MEMORIES

Here's Noreen and Kathleen (who else)as the Blues Brothers (sisters?), Epyx days.  

It's tough to pick one of course, though I remember wonderful times in Chicago in June at CES, warm summer nights, everybody having worked so hard to get ready for the CES show, all going out together and dancing in one group.  I remember learning a lot about marketing from Bob.  Can't forget, of course, that Italian restaurant in Las Vegas where I said I'd dance on the table if Gary Tole did too, and we went up there, followed by Madeline and another lady.  - Hugh Bowen

 

Here's some good one's from Bob Citelli:
 
Jon Monday's last day of employment when Karl Hess and I went out for a simple lunch and ended up almost driving my car through the plate glass windows on Galveston after we stopped looking in so many bars for that "special" port Karl wanted us to taste;
 
David Irons begging us to cut the line on a 35 pound salmon he was fighting for an hour during the first annual sales fishing trip and on the heels of a massive hangover from the previous night's sales dinner. He subsequently wanted it mounted as a trophy and when we retrieved it from the taxidermist in Sausalito, we shipped him a Safeway shrink wrapped raw fish nailed to a pallet board from the warehouse before we Fed Exed it to his home office;
 
All the sales guys showing up in their Fairmont Hotel robes at a dinner held by Gil Freeman who always started a conversation to our home offices with, "Hey so and so, you out of your robe yet?"
 
Craig Magic Nelson juggling in the hallways;
 
Running a $7,000,000 business' order entry on Jon Monday's Atari 800 with RAM Cram Cards and wondering if that thing was really going to start up each morning.
 
Taking orders every fifteen minutes for Fast Load. Thank you Scotty!
 
More to follow....

 

More from Hugh Bowen (when I heard Joe Miller was hoping to make it):  I was sitting down with Joe in his office for a meeting, and there were what looked like hundreds of pink phone message slips on his desk, and some other extraneous papers.  Joe looked down at them, sighed, and took his arm and swept the whole mess onto the floor.  "Now there, that's better," he said with a smile, and we started to work.  One of the funniest things I've ever seen in "corporate" life. 

 

More Citelli-cisms:

The 1983 (I think) Epyx Holiday Party Boat Ride which took place during hurricane conditions and nearly stayed in port because the Captain informed that while the boat could easily go out to sea in such weather, there was no assurance that the boat would not capsize when he went to turn it around. We went anyway and the ride was highlighted by the engineering team standing one by one at the bow of the boat leaning forward like an old mermaid carved into the ship so they could experience the rush of the oncoming waves. After the party, a number of individuals returned to Kenny Uston's apartment in SF for a raucous nightcap. Ask me about the rest of the story if you come to the reunion (:- )
 
Marlin Sevy instructing the buyer at Egghead to put the Home Video Producer Package down and to stop asking so many technical questions while also reminding him in the same breath, "The boxes are shrink-wrapped so the buyer can't look inside. Lets just figure out how to promote it and sell it."
 
John Brazier skiing down hill at Tahoe with sopping wet blue jeans. It was unclear to those of us following him which was going to fall more often: John's pants or John himself.
 
The Epyx Destroyers and softball on Saturday mornings in Redwood City.
 
Break dancers kicking out the eight foot panel in their glass enclosed booth at CES as we tried to launch Break Dance (total unit sales...17 Net...maybe).
 
Not realizing we really did not have a huge hit on our hands with Fun With Music despite the massive audiences that came to see a Bob Botch-selected booth model demonstrate the title at SCES. Turned out she was the Centerfold for the 30th Anniversary edition of Playboy and everyone was there to see her and not the product.
 
Ta, Ta, Ta, Tammy in the CA Games Commercial.

 

I think it was 85 or 86, we were at the CES in Chicago. I was in charge of setting up the machines at the show. I was leaning into one of the large crates to get a monitor out and Bang!!! The lid of the crate came down on top of my head knocking me dizzy and onto the show floor. I remember Kathleen Watson came jumping over to see if I was okay! I immediately went to my hotel room and passed out!
 
