Cinematronics Incorporated was an arcade game developer that primarily released vector graphics games in the late 1970s and early 1980s. While other companies released games based on raster displays , early in their history, Cinematronics and Atari, Inc. released vector-display games, which offered a distinctive look and a greater graphic capability (at the time), at the cost of being only black and white (initially). Cinematronics also published Dragon's Lair in 1983, the first major LaserDisc video game.
101-541: Cinematronics Inc. was founded on April 1, 1975, by two players of the San Diego Chargers football team, Dennis Partee and Gary Garrison, as well as Jimmie Dale “Jim” Pierce (1937–2011) in San Diego, California. Garrison initially served as president until Pierce assumed that role. The company first entered the market creating clones of Pong , selling them in the local area. Their first game offered nationally
202-659: A 95-yard punt return for a touchdown in a game where the Chargers were defeated by the New York Jets 37–15. The Chargers came third in the West Division, with a 9–5 record. Quarterback John Hadl led the AFL that year with 440 pass attempts, 208 completions, 3,473 yards taken and 27 touchdown passes. He also led in passes intercepted, with 32. In the 1969 season, the Chargers lost their first two games. They then defeated
303-615: A five-year television contract with the National Broadcasting Company for $ 36 million to commence in 1965. On December 12, 1965, San Diego (9–2–3) won their fifth AFL West title by defeating Houston 37–26. Lowe came first and Alworth second in the AFL Player of the Year honors. However, Buffalo would shutout the Chargers 23–0 in front of 30,361 spectators at Balboa Stadium for the AFL championship. At half time,
404-598: A game in which he threw over 303 yards against the Oakland Raiders . The Chargers defeated the New Orleans Saints 35 points to nil and proceeded to the playoffs, the first time in fourteen years. On December 17, 1979, the Chargers won their first AFC West division title by defeating the Denver Broncos 17–7 before a national Monday Night Football television audience and their home crowd. In
505-796: A moderate success, but was soon overtaken by the November 1979 Asteroids , and 300 Asteroids units were shipped in Lunar Lander -branded cabinets. Lunar Lander was one of the first two games to be registered with the United States Copyright Office , though the prior games in the genre kept the gameplay from being patented. Lunar Lander was included in a 2012 art installation at the Dublin Science Gallery . Since 2000, it has been included in numerous compilation releases of Atari games. Lunar Lander
606-466: A name for his team. The prize was a trip to Mexico. A man from Hollywood named Gerald Courtney submitted the name "Chargers" and won. Conrad Hilton said, "I liked [the name] because they were yelling "charge" and sounding the bugle at Dodger Stadium and at USC games". Hunt said he thought Hilton picked the team name from the first batch of letters as publicity for his new charge account business Carte Blanche . The team's first general manager
707-505: A new automobile, the " Charger ," was introduced by Chrysler officials. It would enter production branded as a Dodge the following year. In 1966, Hilton sold the Chargers to a 21-member group of business executives for $ 10 million. The leading investors were Eugene V. Klein and Sam Schulman . The Chargers finished third in the AFL West that season, 7–6–1. During the sale process, a then-23 year old Jerry Jones (who would go on to become
808-620: A newly built 78,000 sq ft facility on 1841 Friendship Drive in El Cajon in June 1981. After releasing the last game developed by Skelly for them, Armor Attack (1981), Cinematronics struggled to find new product to fill their factory. Scott Boden developed Solar Quest (1981) to fill a slot after Star Castle ’s production had ceased but failed to find the same success. They attempted to formalize product development, bringing in official managers to set deadlines as well as leading to them developing
909-585: A record of 96 consecutive games with a reception. With players such as Alworth, Paul Lowe , Keith Lincoln and John Hadl , the Chargers reached the AFL championship game four times and won it once. In December 1960, reports surfaced that the Chargers were considering relocation offers from San Diego, Atlanta and Seattle. Greg Gregston of the San Diego Union reported that the Chargers "have learned in one season that Los Angeles has been saturated beyond sensible proportions with sports." In January 1961,
1010-421: A small internal development team – developing the game Cosmic Chasm (1983) – and started a partnership with the company Advanced Microcomputer Systems . After releasing the game Zzyzzyxx (1982), AMS convinced Cinematronics to manufacture their proposed Laserdisc game , Dragon’s Lair (1983), in partnership with Don Bluth Productions . The heads of all three companies formed the entity Starcom to control
1111-422: A standard joystick, but he wanted a control with more physicality, including adding a rubber pad at the bottom to give players the impression that they could pull harder for a little more thrust. The thrust control has ten levels of thrust, as compared to the single on or off level of thrust in previous Lunar Landers, though Moore has noted that this gives players more incorrect options to choose from. The game's font
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#17327919738421212-459: A subsidiary, with Tom A Stroud as the President and Tim Skelly as head of product development. Rosenthal continued developing games including Tail Gunner (1979) and the unreleased Oops! (1979) before departing the company. He later sued Cinematronics for payment of his contractual buyout of his patents. Vectorbeam served as an alternative factory and label for Cinematronics products through
1313-570: A tank gunner simulator under a military contract. Their development of a color vector hardware resulted in the release of the unsuccessful Boxing Bugs (1982). Former Vice President of Finance of the company, Fred Fukumoto, assumed the Presidency of Cinematronics from Jim Pierce in January 1982. Fukumoto's plan for assuring product flow into the company was to license video games from Japanese companies, similar to how Midway had found success with
1414-410: A team rookie record of 176 yards in the Chargers' 20 points to 13 win against Kansas City. Steve Ortmayer , the director of football operations for the past three years, left and was replaced by Bobby Beathard . The team would post double-digit losses between 1988 and 1991. In the 1992 season , Bobby Ross became the Chargers' head coach. Quarterback, Stan Humphries was obtained in a trade with
1515-418: A time limit; instead, the game starts with a set amount of fuel and inserting additional coins purchases more fuel, allowing indefinite gameplay. The amount of fuel gained per coin, including the initial game-starting coin, is adjustable by the operator to set levels ranging from 450 units to 900 units. The Lunar Lander concept was initially created in 1969 as a text-based game called Lunar , or alternately
1616-461: A trio of receivers ( Charlie Joiner , John Jefferson and tight end Kellen Winslow ). The Chargers won nine games and lost seven, thus missing the playoffs . In 1979, The Sporting News named the Chargers' team general manager, Johnny Sanders , the NFL Executive of the Year . Fouts set an NFL record by playing four consecutive 300-yard passing games. His achievement was established in
1717-624: A version of the concept under the title Lunar Lander as part of a series of arcade game clones for the TRS-80 and Atari 8-bit computers , which, though featuring differences from the Atari version, was advertised as "an arcade game simulation". At least one other arcade game based on the Lunar Lander concept was developed around the same time, the non-vector graphics game Lunar Rescue (1979) by Taito . in 2012, Lumen Prize -winner Seb Lee-Delisle presented his "Lunar Trails" art installation at
1818-457: Is a single-player arcade game in the Lunar Lander subgenre. It was developed by Atari, Inc. and released in August 1979. It was the most popular version to date of the "Lunar Lander" concept, surpassing the prior Moonlander (1973) and numerous text-based games, and most later iterations of the concept are based on this Atari version. The player controls a lunar landing module , viewed from
1919-450: Is a single-player game in the Lunar Lander subgenre in which the player attempts to land a lunar landing module on the Moon. The game is displayed using black and white vector graphics and depicts a side-on view of the terrain and the landing module. At the top of the screen, the player is given information on the module's speed, altitude, and fuel, along with the score and time spent in
2020-416: Is moving too fast, or rotated too far from vertical when it touches the ground, or landed on a not-flat area—then a small number of points is awarded. The player has a limited amount of fuel, which is consumed by controlling the module. Whether the player lands safely or crashes, the game starts another round with a different set of terrain and the player's remaining fuel. The game ends when the module touches
2121-610: The Greater Los Angeles area, where the franchise played its inaugural 1960 season . The team is now known as the Los Angeles Chargers . The Chargers' first home game in San Diego was at Balboa Stadium against the Oakland Raiders on September 17, 1961. The team played a majority of their time in San Diego at San Diego Stadium , from 1967 until 2017. Their final game as a San Diego–based club
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#17327919738422222-517: The Lunar Landing Game . Many further versions of the game were developed over the course of the next decade; by 1979 the style of game was collectively seen as its own subgenre. The first graphical version of the subgenre, Moonlander , was released in 1973 by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), which commissioned a real-time, graphical Lunar Lander game to demonstrate the capabilities of its new DEC GT40 graphics terminals. After
2323-541: The Nintendo VS System , Capcom 's CPS, and later Neo Geo , the Cinemat was a standardized cabinet which allowed operators to change out their current games for a fraction of the price of a full upright cabinet. The software, marquee, and control panel could be changed out of a standard housing. Their first release Cerberus (1985) was followed by more, including World Series: The Season (1985). World Series
2424-598: The Rose Bowl , but instead signed a lease to play at the Los Angeles Coliseum . The Chargers were to host the first ever AFL national championship game at the Los Angeles Coliseum in 1961 (for the 1960 season). However, as attendances for home games were falling below 10,000, league and ABC television officials, fearing that showing empty seats in the 100,000+ seat Coliseum might jeopardize
2525-407: The " Freezer Bowl ". The temperature was a record low −9 °F or −22.8 °C with a wind-chill factor of −59 °F or −50.6 °C. During the strike-shortened 1982 season , Fouts averaged 320 yards passing per game. At that time, that average was a record. The Chargers defeated San Francisco 41 points to 37 and Cincinnati 50 points to 34. In each game, Fouts threw for over 400 yards. In
2626-582: The "vertical offense". With Dan Fouts as quarterback, the San Diego Chargers' offense was among the greatest and most exciting passing offenses in National Football League history, setting league and individual offensive records. The Chargers led the league in passing yards an NFL record six consecutive years from 1978 to 1983 and again in 1985. They also led the league in total yards in offense in each of those seasons. Under
2727-497: The 1963 AFL title when they defeated the Boston Patriots 51–10. Spectators numbering 30,127 attended the game at Balboa Stadium. Keith Lincoln 's effort made up 349 yards of the total offense. In 1964, the Chargers played the New York Jets resulting in a 17–17 tie. A reported attendance of 50,222 attended the game at Shea Stadium , New York. The game earned $ 46,828 in entrance fees. On Thanksgiving Day , Buffalo defeated
2828-658: The AFC championship game", said Johnson on the loss of fellow lineman Dean. "But I could say if we had more pass rush from the corner, it might've been different." In the 1981 playoffs divisional round, the Chargers defeated the Miami Dolphins 41–38 at the Miami Orange Bowl where the temperature on a humid day was 85 °F or 29.4 °C. The game became known as " The Epic in Miami ". ESPN journalists named
2929-577: The Amusement Trade Expo (ATE) in January 1979. Released in March, the game was successful, outcompeting the offering by Vectorbeam, Speed Freak (1979). Jim Pierce and Tom Stroud kept in communication with Rosenthal to convince them to sell his patents to them. After little more than a year of independence, Vectorbeam was sold to Cinematronics along with the rights to his two patents on vector game technology on June 1, 1979. Vectorbeam became
3030-492: The Baltimore Colts joined the Chargers. Unitas was almost 40 and had chronic injuries. He played three games and then was replaced by the rookie Dan Fouts . The Chargers finished with a 2–11–1 record. In the 1974 season , Fouts was named the new the starting quarterback. Don Woods also joined the team. Woods ran for over 1,000 yards but the team had a 5–9 record. However, in 1975 , Woods and Fouts underperformed and
3131-528: The Chargers 27–24 at Balboa Stadium. The attendance was 34,865 spectators. The Chargers won their fourth AFL West title by defeating the Jets 38–3 before 25,753 spectators at Balboa Stadium. Lance Alworth left the game with a knee injury, and the fullback, Keith Lincoln was sidelined in the first quarter with a fractured rib. At the 1964 championship game in Buffalo, the Chargers were beaten 20–7. The AFL teams signed
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3232-484: The Chargers won their third straight AFC West title with a 10–6 record. After the division titles of the 1979 and 1980 seasons, contract disputes arose. Klein, the team owner, refused to renegotiate players' contracts. The Chargers' owner traded the wide receiver, John Jefferson, to the Green Bay Packers after a salary raise could not be agreed upon. Jefferson was replaced by Wes Chandler. Defensive end Dean
3333-476: The Chargers' head coach, Tommy Prothro was dismissed. He was replaced by Don Coryell of the St. Louis Cardinals. In New England , the Chargers won their first game under Coryell's coaching. When they returned, San Diego was still recovering from the recent PSA Flight 182 . The Chargers' defeating Denver in San Diego was morale boosting for the city. Coryell coached the team in his "Air Coryell" offense: Fouts threw to
3434-401: The Jets at home in front of 54,042 spectators. Joe Namath played for the Jets. Hadl and Alworth played for the Chargers. Hadl made a professional record with a pass reception in his 96th consecutive game. The Chargers won the next three games and then lost four. Their last game was against Buffalo where they won 45–6. The team finished with an 8–6 record and out of the playoffs. Charlie Waller,
3535-624: The NFL in sacks (60). The defensive front line included the 1975 Chargers' draftees Fred Dean , Gary "Big Hands" Johnson and Louie Kelcher . Together with Leroy Jones , the front line was known as the " Bruise Brothers ". In the playoffs, the Chargers defeated the Buffalo Bills 20–14. However, their season ended in the AFC Championship Game at the hands of the eventual Super Bowl champion Oakland Raiders 34–27. In 1981 ,
3636-401: The NFL's Detroit Lions in a pre-season game with 45,988 spectators in attendance. Detroit defeated the Chargers 38–17. In the fifth week of the season, Leslie "Speedy" Duncan had 203 yards in returns, 35 yards on a fumble recovery for a touchdown, 68 yards on four kickoff returns, and 100 yards for a touchdown. In the Chargers' game against Kansas City, the team won 45–31 with a combined effort
3737-421: The NFL's second most prolific passer of all time with 43,040 yards. Fouts's jersey, the number 14, was retired at halftime at the "Dan Fouts Day" game in San Diego. In the 1989 season , Dan Henning , a former Chargers' quarterback , Washington Redskins assistant, and Atlanta Falcons head coach, became the Chargers' head coach. A first year running back, Marion Butts , set a club record with 39 carries and
3838-543: The New York Giants. Kellen Winslow caught 10 passes for 171 yards. The Chargers defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers 26–17, winning their second straight AFC West title. They finished the season with 11–5 losses, a record for the team. Jefferson (1,340), Winslow (1,290), and Joiner (1,132) became the first three players on the same team to have 1,000 yards receiving in a season. The Chargers' defense led
