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A batch of previously unseen videos from the Golden Age of coin-operated gaming for you this week. <\/p>\n
Lyle Raines was one of Atari Coin-Op\u2019s most influential employees. He arrived at Atari with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of California in Berkeley, where he graduated in 1973. He had a big hand in the creation of Asteroids <\/em>(arguably Atari\u2019s biggest arcade hit) and went on to become a senior executive of the Coin-Op division helping steer the company through its golden age years of the late 70s and early 80s. <\/p>\n Whilst being known as a quiet unassuming figure, his influence is well documented, bringing conceptualised ideas through to commercial reality on the arcade floors. <\/p>\n I\u2019ve dug out a couple of videos and thought they were worth sharing here. Note this is largely unedited b-roll footage (which sort of adds to the authenticity and charm) and as far as I know, were never screened on TV. <\/p>\n The first is interesting in that Raines initially showcases and talks through vector graphic development. Of note here is that the rotating spaceship that is shown, appears to be one of the 3D models developed for use in Tomcat <\/em>\u2013 an unreleased concept idea based on jetfighters led by by Jed Margolin. You can read more about Tomcat <\/em>from my previous post here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Raines goes onto demonstrate a light pen used to create on screen characters in raster games. Hardly groundbreaking stuff today, but back then, this was cutting edge graphic development!<\/p>\n Its an interesting watch\u2026<\/p>\n \n