The Story On CBS Electronics

[NovaXpress]

We've had some questions about CBS lately so I did some digging and may have discovered a 2600 developer that you never knew existed.

 

CBS Electronics was an arm of the Columbia Broadcasting System, which is now being spun off of parent company Viacom.

CBS Chronology

1982 - CBS forms video game unit to market video games domestically and internationally.

But where did CBS get those first games? Look at the copyrights for Gorf and Wizard of Wor. They belong to Gabriel Industries, a toy company owned by CBS which is best known as the maker of the Erector Set, Tiddly Winks and Othello. So is Gabriel Industries a heretofore unknown developer? It would seem so. Their name only appears on those first two releases.

Creative Computing Spring 1982

Then came the Toy Fair in New York in February, and more action. Parker Bros announced Atari cartridges, as did CBS/Gabriel and even arch-rival Mattel . . . CBS, who will issue cartridges through CBS Video Games, a division of CBS's Gabriel Industries (the toy and game maker). In CBS's hip pocket is an arrangement with Bally, whereby CBS will have the video and computer game rights to new Bally arcade games for the next four years.

Gabriel was soon folded into CBS's Ideal Toys, which was sold to ViewMaster in 1986. Intersting that Gabriel was hyped as much as CBS in the intitial video game press. Also interesting that the deal with Bally apparently collapsed a year later.

 

Now, onto an error that just about everyone seems to make (even AtariAge). . .

Coleco released many of their titles under the CBS name in Europe.

Not true, just look at the cartridge scans. CBS simply licensed Coleco's games. CBS was clearly the publisher, not Coleco.

[Rom Hunter]

Interesting stuff, NovaXpress.

 

Thanks for sharing this.

 

And it's a good thing that you mentioned the fact that CBS (and not Coleco) was the publisher.

That error is indeed still floating around (just like the Spectravideo-being-the-European-Spectravision-brand-name error).

 

Edited January 22, 2006 by Rom Hunter

[George Gray]

We've had some questions about CBS lately so I did some digging and may have discovered a 2600 developer that you never knew existed.

 

CBS Electronics was an arm of the Columbia Broadcasting System, which is now being spun off of parent company Viacom.

CBS Chronology

1982 - CBS forms video game unit to market video games domestically and internationally.

But where did CBS get those first games? Look at the copyrights for Gorf and Wizard of Wor. They belong to Gabriel Industries, a toy company owned by CBS which is best known as the maker of the Erector Set, Tiddly Winks and Othello. So is Gabriel Industries a heretofore unknown developer? It would seem so. Their name only appears on those first two releases.

Creative Computing Spring 1982

Then came the Toy Fair in New York in February, and more action. Parker Bros announced Atari cartridges, as did CBS/Gabriel and even arch-rival Mattel . . . CBS, who will issue cartridges through CBS Video Games, a division of CBS's Gabriel Industries (the toy and game maker). In CBS's hip pocket is an arrangement with Bally, whereby CBS will have the video and computer game rights to new Bally arcade games for the next four years.

Gabriel was soon folded into CBS's Ideal Toys, which was sold to ViewMaster in 1986. Intersting that Gabriel was hyped as much as CBS in the intitial video game press. Also interesting that the deal with Bally apparently collapsed a year later.

 

Now, onto an error that just about everyone seems to make (even AtariAge). . .

Coleco released many of their titles under the CBS name in Europe.

Not true, just look at the cartridge scans. CBS simply licensed Coleco's games. CBS was clearly the publisher, not Coleco.

1004673[/snapback]

Good Job! Looks like I need to hone my Googleskill abit more!

 

Thanks for the clarification.

[Student Driver]

We've had some questions about CBS lately so I did some digging and may have discovered a 2600 developer that you never knew existed.

 

CBS Electronics was an arm of the Columbia Broadcasting System, which is now being spun off of parent company Viacom.

CBS Chronology

1982 - CBS forms video game unit to market video games domestically and internationally.

