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Exidy
Exidy was a developer and manufacturer of coin-operated amusements. The company was founded by H.R. "Pete" Kauffman and Samuel Hawes in 1973. The name "Exidy" was a portmanteau of the words "Excellence in Dynamics". Notable games released by Exidy include ''Circus'', '' Death Race'', ''Star Fire'', '' Venture'', '' Pepper II'', '' Mouse Trap'', ''Targ'' and '' Spectar''. Game history Pete Kauffman (1923 – 2015) was a marketing executive at Ramtek (company) in 1972 and was one of several employees of the company who played the original Atari ''Pong'' prototype at Andy Capps Tavern in Sunnyvale, California. Believing coin-operated video games would become a major business, he left Ramtek in late 1973 to establish Exidy with Ampex engineer Samuel Hawes. Exidy found competing with larger video game companies such as Atari, Inc. difficult. The company's Lila Zinter claimed in 1983 that "Exidy is an innovator, but ... we have a hard time breaking through the politics of getting a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Exidy Sorcerer
The Sorcerer is a home computer system released in 1978 by the video game company Exidy. Based on the Zilog Z80 and the general layout of the emerging S-100 standard, the Sorcerer was comparatively advanced when released, especially when compared to the contemporary more commercially successful Commodore PET and TRS-80. The basic design was proposed by Paul Terrell, formerly of the Byte Shop, a pioneering computer store. Lacking strong support from its parent company, who were focused on the successful arcade game market, the Sorcerer was sold primarily through international distributors and technology licensing agreements. Distribution agreements with Dick Smith Electronics in Australia and Liveport in the UK as well as Compudata which included a manufacturing license to build, market and distribute the Tulip line of computers in Europe. The system remains relatively unknown outside these markets. The Exidy Data Systems division was sold to a Wall Street firm, Biotech, in 19 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Death Race (1976 Game)
''Death Race'' is an arcade driving video game developed and released by Exidy in the United States, first shipping to arcade distributors in April 1976. The game was a modification of Exidy's 1975 game '' Destruction Derby'' in which players crashed into cars to accrue points. In ''Death Race'', the objective became to run into "gremlins" to gain score. The game could be played with one or two players controlling different cars. The original working title for the game which appeared on some early advertisements was ''Death Race 98''. The game attracted a great deal of controversy over the content of the game which was centered around killing humanoid figures. In July 1976, newspapers and civic organizations began to attack the game for facilitating violence in virtual form. Gameplay In the game, one or two players control an on-screen car with a steering wheel and an acceleration pedal. The object is to run down "gremlins" who are fleeing the vehicle. As the player hits them ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Star Fire
''Star Fire'' is a first-person arcade coin-operated space combat video game created by Technical Magic for Midway-Bally and licensed for manufacture to Exidy in December 1978. It was distributed in Japan by Taito and Esco Trading in 1979. Designed by Caltech engineers Ted Michon, and David Rolfe and inspired by the movie ''Star Wars'', the game is not based on a licensed property. ''Star Fire'' was a major success for Exidy, and became the first arcade video game to use an enclosed sit-down cockpit cabinet,, the first to allow a highest scoring player to enter their initials in a high score table, and one of the first to be built on a reprogrammable microprocessor based game system with full screen color graphics. It was followed by an updated version, ''Star fire II'', with fixes. It was then ported by Epyx to Commodore 64 and Atari 8-bit computers in a bundle with ''Fire One'', another Exidy game. Gameplay The player flies through starfields, zapping enemy starfighters ou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cheyenne (video Game)
''Cheyenne'' is a video game manufactured by Exidy and released in arcades in 1984. In this western style shooting game, the player must guide and protect "Buster Badshot" through various scenes of danger that take place in the old west, using the light gun. The gameplay is similar to Exidy's ''Crossbow''. Gameplay Stages Each level has at least three stages that can be selected in any order by shooting the corresponding hanging picture. The stages are all based in classic old western locales, such as graveyards, canyons, saloons, mines, deserts, forests, ghost towns, and the like. Once all the stages in a level have been completed, the player will then move on to a bonus "Target Practice" stage. If the player hits all the objects in this stage within the time limit, they are awarded a "Bonus Buster" - an extra life - and allowed to proceed to the next level. Enemies Throughout each stage, Buster is attacked by many enemies and will find himself in a variety of perilous situat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chiller (video Game)
''Chiller'' is a light gun arcade game released in 1986 by Exidy. An unlicensed port was released for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1990 by American Game Cartridges in the US, and in Australia by HES ( Home Entertainment Suppliers), with the option of using either the standard controller or the NES Zapper. In the game, the player takes on the role of an unseen torturer who must maim, mutilate, and murder restrained non-player characters in a variety of dungeon settings. Few of the NPCs in the game are capable of fighting back, with the challenge element lying in how quickly the player can cause each of the victims to die. Gameplay The game consists of four main levels: the ''torture chamber'', the ''rack room'', the ''haunted house hallway'', and the ''graveyard''. If enough score is accumulated by completing these levels successfully, a final ''bonus round'' is unlocked, which consists of a target practice where objects traveling at increasingly high speeds must ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spectar
