Since I haven’t posted in a while,
this one is going to be a long one. Sadly, it will not be a very in depth one
since I was unable to interview anyone for it.
During the mid-1980s, as the arcade video
game market began to decline, many operators began looking for new ways to make
money off of their fading old titles while not breaking the bank buying new
games. One solution that became increasingly popular was convertible games.
Convertible games came in two major variations: conversion kits (which allowed
the user to change one game to another by swapping out the hardware) and “system”
games (which included a standardized main board and games that could be swapped
out by replacing a tape, small daughter board etc.). Two of the earliest, and
best-known such systems were Gremlin’s Convert-A-Game and Data East’s DECO Cassette
System. One of the most prolific system game makers, however, was Century Electronics
and their CVS system. Unfortunately, the system has received little attention
in gaming histories and few remember it today.
Perhaps this post will go a (very
small) way towards correcting that. Unfortunately, I was unable to find much
info on the company or track down anyone who worked there. Nonetheless, I did
find some interesting (at least to me) info that I thought I’d share. First, I’ll
give an overview of the company’s history. Then I’ll take a more in-depth look
at their games.
Beginnings
In January of 1981, Century Electronics Ltd.
of Oldham England introduced its CVS Convertible Video System at a private showing
at the ATE in London. Century had been founded in 1979 (possibly by Peter
Robinson and David Jones) and development on the CVS system had started around
summer of 1980. The system consisted of a Signetics 2650-based mother board
(designed by Philips Electronics) and a 5.5” x 8” x 1“ “program module” that
could be swapped (along with a marquee) when the operator wanted to install a
new title. The system also included a separate sound board with speech
capability. While only two titles were available at the time of its debut (Dark Warrior and Cosmos), more were in the works and Century planned to release a
new title every six weeks. To create them, Century had a staff of 12 designers using
a $1.5 million development system made exclusively for them by Philips in the
Netherlands.
The first two titles for the system
were a pair of vertical shooters, Dark
Warrior and Cosmos. Other early
titles included Space Fortress (a
color version of Asteroids), Dazzler (a maze/climbing game in which
the player avoided pursuing vultures while feeding bananas to a gorilla), Video 8-Ball (a video version of pool), and Radar Zone (a kind of combination of Amidar and Qix). It
seems that Tuni initially had high hopes for the system. In the summer of 1982,
it announced that it was expanding its R&D department with an eye toward
developing new CVS games in conjunction with Century. Engineering VP Tom Opfer was
appointed to head a staff of ten programmers and technicians and Tuni spent
$100,000 on development equipment with plans to spend even more. They also sent
Opfer to England to learn the ins and outs of the system.
Things apparently went downhill
quickly, however and by the end of the year the relationship between Century
and Tuni had soured (to put it mildly). According to Tuni marketing director
Patrick Reed[1], the
trouble started when Century complained that Tuni wasn’t selling enough of its
games (Play Meter reported that they
sold only 700 complete systems by January of 1983[2]).
Reed, on the other hand, said it was because Century didn’t furnish them with
the number of new titles they’d promised (they had delivered only 3 since the
system launched[3]).
Whether because of this or the lackluster quality of the games they did offer,
Tuni was already in trouble by the fall of 1982 and in September, Arizona’s
E.T. Marketing (another company headed by Reed) bought up Tuni’s assets, which
they felt included the rights to the CVS games. Century, on other hand,
disagreed, maintaining that they had terminated their contract with Tuni in
August and that the rights to the games now belonged to Century’s U.S. branch, (recently
established in Great Neck, NY) which had signed an exclusive contract with
Century on September 1. In addition, Century sued Tuni for copyright
infringement for selling the games Wall
Street and Logger, which they had
shown at the 1982 AMOA show. Century also launched separate suits to collect
outstanding debts from Tuni. Reed, on the other hand, claimed that Tuni had
never even signed their contract with Century, because of “problems with
language…that would have required Century to come up with a new game every six
to eight weeks that would be marketable in the United States[4]”
Instead, the two companies had made individual licensing agreements for each
game. In addition, said Reed, Century owed Tuni $240,000 for electronic parts. He
further claimed that he had scheduled a meeting with Century VP Peter Robinson
to discuss the issue, but he had never shown up (Robinson, in return, said he
wasn’t taking any calls from Reed).
