded over $10,000 plus
trophies and patches. First place
prize money alone was $5,250
awarded to the women's and men's
Schlitz Cup winners. Forty
additional cash awards and prizes
were presented last year in the
t::>urnament.
PLAY METER, May 1, 1981