Chasing The Ghost Of Mirco’s PT-109

As has been talked about a couple of times on the positioning, I’ve currently been very busy in engaged on my arcade historical past e-book. Foolish me to assume that the copy I had for the Nineteen Seventies would simply be a fast edit then off to the presses, because it’s been relatively time consuming in getting it right down to the ultimate draft. As part of that enhancing work, although, I noticed that I used to be telling the identical story throughout completely different chapters when it got here to the arrival of the CPU amongst video arcade video games, so I made a decision to fork that off into it’s personal chapter. Should you’re , you should purchase mentioned chapter individually on the button beneath; it’s going to assist help me on this work to get all of it carried out sooner. It will get into extra element than this publish does:

Whereas others like Keith Smith and Ethan Johnson have tackled this topic earlier than, I unexpectedly got here throughout one thing hidden between the traces of the historic report which I believe is attention-grabbing. It’s not earth-shattering, as everybody already just about accepts as undeniable fact that Halfway’s Gun Battle was the primary mass-produced video arcade sport to make use of a CPU (what an oddly particular trivia reality, haha). However I do assume that, until some new-new proof might be uncovered, that reality needs to be solidified. So while information has entered a lull once more (there was a little bit deluge we had at the start of the month, then this week almost nothing in any respect), right here’s some deep diving on Mirco Video games’ PT-109 (one other early CPU title) that goes into whether or not it ever really made it to market.

A earlier model of this text had Keith Smith as “Kevin.” We remorse the error and have corrected it. I’ve additionally added some further perception into the subject due to Ethan Johnson of The Historical past Of How We Play; I admire him reaching out!

Who Was Mirco Video games?

For some fast background, Mirco (sure, that’s the way it was spelled, not Micro) will not be a reputation that the majority arcade lovers are tremendous aware of, since they went out of enterprise in 1979, with their final sport Maintain & Draw rolling off the road in June 1978. Primarily based out of Arizona, they began out as each a foosball desk producer and creator of check gear. They jumped onto the “Let’s Clone Pong To Make A Fast Buck!” bandwagon on the finish of 1973, later discovering a factor for amusement card video games after licensing Hit Me!, a blackjack sport, from Ramtek. Additionally they would attempt their hand at two pinball machines, their first being touted as the primary full stable state pin, the second being a forgettable cocktail cab.

Talking of cocktail cupboards, they certain had a penchant for making their video games on this model, even releasing a racing sport this manner as a substitute of in an upright. Out of all of their releases, it’s onerous to say if something they did can be remembered fondly by anybody – perhaps Tremendous 21?

I did discover out a little bit of attention-grabbing data on considered one of their releases, Scramble. I’ll be publishing some images of that within the e-book and offering extra particulars. One other attention-grabbing angle is that they’d a number of ex-Motorola staff working there, which is why they have been leaping onto CPU tech early on – though they’d find yourself utilizing a Fairchild F8 processor of their early stuff as a substitute of the Motorola 6800.

PT-109 – Did It Launch?

The talk right here stems from the truth that on the October MOA 1975 Expo in Chicago, IL, three video video games appeared on the identical occasion which have been all powered by a CPU: Halfway’s Gun Battle, Mirco’s PT-109, and Modern Coin’s Spitfire. This causes a little bit little bit of an issue while you’re making an attempt to do a trivia sport or e-book, and also you ask the query of “who was first?”

I’d be aware that I don’t take care of the semantics of “which sport as an experiment used a CPU first;” sure, a number of teams experimented with CPUs in closed prototype settings, however they have been by no means launched. Placing these on the identical degree as one thing that did make it to market is like saying that my father’s brother’s cousin’s nephew’s former roommate completely invented chilly fusion in his storage, however the CIA took him out earlier than he may present it to the world. Who cares if a tiny handful of individuals ever noticed what you probably did? Attending to market is what issues right here, as that’s harder than simply inventing one thing.

I’m not going to repeat your entire chapter beneath, and I already spoiled it with Gun Battle certifiably nonetheless holding the title UPDATE: Ethan Johnson has introduced up two further CPU-based video video games, The Cash Sport and Shark, which could line-up with Gun Battle, or predate it, so we’re again at a tie as soon as once more. I have to look extra into The Cash Sport, however Shark seems to have begun transport at about the identical time as Gun Battle did. Not less than from the general public’s view, Gun Battle can be the one which most individuals would encounter, since Halfway ended up making no less than 8,600 of them, whereas Shark most likely didn’t break the five hundred unit barrier.* Nonetheless, relating to “first,” nicely it’s not a straight-forward reply.

