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Cinematronics

1975 / 1975 tot 1 1976 / 1975 tot 2 1977 / 1975 tot 4 1978 / 1975 tot 5 1979 / 1975 tot 9 1980 / 1975 tot 13 1981 / 1975 tot 16 1982 / 1975 tot 19 1983 / 1975 tot 21 1984 / 1975 tot 24 1985 / 1975 tot 27 1986 / 1975 tot 32 1987 / 1975 tot 33 1995 / 1975 tot 36
Founded in 1975 closed in 1987
Status: dead
Country: USA

38
games
21
active years
1.7
per year
aka(s): Cinematronics Incorporated

Cinematronics Incorporated was a pioneering arcade game developer that had its heyday in the era of vector display games. While other companies released
games based on raster displays, early in their history, Cinematronics and Atari 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 Inc. was founded in 1975 by Jim Pearce, Dennis Parte and Gary Garrison in El Cajon, California, although early on Parte and Garrison sold their shares to Tom "Papa" Stroud. Cinematronics’ first games, a Pong clone, a Flipper Ball copy and their first original game design, Embargo, were released in 1975, 1976, and 1977, but they were not particularly notable. The company really
began to prosper after the Space Wars game came into production about a year later. Space Wars was the first arcade game to utilize black & white vector graphics, which enabled it to display sharp, crisp images. Space Wars had graphics which were far more detailed than the raster displays of the time. Cinematronics shipped
over 30,000 units and was a top seller in 1978. In 1982, Cinematronics started releasing games which used raster display, such as Naughty Boy and Zzyzzyxx. During this time Cinematronics filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. In 1983 Cinematronics released Dragon’s Lair, one of the first laserdisc-based arcade games.
In 1987, Cinematronics was acquired by Tradewest and renamed the Leland Corporation and continued to make arcade and PC game software.
Tradewest was bought out by WMS in 1994 to become their console division.

It is known for Space Ace

Releases per year

19751
19761
19772
19781
19794
19804
19813
19823
19832
19843
19853
19865
19871
19953

36 video games with valid date were considered (94.7%)

Overall rankings

1
2
2
2
0

Common gametypes

shooter34%action/reflex31%sport10%maze7%racing/driving7%other7%

Top platforms

Arcade 35
Mac OS Classic 1
Windows 1
Win3.1 1
3D Pinball Space Cadet (Windows)
3D Pinball Space Cadet
WIN 1995-08-24
Armor Attack (Arcade)
Armor Attack
ARCD 1980
Naughty Boy (Arcade)
Naughty Boy
ARCD 1982
Scion (Arcade)
Scion
ARCD 1984
Space Ace (Arcade)
Space Ace
ARCD 1983
Star Castle (Arcade)
Star Castle
ARCD 1980
Cerberus (Arcade)
Cerberus
ARCD 1986
Boxing Bugs (Arcade)
Boxing Bugs
ARCD 1981
Space Wars (Arcade)
Space Wars
ARCD 1977
Barrier (Arcade)
Barrier
ARCD 1979
Alley Master (Arcade)
Alley Master
ARCD 1986
Danger Zone (Arcade)
Danger Zone
ARCD 1986

Cinematronics best rated games

Space Ace1983arcd
3D Pinball Space Cadet1995win
Space Wars1977arcd
Embargo1977arcd

Related groups

arenashooter baseball cinematronicsvector-hw custom-hw horizontalscreen langinsignificant lelandsystem-hw lives mame naturalistic nomatrading-hw pinball pong score traditional verticalscreen