Play Meter

Ronald Hall/burton
"is to cut down the valleys and the
peaks . Ping,.ames will enable us to
do this and help relieve the pressure
to spew out new games and new
game ideas .
" In the past," he adds , "a
prototype might not have been
tested too well , but because there
might have been nothing else in the
wings , it would have been forced
onto the market. "
The pinball machine will hopefully
provide a consistent cushion to fall
back upon if an occasional proto-
type doesn't test well , Pearson
Prototypes can also be
notes .
tested for longer periods if the
pingame proves as successful as the
Allied officials believe it will be .
This combination of marketing
theories and solid -state technology
culminated in the Dyn -O-Mite, a
phoenix rising from the ashes of
Allied's original plant.
But games and parts supplies
weren 't the only things that needed
rebuilding after the fire . Distributor-
factory relations drifted aimlessly
while the company concentrated on
the material. That is being worked
upon , assures Braun .
" W e need a much closer relation -
ship between the factory and dis-
tributor," he says .
"Distributor relations seem to be
improving in certain areas," he adds
reassuringly, " but better and more
open feedback could help all of us
come Ollt ahead of the game. "
Ms . Rosenson , who works closely
with Allied 's distributors daily, re-
marks that "i t is up to distributors
40
and manufacturers to work hand in
hand . One can ' t work without the
other .
" When I hear about a distributor
who's not doing his part, it annoys
me . Those who are cooperative
desPrve the personal attention of
the manufacturer ."
One facet of burgeoning distrib-
utor importance Braun disagrees
with, is the " multi-distributor ." The
distributor should act as part of one
family , Allied 's president says .
" We' re his bread and butter and
he's ours ."
Braun is also upset by distributors
who refuse to adopt modern bus-
iness techniques . " There is so much
new in the way of marketing and
some distributors are selling the
same way they did 10 years ago .
Braun and Chairman of the Board
Daivd Braun -- felt was commensur-
ate . Because of that they began
manufacturing and distributing the
game themselves . To avoid relying
upon banks and to help speed their
growth, they deci ded to go public
and sold out their initial offering,
Halliburton says .
" We tried not to be the same as
everyone else," Bob Braun com-
ments . "We tried to come up with
innovative games."
As they grew in sales, they
produced more games and began
surrounding themselves with ex-
perts in various fields until they
achieved what Halliburton claims is
self-sufficiency . The plant has its
own silk-screening shop , own cab-
inetry shop, own playfield manu -
fa cturing department.
Allied can
" build anything , " says Halliburton .
With that , he just points to plans
to consolidate all of these operat-
ions under one roof in a massive
75,000 square foot factory .
A soaring promise from the ashes
and few surviving file cabinets of
two years ago .
Robert Braun
They should be developing new
ways and methods of marketing . It's
a distributor's own fault if he's not
getting the job done in his particular
area . Distributors need a new
vehicle to get that merchandise in
the street. "
The 35-year-old executive says
the amusements business is the only
business he's known in his life . He
and Halliburton , 34 , worked at All
Tech , a manufacturer of pool tables
and kiddie rides , before flashing on
the Allied dream . Their first game
together was Unscramble which
they tried to produce as prototypes
for other manufacturers.
Oth er manufacturers were inter-
ested in the idea , but weren 't
offering what the trio-- Halliburton,
A COMPUTERIZED parts making
system receives information from
this Allied Leisure employe, who is
programming the machine to direct
another machine's operation .