A few posts back I promised to continue shining a light on Midway’s impact on the arcade industry back in the early eighties. So this week I wanted to share some interesting documentation relating to Midway’s 1982 arcade hit Tron. Entirely by coincidence, today also marks the 40th Anniversary of the release of this classic…
Celebrating Atari’s 50th Anniversary
Exactly 50 years ago, on June 27 1972, a fledgling company filed the necessary papers to become incorporated. The company’s name was Atari, and it would go on to dominate the videogame world both in the arcades and at home. The original papers can be viewed here: The impact that Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney…
Atari is 50! How about a Star Wars Easter Egg?
Today marks the 50th Anniversary of the creation of the Atari Brand, by founders Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney. Rather than write some opus piece about the company’s history, much of which is already well-documented (and I’ll bet you can find hundreds of those littered across the web in the coming days anyway), I thought…
The TDE Podcast Ep 20: Gottlieb’s Krull developer, Matt Householder
Episode 20 of the Ted Dabney Experience podcast is available now for your listening pleasure! If you enjoy reading ArcadeBlogger.com, you’ll love the other project I’m involved with: Matt Householder co-designed Gottlieb’s underrated arcade adaptation of Peter Yates’s ill-fated Krull, before going on to join Atari’s consumer division to work on home adaptations of video…
A look back at Bally Midway in 1982
Over the next few weeks, I’m going to share several posts relating to Bally Midway, one of the cornerstone manufacturers of the Golden Age of arcade videogaming. Established in 1958, Midway Mfg. Co. began life by manufacturing and selling amusement equipment, before being purchased outright by its competitor Bally. The company created some of the…
The TDE Podcast Ep 19: Asteroids Creator Ed Logg
Episode 19 of the Ted Dabney Experience podcast is available now for your listening pleasure! If you enjoy reading ArcadeBlogger.com, you’ll love the other project I’m involved with: Ed Logg, AKA Super Duper Game Guy, is the programmer’s programmer. Cited by his contemporaries as one of the all-time greats, Ed designed and co-developed arcade smash…
Classic Arcade Gaming Postmortems
Every year in San Francisco, the Game Developers Conference (GDC) brings the game development community together to exchange ideas, solve problems, and shape the future of the industry across five days of education, inspiration, and networking. Attendees include programmers, artists, producers, game designers, audio professionals, and business leaders. A whole series of events and talk…
The TDE Podcast Ep 18: Former Atari VP Steve Calfee
Episode 18 of the Ted Dabney Experience podcast is available now for your listening pleasure! If you enjoy reading ArcadeBlogger.com, you’ll love the other project I’m involved with: Steve Calfee has rarely gone on record about his time at Atari. His managerial role at the company’s Coin-Op division saw him channel the work of well-known…
Capcom Mini Cute Restoration 2
A lot of progress to share this week on the Capcom Mini Cute candy cabinet that I picked up last year. If you missed the first part of this restoration, check it out here. As a reminder, I was starting with a horror show. The cabinet was a mess, both in terms of the state…
The TDE Podcast Ep 17: Gottlieb alumnus David Thiel
Episode 17 of the Ted Dabney Experience podcast is available now for your listening pleasure! If you enjoy reading ArcadeBlogger.com, you’ll love the other project I’m involved with: David Thiel is perhaps best known for his pinball audio work on titles such as Tron: Legacy, Alien, Dialed In, Avatar and Family Guy, but he was…
The Arcade Blogger 