Made in the USA! 4-page catalog for the astrocade video game console.

Datamax UV-1 Zgrass system in the pages of Byte magazine, March 1981

Astrocade ZGrass keyboard “add-under”, 1982

Bally Video Console and Programming Keyboard, 1979

Smoking Zgrass

Through 1981 things actually do look pretty good for Astrovision. The year starts with a bang with the re-emergence of the much-delayed computer add-on for the Bally, announced as the ZGRASS-32 Computer Keyboard with 32K RAM and 16K ROM expansion memory, at the January 1981 CES. Apropos of the vaporous nature of the add-on, the memory specs given for it will continuously fluctuate: they are later swapped, with 16K of RAM and 32K of ROM, and eventually rise up to 64K of RAM and 32K of ROM. Inclusion of a Votrax SC-01 voice-synthesis chip inside the unit is also announced later. A keyboard “add-under” long promised by Bally and Dave Nutting and Associates, GRASS (GRAphics Symbiosis System) is also the name of the device’s internal programming language, a graphics-oriented language created by computer animation pioneer Tom DeFanti at Chicago’s University of Illinois. It was with this language that Larry Cuba designed the CGI Death Star effect in Star Wars in 1977, shown when the rebels are being briefed of the battle station’s weakness.

Implemented via the ZGRASS keyboard, the language would allow users of the Bally console to create real-time computer animations that can be saved as procedures, and moved around, squashed, zoomed in or out and rotated at will. All accessible to users, even those with little to no programming experience. Additional peripherals are announced along with the keyboard, including printer, light pen, digitizer pad and  35mm slide copier. Dave Nutting and Associates bring three keyboards to the 1981 Summer CES in Chicago. As opposed to true prototypes, these turn out to be the innards of Datamax UV-1 graphic workstations, running the ZGRASS OS and shoved into the add-under cases provided by Astrovision. The company also signs contracts with developers to produce new games for the console, such as Galactic Invasion, Space Fortress and Adventure. A “Plus” version of the Bally Professional Arcade is also released in May of 1981, the new label denoting a revision to the motherboard that alleviates the nagging heat dissipation issue, along with the fact that Astrovision BASIC is now included free with the console. Sales for the system are posted at about $9 million for the year, although problems with the supply chain for parts keeps console shipments sluggish. Claiming a backlog of orders of about $55 million, Ray George reckons Astrovision will post sales of $100 million for the coming year.

Click button to play Space Fortress on the Astrocade

At the beginning of 1982 the term Astro is officially placed in front of the names of hardware and games, replacing the Bally label. Eventually the company name is changed to Astrocade, with the console renamed the Astrocade Professional Arcade. George continues with his ballsy promises at the 1982 Winter CES in Vegas, assuring that, supported by a $10 million TV ad campaign in 37 markets, the name Astrocade will soon be as ubiquitous as Xerox. He forecasts 1000% growth over the year, reiterating his prediction of the company hitting $100 million in sales, and then over $1 billion by 1985. Despite the new name, the console changes little across its various incarnations, save for Astrocade’s improved BASIC cartridge, containing a faster interface connection between cartridge and tape recorder, as well as an editing feature allowing users to correct lines of code; an imperative feature to assist those struggling with coding BASIC using the system’s calculator-style key layout.

Astro-nominal

Click button to play Wizard of Wor adaptation The Incredible Wizard on the Astrocade

Over 45 cartridges are officially released for the device throughout its run, including The Incredible Wizard.  This is a pitch-perfect translation of Midway coin-op Wizard of Wor, done for the Astrocade in conjunction with developer Action Graphics, headed by Bob Ogdon. Ogdon had also designed the original arcade game, and the excellent home version receives the 1983 ‘Arkie’ award for Best Multi-Player Videogame from Electronic Games magazine.  Astrocade themselves makes a remarkable Pac-Man clone it creatively titles Pac Man, but understandably draws the ire of Atari, owners of the home rights to Namco’s arcade powerhouse. Unreleasable with that title, it is quietly sold through hobby newsletters as TEST PROGRAMME. Under the title Muncher, it is later sold exclusively to subscribers of the Arcadian newsletter in 1983. An outfit out of Ohio producing programs for the Astrocade called Esoterica, run by Dan Drescher and J.P. Curran, eventually releases the game officially. There are other Pac-Man knock-offs that sneak onto the Astrocade, including David Carson’s Mazeman in 1984.

