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Topic: Cinematronics

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	Cinematronics - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		Cinematronics was a pioneering arcade game developer that had its heyday in the era of vector display games.
		Cinematronics Inc. was founded in 1975 by Jim Pearce, Dennis Parte and Gary Garrison in El Cajon, California, although early on Parte and Garrison sold their shares to Tom "Papa" Stroud.
		About 1984, Cinematronics started releasing games which used raster display, such as Express Delivery and other raster games based on a new hardware platform called the Cinemat System, which was designed to be reusable with replaceable software, control panels, and cabinet artwork.
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Cinematronics (823 words)

	Coinop.org /// Coinop.org /// Downloading: /kb/gametech/cinematronics-history.txt (text file)
		War of the Worlds was Cinematronics conversion kit for Star Castle though when the second revision of this document was being written not one of the collectors had this game or any of its hardware.
		On Cinematronics mother boards there is a small wire (1/4 of an inch) with "NORM" and "VAR" printed nearby....this tells the mother board if the Cinematronics monitor has the optional VARiable intensity daughter board used in Solar Quest.
		For early Cinematronics boards and all Vectorbeam boards, the strap option is a wiring modification that originates from the same place but goes across the width of the board between the [A-T]2 and [A-T]4 rows and finally terminates on the back side of the board near T2.
	coinop.org /kb_dl.aspx/kb/gametech/cinematronics-history.txt (6089 words)

	Home Page (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-08)
		Cinematronics was a company which symbolized the Golden Era of arcades.
		It burst onto the scene in 1977 with the worlds first vector graphics based arcade game and just as quickly signaled the era's end with the death knell of animation streaming from a laser disc.
		Although it existed before the craze of the late 70's and early 80's, this is when it produced such memorable classics as Space Wars, Rip Off, Armor Attack, and Star Castle.
	www.cinematronics.org (151 words)

	Tim Skelly's History of Cinematronics and Vectorbeam
		I met Jim and the rest of the Cinematronics employees, who informed me that during the four days I was on the road, Larry Rosenthal and Bill Cravens departed to start their own company in the Bay Area.
		Cinematronics still had the legal right to use the board (as long as Larry got his licensing fee), but now they had nothing except me, a legal pad and a pencil to get them a new game to build and sell.
		Cinematronics may not have had anything to gain from the purchase of Vectorbeam, but Jim Pierce and Papa Tom Stroud were set to gain plenty - Larry Rosenthal's patents.
	www.dadgum.com /giantlist/archive/cinematronics.html (3734 words)

	TNL Forum - The Cinematronics Thread
		Although their name is hardly known today, Cinematronics was one of the best video game makers of the '70's and early '80's.
		The majority of Cinematronics' vector arcade games were ported beautifully to the Vectrex but unfortunately the machine never caught on and became a victim of the console industry crash.
		Cinematronics' most famous game came near the end of their corporate life.
	www.the-nextlevel.com /board/showthread.php?t=9029 (1460 words)

	Tim Skelly
		n the late 1970s and very early 1980s, Cinematronics was a major presence in arcades thanks to a series of pure action games using trademark fl and white vector graphics.
		Cinematronics, on the other hand, appeared to be desperate for talent.
		Cinematronics later bought him out, factory, patents and all, because he didn't have enough good product to sell.
	www.dadgum.com /halcyon/BOOK/SKELLY.HTM (2294 words)

	Phosphor-Dot Fossils: Space Wars
		Cinematronics licensed Larry Rosenthal's Vectorbeam display - providing a crisper, cleaner, sharper display that couldn't be matched even by the processing and display technology available to arcade manufacturers in the day.
		Cinematronics was so financially imperiled at this point, and Skelly's work was so important to the company's future, that everyone got dressed in the dead of night and drove down to the lab to see his work - including one employee who, Skelly famously claims, left his girlfriend in bed to see that spaceship.
		Cinematronics sued Rosenthal for breach of his original contract, but the two parties settled out of court, with Rosenthal selling Vectorbeam (the company, and all of its attendant patents) to Cinematronics for $1,000,000.
	www.thelogbook.com /phosphor/1970s/w.htm (714 words)

	Good Deal Games - Classic Videogame Games ARTICLE - The Rise & Fall of Vectors (Part 1)
		This new vector display was capable of rendering only straight lines between points, no solid or rounded shapes as in the normal raster displays, and even though this limited the detail of the graphics to some degree, the resolution was phenomenal, a bright crisp contrast to the heavily pixelated games of the time.
		Sales figures of the game are estimated to be in the neighborhood of 30,000 units, and given Rosenthal's deal with Cinematronics, it is safe to assume that he quickly became a very wealthy man, the profits of Space Wars netting him what would appear to be an eight figure sum (Do the math).
		Jim Pierce, co-owner of Cinematronics, came up with the gameplay idea, which was curiously identical to the handheld Mattel football electronic game which was very popular at the time.
	www.gooddealgames.com /articles/Rise_Fall_Vectors.html (1988 words)

	Cinematronics -- Facts, Info, and Encyclopedia article (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-08)
		Other games were developed based on the same hardware system (based on (Click link for more info and facts about Motorola's 68000) Motorola's 68000 chip) but were never released, including a (Having a three-dimensional form or appearance) 3D color vector game.
		About 1984, Cinematronics started releasing games which used raster display, such as Express Delivery.
		Cinematronics was also responsible for releasing (Click link for more info and facts about Dragon's Lair) Dragon's Lair, the world's first (Click link for more info and facts about laserdisc) laserdisc-based arcade game.
	www.absoluteastronomy.com /encyclopedia/c/ci/cinematronics.htm (366 words)

	Dragon's Lair Tech Center
		The cabinet was very similar to the Cinematronics release, but the hardware, including the laser disc player was totally different.
		Most of the hardware for the Sidam version was the same as the Atari version, but the cabinet design was totally different.
		Both the Atari and Sidam versions of Dragon's Lair used video overlay for the score and lives rather that the score board PCB that is used in the Cinematronics version.
	www.dragons-lair-project.com /tech/pages/dl.asp (1504 words)

	Subject: Cinematronics repair hints?
		I have an ASCII file that seems to be the first draft of such a guide, but alas I do not know who wrote it.
		Vectorbeam used yet another power supply that was incompatible with the Cinematronics harnesses.
		As with the game boards, they figured they could save money by designing their own circuits instead of using off-the-shelf ICs; Cinematronics really liked discrete components which I guess is a good thing since replacements for 74-series TTL and plain transistors will be around for a LONG time and make repair possible.
	www.flippers.com /cinm-tip.html (3741 words)

	Cinematronics Home Page (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-08)
		This DOS emulator was written to verify my understanding of the Cinematronics instruction set.
		There are Cinematronics emulators available on the web, like Retrocade, that do a much better job of allowing one to play Cinematronics games.
		But for those of you who are technically inclined, or are just interested in how a emulator works, I now supply the source code to mine.
	zonn.com /Cinematronics (186 words)

	The Dot Eaters - Player2 Stage2 - Classic Video Game History
		As management chafes at his sweet 50/50 split of the Space Wars profits pouring in, Larry Rosenthal is convinced by head sales rep Bill Cravens to leave Cinematronics and start his own company, placing Cravens as president of the new venture.
		Thus he takes all his technology and documentation on the hardware and begets VectorBeam, baseing the company in Sunnyvale, CA and leaving the Cinematronics design labs barren.
		VectorBeam is soon folded back into Cinematronics, with Rosenthal receiving a million dollar payout for his company.
	www.emuunlim.com /doteaters/play2sta2.htm (1544 words)

	War of the Worlds: The Arcade Games (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-08)
		This game is in fl-and-white vector graphics, but there is one and only one color version of this same game, which was made in 1981.
		It does not appear to have the option to play in fl and white as was the arcade releases.
		Cinematronics Emulator in the works that will allow the War of the Worlds arcade game to be played on Windows platforms.
	www.war-of-the-worlds.org /Games/Arcade.shtml (347 words)

	Cinematronics Inc. - Delaware 1985 ( Famous Arcade Game Maker )
		This historic document was printed by the United States Banknote Corporation and has a block border.
		Cinematronics was a company that began in 1977 with the worlds first vector graphics based arcade game.
		If you are publishing a book for educational purposes or with the press, please contact us directly at 703-787-3552 for use of our content.
	www.scripophily.net /ciinde19.html (249 words)

	SYS 2064 - Multigame Emulators!
		This Cinematronics emulator currently runs all but one (Speed Freak) of the Cinematronics games.
		Neil has emulated another vector game which is available as a singlegame emulator: Major Havoc.
		The emulator has been merged with the Cinematronics emu and KEM into Retrocade!
	www.sys2064.com /multi1.htm (1503 words)

	Tim Skelly's Cinematronics Games (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-08)
		Tim has forwarded to me a list of the games he did for Cinematronics.
		Perhaps someday he will tell us more about them, since I know little about them, other than I used to play Armor Attack often in the arcades, before I got into the business.
		I think it was a vector based game, like most of the Cinematronics games.
	members.aol.com /JPMLee/tskelly.htm (99 words)

	Cinematronics ROM Archive
		This is an attempt to archive all of these Cinematronics and Vectorbeam vector game ROM sets.
		These files contain all the appropriate location, size and checksum information.
		Nucleolus Cannon (Star Castle bootleg by Hoei) - same as Cinematronics version 1
	ionpool.net /arcade/cine/roms.html (146 words)

	UVL - Company detail for Cinematronics (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-08)
		- in the 'release chart' table, clicking the year tag will make a search for the games produced by Cinematronics in the selected year.
		- in the 'platforms developed on' table, clicking the platform name will make a search for all the games produced by Cinematronics for that platform.
		- feel free to use the 'anonymous feedback' menu item to post any info about Cinematronics.
	www.uvlist.com /company-game-21 (114 words)

	Download UGRESS - CINEMATRONICS Mp3
		You may search for all lyrics by Ugress or the specific lyric "Cinematronics" by specifying it in the text boxes at the left.
		When a user chooses to become a member he is provided the ability to use mp3 search engines operated by other sites by the use of frames at musicmass.
		Through this system it is probably possible to find "Ugress - Cinematronics", among lots of other mp3 files.
	www.musicmass.com /MP3_ugressmmmcinematronics.php (769 words)

	TNL Forum - The Cinematronics Thread
		09-16-2002 07:10 PM Cinematronics actually continued for several more years after Dragon's Lair.
		09-16-2002 07:59 PM I'm pretty sure that Cinematronics went bankrupt in 1984 and Leland bought their remains at that time.
		Triple bonus points to anyone who can think of another!
	www.the-nextlevel.com /board/printthread.php?t=9029 (1636 words)

	Paul Kahler's Cinematronics Emulator (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-08)
		This page contains information about the Cinematronics Emulator created by Paul Kahler and Kurt Mahan.
		New Version for '99 The newest version supports all Black and White Cinematronics vector games except Speed Freak - sorry, there is some problem with it.
		I just wanted to get this out there for people to use, so this page will not see much change in the future.
	www.gamearchive.com /General/Collectors/Paul_Kahler (142 words)

	[#] ONLY BOOKMARK THE INDEX! [#]
		2000-Jan-05 The Long History of Cinematronics and Vectorbeam (Archived)
		1997-May-08 Cinematronics Emulator 1.0: The Even MORE Unofficial Site
		2002-Aug-28 Tim Skelly's History of Cinematronics and Vectorbeam (originally posted June 1, 1999)
	www.voicenet.com /~mwalden/topic314.htm (170 words)

	Solar Quest (Coin-Op) by Cinematronics - Sponsored by QuarterArcade.com
		Solar Quest (Coin-Op) by Cinematronics - Sponsored by QuarterArcade.com
		Click here to view all items relating to Solar Quest.
		The examples shown here show the actual dimensional weight for the game, and then given an estimated shipping dimensional weight assuming that 5" of packing material is needed in each dimension.
	www.ggdb.com /GGDB/Details.asp?VID=2629&Cat=TechRoot.Manual.S (126 words)

	Space Ace Tech Center
		- DIP Switch Settings (USA / Cinematronics) (DIP Switch Remap ROM Revision)
		Space Ace (83) was licensed to Atari for production and manufacturing in Europe.
		Atari sub-licensed Space Ace to Sidam for production and manufacturing in Italy.
	www.dragons-lair-project.com /tech/pages/sa.asp (752 words)

	Cinematronics Emulator (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-08)
		This is everything you need to run the emulator, with the exception of the ROMs.
		Support for all Cinematronics Vector Games -- with the exception of Cosmic Chasm which doesn't use the standard Cinematronics CPU.
		Mouse support for Tailgunner, Boxing Bugs and Speed Freak.
	zonn.com /Cinematronics/emu.htm (130 words)

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