Williams-Bally-Midway Offers Cruisin' Videogame Headers

Arcade games may seem an unusual type of P-O-P application, but convincing players to part with their quarters and finding ways to make a game stand out from the surrounding mass of blinking lights and electronic sounds provides marketers with a formidable challenge.Officials at Chicago-based Williams- Bally-Midway decided one way to over come the clutter was to create an optional neon-enhanced header for operators who combine two of the company's Cruisin' race video games. Such a package, when linked via software and hard wiring, allows players at each of the two games to race against each other.In most cases when it offers such links, the firm supplies one header that spans both games. But for Cruisin', officials decided to provide an upgraded option. "We've created other headers for video and pinball games," explains Ted Valavanis, mechanical engineering manager for video games. "But there usually isn't much budget available, since most of it goes into creating the game itself. This time, since Cruisin' is a very deluxe game, we decided to try an upgraded version."The deluxe header features an air brushed graphic on a Lexan plastic substrate with a metal cabinet. The artwork depicts the Cruisin' name in script over a sleek, red sports car driving down the road toward the player. To dramatize the graphics, the script name, car headlights and route marker were highlighted with flat-neon lighting. Called E-Glas, the neon was developed by Wordenglass & Electricity in Kalamazoo, Mich."We worked very closely with the designers at Wordenglass to achieve the right look for the lighting," says Greg Freres, art director at WBM. One continuous piece of E-Glas illuminates all three components, and it combines with front-set fluorescent components to wash the entire graphic with light. "Making the piece work within the dimensions we had took some playing around," especially to span the full length of two games, Freres says. "We had to create it within a short development time, too, since the game already was in production. It was crunch time, and we're very pleased with the results." Engineer Matt Davis also contributed to the final design, Freres notes.The steel housing measures 59 inches wide, 17 inches tall and 9 inches deep. The E-Glas component measures approximately 30 inches long by 10 inches high. Numerals on each end, measuring about 7 inches high and 5 inches wide, are also lit by the fluorescent lighting to define each player's turn."The reaction we've gotten has far surpassed our expectations," says Valavanis.

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