Dj10bear

How do you do, fellow kids? We’ve got some interesting items of arcade goodness to talk about for this weekend, so let’s hop to it:

The World’s Largest X-Men Arcade Game Installed at Geek’s Mania

When Konami released their beat ’em up based on Marvel’s X-Men cartoon in the early 90’s, they made two versions – a typical single screen 4-player model, and the iconic dual screen six-player behemoth. You can still find a few installed at arcades out there (I’ve had one for several years, although it may be finding a new home soon), but if you hit up an arcade/comic book store called Geek’s Mania in Madison, WI, you’ll find a unique setup that just launched this weekend that is calling itself the “world’s largest X-Men.” They took the “guts” of the machine, put them into the handy box below, built a new control panel (reminiscent of the Pac-Man Battle Royale deluxe control panel) and are projecting the screen image using two projectors. This reminds me of the Rastan III: Warrior Blade setup that I played at CAX 2018, although a bit more professional.

Coverage From IAAPI 2019

There are a lot of trade shows & arcade gaming events taking place this month, one of which was held this week in Bombay, India by the name of IAAPI. While the name is similar to IAAPA, I do not believe that the organizations are the same; IAAPI stands for the “Indian Association of Amusement Parks and Industries.”

Our headlining advertiser, Touch Magix, is headquartered in India and shared some photos from their very busy booth onto social media, while site friend & contributor Kevin Williams of The Stinger Report was there to check out the show as well as make a keynote presentation at the FEC Connect. I’ll share his thoughts about it, then check out photos from the event in the slider; I do not believe that any new coin-op games were unveiled there, but as always, there was some quirky LBE VR machine to be found.

“KWP would like to thank all those involved in our attendance at IAAPI in India, and the chance to present a keynote at the second FEC Connect Mumbai conference, an amazing turnout of the leaders in shaping the indoor entertainment business in India. IAAPI was a impressive show, and has come a long way in defining the opportunity of the India amusement and attraction business. I hope to chart the new opportunities and trends witnessed at the event, in coming Stinger Report coverage.”

Speaking of events, there was also an arcade event over in Europe by the name of Made In Asia 2019; our friends over at Arcade Belgium setup a booth there.

Sega Launching Kid-tainment "Remote Reality RPG" Attraction In Japan, Jungle Treasure

Sega unveiled an interesting new concept in "kid-tainment" this week, and something about it reminds me of an old 80's attraction that Sega made by the name of Sega Super Circuit. Not because of the size - this new concept called Jungle Treasure is quite a bit smaller - but in the sense of using remote controlled vehicles around a pre-made, physical course.

The modern take on the idea involves a detailed playfield and doesn't use sit-down arcade cabinets, but handy little tablets. While Sega and a few other Japanese companies have worked to to develop kid-friendly attractions like this before, Jungle Treasure should be far less messy than the Augmented Reality kinetic sand games.

See the official webpage for Jungle Treasure here.

Exa-Arcadia Rolls Out More Location Tests In Japan

During the big roll out of the Exa board at JAEPO 2019, it was mentioned that the company would soon begin location tests of the system at various locations across Japan. This week those tests began, with titles like Aka & Blue Type R showing up at locations like the Taito Hey Akihabara, Namco Matsudo in Chiba and the Apina Omiya in Saitama. More tests are forthcoming; for those of us in the US, we just have to hang tight, then it'll be our turn.

exA-Arcadia begins the journey into arcades nationwide across Japan starting at Taito Hey!

Congrats to our amazing international team for making this happen!

POWER TO THE EXA!#EXA基板 pic.twitter.com/7YxtNMJy6n

— exA-Arcadia社長 (@exaarcadiaceo) March 7, 2019

Raw Thrills Has A Bold New Banner Marquee For Cruis'n Machines

Earlier this week, my brother and I took a "tour" of three FECs in our area to kind of see what the competition was up to. As a part of that, I finally visited the Round 1 USA and Dave & Busters locations that opened up in the SLC area last year; while at the D&B, I saw this new multi-game marquee for myself. While it's most impressive for four connected units, locations with just a pair can also get a version of it. It reminds me of the ol' multi-cab marquee that Cruis'n USA had.