3939-666: The Washington Redskins . The Chargers finished the season 11–5 and won the AFC West title, making their first playoff appearance in a decade. Ross was named AFC Coach of the Year. In the wild-card round, the Chargers shut out the Kansas City Chiefs 17–0. Then, they were shut out by the Miami Dolphins in the divisional round, 31–0. In 1993, the Chargers finished 8–8, finishing fourth in the division. Lunar Lander (1979 video game) Lunar Lander
4040-416: The ball at the Chargers' 14-yard line. The Chargers were ahead 20–14. The Raiders quarterback, Ken Stabler , took the snap but was about to be sacked by the Chargers' line-backer, Woodrow Lowe on the 24-yard line. Stabler fumbled the ball forward, and it rolled forward towards the San Diego goal line. Running back, Pete Banaszak, tried to recover the ball on the 12-yard line, but could not keep his footing, and
4141-499: The ball was pushed even closer to the end zone. The Raiders' tight end, Dave Casper, was the next player to reach the ball but he also could not get a hand on it. He batted and kicked the ball into the end zone, where he fell on it for the game-tying touchdown as time ran out. With the ensuing extra point by kicker, Errol Mann, the Raiders won 21–20. The Chargers' fans saw the fumble as an incomplete pass or an intentional grounding. In
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4242-468: The best arcade games of all time. Many of Cinematronics’ games received ports to the Vectrex home console under license. One of the original Vectrex titles, Cosmic Chasm (1982), was converted into an arcade game by Cinematronics. The rights to Cinematronics’ titles were retained by Midway Games after their purchase of Tradewest in 1994. Tim Skelly was asked to sign a legally binding agreement to give
4343-427: The company. When the first units were shipped at the end of 1977, Space Wars was the first commercially available video game using vector graphics , which enabled a higher resolution display than raster graphics of the time. The game became the best-selling coin-operated video game of 1978 and sold around 7,000 units. The success helped save Cinematronics, but Rosenthal along with Bill Cravens were discontented with
4444-508: The company. In April 1978, Rosenthal left the company to found a new operation called Sunrise Research in Northern California . At the behest of his lawyer, he took with him all the documentation necessary to create vector games on his hardware system. Cinematronics retained a licensing agreement to create games using Larry Rosenthal's patents for his vector hardware, but was deprived on the knowledge to do so. Rosenthal's company
4545-456: The departure, with the help of technical engineers Dennis Halverson and Rob Patton. Throughout 1978, Cinematronics experienced a realignment of management. Ralph Clarke departed the company and Tom Stroud's son Tom A Stroud took on the responsibility of salesman. Pierce briefly stepped down as president before reassuming the role. The company did not release any product that year, but debuted Tim Skelly's first game for them, Starhawk (1979), at
4646-407: The diverging interests of AMS and Don Bluth Productions led them away from developing more games together. Cinematronics location tested Dragon’s Lair II: Time Warp , but did not release it at the time. It would eventually be the final arcade release of The Leland Corporation in 1991. Still in bankruptcy, Cinematronics reformed its internal development structure. They abandoned the development of
4747-621: The divisional round, the Houston Oilers defeated the Chargers 17–14. Ron Mix became the second AFL player and second Charger to be nominated to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The announcement was made during the half-time of the AFC-NFC Pro Bowl . In 1980, running back Chuck Muncie was traded to the team from the New Orleans Saints. Fouts set a club record with 444 yards passing in the Chargers' 44–7 defeat of
4848-412: The entire league, persuaded the Chargers to give up the advantage and move the game to Houston (where they lost). The Chargers played in four of the first five AFL national championship games after their move (1961, 1963, 1964, 1965), although they won only in 1963. In the early years wide receiver Lance Alworth made 543 receptions for 10,266 yards in a career of eleven AFL and NFL seasons. He set
4949-425: The epic the best game in NFL history. Both teams showed strong offense. The Chargers were led by Fouts who made an NFL single season record of 4,802 yards and 33 touchdowns . This game set records for the most points scored in a playoff game (79 points); the greatest total yards by both teams (1,036 yards); and the most passing yards by both teams (809 yards). The Chargers placekicker, Rolf Benirschke kicked
5050-462: The final nine games of the season, mostly due to injuries. In the 1963 season, eight Charger players scored in the final week. Paul Lowe rushed over 183 yards, scoring 2 touchdowns on 17 carries . In the final regular season game, the Chargers beat Denver 58–20 and became the AFL West champions. The season ended a week late due to a postponement of games after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963. The Chargers won
5151-558: The game against Cincinnati on December 20, 1982, the Chargers' made 501 yards passing and 175 yards rushing. Chandler set a record of 129 yards receiving per game. The Chargers reached the playoffs for the fourth straight year, finishing fifth in the AFC (divisional standings were disregarded due to the abbreviated schedule). The team upset the Pittsburgh Steelers in Pittsburgh 31–28, but the Dolphins would exact revenge from their loss
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#17327919738425252-476: The game began, with Allen in charge of the hardware and Rich Moore, who had only been with Atari for a few months and who had also played a Lunar Lander game in college, focusing on the programming. Atari had also produced Star Ship for the Atari VCS in 1977, which contains a version of Lunar Lander , but the gameplay of that title was not used for the arcade game. Development began with Moore drawing out
5353-447: The game design, which was rejected due to his prior Moonlander . The Atari Lunar Lander was the most popular version to date of the "Lunar Lander" concept, surpassing the prior Moonlander and text-based games, and most later versions of the concept are implicitly or explicitly based on the Atari version. While Atari did not produce any true sequels or contemporary ports of the 1979 game, in 1980 Adventure International produced
5454-600: The game in exchange for a five percent royalty on each cabinet to Rosenthal. Space Wars was first shown at the Amusement and Music Operators of America show in October 1977, but Cinematronics was not ready to produce it. They brought in manufacturing expert Ken Beuck who had worked at Atari Inc. and salesman Bill Cravens to help sell the game. To finance the operation and keep the company from dissolving, San Diego coin-op operator Thomas B. Stroud bought out Partee's share in
5555-447: The game's graphics on graph paper, after which the pair wrote out the game's code on paper for typists to transcribe. Allen and Moore worked closely together, bouncing ideas off each other as Moore proposed programming designs and Allen iterated the hardware design. One point of contention in the development process was the difficulty of the game; Allen initially wanted the module to move as realistically as possible, but they determined that
5656-420: The game. The terrain is jagged and has only a few flat areas appropriate for landing. The player controls the orientation of the module and fires the thruster to steer the module safely to a landing area. The module is always displayed in the center of the screen, with the terrain scrolling beneath it as it travels horizontally, wrapping the single screen-width of terrain endlessly. When the lander gets close to
5757-416: The ground after running out of fuel. The game is controlled via two buttons that rotate the module left and right, a large handle that fires the thruster (proportionally to how hard it is pulled), and an "abort" button that rotates the module back to vertical and fires the thruster, burning a large amount of fuel in an attempt to stop the module from crashing. Each action uses fuel, and when the fuel runs out
5858-417: The job. Gillman resigned midway through the 1971 season , which finished with six wins and eight losses. On May 19, 1971, Ron East was sent to the San Diego Chargers as part of the "Bambi trade" that also involved Pettis Norman and Tony Liscio . In 1972 , Duane Thomas and Deacon Jones joined the team, which finished with a 4–9–1 record. In 1973 , veteran quarterback Johnny Unitas , formerly from
5959-500: The likes of Space Invaders and Galaxian . They imported the games Naughty Boy (1982) and Jack the Giantkiller (1982) which were both unsuccessful. They canceled many projects including their military contract. In August 1982, they were foreclosed on by Security Pacific Bank and entered Chapter 11 Bankruptcy . Fukumoto left the company and Pierce resumed duties as president. Still operating in bankruptcy, they maintained
6060-400: The line of scrimmage. In the opening game of the season, the Chargers beat Seattle 24–20. On September 10, 1978, the second game was played against the Oakland Raiders at Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego. The game became known as the "Holy Roller" game, or, the "Immaculate Deception" because the Raiders made a game-winning play. With 10 seconds left in the game, the Raiders had possession of
6161-448: The module no longer responds to the controls. The game features four levels of difficulty which adjust the landing areas and module controls. The highest difficulty causes the module to continue rotating after it is turned until the player counters the rotation, instead of only rotating while the button is pressed. The player can adjust the game's difficulty at any time during play. Unlike other arcade games, Lunar Lander does not feature
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#17327919738426262-502: The offensive backfield coach was named head coach. Gillman had resigned after the season's ninth game due to illness but continued as the team's general manager. In 1970 , the San Diego Chargers settled into the AFC West division following the NFL merger with the AFL. The years after the merger were difficult for the Chargers. Charlie Waller took over as the head coach, but after finishing 5–6–3, he stepped down, and Gillman returned to
6363-650: The owner of the Dallas Cowboys ) offered $ 5.8 million for the team, but backed off after his father disapproved of his plans. In 1967, the Chargers and three NFL clubs (the Los Angeles Rams, the Pittsburgh Steelers, and the Detroit Lions) played preseason games at the new San Diego Stadium, while the AFL and the NFL announced plans to merge for the 1970 season. In August 1967, the Chargers moved to newly completed San Diego Stadium , and played
