From: tyager@maxx.UUCP (Tom Yager)
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
Subject: Re: DE origin
Date: 26 Aug 92 04:12:20 GMT
Organization: New Hampshire Public Access UNIX

In article <1992Aug24.154512.17118@rtsg.mot.com>, iott@rtsg.mot.com (Joel K. Iott) writes:
> 
> Does anybody know what the Data East story is?
> 
> I've seen Data East video arcade games, Data East home video games, and the
> same Data East logo on their pinball machines.  Their video games look very
> "Japanese". They tend to be a bit more interesting than the average
> video game.
> 
> I am guessing that the Japanese video game company Data East put up money to
> start the pinball company.

That's correct. Data East pinball was started in 1985 (I think) by a small
group of coin-op industry veterans. All the principles (most notably Gary
Stern and Joe Kaminkow) had been part of other game manufacturers'
operations, and came from families that had long histories in coin-op.

Data East's US headquarters is in California. DE videos and redemption
games are marketed from there, and the California office assists in the
marketing of DE pins as well. While the Chicago operation is surprisingly
self-sufficient, the California shop apparently has some veto power over
how things are run. An example of that: the decision to cut Checkpoint's
manufacturing run short to make way for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as a
movie tie-in. I think most DE people realize that was a mistake, since
the move left several hundred orders unfilled, and countless others that
were never even submitted because word got out of the short run. That's a
pity, because Checkpoint was one of DE's most imaginative and challenging
games, and it may be their last non-licensed piece.

The money comes from Japan, but the design and manufacturing of DE pins is
strictly the domain of the US management team. Japan does not get involved
in determining which games get done and when. They do get early samples and
test them thoroughly, looking more for mechanical than software problems.
They also set budgets and approve major expenditures, like the factory
expansion currently underway. They have proven to be pretty flexible, though,
and even in these tough times the Japanese management has been forward-thinking
enough to invest in the staff and space to support nearly doubled manufacturing
capacity.

Effectively, Data East is one man's vision: Joe Kaminkow. He calls himself "lead
designer," but he manages every part of the process, from securing licenses
to following up software bugs. He is extremely bright and posessed of a big
ego and a truckload of confidence. To his credit, though, he does not think
himself singly responsible for DE's rapid climb and continued success. He is
quick to include his staff--every member of it--in creative discussions, and
heaps praise and credit on those who contribute to his games. You'll notice
that every DE pin has a set of running credits that include virtually every-
one who had a hand in creating the game. He is extremely demanding of his
people, almost to the point of tyranny, but he rewards them well and enjoys
universal respect, mostly because he makes sure everyone feels a key part of
the process behind every single game.

Williams' style of having multiple design and technical teams work in rotation
wouldn't work at Data East because key people, particularly Joe, have come
to expect to be involved in every game. That works both to DE's benefit and
its detriment. The staff knows very well what's expected of them and never
fails to rise to the occasion. When the chips are down, they pull together
with a cohesiveness the likes of which I've never seen--Joe has built a
remarkable thing. The danger of this close-knit group is that it does not
allow for catastrophe. Williams' style of having multiple games in development
at once lets them make decisions on the fly in response to market conditions.
If a game were to get so bogged down that it wouldn't ship on time, Williams
could simply promote one of its other projects to "next" status. Because DE
is so depdendent on such a small core group of people, it can only support
technical work on the next game and the one that follows it. The second game
out is never that far along; DE lacks the space and staff to support
simultaneous development, and there's some danger to that. Hook shipped
extremely late because of a show-stopping software bug. There was no fall-
back position because there was nothing to replace it. As it was, Hook still
had problems when it went out (although the most serious ones, those that
affected game play the most, were fixed).

That DE manages to get competitive games out with a staff the fraction of
Williams/Bally is testament to the vision and policies of its leader, Joe
Kaminkow. His reputation in the industry grants him almost superhero status,
and I have no doubt that he'll lead Data East to even greater success. Say
what you like about their games, but they have never failed to ship every
unit of every game they've built. And lately, demand has so far outpaced
production that it has forced fundamental changes in the way DE builds
games and does business.

DE, on the whole, is a barn-burner in earnings growth and in potential. Only
now is DE pinball expanding to support the market demand it has generated. DE
pins breathed new life and new hope into the dismal earnings of distributors
who lost Williams/Bally/Midway when that company insisted its distributors
divest themselves of competing brands. If that move was intended to drive
Data East out of business, it failed miserably. What it did instead was
give DE a hungry, dedicated international market channel that aggressively
promotes Data East games.

The coin-op industry is dominated by a good old boy network that brooks few
outsiders. Despite Data East's success, the Williams faithful have managed
to do some damage with negative rumors and inside deals with trade magazines.
But as Data East becomes a financial force to be reckoned with, even the
naysayers are finding themselves converted by the lure of profits and intense
growth. Only recently has DE managed to get its games placed on trade
magazines' equipment polls and earnings reports, although the results are
still badly skewed by the number of locations that align themselves
exclusively with Williams. They'll come around, I think, especially once
DE's increased capacity and some of the upcoming hot licenses take hold.
Money is stronger than any secret handshake, and I think the alliances
that conspire to exclude Data East will quietly dissolve as everyone
realizes that, thanks largely to Data East, there is now a bigger pie that
can be shared by all.

There's no lack of creativity at Data East, and their devotion to the player's
enjoyment is unyielding. They're in business to make money for themselves,
their distributors and their operators, but many a beloved feature has been
scrubbed from a game because someone said "it wasn't fun." DE is reknowned for
making sweeping last-minute rule changes to improve a game's playability. In
general, DE lets nothing stand in the way of building their games the way
they imagine them, and the way they know their customers and players want
them. DE even borrowed a few ideas from me: the Bulletproof Vest, Super
Spinners and Crazy Riggs Scoring on Lethal Weapon 3 all came from me. As I
said, Joe takes input from wherever he can get it.

> Trivia: 
> The "Getaway" graphic and the "Super Leo" bonus were added very late to LW3. 
> Interesting to see that DE is getting a sense of humor - with both the Cow,
> and the Getaway graphic. 

DE and Williams swap features and playful snipes, although DE is a bit less
subtle about it (being the young upstart, you'd expect that). High Speed II/
Getaway is more a Checkpoint knock-off than a sequel to High Speed. Does the
designer tip his hat to DE with his reference to "Turbo Boost" in the play-
field graphics (DE's name for its solenoid plunger introduced in Checkpoint)?
DE's dot-matrix graphics poking fun at Williams are just that--fun--and
completely without malice. Williams is still too stodgy to admit that DE has
given them lots of good ideas (the solenoid plunger and the solid-state
flipper among them--I expect DSP sound will be next). But if you ask around
quietly, Williams designers and technical people will tell you that they 
revere DE's work. Even though they don't have the massive staff and budget
that Williams does, DE has always managed to innovate and advance the
state of the art.

I have a lot of respect for Data East. They have managed, in the few short
years they've been in business, to grow to be a fierce competitor in what
is rightly regarded as a closed market. I wish them continued success.
(ty)
-- 
Tom Yager, BYTE Multimedia Lab Director
           Author, Addison-Wesley UNIX programming book (Summer, 1991)
           Author, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich multimedia book (Fall, 1992)
           decvax!maxx!tyager, maxx!tyager@bytepb.byte.com
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball