Leisure Play

INSIDE ST
Steady
—
Electrocoin Solid
Electrocoin Automatics Ltd.
is a firm that has come a long way
since it was formed nearly six
years ago. One of the reasons for
its transition from a compara-
tively small firm to be an
important manufacturer with
bases in London and Cardiff is its
ability to keep its finger on the
pulse of public trends as far as
amusement
concerned.
machines
are
The firm’s biggest break-
through came in 1978 when it
linked up with Universal of Japan
and started to manufacture their
video game machines under
licence. With sound technical
back-up from Japan, Electrocoin
started to grow at a steady pace.
Managing Director of
Electrocoin Mr. John Stergides
said: ‘‘Although we have come a
long way in recent years we are
determined not to fall into the
trap of expanding too rapidly. We
don't want to grow too fast.
Steady growth is the only safe
way to expand.”
When Electrocoin started
manufacturing
Universal
machines under licence, new
factory premises were obtained in
Cardiff. Now that factory has two
large production lines producing
between 80 and 100 video game
machines a week. Recently
production has reached peaks of
150 a week. Electrocoin also
import ready built machines from
Japan and the U.S.A.
But before any machine is
launched on the public it
undergoes exhaustive on-site
tests. Electrocoin own three
arcades in the London area —
including one alongside their
headquarters
London
in
Tottenham Court Road — and
they use these for testing
Leisure Play
—-
January
purposes. All the arcades are
visited by a wide cross section of
the machine-playing public so that
Electrocoin exectutives get a
pretty accurate picture as to how
the public at large will react to a
game. “We study the reports from
the arcades and a number of
single sites before we decide to
launch a machine,” said John
Stergides.
John, who formerly worked
for London Arcades before going
into business on his own has
worked in almost every arcade in
the West End of London.
His partner, John Collinson,
is based in Cardiff and runs the
day to day business at the
manufacturing end. But the two
men are frequently in contact.
Electrocoin’s head office in
Tottenham Court Road, is housed
in the same building as the
Universal U.K. headquarters. “All
I have to do is walk up one flight of
stairs and I am in the Universal
offices,” said John Stergides. ‘It
is a very convenient arrangment.”
Electrocoin’s
sophisticated
highly
electronics
laboratory is also in the
Tottenham Court Road building. It
contains all the latest fault-
finding equipment, test rigs and
apparatus for rapidly re-
programming games. ‘‘That is
very important these days’, said
John Stergides. “You have to be
able to
re-programme very
quickly. If the video game-playing
public tire of a game it is up to us
to give them another one right
away. If we don’t, someone else
will, it is as simple as that. It is
also important to have a good
stock of spares. Apart from the
video side of the business we also
operate a lot of pinballs and we
have all the test equipment for
Es
Base
those — including Bally, Williams
and Gottlieb.”
The London end of the
organisation will have to be
extended in the near future to
cope with
ever-increasing
business. John said: “The actual
details are all in the balance at
the moment.
“But we are in a strong
position and we want to keep it
that way. The dangers of growing
too fast are well known in this
business. We are, after all one of
the oldest video manufacturers in
this country. So we have a wealth
of experience behind us. Soon
after the firm was launched in
1974 we
started doing video game
conversions and when we had
gained sufficient experience we
started to manufacture our own
games. We only had very small
premises in those days but people
liked our games and we worked
flat out to keep them supplied.
“One of the biggest hits was
a game called Break Free and this
was followed by Court Jester,
Sharp Shooter and Cosmo Wars.
When we joined with Universal
manufacture under licence we
had to move to bigger premises.
The factory we found in Cardiff
to
was
ideal
for
large
scale
production. Before they agreed to
let us manufacture under licence,
Universal made a very thorough
investigation of our firm. But they
liked the way we worked and they
chose us to manufacture in the
U.K. They give us a lot of help and
we are in frequent contact with
them. It helps to have their U.K.
office one floor above, but apart
from that, we have a Telex link
with Japan, we visit that country
fairly freqently and executives
from the Universal head office
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