Atari Head-To-Head Rifle Game and Other Patent Goodies

Researching a book on video game history often invovles poring over patent records. Sometimes they can be boring but more often than not I find somthing interesting. Here are a few I found recently.

First up is this patent filed on January 30, 1978 by John Romano and Roger Hector of Atari, Inc.
It is for a two-player, head-to-head ifle game (non video).

I've never seen this game on any list of Atari prototypes (at least not that I remember).
The screen in between the players had obstacles like trees and islands that blocked your opponent's shot. It also displayed the score. The object was to hit your opponent's target.

Here's another Atari patent. This one was filed on April 28, 1977 by Steve Bristow and David Dean.

Off the top of my head, I don't recall seeing this one either. It doesn't look anything like Qwak or Triple Hunt.
Of course, just because they patented something doesn't mean it got to play testing. I don't know if it even means they built a prototype.

This one's not quite as interesting. It's another Atari patent (actually, there were 2 patents). This one filed on September 23, 1977 by Peter Takaichi and Andrew Graybeal.

This one is for a booth-style video game cabinet. I know that Elcon Industries made a cabinet like this.

Finally, here's one from Williams. Filed July 5, 1983 by Leo Ludzia and Romeo Ishaya.

Ring any bells out there?

BTW, Ludzia also got patents for the duramold cabinet (with Gary Berge) and the Joust cocktail cabinet (with Eugenia Akopian).

And while we're on the topic of cabinet desginers (who rarely get any credit), here are a few more I've found:

Brad Chaboya - Atari - Gravitar
Regan Cheng - Atari - Puppy Pong, Hi-Way, Stunt Cycle
David Cook - Atari - Tank 8
Michael Cooper-Hart - Exidy - Robot Bowl, Star Fire
Terry Doerzaph - Gottlieb - Q*Bert
George Gomez - Midway - Tron, Discs of Tron, Spy Hunter?
Chaz Grossman - Atari - Puppy Pong
Mike Jang - Atari - Starship 1
Phillip Kearney - Atari - Wolfpack (prototype)
Verl Olsen - Gremlin - CoMotion
Lonnie Pogue - Gremlin - Hustle
Robert Runte - Fascination, Ltd - Fascination
A. Ryan - Bally/Midway - Tron
Kenneth Sauter - Atari - Indy 800, Quiz Show

And some cabinet artists
Ray Maninang - Exidy - Crossbow, Cheyenne
Constantno Mitchell - Williams - Robotron
George Opperman - Atari - lots
Pat "Sleepy" Peak - Exidy - Alley Rally, Death Race, Score, Spiders From Space (prototype)
Kazunori Sawano - Namco - Galaxian
R. Scafaldi - Midway - Tron
Richard Taylor - Midway - Tron