Convertible Video Systems Takes Over
The End of Century
None of these games, however, matched the
success of Hunchback (though Outline reportedly sold well) and
Century didn’t last much longer. In mid-January, 1984 they scheduled a
distributor showing where thy debuted three new products: a shooting gallery[5],
a quiz game, and a children’s video game series. While the games were
well-received, they were never produced (at least not by Century). The next
week, on January 18, Century declared bankruptcy (ironically, the previous month,
Tuni had been pulled out of bankruptcy and taken over by Enter-Tech).
CVS was not completely finished, however, at
least not yet. Century’s U.S. branch was not affected and soon began to work
with other companies to produce their games. Around May, Crown Vending of Corona,
New York announced that they would be producing new Game-Paks for the CVS system.
Headed by Steve Hochman, who had started his coin-op career as a soda machine
operator in Queens in 1965, Crown Vending was one of New York City’s largest
distributors. In mid-1983, noting the growing success of Hunchback, they had sold a kit called Playpak that allowed
operators to convert games with Galaxian/Scramble hardware to CVS base systems.
In 1984, they released a pair of new titles for the system. Both were
(apparently) developed by Century (though the first, at least, was manufactured
in California) and both proved to be solid hits (though mostly as conversion
kits for other games). First was the motorcycle racing game Superbike (April, 1984), which was
available as a CVS module as well as a conversion kit for Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong,
Jr. Despite gameplay that was derivative of title 2-years out-of-date, Superbike reached #1 in Play Meter’s conversion kit chart for
street locations in November of 1984. Almost as successful was Hero in the Castle of Doom (aka Hero), in which Quasimodo made a return
appearance (this time without the green tunic) in a maze game where he once
again had to rescue the fair “Ezzmerlda”. Released in November, 1984 Hero in the Castle of Doom debuted at
#1 on Play Meter’s conversion kits
chart for street locations in February 15, 1985.
In late
1984, another company began producing titles for the CVS system. First came H.B.’s Olympics (aka Hunchback Olympic and Herbie at the Olympics). Designed by
Century/Seatongrove, the game was built by Magic Electronics of Cranston, RI
and marketed by Montgomery Vending. The game, once again, featured our old
friend Quasimodo. Sporting his original green tunic from Hunchback, Quasimodo competed in seven different Olympic events. Priced
at $375, the game was also available as a conversion kit for Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr. and Scramble. It reached #12 on Play Meter’s conversion kit chart for
street locations in December, 1984 and #14 on RePlay’s software chart in February, 1985. Montgomery/Magic also
had a minor hit in 1985 with another CVS release called Eight Ball Action, which was
also released as a conversion kit.With Eight Ball Action, CVS and Century disappeared into the mists of arcade history. Exactly how many games Century sold is uncertain. In May, 1984, Play Meter reported that they had sold 20,000 CVS systems overall and about 10,000 in the U.S. and they likely didn’t sell many more systems after that point (though they continued to sell games). Despite this, the company and its games (except maybe for Hunchback) have largely been forgotten by video game fans today and have drawn scant mention in video game histories. There are number of possible reasons for this. While the system did produce some minor successes, it never had a hit on the order of magnitude of a Burgertime or a Mr. Do! In addition, the few hits it did have came during the nadir of arcade video games’ popularity. The fact that the company was British may have been a factor as well (at least in the U.S.). The biggest reason, however, was probably the lackluster quality and derivative nature of the games themselves. Nonetheless, CVS remains one of many interesting footnotes that litter the pages of coin-op history.
THE GAMES
Now let’s
take a brief look at the actual games, in rough order of when they were
released.
NOTE – For
various games on the list, I note the original game that they ripped off. I
suspect, however, that all of their games may have been rip-offs, so if anyone
knows of one I missed, let me know.