(As a note, D&B also has padded seats, which is a nice addition too)

Cruis'n Blast is a high earning racer that will take your location to a whole new level. One unit or four, Cruis'n Blast will get you 1st Place! >> https://t.co/DPSwL9DCVC #RawThrills #CruisnBlast #Nintendo pic.twitter.com/F4Rlbd9Jy5

— Raw Thrills (@rawthrills) March 4, 2019

Arcade Humor This Week: Showtime Pizza

H/T to Nick from the Arcade Hunters for today's laugh:

The post Newsbytes: World’s Largest X-Men Arcade; IAAPI 2019; New Sega Game For Kids & More appeared first on Arcade Heroes.

If you asked me to list some of the games I bought or played in 1994, I’d probably start off with Donkey Kong Country and Final Fantasy III, and it would likely take me a long time before I ever mentioned Barneystein 3D. But it was part of my gaming world in 1994, and there’s a floppy disk sitting in my dad’s garage…

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Happy belated birthday for Arcade Heroes – Dec. 3rd 2006 was when the site got it’s start, and because I was a little overloaded on work this week, I forgot to run a post about it. But no worries, better late than never, right?

What is your favorite story that we’ve run over the years?

Berzerk World Record Holder Joel West Passes Away

(Joel is dressed in yellow in the Featured Image for the post)

The classic gaming/high score community was given some terrible news this week, as gamer Joel West passed away at the age of 58. I did not personally know Joel, but many of my online friends did and have been posting tributes. By all info I’ve heard, he was a gracious and fun guy, with incredible talent for classic video games; a true Arcade Hero. Eighty-Three Arcade wrote up a great memorial for him; RIP Joel.

Bandai Namco Reveals Pac-Mancave.com

If you’ve got a mancave, then Bandai Namco is ready to help you furnish it with some officially licensed game gear. While they have the Pac-Man’s Pixel Bash Chill machine (and Pac-Man themed air hockey and pool tables), the company has other items made to spice up your game room/mancave. These include “PACcessory” items like pint glasses, lamps and stress balls, to decor like posters, benches and these new wooden plaques. Check it out.

Street Fighter V Gets An Official Arcade Title

Drumroll…when the arcade version of Capcom’s Street Fighter V launches next year, it’s official name is…Street Fighter V Type Arcade. As I asked in this tweet, the use of the word “type” makes me think of a couple of the typing arcade games.

The upcoming arcade edition of Capcom's Street Fighter V has been named: "Street Fighter V Type Arcade."

I can't be the only one who thinks of Typing of the Dead or Lupin III – The Typing, when I hear that, right? https://t.co/WbcwAeqb5G

— Arcade Heroes (@arcadeheroes) November 27, 2018

Sega World Drivers Championship 2019

I had wondered if Sega might bring their latest Super GT offering out West, but so far, no dice. For Japanese arcades, they already have a sequel announced, as shown through this video below. SWDC 2019 builds on what 2018 introduced, offering cross-site play in Japan and fantastic graphics. The game is shipping to Japanese venues right now:

Speaking of Japan, Raw Thrills has begun testing the Super Deluxe version of Halo: Fireteam Raven over there. One of the websites that focuses on light-gun games has their own location test report; here are some additional pics:

namcoラゾーナ川崎店でロケテスト中の『HALO FIRETEAM RAVEN』のロケテスト見ています。海外製のアーケードゲームです。 pic.twitter.com/DVZhAwDr8r

— アリエス@アリエスの小部屋管理人 (@ariesukobeya) December 8, 2018

Polish Arcade Photos From The 80’s & 90’s

A couple of weeks ago, I was alerted to this fascinating thread on Twitter that compiles a number of photos of arcades in Poland  from the late 80’s and early 90’s. This is just as interesting to look through as the “Soviet arcade game museum” we saw a few years ago.

