high voltage Posted June 16, 2013 Share Posted June 16, 2013 What's known about Universal Games? One of those companies which released one title, X Man and that was it. Is it like one of those mystery companies like the Air Raid or Birthday Mania people? What's the story? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rom Hunter Posted June 18, 2013 Share Posted June 18, 2013 Same company as Gameworld: http://www.atarimania.com/list_games_atari-2600-vcs-p_total-page-step-publisher_9-1-200-109_2_G.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marco Posted June 18, 2013 Share Posted June 18, 2013 is there any connection to Spectravision? Cheers, Marco Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
high voltage Posted June 18, 2013 Author Share Posted June 18, 2013 (edited) Same company as Gameworld: http://www.atarimani...00-109_2_G.html Gameworld UK or Dutch company? Ah OK a USA company releasing only PAL titles in Europe? Edited June 18, 2013 by high voltage Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rom Hunter Posted June 18, 2013 Share Posted June 18, 2013 AFAIK Gameworld was a US company. Marco, Apart from the same cartridge type, I never found a connection. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Atari_Warlord Posted June 19, 2013 Share Posted June 19, 2013 The text manual in the database lists a service address of 8750 Halloway Drive, Los Angeles CA 90069. This may be a typo or the street name may have changed to Holloway, which is in West Hollywood and looks like it may have been a small store front of some kind. There are 3 companies registered with "Gamex" in the name in California. The only one that is close to LA and has the right date is "Gamex Corporation". It was registered August 1, 1978 and is of course defunct at this point. There are no owner names in the database, but it has an address of 19241 Superior Street, Northridge, CA 91324. It appears there is some kind of small retirement center at this location now called The Aging Connection. The resident names I found did not appear to match any of the names printed on the box. Speaking of which, H.K. probably just means Honk Kong, right? The designer Alan Roberts might be one of the people that were involved with the recent movie that was blamed for all the muslim unrest last year. It appears from several news articles he was probably just hired to do some tasks and was not involved in any of the agenda the producer had. The articles from last fall seem to out him as the director, but more recent ones seem to back off that claim. If you look through his resume on IMDB, he has the 70's softcore background that would make this game a natural idea for him. I just did a search for his old company "Alan Roberts Productions, Inc." and it has the agent address as 8750 Holloway Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90069. This is the man behind the game. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Atari_Warlord Posted June 19, 2013 Share Posted June 19, 2013 I also just found a book titled "Porn and Pong: How Grand Theft Auto, Tomb Raider and Other Sexy Games Changed Our Culture" which has a paragraph about the game and a brief interview with Mr. Roberts on page 32. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
high voltage Posted June 19, 2013 Author Share Posted June 19, 2013 Maybe he could come here and talk about X Man One of my favorite VCS games actually Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Atari_Warlord Posted June 19, 2013 Share Posted June 19, 2013 After reading a little more, I think he did direct the film but is claiming he was scammed by the producer too. His real name is Robert Alan Brownell. It looks like he is currently working on the post production for a dance film of East Side Story. I couldn't find anyway to contact him, but someone that works in LA/Hollywood might know the secret code to reach him. He is understandably trying to keep a low profile for his own safety. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TwinChargers Posted June 22, 2013 Share Posted June 22, 2013 Holy research Waggie! Way to go! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Psionic Posted April 2, 2017 Share Posted April 2, 2017 After reading a little more, I think he did direct the film but is claiming he was scammed by the producer too. His real name is Robert Alan Brownell. It looks like he is currently working on the post production for a dance film of East Side Story. I couldn't find anyway to contact him, but someone that works in LA/Hollywood might know the secret code to reach him. He is understandably trying to keep a low profile for his own safety. Unfortunately, any info about Gamex won't be coming from the X-Man himself. I tried to get in contact with him a while back with no luck. I decided to attempt tracking him down again recently, only to discover that he died last summer at age 69 of causes unknown. http://www.markballenmortuary.net/notices/Robert-Brownell Details are sparse as he was cremated and there doesn't appear to have been a service (or if