Rips Off:??? This one does look familiar, but I can’t think of an actual game it copies.
A fairly straightforward vertical shooter in which the player protects a line of fuel tanks from a variety of invading alien ships. In addition, walking aliens (called “dogs” in one issue of Play Meter) would appear on the horizon and begin moving toward the player, launching an attack when they got too close. If the MAME sounds are accurate for this one (and lord hopes they’re not), this gets my vote for wussiest firing sound in the history of video games (it sounds like an anemic chicken peeping).
CosmosTuni/Century
Released: at the same time as Dark Warrior
Rips Off: Astro
Blaster(Gremlin/Sega) – big timeThis is one of the top candidates for Century’s most blatant rip-off. They copied everything from the laser temperature gauge to the fuel gauge to the speech to the docking. All without much of the charm of the original (I’m not sure, for instance, if they copied the bonuses – one of my favorite features of Astro Blaster).
Somehow, this managed to be chosen as one of five games for the famed That’s Incredible tournament/Video Game Olympics (the one won by Ben Gold).
Space FortressTuni/Century
Released: ???, I believe it was available by the time Tuni started selling the system around December, 1981. It was shown at the AOE show in March, 1982.
Rips Off: Asteroids
DazzlerTuni/Century
Released: 1/82 (MAME), 5/82 (DRA Price Guide),
ca 4/82 (Play Meter), shown at 1/82 ATE show
Rips Off: Donkey
Kong (level 1) and ???, The MAME history filed describes this as “cross
between Pac-Man and Donkey Kong Jr.” but I don’t really see
it, other than that it was a maze game and had locks and a gorilla.
This one
combined a maze game and a climbing game. In the former, the player opened a series
of 13 locks, collected bananas, and fed them to a purple gorilla. The player
also had to avoid vultures (or distract them with snakes). The second level was
a version of the first level of Donkey
Kong with some amazingly crude graphics for an arcade game in 1982 (or even
for a computer game in 1979).
Released: 4/82 (RePlay catalog), shown at AOE in 3/82
Rips Off: ???, this one was similar to Konami/Dynamo’s Video Hustler/Li’L Hustler but I don’t think I’d call it a “rip-off” since most video pool games were necessarily similar
Charts: RePlay software chart, #4, (1983)
Not much to say here. A video version of pool. It made the charts a long time after its debut, so CVS may have produced another version.
Radar Zone/Outline (??)Tuni/Century/CVS
Released: Uncertain. This one was listed on the original Tuni flyer and Play Meter says it was available at the time the system was released in the U.S. but the July, 1982 issue of RePlay said that it would be available shortly as the sixth CVS title.
Rips Off: Amidar
I’m not
positive this is the same game as Outline,
but I think it is. Trade magazines refer to both games and never intimate that
they are the same. The first mention I found for Outline was in February, 1983. After the New York office took over,
they said it was one of their two biggest sellers (along with Video 8 Ball) so they may have renamed
it.
The game
itself was kind of a more boring version of Amidar without the gorillas and the jump button (i.e. the fun
stuff). The enemies looked kind of like the sparx from Qix. The player’s main defense was a button that created a temporary
gap in the maze outline. Later levels included enemies that fired at the
character and “asteroids” levels (with colored asteroids in the background).
LoggerTuni?/Century
Released: ???, Tuni/E.T. showed it at the 1982
AMOA show in November
Rips Off: Donkey
Kong (big
time)Another candidate for Century’s most shameless rip-off. I’m not sure how this one got by Nintendo’s lawyers (maybe it didn’t). This was basically a carbon copy of Donkey Kong with a lumberjack instead of a carpenter, logs instead of barrels, and a giant bird instead of Donkey Kong. Oh, and of course, substandard graphics and gameplay.
Wall St./Wall StreetTuni/?Century
Released: ??? Tuni/E.T. showed it at the 1982
AMOA show in November
Rips Off: ??? If this one ripped off something
else, I’d LOVE to know what it is. The only trampoline game I can think of off
the top of my head is Exidy’s Trapeze/Taito’s
Trampoline, but that’s nothing like
this one. The second phase was quite a
bit like Tutankham.
