Question regarding Fun Games

coinopper

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Does anybody own any of Fun Games games? I started another thread in the General forum, where I noted that Fun Games Tankers game is the same as Tank II (Tank modified to show the alternate playfield):

https://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?p=3821835#post3821835

There's also an unconfirmed story that Fun Games Bi-Plane is a direct copy of Atari's Jet Fighter, although I didn't see any option in the schematics that would change either the planes or the playfield.

The Arcade Flyer website has several Fun Games flyers: https://flyers.arcade-museum.com/?p...r=&manu=105&source=&submit=Search+the+Archive

Race is very interesting. If the date is correct, this would be AFAIK the earliest top-down scrolling racing game, preceding Kee Games Super Bug.

King sounds interesting as well - a combination of video and mechanical games, although there's no photo on the flyer. It's possible this was never completed or released, as Fun Games didn't exist long before Atari filed a lawsuit against them.

Take Five and Take Seven are a collection of Pong variants, although Take Seven includes one called Bust Out, which is basically Breakout oriented horizontally instead of vertically. Arcade Flyers has this dated 1975, which would be a year before Breakout was released, so I'm not sure how accurate that date is.
 
I don't own any Fun Games titles, but I believe I read in GameRoom Magazine years ago, that Fun Games was eventually bought out by Exidy, and Exidy repurposed unsold Fun Games "Race" cabinets as Exidy's "Robot Bowl".

This is why the earlier Robot Bowl cabs have a "Ball Return", it was an unused gas pedal alcove from Race.

Check out the pics.

Kyle :cool:
 

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Very cool, thanks. If only we knew what issue (or year) you saw that article. I know Marco Specialties sells volume compilations by year.
 
I have several of Fun Games games. I just got my Take Five up and running and ready for CAX 2018. The 3 to 5 boards in Tankers are in a card cage, I think that is also true for Bi-Plane. Nothing like an Atari board.
 
Fun Games (Oakland, California)
founded in 5/1975, by Pat Kearns, Obie Alvarez and others...

Estimated release months follow -

Take Five - Appeared in PlayMeter Magazine 11/1975, 11/1975 also claimed in "Arcade TV Game List Kokunai - Kaigai Hen (1971 - 2005)".

Take Seven - seen 11/1975 date for this in "Arcade TV Game List Kokunai - Kaigai Hen (1971 - 2005)".

Biplane - First appeared at a show 10/17/1975, mentioned in the 11/1975 issue of Replay magazine, also seen 1/1976 date for this in "Arcade TV Game List Kokunai - Kaigai Hen (1971 - 2005)".

Tankers - seen nothing more than 1975 date on this online and other sources, but later mentioned in 9/1976 PlayMeter Magazine issue.

Biplane 4 - first mentioned in 3/1976 PlayMeter Magazine issue claiming it began shipping that month, appeared in 4/1976 issues of Replay magazine and Vending Times, and the old Bronze Age List as well as "Arcade TV Game List Kokunai - Kaigai Hen (1971 - 2005)" claimed a 5/1976 date.

Race - appeared in 6/1976 issues of Replay magazine and PlayMeter Magazine , also seen 8/1976 date for this in "Arcade TV Game List Kokunai - Kaigai Hen (1971 - 2005)".

King - appeared in 8/1976 issue of Replay magazine. Rumor is that it appeared at the MOA show and did poorly, causing its cancellation.

Thanks, as always, go to Keith Smith for the magazine research. (Magazine issue dates usually imply a release date of that month or the month after.)

---

MAME has two graphic ROM dump sets - Biplane 4 and Take Five - for Fun Games games but no actual emulation yet:
https://github.com/mamedev/mame/blob/master/src/mame/drivers/fungames.cpp

Both dumped by "Siftware" / http://softwarethis.com/.
 
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I have several of Fun Games games. I just got my Take Five up and running and ready for CAX 2018. The 3 to 5 boards in Tankers are in a card cage, I think that is also true for Bi-Plane. Nothing like an Atari board.

So although the boardsets between Tank and Tankers are completely different, the end result is the same. Reminds me of some of the Pac-Man pirate boards - instead of 1 board, there were 2 smaller boards connected by a ribbon cable, but the end result (the game) was the same.
 
Thanks for the info, Stiletto. would you happen to have copies/scans of those articles? Keith sent me a copy of a news blurb from the 9-15-79 issue of PlayMeter regarding a lawsuit between Atari and Fun Games, with Fun Games actually winning!

Take Seven's date is really interesting, then. Wonder who 'leaked' the idea or awareness of Breakout to them. Friend of mine claims to have seen a home "pong" system (sometime in 1975-77) that featured the same sideways Breakout variant that Take Seven has. I've been asking around to see if anyone else ever heard of it, or knows of any home dedicated systems that featured Breakout (besides Atari's own Video Pinball system), but so far nobody knows of any.
 

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