US GAMES - VIDTEC, what is the link?

[lucifershalo]

games like Sneak N Peek and Space Jockey are from the same company as Raft Riders and Piece o' Cake, right? from US GAMES

but why that Vidtec subdivision and different label styles?

anyone knows?

[Frizo]

Good question...

 

but, sadly, i dont know the answer

 

(Yes, even I can be wrong... /sarcasam)

[Tempest]

I think Vidtech did the original batch of games for US Games and they just marketed them. Just like Sirius did for TCF.

 

Tempest

[CRV]

I think Vidtec was just a brand (like M Network).

 

Apparently, US Games wasn't always owned by Quaker Oats. This book called "The General Mills/Parker Brothers Merger" mentions that Quaker Oats sold it less than a year after acquiring it.

[yuppicide]

Interesting reading. Wish Page 204 was there.

[+Psionic]

I think Vidtech did the original batch of games for US Games and they just marketed them. Just like Sirius did for TCF.

I think Vidtec was just a brand (like M Network).

 

Apparently, US Games wasn't always owned by Quaker Oats. This book called "The General Mills/Parker Brothers Merger" mentions that Quaker Oats sold it less than a year after acquiring it.

They are one and the same.

 

Vidtec/U.S. Games was started in early 1982 by a group of individuals which included Jim Wickstead (of James Wickstead Design Associates), which is why JWDA developed most of their game titles. Fisher-Price/Quaker Oats purchased a controlling interest in the company or bought it outright before the first games were published. Quaker subsequently contracted other developers to program games for them (Western Technologies and at least one other one). Quaker dissolved or unloaded the company when the market for 2600 games began to tank, which is how NAP ended up with the publishing rights to the 2600 Pink Panther game (which they ultimately never released either).

[Rom Hunter]

Somewhere I read that Kandy Man Sales Inc. took over the whole U.S. Games (and Telesys and Data Age) stock.

 

Edited June 17, 2009 by Rom Hunter

[+Psionic]

Somewhere I read that Kandy Man Sales Inc. took over the whole U.S. Games (and Telesys and Data Age) stock.

They may have purchased some of the unsold stock, but it's highly unlikely they purchased the rights to the games themselves. Also, Telesys's unsold stock was apparently destroyed.

[CRV]

I found an article (PDF) about Quaker Oats purchasing "all home video game related assets of U.S. Games Corporation." As I suspected, Vidtec was a brand name. The president of U.S. Games mentioned here, Donald Yu, was later president of Froggo Games.

[tomarone]

Vidtek USGames was originally Fisher-Price. Later sold to Quaker Oats I suppose but I don't remember that part. I worked on many of those games as programmer, engineer, audio. The Kitchen brothers were involved early on (at least 2 of them I believe) but left and other people like me took over the SW. Probably our biggest game was Little Computer People initial programming.

[CRV]

Vidtek USGames was originally Fisher-Price. Later sold to Quaker Oats I suppose but I don't remember that part. I worked on many of those games as programmer, engineer, audio. The Kitchen brothers were involved early on (at least 2 of them I believe) but left and other people like me took over the SW. Probably our biggest game was Little Computer People initial programming.

 

Did you work for Wickstead Design?

[tomarone]

Yes. Here is an original video of the artist before starting at Wickstead Design. We worked there 1982 to 1988, starting right after Space Jockey, up to Little Computer People.

[CRV]

I'm curious about Death Star Battle. The 2600 version's sometimes credited to a Ray Miller from Parker Brothers. Did you guys do that from the ground up, or was that based on a design from Parker?

Edited July 23, 2014 by CRV

[tomarone]

First of all, "Raft Riders and Piece o' Cake" no, that must've been a different developer. (not our company fisher-price/vidtek/usgames hired JWDA. I am working on a web site but have no time! JWDA_games on facebook and JWDAGames.net)... But for your question: Ray Miller might've worked on the design but we programmed it, did the art, I did the audio (ALL of it, SW and writing) and we probably did 90% of the user interface, Ray might've written the thematic structure. That was a game we worked hard on, and it shows off some of the great Atari VCS 2600 sound chip which had a warmth quality. We figured most of the action there (holes, death star interaction, etc.) so let's list ALL the JWDA games. Note that the Kitchen brothers (I think Dan and Gary, Steve I think did not work at JWDA but he is notable for the space shuttle game)...started there but left early, after Space Jockey and Sneak'n'Peak. I started then, first project was Word Zapper audio.