I may be alone here, but this one almost
makes up for all of Century’s earlier games put together. This has to be one of
the strangest classic era arcade video game concepts ever in terms of sheer
bat-poop craziness. Would-be suicide victims leapt out the windows of a
skyscraper while the player used a trampoline to bounce them into a waiting
ambulance in an attempt to keep the Dow Jones Index (represented by a bar at
the bottom of the screen) from reaching zero. All while jaunty music played in
the background. In the second stage, the player maneuvered through a bank
collecting bags of money while tanks (!?!) tried to blast him to smithereens.
RaidersCentury?/CVS?
Released: ???
Rips Off: ???
Another vertical shooter somewhat like Astro Blaster or Astro Fighter. The player could move vertically as well as horizontally and had both bombs and lasers. There was also a wave where you faced a kind of mother ship with three ports as well as a docking stage.
Gold Bug/DiggerCentury/CVS
Released: ???, first mentioned in RePlay in 3/83
Rips Off: ???
A rather boring digging game with typically crude graphics. The player collected gold nuggets while avoiding bugs. As they dug out the ground, mine carts filled with ore.
Heart Attack/A-Maze-ZingCentury/CVS
Released: July, 1983 (RePlay catalog)
Rips Off: One hopes nothing. Though it has
some similarities to the Atari 2600 Maze
Craze cartridge.
Charts: #2 RePlay software charts, 1983Oh man, what a turkey. This one gets my vote for worst graphics of any game made after 1980. Crude doesn’t even begin to describe them. As far as the actual game, the player had 20 seconds to complete each of the 99 game’s different mazes while avoiding pursuing “chasers” (which could be “frozen” once per level, causing the maze walls to disappear for seven seconds). This thing actually appeared on RePlay’s software charts five times. How? I have no idea. Even worse, Century claimed that it was “rapidly becoming one of the top three games” in European test locations. Please tell me they were exaggerating. Then again, maybe there’s something I’m missing.
HunchbackCentury/CVS
Released: 9/83 (MAME, Play Meter), though it was
previewed at the ATE in January, 1983 and mentioned as shipping in the 6/15/83
issue of Play Meter
Rips Off: ???Charts: #2 RePlay software chart
This is the
big daddy as far as CVS was concerned. Their flagship game. And, surprise, surprise,
it was actually pretty darn good. The goal was to guide Quasimodo across a
series of screens to rescue the fair Esmeralda. The main character was
(reportedly) originally supposed to be Robin Hood (hence his green tunic) but
was switched to Victor Hugo’s famous bell ringer during development. To
accomplish his task, Quasimodo had to make his way across a castle wall,
leaping over pikemen, crenellations, arrows, and other obstacles or swinging
over a fiery pit to ring a bell on the other side. In a second phase the player
had to climb a pair of bell ropes and remove plugs from a series of wall
sections (shades of Donkey Kong’s rivets
level) before reaching the princess. In addition to the CVS version, Hunchback was offered as a conversion
kit for Donkey Kong (what was it
with Century and Donkey Kong?). While the gameplay is nice, it’s the main character
that really makes the game for me. Thankfully, we haven’t seen the last of him.
Superbike
Century/Crown VendingReleased: 4/84 (Play Meter catalog)
also as conversion kit for Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr.
Rips Off: Moon
Patrol
Charts: #1 Play
Meter conversion kit chart for street locations 11/15/84 (appeared 11x)#10,
Play Meter conversion kit chart for
arcade locations 10/15/84 (appeared 9x)
This might
look like a contender for Century’s biggest hit but I suspect that most of the
units sold were the DK/DK Jr. conversion kits rather than the CVS version.
While the
game was described as a racing game, it was essentially Moon Patrol with a motorcycle. Instead of Moon Patrol’s boulders, Superbike
had trees. Potholes replaced craters and the main “enemies” were balloons
(the one new wrinkle was a series of ramps that they player could use to jump
obstacles).