I also remember being summoned as a witness to testify in the Karate Champ DataEast lawsuit. I had to demonstrate to the judge the differences between the two versions of the game.
 
More memories to come...   from Tony Garcia

 

Getting an all-night tour of Chicago at 1988 CES with RJ Mical and Dave Needle! Teasing a young newlywed couple from Kansas at dinner. They didn�t know what hit them.

Going to dinner the next CES with Ken Balthaser and others. Not being able to get cabs, so we flagged down a big empty school bus. We got the driver to take us all to the Kingston Mines blues club.   (and my worst memory) The day I saw the Tramiel�s enter the building. I KNEW bad things would happen.   from Jim Huether

 

Julia Hing just emailed me the invite for the Epyx reunion -
 
I truly wish I could make it!! I have many fond memories of boondoggling...I mean working...at Epyx....  Yes, Julia Hing got to learn more about marketing under Hugh Bowen,  but did she come out of Epyx knowing all the lyrics to Rolling Stones tunes? (If my memory serves me, I do think  J. Von Brunn showed up for work in purple velvet pants and a lace-up shirt playing Mick Jagger tunes on an air guitar...). And... does Julia  know what a "goofy foot backside carve" is? (Don Transeth-- always a trendsetter- was surfing on company time before the internet was even invented!).
 
Just to let everyone know...a medicine man from Montana has helped me conquer the tourettes-like outbursts that occur when I see my two boys - target audience members of the infamous MAXX-out line - lock eyes on a joystick.  Just now (Ryan 5, David 8) are starting  to use my past against me : "Geez mom, you helped MAKE games and now you won't let your own  kids play them???"  (uttered in a monotone voice I can only describe as "bad child actor" gained from watching too
much television).  Oh, the hypocrisy! I should've taken that job at Phillip Morris instead of Epyx for all the guilt I feel.  Anyway, as long as I sit in my ring of crystals and recite my chants, medicine man promises it will all go away!!!
 
But seriously...I Epyx was a lot of fun, and I actually learned quite a bit from my colorful bosses and got a lot of good experience. I'll miss seeing the Epyx clan!! (Ed. note, unfortunately Kari will be in Europe when we're picnicing.) ( Hey! We were computer geeks before computer geeks were cool.)

   from Kari (Curtis) Kirk

 


Thank you for letting me share the thrill of my favorite snow sports with Epyx Commodore 64 game players. I had a blast, and got paid for it! Return for a moment, to those halcyon days of 1985...Here are a few lines from the introduction to the exciting manual I wrote for Winter Games:
 
Moment of Truth
 
        You're an athlete at the 1988 Winter Games at Galgary, Alberta, Canada. You're about to move across snow and ice with as much speed, strength, endurance and grace as you can muster in the blustery cold.
        This is the winter portion of the world's foremost amateur sports competition. You'll match your skills against the top athletes from a hundred countries.
        Be proud. Today you stand among the elite few whose courage and stamina will be tested by these Winter Games. Listen. A fanfare of trumpets sounds as the WINTER GAMES flag is slowly raised. Thousands of white doves are released, symbolically to fly to the countries of the world with the message of peace -- and the news that the Winter Games have begun. This is it -- your chance to go for the Gold!

                --Winter Games Instruction Manual, 1985
                 by Markene Smith, freelance copywriter
                contracted by Ted Richards, creative director
 

After my Epyx writing debut, fellow artist (and Jon's wife) Anna Monday shared her beautiful paintings with me, as well as an unforgettable night at the symphony, pleasant evenings of beat poetry in Redwood Estates, and picnics and dinners with the Citellis.

 
I married Ted Richards, and we have a 14-year-old son, Sam, who'll be a sophomore this fall at Los Gatos High School. Sam played trumpet and percussion with the LGHS Marching Band last year, and travelled with the band to Ireland this Spring for a nine-day Performance Tour. Last weekend, we were in L.A. to celebrate the wedding of Ted's daughter Miranda, who recently recorded a CD for Virgin Records http://www.mirandaleerichards-virginrecords.com/.

   from Markene Smith

 

Favorite Epyx memories:
from Ken Nicholson

Some more favorite pix from Mitzi McGilvray: