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Cinematronics Incorporated
Cinematronics Logo
Fate Purchased by Tradewest and renamed Leland Corp. Purchasing refers to a business or organization attempting to acquire goods or services to accomplish the goals of the enterprise Tradewest is a now-defunct Video game company based in Corsicana Texas that produced numerous games in the 1980s and early 1990s
Successor Leland Corp.
Founded 1975
Defunct 1987
Location El Cajon, California
Industry computer and video game industry
Products Space Wars, Dragon's Lair
Key people Jim Pearce: co-founder; Tom "Papa" Stroud; Larry Rosenthal;

Cinematronics Incorporated was a pioneering arcade game developer that had its heyday in the era of vector display games. Year 1975 ( MCMLXXV) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Year 1987 ( MCMLXXXVII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link displays 1987 Gregorian calendar) El Cajon (ɛlkəˈhoʊn Spanish elkaˈxon is a city in San Diego County, California, United States. California ( is a US state on the West Coast of the United States, along the Pacific Ocean. The video game industry (formally referred to as Interactive entertainment) is the economic sector involved with the development, Marketing Space Wars was the first Vector graphics Arcade game. It is based on Spacewar!, a PDP-1 program that might arguably be Dragon's Lair was one of the first Laserdisc video games released in June 1983 by Cinematronics. Jim Pierce is a member of the Queensland State Parliament He represents the seat of Fitzroy. An arcade game is a coin-operated entertainment machine typically installed in businesses such as Restaurants Pubs Video arcades and Family Entertainment A video game developer is a software developer (a business or an individual that creates Video games A developer may specialize in a certain video Vector graphics is the use of geometrical primitives such as points lines, Curves and shapes or Polygon (s which are all based While other companies released games based on raster displays, early in their history, Cinematronics and Atari released vector-display games, which offered a distinctive look and a greater graphic capability (at the time), at the cost of being only black and white. In Computer graphics, a raster graphics image or bitmap, is a Data structure representing a generally rectangular grid of Pixels Atari is a corporate and brand name owned by several entities since its inception in 1972.

Contents

Meager beginnings

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. Year 1975 ( MCMLXXV) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Cinematronics' first games, a Pong clone, Flipper Ball and Embargo, all released in 1976, were fairly unsuccessful. Pong is a first generation Video game released originally as a Coin -operated Arcade game by Atari Inc Year 1976 ( MCMLXXVI) was a Leap year starting on Thursday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The company was not widely noticed until Larry Rosenthal brought Space Wars on board a year later. Space Wars was the first Vector graphics Arcade game. It is based on Spacewar!, a PDP-1 program that might arguably be

Cinematronics' first success

Rosenthal, a student of MIT, had written his master's thesis on Spacewar! and wanted to create a version of the computer game that could be placed in arcades. A dissertation (also called thesis or disquisition) is a document that presents the author's Research and findings and is submitted in support of candidature Spacewar! is one of the earliest known digital Computer games Steve "Slug" Russell, Martin "Shag" Graetz and Wayne Wiitanen A video arcade (also known as an amusement arcade in the United Kingdom in Japan or as an "arcade" is a venue where people play arcade video games Rosenthal had created a processor that was powerful enough to run a proper version of Spacewar! and yet inexpensive to produce. He named his TTL-based technology "Vectorbeam". Transistor–transistor logic ( TTL) is a class of Digital circuits built from Bipolar junction transistors (BJT and Resistors It is called After building a prototype, he shopped the machine around to various game companies, looking for a distributor. Rosenthal demanded a 50/50 share of the profits, a figure that caused nearly all companies to pass on the deal.

At this same time Cinematronics was looking for their next game. The timing was perfect for the two: Cinematronics was running out of funds and looking for any deal to land a new game and Rosenthal was selling a game but insisted on a ridiculously high profit share. The deal was made and the game was released as Space Wars. Space Wars was the first Vector graphics Arcade game. It is based on Spacewar!, a PDP-1 program that might arguably be

Space Wars was the first arcade game to utilize black & white vector graphics, which enabled it to display sharp, crisp images. Vector graphics is the use of geometrical primitives such as points lines, Curves and shapes or Polygon (s which are all based Space Wars had graphics which were far more detailed than the raster displays of the time. Cinematronics shipped over 30,000 units and was a top seller in 1978. Year 1978 ( MCMLXXVIII) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link displays the 1978 Gregorian calendar)

Rosenthal, feeling that he was still not receiving enough money for his innovations, left Cinematronics and formed Vectorbeam. Vectorbeam was an arcade game manufacturer active in the late 1970s who specialized in vector graphics-based Arcade games. When he attempted to take his "Vectorbeam" technology with him, Pierce and Stroud sued. The men came to an agreement outside of court with Rosenthal selling his technology to Cinematronics.

Vector games

With the "Vectorbeam" board under their control, Cinematronics released a series of vector graphic arcade games including Starhawk, Warrior the first one-on-one fighting game, Sundance and Tail Gunner. Starhawk is a 1977 vector Arcade game by Cinematronics. Starhawk is a Shoot 'em up with a fixed environment Warrior is a 1979 Arcade game and is one of the pioneers in the fighting game genre Sundance is a puzzle Arcade game using Vector graphics released by Cinematronics in 1979.

Cinematronics experimented with color overlays on some of their games. In Star Castle, the overlay gave color to several elements of the game with fixed positions. Star Castle is a 1980 vector Arcade game by Cinematronics. The game involves obliterating a series of defenses circumferencing a In Armor Attack, the overlay was itself a part of the game: the overlay was a top-down view of a small set of city streets, and the player drove a jeep through the streets fighting tanks and helicopters. Armor Attack is a top-down vector Shoot 'em up Arcade game released by Cinematronics in 1980, licensed to Sega Jeep is an Automobile Marque (and registered trademark of Chrysler. A tank is a tracked, Armoured fighting vehicle designed for Front-line combat which combines Operational mobility and tactical History Since 400 AD Chinese children have played with bamboo flying toys.

Cinematronics created Cosmic Chasm, a color vector game. Cosmic Chasm was a color vector Arcade game created for the arcades by Cinematronics in 1983, but was originally a game created by GCE for the Other games were developed based on the same hardware system (based on Motorola's 68000 chip) but were never released, including a 3D color vector game. The Motorola 68000 is a 16/32-bit CISC Microprocessor core designed and marketed by Freescale Semiconductor (formerly Motorola Semiconductor 3D computer graphics (in contrast to 2D computer graphics) are graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data that is stored in the computer

Raster, laserdisc games and beyond

About 1982, Cinematronics started releasing games which used raster display, such as Naughty Boy and "Zzyzzyxx". Year 1982 ( MCMLXXXII) was a Common year starting on Friday (link displays the 1982 Gregorian calendar) In Computer graphics, a raster graphics image or bitmap, is a Data structure representing a generally rectangular grid of Pixels During this time Cinematronics filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Chapter 11 is a chapter of the United States Bankruptcy Code, which permits reorganization under the Bankruptcy laws of the United States

In 1983 Cinematronics released Dragon's Lair, one of the first laserdisc-based arcade games. Year 1983 ( MCMLXXXIII) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays the 1983 Gregorian calendar) Dragon's Lair was one of the first Laserdisc video games released in June 1983 by Cinematronics. The Laserdisc (LD is an obsolete Home video disc format and was the first commercial Optical disc storage medium In order to finish the project they partnered with Advanced Microcomputer Systems (later renamed RDI Video Systems), who later tried to sell a home version of the laser-disc machine. RDI Video Systems was a video game company founded by Rick Dyer originally as "Advanced Microcomputer Systems" and was well known for its "laser disc video games" While RDI's home console, the Halcyon, was a failure, the Dragon's Lair arcade was a huge success. The Halcyon was a home video game console released in January of 1985 by RDI Video Systems. Cinematronics followed it up with the similar sci-fi-themed laserdisc game, Space Ace. Space Ace is a Laserdisc video game produced by Don Bluth Studios Cinematronics, and Advanced Microcomputer Systems (later renamed RDI Video In about 1985 some prototype animation material for a Dragon's Lair sequel was produced, but due to the lack of an agreement between Cinematronics and the animator, Don Bluth, this material sat unused for years, eventually becoming part of the Dragon's Lair II: Time Warp game in the 1990s. Year 1985 ( MCMLXXXV) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link displays 1985 Gregorian calendar) Donald Virgil Bluth (born September 13, 1937 in El Paso Texas) is an American Animator and independent studio owner Dragon's Lair II Time Warp is a 1991 Laserdisc video game. It is regarded as the first "true" sequel to Dragon's Lair.

About 1984, Cinematronics released 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. Year 1984 ( MCMLXXXIV) was a Leap year starting on Sunday (link displays the 1984 Gregorian calendar)

About 1987, Cinematronics was acquired by Tradewest and renamed the Leland Corporation and continued to make arcade and PC game software. Year 1987 ( MCMLXXXVII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link displays 1987 Gregorian calendar) Tradewest is a now-defunct Video game company based in Corsicana Texas that produced numerous games in the 1980s and early 1990s Tradewest was bought out by WMS in 1991 to become their console division. WMS Industries Inc ( is a long-standing American electronic gaming and amusement company based in Waukegan Illinois.

Cinematronics, LLC, a completely separate entity with no connection to the original arcade game creator, was founded in 1994 by David Stafford, Mike Sandige and Kevin Gliner. They primarily developed games for Windows and Macintosh systems, including Full Tilt! Pinball, Jack Nicklaus 4, Tritryst and Marble Drop, among others. Full Tilt! Pinball (known simply as Full Tilt!) is a Pinball Video game developed by Cinematronics and published by Maxis in Jack Nicklaus 4 is a 1997 Computer game published by Accolade. Marble Drop is a Puzzle game published by Maxis on March 30, 1997. Ultimately they were sold to Maxis in 1996 and became Maxis South, the California publisher's Texas-based development studio. Maxis Software is an American company that was founded as a Video game developer and is now a brand name of Electronic Arts (EA Year 1996 ( MCMXCVI) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display full 1996 Gregorian calendar) David Stafford left Maxis South in 1997. Year 1997 ( MCMXCVII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1997 Gregorian calendar The other two founders, Mike Sandige and Kevin Gliner, left when Electronic Arts acquired Maxis later that same year. Maxis Software is an American company that was founded as a Video game developer and is now a brand name of Electronic Arts (EA

The Space Cadet table from Full Tilt! has been bundled with Microsoft Windows ever since the Windows 95 Plus! pack was released. Microsoft Windows is a series of Software Operating systems and Graphical user interfaces produced by Microsoft. Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented Graphical user interface -based Operating system. Microsoft Plus! is a commercial Operating system enhancement product by Microsoft.

Games

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External links

Klov (Клов is a historical neighbourhood in the Ukrainian capital Kiev ( Kyiv)
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