All classic arcade game fans have their favorite companies, which are often viewed with a heavy dose of filtered nostalgia. So much has been written about giant companies such as Atari, Namco, and Nintendo. I find the smaller companies such as Centuri, Cinematronics, and Exidy much more interesting. Centuri in particular has a fascinating history of ups and downs, weird games, and some huge successes. Founded as the company Allied Leisure, Centuri's first success would be manufacturing a knockoff of Atari's Pong. Most of their later successes would be from licensing games from Japanese manufactures, mostly Konami. Far away from the Silicon Valley craziness of the 70's and 80's, Centuri was based in Florida. Maybe the inherent weirdness of Florida helped set the tone for the company and Centuri's off the beaten path business model.
I present here (in two parts) a documentary video designed to help explore the rich and interesting history of this classic arcade game maverick. This is the result of about 4 months of work, and a lot of supportive people in the arcade collecting community. Thank you for everyone who lent a hand, and I hope to have a few more of these documentary style projects for you in the future.