Home Game Gossip

Speak softly and carry a big joystick, because after this summer’s Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago, you’ve got your hands full…Rumor has it that Odyssey’s K.C. Munchkin sold more cartridges in a month than all the other Odyssey carts combined did in 1981. That is, before it got pulled off the market because of the Atari Pac-Man lawsuit…and Pac-Man, by the way, sold more in its first month than Space Invaders did in a year…That’s why Warners has made more $$ from Pac-Man than 20th Century Fox made from Star Wars…and that’s why Fox is now making Atari software! Look for Turmoil, it’s wild…

Coleco may blow this whole industry open. ColecoVision is excellent and you can play your Atari carts on it if you buy the “expansion module.” But they’re starting to get very iffy on the Intellivision adapter. It may never happen.

Our nominations for funniest games of the year go to Apollo’s Lost Luggage (catch flying suitcases or they open and your underwear falls out), Tigervision’s Jawbreaker (player moves a set of teeth and has to eat candy and brush itself before all the teeth fall out), Activision’s MegaMania (you get attacked by hamburgers, radial tires, bow ties and flying swiss cheeses), and Arcadia, with the best title of the year, Communist Mutants From Space…

Atari owns home Pac-Man, agreed. But what about Ms. Pac-Man? She wasn’t designed by Namco like her boyfriend. Bally owns the coin-op rights and they just made an agreement with CBS to make home versions of Bally games by Christmas. Will Mr. and Ms. Pac-Man be separated?…Loni Anderson has nothing to do with video games, but I just wanted to put her name in big black letters…

Video games go to the movies—Parker Brothers has landed Jaws, James Bond, and The Empire Strikes Back. Astrocade owns Conan the Barbarian (a dubious honor). George Lucas’ Lucasfilms has just signed an agreement with Atari to make games, and Steven Speilberg says he’s interested too. Next thing you know we’ll have a Kramer Versus Kramer video game (you and your wife fire laser blasters at each other to win custody of the kid)…

Mattel has been making more comparisons with Atari and decided to start making carts to fit the VCS too. Look for their “M System” this fall…The GCE Vectrex system was displayed at CES. It’s great! Real arcade action…Imagic is the first company to make games for Atari, Intellivision and Odyssey. No one is safe from a Demon Attack anymore!…Astrovision, formerly Bally Arcade, has changed its name again, to Astrocade. Let’s hope they stay with this one—they have a good system and games, but you can’t find them in the phone book…Most inexpensive system on the market is Emerson’s Arcadia 2001 (no, it does not double as an air conditioner) for a scant $99…In Telesys’ new Fast Food game, they pack an Alka Seltzer in each box. It figures…Mr. Mouth gets “calorie points” for everything he eats—Tip for home Pac-Man—the ghosts always exit their base on the right side…

Can’t afford projection TV but want BIG aliens? Think about Beamscope, an acrylic frasnel lens that you put over your screen to magnify the image. They’re as little as $60 and give a good sharp image as long as you sit directly in front of it…In Bandai’s new Air Traffic Controller, the manufacturer says that if the tension becomes unbearable, players have the option of going out on strike. Should we believe that?…We hear that you can get rapid fire on Space Invaders if you turn the console off and on while pushing the game reset button. Will somebody please try that? We’re afraid to bust our system…Apollo is planning to make carts for both Intellivision and the Atari 5200…

Will the arcades die? Home versions are getting so good (especially Coleco’s Zaxxon and Donkey Kong), you’ve gotta wonder if the coin-ops can keep topping them…Activision (which, in addition to their great games, has just about the nicest people in the world working for them) is starting a Greatest American Hero contest. Players will compete for high scores on Star Master to win a trip to Hollywood and a day on the set of the TV show. Activision has also just signed six new designers—Kelvin Kalcut, Van Rizzio, Paul Willson, Matt Hubbard, Gary Kitchen and Dan Kitchen. Everything but the kitchen sink, apparently…

Rejoice! Do you long for a Trac-Ball for your Missile Command? WICO has just started making one. It works beautifully and sells for $70…Imagic has started its “Numb Thumb” Club. Send them $2 to: P.O. Box 2055, Saratoga, CA 95070 and they’ll send you a poster and a subscription to Numb Thumb News, the company newsletter…On the way back from the Consumer Electronics Show, I sat on the bus next to a scruffy teenager in a t-shirt, blue jeans and sneakers. It turned out to be Mark Turmell, game designer for 20th Century Fox. He designed Sneakers and Fast Eddie and the kid hasn’t even finished college yet! Says he’s working on an incredible new game, but he couldn’t even tell me the name of it…

Seems like you can’t turn around without six new software companies starting up. Watch for CommaVid (Mission Omega, Mines of Minos, Cosmic Swarm and Room of Doom, all for Atari). Data Age (Warp Lock, Snake, and Survival Run, all for Atari), Tigervision (King Kong, Jawbreaker, Threshold, River Patrol and Marauder, all for Atari), and Spectravision (Gangster Alley, Planet Patrol, Cross Fire, China Syndrome and Tape Worm, all for Atari). And, of course, Activision, Apollo, Imagic, and U.S. Games…Whew! Is this all happening too fast for you? Well, if you think the home video game market is all very confusing and frightening and crazy, and exciting and wonderful…you’re right.