One thing I don’t think that I will ever tire of is getting into the history of the game industry, particularly that involving the arcade side of things. On one side I think it’s fascinating and on the other there are always some helpful ideas you can learn from what people have tried in the past. Obviously as times change not everything that worked “back in the good ol’ days” will work anymore but there are some things in human tastes that never change.
To get on with with the point, here is video of a panel discussion with several ex-employees of Atari back when it was a giant in the arcade industry, including Al Alcorn, Mike Hally, Owen Rubin, Steve Bristow and Steve Ritchie. Each one of these guys made contributions to gaming that were important not just for arcades but for gaming as a whole. Some of the talk is serious, some is light-hearted, they cover a number of the classic games they worked on and even quite a bit of discussion on Atari pinball machines. You’ll just have to check them all out below
Gravitar testing, pinball talk
Vector monitors/game talk(speaking of that, my Asteroids Deluxe monitor recently went kaput), exergaming, cabinet make-up,
Failed prototype talk, cabinet designs, Namco licensing,
Copy protection, best selling game, worst business decision, Video Music, Picking innovations, The Last Starfighter
The Last Starfighter cont., Tank 8, the future of arcades, “hot tub stories”