there was it must've been private). But it appears he did leave a wife or ex-wife named Annmarie Brownell, who was formerly listed as the agent for his company Alan Roberts Productions, and who was credited in a few pictures he worked on back in the late 70s. Looks like they may have a daughter named Patricia Brown as well. I also just found a book titled "Porn and Pong: How Grand Theft Auto, Tomb Raider and Other Sexy Games Changed Our Culture" which has a paragraph about the game and a brief interview with Mr. Roberts on page 32. The quotes in that book came from another source, most likely the interview with him that originally appeared in the October 1983 issue of Videogaming and Computergaming Illustrated. In that piece, he talked about X-Man and an Emmanuelle game that was supposedly being worked on. There are 3 companies registered with "Gamex" in the name in California. The only one that is close to LA and has the right date is "Gamex Corporation". It was registered August 1, 1978 and is of course defunct at this point. There are no owner names in the database, but it has an address of 19241 Superior Street, Northridge, CA 91324. It appears there is some kind of small retirement center at this location now called The Aging Connection. The resident names I found did not appear to match any of the names printed on the box. Speaking of which, H.K. probably just means Honk Kong, right? I just did a search for his old company "Alan Roberts Productions, Inc." and it has the agent address as 8750 Holloway Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90069. This is the man behind the game. I believe it's highly probable that none of those companies in the database had anything to do with this one, and that no such company as "Universal Gamex Corp." ever actually existed. "Gamex" and "Gameworld" could have simply been brand monikers used by Alan Roberts Productions, or they could have been a division of that company. The fact that they used the same address only reinforces this. As I've stated before, I also believe that H.K. Poon was a real person and the programmer of the game, not just some silly pun. Poon is a fairly common Cantonese surname. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Atari_Warlord Posted April 7, 2017 Share Posted April 7, 2017 Thanks for the update. These are always my favorite threads. I'm starting to come around on Poon, I did some searches and that last name came up a lot. I'm currently doing some Spectravideo research because of the cartridge shell being the same. They used a company in Hong Kong called Bondwell to produce their computers and games, so they may have done this one off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Psionic Posted July 25, 2019 Share Posted July 25, 2019 On 4/7/2017 at 11:58 AM, Atari_Warlord said: I'm currently doing some Spectravideo research because of the cartridge shell being the same. They used a company in Hong Kong called Bondwell to produce their computers and games, so they may have done this one off. Bondwell was a major shareholder in Spectravideo and eventually bought out the company. They produced all of the Spectravideo games and by extension undoubtedly manufactured both X-Man and Chase the Chuck Wagon, since those games use the same boards and shells as the Spectravideo titles. They also appear to have been involved in the Bomb games, which was discussed here... https://atariage.com/forums/topic/220577-possible-link-between-bomb-and-bondwellspectravideo/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Syzygy1 Posted July 27, 2019 Share Posted July 27, 2019 This topic is interesting. Imagine if there was an X-Man movie (cus the guy directed porno films in the late 70s.) I wonder why Marvel never sued him. Professor X, Storm, Wolverine... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Psionic Posted July 27, 2019 Share Posted July 27, 2019 1 hour ago, Syzygy1 said: This topic is interesting. Imagine if there was an X-Man movie (cus the guy directed porno films in the late 70s.) I wonder why Marvel never sued him. Professor X, Storm, Wolverine... Most likely because the game was not widely distributed and it probably flew under their radar, and also because companies weren't nearly as litigious in general back then as they are today. Nowadays, corporations have teams of lawyers protecting their intellectual properties just looking to sue people, and because of the internet and mass communication things get discovered and squashed relatively quickly. But it wasn't always like that and word traveled a lot slower back then, to say the least. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
high voltage Posted July 27, 2019 Author Share Posted July 27, 2019 5 hours ago, Syzygy1 said: This topic is interesting. Imagine if there was an X-Man movie (cus the guy directed porno films in the late 70s.) I wonder why Marvel never sued him. Professor X, Storm, Wolverine... The Marvel is spelled different though, X-Men Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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