STAR*TEcH
CD
April 1996
Journal
ACME'96
16YEARS OF
EXPO NOTES,
STAR*TECH ON
CD-ROM
REPoRTs
a RuMoRS ...
''I was not overly impressed with
what I saw at A CME. I didn't see
anything I had to buy. What I liked
was in the $75,000 to $20,000
range." This was the opinion of
many who attended the recent
Spring trade show.
Reports are that attendance was
low (no official figure available),
and more talk was centered
around mergers, buyouts and
fold-ups of amusement manufac-
turers than new product offer-
ings.
Aside from the thin attendance
at the show, seminars were
sparsely attended as well. One
US pinball manufacturer was
told to expect "more than 75 at-
tendees" at their service seminar
-less than a third of that figure
showed up.
One operator had the pinball of-
ferings summed up this way, ''As
far as pins go, Attack from Mars is
0 K, but nothing spectacular. I
liked Safecracker the best, but I'm
a serious player that likes to be
challenged. The general public
might not like it at all."
Hantarex is out of the coin-op
business. The Italian video moni-
tor manufacturer has sold it's re-
maining stock locally and has
exited the industry.
Taito announced it's out of the
coin-operated games biz, as well.
They have lopped off all foreign
subsidiaries -winding down their
once flourishing overseas opera-
tions.
Technos is officially out of busi-
ness. They recently closed their
Japanese facility.
Williams will acquire Atari
Games Corp. from Time Warner.
With this acquisition, Williams
will have cornered most of the
great trademark names from the
heyday of the coin-op trade of the
'80's. Area 57 from Atari was one
of the show's video standouts.
Wico was not at the show. Ru-
mor is they went bankrupt.
ICE (Innovative Concepts in
Entertainment) acquired Doyle
International, the redemption
and sports game manufacturer
from Idaho.
This all sounds like a busy day at
a high profile Wall Street firm.
The action is heavy and the scen-
ery is changing rapidly for coin-
op. Get a scorecard, so you'll
know the players!
The industry eats its' own and the
strong survive as coin-op enter-
tainment readies for the 21st Cen-
tury!
DESCRIPTION OF PROGRAM
All previous editions of STAR* TECH
Jouma~ Volumes 1 - 16 (March 1979 -
February 1995) have been scanned onto
a single CD-ROM disc with a custom
Multi-Media Microsoft Windows Program
which places thousands of articles at the
fingertips of coin-op game technicians.
POINT AND CLICK MENUS
Select from a list of manufacturers:
Then select the game or topic you want
to view. From there, just point and click
and the issue which contains your
choice will be displayed. Either scroll
through the pages or go directly to the
article of interest.
REQUIREMENTS
All that's needed is an JBM compatible
computer (386 or better) with Windows
3.1 (or later} and a CD-ROM player. All
the technical information published in
STJ during the past sixteen years will
be yours in seconds.
PRICE
$388. US funds. COD ok in USA. Price
includes shipping US and Canada.
Other countries add $9 via air.
NOTE
Only 100 ST Jon CD-ROM discs were
made by STAR* TECH Journal. The
next run will be in March of 1997 and
will be available first to purchasers of
the initial disc (at half price). Once you
are a registered user of ST J on CD-
ROM you will be offered future CD-
ROM releases at 50% off.
MolNFO
For more information or to order call,
fax, email or otherwise beam your re-
quests to Star Tech Journal. Inc. PO
Box 35, Medford, NJ 08055. Phone:
609/654-5544. Fax: 609/654-1441.
Email: startech@cyberenet.net