Electronic Games Hotline

MILTON BRADLEY ACQUIRES G.C.E.

Milton Bradley recently announced its acquisition of all business assets of General Consumer Electronics (GCE) for an undisclosed amount of money. GCE, founded in 1980, will be operated as a wholly-owned subsidiary still retaining its original name.

GCE has attracted lots of industry-wide attention of late with its introduction of Vectrex, the self contained home videogame system that utilizes Vectrascan technology. Some gamers may be more familiar with GCE’s line of watches and calculators, which incorporate game-playing action to relieve the drabness of everyday time telling or number crunching.

Future plans for Vectrex include its introduction in seven of the country’s largest markets this winter, so keep your radars scanned!

O² ADDS MORE JOY TO STICK

Attention all budget-conscious home arcaders: You’ll be happy to hear that Magnavox has decided to give gamers a break by dropping its price for the O²’s joystick controller to a mere $20. Of course, owners of newer versions of the console will have to pry into their units to install such a replacement stick.

At the same time, Magnavox revealed plans to market the O² through Sears and Ward Stores. The game will be sold under its own name, so holiday shoppers won’t have to search too far for a bargain.

VIDEOGAMES GO TO THE MOVIES

We’re all accustomed to the commercials which break into regularly scheduled TV shows, but now movie theaters offer no escape, either.

It’s really not as bad as it sounds, though, because some of the paid messages are actually vide-o.k.! Activision, Mattel and Atari have all bought cinema commercial packages from Screenvision, which has 1,600 theater affiliates nationwide.

So far, ads for Chopper Command, Star Master, Tron, Dig-Dug and Yars’ Revenge have hit and even more are expected down the road.

ATARI BEGINS GREATEST ADVENTURE

The company that sometimes prides itself on putting as many games as possible on a single cartridge is now ready to take the opposite tack with Swordquest, its innovative videogame adventure. This time, it’ll take four separate cartridges to contain the elements that combine to present this quest from start to finish.

Atari plans to kick things off with the Earthworld cartridge. This will be followed, at regular intervals, by publication of Fireworld, Waterworld, and Airworld over the next year. Each cartridge is complete in itself, but it is necessary to solve the mystery of one before going onto the next. Designers will be hiding things in the cartridges in a fashion similar to the “easter eggs” in earlier games, but this time your reward will be something a bit meatier than just some programmer’s initials.

Each cartridge will be the subject of a special prize contest. The winner of the Earthworld competition, for example, can take home a bejeweled talisman worth $25,000. There’ll be a bauble of similar worth for the top player of each segment of the total adventure. The winners of each will then come together for a special play-off in which the winner will become the proud owner of a $50,000 jewel-encrusted sword, suitable for keeping trolls and orcs away from your door.

SATURDAY MORNIN’ GOBBLERS

Forget it NBC and CBS—you had your chance! Now, everyone can catch their fave video vagabond strutting his stuff on ABC every Saturday morning. The series’ cast features Pac-Man, Ms. Pac and Pac-Baby, all residing in—you guessed it—Pac-land!

Their utopia is disrupted by Mezmaron, a meanie who craves all existing power pellets in the forest. Every meanie has his hatchet man and Mezmaron, accordingly, won’t carry the banner of evil alone. Assisting him in his dastardly deeds are ghost monsters Inky, Blinky and Clyde, along with a girl -ghost named Sue.

HUNTING A HERO

Activision and the producers of ABC TV’s hit series, “The Greatest American Hero”, are co-sponsoring a nationwide contest to locate “The Greatest American Videogame Hero”.

Contestants must play Star Master on its most difficult setting and the highest scorers in six different age groups will fly to Hollywood for three days. There they’ll take part in a private filming with the stars of “The Greatest American Hero”, Robert Culp and William Katt.

Prizes include a copy of the film and a video cassette recorder to help them remember the star-filled day. T-shirts will go to the top 200 scorers in each age category.

 THE NATIONAL 

ARCADE SCOREBOARD

THE BEST SCORES FOR POPULAR VIDEOGAMES

Photos of readers’ best scores are really pouring into the offices of Electronic Games, and the competition among the land’s arcade aces is even keener than expected. There are plenty of top players out there, and the rankings listed here show that they’re hitting the joystick hot and heavy in a bid for national recognition.

The scores tabulated here reflect the first group of games which the editors of EG selected to kick off this continuing compilation of home videogaming records. We’ll be adding more games each month, a few at a time, until we’re covering most of what’s hot!

To have your gaming achievements recognized in the National Arcade Scoreboard, all you’ve got to do is follow a few simple rules:

1. Every score must be accompanied by a photograph of the TV screen showing the score. These photos do not have to be of publishable quality, just readable by our judges.
2. All photographs received become the property of Electronic Gaines arid none can be returned.
3. Be sure to include your complete name and address. (We will print only the name and city in the magazine, but we may want to contact high scorers for helpful gaming hints.)

Games currently eligible for the National Arcade Scoreboard are:
 UFO (Odyssey)
 Asteroids (Atari VCS) - Game #6
 Grand Prix (Activision) - Game #4
 USAC Auto Racing (Mattel) - Course #1
 Galactic Invasion (Astrocade) - Difficulty #1
 Spacechase (Apollo) - Game #1
 Defender (Atari VCS) - Game #1
 The Incredible Wizard (Astrocade) (One player, easy difficulty)
 Space Hawk (Mattel) - Game #1 (Auto-fire if desired)
 Pac-Man (Atari VCS) - Game #1

THE HONOR ROLL

UFO/Odyssey/Odyssey²/Game #1
1. 1,636 — Lee Raymond, no address given
2. 1,575 — Jim Peterson, Farmington Hills, Ml
3. 1,461 — Marlon Burns, Chicago, IL
Asteroids/Atari/Atari VCS/Game # 6
1. 199,930 — Edward Semrad, Waukesha, WI
2. 129,460 — Robert Prindle, Erie, PA
3. 128,460 — Scott Allen, Huron, OH
Grand Prix/Activision/Atari VCS/Course #4
1. 1:35:39 — Mike Ratledge, Folly Beach, SC
2. 1:42:12 — Mark Martell, Brooklyn, NY
3. 1:43:93 — Darrin Yamamoto, Bonita, CA
USAC Auto Racing/Mattel/Intellivision/Course # 1
1. 2:58 — John Bunk, Johnstown, PA
2. 2:59 — Donald Smith, Pease AFB, NH
3. 3:02 — Don Gaze, Ontario, Canada
4. 3:02 — Ken Debelak, Glendale, AZ
Galadic Invasion/Astrocade/Astrocade/Difficulty #1
1. 99,999 — Steve Sabolich, no address given
Spacechase/Apollo/Atari VCS/Game # 1
1. 42,600 — John Opiela, Philadelphia, PA

THE INCREDIBLE WIZARD, UFO and USAC AUTO RACING