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RePlay Magazine Podcast - Eugene Jarvis
Talk about a fun interview, and what else would you expect from a conversation with one of the true legends of coin-op game design, Eugene Jarvis! Eugene has been involved in a seemingly endless stream of video game hits including classics like Defender, Robotron: 2084 and the Cruis’n series and, after co-founding Raw Thrills, Target: Terror, Fast and Furious Arcade, SuperBikes and Godzilla Kaiju Wars. And let’s not forget the pinball games he contributed to like Firepower, Space Shutt...
Kineticist’s take
Eugene Jarvis chronicles his legendary career from Atari to Raw Thrills and the arcade industry's evolution.
Synopsis
Eugene Jarvis, legendary co-founder of Raw Thrills, discusses his 45+ year career spanning Atari, Williams, Bally Midway, and his current company. The interview covers his early work in pinball and video games (Defender, Robotron), the Homebrew Computer Club where he encountered Steve Jobs and Wozniak, the development of Cruisin'' arcade series, the arcade industry collapse post-2000, and Raw Thrills' founding and early successes with Target Terror and the Fast and Furious franchise.
Highlights
- Eugene Jarvis worked at Atari in 1977-1978 in the pinball programming department during Nolan Bushnell's tenure
- Atari pinball games were unreliable due to poor hardware design, including overheating plasma displays that could catch fire
- Steve Ritchie was the head of Atari's Proto shop and created his first game Airborne Avenger on nights and weekends
- Eugene joined Williams in 1979 at Steve Ritchie invitation and worked on Firepower, the first multiball electronic pinball game
- Defender was created during Eugene's time at Williams and was a major commercial success, becoming the biggest game of his early career
- Eugene and Larry DeMar left Williams to start VidKizz after being disappointed with Defender bonuses, creating Robotron and Stargate
- Cruisin'' arcade hardware system (Cruisin' USA, World, Exotic) was developed by a small team of 6 people over 3-4 years and likely outsold Defender in total units
- Raw Thrills was founded by Eugene Jarvis, Andy (co-founder), and Deepak (co-founder, now retired), beginning in the early 2000s after Midway's arcade division shutdown
- Target Terror was developed in approximately 6 months to generate cash flow for Raw Thrills' planned driving game
- Raw Thrills obtained the Fast and Furious license after Sega and Namco had passed on it, with help from Joe Cannon at IGT
Entities
- Atari· company
- Midway· company
- Raw Thrills· company
- VidKizz· company
- Williams· company
- Cruisin' USA· game
- Defender· game
- Fast and Furious· game
- Firepower· game
- Robotron· game
- Target Terror· game
- Homebrew Computer Club· organization
- Andy (Raw Thrills co-founder)· person
- Deepak (Raw Thrills co-founder)· person
- Eugene Jarvis· person
- Joe Cannon· person
- Larry DeMar· person
- Nolan Bushnell· person
- Randy Chilton· person
- Steve Ritchie· person