Play Meter

Taito ties with Nichibutsu USA
Taito America Corp. recently
announced its license agreement
with Nichibutsu (USA) Ltd. for the
exclusive North American rights to
manufacture and sell Crazy Climber
in both upright and Taito's Trimline
versions. The announcement was
made at Taito's new Elk Grove
Village, Illinois facility by Jack Mittel ,
president of T a ito America, and
Sueharu Torii, president of Nihon
Bussan, Ltd ., the parent company of
Nichibutsu USA.
"Crazy Climber" is a refreshing
new theme in video games," said
Mike Von Kennel, Taito's sales
manager. "In this light-hearted yet
challenging, talking video, the player
must scale four different sky-
scrapers, each one more difficult
than the last, as he avoids unique
obstacles such as gorillas, birds
dropping eggs, and debris thrown
out of windows."
"It's a skill action game that will
challenge all players, said Taito Vice
President Paul Moriarity. "And with
our new Trimline model , Crazy
Climber will be greeted in a wider
variety of locations than ever
before ."
Mittel said, "We're going all out ,
with special promotions and adver-
tising. Our test locations' income
supports the fact that Crazy Climber
is one of the top games in the world
market, and we are pleased to be
working with Nichibutsu."
Crazy Climber would be available
at distributor showrooms in March,
in time for the Spring sales season,
according to Taito America .
•
Nova Apparate sets its course
continued from page 1
in Europe (except the Benelux
countries), as well as Gottlieb
pinballs from the United States to
Germany and Austria.
In the vending business, Nova
relies above all on the coffee vendors
from Coffee-Mat (U.S.A.) and can
vendors from Rock-Oia (U .S .A.) . In
this connection, Nova has estab-
lished an important ingredients
business with coffee, hot chocolate,
etc., of its own brand .
In the course of the ever -
expanding video games business,
Nova has taken on distributorships
of prominent manufacturers in the
United States and Japan (Atari,
Taito, GDI) .
The founder, main shareholder,
Opera tors Would Rather Go
to Las Vegas
In a recent poll of amusement
operators, PLAY METER found the
majority favoring Las Vegas as the
site of the 1982 AMOA convention
and trade show. Of the operators
responding to the Play Meter
Equipment Survey, 57 percent said
"Yes" to Las Vegas, 18~ percent
answered "No" to the choice of Las
Vegas, and 24 percent had "no
opinion" about the site.
In the manufacturing sector of the
industy, however , many games
producers recently expressed objec-
tions to Las Vegas . The manufactur-
ers said they fear an inevitable
link will be drawn between amuse-
ment games and the gaming sector in
the public's mind and in mass
media's coverage of the AMOA
show in Las Vegas.
t
10
and chairman of the Gauselmann-
Automaten Group, Paul Gausel -
mann, has been known to A.W .
Adickes for more than twenty years
as a successful and dynamic
entrepreneur.
While maintaining its indepen-
dence within the Gauselmann-
Automaten Group , Nova Apparate
will remain an import/ export
company, looking after the
international business with special
regard to imports from the United
States and Japan. Nova will sell
these imports games throughout
Europe and most of Germany via its
network of distributors and in
northern Germany directly to
operators .
With the acquisition of this import
company, The Gauselmann -
Automaten Group strengthens its
position as one of the leading
enterprises in the coin machine
industry with 300 million OM .
Operating from headquarters in
Hamburg, Nova is managed by
president and co-partner Hans
Rosenzweig. Rosenzweig has been
involved for many years in the leisure
industry, both domesti cally and
internationally. Adic kes will stay on
with Nova as a director until the end
of 1981 and then in the following
years as a consultant, particularly for
the international business.
" Nova Apparate is pleased to join
forces with Gauselmann-Automaten
Group and anticipate an even
brighter future in the expanding
leisure industry," said a Nova
spokesman .
•
They come, they play,
they conquer rec therapy
SUNNYVALE- Atari's game room
at its Borregas Avenue headquarters,
where all of its coin-op games are set
on free play, recently served as site
of what the staff at Stanford
Children's Hospital in Palo Alto ,
California refer to as recreational
therapy.
The hospital staff often bring small
groups of young patients to Atari for
an evening-out in recreational
therapy. The children enjoy playing
the games, and the staff agree that
the trips to the Sunnyvale plant help
to release some of the tension that
hospitalized children are subject to.
The Stanford Hospital has a mini
game room of its own with Atari's
Breakout, Superman pinball, and
Touch Me games . Soon, an
Asteroids will be added to this
collection, due to the efforts of
Michelle London, director of
recreational therapy at the hospital.
Contributions to buy the game
came from the Woodside-Atherton
Auxiliary and from country singer
Willie Nelson . Asteroids was chosen
as the new game for the hospital's
rec room by the hospital staff and
based on the reaction of the kids,
who chose the game as their favorite,
spokesmen said.
Frank Ballouz, Atari director of
coin -op marketing, commented :
"Atari is proud to have the
opportunity to serve the community
in this way. Our games can be more
fun when they are used to benefit a
special program such as this one.
PLAY METER, May 1,1981