Click button to play Pac-Man clone Muncher on the Astrocade

Confused yet? Imagine the video game buying public at the time: Logo for the astrocade Professional Arcade, 1982

The astrocade, back in the saddle again, 1982

In 1982, however, new programs for the Astrocade are getting few and far between. High production costs also hobble the profitability of the console; the company makes $20 million in sales but can only squeak out $250,000 in profits. An injection of $3 million in cash comes from Quaker Oats in May for a 13% share in Astrocade, but the cereal giant has a change of heart and exercises an option to back out of the deal. The cereal company would later successfully enter the video game market through their acquisition of U.S. Games, right before the big video game flameout. Their most popular product is probably Garry Kitchen’s shooter game Space Jockey. Mid-way through the year Astrocade sells its inventory of parts and completed hardware and cartridges to a Cupertino, CA-based semiconductor manufacturer called Nitron, a company spun off from McDonnell Douglas. They had previously entered into a $108 million deal to sell board-level product to Astrocade. Nitron will now be the manufacturers of the Astrocade console, sold through retail by Astrocade the company.

The endlessly delayed ZGRASS-32 keyboard add-under loses its Votrax synthesizer spec and becomes the ZGRASS 100, and again fails to make it out the door. This is the least of worries for Arcade users, however. In the hole about a million dollars, with an additional $2 million owed to Nitron, Astrocade gives a controlling interest in the company to its creditor in a stock swap. Failed attempts to secure a stable measure of capital, however, causes Astrocade to slide into Chapter 11 bankruptcy on December 30, 1982. A hardbitten and tenacious lot, the slack is picked up by enthusiasts of the console, who create hundreds of programs that are loaded via standard audio cassette player into the BASIC cartridge. Amazingly, after the bankruptcy more talk surfaces about the add-under keyboard and memory expansion unit. This time the manufacturer is promised to be third-party hardware maker Alternative Engineering, producers of the Viper memory expansion system for the Astrocade. Software vendor Esoterica is pegged as the marketer and distributor of the new computer module. Now titled the Z-GRASS 1200, this gives the fabled computer add-on for the Astrocade a vapourware existence from 1977 to 1984. Now thoroughly immune to disappointment, Arcade owners probably don’t even bat an eye when Alternative Engineering close their doors in 1985, with the Keyboard unit unreleased.

The End of the Astrocade

Needless to say, none of the myriad versions of the Bally Professional Arcade pose a serious threat to the stranglehold Atari has on the industry. The astrocade console makes a lackluster appearance at the January CES in 1983, relegated to a few self-serve arcade cabinet-like demonstration kiosks littered around the otherwise barren Astrocade show booth. The company submits a reorganization plan on October 7, 1983, and eventually emerges from bankruptcy protection, selling the Astrocade Arcade direct to users for $59.95, plus any cartridge of their choice. A deal is also reached with Bally/Midway development house Action Graphics to produce some of the company’s hit arcade games for the Astrocade, including Gorf, Omega Race, The Adventures of Robby Roto and Solar Fox. It’s a valiant effort, but Astrocade dies a silent death after the video game market evaporates in 1983-1984, shuttering for good in 1985.

Video production made simple in MediaMaker, from former Bally people at MacroMind 1991

Among other projects after leaving Bally, Jay Fenton, along with Marc Canter and Mark Pierce founds MacroMind, out of Chicago. There they develop MusicWorks and VideoWorks, the first of such programs to appear on Apple’s original Macintosh computers, a platform that becomes known for such creative workspaces. The company eventually folds into Macromedia, which is acquired by Adobe Systems in 2005 in a stock swap worth $3.4 billion. After founding Macromind, Jay Fenton would transition to female as Jamie Fenton in 1989.  

astrocade ad, 1982

Bally Computer System

astrocade ad

Lonely astrocade demo cabinets morosely stand guard over nothing, Jan. CES 1983

Mark Pierce (L), Marc Canter and Jay Fenton, founders of Macromind, pose for the pages of MacWorld, 1985

Bob Ogdon, programmer of Space Zap and other games for the Bally/astrocade, circa 1982

Jay Fenton with tools of the trade, at Macromind 1985

Jamie Fenton, circa 2000

VideoWorks II, presentation and animation software by MacroMind, 1987