The two intersect in fascinating places: the rampant reusal of arcade cabinets, arcades clad in classic Soviet concrete and underneath first advertising billboards, antiquated notions of luxury. pic.twitter.com/5nV78wIGs5

— Marcin Wichary (@mwichary) November 19, 2018

Galloping Ghost holds Dark Presence Day

Some years ago, we began covering the ambitious 1v1 digitized fighter concept known as Dark Presence. Being developed by Galloping Ghost Productions, the game has been on a very long journey since then. But to the delight of eager fans, the game had it’s very own “day” at the Galloping Ghost Arcade last week. While this stream is a bit long, you can see plenty of the game in action by jumping to just about anywhere in the stream. Check it out:

That’s all I came across for now; have a great weekend!

The post Newsbytes: Joel West Passing; Pac-Mancave; Japanese Arcade Updates; Polish Arcade Memories appeared first on Arcade Heroes.

An express elevator in a Chicago building formerly called the John Hancock Center until earlier this year, the 100-story tower at 875 North Michigan Avenue that is the fourth-tallest skyscraper in the city, fell from the Signature Room restaurant on its 95th floor all the way down to the 11th on Nov. 16th due to a…

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I’ve got to know many UK-based arcade collectors over the years. It’s fair to say that each approaches the hobby in a different way. Some take a technical approach to arcade games – delving deep into the repair side of things in a quest to understand how cabinets work and figuring out ways to maintain and preserve the old electronic components. Others literally hoard parts and machines, (with or without an end game), and there are a group of us who will manage a collection of machines and develop a gamesroom or mancave to reproduce the arcade environment at home. I guess I fall into the latter camp.

So it’s always interesting to visit other cabinet owners to see what they’ve got and how they display their collection. Some time ago I got talking to fellow collector Les Potts, who gave me an open invite to visit his place and take a look around. Life of course got in the way, and I had to be reminded several times by Les that the invitation still stood! Well last month I finally got round to making time to jump in the car and take the four-hour drive up north to pay him a visit, along with my buddy Alex, who was going to shoot some video.

Like most of us, Les was a keen arcade goer from back in the day – he remembers well the transition from electromechanical machines to video games in the late 70s, citing Space Invaders as the game that got him hooked. He started his collection in the late 90s with a pinball machine and things grew from there.

Les is fortunate enough to have a basement in his house and figured early on that it would be an ideal environment to house a collection of classic arcade and pinball machines.

He wasn’t wrong either. After arriving at Les’ place, he led Alex and myself to a door under his staircase:

We wandered down the stairs:

And this is the initial view from the foot of the staircase:

As you can see, Les has a great collection. These machines have been acquired over the years, and have been curated into a gaggle of machines that provide a great variety of styles and game types. Here’s a full panoramic view of everything:

The first thing you’ll notice is how well maintained everything is. Every machine is close to mint condition and everything is in perfect working order. No mean feat this – keeping well over 20 machines fully operational requires dedication and deep pockets. Here’s the highlights from Les’ collection:

As well as video games, the room played host to a nice selection of 90s pinball machines. All classics:

Great to have a change of pace from the video games. Each pinball provides a suitably different play experience ensuring they all get played.

Always popular in Les’ room are the driving games. He has three in total:

Getting the huge F355 Challenge cabinet into the basement was a challenge in itself. Here’s the steps Les had to go through to get it inside. One part even had to be sawed in half to get it through the window!

The details are what makes this games room – every available wall space is filled with framed arcade flyers:

Here’s a few more shots taken on the day:

And here is Alex’s video tour of our afternoon with Les:

Many thanks to Les for the tour of his very impressive games room – probably the nicest I’ve seen on these shores. Les has more cabinets on the way – can’t wait to see his new additions next time round!

So there you have it. I’m really looking forward to my second visit already!

See you next week.

Tony

Many thanks to Les for being the perfect host, and Alex for making it a memorable afternoon. The better pictures in this article were provided by Les himself!

In terms of their design and construction build, pinball machines have fundamentally remained the same throughout the years. I’m guessing that if you picture the phrase ‘pinball machine’ in your mind, we all create the same basic image. There’s been advances over the years of course – the most fundamental being the appearance of electronic components, PCBs and microchips in the 80s. This moved pinball away from the clunky nature of electromechanical design, and opened up the possibilities of entertaining players with new toys, ramps, sound effects, speech and multi-level play fields. The 80s and 90s saw what is regarded as the Golden Age of pinball, with designers stretching their creativity to give the player more to do and a bigger bang for their buck.

But ultimately, pinball is pinball – and this remains true to this day. The licences, artwork, rule sets and playfield layouts might differ from table to table, but at its core, pinball is a constant. Put simply, you have a large playfield flat in front of you, two flippers to keep the ball in play and make shots, and a vertical backglass.

But back in 1993, Midway Manufacturing Company (then a subsidiary of Williams – famous for its pinball and video game releases) wanted to completely change players’ perceptions of what pinball should be. The challenge was to totally rethink that standard ‘table’ layout, and try something new.

This mammoth task (and a healthy budget of $1.5 million) was given to designer Python Anghelo on account of his stellar design work on tables up to that point. Angelo was responsible for some of the greatest legendary pinball tables releases, including Bad Cats, Big Guns, Comet, Cyclone, Pin-Bot and Taxi. We’ve looked at some of Anghelo’s ground-breaking work here on the blog before.

Starting with a blank sheet of paper, Anghelo got to work, and let his imagination run riot. He worked on the premise of changing the traditional flat play axis of pinball, and literally turned it on its head. Rather than having a horizontal playfield stretching out in front of the player, why not have one that plays vertically as well? Working to that idea, The Pinball Circus was developed.

The game is played on a series of levels – and getting to each level brings bigger rewards, but doing so presents an increasing amount of risk and difficulty. The player starts on the lower playfield, where the aim is to deliver the ball to the second level via a ramp to the centre left area. The second level is made up of a series of metal rings with a single flipper – here the player has to fire the ball up another ramp towards an elephant’s trunk (of all things). If the shot is successfully made, the elephant raises its head, rolling the ball to a third level, and here another key shot can be made to a magnetic ball lifter, which raises the ball to the goal area – a clown’s playfield. Using two small flippers, the player drops three targets to reveal a jackpot behind. Once the jackpot is scored, the ball is returned to the first lower playfield to try again.

Based on Anghelo’s designs, just two finished cabinets were produced. All the artwork, software, playfield features and rule sets were complete – the game was done. As was usual, the game would follow a testing process to gather feedback from players out in the marketplace. One cabinet was placed on field test at an arcade in Chicago, and the other was shipped to European distributor NOVA for simultaneous overseas testing.

Midway were confident that they had broken the mould with The Pinball Circus, and were offering something genuinely different – a machine that would disrupt the pinball market and breathe new life into the arcade scene that was becoming saturated with pinball tables of varying quality and success.

But the reports from the field tests that came back were somewhat surprising. Both machines earned no more income than standard tables of that time. What’s more, NOVA pointed out to Midway that they and the operators they supplied would not be prepared to pay the additional expected costs for the machine, if, based on the results of the field testing, additional income was not going to happen. On a purely commercial basis, this of course made perfect sense.

As a result of the feedback, NOVA sent their machine back to Midway, the machine placed out in Chicago was picked up and returned to base, and both cabinets were parked in a back room at the factory.

As disappointing as it was to the team who worked on the groundbreaking table, it was decided that no further tables should be built, and the project was scrapped indefinitely.

To the outside pinball world, the table was now regarded as being lost forever. An expensive folly that never came to fruition. Rumours of its existence swirled around the pinball community for years, questions were asked, enquiries were made, but not much information was forthcoming.

Fast forward to 1999, and Williams quits the pinball industry. Clearing out the old building, the two machines were unearthed, and both were taken home by senior executives of Williams. Steve Kordek was one of those people, and after being asked about the machine many times, he got together with former Williams designer Larry DeMar, and they decided to do something about it.

Up to this point, the game was ‘unobtainium’ – no pictures existed and no one really fully knew what was different about this fabled pinball table, or if any tables were still around.

But you can now view, touch and even play the machine, as one has been housed at a pinball museum in America. Larry and Steve made things happen, and agreed to have one of The Pinball Circus machines shipped to Nevada and placed in the custody of the team at The Pinball Hall of Fame in Las Vegas.

I had an opportunity to play the table back in March this year, and I can tell you it’s an amazing game!

It really is a lot of fun to play and I’m surprised it never went into production. It’s a great example of the dichotomy of pinball design – the result of creative genius, sadly never coming to fruition because of simple commercial expectations. The numbers simply didn’t add up at the time. Whilst it’s a shame the game isn’t more ubiquitous, to be able to get hands on with this Holy Grail of pinball is a real treat.

There are a few videos of the machine being played on YouTube – here’s one of them:

It’s a lovely, quirky piece of arcade history, and ironically is great fun. If you’re ever in the Las Vegas area, drop in and give The Pinball Circus table a go.

Thanks for reading this week.

Tony

When you think of the ideal cheeseburger, where is the cheese in the sandwich equation — is it beneath the patty, or on top of it? That is the question Google’s CEO has now promised to address, after someone questioned the company’s cheese placement in its cheeseburger emoji.

Media consultant Thomas Baekdal pointed out on Twitter over the weekend that while Apple’s hamburger/cheeseburger emoji has cheese resting atop a beef patty, Google’s version sticks the slice underneath the meat.

RELATED: 5 Tips From A Pro Fro Cooking Up An Awesome Hamburger

Of course, Twitter users immediately started taking sides:

A glance at Emojipedia shows Google’s cheese is really standing alone on this one:

RELATED: We Tried It – 4 Ways To Cook A Burger That’s Safe To Eat But Doesn’t Taste Like Leather

Google is pledging to take swift action to resolve the controversy.

What do you think?

Another arcade raid to share this week on the blog. We’ve met collector Jay before here on Arcade Blogger in a previous raid article here.

This time round, Jay was given a lead about a warehouse in Bastrop, Louisiana. Stored within, he was told, were around 30 classic arcade machines. After significant research, he drew a blank in trying to establish ownership. The only thing he could do was drop by the location whenever he could, to see if there were signs of life.

After a few months, he got lucky. The shutters were up, and he saw someone milling around inside the property. After introducing himself, Jay enquired about the machines.

Jay was led in and shown around:

The immediate thing that struck Jay was the variety of cabinets stored here. Not just popular titles like Pac-Man and Space Invaders, but more obscure titles like Space Zap.

The owner it turns out, used to be an operator. He had a small arcade that he ran as a side business to his main operation – a motorbike dealership, some 30 miles south of the warehouse in the city of Monroe.

After a few months of success with the arcade, a serious crime took place in the arcade (the details of which aren’t relevant here). Suffice to say, it was bad enough for the owner to decide to close the place down and put all his games into storage. What this meant, was that all the machines were stored in remarkable condition, having been played for only a short period of time.

Jay’s timing couldn’t have been better. The owner wanted the space back, and a deal was struck for all 30 cabinets. He started to document and itemize what was there. Lucky for us, he took pictures! Here’s some of the highlights:

Jay needed help to clear everything out, so returned with a collector friend and two trailers:

So with everything dragged out, it was time to load up and head home.

The guys bid farewell, and drove away with their incredible haul of over 30 machines:

But the work didn’t stop there. Jay decided to sell most of the cabinets. The Cosmic Chasm alone paid for the whole raid (and them some), and the rest of the cabinets were cleaned up and sold onto other collectors all over the country.

