Mirco Games

Mirco Games Inc. was a manufacturer of coin-operated games based in Phoenix, Arizona founded in 1973. The company was a subsidiary of electronics manufacturer Mirco Inc, producing foosball tables and coin-operated video games through the 1970s. They notably created a few of the earliest games incorporating microprocessors, including The Spirit of ’76, the first commercially available pinball utilizing the technology. The company was eventually sold in 1980 to Amstar Electronics.

Mirco Games Inc.

Company type	Defunct
Industry	Coin-operated Games
Founded	December 26, 1973; 50 years ago (1973-12-26) in Phoenix, Arizona, United States
Founders	Richard N. Raymond, John L. Walsh
Defunct	1980; 44 years ago (1980)
Fate	Sold to Amstar Electronics
Products	Video games

History

The roots of Mirco Games lie in the company Arizona Automation, an importer of foosball tables founded by Richard “Dick” N. Raymond and John L. Walsh. Walsh and Raymond had worked together at General Electric in Germany and discovered the popularity of foosball in Europe, which had not yet taken off in the United States. Raymond opened Arizona Automation in a 600 foot office space in 1970 in Phoenix, Arizona with Walsh serving as the import agent in Germany. Their tables were marketed under the name Champion Soccer. Within a year, Raymond bought out Walsh’s shares in the company.^[1]

Subsequently, the German mark suffered in value, leading to Arizona Automation tables domestically. Using manufacturing materials in both the United States and Taiwan, Raymond found great success as the popularity for foosball boomed in the country. Within four years, the company achieved sales of $1 million.^[1][2]

In November 1971, Joe Walsh along with Robert Kessler and Bruce Kinkler formed electronics company Mirco Incorporated, producing both electronics testing hardware and software.^[1][3][4] To help finance the expansion of this business, Micro purchased the assets of Arizona Automation to get into the coin-op market. On December 26, 1973, Micro Games Inc. was formed with all of Arizona Automation’s staff and product transferred to the new company.^[1][5]

In 1974, Mirco Games published the book Table Soccer Rules and Strategy by Bob and Steve Edgell. One of the earliest books aimed at competitive coin-operated games, the company agreed to publish the book in exchange for one of their tables being featured on the cover. The book helped to spur competitive foosball to new heights, attracting mainstream interest in the craze. Mirco Games itself promoted foosball tournaments, spurring adoption of their tables in large numbers.^[2][6] They eventually captured 10% of the foosball table market. Bob Edgell subsequently joined Mirco Games in a marketing role.^[7][8]

Using their combined expertise in coin-operated games and electronics, Micro Games expanded into electronic games starting in 1973. They first manufactured a number of Pong clones including Champion Ping-Pong (1973) and Challenge (1974). This new revenue stream helped grow the company from $1 million in the foosball trade to $7.3 million in 1975 – $6.1 million of which was from video games. Mirco also offered test equipment services to the coin-op industry through their Mirco Electronic Distributors subsidiary and opened manufacturing plants in Australia and Germany.^{[1][5][9][10]}

Mirco Inc. started exploring early microprocessors after a number of engineers and managers at the company arrived from Motorola,^[11] which had released the 8-bit Motorola 6800 microprocessor. In 1975, Mirco Games was approached by engineer David Nutting who had led the project to convert an electro-mechanical pinball table to be powered by a microprocessor. After Nutting shipped Mirco Games one of his prototypes, a team led by former Motorola engineers created The Spirit of ’76 (1975) based on the Motorola 6800 microprocessor.

