Atari Coin Connection

PROMO ITEMS:
BUCKLES AND PENS
TECHNICAL TIP
Atari now !1as exciting new leather and
brass belt buckles and jun1bo pens for
your pron1otions. Middle Earth'fM and
Breakout™ T-shirts and pinball posters
are also still available.
These pron10 ite1ns n1ake excellent
player prizes for tournaments, !1igl1 score
on games, or other special progra1ns.
Tl1ey can also be offered for sale in your
locations.
The growing popularity of be! t buckles
and T-shirts as collectors iten1s 1nake
them ideal for promotions. Atari pens
also 111ake an excellent give-away
- students especially like the ju1nbo pens
with the f~uniliar Atari logo.
Atari pro1notion ite1ns offer an added
incentive as prizes. Belt buckles, T-shirts,
pens and posters can be ordered through
Atari distributors for a minin1al cl1arge.
Each iten1 has high appeal and will
continue to encourage players to enjoy
the Atari gan1es.
STAR SH IP 1 TM
SYMPTOM: Cannot steer Starsl1ip in
one or more directions.
Check for the following :
I. Roll and pitcl1 pots are operating
properly .
2. Make sure there is electrica l
continuity between the pots and
PCB in the control panel !1arness.
3. Check that IC 14051 (N-1 1) and
ICLM319 (L-1 1) are operating
properly.
4. Check the A/D ran1p at Pin 5 of
the LM319 (L-11). The ran1p 1nust
be a perfect sawtootl1. If it is
curved, replace transistor Q I
(2N3644) or n1ylar capacitor C-55
(.047 1nfd).
AUDIO AMPLIFIERS
Some new Atar i games are now
equipped witl1 a separate audio an1plifier
board with the volume control on the
board. This board is located outside of
the RF cage and is easily accessible fron1
tl1e front coin door .
Two types of an1plifier boards are
used : the single channel for gan1es with
one speaker and the dual cl1annel for two
speakers. The single cl1annel amplifiers
are interchangeable between single
speaker gan1es, and · dual cl1annel a1npli-
fiers with dual speaker games.
''THE OFFICE'' TOURNE!::1
"The Office" is a bar in Aurora,
Illinois, where over eighty pinball
entl1usiasts gathered on a snowy day in
March for a tourna·m ent. Randy Jol1nson
of Twin Oaks Music and R. Bob McDade
from tl1e location, organized the event
which was most successful.
They coordinated the effort with the
Aurora Budweiser Distributor wl10
provided T-shirts for the participants and
advertising posters for tl1e event. The top
prizes inclu ded a ho1ne pinball, a hockey
table, and cash. High score winners on
individual gan1es received Atari Airborne
Avenger T-shirts.
Randy
Johnson
reported, "I overheard one contestant say
all he cared to win was the Atari T-shirt."
There are seven pinball gan1es, two
videos and two foosball tables in The
Office location. Tl1e top five finisl1ers
were selected based on a point value
systen1 on each game rather than total
accumulation of points . "This n1ade eacl1
game as important as the next," said
Randy Johnson. The final playoff was
held three days later an1ong the top five
competitors. This brougl1t the players
back to the location for the fina l
chan1pionship 1natch.
CUSTOMER
SERVICE: NEW
NUMBER FOR
TELEHELPTM
Atari's Custon1er Service group was
1noved to a new building. With this 1nove
the Custo1ner Service telephone nun1 ber,
Tclel1elp™, has been changed.
(800) 538-1 6 11
( toll-free outside of California)
The new Californ ia service line is
( 408) 745 -2900.
This toll-free Telehelp nun1ber is
provided for distributors, operators and
game technicians to contact Atari's
technical support staff for service assist-
ance on our gan1es.
"Atari's objective is to provide the
best service support in tl1e industry," said
Don Sn1ith, Manager, Custon1er Service.
"\1/e want to encourage our distri bu tors
and operators to call the Atari service
technicians if they need assistance in
troubleshooting and
repa1nng our
gan1es."
Please make note of the new telephone
nu1nbers for your future use.
PLA~El2
PROMOTION IDEAS
A Tourney Event
For a son1ewhat unique twist to a
pinball tourna1nent, a special en durance
event could be added. The player who
can keep a single ball in action on the
playfield for the longest tin1e will win a
special prize . (The only special rule for
this event should be that the player
cannot hold the ball on the flipper fo r
n1ore tl1an 2 seconds!)
After Gan1e Play
If you l1ave ga1nes at a bowling alley,
1niniature golf course, or other si1nilar
location, a special offer for free play on
coin-gan1es can be awarded . for good
scores on bowling, golf, etc. Th is can
encourage even more play on the coin
ga1nes; wl1ile the winners of the free
games are collecting tl1eir reward, their
friends n1ost likely will join in and pay
to play .
ff _you have an interesting pron-iotion
idea to share, please write to the Coin
Connection.