6464-423: The previous year the next week 34–17. 1983 saw the Chargers fall to 6–10 and equal last in their division, despite having the league's most passing yards for the sixth consectuve season. In 1984 , Klein decreased salaries in preparation for the team's sale. The defensive linemen, Johnson and Kelcher, left for San Francisco. On August 1, 1984, Alex Spanos purchased a majority interest in the Chargers. Benirschke
6565-412: The project was passed on to Atari employee Wendi Allen, (née Howard Delman) who enhanced the prototype engine into one that could be used by game designers. Once it was done, she proposed using the monochrome game engine for a Lunar Lander game. Allen had previously played Moonlander during a tour of NASA and had played one of the text-based Lunar Lander games in college. In Fall 1978 development of
6666-416: The release of the 1977 Cinematronics vector graphics game Space Wars , Atari began work on their own vector graphics engine, in which the graphics are constructed by drawn lines instead of pixels like in the more standard raster graphics engines. The initial hardware design work was done by Cyan Engineering , Atari's research and development subsidiary. Once it built an initial hardware concept,
6767-420: The release of the 1978 Cinematronics game Space Wars . Engine co-designer Wendi Allen (credited as Howard Delman) proposed using it to create a Lunar Lander game, a genre which dates to 1969. Allen and Rich Moore developed the game. It was Atari's first vector-based game and the first multiple-perspective video game, changing views to zoom in as the module approached the Moon. Lunar Lander sold 4,830 units,
6868-401: The remaining minutes of the game, the teams battled for the ball towards the end zone where the Raiders ultimately recovered it for a touchdown. The Chargers lost their third game to Denver and then in week four played the Green Bay Packers in an interconference match in San Diego. At the kickoff , the temperature was around 102 °F or 38.9 °C. The Packers won 24–3. After this loss,
6969-547: The resignation of Coryell, Al Saunders was named head coach. In 1987, Joiner retired to become the Chargers' receivers' coach. The team finished the season 8–7, including a 3–0 record by the "replacement" team during the player's strike. The only other team to go undefeated during that time was the Super Bowl Champion Washington Redskins. In 1988 Fouts retired after a 15-year career. He set seven NFL records and 42 club records, and became
7070-521: The rest of 1979. Barrier (1979) and Warrior (1979) were released under the Vectorbeam name. In November 1979, Cinematronics sold the Vectorbeam factory and assets to Exidy Inc. who relabeled them as Exidy II. Through this, Exidy gained the rights to develop vector games after their release of Tailgunner as Tailgunner II . A few Vectorbeam staff took positions at Cinematronics in San Diego. In 1980, Cinematronics began exploiting their rights to
7171-435: The result was almost impossible to play. As Allen noted in an interview in 2010, "even the real lunar landers had computer assist!" Eventually, they settled on including four difficulty levels, as compared to Moonlander ' s three, though Allen has referred to the hardest level as "one of the most painful difficulty spikes in gaming". Allen chose the large handle used to control the thruster: Atari initially planned to use
7272-450: The rights for the game and any subsequent Laserdisc game releases. Cinematronics organized the production of the game and rode a wave of massive interest to success. Dragon’s Lair kept the company out of bankruptcy and gave them a national profile as leaders in video game technology. By the time of the follow-up to Dragon's Lair, Space Ace (1984), the partnership between the companies had fallen apart. The collapse of Laserdisc games and
7373-484: The rights to his games developed at Cinematronics to Midway. All games developed by Cinematronics unless otherwise noted. San Diego Chargers National Football League ( 1970 – 2016 ) The San Diego Chargers were a professional American football team in the National Football League (NFL). The Chargers played in San Diego from 1961 until the end of the 2016 season , before relocating back to
7474-540: The sale of illegal copies of Star Castle (1980). Star Castle was co-developed by Skelly and new programmer Scott Boden. It became Cinematronics’ most successful game, selling over 10,000 units and remaining in production over most of 1981. A dispute between Skelly and Cinematronics management led to his departure from the company. He was then hired by Sega/Gremlin , who was also developing vector games, inciting Cinematronics to sue Gremlin and Skelly personally over alleged theft of trade secrets . The company moved into
7575-497: The same vector graphics engine and which had initially been based on Lunar Lander ' s code. Atari ceased production early on Lunar Lander in favor of shipping Asteroids games in Lunar Lander cabinets; the first 300 Asteroids games were released with Lunar Lander artwork on the side. In 1980, Asteroids and Lunar Lander became the first two games to be registered in the United States Copyright Office , though Jack Burness has claimed that Atari also attempted to patent
7676-463: The side, and attempts to land safely on the Moon . The player can rotate the module and burn fuel to fire a thruster , attempting to gently land on marked areas. The scenario resets after every successful landing or crash, with new terrain, until no fuel remains. Coins can be inserted at any time to buy more fuel. Development of the game began with the creation of a vector graphics engine by Atari after