When shown at the 1975 Music Operators of America show, The Spirit of ’76 was the first commercially available pinball game using a microprocessor.^[12] However, Mirco Games had no prior experience manufacturing pinball tables, and the game was not in a finalized state. The initial units shipped in November 1975 were over-engineered and defective, causing a halt to production in March of 1976. The table sold 140 units;^[13] its failure caused Mirco to not pursue the pinball business until reentering the market with cocktail table pinball model Lucky Draw (1978). At the same show, Mirco also introduced one of the earliest microprocessor-based video games, PT-109 (1975), utilizing the Fairchild F8 microprocessor – which also sold poorly.^[12]

In January 1976, Mirco entered into an agreement with Fairchild Camera & Instrument to create a dedicated home video game console based on their Challenge arcade machine.^[1] The deal subsequently fell apart, resulting in a lawsuit over the terms of the agreement in 1977.^[14][15][16] Micro Inc's financial situation took a serious hit as a result of the game business, with The Spirit of '76, the Fairchild agreement, and the formation of their German subsidiary being blamed for the company's first reported loss in fiscal 1977. This situation led to a firing of 50% of staff and a 10% reduction in pay for those remaining.^[13]

The company continued releasing coin-operated video games in a number of genres. These included racing games, flight combat games, and card games. Beginning with 21 (1976), Mirco found a niche in video adaptation of gambling-adjacent “gray market” games. Co-founder of Mirco Inc, John Walsh, went onto form Intermark Industries which distributed gray market video games similar to those produced under Mirco Games.^[17]

The last game from the company was published in 1979. In 1980, Mirco Games and Mirco Games GmbH in Germany were sold by to Amstar Electronics, licensors of the game Phoenix (1980), whom Mirco had previously done distribution for.^{[18][19][20][21]}

Products

Coin-Operated Games

Foosball Tables

• Champion Soccer (1971)^[22] as Arizona Automation
• Champion Soccer Club (1973)^[23] as Arizona Automation (not coin-operated, sold to the home)
• Grand Champion (1975)^[24]
• Grand Champ (1975)^[24][25] (not coin-operated, sold to the home)
• Maverick (1975)^[24][26]
• Grand Champion VI (January 1977)^[27]

Arcade video games

• Champion Ping-Pong (1973) originally released as Arizona Automation, later as Mirco Games.
• Challenge (April 1974)^[28][29]
• Slam (August 1975)^{[30][31][32][33]}
• PT-109 (1975)^[34][35]
• Skywar (May 1976)^[36][37][38]
• 21 (September 1976)^[39][40]
• Super Stud (December 1976)^[27]
• Super 21 (August 1977)^[41][42]
• Formula M Vroom (November 1977)^[43]
• Dawn Patrol (June 1978)^[44]
• Hold & Draw (1978)^[45][46][47]
• Break In (1978)^[48]
• Hi-Lo Jackpot (1979)^[18]

Electro-mechanical Games

• Scramble (June 1975)^[30][49]

Pinball

• The Spirit of '76 (1975)^[12][50][51]
• Lucky Draw (June 1978)^[52][53]