Hero in the Castle of Doom/Hero/Hero
in the Temple of Doom
Century/Crown Vending
Released: ca 11/84 (RePlay), shown at 1984 AMOA show
also as conversion kit for Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr.
Rips Off: Tutankham
Charts: #1 Play
Meter conversion kit chart, street locations 2/15/85
This one may
have done better than Superbike on
the charts, but I think Superbike sold
more. Again, it probably sold best as a conversion kit. It was developed by Seatongrove.
The game
featured (once again) Quasimodo’s attempts to rescue Esmeralda (or, in this
case Ezzmerelda). This one is basically a rip-off of Tutankham (though not a blatant one). Interestingly, the original
flyers for the game referred to it as Hero
in the “Temple” of Doom and featured the image of an Indiana-Jones-like
character, complete with fedora (one wonders if they changed the name and
character in an effort to avoid litigation).
H.B.’s Olympics/Hunchback Olympic/Herbie at
the OlympicsCentury/Montgomery
Vending/Magic Electronics
Released: ca 7/84 (RePlay), ca 10/84 (Play Meter), possibly earlier for other versionsalso as conversion kit for Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr., Scramble
Rips Off:: Track & Field (big time)
Charts: #12 Play Meter conversion kit chart, street 12/84, #14 RePlay software chart, 2/85
Quasimodo’s
back, and with his original green tunic. The one was another shameless rip-off,
this time of Track & Field. It
featured five of the six events from the Konami/Centuri original (all except
the hammer throw) and added the discus and shot put. God help me but I like
this game. Yes the gameplay was virtually identical (and inferior) to the
original and the graphics were much worse but there’s just something about a
hunchback doing the high jump that tickles me. Another one that probably sold
better as a kit.
Eight Ball ActionCentury/Montgomery
Vending/Magic Electronics
Released: ca 7/84 (RePlay), ca 10/84 (Play Meter), possibly earlier for other versions
also as conversion kit for Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr., Scramble
Rips Off:: ???
Charts: #6 RePlay software chart, 3/85, #37, Play Meter 10/15/85
Another video pool game.
Other CVS Games
Pharoah (mentioned in RePlay in March, 1982 but either it was never released, or it changed its name).
Voyager - a flyer for the game exists, though it does not include a picture of the cabinet. It is described as "the ultimate sea battle game". The player controls a Nimitz class aircraft carrier equipped with radar, sonar, bombs, torpedoes, cruise missiles, submarines, and 200 aircraft. Enemies included destroyers, subs, battleships, helicopters and aircraft.
While the painting on the flyer shows a spaceship, it appears that the actual game (if it existed) was a naval combat game.
The following are listed on a British flyer for Century's games, but the flyer shows only a marquee. I’ve found no other references to them.
Horizon
Outlaw
Super Shoot
The following are listed at arcade-history.com but no other info is given and I’ve found no other references to them.
Space Warp
[1]
Play
Meter, January 15,
1983.
[2] Ibid.
The figure may have been a misprint. Mickey Greenman later (in the May, 1984 RePlayi) claimed that there were 7,000
CVS units on location in the U.S. while Crown Vending’s Steve Hochman (in the
May 1, 1984 Play Meter) estimated
that 10,000 CVS units had been sold in the U.S. and about the same number in Europe.
If the 700 figure is accurate, it would mean that the overwhelming majority of
units were sold after Century severed their relationship with Tuni (which is
certainly possible, given the issues between the two and the fact that the
biggest hits came in 1983). It is possible that the “700” was a misprint for
“7,000” but this seems unlikely too, since it would mean that CVS sold almost
no more units after 1982. It is also possible that the 7,000 and 10,000 figures
refer to the number of game modules sold rather than base units (though this
also seems unlikely).
[3] In the Play Meter article, Reed claimed “We were supposed to get a new
game every eight to 10 weeks, but we have received a total of seven since
January.” He cannot mean that they received seven new games (since that would
have actually been more than they were promised) so I’m assuming he meant they
received seven in total, including the four that were available at the time
they signed the deal.