7777-543: The success of Cinematronics. Developments in 3D-based vector hardware, as in Atari's Battlezone , also provided the technological basis for some of the earliest games with three-dimensional graphics in the arcade. Cinematronics’ other major innovation, the Laserdisc game in Dragon’s Lair , has been seen as a landmark moment in the evolution of multimedia . Though the game was criticized for its lack of interactivity, it
7878-421: The surface, the view changes to a close-up view of the lander. If the player successfully lands the module, they are awarded points based on how softly the module landed and the difficulty of the landing site and are awarded a small amount of fuel for good landings. The safe landing areas are highlighted with a flashing bonus multiplier, which is higher for smaller areas. If the module crashes—which happens if it
7979-518: The team announced the move to Balboa Stadium in San Diego 's Balboa Park . Hilton was reported to have lost $ 900,000 in the first season. San Diego would spend $ 250,000 to increase stadium seating from 22,000 to 30,000; adding back rests for reserved seats; raising the scoreboard; upgrading the locker rooms; moving the football field closer to the stands and reseeding it; and improving security measures. The Junior Chamber Commerce reported that there were 10,000 firm commitments for season tickets. Seating
8080-415: The team finished 2–12 after facing the possibility of the first-ever 0–14 season until beating the Kansas City Chiefs in their twelfth game. In 1976 , the Chargers began with a three-game win streak but finished with a 6–8 record. In 1977 , the Chargers again began strongly. However, the team lost four out of five games. Fouts in a contract dispute did not report to training camp; and held out until it
8181-434: The team's defense made forty-nine pass interceptions. The term "Fearsome Foursome" described the 1961 Chargers' defensive players' lineup. The anchoring players were Earl Faison and Ernie Ladd . The "Fearsome Foursome" phrase was later used by other NFL teams. In 1961, the Chargers lost the championship to Houston 10–3, with 29,556 patrons attending the game at Balboa Stadium. In 1962, the team went 4–10, losing eight of
8282-662: The tutelage of Coryell, Dan Fouts , wide receiver Charlie Joiner , and tight end Kellen Winslow blossomed on the field and would all be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame . The Chargers earned four consecutive playoff appearances (1979 to 1982) during the Air Coryell era, including three AFC West division championships from 1979 to 1981). In 1978, the NFL increased the season schedule to sixteen games. The rules were changed so that defensive backs could no longer block wide receivers more than five yards beyond
8383-458: The vector game patents more readily. They sued Atari Inc. for their creation of games like Lunar Lander and Asteroids with their own vector system. The case was eventually settled out of court. They began licensing their games to be produced in the cocktail table format by Rock-Ola , who used their license to develop vector games Demon! (1982) and QB-3 (1982). They later gained a landmark judgement in video game copyright when they halted
8484-413: The vector game technology and started creating their own raster games again for the first time since Embargo . Many of the developers came from Sega/Gremlin, another San Diego company who had recently shed their internal development apparatus. Starting with Freeze (1984), they rebuilt their game-making capacity. In 1985, Cinematronics introduced the Cinemat system hardware. Part of a trend which included
8585-550: The winning 29-yard field goal after 13 minutes and 52 seconds overtime. The tight end, Kellen Winslow, made 13 receptions for 166 yards, a touchdown and one blocked field goal. He became exhausted and was assisted from the field by his teammates. The win sent the Chargers to their second consecutive AFC Championship Game. At the championship game in Cincinnati, the Bengals defeated the Chargers 27–7. The game became known as
8686-538: Was Barron Hilton , the son of Conrad Hilton , founder of the Hilton Hotels corporation. Lamar Hunt , who was instrumental in organizing the AFL, said that he had asked Gene Mako for a suggestion for somebody to start a team in Los Angeles and he recommended Hilton. Hunt said that he visited Hilton for less than an hour and Hilton immediately agreed to start a team. Barron Hilton held a contest to find
8787-478: Was Flipper Ball (1976) followed by Embargo (1977). The company struggled to stay afloat and in 1977 Garrison sold his share to mortgage broker Ralph Clarke. At the end of 1977, Cinematronics released the game Space Wars , developed by independent game developer Larry Rosenthal. The game was a TTL -based recreation of the mainframe game Spacewar! which ran using a custom vector monitor display. Cinematronics, approaching bankruptcy, agreed to manufacture
8888-576: Was Frank Leahy , a former University of Notre Dame football coach. The team's first head coach was Sid Gillman from the Los Angeles Rams . His strength lay in offense innovation and he was later honoured in the Hall of Fame. Gillman (87–57–6) signed a contract with the team for three years. When Frank Leahy resigned due to poor health, Gillman became the general manager in addition to his coaching role. The Chargers originally planned to play at
