Banner employees
buy company
Employees of Banner Specialty
Company of Pittsburgh have formed a
corporation and bought the branch
office from Bally.
Bally Corp. purchased the Banner
network of distributorships, including
offices in Philadelphia, Baltimore. and
Pittsburgh, in 1983. It became Bally's
last distributor purchase.
Doug Wilsan. vice president of the
new company. Banner Specialty, Inc ..
of Pittsburgh, said. "Eleven employees
invested to buy the company with no
outside investors . For Banner
Pittsburgh to be profitable and be all it
could be. it was necessary to get out
from under that corporate umbrella.
We are really excited to be in the
position we are now in.
"When you have a corporation
saying things must be done a certain
way. that way may not work in certain
areas. Each distributorship must be
able to react to customer needs."
The company's executives are
Sonny "Ralph" Queck president. and
Doug Wilson and Don Brenner. vice
president. Wilson said the company
still has the same lines it did as Bally
Banner but plans to expand the equip-
ment lines II handles.
•
"As soon as we make a top game
available, in many cases even before
we can get our product to market.
illegally imported copies are on the
streets and selling like hotcakes."
Digital continued. "Piracy creates
an unfortunate pressure on legitimate
operators. Otten they cannot contend
with less scrupulous competition ...
"Critical situations like this cannot
be dealt with by a single manufac-
turer. a single distributor. or a single
operator. They need to be attacked
through associations like yours. asso-
ciations that represent significant
numbers of industry members and
that wield significant influence. Piracy
is the most devastating threat our
industry has ever encountered. It has
already begun to devour legitimate
suppliers. and when they are substan-
tially depleted so too will be the avail-
ability of good product. "
William Carpenter. executive
director of AMOA said he had not yet
received the letter and could not
comment on it speciJically, but he
agreed that copied games are a
serious problem in the industry. In tad.
he said, AMOA announced at its
recent trade show in Chicago that it
strongly supports AAMA in its efforts to
combat the problem. But he said he
was not sure exactly what PM.OA
could do to become actively involved. •
N.Y. liquor board
proposes ban
The New York State Liquor
Authority has proposed a ban on
Digital withdraws
AMOA support
Digital Controls. an American
manufacturer and a licensee of
Japanese games. has sent a letter to
the Amusement and Music Operators
Association (AMOA) withdrawing its
support tor the association because.
according to the letter. "AMOA has
demonstrated virtually no concern
over this heinous problem (video
game piracy)."
"Blatant acts of piracy have made
II nearly impossible for any American
manufacturer to profitably license
Japanese product." the letter stated.
8
Konami executives participating in ribbon-cutting ceremonies at the
Wooddale , Ill .. site of the company's new facility were. from lett Kanji
Kobayashi, foreign trade coordinator; Frank Pellegrini, director of mar-
keting; Frank Bundra. vice president; Stephen Kaufman. vice president;
Ben Har-E!. president; Toshitsugu PakaL foreign trade department
manager; and Fumihiro Hishikawa. chairman of Konami Industries Co., Ltd.
PlAY METER. December ~ 1, 1985