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RCA Press Release for December 5, 1983

CHICAGO, December 5 -- The first use of RCA's new random access video disc player in the arcade game market was announced today in an agreement with the Bally Midway Manufacturing Company.

RCA will manufacture and supply both the players and discs to be used in the new Bally arcade game to be introduced later this month.

In a joint announcement, David Marofske, President of Bally Midway, and Dr. Jay J. Brandinger, Division Vice President, RCA Disc Operations, said the initial agreement will result in Bally using several thousand random access players in the arcade market. RCA has begun initial shipments of the player, which can provide interactive applications for the user, with the balance to be delivered during the coming months.

Mr. Marofake said the arcade game business has demonstrated a potential for further sales growth with the introduction of advanced games that take advantage of video disc features and technology. "The public has shown it is willing to pay higher prices for games that are more challenging and visually exciting," he said.

Mr. Brandinger, who is also responsible for the direction of RCA's development, manufacturing and marketing efforts in the area of interactive video discs, said the agreement with Bally "marks a significant expansion of the capabilities of the company's 'CED' video disc system."

He noted that RCA had promised the company's first random access player, introduced in late August, "would have applications in the educational, institutional, game and consumer markets."

The random access player employs several digital microcomputers to provide a variety of interactive applications for the user. In addition to playing interactive discs for arcade games, RCA offers discs that are banded to allow access to any desired segment using the random access player. RCA plans to release all future stereo music discs in the banded format.

RCA expects that by the end of the year more than 500,000 "CED" players will be in consumer homes along with 10 million discs sold since the introduction of the system in March 1981.