8989-509: Was 897 yards offense and 622 yards in returns. In the 11th week, the Chargers were defeated by Oakland 41–21 with 52,661 spectators at the game, alongside 2,018 closed-circuit television viewers in the San Diego Sports Arena. In 1968, the Chargers played a first pre-season game at San Diego Stadium against the NFL's San Francisco 49ers . The Chargers won 30–18, before 39,553 spectators. "Speedy" Duncan set an AFL record with
9090-410: Was Atari's first vector graphics game and the first multiple-perspective video game with the inclusion of the up-close view of the lander. Atari developed a two-player version of the game, but only two prototypes were ever made and it did not enter production. The two-player version was cancelled as Lunar Lander ' s popularity was soon overtaken by Atari's Asteroids (November 1979), which used
9191-649: Was a huge technological leap and a significant hit for the company after the Golden Age of Arcade Video Games . None of their follow-up products from World Series were nearly as successful and the company remained in Chapter 11 bankruptcy – reportedly the longest in the history of California. Jim Pierce felt that he needed to sell the company to keep it operation, so he sold the company on March 30, 1987, to Tradewest, an arcade game licensor and manufacturer operated by Leland Cook, Byron Cook, and John Rowe. Cinematronics
9292-422: Was designed by Ed Logg and used for several other Atari vector graphics games. Several planned ideas had to be cut from the game during development. Allen has stated that chief among these was retaining a crater where the player's previous spaceships had crashed; it was cut as the new hardware could not draw enough lines fast enough to handle the detail. She also wanted to add in a McDonald's location easter egg, as
9393-479: Was eventually renamed Vectorbeam, a marketing name that had been used for the technology at Cinematronics. Luckily, Cinematronics managed to continue creating games due to two bits of happenstance. Firstly, an engineer named Bob Long had copied the operational codes for Rosenthal's system. Second, Rosenthal had evaluated a new employee named Tim Skelly prior to his departure. Skelly arrived at Cinematronics after Rosenthal had left and developed their first new game after
9494-567: Was increased even more in May 1961 with upper deck bring the total capacity to 34,000; both Atlanta and Seattle would later get NFL teams of their own, when the Falcons were enfranchised in 1966, and when the Seahawks began play in 1976, respectively. By then, Detroit native George Pernicano (1917–2016) had become a minor shareholder in the team. In the 1961 season, their first in San Diego,
9595-421: Was named "Miller Man of the Year". Joiner set an NFL record with his 650th pass reception in the fourth quarter of the game at Pittsburgh. In 1985 offensive guard Ed White set an NFL record by playing in 241 NFL games. Lionel "Little Train" James , a 5'6", 171 pound running back, set an NFL record of 2,535 all-purpose yards and of 1,027 receiving yards by a running back. During the 1986 season , following
9696-564: Was played at the end of the 2016 season on January 1, 2017, against the Kansas City Chiefs , who defeated them 37–27. In 1959, the team began as the "Los Angeles Chargers" when they entered the American Football League (AFL), joining seven other teams: the Denver Broncos , Dallas Texans , Oakland Raiders , New York Titans , Houston Oilers , Buffalo Bills , and Boston Patriots . The Chargers' first owner
9797-547: Was present in Moonlander . Over a year after development started, Lunar Lander was released in August 1979, just after the tenth anniversary of the first human Moon landing , though Atari did not link this connection in its marketing of the game. Lunar Lander proved moderately commercially successful, selling 4,830 cabinets. Cash Box noted in September 1979 that the machines were very popular with customers. It
9898-400: Was resolved when he rejoined his team for the eleventh game. They went 2–2, losing to the powerhouse Steelers and Broncos by a combined total of nine points. The team finished 7–7. In 1978, San Diego hired head coach Don Coryell , who would coach the team until 1986. Coryell developed a pass-heavy offensive scheme and philosophy called Air Coryell and also known as the "Coryell offense" or
9999-449: Was taken through bankruptcy, with Tradewest acquiring all of the assets and reforming them as The Leland Corporation . The legal entity of Cinematronics was dissolved on October 21, 1987. In bringing vector graphics to the coin-op industry with Space Wars , Cinematronics helped to inaugurate an entirely different type of arcade game. Large video game manufacturers like Atari, Midway , and Sega/Gremlin all created vector games after viewing
10100-635: Was the first commercially successful game incorporating traditional audio-visual elements with video game mechanics. Subsequent versions of Dragon’s Lair and Space Ace were ported and converted to various home systems in the 1980s and 1990s, though they did not contain the Cinematronics branding. Games like Warrior and Rip Off have been praised as innovative takes on arcade gameplay, showing early stages of fighting games and co-operative gameplay , respectively. Star Castle , Armor Attack , and World Series: The Season have been considered among
10201-487: Was traded to the 49ers , again after a pay dispute. Dean said his wage was similar to that of his brother, a truck driver. Playing only eleven games, Dean would nonetheless become the UPI NFC Defensive Player of the Year . In 1980 and 1981, without Jefferson, the Chargers no longer had the most passing yards in the NFL. "I can't say how much it [Dean's leaving] affected us, because we did make it to
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