This was a very satisfying rescue. With over 30 classic arcade titles saved and passed on to the community, Jay can be proud of this great Arcade Raid.

Although this raid happened 15 years ago, Jay is still collecting. He stopped for many years but kept a few cocktails and cabarets, and is back to collecting minis. He owns around 20 games in various states of working and non working condition. With all but two driving games, most are cabarets or cocktails. I asked Jay about his thoughts on “raids” today become fewer and fewer:

What has hurt the warehouse raids more than anything is the Internet and Ebay. I know an operator with two full warehouses with 100’s of games that have been sitting for many years. He prices things by going to eBay and doubling the price of anything he finds.

So there you go – what a great raid, with a great variety of cabinets too. A nice mix of popular and less-known titles. Many thanks to Jay for sharing these pictures and background info with me.

More arcade raids soon!

See you next time.

Tony

Although Apple's new headquarters just opened last month, it may already need a round of renovations. According to insiders at Apple's Cupertino spaceship campus, employees have been walking into the facility's glass walls since it opened.

The building's work spaces, known as "pods," feature plenty of glass walls meant to inspire collaboration -- a feature that's as optimistic as it is inconvenient. Naturally, with employees walking the hallways while staring at their phones, the transparent blockades have resulted in repeated staffer collisions. Reportedly, efforts to prevent danger include sticking Post-It notes on danger zones in an attempt to stave off accidents in high-density areas.

Read the entire story over on Bloomberg's site.

Meanwhile, Apple has its hands full with a more pressing issue: an iOS bug crashing iPhones and disabling iMessage.

Click here to view full gallery at HYPEBEAST

Well the end of this week turned into a weird roller coaster of news for arcade stuff. As the two main items ended up soaking up all my time, that’s all we’ll be discussing.

I’ve not personally met with or done business with either Mitchell or Bushnell, in case that disclaimer needs to be said.

Gamer Of The Century Billy Mitchell Accused Of Cheating On Certain Scores For Donkey Kong

UPDATE: Billy Mitchell has responded by appearing on an online show behind a paywall. As such, I don’t have the video of it yet, which is supposed to be uploaded to YouTube on Thursday. A user on the Twin Galaxies forums uploaded a partial transcript of the interview which is a bit long and covers other items, mainly that he has an attitude of all the press is good since he’s booking more deals than ever. To distill his defense for you, he is claiming that the video that the original accuser used for the analysis wasn’t Billy’s ; that Twin Galaxies has a video that should vindicate him in terms of showing a crowd and the images. Said video was not shown on the chat

Another claim against Mitchell is that the MAME pattern appears to be used in this video as well but is difficult to ascertain by just pausing a YouTube video and trying to go frame by frame. Mitchell mentions this video in the interview.

In My Opinion: I think that the best way to resolve any of this would be to have a second, independent analysis on it all. Not from Billy’s friends nor his haters, just someone without any monetary investment in it or an axe to grind. Also, I think that for any live events, the referees shouldn’t be “good friends” with Billy or any other competitor. The first KoK covered that somewhat bizarre setup for the competitive gaming circuit and I think that it taints the whole process.

Original Post: I saw this start to explode on social media the other day and was waiting to see if there was a response from Mr. Mitchell himself in regards to the issue but there is none I have seen at this moment in time. I want to be careful about this stuff as we’ll see in the next piece of news, Trial By Internet Witch Hunt is an extremely easy trap to fall into.

If you’re visiting AH, then you already know who Billy Mitchell is to some degree. Some love him, some hate him. To the former crowd, this allegation that he cheated on certain Donkey Kong scores by using MAME when he claimed he did them on a live machine is scandal; to the haters it’s vindication for ‘what they always knew to be true.’  Venture Beat has an article that distills some of the history along with the accusations.

