Play Meter

News briefs .... news briefs .... news I
..... Corporate management additions were announced by D.
Gottlieb & Co. at late Feb~uary. Marshall Caras came aboard at the
Chicago manufacturer as vice pre-sident of marketing, according to
Tom Herrick, vice president. Caras was most recently affiliated
with R.H. Belam. Also, Howard Rubin signed on with Gottlieb in a
new position, vice president of product management . Meanwhile, the
company's marketing group, including the Eastern and Western U.S.
regions' sales managers Jim Newlander and Jim Phillips, had met in
Chicago for a two-day review of the new Gottlieb pin, Pink Panther,
and strategy making for a promotional blitz for the game, said
Herrick . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
..... Top U.S. distributors have apparently planned a second gathering
for the purpose of discussing common problems of games handlers, with
the possible goal of establishing a distributors association. After
their first meeting in Chicago recently, plans were left in the dis-
cussion stage, sources told PLAY METER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
..... A new company known as Kiddie-Rides, U.S.A. has been formed for
marketing kiddie rides, with the same principals as the people who
own and operate Universal Visual Audiotronics Co., Davenport, Iowa.
Kiddie-Rides, U.S.A. is currently importing its rides from Europe and
recently signed an exclusive sales agreement with Waite Mfg. of Brush,
Colorado. Kiddie-Rides, U.S.A. claims the status of the world's
largest rides distributor. Company president is Robert Versman ....... .
..... Stern Electronics, Inc. reports that its video game Berzerk has
become the biggest-selling game in the Chicago games maker's history.
To meet the market demand, Stern's production of the 2-player "talking"
video was extended into the spring, said Marketing Director Tom Campbell ..
..... Century Electronics, a British firm producing video ga~es, re-
portedly has developed a completely interchangeable game system. Called
Century Video System, it was developed through the major European
electronics company Philips and introduces a module of three micro-
processors and five American-built chips, which can change one game into
another within a few minutes. (A cassette system with similar capacity
was introduced last fall by Data East, Inc., which will be marketing
its Deco Cassette System in the U.S. this spring, beginning about the
same time of the Amusement Operators Expo in New Or· leans, where Data
East will be exhibiting.) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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PLAY MET-ER, April, 1981