Games by Apollo Inc. (also known as Apollo) was a
third-party developer
A video game developer is a broad term for a software developer specializing in video game development – the process and related disciplines of creating video games. A game developer can range from one person who undertakes all tasks to a large ...
of games for the
Atari 2600
The Atari 2600, initially branded as the Atari Video Computer System (Atari VCS) from its release until November 1982, is a home video game console developed and produced by Atari, Inc. Released in September 1977, it popularized microprocessor- ...
video game
Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...
system, based in
Richardson, Texas
Richardson is a city in Dallas and Collin counties in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 United States census, the city had a total population of 119,469. Richardson is an inner suburb of the city of Dallas.
It is home to the University of ...
. It was founded in October 1981 by Pat Roper as a subsidiary of his National Career Consultants (NCC).
Apollo's first title was ''
Skeet Shoot'', and neither it nor the ten games that followed caught on, and the company was one of the first to declare bankruptcy as a result of the
video game crash of 1983
The video game crash of 1983 (known as the Atari shock in Japan) was a large-scale recession in the video game industry that occurred from 1983 to 1985, primarily in the United States. The crash was attributed to several factors, including ma ...
.
Formation
In 1980, Pat Roper was president of Texas-based National Career Consultants (NCC), a producer of
educational film
An educational film is a film or movie whose primary purpose is to educate. Educational films have been used in classrooms as an alternative to other teaching methods.
History
Determining which videos should count as the first educational films ...
s. He knew nothing about the games industry, but while playing ''
NFL Football
The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the major ...
'' on the
Intellivision
The Intellivision is a home video game console released by Mattel, Mattel Electronics in 1979. The name is a portmanteau of "intelligent television". Development began in 1977, the same year as the launch of its main competitor, the Atari 2600. I ...
, he realized that there was money to be made.
Roper formed a game company called Games by Apollo, citing the name "
Apollo
Apollo, grc, Ἀπόλλωνος, Apóllōnos, label=genitive , ; , grc-dor, Ἀπέλλων, Apéllōn, ; grc, Ἀπείλων, Apeílōn, label=Arcadocypriot Greek, ; grc-aeo, Ἄπλουν, Áploun, la, Apollō, la, Apollinis, label= ...
" as a recognizable symbol of youth and activity.
Instead of hiring away existing game designers from
Mattel
Mattel, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational toy manufacturing and entertainment company founded in January 1945 and headquartered in El Segundo, California. The company has presence in 35 countries and territories and sells products in more ...
or
Atari
Atari () is a brand name that has been owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by French publisher Atari SA through a subsidiary named Atari Interactive. The original Atari, Inc. (1972–1992), Atari, Inc., ...
, as some developers had done, Roper placed an advertisement in the ''
Dallas Morning News
''The Dallas Morning News'' is a daily newspaper serving the Dallas–Fort Worth area of Texas, with an average print circulation of 65,369. It was founded on October 1, 1885 by Alfred Horatio Belo as a satellite publication of the ''Galvesto ...
'' and the ''
San Francisco Chronicle
The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and M. H. de Young, Michael H. de ...
''. Sent a copy of the ''Morning News'' ad by a friend, a young programmer from Iowa named Ed Salvo contacted Roper to pitch him ''Skeet Shoot'', a game he had developed in about four weeks. Roper flew Salvo to Dallas and offered to make him lead developer for the nascent company. Salvo initially turned him down, thinking it was too risky.
After Salvo returned to Iowa, Roper contacted him and offered to buy ''Skeet Shoot'' for $5,000. Salvo accepted and agreed to a contract to develop a second game, ''Spacechase''. With Games by Apollo now a going concern, Roper gave Salvo the job of director of development; his first job was to hire 25 programmers to develop games.
Market presence
Games by Apollo was, after
Activision
Activision Publishing, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Santa Monica, California. It serves as the publishing business for its parent company, Activision Blizzard, and consists of several subsidiary studios. Activision is one o ...
, among the first
third-party developer
A video game developer is a broad term for a software developer specializing in video game development – the process and related disciplines of creating video games. A game developer can range from one person who undertakes all tasks to a large ...
s for the Atari 2600. ''Spacechase'' would become Apollo's bestselling title.
One of the company's marketing ideas was a customized or "monogrammed" version of the game. Though fewer than ten were sold, several were given to press, including ''
Electronic Games
An electronic game is a game that uses electronics to create an interactive system with which a player can play. Video games are the most common form today, and for this reason the two terms are often used interchangeably. There are other common ...
'' magazine
co-founder
An organizational founder is a person who has undertaken some or all of the formational work needed to create a new organization, whether it is a business, a charitable organization, a governing body, a school, a group of entertainers, or any other ...
Arnie Katz.
''
PM Magazine
''PM/Evening Magazine'' is a television series with a news and entertainment format. It was syndicated to stations throughout the United States. In most areas, ''Evening/PM Magazine'' was broadcast from the late 1970s into the late 1980s.
Origi ...
'' sent
Leeza Gibbons
Leeza Kim Gibbons (born March 26, 1957) is an American talk show host. She is best known as a correspondent and co-host for ''Entertainment Tonight'' (1984–2000) as well as for having her own syndicated daytime talk show, ''Leeza'' (1993–20 ...
to Apollo's offices to film a segment on the company and ''Spacechase''. During the segment, Salvo made a customized ''Spacechase'' for her, which involved changing an explosion graphic so that when her ship was destroyed, her initials appeared. Other programmers interviewed for the piece were Dan Oliver (''Space Cavern''), Steve Stringfellow (''Lochjaw'') and Ernie Runyon (''
Lost Luggage
Lost luggage is luggage conveyed by a public carrier such as an airline, seafaring cruise ship, shipping company, or railway which fails to arrive at the correct destination with the passenger. In the United States, an average of 1 in 150 peo ...
'').
''
Space Cavern
''Space Cavern'' is a 1982 fixed shooter video game for the Atari 2600 developed and released by Games by Apollo. Players control a spaceship commander who has landed on a planet and must defend the ship against its hostile creatures. Games by Apo ...
'' was the first
scrolling
In computer displays, filmmaking, television production, and other kinetic displays, scrolling is sliding text, images or video across a monitor or display, vertically or horizontally. "Scrolling," as such, does not change the layout of the text ...
2600 game. It was created after Roper flew Salvo to the Winter
Consumer Electronics Show
CES (; formerly an initialism for Consumer Electronics Show) is an annual trade show organized by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA). Held in January at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Winchester, Nevada, United States, the event typi ...
(CES) in Vegas to see
Imagic
Imagic ( ) was an American video game developer and publisher that created games initially for the Atari 2600. Founded in 1981 by corporate alumni of Atari, Inc. and Mattel, its best-selling titles were ''Atlantis'', ''Cosmic Ark'', and ''Demon ...
's new game ''
Demon Attack
''Demon Attack'' is a fixed shooter written by Rob Fulop for the Atari 2600 and published by Imagic in 1982. It was ported to the Intellivision, Magnavox Odyssey 2, Atari 8-bit family, VIC-20, Commodore 64, Tandy 1000 (as a self-booting disk), T ...
''. Roper had been very impressed and wanted one just like it. He gave programmer Dan Oliver the gameplay and specifications for ''Space Cavern'' without identifying where he got the idea, and ''Space Cavern'' became Apollo's third game.
Apollo attended the June 1982 CES in Chicago with a booth of their own, which included the obligatory hiring of models to demonstrate its games.
Shortly after, they hired Cyndy Spence, formerly of Atari, as advertising director. She, in turn, brought in well-known advertising agency
Benton & Bowles
Benton & Bowles (B&B) was a New York-based advertising agency founded by William Benton and Chester Bowles in 1929. One of the oldest agencies in the United States, and frequently one of the 10 largest, it merged with D'Arcy-MacManus Masius in ...
to represent Apollo.
Games by Apollo is also known for having the first human female game character in a home video game. Billy Sue, a strong woman, has to defend her farm from pesky rabbits in the game Wabbit (Atari 2600 VCS 1982).
Also of note was ''Lochjaw'', a ''
Pac-Man
originally called ''Puck Man'' in Japan, is a 1980 maze action video game developed and released by Namco for arcades. In North America, the game was released by Midway Manufacturing as part of its licensing agreement with Namco America. Th ...
'' clone that involved sharks.
MCA, the owner of
Universal Studios
Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Ameri ...
, threatened to sue Apollo for copyright infringement of ''
Jaws
Jaws or Jaw may refer to:
Anatomy
* Jaw, an opposable articulated structure at the entrance of the mouth
** Mandible, the lower jaw
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Jaws (James Bond), a character in ''The Spy Who Loved Me'' and ''Moonraker''
* ...
.'' Facing an expensive legal battle, Roper changed the title ''Shark Attack''. The original ''Lochjaw'' cartridges had a very short shelf life and are therefore extremely rare.
By the end of 1982, Apollo also moved into designing games for the
Atari 5200
The Atari 5200 SuperSystem or simply Atari 5200 is a home video game console introduced in 1982 by Atari, Inc. as a higher-end complement for the popular Atari Video Computer System. The VCS was renamed to the Atari 2600 at the time of the 5200' ...
,
ColecoVision
ColecoVision is a second-generation home video-game console developed by Coleco and launched in North America in August 1982. It was released a year later in Europe by CBS Electronics as the CBS ColecoVision.
The console offered a closer expe ...
, and
Intellivision
The Intellivision is a home video game console released by Mattel, Mattel Electronics in 1979. The name is a portmanteau of "intelligent television". Development began in 1977, the same year as the launch of its main competitor, the Atari 2600. I ...
. None of these games made it into production before Apollo closed its doors in late 1983.
Decline
Early on, Roper spent much of the company's money on trying to emulate Activision. At one early staff meeting, he was quoted as saying that "Activision had $26 million in sales its first year so Apollo would have $27. Activision had a campus with seven buildings, every seven stories, so Apollo would have eight buildings of eight stories." According to Salvo, he built up production and inventory to sell $27 million but sales didn’t happen. Roper also bought a helicopter rather than deal with Dallas’ congested
Central Expressway, and hired an engineer to put it together and maintain it.
In late 1982, Ed Salvo, Terry Grantham, Mike Smith and one other employee left Apollo when it appeared that Roper was not taking the right steps to stay in business.
Forming Video Software Specialists (VSS), they developed games for
CBS Electronics
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainmen ...
,
K-tel
K-tel International Ltd is a Canadian company which formerly specialized in selling consumer products through infomercials and live demonstration. Its products include compilation music albums, including ''The Super Hits'' series, ''The Dynami ...
(''
Xonox
Xonox, a division of K-tel Software, was an American third-party manufacturer of cartridges for the Atari 2600, ColecoVision, Commodore 64, and VIC-20 in the early 1980s. Xonox was one of many small video game companies to fold during the Video Ga ...
''), Sunrise, and Wizard Games. Salvo claims that two weeks after the four left, Apollo was forced into bankruptcy.
Under pressure from
Benton & Bowles
Benton & Bowles (B&B) was a New York-based advertising agency founded by William Benton and Chester Bowles in 1929. One of the oldest agencies in the United States, and frequently one of the 10 largest, it merged with D'Arcy-MacManus Masius in ...
, the company's advertising agency, Apollo filed for
Chapter 11 bankruptcy
Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code (Title 11 of the United States Code) permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Such reorganization, known as Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is available to every business, whe ...
on November 12, 1982. Apollo owed
Benton & Bowles
Benton & Bowles (B&B) was a New York-based advertising agency founded by William Benton and Chester Bowles in 1929. One of the oldest agencies in the United States, and frequently one of the 10 largest, it merged with D'Arcy-MacManus Masius in ...
$2.5 million, which represented only half of the year-old firm's total debts. Apollo president Patrick Roper's hoped to reorganize the company and return in smaller form, but that did not come to pass. Programmer Larry Martin stayed until the end, recalling that he had been working around-the-clock for several weeks, trying to finish the game ''Guardian''. Immediately after he released it to manufacturing, the creditors moved in with court orders and shut the company down."
Games developed
* ''Final Approach''
* ''Guardian''
* ''Infiltrate''
* ''
Lost Luggage
Lost luggage is luggage conveyed by a public carrier such as an airline, seafaring cruise ship, shipping company, or railway which fails to arrive at the correct destination with the passenger. In the United States, an average of 1 in 150 peo ...
''
* ''Pompeii'' (unreleased)
* ''Racquetball''
* ''Shark Attack'' (aka ''Lochjaw'')
* ''
Skeet Shoot''
* ''
Space Cavern
''Space Cavern'' is a 1982 fixed shooter video game for the Atari 2600 developed and released by Games by Apollo. Players control a spaceship commander who has landed on a planet and must defend the ship against its hostile creatures. Games by Apo ...
''
* ''
Spacechase
''Spacechase'' is a fixed shooter video game for the Atari Video Computer System (later called the Atari 2600) written by Ed Salvo and published by Games by Apollo in 1981.
Gameplay
In orbit of an unnamed "moon," the player uses a Starcruiser ...
''
* ''Squoosh''
* ''
Wabbit''
References
External links
Database listing of all Games by Apollo releases- includes screen shots, box images, manual scans, catalogs and company history.
{{Atari 2600
Defunct video game companies of the United States
Video game development companies
Defunct companies based in Texas
Companies based in Richardson, Texas
Video game companies established in 1981
Video game companies disestablished in 1983
Atari 2600
Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1982
1981 establishments in Texas
1983 disestablishments in Texas