[tomarone]

JWDA (vidtek, parker, quaker oats, coleco etc) Space Jockey, Sneak'n'peak, Word Zapper, Commando Raid, Squeeze Box, Mouse Trap, Eggomania, Gopher, Name This Game (octopus/guardians of the treasure) Return Of The Jedi Death Star Battle, Smurf Rescue, Montezuma's Revenge VCS I believe, Qberts Qubes VCS and PCJr, etc. (I did the VCS one) ..Garry Kitchen's Game Maker for the Apple-II. (I pushed the speaker in and out for that one)...

Little Computer People (C-64, Apple 2) We did some translations for TI-9900 (A great computer!) like Frogger. We also did 2 super-games that never got published. I'd like to see art but doubt it will ever be seen.

Pink Panther and Tarzan for the Atari-VCS were custom carts with extra memory, and were never built, but we worked a lot on them!

Robin will probably show up here at some point, the artist, who did all the art. (designed the characters for LCP).

JWDA also did the PXL-2000, and the Ohio Art Etch-A-Sketch Animator original version. The games for that were my project and I freaked out then and quit, and quit smoking then, around 1988. Then the Nintendo started up, and some of the folks from JWDA went to a company in north jersey,..Acclaim Entertainment.

[tomarone]

BUT JWDA is still around but Jim will probably retire soon. James Wickstead Design Associates. Another interesting fact! They started with a red LED game called WildFire, probably the first hand held LED game.

[+freewheel]

Got a Wildfire in my basement. Pretty damned cool pinball simulator, especially for its time. Like everything from that era, I always figured it was a smallish group of people who were involved in everything electronic gaming, but didn't know this connection.

[CRV]

Vidtek USGames was originally Fisher-Price. Later sold to Quaker Oats I suppose but I don't remember that part.

 

Quaker Oats bought Fisher-Price in 1969. U.S. Games was originally independent, and apparently Jim Wickstead was a founding member. They did a couple of LED games in the beginning.

 

 

First of all, "Raft Riders and Piece o' Cake" no, that must've been a different developer.

 

Entombed, M.A.D., Picnic, Piece O' Cake, Raft Rider, and Towering Inferno were developed by Western Technologies.

 

 

Note that the Kitchen brothers (I think Dan and Gary, Steve I think did not work at JWDA but he is notable for the space shuttle game)...started there but left early, after Space Jockey and Sneak'n'Peak.

 

Garry and Dan worked on electronic toys/games there. I seem to recall Garry saying in an interview that he did Space Jockey and was trying to convince Wickstead to get into video games to no avail. Wickstead changed his mind after Garry left.

 

I have an entry for Wickstead Design on my site. The games come from an official list (scan's on the site). Is there anything missing? Thanks.

[tomarone]

Hi, what is missing (reading my comments from 10 years ago) is mention of the artist, Robin McDaniel (now Ballweg) her art on all the games (Eggomania's underwear, Little Computer People's dog is a portrait of her own Westie, etc) she might even have some original art lying around her house, and I might have some original code listings. I have no idea if floppies survive 30 years. The art and animations and her comments would probably be valuable, seeing as how there are always new artists learning from old ones. When I showed her the Nyan cat it was a revelation to her because she thought no one cared about the old style 2D pixellated stuff anymore!

[tomarone]

I created a music performance cart on the 2600/vcs, but it was never captured, I'll try to get that out. It plays different VCS music when you hit buttons. Again, the VCS sound quality was unique, they tried to emulate it on the 5200 and the result was tinny!

Edited July 24, 2014 by tomarone

[+freewheel]

Floppies often survive 30 years. If you really think original source code sits on some of these, I guarantee you there are people here who'd be very interested in this. This community has some of the most avid documentations I've ever seen.

[CRV]

Hi, what is missing (reading my comments from 10 years ago) is mention of the artist, Robin McDaniel (now Ballweg) her art on all the games (Eggomania's underwear, Little Computer People's dog is a portrait of her own Westie, etc) she might even have some original art lying around her house, and I might have some original code listings.

 

Did she do the entire Eggomania "death" animation? That was actually very impressive.

[tomarone]

Yes, you mean the ice skating, flying up dress, and flying up etc. Robin is getting some knee surgery and told me she will try to get her account here later.

[CRV]

Yes, you mean the ice skating, flying up dress, and flying up etc. Robin is getting some knee surgery and told me she will try to get her account here later.

 

This is being discussed in another thread: Do you know if Guardians of Treasure is Name This Game?

Edited August 4, 2014 by CRV

[tomarone]

Yes Guardians Of the Treasure was the internal JWDA (wickstead) name before it was eventually named "Name This Game" by usgames when it was ready to publish.