That all said, the accusation is thoroughly detailed and documented here, showing comparisons between how MAME and a true arcade board will draw Donkey Kong’s screen; if MAME were used, it is easy to rewind and retry an attempt, thus making it possible to cheat. If true, this calls into question other non-refereed submissions but I am even seeing some say that all of his scores should be pulled regardless.

If Mr. Mitchell posts a defense to these accusations I’ll be sure to share them here. THere is another Kong Off coming up in April so if he goes, that would be a chance to show that he can

Nolan Bushnell Is Not The Harvey Weinstein Of Video Games

Unless you’ve been living in the wilderness without any internet access for about a year then you have heard about the “MeToo” movement that has rocked Hollywood in scandals over the improper use of a powerful position to get sexual favors in exchange for better acting jobs. Said movement has had it’s share of champions and critics but when trying to apply the same concepts to the arcade/video game industry, this one was way off the mark.

With Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell, like Billy Mitchell he has his fans and his detractors. His contributions to the video game and arcade business are well-known so we don’t need to recap that.

Recently, the Game Developers Conference announced that it would be awarding Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell with a Pioneer award. This launched a “#NotNolan” hashtag campaign by Brianna Wu who alleged that because of the “MeToo” movement and certain stories surrounding the management of Atari in the 1970s, that it would be “wildly inappropriate” to give Bushnell such an award.

The Verge and Kotaku both ran articles carrying that same set of proxy accusations from Wu, the principle of which hinges on brief and somewhat vague descriptions of “hot tub board meetings” that are said to have taken place at Atari around 45 years ago. No one is condoning such meetings but by the descriptions there are many questions up in the air about them. Mainly was anyone threatened that they would lose their job if they didn’t participate? Who was “Ms. so and so”? Did she consent? If not, was she threatened or fired? Did she ever file a complaint? etc. etc. Without any first-hand accounts of a woman or women making such a claim, it leaves it as an apple to the orange of the situation surrounding Harvey Weinstein, who is the focus of criminal investigations for everything from harassment to rape (over a much longer period of time with dozens upon dozens of named accusers who have filed legal action against him).

What really bugs me about how this whole situation has shaken out so far, is that when you read those articles, notice that neither site nor the GDC bothered to reach out to women who worked at Atari to get their side of it.  Why wouldn’t you do that, especially when there is no first-hand accuser? Are the women who worked there with Bushnell not capable of providing a fair and accurate assessment of the events that they were present for?

It’s not so much about the award here – a man’s reputation is being smeared which can jeopardize his current (he’s a co-founder and is on the board of Modal VR) and potential future business dealings – something that matters to the livelihood of him and his family. In doing a current internet search of his name, the accusations are all that are getting attention, not any defense. No, we’re not in a court setting here but basic legal concepts such as presumption of innocence and the right to defend yourself against accusers still matters.

Fortunately Historian Curt Vendel noticed this and took action on his Facebook group Atari Museum to ask for comments from any women who did work at Atari during the Nolan days. It’s a closed group so you would only be able to see it if you are a member so I’ll share some of what is there.

Elaine Shirley was the first woman to comment on this as she provided a statement to Replay Magazine. Elaine joined the company in 1973 and stayed on at the coin-op division until 1999. She currently works at GlobalVR where she has been for many years.

Those were the times. He [Nolan Bushnell] hit on women and they hit on him. If the #MeToo movement was active when Atari was alive, I think half our company would be charged. To my knowledge, no one ever did anything they did not want to do.

“In truth,” Shirley continued, “I think there were at least the same or more aggressive women at the company. I am not condoning any inappropriate violations related to the #MeToo movement, but I think the movement needs to relate to the era in which the ‘violation’ occurred. However, there are some lines that can never be crossed (especially with children or sexual assaults) no matter what era it was.”

She continued that there was a time when two salesmen in the industry complemented her at a trade show, saying she had the “best legs in the industry.”