But where did CBS get those first games? Look at the copyrights for Gorf and Wizard of Wor. They belong to Gabriel Industries, a toy company owned by CBS which is best known as the maker of the Erector Set, Tiddly Winks and Othello. So is Gabriel Industries a heretofore unknown developer? It would seem so. Their name only appears on those first two releases.

1004673[/snapback]

 

Thanks for the detective work; it should put to rest the little controversy that was brewing there.

 

To flesh out the history, I looked up when Gilbert Industries was purchased by CBS. It happened in 1981 (or 1978 according to one dissenting page I found), and Gilbert was apparently the foundation upon which CBS built their short-lived game and toy company. By the look of the timeline, the name of the single company changed from Gilbert Industries -> Gilbert CBS Toys -> CBS Toys before being sold off to View-Master. I infer from this that Gilbert Industries, as a specific developer for the 2600, is simply a prior name for CBS Toys, rather than it being a separate division of CBS Toys, so I'm not sure if they'd qualify as an unknown developer.

[NovaXpress]

By the look of the timeline, the name of the single company changed from Gilbert Industries -> Gilbert CBS Toys -> CBS Toys before being sold off to View-Master.

Not according to this page, which says that in 1982 Gabriel was changed to Ideal. It looks like CBS Toys was the spun-off video game department.

Erector Set History

 

I infer from this that Gilbert Industries, as a specific developer for the 2600, is simply a prior name for CBS Toys, rather than it being a separate division of CBS Toys, so I'm not sure if they'd qualify as an unknown developer.

Yes, I couldn't figure out how to categorize this development.

 

Gabriel was to CBS as Atari was to Warner. So what if the company name had changed in 82 and we were playing a Warner 5200? Is it the same company? I don't know. It's at least an interesting note that Gabriel was the genesis of this project. Did they hire out all experienced 2600 programmers (such as nabbing Apollo's star Ed Salvo for Mountain King) or develop new talent? There aren't many CBS programmer credits in the AA database. Gorf was created by Alex Leavens (Crazy Climber) and is apparently his first game.

 

Historical note: look at how fast the board game companies moved into the video game business? Parker, Gabriel, Coleco, and Mattel all made the jump around the same time (the others were probably jealous of Mattel's 81 revenue).

Edited January 22, 2006 by NovaXpress

[Jess Ragan]

Heck, even Quaker Oats had its own video game division for a couple of years (U.S. Games). Everybody was getting into the action back in the early 1980's!

 

This is great information, though... thanks for doing the research on this, Nova. It's kind of weird just how much the industry, and the structure of corporations as a whole, changes over the years. For instance, Paramount owned Sega, but sold it off to Bally/Midway... then Paramount was purchased by Viacom, then Viacom owner Sumner Redfield bought Midway and CBS, but not CBS Games since that had been sold to the Viewmaster Corporation (now owned by Mattel, designers of the Intellivision). Try wrapping your head around all THAT!

 

JR

[Student Driver]

Not according to this page, which says that in 1982 Gabriel was changed to Ideal. It looks like CBS Toys was the spun-off video game department.

 

Funny how every page regarding Gabriel Toys ends up being a page about Erector Set history. I ran across some mentions of Ideal as well, and it seems like there was some kind of subdivision arranging going on, with Gabriel being subsumed under some larger umbrella. Looking at more pages, it looks like Gabriel was made a part of Ideal, with the Ideal group being sold to View-Master in the mid-80s. When that reorganization would happen would affect the name of the developer of the games, I imagine.

 

It makes me wonder who owns the copyrights? Despite it all being the same company at one point, each division would hold different elements. If CBS created a separate division for the video game releases, they would own the copyrights. However, if CBS Games was a label that belonged to the Gabriel division, View-Master would probably hold the copyrights now.

 

Historical note: look at how fast the board game companies moved into the video game business? Parker, Gabriel, Coleco, and Mattel all made the jump around the same time (the others were probably jealous of Mattel's 81 revenue).

1004844[/snapback]

 

Avalon Hill and Milton Bradley, too. Selchow & Righter went into electronic handhelds and computer games...