That apart, as I’ve dived into the subject, I imagine that  PT-109 by no means noticed manufacturing, and the prototype sport that was on the present is all that ever existed of it. That’s one thing I’ve by no means seen anybody take a deep have a look at, so I’ll right here. In the meantime, there are numerous attestations within the media that Halfway’s Gun Battle was hitting each distributor present rooms and operator sport flooring by November of ’75.

In case you have been following the positioning right here for some time, then you’ll know that many instances, now we have lined video games that seem at an occasion like Amusement Expo or IAAPA, the place they present up as soon as and are by no means seen once more. Battleship, Spider-Man the redemption sport, Ticket Pinball, Mario Social gathering Problem World, amongst a number of different examples. It’s not a one-off factor the place, for one motive or one other, a sport making it to a present will not be a assure that it reaches the market. But sport databases usually deal with a “present debut” or “existence in MAME” as manufacturing (they should cease doing that).

Within the case of PT-109, I’ve come to imagine that it is part of this group, as a result of exterior of 4 mentions that I can discover of the sport between Money Field and Play Meter Magazines, then an article in March 1976 in a tech journal known as EDN (be aware: Ethan additionally provides that PT-109 is talked about within the January 1976 situation of Merchandising Instances), PT-109 fully disappears from the historic report prefer it was Gerado’s music profession after Rico Suave.

I’ve spent manner an excessive amount of time scouring by means of classifieds and different elements of commerce mags, solely to search out nothing about it; it isn’t current on any value checklist both. Mirco didn’t put it up for sale with adverts when they need to have been, as a substitute touting a Pong clone from 1974 and a brand new sport known as Skywar as you see from this advert beneath that appeared in locations like Money Field Journal in July 1976. It’s very odd conduct to disregard a sport you’ve spent cash on manufacturing in case you’re really producing them and making an attempt to promote. But, they and the amusement media don’t ever carry it up once more after January 1976; the tech journal in March additionally didn’t point out that it was transport, simply that it was utilizing a CPU and that made it noteworthy.

With regard to that Pong clone, Problem, it acquired UL Certification, which is definitely a primary amongst any arcade sport. However is {that a} larger accomplishment than getting a online game to work on a CPU? Hardly. Mirco was way more enthusiastic about that than they have been about one thing like PT-109, which is a inform that they didn’t really get PT-109 to work proper, and seeing little pleasure about it at MOA, they determined to chop their losses and transfer on to the subsequent factor. I’ve discovered zero adverts for it too, regardless of Mirco having no drawback taking out adverts in numerous trades on the time. Right here’s an advert for Problem that was revealed on Feb. 14th, 1976 – which is precisely when they need to have been selling their fancy new CPU-powered sport, not a two 12 months outdated sport:

At that MOA present on the heart of all of this, Mirco grabbed a ton of business consideration due to the looks of the primary “full” stable state pinball machine, Spirit of ’76. However the sport didn’t work, and that was an issue while you had orders coming in due to the hype. To cite Mr. Olsen as quoted on a 2015 weblog publish from Keith Smith, the place I’ve added the “smoking gun” emphasis that PT-109 was not transport concurrently with Gun Battle (which was on location by Nov. 75); additionally be aware that “each video games” he’s referring to are Spirit of ’76 & PT-109:

[Cash Olsen] Curiosity was very robust and we have been driving on a giant bubble after the present. Apparently, giant orders have been written and unrealistic supply dates promised. We went again to Phoenix with an excessive amount of stress as a result of each video games have been nonetheless in prototype standing; nothing was finalized and able to flip over to manufacturing. The subsequent a number of weeks have been spent readying a few extra prototypes of every sport for supply to the primary buyer; I imagine it was [C.A.] Robinson in California. The [sales] value that …[Mirco] dedicated to was nicely beneath the price of manufacturing the video games as they at present existed…the silkscreens of the glass and …[playfield] of the pinball machine have been of specific concern. Sourcing of the plastic and electro-mechanical elements of the play discipline was not agency and Bally/Halfway appeared to regulate most of them. As proven at MOA, they used seven screens, …[which] prompted the associated fee to be extreme. (2015)

Hook, meet sinker.

Even when PT-109 did see a small manufacturing run, it’s clear that it was not first-to-market nor concurrent to Gun Battle. We are able to additionally run the logic of Halfway having an enormous useful resource benefit in manufacturing that Mirco didn’t have, that the response on the present was so nice that they put the sport into manufacturing instantly.

For added proof, other than the sport mysteriously being absent in each media mentions and Mirco’s personal adverts within the coming months, C.A. Robinson did maintain their very own post-MOA occasion, in order that their clients in California who couldn’t make it to Chicago may see the most recent new stuff. They have been one of many greatest distributors of the Nineteen Seventies, and Mirco was considered one of their traces. Money Field attests a number of instances that Spirit of ’76 was at that occasion (as was Gun Battle and a number of other different video games), however PT-109 was by no means included on that checklist. Right here’s one instance:

The one proof now we have of the sport current is a single look on the MOA’75 and a flyer being made for it. A flyer likewise will not be proof {that a} sport reached manufacturing; you can too discover many prototype video games on The Arcade Flyer Archiv; or if we bounce over to the house market, there’s Atari’s notorious instance of touting Asteroids because the pack-in sport for the Atari 5200 and that by no means shipped, regardless of having adverts, flyers, even bins made for it.

I’d even be curious from the emulator crowd – is there any PT-109 ROMs on the market? From a little bit trying, I’ve not seen any, and if I learn this proper, it’s undumped. If not, that appears to boost one other flag in favor it both by no means being launched, or seeing tremendous low manufacturing numbers (which I do maintain as a risk).

As a result of lack of proof that the sport was promoted in any respect by Mirco into 1976, together with zero mentions of it in any categorised as both a brand new or used unit, I imagine that they did what many, many corporations have carried out, at the same time as lately as IAAPA 2025 – a sport was proven, a flyer was made for it so it could possibly be promoted on the present, however demand was non-existent and/or the sport had too many issues or another situation arose, and they also lower their losses by quietly cancelling it and transferring on to the subsequent factor. On this case, it was the flight fight sport launched months later known as Sky Battle.

* In line with Ralph Baer in his e-book, Videogames: In The Starting, he wrote down on a chart of gross sales that Shark solely offered 400 items, 200 for the upright, 200 for the cocktail. Nonetheless, that shouldn’t be taken as The Closing Gospel, as it’s unclear the place he received his numbers and he rounds the whole lot. Nonetheless, he did produce that doc for authorized causes (Magnavox suing all kinds of corporations over Video Tennis clones), so it has extra weight to it than simply any rando choosing numbers out of the air, and it’s clear that Shark wouldn’t make waves within the business, whereas there are attestations from Halfway that they did attain no less than 8,600 gross sales, probably extra, on Gun Battle.

Show Me Flawed – Please!

That each one mentioned, I’m pleased to vary my thoughts with proof. Numerous you on the market are collectors; or placing this on the market may be discovered from somebody who labored at Mirco who can present some new perception. Perhaps Mr. Olsen was misremembering issues, however I believe his assertion matches properly with the info – Mirco didn’t have the sources that an organization like Halfway had, and placing a pinball into manufacturing is a much more complicated process than a online game. That one clearly took precedent, as Play Meter Journal lathered the accomplishment of Spirit of ’76 with reward of their November 1975 situation, which contributed to the stress that Olsen and the remainder of Mirco was below to get the pin proper.  It’s additionally price noting that there was a head-to-head pinball machine on the identical present  by an organization known as Komputer Dynamics that additionally used a CPU and took out adverts in Play Meter, however it by no means shipped both.

If we are able to discover proof, say of an current unit the place there’s a serial quantity that signifies that it’s considered one of many, then I’ll alter my stance, however until such a factor does exist, I’ll persist with my weapons that it by no means noticed mass manufacturing. I additionally assume that this solidifies Gun Battle’s place in historical past as the primary video arcade sport powered by a CPU, that really made it to market.

It’s too unhealthy that it by no means received launched – lots of corporations have been copying Atari at that time on their video games like Tank and Jet Fighter, so making use of that idea to assault boats was completely different no less than. I do assume {that a} crucial error they made that is also what seemingly resulted in little consideration on the Expo (and afterwards) was that they didn’t put it into an upright cupboard. That’s the issue with cocktail cupboards basically, however particularly at this level within the ’70s – there was so little to tell apart one from one other that until you have been actually standing proper over it, you wouldn’t know if it was one thing attention-grabbing like PT-109 or simply one other one of many dozens of Pong clones on the market.

That’s my case – what do you assume?

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