“That would not be acceptable now, but it did not bother me,” she said. “They should give Nolan the award,” she concluded.

in this regard pertaining to Nolan – there is ZERO sexual assault or abuse – and the alleged journalist did not do their due diligence.

Using the ‘MeToo’ movement and a moment in time for which she [Wu] had no firsthand knowledge…………

And with zero complaints lodged against Nolan or complaints about the work culture by employees working at Atari during that time………..

And based on archival newspaper and magazine interviews with Nolan and others chatting about a work environment, time and culture that existed 40 years ago………

A work environment everyone – men and women – happily worked in TOGETHER… and partied in TOGETHER (or didn’t party in – there was no pressure and no judgement)…. an environment that has resulted in decades-long friendships, marriages, ‘little Atarians,’ business partnerships and frequent reunions……… providing us with amazing memories, and for most of us, spending the rest of our work careers attempting to replicate the MAGIC of the Camelot that we were lucky enough to work at.

By arming herself with a topical movement and being personally disgruntled and ‘offended’ by an environment existing 40 years ago which she played no part in – an environment she had ZERO first hand knowledge of………. and ‘intimating’ those of us who worked with or around Nolan, Al (Alcorn), the Gene’s (Lipkin and Landrum), Joe (Keenan), Steve (Bristow) and the rest of ‘Mahogany Row’ had been sexually assaulted, abused and disrespected by (in her estimation) abominations to the male species…….

Yes, based on her political aspirations, personal assumptions and libelous accusations against a man where no complaints have been raised or filed – she made a big, unfounded noise against Nolan – and the ‘Pioneer Award’ honor was withdrawn.

Atari was a large corporation with many facilities… but I worked in Corporate Headquarters, interfaced with every department in the company as a part of Communications, Security and Facilities groups……. and in being ‘adopted’ by the Coin-op and Industrial Design groups, I also spent a great deal of time in the Engineering (‘hot tub’) building, which would be the two locations where most of the fun and craziness occurred.

From my vantage point and having a first-person perspective of this time and the Atari environment, what has been done to Nolan is falsely mischaracterizing him for a lifestyle that did no harm or wrong to anyone.

Nolan created a company environment which opened the doors to many women into a field where they were never included before: HI TECH. Nolan never discriminated on any level and gave everyone a chance to prove on their own merits that they could be a part of Atari. From soldering boards to building arcade cabinets, drawing schematics and artwork to working on the assembly line.

For me personally, Nolan was the final word in my being hired at Atari – my first full-time job after college… he continued his belief in me years later, when we cofounded uWink in Los Angeles where I became an ‘equally compensated’ Vice President.

Nolan never profiled a person by their gender as to whether or not they were a fit for the job. He based his decision on the person’s skill, ability and passion for the job – because of that belief, we always rose to the occasion! We were a bonded teamship… AND A FAMILY.

Atari also saw a woman – the amazing Carol Shaw – go on to fame! [Carol Shaw is best know for River Raid, which she did while at Activison – Ed.]

For me, and I’m sure for other women who will weigh in……. while this ‘feminazi congresswoman wanna-be’ may believe she is doing ‘Atari womankind’ a favor, in reality, she has done us a disservice by creating victims where there were none.

Personally, I am extremely angered by her words and conduct in this matter… not just for Nolan, but for the women of Atari – all of us!

We ALL were, and remain to this day extremely strong and intelligent women…… and there isn’t any ‘man’ who would dare take advantage of us (not if they intended to procreate in the future!).

My other anger is the callous and unnecessary hurt I’m sure this matter has inflicted on Nancy and their kids and grandkids.

Finally… by not doing their due diligence before terminating the honor, the GDC did a disservice to Nolan, to my fellow Atarians – and to the truth.

Nolan was extremely gracious in this matter via his tweet… Hopefully the GDC will right this misstep on their part at some point in the future.

The post Newsbytes: Billy Mitchell & Nolan Bushnell Controversies appeared first on Arcade Heroes.