[4] Ibid
[5] This may have been the video game Shooting Gallery, which was developed
by Seatongrove and licensed to Buhzac International and Zaccaria.
I'd give a guess that Gold Bug/Digger was a ripoff of Dig Dug.
ReplyDeleteFrom the gameplay on Youtube, it doesn't look like a rip-off of Dig Dug to me. While it is a digging game, it seems to lack the pumping enemies up with air and dropping things on them (I'd play it myself, but my MAME hasn't worked since I went my last Windows update).
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteA none-CVS Century Star Fighter board has been found that's a "version" (unknown if licensed or unlicensed copy) of Zaccaria's Astro Wars. It appears that Century went on to evolve this platform into the CVS system.
ReplyDeleteZaccaria produced Shooting Gallery and it is the same game as you suspect - the base platform is Donkey Kong with a CVS sound board and some additional Seatongrove labelled boards.
Buhzac appears on flyers as the US distributor for Zaccaria games (see the Jackrabbit flyer on the flyer archive, for example).
Great article!
Paul.
Great write-up, nice to hear a bit more about the company and system. I have about 30 main boards and cartridges for this system, it really doesn't get much love! The speech is quite a novelty, and you can definitely hear the British English inflections in the used vowels!
ReplyDelete"Pharoah" is mentioned as (C) 1982 in CopyrightEncyclopedia.com (which is quickly becoming an interesting website to use)
ReplyDeletehttp://www.copyrightencyclopedia.com/space-fortress-eight-ball-logger/
Not Mentioned:
ReplyDelete- El Grande Poker (El Grande - 5-Card Draw by Enter-Tech Ltd./Tuni Electro Service in MAME)
- Reaction (Reaction / E.T. Marketing on flyer, listed as Century Electronics mfg. at TAFA)
These aren't arcade games though.
Missing listing "Cosmic Invasion", which is a bootleg of Zaccaria's "The Invaders":
http://mamedev.emulab.it/undumped/index.php?title=Cosmic_Invasion
Thanks. I didn't include El Grande or Reaction because I couldn't find anything else linking them to Century.
DeleteRePlay and Play Meter list them as Enter Tech/E.T./Tuni games. Plus they were both poker games so I don't think they were available as CVS games.
I'm sure you're right and that they are not linked other than through Tuni Electro Service. elgrande is in MAME in calomega.c , not cvs.c.
DeleteI guess I saw this article more as listing all Century and related company games, not just CVS - though it focused on CVS. :-)
Wow! Really I was having no idea about history of arcade video games. But you have written a very nice blog and old arcade games list is great. This is simply mind blowing and I completely loved this article of yours.
ReplyDeleteWorked at Century early 83 and many years following......wrote software for SUperbike/HBO/HERO and a few others.....Nice article!
ReplyDeleteBe sure to contact Keith! He'd be happy to hear your stories. His email is on the "About Me" section of the blog.
DeleteOk thanks....I have..
DeleteGold Bug is indeed a rip off of Dig Dug. While some of the gameplay has changed, things like the enemies running away to the top of the screen when you get the proper amount of gold, the enemies changing form when moving between walls, the continue screen, and the patterns of movement all come straight out of Dig Dug. Also, Wall Street is derived from the 1980 Nintendo Game & Watch handheld LCD game "Fire", where you use a trampoline to bounce people jumping from a burning building into an ambulance.
ReplyDeleteI want to open electronics based company that's why i am searching on largest electronic companies for my knowledge
ReplyDeleteThank you SO much for your write-up. A while back I bought an Konami arcade cocktail table running HunchBack... Very interesting to a see a PlayPack lurking in there! Fascinating stuff.
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone know where full sized arcade machines can be bought?
ReplyDeleteI've done searches and found sites like this: https://www.officialtop5review.com/arcade-machines/ but most of these sites of sites just list the same old machines that can be found on Amazon.
Does anyone know about any suppliers that have a large amount of these to choose from?