Atari Coin Connection

Both of these steps we re
long needed and long over-
due. Both associations will
work together with the oper-
ators' AMOA. These coop-
erative efforts, combined
with the individual pro-
grams, will have strong and
meaningful results in many
areas of need, including:
1. The evaluation, analysis
and communication on mat-
ters of common interest.
2. The monitoring of devel-
opments both within and
outside our industry which
will affect that industry.
3. The promotion of im-
./ provements in the economic
well-being of the industry by
•
· t·
· f
t·
d issemina
ing in orma ion
col lected by the Association
to owners of coin-operated
The newly incorporated ' amusement devices.
Amusement Device Manu-
We are excited and
facturers Association is a
pleased, and we are certain
significant step forward in
you will be also, to see
such a new and meaningful
the overall progress of our
industry. In addition, the dis- set of directions from all
t ributors wil l shortly an-
concerned in the coin-op-
ted am seme t • d str
nounce the format .ion of
era
u
n in u y.
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The
President's
Corner
Operator of the Eighties
February Profile: Neel Voss,
Largo, Florida
·' Innovation is the key to
success," states Neel Voss,
"you have to separate your
place from others and
cause eyebrows to twitch. "
As you can probably guess,
Neel is a vivacious person
with alot of ideas for pro-
moting his location.
Neel has been in bus-
iness for five years. Pre-
vious to that he did odd
jobs, worked as a sales-
man, earned a marketing
degree from the University
of South Florida, and simu l-
afraid to buy a game in
multiples, since "you lose
money if people are waiting
to play."
One of the locations own-
ed by Neel is in a residen-
tial area. He has made th is
fam ily-oriented, complete
with exciting decor and
painted murals on the wall,
stuffed animals, plants and
colored lights. He has st rict
ru les and does not allow
anyone to congregate out-
side. Neel believes that
today's picture of a game
room is different than it us-
taneously started a route
ed to be, and that if you
business.
make it nice, fami lies wil l
He now owns fifteen lo-
come in to play.
cations, of which 3 or 4
In another location,
would be considered ma-
Neel's audience is compris-
jor. His game mix in th e
ed of adults only. He has
locati ons includes approx-
imately 25 % pinballs, 5 0% an overhead monitor built
into the cei ling above the
video games, and 25%
foosball, pool tables, and
bar. Controls are at the bar
so people can play as they
jukeboxes. He believes,
are sitt ing there . This tech-
however, videos w ill be-
come even more dominant
nique has helped to make
in the future. Neel currently people aware of the game
buys approximately three
itself, and now it's being
on these two games. Re-
new games per month and
played constantly.
member that posting the
gives away some of his old
Neel stresses that in-
machines to philanthropic
current high scores on top
itiative is one of the keys to
success - "Do things that
games is a great promotion projects.
people have never heard
Neel believes that own-
idea, helping to maintain the
games' challenge. If one of
ers w ho are w ill ing to spend of. " Obviously Neel Voss is
money to make money will
your players beats the top
a man with t remendous in-
score, please make sure to dominate the industry. He
itiat ive, whose hard work
suggests buying on ly top
send the new high score,
and unique ideas have built
plus the player's name, ad-
line games and not to be
a successful business.
dress, age, and the number
of hours that he/she played
the game, along with your
name and the name of your
location, to the Coin Con-
In a recent issue of Coin
a segment airing on Thurs-
nection, c/o Atari , Inc., 1265
Connection we told you
day, April 9th, at 10:00 p.m.
Borregas Ave. , Sunnyvale,
about the publicity Asteroids NBC television is also plann-
CA 94086.
has received in the national ing on doing a short seg-
print media. Now, ATARI
ment on ATARI and
Asteroids for the '' David
and Asteroids will be ap-
pearing on national televi-
Brinkley News Magazine"
sion, also. "Evening Mag-
which will be broadcast
azine" , which is nationally
sometime in May.
syndicated as "PM Mag-
Finally, Alan Landsberg
azine'' , recently shot a
Productions has already
7-minute segment wh ich is
begun fi lming for a future
scheduled to air on April
CBS series, the subject of
2nd. ABC's "20/20", the
wh ich is how Americans will
be playing/spending their
television news magazine
leisure t ime in the future.
show, also fi lmed here at
The will feature ATARI ex-
the Sunnyvale plant recent-
ly. They will be featuring
clusively in their spot on
ATAR I and the Asteroids on
video games.
Latest ATARI Top Scorers
The poRularity of ATARl's
Asteroids M and Missile
Command™ games have in-
spired a great deal of com-
petition among coin-op
game players throughout the
world. As soon as we re-
ceive a confirmed high
score at ATARI, it seems
that someone else is out
breaking the record. Here
are current official high
scores on ATARl's Asteroids
and Missile Command, as of
March 10, 1981.
Greg Davies of Fresno,
California, played Asteroids
for 31 hours on January 13-
14 of this year. His high
score at the end of this ex-
hausting day was 15,449,-
950. Greg played the game
at the Starzone Entertain-
ment Center in Fresno.
Edward Trudeau is the
current high score holder on
Missile Command. Edward,
playing for 6 hours at Just
Fun #24 in Holyoke, Massa-
chusetts, scored 6,373,305
points.
ATARI congratu lates both
Greg and Edward on their
outstanding achievements
Asteroids™
Wins National Acclaim