The Cinematronics Thread

[NeoZeedeater]

Although their name is hardly known today, Cinematronics was one of the best video game makers of the '70's and early '80's. In the first half of their life they focused mostly on vector graphics-based arcade games. Unlike Atari which had considerable success with vector games like Asteroids and Tempest, Cinematronics' games rarely became huge hits.

The majority of Cinematronics' vector arcade games were ported beautifully to the Vectrex but unfortunately the machine never caught on and became a victim of the console industry crash.

Some of Cinematronics' best vector arcade/Vectrex games are:

Tailgunner, a first-person view shooter where you shoot from the back of a ship. The effect of movement with the stars zooming by is very impressive. Exidy re-released this game as Tailgunner 2 and added a
fancy sit-down cabinet.

http://www.klov.com/T/Tail_Gunner.html

Armor Attack, an overhead view game where you control a jeep in a maze fighting tanks and helicopters.

http://www.klov.com/A/Armor_Attack.html

Star Castle, one of Cinematronics' more successful games. You control a ship (with Asteroids-style thrust control) that must shoot through a fortress in the centre of the screen. Atari planned on porting it to the VCS but made the game into Yars' Revenge instead.

http://www.klov.com/S/Star_Castle.html

Cosmic Chasm, a unique shooter that almost has an adventure-like quality to it since you explore different caves.

http://www.klov.com/C/Cosmic_Chasm.html

Also worth mentioning is that shortly after Cinematronics started making games, developer Larry Rosenthal left the company to found a new one called Vectorbeam which created arcade games like Barrier and Warrior. Warrior is considered by some to be the first fighting game. It has two knights sword-fighting. Although one could argue that Sega's boxing game Heavyweight Champ(1976) was the first fighting game.

http://www.klov.com/W/Warrior.html

Anyways, Vectorbeam got sued by Cinematronics and they ended up buying the company.

Cinematronics didn't just make vector graphics games. They made a few raster games like Freeze and Zzyzzyxx(nice name).

Cinematronics' most famous game came near the end of their corporate life. Dragon's Lair wowed people with its laserdisc technology and animation. Dragon's Lair wasn't the first laserdisc game(Sega's Astron Belt takes that credit) but it was still unlike anything seen before and it generated quite a buzz. I remember kids all over school talking about it and its graphics. When I saw it myself I was amazed at the animation. But once I played it, I hated it and I will always remember it as my first gaming disappointment.

Your thoughts?

[Tain]

I like Tailgunner, but haven't played any of their other games.

[gameoverDude]

Cinematronics actually continued for several more years after Dragon's Lair. They brought out Cerberus (an apparent sequel to Rip-Off but with raster graphics on the Cinemat system) and World Series.

In 1986, they released a deluxe game called Danger Zone which is akin to an early equivalent of Namco's Turret Tower. Here you shoot down jets and helicopters from a first person view.

Later on, Cinematronics was bought out and became the Leland Corporation- releasing Viper (Danger Zone 2) in 1988. Dragon's Lair II came out from Leland as well.

Eventually, Midway bought Leland out.

[NeoZeedeater]

I'm pretty sure that Cinematronics went bankrupt in 1984 and Leland bought their remains at that time.

I didn't know Leland still used the Cinematronics name past 1984. Thanks for the info. I'll check out those games on emulator some time.

[Glass Joe]

If there is one arcade cabinet that I will own one day it will be Jack the Giant Killer. I used to walk to (hitch on a bumper in the snow) the local pizza shop and play this game daily. I was so close to beating it and they got rid of it and I never saw it again. Damn!

[gameoverDude]

That's true... Leland just kept using the Cinematronics name. I'm surprised they used it that long (through 1987). At www.zonn.com I just looked at something on the 1984 bankruptcy in the history section. It wasn't a friendly takeover... a lot of Cinematronics' employees got the axe.

IIRC, Tradewest (Ikari Warriors' US distributor, and publisher of the NES Double Dragon) had some relation to Leland Corp.

The home division, Leland Interactive Media, was responsible for the nasty Double Dragon V.

Originally posted by NeoZeedeater
I'm pretty sure that Cinematronics went bankrupt in 1984 and Leland bought their remains at that time.

I didn't know Leland still used the Cinematronics name past 1984. Thanks for the info. I'll check out those games on emulator some time.

[gamevet]

Originally posted by NeoZeedeater
Although their name is hardly known today, Cinematronics was one of the best video game makers of the '70's and early '80's. In the first half of their life they focused mostly on vector graphics-based arcade games. Unlike Atari which had considerable success with vector games like Asteroids and Tempest, Cinematronics' games rarely became huge hits.

The majority of Cinematronics' vector arcade games were ported beautifully to the Vectrex but unfortunately the machine never caught on and became a victim of the console industry crash.

Some of Cinematronics' best vector arcade/Vectrex games are:

Tailgunner, a first-person view shooter where you shoot from the back of a ship. The effect of movement with the stars zooming by is very impressive. Exidy re-released this game as Tailgunner 2 and added a
fancy sit-down cabinet.

http://www.klov.com/T/Tail_Gunner.html

Armor Attack, an overhead view game where you control a jeep in a maze fighting tanks and helicopters.

http://www.klov.com/A/Armor_Attack.html

Star Castle, one of Cinematronics' more successful games. You control a ship (with Asteroids-style thrust control) that must shoot through a fortress in the centre of the screen. Atari planned on porting it to the VCS but made the game into Yars' Revenge instead.

http://www.klov.com/S/Star_Castle.html

Cosmic Chasm, a unique shooter that almost has an adventure-like quality to it since you explore different caves.

http://www.klov.com/C/Cosmic_Chasm.html

Also worth mentioning is that shortly after Cinematronics started making games, developer Larry Rosenthal left the company to found a new one called Vectorbeam which created arcade games like Barrier and Warrior. Warrior is considered by some to be the first fighting game. It has two knights sword-fighting. Although one could argue that Sega's boxing game Heavyweight Champ(1976) was the first fighting game.

http://www.klov.com/W/Warrior.html

Anyways, Vectorbeam got sued by Cinematronics and they ended up buying the company.

Cinematronics didn't just make vector graphics games. They made a few raster games like Freeze and Zzyzzyxx(nice name).

Cinematronics' most famous game came near the end of their corporate life. Dragon's Lair wowed people with its laserdisc technology and animation. Dragon's Lair wasn't the first laserdisc game(Sega's Astron Belt takes that credit) but it was still unlike anything seen before and it generated quite a buzz. I remember kids all over school talking about it and its graphics. When I saw it myself I was amazed at the animation. But once I played it, I hated it and I will always remember it as my first gaming disappointment.

Your thoughts?

I loved playing Star Castle. It was one of my favorite vector based games. Cinematronics also had a minor hit with Space Wars, a game later ported to the Atari VCS.


Another minor hit was the laser disc based game: Space Ace.

[Zerodash]

Originally posted by NeoZeedeater
The majority of Cinematronics' vector arcade games were ported beautifully to the Vectrex but unfortunately the machine never caught on and became a victim of the console industry crash.

I heard that the Vectrex died because of a shortage of monitors. The guy who created and produced the Vectrex did so after he stumbled upon a large amount of unwanted monitors in a warehouse in Hong Kong. Those monitors were bought super-cheap and then used in the Vectrex unit.

Unfortunately, when the initial batch of Vectrex units sold out, the man could not find and more of those monitors at even remotely the original price. To produce more Vectrex units would have been cost prohibitive...

[gameoverDude]

There was an unofficial version of Star Castle on the Atari 800/XL/XE series. Stedek Software released it under the name "Star Island". This was actually a pretty good knockoff.

[sleeve]

Cosmic Chasm is also unique in that it was one of only a few games in history to be ported from the home to the arcade (it appeared first on the Vectrex).

Triple bonus points to anyone who can think of another!