''Spectar'' is a mazer shooter released in arcades by Exidy Exidy was a developer and manufacturer of coin-operated amusements. The company was founded by H.R. "Pete" Kauffman and Samuel Hawes in 1973. The name "Exidy" was a portmanteau of the words "Excellence in Dynamics". Notable games released by Exid ... as a sequel to '' Targ''. The game depicts vehicular combat in a future world. The original game was released in November 1980 and a ROM upgrade in April 1981 Gameplay ''Spectar'' is similar to ''Targ'', but with enhancements. It adds blockades to the maze, breaking up the regular grid. The center of the maze has a number of twinkling stars that the player can pick up. In addition to finishing a level by destroying all enemies, the player can also finish the round by picking up all the dots. The enemies change shape every round (and are worth more points for shooting as the levels increase). Five seconds and ten seconds into each round, a Spectar Smuggler is added, wh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Circus (video Game)
''Circus'' is a block breaker arcade game released by Exidy in 1977, and distributed by Taito in Japan. The game is a re-themed variant of Atari's '' Breakout'', where the player controls a seesaw and clown in order to pop all the balloons in the level. The game has been copied and released under different names by numerous other companies in both the United States and Japan. Gameplay Three rows of triangular balloons move along the top part of the screen, each overlaid with blue, green, and yellow (colors used in the original version), counting from the top row. A clown appears from the edge of the screen where there is a jumping board, and the player must move the springboard located at the bottom of the screen so that the clown can bounce back off the seesaw once he jumps off from his starting position. However, it is impossible to make contact with the clown with the seesaw in certain locations. The four jumping boards located on the sides of the screen serve to decrease ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paul Terrell
Paul Terrell is an American businessman. In December 1975, he founded the first personal computer retailer shop. He helped popularize personal computing to the hobbyist and home computing markets, and was the first retailer to sell an Apple Computer, the Apple I. The Byte Shop Paul Terrell started the Byte Shop in Mountain View, California in December 1975. By January, he was approached by individuals who wanted to open their own stores. He signed dealership agreements with them, whereby he would take a percentage of their profits, and soon there were Byte Shops in Santa Clara, San Jose, Palo Alto, Fresno, and Portland, Oregon. In March 1976, Terrell incorporated as Byte, Inc. and was one of the four big computer retailers, along with Dick Heisers, ("The Computer Store"), Peachtree in Atlanta, and Dick Brown. Apple I The Byte Shop was the first retailer of the original Apple I computer. At the time Steve Jobs was planning to sell bare circuit boards for $40, but Terrell to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Targ (video Game)
''Targ'' is a maze shoot 'em up developed by Exidy and released as an arcade video game in 1980. It depicts vehicular combat in a future world. It was released in North America by Exidy in June 1980 and in Japan by Sega in July 1980. It was listed by '' Play Meter'' as one of only two maze games among the top 20 highest-grossing arcade video games of 1980, which was dominated by space shoot 'em ups Shoot 'em ups (also known as shmups or STGs ) are a sub-genre of action games. There is no consensus as to which design elements compose a shoot 'em up; some restrict the definition to games featuring spacecraft and certain types of chara .... Its success prompted Exidy to release '' Spectar'', a sequel with improved graphics, in July 1980. A port of ''Targ'' was developed for the Atari 2600 by CBS Games, but never released. Gameplay The locale, described by the game cabinet as "The Crystal City", is a 10x10 grid of roads demarcated by rectangular buildings. The play ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Crossbow (video Game)
''Crossbow'' is a light gun shooter video game released in arcades by Exidy in 1983. It was later published by Absolute Entertainment for the Commodore 64 and MS-DOS, and by Atari Corporation for the Atari 2600, Atari 7800, and Atari 8-bit family starting in 1987. The game is controlled via a positional gun that resembles a full-sized crossbow. Exidy promoted ''Crossbow'' to arcade operators as being convertible to new themes released in the future. Five themed conversion kits were created, each commencing with the letter 'c': ''Cheyenne'', ''Combat'', ''Crackshot'', ''Clay Pigeon'', and the controversial ''Chiller''. Several more games were also released for the system: Hit 'n Miss, Showdown, Top Secret, and Who Dunnit. Gameplay The player protects a band of adventurers from afar by shooting objects that threaten them. The adventurers enter from the left-hand side of the screen and attempt to cross the screen unharmed. If the player helps them reach the opposite side of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mouse Trap (video Game)
''Mouse Trap'' is a maze video game developed by Exidy and released in arcades in 1981. It is similar to ''Pac-Man'', with the main character replaced by a mouse, the dots with cheese, the ghosts with cats, and the energizers with bones. After collecting a bone, pressing a button turns the mouse into a dog for a brief period of time. Color-coded doors in the maze can be toggled by pressing a button of the same color. A hawk periodically flies across the maze, unrestricted by its walls. Coleco ported ''Mouse Trap'' to ColecoVision as a 1982 launch title, then later to the Intellivision and Atari 2600. Gameplay The player uses a four-position joystick to maneuver a mouse throughout a maze and eat pieces of cheese scattered along the paths. Six cats patrol the maze and chase the player, with two present at the outset and four more being released one at a time. The maze has three sets of color-coded doors, which the player can open or close by pressing the corresponding button ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pepper II
''Pepper II'' is an arcade video game programmed by Exidy and published in 1982. Despite its name, there was no predecessor named ''Pepper'' or ''Pepper I.'' Its gameplay is similar to the game ''Amidar'' by Konami and Stern Electronics. Coleco published ''Pepper II'' for its ColecoVision home system. The game plays Gounod's "Funeral March of a Marionette" when gameplay starts. Gameplay There are four mazes per level in ''Pepper II''. Each maze has exits leading to three other mazes. All four mazes must be filled to advance to the next level. To fill in a maze, the player maneuvers "Pepper" around different segments of the maze. As Pepper travels, he leaves a "zipper". Once he encloses or "zips" a segment, it fills in and points are awarded. If Pepper backtracks on an uncompleted segment, it unzips. The character "Pepper" is an angel. There are two types of enemies that must be avoided: Roaming Eyes and the Whippersnapper (Zipper Ripper on the ColecoVision version) who unzips all ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
