Play Meter

share. During the same period last
year Williams reported a loss of 17
cents a share.
W!lliams expects amusement -
g a me revenues for the first quarter of
fiscal 1986 to exceed S 12 million.
which would be an increase of more
than S I 0 million. This increase is
expected because of the success of
Comet and High Speed pinball
games.
Louis Nicastro. chairman of the
board. announced that Charles Kop-
pelman and Martin Bandier. on
behalf of a joint venture with Williams
Entertainment Corp., a wholly owned
Williams subsidiary, have contracted
to acquire the music-publishing
business of Combine Music Corp. and
related companies in Nashville.
Combine's music catalog includes
songs composed by Kris Kristotferson.
La rry Gatlin, and Dolly Parton. and
songs recorded by Elvis Presley. Kenny
Rogers. and Glen Campbell.
•
new. but it became slick and unpin-
nabla very quickly and was too
expensive for table owners to replace
on a regular basis.
"We are trying to accomplish two
main goals with this new ball. We
wanted to make a ball that remains
easy to p in for a longer time and that is
less expensive. We also are trying to
gradually bring European and
American players closer together on
the type of ball that each group finds
acceptable for its style of play."
She added that to accomplish the
latter objective. Dynamo may be
making more ball changes to find one
suitable for international play.
•
Bank shuffieboard
ready to go
Kel-Chad. Inc. of Crystal Lake. IlL
a nnounced plans to start shipping its
bank shuffleboard game. The game.
shaped like an A is now in full produc-
tion after a six-month trail in Chicago
locations.
Introduced at the flNIOA show in
Chicago as a prototype, the game
features solid-state electronics. a no-
pay/ no-play barrier. durable constru-
tion. and operator-adjustable game
times and coin mechanisms.
•
Dynamo introduces
stronger rods, new ball
Dynamo Corporation has strength-
ened the rods in its foosball tables and
introduced a better playing ball. Bill
Rickett. Dynamo president. said, "We
received numerous complaints about
rods bending too easily, so we have
worked out a new specification for the
steel that will double the yield and
tensile strength."
The amount of carbon in the steel
has been increased to strengthen the
rods. a change Rickett said would not
affect the rods' weight or playing
characteristics.
The new ball is made of less expen-
siv e materiaL but doesn't become slick
after use.
Kathy Brainard. Dynamo's promo-
tional consultant. said, "The ball we
had been using was great when it was
10
Joe Kaminkow
Kaminkow joins Premier
Joe Kaminkow has joined Premier's
pinball-design department.
Kaminkow had been in marketing
and sales for Memetron. He previoulsy
was president of Logical Highs. doing
design w ork for Williams Electronics.
and was in charge of product
development for Williams.
Kaminkow coordinated the team
that developed the top pinball of 1985.
Williams' Space Shuttle.
Of his move to Premier. Kami nkow
said. " I love pinbalL and my goal at
Premier will be to develop and build
the top pinball products in the indus-
try. In fact. I guarantee that's just what
we'll do."
Premier was formed little more
than a year ago when a group of
investors bought certain assets of the
defunct Mylstar ( previously D. Gottlieb
& Co.) from Coca-Cola. Premier's
main products are pinballs and
novelty pieces.
Kaminkow also helped develop
and design the new Loch Ness Mon-
ster pinball from Game Plan.
•
JAMMA protests
Korean copies
Members of the Japanese Amuse-
ment Machine Manufacturers Asso-
ciation (JflNIMA ) board of directors
unanimously agreed at their Novem-
ber meeting to concentrate on solving
the problem of unauthorized copies of
video games in South Korea .
The JflNIMA board met earlier in
the year with representatives of the
American Amusement Machine Asso-
ciation (AflNIA) to discuss the urgency
of stopping the flow of copied games
from South Korea. JflNIMA members
Masaya Nakamura of Namco. Hayao
Nakayama of Sega. and others met
with Joe Dillion of Williams Electronics.
Paul Moriarity of Taito. Ira Bettelman
of C.A Robinson. Bob Uoyd of Data
East. and Hideyuki Nakajima of
Namco America . Uoyd said a result of
the groups working together was the
JflNIMA board's plans to protest the
game copying through the South
Korean embassy in Japan.
· Nakayama. also vice president of
JflNIMA told the board that there are
about SO South Korean companies
copying video games without permis-
sion of Japanese manufacturers. He
showed documents from South Korean
copiers and photos of illegal copies
being operated in South Korea. He
said the companies are making the
boards in large quantities to export
and added that the Korean govern-
ment is offering export incentives.
JflNIMA intends to meet with repre-
sentatives of the Japanese ministries of
International Trade and Industry and
Foreign A1fairs to formally protest
South Korean copying. In a document
already submitted to International
Trade and Industry JAMMAstated that
"recently in Korea production of com-
puter-aided amusement games has
become brisk. but almost all of the
video-game software are counterfeits
of Japanese products. They are not
merely operating them within Korea
but also exporting them in large
quantities. contusing the international
economic order. They are offering
and exporting them in such a decep-
tive manner that they treat their copy
products as it they were products
authorized by the Japanese devel-
PLAY METER. December ~1 . 1965