References

1. Bernhardt, Kenneth L.; Kinnear, Thomas C. (1978). Cases in marketing management. Dallas, Texas: Business Publications Inc. pp. 551–565. ISBN 0-256-02081-7.
2. "Mirco & Champion". RePlay. 1 (18): 17. 1976-02-28.
3. "PC Faults Located Through 'Flash II'". Computerworld the Newsweekly for the Computer Community. 7 (37): 16. 1973-09-12.
4. Franson, Paul (1974-07-11). "Portable tester checks complex logic". Electronics. 47 (15): 125–126.
5. "Arizona Auto. & Mirco, Inc. Merge". Cash Box: 51. 1974-02-23.
6. "Operator Sales & Mirco Stage Soccer Bout; 395 Teams Compete for Cash and Prizes". Cash Box: 51. 1974-05-11.
7. "Edgell Named Mirco's Dir. of Marketing". Cash Box: 45. 1976-05-01.
8. "Edgell And Reinhardt Promote At Mirco". Cash Box: 41, 43. 1976-12-18.
9. "Mirco Expands U.S. Facilities: Opens European Subsid.-Germany". Cash Box: 46. 1975-11-15.
10. "Mirco Games Opens Factory in Germany". Mir Co-Operator. 1 (1): 1. 1975.
11. "Connors App. Mirco President". Cash Box: 43. 1975-05-31.
12. "Mirco Intro's 'Spirit of '76' Computerized Pinball And 'PT 109' Video Game at MOA Expo". Cash Box: 38. 1975-11-08.
13. Bailey, Clarence W. (1977-05-01). "Young firm survives crises in too-rapid growth". Arizona Republic. pp. D-16, D-21.
14. "Mirco hits Fairchild with $6 million lawsuit". Play Meter. 4 (1): 32. January 1978.
15. "Mirco Suit". RePlay. 3 (3): 58. December 1977.
16. "Fairchild sues Mirco". Play Meter. 4 (7): 56. 1978-04-07.
17. "John Walsh Forms Intermark Indus". Cash Box: 52–53. 1979-02-17.
18. "See the Exclusive". RePlay: 44. November 1979.
19. "Other games". Play Meter. 6 (19): 121. October 1980.
20. Kirk, Steve (1980-12-15). "The Game Reviews: 'Missile command' and 'Moon Cresta'-- recommended". Play Meter. 6 (23): 128–129, 131.
21. "Amstar Runs Up Amusement Factory Flag". RePlay. 6 (2): 118. November 1980.
22. "MOA Exhibits SRO; Advance Red Good And Seminar Tops". Cash Box: 43. 1971-10-02.
23. "Ariz. Automation Markets Home Model". Cash Box: 54. 1973-02-17.
24. "The Magnificent Seven". Cash Box: Part III - Coin Machines 11. 1975-07-05.
25. "The 'Grand Champ'". Cash Box: 31. 1975-08-30.
26. "The Magnificent Seven". Play Meter. 1 (7): 12. June–July 1975.
27. "Mirco Introduces Two New Products". Cash Box: 41. 1976-12-18.
28. "Free Play". Cash Box: 50. 1974-04-13.
29. "Chicago Chatter". Cash Box. 35 (42): 52. 1974-04-20.
30. "Two all new games from MIRCO. The people who brought you Challenge". Play Meter. 1 (6): 41. May 1975.
31. "Micro Intro's "Slam" Video Cocktail Table". Cash Box: 39. 1975-08-02.
32. "Mirco Games Introduces Video Cocktail Table". Vending Times. 15 (8): 48. August 1975.
33. "Slam features skill and speed". Play Meter. 1 (8): 44. August 1975.
34. "Microprocessor gives action to table". Play Meter. 1 (11): 52. November 1975.
35. "Mirco Games Introduces PT-109 Video Game". Vending Times. 16 (1): 47. January 1976.
36. "Aces rocket to heroism in Skywar". Play Meter. 2 (5): 46. May 1976.
37. "Mirco Bows Upright & Cocktail "Skywar"". RePlay. 1 (30): 13. May 1976.
38. "'Skywar' New Air-Battle 2-Player Game From Mirco". Cash Box: 43. 1976-05-08.
39. "Video Blackjack". Play Meter. 2 (9): 40. September 1976.
40. "Mirco Intro's Its "21" Video". RePlay. 1 (43): 22. August 1976.
41. "Mirco Releases 'Super 21' Cocktail". Cash Box: 65. 1977-08-06.
42. "Mirco releases Super 21". Play Meter. 3 (17): 48. September 1977.
43. "New Game". Cash Box: 63. 1977-11-05.
44. "Dogfight at dawn". Play Meter. 4 (11): 60. 1978-06-15.
45. "California Clippings". Cash Box: 50. 1978-07-15.
46. "Mirco Introduces New 'Hold & Draw' Electronic Upright Video Poker Game". Cash Box: 45. 1978-07-22.
47. "Computer card game". Play Meter. 4 (15): 46. 1978-08-15.
48. "Mirco introduces gaming machines". Play Meter. 4 (9): 27. 1978-05-15.
49. "Mirco Games Introduces Scramble". Vending Times. 15 (6): 46. June 1975.
50. "Mirco enters pinball market with Spirit". Play Meter. 1 (11): 52. November 1975.
51. "Mirco Games Introduces Spirit of '76 Pin Game". Vending Times. 15 (11): 86. November 1975.
52. "Cocktail Model Pinball Game Is Marketed By Mirco". Cash Box: 50. 1978-06-17.
53. "Sitdown pingame". Play Meter. 4 (13): 70. 1978-07-15.