Play Meter

COVER STORY
Debut of 'Cubs'
heralds new pin era for Premier
When the AMOA opened this past October, the ink
had barely dried on an agreement between Mylstar and
principals of what would become Premier Technology.
Premier was purchasing the pinball assets of the defunct
Mylstar Electronics, closed by parent company Coca-
Cola.
Coca-Cola had changed the company name to Mylstar
from D . Gottlieb & Company, a name that meant pinball
to the coin-op industry. The history of Mylstar was short,
but D. Gottlieb & Company spanned half a century.
Gil Pollack started his coin-op career 13 years ago at
Gottlieb when it was still famil y owned. When Coca-Cola
obtained Gottlieb, Gil saw what the corporate umbrella
could do to a company and doesn't intend for that to
happen to Premier. "Executives, the very ones who are
deciding what games will be produced, become so
wrapped up in the mega structure of coorporate life, they
completely lose touch with the marketplace they are
supposed to serve," said Gil.
According to Gil, the employees at Premier are
directly involved with the marketplace. "I credit the
success Premier has had in such a short time to
concentrated efforts in engineering, knowing the
product, and a lot of hard work," noted Gil.
Though only in full production since the first of the
year, Premier has made its presence felt in the industry.
Its latest pinball, Chicago Cubs " Triple Play ", introduced
at the Amusement Operator's Expo, has been hailed a
complete success. It exemplifies the quality Gottlieb once
stood for and the quality Premier will be known for.
Chicago Cubs is an in-house developed game which is the
plan for future product. "Our engineers are talking with
operators and studying the marketplace. They are not
removed from it like in large corporations," said Gil. "I
also never want Premier to have that ivory tower effect
where executives and engineers are in the.i r own world
and lose touch with the reality of where the industry is
headed and what it's all about."
Quality is a top priority at Premier. According to Gil ,
Premier has taken extra steps to improve quality control.
"We have gotten feedback from the field showing very
little downtime on our games. And that means money to
operators," he said .
Pinball machines require more maintenance than
videos but according to Gil , "Many times when operators
talk about problems , what they are really talking about is
technicians not having the learning curve on servicing
pinballs. Manufacturers must overcome this by taking
steps to educate technicians in setting up pinballs,
percentaging them and troubleshooting."
And, Premier is taking steps to do just that. Service
schools are being planned at Premier distributorships.
Noted Gil, "We had a service school in Syracuse, New
York and 50 people showed up ." Gil also noted that
although the schools will focus on Premier product ,
many topics covered will apply to all pinballs.
Since Premier will be devoting its efforts to pinball, we
asked Gil what he thought about the future of pinball. "I
am even more optimistic today than I was when we
started the company. I don't think pinball will ever top
what video did at its peak but pinball popularity is
growing every day."
He continued , "We are dealing with a new market out
there . The kids who were weaned on video are
discovering pinball and finding they like it. Operators
started putting out older pins to see what the reaction
would be. They're finding it's good so they're now buying
new pins."
The future of Premier is bright and besides pinball, Gil
noted that Premier will be working on a novelty piece.
However, that was all he would say. But looking at what
Premier has accomplished already, it should be a hit.
Video games? Said Gil , "There are too many creative
people in Japan to work on video games. Our expertise
will be on pinball and novelty ."
WE ARE IN THE
ENTERTAINMENT BUSINESS .
8
PLAY METER. May 15, 1985